Freelance
Writers' Series
Career & Business
Development Help
The 4 Fundamentals of Making Money Online
As I announced
on
Inkwell's blog yesterday, I’ve declared November “Freelance Writer’s Technology Month.”
For a full understanding of what follows, I advise that you read this post
first.
Now, on to the first
post in the series. . .
Freelance Writers:
How to Make Money Online – Going Back to Basics
It’s hard to forget
what you know – especially when you think what you know has brought you some
modicum of success. But, when you reach a plateau – as I feel like I’ve done in
my freelance writing career, it’s time to re-examine systems and procedures so
that you push through what’s holding you back.
So, here I am – back
to basics. And, what did I learn?
The “Oprah Way” of Making Money
I just took a quick
lunch break and was watching E! Online’s show about the top money-making TV
earners. Seinfeld was there ($60,000,000 last year), but Oprah made his look
like lunch money. She earned a whopping $260,000,000 last year.
Yes, that’s one year’s earnings!
As the show was
signing off, the announcer was summarizing how Oprah makes her money.
Eureka! This was just what I was going to write today in
my post – more or less.
Oprah made her money
in a systematic way. I don’t know if she had this plan from the beginning, but
at some point in order to make real money, you have to have a master plan. So,
what is the Oprah way of making money?
A) The first thing
Oprah did was choose a career. She knew she wanted to be a journalist, so she did that. So,
you’ve made the choice, you want to become a freelance writer.
B) The second thing
Oprah did was choose a mass (think, popular) medium – TV. She didn’t choose to be a journalist in some obscure sector. This
was perhaps one of the smartest things she did. You’ll see why in a sec.
Just being herself
garnered Oprah a huge, loyal following (keep this part in mind).
When she got her own show, she had a built-in audience.
D) Monetize the
following: Oprah is the master at this. Once the Oprah talk show was
established, Oprah deepened and widened her brand via tv, movies, magazines and
radio and a host of other products and services.
Some of her holdings
include producing the Dr. Phil show and The Rachel Ray Show;
producing a Broadway play (The Color Purple); and hosting a radio show on
Sirius satellite radio.
What if you could
sit down, write an ebook and sell 10, 20 or 30,000 copies just by releasing it
to your subscriber list? This is the power of monetizing a brand.
But, as you can see,
it’s a systematic approach – and this is where most freelancers fail. Now, I’m
not going to tell you that it’s going to take one, two or three years to make
money online.
As my research has
proven, it doesn’t. But, you have the big picture in mind before you can take
“shortcuts” to make it work for you. This is the point of this post – to give
you an overall picture so that you can pick and choose the best ideas – and take
legitimate shortcuts to online money-making success.
Now, that ends our
Oprah segment.
Back to our lives …
The 4 Fundamentals
of Making Money Online
1. Content:
Before anything happens, you must have content. Why? When you think about how
the internet works, it naturally makes sense. People use the information to find
information.
Now, how they find
and use that information will drive the two other points I’m going to discuss in
a minute. But, you need the content first.
The Good News for
Freelance Writers Who Want to Make Money Online
This is absolutely
wonderful news for freelance writers because we are content providers.
So, you may be
thinking, “Why then do so many freelance writers find it so hard to make money
online?” Good question, and they are a myriad of answers to this question, which
we’ll explore throughout the series.
Just keep in mind
that content is the biggest piece of this online-money-making puzzle. And you’re
the king of that jungle because you are a freelance writer.
2. Online Presence: Once you have content, you need an online presence. And, I don’t
necessarily mean a blog or website. In fact, you don’t need either of these to
make money online. But, you do need an online presence, which can come in many
forms.
Again, we’ll discuss
this later in this series.
Just because you
have an online presence does not mean that visitors will start coming to your
site. Many online web marketers find it hard to get a few hundred visitors a
month – no kidding. You need much more than this to make any kind of sales, so
you have to work on driving traffic to your site.
This is how many
online entrepreneurs get sucked out of a lot of money. They spend money for
get-traffic-quick schemes without fully understanding how traffic is driven to a
site.
Understanding
the basics of search engines and how they work will give you a leg up on 98-99%
of online marketers. If you don’t first understand this, how will you be
able to determine is PPC (pay per click); article marketing, or key word
optimization is best for your business model?
Most online
entrepreneurs are serious about making money online, but they are not serious
enough to put in the serious time it requires to learn even the basics of search
engine optimization.
Remember, search
engines are the motor of the internet. They, for the most part, determine
whether a user finds you – or not.
4. Choosing a
Monetizing Model: The third piece of making money online involves choosing how
you are going to go about it.
There are two basic
ways to make money online: 1) create and sell products of your own; or 2)
sell/promote the products and services of others (Affiliate Marketing).
Many subcategories
fall under these categories – quite a few of which we’ll discuss as this series
goes along.
NOTE:
I’m not trying to be vague or string you along by telling you “we’ll discuss
this later in the series throughout this piece.” Remember, this is an on-going
tutorial. And, today’s topic is the 4 basic fundamentals of making money online.
I’m trying to
divulge information in a systematic, organized, easy-to-digest format. This
means staying tightly focused on the topic at hand, which leads to waiting to
reveal information.
Series Tip:
I can’t possibly cover everything in this series. I’m going to leave out things,
forget to mention things and flat-out don’t know some things. So, if you have a
question, send it in. The wonderful thing about making money online is that the
majority of us wouldn’t be able to do it if we couldn’t easily log on and find
information from others. TODAY in Inkwell Editorial's Newsletter: The new issue, which came out today, features ghostwriter Amanda Evans. She gives some great info on how to start, how she gets clients, what this niche entails, etc. Subscribe
to read this and all previous issues.
Sincerely,
Intro Post:
New Series - Freelance Writer's Technology Month
Previous Issue:
Sue
Fagalde Lick, author
of Freelancing for
Newspapers.
Whether you are an experienced or inexperienced freelance writer, this is one
market that eagerly accepts freelancers, as Sue outlines in her book.
Recommend this helpful
information to a
friend!
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