| Online? Dotcom? E-Business? More
and more people are beginning to get acquainted
with these Internet terms. The Internet is a
global marketplace, where you can grow your business
to the whole world with a concept of a 24/7 online
shop, crossing all boundaries, race and gender.
In this article, I will bring you some tips on
Making Money on the Internet and what to avoid.
1. Setting up Your Web Store
Do you have a product or service to promote?
It doesn’t matter whether you have a
physical business, or whether you’re
just a homemaker who’s working from home.
The key here is to setup a professional website,
promote this website via online and offline
tools, and update the contents on your website
regularly. If you are serious in your webstore,
the choice of web design company should be
an important consideration. Choose a party
that is able to do more than just “design
a website”, by being to offer you great
tips and consultancy on how to improve your
website, and facilities for accepting online
payment.
Some great websites that you can develop include
- Cakes and Cookies Delivery (either for
gifts, or during festive) seasons
- Specialty
Clothes - knitted, name - embroidery
- Copywriting / editiorial services
- language translation, freelance writer
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Just evaluate
your skills and strengths, you’re sure
to find one that is suitable for the website.
The website need not be your individual effort,
check around with your other friends, and you’ll
have a website with various products and services
to promote.
2. Join Affiliate Programs
Have the time, and want to do something online
but you have no / limited products to sell?
Or, are you starting a website that is mainly
for social or non-profit purpose? Consider
joining an affiliate program to create revenue
streams for your website.
Some affiliate programs also allow those without
website to join their programs by simply promoting
the products / services via email, or through
promoting your own affiliate link (referral number
/ id). Some will even offer you a free affiliate
website, which is not really “your website” as
it’s main purpose is to sell this Company’s
products.
Do not attempt to join too many affiliate programs,
and overwhelm your website visitors with these
affiliate banners. Choose affiliate programs
that will appeal to your website visitors, and
your friends. Be sure to read the fine print
on these affiliate programs in terms of referral
fee per transaction, minimum amount accumulation
for payout, commission on return customers, and
the company background.
3. Trading Online
Just take a look at the Classifieds website on
the Internet, or the Auction websites. From
selling your old clothes, to collector items
like coins, you’ll be amazed by the amount
of items available for sale on these websites.
These classified and auction websites are similar
to our version of “garage sale”,
just that now you have a global audience who
will browse through your merchandise 24 hours
a day. Some sites to check include www.eBay.com,
and Yahoo! Classifieds. Posting of your merchandise
on these sites can be free, x dollar per listing,
or % per successful sale.
As the saying goes “There’s dotcom,
and there’s dotcon”. Have you been
bombarded with Internet schemes that promise
tremendous payout? On average, I get over 15
Internet schemes and offers on a daily basis,
such as get paid to read emails, get paid to
view advertisements, Internet investment with
high performance, and more.
To imagine that these email messages are sent
to millions of Internet users daily, it only
takes a 1% response to give these companies their
millions of dollars. Some of the common ones
include:-
a) Get Paid to Surf - you have to logon to the
website a x number of times daily or download a
special browser to their desktop, and read the
ads / view the banners. The website company will
charge the advertisers and reward the members who
complete the quota.
Pitfall : It takes you ages to complete the quota
to be eligible for the payout scheme, if you can
ever accomplish it. By the time you get your payout,
your amount will be deducted of administrative
charges (which sometimes can be about 20% of your
total payout already). The worst scenario would
be to have the website close down before any member
receives their payout. One of the most famous website
for Get Paid to Surf was AllAdvantage, which was
closed down despite being the fatest growth website
in terms of members.
Mutations of this scheme include Get Paid to Receive SMS, Get Paid to Read Emails,
and Get Paid to Listening to Online Radio Ads.
However, if you wish to try this out, you should check out the following issues
first:
- How much will you be paid by reading
each email?
- What is your responsibility other
than reading emails, e.g. some schemes
would
require you to click to a website linked
within the email?
- Can a Malaysian participate? Some
schemes are restricted to US citizens
only.
- What is the minimum amount of
pay-out?
- How long will it take
for you to earn the minimum pay-out?
Remember you are
incurring charges for your internet
access and phone
bills for reading the emails.
- How
is payment to be made and any charges?
If payment is made
by US cheque,
then a
significant part of it would
be eaten by bank charges.
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b) Money
Laundering - This is a scheme that have been around for
many years, earlier on starting with people receiving
letters and faxes, and now becoming more high
tech with their email messages. The scheme tells
you that the sender (most likely from a country
in the African continent) has a large sum of
money, seeks your assistance in transferring
this amount into your bank account, and if successful,
you will be offered a x percentage of this amount.
Sounds too good to be true that they have actually
identified you for this opportunity?
Pitfall : Many wise businessmen, and young teenagers
have been lured into these schemes due to greed,
and rumours have it that after following through
with the transaction, some have even been killed
after travelling to meet the sender, lost a lump
sum of money from their bank account, or have
their identities stolen for illegal crimes.
c) Online MLM - Companies who promise you great
returns through pyramid schemes, and multi-level
schemes. Although without valid local government
licenses, their excuses to you would be that
for Internet, they are not bound by the local
laws. Remember the Malaysia government’s
commercials on “Get Rich Quick Schemes”?
Many have fallen prey to these schemes. These
schemes should not be mistaken with the affiliate
programs (which you can join for Free, with real
products / services). Check through the company
background thoroughly, has anyone really received
the payout cheque?
Pitfall : If anything was to go wrong, whom can
you turn to if the Company is not even registered
to any Malaysian office, and the people who’ve
introduced the scheme to you are only Members?
If the Online MLM scheme is to be promoted offline,
either through business opportunity meetings,
physical sales pitches, it is definitely too
risky to be participating in these schemes. One
of the most famous online MLM scheme to hit Malaysia
was SkyBiz (buy online websites, of which most
members have never even built)
In summary, there are many ways to make money
on the Internet but along the way, you are bound
to come across various schemes. The option then,
is to evaluate such schemes and make a wise decision
before participating.
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