10: Selling Stuff on eBay
Most people today are familiar with the concept: You have things you don't necessarily need but others are willing to buy, and you can auction off the items on eBay or other online auction sites. Simply gather your goods, create a seller's profile and start selling.
It sounds simple, but it takes some practice to sell successfully. Creating persuasive and legitimate product pages for the goods you're selling will help get buyers interested. It's also important to set reasonable minimum bids to ensure that people will buy. And remember to deliver the kind of customer service that will garner positive feedback ratings and to communicate with buyers to let them know you're reliable. The more positive feedback you receive, the more people will be willing to do business with you. And that, of course, means more money.
9: Blogging
If you have a particular passion for something, whether it's a hobby or an obsession, and you have something to say about it, blogging could be a profitable way to pour out your endless stream of thought. The key here, as with many other services on the Internet, is in selling advertising.
After starting up a personal blog, many writers sign up for ad services like Google AdSense, which post those familiar sponsored links you often see at the top and on the sides of Web sites. The more times your blog readers click on those ads, the more money you'll make through the ad service. This works fine if you're a casual blogger, and you may make some extra spending money. But if the blog is consistently interesting, well-written and really takes off, you may be approached by companies who want to reach your fan base with graphical advertising around your blog. Some of the more successful blogs, like I Can Has Cheezburger? and Boing Boing, have become pop-culture phenomena, and their creators have been able to quit their day jobs and blog full time because of the money they make from advertisers.
8: Designing and Selling T-shirts
A you walk around most high school and college campuses, you're likely to come into contact with lots of words. But it won't be material from textbooks or term papers -- those are probably in backpacks or sitting unfinished at home. Instead, they're the simple phrases or logos -- most of which are ironic or amusing -- printed on the T-shirts on the backs of the students.
Usually, the more unique and offbeat the design is, the more desirable the T-shirt is. The growth of the Internet has made it possible for vendors to sell T-shirts all over the world. In fact, sites like CafePress.com and SpreadShirt.com allow you to set up your own store, create your own designs and sell them yourself. If you can create your own shirt design with a clever catchphrase or come up with your own unique statement and people like it, you can start making money.
7: Freelancing
Freelancing is similar in some ways to blogging. For one thing, you get to work from your own home or office most of the time. But there are a few important distinctions. First, if you're thinking about freelance writing, chances are you need to have more experience than the average blogger. Many freelance writing positions cover specialized topics for online publications and many require expert knowledge on the subject. However, if you're passionate about things like travel or food and know how to write, a freelancing job can provide you with a good income.
Along a similar line, you might also consider self-publishing your original work rather than working on contract-driven tasks. Self-publishing offers many of the same benefits as freelance writing. This additional step is risky, though, because it requires marketing work to your target audience so they'll buy your work.
Writing's not the only way to make money freelancing, of course -- anyone with graphic design or programming experience can find contract jobs that pay well and provide challenging work, too.
6: Domain Name Flipping
Based on luck, strategy and business savvy, domain name flipping can be one of the more lucrative ways to earn a living online. The term comes from the real estate trick that involves buying old, undervalued houses, fixing them up to make them more attractive and modern-looking and selling them for a much higher prices.
In this case, the old and outdated place is not a house, but rather a domain name -- the main address for a Web page. With a little bit of searching, dedicated domain flippers locate unused, poorly maintained Web sites that have generic and recognizable identifiers and buy them. They usually pay a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, but after extensive updates that make the site more business- and user-friendly, the domain name can fetch several times more than it was originally worth. The domain bird-cage.com, for instance, was bought for a mere $1,800 in 2005 -- after a redesign two years later, the site was sold for $173,000 to a bird cage vendor [source: Bhattarai].
5: Financial Services
Financial services include accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll processing. Today, you can accomplish most of these services using specialized software. For businesses, this means hiring fewer people to handle these tasks. For individuals, it means doing it on their own and hiring a consultant online when necessary.
These cost-saving opportunities for consumers mean money-making opportunities for you. You can create a Web site on your own or work with an existing Web-based services group. Then, you can correspond with clients through that Web site and via e-mail.
If you want to offer financial services over the Internet, first make sure you're either trained or experienced in the services you're planning to provide. For example, you're probably not an expert on preparing taxes for a small family farm unless you've done so before or had training in farm-related accounting. In addition, make sure you know whether you'll need government licenses to offer certain services, and refrain from misrepresenting yourself or working illegally to avoid getting sued for fraud.
Source: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/how-to-tech/5-ways-to-make-money-on-internet.htm
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