How to Make Money Online

Several of my friends and colleagues are struggling financially due to the difficult economy.  Especially in the construction and real estate industries, work and money seems to be drying up right now.

So if you want to shift careers and try making money on-line, how do you do it?   What are your options?  Where do you start?  What are the tips to success?  That will be the subject of my presentation/discussion at Charlotte BarCamp this Saturday, January 24, 2009.

In fact, I’m probably going to be talking about it this evening at the Charlotte Entrepreneur’s Meetup.  (Christine was kind enough to ask me to speak there again!)

I started preparing for this topic this morning while in the shower.  Here is what I am coming up with.

The Options

1. Build content and get advertisers
2. Sell other people’s products
3. Sell your own services
4. Make and sell your own products
5. Market your offline products or services

Each of these has their pros can cons.  The real challenge here is not doing any of these things.  It is figuring out which you should do.  So how do you determine which of the above to do?

How to Decide

You don’t start by choosing one of the five options above.  You start by thinking about yourself.  What do you enjoy?  What hobbies or work have you done in the past?  What connections do you have?

In the online world, it does not really matter what you know.  You can learn almost anything online.  You need to determine what you enjoy.  Succeeding online requires endless patience, determination, and desire.  If you don’t like what you are doing, you almost always will not succeed.

The next step – listen and engage

Once you decide who you are and what you would enjoy doing online, you need to start listening.  Don’t jump straight into building a website.  Start with Google and search to see who is already in the industry you want to break into.  Read blogs, scan e-commerce websites, and join groups on Facebook.  Follow people on Twitter. 

But don’t just read, comment.  Start commenting on blogs, leaving reviews on e-commerce websites, and replying on social sites such as Facebook and twitter.

Now you can start

At this point, you can now start building your website.  Start with a blog.  Join the conversation.  Point people at your blog.  Let it grow. 

But don’t stop there.  Make the e-commerce website.  Build products and/or services to sell, etc.

How?

But how do you do all this?  Learn.  There are endless resources online on how do do the various things I mentioned so far.  Think about taking our classes, or reading this blog, for example.

I’ll share some very specific ways to do all this stuff at Charlotte BarCamp.  If you have not registered, you need to.  See you there.

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