If you're one of those people who have dreamed of making money online but thought you had to have your own website, keep reading. While having your own domain name and website has a lot of advantages, there are many ways to make money online without one and a lot of people are doing it.
First let me say that there is no way to "get rich quick", even though there are lots of sites on the net that will tell you there is if you only join their program. They usually follow that statement by asking for your credit card number. Don't waste your time or your money. The only way to make money online is to devote time and effort and the harder you work, the more money you will make. So, let's take a look at some of the methods of making money without having to pay for a website.
1. Get Paid To Probably the most common way people start making money on the internet is with paid to read email and paid to take survey programs. They require the least amount of effort and the least time to do. You won't get rich with either of these methods but if you're just looking to pick up an extra $10 or $20 per month, they're a simple way to do it and completely free to do. Don't fall for the sites that ask you for a fee to join paid survey sites. They are basically selling information that you can get for free. The reputable survey sites don't charge anything to join.
2. Affiliate Programs There are so many of these out on the internet that you can't help but stumble across them. Most are questionable whether you can actually make money with them or not. You'll have to take a close look at what they are selling and how you actually make money with the program. Don't just go by the slick sales page that promises you ultimate riches. They fall into the "get rich quick" schemes I mentioned earlier. A legitimate affiliate program will have real products and services at reasonable prices and they will let you join for free to sell them.
3. Blogging Are you a writer? Well really, for blogging all you have to be is a talker. If you've got a little of the gift of gab, you can blog. Sites like blogger.com let you have your own blog page for free and you can talk about almost any topic that interests you. Some people write about nothing more than their day to day activities. To have a successful blog though, you will need readers, so it must be good enough to hold people's interest and get them to come back again and again.
You can make money by signing up for Google Adsense or similar program that will place ads on your site and pay you every time one of your visitors clicks on one. There are also companies out there like Bloggerwave, PayPerPost and Money4blogs that will pay you for a blog post or link on your blog. How much you can make will depend on how popular your blog is.
4. Writing Articles A little different than blogging, writing articles will require a bit more formal writing style to be successful. Sites like Helium, Associated Content, Elance and others will pay for your well written article. Helium is a great site for beginners while Associated Content and Elance require a more polished and professional writing ability. Writing has great potential. Some people make their living writing on the internet.
5. Mini Websites Unlike a full blown website, mini sites are more of a "one page, one topic" type of thing. The best site I have found for this is Squidoo. Join for free and their site building wizard will walk you step by easy step through building your own web page or lens as they call it. They even show you how to monetize it with products from Amazon and others to put you on your way to making money. They also pay you a portion of Adsense revenue from your page. Once you learn how to do it, you'll be hooked and you can make as many lenses as you like. So go ahead, sign up and make that webpage about your pet that you always wanted to make.
6. Photography Calling all shutterbugs. You can now make money online with your pictures. Sites like shareapic.net, shutterstock.com and others will pay you for people viewing or downloading your photos, so if you have albums full of great pictures or want to make some money with that new digital camera, join up and start uploading. If photography has always been a hobby for you, now that hobby can make you some money.
7. Social Networking While Facebook and MySpace are the most popular social networking sites on the internet you can't make any money directly from them. You can however, use them to drive traffic to your mini site, article, or photos by posting links to them in your blog or message board there. Be careful not to spam though or they could terminate your account.
There is at least one social networking site that does pay you to use it. It's called Yuwie and they share a portion of their ad revenue with the members so you can make money and direct traffic to your other endeavors as well.
8. Auctions I don't think there's anybody that hasn't heard of ebay. It's probably the most popular auction site on the net but there are several others as well. You can sell your own products or set up your own online store selling other peoples products. You'll have to pay fees to the auction site but it's still a very inexpensive way to market products online and if you sell through "drop shippers" you won't even have to worry about stocking products, packaging or shipping. The drop shipper will ship directly to your buyer once you send them the payment and information. You can learn how to sell on ebay with tutorials right on their site or there are lots of ebooks out there about how to do it including information on suppliers and drop shippers.
Well, there are just a handful of the ways to make money online without having your own website. Give one or even several of them a try. Be careful though, participating in any of these activities could cause your bank account to grow.