While the world was enjoying what is now known as the “pandemic”, a group of teenagers were busy creating a business that would make their parents proud.
They named it Thrive Teen, and they were on a mission to make money online.
Let’s take a look at how they did it.
Join a Niche
There are many different ways to make money online, but most of them fall under one of three categories:
- Affiliate Marketing
- Digital Marketing
- Product Creation
Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.
Affiliate Marketing – This is where you make money from a referral. For example, you sell a product or service, and when someone buys that product or service through your affiliate link, you get a commission.
If someone clicks on your affiliate link and then buys a product or service that you recommend, you can make money online with affiliate marketing.
You must first establish the Affiliate Marketing niche and then find products or services in that niche that you can promote.
Once you’ve found a product or service that you think will do well, use Google Trends to research the popularity of related topics.
You can use this tool to search for specific phrases, authors, countries, and more — all within the context of your chosen topic.
When you find a topic that is gaining a lot of interest, you can bet that there is a niche to be found within that subject. For example, let’s say you’re a fashion lover and you want to promote a plus size clothing brand. You could research how to buy clothes for larger people by using the Google Trends tool. You’ll see that there is a lot of interest in fashion and clothing for larger people. So it’s a proven fact that there is a niche to be found within this topic, and you can use Google Trends to find products that are gaining popularity within that niche.
You’ll then want to look for affiliate programs for products that are relevant to your chosen niche. If you can find a relevant affiliate program for a product or service in your chosen niche, you can promote that product or service and earn a commission.
If you can get 10% of the dollar amount spent on your affiliate product or service, you’ll be making $500 per month. You can use this to start earning your money online.
This is probably the easiest way to make money online. You can start by performing simple tasks for online marketers, copywriters and editors who are looking for content.
You’ll want to look for opportunities where you can get paid to take surveys, complete offers, or watch videos.
The second way to make money online is through digital marketing. (And no, we’re not going to tell you to become a Social Media Influencer and try to make money off your followers.)
In digital marketing, you can get paid to take part in marketing activities across multiple platforms. For example, you could get paid to take a survey, or you could get paid to display ads on your social media accounts.
You’ll want to look for opportunities where you can get paid to post on social media, take surveys or participate in focus groups. You’ll need to have a pretty high social media followings to make this work. (You can use tools like Hootsuite to find the best opportunities.)
Product Creation – This is where you create a product, either physically or digitally, and then sell it to businesses or individuals. (For example, you can create a digital product such as an e-book or a software program, and then sell those products to businesses.)
Creating a physical product doesn’t always have to be expensive. (In fact, there are several ways to create a physical product and make money online.)
You can create a clothing line for men and women, and then use online marketplaces like Shopify to sell your clothing. (Sign up for a free account, then click on the Marketplace tab at the top.)
You can also use Amazon Mechanical Turk to find an audience for your product. (Just make sure that you comply with their guidelines before getting started.)
You don’t need a lot of money to get started with product creation. (In fact, you can use tools like Shopify and Amazon Mechanical Turk to create a fully functioning e-commerce store for free.) You just need to have the will to succeed and the ability to follow directions.
Create a YouTube Channel
Creating a YouTube channel is the most popular way to make money online for teens and millennials. (That’s what the HubSpot Blogger’s survey says, anyway.)
You can use YouTube to build a business or to simply entertain yourself. (You can even use the platform to learn something new.)
The first step is to click on the YouTube icon in the top right corner of your screen. (Or, if you’re on a mobile device, click on the relevant icon at the top of the screen.) This will bring you to the YouTube home page.
You’ll then see a tab at the top of the screen called “My Videos.” (If you’re on a mobile device, tap on the “Videos” icon at the top of screen and then choose “My Videos” from the menu that appears.)
The “My Videos” tab will show you all of the content that you’ve uploaded to YouTube over the years. (If you’ve never uploaded a video toYouTube, this is the place where you’ll want to begin.)
From here, you can click on any video and it will take you to the main page of that content.
You can then click on the “Learn more” link next to the video, which will bring you to a page with more information about that video.
If you’ve ever taken a YouTube course, you can use the “My Courses” tab to access your courses. (Or, if you’ve taken an e-learning course, you can use the “My Learning” tab to access those courses.)
From here, you can click on any course and it will take you to the main page of that content.
You can then click on the “Learn more” link next to the video, which will bring you to a page with more information about that video.
You can use YouTube to build a business or simply entertain yourself. The platform is extremely popular among advertisers, as it’s the second most used social media platform after Facebook.
Use Google Ads
You don’t need a large following to make money with Google Ads. (In fact, you can even start with a minimal number of followers and still make money from Google Ads.)
Google Ads is a free service that allows businesses to pay to have their ads displayed on Google’s search results pages. (There’s also Google AdWords, which is a paid service that allows businesses to target their ads to specific audiences.)
You can use the Google Ads dashboard to create and manage ads campaigns. (If you’ve never used Google Ads, this is the place where you want to begin.)
From the dashboard, you can select the type of ad you want to run, set the budget, and choose the countries you want your ads to appear in. (You can even target specific areas within countries for more precise results.)
Once you’ve created your ads, you can set a daily budget and an earnings target. (If you’ve never made money with Google Ads, this is the place where you want to start.)
You’ll then need to find relevant and valuable content to put in front of your audience. Create content that will keep them coming back for more.
Create a Blog
Blogs are a great way to make money online. They’re fairly inexpensive to set up and can eventually earn you money from affiliate sales and sponsorships. (You can even use a tool like WordPress to create your blog for free.)
Creating a blog takes a little more effort than creating a YouTube channel or an Instagram account, but it can also potentially earn you more money. (And, as we mentioned before, we’re not talking about the kind of earnings that can be made from a Social Media Influencer’s account.)