iskandarX Society News - 3 Best Ideas to Make Extra Money Online in 2012

How to make money online in 2012


2012 has seen a number of huge changes in the way the Internet works. This means that the fields of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), marketing, eCommerce, and content creation are all going to be in a state of flux.



One of the most important things you can do to ensure that your blog or website makes money is to understand what SEO, Google search and Internet marketing is all about. I’ve included a list of must-read articles and resources for small or home based Internet businesses at the end of the post, and I strongly recommend you browse through these before trying to make money online.


1. Make money blogging


Blogging is a great way to make money online because it is super quick, easy to start, and doesn’t require any technical Web programming or development experience.


Large blogging platforms like WordPress offer a convenient place to start blogging.


In order to make money blogging, you will first need to get plenty of visitors (traffic). To do this, you need to:

1. Find a niche topic (i.e. “the best hamburgers in the world“, “Training your goldfish“, and so on)
2. Write great content
3. Learn about SEO
4. Learn about Internet marketing and social media
5. Be persistent and consistent

Many people fail to make money blogging because they don’t properly focus their content, don’t do adequate research into their niche market and readership, don’t understand SEO or social media, and above all, they give up too soon.


With plenty of great traffic arriving at your blog, it is easy to make money in any way you can imagine. The most commonplace and easy to implement are:

• Embedding Google AdSense ads (or ads from other networks like Chitika)
• Using affiliate links for sites like Amazon or an affiliate network like Commission Junction
• Selling advertising directly
• Writing paid reviews

2. Make money from an online store


eCommerce, or online stores, are a great way to earn money for a home based or small business startup. With modern shopping cart software, setting up an online store is easier than ever and doesn’t require any programming or development experience.


To make money from an online store, you will need:

1. A product, or products, to sell
2. An good online shopping cart software solution

Setting up an online store is the easy bit. Marketing and promoting it is the tricky bit. Without plenty of visitors (traffic), even the best products in the world, on the best eCommerce solution in the world won’t make money.


Operating a successful online store is about having a great product, great marketing and great customer service.


Since so much of the success of an online store depends on marketing, I recommend you set up a blog as part of your online store (See Make money blogging). In addition, I recommend you read the SEO and Internet marketing articles presented at the bottom of this post.


3. Make money selling ebooks and information


An online store is a great way to sell tangible products – like cushions, cupcakes, gadgets and cars. Selling information is even more suited to the Internet because it doesn’t require many of the “traditional” business overheads, like warehousing, transport and manufacture.


If you have expert knowledge or experience in any field, then you have something to sell. You don’t need to be the world’s best expert either. Provided you are prepared to put in the effort to create a high quality information resource that people will spread via word of mouth (something that is critical to success in this field), selling information and ebooks can be lucrative.


Personal trainers, for example, might create workout plans and sell them via Amazon, or their own eCommerce store or blog. A kindergarten teacher recently earned $700 000 by selling her lesson plans online.


In order to sell ebooks and information, you will need:

• Formatted and laid out document(s) for sale
• One or more online sales channels

A sales channel can be anything from your own blog or online store, to selling self-published books via CreateSpace or via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to eBay, criagslist and other third party websites.


While word-of-mouth plays an important role in the sales of ebooks, it is crucial that you also learn as much about Internet marketing and social media as possible. By using the Internet properly as a marketing tool, you can help drive sales and revenue online.


The three common threads running through each of the above methods for making money online are:


Content

• SEO
• Marketing
• All three inter-relate to help drive and convert traffic into money. In fact, no matter what small business startup you try, your success will depend on how well you can implement and use the above three online business disciplines.