Boredom is good for business – in the initial stages. A lot of successful businesses started with founders who were bored with their 9-to-5 jobs or wanted to add to their income. What do all of these founders have in common? They had the courage to take the first step.
The digital era makes it easy, if you have the right knowledge, to create an online business. Everyone, from lawyers to electricians, college students and stay-at-home moms, can make part-time to full-time income online. You’re going to have to work hard. Get-rich-quick dreams shouldn’t be part of the process.
If you have the courage to take the first step to financial freedom and have the right knowledge, you can start creating income online. Let’s see how you can turn your boredom into cash with little investment aside from your time.
Blogging Your Way to Financial Freedom
Blogging is profitable, but it can take time before you start making money. Your first goal should be to generate traffic to your site through engaging, fun and educational blog posts. While you can pay for traffic, there’s no need to because you can get traffic from:
- Search engines
- Social media
- Forums
- And more
Organic, or non-paid traffic, can drive a lot of visitors to your site, but you need a way to make money, too. If you want to generate an income, you can:
- Add advertisements to your site, including Google AdSense, or privately sell ad space (more profitable and consistent).
- Add affiliate links to your site and generate income for the products you recommend.
- Sell your own products or services.
There are a lot of ways to monetize your blog.
You will have some upfront expenses, including purchasing a domain name and hosting. Of course, if you want a premium theme or to pay for someone to create a professional logo, this will add to your startup costs.
Leverage the Power of Instagram or YouTube to Create an Online Business
Instagram and YouTube, along with TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook, are great ways to make money. You have a lot of avenues to follow if you’re creating a business on social media, but be sure to focus on your personal brand.
What is a personal brand?
Just take a look at your favorite YouTuber or Instagram personality. Beauty experts, for example, will often post makeup videos, tips and advice for others to follow. These Instagram and YouTube channels are incredibly popular, and the person behind the brand starts to generate a massive following.
You trust these individuals, so if they offer their own product or service, you’re far more inclined to buy from them.
That’s the power of a personal brand.
But since you’re just getting started, you might want to begin smaller with:
- Product recommendations where you earn affiliate income
- Sponsored posts where people pay to appear in your posts or to recommend a product
YouTube also pays their leading creators, and you can make a hefty income for anyone in their Partner Program.
The great thing about social media is that you can cross-promote your other social media channels to add to your income. Eventually, you can begin making income on all social media channels as you continue to build your following.
Creating Websites to Sell Other People’s Products or Your Own
We mentioned blogging, but maybe you’re not a writer. Maybe you’re better at promoting your website and making sales. If this sounds like you, it’s possible to open an eCommerce website over the weekend and add products to sell.
You can sell your own products, or you can sell other people’s products.
Dropshipping is a popular option that allows you to:
- Add other people’s products to your store
- Sell the person’s products
- Reap the profits
You don’t need to hold inventory or deal with customer support – just sales.
Do you like writing, but don’t have your own product to sell?
Affiliate marketing allows you to sell products and services for commission. Even Amazon has its own affiliate program that allows you to make money on products that you recommend.
It’s Amazon – the world’s largest retailer. People buy products on their site every second of the day.
Sell Goods or Services and Reap All the Profits
If you have utilized some of the tips above and are making commission from other people’s products or services, the next step is to sell your own product or service. Perhaps you have a blog on dog training or a social media channel that is focused on the topic.
You can create an eBook or a video series that you package and sell to your audience.
When you do this, you’re accelerating your financial freedom. You’ll:
- Earn higher profit margins
- Have full control over marketing and sales
- Be able to have affiliates help you make sales
But what if you’re not interested in selling a product? You can sell your skills. There’s something special and unique about you, and you can sell this to others. Perhaps you can teach someone how to do their makeup, or you can offer your services directly to someone offering makeup for weddings.
You have potential to start an online business that can generate extra income for you and your family, or you can work to generate a full-time income. It will take time and patience to build your business, but it’s worth it in the long-term.
Where should you start? Educate yourself on how to begin and follow the advice of someone who has already found success online to help you avoid the hurdles they experienced.