ALT-23 Can you really Make Money Online
I suppose the short answer to ‘can you make money online?’ would be yes, but (there is always a but) very few people get rich by working online. However, many earn a decent second income if they work hard enough, and a few earn enough to live on and pay their bills.
Working hard is the key. The people who earn a second living from their computer treat the work as a business. They spend several hours a day not only creating their online cash, but also promoting their business, which is vital, because the Internet is a vast place and unless you promote your work vigorously you will not be seen and will not earn.
There are several ways to earn a living online:
Content writing sites
If you enjoy writing, you could sign up to a content writing site, such as Helium, Hubpages, Associated Content or Constant Content. Most content sites work in similar ways; you write articles on subjects you enjoy, publish them via the site and Google places adverts around them. If someone clicks on one of these adverts, the site pays you a share of the revenue. Helium also pays up front fees for articles written, and has a section called Marketplace, where you can sell copywriting articles. However, before getting stuck in and writing, it’s important to check that the site you are signing up for will pay you in your country, as some will only pay out in their own country. Don’t expect to earn money straight away, though, as most sites have a minimum payout threshold, and revenue takes time to build, possibly months.
Copywriting
There are numerous copywriting sites, such as Elance and Freelancer where you can bid against other writers for work posted on the site. The beauty of freelance copywriting sites is that payment is usually quick. You write the articles and you are paid within a week or so. The main drawbacks with such sites are that there is a lot of very low-paid work out there, so you really have to pick and choose; $2 for 200 words is OK, for 500 words is not bad, but for 1000 is poor, especially when you consider you will have to research the work too. Having said that, if you are a quick typist and can work to deadlines, you will make money, and once your name is seen around the site and your ratings build, employers will come to find you.
Designing
If you are artistic, you can make money by uploading your work to Café Press or Zazzle, for example, and turning your own designs into a variety of products, such as T shirts, greetings cards, shoes, bags etc., If you are clever at finding non copyright material you can make money by uploading this too and turning it into products. When one of your designs is sold, you receive a royalty. However, don’t expect to earn money straight away, Zazzle, for example suggest that it probably takes about a year to make your first sale.
Etsy and Art Hamster are design sites that allow you to auction your art and craftwork. The sites work in a similar way to Ebay and allow you to post your finished products, along with a guide price. The sites charge a small fee for hosting items.
Surveys
You can make money from completing online surveys, but survey sites vary widely regarding what they expect and how much they pay. Some unscrupulous survey sites encourage you to complete work, and then say that your details don’t quite match their requirements, so that they have a survey for free. Some sites don’t pay outside of a certain country, for example USA, so you need to check first. SurveryHawk is a website that compares survey sites, and has lots of useful information. In addition, it’s important to think about whether you wish your personal details to be so widely known on the web.
The above ideas only encompass online work that is free to sign up to (with the exception of online auction sites), there are other routes, such as Multi Level Marketing (MLM), and buying and selling domain names that do earn money, but you need to invest money in the first place.
Whichever choice you make, it’s important to diversify as much as possible; sites can change their rules whenever they wish, as can Google, so that your earnings could be adversely affected. It may be better to mix copywriting, with Zazzle for example, or copywriting with content writing, so that you have a spread of earnings.
