Finding Self Employment or Entrepreneurial Success Online

We all know that there is definitely a serious amount of profit to be made online. Through online investment firms or stock brokers, to website ownership, online businesses/Ecommerce, affiliate marketing, web promotion/creation and many other routes, thousands of young people are making huge sums of money each day through various online sources. Although web traffic and promotion is a high-paying business within itself, the internet can also be used to greatly improve the performance of an already existing business through online purchases or informative guides that point the customer directly towards you or your already existent business.


If you are truly interested in jumping right in and starting to make some cash online, there are a few questions that you will first want to ask yourself:

1. Do I have any skills that might be considered valuable to someone that I can either complete, provide or promote online?
2. Do I already have a business plan or service/product that I might be able to profit from if I took advantage of the internet?
3. Do I have any family/friends/contacts that are already successful online and might be able to point me in the right direction?

If your answer to all the above questions was no, all you will need is a little bit of creativity. Computer programming or extensive computer knowledge can generate a potentially endless amount of revenue when combined with a genuinely good idea. The amazing success of various social network websites such as Facebook or Twitter are all prime examples of just how much money a simple program can make you if it is introduced at the right moment in time. Even if you don't have a clue how to program or even use a computer, hiring a programmer or web designer to make you a domain with special functionality that will attract visitors might be one of the best decisions you ever make.

A Few Good Ideas

There are literally hundreds of ways that a person might become a successful entrepreneur or self-employed individual through the internet. Basically, your efforts can be generalized into a few different categories:

• Selling/promoting your skills, services or products to customers online
• Advertising or marketing the skills, services or products of another individual or business for a portion of the profits gained
• Using/investing capital money to either create some sort of online service/business or to be invested in the service/business of another
• Generating regular traffic to your own domain through content creation and various methods of web promotion or advertisement.

*Money can also be earned online through the completion of relatively simple tasks. Although these methods will usually make no more than your average job at minimum wage, some of these work outlets do offer entrepreneurial programs involving the recruiting of fellow employees or members and various other tasks.

As previously mentioned, generating web traffic is a profitable business within itself: even if you aren't selling any particular product or service, web traffic can easily be translated into a direct online income. Even entrepreneurs who consider themselves gifted at business by conventional means are prone to overlooking the true potential of web traffic, so you should probably keep reading if you still haven't decided what type of online business or service you plan to operate.

Web Traffic 

One of the most profitable sources of income available online is web traffic. Essentially, a website can still make a huge amount of money without ever having to create or sell any product or service. Instead, many web owners generate revenue through advertisement deals made with companies who would like to advertise their business to the web traffic that their website receives. The Google Adsense program is the easiest and most effective form of affiliate marketing thus far, but using Adsense ads might not be the best choice for every domain. 

Here's an example:

John avidly researches and writes about automobiles and mechanical topics on a website that he owns. He decides to begin promoting his website through search engine optimization and places Google Adsense ads throughout his website. Since the Adsense ads will automatically determine what John's site focuses on and display relevant advertisements, people begin to click on John's advertisements, thus generating him residual profit for every ad click he receives. As John's traffic values increase, he becomes aware of various affiliate programs offered by some of his favorite automobile companies and magazines that are willing to feature their ads on his site. John's website now features affiliate ads from his partners, along with various Adsense units positioned around the website, effectively maximizing the amount of income his domain will generate.

This is the basic path that a blogger or web owner will take to start earning profits online. choosing to open your own blog or informational website can be a great way to make a profit over the internet if you don't have a problem writing lots of content. Online article ghost writing is another branch of this same tree, and this might be a good choice for a talented writer who doesn't want to manage their own website on a daily basis. Generating money through web traffic can be thought of as owning a mall: people will set up stores within your complex, paying you a fee based on the amount of business they receive - all that you have to do is ensure that customers visit your mall by advertising and promoting it.

Website Creation/Development

Web design is a business that has an extremely high level of demand and profit involved. In addition to this demand and profit, there is also quite a bit of competition if you are looking to become a freelance web designer. Many trade schools and colleges offer courses focused on web design - these classes will teach you the fundamentals of html, CSS, javascript, flash, and many other forms of coding and graphic animation that are all aspects of web design/development. Alternatively, individuals who are gifted at computers in general are often times able to self-teach their way to becoming a very good web designer.

The fact of the matter is that most information concerning html and other forms of computer coding can be found online, it's just a matter of being able to understand the coding provided to you for free online and implementing it in such a way that you get the desired results.

E-Commerce and Online Retail

Similar to owning a restaurant or opening any average retail or service store, deciding to create an E-commerce website is an investment of time and money that can provide you with profits for years to come. Since you won't have to pay rent for a store location or apply for any special permits (under most circumstances), the amount of money you need to get your business started is much lower than that of any conventional store.

It is possible to effectively build an E-commerce website without having to contact a web designer even if you aren't particularly experienced in website creation, but it is a good idea to hire a professional if you feel that you might not be able to do it on your own. Refer to the A.C.O.D. article below for a complete listing of the essential components required to create a legitimate E-commerce website:

Everything You Need to Create an E-commerce Website

Registering and creating an E-commerce domain is the first step, but deciding on the products that you will be selling, along with the marketing or promotional strategies that will be applied to attract potential customers is absolutely necessary. Having a direct connection to any product available at a price lower than it's retail should always be your first consideration, but wholesale websites or stores that allow you to purchase products in bulk for a discounted price per unit can also be used to generate profit.

Listing the products you have for sale on your website is not enough if you hope to actually make any transactions. Attracting people to an E-commerce website is primarily done through search engine optimization (SEO) - this process will place your website as one of the top results when specific terms are input into in any major search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.), but can also be accomplished through more direct or local advertisement methods.