The internet is wealth creating resource. It has made millionaires of countless individuals who have found ways of providing products/services via the internet. This site is for e-marketers and future or home-based business owners. Here you’ll find ways to make money on the internet as well as work-at-home resources to help get you started. First, let’s start with the most common ways of making money online. Below are the 6 most common ways used today to earn income on the net:
Buying and Reselling/Ebay
Drop-shipping
E-trading
MLM (Multilevel Marketing) and Direct Selling
Affiliate/Referral Programs
“Out of the box”
1. E-bay Selling - Buying and selling products is one the most common ways of making money online. It can be very profitable if you find, make or channel a product that is in demand for example: e-books/information, electronics, furniture, office supplies, apparel, etc. The key is to out-think the competition, since the creation of the Ebay phenomenon thousands of sellers have monetized on the opportunity. It’s important to find a product that you’re familiar with in order to be an effective seller; for example, don’t sell computers if you don’t know what “processor speed” is, you’ll just set yourself up for failure. If your having trouble finding a product try going to WWB, they offer products as well as information/ tools on how to find niche products and sell them on Ebay. You can also go to the Ebaystore to set up an inexpensive storefront if you don’t want to build your own.
Drawbacks to Ebay selling are:
Finding/making a profitable product
Can be time consuming (Plan to spend 20-30 hrs/week)
Very competitive market
2. Drop-ship- Drop-shipping is very similar- however the advantage to drop-shipping is that you don’t have to worry about moving the products yourself. With drop-shipping you’re really working as a third party in the sense that you find vendor’s who’ll drop-ship, and when you make a sale, they deliver the products directly to the customer for you-thus, no inventory or overhead costs? It can also save you the money and hassle of running to UPS every month to send/receive shipments. Another perk is that you don’t have to buy the product before you sell it! You simply take the order and give it to the manufacturer for shipping, and you receive a check, without having bought a thing. I know I make this sound pretty easy but in fact it takes an adequate amount of information gathering in order find hot products. The first thing you will need to obtain is a drop-ship directory in order to find vendors who drop-ship, it will cost you anywhere from $55-85, but the money you spend will more than pay you back in safety and time. The only source I recommend for directories is WorldWide again because their the only vendor directory provider that’s Ebay certified-there’s a lot of fakes out their posing as drop-ship providers who are really just “middlemen” trying to collect a commission.
Drawbacks to drop-shipping are:
It can be extremely time-consuming finding reputable vendors with profitable products that will work with drop-shippers.
Backorders and returns can be a headache if you’re with a bad vendor.
3. E-trading is a trend growing more in popularity everyday. Right now the biggest e-trading market is Forex (Foreign Exchange Market) which has a higher turnover rate than the U.S. equity market. Foreign currency trading is a VERY lucrative market and involves simultaneously buying and selling currency online. Transactions take place OTC (Over the Counter) or via internet/phone, as there is no centralized location for trade such as with the stock or futures markets. Not only does Forex offer trading tutorials and conferences for you to learn to trade, but they also allow novice traders to get a taste of the market by allowing you to begin trading with as little as a $25 investment. Forex trading time is short in nature as it does not require long periods of holding before trading as with stocks or bonds. Actually 85% of all currency transactions last around a week or less. A great benefit of trading with Forex is that you aren’t charged commissions or exchange fees. They also offer “real time” price quotes. Go over to Forex.com to get more information about the currency trading market and how to get started.
Drawbacks:
Plan to have an investment of at least $250 to see the big bucks.
The market can be very sporadic and due to the short term nature you will need to stay informed (daily, even hourly) of trends and economic changes that will cause value fluctuation.
4. MLM and Direct Selling business opportunities in my opinion are the most misrepresented and underestimated income opportunities on the web. Most of this is due to false and misleading claims about products/services and income potential made by shady distributors and sales associates. Multi-Level Marketing or (MLM) companies are organizations that provide a product or service and market it by “word of mouth” advertising or paying independent distributors to sell the products as oppose to paid advertising i.e., radio, TV, newspaper. These distributors sell the products and receive commissions; however the majority of the money is made by “referring” or bringing in more distributors, who then bring in more distributors, and so on. The key to these businesses is to find established and legit companies with good commission structures and not spend time and money on small, “fly by night” corporations. Direct Selling is really in essence MLM (even though they try hard to distinguish themselves) except the products that are usually sold are “higher ticket” or more expensive products. Direct selling allows you to make more money with fewer recruits because you have higher commissions. Both of these opportunities are for people who desire and motivation to “run their own business”, because once you recruit people in under you, you have to teach them how to do the same, it’s called the process of “duplication” which involves duplicating the work habits of successful individuals and teaching others to do the same. Income is unlimited and residual, so even when you retire from the business (realistically anywhere from 2-4 years) you’ll still receive checks! An initial investment is required for both opportunities in order to purchase the products and/or start-up kit so if your not looking to invest anywhere between $50-250 for an MLM or at least $500-2k for Direct Selling maybe these businesses aren’t for you.
Drawbacks:
With so many un-established companies on the internet its hard to discern what companies are paying real people real money, so do your research before pulling out your credit card.
There is a high drop out rate in MLM’s due to lack of adequate training from the recruiter/upline and or motivation on the recruits part, so choose your upline carefully because some members will recruit you then leave you on the corner.
Direct selling is bit more challenging due to the type of products/services being offered. It’s more challenging to sell due to the fact that a lot of people who are looking for a business are doing so because cash is tight, so most of them don’t have a grand to invest in order to start (believe me I know).
5. Last but not least we have Affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are perfect for people who don’t want to sell their own product, don’t want to talk to people on the phone or in person, and/or don’t want to spend a lot of money. An affiliate is someone who advertises a company’s services/products on their site by placing banners/ads of the company’s site on their website. When the organization makes a sale from your website link, and in some cases even a referral from the affiliate’s site, the affiliate receives a commission. Affiliate marketing is inexpensive to start because 99% of the companies don’t charge yo