Same way you get money , by selling stuff , by offering services or there is another choice which is enrolling into signature campaigns but you will need a higher ranked account(since you are a newbie) otherwise you won't be earning anything decent.
Cloud mining = Mining , It's just that you are not the owner of the mining equipment's (physically) and the halving should have impact on them yes. But , you should understand that most of the cloud mining companies are scams and not trustworthy so I wouldn't recommend investing there , as Bitcoin price is going up , the chances that those cloud mining companies are going to close and run away with people funds are high.