25 Money-Making Ideas You Can Leverage Online

R.L. Adams , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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While unscrupulous Internet marketers parade their offers that are more designed to extract money from you rather than help you to make it, many people are faced with the dilemma of who to trust when it comes to making money online. Clearly, there are some ideas for making money on the web that are simply too good to be true. The self-evident truth is that these ideas over-promise and under-deliver.

However, there are legitimate ways to make money online. These money-making ideas are mostly relatively simple and straightforward, though some of them require more dexterity and knowledge in certain online arenas. Yet, for the most part, making money online, even if it's just a few hundred dollars extra per month, isn't something that's too difficult to do. As long as you don't have pie-in-the-sky hopes at the outset, you won't get burned.

What most people come to quickly realize about the Internet is that anything that's too good to be true, often is. Still, we've been falling for these gimmicks and tricks far before the internet. Late-night infomercials that promise you'll easily get rich in real estate or lose weight fast made their rounds for decades before the internet reared its not-so-ugly head. We often seem to rush headfirst into things that clearly have the odds stacked up against us.

This is a matter of both disinformation and misinformation. Those that are informed and in-the-know have an upper-hand on others that are clamoring for results in arenas that they might not fully understand. The Internet, with all of its conveniences and tools that have facilitated ease of access to many sectors of life such as transportation and labor, is also something that's incredibly difficult and complex on the business side.

While we might be experts at searching the web, not everyone understands the nuisances of online marketing, and this creates a vacuum for those less-than-legitimate individuals to swoop in and sell the latest system or hack that will all-but guarantee you riches as long as you do a little bit of legwork. Well, it doesn't quite work that way. Below, what you'll find are some money making ideas that do require work but aren't the result of some system by the latest raving Internet marketer looking to sell you some hyped-up dream.

If you put in the time with any of these money-making methods that are accessible to virtually anyone with an Internet connection, you will see results as long as you do it wholeheartedly. Don't be afraid to put in the work and deliver true value no matter which one of these methods you decide to implement. Value really does make the difference between those that make money online and those that fail.

I've split the following list of online money making ideas into three separate groups:

1. Simple and easy methods
2. Medium-difficulty methods
3. Complex or drawn-out methods

The more complex the money making idea, the more potential for return you'll have. There will also be a greater investment of your time involved here as the difficulty level increases, which is natural in the curve of returns on investment no matter what area of business we're talking about.

If you're just looking to make some quick cash, the simple methods can help. If you're looking for something that will deliver a constant and steady stream of passive income, look no further than the complex methods found herein.

I. EASY METHODS

#1 -- Do paid surveys online

Websites like Survey Junkie and Swag Bucks allow average everyday individuals to get paid for sharing their thoughts online. In fact, there are an endless stream of sites promising individuals cash for completing surveys online, some of which are more reputable than others. Be sure to do your due diligence before enrolling in any of these programs.

#2 -- Get paid for searching the web

Sites like Qmee offer you the chance to search and conduct your everyday activities on the Internet while also earning money. In effect, you get paid to search online across sites like Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo and Bing, with countless sites offering your the ability to earn money while their software is listening in on your activities in the background. A little creepy? Maybe.

#3 -- Do deliveries for PostMates

PostMates provides on-demand deliveries in major cities across the United States. The company claims that you can make up to $25 per hour making deliveries whether you have a car, a bike or decide to walk. At any moment, you can turn on or off your availability through the app so that you can do deliveries according to your schedule.

#4 -- Drive for Uber or Lyft

The on-demand ride-hailing economy is in full swing. Companies like Uber and Lyft are dominating the space. They also allow most individuals with qualifying cars and clean driving records to earn cash whenever they'd like by picking up and driving passengers in their local areas.

#5 -- Become an online or mystery telephone shopper

Companies are hiring individuals to not only conduct secret shopping experiments in real life, but also online by simply using their phone to call into doctors and dentists' offices, call centers and other companies in an effort to analyze the experience received. While you won't make a fortune doing this, you can earn a few extra bucks through sites like ARC and Intellicheck.

#6 -- Sign up as a babysitter or nanny online

Sites like Care.com offer the ability for reputable individuals to earn money while providing nanny or babysitting services in their local areas. The site also allows individuals looking to provide pet sitting, housekeeping, errand services and senior care services as well, amongst many others.

#7 -- Do app or website reviews to make money

Sites like Vindale Research and User Testing, amongst countless others, will allow you to get paid to post your thoughts about certain apps or websites. However, it's important to vet any company that you find for these types of gigs and ensure that they're reputable before spending your time working for them.

#8 -- Become a virtual assistant

Use a site like Upwork or Freelancer to search for virtual assistant gigs. Although these won't pay you a fortune, they will allow you to do small paying jobs from the comfort of your own home via a simple Internet connection. If you're good at online research and other business related tasks, this might be the best idea for making a little bit of cash online.

#9 -- Utilize Amazon's Mechanical Turk platform to do micro-jobs

Amazon provides a platform called Mechanical Turk for doing what it calls Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs). These are small micro-jobs that pay very little money but also don't take very long to complete. You could string together HITs during your free time to make a little bit of extra money each day without the exertion of too much effort.

II. MEDIUM-DIFFICULTY METHODS

#10 -- Sell your photos on leading websites

If you're at all into photography, you can easily take pictures and sell them online through popular websites such as ShutterStock and iStockPhoto, just to name two. Clearly, you can't be an amateur at this, but you can do it without being a professional. And, the more you know about demands for certain types of photography, and the better you are at Photoshop, the more likely you'll be to succeed at making money online through this method.

#11 -- Trade stocks or forex online

Trading stocks or foreign currency exchange (forex) online isn't something that's for beginners. However, this is a lucrative field as long as you know what you're doing. There are loads of sites that will teach you how to become a proficient trader. My advice? Find a pro or a reputable system or course that you can learn from and tread wisely so that you don't lose your shirt.

#12 -- Start a graphic design business

One lucrative idea for making money online is to start a graphic design business. However, you clearly need to have some graphic design background to get this off the ground. Take a course to learn the basics and the ropes, then ensure that you get really good before trying your hand at a site like 99Designs or Fiverr where you can sell your services to others.

#13 -- Auction off old items on eBay

eBay is a great resource for selling items. You can even become a power seller and really move a hefty volume of merchandise. However, it takes time to build up your profile, and you need to develop the skills to ensure that your listings are well crafted, keyword centric and meticulously detailed if you want to succeed on this platform.

#14 -- Create YouTube videos

YouTube is the world's largest video platform, and has long been under Google's umbrella. Professional marketers often turn to YouTube because they know just how powerful the platform is for delivering rich multimedia that helps to educate and inform others while also drawing attention to certain products or services. While building a popular YouTube channel can take time, it is far more potent and wide-reaching than most standard blog platforms.

#15 -- Do social media marketing for local businesses

If you have a penchant for social media, why not engage in some marketing for local businesses in your area? Leverage platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat to help companies build up their followers and ensure that their products and services are in front of their audiences.

#16 -- Sell arts and crafts on Etsy 

If you have a keen eye for arts and crafts, consider selling those items on a site like Etsy, which is the largest handmade goods site of its kind. All types of individuals and businesses have turned to Etsy to reach a massive platform of people looking to purchase their goods. You can even sell digitally-downloadable goods here such as digital art designs and printable posters as well.

#17 -- Create an e-commerce store with Shopify

Numerous platforms exist that will help you peddle your goods and services online. One such platform is Shopify, which is an easy-t0-use e-commerce system for selling just about anything under the sun. Build your Shopify store and start driving traffic to sell your goods and services and make money online no matter where you live in the world.

#18 -- Do translation work to make money online

If you're a native speaker in a second language, or you even speak multiple languages, consider selling your services to offer professional translations. People are always looking for high-quality translation services, and if you can really deliver to your audience, you can set yourself apart and make a considerable amount of money while doing it.

III. COMPLEX OR DRAWN-OUT METHODS

#19 -- Create courses on Udemy

Udemy is one of the world's largest platforms for selling online courses for just about any topic or subject. As long as you have the proper skills, you can likely teach those skills on a platform like this. However, don't expect it to be easy. Fierce competition means that you need to deliver loads of value and expertly market your course online if you're going to make any respectable amount of money.

#20 -- Publish an e-book with Amazon Kindle Publishing (KDP)

The rush to e-book gold is over, but there are still countless individuals making a significant sum of lucrative passive income through the ebook business. If you're an expert or have knowledge in a specific arena, publish a non-fiction ebook on Amazon's Kindle Publishing (KDP) platform to help educate others in a number of areas when it comes to things like business, online marketing and other highly-technical fields.

#21 -- Sell audiobooks on ACX

Audiobooks are another lucrative form of passive income. Speaking from experience, when done right, audiobooks can easily produce thousands upon thousands of dollars per month on autopilot. However, quality and the delivery of high-value content must be the key aim at all times. Leverage Amazon's ACX platform to publish audiobooks for inclusion in Apple's audiobook store and on Audible.com.

#22 -- Start a Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA) business

Amazon is by far the largest electronic retailer in the world. People turn to Amazon today for nearly all of their consumer needs. And many individuals are leveraging the e-tailer to sell their goods by starting a Fullfiled-by-Amazon (FBA) business. You provide the products, Amazon handles the orders, fulfillment, shipping and returns.

#23 -- Become an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing is a tricky business. It involves years of training and understanding of things like consumer psychology, writing compelling sales copy, understanding search engine optimization and online marketing, knowing how to build sales funnels and squeeze pages and so much more. But it's also incredibly lucrative. Some affiliate marketers make millions of dollars per month, but reaching this level is excruciatingly hard.

#24 -- Start and build a niche blog

Blogging is by far one of the most difficult ways you can make money online. It's incredibly difficult to start a blog that becomes successful over time. But those that stick to it end up reaping bountiful rewards over time. Build a niche blog and learn about things like SEO and constantly deliver real value to your audience and you'll see your income skyrocket. But keep in in mind that this will take you years, not month.

#25 -- Become an email marketer

Email marketing is alive and well. In fact, a large majority of the most popular websites still generate their income from email marketing by building a relationship with their audience. Things like split testing, effective subject lines and funnel scripts are very important to gain the confidence of your audience while also climbing them up your value ladder. Take the time to learn all that you can about email marketing and start building out your list early on.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertadams/2017/02/15/25-money-making-ideas-you-can-leverage-online/#44aa3ee410a0

R.L. Adams is a software engineer, serial entrepreneur, and author. He runs a wildly-popular blog called Wanderlust Worker and contributes to Entrepreneur, Engadget and the Huffington Post.

6 Tips for Expanding Your Business — Regardless of the Economy

6 Tips for Expanding Your Business — Regardless of the Economy

By Don SadlerPublished April 07, 2016Small BusinessAllBusiness.com

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Growth and expansion are key goals for most business owners and entrepreneurs. But how can you expand your business in today’s lackluster and slow-growth economy?

Here are six small business expansion strategies that may help you grow your business to the next level:

1. Add new products and services to your mix. This strategy sounds relatively simple, but executing it well can be challenging. For starters, you need to figure out which products and services your customers want, and how much they’ll be willing to pay for them. Next, determine whether or not you can sell these products and services at a profit.

The best way to accomplish this is to conduct thorough market research before committing any resources (financial and human) to new product or service expansion. Ask your current customers what they think about your new product and service ideas, including potential price points. Your market research needs to focus on customer demand for new products and services and your cost to manufacture, deliver, and sell them.

2. Sell more products and services to your existing customers. This is the flip side of the first strategy: Penetrating deeper into your current customer base. Start by performing a market segmentation analysis to identify the customer segments that are more likely to buy so you can focus your sales and marketing efforts on these segments.

This analysis will divide your customers into segments based on the criteria you choose (age, gender, location, buying history, etc.) so you can analyze their potential profitability when it comes to selling them new products and services. Armed with this information, you can better allocate your sales and marketing dollars.

3. Expand into new territories. The idea here is to market and sell your existing products and services to new customers. These new customers can be in different segments or niches or different locations from where you currently operate.

If yours is a retail or storefront business, this type of expansion will likely involve opening new locations in different geographic areasOpens a New Window. — whether across town or across the country. Doing so will require a significant investment of both time and money, so perform thorough market research first to make sure there is enough customer demand in the new territory to justify the expansion.

“When you are thinking about expanding into new areas, the first thing you need to do is to determine how to specialize your advertising for your new market,” advises Tri Nguyen, founder and CEO of Network Capital Funding CorporationOpens a New Window.. “If you can’t convey the benefits of your product or service to residents of a new region, you’re going to struggle to make it. Be honest about flaws and strengths as you consider the message you will be conveying to a new area.”

4. Target new customer markets. Most businesses target their sales and marketing efforts to specific customer markets based on demographics like age, gender, and location or psychographicsOpens a New Window. like interests, activities, and values. But are there other customer markets that might also be viable for your products and services?

“Being able to reach the right target customers through the right mediums, at the right time, is the first step to expanding your business into new customer markets,” says Network Capital’s Nguyen. “When expanding into new target markets, you need to ramp up your advertising to these markets. This is pretty intuitive, but it’s true.”

5. Tap into new sales and delivery channels. The Internet is the best example of how a new sales and delivery channel can transform a small business. Countless companies have reinvented themselves to take advantage of online opportunities — from brick-and-mortar retailers opening online stores to service providers who are able to reach a much broader audience by advertising online and using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to rank highly in Web searches conducted by the prospective customers.

6. Acquire another business. This may be the fastest route to growth and expansion. Merging with or acquiring another business can literally double the size of your business overnight, growing your sales and revenue exponentially. But you must perform thorough due diligence on any potential acquisition candidates before moving forward with a business merger.

In particular, your due diligence efforts should focus on the company’s financial condition, the strength and depth of its management team, the breadth of its client base, and the soundness of existing contracts. When considering companies to possibly acquire, look for synergies between the two businesses that will result in the combined entity being stronger than either of the individual businesses would be standing on their own.

The condition of the economy doesn’t have to dictate your business growth and expansion plans. Consider how you can implement one or more of these strategies to put your company on the fast track to expansion today.

Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/6-tips-for-expanding-your-business-regardless-of-the-economy

16 Reasons Why Your Business NEEDS Social Media Marketing

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Did you know that social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing? Or that 84% of B2B marketers use social media in some form? No matter what you sell and who you sell it to, using social media as a marketing tool can help you grow your brand and pad your wallet.

At this point in the game, not having an active social media presence is kind of like pulling out a flip phone at a business meeting and then not understanding why your boss keeps giving Brad all the new accounts.

But some people still own flip phones, and some people dig in their heels and say, what is social media marketing going to do for me? Do I really need it? Yes. Yes you do — and here are some of the most compelling reasons why:

The Importance of Social Media for Web Traffic

1. Social media posts can be used to drive targeted traffic. Creating a new page on your site is like taking a really great selfie. You want the world to see it and bask in its brilliance, but you don’t want to beg for attention (or worse, pay for it). That’s why for selfies and landing pages, well-placed social media posts can make all the difference. We’ve seen a single link on Reddit drive over 20,000 visitors in one weekend and links submitted to StumbleUpon can take a page that was consistently earning a handful of visitors a day and increase that number to hundreds. Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that?

2. Using social media for business boosts your site’s SEO. Search engine crawlers know which pages are consistently earning traffic and which are just floating out there, forgotten and ignored. A killer content strategy for SEO is the most important part of earning top spots in search engine rankings, but driving traffic to your optimized pages will cause them to climb much faster in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Quick case study:In less than a year we got the website for one of TCF’s clients to rank in the top 100 SERPs for 15,000 new keywords – as a result, traffic to the website has increased dramatically. A solid and consistent presence on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels was a BIG part of that success.

Social Media Is THE BEST Tool to Connect with (and Learn from!) Consumers & Industry Leaders

3. If you’re doing it right, social media will lead to real relationship building. Part of what makes things like Twitter and Instagram marketing so cool is the interaction you get to have with your customer base — you can read their tweets and status updates to get insights into their daily lives (and maybe adjust your marketing strategy as a result). What products are they buying and why? What are they doing on the weekend? What kind of posts do they love to share, and from what websites?

You can also use social media as a tool for connecting with complementary, non-competing businesses, thought leaders and tastemakers in your space, as well as journalists who cover your industry. Sometimes, becoming besties starts with a simple retweet.

Of course it doesn’t hurt to go the extra mile. When we saw that our client was mentioned on The Celebrity Name Game by Rick Fox, we quickly jumped on the opportunity to create a gif and mention both accounts on Twitter. This resulted in interaction not just from Rick Fox, but from the Celebrity Name Game account as well!

4. Users are receptive to your messages. People view Twitter and Facebook as social networks, not marketing machines. As a result, they’re less likely to see what you post as an advertisement and will be more likely to hear what you have to say. This translates to serious web traffic when you link to your site and posts that market themselves as your friends and followers share what you’ve posted.

5. Social media ads allow targeting and retargeting. One of the reasons social media is important is because of the highly customizable nature of social media ads. Facebook ads, for example, allow you to target users by things like location, education level, industry and even purchase history and the pages they’ve liked. You also have to the option to install a Facebook pixel on your site and use it to retarget the users who visit you — these people are far more likely to convert into solid leads and sales!

6. Social media can help you get noticed at events, and even generate earned media coverage. Whether your business is sponsoring a charity fundraiser or attending a major trade show, there’s no better way to leverage your presence than with the help of social media. In fact, we once sent a tweet during CES that lead to a client getting a feature article written about them in Wired magazine (check out our guide to marketing your business at trade shows and events to learn how you can achieve similar results).

The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Brand Image

7. You can respond to problems immediately. If there’s a problem with your product or service, you want to know about it right away. With the feedback you get in the process of social media marketing, you’ll be the first to know when there are issues – and you can take steps to resolve them right away. Study after study has shown that consumers appreciate companies that respond to customer complaints (and don’t hesitate to rant online to anyone who will listen when companies don’t take the time to make things right).

8. A strong social media presence builds brand loyalty. A report published by Texas Tech University found that brands with active social media profiles have more loyal customers. It’s easy to imagine why: when you’re engaging and interacting on social media (not just tossing your posts out onto the web hoping someone will stumble upon them) you become less like a corporation and more like what you truly are — a unified group of people who share a vision.

The Right Social Media Marketing Strategy Can Help You Slay the Competition

9. Your competition is getting social, so you should too. Did you know that 91% of brands are using more than one social media platform? This isn’t something you want to fall behind the competition on, because it’s much harder (and more expensive) to play catch up than it is to get in on the game early. If your competitors get to your potential customers first, they’ll earn their loyalty and you’ll have a hard time winning them over. If you’re active and engaging on a variety of networks, you can gain those friends and followers first and your competition will be playing catch up instead of the other way around.

10. The social media marketing arena is a (fairly) level playing field. Some brands may have bigger ad budgets than others, but all companies start off on pretty equal footing when it comes to social media marketing. The people and brands who thrive and go viral in are those with the most clever, attention grabbing tactics (and the most ridiculous gifs) and the most useful, link worthy content. In short, they’re providing value to their target audience while also showing personality and being entertaining. If you want to get lots of traffic and really increase your sales online, you’re going to have to outwit, outnetwork and outwrite your competition while offering superior products and customer service. Isn’t that what business is all about, anyway?

11. When it comes to newsjacking, social media is king. Sometimes your brand is mentioned on a cable TV show. Sometimes it’s not, but you know just how to slide your product into the story to aim the spotlight in your direction. Facebook, Twitter and even Reddit marketing give you a front row seat to the news that’s becoming viral right as it’s happening. Jump in at just the right time and you’ll earn some major media attention — and that’s something you just can’t do with a traditional ad campaign.

The Importance of Social Media Marketing for Sales and ROI

12. Social media marketing will get you more sales. Did you know that 70% of business-to-consumer marketers have acquired customers through Facebook? Or that 84% of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to help make purchasing decisions?

Not surprisingly, when you stay in front of your customer base, they’re more likely to buy from you when they need the products you sell. Social media marketing doesn’t just keep your company’s name in front of potential buyers, but it also gives you the opportunity to constantly give them incentives to buy. Try sharing coupon codes, with a unique code for each social channel – you may be surprised at which social network drives the most sales.

13. You’ll find customers you didn’t know existed. If you set up streams to follow keywords in Twitter (Hootsuite makes this simple), you can find people who are looking for the products you sell and direct them to your site. Using Twitter for marketing is great that way – telling people who want your products how to get them from your company is just an @ away.

14. Customers you didn’t know existed will find (and buy from) you. In the process of marketing with Facebook, you’ll probably join a ton of groups related to your products, industry and customer base. By posting links in these groups, you’ll help influence customers to check out your site. Answering questions on Quora is another option. Post a link today, and two weeks/months/years later you might see a sale from it.

You Can’t Beat the Price (or ROI) of Social Media

15. You heard that right — it’s free. How can you argue with that? If you handle your own social media management, running a social networking campaign is as cheap as it gets. If you hire a social media management or online PR agency (like us), it will cost around $3,000-$7,000 per month, but it’ll be an investment that you’ll be likely to see a return on. If you’re intimidated by interacting with people online or your writing skills leave something to be desired, hiring an online PR agency is definitely the way to go. Posting poorly written content or conveying the wrong kind of messages on social networking sites can seriously affect your digital PR presence.

16. The ROI on social media ads is unbeatable. The average cost per click on Google Adwords is between $1 and $2 and depending on the keyword targeted, you can end up paying $50 or more for a single click. Through targeted boosted post, we’ve been able to send traffic via Facebook and Pinterest for as little as $0.12 per click. Why pay ten or twenty times as much for each visit when social media ads make earning that traffic quick and easy?

Simply put, social media marketing is part of doing business in the new millennium. If your business isn’t already active on social networking sites, now is the time to start.

Why Is Social Media Important?

Why is social media important to businesses? Because your brand doesn’t really exist online if you’re not represented across all social channels – and regularly interacting with your followers, journalists who cover your industry, thought leaders and tastemakers, etc.

Here’s one very important reason you may not have considered — it’s fun! Hosting a Twitter chat to celebrate a new product launch, getting your geek on while you A/B test Facebook ads, or sharing pop-culture polls for your followers to weigh in on — these are all activities that build brand awareness, boost web traffic and lead to loyal customers. But unlike many traditional marketing tactics with the same goals, these tasks are actually fun in addition to driving real value for your company.

Are you ready to rocket ahead of your competitors and take the social media world by storm? Want to see your search engine rankings climb and your traffic soar? Pull out that flip phone and give us call. We’ll get you on the path to success.

 Source: https://www.contentfac.com/9-reasons-social-media-marketing-should-top-your-to-do-list/