We’re living in a digital era and it’s the easiest time in existence to learn how to make money online from home.
The world is shifting to the on-demand economy of the individual, which presents fantastic opportunities for entrepreneurship, wealth creation, work from home online jobs, and time freedom.
Think about it.
You could use the platform Flexjobs to find a remote job instantly and land some freelance work.
Next, use Airbnb to host your own place or stay in another country for months. And you can do this while probably saving money compared to your current rent.
New opportunities are everywhere.
The problem is, most “how to make money online” articles are still talking about older tactics:
Gift cards with Swagbucks. Online surveys with Survey Junkie. Cashback with eBates. Watch videos for pennies with UserTesting or InboxDollars. Minimum wage data entry.
I don’t even want to bring up the articles recommending babysitting this year.
This article provides 27 future ways to make money online with things like social investment networks, omnichannel ecommerce, robo-advisors, VR, drones, Amazon Alexa, Airbnb, Turo, chatbots, and more.
Let’s get started.
Disclaimer: Some of the products I am recommending in this article include affiliate links, which may provide me with a small commission at no cost to you. This 10,000+ word article contains all of my vetted ways to make good money online and includes products and software that I recommend. You can read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.
How to Make Money Online
1. Start a Blog The Right Way.
What you’ll notice about this list is that there are a ton of tactics to choose from, with some ideas making more money than others. The truth is, passive income is a myth – you always need to grind, hustle, and work hard to make real money.
If you look for information on how to start a blog, most high-ranking articles from successful bloggers about “making money online” feature ideas like online surveys, banner ads, being a virtual assistant, secret shopping online, or opening a cash-back credit card.
But how much money will this bring? $5? $10? $200/month? That’s not enough to make any material impact.
And I’m getting sick of this old, lazy advice.
If you have a full-time job, you need to maximize your side income as quickly as possible. To do this, you need to scale your processes.
Here’s the truth:
95% of bloggers are failing because they follow outdated blogging advice. This guidance is written to rank on Google and reward the same influencers who’ve been saying the same things for the last five years.
What if you’re starting and want to make money fast this year?
What if you want to start making $10,000/month within 90 days, not three years?
Ask yourself: Can I write content for three years and put in hundreds of hours of work before making any money?
It doesn’t have to be this hard.
And that’s why I created my blog in the first place.
I launched this blog in 2019 as a case study to prove you can make money blogging in months, not years.
And as you can see in my Blog Income Reports, I bring in over $200,000 per month from this blog.
So how do you get started?
It’s simple – when you first start your side income journey, you don’t have much traffic or visibility. So you need to increase the price of your offering early on in your blogging journey.
One tactic is to start with a B2B consulting funnel and sell to businesses, not people. Businesses have more money than individuals – so instead of focusing on ads and affiliate programs at the beginning, focus on high-end consulting.
There are three primary success pillars of this new blogging formula to make money:
- Choose your blog’s niche based on audience budget potential, professional leverage, and market demand.
- By not writing so much and outsourcing certain aspects of your content and SEO efforts, you scale your backlink acquisition and Domain Authority (DA) faster.
- Finally, by using the right high-end blog monetization strategies at the right point in your blog’s lifecycle, you 200x your revenue – and only need to close 3-4 high-end clients, not hundreds of affiliate sales.
These tactics speed up your road to income and allow you to make thousands of dollars with less traffic. If this sounds interesting to you, check out my full guide on the best strategies to make money blogging.
Ultimately, the first step to starting a blog I recommend is to get web hosting and build a WordPress site.
Here’s how to get started:
- Visit Bluehost.com and click Get Started.
- Choose the hosting plan you want ($2.95/month is 63% off via my link).
- Either enter a new domain name or choose a domain you already own.
- Enter your account information and billing information.
- You can deselect Sitelock Security and Codeguard Basic.
- Click Submit and you’re all set!
Get started with Bluehost for $2.95/month (63% off).
After you have your hosting sorted out, it’s important that you have a solid plan of action to follow when starting your blog.
If you want to get access to such a plan, check out my free masterclass, which shows you the steps to start a successful blogging business and make it profitable.
In this masterclass, I cover:
- the steps to follow to start a blog from scratch – having a solid foundation is the key to your success.
- the strategies I personally use on my own blog to drive it forward and constantly get more people to visit.
- what’s really needed to have a blog that generates passive income month and after month.
2. Become a High-Paid Remote Freelancer.
Remote jobs are in high demand these days. If you have digital skills, you can get started with a high paying freelance career online.
Step one is to sign up for Flexjobs to instantly find remote jobs that you can perform.
Once you sign up, you can view their remote job boards across all kinds of industries:
No matter your experience level or industry background, there are plenty of remote freelancing jobs on Flexjobs.
And you don’t need to stop there. Why not leverage your remote freelance work to start your own remote business?
For instance, you can build a company of virtual assistants and use job boards to recruit clients.
Are you having trouble finding the right employees? Or maybe you’re not sure you have enough knowledge, experience, or money to run a business on your own? You can find both employees and a cofounder to partner with through CoFoundersLab.
You can even gain all the advantages of running your own company without launching an independent business.
Freelance sites like Upwork and Flexjobs enable people to make a full-time income online without having to search for clients. And the jobs available cover a broad range, including graphic design, logo design, web design, infographics, voiceovers, and more.
Another option is Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), which allows you to complete manual microtasks for business owners all over the world.
While the pay is quite low per task, they can add up to some extra cash. One tasker made $290-$300 a week on MTurk while still working another job.
With MTurk you’ll need to be motivated if you want to make a lot of money since the name of the game is volume.
Ultimately, if you are starting in the world of making money online, remote freelancing with Flexjobs is the best place to start.
To mitigate risk, Flexjobs screens employers for you.
FlexJobs comes with a small, flat monthly fee – not a percentage – but in return, they vet all of the job opportunities to make sure they’re high-quality.
Start your freelancing journey today with Flexjobs and start making money.
3. Start a Successful Podcast.
The rise of audio content as a viable content marketing avenue is stronger than ever. 32% of Americans listen to podcasts monthly – that’s the same amount of people that go to church regularly.
By launching your own podcast, you get to create your own show, discuss topics that are interesting to you, build an audience, and monetize your podcast with ads and sponsorships.
To get started in the world of podcasting, you need to choose a podcast hosting company to store your files and share them with all of the major platforms like iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and TuneIn.
Source: joerogan.com
The best podcast hosting company to get started with is Buzzsprout and they give you a $20 Amazon gift card just for signing up.
They have a free plan, as well as three paid plans ranging from $12-24 per month. Buzzsprout indefinitely hosts your files, provides unlimited storage, and 250GB of bandwidth per month (which covers about 20,000 to 40,000 plays per month).
They also allow you to embed a podcast player right on your website and you can showcase either one episode or a playlist of your best episodes. Overall they’re an easy, intuitive tool to get started with podcasting.
Try Buzzsprout for free and get a $20 Amazon gift card.
4. Join a Social Investment Network.
Social investment networks allow you to collaborate with other traders, make informed trades, and use online tools to track all of your stocks, index funds, and cryptocurrency. Here are some of the best social investment networks.
Personal Capital
Commonly known as the “wealth management for the internet age” in the trading circles, Personal Capital helps you in your financial investments through an intelligent data-driven management approach.
Some of its key features include:
- Allows users to have a clear real-time view of their entire financial life
- Provides smart insights and helps you predict your financial future
- Offers full financial planning
Credible
They claim to be a trustworthy source for comparing rates, and rightly so. And the best part is that you get instant and accurate results without paying a single dime.
It is most helpful for students searching for loans as it specializes in helping them find the best possible option. Credible also helps students get better deals and refinance their loans.
5. Build a Blog For Affiliate Marketing.
Starting a blog is not new advice. But, the traditional path to riches recommends launching a blog, growing your traffic, and adding Google AdSense ads on your site.
Sure, this strategy can work, but ads can be annoying to your audience if misused, which is why so many people use ad-blocking tools:
Source: Stastista.com
Instead of relying on ads (which requires a ton of page views and search engine mastery), try more natural selling with the newest affiliate programs to monetize your site.
Some affiliate programs pay per lead. If your site has relevant traffic in the finance or home improvement niches, many of these companies will pay for leads you send them. For example, roofing companies and other contractors are always looking for new local customers.
Then, you can also start creating and selling your digital products on your website and get other affiliates to promote you:
For example, you can offer your loyal followers podcasts, videos, tutorials, or magazine subscriptions. You can also sell your ebooks, templates, guidelines, online calculators, software programs, or a membership site. Any digital product you can think up and create can be sold to your audience, as long as it provides them with real value.
The key is to get started on WordPress with a web hosting company like Bluehost. Next, begin generating content and getting backlinks with guest blogging to build up Domain Authority (DA) and traffic.
Ramit Sethi’s website: I Will Teach You To Be Rich, is a prime example of understanding how to grow and monetize a niche blog and through digital products. He offers a mix of free and paid resources to his readers, including workbooks, guides, ebooks, and online courses.
Use a tool like Google Keyword Planner to help you understand potential traffic for different niche ideas. While the forecast impression results use data from paid ads, they work as a great indicator of whether or not a niche will be accessible.
Once you’ve chosen your niche, select a reliable and affordable hosting platform such as Bluehost and set up your WordPress website.
Then all you need to do is start creating great blog posts and offering your reviews and digital products everywhere. However, to make a real amount of money with this approach, it can take years.
6. Use Various Platforms To Sell Products.
How many online platforms are there? A dozen? A hundred? More?
Some small businesses are still putting all of their eggs in one basket and focusing on only one platform for making money online. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling; omnichannel marketing is the way of the future.
Source: Forbes.com
You need to sell online across all major platforms where your customers are.
Don’t just become an eBay seller and leave it at that. Launch your e-commerce store. Start using Amazon FBA. Sell directly through social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. Market your product or service on Craigslist. If you’re selling something crafty, sell it on Etsy.
Don’t overlook niche platforms relevant to your industry either. For example, if you’re a designer, then you should include 99Designs, Dribbble, and Society6 as sites to join. To find sites relevant to you, do a quick Google search like this one:
Steve Madden is a prime example of how to do this right. The company offers you the following options as an online shopper:
- Physical stores
- An online store
- A mobile app
- Amazon (it’s a registered seller)
It also has an active presence on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, all with direct links to its website for secure shopping.
If you want to learn how to make a lot of money online, you need to start by understanding your target market and which platforms they hang out on.
Don’t forget about things like free e-commerce tools, user-generated content, messaging apps, and chatbots. Tools like HubSpot’s free CRM and email marketing software go well with your own online store. And, it’s worth adopting a password manager to help you efficiently switch between platforms while keeping everything secure.
Once you know which platforms are worth targeting, you can build a presence on each site. When you’re ready, start an online business with an ecommerce platform like Shopify to help you unify all of your selling channels.
Try Shopify and get a 14-day free trial.
7. Rent Out Your Stuff.
Source: Turo.com
Maybe you don’t want to drive around doing chores and deliveries for others.
Maybe you hate driving so much that your car sits in the garage 80% of the time. Why not make extra income by renting it out on Turo for some extra cash?
And while you’re at it, you can also rent out the now vacant parking space using JustPark.
Do you have a spare bike or one you rarely use? Rent it out as well, with Spinlister. These days you can rent out practically everything you own, including the shirt off your back. Don’t stop at the shirt. You can rent out your entire wardrobe, including shoes, handbags, and accessories, using Style Lend.
Once your home is clutter-free, you may even realize you have an entire room that could be rented out. Airbnb allows you to easily rent out a room, or your whole place to short term guests.
Zeona McIntyre first got involved with Airbnb hosting when she was 26. Just three years later, at the age of 29, she was already financially independent and capable of early retirement.
Not only did McIntyre rent out the spare room in her apartment, but she also rented out her room as well, and couch-surfed with friends. Then she acquired more properties and rented those out through Airbnb too. Today, she owns five properties and helps manage 15 more.
To earn extra cash renting out your goods, make sure you take lots of high-quality pictures. These can lead to faster rentals and higher rates. You’ll also need to create detailed and engaging product descriptions. The more info people have, the more likely they are to be interested.
Which ad is more appealing? A studio apartment with one picture and this description:
Or, one with 24 photos and this description:
Be sure always to keep an up-to-date schedule of all your rentals. You don’t want to accidentally rent out your car when you were supposed to go on a road trip.
To join the industry projected to hit $59.4 billion by 2022, you can get started with Airbnb.
8. Sell Knowledge In An Online Course.
If you have gained valuable knowledge that can help others, you can now use it to earn income. No matter what your area of expertise is, online courses are growing in demand for professionals and businesses alike. Teachable alone has over 7 million registered students.
Online course platforms like Thinkific allow you to publish an online course about anything you want.
You can teach people how to write, do their taxes, complete necessary car repairs, or even learn emerging markets like piloting drones. And once the course launches, your student will pay you and you’ve built yourself a stream of income.
You can also provide online coaching and consulting services to make money online. With a conferencing platform like Zoom, or even just a private Facebook group and Facebook Live, you can share your knowledge and expertise one-on-one or with a large group.
People are looking for coaches in all kinds of subjects, from motivation to digital marketing.
Plus, you can be a consultant to individuals or even businesses, in any field of expertise. The possibilities are endless.
Did you do well at school? Were you a religious note-taker? You can sell your college notes online. Or, maybe you’re currently a parent doing homeschooling or helping your kids with their lessons. Why not become an online tutor for other kids and provide online tutoring to them? For example, you can join an online tutoring platform like Preply to become a tutor and help students learn different languages.
Are you a fitness expert? You’re no longer limited to coaching and training local people in person. You can now become an online personal trainer or running coach. If you’re a nutritionist or dietician, you can do this online as well.
You don’t even have to be a licensed nutritionist.
If you’re self-taught and can provide genuine value, you can still make a livable income.
Anne Marie spent years researching nutrition and created her program based on her experience and knowledge. With a simple landing page, she now successfully sells her knowledge online.
You can quickly build your landing page with a tool like Wishpond or Unbounce and start selling your coaching or consulting services today.
My recommendation for online courses?
Give Thinkific a try and you’ll get one month free to try it out.
9. Make Money Dropshipping.
A traditional ecommerce store requires you to hire employees, store products, maintain inventories, and more.
It’s apparent just how expensive and tedious the entire process could be.
But with dropshipping, you can sell your desired product(s) online, minus the hassle that comes with offering traditional order fulfillment services.
There’s no need to hire a team, and you don’t need any investment in shipping technology either.
Here’s how a typical dropshipping business model works:
- You create a website and upload pictures of your products with their prices.
- The customer buys the product and pays you online. You keep a margin for yourself and forward the order to the manufacturer, or dropshipping supplier you’ve partnered with.
- The manufacturer delivers the product to the customer to complete the order.
Source: ecommerceceo.com
As is discernible from the above infographic, dropshipping requires you to act like a mediator between the consumer and the supplier.
Dropshipping is very easy to start, sustain, and yield significant profits.
There are multiple benefits of dropshipping, including:
- There is no substantial investment at the start (no need to rent or hire)
- You don’t need to pay for a warehouse (since the manufacturer stores the product)
- You don’t have to deliver the product, and hence you don’t incur transport expenses
- Direct contact with customers help you build your brand image
There are plenty of dropshipping success stories out there to look for inspiration.
Let’s take an example of Wayfair.
Wayfair grew at a rate of 25% to 35% year-over-year. In fact, they once racked up revenue of $4 million in a single day.
Without any doubt, suppliers like Salehoo are one of the essential parts of your dropshipping business.
You can use top platforms like Spocket to connect with the suppliers that align best with your business goals.
Spocket is an online dropshipping marketplace that allows you to find and connect with the US and EU-based suppliers.
Tying up with platforms like these, you get access to the very best products to sell from thousands of dropshipping suppliers and manufacturers all over the world. It’s ‘global’ in the most real sense!
If you’re looking to build a successful dropshipping business, then refer to my comprehensive dropshipping guide for beginners that covers everything you need to know about running a dropshipping store.
Give Spocket a try and you can get started for free.
10. Host Webinars.
Hosting webinars is terrific for a variety of reasons.
They help you drive traction to your website and hence help you increase your sales.
And not just sales, you can even make money using webinars without any product.
You can simply host webinars and earn money via affiliate links.
This way you can make money, refer useful products to your audience that will be genuinely helpful for them…without selling your own product. It’s like promoting affiliate links on your blog post.
You need to identify the product(s) you’d like to recommend to your audience and create an impressive and persuading presentation to deliver to your potential viewers.
An average webinar should be around 45-minutes, where you should ideally speak for half an hour and leave about 10-15 minutes for a Q&A session with your audience. Q&A helps in precious one-on-one interaction and helps attendees get answers they crave. Even statistics suggest that 92% of live webinar attendees want a live Q&A session at the end.
Clement Delangue, the head of marketing at Mention, made $10,000 in the first two hours after their first webinar.
Here’s how they made their first webinar a massive success:
- By optimizing the landing page using landing page builders like Unbounce
- Getting new users signed up daily by adding an invite link to the webinar on their email signatures, and sending out automated email campaigns (You can use these email marketing tools to help you automate your email campaigns)
- By answering all the critical questions of your audience
- Offer a promo code or a discount at the end
To make your Webinar a success, you’ll need the assistance of a suitable webinar hosting platform.
My favorite is WebinarJam.
WebinarJam comes with super-fast speed, is 100% user-friendliness, has a business-oriented approach, offers features like automation, provision for reminder emails, integrations, registrations, and much more.
You can go through my detailed WebinarJam review to make a better-informed decision.
After your Webinar, make sure to send short, personalized emails within 24 hours of the webinar to persons who had registered but didn’t show up.
Here’s an excellent email template example:
Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find that hosting webinars can be very rewarding, whether you’re looking to sell your product or promote your affiliate links.
Give WebinarJam a try and you can get a 14-day trial for just $1.
11. Make Extra Money Online By Investing Across All Markets.
Source: Robinhood.com
A powerful way to make extra money online is to put your money to work for you. A lot of people still think of investing as something complicated and risky. But, thanks to new money-making apps, it’s simpler and more accessible than ever.
The Robinhood app lets you quickly invest in stocks, EFTs, options, and Cryptocurrency. For stocks, look for index funds as they provide the broadest and most diverse range across a market. For example, the S&P 500 will give you shares of the 500 largest companies in the US.
To diversify further, you can buy slices of international companies as well.
If you want to get involved in Forex trading, you can use a tool like FOREX for global trading opportunities.
Pete Adeney, aka Mr. Money Mustache, is one of the most popular financial bloggers on the internet. Besides his funny anecdotes and the use of swear words, the reason for this was simple. He and his wife both retired after only seven years in the workforce thanks to a little bit of frugality and a whole lot of investing.
If you want to make a lot of money investing, look it as a long-term strategy and don’t freak out over short-term market fluctuations. Just use dollar-cost averaging and buy a broad range of stocks that will help shelter you from any downturns (such as the index funds we discussed.) Then you won’t need to waste your own precious time, money, and energy trying to outsmart the market.
To be even more successful, opt for a service that lets you manage your investments instead of paying someone else a management fee.
You can take some time learning the tricks of the trade such as portfolio rebalancing and tax loss harvesting. These tactics help you make just as much money without having to hand someone else a chunk of it.
Disclaimer: Some of the products I am recommending in this article include affiliate links, which may provide me with a small commission at no cost to you. This 10,000+ word article contains all of my vetted ways to make money online and includes products and software that I recommend. You can read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.
12. Make Money Delivering Everything, Everywhere, to Everyone.
Source: TaskRabbit.com
You can make money by delivering just about anything these days: products, food, and yes, even people. In the US, car ownership seems to be declining, especially for the younger generation.
With a simple app, you can become an Uber or Lyft driver for taxiing people around your neighborhood.
Or you can help move entire families with TaskRabbit Moving Services.
Maybe you don’t want to shuttle people. You can choose to deliver food or pizza instead of joining other app services such as DoorDash, UberEats, or GrubHub.
Or you can even sign up as a package delivery driver for Amazon Flex.
Additionally, a lot of service-based freelance jobs are also able to leverage the power of launching mobile apps.
For example, mobile tools like Housecall Pro connect plumbers, HVAC installers, carpet and window cleaners, electricians, and pest control companies to local customers, opening up another revenue source.
In 2018, TaskRabbit published an article highlighting the success stories of taskers over the past ten years. One of the Taskers used TaskRabbit as a way to launch his own full-time business. These companies all have referral programs you can participate in, as customers are 4x more likely to buy when referred by a friend.
Although not passive, this type of work can be anything you want to make of it, including a side hustle, a full-time gig, or an income stream to pay for something else.
Most of these services offer fixed rates, and there’s no need to compete for jobs or sales. All you need to do is pick the service that appeals to you, register, and get to work raking in the dough.
Want to be an Uber driver? All it takes is three steps, although you will need to bring your car into one of their centers for inspection.
For an option like TaskRabbit, it’s a little more complicated. In this case, you need to create an engaging profile, set your hourly rate, and then compete with others for tasks.
To succeed, you will need to research your competition by searching for people providing the same service as you in your area.
Below are the top two taskers when I search for movers in New York. Check out their rates, descriptions, and photos. Then, work on standing out from the crowd with your personal brand.
Whether this is short term or long term is up to you, but any of these options can kickstart your income to help build out even more side-hustles online. And that’s a big win.
13. Get An Education In Machine Learning
This area is a relatively new one which makes it all the more attractive for many people.
Machine learning allows computers to learn and think similar to a human, which means that such software is able to predict what specific outcomes might be, what next actions should be taken, and much more.
There are many positions in this area, with some of them being online and remote.
In fact, there are around 100,000 open jobs around the world where machine learning is a requirement.
With machine learning and A.I. being areas that are constantly developing, this is definitely an area to consider if you’re still not sure what to specialize in.
14. Earn Money Writing, Self-Publishing, and Transcribing.
There are endless opportunities for making money online if you happen to enjoy writing. The days of old where you had to become a professional journalist or rely on an agent and publisher to sell your novel are long gone.
Have you always wanted to write a book or short story? Now, with Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), you can easily publish your work and start selling it on Amazon. Hugh Howey, a self-published author who’s won awards, made it into the #1 spot on bestseller lists and is now having one of his books made into a movie.
You can also make extra cash by transcribing video and audio files for people.
Are you more interested in writing articles? You can make a lot of money as a freelance writer for companies. There are tons of blogging job boards, including ProBlogger. Or you can write guest posts on other people’s blogs. Just do a Google search for “paid guest post” and your industry:
With services like Fiverr and UpWork, listing yourself as a freelance writer for hire is easier than ever before:
Ivan Kreimer launched a successful freelance writing career that allowed him to quit his day job and travel the world in six months.
Being a successful writer starts with picking the right niche. Whether you’re going to write historical romance novels or nonfiction, you need to select your area of focus and expertise.
Then, strengthen your writing chops and get your content out there. After all, the stronger your content, the more money you can make. The good news is that you can use tools like Grammarly to help you perfect your writing.
15. Make Money with Your Coding Skills.
Coding skills are incredibly valuable in today’s digital world, thanks to how rapidly technology continues to change.
Coding jobs are growing 50% faster than the market overall. Whether you went to school for it, or are self-taught, you can start coding apps, chatbots, or even Alexa skills.
Conversational marketing is going to be the next big thing in the marketing industry. But artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) are still maturing.
With these changes comes a huge demand for people that can build, upgrade, maintain, and sell chatbots. If you have skills in this area or are willing to learn, you can make a lot of money for yourself.
You can also make plenty of money online by coding new skills for Amazon Alexa.
Back in May 2017, Amazon launched its Alexa Developer Rewards program to pay coders for developing in-demand skills for Alexa.
Thanks to coding two popular skills, David Markey began earning $10,000 a month while still a senior in university.
If you want to build a successful business coding to make money online fast, start listing your skills on a personal portfolio website:
Then, set up a profile on sites like Fiverr and UpWork to generate some business:
Be sure to create some content and post on social media to start bringing in more organic traffic, too. Soon enough, you will be swimming in clients.
16. Ways to Earn Money Online with Video, VR, and Drones.
People love video. From Twitter and Instagram stories to making money on YouTube, video is insanely popular. According to Cisco, by 2022, video will account for 82% of all internet traffic.
Brands have produced millions of dollars in revenue by implementing video strategies.
And advancements in video technology and video editing software are leading to even more exciting opportunities for making money online.
One of the more traditional, yet still profitable methods is selling stock photos and stock video content online on a site like Shutterstock.
Use your iPhone to capture high-quality visuals and upload them for purchase.
If you love video games, you can also make money streaming them, providing game reviews, and more on Twitch, which is now owned by Amazon.
With the help of a drone, you can also record and sell high-ticket aerial photography.
Josh Boughner received a drone as a birthday present and ended up turning it into the largest real estate drone network in the US.
It all started by only taking a few aerial photographs for a local real estate company:
But, Boughner quickly started making sales rapidly with drone footage, including inspections, advertisement videos for hotels and resorts, and even surveillance.
To make money with video, you’ll need to invest in quality hardware, whether it’s a 360-degree camera, VR technology, or a drone. Thankfully the costs are going down rapidly, and you get get a high-quality drone on Amazon for less than $1500.
You’ll also need to purchase video and photo editing software and learn how to use it like a pro.
17. Become an App Developer.
I am sure you don’t need me to tell you how lucrative app development can be. Because it is not a hidden fact that there’s a lot of money to be made in app development.
But where do you start?
It’s a no-brainer that you have to learn to code to build apps.
Before we start, let’s see how many apps are there on the internet at present.
Have a look at this infographic from Statista.
You don’t need to be intimidated by these numbers, because the chances are that a majority of them won’t even be in your industry.
And to be honest, many of them turn out to be complete duds.
Secondly, if you come to think of it: the fact that so many apps swarm the market means that the demand for them is also high.
So, the future for app development seems to be great.
Now the question is — how will you, as an individual, make money online through app development?
Let’s go through two scenarios:
1. You have an idea for your app
Okay, so let’s assume that you have a great idea. Now you want to build an app based on that.
In this case, you should know how you are going to cash in on your app and not expect to make much money in your first year.
Charging your audience to download your app is not a good idea because let’s face it; no one pays to download an app. That’s why most of the apps you see are free of cost.
See for yourself, the sheer difference between the number of free apps juxtaposed to paid apps is eye-opening.
However, you can earn money from your app. As I already mentioned, this is one of the most profitable prospects when it comes to app development.
And free apps make a lot of money.
Here’re some of the ways that will allow you to monetize your free app:
- Use advertising as your revenue model.
- Offer subscriptions within the app.
- You can use your app to sell merchandise such as t-shirts and mugs.
- Introduce in-app purchases and microtransactions
These are only a few ways that you can use to monetize your app. Skim down the web pages and research some more. You will surely find even more options to make money using your app.
2. You want to work as a freelance mobile app developer
Becoming a freelance mobile app developer will help you make steady money, given that you are good at what you do.
Small and medium-sized businesses and startups are increasingly turning to outsource their app development needs today — which is an excellent thing for you.
In this case, you would need to start pitching to your clients through countless platforms on the internet, such as:
- Flexjobs
- Upwork
- Freelancer
- Elance
- Toptal
- Alt-Tab
- X-Team
- Crew
Also, make sure that you network extensively at events and conferences to meet your potential clients, and to expand your network.
Get started with Flexjobs.
Disclaimer: Some of the products I am recommending in this article include affiliate links, which may provide me with a small commission at no cost to you. This 10,000+ word article contains all of my vetted ways to make money online and includes products and software that I recommend. You can read my affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.
18. Start a Membership Site.
Let’s say you are a semi-famous name in your industry — and have over 5,000 subscribers.
Every once in a while, you even get invited to speak at an event and sit on a panel.
If so, it might be time to start a membership site. Membership websites are a value exchange.
For those of you who are not familiar with membership websites: it’s a private website with exclusive content where only the members who opt for a paid subscription can access the content.
As long as you continue to provide valuable information to your audience — they will be happy to pay for your monthly subscription.
So what can you provide to your audience to make sure that they keep paying for their monthly subscription?
After all, you have to keep your side of the bargain. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to your subscribers.
You can deliver value to your members using content like:
- Online courses
- Live Webinars
- Informative guides
- Ebooks
- Community forum
- Offer cheat-sheets
- Workbooks & action plans
What makes starting your membership site so lucrative?
1. Recurring income
I won’t be exaggerating if I say that membership websites can be a holy grail for young entrepreneurs.
Why?
The key phrase here is “Recurring revenue.”
And who doesn’t like that?
If your content is valuable enough, members will continue to pay to access and retain it over and over again.
So basically, you are getting monthly income for the content you created just once.
Think of it this way: you spend two hours with a client. The client pays you once, and you both move on. That’s about it!
Here’s another scenario: you spend two hours creating something valuable for your membership site. Now you continue to get paid for that content for months on end. After a while, you spend some more time to update the content and still get paid for it.
2. You get to build a loyal customer base
Launching your membership site also boosts your authority in the industry and positions you as an expert, allowing you to grow your following.
Come to think of it, with your membership site; you are killing two birds with one stone.
On the one hand, you are getting paid perennially for the content that you put up once. And you are building your authority at the same time.
Do you know how many folks would love to be in your boots?
Countless of them!
However, if you relish the idea of building a membership site in the pursuit of passive income, then you have to stop thinking of the monetary benefits.
Initially, work on building an audience, choose a subject matter that you have knowledge of and something that is most likely to sell.
I’d suggest, instead of thinking of a broader domain, think of something more niche.
For instance, don’t think of creating a membership site about Social media marketing.
Instead, try thinking of, “I will teach health and wellness consultant how to leverage social media marketing.”
The more you narrow down your subject matter, the easier it will be for you to build a loyal member base.
19. Real Estate Crowdfunding.
Real Estate Crowdfunding is a new and exciting investment model.
If you have a considerable amount of savings and want to raise the stakes, then real estate crowdfunding might be the type of investment that you need to make.
It’s not me who is saying this, and it’s the experts who carefully assessed the stats and current investment trends.
According to the CNBC Quarterly Investment Guide last year, having shares in real estate crowdfunding projects is among the best ways to have a hassle-free retirement.
With real estate crowdfunding, you can invest in two different types of projects:
- Equity crowdfunding
- Debt crowdfunding
What is Equity Crowdfunding?
To break it down in simple terms, in equity crowdfunding, investors invest in a company trying to raise money. These investors then receive shares in the company in exchange.
With equity crowdfunding, you are not loaning your money to the company. Instead, you receive shares with the hope to get a dividend out of future profits. Or you are waiting for the company to reach greater heights so that you can then sell off your shares at a higher price.
What is Debt Crowdfunding?
With Debt Crowdfunding, you invest in the company trying to raise funds, but your goal is to receive a specified interest rate on the money that you loaned within a fixed timeline.
Now, we will talk about some of the best real estate crowdfunding platforms so that you can earn a decent income online.
Top Real Estate Crowdfunding Platforms
1. Fundrise
Fundrise allows you to invest your money as per your own accord — you are your own boss, of course. Invest according to your goals, expectations, and capabilities as you will get a wide array of real estate investment options at Fundrise.
Perks of investing with Fundrise:
- Fundrise offers 8.7 – 12.4% historical annual returns
- Helps you diversify your portfolio
- They have a low-fee approach which enables you to maximize your profits
Other important details:
- Minimum Investment: $500
- Account Fees: 1%/year
- Investment Length: N/A
- Offering types: Debt, Equity, Preferred Equity
2. Realty Mogul
Realty Mogul was one of the first real estate crowdfunding platforms back in 2013. They are at the center of connecting the borrowers and sponsors to excellent investment and increased outcomes. The great thing about Realty Mogul is that they visit each listed property and works with the best in the industry.
Perks of investing with Really Mogul:
- Their dealings are highly transparent
- A rigorous screening ensures the best possible financial returns
- Offers well-leased properties
Other important details:
- Minimum Investment: $1000
- Account Fees: 0.30% – 0.50%/year
- Investment Length: 6 – 120/months
- Offering types: Debt, Equity, Preferred Equity
3. Equity Multiple
Equity Multiple claims to help you invest smartly in real estate with reduced risks. With Equity Multiple, you can invest in highly scrutinized and some of the most prominent real estate companies.
Perks of investing with Really Mogul:
- Offers low-risk target returns to investors
- Rigorous vetting to curate the best set of projects
Other important details:
- Minimum Investment: $5000
- Account Fees: 0.5% service charge plus 10% of all profits
- Investment Length: 12 – 120/months
- Offering types: Debt, Equity, Preferred Equity
20. Invest with a Robo-Advisor.
Most of you might have heard of financial consultants. A trading expert. An investment guru.
But the term Robo advisor is still not a household name.
That said, their impact on the financial advisory industry is growing fast.
Robo advisors are software products that can help you manage your finances and investments.
They are automated, financial advisors.
What is the reason behind the popularity of Robo advisors? Well, Robo advisors are most popular among the folks who can’t shell out a budget to hire a financial advisor or don’t want to either way.
These automated robotic advisors, with their smart technology, select investments for you and then build a diversified portfolio.
Why should you invest with a Robo advisor?
If you don’t like to go through the hassle of hiring a financial advisor or lack funds to do so, then investing with Robo advisors is the right option for you.
Here are the other reasons why you should invest in Robo advisors:
- One of the most significant reasons to invest with a robo-advisor is to avoid mistakes. It’s as simple as that: humans often tend to make decisions based on emotions, gut feelings, or in the heat of the moment. On the other hand, Robo advisors work pragmatically, and that’s the reason why you can avoid drastic mistakes while investing with them.
- Another reason is the hassle-free investment. You have to open your account, and then the Robo advisor will take care of everything for you. From making changes to your portfolio to placing trades, you don’t have to worry about these things anymore.
What are the best robo advisors on the internet?
1. Betterment
Investing in Betterment is extremely easy.
Really!
You choose the mix of bonds and stocks that you desire, set your goals, and leave the rest to Betterment.
If you don’t want to dabble into the confusing avenue of the stock exchange or mutual bonds, then investing with Betterment is your best bet.
On top of that, their services will not cost you much either. Their digital plan is priced at 0.25 percent annually.
2. Acorns
The Acorns app is one of the few robo advisors that target a younger demographic as well. With the minimum investment limit of as little as $5, it is one of the best options for inexperienced investors and for the investors who are a bit skeptical about investing their money with robo-advisors.
Like Betterment, it is also blisteringly easy to use.
It will ask you simple questions like your investing goals, your comfort level with risk, and an estimated time limit to achieve your goals. You have to answer these questions, and then Acorns will help you as per your preferences.
Get started with Acorns.
3. Wealthfront
Often overlooked in favor of its more famous counterparts like Betterment and Acorns, Wealthfront is more popular amid the middle-aged populace.
While it has all the capabilities of your regular robo-advisor, what sets it apart from the rest is low fees on accounts and tax reduction for accounts with high balances.
Investment features are similar to other robo advisors. However, unlike Betterment, Wealthfront doesn’t shy away from talking about complex aspects of investments with its investors.
21. Peer-to-Peer Lending.
Are you worried about the stock market?
Do you feel like hitting your head against a brick wall when you see the lackluster interest rates?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then peer-to-peer lending might answer your worries.
As the name suggests, peer-to-peer lending is the financial system that allows you to lend money directly to the borrowers. There is no intermediary Peer-to-peer lending effectively cuts out stuffy banks and lending institutions.
Individual investors like yourself and borrowers meet online through a specific platform or a peer-to-peer company.
Although it is somewhat a new market, and people have just recently started to invest using this medium, it is growing at a rapid speed. It shows no signs of slowing down, either.
If statistics are anything to go by, the peer-to-peer lending industry could reach over $1000 Billion by 2025.
Yes, that’s a whopping $1,000 Billion with a capital B.
How do you get started with Peer-to-Peer Lending?
Getting started investing with peer-to-peer lending is quite simple.
Just follow through with these quick steps:
- Choose an appropriate peer-to-peer lending platform.
- Open an account
- Deposit your funds
- Begin to peruse through the list of borrowers.
You don’t have to invest millions — not even thousands. In fact, with some websites, you can spend as little as $25, which completely varies by the peer-to-peer lending website.
Now the next step is to review the profiles of potential borrowers.
Each borrower profile includes:
- Interest rate
- Reason for the loan
- Term of the loan
- The risk assessment of the loan
You have to be careful while selecting the potential borrower to lend your money so that your expectations can align with the borrower’s profile.
Also, depending on the type of investment you make, you can make as high as 12% per year or more. That said, these are riskier loans, and if you want to play it safe, you can still make up to 2-5% per year.
