How to make money online in South Africa

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In South Africa anybody can work from home in an online internet business as can be done from anywhere else in the world, however how to receive money in south Africa is restricted. How does one make money on the internet?

The ability to make money online is not much different to conventional business. Business management principles apply and there needs to be a significant planning and market research. An online business should not be confused with strategies of monetising a website. An existing business selling a tangible product can easily be integrated with online solutions.

Other methods of online marketing are often hyped up by overstating the earning potential and are often marketed on the internet as get rich quick schemes. The most common online business schemes are recruitment schemes, which involve recruiting, enlisting or selling to others.

The money making potential of such schemes rely on the reach of the recruit and as such in most cases the only person who makes any significant amount of money is the principal of the scheme. These schemes are typically recruitment schemes such as pyramids, ponzis and mlms.

Other methods of earning money from a website is reliant on how many people come to a website and what they do once they are on the website or blog. There are many learning resources on the internet of list builing, traffic generation and Search Engine Optimisation. These methods determine the number of visitors to a site and it may only be a small percentage of these visitors that will engage the site in such a way that can earn the author any money.

There are three major methods by which people can make money on the internet without selling a tangible product. These monetising methods are broadly categorised as Pay per Click, Pay per Action and Pay per Sale. These are methods that can be applied on a website where the site user's actions convert to the site owner being paid. The only way to earn lots of money like this is to get lots of traffic to your website. The best way to gain a high number of visitors to your site is to post original, engaging content of a high quality.

Google AdWords is a system that is used to drive traffic to an online destination at a cost. The converse to this system is Google AdSense. This is one example of a Pay per Click (PPC) system. A website owner must apply to Google for such an AdSense account and then await approval. Upon success Google will provide various options and allocate the applicable html code to insert into a web page. The web page owner will then set aside a space on the web page, where these links may appear.

Google then inserts search links, as sponsored by somebody else’s AdWords campaign, into the web page. These links are selected by Google based on the relevance to site content. The web-page owner gets paid, whenever somebody clicks on these links, regardless of any further action taken by the site owner.

A Pay per Action system (PPA), sometimes known as a Pay per Lead, is where a link, banner or add is clicked on, prompting the visitor to do something. This could be in the form of filling out a questionnaire, requesting a quote, opting for a free product etc. The web site owner will get paid upon the visitor’s completion of the action, not simply the click. Thus if the visitor clicks out, no money will be paid.

Lastly Pay per Sale (PPS) will only result in payment once a sale is made i.e. the visitor buys something from the website. This sale could be a product that the website owner sells on his own behalf or somebody else’s wares, which were advertised on the site. The method where one sells another person’s products on the internet is called Affiliate Marketing.

There is a vast amount of affiliate programs on the internet selling almost anything imaginable. In some instances there are affiliate marketing networks, handling a great amount of products, available for promotion by the general public. There is also the option of adding one’s own product to the pool, allowing others to market it on the producer’s behalf.

These are all income streams marketed or presented to internet users as ways to make money online. These home business opportunities are however very competetive especially in more developed countries and great care must be taken not to fall victim to internet hype.

Internet marketers often sell the concept of how to make money easily and earn extra cash from home by employing the above tactics. These are sometimes cloaked as something new and foolproof, whereas the only way to make a significant amount of money is by receiving a substantial amount of internet traffic.

Another reality is that even once your site gets hordes of traffic there is still no guarantee that anybody will click or engage in the banners or links on your blog or website and in this event no income will be generated.

Another obstacle is receiving money from overseas. PayPal imposes restrictions to many countries that South africans should be aware of and receiving cheques from overseas is sometimes the only alternative.

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