Making money online is the dream for many people. You get to work from wherever you find most comfortable, have the freedom to relocate at will, and, often, choose your working hours. There’s an incredible amount of benefits to making money online.
Since, however, many people want to make money online, a lot of the niches are saturated and finding good methods can be somewhat difficult. It also greatly depends on your goals – there’s a huge difference in making a livable wage and just getting some extra income from online activities.
Getting Started with Making Money Online
Before you even head off to any of the methods, you should first define your goals and skills. The former is important because it will help you pick the right method and set realistic expectations for your earning potential. Skills, on the other hand, give you better opportunities to make money online.
Additionally, most methods aren’t as reliable as earning a salary at a workplace. So, you’ll need to brush up on your personal finance skills to minimize the risk of running out of money at a bad moment.
Finally, some methods may take some time to get going and start making money. So, set aside some time and commit long-term – there’s no easy and quick way to make lots of money online without putting in effort.
10 Proven Ways to Make Money Online
Low earnings
1. Internet sharing
Preparation time: None
Setup: Less than an hour
Difficulty: Extremely easy
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Depends on the app
Requirements: An internet connection and at least one device
One of the easiest and effortless methods to make money online is internet sharing. All you do is download an app, turn on internet sharing and keep the device connected to the internet. You’ll get paid for each gigabyte of bandwidth shared with other users and you don’t need to take any action.
A single device, however, won’t earn you a lot of money as the payments are miniscule. If you have many devices such as phones, laptops, tablets, desktops, etc., you can run the app on all of them at once, which will earn you much more money.
2. Online surveys
Preparation time: May need to fill out a demographic questionnaire
Setup: Less than an hour
Difficulty: Easy
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Depends on the app
Requirements: An internet connection and at least one device
Online surveys are another way to get some extra money while investing fairly little time. It’s a lot more active than internet sharing, but it’s something you can do while you wait for the bus or whenever you have some time to kill.
There’s plenty of apps and platforms where you can find surveys to fill out as there’s tons of market research companies that need consumer opinions on various topics.
Completing surveys will take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. For doing so, you earn an average of 50 cents, so it’s quite easy to calculate your potential earnings and to decide if it’s worth doing.
3. Microtasks
Preparation time: Low – may need to get your account approved
Setup: Less than an hour
Difficulty: Easy
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Depends on the app
Requirements: An internet connection and at least one device. May need some additional skills for specific tasks.
Microtasks can earn you some extra money through various platforms. You may need to categorize text, analyze images for specific objects, or, for more fun activities, you may find yourself playing video games or watching videos.
There’s plenty of various platforms and apps available, each offering different tasks for you to complete. While the payments won’t be enormous, you can find a few platforms that offer tasks you enjoy and earn a little extra money that way.
Medium earnings
4. Social media management
Preparation time: High, will need to find clients
Difficulty: Medium
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Contract or task-based payment
Requirements: Social media management skills, portfolio
Social media management is closer to a job than anything we’ve listed before. While a lot of the work can be done on a freelance basis and purely online, it’ll be slightly more restrictive than surveys or internet sharing.
Additionally, you’ll need a portfolio and some proof of your ability to create engaging content on social media platforms. So, if you want to head into this direction, but don’t have the required skills, pick up an online course to get started.
Social media management, however, can earn you a lot more money than surveys or microtasks. In fact, with some effort, you can earn a livable wage from it. Additionally, if you already spend a lot of time on social media platforms, you’ll basically be doing the same thing, but earning money.
5. Freelance writing
Preparation time: High, will need to find clients
Difficulty: Medium
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Contract or task-based payment
Requirements: Good writing skills, some SEO knowledge, writing portfolio
Freelance writing can be done by investing various amounts of time. For some, it can become the main source of income while, for others, it’s simply a way to get some extra income.
It’s also a field where you can start out relatively easily, albeit for miniscule payment. To earn a good amount of money from freelance writing, you’ll need a few years of experience and a writing portfolio. Then you can start earning a livable income just from writing.
Finding clients, however, is likely the most difficult part of freelance writing. The market is quite saturated with freelance writers, so you’ll be in competition with a lot of people. Using an online marketplace for freelancers (like Upwork or Fiverr) is an option, however, the platforms can often take a large cut of your money.
6. Virtual assistant
Preparation time: Medium, can be quite easy to find clients
Difficulty: Medium
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Contract or task-based payment
Requirements: Good time management skills, ability to multitask
Being a virtual assistant is quite a good side hustle for someone with the ability to multitask and with a wide, but not deep, skillset. Virtual assistants will do everything from answering emails to drafting reports and booking appointments, so you’ll need the ability to learn quickly or already have a wide skill set.
While you can earn good money by being a virtual assistant, it does have a drawback – your schedule will need to match that of your clients. As such, being attached to a schedule is not something most people think of when they want to make money online.
If you’re fine with that, however, being a virtual assistant could be the way to go as the job is not that complicated, but can earn a livable wage for some.
High earnings
7. Affiliate marketing
Preparation time: Very high
Difficulty: Difficult
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Paid after minimum balance reached
Requirements: Marketing knowledge, website creation skills, persistence
Affiliate marketing used to be the gold standard of making money online. It was one of the most often recommended routes and one of the most well-paid ones as well. While affiliate marketing can still be one of the best ways to make money online, plenty of things have changed that make it more difficult.
Getting your website with affiliate links to the top of Google or other search engines is going to be much more difficult than before. Additionally, while affiliate networks have expanded greatly, potential marketers have saturated many niches, making it harder to earn money.
If you have the time, money, and skills, however, affiliate marketing can definitely go from something that earns you some money to something that becomes a full blown business.
8. Website development
Preparation time: High
Difficulty: Difficult
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Contract or task-based payment
Requirements: Development skills
Developers earn a lot of money, so it’s no secret that you can make some serious money online through various programming gigs. Website development is one of the most common ways to make money online if you have the skills.
While finding customers can be a little difficult at the start, once you have a network and portfolio going, you’ll have a much easier time. Additionally, since the skill is highly qualified, you’ll be earning a lot for each website created.
9. Selling digital products
Preparation time: High
Difficulty: Difficult
Age threshold: 18+
Payment: Paid for each product
Requirements: Marketing and creative skills.
Digital products are a great way to make money online as they don’t require any physical shipping, which is what makes ecommerce difficult. Although digital products are by no means easy, it’s still quite possible for nearly anyone to set up a website and online store.
Then all you need is to create digital products and market them. While it may sound simple, it’s closer to an actual business than a side gig. It’s a great way to make money, but you’ll need to put in a lot of time, effort, and, potentially, money to get your online store off the ground.
You can also use online marketplaces to reduce the initial startup costs and make marketing easier, however, they often take a cut, so that will definitely cut into your income.
10. YouTube channel
Preparation time: High
Difficulty: Difficult
Age threshold: 18+
Payment time: Contract or task-based payment
Requirements: Marketing and creative skills, videography, public speaking skills
One of the hardest ways to make money online, but also the most promising is to run a YouTube channel. Very few people get to the point where they can make a lot of income from it, however.
There’s lots of skills that go into creating a popular YouTube channel – you need to film and edit videos, write scripts, act (or voice) your script, etc. While you can hire people to perform a part of the job, that may be unviable for those just starting out due to inordinate costs.
But once a YouTube channel becomes popular, there’s tons of ways to monetize it. One of the easiest ways is to run ads on the channel and the company themselves pay you for views. Other channels take up brand deals, add additional perks for joining paying subscribers, etc.
Additional Tips for Earning Money Online
Earning money online is rarely completely passive. You’ll rarely learn a skill, never get better at it, and still earn tons of money. Constant learning is the only route as the competition online is much greater than offline. Additionally, continuous learning will improve your earning potential.
You should also expect for the results to take time. Few of the methods outlined above will start earning you money instantly. Most of them will require some time to prepare for and set up. Even then, some of them will take time to make any money, so persistence and a long-term mindset are your friends.
Finally, you should always review your local laws regarding income from online sources. All of the methods will earn you income that will be taxed – so you’ll need to run some accounting and pay taxes all by yourself.
