6 Ways to Earn Dough Online
Earn Dough Online Is Not Easy or Quick
Recently some friends asked me to help them make money online. I sent along a few blogs before we were to meet and they asked: ” Why are you sending us blogs, we want to make money online? ”
So I thought I would do a post for them to earn dough online and others who have thought about it but weren’t sure which direction to go in. There are at least 6 that I can think of myself. Maybe you can add more to this list.
- Sell Your Own Products – If it’s truly your product from design to finish you would need a patent, copywright, etc. It can be timely and costly to go this route but in the long run may be the most profitable to earn dough online.
- Sell Others Products - You could sell someone else’s products. You would have to research and see where there is a need.
- Drop Ship - This is great way if you don’t want to carry inventory or ship yourself. The downside is you are at the mercy of your supppliers.
- Affiliate Programs - Another possible way to sell – The profit margins are small but you could easily set up a blog and website and start selling a few items this way. The affiliates are endless too.
- Sell e-Books - You could sell an e-Book – sell what you have learned and help others through your eBook.
- Paid Ads – You can have ads on your blog or website. You can use GoogleAd Sense or SocialSpark as well as direct ads or sponsorships.
Selling your own products would mean you would be coming up a with product, having it made and patented. You would have to know that it would be something that would sell. You would need attorneys. You would need someone to manufacturer the products. Then people to pack and ship them. But it is a great way to earn dough online.
Selling others products would be easier. But what would you sell? You could do research online through Think Insights. Another one I really like and use often is Google Insights. You can see the trends on how much people are searching for items and what keywords they are using and which ones are trending up. It can also tell you in which states of the country as well are searching the most. You would have to find suppliers and decide if you would keep inventory, ship yourself, and bill people or take credit cards and paypal.
Drop shipping is another method. You would not have to keep any inventory and you would not have to ship. This is the method we do with our storesonline websites. You do get charged for each item that is drop shipped. Fees vary from $1-$5 each. You can have access to tracking to pass on to your customers which is in demand these days. Some suppliers provide inventory reports to you or give you access to a “dashboard”. I prefer the dashboard method so you can check anytime on inventory. With an online store you should look for credit card processors that accept all forms, Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express. The first few months we did not have American Express and lost some sales due to that. Of course PayPal is another must too. This is a viable source to make dough online.
The next method is affiliate programs. We have started that this year through Linkshare and love their selection of stores. They have thousands to choose from. You can click on my affiliate link below to check them out. This method takes time to build up and make your self some dough online. But it can be a nice stream of monthly income.
But if you like us live in a state such as Rhode Island there is something you should know before you earn dough online. I blogged about this before, the Nexus Law. You have to pay taxes on these in 10 states and some affiliates do not like to do business in these 10 states. So do check that out. We have found some that some do and we are starting to have some success with it. We have found products that make sense for our websites. It has me thinking about doing more websites in the future. You can place banners, text links or actual products into websites through their program. Stores pay anywhere from 4% to 20% commission on anything sold.
Paid Ads – Of course you could have paid ads on your blog. You can have these ads through Google Ad Sense, Social Spark, Amazon Associates or direct from retailers that love your content. That is why a blog is so important in selling online. You need content to attract an audience.
The last method I know is e-Books. I have seen many bloggers selling e-Books with success on their websites. The problogger offers this one on their website for bloggers. So if you can offer valuable information via a blog you may want to consider making an e-Book to give-away for subscribers or to sell one to earn dough online.
None of these methods will earn you money overnight. It takes time to make dough online. You have to provide content through a blog, be on various social media channels, be in online communities, advertise offline and revise your methods constantly along the way. It takes hard work. You really have to have a passion to do it.
Which methods have you found to be the best way for you to earn dough online?
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About Lisa
Helping Others to Thrive Online Through Social Media, Blogging and SEO. What good is knowledge if you cannot share it with others?
20+ years experience in marketing/advertising with 3 years experience blogging, social media and SEO.
31 Responses to 6 Ways to Earn Dough Online
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Hi Lisa,
I am currently not making any money using my blog. If I would have a business – blog I would advertise on there. If I were to promote / sell stuff from my site I would under the condition that I can sample the goods first. I won’t promote anything I could not fully backup.
Google adsense? I am not sure about that, because I would have little control on what kind of advertisements Mr Google wants to place on *my* blog. Yeah I can be a little control – freak sometimes.
// Jan
Hi Jan. Yes, sampling products first is important. We once had a product online that sold and 3 people complained about the quality. We immediately took it down. I do try to sample most of the products so I can know more about them 1st hand. I own so many pairs of clogs.
I just love them. I did Google adsense before but like you did not like that they were showing competitors ads on our other blog. Same with Social Spark – that came down when they were showing up. I do like the affiliate programs but of course not enough to quit my day job yet! Are their laws in your country about doing affiliate programs there?
Hmm. I did a quick scan on Dutch laws about that, but since we are part of the European Union we are under federal law from Brussels. There are some Dutch affiliate networks I found in this short time, but I’m not very knowledgeable about the subject.
Each country within the European Union has it’s own laws for taxes etc., so it would not surprise me that companies here operating on the Internet will run into the same trouble as you ‘guys’…
// Jan
Very interesting Jan. I could see some of those on your blog too
Hi Lisa,
Great list. To me, what’s important is to combine the various methods of earning money online. One way might be better for some people, but the important part is to have various sources of income. For instance, if your affiliate sales goes down (or even vanishes), you still have your products etc..
Jens P. Berget recently posted..Facebook Edgerank – what you need to know
Yes Jens, excellent point. We have 2 retail sites and when sales go down on one – the other seems to go up. The affiliates is a great way to have a little extra check coming each month now too.
Great post Lisa! I would LOVE to make money online, stay at home in my jammies all day, and play with Titan. However, I think I would miss the interaction of people-to-people. Sounds like it takes a lot of work in selling online, probably harder work than I’m already doing at my full-time job.
Well, you would have interaction online but yes the people-to-people would be hard unless you attended local networking events and maybe trade shows. You could sell dog and pet products. Big market for them. It is a LOT of work – that is why you must LOVE it.
Hi Brenda, I can vouch that it is definitely more work to get something going online than what I used to do at my old day job. It can be very stressful to run your own business too.
david recently posted..How I Make Money On The Internet
Hi Lisa,
Great post and informative indeed
A friend’s question into a post? 
Wow… See how a single question helps you to broadcast information. That’s why I say it’s great and practical enough.
You have list out 6 ways to earn and I think it would be great if we can use mix of ‘em where we can relate or make use of rather than stick into one option. If someone doesn’t feel affiliate ads not working for him, here he has 5 more alternatives. Really great Lisa
I didn’t even know about Drop Ship.
Mostly people just used to sign up and show off whatever ad they prefer and goes with their layout to earn money. I did in my first days too
But it’s not effective. I recommend Google Inside Search as a prerequisite if ads are not content based and not using behavioral approach.
For me, Google AdSense was the BEST and I just thought to keep away from advertising until I’m gonna self hosted. Currently I follow In-Text advertising which works for me and gonna self-hosted using that income
Just a goal of mine.
Cheers…
Hi Mayura, like to know more about your in-text ads. I did forget 2 – eBay and Etsy. Thought of them later in the day. They are not for everyone though. I’m testing out the ways and so far the Linkshare has been the best. More to come
Great info Lisa!
I really never knew there were so many ways to make money online, though I had heard of some of them. Google Adsense seems to work well for some, while other things like paid advt., ebooks, or selling products works well for others. I think I agree with Jens here that a combination of everything is a nice way to get people to your blog.
Speaking of myself, I am not much into either of these ways because my earning comes from my freelance writing, which is what I basically am. But there’s no harm to learn more about these other ways to earn money, besides being a freelance writer – isn’t it?
You are absolutely right in saying that whenever you venture into anything, you need to be patient for the results to show up. And yes, this surely IS hard work! You do need to make the right contacts, connections, and be a lot on the social media to create awareness among people about what you are trying to sell too.
Thanks for sharing and making all of us more aware
Harleena Singh recently posted..How to Heal a Relationship When Love Hurts?
Hi Harleeena, yes you could add some form of ads on your blog so that in the future you’ll generate another stream of revenue. I say future because yes it takes time
I had not done well with Google AdSense but maybe not enough time? So far I like the LinkShare the best – they have so many companies too you can be an affiliate for. You could do one for stationary or anything pertaining to your niche of writing.Thanks for coming by.
Out of the ones listed my personal feeling is that affiliate marketing is the best. There are so much potential and there is a lot one can do make money online.
Shalu Sharma recently posted..Pickpockets in India, How to be Careful
Hi Shalu, so far that has been my best too. I’m working on it more to see if it can grow too.
Hi Lisa,
I like that you brought up the issue of affiliates and taxes. It can be a real headache for an online merchant. It is difficult to know when you fall afoul of the law in individual states.
I think it can get quite tricky. This is a potential danger to being an online merchant.
I used to use linkshare a long time ago. I found that it worked to put the small banners together at the bottom of my website. I would get small checks from linkshare when I did that.
If I had more traffic at the time, it might have worked out better. I eventually became tired of linkshare. I might try them again someday though.
The nice thing about being a merchant is that you build a contact list of people who have already bought from you and are more likely to trust you than someone who has never encountered you or your site before.
david recently posted..How I Make Money On The Internet
Thanks Dave, but I don’t mind paying taxes if I sell items. That’s what it comes to down in the state I live in. I find the individual products do better than the ads. I may check out commission junction too, just read about them. Linkshare has some many merchants, and they add more each day.
I’ve been thinking for a long time about something to sell online and I haven’t come up with any ideas until now. It’s good that there are affiliate products out there.
Marty recently posted..Samsung Galaxy S2 Vs. Samsung Galaxy S3 Comparison
Hi Marty, yes there are many to choose from – pick things that you really like and can use and write about. I love clogs so Crocs were perfect for me and our scrub website. I’ve been experimenting with more too.
Great post, if you pull everything you have said together then you have my business model and it works.
I sell other peoples thing through an affiliate program, I have loads of sites that do this and it makes a modest income, from there I then look at what is doing well and where I think there is potential I build a business behind the product with drop shipping etc. This increases the profits per item to around 4000% once I am setup, then onto the next one!
Lauren recently posted..Your house is your home
Thanks Lauren, I wondered how many sites some affiliates have. I knew it was more than one
That is huge increase w/drop shipping. I don’t believe our’s is that large. I will have to run some numbers again.
There are so many ways to make money online but what is comes down to is HARD WORK. If you don’t put time and effort into your blog then you won’t make money.
Rebecca, that is so true – sometimes I spend another 8 hours on it before/after my “day” job and countless hours on weekends in between other things too.
Nice post and I love the topic! All of your ideas are great and very popular with the online crowd. I’d also add offer eCourses online. You can develop and offer seminars and courses teaching people about your particular niche. For example, as a freelance journalist and copywriter, I’m working on a course stream with a collaborator in which I’ll teach licensed therapists and other mental health pros how to write articles for their blogs, copywriting sales pages for their books and therapy sessions, etc. The classes will be in 3 levels: introductory, intermediate, and advanced. My friend and teen therapist, Ronae Jull, PhD (candidate) asked me to contribute to her new site which will feature eCourses on a variety of topics that relate to the field of family therapy and life coaching.
The reason I think eCourses work so well is because they offer a relevant and meaningful commodity to clients. I’ll impart my hard won industry secrets and use my experience to help them succeed. What more could you want in an eCourse?
Thanks Samantha, that’s a great addition to the list that I had not thought of. We’ll have to spread the word when you are up and running. I wonder how many are offering that online now
I think quite a few (relatively speaking) are doing this sort of thing. The one I’m involved in, though, is unique in that RJ (Ronae Jull The Hope Coach) is a licensed therapist and we’re offering our wares to other mental health pros, not the general public.
My biggest source of little income is by selling others product as an affiliate marketer. Will focus on other ways to make money on the internet. I’ve combined two and most famous ways of making money online on my blog which is Advertising revenue and affiliate program which isn’t making a lot for me but not bad at start:P
Thanks for the tips Lisa.
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Hi Lisa,
Thanks for providing this list of ways to make money online. I would love to make more money online! I have a few affiliate banners on my blog, and have made money through one of them, but that’s it. Clearly I am limiting myself and need to explore other options. I like forward to checking out the methods that you’ve shared.
Jamella Biegel recently posted..Favorite WordPress Plugins
Jamella, I have found the banners do not work as well as the products themselves do. Maybe you could add a page with some products?
Great resources girl! I had a drop business back in 2000 and it wasn’t easy when your competitors were selling the same stuff at COST! I did it for about 2 years and looked for something else. Then I fell into Affiliate marketing and that can be very lucrative if done right. I have seen some sites market products very effectively and make a good deal of money monthly. Now most of that market is saturated, but if you can find a different angle and narrow down your niche, you can really make money.
Affiliate marketing is fun, but where I think people miss the boat is promoting products they either don’t use or know anything about. I can share some other sites I have used in the past that actually pay very well providing blogs are willing to promote those everyday products.
Thanks Sonia, Yes I can relate to that at times. Thankfully some brands put a floor price for all to use or their lose the relationship with the brand. Would love to learn more about some of the sites you have used for affiliate marketing.