Have you ever wondered as to what is the best way to start earning from home from the comfort of your own seat without even doing anything that might cause you excessive sweating?
If you’ve read other articles online, you might have come across many different answers like working in Fiverr, doing forex (Which is very risky) or even working as a freelance writer at eLance or Odesk.
Those particular strategies do in fact work but the best method of earning money to date is by…
Having Your Own Online Business – Building and Monetizing a Website.
Owning a website is like owning a local business, it is the central thing that binds all other small businesses and furthermore, it can also boost any existing or local businesses that you have.
Simply put, everyone needs a website.
But, not everyone has the time and money time to build and manage one because paying a website developer is definitely a no-no for beginners as they tend to charge thousands for their website building services.
We can actually build one for free today and I’ll show you how in a moment but if you’re still wondering on whether or not you actually do need a website, here’s why…
- More customers – Opening a small local store is hard and risky work, you need to open it where the crowd is. Building a website on the other hand, lets you control how many people you want to attract to your website as your audience is basically everyone who uses the internet. Pretty cool, right?
- You build authority – You can open your own brick and mortar business anywhere but at the end of the day, everyone wants a website of their own because that shows how established you are. In fact, I only start getting a lot of calls on my brick and mortar event management company after I decided to create a website for it.
- Easy to sell and update customers – Selling stuff online is actually very easy compared to selling stuff in a local store. Instead of being there at the shop early morning till the end of the day, you can actually put up everything on your website as e-commerce and from there, people just buy stuff from you whenever they are interested. You can also just update any promotions on your website or even talk to your customers instantly free of charge.
Now that you’ve had a taste of perfection, you might be hungry for answers on…
How does it Work? –Your 10 Crucial Steps to Success.
Building an Online Business has revolutionized over the years but the concept is still the same – set-up your page and lead traffic to it which is what I’m going to show you today…
Step #1 – Find a Niche You’re Interested In
Like any other businesses out there, you need specific interests to focus on.
What is your passion? What industry don’t you mind working in for hours without getting bored? What are you good at or want to improve on?
If you’re wondering what niche you should have, I have actually written a post on the Top 10 Affiliate Marketing Niches here which I have compiled from my experiences being in the industry.
In fact, my blog that you’re looking at right now is on blogging where I further break it down to SEO, content creation and reviews so you should do the same for the niche that you’re choosing as well.
For example, if you’re into the gardening niche, you could further break it down into gardening equipment, how to grow certain types of plants, or even locations for buying and selling farms which is a lucrative business.
My friend Rufat made a brilliant list of many other niches many of us might not have thought of in his blog here which I strongly recommend you to check out – Things like Graphics design, tutoring and even animation which relates to a common skill we all have.
Start with one step at a time.
It may be a bit blurry to you at the start but I promise you, you’ll start to get plenty of ideas as you delve into the industry further.
Step #2 – Build Your Very Own Website!
Now that you know what niche to choose, I’m sure you’re thrilled to learn how to build your own website from scratch.
Don’t worry, it’s actually easy and not time-consuming at all.
In fact, I’m going to show you how to build your own website for free and a quality one at that!
There are various platforms for building websites such as Webs and Weebly but for Online Business purposes, the best one I can recommend you to date is Site Rubix.
When talking about websites, you should know that a domain refers to the website URL such as “hungryhogs.com” or “myinternetquest.com” – In other words, a domain is like a name with the www.
Have a name ready for your website? Have a go at it here…
Now one thing you should know about free websites is that they all have the extension before the dot com.
For example, since we are using SiteRubix your domain name should be something.siterubix.com instead of something.com and this is because independent dot com domains need to be purchased as they are under strict regulations by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN) which is considered as the government of the internet.
Paid domains are really affordable as we only renew yearly and they cost somewhere around $10 to $15 but for the purpose of this lesson I’m guiding you through, we’ll just go along with the free Site Rubix one.
Have a website name already chosen?
The steps are pretty self-explanatory but just in case, here’s a video to walk you through how to build your website in under a minute…
Clicking will open a new tab to where the video is stored.
Site Rubix is created by Wealthy Affiliate which is why the name is there but more on that later because right now, we’ll focus on building the website first.
Site Rubix is awesome because it’s the only website provider that has a health analytics checker to guide you (Very useful for beginners) and a dedicated server host inclusive which is very fast and secure to ensure optimal website condition for business and SEO.
Now that you have a website set up and running, it’s time for you to…
Step #3 – Prepare to Sell through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is the art of selling someone else’s products in exchange for commissions.
I know I know… It may sound like nothing but for beginners as a start especially, it is the best form of making money at an early stage as you can start instantly compared to creating your own products which will take months.
There are many platforms for you to choose your affiliate products but I can only recommend 3 as these platforms are the safest and most reputable ones on the internet…
- Amazon – Great for physical products.
- Clickbank – Great for digital products like e-books
- Walmart – A good Company with a good reputation but sells best in the USA.
Amazon is the top affiliate network to tap into because although they give out low commission rates, they also give out commissions if your referral buys something else and when it comes to e-commerce, you just know that people will keep surfing Amazon to look for more cool stuff that they can get their hands on because really, who buys only one?
To understand how to use Amazon, here’s a quick video on how to do that…
One thing you need to know about Affiliate Marketing is that each and every affiliate will get a separate affiliate link that is special only to you.
This lets them know that you are an affiliate so that whenever someone buys something from that link, you get a commission.
Another great platform to find products for affiliate marketing is Clickbank.
There are thousands of digital products such as e-books and memberships that you can find within Clickbank and the process to become an affiliate is quite similar as well but just in case, here’s a video walking you through becoming an affiliate…
But be careful though, due to ClickBank being one of the best places to make money, a lot of scam gurus have taken nest there and I’ve even reviewed programs like Google Sniper 3.0 and Copy Paste Income which aims to drain customers out of their money rather than providing quality value.
Still, there are plenty of products to choose from so just surf along to find the right one – A rule of thumb is to find products that you particularly like because that way, you’ll have a lot more to talk about since it’s coming from yourself.
Now that you have a product chosen, it’s…
Step #4 – Time to Organize Your Site!
If you want to start on Online Business, it is crucial to make your website as neat as possible without too many things on one page.
Focus on writing content without distractions.
Want to know what I mean? Take a look at this…
This website Gates n Fences has a good start for their business – They have a website but… something seems a bit off don’t you think?
That’s because their website is too crowded with information and everything looks really packed.
Doing this is a no-no because you will confuse your readers even more by throwing in too many choices at once – they’ll end up looking everywhere and get distracted very early which is something we do not want.
When it comes to writing content, we want our readers to focus on the main thing at hand which is why the more of that white margin you have on both the right and left-hand side of your website, the better.
We now know of how clean and distraction-free a good website layout should be, but have you ever wondered if whether or not colors do play a role in this too?
Penny Juice wants to make their website different from the rest so they used bright colors to attract readers. Problem?
One-color is too bright as it is but multiple colors all at once can literally damage your eyes.
Admit it, even you can’t stand staying for long and read the wordings when those colors are bothering am I right?
On that note, here are some points to bear in mind when you’re organizing your website…
- Simple is always better.
- Don’t use too many colors. The white background actually works best as it helps readers focus better on your content.
- Do not cramp up too many things on one page, think minimal as you don’t want to get your readers distracted from your main content.
Don’t take too long on organizing your website though, always remember that simple is better and no matter how beautiful your site is, the main reason anyone would come to your site is to read your content.
Speaking of which, I’m sure you’re just dying to know of…
Step #5 – How to Generate Ideas for Content
You may have an idea on what to write about now but how confident are you that you’ll never run out of ideas?
All writers have something called a writer’s block whereby you’ll eventually be having ‘that day’ which no idea seems right so how do you keep yourself thinking creatively with many things to talk about forever?
Simple, go and find some ideas!
I particularly love Quora as you can find ideas there non-stop as there are many people asking questions there every day.
You can simply type in your niches like blogging or gardening and you’ll get loads of people there asking something you’d never even thought of!
Make use of these questions as topics to write about on your site because once you help solve a problem for people, they’ll have a high probability of staying loyal to your site.
Apart from Quora, there are plenty more forums you could check out including…
- Yahoo Answers
- Wiki Answers
- Warrior Forum (For those in the Internet marketing niche)
- IGN (For those in the gaming niche)
From these questions, simply form a nice enough topic to be made into a title so that you can write about the solution and attract those readers to your site instead.
Want to know how to make your website even more visible in search engines? I’m glad you asked because it’s high time we learn about…
Step #6 – Keywords to Even the Odds
If you’ve been wondering how to make your website more searchable on Google, this part plays a very important role in helping you achieve that.
Basically, the art of ranking your website on the first page of search engines is known as search engine optimization (SEO) and I’ve actually covered the 10 steps on how to do that here.
SEO is vast and there are plenty of topics to cover. In fact, did you know that universities even teach it as a whole subject to students?
It really is that deep but the good news is that you don’t have to know everything in order to rank well – I certainly don’t.
In fact, I’m a hotel student so I have no knowledge whatsoever on how the internet works yet I am still able to rank my site and posts on the first page of Google so it’s definitely doable by anyone.
You just need to know the essential ones and the first step is understanding how keywords work.
Keywords simply put, are the key-words that target a particular topic or niche.
They can be either one word, two or even a few words – and they can still be considered one keyword!
For example, “Lose weight” is considered one keyword and believe it or not, something as long as “How to earn money by blogging” is also considered a keyword so you see, they don’t necessarily have to be just one word.
By researching keywords, we can determine exactly how many competitors you will be facing for that particular keyword and even how much traffic you could earn from that keyword alone which is why they are so powerful.
So now comes the question of how on earth do we research keywords in the first place?
By using a keyword research tool of course, and the best one to date is Jaaxy.
I’ve been using Jaaxy for over a year now and it is also my secret recipe to ranking many of my blog posts on the first page of Google.
Sure, you can type in the keyword itself on Google search but do you know the exact number of competitors you will be facing or more importantly how much traffic you could gain if you do that?
Let’s have a look at a keyword search on “totally free stock photos”…
As you can see, this particular keyword can bag me an average of 483 traffic per month and best of all, there are only 75 competitors!
Just so you know, QSR stands for quoted search results which just simply means the number of websites currently targeting that particular keyword hence your competitors.
A good number of competitors to bear in mind when you want to rank any website easily is to not exceed 300 competitors so seeing that there are only 75 competitors here with a huge amount of 483 traffic, this is practically a gold mine!
Since my website niche is about blogging, I know that a lot of bloggers find a hard time looking for photos that are high quality yet free so I decided to write a compelling post on 30 websites with totally free stock photos.
The result? Take a look at this…
I managed to rank on the first page of Google for that particular post!
Knowing that the power to rank any website at your fingertips is very thrilling and it’s exactly why a combination of keywords and great content is essential for you to rank your website on top.
Have a keyword in mind that you’re just dying to research? Have a go at it here…
Step #7 – Writing Your First Post
This step should be a fairly easy one now that you have all that you need – a keyword and topic.
You shouldn’t put too much pressure on your first post though, after all it’s just your first post.
I remember how nervous I was when I wanted to click on the publish button but believe me, that feeling will soon fade away and eventually when you’re too busy, you’ll be glad to even get a chance to click on that particular button in the first place.
You can write anything since it’s your own blog and you call the shots but you know I won’t just leave you without a valuable tip or two to help even up your odds, because here are some tricks to bear in mind if you want your post to stand out…
- Content length – A lot of beginners are afraid of writing too much because they thought that readers will be too bored to read but according to research made by SERP IQ, the longer the length, the better. This is because you’d be surprised to know that there are actually many people who read the full post and those that don’t will also prefer to skim through and see your important points so don’t be afraid to go all out when you’re writing your content.
- Style of writing – Don’t be stiff and write like a corporate salesman, just be yourself and write casually. Being informal is the key to making people read your content more because they can relate to you better. It’ll also take the burden of writing off your shoulders since you can just literally write as how you normally speak to people… minus the swear words.
- Solve a problem or two – The reason people type in something on Google is that they are looking for something. When writing your post, be sure to provide a solution for a problem because if you answer those dilemmas, your readers will have a high probability of bookmarking your website to read more.
Once you’ve written your post and published it on your site, it’s time to start…
Step #8 – Building Your Social Media Presence
This part is fun, all you need to do is share on all your social media channels and for that, you would need to start creating your accounts.
Sure, writing content and publishing is great as you can still rank but wouldn’t you want to generate more traffic to your website?
The more traffic you have, the more sales you get and every successful business especially online has social media accounts to begin with.
I’m actually quite the introvert and before creating my blog, I didn’t even have Facebook but now I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
Starting off won’t be easy as you’ll surely startup with a very little follower base if not any so for that, you would need to also promote your account to your friends by asking them a favor to like.
Simply share each and every new post you have on your site and eventually, all your channels will start to grow together.
Step #9 – Indexing Your Website
If you’ve been wondering (Or about to wonder) how to index a website in a search engine, well you’re at the right place!
This process is fairly simple because all you need to do is submit the URL of your newly-published article to Google Webmasters (Now called Google Console) and you’re done!
However, creating an account there might be a tad confusing for some people so here’s a quick video to help you out with that…
The reason why we need to index our website is that Google does not actually put up your website on their search engine instantly.
It will take 1-2 weeks for your post to be up on Google for new websites so by submitting our URL to Google Webmaster, you can hasten the process for your website and this should be done for each and every new post that you make.
Step #10 – Rinse and Repeat!
Building an Online Business I would say is very time-consuming, but worth the investment.
Unless you always have a base of followers, it is very hard to build your reputation from scratch as it will start very slow for the first few months.
Google will usually evaluate your website for 3 months first before giving you full visibility on search engines because there are millions of websites being created every month so you need to show how serious you are.
It is very possible to make a full-time income from home but you need to have a strong mindset to persevere and not give up because trust me, I’ve been there and there was not a day when I feel like giving up when I first started.
But after a few months, I’m used to the whole blogging process and everything will come as second nature to you and you’ll even start enjoying the attention as people start to know you and appreciate you more due to the hard work you’ve put in.
Online Business is successful because of the content that attracts people.
So keep creating fresh new content weekly if not daily and before you know it, your website is going to shoot up high with traffic and when there’s traffic, the sales will soon follow.
What is the Best Program for You to Get Started?
Having an Online Business is something you’ll be doing for your entire lifetime so it’s best to always update yourself with the right knowledge and community as these steps that I’ve shown you are only the tip of the iceberg.
There are many skills you could learn to boost your business and for that, I recommend you to check out my top-ranked program, Wealthy Affiliate.
Wealthy Affiliate is the best Online Business course to date on the internet – it has no hidden upsells, you get dedicated high speed hosting for your website, a keyword tool, evergreen lessons and a wonderful community of people just as enthusiastic as you and me!
If you’re looking to get some affiliate earnings by blogging about the program itself, you’re more than welcome to do so.
In fact, it’s the very same thing I’m doing and here’s a screenshot of my earnings currently…
It’s not much but it’s a great amount considering that I’ve been away from my blog for over a month so it’s definitely a sight for sore eyes.
Wealthy Affiliate also teaches you on opening up different income streams and you could totally do much better than I am.
I’ve been a member there for over a year now and out of all the programs I’ve tried and reviewed, I have never stayed in one program for as long as how I’ve been at Wealthy Affiliate so if you ever decide to give it a try, I’ll be more than happy to guide you personally on the other side.
Conclusion
Jeepers, that was over 3,900 words!
There are plenty of ways on how you could earn from home such as through online surveys or freelance jobs but if you want to earn passive income depending on how much effort you put in, the best way for anyone to achieve that is by starting an Online Business.
Remember though, like any other business you won’t start with explosive growth.
Be consistent and put in the effort to nurture your business and I promise you, it will be steady enough eventually to grow on its own without you tending to it.
If you’re interested on learning how to become an online entrepreneur, check out my #1 recommended program here.
Thanks for reading, do share out whatever is in your mind down below as I would love to hear them out!
Thank you for this post.
It is really informative about WA.
I have just started it a month ago but I can see the result that I am getting better in affiliate marketing day by day.
The training for he membership is just awesome. There are so many live video training that you can watch back, you can not even decide which one you want to see first.
If anyone is thinking about trying out WA, just Do not hesitate. You will not regret it after one year when you quit your 9-5 job.
Awesome to hear your feedback Albert, much appreciated!
Hi Riaz,
Thanks for the great post.
It helped so much because I got stuck on generating new content and step 5 on your post helped me so much to get about new 10 ideas.
I didn;t even know that site like Quora existed.
I saved this post to my favorites.
I’m glad that I find your site.
Glad I helped give you an insight Efi, Quora is really interesting to use. Once you tried, you’ll end up looking for more things than you were planning to find. Best of luck!
Nice and easy to follow guide here on building your own website! Having passive income online really is the future and if you don’t get on the internet business hype you’ll be left behind! I have fun building out my site did you?
more people have to realise this and see your post!
Nice info here mate!
Kyle
You bet I did Kyle, you don’t need to learn those complicated coding anymore so its more visual this time when it comes to building our own sites. Blogging is actually quite thrilling wouldn’t you agree?
Indeed having an online business is the way of the future. Less and less people will want to 9-5 and more will choose freedom. And even if a little late maybe, we’re still ahead of them. And WA offers so much value when making our online business. Success with yours.
Right you are Aless, appreciate your feedback. Hope you have a great Wednesday!
A fantastic and easy to follow breakdown on the steps needed to getting started online.
But maybe more importantly, a much needed review for those who sometimes need to get back to basics. I want to print this out and place it on my fridge so I have a reminder every day!
Thank you.
Wow such dedication Ninja! I’m working on a separate PDF file so that my readers can just download and read easy if you don;t have time to read everything that I wrote in the future. Till, then hope I get to see you here again!
While I see the opportunity from affiliate marketing, I’ve always wanted to own my own company. That’s why I created Nickel SEO Marketing Services to help other small businesses grow and expand their services to more people. By helping others, my own company benefits. It’s a way to provide a win-win-win for my clients, their customers, and then myself.
Whatever people decide to do, choose something you enjoy!
Great to know that you chose that path Benjamin, starting your own firm is a great mark of an entrepreneur. Best of luck on your online journey, happy Monday!
Hi Riaz
Wow what a great page. A really fab insight to starting up an online business from scratch. The detail and your simple step by step explanation really is so well though out. I have been with WA for 11 weeks now and have to agree it really is as easy as you explain, and with hard work anyone can become successful with affiliate marketing. Great job sir 🙂
Dave
Thanks Dave, hard work is the key to success, there are no shortcuts to earning millions overnight. Thanks for the kind words man, I wish you all the best on your website as well. Cheers!
Great site! I agree the best way to get started is by having your own website. And what better way than with wealthy affiliate! I have tried most money making programs in the past and none are as exciting as building a website through wealthy affiliate. I love the community, the support and great step by step tutorial videos
Awesome to hear that from a fellow member Jenny, the community is indeed the best one that I have found to date and seeing you here is proof of how friendly and supporting everyone is. Appreciate the feedback, hope you enjoy your weekend!
Hi Riaz. I have a question about your information here. What if I don’t want to make any money (strange I know) but just want to have a site that my family can share information. I don’t have to worry about keywords or monetising the site do I? Do I need to buy a domain?
Thanks for replying.
Christine.
No question is silly Christine, only those that dare not ask. Actually, you still need to buy a domain but since you don;t want the money, you don’t have to worry about monetising it. Keywords will be important though, because you would want your blog to be found in order to help those families am I right? Good question by the way, hope that helps!
Hello, Riaz.
This is a fantastic article. I enjoyed the read. You covered almost every important aspect of making money online. It’s an excellent resource for people who are just starting out because it will show them what matters in the arena of online business.
Your post also gave me some great ideas for future blog posts as well. So, thank you for that.
P.S. The name of the article is great, very catchy. Good job, man.
Regards,
Imad
Hey Imad, awesome to see you here again, hope you’re doing fine and dandy. Glad you found my article helpful, would be cool if I could help you out on your future posts. Do let me know if you need help with anything man, appreciate the feedback!
What an awesome article! I’ve been working on my website for 3 months already, and I still found a lot of important information in your article that will potentially benefit my website! Do you think that Instagram is a good place to share a post? I just feel like it will be tough to share posts on there because you can’t make a link clickable and without that no one will be willing to check the post. What do you think?
Hey Katie,
Awesome! Glad you liked my article. Instagram is definitely a powerful channel for social media. I totally understand your situation – Although you cannot put links on Instagram, you can definitely utilise this by adding your website on your Instagram profile.
After that, simply post your own blog post image on Instagram whenever you have new content and people will already know where to look. Pauline from Twelskip does awesome work in utilising Instagram for her blog traffic.
Hi Riaz
I forgot to ask you last time as I have already commented on this article. I searched for “totally free stock photos” and did not find your article listed.
Do you think that it might be something wrong with my browser and do you build links to your articles? It would be great to know.
Hey Viljoen,
“Totally Free Stock Photos” is only the keyword. The real page is “30+ Websites With Totally Free Stock Photos” which is on the first page, position 4. I added words to make it more readable for people.
Hi Riaz , wow , that is a comprehensive guide for beginners.You have put a lot of hard work on this article alone.
And I agree , having your own website is the best solution to create a solid presence online.Without it is like selling goods without a store , a roof.You won’t expect quick results but consistency finally pays off , big time.
A website can be monetized in a hundred different ways and as someone moves forward always new horizons appear.
You included everything a newbie might be looking for.How to setup a site with SiteRubix , one of the best platforms out there , to keyword research and writing a first article…
Congrats , very good job as always.Good luck , I hope this article reach to a wide audience out there.
Hey Tasos,
Thanks for the kind words, really appreciate that. A website is the best way to move forward and create a business online and having one is like having your own store in the real world. Thanks for dropping by, hope you have a great Sunday!
Hi Riaz
I forgot to mention last time that Rakuten Linkshare is also an affiliate network where you can earn a commission from.
It is not like Amazon because Linkshare partners with other companies in different niches and then helps them to get marketers to sell their products.
They also pay via PayPal which is a huge bonus for my.
Sounds great Viljoen! Definitely giving that a go before making my review. Thanks for the suggestion, cheers!
I love that you brought up how much it costs to have a website professionally made up. I made that mistake myself with my first business and it cost me $1,500! And the website was not even what I wanted or what I asked for. Then, the company refused to redo anything unless I gave them another $1,500… Ugh. I had never heard of Quora before, so thank you for mentioning that. I will definitely be checking that out for ideas.
Great article! Thanks for sharing your insight =)
Jess
It costed a whole load of money to start a website back then Jess, glad it all changed now right? Thanks for sharing your feedback, cheers!
Wow that’s very informative, comprehensive article, It gives a clear idea to people who are interested in making money online, I like the idea about site health meter which is powered by wealthy affiliate it’s great to monitor how your website going, by the way, congratulations to your earnings goog job, thanks for sharing & keep the good work
Thanks Ehab, the site health checker is indeed very useful. I haven’t come across any platforms which provide that. Glad you find my article helpful, thanks for dropping by!
The whole internet consists out of websites and it will become pretty obvious when you realize that you need one in order to build your foundation on.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money online and I would recommend this method to anyone that are seeking to build their own business online
Right you are Viljoen, Affiliate Marketing is the best way for beginners to start earning and its great hearing that from a fellow Affiliate Marketer.
Hi There,
It is true, an absolute fact that all businesses these days need a web site – even offline businesses. Like Bill Gates said some 15 years ago at the turn of the millennium, If your Biz is not the net your biz is going to be out of business”.
You have listed a number of methods of monetizing a web site which is great. Taking Note here!
Bill Gates is one of the few philanthropists which I really look up to. His quotes are ones that I feel related to me the most, glad to know you hold those words dearly too. Thanks for dropping by and Happy New year!
I love this information you give here on the best way to earn money from home. I could not believe everything you laid out here, like you mentioned keep it simple and provide valuable information. You got my attention right away and drew me in as I kept reading each step of importance. I certainly picked up some great pointers here. I will come back and visit again. Thanks!
Glad you liked my steps Angela, hope to see you here again soon!
Hi Riaz, thanks for the great informative article. So much information for anyone to start from scratch to create an online business.
Especially what’s helping me is how to “organize your site” with your examples. I’m not the best with designing my site and tend to use wrong color or make the page too busy. I can see what you mean about Gates n Fences and Penny Juice. They do look “too much”.
I didn’t know about Quora either, I’m going to check it in a minute. Thanks again, great job!
Ray
Hey Ray,
Glad you liked the guide, being simple is always best. Often times people flock too many things at once we tend to get overwhelmed just by looking at it. Thanks for dropping by, good luck on your site!
Absolutely brilliant and thorough article – I’m very impressed by the sheer amount of info here, not to mention how easy to read and well written it is. It didn’t feel like I was reading 3900 words lol – anyone looking to make money from home would greatly benefit from this – because it really covers everything you need to know. Ace!
Hey Netp,
Awesome to know that, thanks so much for the kind words. I like to keep my writing style casual to make it easy to read. Glad you liked my guide, thanks for the feedback!
Riaz,
Another in-depth post from you. I agree that there is money to be made in blogging or content marketing. I’d also like to note for folks who just began that it’s not really as it seems.
It takes time to build an audience, trust and learn the ropes of site building, writing and SEO.
Nonetheless, I find it exciting to work on a project of your own and talk about what you like – as well as meeting other awesome passionate folks.
I’d really like to hear about your journey in building your online business, how long did it take you to see results, how hard is it in your opinion.
Keep up the great work!
Hey there Anh,
There is indeed no easy way to reach success but it is not impossible. It takes time and hard work but in the long run it’ll be well worth the trouble. Building an Online Business isn’t very hard, its actually quite fun but the difficult part is the long wait since new websites take time to be able to reach that visible stage.
It took me 3 months to reach my first sale so its important to have strong perseverance and patience. The right mindset can mean everything to sustaining a business because we need to understand that success is not reached overnight, it can take months but if we keep fighting for it as hard as we breathe for air, it is possible to achieve that at a shorter timeframe. Cheers.
Really well put together website. I like all the different information that you have throughout it. I like that you have some different eye popping color i.e. the blue to grab readers attention. Lots of great pictures to look at as well. Don’t forget to keep adding more content to drive more traffic to your website. Awesome job, keep it up
Will do Silentfox, content is what I’m trying to speed up on as I usually take about 3 days to write one post. Glad my article interests you, thanks!
Dear Riaz!
Yes, yes and yes, I do my own web because I like to have my own business and I do not want to sweat for somebody else) It is so pleasant not to go to the office every morning!
Great article, Riaz! I love it! You have talent to write easy and clear. You did impressive and positive web.
Zhanna
Wow that means a lot to me Zhana, thank you! It is indeed awesome waking up every morning to do things that you love and not for other people but as any other businesses out there, it requires proper nurturing in order to grow. Hope you have a lovely day!
Riaz, thank you so much for putting so much time and effort into this post. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I have started my own website and it can be a little disheartening when you don’t receive as many visitors as you’d hoped for. I agree – it’s a lot of work AND time consuming. I also didn’t know that it takes 1-2 weeks for your new post to be up on google, I will start fetching as you mentioned and keep aiming to publish quality content each day. I look forward to following your blog and hopefully sharing my success story with you in the future!
That’s great news Stacey,
I look forward to hearing from you as well! Do let me know if you need help with anything, i’d be more than happy to help you out. It can be a let down when your visitor rate is low but after a while, it will definitely shoot up if you are consistently working on your blog. Good luck!
Wow, this is probably the most throughout article I have read about the best way to earn money from home.
In my research I have come to learn that affiliate marketing is the way to go. But I haven’t been about to figure out how to move forward. There are so many programs out there claiming they can pretty much do it for you and you get all the money. I am not sure I really believe that.
This article could have been a book! I have learned so much. I feel like I can head in the right direction now. I am going to check out Wealthy Affiliate and see if someone an non-techy as me can figure this out.
Hey Simone,
That’s a great idea, making a book! I’ll be compiling all of this into a PDF so that everyone can download it with ease pretty soon. You definitely won’t need any prior knowledge or be techy to succeed online, I for one have no idea how the internet works when I first started but yet here I am. All the best on your Online Business and if you have any questions whatsoever, do let me know. cheers!
Hay there,
that sites that you showed as examples of bad practices really looks unproffesional. I always have fear that my site will look so bad and unhealthy. So you re saying here you can learn everything what is to know about web building and design?
Is this applicable to other languages as well or just english?
How is this jaaxy fellow doing for other languages?
Hey Navadimovas,
its actually applicable to other languages as well but of course Google revels in English and doing SEO on different languages can be a tad complicated. Jaaxy is powerful and you can also find keywords on different languages, I personally use it to find keywords in Malay. Give it a go, its free for 30 searches. Good luck!
Great review of Wealthy Affiliate! It can be so difficult to know what online programs really work. Question – were you new to Internet Marketing and Website building when you joined WA? As a beginner, I am curious how long success really takes when you are starting from scratch. Thank you and great article!
Hey Heather,
As a matter of fact, I was when I first started. had no idea how to create a website nor do i know how they actually work. But I persevered and it took me 3 months to make my first sale. All the best in your online Business too and thanks for dropping by!
Hi Riaz,
This was a very thorough post, it went through everything in a very logical, step by step manner. I really was impressed.
I read in one of your comment responses that it took three months for you to get your first sale and that it just built up from there. Would you think that is a typical time frame to start seeing initial results?
I would imagine results also depend on how active you are in promoting your site. How often do you post articles?
Sincerely,
Xin
Your read right Xin Zhang,
I post articles everyweek and yes, 3 months is a typical timeframe for your blog because it has to go through Google’s 3 months observation period. There are millions of websites being built every month but most of these sites die a few months later as the owners are lazy to continue. So if you continue managing your blog a whole longer, Google will surely notice you and give you better rankings.
Hello, thanks for cheerful presentation of how to learn to do business online. Sometimes everything seems so easy as creating website on wordPress or writing engaging content, but there are so many details which can be vital for our online business.
For example, if we choose wrong keywords, which do not make sense, visitors would go to different websites.
Sometimes we can pick a theme which is mobile unfriendly. Guess what? We will have less visitors, because most of people surf the Web on mobile devices such as phones or tablets.
Keep up good work providing information how to successfully work from home.
All the best, happy wring, Nemira.
Your welcome Nemira, glad you liked my article. Thanks for the feedback, I hope you have a lovely day.
I enjoyed looking at your website, i also agree that organizing your website plays a huge role in keeping customers interested in the contact, and to keep coming back. I just started my first website therefore, mine looked a bit crowded and so I’m going to take your organize your website to heart and going to rearrange my own website some more. I also will spread out my information and not cramp it all up as to make it hard for customers to read. Thanks for the tips and awesome job on your website.
Thanks for the compliment Fox, don’ forget that simpler is always better. I’m sure your new layout would definitely wow your readers, all teh best in your Online Business!
This is great.
I can tell you took some time to create this page/post. Its excellent.
You have covered all avenues to create a valuable website that enables affiliate marketing to create a profitable business.
When beginning a online business the research is mountain high that is extreamly overwhelming which creates intimidation and ultimately no further action. This is Not only helpful for making decisions to start, but it is also nessasry for writing reviews and creating quality content. Your article covers all elements, so the reader doesnt have to keep researching and gathering infomation. Its great work.
I also recomend WA. They have a great network as well as a world class training course.
Great work.
Thank you for the kind words. Whenever I write content, I try to make it the most detailed one possible because one rule of thumb to always bear in mind when writing content is that you do not want to give room for other people to look for that information elsewhere. Put in your heart and soul into all your posts and you’ll earn yourself loyal readers.
Hi Riaz,
Wow loving how in depth this is and how helpful your insight is to people looking to build a website business!
That website on step 4 is pretty funny but a good example of how it is better to be simple and not try to re-invent the wheel so to speak. Being different and unique is important but we also want to make the user experience a pleasant one.
For social media I am finding Google+ to be pretty awesome, don’t do a whole lot on the others at the moment.
Thanks for sharing dude I really found this useful, cheers!
Hey there Tim,
Totally right on the user experience part, don’t over-complicate things too much as being simple is always better. Google+ is awesome but do have a go at LinkedIn too, its basically the same sharing method so you its actually pretty easy to get that chunk of traffic too. All the best in your online endeavours and thanks for the feedback!
I think in this article you not only showed that the best way to earn money from home is right under your nose, but you also very well explained that i.e. money is under your nose too. It completely depends on your desire to do the work required to be successful online. And the amount of work to be done is a lot. You covered all main aspects of running online business and I think your readers will know now if it’s their cup of tea or not.
Hello there Rufat,
People jump from program to program and read many articles and guides on how to make money online but they miss out on the most obvious answer which is the number one rule to take of when doing any business online – A website. I try to give it my best when writing so they get a much clearer picture rather than having to go to other websites for info. Great to see you again here my friend, thanks for dropping by!
Hi Riaz, I’ve stumbled upon your website and incidentally found this review about WA.
I am also a member of WA and I really like being there. The community is really helpful and the training is also great!
I didn’t have any regret to join here and pay for the premium member. It is a cheap investment to build your online business.
Thanks for the review 🙂
Thanks Alblue, glad you liked the article. Hope you have a great day.
Wow this is an indepth article and very informative. You have a ton of information here and it is a
I also like the Quora tool, it’s great for keyword research and for inspiration sometimes.
WA has definitely changed my life for the better and it’s really easy to set up.
I bookmarked your site as a refresher.
Quora is pretty fun to be in, there are loads of questions being asked every day so its hard to get an idea on what to write about. Hope that works well for you!
Very nice advice for someone new to online marketing. What do you reckon is the importance of having a custom domain? I mean, does having your own domain with no extra extension increase your chances of being found on the web? I have seen many bloggers with a free domain (wordpress, blogger, tumblr, etc) who still get wildly successful. Just wanted to know your thoughts.
Hey Gin,
There’s nothing wrong with using a domain with an extension, traffic will still appear as normal. However the reason why people want to change is because of image reasons – They want to appear professional and they want their domain names to be shorter so that people can remember better.
You have to admit, having a shorter domain names looks much nicer than having an extension but at the end of the day, its your choice and with or without your domain extension, the content is all that matters. Hope that helps!
Oooh no, not Forex! My hubby tried one of those websites and lost money first because he forecast what was happening incorrectly and then later because he came across a website that was a scam and as soon as he entered his credit card details online he got robbed. Silly silly!
I enjoyed what you said about a website being too busy and cramped with information. If I arrive on a website and it is too busy I can’t even focus enough to read, I just leave. Great point you made there about it being neat 🙂
I really enjoyed your post, is Wealthy Affiliate the best place to learn how to work online? Any other recommendations you might have?
I got robbed from my bank account too Lynne, until I had to go to the bank and change my card and bank account together which was pretty messy. Forex is very risky and many of those platforms are scams and until today they keep calling me and forcing me to buy which is very annoying. And yes, Wealthy Affiliate is the best platform to go to online and currently it is my #1 recommendation.
Hi Riaz
I really like your opinion on what is the best way to make money online. Everywhere you go online, you will see websites and it is very hard to make money without one.
Websites allow you to have market share in Google. Many people do not think this way and that is why most are not interested. They do not know the power of content and the fact that they can actually earn a passive income from that content.
One of my websites are making me around $400 per month and I have not touched it since January.
Definitely true Viljoen, having a website means that you can control everything about your business so the amount of earnings you can is highly dependent on the amount of effort you put in. Thanks for dropping by, all the best in your online journey!
Excellent post and with excellent detail
You explain things incredibly well and provide people with all the necessary facts
This informs people and allows informed decision making
I particularly like the step by step guidance and ability to try things immediately like siterubrix . This makes life do much easier
Awesome
Glad you find my article helpful, thanks for sharing with us your feedback!
You have a great looking website. The theme choice is perfect. It adds a sense of professionalism and organization to your post and pages. Furthermore, all content exudes a wonderful knowledge base that seems to draw readers attention with captivating and intelligent content. Your appropriate promotion of Wealthy Affiliate should draw readers, making them want to build a website for themselves. Moreover, once they started, they could take notes and pointers from you and your site as your site is some excellent work. Thanks for allowing me to view your site.
wow that is some major feedback and encouragement Mark, thank you!
Hello Riaz!
What an awesome and lengthy post. You really put a lot of time into this one. I recently started a blog as well and your point #5 about getting article concept ideas by checking out a forum within your niche is a great idea! I will be implementing this in my own practices for sure. I also need to start with some social media. I want to put most of my time into one platform to start. Which one is the best to focus on at first?
Thank you,
-Anthony
Hey Anthony,
The most common social media everyone goes to is Facebook so you can start from there starting from a simple Facebook page. After that you can move to twitter, Linked in, Google+, and Pinterest. Hope that helps, happy to know the Forum search interests you. All the best in your website!
Great article as always. Nice very lengthy a good read. I agree with a lot of things you are saying. You have to start with a website if you want to take your online ventures to the next level. This takes time for you to start seeing some good profits but whats you get the ball rolling then they usually stay pretty consistent. I like the fact that you also said that you have to keep your site kind of simple. I noticed the picture you posted of that website, it was lot of info jam packed. It was definitely too much to take in. What I like about having a site, is that you don’t even have to sell a product to make money. It can definitely be a beautiful thing when you start seeing the money coming in.
Definitely Brandon,
Packing too many things on the website front page was a trend last time. Today, everyone wants it simpler so that they don’t get overwhelmed and that’s a good thing as it means that there’s less pressure for us content creators. Glad you liked the article Brandon, cheers!
I agree with you, Riaz – the best way to earn money from home is through online business. This may seem daunting to the average person, but it’s really not all that difficult to accomplish these days. Websites are relatively cheap and easy to build with services like WordPress. And the main reason online business is worth pursuing is that there’s just so much opportunity to capitalize on.
There are over 3 billion internet users in today’s world, and that number is swiftly approaching 4 billion, growing by the thousands every single day. If you can capture just a tiny fraction of those users and bring them in to your website, you can run a successful online business. I hope people take the value you’re providing and run with it!
Hey Matthew,
You’re totally right on that one, the market is huge for an online business and it will literally revolutionize the world in the future, even so it has affected the way we do business today. Nobody can succeed if they do not take advantage of the internet and with today’s technology to help make everything simpler, there’s no reason not to. Thanks for your feedback, hope you have a great Friday!
First, I couldn’t agree with you more, that forex, is very risky, but so is any business that you have no knowledge or experience in. Now, if you could get some type of coach or mentor prior to, or while bulding a business, than that is ideal. And I mean a coach or mentor who has already been there, and done that…..not one just coaching or mentoring from theory.
Second, I love your 10 steps to online business success. The steps themselves are fantastic. If anyone sticks to those, they will be successful.
And third, thank you for your thouroughness in your article. Too many times I read or should I say, I don’t actually finish reading, articles that are vague and don’t provide value.
Not yours, I read yours to the very end….very detailed, great value, and worth every minute!
Wow that meant a lot to me Jason, thank you so much really appreciate it! Mentors are indeed important because starting a business alone in an unfamiliar territory might be really overwhelming and we need someone where we can go and ask for advice whenever we need them.
Even I have a mentor at Wealthy Affiliate and I remember how often I asked questions for the first few months until I was finally confident to work on my own. Appreciate your feedback, hope you have a lovely day!
WOW! This is VERY detailed! If there is a foolproof 10-step system for earning money from home, this post is it… without a doubt!
Very thorough and carefully written. Clearly, you have gone through the steps yourself.
This insightful post is sure to help many! I’m gonna go read it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. 🙂
Very nice of you to say that Swiss, thanks! Yes, I did go through all those steps myself which explains how I was able to write them all out with ease. Guess I’ll be seeing you again here pretty soon 😉
Thank you for this really great article. It describes everything I needed to know and some things I had not even thought of. You have made me realize that it is possible to make money online and I was particularly impressed with you. I am really impressed with your Google ranking too. Because I live in Australia I don’t have access to the Amazon program but I do have ClickBank. Best wishe and thanks again for this really great article.
Hey Margaret,
Awesome to know you liked my article, I’m glad I’m able to help give you an insight on how the Online Marketing works. Actually, it doesn’t matter where you come from when it comes to Amazon because as an affiliate, all you do is to promote using your unique affiliate link so you don’t even have to sell and worry about shipping.
Thank you for such an information article! This is such a great way to build a website and make money online. Your step by step instructions are very helpful and make the process so much easier. A lot of people find the online world very daunting but this just shows anyone can do it!
Hey Casey,
Totally agree with that, many people got set aback when they hear the word online as they will tend to think of many technical things which makes them hesitant to try. Hope my guide helps give confidence to others who are keen on starting, thanks for dropping by!
Loved this amazing post. I love how you are out to help new people market online. This really helps show the importance of online marketing and why everyone should try and get in it. I will definitely share to my friends that are looking in starting a successful blog or site of their own.
Thanks Nathan,
Online Marketing is going to be a useful skill and more importantly for people who want to boost their business, or create one. I put together my experiences into this one post to help out those who are keen on starting one, appreciate you spreading the word, thanks!
Hello, wow, you here a great article about best place where everybody can learn and earn money online.
Your detailed explanation is easy to understand and follow your thoughts.
I think that your recommended company is best in this area as place where everybody can reach their dreams and goals.
Of course, it takes time and patience. Anyway, I think that it is better to deal with real people, who do this business 10 years already compare with shiny programs.
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate. I enjoy every minute of it.
I wish that your visitors would find your advices useful and would decide to test and join this great company.
All the best, happy writing, Nemira.
Hey Nemira,
Thank you for the kind words, real business do take time and and proper nurturing. Too many people get attracted to shiny offers every once in a while that they tend to leave their current business behind in a tight spot. Great to have met a fellow WA member here, hope you have a great day.
I have seen quite a few pages promoting Wealthy Affiliate and I have to say that this is one most compelling ones I have seen so far. In the future, you should add your earning as proof that wealthy affiliate works as icing on the cake. Nice provocative title by the way, “Right Under Your Nose!” hits the spot! Ha! Ha!
Thanks Bobby,
That’s very nice of you, much appreciated! The earnings proof is something I would definitely be adding in the near future once I finalize everything, do stay tuned! Glad you liked the title too, cheers!
Thank you for writing this! It’s such a useful guide to setting up and monetizing a website! I’ve been looking for resources, because I’ve been trying to build a site in my spare time but my skills are pretty low and I don’t know how to get Google traffic. I heard I can hire people to set up back-links?
Do you have some way I can get your steps and all the links in some kind of package? I’d also be interested in more detail on each step (I’m a total noob!)
Hey Jdoo,
I wouldn’t advise you on hiring people with back-linking specialties though, they tend to use black hat methods that could bring your website down. Backlinks are good but only if you do so properly which means that it would take in a lot o work such as guest posting, emailing websites with broken link to fix with yours or even create an infograph for them so that they can link back to your site.
I do not have a way for you to get all the steps in some sort of package currently but that is a great idea Jdoo! I’ll be working on that and will update all of my posts later with a PDF choice to download. Great idea, thanks again, hope you have a lovely day.
What a great article to motivate the rest of the online marketers out here. I am also a member of Wealthy Affiliates & it feels good to see someone doing so well & I know everybody on WA has the potential to do so.
Discipline is what we need.
How long have you been on WA & what is the first major breakthrough that you had?
Hey Lee,
Good to meet a fellow Wealthy Affiliate member here, how are you? Everyone can start an Online Business, even those without prior knowledge and I’m speaking from experience as I had no knowledge on how to even build a website as it’s not my forte. I’ve been on WA for over a year now and my first sale took me 3 months. Took some time but expected as new websites take time to lift off, perseverance is key. Cheers!
Let me start off by saying this site has it right! There are many online opportunity out there most are wastes of times and some are even scams all cost money and waste the precious time you do have. Once I found wealth affiliate that all changed for me. I give it my two thumbs up
Hey Darren,
Thanks for the kind words, that’s why its my top ranked program out of all the other programs I’ve reviewed. Thanks for the feedback.
Wow, this is very, very thorough. A person could easily get started building a website just on this information alone. 3900 words is an impressive amount of content. Since I’m rather quiet, I can’t imagine myself having that much to say about anything, no matter how passionate I am about it. I think my longest blog post was about half of that. I’m thinking I should probably sign up for a quora account, but can you give any other pointers on how you manage to write so many words?
Hey Lynn,
Thanks for the kind words, I actually did not even plan on writing that many words but once I start writing, I tend to write down everything I can think of so that I won’t forget. The trick is to create a draft of main points which you want to talk about on your article before you start writing.
Break that into intro, benefits and main steps and before you know it, you can see a flow on how to write already. And after writing a few posts, you’d be surprised to find out how fast you tend to write plus how much more you can talk about, it’s like a burst of ideas coming out of nowhere. Everyone has a writer in them Lynn, even for a person who hates to read like me so just continue writing a few posts and you’d be surprised as to how much easier the next one can be. Great question by the way, hope that helps!
It’s rather strange dont you think? There are still people out there that won’t even accept credit cards! It’s like WHAT?! lol
Another thing I’ve noticed beside blogging on your own website is also doing a video series on youtube, being the 2 largest search engine- there’s more opportunity for exposure if you dominate it!
also the advertisement stuff is basically done for you with ease!
TheDopestMatrix
I noticed you commented 2 times, thanks man! YouTube is definitely a great way to market your brand but in order to make money, it will take really long to start from scratch which is why I didn’t include it within this article. Doable though, but it would take a lot of explanation. Thanks for dropping by, cheers!
What a wealth of information you have here I feel I am ready to go straight out and start my own online business.
How long did it take for you to start seeing a steady income from doing this?
What ‘wage’ can you expect from an online business like this?
Hey Lee,
Glad to know I managed to stir you up into taking action! Always glad to know that I can help people. An Online Business takes times to take flight, it will take several months before you can see a steady income. Personally, it took me 3 months to get my first sale but after that, it’s all residual income and all I need to do is to grow my blog and write content. Not really sure what you mean by wage though but if you mean income, reaching your first $500 would take months but after that, your profit will increase depending on how much effort you put in for your blog. Hope that helps
Just want to say this is a great, thorough article. I can tell you took your time with it to make it great.
You did a great job on explaining what it takes to get a website started. I like the way you provided internal links in a way that flowed. A lot of folks don’t have the ability to cause their blogs to flow in such as way.
It is interesting how you brought in the idea about one site being too packed and one being too colorful.
Having a website is the best way to make money online and it allows you to personalize everything. It’s an extremely gratifying experience when you look back and see something that YOU created.
Josh
Grow Me Supplements
Thanks Joshua,
It did take a while for me to finish writing though, content length is important and the more I write, the longer I tend to spend time on my next article. Website organisation is important too and a lot of people tend to spend too much time trying to ‘beatify’ their website when being simple is best. Thanks for your feedback, glad to know you liked my article!
Hi there Riaz,
Great breakdown on how to start earning money from home. I am always looking for resources to generate content ideas and I am glad you suggested a few that I can look into.
I haven’t heard of Warrior Plus before. Is it something related to Warrior Forum?
Hey there Cathy,
Thanks for pointing out the typo, I corrected it to Warrior Forum instead. Warrior Plus is just as similar to Warrior forum, just that it contains all the list of products they launch in Warrior Forum and this is actually good if you’re looking for resources for writing reviews. Thank for dropping by, appreciate the feedback.
LOL I love the title: ITS RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE! Perfect! I think it’s funny how a website can actually provide more legitamacy in the business world these days than a store location You HAVE to have it, or else have a HUGE social media following, even then you’d still need it!
Thanks for this, lays everything out that I’ve been trying to explain to people very simply!
True that, you could have better business and sustainability online rather than opening up a brick and mortar business which is very risky and expensive. I’ve learned that the hard way before I learned how having an business online can boost up any existing business you have, or simply survive on its own. Pretty neat knwoing that you have that opportnity right at your fingertips, thanks for dropping by man, mcuh appreciated. Cheers!
What a great article. I have seen many of the sort but I must say this is for every respect. 3900 words in a post is not what one frequently sees. Your own site clearly demonstrates what you are saying, a steady progress. My understanding is that you are an affiliate of Wealthy Affiliate and you show some revenues. Your site is now at 200 visitors daily. I wonder for how long have you been doing this? Just to understand the progress you have been making. Thank you.
Hey Jovo,
I’ve been managing my blog for over a year now and yes, I’m promoting Wealthy Affiliate as I believe in their quality and price price affordability as compared to the other programs. Thanks so much for your kind words, it did take me a while to finish writing this. Cheers!
Riaz, You did a very through job. It has more information than what I was expecting when I first decided to look at your website. I was expecting something more lighter and something more general geared to a person who would be a novice at starting a business on line. Instead, with what your presented you are ready to steering a person with somewhat of an advance background in internet marketing and your are very convincing that you have a proven no nonsense success target.
Thanks Giuseppe, there are many articles on the web on a similar topic that do not answer exactly what the readers want to know so I took up the initiative to answer those. I’m glad I was able to blow you away. cheers!