You can make money online, but you have to be realistic – It’s going to take work. Ideas are easy; it’s the marketing that will take time and effort.
Marketing to a group of people who share a common interest is do-able. Marketing to half a million random people spread around the globe is not. Narrow it down and become a niche goddess.
Become an Instagram Goddess
If fame is your game, then Instagram is your channel. Be yourself, and your Instagram following will grow like a pumpkin seed in June and you will soon have a viable group you can target with your marketing.
A large number of followers is crucial to making a profit from Instagram and to get to that point, you will need to make frequent posts that focus on a narrow range of interests.
Whether you are driven by 70’s fashion for teenagers or Volkswagen Beetle accessories, you should post pictures of you with your treasures: This will ensure people check you out every few days, so they will see your marketing messages when you start posting them.
You can start an e-commerce store without carrying stock or handling cash is you use drop shipping. Only stock the items your followers will love: Take your own photos and offer free delivery to maximize success.
Start a Facebook Group
Any Facebook user can start a Facebook Group. Build your group around a common interest such as parenting, saving money or neighborhood and develop a sense of community that will encourage members to interact with posts. You can monetize your group by finding products and services members need and then linking to them on your website or on Amazon.
Most posts should be informational and entertaining with only the occasional marketing post.
Run Online Courses
Everyone has some knowledge that others would gladly pay for. It could be choosing spices to make a curry, making castles out of matchsticks or public speaking tips.
There are many course platforms to choose from, though these do sometimes come at a high price. As an alternative, you could use a premium WordPress plugin to build your course.
Research is the key to making a profit in this area. You must listen to your potential clients to ascertain their needs and what they are prepared to pay for a course that addresses those needs. Once you have that information, then build a slimmed-down version of your course at a lower price than the one you are planning to charge eventually. Use this trial course for beta testing and to generate testimonials.
Marketing your course will need a strong social media presence and a reputation as the go-to person in your niche.
Run Online Summits
Online summits are increasingly popular as a way to make money online. There are no large platforms to build your summit, but there is plenty of advice on the subject.
Decide what problem your summit will solve for attendees, contact influencers in your niche and ask them to record a presentation or interview aimed at addressing different aspects of that problem.
You load these recordings onto Amazon Web Services and schedule them for delivery across a two or three day weekend.
To be successful, your summit must be win/win/win. Attendees must get wonderful value; speakers must be able to grow their email lists and be able to make money from the summit, too.
Make the tickets for the summit free or low-cost, and offer each attendee an upsell of an all-access pass for $97 or $147.
Solve Website & Social Media Problems
Every company has issues with its website and social media accounts. Small businesses cannot afford a full-time IT person or web developer, but some will be happy to pay you a retainer if you can fix ongoing issues with their sites or accounts.
If you know your way around WordPress and can edit pictures, this is something you could do. You only need to know more than your client: Nobody knows everything, especially in fluid areas like Internet technology.
The need exists as evidenced by the existence of competing services in this area. You could stand out by marketing your business locally using flyers or taking out ads in local newspapers.
Summing Up
There are still many ways you can make money online in 2018. If you can offer a service people need and are willing to pay for, you can make a part-time income at first, which you can expect to grow if you work on your marketing.
Marketing is crucial to any online venture. The days of ‘Build it, and they will come’ are long gone.