The most common question I get by far is: “How can I get started with making money online?”
So I’ve created this course to direct people to who have that question.
If you’re a complete beginner, this guide will be crucial to your success because it is a rundown of how it all works. You’ll learn how it’s even possible to make money online and the various types of methods there are to make money. Just follow along step by step and you will be well on your own way.
Just start from section one and by the last section, you will be making money.
Course Roadmap
- How Much Can You Make Online?
- Why You Should Make Online?
- How People Make Money Online
- What Kind of Website Should I Start?
- Creating a Website
- Designing Your Website For Success
- Getting Your First 1,000 Subscribers
How Much Can You Make Online?
The beauty of the internet is the fact that there is no cap to how much you can make online.
You can make a lot or a little. It depends on how hard you work, how much you learn about your industry, how much you are willing to try and experiment, and maybe just a little luck. Some people make a few bucks a month, others make 40k per month or more.
If you can make $100 you can make $1,000. If you can make $1,000 you can make $10,000. If you can make $10,000 you can make anything you put your mind to.
Why You Should Make Money Online
The greatest benefit to making online is that your income is not tied to your time.
At a job, you can only make the amount of hours your put in. However, on the internet, you can create passive income. Meaning – you can do the work once and get paid over and over for the work you did that one time.
When you make money online, you can be FREE. Freedom and time are the most important things in the world. Being shackled to an office chair is a soul-stealing, heart-crushing affair that no one deserves.
When you have an internet money making system in place you make money whether you work or not. You go to sleep and wake up to see how much money you made the day before.
How People Make Money Online
Despite all the scams and all the fake make-money-from-home opportunities out there, it is actually possible to make money online – and a lot of it!
There are essentially 4 ways that people are able to make money online:
- Create your own product and sell it
- Sell someone else’s product for a commission
- Sell advertisement(s) on your website
- Sell a service
Product Creation
The biggest moneymaker is creating your own high quality product and selling it to your audience.
You can create a digital product like an ebook, a piece of software, a game, or sell another product that you have created. Or you can even sell a physical product straight off of your website.
You can even create an affiliate deal for your product – allow others to generate traffic for you and give them a percentage of the sale. This can all be automated by using companies like Clickbank.com.
Affiliate Marketing
You can sell a product that someone else created for a cut of the profit (also known as affiliate marketing).
Affiliate marketing is when a person advertises a product for another person in return for a % of the profit. Anytime you read a blog that talks about a product they love so very much and they conveniently provide a link for you to check out the product you are looking at affiliate marketing in action.
To become an affiliate marketer you will post a review of a product on your website, get your customers to purchase the product and you will get a piece of the profits. This can add up to some very good income. You can make up to 75% of the purchase price of the product doing this. Let other people create the product and you send traffic to buy that product and collect your money.
The most ethical way to become an Affiliate Marketer is to actually use and enjoy the products that you promote.
Advertisements
You can sell advertising on your website directly to a company(s) or you can use google adsense to sell advertising. Whenever a visitor clicks on an ad on your website, you get paid!
There are three ways to make money with ads: Google Adsense, Private Advertising Affiliate Banner Ads.
Advertising with Google Adsense – Google adsense is the most popular, and easiest method, to put paid advertising on your website. Will it make you a bunch of money? Maybe yes or maybe no. It takes experimentation to find what works best.
Selling Private Advertising – When you have a decent amount of traffic to your website or blog you will get requests to place advertising on your website. You can also create a “Advertise?” link on your website to allow advertisers to contact you about placing their advertising on your website.
Providing A Service
If you want to sell a service, you can provide graphic designs, coaching, proof-reading, consulting, etc. The possibilities are endless.
People will pay you for your service if you have a quality website that makes them feel like you are a qualified expert.
What Kind of Website Should I Start?
Blogs: Blogs are the easiest websites to start and monetize. On a blog you can use adsense ads, you can sell private ads, you can post affiliate links, you can create and sell your own e-book or other product, you can review products for a fee, and you can sell your consulting services. There are many, many ways to make money from a blog.
Niche Sites: A niche site is a small site dedicated to a small market. For example: a website about how to kill ants. Pepper in some articles, pepper in some advertisements, pay attention to the SEO and the competition and watch a steady trickle of money come into your pocket. Niche sites are the bread and butter of internet marketers making a living from their websites. 10, 20, or 30 niche sites bringing in $100-$200 a month can bring you some real money. Niche sites can certainly make more than that per month – but they do take work.
Single Landing Page for a Product: A landing page is a simple one or two page site that shows you a product, it’s benefit and then it’s price. A good example of this would be the List Lifestyle Funnel. A very simple but highly effective sales page for a quality product.
Creating A Website
Once you know what type of website you want to create, it’s time to register your name and set up your website.
Domain Registration
It’s time to register a domain for your website.
A domain is the name of the website. For example: The domain name of this website is “isaiahjackson.com.” A domain can be .com, .net, .org, .us, .info etc.. Domain registration is the act of purchasing a domain name. Domain names are quite cheap if they are not already taken by another person or company. A .com domain name will run in the neighborhood of $10 for a year.
When you purchase a domain name it is a good idea to also purchase a private registration. If you don’t purchase a private registration anyone on the internet can see who owns your site and they can possibly get more information about you. It’s a good idea to protect yourself as much as you possibly can.
There are free websites available but they do not look professional and I highly advise against them. Free websites and blogs can be built at blogger.com or wordpress.com but they will always have blogger, blogspot, or WordPress in the title. For example, if I had started this site on a free platform the domain name would be isaiahjackson.wordpress.com and I would never, ever be able to change that until I purchased a real domain name. If your goal is to make a professional money making website you must purchase your own domain name(s).
You first want to come up with a domain name for your site that is not already taken. Go to A2Hosting.com and check for open names.
Once you find a name that you both like and is available for purchase… move on to the next step.
How To Buy Hosting For Your Website
So now that you’ve found a name for your website. Congratulations!
You need to buy some hosting so you can get your website up on the internet! Hosting is where your webpage, files, and documents are stored. Your website must be hosted somewhere or it cannot be viewed by anyone. It sounds complicated to a very beginner but it isn’t. Once you set up your hosting provider you can forget all about it.
I highly recommend purchasing your hosting through A2Hosting.com because they provide your first domain for free (other places charge $10-$20). Also they provide the best service for an affordable price.
I’ve used half a dozen web hosts over the years and have way too many stories to tell about server crashes, downtime and slow performance.
Now almost all of my sites run on A2Hosting, including IsaiahJackson.com.
Installing WordPress
WordPress will be the content management system we use.
Instead of having to know how to code, WordPress allows you to have a beautiful site up and running in less than a minute! Plus they offer themes that can change the entire look of your site in seconds.
WordPress is the easiest, best and, frankly, only way to run a website. Best of all it is completely free. Every money making blog and small website uses WordPress as their platform. WordPress takes less than 5 minutes to install and is extremely easy to learn and use.
There are two types of wordpress. WordPress.org and wordpress.com. WordPress.com is a site that will let you create a free blog and provide free hosting but your domain name will always end with wordpress.com. I do not recommend you use wordpress.com. WordPress.org is what the big boys use.
So to start, go to YourDomain.com/cpanel and login with the admin details your host provided, scroll to the bottom and click WordPress. Now on the left-hand side is a link to WordPress, click that and click New Installation, fill in the form and then click Install WordPress and you’re done.
Now go to your domain and your website will be installed.
Designing Your Website
It’s time to start designing and building your website. A great looking design is an important component if you want to build a big audience.
A WordPress theme is the look of the website. With WordPress themes you can change the look of your website in a matter of minutes. You can design your own theme, you can use a free theme, or you can purchase a professional looking Premium WordPress theme. Since your goal is making money and not making art then a Premium Theme is the only way to go. Your site has to look good if you’re going to make some money.
To create a great looking and functional design, you have a couple of choices.
First, you can hire a designer to do it for you. If you have the money, this is a pretty good place to spend it. A designer can create a completely unique site that no one else has, and they can use the design itself to better convey your message and meet your goals.
Second, you can try building your website yourself. If you either don’t want to spend the money on a good designer (which can cost from $1k to much, much more), or you’re wondering if you can really do it yourself, this guide will walk you through everything you should consider when setting up your own website.
Starting with a professional theme is a great way to go because it gives you a little personality and doesn’t look like every other website in the world using the default theme or a popular free theme.
I highly recommend OptimizePress.com if you’re looking for a solid, good looking theme that will be easy for you to change. It’s great for beginners.
You’ll notice that I use Optimize Press on several sites.
Have You Taken Action?
Experience is always the best teacher. You can learn all you want about this stuff. You can read this guide a hundred times, but you’re going to learn the most by just taking action.
The nice thing about making money online is that it’s incredibly cheap. The risks are low. You’re not asking for millions of dollars in angel investing, so just do something and learn as you go.
I hope you have enjoyed this guide and it has opened your eyes to some new ideas. If you'd like to keep in touch with me and see what I am doing, you can hop on my email list by clicking here.
Isaiah Jackson
P.S. If you haven't got started yet… don't get lost in the weeds and just dive right in. The #1 quality successful Internet Entrepreneurs share is their ability to take relentless, imperfect action. That is the best word of advice I could possibly give you.