This article looks at the methods the average Australian can use to earn extra income.

You will:

• Learn the four steps to earning an income online.
• Discover the 10 ideas for beginners to explore
• See the recommended resources for developing your web empire

Step one: Step up a website.

A website can serve as a brand center. It can tell others about your business or publicize you as a person. This can lead to many opportunities.

You have two choices: use free hosting or set up your own hosted website. The second option is more expensive but it can be done for less than $100 per year.

The first step would be to reserve a .com domain.

I would highly recommend you reserve this domain under your own name, or the name you wish to use online. This can protect others from profiting off your name should you become successful.

A bonus is that you can install extra blogs on the one domain, as well as other services. This allows you to have sites that look considerably more professional that free blog hosting services.

Before you get a domain, check if you can get a free one as part of your hosting package. This little tip may save $7-15. For beginners, it is easier having the domain on the same site as the hosting.

I recommend you purchase the domain first as it can take 24-48 hours for the purchase to finalize and the domain connected to you account.

When looking for hosting, consider the following:

• Can you get unlimited sites hosted?
• Do they have a set up fee if you decide you don’t want a contract?
• Have their clients given positive reviews of their customer service?

Recommended hosting companies.

• Bluehost
• Hostgator
• Host Monstor
• GoDaddy
• 1and1 Hosting
• Fast Domain
• Easy CGI Web Hosting

For an absolute beginner, I would recommend going through Bluehost. You can get a 12 month account package at $7.95 a month. You get a free domain and no set up free. What appeals to me about this plan is you get unlimited sites on the one domain - something you can pay considerably more for elsewhere.

You can decide now or later whether you want to develop the website. It may be best to leave it for a few days or weeks to decide.

Step Two: Ascertain How You Want To Earn Money.

This step covers 10 of the simpler ways to earn money online. You don’t have to do all or any of them. Any one of these recommended ideas will give you the foundations in that particular niche. I would experiment in a couple and find what feels right. Once you have a fair idea you can move onto the next step.

Idea One: Make Money By Writing For Other Websites.

One of the easiest ways to earn money by writing is to join many of the websites that reimburse you based on advertisement revenue. You may make very little income initially until your writing style improves and you learn about what attracts readers.

You can benefit by taking advantage of the websites search engine friendliness and support to guide you with your writing. You can earn royalties over a long term, and also earn affiliate income through clever link placement. You can also use your work on here as a resume should you decide to seek freelance work later.

Sites That Offer Payment For Writing

• Associated content
• E How
• Squidoo
• How to do things
• Xoomba
• Helium
• Tutorial Tub
• Triond
• PrintnPost
• Hubpages

I use hubpages with moderate success. I highly recommend it for anyone starting with web writing. It allows you to get a feel for what works and you benefit by a website that is optimized for search engines.

Idea Two: Make Money By Blogging

You can monetize your blogs in multiple ways. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all methods but the following are ones that beginners can adopt.

If you want more information, I’ve developed a resource list: 1000 Questions to Ask Before You Begin Blogging

Method one: Asking for donations

Donations work best if your website is focused on community.

If you have a wordpress blog, this can be done with a widget. Alternately, you can use paypal to get a ‘html code’ which you then copy and paste onto your website.

I wont profess to know much about this method, other than Steve Pavlina and Leo Babauta have used it with much success. If you want more tips read The Ultimate Guide to Monetizing your site through Donations

Method Two: Having Contextual Advertising

Contextual advertising is when an advertisement is targeted to the content of a website. This benefits you, as a publisher, as it ensures your readers get links relevant to the information they are reader.

Adsense is the easiest to set up and implement. I recommend that you experiment with that method at first to get a hang of the advertising method. Problogger has many more advertising tips once you’ve progressed.

Some sites that offer Contextual Ads:

• WidgetBucks
• Adsense

I found the book listed below to be immensely useful for my adsense education. Even better, its only $10 for 200+ pages of tips.

Adsense Secrets

Method Three: Recommend Products via Affiliate Links

There are many methods of earning affiliate income. One of these is through banners that you use on your blog. These can be used until you can get some paid advertising spots.

This method is discussed in more detail later in this article.

Method Four: Selling Advertising Spots

A popular method is selling advertising spots on your blog. You can charge on a weekly or monthly basis. A useful way to get long term advertisers is to offer a discount if they sign up for a number of months. You need traffic to be able to charge for advertising. I would recommend using affiliate links as ‘Sponsors’ until you get to a stage where you can charge for advertising.

A really useful plugin is OIO. It is considerably easier than many of the free options available.

Method Five: Having a mailing list.

Many web entrepreneurs, like Yaro Starak, emphasis the benefits of having a mailing list. You’ve ascertained there is an interest so you know they will be more receptive of related marketing.

The Site for Product Launch Formula has heaps of free resources on how mailing lists can help with product launches.

There are many methods you can capture an email address. Product Launch Formula uses the main one. This is by asking for an email address in return for free content. For beginners, a free e-book or video may be the better option.

Many of the big name bloggers use Aweber to manage their email list. I use it to. The service is fantastic, but it does take a while to get used to!

You should also make sure that the readers are aware that they are signing up for a list. It would be best to mention the frequency of email and expected content.

Want More Help?

You may find these two websites useful:
Problogger
Blog Mastermind

Idea Three: Create Niche Sites

A Niche Content Website is a site that targets both contextual advertisers and search engines. They are sites set up with 10-15 pages of content that is targeted to certain keywords. The idea is that people who search for that term will click a paid link on your site.

An example of a niche site I have creating is Blog Resources. I created this solely as an experiment and not an income earner. No marketing has been done. You can see that it is product based.

A good thing about niche sites is that you can test your ideas in relative privacy. They aren’t as public as blogs especially when it comes to failures.

I don’t use niche sites as a major part of my income earning. I do however focus on building Niche Networks. You can read more at Niche Site Success.

A way to make money from niche domains is the product Build A Niche Store. This method involves finding niche products from ebay users and making money from their affiliate program.

Idea Four: Earn Regular Income by Freelance Writing

Freelancing can be one of the best ways to earn an income online. Initially, it can be quite the hard slog.You need to build up a demand for your services. To to this, you need to be remarkable.

The following resources may help you on your journey.

• Rockstar Freelancer
• I Freelance
• Elance
• Skelliewag
• Freelance Switch

Idea Five: Make Money by Selling Your Photos

There are several ways of making money with your photos. If you are interested in exploring this further please check out my article Earn From Your Camera.

The methods described there are ways of earning via the internet. This can supplement other photography income streams.

In this article, I will breifly discuss Microstock photography. Once set up this requires the least work. It can be a great way of earning residual income!

For publicity:

Deviant Art
Flickr

Microstock Sites:
Dreamstime
Fotalia
I stockPhoto
123 Royalty Free
Stock Xpert
Shutterstock

Resources:
- Microstock diaries
- Digital Photography School

Idea Six: Create E-books

There are three ways of making money from e-books:

• Earn money from affiliate links in the e-book
• Use the e-book to promote one of your products
• Sell your e-books to a audience.

If you have an affiliate program it gives the readers an incentive to promote your book elsewhere.

For further information read 500 links to devour before stating your E-book project.

Idea Seven: Promote Affiliate Products

The income is derived from commission earned on leads and/or sales. The company saves money by not having to advertise - you do the job for them. Only rather than have direct advertising everywhere, the advertisers have real people promoting real products.

How to earn the income?

• Through sales leads from your blog
• Through specific campaigns targeting google adwords
• Through creating article based sites to drive organic traffic to specific presell pages
• Through publishing ebooks
• Through email campaigns
• Through creating Squidoo lenses

How do you get paid

• Through check (in either US or AU dollars)
• Paypal
• Direct Deposit

Be aware that paypal will take out fees. If your working with large international publishers you may be lucky enough to receive a check in AUD.

How much money should I expect?
It depends on a number of variables. If you casually offer affiliate programs through websites or blogs, the income may be rather small depending on your audience.

I’d recommend testing various affiliate programs in your own blog, if you have one.

I would look at the following networks and choose a few programs to try.

• Commission Junction
• Link Share
• Amazon Associates
• NeverBlueAds
• TTZ Media
• Commission Monster
• DGM
• CX Digital Media
• Widget Bucks.
• ClixGalore
• Azoogle Ads

Idea Eight: Selling on Auction Sites

If you’re an Australian, two of the best known sites are ebay and oztion.

You can even earn money by referring these two sites! As they are quite well known, they wont be discussed in further detail here.

Idea Nine: Entering Competitions

This isn’t a log term or sustainable method of earning an income online unless your exceptionally gifted. It can be really fun - I’ve won some great prizes by entering the occasional competition.

It can teach you about writing succinctly and give you the opportunities

The following sites compile competitions. The first two are paid membership sites:

• Love FREE stuff? lottos.com.au !
• Aussie Compers
• Comping Club

Idea Ten: Mystery Shopping

Mystery Shopping can help you earn hundreds or thousands of dollars a month.

The key is to get to a state where you are considered a preferred shopper in your area. If this happens, you will be contacted before the job is made public.

You can achieve this by being consistently reliable and punctual.

Mystery Shopping Companies

• Retail Services 2000
• Gapbuster
• CBS
• Ho-ed
• Retail Mystery Shopping Australia
• Capeesh
• Shop N Chek
• Market Pulse
• The Realise Group

Tips for getting ahead when mystery shopping

• Use your mobile phone or PDA for reminders and some notes
• Jot down your notes as soon as your out of the immediate vicinity
• Don’t be too public about your mystery shopping status. Friends tell friends.
• Try to include regular purchases into as many gigs as possible.
• Try to do as many jobs as you can in a particular area to save on fuel costs

Step Three: Create a Plan of How You Want To Earn Money

By now you should have identified what methods you wish to make money from.

The next step is to organize them into a rough plan. Just write it down. Everything. This should include:

• Significant personal, profressional and financial milestones
• A timeframe for reaching certain goals
• Which methods of monetization you want to use
• Which programs or companies you want to use to help you
• What websites or e-books can help you with your goal

Step Four: Put Your Plan into action

The goal here is the ‘doing’ part. This is where you take your experiments and just go! Too many people fail to succeed because they fail to try. Set yourself apart by being willing to work harder then your peers.

Resources for developing your web empire!

Setting up a home business can be really confusing to the uninitiated. These resources can also save money in your personal budget!

• Skype
• My Net Fone
• E Fax
• Mbox
• Voip Choice
• How to Develop Money Making Niche Sites with Wordpress

Earn Cash and Prizes completing Offers & Surveys.

aShopFor Pays its users for completing various offers. There are better survey sites out there but aShopFor reimburses its newsletters subscribers $10 when they sign up.

Initially, it can be relatively easy to earn a little bit of pocket money through this site. After some time, the offers come less frequently.

Its definitely worth joining to test your commitment to survey sites.

Are you looking at microstock photography but are unsure of where to start? Rasmus Rasmussen has released a Microstock Photographer’s Guide.

This is one of the best resources I have found on microstock photography. It is available in two comprehensive formats: a series of blog posts and a downloadable e-book.

Shop Free is Australias leading site when it comes to free offers, samples and trials. I used it prolifically 5 years ago and still subscribe to the newsletter.

The site doesn’t earn you money per se, but the free offers can save you a small amount of money per week. The money saved can go towards other items, whether its a savings account or a new item.

I always check it companies offer freebies before purchasing an item. Its also a useful way of getting extra products if your going through a bad month. In the past, I’ve ordered a lot of freebies at once so I didn’t have to buy cat food for a week.

This method takes most of the work out of getting freebies. You can choose from a multitude of offers. Its very simple. You just Join the ShopFree Newsletter and get freebies every month direct to your inbox.