Good Ways To Make Money Online
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Wealthy Affiliate is a platform for building your own website, which I have found invaluable. There are two questions I see asked often by new Wealthy Affiliate members. They want to know how long it takes to make substantial money online, so they ask:
1. How long have you been with WA?
2. How much money have you made so far?
I will start my answer with a reminder of the famous "5 P's" quote: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance!
I've been with WA since last September, and I have made no money so far. My website, social media and mass email have not yet been properly launched, so I'm not a good barometer for the money part. That said, you can't discount the importance of proper planning when it comes to setting up a sustainable business that will make money. Lots of it. For the long term. Here's how:
1. Become an expert. (Read below how I did that.)
2. Learn how to optimize your website with a blog.
3. Get subscribers to your blog.
4. Market on social media for FREE. (Once you get some cash flow then you can buy ad space.)
5. Develop an email list.
6. Put products and/or services for sale on your website.
Following are all the things I am doing to make money online. You don't need to do all of them. Really, all you need is a solution to a problem, the willingness to write a blog, and some affiliate products to sell. But if you want to do more than that, the way I am going about my online business might give you some good ideas. The following also explains why I haven't made money with my site--yet--and why I will make a lot of money soon and for a long time.
How to Set Up a SUSTAINABLE Online Business
As soon as the final copy of my book is on my publisher's desk, I will complete the final details of my website and then begin my full tilt marketing of it. I will use my social media pages and my email list, both of which I've been developing for some time now. Meanwhile I post my blog excerpts with images to social media, intermixed with others' posts I share and comments on others' posts. I have yet to set up a social media scheduler to automate my posts of my blog excerpts with images. It's on my list to do next.
As soon as all those are rolling, I will start speaking again. But I am only one person wearing many hats, so it takes time. And I don't get in front of audiences until I am well-versed and a pro! If you get in front of your audience or online market and bomb (as opposed to being "the bomb"), life will be hard! This is why I follow the "5 P's."
In the past, I hired people to develop my website and run my social media so I could have time to market myself, speak (for free as a one-year feasibility study) and write my book. Website and social media hires didn't work out at all for me, partly because I wasn't blogging, partly because cat posts and TGIF (at $30/hr) didn't attract my market. Blog excerpts with images do!
Before I started with the WA platform, I did a lot of foundation work. Besides speaking to civic clubs, I became certified by programs such as Train the Trainer, Youth Speaker University, and The Passion Test (for facilitating people to discover and live their passions). Blogging helped me become an expert on my topic because I had to research addiction and treatment in depth. It also helped me enhance my book.
Make Money Writing a Blog
WA got me blogging the RIGHT WAY, and I have started posting those with an image and an excerpt--thank you WA--to social media. Those are totally relevant to the people I want to attract as subscribers! Subscribing to my blog gets them to visit my website, where I offer relevant affiliate products along with my own products: my upcoming book and online course.
I know this is working. I now have lots of blogs posted on my website blog roll (page) with comments--which you will learn how to get if you sign up with WA. I know how to get good SEO rankings. My social media pages are chomping at the bit for me to pay more attention to them, and so are my blogs. I have 50+ blog ideas partially written. All this is waiting, along with my publisher, for me to finish my book. Meanwhile everything is getting set up, slowly but surely. And properly.
When my book is published and my website and social media have the last items that will automate everything, I will REALLY launch my social media and mass emailing. Then, I will create a demo video of myself speaking, and market myself to speak to relevant audiences, but this time for PAY! And I will start doing video blogs and video Facebook to enhance traffic.
And that, my friends, is how to set your SUSTAINABLE online business up according to the "5 P's"! I'll let you know when I start making substantial income from my online business.
Rori O'Hara
Recent Comments
1
Good stuff, Rori! Great advice to anyone getting going!