Seven Ways to Spend Money to Make Money Online

People are making small investments to earn $100K+ online. That’s insane, right? I know, but it’s true!
Just take a look at the woman in the image below. Do you want to be like her

No need to worry.

I will guide you and help you set goals to earn money online.

Everyone wants to make money!!! That’s a known fact!!!

The reasons for wanting to earn money are different for different people. They usually revolve around meeting their unique needs.

Thanks to technology, people are now able to make money from home.

Have you heard that people can make tons of money without spending $0?

Traditionally, everyone knew you needed money (capital) to make money.

When talking about making money online, people seem to assume they can do it without spending anything.

Some folks even believe they can earn money with only a mobile device and a strong internet connection.

We should not blame them for being so naive.

There are millions of bloggers and expert advisors out there saying things like:

“I made $100K from affiliate marketing with zero investment”
“I started my online business with just $1.”

It is common for people to think it’s possible to make money online without spending a dime.

But don’t be fooled! You have to spend money in order to make money online.

The best means of making money on the internet require you to make some sort of investment.

To be honest, you can spend a little money and still make money online.

Here we described the top 7 strategies to generate more than seven figures of income with just a few investments.

Seven ways how smart people spend a little and generate long-term income

Before we jump into the first step, remember that you have to pick one category at a time, at least in the beginning.

Otherwise, it will be challenging to focus on one method at a time, and eventually, the result will not be good, and you will blame yourself.

Dropshipping is one of the most highly lucrative businesses you can start online with little or no investment.

What you’ll find in this section:

• What is dropshipping?
• Guide to starting a dropshipping business
• Niche selection
• Find a Supplier
• Create an online selling platform
• Comparison between a free and invested dropshipping business
• Possible ROI statistics

What is dropshipping?

A dropshipping business is where a customer purchases an item from your online store, and it gets shipped to them from your supplier.

Every order is forwarded to your supplier. After that, the supplier sends the item directly to the customer under your business name. Your profit is the difference between the price you charged the customer and the price the supplier charged you.

How to Start a Dropshipping Business: A Brief Guide

There are two ways to start a dropshipping business.

1. Build from Scratch
2. Buy Existing Dropshipping Business

You can buy a ready-made dropshipping business from any of the following platforms:

• Exchange
• Flippa
• AliDropship Forum
• AliDropship established stores

Want to build from scratch? Follow the steps below:

i.) Choose a Niche

The first thing to do for starting a dropshipping business is to choose the niche you want to venture in. That is the selection of industry you want to sell.

Ideally, a niche is chosen based on its “profit-making potential and frequent market demand.”

Generally speaking, using two methods, one can identify a profitable dropshipping niche.

The first is to go with any of the traditionally profitable niches. Here are some of the most profitable niches of all time:

• Health & Fitness (Best for 2021)
• Women’s Clothing & Accessories
• Toys
• Home & Garden
• Jewelry & Accessories
• Beauty
• Sports & Entertainment

Secondly, you can identify a profitable niche by looking for trending keywords (products) on popular search tools like Google’s Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, and Google Trends.

ii.) Choose a Supplier

The next thing is to decide who your dropshipping supplier is going to be.

To find legitimate suppliers, you can follow the tips below:

• Contact the manufacturer of the product you want to sell
• Search on Google: Simply type “{product name} supplier” into the Google search box, and you’ll get a ton of suppliers to choose from.
• Use Oberlo
• Attend trade shows
• Use your competitor to find suppliers

iii.) Build your dropshipping business website or online store

• BigCommerce
• Magento
• Volusion
• Demandware
• 3dcart
• Shopify
• Kibo

There are two methods you can use to build the store or website you want to sell on.

You can either set up your e-commerce store using WordPress or sell on any popular e-commerce platform.

When you opt to sell on an e-commerce platform, your store will be hosted on a third-party server, leaving you to worry only about how you’ll design your store.

It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes to create a dropshipping store on an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, Amazon, or eBay.

Here are several other e-commerce platforms you can choose from:

Why you gotta spend money to make money in dropshipping?

Below is a table comparing a zero-investment plan with a paid dropshipping business plan.

Hypothetical cost of running a dropshipping business and possible ROI

Let’s say you get a product for $20 from your dropshipping supplier, and you sell it for $40. After cutting the shipping costs and advertising costs, your actual profit over the product is $10.

If you sell three of such products in a day, it becomes $90 in a month.
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$10 profit x 90 orders in a month = $900 per month

$900 per month x 12 = Approx. $11,000 per year

From the table above, the estimated starting and running cost of a dropshipping business should be:

• Cost of store = $29 per month
• Cost of product testing = $50
• Cost of ads = $150 for a one-month ad campaign

TOTAL = $229

For a $229 monthly investment, if you’re able to realize up to $900 monthly, I don’t think that’s a bad business.

You can also check step by step guide on how to start a dropshipping profitable business in 2021. 

Blogging is another goldmine for making money on the internet. But just like dropshipping, you need to spend money to make money from blogging.

What you’ll find in this section:

• What is a blog?
• How to start a blogging business
• Choose a niche you want to blog about
• Setting up your blog
• Tips to make money from blogging
• Cost to start a blogging business
• Expected ROI from a blogging business

What is a blog, or what does blogging mean?

I hope you already know that a blog is an informative website for discussing a particular subject in detail. It is where you can find articles to learn about some specific topics. Blogging is the process of creating unique content and frequently publishing the basis on a web portal.

Although some folks might have you believe that you can make money with $0 from blogging, we will show you why their advice is wrong.

How to start a blogging business

It’s quite simple and easy to start a blog.

i.) Choose a niche (something you want to blog about):

Ideally, the niche should be something that you’re passionate about. But since you’re looking to make money off it, you should choose a niche based on its “audience revenue potential.” In other words, it must be a niche with the potential to make you money.

ii.) Set up your blog:

To get your blog online, you can do it on a freeway or find a paid plan.

Now, the decision you make at this point will determine the revenue potential (how much money you can make) of your blog in the long-term.

Below are some of the most popular blogging platforms you can choose from:

1. Wix (Free and Paid)
2. Squarespace (Paid)
3. Yola (Free)
4. WordPress.org (Paid)
5. WordPress.com (Free)
6. Tumblr (Free)

More on how free blogging platforms limit your revenue potential later.

With the free platforms, you won’t be paying for anything. Just drag-and-drop a few buttons on the blogging platform, and your site is ready to go.

However, for the paid platforms, you’ll need to buy a domain name and pay a hosting company to host it for you. Most commonly, people use WordPress as the platform and Blue Host as the hosting company.

The content on the blog

After setting up your blog’s technical aspect, the next thing to focus on is the content.

Content is the king of the blogging world.

That’s the main thing that drives traffic to your website. So, you need to focus on creating quality content all the time. That is the gold fetching egg.

See, there will be times when you’ll have no ideas on what to write about. When this happens, do not hesitate to hire a professional writer who knows how to write a blog.

There’s nothing wrong with hiring writers. Even the best blogging platforms of this world do!
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You should also consider SEO friendly content. Otherwise, it will be difficult for a search engine to identify your content and rank it in search results pages.

How to make money from blogging

Once your blog is live, there are several things you can do to monetize it. They include:

1. Affiliate marketing: Tailor the content you create on your blog to promote other people’s products, and you will get a commission for it. We will see this method in detail later.
2. Advertisements: Let people run ads on your blog and get paid for it.
3. Sell eBooks
4. Sell Courses
5. Sell Digital Products
6. Sell Coaching Services
7. Secure Sponsorships

Alternatively to all these, you can monetize your blog using “Google Adsense.”

Once you create your GoogleAdsense account, Google will start displaying targeted ads on your blog that are either relevant to your site’s content or users’ previous searches, based on its proprietary algorithms.

Once your blog visitors start clicking on these ads, Google will pay you a commission for it. Typically, this commission usually ranges from $0.20 to $15 per click.

The cost involved in a blogging business

You can start blogging for $0, but we do not suggest it. Do you want to know why?

We will highlight the reasons why by pointing out all the costs involved in the blogging business. There are four of them.

1.) Hosting cost:

If you use BlueHost, you can get your blog started for as low as $8.99 to $25.99 per month. However, if you use free blogging platforms like WordPress.com, Wix, and Blogger, you won’t have to pay anything under the basic plan.

On the downside, free blogging platforms lower your chances of making money by:

• Preventing you from publishing ads, which means you can’t use Adsense.
• Restricting your blog design, meaning you cannot tailor your blog to suit your target audience’s demands.
• Restricting your bandwidth (how many visitors your site can hold). If your site cannot handle lots of visitors, how will you ever make money from it?

2.) Theme cost:

For just $89 per year, WordPress themes like Divi can offer you several layout options for designing your blog to suit your tastes.

Unlike free themes where your design options are limited, paid themes are easily customizable, allowing you to design your blog in the most professional and visitor-friendly way possible.

3.) Email marketing cost:

A perfect way to make money on your blog is via email marketing. After people subscribe to your email newsletter, you can begin to send them updates about your digital products, resource materials, and other exciting offers to generate revenue from them.

With a zero-investment blogging plan, you’d have to rely on free email services to build this list. Unfortunately, free email services only allow you to add a certain number of subscribers, and they will apply a limit to how much you can monetize your blog.

Hypothetical cost of running a blogging business and possible ROI

When you add the prices of hosting ($8.99 for BlueHost), design ($89 for Divi), and ads ($20 for email services) together, a blog should cost around $118 to set up.

However, that does not include marketing costs like (SEO, guest posts, Social Media, etc.), which could be $150 to $300 or more.

Possible Revenue Source

Let’s say that you’re subscribed to Adsense and receive $1 CPC for your niche. If you get 500 visitors on your blog in one day and 25% of them clicked on an ad, Google will pay you $125. Over 30 days at this rate, you’d get $3,750.

After 12 months, it becomes $45,000.

From these estimations, it’s evident that the fastest way to make money from a blogging business is to have an audience. The more targeted traffic you get, the more likely that ads will get clicked, and the higher the commission you’re likely to get.

But to get traffic, you need to double down on the quality of your blog content and marketing efforts.

Seeing as it is, that would cost you money!

We have highlighted step by step guide on how to start a blog in 2021 which actually lead a profitable blogging business.

Brands, retailers, and online merchants are continually looking for more customers to patronize their business. But due to the vast competition for consumers’ attention, many of them don’t find it easy to attract customers.

So, what do they do?

They pay people to help them find customers.

These people are called affiliate marketers.

What you’ll find in this section:

• What is Affiliate Marketing?
• Guide to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business
• Product or Service selection
• Build a Community
• Finding affiliate products to sell
• Cost to start an affiliate marketing business

What is affiliate marketing, and how does it work?

Affiliate marketing involves sending traffic from your platform (site, blog, or social media page) to someone else’s platform to buy their products or services. And once somebody completes their purchase, you get paid a commission.

For example;

Let say you sign up for an online merchant’s affiliate program and promote their product until people start buying. Once customers purchase it, you will get a commission for each purchase that comes through you.

How to start an affiliate marketing business

Below is a brief step-by-step guide on what you need to do to start affiliate marketing today.

a.) Choose an affiliate niche:

You’re probably used to discussions about niches by now. But we must emphasize one crucial point: pick a profitable niche.

To do that, follow the same guidelines as the previous two business ideas mentioned above. 

b.) Build a community:

Your community can either be a blog or a social media page in practice.

You already know what it entails to start a blog. If not, go back to business #2 above and review it again.

The success of your affiliate marketing business will depend on how many people come to your community (blog/social media page) and the strength of your influence on them.

How to bring traffic to your community

• If you have a blog, you can work on its SEO. Either that or you can invest in paid ads or any other digital marketing strategy capable of bringing in traffic.
• If using social media, work with influencers or use other alternative means to gain more followers.

How to influence your community

• Feed them with the best useful content and engage with them.
• Become their go-to guy on any industry-related matter.
• Portray yourself as an industry expert by providing relevant advice, resource materials, and expert guidance.
• Offer freebies in the form of coupons, discount offers, and other gifts.

c.) Find affiliate programs:

You can use the following methods to find best affiliate programs and subscribe to them:

• Check Affiliate Networks: The easiest way to find affiliate marketing programs is to join an affiliate network. A few popular affiliate networks include ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Marketing (also known as LinkShare), Pepperjam, AvantLink, Impact, LinkConnector, etc.
• Check companies’ websites: In your affiliate niche, search for popular company names and check whether they offer affiliate programs. Sometimes, companies which offer affiliate programs do not join affiliate networks. They run their own programs in-house, like the Amazon Associates program. This method might be your best shot for finding a target affiliate program, even if you cannot find it on any network.
• Check affiliate websites: There are tons of sites like RetailMeNot, BradsDeals, Ebates, and SlickDeals, which promote companies that offer affiliate programs. By analyzing these sites, you can find the companies they promote, and from there, you can see which one has an ongoing affiliate program.
• Check affiliate program directories: Some sites on the internet, such as HighPayingAffiliatePrograms.com, are useful for listing the best affiliate active programs. Check them out to see which programs are available.

We have also highlighted the most profitable niche specific best affiliate programs in 2021.

Costs involved in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is so easy that you can run it with no investment at all. However, for the best results, you have to spend money. The table below highlights what you stand to lose when running a zero-investment affiliate marketing business against what you stand to gain when you spend money.

Hypothetical estimation of ROI

Let’s say you get a blog started for $118 (to host and design) and then invest $300 in ads and SEO to get the word out about the blog.

That would put your total expenses at approximately $420.

‍Assume all goes well and traffic begins to flock into this site after a few months at a rate of 5,000 monthly visitors (167 visitors per day).

If your content and engagement levels are so good, it’s estimated that at least 0.3% to 1% of your traffic should make purchases through your affiliate links.

If 0.3% of your 5,000 monthly visitors end up making purchases on the affiliate site, you would have sold 15 products.

Let’s assume the affiliate program you joined is the Bluehost Affiliate Program. In that case, you would earn $65 per product you sell.

Of all the web hosting companies, Bluehost pays the best commission!

‍Total revenue for the month = $65 X 15 products = $975.

If you calculate roughly for a year, it would be $555 x 12 = $6,660

Do you have the knowledge you think you can share? Do you have a skill you believe people might be willing to spend their money on?

Why not bring it online and monetize it?

While trying to make money with your skill online, you might be tempted to think (or someone tells you) that you don’t need money in any way.

But I tell you not to entertain such ideas.

There’s a reason why not every Tom, Dick, and Harry selling digital services online is making it. And if you don’t want to join their club, you need to be prepared to spend some money.

So far, all we’ve been talking about is how to sell this and that to make money.

But let’s be candid; not everyone likes to be a salesperson.

Some people just want to sit in their homes and make money without worrying about what they need to say to appeal to somebody’s ego.

If you’re this type of person, then trading is your best bet for making money online.

Can you start Forex trading with zero capital?

Due to the enormous risks involved in Forex trading, many newbie traders often wonder whether they can start this business without putting their own money on the line.

Theoretically, this is possible.

You can start Forex trading with no money at all.

But if you want to avoid heartbreaks, wasted time, and futile efforts, my advice is that you should start with a certain amount of money.

Why should you spend money to make money on Forex?

There are lots of reasons why it makes sense to start a Forex business with your own money. And some of them are:

Free no deposit bonuses are usually not good:

In truth, some top Forex brokers offer newbie traders “free no deposit bonuses” to launch their trading careers.

Many of the Terms & Conditions that come with these offers are usually too hot to handle on the downside.

For instance, a broker might offer you a “Free no deposit” bonus to begin trading. But once you start making profits, they’ll prevent you from withdrawing your money, telling you things like, “You must trade your earnings multiple times before withdrawal.” It can often mean trading your $100 profit for every $1 of bonus they give you. In the end, you might lose all the money that you’ve made.

To be on the safer side, start with your own money. That way, nobody can tell you when to withdraw and when not to withdraw.

Finally, some “fraudulent” brokers also use the “free no deposit bonus” to lure people into their Forex trading scams. #Beware.

You need signals to make a profit

A handy tool people use to make money quickly on Forex is the Forex signal.

A trade signal is a sign that tells you what action to take, whether to buy or sell a currency.

When you have buy signals, it saves you a lot of stress, guesswork, and uncertainty. If you find a reputable signal provider to work with, you can rest assured that you’ll always make profits each time you enter the market.

For people who want to start their trading businesses with zero capital, it can be hard finding a free signal platform because almost all signal providers charge a fee, which means they’re only available to people willing to spend that amount.

Here are some of the best signal providers on the internet:

• TradersAcademy Club
• JKonFX Market Analysis
• 1000pip Builder
• ForexSignals.com
• Digital Derivatives Markets

You need trading skills

Another reason to spend money on your Forex business is to hone the relevant skills required.

Nobody becomes a Pro trader overnight. It takes a lot of smart work, learning, and practice. However, you can speed up the process by enrolling in an online trade school or taking Forex courses online. These courses will provide you with practical tips to kickstart your trading journey.

For starters, here are some of the best Forex trading courses to launch your trading business:

Note: Here, we’ll only focus on how to make money as an Instagram influencer.

One of the solid ways to generate money on the internet is to become an influencer.

That’s what the KylieJenner’s and the SelenaGomez’s of this world do for a living.

So why not you? 

What you’ll find in this section:

• Who is an influencer?
• Things you need to become an influencer
• Choosing a niche for influencing
• Choosing a platform for influencing
• Find an audience to influence
• Hold contests
• Do giveaways
• Invest in IG paid ads
• Step-by-step guide on how to engage an audience you want to influence
• Estimated ROI for an influencer business

Influencers are people who get paid for promoting brands to a group of people within a select niche. After years of building relationships with an audience, influencers develop a hold over their audience’s purchasing decisions.

Last but not least is the freelancing business model.

Freelancing is, by far, the most straightforward business anyone can do to make money online. And that’s because all you need to get started is what you’ve already got or can hone.

What you’ll find in this section:

• Introduction to freelancing
• Basic freelancing tools
• Choose a profitable freelancing niche
• A brief guide on how to get freelancing clients
• Estimated ROI for a freelancing business

Who is a freelancer?

A freelancer is a person who offers their services for a fee and usually with no expectation of a single permanent client.

What kinds of jobs do freelancers do?

Do you talk pretty well on the phone? If so, you could get a gig started for selling voice-over services. Do you love to code like there’s no tomorrow? Coders and freelance programmers make some cool cash online. Or maybe you’ve been a writer all your life? There are lots of remote writing jobs on the internet today.

Does every freelancer make money?

No!!!

Not everyone who dives into the ocean of freelancing comes out wet.

You know why?

Some people believe they can start a freelance business with zero capital.

Unfortunately, “free” has never helped anyone. You must spend money to make money from a freelance business.

What do you need to start a freelancing business?

Ideally, all you need to launch a freelancing business would be

• A mobile device
• PC
• A Skill
• Equipment is relevant to that skill
• Strong internet connection
• And a host of clients (people to work for)

The skill you want to sell.

Everyone says you can start freelancing with any skill that you’ve got.

But is every skill profitable? Is every expertise not so competitive?

NO!!!.

This is where most freelancers get it wrong.

‍The solution?

‍To make money from freelancing quickly, you need to go into a niche that’s not so competitive. Like data entry, anyone can pursue this kind of skill but it does not pay well.

Before you start your freelancing career, you should invest properly in mastering your skills. That doesn’t mean spending more and more money. Here, investing means being a guru of the skills you want to offer to your customers. These skills can also be learned through online YouTube tutorials.

The market is so competitive, so you need to be perfectly skilled in whatever niche you are passionate about. Only then are people ready to pay higher prices. But, if and only you are an expert on that.

I suggest selecting a profitable niche you are passionate about.
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Here are a few niches which are profitable and less competitive:

• Animation and Video creation
• Programming and Software development
• Copywriting (sales copy, sales pitches, etc.)
• Blockchain
• Accountant
• Freelance Artist
• Website Design (Shopify store, Dropshipping, Mailchimp, Maxbounty, etc.)
• 3D Modeling & Industrial Designer (Autodesk Inventor, Matlab, Abaqus, etc.)

For someone on a zero capital freelancing investment plan, it can be challenging to hone these skills. Meaning they would have to settle for whatever skills they have in hand, regardless of its profitability and competitiveness.

However, with money, you can hone a new skill that offers you a far greater chance of making money.

How to get freelance clients to work for

‍You can get freelancing clients for free. But if you want a long-term steady in-flow of clients, you will need to spend money.

Here I mentioned a list of tips on how to find freelance clients.

➽ Network with other freelancers

‍A free way to get freelance clients is to ask your friends and co-freelancers for referrals.

Are you a writer? Why not link up with graphic designers? Are you a web developer? Chances are your friends in mobile app creation niches have clients who need website developers.

➽ Join freelancing websites

There are many freelancing websites available, from Fiverr to Upwork, Hired to Guru, Craigslist to PeoplePerHour, and so much more. Most of the sites do not charge for registration, but they take commission per successful order.

This is the best way to start your career without investing in anything. But, the competition is huge so be prepared to outrank your competitors and grab the projects.

➽ Create your own website

This is the best way to get clients from your own website and work as per your terms and availability. If you have a strong portfolio site and you are using a good marketing method then chances are very high to find very good long-term customers which pay a good amount for your freelancing work.

But, if you are looking for a long-term basis work relationship, you must be responsive and offer excellent customer support. You can even offer free revisions and free surprising gifts in order to win the heart of customers.
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➽ Networking events

‍You can find a freelance client or a connector (someone to connect you with a client) at a networking event. Bear in mind, though; you may need to pay membership fees, registration fees, and other related charges to attend these programs.

Make sure to check event boards like the following for networking events.

Meetup.com. is the biggest site for friendly meet-ups along with networking events.

Eventbrite.com. This site aggregates various types of events happening near your location. It also has a “networking” events filter option in its search functionality.

➽ Industry-specific job boards

‍Here are a few good industry-specific sites you can check for freelance clients:

Run ads and promote your business

You can find freelance clients by running ads and promoting your business on social media.

Don’t know how to get started?

Hire guys who run FB ads, LinkedIn optimization, and online forum ads. These guys will help you promote your business on various platforms, thereby placing you in front of those who need the type of service you offer.

But their services aren’t free. You have to pay!

Hypothetical cases illustrating the importance of investment in a freelance business

Case 1. Freelancing is a highly competitive environment

Someone wanted to start a freelance business on zero investment. Since the person has writing skills, he decided to hop on Fiverr to start bidding on article writing jobs.

Each time he bids on a job, at least 50 other persons are bidding on the same job. Meaning, the chances of him getting such a position are 1/50.

If eventually, he gets the job, his pay might be around $10-$100. That’s the average pay for article writers.

Case 2. Freelancing in a less competitive environment coupled with skill acquisition

Then another person (who’s also a skilled writer, by the way) decided to hone a web development skill in e-commerce website creation.

The average cost of skills like these is $1,000 (courses, certification, books, and other tools). Finally, he decided to hop on Fiverr and bid on jobs from clients looking for Shopify store creators.

He submitted his proposal, highlighting his skills, certifications, and expertise. Along with him, 15 other people (usually the average for this job on the platform) bid for the job.

You get the idea. The person with certificates has a better chance of getting hired.  

The average pay for e-commerce store creators is around $100-$500, depending on its complexity.

If the guy in our second hypothetical case study above gets just two Shopify projects worth $500 each, he would have recouped his original business investment. 

You can execute all seven business ideas we’ve highlighted in this post without spending money.

However, if you want to make a massive sum of money and do it relatively consistently, you cannot afford a zero-investment plan.

You must spend money to make money, irrespective of the business you’re doing online!!!