If you’re reading this, I assume you’re looking for ways to make a small amount of money online. Maybe you have a side-hustle that you’re passionate about or seen potential in, or maybe you just want to supplement your income. No matter your reason, it’s good to know there are ways to make a little money online without hurting your wallet too much!
The Basics
The first and most important step to making money online is to decide what you’re going to do. We all have different talents and skills that we can put to use in a freelance or side-hustle way. Once you’ve determined what kind of content you can produce that is of value to potential clients, you can start thinking about how to make money from it. In the following sections, we’ll discuss a few ways to make a little bit of cash online without too much effort.
Monetizing Your Content
If you’ve written a book, you can certainly try and sell it through a traditional publishing house. While this can be a profitable endeavor, it takes a lot of work to get a book ready for the world to see. If you’ve got something you’ve created that’s valuable and could potentially make some money, you can always consider publishing it yourself through CreateSpace or Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. A nice bonus with self-publishing is that you can experiment with different cover designs and layouts to see which one performs the best. You can also set your own price for your book, allowing you to make more money per copy sold.
Sell Your Photos Online
Another way to quickly make a few bucks online is to sell your photos. If you’ve got a decent stock of photos you’ve taken over the years, you can set up a stock photo website or hire a freelancer to help you design and launch a stock photo website for you. Once you’ve got your site up and running, you can start promoting it and generating income. Be mindful of the copyrights and take the proper steps to ensure you’re not infringing on anyone’s rights when using their images.
Get Paid to Take Surveys
If you’ve got a lot of free time on your hands and aren’t sure what to do with it, you can get paid to take surveys. Survey Junkies, Swagbucks, OneOpinion, Survey Bee, Ipsos iSay, and My Survey Money are just a few of the companies that pay people to take surveys and share their opinions. In exchange for your opinions, you’ll earn money to help you purchase items you normally couldn’t afford or to help fund your retirement lifestyle. You can find out more about getting paid to take surveys at www.surveyanaut.com and www.insomnia.com.
Start A Blog
Blogs aren’t just about words anymore. Thanks to platforms like WordPress, Medium, and Blogger, anyone can create a blog and start sharing their knowledge and ideas with others. If you’ve got a knack for writing, a love of sharing knowledge, and a desire to make a difference, you can start a blog today and begin creating content that’s worth paying for.
You don’t have to run a full-blown blog to make money from it, either. You can create and sell digital or physical products from blog posts and use the revenue from those products to fund your blog. For example, if you’ve got a popular blog post on how to bake the perfect cheesecake, you can create a line of vegan cheesecakes inspired by your blog posts and start making money from it. Or, if you’ve written a book on how to start a successful blog, you can create a mini-course for marketers to learn how to properly craft a blog post and use that content to launch their own blogs.
Start An Online Store
If you’ve got a product that other people are searching for but don’t yet know how to find, you can start an online store to connect them with your manufacturer or supplier. For example, if you’ve got a popular blog post on how to properly clean a guitar, you can create a mini-course for guitar enthusiasts to learn how to maintain and clean their instrument. Or, if you’ve created a product that people are using and loving, you can consider selling that product through an online store.
Sell Your Kitchenware
For those of us that love to cook, having useful and stylish kitchenware is a must. If you’ve got a good eye for design and know how to properly make a product look luxurious, you can create a line of cookware and serve sets for specific recipes. Alternatively, if you’ve got a specific item of cookware that you adore, you can create a separate page on your site where you sell one-off pieces to customers.
Earn Money With Affiliate Marketing
If you’ve got a sizable audience, you can earn a sizable income with affiliate marketing. The basic concept is easy to understand: you connect brands to individuals who’ve decided to purchase their products online. When someone clicks a product link or buys a product that’s been recommended by you or another affiliate, you’ll earn a small commission. Some of the biggest affiliate marketing networks include Amazon, eBay, and Shopbop, among others.
If You’re Looking For Something More
If none of the above seem like a fit, you can earn a living as a full-time copywriter blogging for businesses around the world. If none of the above seem like a fit, you can become a freelance copywriter or proofreader, making hundreds of dollars a month. Or, if none of the above seem like a fit, you can become a virtual assistant helping businesses and individuals with administrative tasks (like email correspondence and scheduling meetings).
If none of the above seem like a fit, you can become a transcriptionist, making money from the words of others. Or, if none of the above seem like a fit, you can become a graphic designer, creating logos and branding for businesses. Just remember: lots of opportunity out there, but it takes hustle to make it.