One of the first things that everybody will tell you when you say "I want to make more money" is that you are going to need a website. This is true whether you plan on opening a new business, going freelance, selling things online, or even trying to find a way to earn passive income on the side to fund your Steam addiction. The good news is that this advice isn't quite as vague as it seems. The type of income you want to earn will dictate the type of website you need. Here are just a few of the ways you can earn money using a website.
eCommerce
You can sell pretty much anything you want online these days and make money at it. The reason more people aren't setting up online storefronts is that they either think they can't afford eCommerce software or they are afraid they won't understand how to operate the software properly. In reality, there are several open source options for shopping carts, inventory management, drop shipping, payment, etc. Many people who run eCommerce stores, for example, have had great success running Magento: the open source e-commerce solution. It's true that there is a learning curve, but if you stick with it, you'll master it and have your shop set up pretty quickly. You know, once you figure out what to sell.
Affiliate Marketing
If you're not ready to jump into the eCommerce pool on your own just yet, you can try things out by becoming an affiliate marketer. Affiliate marketing is like the JV of eCommerce. You aren't selling your own stuff; you're selling someone else's stuff and taking a cut of their profit as a reward for your efforts. The type of affiliate marketing you do is up to you. Some people decide to set up a website completely devoted to one of the products they really love. Others sign up for several programs (like Amazon, Clickbank, Commission Junction, etc.) and then drop affiliate links into social media posts, blog posts, and even emails. This is best for people who are only looking for a side gig. If you want to earn full time as an affiliate it is going to take a lot of work.
Blogging
Setting up your own blog is a fantastic way to combine your favorite hobbies and making money. For example, if you love crafting, you could write blog posts about the different crafts you're working on and then, in the sidebars run advertisements from Google Adsense, local craft stores, etc. You could sign up for affiliate programs at your favorite craft supply sites and include links to their products in your posts. You could even make money by writing sponsored posts every once in a while. The best way to make sure you earn money at this is to get your own domain and to set up your own content management system like WordPress. Free sites like WordPress.com, Blogger, etc have strict rules about how and how you cannot use their platforms to make money. Running your own site lets you do whatever you want.
Freelancing
Okay, technically with freelancing, it isn't the website that earns money, it's you earning money for work that you do for your clients. Those clients, however, will not be able to find you without a website. Setting up a freelance website is incredibly easy. You can set it up using the same platform you would for a blog. You can simply add a page to your blog that explains your freelancing services and encourages people to hire you. You can also sell products that you create yourself this way; just make sure you work out a plan for scaling your site if you get popular and can't run everything yourself.
There are plenty of things you can do to earn money online. The best way, though, is to earn money through a site that you own and control.
