How can I make money online?

There are some simple and effective ways that you can use the web to earn money and, although you are not going to earn enough to retire on, it is possible to make a little extra cash for relatively little effort. In this article we will discuss the options for a site you already own, offer some tips on simple ways to set up a website or blog and show you how to avoid scams dressed up as ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes.

There are three ways that a website can make money. One is simple: you sell products, and make a small profit. In the other two cases you are not selling anything, but instead passing visitors to your website on to other sites that sell products. Those sites then pay you a small amount for your assistance.

What you need
The one thing you need to get started is fairly obvious: a website. This could be of any kind, from a club or society homepage to a site with information about one of your interests or even a personal blog. The key thing is that it needs a regular flow of visitors.

If you don’t already have a website, then now is the perfect time to make one. There are dozens of ways to do this, ranging from setting up your own site from scratch to using one of the many free services that will create a simple website for you. For more information on creating a website, see our workshop guide.

If you already have a website, then make sure that it is getting as many visitors as possible. The best way to do this is to register it with search engines such as Google, which enables you to submit your website address. Beware services that claim to submit your website for a fee – all search engines allow you to do so without paying.

Getting the best from search engines, and making sure that your site comes out top when people search for the right subject, is so complicated that a whole industry – search engine optimisation – has sprung up around it. When it comes to attracting visitors, though, one thing is more important than anything else, and that is the site’s content.

Although there are millions of websites out there, most have little to offer that’s unique or valuable. If yours is one of the exceptions – perhaps sharing your expertise about a little-understood subject or hobby, or simply offering help and advice about a common problem, then it will, over time, get visitors.