How to Make Money Online: Top 5 Proven Ways in 2022

You know it is possible to make money online…

But you also know there are a million and one scammers out there flexing on their italian supercars, throwing money around and making overhyped promises in their webinars…

scammers flexing supercars

If they were so rich, why do they need you to pay $1997 or $997 for the info?

Ahhh yes…

The shady side of making money online.

These are the ‘Greedy Gurus’ who don’t have ‘real businesses’ beyond selling scams…

For the record, there are MORE of them than you’d expect.

And they should be avoided at all costs!

Look...

You don’t need an annoying webinar, a guru course or a group coaching program to make lifestyle-altering money online.

Simply stated, you need to commit to 1 of the 5 honest online business models and go all in.

That’s exactly what you’re about to learn here, today.

Specifically, this post will cover:

  • The five best ways you can make HONEST money online in 2022 (and beyond)
  • The key to scaling an online business to the BIG money ($10,000 per month and more)
  • The A.T.M. formula that will scale any business online, everytime

Now, before we jump in, you deserve to know the ‘source’ of this content you’re about to read.

Who is Miles Beckler & Can You Trust Him?

Real quick, lemme give you the super-short run down on my online business…

If you want my full story, go here

You can learn why I have such disdain for the fake gurus and why I’m giving everything away for free to pull the rug out from under them…

Here’s the extremely short version…

My wife and I own and operate 5 separate websites that are generating 6-figures per year each.

I started making money online in 2003 and I’ve been full time building online businesses and profitable websites since 2010.

The most important part:

I don’t need your money.

My businesses and websites generate millions and I’ve cracked the code to building these successful websites…

Instead of charging for this information I’ve made the decision to give it away in order to make sure you have access to honest and reliable information you can trust.

In fact, on my YouTube channel here, I’ve published over 630 free videos (with no ads!) to show all of the steps required to build a real business online that makes honest money.

Ok, let’s move along...

Top 5 Ways That Anyone Can Start Making Money Online

There's only a handful of honest ways that people can make full time income online.

Now this list is not designed to rattle off 101 obscure ideas that rarely work but are technically possible.

The goal here is to give you the PROVEN ways that work for most people.

Then we’ll break them down, next.

Here are the best ways:

  1. Flipping
  2. Affiliate Marketing
  3. Coaching and Consulting
  4. Selling Transformation
  5. Membership Websites and Membership Programs

Let’s look at each one starting with the easiest and fastest way to build your necessary make-money-online skills.

#1: Flipping - The Fastest Way To Make Money, Now!

This method is time tested and it’s one of the oldest paths to entrepreneurship…

In short, Flipping is best described as “buying and selling”

As a business model, it’s as old as time.

But, to be honest…

You probably have dozens of valuable items stashed away in closets, boxes, garages and storage sheds that you can start flipping, today.

Offering these items that you don’t use anymore for sale on eBay, Craigslist or Facebook—is literally the easiest way to put fast cash in your pocket TODAY.

  • From baseball cards to Lego sets (or Legos by the pound)
  • Old Disney VHS tapes (yes, you read that correctly) to old cell phones
  • Even used golf balls and used prescription glasses!

You may be surprised at how well your ‘old stuff’ may sell on eBay!

Plus, when you start to understand what sells well from the eBay marketplace you unlock the opportunity for scale.

For example, you can start looking for lego sets or Disney VHS collections on Facebook marketplace, Craigslist, thrift stores, and garage sales…

The eBay app tells you what these items have sold for recently.

You get to hunt down value in your home or community, and sell to a global marketplace making a great income as the middle-person.

This eBay flipping model works best when you know the ins and outs of one or two “product” categories and focus on those.

  • Know what baseball (or Pokemon or Magic The Gathering) cards are desirable?
  • Know all about kitchen gadgets, and the ‘good ones vs. the bad ones’
  • Are you a connoisseur of golf clubs, golf balls and golf accessories?
  • Years of experience with kids toys, baby clothes or kids’ collectibles?

There's nothing faster than that, and you're making money online for free!

Now here’s where your mind may get blown…

You can often find ‘deals’ at your local retail stores and outlet malls where brand new products are selling for WAY LESS in your neighborhood than they are on eBay.

With the eBay app you can simply scan products at in the store and see EXACTLY what they have sold for on eBay, letting you calculate your potential return on investment before buying.

Gary Vee, a successful entrepreneur explains the potential to generate over $100,000 per year flipping products in this manner in his video here.

Now, you’d have to get good at cashflow management, inventory management and sourcing products…

But it’s 100% accessible to anyone.

And you can generate your ‘seed money’ to start flipping with by simply selling stuff you have laying around your house…

Now…

As we move through the 4 additional ways to make money below it is VERY IMPORTANT that you keep one thing in mind.

“The person who chases 2 rabbits catches none”

Your goal here should be to CHOOSE ONE METHOD and go all in.

You need to gain mastery at 1 thing to make lifestyle-altering income online.

Whether that is flipping items as mentioned above or whether you choose the other methods below.

With that said, let’s move on...

#2—Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a newer business model that’s emerged out of the global shift to ecommerce and online shopping.

Here’s how it works:

You sign up as an affiliate with a vendor, like Amazon, REI, Target or Best Buy, and you get a personalized affiliate link that tracks every visitor you send to the vendor.

If the visitor makes a purchase after clicking on your link, you earn a commission.

Depending on the product and the vendor, you can earn from 1% - 75%+

For physical products you will usually earn from 3% to 12% commissions.

For digital products or software you will usually earn 25% - 50% commissions.

Affiliate marketing is great for beginner marketers because it allows you to sell other people's products without having to build everything yourself…

For example, you don’t have to:

  • Buy, inventory and ship physical items
  • Create products or write sales copy.
  • Respond to customer support inquiries
  • Manage transactions, refunds, etc

Your job is to attract the right audience and help them find the right product for their needs...

The easiest way to get started in affiliate marketing is to choose a low competition niche and start blogging.

I recently took on this challenge to see if I could build a brand new blog to $3k a month in 12 months.

The results were above and beyond my expectations, as explained in this video:

Why does affiliate marketing with a blog work so well?

Millions of people are searching Google everyday for things like:

  • best blender under $100
  • What’s the best camera for pet photography
  • best ping pong paddle for beginners
  • What’s the most secure case for my ipad pro

These googlers are looking for help choosing a specific product to buy, right now.

This is why they are not just searching Amazon or Walmart.

They don’t know which one is right for them.

And this is where the opportunity resides!

When people searching for this guidance find your post that answers their question and helps them make a smart decision...

Guess what happens?

They click on your affiliate link, complete their purchase, and you earn a commission.

Simple enough, but HOW do you actually build a successful affiliate marketing site that makes money?

The devil is in the details, for sure.

In short, you find what topics and products your audience is searching for.

You research the best options for them and write an amazingly-helpful post.

Rinse & repeat.

For most people, publishing 2-3 blog posts per week is a great target for the amount of effort it takes.

If you like the idea of becoming an affiliate marketer, be sure to check out my 100% free affiliate marketing training on YouTube, here.

One additional benefit in starting an affiliate blog...

That same blog and brand can grow into the 3 additional recommended ways to make money online, below.

Said another way…

You can start with an affiliate marketing blog and as it grows you actually open yourself up to 3 additional streams of income from that 1 website.

Build it once and generate multiple streams of income.

With that said, let’s move along to the next one...

#3—Coaching and Consulting

Coaching and consulting is an incredibly fast and efficient way to make money online if you have the ability to help people (or small businesses), already.

What makes this approach so fast is that you don't need to create any products because the product is YOU, your expertise and your ability to help your clients.

What’s more...

You don't need complicated funnels, confusing marketing-automation systems or fancy software to sell coaching and consulting services.

Creating a simple video that invites people to book a free strategy session can build you an incredibly profitable business.

When you can crack the code, coaching and consulting is a good way to make money and get paid extremely well.

In fact...

One-on-one coaching sessions is how my wife started making money from her website in 2009.

In 2010 I began consulting small businesses in my town to help them rank better on Google, helping them get more traffic and more sales.

I didn’t even have a website to promote my services (although it would have helped) and I simply met clients at local networking meetings.

Armed with a free email account and a free PayPal account, I scaled my consulting business to over $10k/mo.

But know this…

Coaching and consulting is a great way to make some big bucks, BUT working with clients can be frustrating!

Why?

You’re not really your own boss… your client is your boss and...

  • Most clients are lazy and don’t want to do the work you’re suggesting.

Which may drive you crazy!

This also means there is even more money to be made offering ‘done for you services’ where you (and your team) actually do the work for them…

Making 100% sure it gets done.

After working with dozens and even hundreds of clients, many coaches and consultants evolve into the next monetization strategy based around selling courses…

Packaging up the ‘system’ that works wonders for your clients into a home-study course for customers who can’t afford your one-on-one fees is the next progression, online.

This is where the pro’s make big money online.

#4—Selling Transformation Via Home-Study Courses

selling information

Okay…

I can hear you now:

“What do you mean selling transformation?”

Look.

Everyone on this planet want’s to improve their life… Risking the potential to over-simplify this, everyone wants more happiness.

For some people, losing weight is the TRANSFORMATION they believe will bring them more happiness.

For others, gaining weight (think body-building) is the transformation they believe they will bring more happiness.

Some of these folks don’t want the $120/hour fitness trainer…

But they want the transformation, so a video training course becomes a great option.

Taking this same idea and applying it to small businesses, we can confidently state that every business wants more sales.

Some businesses think this means getting more website traffic, more foot traffic, more leads, increased conversions, etc.

Each one of these is a potential transformation.

Transforming their website from one that doesn’t get traffic to one that does.

Transforming their lead capture system to one that converts poorly to one that generates 3x the leads…

Transforming their sales team who closes 1 client in 10 calls to closing 4 clients every 10 calls.

Now, could a sales coach or a marketing consultant deliver this transformation?

Of course!

But it’d be expensive…

$500 - $1000 per hour is out of reach for most small business owners, but a $197 - $497 information product…

That may be the best option for a wider audience.

An information product can be an eBook, digital report, piece of software, audio mp3, video course, etc.

Essentially, anything you can deliver in a digital format online that provides “how-to” and other types of “experiences” needed to transform their situation works.

Info-products are quite possibly my favorite online products to sell because selling information products gives you leverage

Here’s an example:

If you are working one-on-one with clients, you are severely limited in how many clients you can take due to the time required for each client.

When you put your ‘system’ into a video course, that course can be sold dozens or even hundreds of times per day with minimal time required on your end.

This leverage opens you up to big-time income.

Once you have created your “information product” and have it all up and running, the effort it takes to maintain it and keep selling it is almost nothing.

You can sell it over and over again... This is the beginning of uncomplicated, residual income.

This post walks you through the specifics about how to create and sell info products if you want more specific info on how this works.

Want another residual income model?

Great…

Let’s do it.

#5—Membership Websites and Membership Programs

membership

The #1 thing you'll love about memberships is the recurring income it generates

Let’s say you have a yoga membership program where you deliver 1 new ‘virtual yoga class’ per week…

In this membership you have 217 members who all pay $29/mo.

This means you have $6293 per month in revenue this month…

And, as long as you keep your members happy…

You’ll have $6293 in revenue next month and the month after.

In fact, if you bring in an additional 20 members each month, your income would increase to $7453/mo.

This is the power of recurring income!

This is the type of income where you can comfortably fire your boss and confidently buy houses, pay down mortgages and truly escape the rat race

With income from a membership site, you start every month knowing that you’ll be making a specific amount each month.

Money you can count on!

Now, you’re probably asking…

“But wont some members quit?”

Yes...

You are going to lose some members from time to time. We call this churn and it’s totally normal.

But…

All you do is replace the few members that leave… So if you lose 10% of your 217 members each month, you only need to bring in 21 new members to maintain your income.

This is in stark contrast to the info-products model explained above…

Every month you start at $0 in revenue with info-products because there isn’t a recurring income stream.

So your job as a membership creator is this…

To deliver so much value that they never think about letting their membership with you expire.

This ‘delivering value’ concept is truly the key to success online in every business listed above.

Which brings us to the final part of this post…

The STRATEGY that makes this work.

This is the ‘secret sauce’

The 1 And Only Online Marketing Strategy You’ll Ever Need

Here’s the best news of the day:

There is a very simple formula for making life-changing money online that I call “The ATM Formula:”

Let's break A.T.M. down into three steps:

  1. Commit to an Audience you can help to achieve their goals or solve their problems.
  2. Find out exactly what problems they seek to solve and what goals they seek to achieve. This builds Trust.
  3. Create or locate the content, training, systems, products that will help them solve their problems and achieve their goals. This is how you Monetize.

This 3-step formula is the ticket to building an asset and a business that will take care of you for the rest of your life.

To shorten it down to it’s bare essence ATM stands for:

Audience...

Trust...

Monetize...

Here's why the A.T.M. Formula works every time...

Like an A.T.M cash machine, when you make deposits into your bank, you can withdraw money on demand, any time.

What are the “deposits” necessary to withdraw money online?

It begins with the A—Audience.

Audience

Listen...

Everyone will tell you to 'choose a niche'.

The truth is...

That’s only half the story.

The whole how to make money online story occurs when you connect the dots between a niche and a targeted group of people in that niche, a specific audience.

The best way to define your exact audience is by answering this question:

Who can you inspire, challenge, or entertain?

Answering this question will help to clarify your ideal audience and the best ways to monetize.

  • Home Improvement Ideas for “Who?”
  • Life Enhancement Steps for “Who?”
  • Productivity Tips for “Who?”
  • Etc.

It’s a deep process. But doing this work will expedite your success.

If you need help walking through this first step, this training video will show you how to look in your past to discover your audience, niche, and style of monetization.

The next part of finding your audience is discovering “how” you can connect with them, and it will come from one of these methods.

The Best Ways To Reach New Customers

The ultimate trick to making a reliable income online is to become a content machine!

You want to be found by people that are searching for the problems and solutions you offer...

But how do they find you?

In one of these three ways:

  1. Google search
  2. Search bar on YouTube
  3. A podcast platform

Which one should you do?

1. If you find writing simple and feel you can crank out the written word,

a. Get started with blogging.

2. If you're happy being in front of a camera, speaking or recording video interviews, (a.k.a. the “searchable” podcast,)

a. Build your audience on YouTube

3. Grow an audience with a podcast

Trust

To build trust, you must offer value.

You accomplish earning trust through three avenues:

  1. Content from one of the above methods
  2. Freebies, called a “Lead Magnet”
  3. Sending consistent and valuable emails

This is the most affordable way to establish trust... And trust = money in your pocket now, and later.

Let’s dive into “lead magnets” and emails, and then connect the dots of how this makes you money now and later.

Your Email List Is Key

An email list is the only asset in your online business that you 100% own.

Facebook, YouTube, Google, etc. cannot change an algorithm or pull your email list from their platform.

That’s why an email list is the fulcrum of your ATM machine.

With everything you do—blogs, YouTube, social media, ads, and more—the primary objective is to “capture” email addresses to begin to nurture a relationship with an email list.

Gone are the days when you can simply say, “Hi, I’m Bonnie. You can sign up for my newsletter here.” People are busy and overwhelmed with unimportant emails that offer no value.

Which is why you need a lead magnet.

What’s a Lead Magnet?

A lead magnet is a “freebie” you present to your audience to entice them to join your email list.

In order to present your lead magnet you need two tools.

  1. A “host” for your lead magnet
  2. An email platform to automate the delivery of your lead magnet

You can learn how to create and host freebies (lead magnets) and send automatic emails using 100% free tools in this post: click here to check it out.

What To Offer Your Email List

A mistake marketers make when people join their email list is only sending “on sale” emails once a month or so.

This is not the modern way to make money. How many of those lists do you stay on?

The ATM formula fixes this by sending “sales” emails, yes, but in between emails that make you money are a few “value” emails.

There are two ways to remember this important concept.

  1. 'Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook' or,
  2. The 'Give, Give, Give, Ask' formula.

That's the golden ticket!

When you offer value on a regular basis – that’s the give part – your customers won’t mind you “asking” – aka making an offer – occasionally.

Let’s pull this together for you and connect all the dots.

Monetize

How do you make money online?

You need three continuously moving pieces in order to make money online.

    1. AUDIENCE

a. You’re going to determine a specific audience you can journey with for 3-5+ years.
b. You’re going to begin providing assistance to that audience with blog posts or YouTube videos, which results in the beginnings of trust.

    1. TRUST

a. A few of your audience members—5-15%—are going to need your “freebies” and want to join your email list.
b. You’ll further establish trust by delivering lead magnets and sending helpful emails.

    1. MONETIZE

a. In every third or fourth email, to this most eager audience, you will make offers that make you money.
b. You will additionally make money with affiliate marketing from blog posts or videos (that also increase the size of your audience).

When your audience growth mechanism connects with your lead magnet and emails, you will have more and new monetization opportunities.

  1. More affiliate products
  2. Coaching or consulting
  3. Information products
  4. Membership programs, etc.

You see it?

Everything is connected.

Now this was a brief overview of the ATM strategy that has made millions online.

If you want a deep dive into this process, please watch this free training on YouTube for a powerful explanation and illustration that shows how it is all connected:

The Truth About Making Money Online

Building a real online business is difficult and time consuming.

The fake gurus are required to make it sound easy in order to sell you their scam.

The truth is that you can earn a full time income online.

And the truth is that it will take longer than you want it to…

We humans are impatient.

But, I can tell you first hand that growing an online business is incredibly rewarding.

So how long does it take?

Here’s the truth:

For most people on their FIRST online business it takes years… Not months.

And this is because most people have full time jobs, families, hobbies, children, etc.

It’s all about how much time you have to spend…

And that is different for everyone.

For a deeper understanding about how long it takes to start making money online, read this post, next.

And remember...

There is nothing more fulfilling than making more money in one month than you used to earn in a year... by helping people!

Commit to your audience because when you help them more than anyone else in the world, they line up with a credit card in hand ready to buy things from you.

That's the key for you to be able to make money online. To earn the privilege of making withdrawals from your ATM machine.

All of the heartache and the struggle is worth it.