I’m going to tell you how to make money online. I’m not going to tell you how to have an entrepreneurial journey, or grow as a person and spiritual being – I’m going to tell you how to free yourself from the shackles of trading your time for money.

When you have an internet money making system in place you make money whether you work or not. You go to sleep and wake up to see how much money you made the day before.

How much money can you make online?

You can make a lot or a little. It depends on how hard you work, how much you learn about your industry, how much you are willing to try and experiment, and maybe just a little luck. Some people make a few bucks a month, others make 40k per month or more.

If you can make $10 you can make $100. If you can make $100 you can make $1,000. If you can make $1,000 you can make anything you put your mind to.

The open secret to making money online

There are lots of little secrets and tips and tricks and hacks to making money online, but the only way to make money on the internet is by selling something. You’ve got to sell, sell and sell some more.

You can have the greatest product in the world but if you don’t sell it then you don’t make money. You can have the worst product in the world and sell, sell, sell and make a whole bunch of money.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Create your own product and sell it – You can create an ebook, a piece of software, or sell another product that you have created, commissioned or purchased. You can create this product yourself or you can outsource the work to a freelancer.

2) Sell someone elses product – Selling a product that someone else created for a % of the profit is called affiliate marketing.

3) Sell advertisement(s) on your website – You can sell advertising on your website directly to a company(s) or you can use google adsense to sell advertising.

4) Sell a service (consulting) – Most bloggers who make money off their website also sell their consulting services. They consult about SEO technicques and tactics, or they can act as life coaches.

The REAL secret to making money online

The real secret to making money online, the real moneymaker, is selling “How to make money on the internet” programs. That is where the real money is. This is the secret of countless bloggers, location independent entrepreneurs, Tim Ferris wannabe’s, Affiliate Marketers and clickbankers who will have you believe otherwise.

Countless bloggers have followed this approach. They faked it ’til they made it by selling “How to make money online” programs. If you can make people believe you will show them the way to make money online they will give their money to you to get your information.

Money vs. Art

You can create art or you can make money, and never the tween shall meet. If you want to make money online you can forget about creating art and focus on salesmanship. Sales is the name of the game.

[pullquote]ABC – Always. Be. Closing.[/pullquote]

BOLD & DETERMINED is art, not business. I really, truly hate writing technical “How to” articles so I will keep this as brief as possible.  I’m going to give you the facts and the resources and from then on it’s up to you to make something happen.

There are two types of people this guide is for

1) People who want to leave their 9-5 jive forever and need a way to do it.

2) People who want to supplement their 9-5 and make some extra cash money.

Why should you make money online?

So you can be FREE. Freedom and time are the most important things in the world. Being shackled to an office chair is a soul-stealing, heart-crushing affair that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy (ok, maybe I would) but I wouldn’t wish it on my friends. Be smart and leave the 9-5 jive forever.

I saw this Panda in Hong Kong. He was just facing the wall in this concrete room instead of hanging out in the fake grass. We could only see him through the TV monitor. I saw this look a million times when I used to work in an office. Why should you start making money online? Freedom. You don’t want to end up like Prison panda. You can be free IF you work to get there.

There are two kinds of money to be made online

Passive money and Active money.

Passive money is when you make money selling a product. Passive money comes to you without you doing any additional work. You set up the product, automate your page, and sell your product which is charged and delivered automatically.

Active money is when you make money selling your service(s). Active money requires you do additional work (i.e. consulting).

Ways to make passive money online

Affiliate Marketing - Affiliate marketing is when a person advertises a product for another person in return for a % of the profit.  Anytime you read a blog that talks about a product they love so very much and they conveniently provide a link for you to check out the product you are looking at affiliate marketing in action. To become an affiliate marketer you will post a review of a product on your website, get your customers to purchase the product and you will get a piece of the profits. This can add up to some very good income. You can make up to 75% of the purchase price of the product doing this. Let other people create the product and you send traffic to buy that product and collect your money.

The most ethical way to become an Affiliate Marketer is to actually use and enjoy the products that you promote.

Advertising with Google adsense – Google adsense is the most popular, and easiest method, to put paid advertising on your website. Will it make you a bunch of money? Maybe yes or maybe no. It takes experimentation to find what works best.

Selling Private Advertising – When you have a decent amount of traffic to your website or blog you will get requests to place advertising on your website. You can also create a “Advertise?” link on your website to allow advertisers to contact you about placing their advertising on your website.

Selling a product – The biggest moneymaker is creating your own high quality product and selling it to your audience. You can even create an affiliate deal for your product – allow others to generate traffic for you and give them a percentage of the sale. This can all be automated by using companies like Clickbank.com.

Ways to make active money online

Sell your service –

• Are you an expert in a certain area?
• Are you good at SEO work?
• Are you good at programming?
• Can you be a life coach?
• Are you a good graphic designer?
• Are you good at using photoshop?
• Can you teach someone a 2nd language?
• Can you be a personal fitness trainer?
• Can you write quality articles for other people?
• Can you fake any of that?

People will pay you for your service if you have a quality website that makes them feel like you are a qualified expert.

I have news for you, most bloggers who blog about “How to make money online” don’t know anything and are trying to make money themselves. Most bloggers start a blog to make money and become famous. They fake the hell out of their knowledge.

The 6 steps to making money online by blogging

1) Start a quality website or blog

2) Provide something valuable

3) Get traffic

4) Capture the emails of your audience

5) Sell your audience something worthwhile

6) Repeat

Bonus #7) Be free

The biggest money spending audience on the internet

Do you want to know who the biggest money spending audience on the internet is?

It is you and people just like you.

People who are looking for a way to leave their soul-stealing job and live life on their own terms. People who are tried of feeling like Prison Panda.

That’s why “How to make money online” programs and websites are popular and profitable.

One of the easiest ways to make money on the internet right now, this very second, is to create and / or sell a “How to Make Money Online” website or ebook because that’s what people just like you want to know. The secret is that you make money online by selling other people how to make money online.

What kind of website should I start?

First rule: Do not think in term of website, think in terms of websites. To make money online you must have many sites producing income for you.

Blogs: Blogs are the easiest websites to start and monetize. On a blog you can use adsense ads, you can sell private ads, you can post affiliate links, you can create and sell your own e-book or other product, you can review products for a fee, and you can sell your consulting services. There are many, many ways to make money from a blog.

Blogs are the easiest way to start in the online world. If you cannot think of a topic to blog about you can download 30 Days of Discipline and blog about your progress. That’s a perfect way to get started and used to blogging.

Running a blog with wordpress is very, very easy.

Niche Sites: A niche site is a small site dedicated to a small market. For example: a website about how to kill ants. Pepper in some articles, pepper in some advertisements, pay attention to the SEO and the competition and watch a steady trickle of money come into your pocket. Niche sites are the bread and butter of internet marketers making a living from their websites. 10, 20, or 30 niche sites bringing in $100-$200 a month can bring you some real money. Niche sites can certainly make more than that per month – but they do take work.

You can build niche sites the same way you build your blog, using wordpress.

Single Landing Page for a product you have created: A landing page is a simple one or two page site that shows you a product, it’s benefit and then it’s price. A good example of this is Eat Stop Eat – Intermittent Fasting for Fat Loss. A very simple but highly effective sales page for a quality product. FYI – That’s an affiliate link. If you click on that link and purchase Eat Stop Eat then I make a commission off of that. Can you now see some of the ways you can make money?

E-Commerce Sites: A lot harder to start for a complete newbie but can certainly be very profitable.

How do you create a “How to make money online” website?

Be patient, friend. That’s coming soon.

What is…?

Domain Registration - A domain is the name of the website. For example: The domain name of this website is boldanddetermined.com. A domain can be .com, .net, .org, .us, .info etc.. Domain registration is the act of purchasing a domain name. Domain names are quite cheap if they are not already taken by another person or company. A .com domain name will run in the neighborhood of $10 for a year.

When you purchase a domain name it is a good idea to also purchase a private registration. If you don’t purchase a private registration anyone on the internet can see who owns your site and they can possibly get more information about you. It’s a good idea to protect yourself as much as you possibly can.

There are free websites available but they do not look professional and I highly advise against them. Free websites and blogs can be built at blogger.com or wordpress.com but they will always have blogger, blogspot, or wordpress in the title. For example, if I had started BOLD & DETERMINED on a free platform the domain name would be boldanddetermined.wordpress.com and I would never, ever be able to change that until I purchased a real domain name. If your goal is to make a professional money making website you must purchase your own domain name(s).

Hosting - Hosting is where your webpage, files, and documents are stored. Your website must be hosted somewhere or it cannot be viewed by anyone. It sounds complicated to a very beginner but it isn’t. Once you set up your hosting provider you can forget all about it.

SEO – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When someone searches in google for a particular word or phrase and you want them to come to your site you must optimize and manipulate your wording so that you have a higher place in the google lineup.

WordPress - Wordpress is the easiest, best and, frankly, only way to run a website. Best of all it is completely free. Every money making blog and small website uses WordPress as their platform. WordPress takes less than 5 minutes to install and is extremely easy to learn and use.

There are two types of wordpress. WordPress.org and wordpress.com. WordPress.com is a site that will let you create a free blog and provide free hosting but your domain name will always end with wordpress.com. I do not recommend you use wordpress.com. WordPress.org is what the big boys use.

WordPress Themes – A WordPress theme is the look of the website. With WordPress themes you can change the look of your website in a matter of minutes. You can design your own theme, you can use a free theme, or you can purchase a professional looking Premium WordPress theme. Since your goal is making money and not making art then a Premium Theme is the only way to go. Your site has to look good if you’re going to make some money.

WordPress Plugins – WordPress plugins are additional tools to add to your WordPress website to optimize performace. WordPress plugins are extremely easy to download, activate and use. Some examples of wordpress plugins: When you see a “Facebook Like” button or a “ReTweet” button on a website or blog you are seeing WordPress plugins in use. There are many, many behind the scenes plugins that the casual viewer will not even notice or be aware of but they help make your website run smooth.

E-mail list / Subscriber list / Opt-in list – This is your list of website viewers who have given you their e-mail address to be kept posted of A) any new posts to your website and B) receive any e-mail communications from you. For example: You can send out a weekly or monthly newsletter, send out any special or urgent news, or send out special offers for your products or your affiliate products.

Setting up an email list is a MUST DO from the very beginning of your website.

Monetize - To monetize your website is to turn it from a non-income producing website to an income producing website. To bring in money.

How do I start my first website(s)?

Follow the links in the resources below.

Resources:

Remember, this guide is a primer to making money online. This is how you start. You must continually read and learn to make money, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Start here:

Setting up your website

Domain Names

• GoDaddy - The first thing you need to do when starting a website or blog is to purchase a domain name. Go here to pick up your domain name(s). It is a good idea to have several domain names for different ideas and sites. It’s a good to add private registration for security reasons.

• Hostgator - Your website has to be hosted somewhere otherwise you do not have a website, you just have a domain name. BOLD & DETERMINED uses Hostgator and I have never had a problem with their hosting services. You can host unlimited sites with hostgator for about $8 per month. Hostgator will provide instructions about how to host your domain name.
• Bluehost - I have never used Bluehost but I hear nothing but good things about them. Bluehost will provide instructions about how to host your domain name.

Installing WordPress, WordPress Themes, and WordPress Plugins

Installing WordPress

• WordPress - You do not need to download wordpress. Hostgator and Bluehost both make installing wordpress extremely simple and painless. To learn how to install WordPress on a Hostgator hosted site go here. To learn how to install WordPress on a Bluehost hosted site go here.

Installing WordPress Themes

• To learn how to easily and painlessly install a WordPress theme go here.

Market Research

• Google Keyword Tool - The best FREE tool available for doing market research on your chosen keyword and demographic.
• Google Analytics - Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. View all sorts of info about your visitors (i.e. how long they stay on your site, your most popular articles and pages, how visitors came to your site).

Outsourcing Work

• E-lance - Elance is where you go to get a freelancer to do some work for you (i.e. Site design, site coding, ghostwriting).
• BPOVIA - BPOVIA is a company located in China that provides Virtual Assistants at an affordable rate. You can use Virtual Assistant(s) to do all the BS work you don’t want to do. You’ll be surprised how much they can do for you – from website management to personal management. VA’s can do many of the things that a freelancer could do at a fraction of the price. I used BPOVIA before and they did all my tasks assigned to them acceptably.

Money Makers

• Google Adsense - Google Adsense are ads you put on your site. Anytime someone clicks on the ads you make some money. It’s only small change but it adds up as your traffic grows. It can turn into some real income for you if you build a good website.
• Clickbank - Clickbank is where you go to find an affiliate product(s) to advertise on your website. Signing up for a clickbank account and promoting clickbank products is very easy.
• Amazon Affiliates - If you send someone to amazon to purchase a product you can make a percentage of whatever was sold. Signing up for Amazon Affiliates is extremely easy.
• Commission Junction – Commission Junction is another affiliate website where you can get links to companies to promote their products and services for a percentage of the sales.
• Paypal – Paypal is one way for you to accept payment for your website, goods and services. It’s very easy to set up. FYI – You can donate some of your hard earned money to me for producing this helpful and free guide for you. Paypal accepts all major credit cards, to make a donation you do not even need a Paypal account. But you will likely need to open a Paypal account to receive payments.
• E-junkie - E-Junkie is how you sell a product you created. You simply create your product and they will take care of the rest. You can add their shopping cart to your website and boom, everything is automated for you after that. You can also choose affiliate products from E-Junkie to promote.

Email Subscriber & Newsletter List Creation

• Aweber – Aweber is the best of the best for capturing emails and sending out mass emails and newsletters. I used it for about two years. I only stopped when I no longer needed to send out mass e-mails.
• Mailchimp – Mailchimp is a way to capture email addresses and send out mass e-mails for your newsletter. Mailchimp is free for the first 12,000 subscriber and 2,000 e-mails per month. I am currently using Mailchimp to deliver 30 Days of Discipline, so far I have not had many problems with it. Subscribe to the free BOLD & DETERMINED newsletter and get your copy of 30 Days of Discipline as an ass-kicking gift.
• Feedburner - You can use feedburner to offer RSS subscription service, e-mail subscription service, and newsletter service. Feedburner is free. Feedburner gives you some great details about how many people are reading your posts, opening your e-mails etc.. For BOLD & DETERMINED I use feedburner for my RSS Feed and every time I post a new article it is e-mailed to people who subscribed to the e-mail updates. Subscribe to BOLD & DETERMINED by Email / Subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Bookkeeping & Accounting

• Intuit Quickbooks - You’ve got to run your website like a business, and that means taking your bookkeeping seriously.

Business Creation

• Legalzoom – Create an LLC or other business structure right from your computer.

Phone / Fax

• eVoice® - Phone and fax service. Send and receive faxes directly by e-mail. Read your voicemail as an e-mail. It’s worth it simply to not have to listen to voicemail on your phone.

Advanced Resources

This page will get you started making money online but to realize your full potential you have to keep learning and keep improving.

• The 40 Day Challenge – Top 5 in Google within 40 Days - by Joseph Archibald - The most interesting and fascinating book I have read about Search Engine Optimization. Very, very informative and in depth.
• The Keyword Academy - Easy-to-follow lessons that teach you how to make money online. Perfect for beginners. I really can’t say enough good things about this no BS approach to making money online. It’s FREE for the first month and only $33 per month after that.

All in One

• Start a Blog That Matters - Build a profitable blog or website from the ground up.

Other

• Mailbox Forwarding - Get all your paper mail right in your e-mail inbox. Perfect for when you start making some money online and realize you’d rather go travel to, or even live in, other countries. I’ve been using this company for a year while I have been in Asia and haven’t had any problems with them.

Must Read Books

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – This book is the best business book ever written, hands down. It’s all about mindset. Repeat: It’s all in the mind. Change your thought process, change your life.
• The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferris – This book literally changed my life. For better or worse I can never go back to how I used to live. I’d be wealthier if I never read this book but I certainly wouldn’t be happier. This book goes into quite a bit of detail about how to run a successful online business. Don’t let the title fool you, to become successful you will work a whole lot more than 4 hours per week.
• Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger – I just plain love this book. One of the most motivational books of all time by one of the most motivational people of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger. This book has absolutely nothing to do with making money online but it has everything to do with winning.

 Tips:

Quit bullshitting. If you want to make money you’ve got to work for it. Wake up at 5am and put in 3-4 hours of work every morning. Work on your lunch break. Work in the evenings before you go to bed. Think about your business 24/7. Live and breathe your business.

Download 30 Days of Discipline to help you focus and get into the right mindset.

Never be scared to ask for money. Your goal is to make money, there is no reason to hide that.

Time is your most precious commodity, don’t waste it.

QUIT FUCKING AROUND AND START RIGHT NOW. “TOMORROW” IS FOR LOSERS.

You’ve seen Fight Club right? Think of it like this: If you’re not on your way to making money online in 6 months you will be dead.

If your mission is to make money online then there is no better time than right now.

Links

Niche Site Duel – all about creating profitable niche sites from the ground up.

12 Best WordPress Plugins for New Bloggers - The best WP Plugins to use from the start.

Create an eCommerce Website with WordPress in under 5 minutes - Easy video tutorial.