The 5 Easiest Ways To Make Money Online 

Over the last two decades I’ve tried about 20 different ways to make money online.

Yes, I said twenty. That’s about one per year on average. Not all of them worked. And that’s OK. Because there is no better way to learn than to fail.

But enough of the methods worked that I’ve been able to earn my living exclusively from the Internet since 1996.

Some of the methods I absolutely hated (MLM). Others I fell in love with, like publishing this newsletter!

Today I’ll share my five favorite online money making methods with you. In my opinion, these are the easiest ways to generate cash online…

1. Affiliate Commissions

Affiliate marketing has been around for almost 20 years now and it has changed quite a bit through the years. The basic premise is this – you recommend products and services for vendors and when people buy from your links, you earn a commission.

This is one of my favorite online money methods. It is pretty simple and less time consuming than most other online income strategies. Here’s how I do it…

I earn most of my affiliate income by recommending business-related products and services through my small network of sites and blogs, including this one. I also earn affiliate commissions by sending recommendations to subscribers of my opt-in email lists. This strategy has always worked well, though it’s much harder to get emails though the myriad of spam filters nowadays than it was say, 10 years ago. But it’s still very much worth the effort.

I primarily use the WarriorPlus, Clickbank and JVZoo affiliate networks to find products and services to recommend. I always test the products and services before I recommend them. Sometimes I can get a review copy but other times I just buy it myself and try it out. If it works, I tell people about it. If it stinks, I don’t recommend it.

If there’s one real secret to affiliate marketing it is this… you really need to grow a following of people who like and trust your recommendations. Yes, that takes some time, but that’s when you can start earning serious money as an affiliate. If you need help with getting started, I recommend you grab this new training course from someone who helped me. It will get you going in the right direction.

2. Recurring Affiliate Income Programs

My favorite type of affiliate marketing is the type that generates recurring income. If you’re going to get into affiliate marketing, you need to always be on the lookout for these opportunities. In a nutshell, you make a sale and you then earn a commission over and over after that initial sale. Usually these recurring commissions are monthly but sometimes they are quarterly or annual.

For example, I use a traffic program called TrafficSwarm to push a steady flow of traffic to some of my affiliate links. Since I like the traffic service, I also refer people to the TrafficSwarm program so they can use it to get traffic. In return, I earn a monthly commission from each paying member I refer, for as long as they stay a member.

Some other residual income programs I promote are membership site solutions, web hosting, and monthly PLR vaults like this one.

If you plug a handful of residual affiliate programs into your marketing plan, you’ll build a nice base of commissions that will hold steady, even through slow times.

If you need help finding recurring affiliate programs to promote, one of my own top affiliates created this list of 250 sites you can do this with (in 17 different niches!)

3. Selling Your Own Products

Since I got started online more than 20 years ago, I’ve sold well over a million dollars worth of my own products. I’ve sold everything from print books to training software to downloadable ebooks and complete courses.

Putting together a product of your own can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be. If you can commit to writing even for just 30 minutes a day, you can have your own ebook in a few weeks. The best part is that you do the work once, then sell it over and over and earn money from it for years.

Having your own products has another built-in benefit that can pay huge dividends — you can open your own affiliate program and get others promoting for you. This strategy ballooned my business way back in the late 1990’s and basically enabled me to quit my day job.

If setting up and running an affiliate program seems like a lot of work, you can simplify the process by using a service like WarriorPlus or JVZoo. They take care of the whole process including taking your orders via credit card or paypal, simplifying refunds and taking care of paying the affiliate commissions.

If you want to make money with your own products, download my Buyer’s List Method PDF. It shows you how to create simple products to sell that will grow your own buyer’s list of email addresses, guaranteeing your future profits.

4. PLR Product Sales

If you don’t want to write but still want your own products to sell, there are other ways. Namely, PLR, which stands for Private Label Rights. Basically, someone else creates the product and you buy rights to it. You then stamp your name on it and sell it over and over, keeping 100% of the profits.

It may surprise you to learn that many of the products you’ve bought from gurus were simply products they bought the rights to, then tweaked as their own. Anyone can do this including you. There’s nothing underhanded about it as long as you’re offering solid content at a fair price. If you want to sell products of your own but you do not have the time required to create them, then this is a good option.

One of the places lots of web publishers get products to customize and sell as their own is this plr product vault. I’ve even used it myself with excellent results. Members get access to more than 1,000 products in all sorts of niches. New products are added monthly and the products can be used to monetize websites and blogs in different niches. You can even start your own affiliate program with many of the products.

A good strategy for selling PLR products is to offer a product for less than $10 then when the initial sale is made, immediately offer an upsell or OTO (One-Time Offer) for a larger product or membership. A decent percentage of customers will always buy the upsell and even the customers who stick with the basic product get a great value for their $7 or whatever you decide to charge.

Plus, if you get enough affiliates promoting for you, you’ll end up with a super-responsive “buyers list” that you can sell other products and services to.

5. Freelancing Services

Providing services for clients can be a real money maker if you connect an in-demand service with the right audience. I’ve done this by offering DFY blog design and management the last few years, and you can offer services to clients  too.

The pandemic has brought literally millions of new people online looking to start their own businesses. These new online entrepreneurs need help without hiring a full time staff, and many of them are choosing to hire freelancers for the work they can’t do themselves.

That means there are countless opportunities to provide services such as ghostwriting, creating graphics, making quick videos, and more. The amazing part of this opportunity is that even if you have little to no skills, you can do this. That’s because there are countless tools at your fingertips that will make you look like an expert.

For instance, you can easily become a graphic designer by learning to use Canva, then offer your services at places like Fiverr.com.

Whether you have a skillset you can offer right now or one you’d like to learn, there is a resource for it! If you can’t find that resource, feel free to post in the comments below and I’ll find it for you!