Making Money Online During a Recession

Posted on March 17, 2009 by timethief

The make money online hype

Despite the fact that we are in a deep recession, we still hear this kind of Pollyanna message from some bloggers:

make money at home

I am a firm believer that if you have a computer, an internet connection, a paypal account and a brain, there is no reason why you can not make money at home.

The most common ways touted for accomplishing this are Google Adwords, Affiliate Marketing, Google Adsense, Forex Trading Robots, Surveys and Product Reviews, Article Marketing and selling on ebay.

Well, the truth is no quick and easy way to make money online. Making money online or offline involves hard work. And very few bloggers have the degree of expertise required to produce content that brings in the massive number of hits on advertisements that are required to make a living from blogging. Moreover, the economic realities we now face mean that making an income from blogging is bound to become increasingly more difficult.

Reality

The world over countries, corporations and individuals, directly and indirectly, assign their own fiscal strength based on the US dollar’s standard. The US public debt exceeded over $9 trillion dollars in 2007 and practically all of the US national debt owned by foreigners is held by private investors except for central banks, which hold 64%. In June 2007 the Federal Reserve reported its amount at US $755 billion. That means the size of the foreign owned portion of the amount owing was almost three times the total amount of currency in circulation.

debt tree

More that 40 % of American families spend more than they earn. In fact, the average US family’s credit card balance is now almost 5 % of its annual income (with a median U.S. household income presently at $43,200), and personal bankruptcies in US have doubled in the last decade and the overall consumer debt has reached $2.46 Trillion as of June 2007 (excluding the $440 billion of revolving home equity loans, $600 Billion owed for second mortgages and an overall $9 Trillion in mortgage debt). As such, the total US consumer revolving debt grew to $904 Billion in 2008.

Whether or not jobs will go to US workers or instead be outsourced depends on whether the US can provide sufficient value in a global marketplace. Outsourcing has gone overseas because (1) it could – via the internet, and (2) it made economic sense for the corporation. Unless the US government imposes restrictions on the current model, you can expect that to prevail.

Making Money by Blogging

In the economic times in which we live easy credit is no longer available, so I think it’s reasonable to assume that some companies may trim or even severely cut back on their advertising budgets, and we can expect the number of people clicking on ads will decrease.

You will never make a significant income from blogging if you lack expertise in a specific niche and you do NOT know how to:

be a skillful blogger, who can actually write well;
create an archive full of high quality original content;
structure a search engine optimized blog and posts;
promote your blog effectively via social networks and other means;
establish and maintain a faithful and growing readership (organic traffic).

Monetization Combination

I don’t think there is a single best way to make money by blogging. I think the nature of the blog, the niche it’s in, and the quality of the contents are all factors that go into selecting the combination of advertising and affiliate plans that may be workable for any given blog.

If you intend to meet the criteria I listed above then these posts may be helpful:

Twenty five steps for bloggers to increase blog traffic

Twenty income streams for bloggers

Ad Networks

Twitter for Beginners