How to Make Money Online From Your Website

Okay ladies and gentleman. Let’s talk about how to make money through your website.

I make mid-six figures through several websites of mine so I think I am in the position to share with you how I do it.

I put a video out awhile back discussing how to make money online and it got some pretty good feedback so I’m going to create another one that is better that goes into more details and will be filmed better 🙂

But I also want to type something up that can be helpful because some of you like to read instead of watch. And that is fine by me.

So today I want to talk to you about how to make money online. Not just a few cents or dollars but real money. Money that can potentially be enough for you to say “it’s time to focus on this full time.” I want to discuss the ways you canmake over six figures and beyond.

My Story

My story is pretty simple. I didn’t really know you could make money online until 2013. I mean, I knew you could but I didn’t know so many people were and I didn’t know people were making hundreds of thousands of dollars online or even millions until early 2015. (This is because I was always focused on climbing the corporate ladder and making money the traditional way).

I built my first website in early 2013 – a personal development website I may share with the Tech Club in the future. I had no idea how to make money on it in the beginning other than google ads. So I put google ads on my website. And then I learned about affiliate marketing so I signed up for Amazon Partners and posted a few links to supplements I recommended.

I’ll never forget the first time I made money on the internet. It was 26 cents I believe. And it was an Amazon sale.

It wasn’t a lot. But it was enough to change my life. It made me realize that it was possible to make money online (it doesn’t take me much to realize something is possible). And once I knew I could make money online (because making 26 cents is making money online), I knew I could do it, over and over and over again.

I’ve always thought if you can do it once, you can do it twice. So there was no stopping me after that.

I’ve come a long way from the first 26 cents. I’m now running three independent websites/businesses (two of which make 6 figures each and one that has not been monetized yet).

Eventually, I would like to start posting my monthly income reports for you but it currently takes too much work and I’m still working to build up my businesses to the point that I am confident that what I make month over month is sustainable.

But for the time being, know that my sites make me enough to live off of while also having savings each month (and I live in one of the most expensive cities in the world!). So with that, I want to share with you some ways you can start making money online.

How To Make Money Online ($100K plus edition)

The easiest way to make 100K plus online is to not rely on a single source of income. That’s the truth. But it doesn’t have to be the rule.

If you have an idea or a product or a way to earn 100K through one product, then that’s awesome and you should do that. But combining revenue streams from multiple products is also a great way. So don’t think you need the perfect product or idea. You don’t.

My Golden Rule: Have Multiple Earning Streams

I will list out ways to make money below. But I want you to keep an open mind when you read the list and realize that you’re better off with multiple sources of revenue vs one. If you’re dependent on one stream of revenue you will be in trouble if that source ever disappears. Plus it will cause you extra stress.

Diversify and create more than one stream of revenue to increase your earning potential.

So when you think about how you’re going to make money online, consider making it in a bunch of different ways 🙂

Now let’s get to the list.

Estimated earnings are my own personal estimates. You can make more or less.

#1 Way to Make Money Online: Write an ebook and sell it

If you have information that you’re willing to share for free, why not package it up into an ebook and sell it?

Everyone thinks writing a book is difficult. But if you’re writing blog posts each day or consistently blogging then you have a bunch of material.

People will pay for convenience. If you really wanted, you could combine your blog posts and repackage it and just sell it. Or you can take a week or two and type up an ebook and sell it.

The great thing about writing an ebook is all you have to do is put in work in the beginning and you can let it make money for you passively. I use an online service called E-Junkie that stores and sends out my ebooks automatically to people that purchase it. I don’t have to lift a finger. All I do is pay $5 a month to E-junkie and they do the rest. And depending on what price you sell your ebook(s) at, you can make back the fee you pay to E-junkie in one or two sales.

To learn more about E-junkie, you can read my review about it here (coming soon). Or if you want to sign up for E-junkie to use their service, you can do so by clicking on this link 🙂

#2 Way to Make Money Online: Create an Online Course

Courses sell at a premium if they are high quality. So why not make a course about something you are familiar with and sell it? I’ve seen courses sell for as low as $49 all the way to $1,000+

The problem with making an online course is it takes a lot of time and can be overwhelming. But the payout can be huge.

I’m putting one together as I write this.  The great thing is, all the hard work really can pay off if you create something people want and need. Imagine the pay off in the long run when you can just sit back and watch the money roll in.

If you have an idea about a course and want to make sure you create it right (I’m talking about getting initial feedback, having the right structure, and creating the right content) then check out free tutorial on how to create an online course (coming and it will be awesome!).

I may recommend some courses that you can use to build an online course but right now I think they aren’t worth it. Especially if I can provide you something for free. So be on the look out for the tutorial that teaches you how to do market research, market your product, build it, and launch it.

#3 Way to Make Money Online: Have an Online Store

Have an online store. I created a How to Create an Ecommerce Website in WordPress a little while ago. It is the best ecommerce website tutorial on the internet (just so you know!). You can build an online store yourself and save a ton of money if you follow the wordpress tutorial I put together.

If you want to sell something online an ecommerce store is a great way.

My friend was on the television show – Shark Tank – a couple years ago. He created an online store that sold ugly Christmas Sweaters. They ranked really well on google when you searched for certain keywords (I’ll provide their SEO strategy soon in an ebook or something). They’ve gone on to create an online store that makes over $4 million a year in revenue and their product is so seasonal and niche. If they can do it, so can you. Here’s the link to an update to their episode.

Having a successful online store depends on a few factors.

If you’re going to have an online store, do yourself a favor and have a blog so people can get to know you and your brand. I promise you this will help not only with building your brand but for SEO purposes.

#4 Way to Make Money Online: Affiliate Marketing

Sometimes its easier to refer other products instead of creating your own. This is called affiliate marketing and there are a ton of people making a lot of money doing this.

When you link someone to an amazon product that you can get a fee from if the visitor makes a purchase, that is affiliate marketing.

What you need to do is find products that fit what your site or business is about and make recommendations. The best thing to do is talk about products you use and fully support, but from a standpoint of making money – you should try whatever works.

Here are two places you can find a lot of ebooks and programs that you might want to recommend on your website that could help you earn a lot of money.

I prefer Commission Junction over Clickbank but both are good. There’s also Amazon’s Affiliate program. Plus a bunch of one off affiliate programs you can find on the web.

Oh and before I move on. If you create an ebook or an online course, you can also upload it on Clickbank or CommissionJunction and have other people recommend it for you. Then you’ll make money through having other people recommend your product and they get an affiliate fee. It’s a win-win with having other people sell you product for you!

#5 Way to Make Money Online: Use Ads

Ads. This still works, especially if you have a high volume of traffic. But it also can make your website look cheap or your youtube videos look like spam.

The truth is, not a lot of people like ads. But they’ll still click on them if they’re relevant to your viewers.

And that’s why I recommend them.

If ads are placed correctly and in a way that isn’t annoying to your visitors then you won’t turn your visitors away. What you don’t want are ads that are not relevant or a bunch of pop ups or ads that just clutter your website.

If you want to venture into the ads word then sign up for google adsense and also make sure you choose to monetize your youtube channel (anyone can do it).

What you will need to do with google adsense is figure out where to place your ads so they can be seen but not to the point that they take away from what your site is all about.

#6 Ways to Make Money Online: Sell Advertising Space

Banners used to be a big thing back in the day. They aren’t used so often anymore but that doesn’t mean you can’t still sell advertising on your website.

You can promote something for money. Or you can put up a banner for a month or so if someone pays you.

If you want to do this, I suggest you put up a link either on your header or footer menu so people can get in touch with you about advertising.

Advertising is still a great way to generate revenue and often times paying directly to a business owner instead of google or Facebook to sell ads is better for the advertiser.

You can also reach out to people to ask if they want to advertise on your website.

I haven’t done this yet but I plan to with a dental site I run (I love teeth and beautiful smiles). What I plan to do is first put up some advertisements (google ads), then drive more traffic to the site and if I can become an authority in my dental niche then I will reach out to dentists to advertise their dental practices.

I know this is possible because there is a retired dentist doing this now. However, I think he plays favorites for who he recommends and who he doesn’t recommend and I want to be an unbiased individual that really helps dental patients out. 

What I might do is actually make this website a case study for the NYC TECH CLUB website to show you what is possible. However, I don’t know if the dental niche is the right site to do that with. So we’ll see. I’ll definitely put a case study together and do it in an interactive way to show you it’s possible.

Estimated earnings: ??

#7 Ways to Make Money Online: Sell Your Services

Everything we’ve talked about so far have been ways to make money online with minimal work. But there is another way to make money online and that is by selling your services.

Whatever you know how to do, if you’re being paid to do it or other people are being paid to do it, then you can probably get paid online to do it as well. No joke.

You don’t even need a website to sell your services. There are a variety of ways to connect with people to get hired.

I can tell you that one of my first jobs was doing interview prep where I charged $200 an hour to help college grads get ready for interviews for a career on Wall Street. And all I did was post on Craigslist. So I know its possible to sell your services if you know how to.

Estimated monthly earnings: $50- $1,200

If you add up all of these different sources of revenue, you’ll see that you can easily earn six figures a year. And if you work hard and learn how to grow your business, you can definitely make more. 

Now You Know What To Do, But How Do You Do It?

Knowing how to make money online is just half the battle. There’s more work that needs to be done in order to make money online. Like six figure money online. Anyone can make a buck here and there, but we want to make real money. So we have to do things right.

First Things First

You need to ask yourself some questions and do a few things –

  1. How do you want to make money online?
  2. What do you want to sell?
  3. Figure out your target market and who is your audience
  4. Ask yourself how will they find you?
  5. What would make them want to buy from you or trust you?

Second – Figure Out If There is A Market 

Now that you know what you want to sell, its a matter of knowing whether there are buyers or not for what you’re selling.

First, simply google what you’re selling and a few of the phrases you would use to search for it.

What type of results come up?

Click on a few of the top links. Are they selling anything? Do these sites look like they are making money?

Do you see any google ads or ads on your results page from the search? This is a good sign if you do, because it means there are companies paying to be seen on google.

The last thing we want to do is try to make money where there is no money to be made!

Once you find something you know will sell (sometimes this is easier than other times)…it’s build a website.

Third – Build a Website

You can build any type of website you want. You don’t even need a business site. You can just had a blog. It really depends what you’re going for.

I like to sell information so I prefer a blog website over an online store or business website. But it’s up to you.

Check out these tutorials that can help you out.

Third – Drive Traffic To Your Site

This is probably the most difficult thing to do for most entrepreneurs that are starting out. The hardest question to answer is “How do I drive traffic to my site?”

The last thing you want to do is build a website and no one comes to visit it. So I want to help.

I still remember how excited I was to see visitors coming to my site. Whether it was one or a thousand…each visitor matters.

The first thing you should do is install google analytics on your website so you can capture data on your traffic and visitors.

The second thing you need to do is figure out what keywords you’re going to target so your site gets ranked on google when people search.

The third thing you need to do is figure out how to get more exposure for your website. This can come in a lot of different forms – two of which are more important than any other now. Backlinks and search results. They both go hand in hand.

Coming soon I will be writing a detailed post about everything I listed here so you can really optimize the amount of traffic coming to your site. Maybe I’ll do it in an ebook format or youtube video format. To be determined but keep an eye out for this.

Fourth – Follow Up

Collect emails. Get people to follow and subscribe to you.

I talk about strategies to do this in more detail but pretty much you have to be able to offer value in some way or some form in order to really get people to want to sign up for anything.

Additionally, you need to be able to build relationships with people and keep in touch otherwise your visitors will forget about you. More details to come about this. I feel very strongly about this section, especially if your goal is to grow your business exponentially.

Fifth – Put In the Work – Not Going to Happen Overnight

Your business is nothing without your customers. Your website is nothing without your visitors. Remember that.

Don’t give up early on.

It took me 2 years before I made my first dollar. But during those first two years, I learned so much and tried so many different things to get me to where I am today. Don’t take the growing pains forgranted. They’ll help you much more in the long run than someone feeding you the right strategies and advice in the short-term.

To Sum It All Up

My goal in this post was to tell you how you can start making real money on your website. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if you put in the work you will start seeing results. I have no doubt about that.

To sum up the resources I recommend in this post, see below:

I promise if you put in the upfront work, you can make a lot of money online.

If I can do it, anyone can do it. 🙂

Additional Resources:

Featured Image credit: http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/thefw.com/files/2012/04/richest-fictional-characters-mr-monopoly.jpg

5 Responses

  1. Pingback: How to Make Money Online – The First Dollar – NYC Tech Club

  2. Hi,

    Following your instruction for sydeny theme I built a website. Now Could you please tell me how can I created two different header menu logged in user and for logged out user.

    Reply

  3. Jameson,

    I couldn’t figure out how to contact you, so I’m leaving a comment on this blog post.

    Thanks to you, I just completed the first round of the set up process for my new website! (ceoofmyprosperity.com) I watched your 2 1/2 hour video on creating a Sydney-themed website, and I’m really happy with how it’s turning out! I’ve never made a website before. Your video and written instructions were truly exceptional! I feel very confident in the professional look and feel of my new site. I also really appreciate the basic WordPress knowledge I was able to gain throughout the process. I hope to be able to grow that knowledge in the future. I am so grateful for the time that you took to create the opportunity for others to learn and create something worthwhile, beautiful and functional.

    When I have completed my website, I look forward to continue to learn more from your blog posts and videos. Thank you for making a difference in people’s lives. I know you’ve made a difference in mine.

    Gratefully,

    Angie Liddiard
    CEO – Working The Home, LLC

    Reply

  4. thank you so much for all your efforts , i have learned a lot from you , have you worked or will work soon on video tubes . or galleries ?

    Reply

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