The Four Principles of Making an Income Online

The internet has been steadily changing the way we work. Some people are happily employed as freelancers, but many are facing a tougher job market and have had to hustle their way to a paycheck. Thanks to increased access to information and a whole lot of hustle, you can too avoid going through the nine-to-five grind.

This is your guide for how to make an income online: the four principles that will help you create your own stable, profitable business in this new world of work. We're going to show you how anyone — from students with no experience or qualifications all the way up through lawyers and doctors — can make an online income on their own terms.

The principles in this guide are simple enough to follow, but they each take some work. The skills, tactics and mindset you build along the way will help you stay focused and get results. And if those results get you excited about creating your own income stream online, then keep reading — we'll show you exactly how to do that in the next article.

How to Make an Income Online Principle #1: Provide Unique Value That No One Else Can Provide or Compete Against

The easiest way to start making an income online is by providing unique value that people are willing to pay for. The difference between providing value and just selling a product is enormous. Selling is easy: it's asking someone for money.

Providing value is much harder: it involves persuading someone that your work is worth paying for. That can take some doing. It means you need to provide real value — something people use and enjoy, whether that's a piece of information or a quality product. What people will pay for is what they perceive as having the most value to them personally.

You can get people to pay attention to you and your ideas by providing the kind of quality content they actually find useful, like an in-depth video course, a detailed article or research on a topic they're interested in. You can also use techniques like guest posting to test and refine your ideas with other people in the blogosphere before you launch them for real.

Start with a goal, work hard to reach it and then improve your earning potential as you go.

How to Make an Income Online Principle #2: Leverage Every Tool Available to Build a Solid Base of Passive Income Streams

Once you've found what your unique value is and found a way to get attention for that value, it's time to take advantage of every tool available. Passive income streams are the easiest, because they give you the most flexibility. Once you have a stable of passive income sources, you can adjust your hustle and your work around the hours you have available.

You need to build up a portfolio of passive income streams if you want to work on your own terms. That means starting with things like:

· A book where you own the copyright and royalties for every sale. If this is nonfiction, find an audience that is willing to pay for information and tutorials on the topic they're interested in. You can also use a blog as a way to test out these ideas, collect useful info and then sell it later as a book. Use a service like Draft2Digital to turn your blog into a book.

· An online course that you create and sell on platforms like Udemy. You can use this to test out new skills and ideas before creating a full-blown book about it.

· A webinar you record that teaches your skills to anyone who's willing to pay for access (don't forget your free webinar plan). Your website, blog or social media can be used as an easy way for people to follow along with the webinar. This is also the best way to get some quick cash in the bank.

Conclusion

So there you have it: two clear, actionable ways to make an income online that won't leave you with the feeling of being overwhelmed. You can start earning money today — but it's going to take work on your part. But the rewards are worth it if you're lucky enough to find something that will help you enjoy what you do and earn a side income for doing it. And there's plenty more to read here in this series…

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This article first appeared on Medium and has been republished here with permission. Copyright 2015 by Will Mackay. All rights reserved by author.