The ways of earning money online can sound so ridiculously simple that it takes people to complicate them. There are two common problems I want to expose before I get started explaining this simple plan that will leverage your time spent online and knowledge/experience you already have while putting less stress on your paycheck.

Two Common Problems That Will Stop You Before You Get Started

Surveys show most people that get over the hurdle of taking action will give up for one of two reasons. They tried a money-making system and moved on to try something else before it had enough time to work. Or they only used that system with one niche or keyword that didn’t work so they gave up. I’m telling you these now because with each step I am going to give you some ways to troubleshoot so you can avoid missing out.

Step 1: The Research Phase

This phase can sound daunting but the problem is most people will spend too much time over-analyzing in this phase. Or they think it isn’t important so they try to skip this step, don’t cheat yourself. Brainstorm areas in your life that 1) you already know plenty about or have experience in and 2) that have a one thousand dollar entry barrier.

For example dating, losing weight, golfing, cheerleading, surfing, learning a new trade or becoming certified in a particular area, landscaping your garden or getting stains out of your carpet & clothes. If you could or have easily thrown one thousand dollars into something just to get started it should be on your list. Don’t eliminate anything that fits the two criteria I set for you.

Choose the one you find the most groups or pages for already. You will learn over time trying different tactics, adding new tools and figuring out what and how to sell to your crowd. Don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t work the first time every time you try it you will get better nobody starts out as an Olympic gold medalist.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Foundation

Open up a YouTube account and start a Facebook page. You will want to do a couple of searches on your topic to get an idea of what other people are doing and the lingo they are using. I chose YouTube and Facebook for a few reasons the first being they are both social meaning you can “like” and “follow.”

I also chose YouTube because it’s the third largest search engine, videos rank in the search engines without much help and people love to see video. I chose a Facebook page because if you are starting out you will still want to build a list you can contact and Facebook does allow you to contact people that “like” your page by email.

Step 3: Grow and Help

Notice I didn’t say grow and sell. What you want to do is invite your friends to “like” your page and channel. Then get social liking other people’s related YouTube videos, commenting on them offering your help and advice.

You can search both Facebook and YouTube for like minded people, get involved with their groups and any activity. Then once you’ve built relationships suggest books and other products that might help solve their problems. Of course you will do so through affiliate links.

Affiliate links are your personal links to sell other people’s products they tell the product owners they need to pay you the commission. You can learn more through the Amazon affiliate program or Clickbank. Yes, there are tons more out there but start simple learn one affiliate program at a time and test out different products to see what works.

Tracking Progress

Now I’ve given you a fairly simple 3 step plan you can put into action to earn an income online. The beauty of it is that once your foundation is in place you can “get social” any time. These steps leverage your time with your comments working for you while you are out doing other things. Both YouTube and Facebook give you analytics that tell you how well your efforts are working.

How fast this grows will depend on how much time you put in up front. There is a “push” time where you will need to be actively watering your social seeds. With only an hour or two a day I got my traffic up to just under a thousand visitors in the second month. That sounds like it takes a while but I assure you jumping from method to method while becoming a master of none will take you longer.