Are you tired of wasting hours of the day sitting in traffic on the way to the office? Do you arrive at work to a job you hate, with colleagues you can’t stand?
Unfortunately, this is a reality for millions of Americans in the workforce.
You can count yourself among the lucky few if you have a job that you enjoy. Many people battle through the working day, wasting their talent and their lives so they can support their family and pay the bills.
What if you could work from the comfort of home, and spend more quality time with your kids? Think about all the savings you would make on gas and other peripheral gas station purchases in the course of a year. How much time would you save in your commute?
We decided to help you break free from the chains of corporate slavery, and give you a few ideas on how to make money at home using the internet. Start small and build yourself toward your goal of earning a full-time income online, from the comfort of your couch.
Also Read: Our Guide to the Best Online Jobs
Choose Your Model
Before you start going through our list of online money-making opportunities, it’s essential to define the strategy you want to use. If you have a full-time job, and you’re happy with your working environment, then you might only need a side hustle to make some extra cash.
If you need to earn a second income and want a part-time job, then there are plenty of options available. However, if you’re looking for full-time employment, then you’ll also find that you have numerous occupations and employers looking to hire you for your skillset.
You need to decide how far you want to take your money-making ideas, and how much time you can afford to spend on building your online career each week.
Take Surveys
Surveys are one of the most popular methods of making money online. While you won’t be able to make a full-time living using this strategy, it will help put a few extra dollars in your bank account at the end of the month.
There are dozens of survey firms online looking for candidates to take part in their studies. In most cases, more than 80-percent of surveys focus on the American market, so you’ll need U.S. citizenship to apply.
Read: Take Surveys for Money: Best Online Survey Sites
Surveys are fun to complete and involve answering a few questions on your phone. You’ll finish in less than 10-minutes, and you can earn anywhere from $3 to $10 per survey that you take.
The survey companies award you points, and you have the option of trading these points for a PayPal cash payout, or gift cards from leading retailers like Amazon. Filling out surveys is an excellent, low-risk means of starting your online career.
Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie is the most well-known platform which will pay you for taking surveys. They have been around for over 14 years and are the leader in this area.
You can take surveys and complete other assignments to earn points which can then be redeemed for real money via PayPal. While some survey sites have a strict admission policy or even ask you for money SurveyJunkie isn’t one of them.
In fact, SurveyJunkie is the research subsidiary of DISQO!, which is a totally respectable silicon-valley company. The site is also super easy to join, although unless you live in the UK, USA, or Australia, you are unlikely to make much on the platform.
SurveyJunkie will actually give you 100 points (100 SurveyJunkie points = $1 USD) for signing up to the site and doing a few tutorials, and you should have no trouble building your survey earnings from there.
Visit Survey Junkie or Read our Full Review here.
Swagbucks
Swagbucks offer online surveys alongside a whole host of other ways to earn money and gift cards such as watching videos, using their search engine, completing daily activities and polls. You can opt to be paid in real cash, or get gift cards to merchants like Amazon if you just want some extra online spending money.
Earning money with Swagbucks is pretty straightforward. All you have to do is signup, and start doing surveys. If you spend a lot of time on the site and live in an area that is in-demand, you should be able to clear $5-7 USD per hour most of the time.
Swagbucks also has some cool programs to boost your earnings. The platform has lots of affiliate links on popular shopping sites like Amazon, which you can click on when you are shopping to make more profit. Some of your internet searches can be monetized with Swagbucks, which is another way to score some extra cash.
Visit Swagbucks or read the review.
InboxDollars
InboxDollars is another great survey site that will pay you a little bit to sign up, and has lots of easy online money-making options. Unlike many survey sites, InboxDollars pays out in cash. You will probably have to work for a few weeks to make the minimum payment, but the site offers lots of surveys you can take to earn money.
Much like other survey sites, InboxDollars has expanded into other online money-making areas. You will be able to play video games, browse the web, and shop as online gigs with InboxDollars. While the site doesn’t offer anything unique to speak of, it is totally legit and can be a good tool to have in your online money-making strategy.
Doing surveys and the like is a good way to get started making money online. If you are just looking for something to do that will earn you money, doing surveys and other easy tasks can be a great way to be more productive in your free time.
There are a lot of other options out there as well, and some can be very profitable. If you want to make more of your online career, there are loads of options for you. Let’s look at other ways to work online, that have the potential to be really lucrative.
Visit InboxDollars or Read our Full Review here.
Launch Your Blog or Vlog
If writing is your passion, then try starting a blog about your life. Blogging is a fun way to build an online platform that you can monetize in the future. Many successful bloggers earn upwards of $10,000 a month.
There are plenty of free resources that can help you set up a blog. WordPress is free, and they have plenty of custom templates available at no charge. Hosting is a few bucks a month, which you can pay for using the proceeds from your surveys.
If you are thinking about a blog as a place where you will have to show off world-class writing to make a living, think again. Blogs can make money from many different sources, and selling products is one of the best ways to turn a profit.
Becoming a reviewer, or having an opinion is enough to make money, and if you become popular, you can make some pretty respectable profits. If writing isn’t your thing, but you’re a whiz behind the video camera, consider starting a YouTube channel and uploading videos to your account.
YouTube pays you a commission on advertising based on the total amount of subscribers, and the number of views on each of your videos. If you don’t mind putting your life on the internet for everyone to see, then you could be the next Logan Paul.
Much like blogging, there is a huge market for video reviews. This might come as something of a surprise, but most people aren’t rich. You can be forgiven for thinking otherwise, given the ‘flexing’ culture in the media, but in reality, there is a reason why Casio sells ever so many watches (they are affordable).
Making it With Reviews
You might be sitting there thinking….wait!…I am not an expert on anything!
Well…where do you think experts come from?
The simple fact is that people both have to, and want to, buy things on a daily basis. Most consumer products are affordable (otherwise no one would buy them), which means getting samples to review should be easy.
It is a very good idea to choose a range of products that most people use or like, and you can enjoy. For example, if you are the one who does laundry in the home, you can start reviewing laundry products. It is a good idea to start small, with products like laundry soap, or fabric softener.
Read: What are the Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers? Complete Guide
Like any business, you may be approached by companies who want you to try out their products and give your opinion of them. To continue the example, as your review channel or blog grows, you may expand into reviewing washers and dryers, and may even be able to score a free one from a company that makes them.
It can all start with switching your laundry soap every time you run out and doing a nice review of the new one that you start using. Unlike doing surveys online, this kind of business will take time to build-up.
The plus side is that there is a lot less competition, and you can use other ways to make money with online reviews as well. Many of these angles are detailed below, such as affiliate marketing, and running your own e-commerce store. Once you have a regular audience, many doors will probably open!
Sell Information Products
You don’t have to rely on physical products to make money online; you can sell information-based products as well. Web courses, eBooks, and blogs cost next to nothing to produce and maintain, and they can earn you an excellent monthly income if you know how to market online.
The most significant challenge with producing information-based products is selling them. You need to understand the basics of internet marketing and how to sell your products online.
If you have no marketing experience, it’s best to take an online course to learn how to promote websites using social media and SEO methods before you start executing on any of these strategies.
However, after learning a few marketing tricks, you can start executing your strategy, and you should begin to see results reasonably quickly. The best thing about all of these models is that they’re easy to scale. There’s nothing but time stopping you from building 1,000 of each of these models.
Sell a Web Course
If you have specialized knowledge on a subject, then there are millions of people out there willing to pay money to tap your expertise. If you know how to build and restore classic cars, or market websites online, you could create a course giving other people a step-by-step guide to replicating your results themselves.
Let’s say you understand how print-on-demand works. You could build a course showing people hope to source designs, sign up for a teespring account, and then create a sales funnel using Facebook Ads to capture prospects to your landing page.
Using this strategy, people will earn money, and they’re happy to pay you for the service.
Lifestyle Blogging
Do you have a hobby that’s your passion? No matter if you love cooking, or collecting Cabbage Patch Dolls, there are thousands of people online that share your love for your hobby. Starting a lifestyle blog is an excellent way to work with what you love online.
Since you have a never-ending flow of inspiration, you’ll never lose motivation for producing top-quality content. By publishing quality content and marketing your blog on social platforms and other blogs, you should start to develop a decent amount of traffic to your website.
After your blogs receiving decent volumes of new monthly visitors, you can start to monetize the site. Sign up for a Google AdSense account and display ads on your site that are relevant to your niche. The advertiser pays you every time someone clicks on the advertisement on your website.
Blogs can also benefit from sponsorship deals with companies and brands to promote them in their posts. Blogging is also another easy-to-scale business once you understand how it works. You could start a blog about making smoothies, cooking, traveling, or anything you like.
Create an EBook
Are you an expert in your field? Then try writing an eBook to sell online. Creating virtual products is an excellent way to set up a passive income stream that provides you with sales every month for years to come – with no effort in managing the process on your part.
If you can’t write the book yourself, hire a freelancer to do the job, and then add in your personal touch after they send you the finished project. Set up a landing page and add a payment processor to your account. That’s it – now you are ready to make money promoting your new eBook!
It’s possible to sell eBooks on topics with which you have no experience. Just because you have no idea about Japanese gardens, doesn’t mean you can’t write a book about the subject.
Use research tools to scrape social platforms and websites for emerging trends, and then produce a 60-page eBook on the topic. You’ll have to pay the writer, but it will be worth it when you start making consistent passive income from your eBook sales.
Register for ClickBank and market your eBook through this platform. This model is easy to scale, and you have next to no involvement with the product after you upload it to the platform, all you need to do is check your email inbox for payments.
Hiring writers to write eBooks for you is a fantastic way of leveraging someone else’s skills to make money. Search for top-selling eBooks and then have a freelancer write you a book.
Amazon makes it easy to market your eBook using their Kindle platform, and with a little promotion on social media channels, you could be the author of a new best-seller!
Use Freelance Websites
Every day, millions of freelancers connect with people looking for skills. There are dozens of freelancer sites, such as Fiverr and Upwork, where you can sell your online talents. If you have expertise with design, or you like to write, then these platforms provide you with a marketplace to sell your skills.
When marketing yourself on these sites, its best to create an outstanding profile that includes a short video about the services you offer – this helps buyers find your page and hire you. However, millions of freelancers use these sites, and you might find the competition a bit stiff when getting started.
However, all it takes is a few good jobs and some positive feedback from your customers – and you’ll start to earn more reputation on the site, and receive more job offers as a result of your efforts in building your profile and your business.
Every day, millions of freelancers connect with people looking for skills. There are dozens of freelancer sites, such as Fiverr and Upwork, where you can sell your online talents. If you have expertise with design, or you like to write, then these platforms provide you with a marketplace to sell your skills.
When marketing yourself on these sites, its best to create an outstanding profile that includes a short video about the services you offer – this helps buyers find your page and hire you. However, millions of freelancers use these sites, and you might find the competition a bit stiff when getting started.
However, all it takes is a few good jobs and some positive feedback from your customers – and you’ll start to earn more reputation on the site, and receive more job offers as a result of your efforts in building your profile and your business.
Don’t think that you can only make money as a freelancer if you are already skilled in writing, media production, or some other skill. There are a lot of data entry and virtual assistant jobs out there, and you may be able to make as much as $20 USD/hour if you find the right one.
Useful Links
The Online Freelancing Advantage
Online freelancing has some pretty neat perks that come with giving up work at an office or store. The first one is loads more personal freedom. You don’t have to worry about your hair, or having a fresh shirt, as no one but your laptop will see you when you get to work.
It is hard to put a price on personal freedom, but the money you save by not commuting is much easier to calculate. When you have a ‘normal’ job, you have to do a lot that simply isn’t paid for by the company you are working with.
Take a second and think about all the stuff you have to do every day when you are working outside of your home. Unless you live right next to your job, you will have to pay for transportation, eating while you are away from your house, and you almost inevitably will lose valuable time while you are commuting.
When you work from home, you can cook for yourself, there is no commute and you don’t lose any time in transit. You can do more work if you like, or just have some extra free time at home to relax every day. There are clear advantages to working online, even if it starts slow.
Other Freelancing Options
Freelancing writing is often the first thing that people find when they look for online work, but the truth is that there are many, many jobs that can be done online from anywhere you have a reliable internet connection. Here are a few other jobs that can make you as much as a blog, or even more if you are talented.
Coding/Programming
The demand for experienced programmers is growing, and if you have some coding skills, you can probably find lots of work online. The same freelancing platforms that help writers find work will also have loads of listings for computer programmers, and you can probably find as much work as you like.
Retouching/Graphic Design
If you are more artistic and have some experience with programs like Photoshop or Illustrator, you might want to see if working online fits your professional needs.
Just about every website will need graphics or some form of visual design work, so looking for online opportunities to apply your creative talents is likely a viable option to make a living.
Virtual Assistant
Outsourcing gets a bad name, but it can work for you. If you have some basic office skills, and a can-do attitude, being a virtual assistant may be a nice way to live a much easier life. There are loads of professionals in high-cost areas (NY, London, Berlin, Sydney, Etc…) who need reliable help, and also would like to save money.
All you have to do is move somewhere cheap that has reliable internet (think Southeast Asia, Southern Europe, or parts of South America) and you can live a relaxed life.
Work a 6 hour day, and then head to the beach for some drinks on happy hour. You might also like traveling around a bit, and seeing the world while you learn more about who is making money, and how.
Teach English Online
Do you have a degree?
If so, then you could earn a living online by teaching English to international students. English is the global language for business. As a result, many people in the Eastern part of the world need assistance with learning the language.
However, you’ll need some form of bachelor’s degree to earn a teaching certificate, and you’ll need to take a short two-week course to learn how to plan lessons and manage students.
Once you pass the classes, you get to work on your own time and at your pace. There is no boss to tell you what to do, and you choose your hours – the more you work, the more you earn.
Teaching foreign kids English requires patience, so only follow this career path if you like working with people and helping them overcome challenges. The pay ranges between $15 to $25 an hour, depending on your qualifications and experience.
Where to Teach English Online?
There are a lot of websites that say they can help you connect with students, but it pays to be a little bit careful. Much like the online survey platforms, there are some English teaching websites that may even ask you to pay in order to use their platform!
Clearly, you don’t have to pay to teach English online, and we have a few of the best sites that can help you make some money with your English skills. There are many more that aren’t listed below, but these sites are a great place to start.
Whales English
Whales English used to known as Sprout, and it is a good place for anyone to begin teaching English online. If you are from the UK, USA, or Canada, and have a bachelors degree, you can probably start making money with Whales English.
For those of you that already have a TESOL, TEFL, or some other form of teaching certificate, all the better. Your students will be between the ages of 5-15 years old, and you may have to teach up to 3 people at a time.
The pay at Whales English is good for the market, and if they accept you as a teacher, the minimum pay will be $18 USD per hour. You can work your way up to a maximum pay rate of $30 USD per hour, which will make a great primary income if you enjoy the work.
PalFish
PalFish is a little bit different from Whales English and allows teachers to set their own hours. Its starting rate is also a little bit lower, at $10 USD per hour. While that might seem like a big pay cut, the class size at PalFish is just one student, which many teachers prefer to larger class sizes.
Another plus at PalFish is the level of choice the teachers have over the time slots and age groups they teach. The platform has broken down the day into smaller time slots that allow a teacher to choose times that they have free, and make that time more profitable.
The only real downside to the site is that more experienced teachers might not be 100% happy with the maximum pay of $30 USD per hour, but there are other sites that allow pros to make more.
As a bonus, PalFish is open to a wide range of English accents, like South African, or Australian, which many of the other English teaching sites won’t accept.
VIPKID
If you are looking for an easy way to start teaching online VIPKID could be a good site to check out. Instead of developing your own teaching materials, VIPKID has loads of teaching aids that are ready to go. You will also be able to choose your own schedule, which is a great feature for someone who doesn’t want to be teaching online full time.
Visit VIPKid or Read our indepth review.
The pay at VIPKID starts at $18 USD per hour, but it tops out at $22 USD per hour, which might be a tad low for teachers who already have some experience. That said, the site has a much higher minimum rate of pay than many of the other teaching sites, and loads of assistance to get you going.
VIPKID only hires native North American speakers, so if you aren’t from the USA or Canada, you will have to try another English teaching site. The classes are also offered in the evening, so if you want to have your nights free, VIPKID might not work for you.
Online Tutoring
If you have a teaching degree, then consider becoming an online tutor. You can work online from home through mediums like Skype. Teach lessons in the afternoon and prepare senior students in the mornings. If you have the necessary qualifications, you can even tutor college-level students in the mornings, as well.
When you sign up as a tutor, you’re dealing with students in the same time zone as you. This situation makes the job more suitable for people living in developed markets. Trying to teach English online to students in China is a challenge because of the time zone difference. You’ll have to get up in the middle of the night to teach in the Asian afternoon, and that’s not a healthy way to live.
By tutoring around your local time zones, you can work all day, and take the evenings off. Tutoring private school students can be very lucrative if you have a good reputation as a private tutor. The busy season is around exam times, and you get to take the summer off.
Tele-Nursing
Do you have a qualification in nursing? More hospitals and medical facilities are outsourcing Tele nurses to help reduce hospital admissions and pressure on the healthcare system. Remote nurses have to deal with a variety of conditions throughout the day, and you need the expertise to be able to assist the patient over the phone., or through Skype.
Smartphones are making it easier for nurses to assist with the pre-diagnosis of the patient. In some cases, the nurse may save the patient from making an expensive trip to the hospital for some minor condition.
Seniors also rely on Tele nurses to help them monitor their health in their golden years. As a Tele nurse, you have the option to work during the day, or pull night shifts, just like you would in the hospital.
Tele Sales
If you’re a professional salesperson, then you understand the importance of using the phone and building a full pipeline. Selling over the phone is one of the most significant challenges facing salespeople. Many people can sell in person, but they crumble under the pressure of selling over the phone.
When you pitch a prospect over the phone, the first 4-seconds determine what the prospect does for the rest of the call. It’s for this reason that salespeople who have skills on the phone are in such high demand with companies. You might think that the internet replaced the phone for a company’s primary revenue source.
While the internet did have a significant impact on how companies source leads and pitch prospects, the phone is still an instrumental tool for many businesses and industries. Why go to the office if your job is to sell over the phone? You can do this from home using a VOIP line, and an internet connection.
Customer Service
As e-commerce expands, there is a growing need for professional customer service agents that work from remote positions. Customer service is a critical component of any e-commerce business model, and some entrepreneurs think it’s the most important.
Customer service agents have to have skills in handling customer complaints and filing returns. You won’t have to deal with any physical merchandise, but you will be responsible for ensuring the service ticket is a smooth experience for the customer.
Start a Facebook Ads Agency
If you know how to market on Facebook, then you are one of the few people that have this unique skillset. If you know how to use the Facebook Ad manager and build marketing campaigns for businesses, you could have a profitable career if you start a Facebook ads agency.
The chances are that there are –plenty of local brick-and-mortar businesses in your area. These businesses also need to spend money to market themselves. Most physical companies choose to advertise using mediums that are ineffective and outdated.
If you pitch a local business on marketing on Facebook, you’re likely to get their attention. You can build them custom campaigns and run the accounts for a fee. Facebook insights provide you with plenty of data to track the success of your campaigns and prove the ROI on the marketing plan to your clients.
Write Articles, Reviews, and Blogs
There are many fantastic opportunities for writers online. If you have command of the English language, and a creative streak – then you could earn money writing blogs, articles, and reviews for content sites. Writing is a skill that not many people can do well, and those that can write well – are in high demand.
Running a website requires you to push content into the public sphere to capture attention. If your content is weak, then the business will fail to gain the traction it needs to succeed. The best websites offer the best content, whether it’s product reviews, lifestyle blogs, or technical articles.
Writing jobs are available on freelance websites, and you can take some initiative and apply to content companies for open positions on their team. Writing won’t make you rich, but it can provide you with an additional income to help you transition into other forms of business online.
Market Products on Social Media
Facebook has over 2-billion Active monthly users, and Instagram has over a billion active users. These platforms have eyeballs searching for interesting posts at any time of the day. Selling products on social media allows you to access your market where they are spending their time directly.
The next time you drive along the freeway in traffic, take a look at the other drivers around you. The chances are they aren’t staring at the billboards along the side of the road – most of them will be staring into the screens of their phones, even some of the drivers!
Traditional advertising is dead, and social media is the new hotspot for picking up qualified prospects for your business.
Try creating T-shirt designs on Teespring, and then sell them through your social media accounts. Teespring takes care of all of the production, shipping, and customer returns, leaving you with the only responsibility of marketing your t-shirt.
Facebook marketing allows you to laser-focus your target market into a defined niche that is more likely to click your buy button. The kind of reach you can get with a $20 budget on Facebook marketing will make any outdoor advertising agency blush in embarrassment.
Create Your Own Business After You Gain Experience
As we mentioned above, there are loads of ways to make money with a blog, website, or YouTube channel. Once you start working for someone who has created a viable online business, you should be able to see what makes money on the internet and find something that works for you.
Writing, as well as the businesses described below, are great ways to gain your financial independence. There is no one-size-fits-all online business model, and you should find a way to make money that works for you.
Build and Sell Websites
Are you a whizz at coding? Then why not try building and flipping websites as a strategy to make money online? You can post and apply for jobs on freelance sites while building sites in your spare time. Every day, there are thousands of new websites going live, and each of them needs design work.
Building and flipping websites can become a profitable venture if you connect with the right platforms for flipping. You can also hold on to a website that you like, if you want to create ongoing revenue. If you have some writing skills, and the ability to create websites, you should be able to start something of your own without too much trouble.
One of the biggest problems that start-ups face is a lack of initial return on investment, which is why having a solid existing business is important if you want to expand your money-making options. You can divert some of your earnings to support a new venture until it starts paying for itself.
Run an E-commerce Store
E-commerce is taking the world by storm. In developed markets like the U.K. and the United States, tech giants Amazon rule the roost for online sales.
Statistics show that e-commerce is on the rise, and by the end of 2019, estimates show that online sales will account for nearly 20-percent of all retail purchases worldwide. That’s a significant amount when you discount people buying groceries and trinkets at their local supermarket.
Getting involved in the world of e-commerce has many benefits. You don’t have the same overhead as brick-and-mortar stores, with no costs on rent or staff. However, you get to present your products to over 2-billion internet users who are searching online for what you are selling right now.
Setting up an e-commerce business may seem like plenty of work. Finding suppliers and then managing shipping and logistics. However, companies like Amazon have changed the game for online retailers.
E-commerce – Cheap Startup Costs
If you want to start an online business that’s both scalable and efficient, then you can’t beat the power of e-commerce. In the real world, starting a brick-and-mortar business location costs a significant amount of startup capital.
Finding funding for your business plan, your assets, and marketing is extensive, requiring credit checks and collateral or equity in your business in most cases.
E-commerce is a powerful business model that you can start with a few hundred dollars in your spare time. Depending on the model you choose, your startup costs could be as little as a few dollars, or as much as $5,000.
Here are some of the most popular e-commerce models earning online entrepreneurs a healthy income.
FBA – Fulfillment by Amazon
Amazon launched this business model in 2006, but it took a while for it to catch on in the e-commerce community. As Amazon grew from strength to strength over the last decade, the FBA program went through some significant changes.
Today, FBA is one of the most popular models for e-commerce entrepreneurs that want their business to run smoothly. Amazon gets almost half of the world’s retail traffic, that’s a colossal amount of people looking for deals on the site.
By signing up for FBA and creating a storefront on Amazon, you get the chance to leverage all of this traffic to your store. A few simple SEO tweaks and your storefront is now a standout in your niche, with plenty of visitors browsing your store.
This traffic advantage makes FBA an attractive startup option. SEO masters will know that it can take anywhere up to 6-months to build a significant traffic volume to your online e-commerce store.
Another attractive feature of FBA is that you get the world’s largest retailer to handle your entire logistics and customer returns process. All you need to do is order your goods and have your supplier ship it to your designated Amazon fulfillment centers around the U.S and Europe.
Shopify
With e-commerce on the rise, Shopify launched its retail platform in 2008, right before the start of the financial crisis. This point was hardly the time to enter the retail environment, with brick-and-mortar retailers going out of business in what would be known as “retail-apocalypse” over the next decade.
Still, Shopify continued to grow as the years went by, becoming one of the most visited shopping destinations on the internet. E-commerce entrepreneurs can set up storefronts and sell their products to anyone around the world.
Shopify is probably the platform that single-handily revolutionized the dropshipping industry. The demand form e-commerce entrepreneur’s for 3PL solutions changed logistics forever, with more services opening to cater to e-commerce entrepreneur’s logistics needs.
Today, Shopify is still one of the leading e-commerce platforms, and many successful entrepreneurs build stores that make a fortune.
eBay
eBay is the original e-commerce granddaddy of the internet. In 1995, eBay opened its virtual doors for business, and the company grew into one of the industries titans over the next near 25-years. There are dozens of models you can use to make money through eBay.
Flip second-hand goods, use it as a dropshipping platform, or arbitrage products. In its formative years, eBay was an obscure platform, and not many people trusted online shopping at that time. However, eBay management continued to pursue what they saw was the change of the guard in the retail environment.
The company remains dynamic, adapting to the current economic climate and changes in e-commerce trends. However, it’s still one of the most hotly visited e-commerce platforms on the internet, and there’s plenty of opportunities for you to make money using eBay strategies.
Search online and on YouTube to find mentors for your e-commerce business. There are plenty of successful entrepreneurs sharing their secrets to success for free.
Craigslist
America’s favorite classifieds website offers tremendous opportunities for you to build an income stream. People advertise a variety of products and services on the platform, and there are also multiple strategies you can use to make money on this site.
Realtors use Craigslist to advertise, internet marketers use Craigslist for research, and the site has massive amounts of traffic flowing through it every day of the week.
Affiliate Marketing
Another excellent strategy for starting an online income stream, with very little money down, is through affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you choose to sell other people’s products and services in exchange for a fee.
Affiliate marketers promote these products and services through social media channels and other marketing strategies that drive traffic to landing pages where prospects convert into buyers.
When someone buys a product, the embedded affiliate code lets the seller know you were responsible for the sale. You get a commission for driving the site business, and in some cases, commissions can be as much as 60% of the sales price, depending on the product.
Bloggers and website owners can also set up affiliate marketing strategies that run on auto-pilot, allowing to generate passive income without any effort on your part. Programs like Google AdSense, Amazon Affiliate, and Media.net offer you the opportunity to place ads related to your site’s content on your website. This strategy provides additional income to the site every time that a visitor clicks on an ad.
Using Your Phone to Make Quick Money Online
E-commerce is an example of a part-time online venture that you can build into a full-time occupation. However, you might have a situation where you enjoy your job, and you have a prosperous career in front of you. However, you might still want to earn some extra income on the side as well while you wait for your big promotion.
Maybe you’re hunting for a full-time job, but have some free time on your hands. In this case, using task-apps is a great way to make some extra money doing things you already have to do every day, like go to the grocery store.
By downloading and installing apps into your phone, you can save on your shopping and finances, and make money through completing tasks for brands and companies.
Task-Related Apps
Gigwalk is an excellent example of a task app that provides a diverse range of things you can do for cash using your cellphone. Some of the more common tasks the app asks you to do will include taking pictures of real estate for agencies, delivering documents, or delivering other goods to consumers for other companies.
Gigwalk only provides simple tasks, and it requires a speedy response to the job if you want to get paid. The key to the app is to try to complete as many tasks as you can in the shortest amount of time possible.
As they are simple tasks, you’ll get a few dollars for each of them that you complete, and the platform pays out into your PayPal account.
Zaarly is another example of a local app available in Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Denver. After downloading this application, you get access to more substantial tasks than you get with Gigwalk, paying a higher completion fee. We think this app will catch on and spread to other states soon.
Shopping Apps
You already have to go shopping for food clothes and other consumer goods, so why not make money while you’re doing it? Downloading apps like SavingStar and Ibotta help you receive cashback rewards of up to 40% on consumer goods.
Download Paribus, and get money back on all of your online purchases as well. These apps scan your online receipts and claim a refund with the retailer if the app finds what you purchase at a lower price with a competitor.
Visit Paribus or read our review.
Other shopping apps might also ask you to complete minor tasks while you’re out at the grocery store. You might have to scan barcodes on products or take photos of shelves at your local grocery store. These apps also pay a few dollars per task. However, they’re so easy to do, and hardly take any of your time while you’re cruising through the aisles of the supermarket.
Financial Apps
Saving money is as good as making money. Apart from there cashback apps on offer in the Android and Apple app stores, there are also others that can help you improve how you manage your finances as well.
Apps like Acorn help you round up your change and then deposit the difference into your savings account. You can use an app like Mint to help you manage your budget, and ensure that you aren’t overspending each month.
Other investment apps can help you manage your IRA from your phone, as well as complete a variety of tasks in your investment portfolio.
Read: The Best Smart Phone Apps for Managing Your Finances
Internet Marketing
Internet marketing offers you a career in promoting other people’s websites and online businesses. As an internet marketer, you work with websites, social media accounts, and blogs. Your job is to help the business gain more exposure online, build the brand of the company, and increase product sales.
The Experts Exchange is a network of over 500,000 experts in internet marketing that participate in helping each other find work in the industry. Think of it as the Fiverr for internet marketers. These types of platforms allow you to break away from your current employer and make a name for yourself in the market.
There are a few models to choose from in internet marketing, and here are three of the most in-demand strategies working for freelancers today.
SEO
As an SEO specialist, your job is to promote another website or company online. You do this by helping the site rank in the search engines, increasing its daily visitor count. By flooding more traffic to the site, you increase the number of leads and prospect the website encounters.
In general, it takes around 6-months for an SEO strategy to start to show a result. Hover, in the interim, you’ll have to prove to your client that you know what you are doing. Build yourself a few websites in your spare time and use them for customer testimonials when prospecting for new business.
SEO specialists do not have to rely on freelancing platforms for work. You can canvass other websites, and run SEO checks using software tools that show you how the website performs. If you discover an undervalued website in a profitable niche, with next to no optimization, take the contact details of the site owner.
Contact them through a cold email and ask if you can work on a proposal to increase traffic to their site and boost the business into a profitable situation.
Social Media Marketing
Social media was a relatively obscure technology just 15-years ago. Today, almost a third of the people on planet earth have Facebook accounts. It didn’t take long for marketers to realize that social was the way of the future for marketing.
Today, companies and brands spend billions of dollars on social marketing campaigns to build brand awareness and drive sales. If you understand the back end of how social platforms work, and you have skills in managing social accounts using automated tools, you could make it happen as a full-time social media manager.
As a social media manager, you’ll be responsible for representing the brand online, and you’ll have to engage with the company or brand’s target audience. You’ll also have responsibilities for running ad campaigns and coordinating a marketing strategy across all social platforms.
Influencer Marketing
Companies are spending vast amounts of their marketing budget online. One of the areas in which marketing companies are investing their marketing dollars is with influencers. Instagram is catching up on Facebook as the preferred social platform. We expect that in the next few years, Instagram users will surpass Facebook users for the first time.
If you have a massive following on Instagram, then that’s worth money to marketing firms. You don’t even have to have millions of followers to make money from influencer marketing.
Influences are accounts on Instagram with more than 10,000 followers. The smallest influencer level, the micro-influencer, has between 10,000 to 20,000 followers. Still, even with this size of an account, you could earn between $20 to $500 per post, depending on the requirements. As your audience increases, so will your fees per post.
Use PaidPerTweet
This app is free to download and install on your mobile device. You earn money by tweeting a message from the sponsored advertisers out to your Twitter followers. The rate you receive for your sponsored tweets depends on the size of the following you have with your account.
However, even if you only get a dollar a tweet, if you set up a slow drip of 10-tweets a day using a program like Hootsuite, you could earn an extra $70 a week for doing relatively nothing.
Use Your Car or Home
If you own a car or a home, why not use them to earn money online? People are touring your town right now, and they need access to these two life essentials. If you have a spare room in your home or a flat, or you have nothing to do in the evening, you could make a decent living with Airbnb or ridesharing.
Airbnb Hosting
If you have a spare room of a flat on your property, you could rent it out on Airbnb as a nightly, weekly, or monthly accommodation for travelers. Many families use the internet to book accommodation for their vacations, and business people are always in need of accommodation if you live near a city.
You pay the site a commission for listing your rental, and then receive all your bookings through the website. If you always dreamed of starting a bed and breakfast guest house, then Airbnb gives you the platform to afford you that opportunity.
Ridesharing
Do you have a car and nothing to do in the evenings? Use your phone to download the Uber app and apply to be a driver for the company. Driving for Uber is an easy way to make money from using your car. As a bonus, you get access to the Uber partner network. This network gives you discounts on vehicle servicing with partner agents, as well as discounts on tires and other vehicle sundries. As an Uber driver, you work for yourself, and you decide when you want to hit the streets and earn some money.
No boss is breathing down your neck, and you don’t have to fork out hundreds of thousands of dollars for a taxi license. When you feel like working, you turn on your app and start accepting fares. Uber takes a commission from every ride you give, but you can still make a decent living from this job on a part-time basis.
Trade the Markets
If the world of finance seems attractive to you, then why not try your hand at trading the markets? Trading stocks, bonds, commodities, or forex offers plenty of opportunities to make ludicrous amounts of money throughout the year.
However, you’ll need a trading education to teach you how to read price action, and you’ll need advice from a mentor to ensure you don’t make any significant mistakes that could blow up your account. You’ll start trading in a simulator with paper money until you think you are ready to take on the live markets.
Once you have your strategy, you could be a millionaire in months if you make the right trades. Some traders chose to work at it as a full-time job, while others may only trade the market open, leaving the rest of the day free for other activities.
Trading: What are Your Options?
If you enjoy following the world of finance, and you have your finger on the pulse of the markets, then why not trade them for a living? Trading stock, forex, or cryptocurrency can land you huge profits if you know what you’re doing.
However, many people jump into the market blindly, thinking that they will make millions of dollars overnight. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, and more often than not, new traders end up losing everything in their accounts.
Finding a strategy that suits your trading style, and a mentor that’s successful with implementing that strategy is the key to your trading success. With a mentor, you’ll gain access to a chatroom and get to see them placing trades in a live environment.
You’ll also have to spend some time learning the strategy and executing it in a simulated environment before you play around with real money. Without a strategy and a trading plan, you are gambling with your money on the markets. You would have better success taking your money to the casino instead.
However, when you do manage to become a consistently profitable trader, the world is your oyster. You get to work for a few hours a day and make a significant amount of money as you grow your trading account.
Below are the four most popular choices for trading the markets. Pick the strategy that sounds like something you would enjoy and then look online for a mentor that can teach you how to trade.
Forex
The forex market is the most popular choice for newbies entering the trading game. However, the only reason why this is such a popular strategy with newbies is that there are fewer restrictions on account size and a slew of offshore brokers offering you enticing rebates for depositing with their brokerage.
It’s easy to see why people find forex so enticing. There is over $5.5-trillion traded on the international forex market, and it operated 24-hours a day, 5-days a week. There are so many markets to choose from, and so many currency pairs offering traders opportunities.
Read: Forex Trading Strategies: Complete Beginner’s Guide
However, you need to be careful about choosing the right broker when you open your trading account with real money. Many brokers will front the market for newbies, because they know there’s a 90% chance you will lose all your money within the first 3-months of trading your strategy.
Unethical brokers might also use software plugins to manipulate price action and make the market move the opposite way to what you were expecting, stopping you out of the trade and pocketing your cash. Only work with U.S-facing brokers with a solid reputation for ethics and transparency.
Stock
The world’s stock markets are the source of every investor’s wealth. The bull run in the S&P 500 saw the index rise from post-crisis levels of 666-pts in 2008, to over the 3,000-mark by August 2019. The markets keep showing strength, even in the face of slowing global GDP growth, and ballooning debt.
Investors rely on the stock market to bring them returns on their capital. However, they often use hedge funds and private brokerages to execute their trades for them in a managed environment. As a retail trader, you’ll have the advantage of controlling your investments, and taking responsibility for your investment decisions.
Read: Ally Invest Review: Trading Platform for Stocks
You have three options for trading stock markets; Penny stocks (stocks under a dollar), Small-cap stocks (typically with prices between $1 to $50, and large caps like Tesla that can cost hundreds of dollars a share.
There are opportunities in all three of these markets, provided you trade with a proven, back-tested strategy that yields consistent results. Stock markets are risky, and trading with leverage can end up crushing your account in one move if the trade goes against you.
Always practice proper risk management and stick to your trading plan. Plan the trade and trade the plan.
Commodities
If you have an interest in the oil or gold markets, then you will do well as a commodity trader. Commodity traders trade with options and futures, selling and buying commodities at predetermined prices in the future.
As a commodity trader, you make money in the movements in price action, and usual trade using an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), or an Exchange Traded Note (ETN). One of the barriers to entry, stopping newbie traders from entering both the commodity and equity markets, is the PDT rule.
The Professional Day Trading rule set by the SEC only permits U.S brokers to accept minimum account sizes of $25,000 to trade more than 3-times in a week. The PDT rule is there to stop speculation on the markets and prevent people from gambling away their money.
Read: What Are Commodities? Complete Beginner’s Guide
Cryptocurrency
If you like taking a risk, then trading the cryptocurrency markets is for you. Traders live off of volatility on the markets, and the crypto sector has bucketloads of volatility. As a crypto trader, you can trade with U.S-facing exchanges, or offshore firms in places like Japan and Korea.
Trading crypto is remarkably similar to trading forex. You use the same type of tools and trading platforms to place trades.
Read: Should You Invest in Bitcoin? Complete Beginner’s Guide
However, the crypto market is unregulated, meaning that the SEC has no jurisdiction over how the exchanges operate unless they offer USD withdrawals. trading in an unregulated market exposes you to a higher risk of exchanges stealing your funds through a “hack.”
Exchanges might also manipulate prices, and whales that control huge crypto portfolios can swing price action in the direction they desire to control the market. Still, traders make money by trading these markets, and you can as well – provided that you have the right strategy and a good mentor.
Crypto Platforms we have reviewed:
- Coinbase ( Best for Buying Crypto )
- Binance ( Best for Trading Crypto )
- BitMex ( Best for Margin Trading )
- 3Commas & Cryptohopper ( Platforms for Automated Trading )
Pay Attention to the Swap
If you have little to no experience with derivative trading, the word ‘swap’ might bring up images of a swap meet, which isn’t going to help you much in the financial markets.
When you trade forex, or just about any kind of derivative contract at a retail broker, you will be tradings Contracts for Difference (CFDs). Without getting too deep into how these contracts are structured, you will either pay or be paid to hold them. The amount that you have to pay, or will receive as long as the contract is open is called the ‘swap rate’, and it can make you some extra cash.
Retail brokers will offer you a lot of leverage, depending on the kind of CFD you trade. In most cases, the ‘swap’ will be negative, which means you will have to pay a little bit of money from your margin account to keep the position open on a daily basis (generally the swap will be assigned to your profits/losses when the position is closed).
It might take some doing, but there are contracts that have a positive swap rate. This means that for every day you keep the contract open, it will gain a small amount in value because it has a positive swap rate. If you use some leverage, the amount of money that the swap rate pays can add up, as long as you keep your expectations realistic.
Keep in mind that most savings accounts are going to pay 2-3% per year (if that), so if you can make 5% on your investment in a few months, that is a pretty amazing return. Make sure to set your stop loss when you open the position, as any trading will carry a risk of loss!
Freelance Work in the Gig Economy
The “gig economy” describes working online as a freelancer for yourself. There are numerous ways you can make money through platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer. Sign up for a free account, complete your profile, post an ad or apply for a job, and get started on your gig economy journey.
Here are a few examples of jobs that are available on the freelancing sites. However, there are plenty of more tasks and jobs available. We recommend you browse through each of the sites and look for job postings that interest you and utilize your talents.
Write Articles
Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer have thousands of job listings for writers. From writing blogs, completing reviews, or even writing eBooks, the demand for content is tremendous. Most writing jobs don’t pay very well, and you’ll have to build a portfolio of articles to prove to employers that you know what you are doing.
Trying to find work on the freelance sites is challenging. The competition is fierce between writers, and you might have to drop your prices to get your foot into the door initially. Still, if you manage to find a good client, you can make a steady income working from home on your laptop.
Read: The Gig Economy Explained: Why the Jobs Market is About to Change Forever
Translation
Can you speak a second language? Trade your skill online with a translation job. Companies will ask you to translate documents and videos into English. This specialized work usually comes with a decent pay grade, and you can expect to make a decent living from translating.
You’ll also need to freelance for a while until you find a stable position with a company. However, once you have a good client, you can expect a steady stream of work.
German and Japanese translators are in high demand, and if you speak any of these languages, you could make a comfortable living online.
Video Transcription
Transcribing videos is an easy, low-stress way to make a living online. You watch YouTube videos or other video content and then write out the words spoken in the video. Transcription pays pretty well, but you’ll still have to put in a decent day’s work to make a full-time income from this strategy.
Graphic Design
If you have talents with graphic design, then there is a mountain of job offers that are waiting for you on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr. The web continues to expand at breakneck speed, with more businesses coming online every day.
Web designers are in high demand if you can produce quality work. The pay rate on freelancer platforms is reasonable, but you’ll need to accommodate the fact that you have to pay the site a commission for finding you the work.
Virtual Assistant
If you want to complete general tasks online like research, completing listings, or reaching out to other companies, consider an online career as a virtual assistant. VAs are in high demand, and depending on your skills, you could end up with a client that keeps you around for years.
Good Vas are hard to find, and when online entrepreneurs find a good one, they tend to stick with them for the long-term. As a result, you get a full-time job that you can do from the comfort of home. As a VA, you’ll probably never even see your bosses face, but you need to be competent in communicating through various online mediums.
Vas also needs a good command of the English language, and they need to know how to work without a boss breathing down their neck.
Image Creation and Illustration
Do you have an artistic talent? You could have what it takes to be a cartoonist or illustrator in the gig economy. Artists are in high demand for various tasks. From illustrating children’s books to creating t-shirt designs, there’s plenty of work available for you.
Sites like Fiverr and Freelancer are your best option as a start in the onli8ne world. As you develop a portfolio and get testimonials from clients, your business will grow, and you’ll start to make a good income from your online work.
If you have a talent behind the camera, then you can sell your photos online. One of the best features of this model is the fact that your photo has an unlimited license. This strategy means that multiple people buy your picture, and it can provide an endless source of income.
Open an account and upload a portfolio of pictures on a stock image website, like Adobe Stock or Shutterstock. Every time a user downloads your image, you receive a royalty. While this may not seem like much, if you have an impressive portfolio, it could provide you with a residual income for many years.
Useful Links
- Photodune
- Alamy
- Crestock
- Creative Market
- ShutterStock ( who we use for stock images )
- Fotolia
- iStock
- Veer
Video Editing
YouTube is now the second most popular social platform after Facebook. There are plenty of aspiring vloggers and YouTubers that need help with editing videos. If you understand how to work video editing software, and you have a talent for creating a captivating video, then start applying for jobs on freelance websites.
Read: Make Money Fast
In Closing – Opportunities are Everywhere
If working online sounds like a dream come true, then it’s time to formulate an action plan to get started on your new career. If you are still working a full-time job, then start with tasks like filling out surveys until you save enough money to leave your job for a few months and start your online venture. If you currently have no employment, then check out the freelance sites for work.
If you are already financially comfortable, and can’t stand your job, consider looking into trading the markets or setting up an online e-commerce business. The choice of how you get started is up to you, take a look around the online world, and you’ll see that opportunities are everywhere.
Take Action
This guide gives you plenty of options for making money online. However, you can know every method of making money using the internet, but it’s useless knowledge if you never put it into action.
Now that you have an idea of what’s possible for earning money online, pick a strategy you like from this guide, and start researching more on the subject. If you’re currently working full-time, then begin executing your online strategy with a job or task that you can do in your spare time.
Eventually, if you keep talking action toward your goal of producing an online income, you will bring it into reality.
22 Comments
Great ideas! I will start to write articles
Hey Oliver,
It’s always good to offer all the options but I just had idea. For me, I think I will add some additional info on possible money making options. Over the years I have created accounts all over the place but you know what? 90% of the options are not available to me at my location , grrr, booo….Anyway, just thinking now, I will include a geo acceptability chart when ever I offer advise on these money making offers such as Swagbucks as an example.
What do you think?
just saying, not being negative :o)
Hi, Yes, unfortunately every site is different in the countries that they accept.
We do go into more detail about the sites in our reviews, but they often change their terms & conditions and countries covered so it’s best to look into this before signing up for any.
Thanks for your comment 🙂
Yep, it’s just a case of taking in the details, but gosh, there is so much to know and understand in this business.
Cheers
carl
Thanks for your article. Your article is healpfull and informative
i am a household person and i was looking for something like this for very long. it was really great to know about these. if you can help me in this please let me know.
I make money online on my blog with adsense content. But my blog have lost traffic. How to get more traffic to my blog?
Thank you dude for sharing herePart Time jobs ideas
Hey, thanks for a great article, really inspiring. I’m a complete novice but I’m super keen to get started and am exploring the online affiliate marketing area. The issue I have is there seems to be so much conflicting advice about what to do and how to do it, everyone I reach out to wants to sell me a course! I was wondering if you have an opinion on ClickBank as it appears to be the biggest affiliate network out there and is trustworthy? Will I need to buy a course or is there some free training available that will get me started?
hello. thanks for informative article! definitely gonna check some of your suggestion. anyway, but I wanna add one more cool opportunity (I think even better than online surveys) – internet traffic selling apps. right now im using Honeygain. so you basically download it, let it run on your device background, surf net as usual (or leave it) and gain money. sure, its not much… but better than nothing 🙂
I really like your article, it’s really the best way to earn money online. I will earn money by adopting your method.
Thanks for sharing such a huge list of ideas to make money online at home. I hope this idea will work great to make money online at home. Thanks once again for sharing this post with us. Keep sharing. Looking for the more valuable post like this from you.
Great List!
But, some opportunities require some talents or assets. Opportunities which do not require special skills, talents, conditions, assets, for example “refer a friend”, “income sharing programs”, arbitrage deals, etc. would be helpful.
Hey, Thanks – most of the survey offers have a “Refer a friend” option which lets you earn extra income.
Also take a look at the Fluz App which has a generous referral program, some people are making a full time income with this – https://moneycheck.com/fluz-app-review/
Hope that helps!
I find this post very accurate and useful. Making money from home is actually one of the best means you can find on the digital world now. Thanks for sharing such a relevant with us.
Thanks for this useful information! A lot of people who’ll see this will benefit in this for sure.
Thank you for this useful post. It’s relevant to us. hoping to see more of like this in the future.
knowing i don’t need to leave home to get my pocket filled is the greatest feeling ever. very useful content
See This
Thanks! As a full time mom I just love your ideas of making money from home 🙂
Thanks for help!!!
Hi Oliver
Interesting suggestions here.
I’ve been blogging for a number of years now and I coach other bloggers to monetize their blogs.
I think for most people, affiliate marketing like you suggest is the best, easiest and fastest way to do that.
But you must carefully choose a niche, better yet… a very select mini-niche. There are many ways to rise above the competition once you’ve done that.
Also, teaching courses and delivering online learning via video, especially… is a great way to build digital assets that can pay off perpetually.
Nice article here, and I think you’ve given your readers some worthwhile things to consider.
-Donna
Many time I searched online for making money tips and tricks, but I didn’t find any article or blog with full information and important link. But you man doing really great job. i really glad to your thought and interesting article.