How to earn money online
Earning money has typically been associated with and restricted to the traditional 'offline' route. With the Internet taking over a large part of our lives, more people are looking for ways to earn money online to increase their financial inflows, with secondary income streams.
You should
be mindful of the platform that you choose. While there are numerous ways to
earn money online, some of these might be fake. Also, do not expect to earn a
huge amount quickly when using online avenues to earn money
With a
situation involving more time at home and/or more free time in general, maybe
fewer working hours for some, some of you might have some free time on hand.
Here are online platforms, websites, and tools that can help you earn money
online.
1. Freelancing
Freelancing has always been a popular way to
earn money online and the Internet has several options. There are several
websites offering freelance tasks for people with varying skills. All you need
to do is to create an account, browse through the listings, and apply for the
task that suits you. Some websites may even require you to create a personal
listing with the details of your skillset, so that interested clients can
contact you directly. Outfiverr.com,upwork.com, freelancer.com, and
worknhire.com are some websites that provide freelance jobs. You can earn
anywhere between $5 and $100 through these websites.
But remember, you will only get paid once you
successfully complete the given task and it has been approved by your client.
This may even mean revising the work several times unless the requirements of
your clients are met. Some sites may ask you to set up a PayPal account, as
most clients prefer to make payments digitally via it.
2. Starting your own website
There is enough material available online to
help you put together a website. This includes choosing the domain, templates,
layout, and overall design for your website. Once ready to service the
visitors with the relevant content, sign up for Google Adsense, which when
appears on your website and is clicked on by visitors, helps you make money. The
more traffic you get on your website, the more will be the potential for higher
earnings.
3. Affiliate marketing
Once your website is up and running, you could opt for
affiliate marketing by allowing companies to insert web links onto your site.
This is like a symbiotic partnership. When visitors to your site buy products
or services by clicking on such links, you earn out from it.
4. Surveys, searches, and reviews
There are various websites offering money to
undergo online surveys, carry out online searches, and write reviews on
products. To get the credit, one needs to disclose certain information to them
including one's banking details. This is why you should use this route with
utmost care. Some of them may even ask you to register with them before working
on projects. The most important watch out for such projects is to stay away from
websites offering money that appears too good to be true. Be careful while
evaluating the reputation of the website as many of them could be a scam. Most
sites promote businesses showing copies of cheque payments which may have been
given to the middlemen only.
5. Virtual assistantship
Doing all the corporate stuff from one's home is what a
virtual assistant (VA) does. VAs basically work remotely with their clients and
manage the aspects of their business that they are too busy to handle
themselves. When you work as a virtual assistant, you can choose to work as an
employee or you can set up your own business.
VAs are
skilled, home-based professionals that offer companies, businesses, and
entrepreneurs administrative support. Some of the major areas of work include
making phone calls, email correspondence, Internet research, data entry,
scheduling appointments, editing, writing, bookkeeping, marketing, blog
management, proofreading, project management, graphic design, tech support,
customer service, event planning, and social media management.
6. Language translating
Knowing a language other than English may even
help you earn some extra money. There are several websites that offer
translation projects that require translating a document from one language into
another. This may include Spanish, French, Arab, German, or any other language
to or from English.
For many, this can make the task rather
time-consuming and therefore they hire translators available online from
anywhere across the globe. Several websites such as Freelancer. in, Fiverr.com,
worknhire.com, or Upwork.com offers you a platform to be a professional
translator.
Those who do not have the knowledge or the time
to complete their projects on their own put up their work on these platforms
where you can register and start bidding on translation jobs and get paid in
the range of Rs 1-Rs 5 per word. This can go up to Rs 10 for some languages.
7. Online tutoring
If you are an expert in a particular subject, you
can earn by tutoring people online. Online tutoring provides a means to connect
online with students of all ages, across the country to provide homework help
and tutoring in the subjects for which you have demonstrated expertise.
One may sign up on websites like Vedantu.com,
MyPrivateTutor.com, BharatTutors.com, tutorindia.net as an online tutor by
creating a profile, and listing the subjects or classes you want to teach, how
much experience you have, what your qualifications are, etc. Some of the
platforms may offer flexible and convenient times to work as an online tutor.
Most platforms follow this process- they ask you
to apply by filling a simple form, after which a teaching demo will have to
give their experts. Once selected, documentation and profile creation will be
done, followed by training and induction webinars. Once you attend the webinar,
you will be listed as a teacher and will get your online sessions to conduct.
Beginners can make around Rs 200 per hour, which can go up to Rs 500 as you
gain experience and expertise.
8. Social media management, strategy
In addition to interacting with friends and
strangers, social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Snapchat can be used to make money. Companies and brands pay social media
strategists to further boost the popularity of their products. With lots of
competition around and the constantly shortening of attention time of online
viewers, creativity is essential to create posts, videos, etc that can go viral
quickly and enhance the brand value. Remember, social media needs dedicated
time and energy to stay relevant. Hence, you need to share posts regularly and
interact with your followers on a regular basis.
9. Web designing
Not all business owners are tech savvy but the
need of the hour is to have a website of their own. Those who have a knack for
all things- tech, especially related to websites, can help small businesses
set up their own websites and earn from it. Coding and web designing are the
essential ingredients in setting up websites. Further, websites need
maintenance and may require frequent updates, which may add to one's revenue.
10. Content writing
Online platforms can be a good starting
point. Depending on the quality of the articles, one gets paid. One may be
asked to work upon articles with specific guidelines as well. Develop a niche
in your area of expertise and build strength in that domain to increase the
revenue stream.
11. Blogging
It starts with a hobby, interest, and passion, and soon blogging becomes a career option for many bloggers. There are a number
of full-time bloggers. There are two ways to start a blog: you can either
create a blog through WordPress or Tumblr, which requires no investment, or go
for a self-hosted blog.
In the case of the latter, you will have to invest
in and spend money on domain name and server hosting space that can cost you
between Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000 a year. Self-hosted blogs have the added advantage in that it allows you to customize the elements and functionality of your website. In the case of the former, you need to make peace with the tools and plug-ins made available
by the service provider.
You may monetize the blogs through ads, product
reviews, and so on. However remember, earning through blogging may also take a
lot of time and effort. For some, it may take as long as a year to actually earn
through blogging.
12. YouTube
If you are not comfortable in penning down your
thoughts through blogs and content writing, make use of your camera to create a
video presentation. Create your YouTube channel, upload videos, and start
monetizing them. Choose a category or subject that you want to make videos on
and get started, but make sure it's a topic that will interest a lot of people.
Everything from cooking shows to political debates can find many takers on
YouTube. You have to create a YouTube channel, which works on a similar model
as a blog. As you make your channel popular and the number of subscribers
grows, so will your earning potential. The payment one gets is based on every
thousand views.
13. Kindle eBook
If writing books interests you, one option you
can exercise is to self-publish eBooks and paperbacks with Kindle Direct
Publishing, and reach millions of readers on Amazon. Publishing takes less than
5 minutes and your book appears on Kindle stores worldwide within 24-48 hours.
One can earn up to 70 percent royalty on sales to customers in the US, Canada,
UK, Germany, India, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and
so on. One can keep control of one's rights and set their own list prices and
also make changes to one's books at any time. BooksFundr and Pblishing.com are
two other places to get your book published and earn money.
14. Selling your products online
If you want to sell products online, you may do it by
creating your own website. As there's a lot of competition and several existing
websites in place already catering to this market, an attempt to create a niche
in terms of products may be considered. Or, you can use platforms such as
Amazon, Flipkart to sell. One can increase reach and visibility through
affiliate marketing.
15. PTC sites
Several websites offer money (after a minimum level of
earning) by clicking on advertisements. Hence, they are called paid-to-click
(PTC) sites. One has to get registered before the project begins. Not all of
these sites could be genuine, so be careful. One may also refer friends and
earn money in the process. Some such sites are ClixSense.com, BuxP and NeoBux
are some of such PTC sites
16. Peer to peer
Similar to e-commerce websites such as Amazon and
OLX, a peer-to-peer (P2P) platform is a marketplace for money lending
activities. You can lend money to others in a more organized and structured
manner using the P2P lending platform. The P2P platforms have the recovery
process in place and one should understand it before using the services of the
platform. Since this is an unsecured loan where there is no face-to-face
interaction, a P2P lender needs to be aware of the risks involved.
17. Data entry
Although this line of work is seriously
threatened by automation, there are still plenty of data entry jobs available
in India. It is one of the simplest jobs you can do online and requires no
special skills. You just have to have a computer, Internet connection, fast
typing skills, and the ability to pay attention to details. Most freelancing
websites list these jobs, and you can sign up on any of them to start earning
in the range of Rs 300 to Rs 1,500 per hour
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