How to make money online

Yes you can make money online. A lot of money. This is because there is no limit to the number of hours you can put in an online job. If you get paid hourly then you know with a good hourly rate you will be able to earn a decent income. If you are smart enough to own a web store where your products get bought all the time, then you can make money 24/7/365. That is why you hear of phrases like ‘make money sleeping’. It is real and happens to many of us.

Starting out nowadays is easy. You don’t even need web design skills. Web 2.0 technologies like Wordpress and blogger are making it very simple for you to get your name or your business out there. There is even Facebook and twitter, two popular social media sites where you can build a faithful following. When you are blogging or tweeting or even a social update, ensure that quality is observed. People like, retweet, click links and buy because they believe that what you offer is quality. A satisfied community, buyer etc., can act as a referee to your services or products pushing your sales and brand even further.

 Whether you are thinking about freelancing, affiliate marketing, selling your own products or even any other web business, you need to get your name or brand out there. Blogging, social media marketing, advertising, word of mouth etc. are some of the ways to get your skills, services or products and known. Remember if nobody knows you or your products, they won’t care about you. Business does not change just because you are using a modern technology.

Google Adsense

It is a very easy way of monetizing your content online. They have lots of options that allow you to even choose the kind of advertisements that appear on your site. Letting Adsense display ads by default is a better option and allows you to concentrate more on building your content rather than worrying about advertisers. The biggest challenge newbies face is making money for a start. You can’t help but notice how long it takes for someone to make a click. Worse, a click is a measly $0.01. Welcome to Google Adsense. You need traffic, lots of traffic if you want $5 clicks. Believe me people get higher than that. Build good content, high user engagement, social media marketing, advertising etc. and your online audience will grow. So will your Adsense earnings.  More on Google Adsense here.

Offer a service

You can do more with a blog than just wait for your Adsense earnings. For example, you can use the content you have posted there to negotiate a freelancing contract. Potential employers always ask for proof of skills. This is why I always encourage you to produce quality content always. Take your time if you have to. If you wrote 100 posts that don’t rank compared to 1 quality post that goes viral that would be better for your business, image, and pocket. Just add quality content to the web. 

When you offer quality, you get hired and paid good for your services. I know many people who don’t even run ads on their blogs. They just offer a service to their readers. You can offer to write quality blog posts, write poems, make and deliver cakes, cards, and any business, service or product you can think of. Your blog helps you get people who are interested in your skills so you can sell them either as service, product or knowledge.

Offer Information

People love information. People want to know how things work even if they won’t or can’t do them by their own. If you have a cake blog or website, you can share videos or articles about making cakes. You engage your social following with information, tips, jokes and pictures on cakes. You then sell the cakes to your audience. Posting quality content markets you through shares, word of mouth, likes, retweets, bookmarking, social bookmarking and more. Sharing information sometimes works better than advertising. 

Sell products

If you sell digital products, selling them is as easy as putting up a website and a shopping cart. If you sell physical products say clothing, cars etc. you need to find a way of shipping your products. If you don’t want the hassle of handling all that, you can sell your products on Amazon. I will be writing an article about that and I will share it with you. The reason I won’t explain it here is because I want to make it more detailed. The good thing about selling your own products is that you determine your pricing so you get your money back, and some good profit maybe.

Be an affiliate marketer

If you don’t have products to sell, don’t worry. You can make money promoting and selling other merchant products. You get a percentage of the sale which is known as a commission. You sell lots of products, you get lots of commissions. Many people easily make money doing affiliate marketing because it is easy. Just promote the product, make a sale and you make money. You don’t have to worry about shopping carts or shipping. The merchant mostly handles this.

There is never a limit to the number of ways you can make money online. Other ways include photography, trading in money, advertising etc. Find your niche and put lots of work into it. For an online business, just like elsewhere, the only shortcut to success is hard work. Hard work pays. Hard work pays more online because you can reach out to more people than you will with a business that only concentrates on offline customers. 

Making money online can help you earn money even when you don’t have the time to spend on your business. Say you are a student. You can still expand your cake business for example without having to compromise on your studies. This is because sales will be determined by how many people you can reach through your blog or website or social media. This means you can stay in class and still make sales. You just have to arrange for deliveries. Online business can be very convenient.

How to withdraw online payments from PayPal and Skrill in Kenya

For many people living in Kenya, it has been hard withdrawing their online payments from international payment processors like PayPal and Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers). Most affected are freelancers who sell their skills online. It can be very hard withdrawing your money after payments. Sure Skrill offers a way to move your money to a Kenyan bank through wire transfer, however it takes days. Say 3-5 days.

The guys at strecthGo.com can help you withdraw your money from PayPal to Mpesa but I am afraid the last time I used their services, their exchange rate was low. If you work hard for your money, you need to ensure that you make every little savings. There are other sites that claim to offer services but I found them wanting. Some of their websites were even broken and withdrawing money from them is a huge risk.

I have heard good reviews about NationHela. Coming from a reputable media company and confirmed to work, it is a good payment solution. You can sign up for your NationHela card from distributors countrywide.  DTB bank is one place to apply for one. The advantages of having the card are that you can withdraw your payments from PayPal to Kenya. The only problem I have with the card is that money takes 2-3 days to arrive in your account.

Recently Equity bank became the second bank in Africa to allow PayPal payments. Receive your money to your local bank account. Talk to your bank and I am sure they will explain it to you.

How to withdraw your money immediately

When I realized that you can withdraw directly from PayPal to Kenya I was happy that I was no longer going to lose my hard earned cash through money changers. The good part is that if you get paid via Skrill, you can withdraw instantly too. How is this possible and why have I never heard about it?

A Payoneer debit card is the easiest way to manage your online payments. Better still, when you apply for the US Payment service, it allows you to get paid directly by many US companies like PayPal, Skrill(MoneyBookers), Amazon, Apple etc. The ease with which you can access your money is amazing. You can withdraw your money from millions of MasterCard branded ATMs worldwide. That includes nearly all banks in Kenya. PesaPoint outlets are also MasterCard branded and you can get your money from there.

Even better than withdrawing your money is shopping with your card. You can pay with your card at millions of MasterCard points of sale worldwide. You pay no charges for that.

How do I get my card?

You can apply for a Payoneer debit card by clicking thislink. After successful application, you will receive your card by post. Login to your account and activate it. You can load money to your card for spending or use it to get paid worldwide.

The advantages of having a Payoneer debit card are many and varied. I wrote another detailed post about the card and its advantages. You can read it to get an idea of what you will gain by applying. If you have any questions you can post them on the forum and I will answer them.

Diversify your Earning Online to Create a Full Income on the Internet

It's no secret that earning online is easy, especially when said than when done. You are probably tired of reading blogs that promise to show you how to make a fortune online, only to realize that they were really hoping you would click some ad since just like you, they are still not making anything. It's hard to hustle on the internet where things change everyday and what was in yesterday is old news today.

For many people making money online is never easy, more so from blogging. So how do bloggers manage to make a living year in year out without complaining? Are guys seriously depending on good old Google Adsense? Do most bloggers get enough traffic to make more money than the likes of Copyblogger, Problogger among others?

The truth about making money online is about finding opportunities and grabbing them before anyone does. Just because I spoke against freelancing in my last post doesn't mean you quit altogether. I meant that you shouldn't make it your only source of income. Learn to diversify.

For example, while earning money from Google adsense, you can still add a 'programmer for hire', or 'writer for hire' etc page on your site and make an extra income from events or work your readers give you. Believe you me that most people are more likely to hire someone they know or trust. Your readers are used to communicating with you(assuming you have a busy site) and will have some level of trust in you and your ability to deliver.

There are also other ways to make money online. You can create websites, promote them for a year or two then sell them for a profit. Barely three years after Instagram was launched, they sold to Facebook for a cool billion. You might have to be very creative to create websites that sell for such staggering amounts like that, but you can make a good fortune selling websites.

The thing is not about being a 'Jack of all trades and master of none' but mastering what you do and juggling to make an extra coin. It's easy online because you can easily get paying clients and marketing is easy. People juggle between jobs in the real world and it is usually harder. For the internet entrepreneur who is willing to work hard, some extra money for entertainment is always forthcoming.

Don't stick with one thing if it's not paying enough. Not unless you are sure of what you are doing and have clear goals. Try something extra if you can. Money is good, extra money is always good, always welcome.