How to make money on the Internet

There are so many people telling you how to make money on the Internet. Can you get rich by advertising online? Well, there are many opportunities to make some money, but you can't expect to get paid for doing nothing. So how do you make money on the Internet?

Focus your advertisement on one topic. Your advertisement can be an ezine (email newsletter) or a website. If you have a website about sports, you probably won't want to advertise Barbie dolls. Pick one topic for the main focus of your contents. Write articles and include links to related sites.

Join affiliate programs. If you choose reputable affiliates that are related to your topic, you may make some money advertising someone else's product or service. Usually, you get little and they get lots, but if you would recommend the product or service anyway, you may as well make some money doing so. Read the terms with any program and abide by them. Don't sell products unless you think it is something you would buy for yourself or someone else. If you don't want it, most others won't either.

Sell your own product or service. You can make more money by selling your own product or service than you could being a reseller or affiliate. Maybe you make homemade candles, you are a musician or a clown for parties or something. Make your hobby your career and advertise yourself online. Be sure to pay your taxes and claim your income. The government can find your website just like anyone else.

Do not bother with downlines or MLMs. Multi level marketing is a new way of saying pyramid scheme. The guy at the top gets money for anyone in his "downline" or anyone who he suckered into this business. He also gets money for those that his sucker suckers. Sorry, but this is such a joke if you do the math. If you get ten people who get ten people each, you have your ten plus the ten for each of them or 10 + (10 x 10) = 10 + 100 = 110. You have 110 people under you. Okay, now those new people (100) have to get ten people each. That is 1000 people more. How many suckers are there? This is extremely difficult and you will waste more time and money while the guy at the top makes the money. So unless you are top dog, you are working like a dog.

Do not send spam or junk mail. If you send email to people who are not interested, they will delete your email or even worse, report you. Your web host or ISP can cancel your service. Only send email to those who opted to get it by filling out a form or sending an email. If you have a website, include a request for the visitor's email address. Do not share or sell the email addresses. Do unto others...

Do not believe everything you read. There are too many people with websites or other ads that claim that you can become rich online. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The most annoying to me is the person you never heard of suddenly writes a book to tell you how he became rich. He invests money in advertising himself to make you believe he is rich and famous. He becomes rich by selling the book, and much of that info was probably from the biography of a rich person that could have been signed out at the local library. Investigate before you invest.

Do not buy items at yard sales and try to sell them for profit. If you bought a rare painting at a moving sale, then sold it on eBay online auction for profit, good for you. But if you decide to spend each weekend buying every deal, then try to resell the items, you may get stuck with a cluttered home. Never buy items unless you like them for yourself. If you can't sell it, you are stuck with it. Remember to figure your ROI (Return on Investment). You may spend more time, money, fuel and effort and really end up taking a loss.

Be patient and committed. Many people will read your ad several times before making a purchase. Others will read it, but never buy. Study your target audience, edit your ads and keep trying. It is possible to make money on the Internet. Just don't expect a lot overnight.

Yvette Kuhns, Power Pages Web Design, August 19, 2003

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