When I first ventured into digital marketing, I had no idea how many opportunities existed to make money online. For those who may not know me, my journey began simply as a way to increase revenue for the business I was in. What I didn't realize at the time was how transformative this path would be for both my career and my family's future.
If you're here, chances are you're looking for ways to change your income, and I'm going to share the key strategies that can help you do just that.
Over the past 25 years in online marketing, I've identified five main ways — what I call "buckets" — to generate income online. Whether you're looking to earn extra money on the side or scale an existing business into a revenue powerhouse, your money-making approach will fall into one of these five categories.
Understanding these buckets is crucial because it gives you clarity on your earning potential based on the one you choose. Many successful websites tap into multiple buckets over time, but when you're starting out, it's best to focus on just one.
The most successful people in digital marketing understand that, in the beginning, all your energy and effort should be directed toward mastering one area. Your most valuable resource is your time, so stay focused on your chosen bucket until you gain momentum and start seeing results.
The 5 Buckets:
Creating your own product is an exciting and rewarding path, but it comes with its own set of challenges and responsibilities that many beginners or even established businesses may not initially consider.
When you develop your own product, everything falls on you — customer support, returns, shipping issues, legal concerns, product development, and ongoing improvements. Managing all of this can be overwhelming, but there's no denying that owning your product provides the highest profit potential compared to any other business model.
The greatest advantage of having your own product is control. You decide the pricing, distribution, and sales strategy. You can choose to sell directly to customers or allow resellers to market it for you. The power is entirely in your hands.
If you create a product with broad appeal and high demand, the financial rewards can be immense. Take the iPhone, for example — Apple dominates the mobile phone market, generating over $380 billion in annual revenue. Their success lies in creating a "sticky" product — something people repeatedly buy and integrate into their lives. If you develop a product with similar staying power, the potential for profit is enormous.
Of course, Apple is a corporate giant, but even smaller businesses can achieve significant success by tapping into a niche demand. The key question is: How many people will want what you've created?
Launching a product is challenging, but every customer who wants it will send money your way. And while we often think of physical products, this category also includes digital downloads, subscription services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and many other digital offerings.
The variety of products you can create is endless, but this discussion is not about product ideas — it's about understanding ways to make money online.
Many businesses start in one of the other four income buckets before realizing that creating their own product is the best way to multiply their revenue ten or even twenty times. Owning a product means keeping the full profit margin rather than earning just a small percentage from selling someone else's creation. If you want complete control over your income potential, this is the ultimate path to scalability and success.
Co-branded products share many similarities with creating your own product. The key difference is that, instead of inventing and manufacturing the product yourself, you're branding an existing product as your own.
Because you're representing the product under your name, you also assume many of the same responsibilities as if you had created it — customer support, quality assurance, legal compliance, and more.
One major risk in co-branding is unknowingly selling a knockoff product. There have been cases where individuals imported products from overseas, only to later discover they were unauthorized replicas of patented items. After selling millions of dollars worth of these products, they were sued for all their profits. This is a nightmare scenario that no one wants to face.
That's why it's crucial to verify product ownership before co-branding. Many manufacturers may claim to have created a product, but you must conduct thorough research to confirm intellectual property rights. Double-check everything to ensure you're legally allowed to put your name on the product.
Once you've confirmed the legitimacy of a product, co-branding can be extremely profitable — just like having your own product. The main distinction is whether you invented it or someone else is granting you the rights to brand it as your own.
However, most manufacturers will not offer you an exclusive deal. They typically want as many resellers as possible, which means competition will inevitably arise. When multiple sellers put their names on the same product, it often becomes a race to the lowest price, reducing profit margins over time.
This is one of the biggest drawbacks of co-branding. If you can't secure an exclusive deal with the manufacturer, you may eventually need to find new products to maintain your desired profit margins.
On the other hand, if you invent the product yourself, you won't have to worry about competing co-branders. Instead, your challenge will be protecting your patented product from knockoff manufacturers. And ironically, the person unknowingly co-branding a counterfeit version of your product might soon face legal trouble themselves.
Co-branding can be highly lucrative, but due diligence is key. Always verify ownership and rights before attaching your name to a product.
Drop shipping has become a hot topic in e-commerce, and for a good reason. It allows entrepreneurs to sell products without having to invest in large amounts of inventory upfront. But what exactly is drop shipping?
At its core, drop shipping is a business model where a third-party supplier stocks and ships products on behalf of a seller. The seller markets and sells the product, while the supplier handles order fulfillment. The end customer often has no idea that the product wasn't shipped directly from the seller. If any issues arise, the seller is responsible for resolving them with the supplier.
The Profitability Challenge
One major hurdle with drop shipping is the multiple layers of pricing. Since suppliers must factor in their own profit margin, and sellers need to add their markup, the final price often becomes uncompetitive.
For example, let's say a product costs $65 on a platform like AliExpress. If Amazon sellers are offering the same item for $75, that's only a 13% margin before factoring in advertising, transaction fees, and customer service costs. Most businesses need at least a 25–30% margin to be sustainable.
Additionally, importing small quantities of products from overseas can be costly. High shipping fees often make it difficult to compete unless you're able to order in bulk.
How to Make Drop Shipping Work
While traditional drop shipping can be challenging, there are ways to make it profitable:
Drop shipping can be an excellent way to start an online business, but success depends on sourcing the right products at the right price. If you focus on direct manufacturer partnerships and avoid unnecessary middlemen, your drop shipping business has a much higher chance of thriving.
Affiliate marketing is the ideal choice if you want a completely hands-off approach to making money online. It provides an easy way to monetize a website with good content and targeted traffic. So, what exactly is affiliate marketing?
Every company that creates a product is constantly looking for new ways to reach buyers. Affiliate marketing allows businesses to expand their reach by offering commissions to individuals who drive traffic and generate sales.
Affiliate Links and Image Ads
Most affiliate programs use either text links or image ads. For instance, if you have a website reviewing home office desks, you might include affiliate links within your content. These links contain unique tracking parameters that credit the sale to you.
Example of an Affiliate Link:
https://www.robcuppett.com/product.html?affiliate-id=12345
Here, the parameter “affiliate-id=12345” helps the company track the referral and assign the commission accordingly.
Affiliate Cookies
Most companies set cookies on a visitor's computer, ensuring that if they return within a specified timeframe (usually 30 days), the affiliate still receives credit for the sale.
Affiliate Networks
Some businesses use affiliate networks as intermediaries. While networks ensure fair payments, they also take a cut of the commission. Going direct can often result in better payouts.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
With CPL, you earn commissions when visitors fill out a form for more information or request a quote. High-quality leads can yield higher payouts, and as trust is built, companies may allow you to host and submit lead forms directly.
Pay Per Call
This method provides a unique phone number for each affiliate. Commissions are earned for every valid call, making it a lucrative option if your audience has a strong intent to buy.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
PPC affiliate programs pay for each visitor referred to an advertiser. However, fraudulent clicks can result in removal from the program.
Challenges of Affiliate Marketing
Although it's a passive income stream, ranking high for commercial intent keywords in search engines is challenging. Informational keywords are easier to rank for but may not drive immediate sales.
Before diving into affiliate marketing, ensure you understand SEO and the level of effort required to attract high-intent traffic.
Ads are everywhere on the internet, appearing across countless websites. Like many monetization methods, ads can be utilized in different ways to generate revenue.
Google and Ad Revenue
Google is one of the largest revenue-generating companies in the world, with most of its income coming from ad revenue. When users perform searches, they see various types of ads, such as text ads, shopping ads, and image ads. Companies pay Google to display these ads, increasing their visibility to potential customers.
Google ads tend to be more expensive than other platforms because they offer the highest conversion rates. The intent behind search traffic is stronger compared to other ad sources, making Google Ads highly desirable for advertisers.
Comparing Ad Platforms
Let's compare two of the biggest ad platforms:
Which traffic would you prefer? Visitors who are actively searching for something, or those who clicked an ad while casually browsing? Search-based traffic, like Google's, usually has a higher conversion rate. That's why some competitive keywords on Facebook cost $1.00 per click, while the same keywords on Google could cost $12.00 per click.
Making Money with Ads
Most website owners make money by displaying ads rather than selling them. Platforms like Google AdSense allow website owners to monetize their content by running ads.
When to Use Ads for Monetization
Large websites with significant traffic often run ads on informational content that lacks commercial intent. These pages might include news articles, definitions, or general information, making it difficult to monetize through direct sales or affiliate marketing. In such cases, ads can provide a way to earn revenue from content that would otherwise generate little to no income.
Ad Exchanges
Ad exchanges become beneficial for websites that attract more than 100,000 visitors per month. Before reaching this threshold, ad exchanges may not provide much value, as advertisers prioritize high-traffic sites.
Ad exchanges work by allowing advertisers to bid for ad space on your site. Once your site gains traction, CPM (cost per thousand impressions) payouts can increase from $2-$3 to as much as $15-$20, depending on the intent and category of your content.
CPM stands for Cost Per Mille, where "Mille" means 1,000. So, when we say CPM, it means that for every 1,000 impressions of ads, affiliate links, or similar, you are paid a certain amount. In simple terms, CPM is the core metric used to determine how much money you can make with any site or content page.
Every penny earned on a site is calculated based on CPMs, especially when your goal is to maximize earnings. This applies no matter what category or "bucket" you're in. CPM will show whether you're optimizing the revenue from your content or if there are opportunities for improvement.
Keep in mind that while you're calculating CPMs as a site owner, many companies are focused on calculating their acquisition costs. They monitor how much they need to pay you for each sale. If their profit doesn't meet the target they're aiming for, they may lower your payout. On the other hand, if they are exceeding their target, you might want to negotiate for a higher payout. Understanding the intent and quality of your traffic will help you know when to ask for a larger commission.
We have covered a lot in this post, providing a high-level overview of how to make money online. Now, let's dive into how to calculate what that means for you, depending on the “bucket” or niche you choose.
Once you understand this formula, you can apply it to any topic and estimate what the potential payout could be if you pursued it.
Here's the Formula:
((Traffic * Click Through Rate) * Conversion Rate) * Payout
Let's assume the following numbers:
Now, Let's Plug in the Numbers:
Using the formula, it looks like this:
((1000 * 40%) * 5%) * $20.00 = $400
So, with these numbers, this deal would generate a $400 CPM. If your site gets 1,000 visitors (1 CPM), your potential earnings would be $400. If your traffic doubles to 2,000 visitors, your earnings potential would increase to:
2 CPMs * $400 = $800 per month
As your site traffic grows, your earnings potential grows along with it. However, if you start ranking for more informational search terms, your CPM may decrease because the searcher intent to buy is lower with this traffic. If your searcher intent improves, your CPM payout will likely increase.
Putting This into Perspective
For comparison, most text ads pay a CPM of about $2 to $3. With text ads, you need a lot of traffic to earn significant money. However, this $2-$3 CPM can increase if enough traffic comes to your site, attracting bids from ad exchanges.
The $400 CPM in our example would be more relevant for product sales with a high conversion rate of 5%. Popular brands often have higher conversion rates because buyers are familiar with them. If a popular brand offers a similar payout to a smaller brand, you might choose the popular brand, hoping for a better conversion rate.
Choosing a Niche You Know
If you don't have a site yet and are trying to figure out what niche to target, calculate these numbers for products within topics you are knowledgeable about. Visitors can easily spot poor content and tell when someone doesn't really understand the subject.
Take yourself as an example. If you've made it this far in reading, it's clear that I know what I'm talking about. All the extra details and statistics show knowledge and experience. Someone unfamiliar with digital marketing wouldn't be able to provide this level of insight. We've all encountered content that lacked substance and could tell it wasn't written by an expert.
If you have to study the topic because you're unfamiliar with it, readers will notice. Pick a topic that you know well. Understand the niche you're in, and study its CPM potential to see if it's worth pursuing. You can also use tools like Ahrefs to study keyword difficulty and see if the competition is too steep for you to handle.
Wrapping This Up
You might not be an expert in the topic you choose today, but with dedication, you can become one. If you can learn more than the average person about the topic, you'll be able to tackle it. Just make sure the numbers make sense, and ensure you can write about it without frustration. Doing so will set you on the path to creating a successful online business.