Money-making tips and techniques

How to Make Money Online

Most of us at some point in our lives have worked for money. Often, it involves toiling away at jobs we do not enjoy, or have any passion for. It seems to be the way of the world these days and in an economic climate dictated by uncertainty, it is little wonder more and more people want their own businesses. But the fact remains, a wage that is always there (we hope) pays the bills; a business in its infancy has no such steady income for its founders!

The internet is so vast that definitive ways to generate consistent and reliable income streams significant enough in volume to support living expenses are hard to find! Yes, you can operate an eBay store, yes you can run your own standalone website and yes you can write and participate in blogs and forums. You can use social media and free online classifieds for marketing your wares and do a myriad of other web-based activities with the goal of making money.

The problem has become that as time elapses, our costs of living have increased drastically. This means the income we need to support ourselves also needs to increase to meet our day-to-day needs. The principle of keeping everyone in perpetual debt as per the Zeitgeist formula means that most people are kept in fear of starting a business. The risk is simply too great and when combined with having families to feed and negative social stigma associated with failure and bankruptcy, it becomes a task to justify starting your own business.

Obviously, starting small and cheap is the way to go! You might work full time for someone else and come home to work a couple of hours a night on your own small business. Many successful business people start this way. What can be even more successful is if a number of family members can work together on the business. Especially for internet-based businesses. As some family members are out working, others can work on the home-based internet business. So there is always someone working on growing the business!

Having more than one person is a huge asset, because building an online business is a game of stamina and time. One person can easily wear themselves down trying to do all the work; I know because I have done it! But if you can spread the workload, the effort and growth is something that consistently takes the business forward. It can only be a hindrance if people are not working together and following a uniform task list. Working with family can be a nightmare! It doesn't need to be.

One of the biggest keys to success on the internet is finding ways to 'raise your voice above the crowd.' Most of us cannot afford a multi-million-dollar Google Adwords campaign. So we resort to sheer cunning, word of mouth marketing, social media and as many free online resources as possible to build our little brand into something of value! Link building is one of the biggest keys to your success.

In simple terms, link building is like trying to build as many footpaths and roads to your shop as you can. If you think about your online business as being a retail outlet shop in the real world, you would want:

• great positioning in an area renown for retail, shopping and spending;
• that is accessed by major roads and arterials to deliver shopping traffic;
• and have a big, bold storefront with fantastic signage and lights to draw attention.

Making it as easy as possible for as many people as possible to find your online store/s and businesses is the critical ingredient in an increasingly-complex and ever evolving internet environment. This takes sustained effort, much time, patience and stamina. In the next few days I will upload an online business blog entry which is a large list of social bookmarking, social media and resources. These will play a pivotal role in you developing link-building strategies for success.