How to Earn Money Online Without Selling Anything At All

Earning online from the safety of home is your dream. But you don’t have any product ideas, right? So, today’s post is all about how to earn money online without selling anything. Yes, it is possible even though I know it sounds strange. In fact, tens of thousands of people just like you are making a good living on the Internet without actually selling a thing.

So, how is that possible?

There are two tried and true methods you can implement. Furthermore, you can use both methods in tandem to achieve an even bigger impact. Be aware that both approaches require a website.

I hope that doesn’t scare anyone off. Once upon a time, you needed some techie skills to create a website. But that hasn’t been true for a long time now. Absolutely anyone can create a stunning website today at a very affordable cost.

Read on to see how you can become an online entrepreneur without having to worry about inventory or deal directly with any customers.

How to Earn Money Online Without Selling Anything – 2 Viable Options

There are two extremely common ways of making money online without having to sell any products yourself. If you spend any time at all browsing the Internet, you have undoubtedly come across both of these methods.

The two brilliant approaches we’ll talk about today are:

With a worldwide audience of some 4 billion Internet users, both of these methods have the potential to be highly lucrative. Additionally, they are cost-effective business models because you don’t have to purchase or store inventory, incur shipping costs, or hire employees to perform customer service.

These are not overnight rags-to-riches schemes. Rather, they are proven techniques that you can use to grow a substantial income over time. Both of these online money-making approaches require work and persistence. Making money with a website requires patience primarily because you need traffic first.

But here’s the great part…

You can begin these activities as a side hustle and advance at your own speed. Many folks start out part-time and spend a few hours a week as their schedule permits—work from anywhere, or at any time, at a pace of your choosing. From my perspective, this represents the ultimate in flexibility.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an enormous industry that continues to skyrocket in 2020. I think the secret behind the success of this business model is the win-win-win scenario. All three parties to an affiliate marketing transaction (vendors, affiliates, and consumers) experience benefits.

As an affiliate marketer, you promote the products of other organizations rather than selling your own goods. Your contribution to the process is creating informative content or helpful product reviews that meet the needs of your readers. The best part is having absolute control over which products you promote.

There are something like 500 million products that you can potentially choose to promote as an affiliate. Any niche market will work as the focus of your blog. Pursue your passion, whatever that may be, and turn that passionate interest into a profitable venture.

Affiliates form partnerships with merchants, often called advertisers, and promote their products in exchange for a commission. Some vendors like Amazon, administer their own affiliate programs. Other companies use affiliate networks like FlexOffers or Share-A-Sale.

Affiliate programs are always free to join. You will receive links to embed on your website. When one of your readers follows the link to a merchant’s site and completes a purchase, you get paid.  It’s a brilliantly simple model that works well in an era when droves of consumers prefer to shop online.

Here’s an image that depicts the process well:

Make Money With Affiliate Marketing Without Selling Anything

The excitement and delight when you earn your first commission are indescribable. That’s the moment when you know for sure that the affiliate marketing process works. From there, it’s just a process of scaling and repetition.

You can focus all of your efforts on one website or create sites in multiple niches. It’s all up to you because you’re the boss!

Affiliate Program Examples

Do you love this idea but find yourself struggling with a niche direction or product options? Here are a few possibilities to chew on and get your creative juices flowing:

The sky’s the limit. Imagine your success and make it happen! Here’s a previous article I wrote on affiliate marketing that goes into more depth.

Digital Display Advertising (Display Ads)

Display ads are the different size blocks of advertisements that you see as you read website content. They may be graphic images or videos that are shown at the top, bottom, or in the sidebar of a web page. Ads may also be embedded in the middle of content between article sections or paragraphs.

Sample Display Ads - CNN Website

You no doubt come across thousands of ads as you browse the Internet. Every time you either view or click on an ad, the blogger who wrote the post you’re reading earns a few cents. That doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t for a new site with minimal traffic.

But as your blog grows and the number of viewers increases, so too does your ad revenue. Many bloggers generate $1,000s in ad revenue each month.

There are several dozen ad networks to choose from, but some may not be an option for new bloggers. You need to review conditions because some networks have minimum traffic requirements.

Google Adsense is the best-known and most popular advertising network. Part of the allure is that it’s free and involves the following super easy steps:

  • Apply to join (sign up form takes less than 5 minutes to complete)
  • Place a small snippet of code in the header section of your website
  • Wait for approval (could take up to 2 weeks)
  • Google automatically supplies ads that are relevant to your content

Ad revenue can become a nice income stream. However, one critical consideration is that you not overdo it. First and foremost, you want your readers to have a positive user experience. Too many ads can be very distracting and may be off-putting for your viewers.

Traffic Is Key to Making Money With Your Website

Whether you choose to monetize your website using affiliate marketing, display ads, or both methodologies at once, your starting point has to be attracting and engaging a target audience. A traffic producing website can make money even if you don’t actually sell anything at all.

Growing your traffic is a challenging and time-consuming part of making money with your blog. Firstly, You need to research the needs of your target audience. Secondly, you must craft quality content that focuses on thoroughly meeting their needs for information,

But even exceptional content is not enough if you don’t understand how to optimize your posts for the search engines. The good news is that none of these tasks are difficult if you get the right training.

Fortunately, I found a premier affiliate marketing training platform with all of the training and resources I needed for success. I was able to get started for free, and you can do that as well. Learn the secrets to success!

Final Thoughts

I hope I was able to satisfy your curiosity regarding how to earn money online without selling anything. Affiliate marketing and display ads are two exceptional approaches to making money with a website. Don’t let the fact that you don’t have a product idea of your own hold you back.

The possible topics for a niche affiliate marketing website are endless. And, there are millions of fabulous products that you can opt to promote.  Placing display ads on your website can also be a reliable approach to generating passive income.

Join the Conversation

Do you have any experience with either affiliate marketing or display ads? If you haven’t launched your website yet, what’s holding you back? Share your thoughts and concerns in the comment section below!

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2 thoughts on “How to Earn Money Online Without Selling Anything At All”

  1. I enjoyed reading this content which is crystal clear explaining details of making money online through affiliate marketing and digital advertising.

    With more than 4 billion shoppers and constantly growing your niche whatever you may choose will be profitable. The key is to write helpful content and product on a website of your own.

    The website takes -30 seconds to build with no need of your technical knowledge. With a wide range of affiliate programs available anyone who is dedicated can have a piece of the pie.

    Wealthy Affiliate offers training and many people have been successful. It is your chance now.

    Reply
    • Hi Anusuya,
      I’m pleased to see you’ve done some investigating of what Wealthy Affiliate has to offer. I hope you enjoy the platform as much as I do. I couldn’t agree more that anyone can be successful at affiliate marketing if they’re willing to commit and work at it.

      Good luck and thanks for commenting!

      Reply

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