As technology destroys jobs, it creates new ones and new opportunities.
In the previous post, I talked about the boom in the e-learning industry, while traditional educational institutions have to re-look at themselves and prepare to retool for the future.
It is now much easier for anyone with useful and employable knowledge and skills to share them via an online video course – and make a decent living at it.
In the wake of the demise of physical bookstores, it has never been easier to self-publish your own e-books.
And as physical retail mega-stores begin to downsize or shutdown, the man on the street, or a stay at home mom, can start an ecommerce shopfront at a fraction of the startup cost of a traditional retail store.
If you are a freelancer, you can also offer your services globally via sites like Fiverr.com.
The Rise Of Online Advertising
In the past, a daily morning commute looks like this…
Today, its…
Some things don’t change!
So now advertising money is flowing from print media (e.g. newspapers) to our mobile devices!
That’s why the Facebooks of this world will continue to grow.
And the little guy can get a piece of the action in advertising revenues too.
Anyone with a website can place ads in it and earn an income if they know how.
In 2005, Jeremy Schoemaker shocked the world by earning USD$132,000+ through online advertising. He made that money shortly after filing for unemployment in that same year. That was his advertising revenue from his website earned with Google Adsense. The cost of his website was much less than 10% of what he earned from Google.
Of course not all of us have the same skill, foresight and perhaps good fortune of Jeremy Schoemaker, but the opportunities are there to make a decent living.
Riding on the online advertising wave is the growing affiliate marketing industry. An affiliate marketer does more than just post ads. He actively promotes and sells other people’s products and services online….and receives a commission for it. The affiliate marketer does not need to handle product creation, payment processing or shipping and handling.
Are these the only possibilities of making a living online? I doubt so. Even as you are reading this, new and profitable opportunities continue to surface.
And you need not restrict yourself to just one source of income – why not create multiple online sources of income!
Where Do I Start To Capitalize On Such Opportunities?
But there is something that anyone who wants to earn a living online must consider doing – set up a website. Of course you could make money just with Youtube; or selling your video course on Skillshare; or publish and sell your eBook on Amazon Kindle store. But I think setting up your own website is a basic life skill we should learn like driving a car or swimming. At the very least, you will want your children learn this skill.
But who and where do I get help in learning and setting up a website?
I have good news – I found a website that teaches you how to setup your own website. It provides hosting for one or even two of your own websites. It gives you a personal blog which can be a very useful marketing tool and offers a community that can help you in your journey. All for free!
Its a great way to start learning how to build your website.
I wish I had found this service earlier. It would have eased my pain of building my website. Plus my website (i.e. www.hedgehogconsulting.com) costs around USD$30 per month to maintain if you count the domain name, hosting and firewall protection etc. This service charges around that amount but offers more. Much more!
To find out more about this service click here.
See you in the next post!