How to Make Money Online
This is your ultimate guide on how to make money online. We will present to you the perks of working from your own home and a few ideas on career paths that enable you to work online. Then, we will dive into all the creative, easy, and fast ways there are to start your own business!
Table of Contents
Benefits of working from home
Remote working might be one of the biggest trends in the working world right now. Many recent events like the Covid pandemic have led to people working from home rather than at the office. Many branches and jobs offer working from home as a real alternative now and it is possible to work efficiently and productively from your home desk as well.
This includes less time and money spent on travelling to and from your workplace, more cooking and eating at home instead of take-out meals and having more time to spend with your family, partner or roommates.
Now, why would you not want to work from home too? There are plenty of benefits that make considering a home office-only job interesting:
- improving your work-life balance
- being less stressed and thus healthier
- offering free time management
- being independent of location
- having a more sustainable environmental impact
Making money from the comfort of your sofa has never been easier and more popular than it is right now.
Top 10 ideas on how to make money online
There are endless ways to monetize your time and knowledge to build an income by working over the internet. Below, we have listed some ideas on how exactly you can start making money online.
Taking paid surveys
- Paid surveys have grown significantly in popularity over the past few months and years because they offer an extremely simple method to make money. Users can download an app or visit a website of their preference, sign up with some personal information, and can start answering surveys regarding interesting topics right away! Different surveys will have different lengths and pay different amounts of money. Usually, you will be paid via PayPal or online gift cards.
- You do not need any prior knowledge or skills and can start gaining extra money extra easily! Interested in doing online surveys? Check out our ultimate guide.
Teach others a language or skill
- Do you speak multiple languages? Can you play an instrument, or do you have any special hobbies which require interesting skills? Give a part of your knowledge to others!
- Teaching other people your personal skills will help you both grow individually. This method helps with consolidating your own expertise while simultaneously teaching another person. It is a classic win-win situation.
- There are multiple sites where you can teach others a language or share your skills.
Blogging or starting a podcast
- Growing your own Podcast is another popular phenomenon created in this pandemic. Maybe you already know someone personally who is regularly podcasting or blogging online? We sure do!
- Both of these ideas are based on you having interesting topics to write or talk about. For example, cooking, politics, books, or your favorite hobby can be some ideas on where to start your content. Monetizing a blog or podcast works via commercial sponsorship or implementing ads, for example.
- For example, this blog is centered around the topics of making money online, doing paid surveys, the app Poll Pay, and any related topics. As you can see, a few small ideas can lead to a whole bunch of interesting topics to write about!
Dropshipping
- Dropshipping describes a business model for selling products. For example, you are the seller and own a website for selling shoes. Your customers buy shoes for $100. Now, you buy the same shoe from your distributor for $80 and he sends it directly to your customer. You have gained $20 in profit.
- This method is very popular because the seller does not need to keep the products in-store, so no storage space is needed and the profit margin might become bigger.
- Learning about dropshipping is declared to be very easy and you should be able to start this business model without a lot of investment. However, it needs a lot of organizational skills and there are some potential problems you need to keep in mind. You must definitely do some research and have a certain amount of starting capital to begin with.
Proofreading or copywriting
- You were always great at grammar, spelling, and finding the right words? Maybe proofreading is just the right way for you to make extra money! Copywriting offers several branches you can get into, for example writing articles for websites, blogs, or even print media as well as newsletter, social media or advertisements.
- Both paths require you to have some background knowledge on how to create content, express yourself and present certain topics. However, with a little practice and solid tips, especially copywriting is a great and in-demand job.
Try affiliate marketing
- Take your blog to new heights by getting paid for product recommendations. With affiliate marketing, you get paid for anyone who purchases a product through your link. If you have a knack for influencing people or are into writing captivating product reviews, affiliate marketing might just be the thing for you!
- This strategy is popular with online and social media influencers so chances are high, you have once purchased an item that was promoted by someone who earned a commission through your purchase.
- This branch might be a bit harder to get into as a beginner but if you can already offer some amount of reach through social media platforms, it is possible to get started right away!
Become a social media influencer
- This point is closely connected to doing affiliate marketing since that type of marketing is an essential source of income for many influencers. Thus, the tips for getting started and first steps are very similar as well.
- Other benefits and income streams as a person with huge reach on social media platforms can be ambassador programs (representing a brand for a longer period of time), receiving free products to use and show in order to promote a brand, or even being gifted free vacation, hotel stays or flights to show your followers certain products and services.
- In general, influencers are paid per posting (e.g. a photo on Instagram or a video on YouTube) and how often these are liked/clicked. Your focus will lie on building a community with reach and engaged followers.
Work as a freelancer
- Freelance work basically means you can choose which companies to work with, offer them your skills for certain projects, and set your own time schedule as well as payments. This career path enables you to work from everywhere in the world, for everyone you want to.
- Some popular freelance sites are listed below because it can be a great opportunity to start your own business as well!
- Anyways, working as a freelancer does mean you will not have a secured income because you are not continuously employed. It takes a lot of time to look for contracts but on the other hand, your time management will be more freely and you can determine what you get paid.
Selling something you made (art, crafts)
- Creating beautiful objects and selling your own products for a living might just be the perfect combination to make your hobby into a job! This is perfect for creative and crafty people.
- Below we show you some options on how to create your own business selling art and crafts!
Translating or Transcribing
- Our last idea on how to make money online is translating and transcribing, also a job that is suitable for people who like languages, writing, and are good with words.
- For translating it is obviously important to speak a second language in order to be able to translate documents or articles.
- Transcribing means, you will listen to an audio file and just type what is being said. Very important here is accuracy and correctness, as well as following certain style guides! This is one site hiring online transcriptionists.
Some of our ideas on working online will require you to have some knowledge or skills beforehand which you will then monetize as a freelance worker or selling products. For example, if you are a very handy person, you could sell some craftwork you made on your own.
Creative minds may offer their services as a designer or sell their artwork directly on the internet. Are you interested in creating an online course to teach other people your native language, a skill you learned or simply tutor them on different topics? There are many options to help others learn something new!
Now, if you do not have any special skills or entirely no experience in these fields, there are some options for you to start working online without any prior knowledge. For example, many sites and apps offer surveys for you to take and make money without special knowledge or skills. They are very easy to sign up to, usually take up only a little time and fun to do!
Starting your own business
Starting your own business is a great way to market your skills, products, or services when aiming to monetize them. You might want to start your own online shop to start selling on your own. However, there are many sites available where you can sign up and offer your services to anyone who might need them. These types of freelancers are mainly looked for in branches like web development, graphic design, writing, and similar job categories.
- Fiverr: Website Design, recording voiceovers, creating tutorial videos, and more
- Etsy: A great platform to sell vintage and hand-made niche items
- Upwork: Any type of service for small and huge businesses
- LinkedIn: As simple as it sounds, you just need to create a well-founded profile and connect with people who might be interested in your services
- Redbubble: Selling your art and designs all around the world
- Udemy: Becoming a professional tutor across many topics by creating online courses
There are a few factors to keep in mind before beginning working online. You must learn to differentiate legitimate sites from scam sites. Usually, when offering a service, you are asked to give some personal information (at least your contact info). Keep your eyes open for sites that ask for too sensitive information or do not seem trustworthy.
How to work efficiently online
Signing up to different online sites is very simple and easy, but the hardest part of making money online is staying consistent and working efficiently. You need to acquire a few key habits in order to keep yourself motivated, work continuously and set up a sensible time schedule.
Working regular times and taking breaks
- There is a perfect balance between setting a schedule to work regularly and planning enough breaks to stay healthy, balanced, and motivated. One way is to try working as much time at once as you feel comfortable to and then take a break as long as you need.
- Repeating this continuously will eventually lead to you finding your perfect working routine and a great work-life balance. Once your system gets used to working regularly, it will get easier to stay motivated on end!
- However, do remember not to overwork yourself and make sure to take enough and long enough breaks during the day.
Preparing your home office and going outside
- A tidy workplace favors a tidy mind to work with. Does this appeal to you too? We would definitely recommend keeping a clean office place in your home which you can use comfortably and regularly.
- On the other hand, do try to go outside as well! Working from home means you will spend even more time at the place where you live than you usually would – so you need some kind of compensation.
- Use your breaks to get some fresh air or take walks after work because it helps to stay motivated and healthy!
Keep realistic expectations
- As with every type of new job, it takes some time to get used to online businesses, freelance work, or survey sites. Keep calm and don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t reach milestones right away.
- Reach your goals and become a successful worker from home now!
Is remote working worth it?
We believe working from home and making money online can be the perfect way for you to combine your favorite hobby or your bests skills with building a strong income. This concept balances work schedules with your everyday life so you can explore many different options to monetize the skills you already have or even make money without any prior knowledge.
Freelance work, selling your own products, or taking online surveys – the modern world offers endless options for you to make money online and work from home!
Note: Some of the job ideas we presented to you can replace a 9-5 job, for example when working as a freelancer and being employed for mulitiple projects at once. On the other hand, doing online surveys or starting blogging is not as lucrative an income source as others. Keep this in mind and do not quit your regular job when starting to work from home! Not every side hustle can replace a 9-5.
Make sure to tell us which idea fits best to your personal preferences and keep on reading The Poll Pay Blog for more tips and information on paid surveys and how to make money online!
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