Once
you've launched your blog (or niche website), the next step is figuring
out which products and companies you can partner with as an affiliate
to help facilitate sales of a related, helpful product for your audience
of future readers.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is selling
someone else’s product by referring customers to their online store. If
you can create content (on a blog) or a resource so valuable to the
people looking for a certain product and then send them to where they
can actually buy it, you’ll receive a predetermined percentage of each
sale.
It takes time and effort, but website owners like myself and
Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income, have built life-changing careers
through affiliate marketing. In fact, Pat even publishes his income
reports online, showing how
Let’s start with the basics of building your niche website and blog, then get into how affiliate marketing will work for you.
First,
you need to research and validate a profitable affiliate niche. What
this means is: Are there companies in your niche who will pay you to
send customers their way?
Now that you know your niche and have
signed up for relevant affiliate programs, it’s time to build out your
site and blog to start driving traffic.
Start by finding and
buying a domain name (such as www.myaffiliatesite.com) that works for
your niche on a domain registrar like
.
Bluehost
even has a nifty domain name availability checker you can use right
here to quickly find out whether or not your desired website URL is
available (and if it's not, they'll give you suggestions on the next
best idea):
Once
you've got your domain name, you’ll need a platform to build your site
on. While you could pick a free option like Tumblr, Blogger, or
WordPress.com, these won’t give you the flexibility or authority you
need to build a truly successful affiliate site.
Instead, go with a
self-hosted site (like my blog here is)—this means your blog will be
hosted on your own server and you'll have full control over it. There
are tons of highly reputable, affordable companies you can choose to
host your website, like
, or A2 Hosting.
Then
once you’ve got your domain name and hosting sorted out, it’s time to
pick a CMS, or Content Management System, that will let you update
pages, build your blog and integrate with all the other services you
need. It’s hard to go wrong with WordPress—the CMS powering close to a
quarter of the internet.
Next, you’ll want to pick a WordPress theme from somewhere like ThemeForest, Elegant Themes or
.
This is the barebones design of your site, which you can then customize
with your own branding, copy, and images. That being said, you don’t
want to cheap out. It costs less than $100 to buy a theme that will make
your website look professional (and you can upgrade to a completely
custom design once you get the business going).
Like I said, this process can be a bit overwhelming. And that's why I put together
to help break this entire process down into easy to follow steps
that'll get your blog off the ground and generating readers in less than
1 week.
Enter your name and email below and you'll get instant access to my course that's been featured on Forbes, Business Insider and Entrepreneur.
Finally,
once your blog is officially launched, it’s time to start creating
content that will drive traffic to your affiliate partner’s site. Here’s
what I mean by that:
Let’s say I’m an Amazon affiliate for
camping gear, and I want to write an exhaustive, in-depth blog post and
review of the “50 Best Hiking Backpacks for Adventuring Outdoors.” By
running a quick
Keyword Planner
check on the organic search volume I can see that there’s around 5,500
monthly searches for the keyword ‘hiking backpacks’ alone.
If my
piece of content is so unique and valuable around hiking backpack
recommendations, that other reputable outdoor websites are willing to
link to it and build the page’s authority, then I’d have a very real
opportunity to rank high in organic search for these search terms
(meaning, my page will come up first when someone searches for hiking
backpacks).
Since it’s safe to assume that the purchase intent on
searches for hiking backpacks is pretty high, the next logical step is
that a reasonable number of site visitors would click through using my
affiliate links and complete a purchase, over time.
While it often
takes a significant amount of time and hard work to build up your
affiliate income, if you have the ability to regularly publish high
quality content that drives in targeted traffic to your website, this
online revenue source can become quite substantial.
Check out my
Ultimate Guide: 10 Steps to Start a Blog on the Side for my free 16,000 word guide to starting a blog and building it into an income-generating business today.
2. Launch and Grow a Startup
Do
you have dreams of running your own business one day? Building and
scaling a high-growth startup, while by far the most difficult way to
make money online, arguably has the most potential upside.
By the 3rd quarter of 2017, Venture Capitalists had invested
over $61 billion into close to 6,000 startups in the US alone.
There’s
money in the air, and if you can successfully create an online service,
tool, or marketplace that fulfills a rapidly growing need in the
marketplace, you could be on track for creating a very valuable
business. However, it’ll undoubtedly take an intense dedication of time,
efforts, and financial resources.
Unlike a lot of the other
businesses we’re going to cover, startup founders face a whole slew of
variables and roadblocks that can get in the way of success.
For
one, you’ll want to have a high level of domain experience within the
industry your startup is going to operate. This means a deep
understanding of your customers, the issues they face, and an idea of
potential solutions they’ll be willing to pay for. This is the
minimum you need to get started.
After
that, you’ll need to be familiar with the other major players in the
space who might be good partners or acquisition opportunities, as well
as an intimate knowledge of how to raise funding, market your product,
hire and manage the best talent, and keep yourself financially above
water.
*Whew*
Now, this may sound like a lot, but the payoff is worth it.
So where do
you start when building a startup?
The
most important thing you need before you do anything else is a problem.
What do people need that they don’t have? What solution is currently
out there that you can do better? This alone is the basis of every great
startup.
Once you have that problem or need nailed, the next step
is to validate that idea and make sure you’ve actually got customers
who will pay for it. This means building a minimum viable product,
getting objective feedback from real customers, incorporating updates,
testing the market for demand, and getting pricing feedback to ensure
there’s enough of a margin between your costs and what consumers are
willing to pay.
Lastly, you need money to make money. Startups can
cost quite a bit to get off the ground. So with your idea and market
validation solidified, there are a few different paths you can follow to
get your initial “seed” cash:
- Bootstrap: This means
you’ll be self-funding your business. While not everyone will have the
funds to pay for everything they need to start a startup, bootstrapping
means that you retain 100% control over your company. If you can
bootstrap your company to an exit or IPO, you’ll most likely never have
to work another day in your life.
- Pitch to VCs/Angels/other investors: If you need some serious cash to grow your startup, you’ll want to put together a pitch deck and reach out to investors who might want to give you the money you need in return for a stake in your company.
- Join a startup accelerator:
Another great option is to apply to a startup accelerator like Y
Combinator, 500 startups, or TechStars, where a group of investors will
help coach you, connect you with potential partners, and provide startup
cash in return for a small stake in your company. The competition is
tough to get into these, so don’t rely on them as your only path
forward.
Once you’re off the ground, it’s all about customer acquisition, market validation, more funding, and growth.
Of
course, that’s a simplified version of everything it takes to build
your startup. Luckily, there is now more support, education, and access
to funding for budding startups than ever before. And a great place to
start is with this list of
101 best free and cheap online business courses for entrepreneurs I put together.
3. Build and Sell Software
Right now there’s an insatiable need for useful software.
Whether
it’s an important consumer application, a specialist app to solve a
particular niche problem, or even a time-wasting game you can play on
your phone, you can create a massively successful business if you build
software that helps people. (Look at the rise of Slack—the team
communication software that went from side project to billion-dollar
company
in just 2 years.)
Now,
I know what you’re thinking. Most of the software and apps you use on a
regular basis are made by massive companies or established development
studios. Well, yes. But many successful apps, particularly those in the
Apple and Google stores, are created and marketed by individuals and
small businesses. In fact, independent
developers made $20 billion in the App Store in 2016 alone.
There are two basic ways that you can make money online by building software products.
The
first follows the startup path we outlined above: You have a disruptive
idea for an app or piece of software, you validate the idea with real
customers, and then raise money to hire developers or a development
studio to build, launch, and scale your software. If you’ve done
everything right, your software will be accepted to the Apple and Google
Stores and you’ll make money every time someone downloads it or pays
for a premium feature.
The second (and cheaper) path assumes that
you have the design and dev chops yourself to build your dream software.
Naturally, it’ll take more time to get your product off the ground, but
being able to bootstrap the development of your software lets you
retain more ownership in your business and be more in control of your
path.
If you’re willing to take the time to learn the development
skills necessary to build high-quality software products (or even MVPs
to help you get funding), there’s a growing roster of reputable online
learning platforms like
Treehouse,
CodeAcademy, and
Skillcrush to get you the skills you need.
4. Start an eCommerce Site and Sell Physical Products
If
finding a better solution to a problem hundreds or thousands of people
have doesn’t seem like an option right now, you might be better off
setting up a virtual shop and selling physical items.
These days, this couldn’t be easier. Sites like
Shopify have made it easier than ever to build a customizable, powerful eCommerce site in a weekend and start selling products now.
This
is probably one of the oldest and most time-tested ways of making money
online. Plenty of digital entrepreneurs have created sustainable
businesses by either:
- Creating physical products they know people in their niche will love
- Purchasing
low cost goods manufactured in foreign countries, repackaging or
combining them with other products, and selling them for higher prices
on domestic online marketplaces
While you’ll certainly have
higher levels of success if you can nail creating and marketing your own
unique product, from my own experience (and that of many other
entrepreneurs), I know the extremely high costs and risk associated with
starting a product-based business.
Instead, if you can find a solid product that’s already being manufactured at a reasonable price from a marketplace like
AliExpress,
LightInTheBox, or
DinoDirect and market it to your audience, you’ll have the start of a money-making eCommerce machine.
Now, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how your online store is going to operate.
Whether
you’re selling your own new products or reselling other goods, you
still have to consider how much stock you’re going to carry, how you’re
going to fund upfront purchasing costs, and where you’re going to store
your inventory. Remember, even if you avoid paying rent on a storefront,
you still need to store your inventory somewhere.
Well. Not
always. There’s another option that’s become incredibly popular in the
last few years (and is my personal favorite way to operate a product
business), called
drop shipping.
With
drop shipping, you’re effectively partnering with a manufacturer or
wholesaler to sell their products. This way, you don’t pay upfront costs
to buy inventory, aren’t sitting on unsold items taking up expensive
warehouse space, and don’t have to deal with shipping the products
yourself. You simply create your site, fill it with drop shippable
products, and drive in customers, with almost everything else done for
you.
Of course, there’s a higher price per product and your
margins are lower, but you’re able to start your online store with
little more than a Shopify theme and some hosted images of your
products. When a customer makes a purchase, you in turn buy the product
from your supplier who then ships it directly to your customer.
No inventory. No handling products yourself. No shipping by hand. Sounds pretty amazing.
If you want to supplement selling on your Shopify store with other marketplaces, here are a few other highly lucrative options:
- Fulfilled by Amazon:
Rather than drop shipping, Amazon lets you store your products in their
own warehouses, making them available for Free 2-Day Shipping to Prime
members. Which has been proven to significantly increase sales.
- Etsy:
If you’ve got handmade or crafty products, Etsy is a great marketplace
to market and sell on (bonus points if your product is geared towards a
more female audience)
- eBay: The online auction giant is
still in the game and especially good for selling electronics, gadgets,
clothing and apparel, and accessories.
- Craigslist: While the least scalable, it can be very cost- and time-effective to sell to people locally.
5. Find Freelance Clients and Sell Your Services
If
you have a marketable skill—like writing, designing, web development,
marketing, project management, or anything else—one of the easiest ways
to make sustainable extra money online is to start freelancing.
And
while freelancing might not be as scalable as some of the other ideas
we’ve spoken about, it’s not uncommon for solopreneurs to build healthy
six-figure freelance businesses for themselves. (In fact, I’ve interviewed tons of them on my podcast!)
Today, over
54 million Americans are opting to forego traditional careers and start a freelance business.
There’s
plenty of work and clients to be found. If you know where to look. To
start, you need to know if there is enough demand for your skill to make
it worth the effort to go out looking for work. Start by searching
freelancer job boards on
UpWork,
Freelancer,
Guru or one of the dozens of other
skill-specific freelance job boards.
How
many postings are there for jobs similar to what you do? If there’s a
decent amount and it looks like there’s steady demand, put those skills
down on a shortlist and start researching the companies and industries
that are hiring.
I’ve written a full
guide to starting your own freelance business, but here’s a quick list to get you started:
- Decide what your goal is: Do
you want a bit of extra income or are you looking to go full-time
freelance? It takes time to ramp up a freelance business, so it’s
important to know your goals from the outset.
- Find a profitable niche: We’ve
talked about this a lot. But, where are you most comfortable. What
niche do your skills, values, and interests intersect? Do you have 10
years of experience as a technical writer? Do you have long-standing PR
relationships that’ll be invaluable in helping startups launch a
successful crowdfunding campaign? Determine what makes your value
unique, and lean heavily on showcasing that strength to your potential
clients.
- Identify target customers: Write down
exactly who you want as your client and then start researching those
companies and making your list. You’ll want your portfolio and cold
emails to align with the companies you’re reaching out to
- Set strategic prices:
The $37.50/hr you earn at your day job doesn’t even come close to the
hourly rate you’d need to charge, in order to create the same net annual
income, once you’re self-employed. This infographic on calculating your freelance hourly rate can help you decide what to charge.
- Pitch, cold email, and sign your first clients:
Now it’s time to go after clients. Mention them in your content. Reach
out to them over email or LinkedIn. Tailor your pitch to show what kind
of value you bring to the table. (You can even read my personal cold email templates).
Lastly, remember to always have a solid
freelance contract
in place. You might be working on small jobs to begin with, but getting
in the habit of not starting freelance work without a contract in place
can save you big time down the road.
6. Start Online Coaching and Sell Your Advice
Similar
to selling your freelance services, you can also start selling your
knowledge and advice in an area you specialize in as a coach or
consultant. If you can bill yourself as an expert, there are tons of
people out there willing to pay for your time.
Being an online
coach or consultant is a great way to make money online, as instead of
giving your client ongoing deliverables (like when you’re a freelancer),
you’re teaching them to be better, faster, stronger than the
competition. Your
expertise becomes the product you’re selling.
Even
better, if you can find ways to package your experience and coaching
skills into an easily digestible program, you have the potential to
significantly scale this business model.
Now, if you don’t know
people who might want your coaching services, there are a number of
online tools and communities that make it incredibly easy to find
clients and teach, on just about any topic area you can think of.
Community driven platforms like
Savvy.is,
Clarity.fm, and
Coach.me provide you with a network of potential clients to interact with, as well an integrated payment solution.
And
while it’s one of the most limited businesses as you’re only able to
charge for the time you can provide, many online coaches make hundreds
or even thousands for their packages.
It’s also one of the
quickest ways you can get set up and start generating revenue. All you
really need is an account with one of the online coaching communities I
mentioned above and expertise to share.
7. Create Online Courses to Productize Your Knowledge
If
you’re already an expert in a topic—either through your current job,
freelance business, or coaching—you can package that knowledge into a
high-value course and sell it for years to come.
And while
building, launching, and marketing an online course does take a
considerable amount of upfront effort, their earning potential is
through the roof (especially compared to a lot of the other online ways
to make money we’re talking about).
Courses and other knowledge
products like e-books, are what’s called passive income. That simply
means that once the upfront time and effort is put in, with just a bit
of regular upkeep and marketing you’ll be able to continue to sell and
make money from them for months and years.
So, how do you go about putting together your course? One of my favorite online course success stories comes from
Bryan Harris of Videofruit, who built and launched an online course
in just 10 days that made him $220,750!
To hit this awesome goal, Bryan followed a four-stage process to discover, validate, and launch his course:
Phase 1:
Explore and discover the best topic for his course based on the most
popular posts from his blog. This ensured he knew the content was
already valuable to his audience.
Phase 2: Validate that
people would actually pay for his course by surveying readers and
securing pre-orders. (This is an important part that so many people
forget. Never spend serious time building something unless you
know there’s a paying audience for it).
Phase 3: Quickly
write, record, and edit the course content. As he already knew there
was demand, it made sense to create the content as quickly as possible.
He could always go back and update or edit based on feedback from his
initial students.
Phase 4: Launch the course to his email
list. The success of your course comes down to getting it in front of
the right people. And your own audience, no matter how small, is usually
the best place to start. That said, you need to have a clear idea of
your launch plan before you put it live.
Now, what if you don’t
have a blog with popular posts? Or an email list to market to? Let’s
look at how you can build your own online course with no previous
experience:
- Start by taking other courses you’re interested in: Not
only is this important competitor and opportunity analysis, but it also
gives you an idea of how a course could or should look and feel. What’s
the pacing like? Is it via email, video, in-person chats? Once you
understand how you want your course to look, it’s time to decide what
it should include. Those same courses are a great starting place. How
can you make your course better or more interesting? Do you have
experience others don’t?
- Choose your niche and check for demand:
The golden course combination is when you can find an in-demand niche
that aligns with your skills and unique experiences. A great way to do
this is to use Google Trends and Google’s Keyword Planner to look for
average monthly search volume for keywords related to your proposed
course content. Are people actively looking for high-quality information
about this subject? Of course, if you’re already creating content for a
blog, coaching service, or a site like Medium, you can test demand this
way for free just like Bryan did.
- Find your niche partners, collaborators, and champions:
As you’re creating your course, look for notable people who are also
creating content in the space. Look at how their businesses operate and
incorporate that into your own plan. You can also reach out to any
influencers and make them affiliates for your own course. This way,
they’ll be incentivized to share your content with their own audiences
(which can be a major way to generate your first sales and start
building your own community!)
- Create a killer course experience:
With your course validated and in the works, you need to figure out how
people will take it. Most course creators choose to host their courses
from their own websites. This way, they get all the value of bringing
customers back to their site on a regular basis. I host my own courses
from a subdomain on my own site so I can easily add more. The course
experience is incredibly important as well. And after trying most of the
solutions, I highly recommend Teachable—an online platform designed
specifically for courses.
- Build your audience on a course community:
If you’re just getting started building an audience for yourself and
want to leverage communities already actively looking for content you
can choose to host and sell your online course on a site like Skillshare
or Udemy. These are easy, cost-effective ways to build an audience and
test your niche to see if there’s demand for it.
- Market your course:
The beauty of using a course to make money online is that you can
continue to sell it for as long as you’d like. Look for niche
communities on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Reddit that might benefit from
your content. Guest post on relevant blogs and sites. Look for anywhere
you might be able to get in front of the right people. With just a few
hours a month you can continue to generate sales.
8. Launch a YouTube Channel to Entertain and Educate
While YouTube
recently changed its monetization program,
if you’re able to hit their new minimum bar of 1,000 subscribers and
4,000 hours of view time in the past 12 months, it’s still an incredible
place to make extra money online.
YouTube is arguably
the world’s second largest search engine (after Google) and is the third most-visited site in the world. In 2017, almost 5 billion videos were watched on YouTube
every single day!
Rather
than making money through subscriptions, YouTube channels are based on a
traditional advertising system. Meaning the more viewers you get, the
more you make. Once you’re approved for the
YouTube Partner Program
and can start including ads on your videos, with every 1,000 views, you
will make approximately $2-$4. Which might not seem like a lot, but if
you have 100 videos with 5,000 views a month each, that would be
$1,000–$2,000 already. Just imagine if your videos start hitting
millions of views!
Building a YouTube channel is a lot like
starting a blog or website, except that you’re working in video—not
writing. The first step is to choose what kind of videos you’re going to
create. Most successful YouTube channels fall under one of two
categories:
- Educational content: People always want to
find the quickest way to learn something new. And YouTube searches
including the phrase “How to” are growing 70% year over year, making
YouTube an incredible place to teach what you know.
- Entertainment:
Web series, product reviews, comedy sketches and pranks, vlogs, even
video game walkthroughs—there’s so many different ways you can entertain
people through your YouTube channel.
Next, you need to set
up and build your YouTube channel. Your YouTube channel is your homebase
for all your content. If you already have a Google account for Gmail or
Google Drive, then you can use that to log-in to YouTube and start
setting up your channel. Pick a username that works for you and is
memorable (if you’re using an existing Google account you’ll have to
edit your username in Google+).
You’ll also want to make your
YouTube channel more easily found by adding relevant keywords under the
“Advanced” section and picking your targeted country (where you think
most of your viewers are). If you have a personal blog or site, add it
as an “associated website.”
Now, it’s time to start creating and
uploading content. Make sure you’re using a high-enough quality camera
(most smartphones will work but I’d suggest at least having a tripod so
your footage isn’t shaky), but don’t worry about being perfect at first.
The beauty of YouTube is that you can continue to test out different
content and styles as you find what works for you. Instead, stick to a
regular schedule to build up your subscriber base.
You can
optimize your videos to rank higher by experimenting with
attention-grabbing descriptions and previews as well as using relevant
tags. You need to stand out and make people want to click on your video.
As
you start regularly putting out content, you’ll hopefully start to
build a bit of an audience. But to start seeing real money from YouTube
you need to market your videos elsewhere. Share your channel on Twitter
and Facebook. Distribute videos anywhere else you can think of. Also,
interact with comments and build a community around the videos you’re
making so people will share it with their friends.
Once you hit
the 1,000 subscriber/4,000 hour threshold, you can start monetizing your
videos by selecting “Monetize with ads” under the Monetization tab of
your channel. While it can take a while to build up a decent following
for your YouTube channel, it can be a lot of fun to do as well as become
a steady source of extra income.
9. Record a Podcast and Share Inspiring Stories
Podcasts
are super hot right now, and for good reason. With how busy our lives
are getting, more and more people are looking for passive ways to take
in content. Which makes them both a great opportunity to build an
audience and to make money online.
And while it will take time to
build up a big-enough audience to attract advertisers and other ways to
make extra income from your podcast, the opportunity is there. John Lee
Dumas interviews entrepreneurs seven days a week for his podcast
Entrepreneur on Fire and now
makes more than $200,000 a month from it. In fact, John publishes all his income online and showed that he’s made almost $13 million since launching in 2012.
The
podcast market is constantly looking for new, quality content. And
luckily for anyone trying to get started, it’s now easier than ever.
Starting
a podcast, like making a YouTube channel or blog, comes down to telling
interesting stories and building an engaged audience. I’m probably
sounding like a broken record by now, but you need a niche that you’re
interested in and there’s already a demand for. Come up with a list of
topics you’d like to talk about and then search iTunes charts, Google
Trends and other podcast research sites like cast.market to see what’s
currently out there and popular.
Next, you’ll need the right
tools. You can be as complicated or simple as you want depending on your
comfort with audio equipment, but at the minimum you’ll want a
microphone and software for recording your voice. Companies like
Behringer,
Blue,
Focusrite, and others sell studio-quality plug-and-play podcast setups that can get you recording today.
Now,
it’s time to plan out your show. If you’re doing an interview-style
show, you’ll now want to start getting some guests involved. You can use
your existing social network to reach out to people you already know or
are connected with on Twitter or Facebook. You can also head to Medium
or Amazon to find authors or experts on topics specific to your niche.
Once
you’ve gathered a list, put together a template outreach email (as
you’ll be doing this over and over) that’s short and clear with
expectations. Tell your potential interviewee who you are, what your
podcast is about, and what you’re asking of them. Do a few test
interviews with friends and family to make sure everything is being
recorded at the quality you want and then book your first episode.
If
you like learning new software or are experienced with audio editing,
you can put the show together yourself. Otherwise, there are lots of
services you can find that will help edit and build your show on place
likes UpWork and Fiverr.
Congrats! You now have a podcast episode
that’s ready to be uploaded to iTunes, SoundCloud, or anywhere else and
promoted alongside the rest of your content!
The last step is
deciding how you’ll market and monetize your podcast. The larger of an
audience you have, the more chances you have for monetizing it. Create a
basic website for your show and start sharing episodes to your network.
When you’re ready to monetize there are a few options you can choose
from:
- Traditional advertising (sponsors)
- Selling your own products
- Donations and crowdfunding
- Selling “subscriber-only” content
- Putting on live shows
As Aaron Mahnke, creator of the
Lore podcast says:
“I
always tell podcasters to use as many streams as possible. Don't just
sell ads on your show. Don't just sell T-shirts. Don't just do
crowdfunding. Do all of it. Combine it and find the right mix, and
together it adds up to something that's stronger and more dependable.”
10. Join a Remote Company Part-Time (or Full-Time)
While
most of the ideas for making money online we’ve covered so far can be
done on the side, if you’re looking to completely change your career and
start working online there are thousands of companies looking to hire
who don’t care where you are.
More and more companies and startups
especially are embracing remote work—where you use online collaboration
and communication tools to do your work from wherever you want. And you
don’t have to be a 20-something hotshot designer or coder to reap the
benefits of working remotely. Many remote positions are for customer
support positions or other customer-facing positions that don’t require
specialized skill sets.
Better yet, they aren’t all full-time
either, meaning you can find a remote company and job that works as a
way to make extra money online.
If you’re interested, here’s a list of some of the best places to
find remote jobs today:
- We Work Remotely
- Remote.co
- Remotive
- Skip the Drive
- Virtual Locations
- Remote OK
- Flexjobs
- Staff.com
- Working Nomads
- Jobspresso
- Europeremotely
- Jobscribe
- WFH.IO
- Outsourcely
- PowerToFly
- Landing.Jobs
- AngelList
- Authentic Jobs
- The Muse
- Idealist
- Indeed
...
Now, let's talk about the rest of my picks for
the best ways to make money online.
If
you’re looking to build a new career online, the first ten ways we just
ran through are some of the best, long-term plays for making money
online. However, for a lot of people (myself included), you probably
want to find other, quick online business opportunities where you can
start seeing a return more quickly.
Which is a great idea. Of
course, making money online takes patience and effort. But there are
lots of proven ways you can get started making money today without the
long lead time of building a startup or getting your own freelance
business off the ground.
Also, no matter what your career, it’s
important to diversify where your income is coming from. This means
having multiple revenue streams from multiple sources, like selling your
freelance services, affiliate and passive income, as well as coaching
and other online odd jobs.
Not only will this multiply the money
you’re bringing in in a serious way, but it protects you against any
sudden changes in the market or in your business. Remember that old
saying about putting all your eggs in one basket? A few hours a week
committed to just one or two of the following opportunities will put you
in a much stronger position to be financially safe and independent.
So, no matter what your speciality or niche, there’s a way to use your skills to bring in extra money online for you here:
11. Test Websites
You
probably have a pretty strong idea of what makes a good website. Is the
design clean and easy to navigate? Does the content make sense?
Luckily, there are plenty of people out there who want to hear your
thoughts. And they’ll even pay you decent money for it (most sites pay
~$10 per 20 minutes, or ~$30 per hour!)
To
test these websites, you’ll be asked to visit the site in question and
record your reactions and thoughts as you go through it. To get started
making extra money online by testing websites, sign up for some of the
most popular services like
UserTesting.com,
Userlytics,
TryMyUI,
Userfeel,
TestingTime (for people outside the U.S), or
Side Income Jobs.
12. Narrate Audiobooks
The
audiobook industry is booming, yet only 5% of books ever get made into
audio format. If you’ve got a background in acting, or if people have
said you’ve got a voice made for the radio, you can make extra money
recording audio versions of independent and popular books. Sites like
ACX connect authors with audiobook performers. So, whether you’re an
author looking for more ways to sell your book, or an actor/voice actor
looking to make some extra income, you can sell your services online.
13. Write and Sell an eBook (Amazon Self-Publishing)
So
many people dream of writing a book, but never go through with it. Yet
no matter what, I’m sure you have experience and value you could give
through writing a book. By packaging your skills and knowledge into a
downloadable eBook that helps people learn a skill, advance their
careers, or start a businesses, you can change someone’s life and even
make good money online.
Better yet, you can even upload your own
book to one of the world’s largest book sellers: Amazon. With Amazon
self-publishing, you set the price, retain the rights to your book, and
get access to Amazon’s massive audience. For every sale, you keep 70%
with Amazon taking the remainder as a fee. If you want to get started,
check out Leslie Samuel's great guide to
selling eBooks online or follow Tara Gentile on CreativeLive as she shows you how to use your existing body of work to
write an eBook within the next week. Who knows, you might just write one of the
best business books of this year!
14. Do Micro-Jobs on Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon
Mechanical Turk is a service that lets you make money online through
doing paid microtasks. Each task is something simple that requires human
interaction like rating search results, checking for the right spelling
on search terms, categorizing the tone of an article, or even basic
translating. You can do these tasks from anywhere you want and make
money online from the world’s largest e-retailer.
15. Join a Freelance Network (Like Upwork, or Fiverr)
It
can take time to build up your personal freelance business. Yet, there
is more demand than ever for freelancers. So, if you want to kick start
making money online through freelancing you can join one of the top
freelance networks, such as UpWork, Fiverr, Guru, Freelancer.com, or
PeoplePerHour. Sign up, build your profile, upload some samples of your
work and start making extra money by doing small
freelance jobs.
Even
if you already have experience or freelance clients, these networks can
be a great way to supplement your income and keep work coming in
without spending too much time on cold outreach.
16. Sell Your Services on Niche Sites Like 99Designs, Cloudpeeps or TopTal
If
you’re a skilled worker in a specific niche, like marketing, design, or
software development, there are specialty marketplaces that cater just
to you. These are amazing places to make money online as you know that
the people visiting them are looking specifically for the skills you
have. Check out places like 99Designs or Dribbble for designers,
Cloudpeeps for marketing and SEO professionals, and TopTal, Crew, or
Gigster for high-level software developers. Once you've built up your
development skills, you can begin building a brand for yourself as a
higher-value consultant and start charging brands for larger projects
like implementing an entire
WordPress security overhaul or
migrating a website from http to https.
17. Do Graphic Design for Local Companies
Walk
around your neighborhood or town and I’m sure you’ll see tons of great
local businesses with terrible design. However, with increasingly
easy-to-use tools like
Adobe Illustrator,
Stencil, and
Visme,
just about anyone with a creative mindset and a good amount of
motivation can start making money online by being a graphic designer for
local companies.
18. Email Marketing with a Niche Newsletter (The Skimm, Mister Spoils)
How
many email newsletters are you bombarded with every single day? There’s
a reason for that. Marketing to an actively interested group of email
subscribers is one of the best ways to make money online. There have
even been million-dollar businesses built from simple email newsletters
like
TheSkimm, or
Mister Spoils.
Each newsletter targets a specific type of user with interesting, daily
content, while also partnering with relevant companies and affiliates
to bring in extra money. If this seems daunting, it’s not. Tools like
MailChimp,
ConvertKit, AWeber, and ActiveCampaign, make it easier than ever to get started with email marketing.
19. Sells Products on a Shopify Store
If you’re serious about making money selling things online, it’s pretty much impossible to not recommend
Shopify.
The platform gives you everything you need to get your online store up
and running in less than a day including a custom domain, beautiful
templates (so you don’t need design skills), secure payment options, and
they can even take care of marketing and shipping for you. Whether
you’re selling your own products, designs, or curating other products
for people in your niche,
Shopify is the best option for powering your online store.
20. Sell Your Crafts and Art on Etsy
Etsy
is the most popular online marketplace for handmade goods and crafts.
From bracelets to phone cases, rings, furniture, and more,
Etsy
is perfect for anyone who is creative and wants to sell their handmade
creations. As long as you have the space, this can make for one of the
best ways to make money online that can be started with a very limited
investment. Consider these
5 steps to starting an Etsy store, from Handmadeology.
While
Etsy is a great place to get in front of potential customers who
wouldn’t have otherwise found you, once you’re up and running and have
built a decent audience, you can move your store over to
Shopify and retain a larger portion of the income you make from selling your goods.
21. Become an Influencer on Instagram
Build
up a following on your Instagram account and you could quickly be
making extra money online. Major brands, gear companies, and even
startups are willing to shell out $500-$5,000+ per post to get in front
of your audience. While it’s getting harder and harder to build a
massive Instagram audience, if you already have a solid niche and are
posting quality content regularly, with a few small tweaks you can make
yourself an influencer. Check out this awesome article from Shopify on
how to build and grow your Instagram following to get started.
22. Sell Your Art and Designs on Society6
While
Etsy is fantastic for handmade goods that you’ve already created, if
you’ve got killer designs that would look good on phone cases, t-shirts,
or even wall hangings, pillows, and duvets, you can sell them on
Society6 without paying anything to start.
Society6 lets artists upload their designs and create their own shops
where they choose what products their designs can be used on. That means
one design can be used to make a whole range of awesome products that
are printed and shipped on demand whenever someone buys from you. With
top creators making thousands every month just from selling their
designs.
23. Local Business Consulting
If
you've developed valuable skill sets or picked up certifications within
your industry over the years, offering your consulting services to
local business owners can be a lucrative way to make money online.
Whether you're an expert marketer, business strategist, or manufacturing
aficionado, there's likely a local business owner who's willing to pay
you to help them solve an issue with their company. Start with this
18-step checklist to becoming a local business consultant from Karyn Greenstreet and then use my guide to
crafting an effective cold email to convince them to hire you.
24. Sell Stock Photos Online
If you have a fondness and talent for taking pictures you can make extra money online by
becoming a stock photographer and selling your images to a stock photo company like
ShutterStock or
iStockPhoto.
You’ll get royalties every time someone licenses an image you’ve
submitted. To really be successful, build your own photography website
to be able to showcase your portfolio and start getting higher-paid
private corporate work.
25. Rent Your Home or Room on AirBnB
Not only is
Airbnb
a great way to make extra money online by renting out your spare
bedroom, but you also get the benefit of meeting new people (if that's
your kind of thing). You can even rent out an entirely new apartment
just to manage as an Airbnb. But don't make the mistake of thinking this
will be a passive source of income—you're on call whenever you have a
guest and you'll always need to keep the place clean for incoming
visitors. On top of just renting on Airbnb, consider offering your
guests paid add-ons, like Lauren Gheysens',
Royal Day Out in London, England—where she gives visitors a local's only tour of the city, complete with bespoke 18th century costumes.
26. Start an Online T-Shirt Business
It’s
sometimes hard to comprehend just how much people love t-shirts. And
with the right niche, marketing, and tools, you can create an online
t-shirt business that makes you extra money online while you sleep.
(Even
Bloomberg and
Forbes
feature stories from entrepreneurs who've done just that.) Services
like TeeSpring make it easier than ever to create a t-shirt
drop-shipping business where they handle the sales, printing, and
shipping, and you’re only responsible for design and marketing. For more
tips, check out this simple guide to launching and marketing an
online clothing store by my friends over at Selz.
27. Sell Your Expertise on Clarity.fm
If
you’ve got experience and expertise in a specific area of business,
there are hundreds if not thousands of business owners who would love to
jump on a phone call and pick your brain. This can be an easy way to
make extra money online and to hone your skills to use in your
consulting or freelance business. Sites like
Clarity.fm
let you create a profile where entrepreneurs and business owners can
pre-pay to book a phone call with you for a set amount of time. Whether
you’re an expert in raising money for startups, building apps, or
running a restaurant, you can make extra money selling a few minutes of
your time to people in need.
28. Answer Professional Questions on JustAnswer
If
it’s not clear yet, information and expertise are two of the most
consistent and lucrative ways to make extra money online. If you don’t
like talking on the phone, you can sign up to get paid to answer
professional questions on
JustAnswer.
There are thousands of questions being asked every month from people
looking for help from lawyers, doctors, mechanics, vets, and more. To
apply, you’ll need to supply your professional verification, resume, and
a form of identification.
29. Become a Virtual Assistant
If
you have a knack for organization, you can make money online as a
virtual assistant helping people to keep their days in order. A virtual
assistant will do everyinthing from bookkeeping to research, database
entry, booking travel, and managing email. It can also be an awesome way
to rub shoulders with some very important people, build up your
professional network, and of course grow another stream of income. You
can find great gigs on UpWork, Fiverr, Indeed, and Remote.co.
30. Get a Commission-Only Sales Gig
If
you’re willing to take on some risk and have the heart of a true
hustler, you can make extra money online doing commission-only sales for
startups and other businesses. While you won’t be getting a regular
salary, with the right
sales strategies and skills as an
inside sales
rep, you can make decent money for each sale you bring in. And because
you’ll most likely be working with startups, if you can negotiate a
little equity you could profit big time if you're pitching a solid
product and the startup succeeds.
If you need to brush up on your sales skills, check out online courses like
Sales Training and Prospecting on Udemy,
The Guide to Pitching and Selling Clients on CreativeLive. And once you’re ready, head over to
Angel List and see if there any open sales position opportunities align with your interests.
31. Teach English as a Virtual Tutor
Teaching
and tutoring English as a second language is a great way to make money
online, not to mention open some doors for you to travel the world if
you'd like. While full ESL (English as a Second Language)
accreditation
is recommended, as long as you’re a native speaker and have the ability
to teach, there are people in countries such as Hong Kong or the UAE
who are willing to pay upwards of $25/hr for you to tutor them English
via Skype. Check out
Indeed,
Learn4Good and
Remote.co for remote english tutoring jobs or sign up on a specialized site like
VerbalPlanet or
Chegg Tutors.
32. Guest Post as a Freelance Writer for Niche Websites
If
you’ve got a way with words and expertise in a niche, there are plenty
of sites that will pay for articles and content you write. Think of the
sites you read regularly. What can you contribute to them that would be
interesting? Research your niche and then look for ways to pitch
articles. Many sites will simply have a submission or contact link in
the footer. To get started, check out my full guide to becoming a
freelance writer on the side and then submit your articles to places like
Listverse,
TopTenz,
A List Apart,
International Living,
FundsforWriters, and
Textbroker.
33. Write on Medium’s Partner Program
Medium
is an online community where anyone can post articles and essays and
get them in front of their audience of millions of monthly readers.
While it can be a great place to build your audience for your own blog
or find customers for your consulting business, with
Medium’s new Partner Program,
you can now make money online whenever someone reads your articles.
Register for free and you can choose whether your articles are freely
available or only readable by those people paying $5/month for a premium
Medium membership. You’ll make money based on the amount of people who
read and engage with your posts each month.
34. Help People with Their Tax Prep
It’s
not the sort of online money making opportunity that’s covered in
glory, but everyone needs a set of eyes to make sure the numbers add up
at the end of the year. Every business and most individuals need someone
to help prepare tax returns, especially time or resource-strapped small
business owners. The
Income Tax School
provides an array of training programs that'll certify you with tax
prep in as little as 10 weeks, and once tax season rolls around you'll
be able to charge an
average of $229 per return as a freelance tax preparer with this side business idea, reports CNBC.
35. Transcribe Audio and Interviews
Journalists,
doctors, lawyers, academics, and researchers record interviews every
single day and need someone to transcribe what’s been said. So, if
you’re comfortable with listening to the same audio over and over while
writing it down you can make good money online doing transcriptions.
Most services pay anywhere from $15 to $25 per hour of transcribed
audio. If you specialize and have training in legal or medical
transcription you can make even more. If you’re a beginner
transcriptionist you can find jobs at Transcribe Anywhere, TranscribeMe,
Quicktate, Rev, Tigerfish, and Crowdsurf.
36. Proofread Articles
As
long as there is still the written word, there will always be editors.
Freelance editing and proofreading not only pays a decent hourly wage,
it also gives you the chance to read about potentially interesting
topics too. What's more, pursuing
freelance writing & editing as a business idea can afford you a lifestyle that lets you
travel the world as a digital nomad. You can find lots of job postings from companies and individuals in need of writing, proofreading, and editing services on
Upwork, which makes this a high-demand opportunity to make money online.
37. Private Labelling and Selling Products on Amazon
More
than half a billion products are sold on Amazon every month, making it
an incredible opportunity to make money online. But, like everything
else that involves making money online, you have to do quite a bit of
work to earn it. One option on Amazon is to find products that are
already made and buy and sell them at a discount. For example, you could
research generic products such as clocks, keychains and mugs to attach
to your brand. For an incredible deep dive on how to make extra money
with this strategy, check out how digital marketer Neil Patel recently
did this as a public experiment
right here on his blog.
38. Online Travel Consultant
If you love to travel and find yourself randomly searching for airfare sales or browsing
Lonely Planet,
why not carve out a niche for yourself as a private travel agent? My
friend, Mark Jackson did just that, making extra money online with his
travel consulting
side business. Start with word of mouth recommendations from friends
who know they can count on you for the cheapest flights, and then move
on and create a Facebook or LinkedIn group to invite people who want to
stay on top of the latest deals. Eventually you could spin this into a
full-time consultancy teaching people how to
make their dream trip a reality.
39. Do Virtual Odd Jobs on TaskRabbit
If you don’t mind doing other people’s chores, then
TaskRabbit
is a great option for making money online. Earn extra income by walking
your neighbor’s dog or mowing Mr. Smith’s lawn. It might seem like not
the most lucrative option, but the top taskers reportedly
earn as much as $7000 a month, making this a full-time way to make money online for some.
40. Clean Up Search Engines
Ever
see a Google result and say “How the heck did that get there?” While
Google and other search engines use powerful algorithms to determine
what pages to show for search results, there are real people making
money online by making sure the machines are doing their job correctly.
With sites like
Appen and
LionBridge
you can make money by conducting researches on predefined search
queries and providing feedback for results based on their relevance.
41. Enter Online Contests for Company Names and Slogans
Do
you constantly come up with witty one-liners? Do you dream of the days
of Mad Men-style advertising? If you’ve got some branding chops or just
come up with imaginative copy, there are lots of opportunities to make
money online through company naming and slogan contests. If you think
you have a knack for names check out
namingforce.com and
squadhelp.com. If you dream of coming up with witty copy, try coming up with company slogans on
Slogan Slingers and
Get a Slogan.
42. Get Paid for Being Healthy
It doesn’t pay much, but if you’re a healthy person and want to make a bit of extra money online, the
AchieveMint
app will reward you for doing things like walking, tracking your food,
or taking health surveys. AchieveMint works by connecting to fitness
apps you might already be using like Fitbit, RunKeeper, Healthkit, and
MyFitnessPal and then giving you points for certain actions. For every
10,000 points, you earn $10 with no limit on your earnings.
43. Write Reviews of the Places You’ve Been
When
was the last time you went to a new restaurant without looking it up
online beforehand? Or bought a product that didn’t have at least a few
5-star reviews? It seems like more and more our world is run on reviews.
And you can make money online by writing them. Get started by creating
accounts on sites like
Vindale research,
Software Judge,
FameBit,
CrowdTap,
Influence Central, and
Modern Mom.
However, before you run off and start writing, be sure to check the
small print on each of these sites. Writing reviews isn’t a huge source
of guaranteed income and you want to make sure that it’s worth your time
before you get going.
44. Do Data Entry for Companies
If
you’re a stickler for details and have quick typing skills, you can
make money online by entering data for companies. Simply search “data
entry” jobs on places like Craigslist, Indeed, or UpWork.
45. College Admissions Essay Editor
If editing and advising college students on how to write compelling 500 word essays on topics such as "
You were just invited to speak at the White House. Write your speech,"
seems like something you would want to do, you can make good money
online. Trust me, tons of parents will pay you to edit admissions essays
and offer constructive feedback for their children. Look for open
positions at top editing companies like
Scribendi,
Top Admit, or
Essay Edge or post your services online on Craigslist and other marketplaces.
46. Help New Teachers by Selling Your Teaching Plan
Being
a new teacher can be nerve wracking. Which is why so many people are
looking to buy your old teaching plans to help them feel more
comfortable in front of their first class. If you’re a teacher, you can
make money online through a site like
Teachers Pay Teachers, which lets you buy and sell your original teaching materials.
47. Give Your Opinion in Online Focus Groups and Surveys
If
you want to help shape products in their early stages, joining an
online focus group or answering survey questions is a great way to make
extra money online. They don’t pay as much as some of the other options
we’ve highlighted, but you can join groups on sites like
Pro Opinion,
Swagbucks, and
IPSOS
that pay out through Amazon gift cards, check, or PayPal. You’ll be
asked to provide a bit of information about your demographics (age,
location, etc…), but after that you can get going making money through
surveys.
48. Maintain Artist Fan Pages
Your
favorite artist, musician, or entrepreneur often needs help maintaining
their fan pages on Twitter and Facebook. If you have a bit of a
background in social media you can make money online looking after these
pages by looking for jobs on
Fiverr.
49. Look After Other People’s Pets
In
2017, there were almost 90 million pet dogs in the US. Which has opened
up a huge opportunity to make money online as a dog watcher or sitter.
Specialized sites like
Rover or
Care.com
connect pet owners with pet walkers, sitters, and boarding houses to
help look after their best friends when they’re at work or on a trip. If
you’re an animal lover, you can make extra money and get to spend some
quality time with a furry friend.
50. Sell Your Old Smartphone and Other Tech Goods
The global used smartphone industry
is worth a staggering $5 billion.
Which means that old phone you forgot about in your cabinet could be
worth some serious money. There are tons of sites online that will
either buy your old smartphone outright or let you list your phone for
the thousands of people out there not willing to shell out $1000+ for a
shiny new iPhone. Check out
Orchard,
Gazelle,
Swappa, or
Glyde to make extra money online by selling your smartphone or other electronics.
51. Sell Your Old Books
If
you want to clear some space out in your house and have a big stack of
books you’ve been holding onto for too long, you can make money selling
your books and textbooks online. Stores like
Half Priced Books
and others will give you cents on the dollar for each of your current
books while you can check what your book is worth by simply entering the
ISBN number on
Book Scouter.
52. Rent or Sell Your Clothes Online
Is
your closet bursting with clothes you’re simply not wearing anymore?
Rather than take them to a local thrift or consignment store, you can
make money online by renting to selling your clothes. Check out sites
like
Tradesy,
SnapGoods.com,
Loanables.com, and
RentNotBuy.com.
53. Online Dating Consultant
Believe
it or not, some people have such a difficult time with dating, they
don’t even want to participate in the online (or app-based) component of
it. If you’re a smooth talker, you can leverage that skill into making
money online as a matchmaker on sites like
eFlirtExpert.
54. Rent Your Car on Turo
If you own a car but barely use it, you can make some easy money online by renting it out on
Turo.
Before you freak out, rest easy knowing there’s a $1 Million insurance
policy on all cars rented on Turo, plus drivers are prescreened.
55. Become an Online News Writer or Columnist
You
don’t need to have a degree in journalism to make money online as a
reporter or columnist these days. Plus, there are many news websites
that can always use a bit of help on getting local coverage. Some of
them, such as
The Examiner, will compensate contributors based on ad revenue generated per article written.
56. Buy and Sell Domain Names
Imagine being the original owner of Insure.com (which sold for
$16 Million in 2009).
Domain
name trading has been around for the last couple decades, and while
most slam-dunk names have long been sold off, there’s still plenty of
others that you can get your hands on for relatively cheap and broker as
a way to make money online. Before you dive in, however, beware that
some
experts doubt the long-term viability
of this idea for making money online. However, there’s always the
change you might just land on a lucrative domain name for a future
billion-dollar company. To get you started, here are
some tips from GoDaddy, arguably the world’s largest and most famous repository of domain names.
57. Do Data Analysis for Companies
Got
a thing for numbers? Plenty of companies pay talented contractors who
are good at data analysis, making this a potentially lucrative way to
make money online, if you have the right credentials and experience.
Platforms like
Upwork and
Digiserved are just two of many websites that are great for freelancers with an analytical prowess.
58. Online Personal Trainer or Fitness Coach
If
you’re a fitness buff and have the right combination of charisma and
business sense, working as a part-time online personal trainer can be
both physically and financially rewarding. Once you build up a
reputation and client base for yourself, it could easily turn into a
full-time endeavor for you. Check out
this interview with several fitness blog owners
who are making a living online, from MonetizePros. As well, I'd
recommend checking out this resource if you want to take this business
idea seriously and get started with a
business plan for your personal fitness trainer business today.
59. Sell Your Songs
The
music industry might not be as strong as it was in the 80s, but there
are still plenty of ways to make money online as a musician. Sites like
SoundBetter let you sell your services as a songwriter, producer, or session musician to thousands of customers a month. While
Musicbed,
Music Vine,
Marmoset, and
SongFreedom are perfect for licensing your music to TV shows, movies, and web series.
60. Subcontract Your Extra Work and Start an Online Agency
Once you’ve established yourself in any of the numerous freelance verticals online, spending your time focusing just on doing
inside sales (booking
freelance contracts
with high-value clients) and then subcontracting your work out to other
freelancers can be a great way to make money online. Rather than simply
selling your own time, you’ll be building a business that can scale and
grow beyond the hours you have to sell each day.
61. Create DIY or Cooking Videos
You
know those top-down cooking or craft videos you just can’t seem to get
away from these days? There are people out there making a living from
them. 78% of B2C companies depend on user-generated content, like those
videos, for their marketing campaigns. You can sign up as a creator on a
site like
Darby Smart
and potentially work with brands like Nordstrom, Mattel, and BarkBox.
Or, use them to build your YouTube following and monetize through ads
and views.
62. Edit Videos Online
Video
is growing like crazy. And more and more people are looking for
professional help cutting their raw footage into viral-worthy content.
If you have the right software and a bit of skill, you can easily make
money online as a video editor. Check out these article of
Fstoppers on how to become an online video editor and then look for relevant jobs on
Mandy.com,
Creative Cow Job Search, or
ProductionHub.
63. Build a Niche Website
Find
an audience for your passion or hobby and you’re all set to make money
online doing something you love via a niche website. That of course, is
easier said than done. Creating a profitable niche website takes time
and is not intended for the faint of heart. But, if you can hurdle the
steep challenges and positively answer
a few key questions
on whether the website business idea you’re thinking about is
profitable, then you can begin building it and eventually monetize
through advertising, affiliates, or other relevant products.
64. Become a Contract Customer Service Superstar
Like
talking to people and helping walk them through problems? You can bring
in extra income as a contract customer support superstar for companies
all over the world. Due to the 24/7 nature of online businesses,
companies are looking for people in different time zones to help deal
with issues that their users are having. Better yet, if you have
experience in service or retail you’ll be perfectly suited. Check out
indeed or the other remote job boards I listed earlier to find
opportunities.
65. Buy an Existing Website
Websites
aren't too dissimilar to stocks. Many are junk, but some can generate
serious income for you, making buying an existing website a strong
potential idea for making money online (if you have an eye for spotting
the diamond in the rough). You can buy and sell websites in the hope of
generating future earnings based on their user traffic, current revenue
intake, domain name, or some other factors that might be a hidden cash
cow everyone else has overlooked. Interested? Check out marketplaces
like
Flippa and
Flipping Enterprises to learn more.
66. Become an Online Notary
Every year,
hundreds of millions of documents are notarized
in the United States: wills, mortgages, citizenship forms, handgun
applications. While for decades, this has all been done in person, there
is a budding crop of sites that allow notaries to take their services
online. If you’re already a notary, you can sell your services online.
Or, if you want to get started, check out the National Notary’s
checklist for becoming a certified notary.
67. Run Corporate Workshops
Another
way to utilize your talent and business skills is to run corporate
workshops online. Businesses are always looking for unique ways to help
educate their workforce, and if you can package your talents into a day
or half-day long session, you can sell that to companies all over the
world to make money online. Start by building a portfolio and then
reaching out on LinkedIn to influencers at relevant companies to see if
they would be interested in you teaching their team.
68. Lend Your Voice to Voice-Overs
Has
anyone ever told you you have a voice for radio? Are you great at
creating original characters with just your voice? There are tons of
people looking to pay for quality voice overs for their corporate
videos, animation series, or educational videos. Check out Fiverr and
UpWork or create a profile on a specialized site like
Voices.com or
The Voice Realm to get started making money online doing voice overs.
69. Small Business Marketing Consultant
If
you have experience with marketing, SEO, or a knack for getting people
excited about the products and services you use on a regular basis,
think about refining your skills and putting them to work making money
online as a small business marketing consultant in your
region—especially if you can become a
local SEO expert
and can help local clients rank higher in their search results.
Businesses of all sizes are in constant need of bringing in more
customers, which is where you come in with your business idea. Start by
pitching creative small business marketing ideas to local businesses and
you'll be sure to impress the first set of clients you begin working
with in your area.
70. What'd I miss?
With the explosion of online businesses, there has never been a better time to look for ways to make money online.
From
huge, life-changing endeavors like starting a business, to taking on
part-time consulting or coaching clients or just answering surveys,
there’s certainly a few ways you can start making money online today and
feeling more financially safe and secure.
What did I miss?
Let me know your own personal ways for making money online (in the comments), share some details, and I’ll add them to the list.
ver been easier and when it comes to promoting your business or making money, having a blog can do wonders.
Plus, creating a blog today is so easy, you don’t even need to learn
CSS, PHP, HTML, or any other intricate language to get started.
