Technology’s ever-pervading permeation into every last fibre and morsel of society has caused a dramatic upheaval in the way we live, work and entertain ourselves. Thanks to the disruptive nature of the internet, the rate of change has only increased exponentially in recent years.

Yet, with so much change in the world today and a nearly-instantaneous access to the globe’s population through mediums such as social media and online search, many people are still left perplexed by how they can utilise the powerful technology inherently available through the internet, to actually make money online.

The truth? It’s not easy making money online today. With so much competition and so many people and headlines vying for our attention, sifting through and finding reputable sources to generate any respectable amount of income through the web has become an ever-increasing challenge.

Every successful business and person has delivered a tremendous amount of value at the outset. They did the most amount of work, and they inspected every detail meticulously, to ensure that they were doing right by their customers. As long as you keep that in mind, and you don’t look for a quick buck, you’ll succeed in the long term.

Find your niche — Figure out what you’re good at or what you want to be good at. You don’t need to be an expert right now, but you do need to decide where you’re going to fit in if you’re at all serious about making serious cash in the long term.

Build a blog on a custom domain — Your blog is your virtual home. Without it, you’ve no place to filter all that traffic and people interested in what you have to say. But don’t build a blog on a subdomain like yoursite.wordpress.com, create a blog with a custom domain like www.yoursite.com.

Always add value — Adding value over time creates authority, and authority breeds trust, which in turn helps to grow your audience and readership. Without a significant following, you’ll find it hard to gain any traction online. It simply takes time.

Create an email list and treat them right — One of the best ways to make money online is by marketing to an actively-interested group of email subscribers. While most people think that email marketing is dead, that’s far from the truth. This is your greatest potential source of income online. Think of it as your money tree.

Don’t sacrifice morals for a quick buck — At the outset, you’ll want to do all sorts of things to make money online, but don’t sacrifice your morals for a quick buck. Not only will you put people off, but you’ll lose Google’s trust.

Agencies