Want to know how to make money online for free?
You’ve come to the right place! There are many websites around which tells you that in order to make money online, you need to spend money.
This is true in a way because in business, there is no such thing as zero capital because eventually you will want to spend on better assets to boost your productivity and increase your sales.
However believe it or not, you can actually start your business online with zero capital and make money before deciding to ever spend on more assets and that is exactly what I’ll be teaching you today.
What is the Best Way to Make Money Online?
There many ways how anyone can make money online.
You can answer surveys, you can gamble, you can work as a freelance designer, freelance writer, or even do the infamous Forex which is highly risky.
But really, the best way to make money on the internet is by starting your own website because that way, you are in control of your business and the amount of money you make, depends on the amount of effort you put in to grow your business.
But now you must be dying to know, how do you make money off a website in the first place? Surely, money cannot come automatically, can it?
On the contrary, it actually can make you money automatically even when you’re not on your computer and even when you’re in bed because all your visitors need to do, is simply click on buy and voilà, instant sale!
Easy, no?
There are 2 ways on how to monetize a website and that is either by creating your own product, or selling someone else’s which we Internet Marketers know as Affiliate Marketing.
Creating your own product makes you the most money because you take the full payment for yourself as opposed to affiliate marketing which only gives you a percentage of each sale.
However I would only advise you to create your own product only after you have sufficient experience because the process is very tedious – You need to research and write, you need to build your reputation, and you need to do proofreading sessions to make sure it’s perfect… All of which can take several months and don’t even get me started on the amount of money you will be wasting.
With Affiliate Marketing on the other hand, you’ll get all the time in the world as the product that you will promote will already have its own reputation and marketing to help you make sales easily.
10 Simple Steps to Making Money Online Without Spending a Single Cent
You may have burning questions in your head right now – Isn’t building a website costly? What kind of web host will I be getting? Will my website be a quality one?
Well building websites aren’t costly at all really, but there is a way to go around this and make money using free services which is what I’m about to show you real quick.
As someone famous used to say, trying something is better than regretting so are you ready for the 10 steps that will probably change your lives and the way you look at things? Here we go…
Step #1 – Know Thy Interest and Thy Title
To create a website, you need to know what niche you want your website to targeting around – Is it the gardening niche? Blogging niche like my website right here? Gaming?
Regardless, I would advise you to choose something you’re good at or something you’re passionate about because this will be something that you will be handling for a very long time.
If you’re dying to learn something and master it, you can also choose that niche.
For example, I wasn’t very social back when I was in school and I had no girlfriend so I started a blog called Relationshipable.com because although it might be conflicting with my skills, I wanted to keep learning about the subject because I wanted to have better chances with women everywhere anytime.
It worked though, because as my blog grew, my skills grew too and I had a hard time trying to manage studies and work with a serious relationship so I ended up leaving the blog on its own without even updating it for a while now.
I’m learning French currently because I’m planning to continue my master’s next year in Toulouse so after I reached a certain level of understanding, I’m planning to create my own blog in French to continue practicing although I know that it can be a drag.
To help you choose your niche easier, I’ve written a blog post on the top 10 niches for Affiliate Marketing here.
Now that you have your niche chosen, all you need to do now is to think of a name for your new website and off to the next step we go!
Step #2 – Building Your Free Website
Now, to the part you’ve been dying to know of – How to create a free website which is also of high quality?
There are many free website providers out there such as Webs and Weebly or even Wix (All of those start with a “W”) but one that I highly recommend is SiteRubix which is created by Wealthy Affiliate.
You can have a go at your website name here…
A website name is known as a domain but like any other free website, you should know that you can never get the dot com only name because in order for you to get that, you would need to buy that domain from a provider.
They usually cost around $11- $15 and renewal is only once a year which is pretty cool but for the purpose of this lesson, it is better if we use a free subdomain that will have the extension at the end.
For example if you’re using Site Rubix, your domain name will have the name at the end which will be like something.siterubix.com.
This goes the same for any other free website providers out there such as Weebly being something.weebly.com or something.webs.com if you’re choosing Webs.
Don’t worry much about these extensions though, because you can always change it when you’re ready to have a dot com domain of your own.
If you have no idea how to build your Site Rubix website, here’s a quick video on how to set it up in less than 30 minutes…
The reason why I recommend using Site Rubix is that it is specialized for Affiliate Marketing and business so you can bet that your website will have a fast loading speed.
Not only that, you will also have a website health checker which no other website providers have and you don’t need to know any coding at all as the complex part had been taking away – All that for free!
Hard to believe, no? Not many people know this.
Now that you have your site set up, you’re all set to…
Step #3 – Finding your Affiliate Products (Or programs)
Without things to sell, you’ll have no means of making money in the first place… unless you want to put those annoying Google ads which beg people to click on.
To find affiliate products in the first place, you need to go to a huge online network where you can choose any products you wish to promote but I’ll save you your time and list down the top 3…
- Amazon – Great for physical products.
- Clickbank – Great for digital products and programs.
- Walmart – Good Company with a good reputation.
Amazon has a low percentage of commission but what I love most about it is that you can get extra commissions if your guest bought something else after buying from your link, and you know just how many things people tend to buy online – They don’t just stop at one product, they will tend to buy more and more.
Oh and if you’re wondering about the link thing, you will get your own affiliate link which is unique only to you for you to promote because if someone buys from that specific link of yours, the company will pay you according to your link which suffices to say – Your affiliate link, your identity.
To understand how to get your Amazon link, here’s a quick video tutorial on that…
ClickBank on the other hand, is great for digital products such as eBooks as well as programs that have memberships as well.
EBooks are a common thing and they sell pretty well too not to mention Clickbank has the highest commission of all ranging from 25-75% however be warned that some of those Ebooks are either outdated or downright scams.
I have reviewed several programs from ClickBank such as Copy Paste Income and Google Sniper 3.0 which are both scams so here’s a video to help you choose the right ones for your site…
With 2 videos showing you how to get affiliate links, I guess I don’t need to share the video here as the steps are pretty much the same.
Be sure to choose a product that is related to your niche because next stop…
Step #4 – Writing Your First Review!
Reviews are a great way to persuade your readers into buyers.
After Google’s recent update, simply spamming your affiliate links everywhere is not an option you would want to consider because your website may get penalized for over-promotion.
Google believes that by doing that, you drop your content quality which is true so why not create great content which we can use to lead our readers instead?
This is a great way to build trust with your readers because they can get to know your opinions on the product as a consumer which will enhance their decision to buy.
You don’t necessarily have to follow any format though but here’s a template I always use to write my own reviews…
- Intro
- Pros and cons.
- What it is about?
- Tools and Training.
- Any Red Flags?
- Any good things I can show with examples?
- Final verdict
- Conclusion
Of course, there are things unique to that specific product alone like how tools and training are related to online courses like in my Niche Revealer Review or even my MOBE review. In fact, I have a whole list of them here.
Reviews are powerful in giving you conversions like mad as they are like your sales page which you should lead your readers to whenever you think it’s relatable and over time, they will tend to rank on the first page…
After writing a review on your recommended product or program, a great trick you can do is to find similar products that are within the same niche which are no match for your current product and write reviews on them, telling your readers which one would you recommend.
Step #5 – Getting Your Pages Right
Writing content is important but ensuring a great user experience is just as beneficial.
Your website needs to look lively and organized at the same time because you will want your readers to stay longer at your page because that is also a way how Google ranks your page – The length of time your readers stay on your page.
This means that it’s time you create some important pages for your site! Here are what I have on my website menu tab…
- Home
- Get Started
- #1 recommendation
- The Legits
- The Scams
- About
- Contact
Of course you don’t need to follow me, you can use your own creativity to create what sort of pages your site needs.
Try to put yourself in your readers’ shoes – What would they want to read on?
The best thing about Affiliate Marketing is that you don’t have to go through all those sales promotion tactics, just be as personal as you can because your greatest weapon is that they see you as one of them.
Step #6 – How to Sell Through Interest Marketing
Reviews are great and all, but that is highly commercial and having too many of those are boring.
You need to mix your articles between commercial content and interest content to add some color to your blog and attract a wider audience scale.
Commercial contents are contents which you talk about the business such as your reviews because your intent is to make them buy and although this may be good business, too much of a good thing is a bad thing as your readers will get bored if that’s all you talk about.
Interest contents on the other hand, are contents in which you talk about things of interest.
Like the top 10 games of 2015, surprising things that can boost your memory or even guides on how to solve problems.
In other words, you are blogging away interesting topics so this is going to be the fun part of handling a website because you can literally write about anything and still get people to come to your site!
But do make sure your posts are all related to your niche though, because if you have a gardening website but you write about video games, people are not going to understand what you’re trying to do.
Step #7 – Generate Endless Ideas
It may be overwhelmingly awesome to get a blog started and you’ll have plenty of ideas to go around in the beginning but if you want to maintain your business for a long time to come, you need to think of a way to constantly generate ideas lest you’ll have a writer’s block.
To constantly find ideas is very simple, just write about solutions for problems that people are having!
The best place to go for that is of course forums so here’s a few which I personally use…
- Quora
- Yahoo Answers
- Wiki Answers
- Warrior Plus (For the Internet Marketing niche)
- IGN (Gaming niche)
Besides relying on forums (Which is already enough), you can also make use of questions that people comment on a particular post to write your own blog post.
Step #8 – Rinse and Repeat!
That’s it! All you need to know about growing your website for now.
Of course there are many things you can learn but most of them comes with experience as you write because you will learn better if you come across those little obstacles.
Content is really important for your Online Business to grow and remember, don’t over-promote your affiliate products, lest your readers will steer away.
There are too many overly-promotional websites already as it is and if you continue producing fresh content regularly, you have nowhere to go but up.
It’s important to also be realistic that since this is a business, it needs time to grow and you probably wouldn’t even reach your first $1,000 within your first month or the second because Google will usually take a few months to evaluate your website to see if you’re serious or not.
But after a few months, your website will shoot up especially after you just passed the other 50% of website owners who gave up halfway.
A good frequency of publishing content would be 3-4 times a week but at the very least if you’re strapped for time, 1-2 posts per week should suffice to still maintain the growth although at a slower rate.
Step #9 – Be on the Front Line! Look for Ways to Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Skills
The online world is constantly changing and as a website owner, you need to keep finding ways on how to better yourself and be in the know.
You need to know how to rank your website on the first page of Google, you need to know how to find keywords with very low competition, and you need a community to help keep you motivated especially when you’re stuck on a certain dilemma because trust me, a website can get a bit confusing.
I started out with no background in website development whatsoever but luckily for you, I have just the program to recommend, a one-stop center for all.
A lot of courses out there will want you to pay a ridiculous amount of fee even up to hundreds before you even make money but there is a program that does otherwise to help beginners succeed in their Online Business particularly in Affiliate Marketing which I highly advise you to check out – Wealthy Affiliate.
I know I know, “Riaz, I thought this is free?”
Before you say anything, you will always need to pay for quality but what makes Wealthy Affiliate different than the other online courses out there is that they actually want you to try the program out for free and make money with it first before going for premium.
Even with the free Site Rubix subdomain website that you currently have, Wealthy Affiliate will provide you with the service to ‘move’ your domain to any other dot com domain that you buy if you ever want to change your domain – A service which no other courses out there are doing.
This way, you’ll become more motivated to learn and when you’ve made enough sales, you can apply for premium already to access the other features such as premium training and live video webinars.
There are a lot of cool tricks you can learn to boost your Affiliate Marketing business even further and this has helped me a lot on my website too…
I managed to rank most of my pages on the first page of Google easily (A bit more work for the high competition keywords) and although there are still pages that aren’t ranking well, I’m seeing progress as some are slowly rising up the ranks too.
I’m quite grateful to have found Wealthy Affiliate as my final destination because back when I first started online, I was jumping from scam to scam so if you ever decide to give this course a try, you’ll have my personal support!
Step #10 – Never Give Up!
Have you heard of the curse of the blogger whereby if you stop producing fresh content for your website, you will go down?
Okay I admit I made that up but it’s actually quite true – You need to regularly produce fresh content on your website at least 2 posts a week because that way, you’ll ensure your site’s steady growth.
I know that at times, you are going to be frustrated and just stop doing altogether especially with the slow growth in new websites but oftentimes, the moment you are going to quit is the moment when things start picking up speed.
For example, last month my website was growing slowly and I was very depressed so I wanted to quit but when I looked at my stats, here’s how it looked like…
It shot up really high towards the end!
I couldn’t believe my eyes and it was a revelation to me because last month was the month where I had the least amount of time for my blog.
Not only that, I only managed to write 3 posts for the whole entire month which isn’t good progress but surprisingly, I still make some sales…
That made me feel bad for slacking off and I wanted to face-palm myself (And I did) because if I had put in more effort to focus on my blog, I would have made more sales for the month which is why you should never give up hope and keep fighting the good fight.
Conclusion
Even though it is possible to make money online, there is no such thing as becoming a millionaire overnight.
Like any other businesses, an Online Business requires you to put in effort in order for it to grow exponentially but look at the bright side – If you are a person who works hard and believes that effort comes with its own rewards, then you’ll have no problem in making money online.
If you’re interested in learning how to become a Pro Affiliate Marketer, check out my #1 recommended program here.
Thanks for reading, do share your thoughts below and if you have any other suggestions on making money online, I would love to hear them out!
Great article. You’re right, affiliate marketing is the fastest and best way to start earning money online. But like you said, you have to work at it and there are right and wrong ways to go about it. You did a nice job explaining the right way. From the looks of it, Wealthy Affiliate is a great community to get involved with.
It definitely is Andres, glad you share my point of view. Affiliate Marketing is the most efficient way to get started online without having to go through the hassle of creating your own product. Thanks for dropping by man, cheers!
Great post!
This looks like one of the best ways to make money online. It’s pretty cool that there are ways out there that don’t involve spending everything we have.
I have two questions. Once I get all these reviews finished, how long will it take for me to gain traffic? Are there special things I have to do for more traffic?
Good question there Alec,
how long will the traffic comes depend on how frequent do you publish. If you publish on your site often, you will get indexed pretty fast which means you can get traffic coming to your site in a matter of minutes. If you rarely post say once a month, then traffic should come to your site only after a few days as Google doesn’t see that you’re active. I wrote a post on indexing here if you’d like to find out more on how it works.
The special things afterwards that you need to do are merely marketing works, things you need to do to get the word out that you have published something. This can go from social media posting, linking your old posts to the new ones and many more. I also wrote a detailed post on how to make your work more visible here. Hope that helps, enjoy your weekend!
I really enjoyed how you laid out the 10 steps for us to make money online for free! Excellent imagery and wealthy affiliate is definitely top tier!
I am a member personally and have been for over a year now. I’m 100% satisfied and am engaged daily. I cant say enough about the community of people, let alone the information offered to us all through the program. Best wishes Riaz!
Hello there Paul, great to see you here once more! I agree with you, WA is like my second family too. Thanks for dropping by man, cheers!
Thank you so much for the tips about how to make money online. I’ve been thinking about engaging in affiliate marketing for quite some time but never quite knew the best way to go about doing it. Your recommendation of Wealthy Affiliate looks like a very good start for my affiliate marketing journey. Thanks so much for all of the help!
Glad I could help Bimmer, making money online is doable and it starts with you. Making millions overnight however is impossible but within a year or two, its possible. Worth the time investment.
Hi Riaz!
Thank you very much for this great, inspiring and really clarifying post! 🙂
This is not the first article I’ve read about internet marketting, to be honest. I always read in these kinds of articles that I can choose the niche I want to. Usually people advise to choose a niche I’m really interested in. Do you think there can be a niche which is just simply not profitable enough to start with? For some reason I feel like my interests would not work out too well…
Thanks for your answer in advance! 🙂
Adam
Great question there Adam,
It all depends on demand and to be honest, some niches do have higher demand then others. Niches like lose weight and make money online for example, perform way better than the plumbing or house renovation niche. However that doesn’t mean that there’s no money to make from a specific niche.
As long as there are people looking for things online, they can be your buyer. You just need to target them and suit your site to the keyword that they are looking for. What niche are you in if you don’t mind me asking?
Hi Riaz,
Thanks for the tips but I think that NOT everyone is FREE to build a website.:( I heard and comfirmed that Wealthy Affiliate excluded 7 countries therefore these people are not able to access a free account. Do you have any suggestion on where they can get a free hosting instead? Is a free wordpress account good enough or do you need to have a hosting service so you can get accepted to affiliate programs? Thanks so much!
Quite true Pitin,
We have provided free starter accounts for all but there are overall 7 countries which misuse our trust and break our policy. Due to the overwhelmingly negative response we received, we decided to limit our starter account to those specific countries:
1. Bangladesh
2. Egypt
3. India
4. Nigeria
5. Pakistan
6. Vietnam
7. Phillipines
To get affiliate programs, you need only to join affiliate networks like Amazon and Clickbank. However without training on how to properly promote, you won’t be able to go far which is why sticking with a program which has a community is very important.
As for free hosting, there are a few but I wouldn’t recommend on getting them because they have very little space limit, they are very devious in which they will put ads on your site without you knowing, and very unpredictable as they can close down anytime.
I would recommend a premium web hosting instead such as Arvixe as they are very low cost but has a lot of cool features with great support. Hope that helps, do let me know if you need help with anything else. Cheers
I remember when i first started and when ever i see anything that promises something like this for free i will go for it immediately.
Well this post really stick to its guns and quit frankly it works when you apply yourself.
I like what you have achieved here and trying to achieve in the future too. You telling it as it is that is how i do it too and i am glad someone out has the capacity to do same.
Thanks again for sharing.
Hey Richard, its good knowing that there are still people as open minded as you who who are open to possibilities. Thanks for the feedback, hope you have a great Saturday!
Excellent detailed write up. starting your own website is really the best to make money online just some people tend to wonder if they can actually manage a business of their own. Just like you said, any one who is honest and hard working can run a successful business online. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Vallery, you’re definitely right. Anyone can run a successful business online, all it takes is willpower and a little but of patience. You won;t make it overnight but you’ll get there in a few months.
There are always platforms out there looking to scam online newbies but I’m glad I have found an authentic platform which seeks to help out stranded online marketers – Wealthy Affiliate.
One can only imagine the amount of help offered on this program & what’s more, its free to try!
You’re absolutely right Lee, Wealthy Affiliate is the best online business platform to date. Wishing you all teh best in your online business!
I started blogging 2 months ago and have been working hard to learn how to monetize my blog. I’ve noticed that very successful marketers tend to have several niche sites. I’ve picked a few out to work on, and I’m really interested in wealthy affiliate. Would that be a good platform for my blog style niche sites? Can I have multiple websites with them?
thanks,
-Nicki
Hey Nicki,
Having multiple niche sites is awesome but you also have to bear in mind, would you be able to blog regularly on all of those sites? Wealthy Affiliate is indeed a great platform to start building your Online Business but my advise is to take one thing at a time. Once you’ve stabilized one site, only then should you start thinking of building another because that way, you’ll grow much faster. Hope that helps!
Way to go Riaz!
You just showed us not only how an affiliate marketer should face his business, you showed us why each of those steps are necessary as well. From my own experience I can tell you that many times you feel discouraged and, as you stated it, Persistence is one of the main factors for success. Sometimes money pressures are another factor pushing us on the wrong direction. Let me ask you this. Would you recommend having a parallel income while striving to build your business? How would you do it?
Thanks Oscar,
Showing is better than than telling, most people prefer looking at proof and pictures first rather than read, I’m glad my article interests you. Persistence is indeed the main key to success in an online business and finding parallel income is important because in a business, you won’t earn much for several months.
You’ll start with a few bucks, a few hundreds and if you’re lucky, a few thousand within the same year. Throughout that time you might need urgent cash so to sustain yourself, you’d definitely need to find an alternate business to work with temporarily until your online business becomes your full-time business. I personally work as an events manager while maintaining my blog and you could do the same with your job as well. When you quit your job, you should be a whole different person entirely. Hope that helps, great question by the way!
Love these ten steps – you have managed to lay things out for me in a way I can understand for once!
I’m especially interested in the two free websites offer – it makes a nice change from those nasty little blogger blogs! How dynamic and professional looking are these site rubix sites – do they look like paid sites?
Yes they do Chris,
Site Rubix sites are equipped with plugins to optimize performance and security, and they are flexible as you can control everything about that site. Take mine for example, this is a Site Rubix blog, what do you think about it? Glad you liked my article, hope to see you again here soon!
Hi Riaz,
I have tried some of the other ways of making money that you mention at the beginning of your article and they don’t work. Either you work for nearly nothing or you lose your money. So I must agree that creating your own website and affiliate marketing is certainly the way to go.
I have tried other site builders but I find SiteRubix the best, it has the vital ingredient of training, that none of the other website editors include. After that the hard work starts, writing content, I like your idea of using Quora to find unanswered questions.
The most important point for me is never give up. Loads of people stop after just a few months because they aren’t making any sales, this is a long term thing and you must work until you succeed. Keep going Riaz, your success will come and thanks for a great post.
Peter
Thanks for your honest feedback Peter,
Site Rubix is amazing and they keep updating and adding more features to help enhance your content and SEO, its great to know you liked it. Consistency is key to a successful Online Business and I wish you the best of luck on your journey Peter. Cheers!
Hey Riaz,
Thanks for such a detailed article! You make it really easy for someone who wants to make money online to get started. Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal. If you want some help to get your online business going and the support you need to actually be successful, it’s the best way to go.
How long have you been a member?
Hey Jay,
Thanks for the feedback and the kind words, I’ve been a member for a little over a year. Glad you like my article, best of luck on your online journey. Cheers!
Hi Riaz,
Great article and the steps are very thorough described. I can just agree on your steps and they are exactly the core of building up a successful online business. So many people are looking for an opportunity to make some extra money or even start an online career. They just should follow your steps and everything will be fine.
Great post.
Cheers
Don
Hey Don,
Thanks so much for the kind words! My steps are just scratching the surface of an Online Business though but they are great to give you a great start. Hope you have a great day.
Hi Riaz!
I wish I had found this post years ago. It would have saved me a small fortune. As I’m sure you know, there are endless so-called make money online products out there and more coming out every day.
Like you mentioned, some of these products cost too much. Most don’t deliver. In fact, most are just thinly veiled scams. I should know, I bought my share of them.
It was only when I stumbled onto Wealthy Affiliate, which you recommend, that I started to understand how to truly build an honest to goodness online business based on integrity, solid ethics and proven business principles. Imagine that!
Hey there Horton,
Awesome to know you finally avoided those scams, its true that most of them do not deliver. I write reviews often and out of 10 programs I review, around 1-2 are the only legit ones. So glad I managed to turn you away from those scams and find the right program, best of luck on your online journey!
Hello Riaz
My first impression was WOW what a great site.
You have given lots of very useful information for anyone who wants to and has been searching for a work from home opportunity.
You also mention Wealthy Affiliate of which I am a member of and since I joined a year ago I have never looked back and would recommend it to anyone.
As you say it cost nothing to join and you’re given those two free websites that are hosted for you free as well. It really is a no brainer even if you don’t have the funds to get started.
I will visit again to catch up on your updates.
have a nice day.
Robert Allan
Hello Robert!
So good to see you here, thanks a bunch on the great feedback. Its great to see people staying there for years and growing their business through WA, I too have been a member for 15 months. Hope to see you again here in the near future!
This is a great post! I love it! I love how you outlined the post and it gives me a very clear step-by-step guidance on how I can make money for FREE!
It is motivating. I know it is not that easy but it seem possible! You mentioned about Wealthy Affiliate program in your post. I had a lot of bad experience before where all affiliate marketing programs promised me good rewards but I ended up draining off a lot of money and gained nothing from them. Do they do a lot of upsell at Wealthy Affiliate?
Thank Alex!
Appreciate the kind words! I try to be as detailed as I can as there many posts out there who give hoax directions just for them to trick you into buying their product in the end. The good thing about Wealthy Affiliate is that there are no upsells whatsoever. There are only 2 accounts – the free starter account and the premium membership account so you have nothing to worry about because you can budget your spending wisely unlike many other programs out there who has surprise upsells which you could never expect which will usually make you spend more unnecessarily.
Hi Riaz, you nicely presented your topic on making money online. It all looks smooth and I am sure it is so how you describe it. The procedure is well known to me, I passed it with my two sites.
But, there is but of course, I do not find it easy at all. Your steps look simple indeed but this is not so in reality. You show some numbers and I believe that you have done what you have done. I am speaking from my perspective and it is a bit different. You write at some point ‘you probably wouldn’t even reach your first $1,000 within your first month’. I am sure nobody reaches this amount even in the first 5-6 months. Just my thinking, I assume you will disagree.
Great feedback Jovo,
Actually, reaching your first $1,000 is quite possible in less than 3 months. I actually know some bright new bloggers within Wealthy Affiliate who are already making around $500 within their first month. Of course relying on search engine alone is almost impossible because Google do not really rank new sites well but it is still possible to drive traffic to your website through guest blogging and direct marketing which will really bring back some great leads back to your site. But you are right, starting is not easy as its a business but if you persevere in the long run, you’ll be glad to took that leap of commitment 😉
Wow! An amazing Blog Post you have written once again Riaz. 🙂
You have gone above and beyond this one with great emphasis and detail. 🙂 I appreciate that a lot!
Of the 3 Affiliate Programs you have mentioned, would you say that ClickBank is perhaps the worst of the bunch and that Walmart and Amazon are the better ones since they don’t sell off programs that could potentially be scams?
What is your opinion on choosing Amazon versus Ebay to promote on own’s Website? Can a Website Owner have a blend of using both or is that a bad route to take?
Thanks in advance for answering my questions. 🙂
Wishing you all the best with your online success above and beyond the horizon,
~Angel
Hello again Angel,
So good to see you again, thanks for the kind words! Out of those 3 Affiliate programs I’ve mentioned, I would say that the best is Amazon as they have great perks that lets you get commissions if your referral buys things that weren’t even recommended by you hence indirect income just like that. They also make 40% of their total profits from affiliate marketing which is pretty cool.
Clickbank would come in second as they are really to sell and people profit margin is high as well. The downside is that there seems to be numerous scam products inside but that’s up to the Affiliate Marketer (Like you an me) to decide whether to go along that evil scam route or choose a legit product to promote on our blogs.
Walmart comes in last as even though they are one of the top employers in the USA, they’re not so popular online as compared to Amazon and Clickbank. Many people outside the USA have never even heard of Walmart which means that their reach as wide as we think.
Between Amazon and eBay, I would definitely choose Amazon as their perks are the best for an affiliate marketer but you can actually mix these two on your blog if you wish, though I wouldn’t really recommend that as you will give a hard time for your buyers to purchase. For example, they have to log into Amazon to buy one thing but when they see another nice product that they would want to buy from you, they would have to log into ebay for that so its a tedious process for them which is best avoided if possible. Hope that helps Angel and as usual, feel free to ask if you need help with anything!
Hi Riaz,
Thanks for sharing your the 10 steps. I joined Wealthy Affiliate and have been going down through your steps unknowingly. This gives me a format in order to rinse and repeat what I’ve started to learn in the courses at Wealthy Affiliate.
I think step 10 is especially important in this business. Many people give up before their first success.
I will say to your readership that Wealthy Affiliate is worth every penny. Thanks for your site and all its rich content.
Sincerely,
Kenny
Thanks for the kind words Kenny,
Perseverance is indeed important when it comes to business because as entrepreneurs, the initial income is something very painful to look at. But if we keep pushing on, we can make double and eventually triple our growth which is the real beauty of it. Thanks fro dropping by, hope you have a lovely day!
Hi Riaz,
I really enjoyed your content. It is quite extensive and rich in resources. It was great to connect with your own life experiences it makes quite easy to relate to your perspective.
I believe it is really important to understand the power of the internet and how impactful you can be when you are working with something you are passionate about.
Keep it up the great work.
Thanks Gabriel,
I try to give out as much detail as I can to help more people understand the situation better so that they won’t come across as many obstacles as I did back then. The internet is definitely something we cannot take lightly as the advantage it can give us immense especially today as we can actually earn more with just a website rather than a brick and mortar shop. Thanks for dropping by Gabriel!
Hi Riaz,
I really enjoyed your content. It is quite extensive and rich in resources. It was great to connect with your own life experiences it makes quite easy to relate to your perspective.
I believe it is really important to understand the power of the internet and how impactful you can be when you are working with something you are passionate about.
Keep it up the great work.
Thanks for the kind words Gabriel, I really appreciate that.
I love connecting with my own life experiences because to me, it is much better showing how it has worked for you if you wish to share your experiences because people can relate to you better as one of them if you go through what they are going through. The power of the internet is boundless and you can do wonders if you persevere and keep learning because your audience will be the whole world which is pretty cool. Good luck on your online journey as well!
There’s a wealth of quality information here, and I love your last point, that is, to “never give up”. Sometimes, it can be overwhelming for someone starting off because there’s so much to learn, but if you keep going, keep learning, keep working at it, and keep pushing forward, results will continue to grow, and before you know it, you’ve got your first sale!
Couldn’t have said it better myself Jay,
I have given up so many time before on my previous projects but as someone wise once said, never give up because you’ll never know that the moment you give up is actually the moment you’ll finally make a breakthrough. Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a great day!
Hi Riaz,
The idea of creating a web site is really interesting to me, but I’m not that good with computer. Do you think a beginner could be able to create a web site from scratch? Also, how many time a week you need to but to be successful, do you need to be doing that full time? Thanks for the info nice job there.
Absolutely Phil!
Anyone can create a website from scratch, in my article I even showed how to start one in less than 30 minutes. You don’t need any prior knowledge at all – just some will and determination. You don’t to spend all your time there everyday but if you could work on your site 3-4 days a week, that would really give your site an amazing growth. Once your pages rank on the first page, you don’t have to worry much because it will continue staying there for a very long time.
Another great post Riaz. What I like about your posts is that you give real life examples – i.e. your own experience. You actually ‘show’ how this can work and prove it with screenshots etc. So much get rich quick stuff sounds too good to be true – but you show that (with persistence) there are indeed legit ways to make money online.
Hello again Mrs Chippy,
Fancy meeting you here! Thank you so much for your kind words, I love sharing my progress and when I read those articles like you mentioned, it can be very hard to trust them if they don’t show proof. Anyone can talk but when it comes to showing, not everyone has the courage to show. Getting rich quick is impossible because businesses need time to grow – Even big businesses like Apple and Samsung didn’t reach success overnight. In the end, will and determination is all you need to be successful. Thanks for dropping by again!
Hi Riaz! I was inspired to do better on my blogs after I read your post. I admire the way you presented the facts and also able to explain it thoroughly. I like the part in the conclusion that you said that even though it is free, it is not a one night event. You have to work for it to earn it. I have a question, how long have you been using WA? Can give me one up and down that you had? Thanks!
Awesome to hear that Rico!
It is hard to get quality information on the internet, especially if its free as people tend to take advantage of that word to hook people even more into buying which is why I gave a very detailed guide to help people and judging from your comment, its starting to take effect 😀
Overall, I’ve been a member at Wealthy Affiliate for 15 months (A little over a year) now and couldn’t have been happier! I used to try a lot of programs and was jumping from one after another as they do not provide you with the value I needed… and plus many programs charge super expensive with a ton of upsells which put me off because coming from Malaysia, the currency difference is almost 4 times more so that’s out of the question.
One advice I can give you on Wealthy Affiliate is to never give up, even if it takes up to a year because building a business takes time. You need to regularly post fresh content 3-4 times a week and its important for you to time yourself to keep up that pace because if you do that, trust me your blog will have a beautiful growth. It won’t grow immediately but after several months, your blog traffic will shoot off the roof!
This is because if you have a new website, Google will not give you authority because every day, there are hundreds of thousands of other websites being created so what makes your website special? Easy, you keep going on when other website owners stop after 3 months. The longer you keep going on, the more authority your website will have so you have nowhere to go but up.
One downside I had was that I wanted my blog to grow so bad when I first started that I blogged every day for 3 months. Blogging every day is good for traffic but ONLY if you content is of great quality, meaning your articles need to be great too, around 1,500 to 2,000 words because after Google’s new update, those content gives you more power and authority hence more traffic. I was lazy so I wrote 300 word articles which never rank which wasted my time a lot. It is much better if you spend a week writing one quality content that people love, rather than spending every day writing cheap short articles because people appreciate value and when that happens, Google will appreciate you and that can also help in ranking.
Great success doesn’t overnight but with perseverance, you can make the journey shorter. Phew, long reply! Thanks for the great question, do let me know if you have other burning questions.
Great article on how to make money online without splashing out the cash!
I’ve come to the conclusion that you really need some sort of website or blog online to make real money – I see you cover a builder here ( site rubix ). Is it really a free option and how cool do the sites themes look?
Pretty cool I suppose Chris,
There are hundreds of website themes that you could choose for free too! I spent an hour looking through themes and eventually ended up with this theme on that I’m using. Tell me, what do you think of my theme? But you’re totally right on the website part, it is the best way to make money online since having a website means you’ll be more in control.
awesome site! nicely done! people look for websites like this, these days! so i think you have made a ideal website for them! this is gonna help them so much for sure! and this is very easy to understand ! i really like it! I went through all your pages and you have done well so far! ,this page will really help them out ! you have done very well done so far!
great job!
cheers!
Thank you for the kind reply Hasitha, something to help me continue spending time writing more great articles such as this! Appreciate your feedback, hope you have a lovely day!
Hi Riaz, you have a great site! I loved this article and especially liked your coverage of affiliate links and video footage. You make it so simple with your steps.. I’ve definitely learnt a few things a long the way… I too have a website but I’m certainly not doing as well as you are!! Well done. I had a sneeky look at your earnings and you are doing great! When did you start the site? Sammi
Thank you Sammi!
I actually started this blog last year but after I started working, I have lesser time to focus on my blog but I’m seeing my earnings pick up! Just need more time, I wish at least we have 30 hours a day, would have covered a lot by then! Starting a blog is one of the hardest decision anyone can make as you need to think of whether or not are going to sustain it for many years to come so don’t worry! Just continue what you do and eventually, it will pick up speed and you’ll have a hard time trying to get away from it 😀
Good luck!
Hi Riaz,
Very good article. Clear, concise and good use of graphics, videos, links and your own experience to inform me on how to get started successfully with an online marketing business…
I appreciate your time putting this together and I have learned a lot reading this…I will be following up soon…How long have you been involved woth Wealthy Affiliate? I may have missed this in the article, if so sorry…
I would be interested in also learning more about specifics of their program, i.e. exactly the nature of the courses, more details on the communication abilities if any between members, etc.
Thanks once again for laying everything out so clearly, it is much appreciated!
Cheers!
Dave
: )
Hey Dave,
No worries, glad you finally come across this article! I’ve been involved for over a year now and there are no better courses out there that I would rather recommend. The lessons are very updated because you need to know the news if you want Google to rank you better, the keyword tool is awesome at finding less competitive keywords, the free website builder is absolute amazing too as I have created over 10 websites for people, the webhost is is actually also one of the best features here because you get a dedicated webhost which could cost hundreds, all those complimentary for a member and don’t forget the lively community! It’s definitely something to check out and I have a list of other programs which I have reviewed here if you’d like to compare. Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a great Monday!
Hey man this is a cool site. Its well layed out and organized. And thats not easy to find, alot of these sites have too much info all bundled up, but you have done a great job of organizing it in a step by step process. keep up the good work. I wanted to sign up after reading everything haha
Hey Jacob,
I get what you mean, too much information can get a bit overwhelming at times so I figured writing a step-by-step guide could help a lot of people. Thanks for signing up, glad I could interest you with my guide! All the best to you and if you need help with anything, you know where to find me!
Really good post. I like it.
However, if we’re talking about making money online I’ve noticed that very few people mention YouTube. And it’s the 2nd most visited site on the internet.
You can record yourself as you’re speaking, or you can use Camtasia, or VideoScribe.
You can always use it to drive more traffic to your site.
Cheers
correcto mundo Luke!
YouTube is great for traffic and I really love it but not many beginners would want to delve on that yet as building a website is already very overwhelming. I do recommend leveraging YouTube but in another post which I write specifically for driving traffic here. After they are done with their website, they’ll be more open to learning more ways on how to boost their website traffic.
Hi Riaz. I am happy for your 10 steps. For a novice this could be overwhelming, but the fact is you have a proof that this works by two perspectives.
#1. This site is very helpful and beautiful
#2 you have income proof.
When you said there are two ways to make money- products of yourself and affiliates, you are right. I think for newbies, it is important that they are not overwhelmed by the info and get to choose the niche carefully so that they can add value day after day and day after day. This way they get to pay t forward first before thinking of earning any thing from it. It is a different mindset. Don’t dig the well while you are thirsty. Start building social value and connections while you have rest of your life to build on this. Website is a great investment. I hope you create social impacts by this education and all the best to have.
Rinse, Repeat – give value and you are giving. All the best to you.
Hello Karma,
It is great getting reassurance from you, I try to clear the air for them by giving them a choice to create their own products or sell someone else’s but often times, they will tend to choose the product creation part rather than affiliate marketing because of the earning potential they’ll be getting. as soon as they know that creating a product is tough work, they will give up hope entirely and I too myself was guilty of this, along with 99% of people in my class back then which is why a lot of people do not believe in making money online anymore.
Selling other people’s products may not sound as cool but it is a sure and easy way for anyone to make money online which is why I highly recommend beginners to start with this. Thanks for the feedback Karma, hope you have a good day!
You provide a lot of helpful tips on how to make money online explaining the process of product research, product creation, affiliate marketing etc. And I agree that one of the best ways to make money is to write reviews about products and help folks make the right decision. And I agree that siterubix website builder is an excellent option because it’s free and easy to use, especially for newbies. I’ve been using it for a long time and I’m happy with it. Plus inside the members area there are free lessons on internet marketing. I think not quitting is the main thing because many people quit too soon. Patience and persistence are two main and important steps in any online business.
Hey there Rufat,
Thanks for the reassurance, SiteRubix is fun and effective when building winning websites as it comes with lessons and cool features. Perseverance is key to any business and often times, the moment when we usually decide to quit is when the breakthrough starts so keeping yourself motivated is important. Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a good day!
thoroughly enjoyed your site :). It has very helpful and informative information. You targeted your audience well and your layout seems to match your theme. All in all not bad at all. Keep up the content generation and you’ll be sure to attract loyal viewers.
I will be back to see this page again for sure.
If you could go to my website and leave a comment that would be greatly appreciated as well. (My site is relatively new.) If not then thanks again for the information.
Thanks for your kind words Levi, will do! I’m trying to to meet my goal of 3 posts a week with my hectic schedule but I think I’m halfway there! I guess I’ll be seeing more of you soon eh?
Dear Riaz,
I like how you outlined this topic. It is concise and readers can get all information in one glance.
I do agree with your summary here that it is very important for people who want to earn money online to know that hard work is required and it requires people to invest their time and make it happens.
I wish you all the best in your online money making business.
Good post!
Regards,
Alex
Hey there Alex!
We wouldn’t be entrepreneurs if money can come that easily overnight because if it is, everyone would be rich ad nobody would want to work and create something rather than enjoy. People who knows how hard it is to get what they want will tend to appreciate things more in life and building a business is the most legitimate way on making money. Even on the internet, the most important rule to bear in mind is that your business grow based on how much effort you put in am I right? Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a great day ahead!