How to Make Money Online - Everything You Need to Know about Making Money Online

I've been in online business since I graduated from high school. And for past six years, I have encountered many online income opportunities, and have learned a lot, and paid a lot. I'm not an online millionaire. But I make living online.

This hub explains briefly about some options to consider for start making money online. I will cover each topic only briefly here, and go deeper into each topic in other hubs. If you want to get notified about my future hubs, you can follow me on HubPages.

Remember, to make money, you have to work hard. Just because someone is making money online, it doesn't mean it's easy money. You'll have to learn, spend time, and put hard work into what you've learned. I've seen so many people try to make money online, and quit too soon and thinking that it is impossible to make money online.

Be reasonable. You have to spend tuition and time at an university to get what most people call a decent job that pays good money. Same goes when you want to make money online. But the bright side is, you usually don't have to spend as much time and money (especially money) to make the same amount of money from a job you can get with a college degree. I never finished college, but I make more money than some of my friends who finished college. And some of them don't even have a job yet.

Each online income opportunity I describe in this hub will sound interesting, so you will have to choose one to start with. Each has its own pros and cons, so you have to choose one that you can do the best at first. I recommend sticking to one to start with, and work on it until you get good at it. When you start making steady income using one way, it will be much easier to do the same using other ways. Most of the people making living online make use of all the available options to make online, and when these options work in synergy, they will make you more money. But don't think you have to learn everything at once. Trying to learn making money one way will keep you busy anyways.

E-Commerce is the most basic form of online business. This is similar to a typical brick-and-mortar business, only that your store is online, not offline. If you want to get serious e-commerce, you will probably need most of everything you need as a typical brick-and-mortar store, including but not limited to: registering as a business, items to sell (your own inventories or dropshippers), storefront (website, eBay, Amazon, or other marketplaces), customer service, marketing, tax & accounting, and more.

Whatever you do online to make money, you are selling some sort of a product. A product may be an ebook, an actual merchandise, or a service. Whatever it is, you are selling something. But by choosing to make money by e-commerce method, you are choosing to have your own online store and your own customers.

Pro: As you build your online business and as your online store gets more popular, you'll build your regular customers and they will start bringing you steady income.

Con: You need some time and money before income comes in. Your store has to be built and marketed first.

With affiliate marketing method, you market other people's products. That is: you are helping people using the e-commerce method to sell. This typically involves you having a link on your website, blog, or Hub Pages to a website that sells a product. When a person who clicked on your link buys something, you get part of the money he or she spends.

Pro: You don't have to deal with customer service, the hassle of shipping and handling, keeping an inventory, and much more hassles related to have your own store. Everything can be done on your computer, and your commission comes to your bank account.

Con: You don't have your own customer. For the most part, you only get the commission for one sale. The online store owner keeps the customer you've sent them, and they can sell more products to them. Some affiliate program will give to ongoing commission if a customer you first brought to their website returns to buy more, but this is a rare case.

This is the easiest way to get started on making money online. You post ads on your website, hubs, blogs, and any other online presence you may have. When your visitors click on the ads, you get a commission. It is similar to the Affiliate Marketing Method, only that you only have to bring customer to the store. But the commission for each click is usually much less than the commission for each sale in the Affiliate Marketing method. And remember not to fool yourself by thinking you can make money by clicking your links yourself. Google is smart enough to find that out and penalize you.

I recommend everyone looking to making money online to consider Google AdSense (or other ad networks) as a source of their online income. This is a do-it-and-forget way of building a residual income.

Pro: You don't need any initial investment (unless you want to build a website of your own), and you don't need to sell anything. When someone clicks on the ad on your webpage, you get a commission.

Con: Commissions from click to the ads are very low compared to other online incomes. You will have to have quality information and spend some time writing many quality articles before you see a notable income coming in.

This incorporates what I described in the Google AdSense method. You write articles on websites like HubPages or your own blogs. Then you signup for Google AdSense or similar advertisement networks, and add some coding to HubPages or blogs (most times these websites are configured to make this process really easy). Then the process is similar to the Google AdSense method of making money online. When someone reads your article, they will see ads related to your article displayed throughout the page. When they click on the ads, you get the commission.

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Pro: Residual income. Write an article, publish on the web, and forget about it. The money you will make from each article will vary depending on the quality of the articles, but you will keep making money.

Con: You will have to WRITE, and know what to write. You have to get used to what people are searching and give them the information they need, not just what you want to write.

Domain trading / flipping is similar to buy/selling a real estate. You can buy a raw land and build a house on it to increase the value, you can buy an old house and fix it up to increase the value, you can buy a land for a low price and let it sit until a person who really needs it is willing to pay a high price for it, or you can buy a good house for a cheap price and selling it for a higher price. Whatever the case is, you need to get use to the domain market, and learn what is a valuable domain. As time goes by, good domain names are being taken each second, but there is always a piece of pie left for those who are willing to learn and try.

On the Internet, income opportunities are endless. And as you start making money online, you'll probably make money using different methods. To make money online, knowledge and experience are everything you need.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please take your time and leave me a comment. Your input helps me to help others better.

As always, thank you for reading my hub! :)