The niche is full of dirty scammers and scummy individuals.
It’s not that you can’t make money in this niche. Even though it’s saturated, people still need to know how to make money with some new platforms like TikTok. People still are hungry to learn about Pinterest.
But you are walking into a minefield if you plan to try to break in selling information about affiliate marketing, niche blogs with AdSense, YouTube, selling eBooks, or hawking courses. The fact is that every possible aspect of these topics has been covered, for free, both on YouTube and on thousands of blogs around the internet.
That doesn’t stop people from trying to break in though. The thing is, you can still make money selling common knowledge if you don’t have any scruples. A lot of scammers will just try to repackage old information by labeling it “New!” or “Secret!” They say they have the formula to make passive millions overnight when all they do is just read the free information available and spin it differently.
The sad fact is that many people come searching the internet to make money fast, and there are plenty of people out there who will make courses and eBooks that exploit the need for people to skip the hard work and go to the money part.
Often, they will lure us suckers in with promises of free information, get our email addresses, and then try to trap us in one of their marketing funnels that we won’t see our way out of until we break out the credit card.
$999 later, and you have bought their worthless course on how to make money online when you could have just watched a few YouTube videos.
Do yourself a favor — unless you really have new information on how to make money online that no one has ever covered before, stay out of this niche. Dirty and scammy things happen there, and I want your online experience to be better than that.
If you have fallen into the bad part of the internet, looking for information on affiliate marketing, ads, memberships, blogging, courses, or eBooks, let me save you some trouble and share with you a few worthwhile resources where you can find out all the information you will ever need.
Affiliate Marketing — Digital Marketing 🔗
- Neil Patel — Neil is my go-to guy when I need information on anything digital marketing related. Go through his blog and pick out the gems, like “What is Affiliate Marketing (and How to Get Started).” Watch out for his pop-ups and popovers. Neil does have stuff to sell, but if you must buy a course and SEO software, buy it from him, and don’t get cheated,
- Pat Flynn — I’ve followed Pat for years, and not only does he have some great resources on Affiliate Marketing, but he covers other topics like podcasting and membership sites. Pat also has stuff to sell, but he is totally not scammy so if you must buy a course, buy it from him.
Blogging — Writing Online 🔗
- CopyBlogger — The articles on CopyBlogger are GOLD and go back many years. This site is for bloggers and online writers and there are topics from headlines to SEO. They do offer writing certifications which are quite expensive. I know people who have become certified, and they said it was worth it, but I feel like the same education could be had if you read a few books and practice.
- Darren Rowse at ProBlogger — Now this is a resource! Anything you ever wanted to know about blogging and writing online can be found here. There is even a marketplace for freelancers to find jobs. There is stuff for sale it, but if you spend money on anything, spend it with Darren. You won’t be sorry.
Courses, Memberships, eBooks 🔗
- Mighty Networks — Not only is this a great place to learn about how to build courses, memberships, and eBooks, but it is a great platform to host all three.
- Wix.com — Wix will teach you how to build an online course and show you how to host it with them. A great resource.
- Udemy and Skillshare — I use both all the time, because you can find fantastic courses for some things as low as $8. Just make sure you read the reviews for each course and buy accordingly.
Be Smart 🔗
Anything you want to learn online about making money can be found for free. There is no need to spend thousands for a course when there are YouTube videos and blogs full of content that is there for free. Sure, maybe you have to watch a few ads or sign up for an email list. Everything you need to make money is already online for free or mostly free.
I ask two things of you:
- If you break into the make money online niche, make sure you really have new information to share. We already have to many scammy and scummy people sharing common knowledge and making loads of money off people who don’t want to have to look for the knowledge needed or work for it.
- If you want to learn how to make money online, check out the resources above before you go off to some dark corner of the internet and drop your credit card number for information that is freely available on YouTube. Don’t waste thousands learning what you can get for free.
Finally, while there are some courses out there worth the money, be wary of something that costs more than you make in a month and would seriously hurt your credit limit. Remember, YouTube is your friend, along with the resources above.
Don’t be a sucker. Be smart.
BONUS 🔗
Secret and “proprietary” formula to “making money online” is:
- Pick a niche (I prefer to find a problem to solve and come up with a solution).
- Research the niche and find keywords to focus your content on.
- Write content (the longer, the better).
- Build a blog with WordPress or other easy to use software.
- Become an authority on your niche.
- Post on social media.
- Build traffic and an email list.
- Create a course (I am not a big fan of courses. People don’t finish them, and they are overpriced for what they offer. I think they are a scam, I prefer affiliate marketing, sponsorships, subscriptions, and even ads if you must. I hate ads, but I hate bullshit courses worse) and sell the course to your readers and email list.
- Sell your course (affiliate offers, subscriptions) with content marketing.
- Rinse and repeat.
People like to say that all this is passive, but there is nothing passive about blogging or making money online. It is a lot of work and there is luck involved. Being in the right place at the right time is the reason that many of the outliers who make thousands can make that much money.
Many of these scam bloggers will try to sell you on niches that are guaranteed, but the fact is that most niches are over-saturated, and you are unlikely to make any money. Many of the bloggers making thousands got there because they filled a need when no one else was doing it, which is a great way to step into the million-dollar club.
If you find a niche that is new, or under-saturated, you can make money, unless you are breaking into the “making money online” niche, because if you are smart with no scruples, you can trick suckers into believing that your system will make them millions of dollars passively with no work involved — whether it is or not.
There is a sucker born every minute. I should know, I used to be a huge one.
None of these influencers or gurus have anything new to offer. They are taking the same information we all know and packaging it in a pretty bow so it looks new and groundbreaking.
By all means, read the free information on their blogs, and even pay monthly to subscribe to them, but nothing they have is worth $999 or more. I wouldn’t even pay $49.
All you are doing is padding their income reports so they can scam more people into buying their courses.
With that said, that doesn’t mean blogging can’t be one of your income streams. That doesn’t mean you can’t make $5k with affiliate marketing a month. That doesn’t mean you cannot make a living blogging. Just know that very few people ever get rich doing it passively, and no one will teach you to get rich doing it.
Even for $999.
