Although there are countless online get-rich-quick schemes touted everywhere you look, many fall flat quickly; you need to devote considerable effort if you really want to find a true long-term source of money. There are honest ways how to make extra money online, but you’ll want to weed out all the bogus ones first. The rule of thumb is to avoid any that try to goad you into investing a significant amount of your own funds; the first piece of advice is to stay away from anything that seems too good to be true.
How to Make Money Online for Beginners
According to Oberlo, one of the oldest ways to make money online is to start a blog; there are no age requirements, but you should be good at (and enjoy) writing. You’ll want to have a narrow focus, like caring for cats, locating parts for old cars or curly hair care. The blog can be started on different free sites, too: The Meisle recommends Wix, WordPress, LinkedIn, Weebly and Medium. Affiliate posts can be added; you can do this through AdSense and by selling products and services.
One way how to make money online as a teen is to create a YouTube channel. In fact, people who are much younger have become millionaires doing this; 7-year old Ryan reviews tube on his channel, and earned $22 million in 2018. Successful channels focus on narrow niches that can grow large audiences; suggestions include vegan cookie baking, makeup tutorials and electric bicycles. Your content has to be very entertaining or made with the purpose of educating users in engaging ways. Use keywords that are researched and optimized for YouTube searches; once you hit the 1,000 subscriber milestone, you can monetize your channel with YouTube ads.
Can I Earn Money Dropshipping?
If you’re not familiar with dropshipping, Shopify posts that it’s an order fulfillment method that uses third parties as a go-between delivery service. Sellers purchase inventory from manufacturers or wholesalers, and use that stock to fulfill the orders; the sellers do not own or stock the inventory. The popularity of this is growing rapidly, but how does one get started?
You’ll first need to open up an online store to make your sales, and then connect with an inventory source. The two most common ways to do this on Shopify are to use supplier databases or to use a Shopify app that connects you to suppliers. They suggest using DSers, which helps entrepreneurs locate products to sell and link to independently-owned Shopify stores. When customers make purchases, you fulfill their orders; the process is automated, but you have to ensure that all the details are correct. But though the buying process is simplified, you’ll still need to be dedicated to the work if you want to turn a profit.
Hot to Sell Art Online and Make Money
You don’t hear the phrase “starving artist” that often anymore and the reason is obvious; artists can sell their wares globally now, thanks to the internet. One of the best-know outlets is Etsy, which sells everything from paintings to jewelry to clothing. It has allowed countless artists and sellers to go full-time with their art businesses, and the audience is huge. However, Etsy does charge fees for listings, transactions, ads and other things.
Big Cartel is another option, and you can sign up for free and sell up to five pieces per month with no charge. This is a good way to try out the platform; you can sell up to 500 pieces for $19.99 without any listing fees. Other options that aren’t that expensive or free include Storeenvy, Zibbet, and ArtPal. And like Etsy, these other ones are not just for painted artwork.
Teaching Online Courses
Some entrepreneurs can earn $5,000 or more a month with their own online courses; learnworlds claims that the eLearning market is estimated to exceed $325 billion by the year 2025, with a yearly 5% growth. Once developed, they can be sold on personal websites and on platforms like Coursera and Udemy. You’ll need to decide on a course topic, and then search to see what the competition looks like; read the reviews and gather information that can help you create your own courses.
To create a learning video, you’ll need to set goals, shoot the video and edit it. This can be done at home, but if you’re not familiar there will be a learning curve so take a course if you need help, or ask friends and family if they can share some knowledge on the topic. If want to post it on one of the eLearning platforms, they’ll have to approve it. Once it’s up, promote it with paid ads and social media, and build an email list to keep promoting your courses to current and potential customers.
If you aren’t comfortable in front of the camera and want to share your smarts, you might want to consider publishing an eBook. It could be instructional, but there’s really no limit to what people publish. In fact, you don’t even have to write it; you can hire someone, plus a graphic designer for the cover and someone else to format it. Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) provides what you need to get started, including a helpful keyword tool to help promote the publication.
Can I Make Money Freelancing Online?
The answer here is also yes, but like other online work, this can face a lot of ups and downs along this road. Many people successfully switch their current, on-site jobs over to remote freelance jobs: A graphic designer, consultant or administrative assistant can do all of their work from their homes as long as they can find online clients willing to pay for their services. There are also plenty of websites for different sectors of freelance jobs. So if you’re a freelance writer, you can apply on sites like freelancewriting.com; upwork has a much larger variety.
Should you want to try your hand a freelancing, you’ll need to build up your resume, a LinkedIn page and a portfolio first. Teenagers and others without a great deal of experience can focus on courses they’ve taken, specific accomplishments and do some volunteer writing to start gaining experience. You can apply for work on the freelance sites, create a website and promote yourself through social media and by joining networking groups that can help you spread the word. And just like any other online business, it will take time to build up a brand and loyal customers. Treat it like a regular job; learn what you need to do and devote the time and effort needed to see it to fruition.
Other Ways to Make Money Online
There are plenty of other ways to make money online. For instance, check out Neighbor.com. The platform allows people to make extra money by renting out their unused spaces, like for storage or parking. The site offers safer, closer, more convenient storage — right in your neighborhood.