Is it just me or does time fly faster nowadays? We’re already five weeks into 2019 so if you made some New Year’s resolutions, I hope you’re keeping them. If one of them was making money online in 2019, then you have around 49 weeks left to implement your strategy.
I’ve already written an article regarding making money online, as well as a list of my mentors in the field. Although my ultimate goal is to earn passive income through affiliate earnings, I currently do freelancing. Writing online articles earns me enough to live comfortably, but affiliate earnings have more benefits.
How you benefit by making money passively
One of the biggest benefits of making money passively is that you’re free to pursue other hobbies while still earning. This is because your online properties such as websites, YouTube channel, and Facebook pages convert even as you sleep!
In this article, I will share with you some of my strategies for increasing my online earnings this year.
1. Earn more from article writing
They say if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I’ve been writing articles for nearly a year now. In that period, I’ve made some decent amount, enough to cover my monthly bills at least. Though I’ve done it for that long, I still consider myself a newbie.
I still have that startup mentality, so every day I learn as much as I can about how I can improve my article writing skills. There are many great free resources out there on how to do this, as well as premium courses.
I started the year by paying for Walter Akolo’s article training course. At first the $40 sounded steep but I have to admit it opened my eyes. I knew I was already a decent writer, but there are specific things I just didn’t know.
So even if you have good grammar, I’d urge you to keep improving yourself through online courses. You will end up saving yourself years of trial and error, as well as earning thousands of dollars in the process.
As my writing skills improve, I plan on being more aggressive in looking for clients. I’m still writing for content mills, but the ultimate goal is to bag some direct clients for a long, fruitful and financially rewarding relationship.
Quality over quantity
In the past, I thought I would earn more money by writing more articles, but I’ve realized that that’s not the right approach. Instead, I’ve decided to focus on quality over quantity. Moving forward, I plan on making money by polishing my article writing skills and looking for higher paying clients.
If for example you’re used to earning $5 for a 500-word article, and you write 3 articles daily, there are two ways you can earn more:
- By writing more articles at the same rate
- By writing the same number of articles at a higher rate, say $10 per 500-word article.
Obviously the second option makes more sense. Not only will you earn more, but you’re less likely to suffer from burnout caused by writing too many articles daily. You also have more time to keep polishing your craft, as well as making money through other ventures.
2. Be all over the place
Online gurus keep urging you to focus on a specific niche, but they’re not always right. If your focus is purely on making money, then you should probably stick to a niche. I thought of doing it before starting this website, but I realized I would be severely limited.
I have a lot of ideas on many topics, that’s why I decided that my content would be about “this and that”. As general as it sounds, I still have a niche because I focus on the Kenyan landscape. Some might consider it too broad, but I’m happy I can write on almost anything I’m interested in.
So before I become comfortable in a certain very specific niche, this year I’m going to be experimenting a lot. I plan on starting a few websites covering various niches. Although it might seem like a haphazard approach, it fits in nicely with my goal of making money through affiliate earnings.
The more I earn from my article writing ventures, the more I’ll be able to invest in these other experimental ventures.
3. Be more visible
Although somehow related to strategy number 2 above, this is a unique approach in itself. You might be all over the place but still decide to maintain an anonymous online presence.
I’m an introvert myself, as you probably know. So I don’t really like being in the limelight. I prefer to do my stuff quietly in the background.
But if you’re going to build a viable online business, having concrete social proof will be a big part of it. Most people making money online today are very visible. They’re active on email, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Quora, Reddit, LinkedIn, Twitter, and countless other online platforms.
These people hold regular webinars and live streams on social media. They’re also easily reachable in case their followers seek clarification.
You don’t have to do all this by yourself, because it can be overwhelming. As your brand grows, you can get software or even other people to do some of these jobs for you in a way that convinces the client that you’re the one.
If people keep coming across your consistent message across various platforms, it becomes easier for them to trust you. This trust ends up making money on
4. Focus more on YouTube
As you probably know, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. This, coupled with the fact that internet penetration keeps growing, presents a golden chance.
As internet costs keep reducing, more and more people are preferring to watch videos rather than read. That makes sense because a video does a better job of explaining concepts if done right.
The fact that YouTube is owned by Google also improves your site’s SEO because your YouTube videos are included as part of search results. So the video hosting giant is an integral part of making money online.
In most of my early YouTube videos, I wore dark glasses because I wasn’t yet ready to face the world. This is due to my introverted nature that I’ve already talked of before. At some point it hit me that if I was really serious about growing my brand, I would have to start showing my face. So that’s exactly what I’ll do going forward.
5. Content, content, content
Remember when I talked about quality over quantity?
Content is king, as the gurus keep saying.
The problem is that there’s information overload. Too much of it is floating on the interwebs, to the point of turning into misinformation.
Some website owners also post many short, 300 to 500-word articles on their websites in the belief that they will attract more visitors.
Although most people skim over long articles, if they contain useful content then they will read it all. For that reason, try and have content that is actually useful. Don’t just regurgitate articles that have already been written a million times before.
You should preferably write about something you’re passionate
There are bloggers who’re making money online with very few blog posts. Some have less than 20 total posts on their blogs, but those few posts are a treasure trove of information. They also work hard to keep the information as updated as possible.
6. Get serious about marketing
Sometimes you look at a successful person and say to yourself, “I bet I can do what he’s doing. Maybe I can do it better”. While some might interpret this as jealousy, others might recognize it as confidence or belief in your own abilities.
Other times, your product might be genuinely better than the big boys’, but still end up failing to catch anyone’s attention. Do you know one of the biggest reasons why big brands keep winning? Because they understand the power of marketing.
You might have the best content on the internet, but if no one finds it then it’s useless. You shouldn’t assume that just because you have the good stuff people will find it.
Although I’ve started small, I intend to do a more vigorous job of marketing myself this year. Marketing plays a huge role in any activity intended at making money.
So go ahead and aggressively market yourself. You never know, you could be a diamond in the rough that will mesmerize the whole world once discovered.
Conclusion
That is my strategy for 2019. By the end of the year, I will do an audit to see whether I succeeded in implementing it. At the moment, it sounds like I’m just throwing all manner of stuff at the wall in the hope that one will stick.
I prefer to think of it as a general strategy that will get more focused as I get more experienced. Other than making money with it, I hope it will inspire others to work towards achieving their goals.
As the old saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.