Notionet

There is a difference between making money through the Internet and making money in the Internet(online). The  two terms can be used interchangeably but why some people end up losing their cash is because they can’t tell the difference between the two. When someone is making money via the Internet, they are using the Internet as a channel to offer their services or sell their products. It’s one way that has turned people like Jeff bezos into billionaires.

Making money online or in a simpler term, making money in the Internet, is when someone sells online based services. A good example is web hosting, other examples are; publishing, marketing, content creation e.t.c. Here there are no offline services like shipping or physical goods being exchanged. One is simply selling traffic, space, data and other online related products. Companies that have made good cash from this are social networks I.e facebook, search engines I. E Google and smaller platforms like blogs, YouTube channels, websites e.t.c.

The good side of making money via the internet is

• Certaininity. You are in control of what you sell and the pricing part is determined by you. It’s easy to handle the risks because you are aware of them.
• little competition. One is not limited to the usual online ways of monetisation. You can come up with new products and services and other unique ways to sell. This kind of diversification helps reduce competition
• Room for future growth.
• Open to innovation.
• little capital. The cost of starting is little to none
  quick generation of money.

The down sides are

• Need for credibility. It might take time and effort to build trust for your brand.
• Accountability. Most of the business activities and their outcome have to handled by you.
• Affected by market trends.

Basing on the fact that making money is the main goal, the downsides are bearable compared to those of making money online. Making money trough the Internet is as easy as taking a photo of your headphones and posting them on the Internet for interested buyers unlike creating a post and waiting for it to gain enough viewers to generate money. It takes a lot and might never deliver due to certain factors.

Looking at certain ways of making money online i.e networking, taking surveys and affiliate marketing, this are not the kind of investments you can rely on to cover certain expenses like going on vacations and taking insurance covers. Its true, there are people who have made a good amount of cash from writing reviews and promoting certain products on their youtube channels but it takes a lot to turn such endevours to lifetime careers. Infact some who are now making good cash from such activities had no intention of making six figures They had the advantage of time as they waited for their businesses to grow to where they are today. They also had to look for more ways to monetize what they are doing. A good example is syed Balki of wordpress beginner blog. He has made build an eight figure business around wordpress and is now investing in other areas of wordpress like plugin development.

Its not just about making money online because $1 is still money but also about how much you can make. To make a reliable amount one needs the right information and aproach towards making money through the internet. With that much lets look at some guaranteed ways you can make money via the internet.

1. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a kind of ecomerce business where the online store ships products directly from suppliers to clients instead of holding them as stock to ship them after every order. Its like you, the store owner is purchasing the product on behalf of your client. The only difference is the product is being delivered to your client under your store’s name. This way of selling products enables you to build an ecomerce business with very little capital. All you need is to create a store front/ ecomerce website where clients can view products and place orders online. Your task will only be to contact your supplier everytime an order is placed in your store so they can ship it to your client. Plus you dont have to worry about the process. Today there are addons and plugins made to help you connect your store to that of your supplier.

To start and run a succesful dropshipping business, you have to choose the right suppliers and tools. The good thing is these tools are easy to access. I.e ;

a) Shoppify with oberlo app

Shoppify is a platform that you can use to create an online store. They have four pricing plans. The lowest is shopify lite at $9/mo followed by basic at $29/mo then shopify at $79mo while at the top is advanced plan at $299/month. Oberlo on the other hand is an app/plugin you install via the dashboard. The app helps you import products together with all their images, prices and descriptions from the supplier’s stores to your store. Oberlo is 100% free to all shopify users( account holders).

Why shopify and oberlo

There are many ways to do Dropshipping but shopify’s oberlo makes it easier by connecting your shopify store with your supplier. It also help you look for the right suppliers in a less tasking way. When clients place an order in your store Oberlo automatically forwards it to the supplier. It’s the kind of processing orders that you will not find in most droshipping plugins.

b) WordPress with woocomerce and Alidropship plugin

Woocomerce is an ecomerce platform built for wordpress. With this free plugin you can create a complete online store on any wordpress site. Alidropship on the other hand is a plugin when integrated with woocommerce enables the store owner to easily import products from AliExpress.

Why Alidropship

There are many free plugins that one can use for dropshipping even from other stores. Alidropship is not a free plugin but it gives you the convenience of integrating it with WordPress and woocomerce. Both of which are free and full of reliable features to create a fully functional online store at almost zero cost. The plugin sells at one time payment of $89. Just like Oberlo it’s order fulfillment is quite automated.

Dropshipping is a good choice for anyone who intends to invest in ecomerce. Honestly speaking I don’t see why anyone would waste such an opportunity but like any other business It has it’s downsides too.

• Small profit margins. Dropshipping is a retail model and worse because it’s hard to enjoy the economy of scale (buy at a whole sale price) as you will be shipping one item at a time. This makes it a little bit harder to make good profit from the items one is selling.
• Shipping inconveniences. Unlike stores that hold inventory, dropshippers can take longer, upto 3 months to ship from distant countries. For this reason they are limited to source from suppliers closer to their counties of operation.
• Competition. It’s easy to start this kind of business. It has almost zero cost. This atracts more people to invest. It is also affected by other ecomerce sites selling the same items at lower prices.

Regardless of this challenges it’s still possible to make good profit from dropshipping even millions if you do it the right way.

2. Taking gigs

A gig is a short term job. It’s also called freelancing but gig is a better word as freelancing can mean any temporary job done without supervision. As for gig’s there is more to them like you can be hired by a certain company as an extra hand for a given period of time. In such a case you will be applying your own skills but might be doing it under a certain supervisor. Gig jobs has given rise to the gig economy. Instead of companies employing permanent employees they are hiring them only when they need their services and paying them when the job is done. Gig workers on the other hand don’t need to look for permanent jobs. They just need to sharpen their skills, promote their services and look for gigs.

So, one way to make money through the Internet is to take gigs. Today there are many sites connecting gig workers to employers. Unlike freelancer and fiverr who have been in the game for a long time, there other sites that might work for you basing on your location I.e.

• Guru
• Flexjobs
• Elance

These sites can connect you to Gigs near your place. You can also Opt to create your own way of taking and offering gigs. You can create your own site or just use social media to advertise your expertise. Gig jobs have no limit to what you can offer. It all depends with how you want to do the job depending on what is expected and how much you intend to get paid.

As for now I will leave you to digest that. More reliable ways will be added soon.