7 Steps to Begin Making Money Online

More than ever before, men and women are finding out that they have an incredible opportunity to begin making money online either as a way to supplement their existing income or replace it fully.

It doesn't matter what age you are, as long as you have access to the Internet, you can set up a business that caters to the needs of audience craving products and services you can choose to offer to them.

The best thing about pursuing this path in life is that you can go at your own pace, set your goals according to what you hope to achieve, and make all of the decisions about when you work and what you do on a daily basis.

It’s the ultimate path to personal and professional satisfaction and it delivers above and beyond what you could ask for in terms of work-life balance. If you are a newcomer to this industry, you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the choices in front of you.

Below, you’ll discover seven basic steps to help you making money online so that you can start taking action and bringing your dreams to fruition. This can take the financial pressure off immediately and build into something formidable that supports the kind of retirement you want to enjoy someday.

Step #1: Conduct a Self-Assessment for Your Entrepreneurial Journey

Before you begin implementing steps to build your business, you need to conduct an assessment that shows you which path would be in your best interest. There are several things you want to consider in determining which choices will bring you the most satisfaction and profitability.

The first thing you want to do is think about the amount of time you want to commit to this new business. For some of you, it will be very limited as a side hustle, and for others it will be a full time pursuit.

This can help you choose which business model to choose as well as how to manage that particular choice effectively. The second thing you need to consider is what skills you bring to the table.

Obviously, if you are not good at writing, you wouldn't want to choose to be a freelance ghostwriter. In addition to knowing what you are inherently good at, you also want to know what you enjoy as a passion.

For many people, leaving a traditional workplace is often the result of not enjoying their tasks, and that’s important when you’re dedicating time to your career. When you start thinking about your passions and skills, think about what you could offer in terms of products and services with that combination.

And lastly, take time to consider your goals. Of course, money is one thing you’re after – but are you looking for a little extra in your wallet or earnings that can replace your income and allow you to scale it into an empire that will serve you (and your family) well for years?

Step #2: Research the Marketplace and Identify Niche Needs

The next step is to start evaluating the marketplace. You need to think about the needs of your potential niche and audience. You can start by identifying niches that you would enjoy being in and that you have knowledge in to share with others.

Then you can start looking at the demographics who needs your insight. Don’t just look at details about their gender, age and income level but also their wants and needs – their true pain points that indicate whether or not they’ll spend money with you.

You can use research tools to help you navigate the research process. You can start out broad and narrow down your research until you’re sure you can carve a place out for yourself based on demand and competition.

There are tools like Google Keyword Planner, WordRecon, Ahrefs and SEMRush that can give you insight based on keywords being used by the consumers. You can use some of these same tools to uncover details about the competition – including what they’re doing and what they’re missing that you could leverage in your own business.

You can also use other research methods like going onto social media platforms and in forums to lurk or engage with the niche audience to see what they need or prefer in the marketplace.

Step #3: Devise a Plan for Tapping Into One or More Business Models

The third step in your entrepreneurial journey will be to pick out one or more business models to start earning from that align with your niche needs. For example, if you’re pursuing the children’s toy niche, then selecting info product development like writing eBooks wouldn’t be a smart choice – but affiliate marketing would.

You may want to start and grow a single business model in the beginning so that you can pour your entire focus and efforts into growing it into a success. But some people like to build multiple streams of income right off the bat, and that’s an option for you, too.

There are many different business models you can choose from, but we’ll highlight a few of the most popular ones. Info product development, like writing eBooks or recording videos courses is great if you have knowledge to share about topics people want to learn.

Affiliate marketing is great for people who want to review other people’s products and recommend items in exchange for a commission. This can come in the form of digital or tangible products.

Offering freelance services such as being a virtual assistant, graphic designer, or ghostwriter may be a good choice. The only drawback if you’ll be exchanging time for money, so you’ll eventually max out on what you can earn.

You might want to choose something else, like drop-shipping where you serve as a middleman in recommending products, but also taking payment and setting your own markup – or coaching, where you’ll be working directly with clients instead of just sharing information in an eBook.

Step #4: Set Up Your Online Business Entity in Multiple Areas

Once you have those steps down, you’ll want to start setting up your online business. You first want to have a business or brand name in mind. This might be your own name or a business name that you create from scratch.

Whether you are creating or recommending products – or offering services, you want to have an online entity where you can connect with your customers or clients. This will serve as your hub for where you build a list and showcase your expertise.

You can launch a blog or website with ease. Simply register a domain URL (preferably with a dot com extension). Hosting is inexpensive, and you can quickly connect the nameservers so that your blog goes live the same day.

There are themes and page builders that can help you create a professional-looking site that properly reflects your brand. Set up the basic pages in the beginning that include your legal disclaimers and terms of services pages, an About page, Contact page and other pages you feel are important.

Next, grab the brand or business profile accounts on various social media platforms you might be using. These include platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook (page and group), Pinterest and more. Make sure your branding is identical across the various entities you have online.

Step #5: Develop Your Products or Services to Be Offered

Up next, you're going to want to have a strategy in place for developing your products or services that you plan to offer to your prospective customers and clients. This could include things like eBooks, video courses, freelance services, and more.

If you’re choosing to be in affiliate marketing, then you’ll want to find items you’ll be promoting. Once you know the types of products you'll be promoting to match with your customers’ needs, you can sign up on various platforms to get your exclusive affiliate link.

If you are pursuing drop-shipping or FBA, you’ll want to source products to promote or sell and get those listings set up on your website so you can being sending traffic to them.

Remember that in everything you do, whether you are developing your own products or recommending and selling other people's, you want to impress your target audience so that they begin to trust you and become repeat customers.

Step #6: Begin Content Marketing Strategically on Various Platforms

With your next step, you're going to ignite the process of sending traffic to or pulling traffic to your website. If you are going to be blogging and bringing traffic in based on search engine rankings, you'll want to master the art of search engine optimization (SEO).

Not only do you want to appease search bots, so that you will be indexed high, but you also want to think about the needs of the customer and whether or not your content is going to satisfy them.

You can also begin content marketing on various social media platforms. Think about different media formats that you can use, such as text, short and long form video, images, and even audio in some cases to educate your target audience and funneled them back to your site or to your offers.

Make sure you are considering how to optimize your content on social media platforms so that your posts are discovered easily, such as through the use of hashtags – and that you are timing your publication of content on each platform for the best results.

With both blogging and social media content marketing, you will want to tap into your data analytics that are provided to you so that you can see what's working with your target audience and what isn't.

Step #7: Implement a Profitable and Scalable Monetization Plan

And lastly, you need to think about how you are going to monetize your niche, and if possible, scale it into something significant that aligns with your ultimate income goals. Sometimes, you'll find a niche that you can monetize in several different ways.

For example, if you are in the weight loss niche, not only can you create your own info products to sell to people, but you can promote products as an affiliate marketer and you can even offer coaching programs that help people overcome their own obstacles.

Some niches, such as the toy example that we gave earlier, are a little more limited in how you can profit from them, but you still want to consider all monetization options, which include the creation of your own products, promoting other products for a commission, integrating advertisements onto your site so that you get paid whenever someone clicks on them, and even some sort of membership or subscription level program that will give you recurring income.

You may want to start with one type of monetization and then add more as time goes on. You always want to pay attention to what is bringing the best results for you so that you can do more of that and less of what isn't working.

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Fred The Submarine Guy Raley