Over the past few years, the internet has provided millions of people around the world with a means to earn a living. This is perhaps even more pronounced since the Convid-19 pandemic broke out in 2019/20, where businesses started paying more attention to their online presence and operations. From service providers to retailers, marketers, and middlemen, there seems to be a slice of cake for everyone as far as making earning an income online is concerned.
To be honest, it would take a whole book to cover all the available means to make money using the internet. This is excluding scams and other dirty approaches used by the bad-minded individuals to rip innocent internet users of their hard-earned money. The best part is that there are countless ways you can generate income and perhaps become your boss enough to quit your day job over the internet. In this piece, we shall cover the top four legitimate ways to earn money online from whichever part of the globe you are.
1. Venture in Ecommerce
This is by far one of the most popular ways to get income online. You only need to have a few products that you can sell to a specific target market in a given niche. For instance, you could decide to sell fitness-related products such as supplements, gym equipment, or workout apparel.
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More interestingly, you can sell these products through your website or via the major e-commerce marketplaces such as the likes of Amazon and Ali express.
Many eCommerce businesses boost their income by extending their operations over to social media to promote their products and brands. It takes quite a considerable investment in terms of money, effort, time, and research, but it pays handsomely in the long run.
2. Start a Directory Listing Website
If you are a baby boomer or millennial, you can relate to one thing: You remember the big fat books that contained addresses, contracts, and details of major businesses within your local area or country… the Yellow Pages? Well, Gen X and Z may not be familiar with these, but they were called directories. Online directories are among the websites that receive the most traffic in today’s age. Starting a directory listing site can be an excellent means of income generation online, and the options are endless.
This is because you provide value to internet users by making it easier to find products and services they might be looking for. You also provide value to businesses by bringing them closer to their target consumers. In most cases, you will earn income by charging a fee for listings or earning commissions from any referrals, purchases made through the links. Some common options may include:
- Article directories
- Contract directory
- Real estate listings
- Job listings
- Travel directory
- Online classifieds
- Hotel directory
- Online business directory
- Events
- And much more
You could also start a free directory site that earns from displayed ads and PPC commercials.
3. Start a Blog
Estimates show that out of the roughly 1.7 billion websites online as of 2020, 600 million are blogs. Blogging typically involves providing resourceful information about various topics to an audience regularly to inspire, inform, or beneficially impact their lives.
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A blog is described as an online journal where text, image, or video content posts are published for the above purposes. Blogs are also among the best ways to earn an online income these days through various streams. Some ways to make money through blogging include the following:
- Affiliate marketing – Where you promote brands, products, and services through your posts
- Teaching – You can also create guides and courses on topics such as cooking recipes, knitting, crafts, and so forth; and promote or sell on your blog in digital formats
- Advertising – A blog can be a great way to earn commissions from PPC ads, banners, and more
- Guest posting – When your blog ranks higher, you can also look for companies looking to have their articles featured at a fee
- Advertorials and sponsored content
- Selling products and services
- Accepting donations
- Influencer marketing
4. Provide Freelance Services
Finally, there’s a wealth of sites online where you can earn money by providing your services as a freelancer. These range from freelancing websites to sites dedicated to certain industries and individual companies. If you are a good writer, for instance, you could venture into article writing or academic writing.
If you are excellent in paraphrasing, have impeccable research skills, and have an understanding of SEO principles, copywriting can be an exciting online career. Web designers, customer service reps, IT technicians, and graphics designers are also quite marketable in the freelancing world.
The internet has revolutionized our way of living over the past few years. How we earn money wasn’t left behind either, and a lot of people are passively earning from their online activities as we speak. This article probably paid a few people before you got to read it, lol. All the same, the above are just a few of the multiple ways you can legitimately make money online.