If you’re looking for ways to earn passive income, you’ve probably considered exploring the world of online marketing. Although the field is still relatively new, there are already hundreds of opportunities for you to make a few extra bucks from home. You just need to know where to look. Sometimes it’s as easy as performing a few tasks for a company (known as micro-jobs), and other times you might need to get a little bit entrepreneurial and register as a freelancer. Either way, the best way to make money online is through performing tasks (known as Online Marketing Jobs or OMJ) for paying customers. By continually delivering high-quality content that is both valuable and uses trusted resources, you can gradually build a community of engaged and loyal customers who will keep coming back for more.
1. Create a blog
Blogs are essentially an online journal or diary that provides content for people who are interested in reading your musings. Although most blogs will get updated at least once per month, many bloggers will continue to update their blogs daily or even twice per week. While your primary purpose as a blogger is to provide value, you can also use your platform to promote products that are relevant to your niche or a related topic.
When someone subscribes to your blog, they will receive regular updates from you containing valuable information that they can use or refer to later in life. Because of this, blogs are usually considered to be a very safe and reliable way to make money online. Even better, the amount of money that you can make through a blog is usually quite high.
2. Start a website
Nowadays, the world is firmly on the path to the online world. With the majority of people getting their news online and social media being widely used, the number of people searching for online content is increasing. If you’re looking to make money online, the best way forward is through creating and selling digital products that can be presented to someone who is searching for particular content.
If you want to create a digital product, you’ll first need to decide what it is that you want to create. Do you want to create an online store? A blog? Some combination of the two? Once you’ve got an idea of what you’ll create, you can begin to think about how you’ll go about creating it. Do you want to use a tool like Squarespace or WordPress to build your website? Or do you want to use a more complex one-time configuration to get the design you want? There are plenty of options out there.
Deciding what type of website you want to create and sticking with it will help you to continue building out your site effectively. If you decide to go down the WordPress route, you can get a free hosted WordPress site from WordPress.com. This will give you the initial capital you need to start developing your site as well as providing you with a large audience to launch your product into. You can also use plugins like Hello Bar to create a pop-up element that will sell your products when someone clicks on them.
3. Start an online store
An online store is where you’ll sell your digital products to customers. If you decide that setting up a blog is the route to go, the next step is to create an online store within your site. This is an extremely easy and straightforward process that can be done in just a few minutes using an eCommerce tool like Shopify or WordPress WooCommerce.
You’ll just need to sign up for a free account with either of these tools, and then you can begin creating your online store the way that you want it.
An online store can be incredibly profitable, especially if you do well with affiliate marketing. This is a technique where you earn a commission when a customer clicks a link or buys a product that’s promoted on your website. You can learn more about affiliate marketing from personal branding coach and bestselling author Lisa Cole.
4. Start an online tutoring platform
If you’re an expert within a specific niche, you can put your expertise to use by setting up an online tutoring platform. With a tutoring platform, you can connect with students from all over the world and offer to help them with their studies. This could be something as simple as helping them with their homework or providing them with online course material that they can follow along with. The amount of money that you can make through a tutoring platform is unlimited.
To get started, you’ll need to choose a niche and then find a way to become an expert in that area. From there, you can take advantage of the fact that people often need help learning new things and use your expertise to help them.
5. Start an online booking agency
If you’re an expert in the field of travel and you’ve got an interest in becoming a full-time digital nomad, you can use your skills to make money online through an online booking agency. With an agency, you’ll manage a team of independent contractors who will carry out bookings for clients. You’ll be in charge of marketing, sales, and creating unique travel itineraries for busy people who want to travel the world.
You can start your own agency or work for another agency as a travel consultant. The best thing about working for an agency is that you’re usually not expected to carry out any work yourself. Instead, you’ll be managing a team of independent contractors who will carry out bookings for clients.
6. Start an online marketplace
An online marketplace is where consumers and businesses can trade and exchange products and services without the need for a traditional retail store. If you’re looking for a way to earn some extra cash, you can set up a marketplace and allow people to list and sell their products and services to your audience.
If you’ve got a large Facebook group or audience, you can begin developing your own marketplace. Just remember, you’ll need to ensure that you verify the authenticity of all products and services before you allow them to be listed on your site. Otherwise, you could end up with scammers selling fake products and services that damage your brand’s reputation.
As the name suggests, a marketplace is generally a place where buyers can find both buyers and sellers, so it’s an excellent place for someone looking to make a few extra dollars online but without needing to run their own retail store or be an entrepreneur.