I will pose a question to you. Do you imagine yourself doing the same thing for the rest of your life? Or do you want to learn about an amazingly awesome way to learn and earn online.
Many people are not truly happy in what they are doing. Yes I do know a lot are, as I was before I retired. But I find retirement quite boring. I like exploring and trying out new ideas.
My new idea was to supplement my pension and hopefully even get off it. I don’t really like dancing around Government rules and regulations. Now how was I going to do this?
One day I was browsing the web looking for some really interesting stuff like plumbing fittings. While doing this, I read a few blog posts. This, as usual, led to other things and I noticed many individuals had set up websites to help others with information on various products. A great side positive of this is that these products are financially promotable on line.
Well, I thought to myself, why not give this a try. My next thought was how to do this. I had never looked at creating websites so I needed help.
As you and I know, there are so many scams out there. Finding a sincere and lawful group could take up a lot of time and money. Now I would love to save you some time and help you avoid scams.
As they say ‘nothing ventured nothing gained’. I was going to be careful and research those I looked at. The first very quickly became a noticeable scam.
Then very, very luckily I found a group I have grown to love –Wealthy Affiliate.
This group trains you very thoroughly, gives huge quantities of help and is an amazing price. With no add-ons: I might add(on)!
I now have two websites; one for fun and one for business.
You can do this too.
There are various ways to make money online and I will outline some below. I will start with the ones I wouldn’t do and end up at my favourite. This order in no way should determine your approach. We are all somewhat different.
Why are You Here?
This is an extremely important question. The reason or reasons you have that persuade you to take this important step, will determine how well you do and how hard you have to work.
I mentioned above on why I came about doing websites. Now it is your turn.
Why are you looking at this fascinating idea of joining us website building fanatics? There are so many reasons to build a website and work on-line. And yes there are some things you don’t need a website for. I will note some of these in the later part of this article.
Now, let’s look at your possible reasons and the advantages each offers.
1. Work in Your Own Home
In my belief one of the most important reasons is that anyone can do this from their home. This is a very magnetic reason to work online. So become your own boss but don’t go lightly on yourself. Being profitable on line is a steep learning curve and takes hard work and some time to really be fruitful.
Some advantages of working at home.
You can continue your current employment while learning or you can plunge in head first, concentrating only on website building. Your choice. Even small earnings can pay bills
Working at home means not having to buy or rent premises like most bricks and mortar businesses. That will save you a great deal of money.
Normal household costs can be shared over your business and against your tax requirements.
What you earn is yours alone; well except for taxes, internet connections, bills (house share) and so on. So not quite all yours but a greater percentage than you get of what you make your current employer.
The most attractive thing about working at home is that it opens a wealth of new possibilities for those who have some disability. And from experience of a friend of mine this is very important. Being paraplegic from a horse riding accident, and confined to a wheelchair, she had a hard time finding work. Yes this is generally illegal as being discriminatory, but that only depends on how employers can get around things. Unfortunately she died before internet marketing really got going.
It also applies to those of you who are getting on but still want to enjoy life to its fullest. And you need money for that.
2. The World is Your Oyster (You Could be Free – So Go for It!)
Or you can just pack up and travel for a while and work wherever you can connect to Wi-Fi. You can relax and create content, looking up and out whenever you want. Watch the local wildlife, here I watch wallabies, echidnas, bush tailed possums and the occasional wombat. (Not for too long though. Don’t want to waste time)
The sound of the tide washing on the rocks can not only be watched but also the sound is so soothing. (Don’t fall asleep!)
3. Online Business versus Bricks and Mortar business.
Online is cheaper
If you like the idea of a business that can be promoted online, it is a much lower cost than to do it as a physical business.
A very important advantage of the online business is that you will have a potentially huge cliental compared to a B & M business.
The internet offers a lot of free tools that you can use to create websites. (Beware of scams.)
4. Set Your Own Time Schedule
Are you an early bird? Well get going and catch the website creating worm! On the other hand are you a night owl? It doesn’t really matter. You can work when you want to. Just make sure you do work as your website won’t build itself.
Have you been doing shift work? Oh man, how I hated those hours. Fortunately I was much younger then and could handle it, but I really didn’t like it! Get working on your earning website. Work hard and get enough to scrap those awful hours.
A final great thing about time is you will have cut out commuting time. For me that would have been 1 ½ hours from where I live now in Tasmania.
When I worked in Sydney, New South Wales that would have been 3 to 4 hours. The funny thing is, taking in both ways, the Sydney distance was 6 times shorter!
Now I can sleep in but I find myself up and eager to work 2 hours before my old work start time.
I also have time for a long leisurely cuppa coffee or tea.
5. You might just be looking for entertainment
Surfing the net is fun. Adding the money proportion is extra and rewarding fun. What more can I say!
6. Business Robustness
You want to have a business you control and that will grow with your hard work. As you progress you train your brain to come up with really good ideas. Keeps your mind agile and alive.
You still want an interesting and enthusiastic life.
Now you have some reasons for wanting to create your own website. Decide on how you want to go about building one and what you want to achieve with it.
As you learn it is important to avoid scams. Lots of people are writing reviews on companies.
If you are looking at working with them make sure you check out these companies. Do read with some cynicism though.
It won’t take you long to figure out if something is heading for scam.
Once your site starts producing, you will feel fantastic. Achieve more and you could reach euphoria.
If you have other reasons for being here I would enjoy hearing them. You can put them in the comments section below this article.
What do You Want from Here?
If you are like most of us, earning an income is a pretty attractive idea.
So let’s look at a few ways on how to go about it.
1. My least favourite means is doing surveys. Not because they don’t earn much but because, being truthful and putting in my location and age, I am usually discounted from most surveys. So for me it is wasted effort and has never been financially rewarding. You don’t need a website for this.
2. You can scrounge around and find interesting items to sell, say via eBay. You also don’t need a website to do this. You just create a eBay account for yourself. I don’t this as generally, if I find interesting items, I keep them!
3. You don’t really have to buy inventory for something such as eBay. You can also consider drop shipping companies that allow you to sell their products. Be wary here. Don’t go through a retailer. They get a cut of the money so your bit is often quite a bit smaller. The best bet is to go with a wholesaler.
4. Freelance writing is also an option. To do this you just need to find those who want articles written, write good relevant content with great Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). SEO is the art of getting your information in front of potential targeted visitors.
There are various groups that manage this. Make sure the reward is worth the effort.
5. You can run advertisements for various organisations. Google Adsense comes to mind. I have never found this to be a big earner. Maybe because I don’t like not having full control of what is on my site.
One article I read (and it was a very interesting one) had an ad pop up. It was so unsuitable I contacted the Wealthy Affiliate member and showed her a screen shot of it. It would have only appeared in Australia but many people here would have seen it. And most likely been put off reading it.
You can also approach other companies to see if they want to run ads on your site. This might be an improvement as you can set your own guidelines,
You can also create a website to advertise and sell your own products.
6. Affiliate Marketing
When you chose affiliate marketing to establish your website and the right product or service to promote, you can really go places. Unless you are a remarkably talented person and are very lucky, you will have to do some pretty hard work learning how to do this.
Once your site is up and running many end up producing passive income. This type of site will work all day, all night, all week; in fact all year.
With a bit of updating and tweaking it could work for you for years. Way to go Affiliate Marketing.
The list will go on as long as people find new ways to earn online.
My Favourite Way to Earn Online; Affiliate Marketing.
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate. One of the really great educators in this field. I really took a look at this group before I joined because they have a try before you buy policy. A test drive so to speak, consisting of the first 10 lessons in either (or both if you are really speedy) of two training courses.
Two choices are then possible. Continue as a free member or become a premium member. You can succeed as a free member however keep in mind a great many bits available to premium members are not available as a free member.
For premium there is one cost only. No costly add-ons. Wow, everything else had from a few to many add-ons or you were stuck in your learning. Wealthy Affiliates (WA) price has remained constant over the years. The great thing is it is locked in at what you join for.
The creators of WA also created a tremendous keyword search site, Jaaxy. This is now integrated into WA. I suppose it might be considered an add-on BUT you can use Jaaxy Lite and that is free. The two paid ones offer more however you get enough with Lite to work very well in finding the best keyword for you.
Back to me. By the time I finished my test run I had a working website. Going from knowing nought about website building to having one took 3 days! I was so enthralled that I actually upgraded prior to that.
This type of marketing general reviews products and services in such a manner as to help people find the product they have researched. Your job is to look at the various products and recommend the most appropriate ones.
All the tools you need are right here at WA. You can read my basic overview of these tools on my Wealthy Affiliate Tools: Stairway to Freedom post.
The Choice and Your Actions to Make and Create a Productive Website
Any of the above might produce an income of sorts for you. All of them will take hard work, some more than others to gain equal returns. I have tried several and been discouraged. One works for me and it can work for you too. You just need to take the first step.
Before you decide to join, review the reasons you want to learn about earning online. There is no use doing this unless you are fully, or at least reasonably, certain you want to try this. You must be prepared to work for it. So how important is it to you. For me, it was very important.
I recommend you read my Wealthy Affiliate Review and browse my other pages and posts. Be fully aware of what is offered and what you must do. 
Then, if you are happy to proceed, you will find the link to join WA on the Review.
Don’t forget that the trial run is completely free!
Any comments or questions you have are welcome. If I can add to the information here, your experience in making money online I would really like to read about it.
I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully giving you a helping hand to fulfil your goals.
Share This
Wow, this is an amazing post. I love the way you explain the different possibilities available to us. But I have to agree that affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online. As far as the reasons for wanting to work from home I like to have control of the time I work an what I do and this all fits perfectly into my lifestyle. You have a talent for writing and I am glad I have run into your website. Thanks!
Melissa, thanks for your lovely words. I too was really attracted to affiliate marketing. I have always been a hard worker so that didn’t phase me.
I do love setting my own hours. I know the terms early bird or night owl cover many people, but I can be both.
Sometimes I like to sleep in (usually when the weather is poor). When it is bright and sunny I jump early just to have a coffee on the veranda. Then again I often come alive at night or in fact during the day. It’s great being able to do this.
I have to admit I don’t really want to carry out the work required for other methods of earning when affiliate marketing, once established, can carry on by itself. This lets me add more to my site without too much worrying!
Thanks for your comment
I like the fact that we have the choice to take the plunge into an online business or work slowly on it now and reap the rewards later. Sadly, me and my partner are on ONE income (she’s a stay at-home-mum) so me axing my day job and doing this whole online thing is out of the question. However, I hope to eventually get out of the rat race thanks to the help of my online business. Great article, I liked it a lot.
Brandon, why don’t you see if your partner can work with you on this. Or are the kids a handful! A two person site with work allocated between you could be a really fun thing and eventually make it so you can ax your work.
I actually have read some of your site and think you will be able to take the plunge but it might take some time. So best wishes on your progress and to your family.
Thanks for the comment.
Ciao
Helen
You have listed some important reasons why people should start an online business. I have seen that there are many people who want to set up their own blogs but are simply clueless as to how and where one should be doing. There are many who are looking at ways to communicate their ideas to the world and not just the money part. To start a blog, you know, as a hobby. Forget the earning part, to a newbie, creating a website alone sounds overwhelming. And with all these online scams happening, trying to a find a legit place to learn internet marketing is not easy. Your recommendation, Wealthy Affiliate sounds like a nice platform. Did you say the trial run is completely free?
Yes the trial run is totally free. In fact you don’t have to upgrade. You can continue with your website and keyword searches for free even after you finish. However many tools are not available if you do. That makes it a much harder, slower process. If you do decide to upgrade, I suggest going montly until November. During that month there is a Black Friday special. (You can’t miss it as members make comments galore about it.) The yearly membership is a quite significant saving. And it is locked in at that price from then on.
I agree about setting up a blog site as a hobby. That is basically what I did. I did earn a bit but the getting the website right was the most important thing.
Then I decided to go the further step and set up an earning site.
Thanks for your well thought out comment.
See you around.
Ciao
Helen
Great article about earning online! Affiliate Marketing seems to be the way to go if you want to work from home. I’ve been trying it myself with a hobby I enjoy. I’m starting to get people on my website, and hope to start getting revenue soon. Hope you help others with your website.
Kevin, I sure hope I do help others. During my former working life I was the ‘go to’ person for help. Apparently my step by step method of figuring things out (and saving those steps) not only helped me set things up but others could easlily understand them. I like easy for when I need a refresher!
I have two sites. The first I built was my hobby site on Fantasy and Science Fiction, having been addicted to these for most of my life. I have traveled a great deal and, in each area visited, found most of the bookstores selling these!
This is my second site and I am so thrilled with Wealthy Affiliate that I decided to pass this wonderful group along to others.
Thanks for your comment.
Ciao
Helen
Hey there,
I have been looking for ways I can make a good amount of income online and I have stumbled upon so many programs that have either scammed me or given value close to nothing.
I was almost given up until I read this post.
I see wealthy affiliate is a really reputable company from the way you describe it. And they are also very authoritative within the industry.
I have researched on them and I am definitely going to give them a try. Thanks for the honesty.
Dave, joining WA and becoming an affiliate marketer was my first choice when I decided to build a website. WA was my second landing site. The first site triggered my internal scam radar almost immediately and into reverse I went with only a small financial loss.
So I consider myself one of the lucky people.
When you give them a try get in touch with me, my (hopefully) future mate (Australian buddy to you).
Thanks for your comment.
Ciao
Helen
I really enjoyed your post and I am quite motivated to do something of my own after reading that.
You are absolutely right. There are many ways to make money online but if one does not have the right training or support, then it can be difficult.
This is indeed an amazing way to make money online and thank for sharing such a valuable article. I will be implementing the methods you mentioned soon as possible.
Thanks Richard for your supportive comments. The most amazing thing about it is how much it makes me want to succeed. I am finding many people who feel the same way and we are creating this massive group of knowledgeable and helpful people.
Have fun implementing and making money. Don’t spread yourself too thin though.
Ciao
Helen
Hi Helen,
It seems that you and I have taken a similar route to a rewarding affiliate marketing business. I too retired from my full-time career about 3 years ago. I can’t honestly say I was bored as I have a lot of personal interests 🙂 But I was fascinated by the prospect of an online business. And, the idea of working from the comfort of home or being able to travel and still work held great appeal for me. Affiliate marketing works well with my lifestyle and has helped to keep me active and engaged. You’ve presented the positive aspects well. Great job!
Linda, I actually kept myself from being bored as I love to garden, read and learn new crafts. So far I have produced some quite nice felting, fused glassware, three dimensional glassware, mosaic tiling, formed concrete garden ornaments and basket weaving with all the different plants around us.
But I do like stretching my brain. Affiliate marketing does this for me. There is so much to learn, to absorb and so much intuitive work. I love it.
And working from home, a friend’s place some distance away or a coffee shop in another country is a real buzz. From my desk I have a bank of eucalyptus trees and the odd bit of wildlfe visits. I can research and organise and still be relaxed.
Thanks for your comments, my sister in marketing.
Ciao
Helen
You seem to be very descriptive and I like the connection you made to wealthy affiliate on different ways of earning money online. The site looks beautiful except the menu dropdown according to me pink doesn’t suit the site’s feel. Probably am a hater of the colour pink. Else everything is just awesome.
Saurav, when it comes to pink I too dislike most of the shades. But give me a good strong and bright pink and I am fine. The colour was chosen as in the banner I am wearing a strong, bright pink shirt. I wanted to tie everything together. I will take a look at this though.
Thanks for your remark and I am pleased you think it flows together well.
Ciao
Helen
Truly a great post. You have laid out the possibilities that are simple out there available so very nicely. Love how you have laid out that we have choices. My wife wants so badly to be able to quit working, and I am already working on that prospect for us both, as I am tired of being at the mercy of someone else, working for their dreams instead of my own. Your article just inspires me even more…
Ted, thanks for your comment. I hope you and your wife are doing a team challenge with this aim. Two minds expand the potential immensely. Working for someone is pretty good, if like me, you were (I am now retired) part of a valued team. That seems to be rarer these days in spite of emphasis on teamwork.
I am glad I could point out these methods to you and good luck with running with them.
Ciao
Helen
Hi Helen, Thanks for this very informative post. You gave a lot of ideas for making money on line but I also prefer the Wealthy Affiliate way. I guess I am still to new at this to have the confidence to try any other way and also want to have the time to carry on with the training which I haven’t completed yet. Have come into this very late in life but am loving every moment of it. Love that I have been given this chance to learn again.
Jill, I expect those of us who do start late in life have a huge advantage. Life experience! With this, once we determine what approach we want to take, for us affiliate marketing, we have a really big pool of experience. I often draw this into my articles. Usually this adds a bit of humour also. Funny things seem to always happen to me. I am not alone in this either.
Enjoy your learning again, or I will say your continued learning.
Thanks for commenting.
Ciao
Helen
I really enjoyed this article, i do like affiliate marketing and i have learned lot. I have 2 websites up and running, i started it all about 4 months ago so i still have a lot of work to do. I am hoping i can get my sites up to making a passive income so i can keep growing and investing and building my brand. Keep up the good work!
Justin, glad you liked it. I love burrowing through new information and weaving it through what I already know. I did this a lot when ‘gainfully’ employed so am just continuing my own education. Never stop learning.
The passive income is my goal so I can enjoy life with no worries. And I am getting there by doing affiliate marketing. This will get me to the point I can concentrate on my hobby website. I can hardly wait.
Thanks for visiting.
Ciao
Helen
“Do you imagine yourself doing the same thing for the rest of your life” this statement really resinated with me Helen. The answer is NO, and that is why I have been looking for different ways to make money online. You have given me some helpful information here, which makes me think that making an income working from home is certainly possible, I was beginning to wonder with all the scams out there! I might take a closer look at your suggestions, thanks for the motivation.
Jenny, I was fortunate in that my wanderlust led to me not doing the same thing for the rest of my life. I have laboured, administrated and earned a degree. I have picked fruit, cleaned fish and prawns, managed stock control and ordering. I have investigated, designed and managed water supply and sewerage works; and building construction.
In fact I got an award for designing a wetland (to polish effluent) that was noted as a milestone in this area. However only my boss and I realised it was a complete accident! The lesson I learned here was ‘never build a wetland in the middle of a drought – all the birds visit and eat all the plants. Fortunately I retained all the aquatic plants from the original, small wetland. They flourished and the final result was a beautiful area for birds and other animals.
However, retirement is the rest of my life now and I can’t think of anything more boring. So here I am and having fun and rewards.
Thanks for your comment and I would love to see you here.
Ciao
Helen