No Website? No Money? How To Fund Your Online Business

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Being able to earn money online when you don’t HAVE money to invest is one of my favorite topics. Why? Because it is my specialty – been there, done THAT! Reality is, it doesn’t TAKE money to MAKE money online, BUT, it will eventually TAKE money to GROW money and grow your online business. If you are new to the making money online arena and you’re wondering how someone like me managed to make money online WITHOUT investing money, read on….

When I first got my little pea brain around the whole concept of making some money from my computer, there were two definite things I wanted to accomplish with my first efforts.

1) I wanted to start making money – and GETTING that money – as soon as possible.

2) I wanted to create things online that would continue to bring money in each month long after I was done working on them.

Basically, I wanted to have a little cash in hand as soon as I could get it and I also wanted to know that for years to come, there would be a certain amount of money coming to me each month that I could count on. THAT money would become my ‘seed money’ that I would use to grow my online business. While I am a huge fan of free online marketing tools and strategies (like Squidoo and article marketing), it didn’t take me long to realize that the true power and potential for internet earnings would come from owning my own sites. However, in order to own my own websites, I would need….. MONEY. I would need money for a hosting account, I would need money to buy domain names, I would need money for an autoresponder…and I WANTED money for some cool tools that make my life SO much easier.

So, my dilemma was –

What Can I Do NOW That Will Keep Making Me Money Online Month After Month?

Oh, And It Has To Be FREE!

I went ’round the internet checking out free methods of making money online and then rated them on their ability to generate income for me month after month long after I was done even thinking about it, let alone working on it.

I chose: Squidoo, Associated Content, and GPT Programs. I also chose AdSense tho it took some time for that to generate enough income that I actually got paid every month.

Squidoo –

Squidoo allowed me to make little one-page mini niche sites that not only would generate income for me long-term from the monthly payouts Squidoo pays me, but they also generate more income for me via affiliate sales made on the lenses and traffic that I generate. For the sake of this article, I will simply focus on the monthly pay I get from Squidoo.

If I stopped working on Squidoo right now – literally never did another thing – I would still get a monthly payment from my work that has already been done on the Squidoo site.

Associated Content –

To me, Associated Content is a great little program. You write articles of 500 words or more and sell them to AC. If Associated Content is interested in buying your article, they will make you an offer (usually between $4 and $10) to buy your article from you. If you accept the offer, they pay you via Paypal within a few days. This part of Associated Content was great for the ‘I want money NOW’ part of my thinking.

The other part of Associated Content that fit in with my “KEEP sending me money” plan was this – Associated Content will pay you every month based on page views of your articles. AC articles tend to rank well on the search engines and whenever someone clicks thru to YOUR article, you make a little money. It’s not much at all, but it is a little extra income that comes in month after month that helps pay for the growth of my online business.

GPT Programs –

GPT, or “Get Paid To” programs, were another thing I did some work on. GPT sites are sites that pay it’s users to take surveys and fill out offers. They also pay you based on the earnings of those that you recruit to join the site under you (via your affiliate link). I spent some time promoting GPT sites a little over a year ago, mainly CashCrate (my favorite), and now each month, I get a little check from these companies. Nothing to quit your day job over – tho there are some folks making serious income from these programs.

Adsense –

This was the last strategy I added to my arsenal. It can take a while to make $100 with AdSense so you can get your first payment from them, but once you do, it takes on a life of its own. I started making niche sites with free Blogger blogs last year and added the AdSense ads to each site. These free little blogs still account for a good deal of my monthly AdSense earnings, and I rarely do anything to them. That work was done longggggg ago – BUT it all still makes me some money each month.

I am a big fan of what I call my ‘autopilot money websites‘, so not long after I learned how to use Blogspot blogs to do this, I realized the power of the niche blogging platform and went to a more powerful platform to create them. (That is where 6StepNicheSites.com came from 🙂 )

How Much Do You Earn From These Free Programs?

Squidoo pays me anywhere from $75 a month and up…. Associated Content brings about $25-$35 bucks a month… GPT programs bring in about $40-$100 bucks a month…and the AdSense earnings from my free Blogger blogs bring in over $100 a month. I can safely count on at least $250 a month coming from these sources….and I don’t do ANYTHING to earn that money now. The work needed to earn that money was all done over a year ago =)

That $250 covers all my business expenses and then some… and then some more =)

If you look at each strategy separately, they don’t look like much money. However, all of these resources combined make a decent nest egg that I use to grow my online business. Best part is, operating a successful and profitable online business does NOT take a lot of money at all – so, the four methods above MORE than cover the necessities of my business AND my ‘wants’ for my business.

Is That ALL The Money You Make Online Each Month?

Uh, no…hardly. The sources listed above are the sources I created quite some time ago to generate cash flow so I could grow. Those sources are what I tag as ‘For The Business’. The other sources of my monthly online earnings are tagged as “For ME”. Those are the earnings I receive from my money making websites from sources like ClickBank, Commission Junction, eBay, Amazon, PayDotCom, individual affiliate programs, my own products, custom Squidoo lenses, and my SEO clients – and THAT amount is a whole ‘nother story =)

Bottom line is – it took me taking the time and doing the work to create those four resources of income above in order for me to move forward and start making money online from the “For ME” streams of revenue.

In a recent post, I talked about how true internet newbies don’t have a plan – they aren’t supposed to have a plan, either. How in the world can you have a plan when you don’t even know what you are planning? However, once you decide that online marketing is something you want to do, and you want to move forward with an online business, make a plan to generate the income to invest in your online business. While it may seem ‘pointless’ right now to work hard to generate $35 a month, remember – each $35 a month resource you create NOW will still be sending you $35 a month (or more) for years to come. That is like free money since the work will be long done.

Make a plan to generate revenue for your online business. Do for a year what others WON’T and then at this time NEXT year, you just might be able to live a life that others CAN’T.

If *I* can do it, anyone can!