By popular demand, here is a beginner’s guide on to how to make money online. Since the subject is a lengthy one, this is one of a three-part series of short articles so that it can be covered in the depth it requires!

Making Money from Domains

Buying and selling domains is still a huge business, despite what you may think. Yes, the massive success stories of dot com gold rush millionaires are far in the past now but by being savvy and doing your homework, you can make a handsome living from domains. Your starting point should be (as with most things) research. If you don’t take the time to find out exactly what you’re doing, you might as well take your planned investment and stick it on black 13 on your favourite betting site (if you actually do that and win a fortune, you’re welcome).

One area of domains that’s a huge market is misspellings. Imagine how many times people type in Hotmaul or Twotter. Buying misspelt domains can provide you with a parking space for some lucrative advertising. Or there’s domain parking. This is where people buy ‘guessed’ domains and use them to funnel in marketing and advertising. For example, someone looking for an electrician may type in www.electricians.com which is a great place for targeted advertising for which you can charge a handsome rate.

Finally in this category, let’s look at drop catches. This is the situation where companies accidentally allow their domains to expire, which is when you swoop in and pick up the domain. If you can quickly fill it with interesting information, you can benefit from the previous owner’s traffic and make quite a handsome profit from doing this alone.

Fun Ways to Make Money Online

Yes, this is a legitimate subheading. There are ways to make money online by simply having a bit of fun. If you’re a keen gamer, there are sites that will pay you for participating in tournaments and endorsing certain products. Have a poke around online to find opportunities. Or how about a bit of mystery shopping? You can get paid to shop. Yes, really! It might not be the best paid industry but there are companies that are willing to pay you to go and check out the quality of customer service at certain establishments. You might even get a free meal out of it.

You could also join the community of compers! There are thousands of competitions every week to be found across the web and compers are the experts. By entering enough competitions, you can up your odds of becoming a winner. You might end up with anything from some free gardening gloves, right up to a car or even a giant wad of cash. It can be a bit time consuming so try downloading some form-filling software to speed up the process. You have to be in it to win it!

We’re just getting started here as there are hundreds of ways to make a living by using the internet so check back on Wednesday to read more…