What’s the easiest way to make money online?

There is no EASY way to make money online because it takes hard work and time. But there will be EASIER pathways to make money online that will cost you either in time or money. The EASIEST way to make money online is to have a “just do it” learning mindset, be equipped with the right knowledge and skill to make money online, and to execute your chosen money-making strategy ruthlessly using lots of dedication, commitment, endurance, and perseverance.

For simplicity sake, let’s use a four-step process for making money online.

• Step 1 – You brainstorm and select your make money online idea and strategy that will absolutely solve your target customer’s problem or pain point. Having a sound strategy is vital to your success.
• Step 2 – You either buy or develop products (e.g., eBook, tools, etc.) or services (e.g., coaching, training, etc.) that will help solve your customers’ problem and make money from them.
• Step 3 – You determine the best platforms (e.g., eBay, Facebook, blogs, etc.) where the majority of your target customers hang out so that you can sell them your chosen products or services.
• Step 4 – You work hard to market and drive Internet traffic to your chosen platforms so that you can convert your visitors into leads and thereafter transforming them into paying customers.

First off, let me say that any form of making money activity is hard work. It takes lots of dedication, commitment, endurance, and perseverance over a three- to a five-year timeframe to make money online. That’s the reality.

If you are only prepared to put in one hour a week versus someone else who is prepared to put in ten hours a week, then the other person will find it easier to make money online.

The saving grace is that the Internet has made it so easy to make money online. It has reduced the barriers to entry for so many people to make money.

Unfortunately, it has also increased competition. You must work very hard to get people to buy specifically from you rather than from your competitors.

You can outsource all of the four steps referred to above by paying someone else to do the hard work for you.

Believe me. There’s no shortage of “gurus” out there who will try to sell you their solutions covering one or all aspects of the four steps.

Remember this. There are experts and there are experts.

It’s a matter of finding the right “experts” who will genuinely help you get closer to your personal goals. Speaking of goals, you need to find your “WHY” for wanting to make money online.

In my quest to make money on the side and to learn about the different business models for my blog, I have watched over 2,340+ videos made by people and experts who have made money.

There are a number of common principles and learning that I have documented and have shared on my blog.

What’s important is that I want you to avoid making these mistakes that I have made and to short-cut your learning.

A word of caution: do not to fall into the trap of the “shining object syndrome”, buying everything that looks good on the sales page and constantly getting stuck in “tactical hell”.

Unless you have lots of money, keep your credit card locked away in a drawer when surfing the Internet.

Here’s the thing when you are trying to make money online.

You will either pay in time or money.

If you have the money but don’t have the time, then paying someone else to do all the hard work for you will be the easiest way to make money online from a time perspective.

However, you must find the right people to help you, always keeping a close watch on their work and deliverables.

Unfortunately, you will not learn anything if you totally outsource. You will rely on total strangers for your future income.

Ask yourself this question: How do you verify the quality of the outsourced deliverable if you have no knowledge in the first place?

If you have the time but don’t have the money, then doing it yourself will be the easiest way to make money online from both financial and learning perspectives. You must be absolutely committed to spending time on executing your money making online strategy even when you don’t feel like it or busy with your 9-to-5 job.

For me, it is critical that you self-learn and take the time to perform Steps 1 and 4.

It is only by taking the time to self-learn and accumulate knowledge that you will be a better person. You will be in a better position to make decisions about your personal making money strategy, your platforms, and how you will ultimately make money online.

You can’t really outsource knowledge accumulation to others. Knowledge acquired is knowledge gained. No one can take this away from you.

You should also not outsource the development of your personal strategy to anyone else because each one of us is unique in terms of circumstances, personality, attitude, and preferences.

I see it all the time.

People just follow the crowd and not showing off their personality in the things they do. They just want to earn that similar 6-figure income by following that “guru”.

Getting your personal strategy wrong in Step 1 will be absolutely detrimental to you.

Getting your money-making idea wrong means wasted time and effort on your part.

You really want to increase the likelihood of your success rather than failure.

Your personal money-making strategy needs to be aligned with the reasons why you really want to make money online. Without a good reason, there’s no motivation to stay on when things get difficult or hard.

Without a strategy, you will aimless drifting from one idea to another, trying one platform to another, following one guru to another, and wasting lots of time and money on non-productive things without any income to show for down the road.

As for Step 4, customers will only buy from someone they trust.

Trust is related to your brand, your personality. You don’t want your personal branding to be trashed by someone else who has no skin in the game. They may even run away with your customers!

There are good ways to get Internet traffic. There are also not so good ways.

Your outsourced service provider may use “black-hat” techniques that may get you high traffic in the short-term but will trash your brand and turn-off prospects in the long term. Customers are now very sceptical about online selling. You may even be banned by Google search engine and not know what has been done!

You can outsource Step 2 by buying the product from someone else. Do check the product quality.

You can buy private label rights (PLR) products from someone else and sell them as your own. However, I find that the quality of many PLR products are questionable and are not up to my standard.

Do remember that Google does not like duplicate contents. PLR content tends to have similar versions already published on the Internet. As such, there is no value copying someone else’s work and selling it as your own.

If you have the time, it is highly recommended that you develop your own content to sell to your customers. This is unique and belongs to you.

It shows your personality.

It shows your uniqueness.

It shows your brand.

What’s missing is the lack of uniqueness on the Internet. It’s so easier to copy someone else. This is a short-term vision and will not be sustainable.

While it is easy in the short-term without unique, it will be harder to make money in the long-term.

The platform you use is a reflection of who you are.

If you love social media, then Facebook and Pinterest will fit you.

If you like writing, then blogging is the way to go.

If you want to do minimal work, then use existing platforms like eBay, Etsy or Amazon. You may also be an affiliate marketer promoting and selling other people’s products to start with.

Personally, the easiest way to make money online is to spend time acquiring knowledge and developing your own product.

Research consistently shows that knowledge helps us make the required connections and make the correct inferences about things we don’t know. The more we know, the easier it is for us to understand what we read and to learn new things.

When we know what we need to do, it will become easier for us to execute our personal strategy to earn money online and be successful in the long run.

Lastly, having a “just do it” learning mentality will make it easier for you to start, learn and improve on things as you go along. The hardest thing is to make that start.

If Microsoft were to wait for the perfect software, we will not be using Office now.

Likewise, the easiest way for you to make money online is just to make a start and gather knowledge and skill as you go.

Sitting around and hoping to start on something will not make you any money. Making that start will.