Working at home is now becoming incredibly popular. Not only working remotely from home, but fully earning a living from home. So what are the best ways to rid yourself of the 9 to 5 and start to make money online, enough to earn a living?
“Never depend on single income. Make investments to create a second source” -Warren Buffett
You can consider starting an online business that enables people to work in their undies, set their own hour shifts, have creative freedom, and spend more time with loved ones.
On the other hand, purchasing a McDonald’s franchise or opening your own store can be both costly and stressful. You’d need startup wealth, employees, rental space, equipment, inventory, and a variety of other things.
Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses no longer appear to be worthwhile, do they? This is why people are becoming more interested in going online and start doing something to make money online.
Here are 55 of the best internet business ideas for beginners to make money online.
1. Online blogging
There are numerous advantages to blogging. You can choose a topic about which you are well-versed and begin writing articles on a regular basis to build an audience.
Once you have a huge volume of traffic, there are numerous ways to monetize your blog to make money online. You can monetize with affiliate products or promotions, lead-generation, ads, sponsored products or articles, etc.
You'll need a quite bit of consistency and you need to find a traffic channel that works for you, so it might take a bit of time until you master a channel and make it online, but once you do, the money will start rolling in.
2. Affiliate Marketing
We frequently discuss affiliate marketing because it is cheap to begin and needs little management overall.
You essentially need to drive traffic to affiliate links for high-quality products that you are promoting. You are paid a commission when a purchase is completed through you.
This method of making money online works best when coupled with online blogging.
3. Website Design
There would never be a shortage of work for web designers with approximately 900 million websites. Your qualifications are in high demand if you can code, edit WordPress plugins, and redesign webpage layouts for others.
4. Social Media Consulting
Facebook has more than a billion active users.
Consider how many there are when Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Linkedin are included. Businesses are always looking for new ways to reach out to their customers, and social media is one of the effective methods to do so.
Since social media management is a full-time job in and of itself, you should take full advantage if you are good at gaining followers, interaction, and traffic from such platforms.
5. eBay Sales
eBay remains one of the best world’s largest online marketplaces. That is a good place to start if you want to sell anything anyway. Whether you sell cars, apparel, electronics, and everything else on eBay, you can make a good living.
6. Ecommerce Store
Set up a website and sell products to people without having an actual store. An online shopping store will require hosting, a domain, traffic, and manufacturing, but it can be a lucrative internet business, especially if you know how to source products.
7. Drop-Shipping
Drop-shipping is similar to affiliate programs in the manufacturing industry. It is defined as “moving goods directly from the manufacturer to the retailer without going through the usual distribution networks.”
This can be an excellent way to start a business without having to produce your own goods. For more information on drop-shipping, visit Shopify.
8. Virtual Assistant
Running a small business or simply managing one’s life can take up a lot of time. Having full-time employees around all of the time is prohibitively expensive. This is where virtual assistants can help.
You can find them on sites like UpWork or through individual agencies. Then, company owners give them step-by-step directions for tedious tasks that the assistant must complete so that they do not have to.
The assistant could be in a totally different country but it wouldn’t matter since they are mostly doing internet-based duties. You could try working as a virtual assistant.
9. SEO Consultant
Are you good at assisting websites in ranking higher in search engines? These days, services are in high demand. Rankings help companies get traffic to make money, whether it’s local SEO for a local company or global SEO for a large blog.
You could start with local SEO and work up if you want to take on larger clients.
10. Writing a Resume
Unless you’re a self-starter, you’ll need a job to make ends meet. To get work, you usually need to meet with the employer first and then send them a resume outlining your qualifications.
The issue is that not everyone is skilled at making their resume attractive to potential employers. If you’re good at it, you could build an entire business around resume writing services.
11. Yahoo Store
Yahoo seems to be another perfect way to start a business. You don’t have to worry about the pain that comes with having a website when you use Yahoo Stores. You won’t be dealing with hosting, domains, customer service, spam, rankings, or anything else.
All you need to do is sign up and begin selling your products. This can be an excellent way to get started and a credible alternative to eBay.
12. Information Products
If you’re doing something as a hobby, read about it frequently, or do that for a living, the possibilities are you understand more about it than most people. You can use this understanding to start your own business that pays as much as you are likely to charge for your goods.
You can teach the information using video courses, written classes, templates, audio, and other media.
13. Freelance Writing
If you would like to rank any website, particularly if it isn’t just for local search, you’ll need content. Blogging is one of the most effective methods for increasing a website’s ranking.
The only issue here is that most people aren’t good writers or don’t have the time to learn how to blog successfully. This is where you come into play.
As a freelancer, you can consider charging by the word or by the article and provide people with high-quality content.
14. Domain Deals
Web domain names can be thought of as virtual real estate. Buy cheap domains, try to repair them, and resell them. If you’re good at creating websites, this can be an excellent way to make some serious money.
Many businesses do not want to start over from scratch with their websites, so purchasing an established domain may be in their best interests.
15. Create Apps
It appears that there is an app for just about everything. You can find apps for everything from slingshotting virtual birds into structures to keeping up with the latest sports coverage.
Nowadays, almost every brand or gaming company wants its own app. You can be their go-to person for development. I might add that good app developers make loads of money.
16. Coaching
Whether it be about relationships, business, self-improvement, raising kids, wellbeing, or anything else, some expert opinion can go a long way. It never irritates to have a sensible coach or mentor from whom you can always get excellent advice.
You have the ability to be that coach. All you have to do is assist managers to make informed decisions and guide them on how to succeed in the field in which you specialize.
17. Translation
Learning a new language is not easy. It is, in fact, pretty difficult. If you are one of the fortunate few who is multilingual, you might turn it into a business.
People are constantly in need of translators, particularly for conferences or phone calls where they cannot simply type phrases into Google Translate.
18. Niche Sites
A niche site is simply a small website created for a very specific set of targeted keywords. It could be a website that teaches you how to coach your parrot to talk or how to earn more profits from Twitter-sponsored posts.
Your niche website can be about anything. Some people make a good living by building dozens of these web pages and ranking them for specific keyword phrases.
These websites typically make funds through Adsense ads, affiliate products, or sold classes. You could make any money doing this if you’re good at SEO.
19. Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is when a third-party brand pays you to post on their behalf. Perhaps it could include an Instagram photo of you using the company’s product or a blog post written by the company that is posted on your site.
You could indeed make a lot of money with just 5 minutes of work if you have enough social supporters or website traffic.
20. Private Advertising
If you have a number of visitors and want to make money from advertisements, you could try private ads. These advertisements cut out the middle – man between you and the advertising companies.
In other words, rather than using a service like Adsense, which brings in only 50% or less of the advertising money per click, you would eliminate them and make 100%.
You would simply need to negotiate terms with the advertiser directly and agree on where to place their ad, its size, its content, the duration it will be visible, and how much they would then pay.
21. Podcasting
If you’re wondering whether you would make a lot of money from podcasting, just look at people like Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn, or John Lee Dumas, these people make money online in the millions.
In fact, all three of them make significant amounts of money per year, if not per month, thanks in large part to their podcasting.
To create great content, all you should do is interview industry influencers, talk about what you’ve learned, answer questions from your audience, repurpose blog post topics, and so on.
This is just another way to broaden your brand’s reach. Advertising agencies tend to pay very well for promoting themselves on your podcast episodes if you build a large subscriber base.
22. Book Reviews
Many people attempt to make a living by writing and publishing books. They all have one common factor, whether they are physical copies, ebooks, or Kindle versions… They need to be reviewed.
They require Amazon reviews from readers. They need feedback before publishing to determine whether the book has a chance or if it needs to be revised. They require reviews from critics, editors, and regular readers.
Your services will be in high demand if you can be objective and provide a genuine, insightful review of other people’s books. You might also get some free books as part of the deal.
23. Transcription
If maybe you can simply let YouTube or a transcription software transcribe your audios without having to worry about it. Regrettably, that isn’t yet a reality.
I’ve never used a transcription service that is very precise unless you speak in extremely slow motion, almost having to spell out every word. As a result, we require humans to transcribe.
You can start your own business or collaborate with a site like Transcribeme to help people accurately convert their audio to text without the hassle of trying to get it correct with software.
24. Taxation Services
Sadly, we all have to pay taxes. Taxes, on top of that, can be extremely complicated. Being a CPA, on the other hand, pays very well if you know the tax system from the inside out.
You can easily earn $300 or more per client while working from home. This is a good way to make money online, so it might even be a good idea to restart your studies in accounting to go after this niche.
25. Network Marketing
Affiliate marketing and network marketing are very similar. You sell products, earn a commission, and are paid without being an employee. The distinction is that you can also enlist the help of other affiliates to augment your team.
If you sell a product and have a group of professionals selling products for which you receive a commission, you can have your own mini-organization that generates a lot of commission sales every day without having to employ or work yourself to death.
Some of these companies, however, can be shady, so do your research, find a good tutor to learn from, and make sure you’ve got a traffic strategy in place before you begin.
26. Photographic work
If you enjoy photography or making your own custom images on your computer, you could sell your work for royalty payments on iStockphoto and Shutterstock. If you are able to create very specific niche photos that are in demand and not easy to create, you can passively make money online.
These sites allow you to upload your pictures and earn money every time anybody purchases the rights to use them. If you produce a few new photos per week, you can make a good living out of what was once just a hobby.
27. Amazon
There are numerous ways to earn extra cash online through Amazon. You can earn Amazon Associates commissions, sell electronic books, or even sell physical goods. You have limitless options.
You can specialize in one or do them all, but when it comes to finances online, Amazon should be one of your first stops.
28. Coding
Coding professionals are becoming increasingly important in today’s society. We need people to code online sites, spreadsheets, mobile applications and other software because it is too difficult for us to do it ourselves.
Technology is only progressing as quickly as it is because of the programmers who figure out how to do everything. If you’re good at coding, you won’t be able to make a lot of money doing it professionally.
29. Makeup Tutorial Channel
Believe this or not, many YouTubers earn six figures or more online simply by doing makeup tutorials. To my surprise, these videos receive millions of views, resulting in massive ad revenue.
These channels also receive a lot of sponsorships video opportunities, in which they can use a company’s free product and get paid lots of money just for using it in the youtube clip.
30. Product Review Channel
Doing product reviews is one of the best methods to make a lot of money from a Channel on youtube. With this type of channel, you won’t need nearly as many views on your video content as you would with a music, makeup, or gaming channel.
Since product reviews perform much better for advertising companies, you won’t need many views. The more advertiser-friendly your video keywords are, the more money you’ll make per click on YouTube.
You could review apps, toys, devices, or anything else that comes to mind. A few toy review channels, for example, make millions of dollars.
31. Udemy
When it comes to creating courses, Udemy is a good place to begin. You don’t need a website that sells online courses that teach individuals how to do various things on Udemy.
Simply upload some detailed videos on the lessons you want to teach to your Udemy account and turn them into a course. Another advantage of doing it this way is that you can get a lot of traffic and promos even if you don’t know anything at all about marketing.
Udemy already has a large audience and understands how to help them find the courses they are looking for.
32. Plugins
Plugins are small software applications that you can add to your WordPress website. These plugins can enable you to manage post sharing, gain more social followers, speed up your site, generate more leads, and do a variety of other things.
Plugins may be the way to go if you would like to do more specific software-like programs for just websites. And believe me, if your plugins are useful, there will always be a large number of people willing to give them a try.
33. Stock Trading
Stocks are difficult to invest in, but if you do your assignment and know what to look for, you can earn millions. You can make a lot of money with just a computer and stock holdings.
This is most likely the internet business idea with the highest risk and reward on the list.
34. Fantasy Sports
The popularity of fantasy sports has skyrocketed in recent years, and many people now make a decent living from it. I’m not referring to those season-long fantasy leagues you play with your friends.
No, I’m referring to daily fantasy sports. People can make a lot more money from these as there are games going on all the time. If you want to turn this into a business, the big question is whether you are good with math and whether you are legally allowed to participate.
If you live in the United States, you may have noticed that some of the major fantasy sports companies, such as Fanduel and DraftKings, have pulled out of certain states because their industry has been labeled as “online gambling.”
Many states have made online gambling illegal. I’m not sure how the rules work in other countries, but that’s how it is in the United States. It is up to the states to decide whether or not it is legal.
However these companies work to rebrand daily fantasy sports as a game of skill rather than gambling, you should check your local laws before playing.
If you can, however, play based on numbers and probability rather than players you like. This is how individuals earn a lot of money.
35. Fiverr
Fiverr is a fantastic site for earning a living online. It enables you to work as a freelancer and sell your services without needing to create a website or worry about advertising.
You typically start with $5 services and work up to selling more expensive plans as you gain more customers. This site can assist you in building a successful internet business if you provide high-quality services on time.
Many people come here for transcriptions, graphic design, SEO, writing, and a variety of other services, so you'll find plenty of ways to make money online.
36. UpWork
If you want to draw more high-paying clients for your freelance work, you should consider creating a profile on Upwork. UpWork, formerly ODesk, is one of the most popular freelancing websites on the internet.
While Fiverr is simpler to get started with, it does not attract as many clients as UpWork. Perhaps this is a better match for your freelance services.
37. Membership Sites
One issue you may encounter when running an online business is irregular income. Depending on your industry, you may have difficulty predicting how much money your company will make from month to month.
With membership sites, you can get rid of that uncertainty and have a consistent way to make money online. Customers pay a monthly fee to be a member of a sort of club that receives new reports, tutorial videos, advice, and so on on a monthly basis.
38. Book Cover Design
Let’s be honest: not everyone has a keen sense of detail. Not everyone has the ability to create stunning graphics that capture the public’s attention. However, if you have the opportunity, you should take advantage of it.
With the rising trend of ebooks, book covers are more important than ever. If book cover design is your thing, you can make a good living doing nothing else.
39. Product Label Design
If you are passionate about art and design, as well as marketing, product label design can be a good fit for you. You can create packaging, supplement labels, and other items for people while charging a reasonable fee.
Most people lack the skills required to design their own professional labels. You might even try to compete with 99Designs to design these types of stuff for people.
40. Infographic Design
Infographics are another graphic design category that is frequently outsourced. These are large image versions of blog articles that brands love to use to increase social shares and backlinks to their content.
If you are skilled at creating these in a professional way, you should charge brands to do so.
41. Gaming Channel
Creating a gaming channel on a video-sharing site like Youtube is a new way to start an internet business. Think again if you don't believe this is a legitimate way to make money.
You can also check out the guy who makes millions of dollars by playing video games and uploading his hilarious reactions to YouTube. Pewdiepie is the name of his YouTube channel.
42. Advertising
You can monetize your traffic through advertisements whether you have a blog, a YouTube channel, or a website with an online tool that people can use.
Adsense is one of the most popular ad services in the world, and it is run by Google, the most popular website on the internet.
You can sign up for a free account and begin monetizing your traffic without having to rely on product sales like you would with affiliate marketing.
If you want to make a living with these types of ads, make sure you use keywords strategically and have a lot of traffic.
43. Write Books
In today's digital world, ebooks are flying off the shelves. They take up less space and are less expensive than hard copies while maintaining the same level of content.
Gone are the days when becoming a professional author required the services of a publisher, editor, and marketer. You can now self-publish as many books as you want on sites like Amazon and profit from them with little outlay.
44. Etsy
Etsy is the place to be if you're a bit of an artist. You can open an Etsy shop and sell your crafts, t-shirts, sculptures, drawings, paintings, and other works to the general public.
You won't need a website, a lot of marketing, or anything complicated to start making money from your artistic abilities this way.
45. Tips or How To Channel
You can use your knowledge in a specific area to create a popular channel that teaches people how to be successful at something, just like a blog or a podcast.
Because Youtube videos are much easier to rank than blog posts, this may be the best way to get started in the first place. Create a channel instead of a course, or better yet, both.
46. Software
A good piece of software is adored by all. Software will always be in demand, whether it is for automating a business, playing a game, increasing productivity, and so on.
You could do very well for yourself if you can create a good piece of software that doesn't have to compete with big names like Microsoft or Adobe.
47. Programming Services
Some of the world's wealthiest people began their careers as programmers. Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Bill Gates, and Larry Ellison are among them.
You can charge others for your complex programming skills, such as creating or editing software, plugins, or apps. People who can program, as evidenced by the success stories mentioned, can do very well for themselves.
48. Copywriting
If you enjoy writing and selling, copywriting could be a good fit for you. Copywriting is essential in the business world, whether it's for advertisements, sales pages, or sales emails.
49. Banner Ad Design
Advertisers need banners to draw people's attention to their offers and encourage them to click on them. It's pointless to have a banner if it doesn't look professional or catch the attention of potential customers.
This is why many businesses outsource their banner ad design to professionals. You could start a banner ad business if you're good at art, know a little marketing, and can use software like Photoshop.
50. Editing
Even without factoring in the time it takes to edit, writing takes a lot of time. This is why many large corporations employ a large number of writers, as well as editors who go over everything and double-check it before allowing it to be published.
If you have a knack for words and can make articles flow, correct punctuation, and come up with catchy titles, consider working as a freelance editor for your company.
51. Website Consultant
Millions of people may have websites, but that doesn't mean they know what they're doing. As a website consultant, you can make a decent living advising site owners on their design, content, products, performance, domain name, and other issues.
Many people would pay good money to get your advice on how to run their websites properly if you have built successful websites.
52. Solo Ads
You can allow advertisers to send a promotional email to your email list in exchange for a fee if you're building an email list and need some extra cash.
For each email the advertisers send to your list, you can charge a flat fee or a cost-per-click. But be cautious.
It's usually best to state in your terms and conditions that you allow advertisers to email them on occasion if they're on your mailing list.
53. Traffic Services
Some people despise having to navigate their own traffic. You could do it for others if you're good at driving traffic through SEO, social media, PPC ads, solo ads, or any other method.
Many businesses find advertising services they can rely on and buy traffic only when they require it. This way, everything is taken care of for them. You could apply the same strategy to other businesses.
54. Recruiting
If you have a Linkedin profile, there's a good chance a recruiter has tried to contact you about a job opening, project, business opportunity, or something similar.
If you're good with people, you could offer your services to other companies to help them recruit people for whatever job they need.
55. Freelance marketing
Every company requires marketing. We would have a lot of great products that no one would know about or be able to enjoy if it weren't for it.
Freelance marketing can be a lucrative business because there is always work available, you can work from home, and it pays well.
Do you enjoy driving traffic, executing ad campaigns, growing social media followings, collecting email addresses, and closing sales? If that's the case, freelance marketing might be the way to go for your next venture.
56. Earn Money to Play Games
This is a fairly recent new way of making money. These days some vendors can actually pay gamers in their own currencies when you play their games. If you earn a reputation of being a good player, you can also stream your gaming on Twitch, YouTube and other similar channels which can all be monetized.
Couple this with some of the above methods to make money online and this can become quite a lucrative stream of income.
Make Money Online FAQs
Why should I try to earn money online?
Making money online is attractive because it allows you to become your own boss. But before you do that, you can start earning a passive income, i.e. an income which does not require direct and continuous intervention. Eventally, you can quit your current job. At that point, your life becomes better because nobody can tell you what to do or when to do it. You get to choose how you make a living each day.
How do we get paid for doing online work?
Most online business sites and opportunities accept payments through PayPal, a service that lets you send and receive money electronically. However, there are many other ways these days to pay or transfer funds, even across country lines or to and from emerging economies such as Latin America or Asia. You can even do the old fashioned bank transfer with fairly cheap fees these days.
What kind of money can you make blogging?
You can make good sums of money. At the very least you can do this to have a side gig which earns you a few hundred dollars per month. You can also make the kind of money where you no longer have to have a full-time job. And if you are succesful, you can make life-changing amounts of money which completely changes the lifestyle you are using.
What do you actually do to earn money?
There is a large number of successful bloggers who do get paid to write about their interests, ideas, and pursuits - this is making money by writing for other people. Creating a money-making blog, on the other hand, takes time and effort, but would be the better long-term bet. Bloggers typically earn money online by displaying advertisements on their blogs (such as through Google AdSense) or by selling products or services through affiliate links for a commission.
Please leave a useful comment with your thoughts, then share this on your Facebook group(s) who would find this useful and let's reap the benefits together. Thank you for sharing and being nice!
Disclosure: This page may contain links to external sites for products which we love and wholeheartedly recommend. If you buy products we suggest, we may earn a referral fee. Such fees do not influence our recommendations and we do not accept payments for positive reviews.
and many more ...