At this particular date, the economy in the USA is hitting on all eight cylinders. Most people are content with enjoying a regular job with a decent regular income. But, some see this as an opportunity to do something they have always wanted to do. That is, to start their own business. A question often heard is, “What is the best way to make money online from home?”
Groundwork
There are a few things that you must understand before launching your online business. If you start with an online search engine, which you evidently did, you must be cautious.
The “eye-catchers” will try to tell you that you can make money right now. You would be wise to mark that one off your list right from the beginning.
An online successful business is not built in a day, or a week, or even a month. But, if you are willing to exercise patience and be consistent you can build a successful business that will last.
Most successful online businesses take from six months to two years to get established. Once established, they will continue to produce income for years with minimal input and maintenance.
So, if you think you can do that, let’s move on.
What kind of online businesses are available?
Depending on your knowledge of the online world, you may know of some online business opportunities. Let’s look at a few.
What are the best ways to make money online from home?
The first method that always comes to mind for many is the sales angle. If that is your inclination you have several good ones to choose from.
Ebay
No doubt you have heard of Ebay. It is probably the biggest platform for online sales. Many people have made lots of money simply by listing items for auction or sale. It used to be that you had the object and listed and sold it and shipped it. These days it is much more sophisticated.
Very few vendors on Ebay, or similar platforms, actually warehouse their own articles. I’ll cover that in just a few minutes.
To sell on Ebay, or similar platforms, you must sign up and have a viable email address. You must also set up an account with Paypal. In addition, you must have a registered email with Ebay and Paypal.
There are different levels in which you can operate in each auction site you work with. Different benefits are associated with each level. There are additional costs for each additional service you may avail yourself of.
Added costs
You must be aware of the costs involved with each level. In the Free level of each auction platform, you are charged only when you make a sale. At the time of sale, you will be charged an Ebay and a Paypal fee. That usually comes to 13% of the total sale price. So, you must be certain to mark up the item price to account for this. If you don’t, it will diminish your profit.
Typically, the minimal markup of a sale item is no less than 20%.
The sale platforms also offer the service for you to have your own store. They will also offer advertisement for your store or items. This is another fee that is attached to the final sale price.
Some platforms will only allow you to post a certain number of items with the Free option. For an added monthly fee you can increase that number to varying levels.
A lot of people have made a lot of money selling on these types of sites.
Caution
The major caution I would render is this. If you are doing this as a “part-time” type of business, be cautioned. To make big money on this platform will take large amounts of your time. It is convenient because you can do it from your home on your own computer.
Other auctions
As I said above, there are other platforms for auctions. Two that are on a similar level as Ebay are Bonanza and Etsy. These offer much the same as Ebay, with a possible savings in some areas of promotion. Their percentage charged may be a little less in some areas. Bonanza has made good strides in competing with Ebay. Many maintain a store on both sites.
How to get products to sell on auction sites
You may be wondering just how people can stock so many items to sell on Ebay or Bonanza. Well, they don’t. Their secret is a practice known as “dropshipping”.
Dropshipping, what is it?
Just how does dropshipping work? Most of what you see sold on Ebay and Bonanza could not be possible without dropshipping.
The process follows as such. You find a product you would like to sell on
Ebay. Then you find a supplier of that product. You establish an account with that supplier. This is usually done by registering a credit card with the supplier.
The supplier then provides you with a catalog of his products. He allows you to pay a wholesale price for the product. Some suppliers include free shipping in the cost of the product. For some, you may have to add additional cost for shipping.
You now list it on the auction site you have chosen with your asking price. If someone buys your product they will pay you the price you listed it for. Then, with that money, you pay the supplier the wholesale price and keep the difference as your profit.
The supplier will then ship the product to the address of the purchaser. You never have to touch the product.
This is how dropshipping works. So you do not need to keep an inventory.
Other dropshipping platforms
In addition to auctions, you may choose to have your own online store. You can usually build these through such platforms as Volusion or Shopify. They are basically a dropshipping type of business. But, with them, you will deal through them to build your store and supply it through them.
In some ways, this simplifies the work you need to put into the process. But it limits the products and brands you can offer. However, there have been many people who have built successful online businesses using them.
Some of the eCommerce store builders are BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, and Woocommerce.
The most widely used format for online business
Probably the widely used format for an online business is that of the Affiliate Marketer.
For the affiliate marketer, the approach is a little different. The approach is not to build a catalog of products, but rather to gather a following of like-minded people. To build that following, you build a themed website and through advertisements point people to certain products. It may be a single product or type of product. It can be general or specific products.
As you can probably gather, this is not selling products through a storefront type of website.
How does affiliate marketing work? Suppose I am a sports enthusiast. I build a website titled “enthusiastsportsfan.com”. I write blogs about my favorite sport and things related to it.
After setting up my site, I decide to affiliate myself with Amazon and its sports section. Of course, I could choose any sports equipment company there is. For now, we shall use Amazon.
I set up an affiliate account with Amazon. They give me an identity that they will embed in every link I get from them. So, if I link a banner or a specific product from Amazon to my site, it has my identity in the link. If someone clicks to Amazon from my blog site and buys a product, Amazon will pay me a commission. This is basically how affiliate marketing works.
You don’t have to sell the product, you just point them to someone who does.
Just about every business that you see advertised, has an affiliate marketing program. So, choose your field and build a blog. You can find a business you can affiliate with and promote.
How to build your online business
Now that you’re getting all this information, how are you going to put it into practice? You have not got a lot of money but you need to get started.
There are many promoters out there on the web who will be glad to help you. The problem is, many of them will take advantage of you if you do not know what to do. These are the scammers. How do you avoid them?
I could extend this blog for another hour to tell you what to avoid. Maybe I will someday. But for now, let me share with you a program and platform that will teach you how to build your business.
What you need to build your online business
The most important thing you need to build your online business is knowledge. Of course, you need a website and a computer and the internet. I believe you know that and have those.
So, what I am providing for you is the program and platform that will help you accomplish your dream. With this program, you get the knowledge, the tools and the support that you need to achieve your goal.
The other ingredients you will need is some time and a little bit of money.
Cost
You may think that the cost would be quite a bit. But, you would be wrong. There are programs and platforms for building an online business that can cost you thousands of dollars. There are others that cost you hundreds of dollars initially and hundreds more as you grow your business.
The program I recommend will, in the beginning, cost you nothing. It is not a thirty-day free trial and then you start to pay. Nor is it a 90-day money-back guarantee.
This program is free, free, free and free. You sign up for free. Then you use a limited version for as long as you want for free. You receive free lessons and free websites(2) and free hosting for as long as you want. Then if you decide not to go with the program, you are free to exit it with no hard feelings. That way you know if this program is for you.
What do you get with the FREE membership? You get the first ten lessons on how to build your online business. Among those lessons are the ones that show you how to build and launch your website.
So that you can build and launch your website, they give you two Free websites. In addition, they host them for Free on the World Wide Web.
You can also access support for the first week. All this for Free. And all it requires is that you register your email address, not a credit card.
What program is this and how much does it cost?
The program is called Wealthy Affiliate. This program was established over 14 years ago. It has helped over 2 million people achieve their dream of building their own business.
The two men who established this program still use it themselves and continue to develop new tools all the time.
Normally, you would expect a program with this kind of success would get more expensive the more it grows. However, this is not that kind of program. It is constantly on the cutting edge of building business websites. But its prices are coming down.
The cost of becoming a Premium member of Wealthy Affiliates is $49 a month. There are some programs out there that would buy you ten years of membership in Wealthy Affiliate. We shall not discuss them. The knowledge, the tools, the support and encouragement you get are truly priceless.
Conclusion to the best way to make money online from home
My answer to, “What is the best way to make money online from home?” is “Wealthy Affiliate”.
I could go on and on about all the other great qualities of Wealthy Affiliate. But, the Free membership will answer most of your questions. You will know within a week or so if this is the program for you. I know it is for me and for more than 2 million other people.
Do yourself a favor and click the banner below and begin your Free membership today. You can use it for as long as you like. There is no time limit. The only thing it will cost you is a little of your time.
If you are serious about the best way to make money online from home, try it. This will be the best investment you ever made.
May God bless you and prosper you as you build your business.
