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Make Money Online Easily In 13 Ways

Bring in income to add freedom to your life.

So you have a side hustle and want to bring in income. That’s always the goal, right?

Before you do anything, you want to be sure that you are focusing less on making money and more on the value that you provide with your free content. Your free content is what your audience sees first thing, when they’re “cold” and don’t know you or what you have to offer very well.

Use your free content to warm up your cold audience, and turn them into people who will buy your products. The first step is getting them on your email list, and I talk all about the importance of having an email list, even in 2019, in this post.

And when you get them on your email list, that means you still have to provide value. It doesn’t mean assaulting your audience with sales emails right off the bat. You want them to know, like, and trust you first. That factor is critical when it comes to earning income through your side hustle.

Fortunately, when you are ready to bring in income through your side hustle, there are a TON of different ways to do that.

You can pick and choose which ones work best for you and your business.

And just because one method doesn’t work for you right now, doesn’t mean it won’t forever. It’s always best to start with one, and then move forward as you grow.

Want to TL;DR this? Head on down to the last two for the ways that you can REALLY make the biggest income for your investment, along with the one way to scale to bring in the most income—an income that ISN’T dependent on your time.

And if you’re ready to make money WHILE growing your email list, download my free guide, 5 Steps To A Profitable Email List (also featuring a bonus masterclass).

Making Money Online Easily With Display Ads

Running ads on your website is by far one of the easiest ways to make money online.

But a warning: unless you have a lot of traffic (we’re talking hundreds of thousands of views per month), you’re not going to bring in a lot of money from it.

Is it still worth it?

In my opinion, yes.

The easiest entry into earning money through ads is to sign up for Google Adsense, which is the most accessible platform because it does not have a minimum traffic requirement like Monumetric and MediaVine and other ad platforms do.

If you’re planning on going for one of those higher-value platforms like Monumetric or MediaVine, it’s still recommended that you run ads on your website through something like Google Adsense because it gets your readers used to the fact that yes, you do run ads on your website.

That way, when you do move platforms, there won’t be a sudden shock to your long-time readers that you’re going from no ads to all of a sudden having ads.

Making Money Online Easily With Affiliate Marketing

Another easier entry into bringing in income online is with affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing if when you become an affiliate, or a representative of a product that you recommend to your audience. You talk about the product, usually in a review or roundup-type post, and include a link to that product that is connected to your affiliate account. When someone buys through your link, you earn a commission.

Depending on what you are an affiliate for, or what program you are using, the affiliate commission may vary, but there are programs that offer commissions as high as 40%, or even more. Online courses that you take may also have an affiliate program, so if you take a program that you highly recommend others to take, you can see about becoming an affiliate for it.

Now, to see a significant impact in your affiliate earnings, you’re going to want to have a lot of traffic coming to your blog posts featuring the products that you recommend. That means focusing your marketing to those posts, especially on platforms like Pinterest and Instagram.

What is most important when it comes to affiliate marketing is not to be spammy. You want to make sure that you are recommending products you actually believe in, rather than just talking about a product or a program you have never heard of because it has a high commission rate.

How do you find products to be an affiliate for? The easiest way is to search ‘[name of product] + affiliate”.

The easiest way to start with affiliate marketing is by joining a program like Amazon Affiliates or ShareaSale. There are many affiliate programs that are niche-based, so if you’re in the fashion niche, you’ll be able to find programs that have a lot of offerings for clothing and beauty.

Making Money Online Easily With eBooks

If you’re looking for one of the lower-effort (so to speak, because these do take a TON of effort) entry into digital products, eBooks are a great option.

Enjoy writing and have a lot to say on a particular topic? Then an eBook is a great way to compile that into something that your audience and purchase.

Another way to make money online with eBooks is to compile your best blog posts (in the same category) together, all in one easy-access eBook.

Now, you might say, “But all my blog posts are available for free on my website. Why would anyone want to pay for that content?”

What they’re paying for isn’t so much the content (though it is), but it’s also the ease of access. Your readers may not have the time or the patience to go through your website’s entire back log of content, but if you have an eBook compiling your best “blogging fundamentals” posts all into one blueprint into how to make the best impact with a new blog, then you’re likely to have customers interested in going to that one place to supplement their transformation.

eBooks can also be content that is NOT found anywhere on your website, or is content based on what you send your email subscribers, or your personal story. The sky is the limit with the content you can put into an eBook.

You also have a lot of options on where to sell your eBook, since you can sell them directly on your website, or also sell them on outlets like Amazon, Kindle, Kindle Direct Publishing, or Barnes & Noble, or any other platform that sells eBooks.

eBooks are also a great way to show that you are an expert in your field, because you can offer copies of your eBook in advance of its publication to certain members of your audience in exchange for reviews and testimonials. Those reviews will then encourage more people to buy, because they have more than just you word that it’s a quality product.

Making Money Online Easily With Templates

This may seem small but is actually a big one.

When you think about the fact that any product you make should have the ultimate goal of making your customer’s lives easier, templates are huge.

When you’re offering a template to someone, you’re basically shouting, “Hey, I have a shortcut for you, which is going to allow you to spend less time on the thing you’re doing, so you can live your life!”

Templates can be anything from graphics (both Photoshop or Canva), or email swipe files (say: here’s my plug and play sales funnel email sequence!), or sales copy, or business plans. Anything that your customer can customize to fit their needs, but they need someone to provide them with that first step.

You provide the framework, and your customers plug and play away.

The biggest perk is that you can offer certain packs at lower prices, to give your audience a taste of what you have to offer, but then also have higher-ticket template packages to offer for more labor-intensive work. Those low-cost offerings will warm your audience up to your product suite, and make them all the more likely to come back and purchase from you again.

Making Money Online Easily With Printables

Another offering in the ‘make your customers’ lives easier” category is printables.

Printables can cover a wide range of products, including workbooks, fitness trackers, calendars, meal-planning, business plans, content calendars, etc.

You design the product once once, and then can offer it to your audience to go along with the things you teach them in your niche.

Say you’re a fitness coach, but most of your clients aren’t in the place to spend money to work with you one-on-one. For those clients, you can create a simple fitness plan that walks them through one type of transformation—like becoming more consistent at working out at home. And as a bonus, you can throw in an easy meal plan, not completely customized to your one-on-one clients, but something simple that anyone can follow.

Or, if you’re a busy stay-at-home mom, teaching other stay-at-home moms how to stay organized so they don’t feel like their lives are constantly crashing around them with their busy schedules, you can create a weekly “family tracking” calendar, that easily showcases what everyone in the family has planned, so your customer and their spouse or partner can keep their stories straight and remember which kid to pick up on which day.

Printables can easily be created in Photoshop or Canva. All you have to do once you’re done is put it on your website, and then start making sales.

Making Money Online Easily With Video Trainings

We live in a world of video, which means video trainings are incredibly popular.

Now, video trainings are not the same as online courses (which I go into, in depth, at the end of this post). Rather, video trainings are short video series that you compile that provide clarity and education on one specific topic.

Video trainings can be popular because they don’t take as long as a full-blown eCourse to create. All you have to do is record a handful of videos, package them either on your own website or an eCourse platform like Teachable or Kajabi, create the sales page, and sell.

If you’re a musician, you can create a video training series on how to play a certain song, or how to learn the basics of playing guitar/piano/the drums.

If you teach about blogging education, you can create a series on how to repurpose your blog post content onto other platforms, with separate videos for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

You can also repurpose your own video content into a paid training. If you have a live training series that you did on your Facebook page, you can turn those trainings into paid content by downloading them off Facebook and loading them onto a paid platform.

Or you can turn your live trainings into a recorded webinar that funnels viewers into the sales series for another piece of paid content.

Making Money Online Easily With Audio Programs

Are you a musician? Then you know all about how to sell audio files—you know, songs.

But selling audio files can be much more than just selling music.

Audio files can mean an audio version of your eBook, a recording of a talk you’ve given, or a meditation or hypnosis.

There kinds of audio products are great to use as supplements to your other paid OR free even products. Many creators will plan a free training, and offer something like a low-cost paid audio program to supplement that training. Because it’s low-cost, it’s a no-brainer for the customer, and also warms them up to your higher-ticket paid content that is offered at the end of the training.

You can also use audio files as upsells to other pieces of your paid content. For example, if you have an eBook, you can offer the audio version at a discount on the sales page.

Audio programs have been popular since the days of the cassette tape (and probably even before), and if you have something that you can teach, you have something that you can record and purpose into an audio program.

And, if you’re very much an introvert and are still working on building your confidence toward video content, paid audio content is a great way to connect to your audience without them having to see your face. Being able to listen to someone brings you that extra connection that goes beyond just seeing how they write (which is why podcasts are so popular).

Making Money Online Easily With Physical Products

Are you an artist?

Then you can bring in income through your website by yes, selling your art.

Etsy is one of the most popular platforms for selling hand-made, physical products, along with websites like RedBubble and Society6.

If you don’t actually make your products, you can still sell things like t-shirt and coffee mugs with your company logo or popular quotes.

You can also sell your own planners or journals or notebooks.

This option does have a higher barrier of entry because of the costs of creating the products can be higher. You also are on the hook for shipping costs and storage costs, and when you want to create a physical product.

Most often those products must be purchased in bulk, and in advance, which can make it a risky investment if you haven’t done your market research and are sure that your audience is interested in any physical product you make. One great way to test a physical product to see if it will sell, is to create something like a Kickstarter Campaign for that product.

Making Money Online Easily With Membership Programs

Membership programs are popular with online creators because they are easy to create, and bring in predictable income each month.

With membership programs, you can create exclusive content to the paying members of you community on a regular basis, and bring in more money that your free content does not offer.

But with membership programs comes the importance of consistency. You need to ensure that the content you create each month is both consistent and valuable, or you risk seeing a drop-off in members, and probably a lot of requests for refunds.

Membership programs can either pay yearly in advance, or on a monthly payment plan. The other benefit to membership programs is they can be a lower barrier for entry for your customers. They can be as low as $6 per month to $47 a month or even more, and allow your members to access an entire library of content. And while it seems like not a lot of money, it adds up both monthly and each time someone becomes a member.

Another benefit to membership programs is the interactivity and the community that it provides. Adding a bonus like a private Facebook group means that the members can get to know one another, interact and bounce ideas off one another.

Membership programs can be open at all times, or can only open to join once or twice a year, and the latter option brings in that all-important sense of urgency that encourages people to join while that window is open.

Making Money Online Easily With Sponsored Posts

If you have a large, dedicated following, then diving into the world of sponsored posts is a great way to bring in income.

Sponsored posts are when you work directly with a brand, recommending a certain product, usually that you receive for free, or as part of your fee for featuring the product in your content.

These days, companies recognize the power that influencers have, especially with viral content and social media.

There are a range of sponsored posts, and it’s difficult to navigate a platform like Instagram without finding something that’s been tagged as a “Sponsored Post”. With established influencers, a company can pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, just for one or two posts featuring the product.

Now, you’re not going to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars, right off the bat, with sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are not the easiest to land, but with effort and consistency with your platform, you will be able to come to agreements with companies in exchange for product and or income. And you don’t need a massive following either, as long as you can show a company that your following is dedicated and engaged.

The one caveat for sponsored posts is that, if you’re outside of the United States, sponsorship agreements can be difficult to come by. Many companies only look for U.S.-based influencers, no matter how large a person’s social media following may be.

When working with sponsored posts, just like affiliate marketing, it’s important that you’re working with a company whose product that you believe in. Influencers who share content from just any company that is willing to work with them can come off as incredibly inauthentic, which is a turnoff for most audiences.

Making Money Online Easily With Group Coaching

I go into 1-1 coaching in depth in the next section, but group coaching is a fantastic way to get a larger audience, and also to build a community with your customers.

When you have a group coaching program, not only do your customers get to connect with you, but they also connect with the other people in the program.

That sense of community is one of the biggest reasons people join group programs. They know that there are people at the same level as they are, learning and growing, and they want to connect with them. The opportunity to connect with other people further encourages your customers to stay the course when it comes to whatever your niche is.

And people are willing to pay for that sense of connection, along with the access to you as the leader of the program.

It’s something that costs less than 1-1 coaching, which makes it more accessible to customers, but also ads a ton of value without you having to do any extra work.

Filling group programs can be challenging, and does require you to have a connection and engagement with your audience before you make the offer. It is much more difficult to convert a brand new email subscriber to a high-ticket group coaching program than it is someone who you have made a connection with over months and multiple emails, and even face-to-face conversation.

If you’re pitching 1-1 coaching to your potential client, but they can’t afford it, offering them access to a group coaching program, which is at a lower cost, is a great way to keep that person as a client, but also gives them the potential to working with you 1-1 down the line.

Making Money Online Easily With 1-1 Coaching

When you’re just starting out, monetizing your side hustle with 1-1 coaching is a great way to bring in income, especially when you have a small audience.

Remember, your time is your greatest asset, and it is worth a TON.

And coaching clients 1-1 is great when you’re starting out, because you get a direct line to your idea client to find out EXACTLY what they want from you. You can not only tailor your content and offerings to their suggestions, but you can also use your 1-1 clients as beta testers for any programs you create. Not only that, but they also provide you with those much-needed testimonials that can prove to colder audiences that you are an expert in your chosen field, and that they should work with you.

Of course, the caveat with 1-1 coaching is that you only have so many hours in a day, especially when you have a side hustle. That means that there are only so many hours you can offer to your clients, and only so many clients you can take on.

But it’s still a fantastic option, because you don’t need an email list of thousands in order to get your first few clients. In fact, all you need is one stellar, high-ticket offer, and then one yes.

Making Money Online Easily With eCourses

If you haven’t heard by now, online courses are where it’s at. This is THE monetization method that will bring you the most income, while doing the least amount of work (after you get it all together).

Know that courses that a TON of work, especially when you’re creating a signature course, so you want to be strategic about it. And by strategic, I mean testing. You want to KNOW that your audience will want to buy your course BEFORE you make it, because if you put days and weeks and months of effort into a course that no one wants, then what do you have to show for all your hard work?

But when you do have a course that you KNOW will sell, then all you have to do once it’s done is just that—sell it. Sell it as many times as you want. It is infinitely scalable, and once you get students into your course and providing you with testimonials, it can have the potential to pretty much sell itself.

And with online courses, there are two ways to go about selling: evergreen and launching. An evergreen course is a course that is always available for sale, while launching means you only open your course for registration a few times a year. With launching, you offer a sense of urgency, because your potential student does not know when you are going to offer the course again, while evergreen means that no matter who finds your course, no matter when they find it, will be able to purchase.

When it comes to determining whether you should go for evergreen or the launch method, the recommendation is to start with launching until you know that it will sell, and then set up the automation to make it evergreen. The one caveat would be that high-ticket signature course. Very often, many course creators will keep their signature course in the launch style, because they are so large and high ticket, they want to make the biggest impact with that sense of urgency, and often only open the cart once or twice a year.

Ready To Start Your Own Side Hustle?

Have a lot to talk about, but don’t have the website to guide your readers to? Now is the perfect time to get started.

Now is the perfect time to take my free email course, where I teach you how to plan a year’s worth of blog content in just one day. This training takes away all the mystery behind figuring out what you’re going to write from week to week and helps you plan the ultimate in blogging content that your audience will absolutely love.

Don’t forget to get hosting (plus a free domain) for as little as $3.95/month through Siteground. You can read why I choose Siteground to host my websites in my post, 6 Reasons I Host My Side Hustle On Siteground (And You Should Too).

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