OK, raise your hands if you want money. Everyone? Yes!

Now, raise your hand if you want quick money. Still everyone? Yes! Awesome!

And now raise your hand if you are willing to put in time, work, and effort; a lot of time, months, perhaps a year, perhaps 9 months? Oh, fewer hands are raised … OK.

Where Do You Get Quick Money?

Where? Unless you steal someone’s money like online scam companies do, there is no such thing as quick money. The internet is teeming, seriously overflowing and t e e m i n g with scammers, and thousands of victims still fall for them, day by day. Why? Because many of us still have this idea of making quick money online.

You can make a lot of money online, that is very true. The internet is a great place to earn an extra or even a main income. Online business holds a promise for many. It doesn’t come quickly though.

Tough Times

A lot of people find themselves in a situation where they can’t pay the bills anymore, where one emergency piles up after another and you have barely enough to buy food. You have to cut back on food expenses, so that you can still pay for gasoline to get to work. Oh, I get it. I’ve been there, more than I would like to remember … People like that are easy prey for scammers.

How do Scammers Get You?

You go online, hoping to find a way to make extra money, so that you can pay your medical bills, debts, food, or whatever else is urgent at the moment. There are many legit ways to make money online, and we all know that it is possible. Unfortunately, there are also A LOT of scam companies in this jungle that the internet has become, and they promise exactly what people in urgent need of money want: quick money.

Oh, so easy, sign up for $20 US, that’s it, now you click on the next page, and oops, there’s an upsell of 49 dollars. OK, I can’t really afford that, but it is not that much yet and if I buy this, I have more benefits and I can “make more quick money”. Fine, done, next page … oops, another upsell, uh oh, this one costs $199 … No … No way, seriously? Why wasn’t I advised of this? I thought I was going to pay just 20 dollars. I already spent more than 60 and they still want me to buy more upsells.

Can you feel the frustration and disappointment? Upsells are not always typical for scams, they also happen in legit companies, but it is disheartening when these upsells pop up without previous notice …

There goes your money, and in time you will see that you are still not getting a quick extra income, and that the only one who is making money is the guy who owns the company that promised you the stars and the moon with only “30 minutes work per day”.

Does that sound familiar?

You have to be so careful online. It is a harsh lesson learned. So, I am sorry if the title of my article made you think that I was going to show you a way to make quick money, because I am not. I think that you know by now that there is no such thing as quick money unless you … OK, let’s not go there 😉

But, wait a minute. Don’t walk away yet. There is a great way to make money online; it just takes time and some effort. Doesn’t the same principle apply when you open a bookstore or a restaurant? Businesses need time to get customers, to become known, and to bring in revenue. Everyone knows that. It isn’t any different on the internet, but somehow many still cling to that belief that quick money is an online thing. It isn’t, OK …

How Can You Make Money Online?

Legit, no scams, we’re all sick of them, right? I know I am! So, let me list three ideas to make money online. I’ll explain each one below.

• Blog
• Publish an e-book (and/or paperback)
• Affiliate Marketing

There are, of course, more, (for example, MLM marketing, surveys, etc) but I find that these three I mentioned are pretty effective. They are all different, but they have one thing in common; it takes time, effort, and dedication before you start earning money with any of these.

Surveys can also earn you something extra, but keep in mind that the pay per survey is very low and you need to fill in many surveys before you have a decent amount of cash. Although I know that MLM companies can generate money, I am not a fan of them and to discuss them in detail I will have to write another article. So, for now, let’s focus on affiliate marketing, blogging, and publishing.

Publishing

Nowadays you can easily publish an e-book (and also a paperback) on Amazon KDP. There you can upload your manuscript and book cover, fill in your author details, and you can additionally open an author Amazon page on Author Central.

I have published several books on Amazon KDP. Bear in mind that before you upload your manuscript, it must be fully edited and formatted. Every book should also have a disclaimer page, table of contents, and copyright information. A preface or foreword is not mandatory, but it can be included, that depends entirely on the author.

If you like to know more about publishing with Amazon KPD, then check out my previous article about publishing platforms

 

Can You Make Money With an E-book or Paperback?

In order to earn an income with your book(s), you must be 100% dedicated to promoting your work. What do you need to do?

• Have an author website
• Build your network of followers
  • engage with fellow authors and readers
• Build an online presence on social media
• Run promotions:
  • do a giveaway
  • guest blog posts
  • special offers
  • ads
  • campaigns
  • create a Youtube channel
  • do blog and podcast interviews
  • do book signing events and book tours

Yes, it is a lot of work. It is time-consuming, and many authors also have a day time job which already takes up enough time. But it’s worth it. Having your work out there, shared with others, reading your book reviews, and seeing that first sale come in, it’s absolutely worth all the effort.

Blogging

Personally, I like blogging. Well, I love writing, and so I enjoy sharing my thoughts here with you. Blogs don’t necessarily make money, but you can certainly find ways to earn some cash with them.

How? Well, you could sell your own products on your blog. There are several plugins for WordPress e-commerce. Woocommerce and WP ecommerce are two plugins you can download once you have your WordPress website. They will allow you to display your products; you could sell physical products, downloads, memberships, subscriptions … Other platforms like PayPal are easily integrated.

Affiliate marketing is another way to make money on blogs. So, this paragraph runs into the next one which is about affiliate marketing.

You can either set up a free website on Siterubix (which is WordPress’s little sister) or you can purchase your own domain directly on WordPress at the low cost of $10-15 US per year. If you decide to start with a free website, you could still transfer it later to your own domain.

Affiliate Marketing

How does this work? Basically, you sign up as an affiliate marketer and you insert affiliate links for products into your blog posts. They can be products that are useful for the reader or that relate to your article. You can sign up with many companies, for example, big ones like Walmart and Amazon, and also smaller businesses which you can find on ShareASale.

When someone clicks on your link and buys the product, you – as an affiliate – earn a commission at no extra cost to the buyer.

There is an infinite amount of affiliate companies for you to sign up, too many to list here. If there is a company you would like to promote, just google the name of the company and type affiliate next to it. That should give a result.

As an affiliate marketer you must be honest. You should never promote any products that you haven’t tried yourself or that you haven’t researched properly. Your affiliate links should help the reader, not push themselves up his or her nose, screaming “click here!” “buy me!” “click here!” “buy me!” repeatedly. That only results in the reader hastily abandoning your sales blog.

So, It Works?

Affiliate marketing works, but again, you must be prepared and willing to put in the time to build an online presence. Nothing is handed to you like the online scammers would like you to believe.

Publishing your book and blogging work will yield results too; the same rule of time, effort, and dedication apply.

Everything needs time and effort, but if you think about it, wouldn’t it be much better to dedicate that hard work to your own business instead of your boss? Or even if you are doing this as a side hustle, it is still your own, and for our own ventures I think it is worth putting in the hours. Don’t you agree?