Throughout the ages, there has always been just one fundamental way of earning a dollar. That is, by selling something. Either you’d sell a product, a service or your expertise. But the internet has brought about new ways of making money online and the barriers how to earn money has been lowered for everyone.
Here are the top 10 ways for making money online (in no particular order).
1. Making Money Online Selling Through eBay
eBay is a phenomenon unto itself. Even if you don’t have products in stock, you can STILL make money online with eBay. How is that possible? Through dropshipping products directly from the warehouse and the supplier handles it all for you.
Read: How To Make Money On eBay Without Any Products In Stock.
eBay is one of the easiest ways to make a quick buck, even if that means looking around your house for items you no longer need. It could be jewelry, electronics, magazines, toys, just about anything.
When you find items on eBay going cheaply, there’s a very real opportunity to purchase and re-sell for profit.
Best yet, making money online from home has never been easier and you don’t have to worry about overheads like renting office space, hiring staff and all that goes with a bricks and mortar shopfront.
Some people do nothing all day but find objects to sell on eBay.
2. Selling For People
Do you love chatting to people and socializing? You’d probably make a good salesperson. There are plenty of businesses out there that are not good at selling, and that’s where you can help.
Create a profile with Elance where you can offer your unique skills.
There are plenty of businesses looking for a specific skillset who don’t advertise job positions. They just want to hire freelancers for the odd job or semi-recurring tasks.
You can get niche specific too for businesses searching for, say, fishing experts, they’ll find you (if that’s your thing).
Selling someone else’s product is much easier than creating your own products. Although, creating your own products is a great money-maker too.
3. Making Money Online Through Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a huge part of making money online. If you have your own website or blog, email newsletter or a big social network, you can earn money by selling someone else’s products and services.
Read: Affiliate Marketing Basics. Earn Hefty Commissions The Easy Way.
You sign up to become an affiliate, where you’ll receive a percentage of each sale you make.
But just because you have popular website doesn’t mean you will make sales. You need to make sure you’re offering the right products to your audience at the right time.
4. Consulting
If you’re an expert in some field, you have a lot of potential in from of you.
Offer your expertise via video, such as YouTube or one-on-one business consulting through Skype.
There are many opportunities and methods you can utilize but you’ll have to find out which one suits you and your potential clients best.
Read: 12 Ways To Increase YouTube Views Without Begging Your Family.
5. Counseling
Whether it’s business or personal problems, counseling people is huge opportunity online. If you are well-versed in a certain field of psychology or have personal experience with touchy subjects, you can find people who need your guidance and would be willing to pay for it.
If you become popular, you could setup your own podcast or blog radio channel.
6. Virtual Office Administration
Every entrepreneur needs a little help every now and then. As mentioned before, Elance will allow you to offer your services for general data entry, bookkeeping, attending to emails, or customer service.
There are always companies looking for people who work from home on the internet. Often, you can work in your own hours in the comfort of your own home or small office.
7. Make Money Online Negotiating Deals
Do you have the good manners and skills to bring a buyer and seller together? To don’t necessarily need to be a salesperson to act as the middleman in a negotiation.
If you can facilitate a deal between two parties, you can charge a fee for negotiating higher prices for the seller or better contract terms for the buyer.
This can be a huge source of income if you get the big deals.
8. Trading
Trading of all types can be very lucrative, and you don’t need to be sitting in the New York Stock Exchange to do it. All you need is the internet.
There are great opportunities to trade in virtual currencies like Bitcoin due to their price volatility. Buy low, sell high. With the current Bitcoin market, there’s plenty of opportunity to do just that.
Stock trading is one possibility but if you’re not into traditional stock trading, how about the trading of physical items?
Like I mentioned before, eBay gives you great opportunities to get stock at cheap prices, which you can trade up for higher priced items by placing ads in classifieds like Craigs List.
9. Making Money Online By Writing
The skills of writing are in huge demand on the internet. Writers with great English skills can earn a very healthy full-time income online and enjoy working regularly for multiple clients.
Freelance writers may provide articles for online magazines, blogs, professional reports and brochures, script development and all sorts of writing tasks.
More prominent writers have their own website where they can showcase their skills and link to articles they have written as a showcase to potential new clients.
It all depends on skill and determination. Again, Elance is a great resource for both writer and employers searching for writers.
10. Proofreading
If you’re a stickler for spelling, grammar and correct formatting, why not try you hand at proofreading?
Businesses with an eye for quality and concern for professionalism always have their marketing materials and website proofread by a human being.
Once you get hired by a medium to large business, you can expect an avalanche of copy to proof.
What other ways have you found for making money online?
