When I first started my journey into the world of digital entrepreneurship, the first method of making money I discovered was Adsense…


And I’m not going to lie, I was beyond amazed.


I’d read an article from some OG who made over $1,000,000 by doing this, and after falling in love with the thought of being able to generate thousands of dollars by writing articles…


I dove in head first and created a website.


Now in the spirit of complete transparency, I actually doubled down on this website as I used it for my “bookkeeping firm” as well…


But either way, I plastered ads all over it and started blogging like a mad man.


Fast forward a few months…


I’d written a ridiculous amount of blogs for a whopping total of $7.83


Now this was obviously depressing, but at the same time, I also knew it was supposed to take a little while…


But I really didn’t have that much time, so I did the next logical thing I could do — step up my SEO game.


This led me to searching around every website I could find, looking for any hidden hack that could help me reach my goal…


And I never did find that hack, but in the process I found the next best thing — http://Backlinko.com


If you’re not familiar with Backlinko, it’s a website created by Brian Dean and includes everything you need to know about SEO…


Which was awesome in itself, but after digging through his website and loving every minute of it…


There was one thing I couldn’t figure out, how this guy made money.


By this time I thought I was an online guru myself, as I’d made a whopping $10 with Adsense so I knew the ropes (lol)…


But no matter where I looked or how many links I dissected, this guy had no clear method of making money.


In other words, there was no advertising on there, no signs of affiliate marketing, and no mention of services…


So after searching around his website for a total of 50 hours, I eventually gave up and just chalked him up to a nutjob that did all this for free.


I continued to read his articles after this, and eventually read every blog on his site…


Then after going through all this, I decided to finally suck it up and sign-up for his free case study.


Seconds later I had access to yet another gold mine of information, and after burning through this, I thought I was at the end of my journey with Brian Dean…


But a few days later I received an email from him, giving me even more information.


This information actually happened to be a “special hack” he used to find keywords for SEO, and being a young grasshopper that thought these were still important…


I devoured this guide and started using the information right away.


By this time I was extremely grateful for Brian Dean, and was practically begging to receive another email from him…


Then a few days later, when I was carefully crafting an SEO-friendly blog for my website…


Sure enough, my man Brian Dean slid into my inbox.


This time he actually gave me a few more SEO tactics in the email, and that was awesome…


But at the very end of it, he made a quick mention about how he’d be sending me something tomorrow that could help me learn this even faster.


Words can’t even explain how excited I was by this point, as I was extremely excited to watch Brian Dean somehow give me even better information…


Then the next day I received his email, opened it up…


And finally realized how he made money.


Now I’ll explain exactly how he did this in a second, but before we get there, let’s go over the 4 primary ways websites can make money…


That way you’ll know which information to watch out for, and what information to look into.


Method #1 — Ads
As I mentioned earlier, my first attempt at making money online was in the form of advertisements.


I’d read how all these websites were making thousands of dollars every month by simply getting traffic on their website…


So after seeing how this was the easiest way I could make money, I decided to venture out and do the same.


Started off by learning SEO, then I tried to utilize social media, and finally — even tried Facebook Ads (so I could collect email addresses and email them when a new blog was ready)…


But after working my tail off and doing everything I was supposed to, I’d made just under $20 in 6 months.


Now I don’t even want to do the hourly rate on this, but I think we can both agree it’s not worth it…


Which is why I don’t think anybody should try this option.


Not only does it take forever, but it’s very low pay…


And unless you’re able to generate 100’s of thousands of visitors to your website every month — then it’s probably something you’ll want to stay away from as well.


Pros: “Passive income” (lol, not really as you still have to write blogs — but you get the hint)


Cons: Doesn’t pay anything, you have to really have a lot of traffic before noticing any results


Actionable info: If you’re going to do this, Google Adsense seems to be the most popular


Method #2 — Affiliate marketing


So after getting burnt out and not seeing any results for my hard work, I decided to venture back out and look for other methods…


Which is when I came across this website known as The Smart Passive Income Blog


If you’re not familiar with this website, it’s run by Pat Flynn and he does his best to explain different ways of generating passive income.


As somebody who was looking for different ways of doing this, I fell in love with his website right away…


And after searching around for a few hours, I decided on the next method I was going to try — affiliate marketing.


If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s really the process of referring people over to a certain product and getting a commission for doing so.


This seems to be the most common method most new entrepreneurs try anymore, as they love how fast and easy it is…


Which don’t get me wrong, I can’t dispute that it’s quicker than other options…


But here’s the thing, it’s nowhere near as fast as people make it sound.


Trust me, I’ve read a lot of the advice out there given by “affiliate specialists”…


And even though a lot of it makes sense, the part they forget to mention is how even though it’s selling a different product, people still need to trust the person who’s referring them (you)…


Which doesn’t happen overnight.


Sure, you could “hack” this process and expedite the results with a funnel…


But that takes a little bit of work, so if you’re going to do that — then you might as well create products of your own.


With all that said, in the spirit of learning…


Most people receive affiliate commissions by writing blog articles and including affiliate links to certain products.


To give you an example of this, let’s say you wrote a blog about best email marketing providers…


And when mentioning each email marketing provider, you put on hyperlink on their name that redirects the reader to their site…


Then you receive a commision for each person who visits their site (from your link) and purchases the product.


Pros: It’s fast and doesn’t require any work from you after the sale


Cons: It’s still a lot of work to get the sale, and you could easily make more money with other methods


Actionable info: Any major software/company has an affiliate program, but Clickbank and ShareASale tends to be the most popular methods of starting


Method #3 — E-commerce


The third method of making money with a website is selling tangible products…


And no, I’m not talking about your typical Shopify store either — as that’s obvious…


But I’m talking about a website that writes blogs, then refers people to buy their products on other sites (such as Amazon).


To be honest with you, I was never aware this even happened…


Until one day when I decided to grow out my beard and after getting an extreme itch, I started Googling around for different ways to fix this.


It didn’t take long to find an article that had exactly what I was looking for, and after reading their entire article about beard oil…


At the very bottom, they left a call-to-action that redirected me to their product (which was beard oil) on Amazon.


Normally, I wouldn’t of bought their beard oil as I don’t like buying “healthy and beauty” products from unknown sources…


But I really liked how they gave me an informational article beforehand, so I did it anyway…


And really glad I did.


Since this moment, I’ve come across a lot of other instances where companies do this…


And even though I’m not a huge fan of e-commerce, if I was ever going to do this — I would definitely use this method.


Pros: More money than affiliate marketing, as you’re selling your own product


Cons: Still not a lot of profit on e-commerce items, so unless you find a low-competition niche that ranks high and gets a lot of traffic…
It can be a lot of work for little money.


Actionable info: I think this one is pretty straightforward, but you could either have a blog that leads to your products on another site (i.e. Amazon)…
Or your could have a dropshipping company take care of delivery for products you sell on your own website.


Method #4 — Selling digital products or services


Remember my Brian Dean story earlier?


The one where I received an email, then learned how he actually made money?


Yeah, that method of making money was selling an online course…


And that’s the moment where I realized this is how 99% of websites who don’t have obvious monetization methods (such as affiliate marketing, adsense or services) make money.
In other words, it’s never really a good idea to offer your course “on the surface”…


As that can attract a lot of tire kickers who end up being a huge headache for you.


On the other hand, when you have a funnel in place, one that starts with a website that provides a lot of free information…


Then collects email addresses and leads qualified buyers to your final product, then this is a lucrative setup that’s beneficial for both parties.


I’ve also seen some people do this with service-based businesses, and even though it’s not quite as common, as somebody who personally uses it…


I can assure you, it’s one of the smartest ways you can get clients.


Not only does it work great as it ensures you’re only getting qualified leads to sign-up for a free consultation, but on top of this, it does most of the “selling” for you…
Which means your phone calls will be shorter (as you don’t have to explain everything)..


And as they say, time is money.


Pros: Highest profits, the best way to make a decent income


Cons: Like everything good in life, it takes a little work upfront


Actionable info: If you’re going to sell a course just make sure it’s over something you’ve actually done before, nobody buys from theorists


Long story short…


After working with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years, I’ve learned how most of them go for the “quick route” and try to make money right away…
Which don’t get me wrong, I completely understand as I’ve been there myself…
But here’s the thing, it hardly ever ends up being easy.
Any types of online sales takes time to learn, so you might as well go big and focus on the high profit industries (such as selling digital products or offering services).