Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of online jobs has increased significantly. Staying at home while making money online is feasible and has become a popular way to find more career opportunities.
This article will cover eight ways to earn money online, whether as a side hustle or even a full-time job.
1. Start an Online Store
The number of eCommerce sales worldwide has shown exponential growth in the past few years, signifying that having an online business is still one of the best ways to make money online.
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Before launching a digital store, it’s essential to determine your niche by conducting market research and deciding what products or services to sell. After that, state clear goals and objectives in the business plan to regularly evaluate your store's performance.
Fortunately, creating an eCommerce business is relatively easy for beginners as it requires lower startup costs than a brick-and-mortar store. The eCommerce site building process is also quite straightforward as there are a lot of learning resources to explore and website creation tools to use.
For experienced users, we recommend using a content management system (CMS) for advanced customisation options. On the other hand, beginners or those who prioritise practicality and ease of use should opt for an online store builder to start making money online in no time.
Experienced users can greatly benefit from Magento development services when seeking advanced customisation options for their online stores. On the other hand, beginners or those prioritising practicality and ease of use may find online store builders more suitable for quickly starting an online business and making money.
2. Start Dropshipping
If you are looking to start a side business that doesn’t require you to manage inventory or deliveries, dropshipping can be a great option.
This is one of the most cost-effective ways to make money online, as dropshipphers use a third-party supplier to process and fulfill incoming orders. That means you only have to take care of your online store’s maintenance, marketing, and customer relationship management.
Technically, starting a dropshipping store is similar to creating an eCommerce site. The process also involves creating a business plan, deciding the target market, and choosing a platform to sell on.
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Since you won’t produce your own products or take care of order fulfillment, finding the perfect supplier is the most crucial aspect of dropshipping as it can make or break your business.
3. Create and Monetise a Blog
Starting a blog is an excellent way to make money on the side. The blog can be about anything you like – for instance, travel, culinary, books, or films. If you’re struggling to choose a specific blog topic, researching popular blogging trends can help you narrow down the options.
Build your blog by consistently posting quality content and working on the site’s search engine optimisation (SEO) to increase its visibility. Once you’ve built a sizeable readership, you can start monetising your blog. The most popular ways to make money blogging include running advertisements, joining an affiliate marketing program, or doing sponsored posts. Guest posting on relevant blogs can be a strategic move to increase your online visibility and establish credibility in your niche.
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Many successful bloggers earn thousands of dollars every month. However, keep in mind that making money through blogging doesn’t happen overnight and requires continuous effort.
If you’re struggling to grow your blog, evaluate the content quality and conduct keyword research to guide your writing plan. Assess your content based on clarity, readability, and uniqueness. Maintaining a blog on a certain niche means your content or writing intent may match other bloggers or writers working on the same niche. However, you need to be sure about the uniqueness of your content. It is possible if you pass your content through an online plagiarism checker and after getting the results make your content unique to maintain its quality. Moreover, promoting your blog on social media platforms can also help boost traffic.
4. Be a Virtual Assistant
Becoming a virtual assistant can be a good option if you enjoy doing administrative tasks. In this role, you offer organisational and planning services to individual clients or businesses.
A virtual assistant works as an independent contractor for the client. The typical day-to-day tasks of this role include scheduling appointments, making phone calls, arranging digital files, and managing emails.
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Being a virtual assistant gives you the freedom to work remotely, requiring minimal upfront costs. Even though the job sounds simple, it has potential annual earnings of around $67,115. You can find virtual assistant jobs on sites like Upwork.
5. Apply for Freelance Jobs
Another online job that can be a source of income is freelancing. There are a lot of opportunities to tackle in various industries such as tech, digital marketing, and education.
Depending on your niche and expertise, you can share technical knowledge through online courses or take on project-based work. For example, offer photography, translation, website maintenance, or voiceover services.
There are a lot of freelance job portals to search online. Usually, they offer completely free access for regular users, so there’s no upfront investment to start. However, you may have to pay the freelance platform a small fee once you start earning.
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The potential income from freelancing might fluctuate according to the availability of projects and the offers given by your clients. However, we recommend outlining your salary expectations clearly and valuing yourself based on your experience and expertise. Additionally, conduct regular salary research to keep up with freelance earnings in your industry.
6. Start a YouTube Channel
In 2021, YouTube became the most popular social media platform among adults in the US alone. Meanwhile, the total number of active users worldwide reached over 2 billion in the same year.
With such a broad audience, YouTube is an excellent potential source of extra income. There are many ways to make money online through YouTube, including collaborating with other content creators and displaying ads.
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The first step to channel monetisation is to sign up for the YouTube Partner Program. However, you’ll need to collect at least a thousand subscribers and have 4,000 valid watch hours to become eligible.
7. Join an Affiliate Program
As an affiliate marketer, you’ll become a third-party advertiser for a company’s product or service. It can be a lucrative way of making money online as the income potential can reach around $87,000 per year.
How it works is that each marketer is given a unique affiliate link that they can post on their websites or social media pages. They will then earn a commission once a customer completes a purchase through that link. A legitimate affiliate program will clearly outline its terms, offer realistic earnings, and not charge a fee to join.
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The first step to becoming an affiliate marketer is to find a company that aligns with your niche that offers an affiliate program. Several examples of popular affiliate programs are Amazon Associates, Fiverr Affiliates Program, and GiddyUp.
8. Fill Out Online Surveys
Nowadays, many companies pay respondents to fill out online surveys such as for consumer research. You earn between $0.40 to $2.03 per hour on average taking online surveys.
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Note that you might not be eligible for all online surveys. Often, surveys limit participants by specific requirements such as age, location, or occupation.
If you are eager to try earning money by doing online surveys, we recommend trying out these platforms:
- Survey Junkie
- InboxDollars
- LifePoints
- Swagbucks
Conclusion
Nowadays, anyone can earn money on the internet. However, it’s important to find a job that can make you engaged enough to do it consistently.
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Most online jobs require you to invest continuous effort and time before generating substantial results, so make sure to choose a path that you are passionate about.
Supplementary reading: What’s In Store For The Future
We hope that this article helps you start your journey of making money online. Good luck!
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