4 Ways to Make Your First Dollar Online
If you are a chronic consumer of information about Internet businesses and making money online, but have yet to do so yourself, this post is for you. What are you waiting for? Lots of people are waiting for that perfect idea, or maybe for a way to find extra time. Here’s the thing: no idea is perfect and in the time it just took you to unnecessarily check your email for the fifth time in an hour you could have purchased a domain and hosting and picked out a WordPress theme. The point is to do something. The sooner you make your first buck with your computer, the sooner you’ll figure out how to scale whatever you did to make more. And as far as ideas go, come up with some decent ones and get to work. If nothing else, call it an experiment and give yourself permission to fail. At the very least you’ll learn more doing than you would have just reading, and you might just surprise yourself and make some money in the process. Here are five different routes you could take to get started:
1. AdSense – Find your niche, or your niche’s niche, put up your site, place AdSense on it, start adding content, and then start getting the word out. AdSense definitely won’t make you rich overnight, but as anyone who has seen Joel Comm’s “Penny Speech” can attest, those nickels and dimes will definitely add up over time and as you get more and more traffic.
2. Static Bio Page – If what you’re selling is a skill, such as copywriting, counseling, web development, etc., then something simple you can do to get the word out about your services is to set up a website that is basically just an online business card. It won’t take much in the way of development or design skills, and you can start giving people the link to it so that they can see for themselves in full color what it is that you do and are good at.
3. Affiliate Products – Find some affiliate products that you respect and promote them on your blog or website. Good places to find such products are the products of people you know and respect, products that you use yourself, or browse for products on a site such as ClickBank. Just make sure that you can vouch for the quality and utility of whatever you decide to promote on your site — nothing will kill the reputation you want to build faster than people hearing about and buying shoddy products through you.
4. Sell Something – Run an old-fashioned business, that is, one that deals in physical products, only do it online. Find something you can buy low and sell high. Find your theme or niche and then buy in bulk and wholesale and sell for retail prices on your site. Or if you are the artsy-craftsy type, check out Etsy and set up a store there.
Just remember, none of these suggestions are going to make you rich overnight. All of them will involve hard work and dedication and perhaps months of thankless plodding before you see many results. But the faster you make your first dollar, the faster the whole concept will become real to you, allowing you to make more. Consistent action is what it takes to succeed online, so you might as well get started.
