“How to make money online” is probably one of the most searched questions on the internet.

In the third year of my undergraduate degree, I also searched “how to make money online” and I discovered a quick investment that promised massive returns in a very short period of time. “All you have to do is invest and, you'll double your capital in two weeks!” The investment firm’s representative who reached out to me promised. Your mind must be screaming “scam alert” but as a young boy desperate to make some cool cash, all I could think of was how much money I would make. I was excited. In just 3 days after I invested most of my savings, I lost all of my capital.

A few years after that incident, I'm glad to say that I have learnt my lesson. I’m much wiser now and I have in fact been able to make money online, exceeding what I initially lost. How? By avoiding some common mistakes people make in their quest to make money online, which I will share with you

1. Rushing to make money will only make you lose your money quicker - most scammers online understand that people want to make lots of money in the shortest possible time. This is why they offer you ridiculous deals like “100% return in two weeks!”. Understand that most good investments or money-making ventures take time to give results.
   
   In this internet age, we are constantly bombarded with stories of overnight successes, because this is what catches your attention. No one really wants to hear about all the time and work it takes to build wealth but the reality is that it does take time. So anyone promising you shortcuts like guaranteed 100% ROI in an unrealistic time frame is probably trying to rip you off. If it's too good to be true, it probably is. This brings me to my next point.

2. A little extra research can make all the difference - If I had taken my time to properly research the company offering me the unrealistic returns, I would have found out that they had already scammed multiple people and that their business was not regulated by any of the official regulating bodies. Also, I would probably have stumbled on an article like this one informing me of things to beware of in my quest to make money online. So if you’re reading this, thumbs up to you for taking one of the necessary precautions. 

3. Making money online isn’t much different from making money any other way, it requires skill, work, and exchange of value - Do you have a skill you can use to earn money? Maybe you’re a good writer or you know how to trade the forex market. Do you have certain knowledge you could teach people in exchange for a fee? Are you good at creating content that makes people laugh? All of these have something in common, they require an exchange of value. There aren’t many other legitimate means of making money without you providing some sort of value, which means investing either your time or money or both. If you don’t have a skill, the internet provides you with so many recourses to pick one up, for example, Kwakol Markets offers free Forex Trading Classes where you can learn how to become a profitable trader at the end of your training.

4. Leveraging other people’s knowledge or skills could facilitate your journey - You don’t need to do everything by yourself really. There are many people and resources online that have already done the grunt work of finding out how to make money online legitimately and leveraging them could make your journey a bit easier. 

For example, Kwakol Markets offers copy-trading services to traders who do not really know how to trade. New traders’ accounts are connected to those of professional master traders and then whatever trade taken by these master traders is replicated on their account. Another interesting example is entrepreneurs and businesses leveraging the network of social media influencers to market their products. These are good examples of leveraging other people’s skills and recourses for your benefit. 

Learning how to make money on the internet can set you up for financial freedom if you go about it the right way. I do hope these lessons shared enable you on your journey to building wealth online.

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