9 Best Ways to Make Money Online

Whether you have debt, recently lost your job, or want to earn money doing what you love, making money online is much easier today than it was a few years ago. There are many remote positions, marketing channels and platforms that you can monetize to help you reach your financial goals.

If you’re planning to start the new year with a little more money in the bank, you won’t want to make any money mistakes but you also need to take action to start making money online. Be sure to take a look at your monthly budget before starting any new project so that you know how much money you need to make to hit your monthly goals. Knowing your monthly financial goals will help you stay on track as you start your money-making journey.

• Make Money Online by Building an Ecommerce Business

Starting your own business is one of the most profitable ways to make money online. You can build your own online store using the popular Shopify platform which is packed with countless apps that make running an ecommerce business even easier.

To start an ecommerce business, you first need to decide what you will sell. Fortunately, you can dropship almost anything found online. If you’re passionate about beauty products, you can sell makeup brushes, makeup, or artificial eyelashes which are all going to be popular in 2018. If you’re passionate about men’s products, backpacks, watches and beard oils will continue to be popular in 2018.

Once you’ve figured out what to sell, you can create a website. You can use a free tool like Oberlo, found on the Shopify app store to add products that you want to sell. After you’ve added products to your store, the focus should be on marketing.

You can read 50 Ways to Make Sales with Dropshipping to learn the exact marketing tricks you need to do to make money online. It’s the most detailed online resource about ecommerce marketing. In this free ebook, I share all my marketing tricks that helped me build a six-figure online store.

• Make Money Online with Freelance Writing

Freelance writing is one of the fastest ways to make money online. If you recently lost your job or have a big and unexpected expense, you can easily find countless top paying job for freelancers online.

When I lost my job and started freelancing, my favorite platform was Pro Blogger. It has some of the highest paid opportunities on their website. It’s a competitive marketplace so make sure you’ve built up your portfolio a bit. If you’ve never written for another brand before you can build your own portfolio or make money blogging on your personal website. The first Pro Blogger gig I was offered was for a company that ended up hiring me full-time a few months into freelancing. The visibility I got from freelancing on their blog also helped me get many more new freelance clients.

In school, people would say writers don’t make any money, and I’ve learned from experience that that’s just not true. A freelance writer can monetize their writing with effective copy for a product description or a landing page. It’s about applying your writing skill to something profitable. That’s how you succeed as a writer.

Freelance writers can also monetize their writing by creating information products like ebooks to sell online. Amazon is the most popular place to upload ebooks. It’s the most popular bookstore in the world so it can be hard to stand out. You can also sell ebooks on your own personal website where you have more control over the success of the ebook while making a higher profit from it.

• Make Money Online with a YouTube channel

Many of the most popular influencers grew into popularity on YouTube first. YouTube allows people to see a more personal and human side of you especially if you’re creating vlogs. You can make money on YouTube through their advertising. However, you can also make money online with YouTube by promoting your products on that platform and monetize with paid ads.

If you grow your YouTube audience to a sizable number like 10,000 subscribers, you might start having brands reach out for sponsored videos. That means, they’ll pay you to create a video where you talk about their product or business.

The most successful YouTube channels tend to be within the gaming, beauty, unboxing, fitness and vlogging niches. However, YouTube allows you to create videos within any category so you can feel free to make videos about your passions.

• Make Money Online as an Influencer

Becoming a reputable influencer can be challenging yet rewarding. You need to create content that captures attention to grow your following to a sizeable number. To make money online as an influencer, the first step is to amass a large following. The more followers you have, the more brands will want to work with you. Having real and engaged followers will make you more attractive to top brands.

The average influencer charges $200-$400 per post depending on the size of their audience. Some brands may choose to offer you a commission instead of paying a flat rate. With an affiliate commission, you need to be confident that your audience will convert. While you could make a lot more with an affiliate commission you can also make nothing.

Don’t want to be a public figure? You can build large social followings in other ways. For example, if you’re passionate about puppies, you can create an Instagram account where you repost pictures and videos of the cutest puppies. While you likely won’t be able to charge as much per post since reposting a brand’s products won’t be as much work as creating your own photography, you’ll still be able to make a little bit of money online.

• Make Money Online in the Gig Economy

If you’re only looking to make an extra couple hundred dollars a month, you might choose to take part in the gig economy. So rather than looking for something consistent and stable, you might choose to take part in a couple side gigs.

You can use platforms like Fiverr, Craigslist, Upwork, Airbnb, or TaskRabbit. Fiverr, Craigslist and TaskRabbit are good for those looking to only make a couple extra hundred dollars a month. Upwork and Airbnb allow you to make a bit more than that.

If you travel regularly for work, you might choose to rent out your condo or home while you’re away. Be sure to look up any restrictions for Airbnb rentals for your condo/community first. TaskRabbit allows you to complete tasks for others for compensation. And Fiverr, Craigslist and Upwork allow you to find side jobs and freelance opportunities on their platforms.

• Make Money Online Selling your Stuff

If you need to make money online in the short-term only, you might try to sell your stuff. Maybe you have products that are in great condition because you bought it and only used it once. Or maybe you received a gift that you didn’t need. Go through your collection of stuff and ask yourself if you’ve used it in the last year.

If some of your products have monetary value, you may choose to sell it online. Keep in mind that it can be challenging to sell things like books, CDs, DVDs and other products that aren’t popular anymore. Quality electronics like laptops and smart speakers might be an easier sell.

You can sell your things on sites like Craigslist or in Facebook Buy and Sell Groups for your city.

• Make Money Online Creating an App

If you’re a savvy programmer, you might choose to use your skills to create apps. However, there are also tools you can use to help you create apps without any coding experience at all.

Typically, lower priced apps between free-$2.99 perform best. If you don’t charge for your app, you can include in app purchases which can far outperform the amount you can make with your app.

If you struggle to monetize your apps, you can even create apps for other brands. You can create a website where you sell the apps you create or take on freelance projects where you develop apps for other brands.

• Money Money Online As a Twitch Streamer

Twitch streamers make money online in several ways. You can make money selling products, with monthly subscriptions, fan donations, Twitch ads, and brand sponsorships. If you dream of playing video games all day long, then Twitch is the most profitable platform for you.

Twitch also now allows people to stream videos that don’t have anything to do with gaming. For example, some Twitch streamers will go on vacation and stream their experiences in real life so their viewers can get an in-depth look into the world. Many YouTubers are moving over to Twitch as they can make more money on the platform. However, YouTube still has a much larger audience so they’re both great platforms you can make money from.

• Make Money Now by Getting a Loan

When you’re in a crunch and need to money now, sometimes getting a loan is your only option.  You can fill out the personal loan application to discover if you qualify for a loan in only three minutes.

While loans need to be paid back, they can help you get money fast when you have sudden or unplanned expenses that you can’t afford. They can also be valuable for those who are looking to get a loan for school, get a loan to start a business or get a loan for your first home.

Which of these ways are you going to try to make money online? Let us know in the comments!