If you’re looking for ways to make money online, you’ve probably considered some of the following options:
- Selling your own homemade wares on Etsy
- Offering advice to people on how to make money online
- Becoming a freelance copywriter or blogger
- Trying your hand at affiliate marketing
- Selling and monitoring gigs on clickworker.com
- Creating your own product reviews and posting them to YouTube
- Attending affiliate sales meetings and getting paid in cash or gift cards
- Signing up for a gig-work platform like Amazon Mechanical Turk or Clickworker
- Taking on a side project to create and sell your own bespoke products like clothes, bags, and toys
These are all viable choices for you to make money online. However, they all require you to put in the legwork (hence the reason they’re way down on this list). You might want to consider another way to make money online that’s a little easier. Maybe you can try one of these 6 alternatives.
1. Start an Online Store
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an Etsy shop. Etsy sellers offer everything from jewelry and clothing to artwork, invitations, and yard signs. If you know what you’re doing, you can probably make a decent amount of money online with an Etsy shop. You don’t need a lot of sales to make a lot of money, either. One Etsy seller I know of made $500-$2000 per month selling jewelry alone. You can learn more about Etsy here.
2. Start an Online Billing Company
If you’re looking to start your own online business but don’t want to put in the effort to sell your own products, you can always try an online billing company like Xero. Xero lets you connect your bank account and credit card to create an invoice. When a customer pays you via Xero, you get paid within 2-4 business days. You can learn more about Xero here.
3. Start an Online Travel Agency
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online travel agency. Airbnb lets you become a travel agent, connecting travelers with owners who are willing to pay you for your services. Similar to Xero, Airbnb relies on you creating and sending out the bills. You get paid after the guest pays the host. You can learn more about Airbnb here.
4. Start an Online Real Estate Company
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online real estate company. Zillow lets you become a real estate agent by connecting you with customers who want to buy or sell properties. You get paid via an online escrow service whenever a transaction occurs. It’s extremely easy to get started with Zillow. Just create a free account, set up your practice area, and start accepting clients. You can learn more about Zillow here.
5. Start an Online Furniture Company
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online furniture company. Wayfair lets you sell and ship national and international furniture orders to consumers. Once you have set up your account and listed the items you have for sale, you get paid within two business days whenever someone makes a purchase. You can learn more about Wayfair here.
6. Start an Online Newspaper
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online newspaper. The Washington Post Company lets you become an affiliate and make money from advertisers who want to reach the general public via your website or e-newsletter. You get paid per lead that becomes a customer. You can learn more about The Washington Post Company here.
While these options for online money making aren’t difficult to do, they all require either a lot of upfront work or a lot of effort to get started. If you’re looking to make some quick cash, you can’t go wrong with one of the following options:
7. Start an Online Cafe
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online cafe. You can use CafeNow to create and run your own cafe. Once you have created your cafe, you can use the platform’s integrated grocery store to add food and drink items to your inventory. You get paid within two to three days whenever a customer makes a purchase. You can learn more about CafeNow here.
8. Start an Online Bookstore
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, you can start an online bookstore. Amazon lets you create a store within the platform, connecting customers to your e-books, Kindle e-readers, and audiobooks. At the end of the day, you get paid via a Amazon Gift Card when a customer makes a purchase.
9. Start a YouTube Channel
YouTube creators can make a lot of money online, especially now that everyone has a camera on their phones. You can create how-to videos on virtually any subject or go more creative and make content aimed at entertaining or educating the viewer.
Although creating videos to make money is a popular trend right now, it doesn’t mean that it’s easy to do. You need to have a sizable audience before you can begin to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry. One YouTube creator I know has made millions of dollars via advertising and affiliate sales alone. He has over 700,000 subscribers and 8+ million views on his channel.
10. Start a Blog
Blogs exist to make money online now more than ever before. You can create a blog for any number of reasons, but the most common ones are:
- To share your knowledge or passions
- To allow others to connect with you
- To create a platform for yourself to speak freely
- To become an authority in your industry (if you have a specific niche)
Once you have a blog set up and begin to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry, you can look into monetizing your content via affiliate marketing or ads. Google Adsense is the most popular and simplest form of monetization. You’ll simply need to create ads that will be served to random people as they browse the web. You don’t need a lot of traffic to make a lot of money with adsense. One blogger I know personally makes about $600-$1000 per month from the ads on her blog. You can read more about Adsense here.
11. Start a Podcast
Podcasts are audio blogs that can be downloaded onto devices and played back later. They’re an excellent way to get the word out about your blog or channel and to expand your reach to new audiences. You can create and release episodes on a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly basis.
If you’re looking for an easy way to make money online, one of these 11 options above may be the right fit for you. Regardless of which one you choose, the important thing is that you begin to establish yourself as an ‘expert’ in your industry. If you have a specific niche, like personal finance or diet/health, you can then create YouTube videos and blogs to serve as your ‘guide’ to the world. The more you put in it, the more you will get back. Good luck out there.