Friday, August 12, 2011

How do you make money online?

How Do you make money online?

Recently so many people have asked me this Question, and after thinking about it. I wonder sometimes if they believe me,
A. that I work online
B. I make money from doing it.
C. Is it really as easy as I find it.

Someone also asked recently about how much traffic/visitors to my pages I get in a week.
If I told you as of time of writing to 125 pages nearly topping 5,000 people (update October 2011 10,2500 and rising daily!!!!) - what would you say to that?
And that is only my work on Squidoo @LisaAuch, this does not count any individual Blogs, or any other online publishing platforms I use

.....i also want to try to encourage you to take the leap, to start exploring working online, because I truly believe if I can do it any body can.
So the easiest way I can explain what I do is this....

I create individual web pages, I provide information, tutorials or just write about things that interest me....I know if I am searching online about something then so must other people.

....then I was asked: But how does that make you money?
Well I use an online publishing platform, like Squidoo which is FREE to join, and who give me a percentage of their AdSense earnings, (they display adverts on my pages i write on)
... depending on various aspects, that Squidoo take into account, and the more popular my pages the better it is for me making money.

Internally on Squidoo we call it lensrank.
A higher "lensrank" will yield a higher payout.

So is that the only way you can make money?

No, I also can recommend products to people. Who may or may not decide to buy them.

How do you know what people want to buy online? (creating a Sales Page that Sells)


This is a hard one, because you dont really know what people want to buy....it can be like a guessing game. But there are tools online that can help me find items to suggest that may be popular and people are buying. They may then go onto buy it and I get a percentage of the sale, as a thank you for sending that customer to them - In online work we call that "affiliate marketing"

That sounds too technical for me?

This frustrates me when I hear people say this, if you can use GOOGLE search then you can find what people are looking for, billions of people all day type things into google, Google has got that good at it it even suggests (tries to guess) What you are actually looking for in fact it will give you other suggestions to try too - In our writing online we call these "KeyWords"

keywords are what we want to focus on when writing our pages, as they will draw in our visitors.

But how do I get visitors to my pages?

....If you write about what people want - choose keywords

So I can just choose these keywords and write about them?...


I personally dont recommend this however I know of people who do, this, they may pick a product the feel they want to sell and write their page around that.

I prefer to pick my keywords another way.

I love Fashion, fashion is a huge industry and I would be writing up against the likes of Vogue, Burberry cosmopolitan...I would have NO CHANCE, none whats so ever. I could try, but it just would be too much work, for me.

So "Fashion" as a keyword I would not go for. However I love my Maxi Dress, my Fair Isle Sweater, My leather Aviator Jacket, my Polka Dot Dress, which I had personally all bought online, so I did indeed write pages about these items. This is called Niche Marketing. Being more specific about what you are talking about.

....Ahhh.....So I can just write about what I know make it specific and I will make money online?....

Well, I wish it was that easy, I know lots of people who are fantastic writer, have excellent material, who are talented artists, and who cannot get more than a few visits a day. (visit 5 mistake most people working online should avoid making)

To work online you need to understand the nature of the beast we are working with, The Internet. Mostly we talk about Google and ranking on google, as the big G dominates the market place.
You need to understand and implement SEO - Search Engine Optimisation this is the bit that frustrate and confuses people, and in fact most will give up because they think it far too complicated. I recently helped someone, who has fabulous work, all around the web, but going nowhere, getting no traffic at all, Now their work is of high standard and deserves to be recognised, I soon spotted the fault, and with helping them to understand HOW to optimize their pages, for the SEARCH engines, and understanding what and how people search the internet The people typing into the search bar kind of have an idea what they are looking for, so you need to think like people searching. That when they type in that search related to your page, what is going to make Your page be the one picked by them to visit?

...and is it...complicated.

If everyone knew the "secret" formula we would all be millionaires, but there are steps we can take to helping our page, look good for the search engines.

Many claim to know these secrets, many charge you for these secrets...however there really is no secret!
Just a bit of work required, in learning it. In fact I have a great guide as published by Google itself here on another post FREE about understanding and implementing good SEO HERE
....

so now I have an answer to the question of how do you make money online?

I create niche specific pages, publishing Search Engine Optimised Pages on the web, that earn me affiliate commissions by recommending products to my readers.


If you already make pages like I do and are wanting places to promote.
Join in over at Wizzley.com - where you can write articles and earn from adsenses and your affiliate programmes, great for creating backlinks to your articles

***please note  the internet has changed Penguin 2.0 rolled out Read here how it affects affiliate marketers


9 comments:

  1. I so appreciate all you are sharing. I am also learning to make money on Squidoo an' I can honestly say, I have never had more fun doing it. Thanks for helping point me in the right direction.

    ~ Yaya

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  2. Congratulations on 5000 visitors, it's a great number! On-page optimization with keywords is very important if you want to get targeted traffic. But off-page optimization is even more important if you want to rank high for your keywords. Higher rank, more traffic and more sales. Great article Lisa and best wishes,

    Mitja

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  3. you do great work Lisa - thanks for all the advice.

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  4. Actually the work from home jobs are being very famous these days of internet world. Almost all the people wants such type of jobs for their survival and to earn money sitting and working at home. They all want to establish their own home business. And you have suggested a lots of things for this. Thanks a lot!

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  5. Found this blog really interesting. Thanks for that. I am a wriher who needs to earn just that little bit more so I can stay home and give it more input. Will read more of your stuff when I can.
    I will try and subscribe to the blog. If you would like to go to mine and join the blog party. It may encourage people to look at your site. Join us for cake and wine and the competition.
    Thanks.
    Lynda

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  6. Lisa, I am very excited! I just got an affiliate commissions check from Linkshare for $105! I am really starting to like the internet marketing thing :)

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  7. Hi Lisa,

    I really find it hard to explain to other people what my "online profession" is.lol They just don't seem to understand and they think that I'm earning money online easily and wants to do it too. They don't understand that making money has never been that easy even online. Anyway, Squidoo is indeed a good start to earn money online. Thanks for the tips! :)

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  8. HI Lisa, I found you on Squidoo. Great article, thanks for sharing. Do you have any tips to share on getting your lenses to make sales? I have a handful of lenses that have made some steady sales but my share of the commission doesn't add up to too much.

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