To make money online, you generally need 3 things:
There will always be exceptions to this rule, like the YouTube celebrities who don’t have their own site, but most of the successful entrepreneurs online (myself included) have figured out those 3 things.
An online business is a great asset; you can work from anywhere and serve people worldwide. Depending on how you have it set up, you can even earn money while you sleep. Ahh that elusive “passive income!”
The location-independent business models you’ll find here include blogging, podcasting, self-publishing, teaching online courses, and more.
If you’re not sure where to start, let me recommend this “Greatest Hits” collection:
In early 2015, I registered the domain name 1k100ways.com.
I thought it would be awesome to showcase 100 different ways to earn an extra $1000, and highlight some of the great work of the Side Hustle Nation community.
And then I sat on it.
Today we’re diving into the easy wins — the quick updates you can make to your websites to drive more traffic and sales.
To help me out on that topic is Mushfiq, a side hustler who has been building, buying, growing, and selling websites since 2008, all on the side from his full-time career.
During that time he’s done over 175 transactions and has a wealth of knowledge on what it takes to make money and build equity online.
I’m always looking for ways to work smarter and more efficiently, and to that end I took a recent inventory of my online business “toolkit.”
Of course many of these will be obvious to you but hopefully you discover some helpful new resources as well.
The good news? Most are free or at least have a free version!
And if you’re looking for the definitive guide to online resources named by top entrepreneurs, check out the full collection in my book, Work Smarter.
Want to drive more organic traffic to your website?
I’m sure you do.
At the heart of organic traffic is SEO or Search Engine Optimization.
The better optimized your site is for search engines, the higher you’ll rank for your target keywords – and long-tail keywords – and the more visitors you’ll get.
If you’re starting an online business and creating content, you’re almost certainly going to create either written or video content – or both.
The problem is that it can be hard to know which type of content is going to work best for your business, and getting off on the right foot is going to save you a lot of time.
So, to help you figure out which type of content is best for you, I’ve bought back, by popular demand, the Side Hustle Showdown series.
Royalties from book sales is one of the most passive of all my income streams.
After you create a book, with print or digital distribution handled by Amazon, you can collect royalties for years.
And while I enjoy the writing process and have published several titles myself, I have yet to venture into the world of children’s books.
What if you could rent out digital real estate just as you would traditional real estate, but without all the headaches that come with maintaining a property?
That’s exactly what Luke Van Der Veer is doing with his digital “Rank and Rent” business.
I found Luke through the Side Hustle Nation Facebook group, where he shared a unique take on online business, kind of at the intersection of service businesses, SEO, and real estate.
After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the SideHustle game is looking for ways to raise awareness and stand out on the crowded Amazon marketplace.
In this coaching episode, you’ll meet co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran, who (along with a 3rd co-founder, Tim Palladino) are looking for some ways to expand on the initial traction and grow a brand in the “productive play” space.
Side Hustle Show listener Raffaele Di Lallo has built a successful house plant website, earning $10k a month — on the side from his day job.
Still, he explained that 90% of that income was from advertising, and he wanted to diversify his revenue sources and earn more from affiliate marketing.
To help me talk through Raffaele’s business is a long-time friend and online business mentor of mine, Matt Giovanisci.
$10,000 a month working 20-hour weeks sounds like a pretty sweet gig! And for Jade Weatherington, it’s been a dream come true to make a living in education–while working from home.
To be fair, Jade’s financial success didn’t happen overnight. She had months of earning less than $100 from her online private tutoring.
