A good way to start with your online presence, is to create one or more blogs on topics of your interest. This strategy is useful for a newbie, as it requires minimum technical knowledge and almost no cost at all. There are a lot of websites like Blogger and WordPress that host blogs with a free account.
Another choice is to host a blog under a specific domain name. This option has certain advantages and disadvantages. It requires minimum expenses for the hosting account, but gives freedom of choice for the topic, layout and content of the blog.
Affiliate Marketing
There are a lot of products, markets and services that need to be promoted by the countless sites and blogs throughout the internet. Amazon and eBay are two of the most popular marketplaces that have active affiliate programs recruiting new affiliates constantly. Clickbank is another good option mostly for e-book promotion. There are also affiliate marketplaces like Commission Junction, where a blogger or site owner can participate in hundreds of affiliate programs.
CPC or CPM Advertising
CPC (cost per click) and CPM (cost per mille) are two popular types of online advertising. The first pays when a visitor clicks on the ad and the amount is in the range of a few cents to a few dollars. The second type pays a specific amount for every 1,000 impressions. This can be a real profitable type of advertising, if the blog constantly receives high traffic. Google Adsense is the most popular advertising program of this kind at the moment.
Paid-to-Post Reviews or Comments
Many marketers and business owners are willing to pay upfront payments for a review of their products or services. The paying rate can reach higher values if the blog is really popular and has a high page rank in Google.
Sell your Blog
After having written a lot of good and unique content, the blog will start receiving traffic and eventually receive a high rank in Google as well. This is a good time for the owner to sell the blog to potential buyers in forums. The price of the blog depends on the traffic, the number of backlinks and a series of other factors.
Donation Button
A simple step to add an extra income source is the blog is a donation button. Visitors that are satisfied with the good quality content, are very likely to donate a few dollars as a contribution. These visitors are most likely to revisit the site as well, in order to benefit again from the top quality information provided.
The profit sources described above depend on the traffic and page rank of the blog. These attributes are hard to obtain. They need time investment and patience, but the rewards can really be huge.