How to make money online

The Web has opened a world of opportunity and wealth creation. You can earn, sell, market, spend, leverage your skill and lure clients from the comfort of your home. But there are scams abound and hurdles aplenty. Here's how to make the most of this platform. 

Write way to earn 

JOBS: 

Blogging, micro-blogging , Tweeting, freelance writing, editing, e-authoring and translating. 

SKILLS: 

Comprehensive writing skill and expertise in any field. 

INCOME: 

500 for a 300-word article to 1 lakh a month for full-time blogging . 

Your thoughts are worth more than a penny now. Your scribbles and musings can earn you big bucks, if you know how to market them well. If you are unsure of your talent, start by writing a blog. It's easy to begin—just join a blogging site, such as Blogspot or Wordpress, and start writing. There is no training institute for this and only through trial and error will you discover what appeals to readers. However, bloggers are flooding the virtual world and if you want to stand out and get noticed by readers and advertisers , you will need to provide information or advice that no one else can, or provide it in a way that is better than others. You can join a writers ' community, where people freely dispense tips on improving writing or increasing readership (see How to increase blog traffic). Once you find your literary footing, it may be better to have your own Website and domain name. This gives you a specific identity, and if you submit your blog's URL to search engines, it will become more noticeable on the Net. The charges for a domain name usually range from 300-1 ,000 a year. The main source of income for most bloggers is GoogleAdSense, which places contextual ads on Websites. 

As new mediums open up, you need to adapt and leverage these. Hrish Thota did so when he evolved from blogging to Tweeting. Thota has been blogging for almost a decade and joined Twitter when it was launched in 2006. He is now a professional Tweeter, who has 4,500 followers and earns about 1 lakh a month. The 31-year-old , who is a former employee of consulting firm Capgemini, began his Twitter career by writing about events and computer hardware in Bangalore. Within a year, as his network of followers grew, companies began to approach him to Tweet about their products. Recently, he was involved with a campaign for Ford Figo for around a month-and-a-half , where he had to do a road show from Chandigarh to Chennai, Tweeting and photo-blogging about the events in real time. On an average, he earns 30,000-40 ,000 a month per brand. 

As important as your writing skill is your ability to network. "Before you begin to post your views, you need to create a community. You should go to various meets and events to develop contacts," says Thota. 

Though writing seems easy at first glance, if you want to earn money from it, you will have to work hard. Professional bloggers put in about 2-5 hours every day and constantly strive to write on topics that provide updated information. You need to be regular and prompt in answering your readers' queries. 

If you have honed your skills and are confident about what you write, you could even publish a book a la Anupam Mukerji, who became famous for his blog, the Fake IPL Player , written cheekily about the IPL's second season. In March last year, he published a book, The Gamechanger. However, if no publisher seems interested in the physical realm, don't despair. You can write a virtual bestseller . E-books are in high demand across the world and many people are writing exclusively for this segment. In June this year, crime novelist John Locke became the first independent author to sell more than 1 million ebooks through Kindle's (Amazon) direct publishing programme, under which you do not need an agent or a publisher. Each e-book was sold for $0.99 (` 48), of which Locke pocketed 35 cents (` 17). Global classroom JOBS: E-tutoring . SKILLS: Domain knowledge and good communication skills. INCOME: 5,000-50 ,000 a month (for 8-hour sessions) depending on the subject and region (India/international). 

When Shyamila Rana's husband got a job in Dehradun in 2007, the 42-year-old school teacher began applying for a post in various schools in the city. Unfortunately, not many were willing to hire her, citing age as a factor . Rana was unwilling to waste her experience and time, so she began looking elsewhere. She soon found hundreds of overseas students, who were eager to learn science from her. "One of my husband's colleagues told him about e-tutoring and I sent an application , along with my resume, to one of the Websites," says Rana, who now teaches science for four hours to students based in the US. For this, she is earning better than she would in a traditional school. 

E-tutoring is a process in which a teacher educates a student or a group of students on a particular subject through online technology. This can involve the use of Web-based programs and includes data, voice and video communication. The tutor can send questions, receive completed papers , provide results and recommendations , clarify concepts, assist on assignments , etc. To begin in this field, you can sign up with some established names such as TutorVista.com. 

Says Alok Bansal, chief executive officer of Gurgaon-based Alethia Education Services: "To start a career as an online tutor, you should know the content well and be conversant with technology." Another aspect you need to consider is the working hours, especially if you are teaching international students. 

Atul Kulshreshtha recognised the lacuna in this field in 2007 when he decided to venture into online teaching . The Noida-based chartered accountant is a serial Web entrepreneur, who started two advisory services portals in 2000. A few years later, he launched a BPO company, Cleave Global E-Services , which he sold last year. As he was comfortable with the Net and had the technical expertise, Kulshreshtha invested almost 10 crore in setting up infrastructure, buying equipment and hiring teachers , before he finally launched Extramarks .com in 2008. Although the going was tough initially, today Extramarks .com has a support base of around 150 teachers and has 7 lakh students enrolled in various programmes . It has nine offices in different parts of the country and had a turnover of 60 crore last year. 

Virtual bazaar 

JOBS: 

Online enterprise. 

SKILLS: 

Guts, gumption and marketing savvy. 

INCOME: 

Whatever you want. Shakil Thasariya began collecting autographs as a 13-year-old schoolboy, when the former President APJ Abdul Kalam gave him one in 2003. A year later, he discovered that his passion could be profitable when he sold 10 autographs to an antique dealer for `4,000. However, finding buyers in his hometown, Rajkot, Gujarat, wasn't easy. The perfect avenue: eBay. The portal opened up access to a wider and more keen clientele. He made quite a few successful sales and also got in touch with a lot of autograph dealers in the US and Europe. "This business of selling autographs is based on trust, especially if you are doing so online. To have a credible long-term reputation, I offer my clients a 100% money-back guarantee if they discover that my autographs are fake," says Thasariya, who earns about `7,000 a month by selling 7-8 autographs. 

The online medium is a perfect platform for small entrepreneurs or startups , who cannot afford to rent office space or shop. However, maintaining a Website also requires work and money. A free and easily manageable platform is social networking sites, most notably Facebook. SayNikita Fernandes and Vinisha Dugar: "We were already members of Facebook and had a wide circle of friends, so when we decided to launch our own business, Fishing Hook, using the site was a logical choice. Besides, managing a dedicated Website would become too difficult to handle." 

The two Mumbai-based friends launched their business in July last year. They outsourced accessories from China and Hong Kong, put up their photographs on Facebook and then sell these in India. Within three months, they had about 500 fans on their page and were generating orders worth about 10,000, of which 3,000 was their profit margin. 

Initially, they would deliver the products themselves and collect cash from customers. However, as their clientele grew in other cities, they began to courier the products and charge 100 as shipping charges. In September this year, they joined hands with an e-commerce portal, Ebagsfull.com, where they have put their products on display. Today, their Facebook page has nearly 2,100 fans and their client base has expanded to Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata. 

There are hundreds of online sellers who are leveraging the World Wide Web to create wealth. And this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 

10 Smart Money-Making Ideas for 2012 and Beyond

Despite the poor state of the economy, some people will make lots of money in 2012. You need to remember that not everyone these days is impecunious. What can you sell to people who still have money to spend? What service or product can you provide for them? Although some traditional money-making ideas may not pay off well in 2012, here are a few time-proven, affordable, and practical ideas that may prove to be exceptions:

1. Start and operate a useful club. The goal is to come up with a unique idea that provides benefits people would be willing to tap into. Possibilities include a food/personal products co-op, a self-defense/personal safety coalition, a board game competition club, a travel-for-less-as-groups association, etc. Clubs allow people to meet new friends, get products and services at lower prices, travel less expensively, and enjoy special privileges available only to the members. The club makes money by charging annual membership fees, selling its exclusive products & services, getting the support of corporate sponsors and from fees paid for special events, competitions, and activities.

2. Become a “picker.” Thanks in part to the now-popular TV show “American Pickers,” more people are considering this always-interesting, open-to-anyone profession. Ironically, used-stuff businesses fare better during harsh economic times. For buyers, it means saving money on things they might not otherwise be able to afford; for sellers, it means a steady source of products, customers, and, if done right, profits. The trick is to sell for more than what you pay.

3. Hunt for precious stones and gems. There are quarries and mines throughout the country where you reside (as well as caves, underwater caverns, and abandoned sites) where you can look for valuables. You pay a fee for the privilege of digging but usually get to keep anything you find. This idea requires that you educate yourself on the different stones and gems that may be found, keeping in mind that they generally look different when first unearthed than they do in jewelry store shelves.

4. House-sit for empty property.Buildings, condos and houses for sale (or for rent) may have to stay unoccupied for long periods of time. While unoccupied, empty property can easily become subject to arson, vandalism, illegal occupation, and burglary. More prevalent during bad economic times, burglars break into empty property to steal built-in appliances, electric fixtures, wiring, pipes, water heaters, paneling, flooring, central heating/air conditioning units, etc. You can help prevent this by moving into such property either rent-free (saving you money) or for a flat, agree-upon fee. Considering how bad the real estate market is, the rent-free option is probably the most realistic.

5. Become a blogger. Even people who never thought of themselves as “writers” have been making good money by blogging on the Internet. By writing short, informative, and entertaining articles/blogs for websites, electronic newsletters, landing pages, and the e-versions of established hardcopy publications, you can provide a much-needed, in-demand service.

6. Invent or create something new. Do you have an idea for a new type of food, a new recipe suitable for mass production? Maybe you or someone you know has an original recipe for a delicious cookie, pastry, pie, cake, sandwich, etc. Or maybe you can improve a product that is already out there. Apply for a patent for your idea, if you can afford the fees; otherwise, there are companies that will help inventors make their dream come true for a percentage of the profits.

7. Help people clean up, re-arrange, and get rid of old items in garages, basements, and attics. During hard economic times, people often want to get rid of extra “baggage.” Such emptied places may then be turned into rooms people can rent for storage or even to live in. You can also offer to run a yard sale on behalf of the client, either at their place or yours—the proceeds can either be shared or be counted toward the fee to be paid to you for the work you did. If you have handyman skills, you can also offer to fix, renovate, or upgrade the places you just cleaned up.

8. Run errands on an as-needed basis. Most people would love to have a personal assistant who can run errands (pick up clothes from the drycleaners, grocery shop, take children to sporting events, drop off packages, type up important letters, make calls, drop you off at the airport, answer your emails, be your personal answering service, etc.) for them, if they could afford it. You can make it affordable for them by charging one flat, per-hour fee, in addition to reasonable mileage fees if driving is involved. You can be available on a 24/7 basis (even though they only pay you for the time they use you), for a low fee being their chauffeur, secretary, answering service, shopper, researcher, delivery person, etc.

9. Get a good digital camera and put it to use. There are many Internet sites, publications, and individuals who are willing to pay good money for unique, special topic, well-taken, clear, and attractive photos. Ask professional paparazzi, if you have any doubts. A picture taken of celebrities (especially if they are where they are not expected), for example, can be worth a small fortune. Fortunately, though, other subjects/topics can also be profitable, especially if you can capture something rarely seen, amazing, useful to someone, or particularly beautiful to behold. The idea is to keep your camera with you at all times. Learn how to master it. Also, familiarize yourself with businesses/sites that buy photographs, paying close attention to their standards, photo-taking guidelines, and submission requirements.

10. Get a metal detector & go treasure hunting. This is perhaps one of the best all-time money-making opportunities. You will need to learn how to use your equipment well and with ease (which may require several months of on-the-job use); you will have to learn about and abide by laws governing this activity (making sure to always ask permission from property owners before digging on their premises); and you will have to invest lots of energy and time. The good news, though, is that there are metal detector models to fit every budget, there are always more things to find buried all around us, and there will always be land that no one has searched for buried treasure. Some of the things you can find include lost jewelry, old coins, Civil War relics, Native American paraphernalia, buried buttons and bullets from previous centuries, and hundreds of other now-valuable items.

Ten smart ideas that you can realistically put to good use, provided that you are willing to put in the necessary hard word, learning, and commitment needed!

Want To Make Money Online Through Social Media – Read it

Social media or social networking websites plays an important role in today’s business success. Not just for business but for almost every other professions like education, entertainment, career counseling and for spending good leisure time, social networking is essential. Everyone is interested in joining social media but why are you joining it just for fun when you can make money online by utilizing this platform. Here are some tips on making money online that will really be helpful for you.

Polish your marketing skills – Offer discount to your fans & followers!

Being an entrepreneur, if you want to make money through social networking websites, you must engage your fans and followers first with your business. After that you can apply basic marketing rule that is to convert leads into sales and for this you can offer an exclusive discount to your social media fans for products or services you are offering. This thing can entice your followers and make them feel connected with your business. Add a tint of “limited time” element and see the surge in sales figure.

Monetize your social media profile!

Making money online through social media websites is easy to understand and simple to implement especially when you utilize affiliate marketing strategy over here. Select any of your affiliate products and set up a marketing campaign for that particular product on different social media websites. However, you should not forget the norm that social media websites are made for networking not for advertising. You can also earn extra bucks of money with a simple tweet or Facebook profile.

Make relationships with those relative to your niche!

Rather than following other social media gurus with closed eyes, it is advisable to join their conversation, if you are genuinely interested in any particular topic. Once you will get into the discussion, you will not just get to know new things but you will get a new platform to share your valuable thoughts with others. In this way, your social circle will be expanded and you can connect them with your business and start making money online through social media. New connections can eventually become your loyal customers.

Making money online by updating your followers!

Seeing the prior points, you will definitely get to know that you can use social media websites to make connections, learn trends and then to convert leads into customers. Build list of connections and prove yourself trustworthy so that they can follow you. Share your business news and offers through social media websites that is important and with friends, fans and followers. It is really a good way to connect people and start making money online through social media.

If you have not implemented these above mentioned online money making tips, just remember, it’s never too late to start working in the right way. These all tips on making money online are worth implementing but all that you need is to implement them in the right way.

Quick ways to make money online

Pay Per Post

Write articles and get paid to blog. Webmasters and blog owners looking for new and unique content will pay per post between $2-$10 depending on the length and quality of article you write. Best place to start with article writing is digital point forums.

You can make more money writing articles if you have your own blog with decent quality because it also involves providing SEO service.

Blog Commenting Service

Blog commenting is also a nice way to make some money online. Webmasters are busy and most of them hire commentators for blog commenting.

Earn Commission

You can also become a broker for internet traders on digital point forums and make some commission.

Above ways to make money online can survive you through the struggle period. But, if you find it difficult then get a day job and devote your attention to develop your main online business website or blog.

Get Paid To Surf

I don’t recommend paid surveys but I see its getting famous again and if you can find genuine websites which pay, then you can try it. Most of the paid surveys websites are scams. On the similar lines, you can get paid to read emails. But, you’ll be better off devoting time in developing your own online business then doing these odd jobs.

 

How To Make Money Online

Making money online is a dream for many people. Because having a home based online business means full freedom. You can run online business from anywhere in the world. You just need a laptop and an internet connection to work which is available anywhere in the world. You will have the full freedom to see places and enjoy life as much as you can. There is no fixed working hours and you can work at any time you want. Also once your online business is up and running, you will need to devote only few hours regularly to keep your online business running and making you money while you sleep. But, initial months will be hard and you’ll need to work with full dedication and skills to be successful online. It also includes the learning part. Second reason why people want to work online is that it requires very little investment and working online has the capability to make you from thousands to millions of dollars depending on your efforts. While making money online doesn’t require much investment and offers the freedom you crave so much, it requires something else. To make money online, it requires skills, knowledge, hard work and dedication. If you have these, you can create a successful online business within six months to an year. Key things to make money online is first finding a profitable niche, doing search engine optimization and driving traffic to your website or blog. You’ll need to put some time to learn these and also find other ways to make money either by a day job or doing odd jobs online while you put all the effort in learning and experimenting things you learn, in developing your money blog or website. Better get a day job initially because doing odd jobs online and making sufficient money online will be difficult initially while you still are learning the ropes to make money online. You will also need to put some money for domain registrations, hosting etc.

How To Earn Money Online Writing Paid Articles or Blog Posts

Website owners are always looking for new and unique content on the internet forums and groups related to the topic of their websites. If you have started blogging recently, you can well utilize this opportunity to earn some money to support yourself while creating your big money blog. You can look for articles and post writing opportunities at several forums like digital point forums and blog advertising websites like sponsored posts, buy blog reviews, pay per post etc.

If you are writing reviews and posts for good products and websites only, then you may well provide the article posting service at your own big money blog. But, if you are writing reviews and paid posts for just any product or website to earn any extra money you can make, then I suggest you should start another blog specially for paid posts and reviews. To start a blog for paid article posting service, you can buy an established domain with google pagerank and traffic already or get a new domain, start a blog related to the topic you want to write on, post a few articles, advertise it a little bit, gain some link popularity and pagerank eventually and finally start your blog posting service. You can try blogger or wordpress.com free blog hosting services also.

If you don’t want to invest in a new domain and hosting or you are looking for free ways to make money online, you can offer posts with links on ezinearticles and other article directories. You can charge more money for this as posting on ezinearticles adds much more value to your posts. You can also guest post for your buyers on popular blogs and make money online. Website owners and webmasters will be happy to pay you for this as they are too busy in their work , manage several websites and online marketing campaigns together. Most of the bloggers have sustained their struggle period writing paid posts while developing their big money blogs.

You will typically be paid $2-$10 for each article. You will be paid more if you add value to the articles by posting them on popular blogs and article directories. Webmasters will generally give you instructions like how many words to write, quality of articles, number of in-content links etc.

        

Internet Marketing Tips to Make Money Online?

What is Internet Marketing?

Internet Marketing refers to marketing of products through Internet. This includes marketing through websites, blogs, via e-mail, SMS, etc. Internet Marketing is also referred to as web marketing, digital marketing, search marketing, online marketing, or e-marketing. Internet Marketing is offering a great scope to earn money as the reach of Internet is increasing rapidly. Some of the most important Internet Marketing Tips to Make Money Online is to first find the right business model for Internet Marketing and then find a suitable approach for doing it.

Business Models for Internet Marketing

Some of the business models for Internet Marketing along with their descriptions are mentioned below.

• Affiliate Marketing – It refers to process of active online referrals by an affiliate to prospective customers in lieu of a percentage of sales that gets generated. The affiliates are provided with useful resources by a company whose products they are marketing. This includes affiliate links, tracking facilities, sales letters, etc.  Usually the bulk of Affiliate Marketing gets generated from e-commerce sites.
• Lead-based websites – In this business model, an entity/individual is able to bolster its reach by getting customers leads which can then be passed over to business sites for purpose of soliciting. This enables the business sites to stay in touch with their customers.
• E-commerce – This refers to the seller directly getting involved in marketing its product online to the customers. Depending upon the nature of the business, the business models can be further categorized as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumers (B2C), or consumer- to- consumer (C2C).
• Local Internet marketing – In this model, one can leverage the reach of one’s site or blog to generate capital by engaging in revenue generating activities such as hosting advertisements on the sites, etc. Some of the tools that can be used are local directory listing, social media marketing, online sales promotions.

Approaches for Internet Marketing

Some of the approaches for Internet Marketing along with their descriptions are mentioned below.

• Appeal to specific interests – This takes into consideration the profile of the customers and their interests based upon their online profile and activities. When reaching to such customers, care is taken that the products or services should match their interests. Some of the factors that are taken into consideration are gender, age group, geography, and other generic factors.
• One-to-one approach – In this approach, an entity/individual depending upon the current activity of an online user, provides specific advertisement and promotional messages. For example, search engines provide keyword specific advertisements and links to users.
• Geo-targeting – This approach is based on delivering location specific advertisement and promotional messages to users. The location of the users can be checked by geo-location or tracking software installed on communication devices like laptop, mobile, etc. The location parameters that are usually taken into account are longitude and latitude, region, country, city, state, zip code or metro code, organization, ISP, Internet Protocol (IP) address, etc.

Niche Marketing – Niche Marketing deals in hosting information about very specific products/services catering to a definite segment rather than hosting information about generic products. For example, instead of hosting a website that provides information about mobiles, advertisements related to very specific category of mobiles like high end mobiles is provided.