15 Hardcore Proven Ways to Make Money Online

You may find thousands of content available on the internet, there are different ways to make money online but most of the content sounds like they have been published just for shake of writing an article.

That’s why I have figured out some proven ways to make money online. You can start these businesses as full-time or part-time.

Before starting, I just want to give you a disclaimer these models may sound like auto money-making schemes but trust me these are some proven ways to make money online, it can be scaled into a huge business model provided the effort you are putting into it.

That’s why I want to ask you a very basic question, why do you want to earn money online?

  • Have you become tired of doing 9 to 5 Jobs?
  • Want to be your own boss?
  • Want to start an online business?
  • Want to earn money at an early age? If you are a teenage or college student.

There may be multiple reasons, but find your strong reason which will help you never give up because your journey may take some time to get a boost.

So, I have some good news and bad news for you. Which one would you like to know first?

ways to earn money online

Let’s start with the bad news, I’m going to teach you some skill that requires to do some work and it may take time to get your first earning. 🙂

And the good news is you can earn unlimited money with these skills and you’ll see a rapid growth after you get your first income. 🙂

So, if you are ready to accept the bad news, the good news is waiting to welcome you. Now, let’s dive into it.

Table of content

1> Blogging
2> Personal Branding
3> YouTube
4> Affiliate Marketing
5> Podcasting
6> Consulting
7> Online Courses
8> E-books and Audiobooks
9> Freelancing
10> Dropshipping
11> Webinars
12> Online Communities
13> Reviews Website
14> Digital Products
15> Copywriting

1. Blogging

Blogging

On the internet, this is one of the most trustable and proven ways to make money online. The only thing is required to start, you should have some skills by which you can help people and add value to their life. You should love writing.

I have given two conditions above which requires starting a blog. However, you can also start blogging even if you don’t have money, you’ll have to hire people who can do this for you.

Blogging is not just a source of earning money or part-time job opportunity. It is a complete set of business, some people start it as a passion because they love writing and later they turned into a full-time business. On the other hand, people who know the potential of blogging, they do some investment and start blogging as a business.

In order to start blogging, you need a website and need to be aware of how to write a blog post. I have written a detailed blog post on How to start a blog from scratch.

2. Personal Branding or Social Media Influencer

Personal Branding

A personal brand can be understood easily, there is no rocket science. The brand is something when a group of people knows a name and trust in that name. This name can be of a company or a person. In simple words, if a large group of audiences know you and trust you, that is personal branding.

Personal branding can help you build any kind of business. I can give you the name of some businesses which has been scaled only with the help of personal branding.

The biggest name is Patanjali you may have heard the name of some companies but you don’t know the name of their founders even if you are using their product. But probably you know the founders of Patanjali (Ramdev and Acharya Balakrishna), especially if you are from India.

Similarly, if you know Kylie Jenner, she is a social media influencer in the cosmetic niche, she has more than 187M+ Followers on Instagram. She is running her own business of cosmetics (Kylie Skin) just with the help of her personal branding.

But this is not limited to here. There are thousands of examples you can find if you explore. With the help of personal branding, you can do consulting (get paid to give advice online), mentoring, sponsorship, affiliate marketing, etc.

In a simple word, if you have a personal brand you can grow any business because every business is dependent on people and you gain the trust of people. This means you can fly like a rocket once you build a personal brand. That’s why I called it is a crazy ways to make money.

How to Start Building a Personal Brand?

Building a personal brand is very easy nowadays because people are spending most of their time on social media. On average a person spends at least 4 hours per day on social media. Especially after the COVID19 people are more active on social media.

People are looking for something if they are spending their precious time on social media. So, all you need to do pick a topic in which you are passionate and post some valuable content on different social media platforms either in the form of text, infographic, audio, video.

Remember whatever the content you are posting it should be adding value to your audience. Then slowly and gradually people will start following you because of your content then start trusting on you.

3. YouTube

Youtube

Yes, you read it right. Nowadays, people prefer YouTube even more than google. The consumption of video has been increased like anything. On average people comes to watch one video on YouTube and they watch 12 videos.

YouTube has every type of content available like entertainment, education, health, fitness, spirituality, personal, growth, business, technical, etc., If you think you are an expert in any subject start making videos and help people to solve their problems.

The best thing about YouTube is you can even grow on YouTube without showing your face because sometimes people are afraid of showing their face. If you are one of them you this is the great news for you. You can use explainer or animation videos, Mindnote, or some other ways to present your content.

Once people start loving your content and you start getting traffic on your channel you can monetize it by different sources like Google Adsense, Sponsorship, and affiliate marketing. Till the time I can say YouTube is the best way to make money online because it is open for anyone and gives the opportunity to grow every one.

Growth Hacks for YouTube

There are three things you need to keep in mind while making videos for YouTube.

Quality – Always keep in mind there are hundreds of similar content available on YouTube for the same topic you are making. Some of them have already a good quality video, why would people prefer to watch your video.

Here are some tips:

  1. If you are making Face cam Video, make sure the quality of the video is in full HD and have a clean background.
  2. You can use some text animation or images while presenting something to make you video engaging.
  3. Before doing scripting make sure you watch all the content of your competitors and what they have missed and added that in your video.
  4. Ask your audience what type of content they want from you?

Quantity – Quantity also matters a lot on YouTube. If you are not putting videos with consistency you may lose your audience and your competitors will go far away from you.

The best you to be consistent on YouTube is tell your audience, how frequently you’ll upload videos on YouTube.

Moreover, you can read a detailed article on how to grow a YouTube Channel?

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the most sustainable ways to make money online or offline. Affiliate marketing is easy to understand and make money but it is the easiest way to make money.

The concept is simple you enroll for the affiliate program of a company and promote its product to the relevant audience. When customers buy the products via your affiliate link you get a commission by the vendor.

Affiliate marketing can be done by various method either online or offline.

Offline

You can do affiliate marketing offline if you have a large set of audiences through your personal influence or you are already selling some related products at your store. You can help people to get a problem-solving product and earn a good amount of commission.

Online

Most of the people who do affiliate marketing focus online marketing because offline is something where the reach is very limited and reaching out to the more people is also difficult.

There are multiple ways to do affiliate marketing online like Blogging, YouTube, Email Marketing, etc.

See the detailed guide about affiliate marketing.

5. Podcasting

Podcast

When people started exploring content on the internet. They used to consume content in text format after that social media comes into the picture and people started sharing content in forms of infographic and video.

But when YouTube comes into picture, people started consuming more and more content in form of video and now video content has captured a large size of market.

However, from last few years podcast has come into the picture and people are preferring podcast because one can listen to the podcast while doing other works as well. That’s why the podcast market is on the boom.

It has become the most reliable source of building a personal brand and of course, there are very few people who have started a podcast. So, this market is like a blue ocean right now.

So if you think you are passionate about something which can help people to solve their problem. I would suggest you start your podcast as soon as possible for you. Once you’ll start getting traffic on your website you can get many possibilities to get sponsorship and other monetization opportunities.

In order to start a podcast, you need a have a good quality, even you can start with your phone if the recording quality of your phone is good and need a platform (buzzsprout, anchor FM, podbean, specialcast, etc.) to host your podcast.

6. Consulting

Consulting

Consulting is not a new concept, it is an ongoing business for a long time in the market. People are suffering from many problems like business, relationship, medical, health, etc. and they are looking for the solution and those who are experts, can give a solution to the people in a particular niche they are giving consulting and charging a good amount for every hour.

Earlier, people were using the offline methods for a consultation but slowly and gradually people have stated become familiar with the internet. The demand for online consulting has increased and it is a win-win situation for both parties. Consultants get the chance to interact with more people and consultees can save the extra time and money of traveling or other things.

If you are an expert in something you can do consulting and you can charge accordingly.

There are two ways to start consulting online. Either start with some freelancing portals like Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer or you can start by building your own brand in the market.

7. Online Courses

Online courses

I believe there is no need to explain much about the importance of online learning after this COVID19 situation. People cannot go to schools or institutes in this pandemic situation and it has increased the demand for online learning.

Many teachers and trainers have started moving online and launching their online courses.

The benefits of online courses is you don’t have to take classes again and again. Unlimited people can watch online trainings at the same time and according to their convenience.

The best things for coaches and trainers is their courses generate lifetime a passive income. This is the best product to sell online to make money because it takes only one time to create a course and lifetime value with 100% margin.

However, it cost you for doing marketing of your program. You can sell your online courses via e-courses platforms like Udemy or similar platforms, but I don’t recommend it. Create your own LMS (Learning Management System) and sell your courses with your marketing and influence at the price what it deserves.

8. E-books and Audiobooks

Ebooks

Most of the people think to write an Ebook they have to be a professional writer or speaker. This is the biggest myth people do have.

But this is not the truth. If you have experienced something in your life and you think your experience can be a lesson for someone. I would suggest you write your eBook and convert it into Kindle format. You can learn how to convert eBook into kindle version on Youtube or you can hire someone to do on Fiverr.

Similarly, you can record your content in the form of audio, or you can publish it to Amazon Audible.

Once your eBook or Audiobook is ready. Publish it and get share with your known ones and ask them to buy and give reviews. Once your eBook will have more review it will start showing up on amazon and more people will will read it.

Apparently, you’ll start making money the way it will sell. Then after you can write more books and sell more books.

9. Freelancing

Freelancing

This is the most demanded thing in the market. Because every organization cannot afford to hire a full-time employee. That’s why freelancers come into demand.

So if you have any skills by which you can contribute to anyone’s business. you can start freelancing from today. You can do it on some online freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, etc. or you can start by contacting your potential customer directly via social media or in the offline market.

I would suggest you start on every platform. It may take time to get your first client but slowly and gradually you’ll start getting more clients.

The best thing about freelancing is you don’t have any boss you are your own boss and also give you the real exposure of marketing and business.

The amount you’ll charge from your customer, it depends upon the quality of service you are offering. Initially, you can offer your services at a low price and give high-quality service to build your credibility.

10. Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the next big thing in online marketing and eCommerce business. It is a complete business model that can be started at a very low cost.

If I’m saying about eCommerce then definitely it requires money to start but the best thing is that you don’t have to buy products and store at a warehouse. Also, you don’t need to take the hassle of shipping. The only thing required to start is an e-commerce store and a small budget for marketing.

Dropshipping

I believe you would have got an idea in this image.

Step 1 – Customer comes to your store and he/she order something order from your store.

Step 2 – You get the order details from the customer and send it to the supplier.

Step 3 – Supplier ship order to the given details by you.

Step 4 – You pay money to the Dropshipper (who delivers you order).

Step 5 – Finally your customer receives the product.

I know you might be thinking how can you make money with that. So the biggest catch is whenever you list any product on your store. You put a price tag of your product managing all the margin.

The most popular suppliers for Dropshipping is Aliexpress. You can see all the products listed on there and start importing to your store. The best thing about dropshipping is, you can start your eCommerce business to earn money from home.

11. Webinars

Webinar

You know it very well about the COVID19 situation and even I have already discussed it. So online seminars and events have also become impossible to do. That’s why most of the speakers are taking webinars and connecting with more people at the same time and charging money for online live training.

Now you may think after this COVID19 situation there is no future of webinar. However, people were also doing webinars before COVID19 and will also do after COVID19. The only influence of this pandemic situation, it has created more awareness.

So, if you are a trainer may be in your organization or a professional trainer or a speaker. You can start doing the webinar and charging money from each individual.

12. Online Communities

Communities

Communities are the best way to discuss a particular topic and engage with each other where everyone tries to solve the problems of each other.

These online communities can be built by a website, Facebook or Instagram group, Quora Space, etc.

Once you get a large size of the audience in your community you can promote your own product or affiliate products and even you can get sponsorships from the brand. You can charge a good amount of money from the brands if you have a good quality of engagement in your community.

13. Review Websites

Review websites

Making a review website is a very scalable business because you just need to provide a platform. Everything your visitors will do for you.

If you don’t have any idea about the review website. Don’t worry let me help you to understand, it has been observed more than 82% of users check the existing user’s review of that product before buying any new/unknown product. So, they search on google about reviews to know the credibility of that product.

So, there are few review websites dedicatedly available for some specific topics where users write a review about the products. The owner of the website has to just create a platform. e.g – MouthShut, Trustpilot, HostAdvice.

So, if you want to start a review website. Select a specific niche and encourage your target audience to give reviews on different products.

Most of the websites have covered everything but I would suggest going with some specific niche. You can do SEO of your website to get viewers and initially you can run paid ads to promote your website. Trust me this market is totally a blue ocean so it is better to start now.

If you cannot make a website by your own hire someone to make your website because ultimately it’s your business and small investment can be done to make it huge.

You can directly put the affiliate links or sponsored list on your website of the same products which is being reviewed. The chance of conversion would be higher because usually, customers are so lazy they have two option to find anything:

Option 1: Go with a link.
Option 2: Search and find on their own.

Most probably they would prefer to go with the link. So if buyer make the decision to purchase the product they would go with your link and you’ll earn money.

14. Digital Products

Digital products

Digital Product are the most profitable product on the internet. I have already given you 3 examples of digital products – eBook, Audiobook, Online Courses. However, digital products are not limited to them. There are multiple products or services that can be created digitally.

It can be an online tool, software, collection of stock images and videos, detailed checklist, or premium content collection. There is no limitation on the types of products.

The best things about digital products are you get 100 margins and you don’t need to create multiple units of the product. Only spend you do on creating a product which is one time and rest is on marketing.

You can think of your niche or business or do a survey in forums or social media to know the buyer’s behavior. So that you can get a better idea to create you own digital product.

15. Copywriting

copywriting

Although copywriting is a high skill, not a type of business still I included in this article because copywriting is one of the highest paying skills.

Anything which is being sold online it’s because of copywriting. Either you land on any service website or on the landing page on any product. Even on any product, you see on amazon or any other e-commerce website, you the product which been written more professionally and detailed.

Basically copywriting is a skill that converts the visitors of a page into customers by the detail that has been given on the page. It is not just about the details of the product. Copywriter used to play with the buyer’s emotions at the time of writing a copy.

Now, you might be thinking how can you start if you don’t know to Copywrite. Well, there are two ways to make money online by copywriting.

  1. Take out some time and learn copywriting skills and start doing freelance copywriting or
  2. Start to hire some copywriters and start a copywriting agency.

These were some proven ways to earn money online. I believe any of these method will work for you. However, if you are still not sure what to start, I would suggest you start anything which you even liked a bit. Because every success story starts with a failure.

At the end I would request you please share your views about this article in the comment section and if you have any question from me, I would be happy to answer that.

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