Most of us are continually striving for financial independence. Even those who have a healthy bank account are always looking for ways to increase their savings. For some it may be greed, but I think for most of us, we just want to feel secure. We want a safety net so that if anything goes wrong, we don’t have to stress or panic about what we are going to do for money.
Here are five ways you can make money online:
Investing - In all honesty, this is my least favourite but it is something that is definitely worth looking into. Investing your money is always a gamble but with the current interest rates in banks, the money we have stored in there for savings is actually losing value because of inflation. Investing is a way to combat this. There are multiple platforms (such as e-torro) which are popular. Personally, I invested in through Hargreaves as it felt more secure and legitimate. There are usually hidden commissions and something to be mindful of is that it is very easy to fake numbers online. You can give your money to a company and they can make it look like that money is growing but then you can’t withdraw it because the company was a scam and your money is gone. Please make sure to do your research. To invest properly takes time to understand the stock market. The higher the risk, the higher the reward but the more you could lose so remember to only invest the amount that you can be fine without. I invested some money in a funds and shares account rather than investing in specific businesses. That way you should never lose all of your money but full disclosure, the value is lower currently than what I invested. As I mentioned, it’s not really my thing, but it’s worth considering as you don’t have to do a lot of hard work, just the research.
Review/Surveys - This is by far the easiest way to make money but the downside is that you can’t make a lot of money unless you spend most of your time doing this. Most websites offer you vouchers that you can redeem or points that can be converted into gift cards for places like Amazon. It’s a nice easy way to earn a bit of extra income but again, be careful with what data you provide. Read the terms and conditions as some of these websites can get you to agree to sharing your data with a bunch of different companies and then you will get countless phone calls from businesses trying to sell you things. PaidProductTesting is the most recent one I have used. You earn points for the surveys you do and the longer the survey, the more points you get and they are transparent with how many points you need to redeem a gift card. You can also volunteer for product testing. It’s worth doing if you have some free time and also don’t want to commit to something.
Writing - This falls into a category of digital marketing. People who are selling online often look for copywriters who can either write content for social media posts or their website. If you enjoy writing or have any experience with marketing, it can be worth offering your services through websites like Fiverr where people are actually looking for someone with writing skills. You can choose what jobs you accept and again, there’s no commitment if you need to take a break from it. With AI around, there may be less people looking for cheaper copywriters but you don’t lose anything by offering your services.
Freelance - On the topic of Fiverr, it’s a great place to offer any sort of freelancing skills. If you enjoy creating digital art, making music, business consulting, offering those services online provides you with the opportunity to work from home, be in control of your own hours and dictate your pricing. It can be tricky to get noticed in saturated markets, but take a look at people who are offering something similar and see what you could offer that’s slightly different. If it’s business consulting, you could offer lower rates, or you could offer a pitch example through a slideshow, etc.
Creating/Selling products - I’m pretty sure by now, we all know about Etsy. What’s great is that you can sell both physical and digital products. Anything that you enjoy creating, you can sell it on their platform. Of course, there are a million other ways to sell stuff online, either through different websites or even your own, but the point is, if you enjoy making something, whatever it is, there’s a good chance you can sell it online and earn some money for it. There’s pretty much a market for anything.
The world is at our fingertips with the internet and although at times, that can be somewhat scary, it has also given us the platform to make our own money and not rely on an employer. People earn money from brand deals if you want to be an influencer but you can also set up your own small business that is run completely online. Of course, as with everything, the more effort you put in, the more you get in return and if something isn’t working out, see if there’s anything you can change. Business is about being able to adapt and in the world of making money, everything is a business.