Three Different Ways of Earning… Which is Best?

All internet entrepreneurs, both new and old will know that there are many ways of earning online, yet few successful ones. While you can make hundreds, thousands or even millions using various methods, most people decide to specialize in one- I, for example make hundreds with copywriting but put me into affiliate marketing and I’d sink like a stone. Here, I’ll look at three methods of earning cash, and analyse them so you can decide which one will suit you best.

1 Affiliate Marketing

This one promises loadsa money but I haven’t really been able to get it to click. Probably because the creative part of my mind is dead and I can’t think of a proper niche, but let’s forget about that hehe. Anyways, affiliate marketing is basically selling products or services of another company/being for a commission; this can work out well as you do not need to buy the product yourself and often the sales page and support are already setup for you via the company whose product you’re promoting. If you’re like me though you’ll find that the Niche A Day website will help; funnily enough they send you a different niche every day via email (who would have guessed, heh?)

Affiliate marketing seems a pretty decent way of earning which is why I want to get into it; once the original website is setup all you need to do is start a couple of PPC (pay per click) campaigns with Adwords and you’re good to go. Adwords wastes a lot of money if you do it by yourself, so make sure you use coupon codes as they can reduce costs by more than 80%.

Should you get into affiliate marketing? Well, as all you need is a domain (if you’re redirecting to an affiliate link) and/or hosting (if you’re building your own site), it doesn’t need that high startup costs, especially as you can always cancel if your Adwords campaigns aren’t converting. Finding a popular, uncompetitive niche (which is a bit of an oxymoron) is essential though, as without that you’ll find it hard to make sales.

2 Copywriting

You will need a decent level of English to make a bit of money on the side as a copywriter; you don’t have to be Shakespeare, but you can’t type like a total d*ckhead either. You could always outsource, if you don’t have the time or the capacity to write; I’ve at times charged $5 for a 500 word article which I’ve received $20 for, so fairly decent for a little amount of work on my part. You will have to work hard to weed out the good writers, but you can still find some who can write at a competent level with few spelling mistakes, often at a decent price. Don’t be greedy though; if you’re pulling in the business, make sure you give them a raise.

On the other hand, if you’re a good enough writer you can do it all yourself; make sure you don’t take on more work than you can handle though. While it is possible to write about many topics, you should focus on a specific niche; if you do, and become known as a master on the subject, you’ll pull in clients who will pay more. If you want to earn a decent amount of cash, you can also look at specializing in sales letters and/or press releases; you will have to train yourself to write them, but they often pay far more than an article of a similar length would get you. Make sure you practise a few times first, and spell check your work for mistakes; also, if anyone who reads this blog takes a job paying less than $0.03 a word I will fly over to wherever you live and slap the hell outta you.

While this is mainly about copywriting it applies to any sort of freelance work, be it designing, programming or even services like social bookmarking submission; you can always outsource, or do it yourself if you build up a reputation for doing good jobs. Make sure you don’t take the low paying gigs though as they’re a waste of time, and spend your energy looking at the higher paying ones.

3 Flipping

You can do this with almost anything; the key is buy small, then sell for a profit. This works for articles, domains, websites (including proxies), PLR packs, computer programs… the list is endless. For me, flipping is a short term thing as I have only a little bit of patience… I like to see whatever I’ve bought/created sold within a week, or better yet a day. If you take a long term approach though, making a couple hundred off something isn’t too much to ask- I stand to make about $120 on the proxy website CloakUs.com, which I paid $10 to setup and $8 total to market. Not f**kin’ bad, heh? While proxies tend to go for 1.5/2x a month’s revenue, established websites can got for 12x, or even double that. Set up a small website, promote it and keep some space in your wallet to stash the pay cheque at the end.

For a website, all you’ll need is a domain name and of course hosting; you can use Adsense to earn revenue, or you can use various other ad programs or even affiliate programs. If you promote the website well, no matter what the niche you can earn some decent money- both while you have it, and of course for the final end price that you sell it for. I’ll be writing an indepth post in a couple weeks on how to setup, promote and monetize a website; stay tuned for it.

Another thing you can do is to buy coded templates (be it WordPress themes, proxy templates or website designs); you can often get these for less than $40 in the Digital Point Templates/Design sections; after that, all you have to do is post it in Link Sales and sell off sponsored links at the bottom, often at upwards of $30 each. Doesn’t that sound decent? Now that I’ve let it out, I presume everyone will be trying this; but there will always be buyers, and you can earn a decent bit of profit this way.

So there you have the three methods. I’ve made most of my money thus far on flipping, although I do implement my copywriting skills as I’ve flipped mainly eBooks and websites about them (domains as well). I’d suggest that you get involved in the other two though; I’m certainly looking at going into affiliate marketing, as I feel I’ve found a decent PLR package which can earn; once you find your niche and product, you will make sales.

As for the eBook flipping, I’ve just hired a new designer who creates far better work than anything I’m capable of; check out www.EarnWithEbooks.com for an example of his work. Pretty kick-ass, heh? That website’s about my eBook scheme, so feel free to buy a copy; I’ve set up E-Junkie so hopefully there will be automated delivery from now on.

Spent about $100 yesterday on various themes, templates and what not; I’ll be selling off the links in the footer though, so let’s see how that goes. Just broke $100 in Adsense too, so well pleased; have a few sales pending so lets see what happens.