Building multiple income streams is a great way to improve your financial security. However, you can’t always be physically present at all these workplaces. That’s why virtual opportunities are good sources of diversification: they allow you to work online, from wherever you are, offering the flexibility you need. But to start, you’ll have to learn how to make money online for beginners.
In this Remitly guide, we’ll explore surefire opportunities to make money online, so you’ll have enough to sustain yourself in the US and send funds back home.
Understanding the concept of online earning
Online work allows you to make money through the internet by using your skills to perform different activities on digital platforms. It can be a source of active income, where you earn based on actual input, such as creating TikTok videos or writing blog posts for businesses. Essentially, you get paid for gigs and freelance work, or through commissions and bonuses.
Alternatively, you can make money passively. Passive income requires little to no work to sustain a regular income, but that doesn’t mean you don’t put some effort in.
For instance, e-books are a great source of passive income online. You’ll spend a few hours writing a book on a topic or sector you’re an expert in, then publish it on an online marketplace. In this scenario, you make money anytime someone pays to download your e-book. However, you can also earn passive income via affiliate marketing, online courses, and other digital products.
Setting expectations: Realistic vs exaggerated claims
The global pandemic popularized online work. Due to the lockdowns, people had to find ways to make a living while staying home. Massive layoffs also triggered the growing need for virtual work.
All this hype created realistic and exaggerated claims about how easy and lucrative making money online is. Separating myths from facts will help you make an informed decision before choosing this lifestyle.
Facts:
- Online work is flexible. As long as you meet your deadlines, you can work anywhere, at your convenience. This could be between breaks at your physical workplace, before bedtime in your pajamas, or under a coconut tree, enjoying the ocean view and breeze as you holiday.
- You’ll enjoy a better work-life balance. Remote jobs afford you the flexibility to control your work environment and manage time more efficiently. They also save you money and reduce the stress associated with daily commutes to work.
- Distractions and interruptions can affect productivity. Working from home exposes you to disruption from other family members, visitors, and household chores. Plan accordingly and schedule activities to keep everyone occupied concurrently. If possible, have a designated home office where family members avoid entering unless necessary.
Myths:
- You’ll earn so much for doing so little. These claims are the first signs of work-from-home scams. Remember, there’s no shortcut or quick fix to make money. Online jobs demand the same professionalism, effort, and values as in-office work; the only difference is that you can work from anywhere.
- No experience is required. This may be true for entry-level positions, but jobs that accept little to no experience yet pay very well don’t exist; that’s highly likely a scam. As a beginner, you’ll need to rise through the ranks—and your compensation will reflect this.
- Online workers get rich quickly. Opportunities that guarantee getting rich fast are almost always scams.
- You must pay to start working online. This isn’t always true. While some job boards require payment before linking you to potential employers, you don’t have to pay an employer or client to start working with them.
Easy ideas for beginners to make money online
It’s okay to be confused and overwhelmed before starting your journey into online work. Some jobs, such as forex and currency trading or cryptocurrency, can be difficult for beginners because most lose money in the early stages. However, using job portals could help you find easier ways to make extra money online.
Freelance writing
Freelance writing involves creating written content for individuals or companies for various purposes.
This kind of content creation involves writing blog posts, newsletters, website copy, landing pages, sales copy, white papers, social media posts, and creative writing tasks. It can be done on a contract or per-project basis.
You’ll need a computer or smartphone and a stable internet connection to get started. It’s also a good idea to have a good grasp of the language you’ll be writing in. Multilingual writers might have more openings in translation services, converting copy from one language to another.
Check platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, or ProBlogger for your first opportunity.
Virtual assistance
Consider working as a virtual assistant if you’re good with using technology to perform administrative, creative, and technical office tasks like:
- Scheduling meetings
- Handling emails
- Preparing presentations
- Entering data into spreadsheets and databases
- Offering customer support
- Bookkeeping
- Making travel arrangements
- Creating content
Participate in online surveys
Making money online can be as simple as offering your honest opinion. That’s how online surveys work.
Survey sites like Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, Toluna, Ipsos iSay, and more reward respondents with cash or gift cards for giving insights and truthful feedback after performing tasks like:
- Watching videos
- Testing products
- Using search engines
- Playing games
- Watching advertisements
- Filling questionnaires
- Signing up for offers and promotions
User testing
Companies pay user testers before rolling out new features to assess how customer-centric their innovations are. You’ll share your perspective to help firms design and release better or more user-friendly products and services, such as websites and mobile apps.
Several platforms offer user testing opportunities in the US, including UserTesting, UserZoom, Lookback, Maze, Optimal Workshop, and UXtweak.
Starting is easy, as long as you check several boxes:
- Meet the minimum age requirement of 18 years.
- Have good communication skills and the ability to share your opinion fluently.
- Be honest. Companies rely on your feedback to effect change, so ensure that you’re truthful.
- Punctuality, because some tests are scheduled and timed.
If you meet these eligibility requirements, just choose a user testing platform, sign up, and complete a short application test. You’ll then begin to receive user testing requests that match your profile, experiences, and interests.
Selling digital products and e-books
Freelance writing, virtual assistance, online surveys, and user testing are active sources of income. You earn when you work, making it hard to scale because you can only take on as much as you can handle. Unfortunately, there’s a limit to your daily output.
But digital products are a passive income source you can easily build up and grow. They are intangible assets that exist in only digital or electronic form. Software, e-books, music, digital art, and online courses—these assets can be bought, sold, and accessed online from anywhere in the world.
There’s no limit to how much you can make in a day or time period because one file can earn you thousands of dollars. For example, a quick look at Amazon’s e-book top sellers shows how one successful digital product can generate passive income for years.
Exploring online business opportunities
You can also diversify your online work by combining contracts and freelancing with entrepreneurial ventures to supplement your income. Let’s explore four online business opportunities you can start today.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a business concept where you earn a commission for promoting another person’s or company’s goods, products, and services. You might encounter terms like:
- Affiliate: The person promoting the product, in this case, you.
- Merchant: the person or company whose goods or services you’re promoting.
- Commission: The amount you earn for each successful sale.
- Affiliate link: A unique link or code that customers use to access goods and services or get special offers when they buy from the merchant. This way, the merchant can prove sales that originated from you and pay your commission on the sales.
Start by joining the merchant’s affiliate program, where you’ll receive your affiliate link. Then, promote the products or services on your social media accounts, websites, or blogs. You’ll earn money every time someone clicks your affiliate link and makes a purchase.
YouTube channel for passive income
Have you used YouTube to learn something, get a glimpse into someone’s daily life, or watch documentaries? This content is hosted on various YouTube channels—personalized websites within YouTube that content creators use to upload the videos you watch.
These YouTube channels are money-making machines, earning their owners passive income. Starting one is easy. It can be about your daily life, tips on life abroad, a hobby like sampling street food, or any other topic of interest that meets YouTube’s community guidelines.
However, not every video earns revenue. First, you must monetize your YouTube channel. To be eligible in the US:
- Join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to profit from third-party adverts, YouTube Premium subscriptions, and other monetization avenues.
- Gain at least 1,000 channel subscribers—YouTube users interested in your content and want to receive notifications when you upload videos. They usually click the ‘Subscribe’ button to join your list of subscribers.
- Have at least 4,000 watch hours in the past year. So, encouraging your subscribers to watch your content is essential. One way is to consistently upload interesting content that will keep your audience hooked.
- Create and link a Google AdSense account to your YouTube Channel.
- Enable ads via YouTube Studio to start making money.
Online store or dropshipping
You can also venture into e-commerce by selling pre-stocked goods online. Just integrate a plugin like WooCommerce to transform your website into a functional, scalable online store.
Dropshipping is another viable option that allows you to make sales without holding any inventory. The hardest part is finding a reliable third-party supplier with high-quality goods in large quantities. Once that’s done, price the product, including your profit, and popularize it by marketing through social media, websites, or blogs. When the product is purchased, source it from your supplier, who will deliver it right to the buyer’s doorstep.
Most dropshippers prefer customers to pay for products before delivery. This helps reduce the financial risk of using your own funds to acquire a product, only for a buyer to cancel their order. Debit or credit cards, bank transfers, and digital payment options are common ways to get paid in the US.
Paid content and subscriptions
Are you an expert in a field and would love to share your knowledge online? You can offer free content on social media or video-sharing sites like YouTube.
Alternatively, you might choose to monetize high-impact information on your website or trusted platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, edX, or LinkedIn Learning. These options allow you to charge for exclusive content, tutorials, events, and courses either on a per-content basis or to paid subscribers.
Choosing your niche and monetizing it
The online world presents endless opportunities. But you must choose your niche wisely to be successful.
Importance of finding a profitable niche
- Run a sustainable business in a less crowded niche. As a result, you’ll enjoy high demand for your goods and services, make money consistently, and ensure long-term success.
- Establish yourself as an expert, becoming the go-to person or business in your area of knowledge.
- Make passive income by becoming a thought leader, attracting business partnerships with leading brands that pay well when you market their goods and products.
Step-by-step guide to mastering online marketing
Some of these money-making ideas require a good investment in online marketing to really take off. Here’s how to build and run an effective online marketing campaign:
- Step 1: Define your target audience and market. Don’t forget to analyze the competition.
- Step 2: Develop a comprehensive online marketing strategy with clear goals, objectives, targets, and performance metrics.
- Step 3: Identify your primary marketing channels, which could be content creation, email newsletters, influencer outreach, or social media marketing.
- Step 4: Set an achievable marketing budget.
- Step 5: Use data to track performance and identify leakages in the sales funnel. For this, you could leverage website analytics, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
Your sales and marketing efforts bear fruit in the form of conversion rates, that is, the percentage of prospects that turn into paying customers. For example, if 3 out of 100 prospects buy your product, the conversion rate is 3%.
Tips to maximize earnings
Use these tips to maximize your earnings online and still have enough left over to send money back home:
- Develop a consistent income stream that includes both active and passive sources.
- Manage time efficiently to optimize your efforts.
- Keep up with online trends so you always provide your audience with what they’re looking for.
- Stay updated on the latest online marketing practices to boost your reach and conversion rates.
Making money online is simple
Get started today by identifying trustworthy online platforms for your trade or interest. Then, set up an online profile and put in the work to build and grow your online presence. You can always turn to authoritative resources to find unique opportunities for further learning and development.
FAQ
How can a beginner make money online easily?
As a beginner, opt for options that require minimal effort and investment, such as freelance writing, online surveys, virtual assistance, and user testing. You can also venture into dropshipping or start an online store.
How can I make $10,000 per month on YouTube without making videos?
YouTube offers various opportunities to earn passive income by tapping into various unique niches. You can make audio content such as Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), sound effects, or podcasts.
How can I make $100 a day from home online?
For reliable work-from-home opportunities, try freelance writing, running a YouTube Channel or podcast, selling goods and products online, participating in online surveys, selling digital art, or creating online courses.
Can you make money being a Google guide?
You can monetize any skill online as long as it’s legal. However, Google Local Guides don’t earn money. These are volunteer contributions to Google Maps and Search, but you can gain points or benefits such as invites to Google events and early access to new features.
How do you start making money with 3D?
This niche has a high barrier to entry as it requires some initial investment and a steep learning curve. But it’s a high-demand area, and you can monetize your skills by buying 3D modeling software, creating high-quality 3D models, and choosing suitable online platforms to showcase and sell your 3D models.
Can you make money selling 3D models online?
Yes. Gaming, architecture, and animation professionals use 3D models in their work. There’s increasing demand, creating a potential avenue for earning a good income online.
How can I earn from Web 3?
This next-generation innovation emphasizes decentralization. You can make money on Web 3 via play-to-earn games, advertising networks, NFTs, and blockchain development.