Helpful Extra Income In The Economic Downturn

With more and more people out of jobs every day, the very basic question "How to earn more money" just becomes so important to many people. To make more money, of course, the first thing we have in mind would be to get a job and work over-time. But as I just mentioned, it's not easy, or even possible, to get a good job that allows you to work overtime. At this time all companies have to cut their payroll. So the first thing they do is to eliminate overtime, which is usually paid with higher rates. Therefore, it's not an option.

So how can you make money for a living? Or perhaps, if you're still having a day job, to earn some extra income to pay off your debt or improve your savings? The best answer is to get creative using the Internet. More specifically, every single day billions of dollars have been exchanged online with a wide spectrum of business activities. And in the process millions of people make a living out of this lucrative medium. If you can be one of those "Internet earners," that will solve your money problems, especially if you're unemployed.

I'm sure you have heard of success stories about sellers using eBay, Craiglist, Amazon or any other online market place. The concepts are simple, yet the devil is in the details. The basic challenge to this model of business is how to get products in high demand, but at prices low enough to make a profit at retail. On top of that, like every other business activities, how you can compete with others in the same business field and still make a reasonable profit. If you can beat these two challenges, the rest are not worth mentioned.

Another business model is about digital products like software or information. Unlike tangible goods that need extra work and cost to handle, digital products can be easily transferred between sellers and buyers, either via instant download or a portable storage such as CD's, DVD's or flash drives. If you think digital products are trivial compared to tangible, that's not true. Think of Microsoft or Oracle, they made billions of dollars out of software alone. Yet, digital products are not limited to software. They can be valuable information in forms of books or educational materials that are widely changed hands online.

Think you can't own and sell products? Think again. Contrary to common belief about the cost of owning a business, an online business can be incredibly cheap to begin with. It costs from less than $100 to own resale rights to certain digital products that you can keep selling without running out of inventory. As for the cost of advertising, you can use many cost-free methods to promote your business (usually a website).

If you don't like the pressure of selling your own products, the affiliate marketing model will solve your problem. There are basically millions of merchants out there that are willing to share a piece of profit with you for promoting their products. Yes, that's the simple concept. The details on how to succeed would be a whole long course of education. But think about it, with some creativity and extra work, you can reap the considerable benefits the Internet can offer for your efforts.
About Rudy Freeman
Rudy is currently managing LCD Ventures, a web portal to distribute digital products to end-users and re-sellers alike. Article from:http://www.articlecodex.com