17.5 Methods to Earn Real Money Online

If you’ve been laid off from your regular job because of the pandemic or your regular business is slow right now, you might want to pick up some extra money using one of these methods.

1: Affiliate Marketing – this is the big one most people already know. You do the marketing and selling – often of digital products but it could be tangible products, too – and another company handles fulfillment. This might be ebooks, courses, software, services and so forth. Affiliate marketing works especially well if you are a prolific blogger with a large following or you have your own email list. If you want to promote make money online products, you might start with JVZoo and ClickBank.

2: YouTube – the highest paid YouTubers are earning millions of dollars per year. The key is to pick a single niche and then build a strong, loyal audience. You might review products, teach or entertain. You can use your videos to promote products or simply monetize your channel with YouTube ads once you hit the 1,000 subscriber milestone.

3: Create online courses – if you’re an expert on a topic or willing to do extensive research and on your subject, this might be for you. Think of it as writing a book, only in course form. You can sell your courses on one of several sites such as Udemy or on your own website.

4: Publish ebooks – focus on popular niches and publish your books through Amazon’s Kindle. You can outsource the writing, the cover and the formatting if you choose. Learn how to market your books for best effect. Successful Kindle publishers typically spend as much time on marketing as they do on writing, but it can pay off handsomely. There are publishers of little 50 page ebooks who crank out a book every month or so and eventually earn five figures a month from all their endeavors.

5: Drop shipping – you sell a product to a customer, but the supplier packages and ships the product for you. You don’t handle inventory and you don’t need to purchase products before they sell. Oberlo.com is a good place to get started. With drop shipping you appear to be selling and doing product fulfillment yourself, and you will handle any customer service issues. With affiliate marketing, the customer knows the product is coming from someone else, and that product seller will be the one handling customer service.

6: Print on Demand – you create unique designs for t-shirts and other clothing and objects like coffee mugs. When a customer orders, you forward their information to the fulfillment house that creates the item and ships it for you. Pritify.com, Wix.com and Printful.com are good places to learn more. And no, you don’t have to be a graphic artist. Plain print works well for timely messages, and you can always outsource graphic design to a professional. Remember, you design it once and you sell it over and over again.

7: Review websites and software – UserTesting.com pays reviewers $10 to give entrepreneurs feedback on their websites and apps. You’ll have a set of questions to answer via a 20-minute video as you browse their website. Or if you want to earn money reviewing software, you can use SoftwareJudge.com.

8: Become an influencer – this might be easier said than done, but it can be highly lucrative if you get it right. For example, Kylie Jenner makes $1million for every sponsored Instagram post. The key is to get a huge following and charge for sponsored posts, speaking gigs and events, sell products, sell ads and get paid as a brand ambassador.

9: Investing $5 – Even if you don’t have a lot of money to invest, you can still get started with just $5 on Stash.com. Buy fractional shares of your favorite companies, earn stock when you shop, get free checking and more.

10: Blogging – Choose a niche that is narrow enough to focus on but wide enough to cover a lot of ground. Ideally it should have a target audience that is easy to reach and ready to spend money. You can add affiliate links to your post, sell advertising on your blog, and eventually become well known and asked to do speaking gigs, television deals and book deals.

11: Freelancing – if you’re a writer, teacher, developer, graphic artist, social media expert or anything related, you can reach out to prospective clients and sometimes get hired on the spot.

12: Translation work – are you fluent in two or more languages? Many companies are looking for translators for their content, but your language skills must be excellent because they will test you. You might also consider approaching bestselling product owners on sites like ClickBank to translate their products for entirely new markets. For example, you might negotiate exclusive rights to sell their product in the new language as well as keeping 50-80% of your own sales and a percentage of affiliate sales in that language.

13: Create apps – you don’t need to be a developer to create an app. Use one of the freelance platforms to find a developer and then add your app to Google Play and the App Store. When you’re just starting out, consider making your app free to get a higher volume of downloads and monetize with ads or premium features.

14: Side Gigs – this won’t make you a full-time income, but it is extra money. Use sites like Fiverr to offer a low-cost service with options to upgrade to a higher paying service. For ideas of what you might do, spend some time perusing Fiverr and make a list of everything that appeals to you.

15: Online tutoring – there is a high demand for tutors in science and math, as well as English among international audiences. Having a teaching degree is helpful but not always required as long as you are an expert on your topic.

16: Sell clothing – you can sell clothes, handbags and shoes on multiple sites such as Mercari, ThredUp, Tradesy, Poshmark and Rafashioner. Once you’ve sold your own unwanted clothing, you might haunt the thrift stores for name brands that you can flip for substantial profit.

17: Sell Photos – You can monetize your photography habit by posting your services in local Facebook groups and Craigslist as well as using sites like Scoopshot. Or you can sell your photos on hundreds of different sites like Shutterstock.

17.5: Take Surveys – You can get paid to take surveys on sites like surveyjunkie.com. While this won’t make you rich, it will put a few extra dollars in your pocket.

Bonus: Twitch Streaming – Twitch started as a gaming platform but it’s gaining traction with other types of content as well. To make money on Twitch you’ll need to grow your following. Choose a popular game or niche that isn’t overly competitive and if possible, spend your entire day streaming to build our audience. You can monetize your Twitch channel through selling products, brand sponsorships, subscriptions, Twitch ads and fan donations.