Heya! You've landed on the internet business blog of Angela Wills. I blog about solopreneur-ism, small business, affiliate marketing and more! 
How I Make Money Online
The other day on twitter @tuttih asked me to let her know how I make money online and tell her if it’s really possible.
Great Question!
So instead of sending off a short message I told her I’d spend some time to do up a blog post and let her know when it’s ready because I thought my show listeners, blog readers and email subscribers would like to hear about this as well.
So let me summarize it, here’s how I make money online:
Business Services
What I Do – Over the last three years I’ve provided services to small business owners as a Virtual Assistant. I put the years of experience I had building websites, studying online marketing and learning how to make sales to good use and started helping people do the same
As a virtual assistant I have done many things: affiliate management, website design, website editing, writing, article submissions, email marketing, audio editing, blog design and more.
Most recently I have decided it’s time to really transition out of the ‘virtual assistant’ business and into a full time internet marketer. That’s why I now only provide Blog Design services through my site BlogSiteMojo.com.
For any other services such as affiliate management or online marketing I will work with a very select few clients.
How I Get Paid – Well for VA services I would get paid hourly at $45 per hour. A new VA starting out usually charges between $20-$30 per hour depending on experience. For blog design, we charge a flat rate of $595 for a full blog install, SEO setup and customization.
Information Product Sales
What I Do – I’ve written a number of information products based on my own online business marketing expertise and sell those for $47 each. So far I offer a product on Affiliate Management, Teleseminars and Virtual Assistance.
My Affiliate Management product has been the most popular by far this point and it is also the one I’ve spent the most time promoting. I’ve spent the last year or so building my reputation as an Affiliate Manager and an affiliate management trainer.
How I Get Paid – My information products are set up through the automation of an online shopping cart. The cart I use now is WAHMCart, which I just switched back to after using 1 Shopping Cart for a short period of time.
The shopping cart is connected up to Paypal so anytime someone wants to buy my product they simply click the ‘buy now’ link and get their product automatically. I also automatically get the payment in my Paypal account.
Affiliate Marketing
What I Do – As an Affiliate Manager it’s important that I understand affiliate marketing from both sides; as the company who runs an affiliate program and as the marketer who’s promoting products to earn a commission.
(sidenote – If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is here is a short definition: An affiliate is someone who promotes a product online using a specially coded ‘affiliate link’ that tracks sales and credits the affiliate who earns a set amount of money which is usually per sale)
How I promote products is through a number of venues:
- I include affiliate links in my own products.
- I do case studies and reviews on my blog as well as make recommendations when it suits the blog post.
- I make personal recommendations to people I work with.
- I let my list know when I find amazing resources.
I’ll also note it’s very important to me that I’ve used the products or know with great certainty that the person created them only creates quality. I won’t recommend crap just to make a few bucks.
Some of my favorites to promote:
Notice almost all of the above are recurring programs?? That’s not an accident! Promote once and continue to get paid. All of the programs above I have used and love.
Here’s a few screenshots of the four day case study I did promoting Traffic Geyser that made me over $500 in commissions PLUS won me an iPod Nano in their affiliate contest:
And here’s the screenshot of the commissions earned to date for that work:
Here’s a video clip of a presentation I did on Affiliate Marketing at the Toronto Internet Marketing Seminar. You’ll notice in the video I mention that I made $200 and something dollars but the screenshot above says $513 – that’s because since then I’ve made more commissions without having to do anything else to earn it!:
How I Get Paid - When a sale is made I get the affiliate credit. Then typically once per month I get payment into my Paypal account or I’ll get a cheque in the mail.
I made a scan of the first income I EVER made in affiliate marketing, it was such a thrill. The cheque below is from sometime in 2006 I think, and it’s from Aweber:
Coaching & Training Services
What I Do – I also provide training and coaching services to business owners who want to learn more about marketing online.
My most popular type of training to date has also been Affiliate Management. An example of this is my upcoming Affiliate Manager Training School and the free preview training session.
How I Get Paid – The coaching programs are also on an automated payment system through WAHMCart. When someone wants to join my coaching program they make their payment (in the case of my upcoming session it is $297 each) and it signs them up automatically and puts the money into my Paypal account.
So that’s how I make money online!
There are so many ways to make money and these are the ways I’m currently focusing on.
tuttih wanted to know if it is possible to really make money online – Yes, absolutely!
My advice to anyone who doesn’t know what they want to do is start with themselves. Don’t go looking for all the things you can do because the options are limitless. Start thinking about what you really enjoy and what you can do long term.
And of course I also would advise you to find mentors who are doing what you want to do and learn from them!
Quite a while ago Lynn Terry made a post of the same name, How I Make Money Online, I recommend you check her post out too – it’s excellent!
(wow! I just looked and realized the post was written in October of 2007, feels like just yesterday that I read that one.)
I’d love to see more marketers break down where they make money online, it’s definitely something that is different for every person so it would be really neat to see a bunch of them to compare notes.
Good straightforward advice. What I admire about you is the honest numbers you quote. You could just as easily brag on about “six figure incomes” like so many others. When ever I hear that tune, I just consider it so much BS, and move on.
Have a great day.
I agree with Ed above. Angela tells it like it is. Obviously, I know she has made much more than the $513 she talks about but I don’t believe that most our our blog readers (especially other VAs and moms) are looking to become super wealthy Internet Marketers. We just want to bring in a nice income for the hours we put in, enjoy our work and have a lot of flexibility. I firmly believe that this business can offer all of that. I also love the way it allows you to grow and challenge yourself. I have seen Angela go from a $10 an hour VA to speaking in front of a large audience at a conference with multitudes of her own products to sell. It would be quite unlikely to grow that quickly while working for someone else.
I really enjoyed this post. Angela always has such great information and advice to pass on.
This is my first year as a Virtual Assistant and I can honestly say that it has been a wonderful beginning. I am looking at ways to increase my income and this post is just perfect with the right information.
Thanks again for a great post and some really wonderful advice as always..
Have a super day,
Renee
Ed – thanks so much! Yea I totally agree on the ‘I MAKE SIX FIGURES’ claims.. I mean the people I respect most don’t talk money money money, they talk results.
Michelle – Thank you. Yes this is an amazing business but it does take time, hard work and lots of effort and it’s never my goal to sugar-coat that like it’s nothing.
Renee – Congrats on your first year as a VA! Definitely spend some time on building that residual income too so when you need a break you can get one, that’s something I wish I did more of in the beginning.
Great info Angela! Perfect for those just starting out but also encouraging that you can make much more depending on how much effort your put in.
Angela,
Hi. I was just wondering why you switched back to Wahmcart after using 1shopping cart for a while.
Thanks!
Sally
Angela:
Thank you for your authenticity. Ed is right on the money. One thing I really appreciate about you is your straightforward and honest approach to running an online business. And, this is just the beginning for you. I see continued success and growth for you — because you’re doing it right. Step-by-step and focused. I met you a couple of years ago via Blog Mastermind. Life rewards all the things who you are. Stay tuned for more abundance to come!
Great information Angela!! I think this is a must-read post for all newbies looking to start earning money online.
Excellent post Angela. I agree with Ed and really like the way you provided straight forward answers on earning potential. This is definitely a great post for newbies and people struggling to figure out how to start over again after being laid off or similarly affected by this tough economy.
Christina, Christie and Sharon – thanks!
Sally – I’m going to write up another post to answer your question
expect it sometime this week.
Tara – Thanks so much. Wow hasn’t time flown since we first joined Blog Mastermind!?
Hi A, just wondering why you changed from 1Shopcart to WAHM? Thanks. ~d.
Hi Deb, I wrote a post called ‘Why I Switched From 1 Shopping Cart to WAHMCart‘ just to answer that exact question. I’ve actually had a few people ask the same thing so I thought it would be a good thing to post about
This is great information. I love it! You got so much going on. I need to up it a bit and start making some money.
Has anyone seen the new way to make money with youtube? They make 200 videos for you, and guarentee you at least 20,000 views for your business. Check it out: http://budurl.com/feps