Saturday, October 26, 2013

OS LIFELINE: 8 Proven Ways You Can Earn Real Money Online WithoutHaving To Own/Operate A Website

Charles Offokaja and Simon Uzoma

Money Online

Quite a good number of Nigerians, the internet proffers many opportunities to earn a living without the hassles that come with owning or operating your own website.

Some of the complaints many Nigerians give is that they don’t have a website so there is no way they could make money online.

They look at website owners like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Seun Osewa of Nairaland and Linda Ikeji with her multi million naira blog and conclude that without owning a site, it is impossible to make tons of cash that can send you smiling constantly to your bank.

Nothing could be further from the truth, as there are still myriads of other ways one can make tons of money without having to buy a web domain name and hosting it.

Today we will be sharing with you some of the easiest ways to make money online without owning a website.

Don’t get us wrong; having a website is good and as the above examples show, is a sure fire way to tap into the knowledge economy for your own share of the multibillion dollar pie that is the internet; but in a situation where you don’t have a website/blog/forum and there’s no means or time to get and maintain one, but you are desperately in need of cash from cyber space, there are still lots of ways you can make serious money, even in Nigeria, seriously.

We want you to pay attention to what we’re about sharing because it will really help you when it comes to generating income online.
Is it possible to earn a living online without owning a website? The answer is YES

Here are some sure-fire ways you can earn money online without a website:

  1. Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are one of the secret but cheap routes to millions few Nigerians know about, but which is constantly increasing the bank accounts of the few who know its ways.

A Lagos based Project Management Professional seminar organizer who wants to remain anonymous knows all about making tons of money via Facebook ads: in fact, he made his first million via the platform.

He didn’t need to go through the rigors of choosing and buying a domain name, registering it; and he didn’t just have the money to go advertising in the media.

Hear him: “I had this professional course – Project Management Professional (PMP) – which I could offer to upwardly mobile professionals who wanted to enhance their careers, but I had no money to advertise the course in the newspapers, radio, or television.

“I was discouraged and didn’t know how to reach my target market. Then, with the help of a friend, I realized that there are about 10 million Nigerians on Facebook!

"And a large chunk of these ten million are upwardly mobile Nigerians based in Lagos, where I live and operate.
“I went to the site and found it extremely easy to design my ad. It was also very cheap, so I said, “What the heck” and paid for it.

"Guess what, for the next few weeks my phone rang incessantly, and on the day of the seminar, my conference room was filled up. I made my first million naira from that seminar, and in fact, we had to bring in extra chairs into the conference room.

“For a little amount paid to advertise my seminar on Facebook I got the success that seemed almost impossible before.”

Advantages Of Facebook Ads

  1. It is a medium to reach millions of Nigerians

  2. It is cheap compared to the ad prices of conventional media ads

  3. It is cheap compared to the ad prices of  many other websites

  4. There is less limitation on your freedom to structure your ad compared to what is obtainable in many other websites

  5. It is very easy to design the ad; you don’t need to be a web guru to do so. In fact, below is a guide you could use very easily to design and set up your own Facebook ad to advertise your product to Nigerians on Facebook

How To Create A Facebook Advertisement
i. You can do either of two things: create your own Facebook page or promote your existing separate web page. To create a new Facebook page, you simply fill in your business category and name of business, then you click the create page button as shown directly below:

ii. A new item will then show up in the applications list (in upper left) called the page manager.  Click on it and it will open a new page that gets you started creating your Facebook ad.

iii. You’ll see a button called "Create Targeted Ad" at the bottom of the page. If you select it, you can create an ad to drive traffic to your new Facebook page.

iv. Or, you can click on "I have a web page I want to advertise" and then type in the URL of your web page or your landing page:

v. Click the Continue button and you will be taken to the next tab "Choose Audience."  This is where you can choose your audience's demographics — like their age, gender, education status, and so forth.  You could also put in some specific keywords here to match your market.

vi. The next step is to create your ad. Read through the "Facebook guidelines for ad copy" to make sure you are complying with the rules. Here, just fill out your ad title and body. You could even upload a photo.

At this point, you could also select the option 'social actions relating to your ad'. What this means is that, if you belong to a Facebook group or you own an application, then Facebook will be able to enhance your ad by associating it with the actions of those groups. However, you may only choose sources relevant to the ad you're creating.

vii. Now it's time to decide out your budget options. There are two available options: payment per view/cost-per-impression (CPM) or payment per click.  Cost per impression is a good idea if you're just trying to spread awareness, and it's less expensive overall. Note though that just because people are loading up a page, it doesn't necessarily mean they want to purchase your product or service.

However, if you use payment per click (or cost-per-click), then you only pay when users click your ads.
At this point you even have the option of selecting the time period when you want your ads to run on FB: You can either run them continuously upon approval (Facebook will check all ads before showing them), or only run them on specified dates.

viii. The final step is to review your ad and pay by filling in your credit card details and clicking the Place Order button like the one you see below.

  1. Selling Cars For Others On Nairaland’s Auto section (Nairaland.com/autos) As An Agent

To many Nigerian car sellers the only way they can sell their cars is to place a large note on their windshields with the words ‘Buy Me’ emblazoned on it. Unknown to many of these people, there is a fast, very fast market for cars on Nigerian sites like Nairaland’s Auto section where cars worth millions are sold.

That’s where you come in. You can become an agent for these car dealers; all you need is your phone and an internet connection and a Written Agreement with the car dealer, specifying an agreed commission that he must pay you if you are able to get him a buyer online.

Guidelines:

  1. Get a phone and an internet connection

  2. Locate a car dealer offline and get a written agreement from him, stating the commission he will pay you if you are to get him someone that buys his car

  3. Go to Nairaland.com and register for free by clicking the Register button and then filling in your email address and desired password in the indicated spaces

  4. Get snapshots of the front, side, back and interior of the car and upload in your computer system

  5. On Nairaland’s Auto section click on Create New Topic, fill in the car’s details and price and upload the pictures of it plus your contact details

  6. People should begin to bargain with you on the topic page and via telephone calls, and ask to come to inspect the car

  7. At this stage you can begin to arrange meetings between the prospective buyers and the car seller – making sure that in your agreement it has been spelt out that if your customer should buy, you’ll receive a certain commission

You may not get your final offer immediately, and that is where your internet connection comes in – you should be able to come in once a day and bump the page to the top, usually by typing ‘bump’. Since Nairaland is a forum, you need to do this so that your ad/topic doesn’t get buried in the lower pages.

Note however: Nairaland Auto section rules frown at people ‘bumping’ their topics/ads more than once a day, so try not to fall afoul, as there are many other sellers who have cars to sell on the section.

Hopefully you won’t need to bump your topic much, as cars have been known to be sold almost immediately their topic is posted. Good luck.

  1. Buying, Adding Value And Re-Selling Cars On Nairaland’s Auto Section

You could also buy cars on Nairaland’s Auto section, add value to it by painting it, baking it, putting leather seats in it, and so forth, and then selling it back on the same platform at a higher price. The truth is that the market is there.

According to a participant in the section who did not want his name on print, “Nairaland’s online section is a virtual market but it’s real”.

The dealer also offers some advice for people who want to buy cars from the site to sell: “Business is still the same tricky thing it was, so always endeavor to meticulously inspect the car you want to buy before you part with your money.”

Note: there are other Nigerian sites that also have large ‘markets’ for cars. One of them is Tradestable.com.

  1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is by far the most successful money maker for most. The principle of affiliate marketing is that you are not working directly for somebody but rather promoting their products and it’s easy to learn.

Find a good product to promote and most of the work is done for you. You do not deal with delivery, product creation or returned goods. Not a lot of people realize you can do this without a website.

You need to choose the correct affiliate product, place it in the correct advertising location and learn how to promote it, and this is where a lot of new people fail. They may be great at one or two of these but they are rarely experts at all three.

Here are four things to consider before promoting an affiliate product
i. Is the product of interest to you? Start by finding what product you would like to push. Sell products that you believe in. Don't expect people to buy if you are not sold on the product you're selling.

So, find a product that you like and people will like it too. Your passion for the product will show as you promote it and be a significant factor in persuading people to buy.

ii. What promotional materials / tools does your affiliate program offer? Sample text ads / solo ads / banner ads? How about email campaigns? Do they provide you series of follow-up emails?

iii. What kind of support do they give you? Is their FAQ complete and helpful? Do they have a member area to provide support when you need help? Do they provide any online tools for you to check and monitor your sales statistics?

iv. What is the conversion rate?
When you check the above and find out that the affiliate is what you want then go ahead and promote it.

Where to get good affiliate products to promote:
A. www.cmsaffiliatecash.com
B. www.clickbank.com
C. www.cj.com

How to promote your affiliate link
Before you start promoting your affiliate link make sure you track it using www.bit.ly
There are many ways you can promote your affiliate link; here are some of them:

Facebook : using Facebook to advertise your product will really get you lots of traffic in a relatively short amount of time. And we’re talking serious traffic here.

Create a generic fan page based on your niche and start inviting your Facebook friends to your fan page. This will go a long way in bringing people to your affiliate product.

Each time you update your status add your affiliate link at the end of the update, lots of eye balls will instantaneously get to see it.

Pay Per Click: This has to do with paying for adverts, which means any time someone clicks on your link you pay for that click.
I will advise you not to go into pay per click if you are just a newbie, before going into pay per click make sure that you know what you are doing.
Having said that, Pay Per Click is still the fastest way of generating huge traffic to your affiliate link if you know how to go about it

Twitter: if you have a twitter account this is the time to start making use of it.
Tweet your affiliate link in your twitter page

Linkedin: This site is a mostly dominated by professionals in all works of life.
When you are promoting your affiliate link on Linkedin make sure you do it professionally. Don’t just spam the site. Ensure that you relate with people there and make as many friends as you can. This gives you the privilege to leverage with people who are interested in your affiliate product.

5. Cmsdone4you or Fiverr
Cmsdone4you.com and Fiverr.com are platforms where you can make money online without having a website. All you need to do is to list your products or services on the site, when you have an order you send it to the buyer.

This way of making money online is one of the easiest ways because you are not looking for traffic - the platform already has lots of traffic and the buyers are waiting for the right product or service to buy.

You can sell anything ranging from ebooks, backlinks, traffic, banner designs, web designs, social media, software, etc.

6. Apps Development
This has to do with developing an application that you can list in an app store and people can download and pay for the download. Software products like WhatsApp are actually apps or applications developed and often sold to PC or mobile phone owners because of their functionality.

Many think that apps can only be developed by technical experts. But the truth is that even people who don’t know much about the technicalities of developing apps can still own apps.

All they need to do is to have an idea, commission others to develop apps based on the idea; but it remains theirs as it is their intellectual property.  All the technician gets is his fee for developing the app. The profit goes to the person who commissioned the app as the owner of the intellectual property.

7. Info Marketing
You can make money online with information products even if you don’t have a website. Information products are lucrative when you know how to attract the right people to your offer.

Follow these steps:

  1. Snoop around where people converge and discuss online, forums, FB fanpages, etc. and identify common challenges that a lot of people will be willing to pay for to overcome.

  2. Go and do thorough research on that challenge and come up with a solution.

  3. Turn your discovery into an information product in either of these formats: ebook, video or audio tutorial.

  4. Go back to the people still facing the challenge you now have a solution to, and creatively market your solution to them.

  5. When they make payment for your product, attach the info product to your email and send it to their email.

Conclusion
Whichever idea you choose be sure to pursue it fully. This will enable you to realize that long dream of financial freedom that you have always cherished.
The internet is vast. Therefore, it’s advisable to pick just one of the money-making opportunities and focus on it until you master it before moving to another one.

8. Selling African Artefacts On EBay:
Before you frown and say 'But Nigerians are not allowed to trade on ebay', be informed that a lot of smart Nigerians do trade on ebay. Stuff like African carvings, statues, textile, and others sell like hot cakes on ebay. You too can do it.

You can successfully trade just about anything on ebay right here from Nigeria if you have a paypal account to receive your payment, and an associate in the US or any other participating countries on ebay to help you fulfil the order.

Ebay payments are made through paypal and paypal alone. Under normal circumstances, ebay does not allow Nigerians on its platform, but a lot of Nigerian internet marketers have since found a way around this hurdle, and it's working well.

So, if you can set up a verified paypal account and have an associate abroad in one of countries allowed on ebay, then you could be on your way to earning some very tidy sum of dollars on the internet without having a website.



Culled from SuccessDigest


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