My youngest brother lost his job and asked me, Jimbo, what about earning money online? He knows it's what I do for a living and I told him it could be done a few ways. But then I thought, rather than telling him, I'd answer the question in a post so he could read my much more thorough answer.
This way, everyone else who asks this same question can be answered also. I can just say here's a link, read for yourself (I'm lazy and don't like repeating myself, gimme a break!) He wanted to know how it's done and he was under the impression there was only one way. But there are thousands of ways, actually, so here are a few of the most popular.
Freedom. It's about time freedom, money freedom and the freedom to be your own boss. It's also about location freedom. Making money online is about building your own dreams instead of building the dreams of your boss.
People call it the laptop lifestyle, but I prefer my desktop computer for making money online. I could use my laptop if I wanted, to run my business while out and about but I don't need to, really, unless I go on a trip somewhere. My wife might not like it, but the option is there if I want it.
Table of Contents
Why Might You Want to Make Money Online?
As I mentioned above, there are so many reasons you might want to make money online. You could be fed up of working for someone else. You could be a student who's desperately trying to find extra money for your studies. You may be a retiree who's not getting enough of a pension to live on. You could be unemployed or underemployed.
You could have a full-time job already but you're not making enough to cover your household expenses. The worldwide economy is not doing so well these days and it could be about to get much worse.
Below, I've listed just some of the most popular ways that I know of to make extra income online. Some of them could be full-time jobs in themselves and can be extremely profitable. But don't fire your boss until you are making more than what he pays you. Be sensible, be cautious.
The best way to work online is by doing a few different things on this list so that all your eggs are not in one basket. If one thing goes belly up you can stay in business with your other ways to make money.
In What Ways Can You Earn Money Online?
My goodness, don't ask me that one! Because there are hundreds of online business models, if not thousands and I can't go through them all today. Here are asome popular choices off the top of my head. If you feel I've missed some out, let me know below in the comments and I'll add them.
Teaching online
Do you have a bit of a teacher in you? What about earning money online by teaching? If you like to teach people stuff you know about then you could teach just about anything online. A good example would be teaching English to foreign students. Heck, some of them you don't even really have to teach, you just talk! Watch this example I've pulled from YouTube.
An Example of what Teaching English Online is like
How'd you like to get paid for speaking your own language while someone listens? This can be done in the comfort of your own home at the times of day you choose. Some pay upwards of $15 an hour. A great way if you like meeting people and teaching, to make money on the internet.
Complete Surveys Online
What about earning money online by visiting paid online survey sites? There are websites that provide you with a way to make money by answering questions. I don't mind some of them but some can be a little intrusive, asking you about illness and financial stuff.
Some are not too bad, such as the ones that ask you stuff like, "have you bought any shampoo in the last week" or, "did you eat in a fast food restaurant in the past three months.
One such website I know of is PaidViewPoint.com. I wasn't too keen on it because they underpaid me because I was not in America or a western country. I was very annoyed with it, read much more about that one here.
Sell Stuff On Ebay
This is a popular way to earn money selling things online. You could, for example, sell some of your unused, unwanted second-hand items there. Make sure you learn the correct way to list things, though. It's all about maximum exposure and using the right keywords and taking photographs is beneficial.
You could also go out to thrift stores and buy lots of stuff to sell there. you wouldn't believe some of the things that sell really well on eBay, some of which, most people would call junk. It can be just what someone is looking for.
Funny guy KingHuman talks about selling on Ebay
Sell Stuff on your website
If you have your own website you could sell things on it. You're not limited to selling stuff on ebay or similar sites and there are lots of other avenues to take advantage of such as your own site. There are ways to get sites dirt cheap or even free. If you'd like to learn about one way to get started with your own business website with free training included (level 1) then check this out.
Blogging
This would be called "niche marketing" which is affiliate marketing where you write about a narrowly chosen topic such as dog training for puppies.
You would then join an affiliate program for dog training related things, an example could be Amazon products. Join Amazon Associates to do that, it's free.
Build websites for others
Websites are easy enough to build with WordPress these days, in fact, so easy it's incredible. Just ten years ago it was a lot harder than it is now. Building websites with WordPress is cheap, simple and fun to do. All of my websites have been built with WordPress, this one being no exception.
Build a website yourself and sell it at Flippa.com. Of course, it is best to have a bit of content on there as that will earn you a bit more money than a bare site would. Some websites (their domain names in particular) are highly sought after by people who simply "must have" that name. It's the same kind of thing as personalized number plates for vehicles.
Write for other people
Just because it's easy to build a website it doesn't mean you have to have one to write articles for money. Maybe you don't want one but you like writing.
You could write for other people who have websites. I would start with fiverr.com for that and there are also site such as upwork.com and freelancer.com.
There are many more. Those 3 should start you off nicely. You're not limited to just one, so see what works best for you and take a loot at all of them. Personally, I think it's better to keep your own writing for your own website because it can be more profitable that way.
PTC sites
What about earning money online with PTC? This means Paid to Click. There are hundreds and maybe thousands of these sites online. You have to click on ads and watch them.
They don't pay much for each ad you watch, but there are ways to get paid more, such as referring people under you through your affiliate link.
Get a few people signed up and clicking ads and you could build up a nice little revenue stream doing it. You're going to have to start at the bottom, though, as everyone does.
They are all free to join, so go ahead and join lots. Each one takes only a few minutes per day and if you combine them and get referrals to join under you there is potential for a lot of money to be made.
Sell stuff on Craigslist
You could sell stuff on Craigslist, rather than sites like eBay. You could also sell your services. Maybe you might want to buy stuff cheap, and then sell it on again. There are so many opportunities and ways to leverage things like eBay, amazon, Etsy and Craigslist. You should use your imagination to come up with lots of ways to make money with such sites.
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Write ebooks
Did you know that you can self-publish your own ebooks on Amazon? I believe the current commission that Amazon gives to you is 65% of each book you sell. Amazon takes 35% for their services. Let's do the math, if you sold one ebook at $10 you'd get $6.50. Multiply that by many times and I think you get the picture, right?
Write more than one book and you can increase revenues from kindle books greatly. Amazon takes all the hard work out of promoting your books so that you don't have to. So it's something to keep in mind when you consider this.
Ebooks are digital products
Remember, ebooks are digital products, so you could theoretically sell millions of copies and it would cost you no more than it cost you to write one book. Beats paper books if you ask me! Some people make a lot of money selling their own ebooks that they didn't even write. They outsource the writing and the designing of the book covers.
Such a program to teach you how to do that is K Money Mastery 2.0, it has many good reviews and is very popular. K Money Mastery teaches you all about the ins and outs of self-publishing on Amazon, getting the work outsourced and how you can potentially make thousands of dollars a month. Sounds good, right? Check out K Money Mastery 2.0 here.
Another thing to consider. Kindle books now outsell physical books at Amazon. Think about that for a minute, that's a big deal!
Make videos
You can start a youtube channel for free and it takes only about a minute to do. Of course after creating your Youtube channel you might want to get some videos on there. Your own videos are the best way to go. You could have a channel that caters for one topic alone or you could have several channels for many topics.
An example of a channel could be how to video tutorials on something you feel you could teach. After you get your channel up and running, get advertising put on it so you can make a nice bit of passive income. It's easy and free to do! Got a camera or a webcam? Go for it!
Google Adsense
What about earning money online with advertising provided by google Adsense? If you have your own website, you can apply to google to have AdSense ads on it. Google's AdSense is what a lot of people like to use to generate extra revenues from things that are related to the stuff you have on your website.
For example, if you had a website about golf then Adsense could be advertising golf related things in their ads on that site. It's free to join but you should make sure that you have enough content on your website before applying to get it because they often turn people down with brand new websites and little content.
Fiverr gigs
Fiverr is a website where people go to find other people that can do particular things for them. Got a website that you need a logo for? Go to Fiverr.com. If you have skills that are in demand you could make a full-time income just doing Fiverr gigs. There are many things you could do for others that they'd gladly pay for. Likewise, it's a good place for finding people to do something for you.
Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)
I am not too keen on this business model. Why? I feel it's too pressurized and I've heard many tales of highly stressed out individuals that can't help spamming facebook and other social media with their offers, desperately trying to get signups and commissions. It smacks of pyramid or Ponzi schemes to me. They can end up losing friends and falling out with family members too.
I'm not keen on MLM at all. But you might be, you might take to it like a duck to water and be really good at it without pissing people off. Be careful though and only sell stuff that you know is good stuff. Many times there seems to be no real product of value and you're just perpetuating something for those at the top of the pyramid. Don't get burned.
Sell photos
Are you good at photography? Digital photography makes it so easy these days to sell your work online. Isn't the internet amazing? There are specialized sites that sell your photographs for you, and of course, you can also buy photographs too.
Go check them out if you fancy yourself as a decent photographer. Good pictures are highly sought after.
Buy stuff locally and sell it online
You can buy stuff in thrift stores second hand and sell them on eBay or other such sites. You could even have your own website to sell stuff on. How about going in junk stores, antique stores, or even stores that sell new stuff, finding bargains and then selling them online? Some people make this a full-time job, and they do very well with it.
Buy and sell Domains
Go to Flippa.com to buy or sell websites in the same way as you would buy real estate. Some websites are in high demand simply because of the domain name.
Buy a site, spruce it up a bit, sell it on at a profit to someone who just must have that domain name. You could also buy a website that you really want to keep or you could sell a website that you're tired of dealing with.
Design and Sell T-shirts
What about making money online with your own T-shirt business? Create your own custom designs and print them on T-shirts and sell them. There's a business model in itself. Not my preferred method of making money but hey, we're all different and it could be the ideal model for you.
Be a Virtual Assistant
Outsourcing is big business in today's information age and because the internet was born it makes this process of outsourcing so much simpler.
Again, places like Fiverr, upwork and freelancer are where to go to find stuff that needs to be outsourced and maybe you can fill a void for someone. Good at something in particular, like accounting? There are people who can't do that themselves and they'll gladly pay you to do it for them. Check google search also, there's a gazillion other places you could look at for that.
Sell hand-made goods
Some people make money creating art or craft and sell it online. The first website that springs to my mind for this is Etsy.com. They deal in crafty, arty and hand made stuff. Into pottery?
You could sell your sublime works of art there. Do you have a skill for things like making decorative ornaments or caricatures? Go to Etsy.com and get yourself into that model of business and it could be more than just your bread and butter.
Sell Amazon products on your website
This is affiliate marketing. You can join Amazon Associates and pick and choose products you'd like to promote on your site. The commissions vary depending on what type of product it is. I've learned the commissions range up to about 10%. Not bad when it's not even your own stuff. It could be a wide-screen ultra high-definition TV or it could be an ebook.
Amazon is your oyster, there's every kind of product you can imagine at there. You could choose just one type of product like televisions of the 4K ultra hd variety and create a niche website all about that topic.Then you'd have Amazon's products advertised on that site.
When people come to your website to read all about a specific television you reviewed and they click on the ad, ka-ching You make a commission from Amazon. Nice work! If you'd like to find out where I learned how to sell Amazon stuff on my websites read this.
Design mobile apps
Are you a bit of an app developer? You could create and sell apps or games for mobile and tablet devices such as apple and android. You'd add them to app stores, for example, google play store.
When people come across it on their phones they might buy it. Nice little earner if you can create a must have app. Angry birds, anyone? Fitness tracking app, anyone?
Revshare
Revenue share sites like traffic monsoon always seem to do really well, until they flop. Traffic Monsoon is one such site and it's been around since October 2014. It's one of those sites that a lot of people go crazy for then suddenly they lose a lot of money.
These sites claim to send quality traffic to your website, too, which is far from true in that the quality of traffic is very low. Avoid this kind of thing, sure. You can make money, that's not my beef, but you'll likely lose in the long run.
If you get in early, keep an eye on what happens, often times they collapse when they've got lots of members and many end up out of pocket, sometimes thousands of dollars.
Charles Scoville, of Traffic Monsoon, talks about PayPal issues
Bet online
Not my cup of tea but you might be good at it. There's a lot of gambling websites, I'm not suggesting for one minute that you get into that if you're new to it. You could make a fortune, but most likely, you will lose a fortune.
Remember the term, "The house always wins" and go for something a little more stable instead, is my advice. Build a more certain business online.
Forex (again, this is just like betting and too risky)
This is very much the same as above in that it's gambling. You take a 50/50 bet on a currency going up or down. Again, I don't like this and you would be better off forgetting the whole idea. Enough said.
Get money back when shopping online
There are sites such as Ebates.com where they provide money back and discount vouchers for many online retailers, like amazon and walmart. This is not really "making money" online, rather, it's "saving money" online. If you're always buying things online anyway, it might save you a lot of money to join ebates and see what you can get discounts on when you visit Amazon to buy that must have gift.
Music Reviews
There is one such site, slicethepie.com that actually pays you to listen to new music by up coming wannabe big time bands. Weird, right, to get paid for listening to something? Well yes you can. You can also get paid to watch things or play games online, again, strange right?
I suppose it's a test bed for the creators of music, video or games and is a valuable thing for them to do. Try getting people to listen to your new music for free, and that might explain why people are willing to pay for others to "test" their media, to see if people are going to like it.
Cryptocurrency Trading
Bitcoin is a digital currency that is on the rise and seems to be the way of the future. If you could get yourself somehow involved with collecting bitcoins they can go up in value over a short time.
I've heard incredible things about bitcoin. Governments don't seem to like this kind of currency much at all, because they can't regulate it.
Digital currency is not illegal and it's definitely around to stay, so don't let the governments stop you. A bitcoin is worth hundreds of dollars, by the way. You can buy devices known as bitcoin miners. Also you can make bitcoins online or pay for things using bitcoin. If you'd like to learn more about bitcoin, try this.
As you can see in this list, there are a lot of ways to make money online these days. I haven't even scratched the surface here and this list would go on forever if I kept going. These things seem to be some of the most popular methods of making money on the internet. They will continue to be popular as long as the internet exists.
What Ways to Make Money Online Would You Prefer?
If you ever hear the question, what about earning money online and you want to answer it in full, mention this article and then you'll save yourself a long winded explanation. I'd love to know what you like to earn money with or would like to make money with online.
If you have any suggestions to add to this list, let me know and I'll add them. What's the best way to make money online for you? Comment below with your answer and I will get back to you asap. Thanks for reading.
Jim
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Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away… Jim got a chronic case of sciatica and lost his job. However, Jim used this opportunity to learn how to build websites with WordPress and then to make money online. Jim wants to help you do the same, while helping you to avoid the plethora of scams. Let Jim help you earn your first $1000 online from home. Cheers and see you soon!
Great Article James.
However, I’d like to point out that some of these methods are very risky and MLM marketing in many cases requires an investment.
Also at one point I thought about using bitcoin but realized the taxes were too much of a hassle.
Thanks for dropping by, Chris.
Yes, I don’t like MLM, or anything gambling. I’d rather build a legitimate business from the ground up. If you haven’t heard of Wealthy Affiliate, I recommend them highly for teaching online marketing, email marketing, building websites and much more besides. They taught me all I know and I’m learning heaps every day.
https://beststayhomejobs.com/learn-to-earn-here
Cheers,
James