Often articles jump into the specifics of what goes behind an online business, like SEO (search engine optimization), leaving the reader quite baffled about how SEO actually fits into the big picture. What I found through my own experience was that all these specifics meant nothing to me without some sort of big picture understanding of the overall concept of how to make money online.
So here it is. The concept of how to make money online by creating an online business. The concept consists of six interrelated parts shown below.
- Website
- Niche
- The List
- Marketing
- Provide Value
- Sell
It may or may not be obvious, but before you can actually make money with an online business you will need to have some sort of web presence (1. WEBSITE) like a website or a blog. You will then need to select the particular subject matter (2. NICHE) that your website or blog will be about. With any luck you will begin to attract a following (3. LIST) of readers to your website/blog. When you first get online it will be rare to start with a massive following, so you will need to find ways to attract (4. MARKETING) a following. So what do you do once you have a small following? Well you can't just sit there and do nothing or else your following will probably forget about you and go elsewhere. You therefore need to provide value. What is value? Value in this case is 'valuable or useful information' (5. PROVIDE VALUE) about the subject matter that your website/blog is about. So where does profitability come into it? I hear you saying. Well once you attract a large enough 'captive' audience you will find that there will be many avenues from which to monetize your website/blog. For example, you could write an eBook and offer it for sale (6. SELL) to your 'list'. Alternatively, if you don't fancy writing an eBook, you could offer someone else's eBook for sale (6. SELL) to you 'list' in return for a commission. Another popular way to monetize a website/blog that is attracting a large following is to allow advertisers to advertise (6. SELL) on your website/blog for a fee. Or you could offer your list other useful products and services (6. SELL) they need from vendors that offer affiliate commissions for any sales you make.
Hopefully, a little light bulb just came on in your head! The potential is almost unlimited. You could make a few dollars a day or pull in literally millions of dollars per year. Have you heard of The Huffington Post? For those of you who haven't, it is a news blog that was started by Arianna Huffington in 2005. In 2011, AOL bought The Huffington Post for $315 million! Not bad for six years of work.
You now have the big picture view or concept of how money is made online. What are you going to do with it? You could do nothing, and carry on doing what you are currently doing, or you could continue reading the next six articles in this series which delve a little bit deeper into each of the six parts to the concept of how money is made online. Who knows, it may be the start of financially rewarding journey?
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