This is a guest post by John, an independent consultant working with clients in the UK and around the world.
You might be earning a good living as a writer, but you will almost certainly be doing a lot of the grunt work for free. Sure, you could get paid to write online content for a living, but the truth is that many, if not most, of the jobs available will be unpaid or heavily unpaid. The good news is that there are a number of ways that you can earn an income online without needing to write for money. Here are some of the best ways to make $100 per hour or more without needing to put in the hours.
Start A Blog
Blogs are one of the simplest ways to make money online. The key is to pick your niche, build your audience and then monetise your content. When I first heard about earning money from a blog, I thought that it was some kind of scam because it sounded too easy to be true. After all, doesn’t everyone need money? To my surprise, blogging was one of the most reliable ways to make money that I found. The problem is that it takes a lot of work to be able to make a living from a blog. You will need to post regularly and extensively and you will have to build up a large audience before you can contemplate charging for your content.
Start An Online Store
If you’re good at designing websites and have the skills to build one from scratch, you could technically get paid to do so. However, that doesn’t mean that you will have to. Instead, you can use the same skills to build an online store for yourself. Platforms like Shopify and Shopbop allow you to set up your own eCommerce store in no time at all and then you can start making money straight away. The advantage of this is that you can choose your own pricing and you don’t need to negotiate with big brands. You can also add your own products without having to worry about whether or not you’ll be able to sell them. If you decide to go this route, make sure that you pick a niche and develop your business plan before you start building your site.
Sign Up For A Paid Survey Site
There are plenty of survey sites out there that will pay you to take part in their surveys. You sign up, complete a few surveys then wait for your next payment. Many of these sites are willing to pay you to take part in their survey, because they know that you are bound to come back for more once you’ve established yourself. Don’t worry, you won’t have to. Keep coming back and taking part in as many surveys as you can to ensure that you continue to get paid.
Start An Online Cafe
If you’re a creative type and enjoy working with your hands, you could use your skills to start up an online cafe. All you need is a laptop, some creative software and a cafe. You can get the creative software from Envy Online Cafe, for example, which enables you to create and sell your own products online. You can use your cafe to serve customers snacks, drinks and other products. You can find a number of cafe ideas curated by the Envy team if you’re looking for inspiration.
What’s important is that you pick a profitable niche, build your audience and then use your platform to make money. As a general rule, the more involved you are in the community, the more you will be rewarded. The more you put in, the more you will get back.