paint-brush
10 Ways You Can Make Money Online From Your Homeby@danieltran
673 reads
673 reads

10 Ways You Can Make Money Online From Your Home

by Daniel TranJune 1st, 2020
Read on Terminal Reader
Read this story w/o Javascript
tldt arrow

Too Long; Didn't Read

OnlyFans is a subscription-based social media site where you can charge users a monthly fee to follow your account. You can also make money by selling exclusive content directly to your subscribers. Dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to start selling online since you don't need to buy or manage any inventory. The platform is rapidly growing in popularity month after month with millions of users signing up in the past few months. The rules of supply and demand still apply here, so pick a niche where exclusivity is profitable.

People Mentioned

Mention Thumbnail

Companies Mentioned

Mention Thumbnail
Mention Thumbnail
featured image - 10 Ways You Can Make Money Online From Your Home
Daniel Tran HackerNoon profile picture

The idea of starting your own business from home is exciting. Although it requires time and a little investment, starting out isn't that difficult.

During this post we will look at 10 different ways you can make money from home, I will also list some resources that go into greater detail for each one.

Earn Money Every Month Using OnlyFans

Yes, I know that OnlyFans is mostly used by people in the adult industry but hear me out.

Despite mainly being used for Adult Content, OnlyFans is actually intended for all types of content creators, sort of like an unrestricted Patreon + Twitter/Instagram Hybrid.

You can create videos, photos and custom content for various niches including modeling, gaming, entertainment, adult content and many more.

How does OnlyFans work?

OnlyFans is a subscription based social media site where you can charge users a monthly fee to follow your account. You can also make money by selling exclusive content directly to your subscribers.

A good strategy for making money on OnlyFans is to offer exclusive content that you do not offer elsewhere. This is especially lucrative for people with large social media followings or an established audience.

If you don't have a fan base yet, you can still grow your OnlyFans account through social media promotions which currently seem to be the most popular method of promoting accounts.

It is common for OnlyFans creators to collaborate and promote each other through their OnlyFans accounts and social media.

Why use OnlyFans to earn money?

  • Viral popularity. The platform is rapidly growing in popularity month after month with millions of users signing up in the past few months.
  • OnlyFans has a relaxed content policy. You can create all types of content for your fans with no restrictions.
  • Easy way to regular income. OnlyFans is a fairly simple way to start creating a monthly income.

Do you have any ideas for premium content that you would like to share for a monthly fee?

Are you a life coach or personal trainer? Do you plan to create adult content? (It's a free world).

Or maybe you are a cryptocurrency trader who wants to share signals and strategies with your followers?

Whatever your ambitions are, OnlyFans is good way to create a regular income if you can consistantly create and promote your content.

The rules of supply and demand still apply here, so pick a niche where exclusivity is profitable.

For more in-depth information and tips on how to make money on OnlyFans I highly recommend this article: How to Make Money on OnlyFans: The Complete Guide

Start a Dropshipping business

Dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to start selling online since you don't need to buy or manage any inventory. You simply setup a Shopify store and use a free dropshipping app like Oberlo to link your store product manufacturers.

You then choose which products to list on your store and everytime an order is placed, the supplier take their cut and ships the product to your customer without revealing themselves.

How does dropshipping work?

You link your Shopify store with Oberlo and list products for sale. List the products for a higher price than the suppliers wholesale price.

Once a customer places an order, they buy the product, you take your profit and the supplier gets their selling price.

Example: You find a drone for sale at $29.99 wholesale, you list it on your store for $99.99.

Customer places an order, you get $70 (9.99-29.99) and your supplier gets $29.99.

Your supplier then ships out the order to your customer without revealing any information about where the product is coming from.

Why start a dropshipping business?

  • You don't need to store your products in a physical location. This means you have lower startups costs and better cashflow.
  • Everytime an order is made, a third party handles the order and deliver process for you. Since you don't have to deal with managing inventory and orders, dropshipping removes a lot of potential headaches.
  • You can run your business from anywhere. Whether it’s your living room, your garden, a local cafe or even a holiday villa in Thailand, you decide where you want to work from.

If you’re interested in dropshipping, I reccomend reading this detailed guide to learn everything you need to know: How to Start a Dropshipping Store Using Shopify, Oberlo and AliExpress

Publish a book

Picture yourself as the creative type? Why don't you publish a book?

It could be a science-fiction novel, an inspirational life guide, or a children’s book. There are many ways you can now self-publishing your work.

These include releasing your writing as an ebook on Shopify with the Digital Downloads app or using on-demand printing services like Blurb and CreateSpace.

How does it work?

To sell ebooks through your online store, install the Digital Downloads app and you’ll instantly be able to list digital files as products on your store.

When customers purchase your ebook, they can recieve it through an email or through a direct download link.

If you want to sell physical copies of your book instead, you’ll just need
to place an order with Blurb or CreateSpace whenever your work is
purchased. They’ll print your book and handle the entire storage and order fufilement process, similiar to how the dropshipping model works.

Why publish a book?

  • A simple way to get your stories out there. Self-publishing is the quickest way to get your book into the hands of potential readers.
  • Print on demand options. Printing, storage, and delivery is taken care of thanks to services like Blurb and CreateSpace.
  • Can be done from the comfort of your home. You just need access to a computer and an internet connection to start publishing your stories.

Ready to live out your dreams of being a published author? These resources will help you on your way to the top: Hacking the Press: Clever Ways to Get Free Press Coverage with Zero Budget

Create and sell courses online

Teaching an online course is a great way to generate passive income from home. You just need to find a subject that you are knowledgable in and create a course explaining the subject in detail.

You can use tools like Thinkific to design, create and host online courses, in any format, from surveys and text based courses to interactive and video based courses.

Creating an online courses takes some upfront effort but popular and informative tutorial series can make you money whilst you sleep, since you only need to build it once and sell it forever.

How does teaching and selling online courses work?

First you brainstorm a topic that you know well enough to teach others how to do from scratch. This can be anything from website design, Facebook Ads and social media marketing to trading, starting your own business, cooking and more.

Next, you use an online tool like Thinkific to create a rich and detailed online course. You can utilise screen recordings and record your voice to help you walk your users through your course.

Why teach an online course?

  • Buid it once, sell it forever. You only need to create your course once and then you can sell it forever, making this a great passive income source.
  • Make money from the knowledge you already have. When you focus on teaching something that you’re already good at, you will eventually learn how to pick up and teach other related subjects, in turn increasing your earning potential.
  • Build a loyal and profitable following. The more you teach and help others, the more likely they are to come back to you for more information and buy new courses. They are also very likely to tell others about you and the courses you create.

Thinking about teaching an online course? I reccomend the following guide: Selling Courses and Membership Programs

Become a freelancer

Freelancing is any type of self employed work, independent from any agency or organization.

Options for freelancing include writing, graphic design, web design, voice acting, video editing and app development. These are just some of the freelance professions which are in very high demand.

When freelancing, you can get paid for tasks that take you an hour to complete or long term projects ranging from a few weeks to a few months.

How does freelancing work?

As a freelancer you offer your services to people who need an affordable and flexible provider. For example you can offer copywriting at $10 per 100 words.

Whilst many people would reccomend marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork, I have found these sites (and most online marketplaces in general) to be overcrowded with everyone racing to be the cheapest provider.

A better option would be running your own website and listing your services there instead. This gives you more control over who actually sees your services and how much you can charge.

An easy to do this is by creating a Shopify store, adding your services as products and disabling shipping. You can even use apps like BookThatApp and Events Calendar to give your customers the option to schedule appointments.

The next step would be networking and marketing, for networking you can use meetup.com to find events related to the services you offer. Once there you'll most likely meet people who will need your services.

You can also use Facebook Ads to market your freelance website.

Why should you start a freelancing business?

  • Freedom and flexibility. You choose where you work from, your work hours and what projects to work on.
  • Get paid to work on something you're good at. You get to make money from skills you already have.

If you're thinking about freelnacing, this story is a good read: From Diaper Money to Debt-Free: How This Designer Created His Own Passive Income

Start a podcast

If you and your friends always have some interesting stories or knowledge to share, consider recording your conversations for a podcast.

Podcasts are like a similiar to a blog, especially when it comes to how you will make money from it (advertising, sponsorhips etc.).

The main difference is that a podcast is recorded for you audience to listen to, and this form of content can be very lucrative.

As you have most likely heard, Joe Rogan recently scored a $100 Million licensing deal with Spotify. This was after 11 years of running his podcast which attracted guests including Elon Musk, Mike Tyson and Lance Armstrong.

To start a podcast you will need the following:

  • A high-quality microphone like Blue Yeti or Audio Technica
  • Audio recording software
  • Call recording software
  • An online platform to host your podcast (Spotify or YouTube)

To promote your podcast, consider collaborating with prominent
figures as guests on your show. Encourage listeners to leave reviews and
share your podcast with their friends and family.

Why start a podcast?

  • Podcasts are very popular. According to Podcast Insights, 51% of Americans have listened to a podcast.
  • Successful podcasts can lead to multiple income streams. You can earn money from advertisements and sponsorships, you can also sell an exclusive licence to your podcast to platforms like Spotify.

Thinking about starting a podcast? You may find the following guides helpful:

Become a virtual assistant

Do you see yourself as a very organized person? Would you enjoy taking on simpler tasks like scheduling and organzing meetings? Maybe a virtual assistant gig is right for you.

A virtual assistant (VA) helps entrepreneurs, businesses, and executives organize their personal and professional lives. There’s a wide range of duties for a VA, ranging from appointment scheduling to basic marketing management and everything in between.

All of this done online and you can work from anywhere in the world.

Why become a virtual assistant?

  • You get to meet inspirational people. Working with entreprenuers might give you inspiration for your next big gig.
  • You just need a laptop and internet connection. You can work anytime and anywhere.

Does becoming a VA interest you? If so read this article: Becoming a Digital Nomad: Working From Anywhere (And How to Get There)

Become a website designer

Web design is the process of planning, designing and building content intended for the Internet. Web design is a great business to start from home and depending on your skills, you can charge anywhere from $1,000 to over $5,000 per website.

How does a web design business work?

To run a web design business, you will need to find clients. Ideally you want clients who need a brand new website since they are more likely to work with a new web designer.

Good ways to find clients include business startup meetups, trade shows and refferals from people you know.

Different ways you can source clients includes:

  • Family and friends
  • Word of mouth
  • Meetups
  • Google Ads
  • Social Media Ads

Next you find out your clients needs and negotiate a quote. Next you help them sort buy a domain name and web hosting for their new site, once this is sorted you can move onto designing the site.

You can either fully the code the website, or use a page builder like Divi or Elementor to easily build a new website. Whichever option you choose depends on your skills, time and the customers budget.

If you are good at coding, have a lot of free time and the customer has a large budget ($10,000 is the minimum most design agencies accept for a fully coded website), then you coding might be the right choice.

If you don't know how to code, you don't have a lot of free time and your customers dont have a very large budget ($1,000 - $5,000), then using a page builder like Divi or Elementor is better.

Why start a web design business?

  • Your business can be home-based. Web design can be done 100% online, from building the website to customer relations. You can communicate with clients through Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, email or over the phone.
  • Your work can help your clients create a unified brand for their business.
  • You can expand into related services. You can offer logo design, SEO, Social Media Marketing and Google Ads as additional services.

If website design is a business that interests you, this article could be useful: Before You Start A WordPress Web Design Business, Read This.

Start a blog

Blogging is one of the longer term methods of creating an online income, however it is also one of the most profitable.

The key to running a successful blog is to focus on building an
engaged and loyal audience. When you focus on providing meaninful and informative content, you build a community that trusts you.

This will be the same community that provides most of your blogs revenue, remember trust is key here.

How does blogging work?

Blogging works by you writing on topics you are knowledgeable about, it can be anything from technology to psychology or your personal opinions oc certain subjects. To run a blog you need a website, you can easily build one 5 steps:

  1. Figure out a name for your blog, then buy a domain name.
  2. Buy web hosting for your site.
  3. Once you have bought your web hosting, install WordPress automatically.
  4. Choose a theme for your blog.
  5. Start blogging and monetize your content once you start getting a decent amount of traffic (at least 1,000 views a month).

Why start a blog?

  • Versatile montization. You can monetise you blog through adverts, sponsored posts, a linked online store, online courses and even paid subscriptions.
  • The marathon is worth it. Blogging is long term and you won't see results overnight, however once your blog starts picking up traffic, you can easily earn passive income.

If you are thinking about starting a blog, you may find this story helfpul: How to Start a Blog That You Can Grow Into a Business

Sell your knowledge

You can turn your knowledge and skills into a business, if you are into fitness you can create an online coaching site or sell fitness guides through an online store.

Other ways you can turn your knowledge into a business include:

  • Create an online store to sell diet plans, meal plans or workout guides
  • Create and sell ebooks
  • Create a blog or YouTube channel giving away your knowledge for free and offer online coaching for those who need more detailed guidance
  • Create digital assets and sell the licences (sound effects, animations, themes, soundtracks etc.)
  • Create a membership site and sell the membership for access to your tools or software
  • Sell your services (tax returns, consultations , virtual assistant etc.)

Need inspiration? This guide is a good start for learning how to create digital products: 12 Things You Can Sell Online (Other Than Digital Products)

Ready to work from home?
Thanks to modern technology, you can start an online business from the comfort of your own home.

Whatever your ideas or your ambitions are, the best time to start is now.

Have any questions about starting your first side business? Let us know in the comments.

Disclaimer: This story contains refferal links for some of the products mentioned, however this does not affect my opinions or views in any way.