I get a lot of questions everyday but one question that I get asked almost every single day is: How do I start working online? What’s the first step? How do I do what you’re doing? So today I’m going to attempt to answer that question.

For most people working online means earning a few bucks, or doing something for zero or little effort. That’s not what I’m about or what I teach. I can’t help you get started working online by clicking on ads, or by filling surveys and questionnaires, or by mailing envelopes, or whatever else kind of menial work is being advertised to make you millions.

When someone asks me how to start working online, I assume that they are asking me for a viable sustainable online business that they’d like to start. It could be a part time business, it could be weekends only, but you have to be serious about it. If you don’t ask me seriously then no matter what advice I give, you will not be able to earn money online.

So assuming that you are serious about making money online, here’s what I would say are the first few steps in this order:

Step 1: Know what kind of work you’d like to do online

Example #1: Perhaps you’re a musician with extensive knowledge about learning to play an instrument (or various instruments) – you could perhaps start a website that gives guitar tutorials. Or maybe you’re a singer songwriter who wants to compose music for international clients – you could become a music producer on a freelance website.

Example #2: Maybe you’re a graphic designer fresh out of school and looking for online work. Maybe you could advertise your design services online and start to get work through the internet.

Example #3: What if you’re a doctor. Can you work online? Well, yes, but that depends on what kind of work you want to do. There are many reputable publications in the health, nutrition and fitness fields that require content for their websites, newsletters, advice columns, etc and would maybe want to hire you as an expert. Alternative therapy and natural medicines is also a fast growing field with not a lot of qualified practitioners; you could maybe get work with them as a side income project.

Example #4: You have an existing t-shirt designing business and would like to find a market for your products online. Can you do that? Yes, and it will depend on finding international buyers ready to stock your products at agreed upon rates. You can do that through various online companies such as www.alibaba.com that specialize in providing physical products via an online medium.

Example #5: You are a journalist, looking for ways to earn some extra money. Perhaps you can start a blog, or write a book, or look for a gig writing for an international column.

These are just five examples; basically you can work online in just about any capacity that doesn’t require your physical presence and you’ll be surprised how few those are. Are you an engineer? You can find work online as a contract manufacturer. Are you a housewife? You can find work online leveraging your expertise in cooking, designing, parenting, etc. There’s online work awaiting you in almost every conceivable field from financial to legal to engineering to writing to design to web programming.

So do you know what you want to do? Figure that out first and then move to step 2.

Step 2: Find your market

The assumption here is that you have a skill or a product that you’d like to make money from. Once you have identified that skill or product, you must find a market that will buy your services/products.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. You can sell your existing products using affiliates. Affiliates are people that sell your product on your behalf for a small commission. You can join an affiliate network and get your product listed for sale. Examples of affiliate networks are www.clickbank.com, www.commissionjunction.com, www.amazon.com/associates and plenty more – just do a search for affiliate networks to get a more comprehensive list.
2. You can sell your services in a freelance marketplace such as www.elance.com, www.guru.com, www.odesk.com etc.
3. You can get your products sold globally through international vendors and drop-shippers such as www.alibaba.com, www.wordwidebrands.com, www.thomasnet.com, www.housewares.org, www.expoeast.com and www.expowest.com.
4. You can start your own WordPress website by registering a domain name through www.namecheap.com, buying hosting from www.godaddy.com and installing WordPress through www.wordpress.org. If you don’t feel confident you can do this on your own, you can start with a free www.WordPress.com account which just requires a username and password to use. Else, you can hire a company such as www.customsocialpages.com to set it up for you.
5. You can use social media to find prospective buyers and clients, although that is a less direct way and you will have to invest some time in it. It is recommended if you are not in a hurry and are good at having online conversations. Social sites that would be a good fit for finding leads include www.linkedin.com, www.twitter.com, niche forums (search for your niche + “forum” on google), and www.facebook.com (pages and ads).

Step 3: Determine how you’ll get paid

Once you have found your market, you need to sort out payment details. There’s a comprehensive list of payment processors that you can work with here, but only some of these are compatible with Pakistan. Those that work in Pakistan include www.payoneer.com, www.alertpay.com, www.2checkout.com, www.westernunion.com, www.moneybookers.com, and sites that pay you via direct deposits and through checks (such as most freelance sites do).

Payment processors help you determine how you will charge prospective customers and how the money will get transferred into your bank account.

So, I hope this list has given you a starting point. Essentially there’s just a few ways to run an online business, such as you can see in this online business info-graphic. You just need to find the tools and resources that will help you and chart a path that is unique to your skills, products and abilities.

Questions? Mail me at ask@wordpl.net with your very specific question or just write it out in the comments below so that your question and my answer benefits lots of people. Good luck!

p.s. For more in-depth information, check out my presentation How to Start an Online Business (from Pakistan).

Writing for Suite101 is a long term game plan: one that can result in a nice steady income stream coming to you even when you stop writing. Suite allows you to earn residual income from your articles based on Google AdSense revenue. Each time someone clicks on an ad that shows up with your article, you earn.

The three main advantages often discussed about Suite are:

• They have excellent standards (two test projects required for entry);
• Higher than average revenue payouts ($3.90 per 1000 page views on average according to Suite’s Editor-in-Chief Colin Smith); and
• Great editorial support (every article is reviewed by an experienced editor)

But apart from these basic reasons, here are some more nuggets of information which make Suite a good place to write for the long term.

You Learn to Write for the Web

Suite is hands down an excellent place to learn to write for the web, which in turn will benefit you in all areas of your writing. You can experiment with different keyword combinations and see results within 24 hours on how your tweaking affects your page views and revenue. You learn the importance of keyword placement and density along with the benefits of structuring your article for an online audience, all of which results in higher page views and therefore the potential to earn more from each article. At Suite you also learn to write in a journalistic style versus a blogging style, which can be very useful for knowing how to write unbiased articles, interviews, reviews, etc with proper citations and references. New to SEO writing? Start at Suite – that’s what I did.

Use Suite to Build and Promote your Written Work

Suite provides a great place to showcase your writing to the world and helps you build an online portfolio – I’ve directed many a client there! Suite also gets lots of Google juice so if you write with carefully-chosen keywords you have every chance of seeing your name and your article on Google’s first page of search results – an impressive thing to tell your other clients!

Suite Wants to Promote You

From the editor and assistant editor down to the contributing writers, everyone will re-tweet, comment on your post, write out a thoughtful answer to your queries, and forward your article to their friends when relevant. You can promote yourself and your work, sure, but Suite does a great job of promoting you! The Suite staff and team will encourage you on all your accomplishments, big or small. Just join the official Twitter profile (@suite101) to join and see for yourself.

Suite Forums are Friendly, Supportive and Chock-full of Insightful Ideas

You get to be part of a supportive, friendly writers’ community to whom you can pitch your website, article, story, etc to and who will give you their honest feedback. Starting a new website and need traffic? Want to know which freelance sites are the best? The answers all lurk in Suite’s forums You can learn about some of the best ways to make money online or the best tools for writers thanks to the active community which is eager to share their experiences.

Suite Allows you Creative Freedom and Control over your Published Works

Your article belongs to you, simple as that. All rights reserved. You can re-publish your Suite articles in print, and you can re-publish your Suite articles online after one year of the article post date. Suite lets you write in any category and any topic of your choosing so there’s a lot of creative freedom there. Writing articles sometimes helps to flesh out story ideas and gauge reader responses; articles can literally be used as a sounding board for creative ideas.

Suite Reduces Writer Isolation

Being a work at home freelancer can get lonesome at times; the suite community does a lot to assuage that isolation and makes you feel you’re not alone in the big (bad) world of freelance writing. So whether you want to talk about your cat or your work at home style, there’s a group of friendly like-minded people just waiting to connect with you.

Some Added Benefits Which Seal the Deal

• Suite gives you the chance to earn up-front cash via  monthly contests; they’re working on making the contests open to international writers soon.
• Suite will promote you to a Feature Writer (FW) position (if available in your choice of category) if you meet their standards; the position comes with a nice little bonus and your own Suite blog. FW positions also add credibility and authority to your online portfolio.
• Minimum quota is light; 10 articles in 3 months is easily doable, even for the busiest person
• They accept writers from all over the world; which was a big factor for me!

Although I don’t have many articles up on Suite as of writing this post, nor do I have a FW position under my belt (yet), the rewards for me have mainly come through community encouragement, motivation and support and through learning to write for the web (with added SEO tricks and tips thrown in). Another plus for me is the exposure it gives me when I pitch to new clients, especially if I’ve written articles in their niche. Suite writers are known to be offered book deals, long-term article assignments, interview opportunities and much more.

Any way you look at it, Suite offers you a great way to earn while you learn!

Want to start writing for Suite and need some help? Already a Suite writer and want to share your experience. Go ahead and share below.