These Are the Iron-Clad Strategies for Making Money Online Forget about getting rich quick, but if you hang in there, the money will come.

The vast connectivity afforded to us by the internet has given us plenty of conveniences in life. Today, not only has our ability to communicate been drastically upended by the rise of the web, but so has our ability to conduct commerce in a sharing economy, born as an upshot of internet-connected smartphones.

However, with all the technological advancements and modern-day conveniences afforded to us by the internet, our ability to make any semblance of money has been severely limited. Thanks to a large group of so-called entrepreneurs, or internet marketers (IMs), most people are left jaded while trying to generate any semblance of a respectable income online.

The truth is that amassing any amount of notable wealth on the internet is no small feat. What the more-than-unsavory IM community fail to reveal is that to make money on the web, you need to have a sizable reach. It doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen without experiencing a great amount of pain.

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These savvy online-marketing technophiles repeatedly fail to convey the massive amounts of work that lay ahead for those who are looking to make millions online. No, you can't just send out a few dozen emails and get rich. It doesn't quite work that way. No matter what network-marketing hype or fabricated rags-to-riches story you read, the truth is that unless you have a significant presence online and a big email list, making more than a few dollars will be largely out of reach.

So, where do people turn who are looking to make money and not fall victim to the latest get-rich-quick scheme or multi-level-marketing pyramid scam? If you're serious about making it online, you must understand five principles that govern the lives of the most successful online marketers, along with the fundamentals of things like organic search and social media marketing.

The five governing principles of online income.

Before looking at the specific strategies for generating money on the internet, we first need to understand the five fundamental principles that allow people to make any amount of income that would be deemed respectable. Pay homage to these five governing principles, and you'll ultimately succeed over time -- not overnight, not in a month, maybe not even in a year, but over time.

If you fail to honor these principles, not only will you subject yourself to undue pain, but you'll also experience massive amounts of failure. If you don't want to put yourself through that, adhere to these principles no matter what you do. Don't waver or falter due to some sudden impulse or urge to cut corners or take a shortcut. Simply put, it won't work.

1. Know your audience.

To make money on the web, you need to know your audience. You need to know specifically whom you're targeting. We're talking demographics here. Age, region, occupation, gender and marital status are just some examples of knowing your customer and knowing them well. The better you know your audience, the more likely you'll be able to target your online activities to those specific people.

By knowing your customer down to the very last detail, you'll be able to understand not only who they are, but what they do on a daily basis. Where are they going? To whom are they speaking? Where are they spending the majority of their time? What types of things are they buying or researching? This will help you tailor your approach to these specific people.

2. Add massive value.

If you're not adding value, you're wasting your time. You can't setup a site, create a free offer, drive traffic to it and expect to make millions online. It won't happen. You need to add value. By adding value, you'll build authority over time. And, when you build authority, you'll increase your visibility. This won't happen in months. We're talking years. Yes, it's painful, but you'll need to endure it if you're serious about generating any income whatsoever through the internet.

Don't fall victim to IMs who attempt to sell you some dream. They've been through the pain. They've built an audience. They know how the psychology of the mind works. And they're preying on you. Yes, you. They're looking to extract money from you; not help you to make it. Always add value and ignore IMs that try to sell you into some get-rich-quick scheme.

3. Build trust.

One of the ways that you'll most certainly fail in making money online is by being dishonest. Don't try to trick people into clicking an affiliate link or buying something inadvertently from you. Don't spoof them by forwarding them to squeeze pages using sneaky redirects. All you'll do is garner the ire of both the public and Google, rather than helping to gain trust

Being dishonest is the surest way you'll fail, not only in generating income through web-based means, but also in building an audience. However, when consumers and the general public know that they can trust you, they'll take your recommendations to heart. They'll know that there are reasons beyond a mere quest for profits and dollars that are motivating you.

4. Connect with your audience.

One of the best ways to generate a stream of income online is to connect with your audience. To connect with them, you need to convey something about your life. Be transparent and allow that to help bridge the digital divide. What stories or lessons can you offer up that will allow you to connect on a large scale?

However, it's not just about connecting with them through blog posts or videos, you need to build a list and create what's called a sales funnel. Once someone is on your list and has landed in your funnel, you can communicate with them via email, which, by the way, is still the number one way that people make enormous amounts of sales. No, email marketing is not dead. Quite the opposite, in fact. It provides the ultimate avenue for building wealth online.

5. Collaborate and be social.

If you're serious about making it on the internet, you need to collaborate with others and be social. You can't simply expect others to come to you. You need to get out there, and join in on the conversation. Be social. Follow popular individuals in your niche, comment, share and like posts, and get that proverbial word out.

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Beyond that, you need to collaborate with others. Find other like-minded marketers or bloggers, and find ways that you can link up with them, engaging in collaborative efforts online. You won't gain traction overnight. But, as long as you adhere to this principle, over time, you'll command the respect and attention of others.

How to make money online.

Once you've comprehended and digested the principles behind succeeding online, you'll be on the road towards success. However, there are certain strategies that you should employ that will provide rock-solid growth and allow you to tap into multiple streams of income.

While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to make money online, there are only a select number of strategies that actually work, providing a platform for true growth. While you won't become a millionaire overnight, you can achieve financial freedom within a few short years as long as you don't give up.

If you're willing to put in the effort, and endure months and years of painful work where you receive little to no income, you'll ultimately find your path towards building significant wealth. You can travel the world, become a digital nomad, and do what you want, when you want and with whom you want to, anywhere you choose to.

However, keep in mind that there are two different strategies at play here. There's the long-term, passive-income strategy and the short-term, active-income strategy. I'm a big proponent of passive income, and if you're serious about making money online, then you need to implement one of the passive income strategies that will help you to produce major income.

The reason why passive income is so important is due to the tradeoff between time and money. Time is more valuable than money. Why would you work once and get paid once when you can work once and get paid repeatedly? Of course, you'll get paid nothing at the outset, so there is a major barrier of entry here, but passive income is surely the best long-term strategy for earning large sums of money over the internet.

1. Build a blog.

It's slow, and it's painful. But the absolute best way you can make millions of dollars online is to build a blog. It won't happen overnight. It won't happen in a year or two. It will take years. Unless you have an existing platform, you're a celebrity, or you have massive amounts of money you can spend to get influential people to help promote you and your brand, it's going to be a painful process.

However, to those who don't give up and decidedly stick it out, to the victor go the spoils. Not only does a blogging platform give you the tools to market just about anything, you can generate serious income from the traffic that filters in by implementing some basic email marketing principles.

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2. Sell services.

While a blog will help you to produce passive income over time, that likely won't help your immediate needs to generate some short-term cash. The best part about the internet is that there are literally countless ways that you can go about selling services along with a litany of sites that will help support your endeavors for doing just that.

Clearly, you need to go where the people are. We're talking about sites like Upwork, 99Designs, Fiverr and many more that will enable the thriving entrepreneurial spirit. Decide on what you want to sell, select the right platform to sell it, and put all your energy behind it. Don't expect overnight results, but it'll certainly be far quicker than any of the passive-income strategies that you could effectively employ.

3. Sell products.

Another way to make money online -- that should provide some immediate relief to your financial woes -- is to sell products. Build an Amazon FBA Business, setup an online store, or just sell products on a platform like Etsy, Shopify or any number of others that exist today.

Keep in mind that selling your products on any platform like this can provide a quick-to-market solution. But, you'll want to eventually build your own site and develop content for it so that you can untether your reliance for sales to some outside vendor.

4. Develop courses.

This is one of the best passive income sources for generating cash online. If you can build a great online course, you'll succeed. But don't expect to do the least amount of work for the largest initial return. More like the other way around. People can see the sincerity in your work, and if you don't actually care about helping others, you'll fail.

If you have a great skill such as SEO, social media marketing or web development, then build a course teaching that to others. Go all out doing it. Put hundreds or thousands of hours of effort behind it. It will pay off down the road. Just don't count on this being a quick source for income. Find a platform like Udemy or any other educational site, and build your course to sell it to others.

5. Write books and produce audiobooks.

One of my greatest passions in life is writing. It's one of the best ways to convey your thoughts and experiences to help others. I'm not talking about writing fiction -- I'm talking about writing non-fiction. If your prose packs a powerful punch, and your ideas are conveyed fluidly, you could make tremendous amounts of money through this strategy.

But, like other passive income ideas, this takes time. Money won't flow at first, but this is an easy way to develop a healthy mid-5-figure monthly income that's fully passive. Create an account on Amazon's KDP and publish your ebooks, use CreateSpace for on-demand print books and the ACX platfrom for audiobooks. There's a small learning curve, but it's well worth it.

6. Answer questions.

If you have some real knowledge in an advanced area or a highly-technical skill used in a field like medicine, law or IT, then you could certainly answer questions to make some fast cash. You won't get rich, but if you're incredibly knowledgeable, it could be a very simple avenue towards a valiant online income for you.

I'm not talking about sites like Quora or WiseLike; I'm talking about signing up to sites like JustAnswer. Create an account so you can begin fielding questions in your industry or niche. Do your best to answer them with meticulous detail, and you'll make a healthy active income without having to wait months or years for the money to start rolling in.

7. Provide virtual assistance.

Want to do work for others using a specific skill set that you might harbor? Maybe you'd make a great virtual assistant. Maybe you can write articles for blogs. Maybe you can do any number of other things to virtually assist those in need, such as tutoring for a language or teaching a musical instrument over Skype.

There are a number of resources and platforms that you can leverage to make money with this strategy. While you won't make millions, you can generate some healthy numbers in a short period. Plus, without having the worry of a commute or running from place to place for a job, you can focus on simply providing your virtual assistance and generating as much cash as possible from nearly anywhere in the world without ever leaving the comfort of your home.