In 2014, nearly 37 million American consumers went online shopping. That’s 80% of the country.
And what were they spending their money on? Furniture was the number one purchase, and retail sales rose by an estimated 3.7% last year.
Even more impressive is the fact that this figure includes online purchases made through mobile phones and tablets. According to eMarketer, a market research firm, online retail sales were worth $16.9 billion in the U.S. in 2014.
While the growth is nothing to sneeze at, it may not be as great as it could be. While there are numerous ways to make money online, it can be difficult to know where to start. The following will help you navigate the murky world of making money online (or at least give you a foundation to work from).
Create a Shopify Store
If you’ve ever shopped online, you know how important it is to find a store that offers a good variety of the items you want. If you’re searching for furniture, you don’t want to visit a store that specializes in housewares; you want to be able to find what you’re looking for, no matter what type of furniture you desire.
Luckily, the solution to this problem is quite easy: create a shop on Shopify that offers your products. Shopify is a web-based program that allows you to create an online store, with all of the necessary product pages, social media accounts, and more, all in one place. What this means is that you can focus on selling your products, while Shopify takes care of the back-end operation of your store.
Setting up a Shopify store is a matter of few minutes, and once you’ve done so, you can start taking advantage of the platform’s features. These include:
- product comparisons, which display similar products side-by-side, so that you can see the differences between them.
- an option to set up shipping and returns, so that your customers can buy what they want, and come back and make additional purchases when they need more.
- a wish list feature, which allows your customers to save items that they want in the future.
- integration with your social media channels, so that you can engage with your audience through content posted to your Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram account.
- analytics, so that you can track the performance of your store and gain valuable insights into how your customers are interacting with your content.
- a comprehensive reporting feature, so that you can keep track of your sales, inventory, and more.
Set Up an Amazon Store
Amazon is the giant in the field of online retail, and it’s the biggest company in the world, as well. It’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has a net worth of well over $200 billion. Naturally, with such a huge company, there are numerous options for making money online. One of the more traditional (and legal) ways to make money on Amazon is to set up a shop that sells and ships products purchased from Amazon’s own site.
Like Shopify, Amazon has a web-based program called Amazon Associates, which you can use to set up an online store. What makes this option unique is that, once you’ve started selling on Amazon, you can apply what you learn from that store to other platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, or even your own blog. This is called a ”side gig”, and in the following sections, we’ll discuss how you can use your side gig to make money online.
Make Money on Coupons
This may seem like an odd way to make money online, but if you’ve ever gone to the supermarket, you know what I’m talking about. When you come across a promotion for a specific product, most likely you will see a coupon attached to that product. When you buy that product using a coupon, there’s a chance that the store you’re buying from will pay you in cash (or gift cards, if you’ve used a store loyalty card), rather than giving you the product you redeemed the coupon for.
So, how can you make money using coupons? You can start by saving all the coupons you can find for the upcoming months. Now, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one coupon website; you can go to several different websites, and get a list of all the available coupons. When you’ve gathered enough coupons to make buying products a bit more affordable, you can start selling the products you redeem the coupons for. You’ll find many websites that pay you to take surveys or to watch videos, so ensure that you are registered and active on at least two of these websites. Doing this adds up and saves you a lot of money in the long run. And if you’ve got a blog, why not try and become a full-time freelancer, writing and taking photos for businesses that want to advertise their products online? There’s a lot of demand for online marketers who can write compelling copy for websites and mobile apps, and if you can do that, you can make a decent side income from commissions on sales.
Start An Online Store
An alternative to the above options is to create your own online store. This could be anything from a virtual storefront for your blog to an actual store, which you operate out of your home. Your own online store has a few advantages. First, you get to choose the products you want to sell online. Second, you don’t have to worry about shipping as much. The products you sell will be delivered to your customers’ homes. Third, you don’t have to deal with refunds all that often. Your customers can contact you if there’s a problem with the product, and you can either offer help or a full refund. Finally, you don’t have to worry about the legalities of selling certain products; you’re not breaking any laws by offering the products you choose to sell online. This is more of a personal choice, but some prefer to operate their own stores legally, rather than risking possible legal action from the government.
Sell Your Photos Online
Another way to make money online is to start a blog. Although the option above allows you to make money passively through affiliate marketing, you can put your existing photos from your phone or DSLR onto blog posts to make money faster. The best part is that you can do this legally. You don’t have to worry about copyright issues, as your photos are your own. The only caveat is that you have to set up a brand and style guide for your blog, so that your photos match the overall design of your blog. This is fairly easy to do, and once you’ve done so, you can start making money off your photos.
Sell Your Music
Musical.ly is a web-based tool that allows you to create and record short lyrics and melodies, which you can then use to sing your own songs. Now, you don’t have to have a perfect voice to be able to use this tool. Anyone can join the chorus, and with the right tone, it’s easy for people to understand what you’re saying. What this means is that you can create a rap or a song in a matter of minutes, and choose from a variety of melodic tunes, many of which are popular all over the world. Additionally, the platform is fully automated, so all you have to do is enter the lyrics you wrote and hit record. When you’ve recorded enough material to make a decent-sounding song, you can share it with others through the musical.ly community, or opt to sell the song as is.
Try and Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
If you’ve ever shopped online, you know how important it is to find a store that offers a good variety of the items you want. If you’re searching for furniture, you don’t want to visit a store that specializes in housewares; you want to be able to find what you’re looking for, no matter what type of furniture you desire.
Luckily, the solution to this problem is quite easy: create a shop on Shopify that offers your products. Shopify is a web-based program that allows you to create an online store, with all of the necessary product pages, social media accounts, and more, all in one place. What this means is that you can focus on selling your products, while Shopify takes care of the back-end operation of your store.