All of us have been encouraged to embrace the indoors over the past year. It’s no surprise then that online money-making is on the rise.
Millions of people now have the opportunity to make what once seemed like a distant dream a reality. For those of us who have worked remotely for the past few years, there is less explaining at family events. The path to making a significant amount of money online is much easier.
The beauty of the internet is its ability to be a sales channel as well as a marketing network and community hub.
However, there are some side hustles and businesses that work better with the laptop lifestyle. We’ll be looking at key factors to help you choose the best way to make money online.
- Type of business: Whether the idea is product-based or service-based.
- The effort: How much time, skill, or experience you will need to execute the idea.
- High-leverage ideas are not a 1:1 trade of money for time.
- Startup costs: The initial budget that you will likely need to launch your idea.
1. Dropshipping
Many global trends saw decades-long acceleration last year. One of these trends was eCommerce. There are many ways to start an eCommerce business. Some of these options allow you to hold very little inventory.
Enter dropshipping. Dropshipping allows you to sell products that you do not have in stock. Dropshipping is where a third party fulfills and ships orders for customers who buy products from your store. It’s a popular way to make money online, both for pros and beginners.
Dropshippers are known to be obsessed with the latest trends. While it’s great to catch the latest trend, other product categories offer similar opportunities and are stable.
2. Print on demand
Print on Demand allows sellers to create white-label products and then sell them to customers after they have bought them.
This eliminates the need for inventory, which is why it is a subset dropshipping. A print-on-demand company will add your design and fulfill the order before shipping it to the customer.
Print-on-demand has the greatest advantage over drop shipping in that you can control the look of your products. This is a major difference for product categories where design is key, such as t-shirts and fan merch.
3. Sell on Amazon
Amazon is now a place that welcomes new eCommerce entrepreneurs. Signing up is quick and easy. Once your product listing is live, you will need to create an account.
It has a large audience and is a worldwide marketplace. This platform is a great place to find new products and conduct research. Listing optimization can make your products more visible and open up new possibilities.
Amazon’s in-app promotions can help increase the visibility of your brand to highly targeted audiences.
Amazon offers many ways to make money, regardless of whether you are selling anything. SellerApp’s blog on how to make money on Amazon outlines a few ways that Amazon can help you generate income.
4. Custom Products
When you think about the most direct-to-consumer brands, these are the ones that come to mind: original products which make significant improvements to existing items or add interesting details.
Hand-crafting product is a popular option for fashion and jewelry brands as well as home decor brands. This allows you to control the development and quality of your products.
5. Digital products
The margins for digital products are among the highest of any product that you can sell. While the upfront costs of developing digital products can be expensive, variable costs associated with selling them are relatively low. It is relatively inexpensive to deliver media or software to customers once it has been created.
A digital product is an intangible asset that you can sell multiple times without having to replenish your inventory. Digital products are often available as downloadable files, such as a PDF or plug-in.
These digital products are a great source of passive income. Many top bloggers, influencers, and public icons have released guides, ebooks, or templates.
6. Blogging
Most likely, you’ve read a blog about business at one time or another. Blogging is a way for businesses to share their knowledge and insights, grow an audience, and increase leads and sales.
Blogging offers many benefits such as helping to build thought leadership and improving brand visibility in search engines.
Blogging for money online is now more popular than side hustles and big businesses. You can build an audience and make a lot from your blog by publishing great content.
Bloggers tend to adopt a more personal approach, which resonates with their intended audience, rather than relying on information provided by companies.
- Share their thoughts, passions, or life experiences
- Educating readers about a topic they are familiar with
- Selling products and services
- Your brand
7. Affiliate marketing
Online-only business models are still largely misunderstood, but there seems to be a trend. Add affiliate marketing to this mix. This is not a place to look for snake oil.
How does this model work for monetization? Publishers and individuals can apply to affiliate programs wherever they are available. At several points, an official affiliate may be added.
After you have been accepted or approved, you will be able to share the affiliate link to the product/service you are interested in.
You’ll get credit for the referral and a commission if someone purchases the product after clicking your affiliate link. The amount of the commission depends on the product sold and the affiliate program.
While commodities on Amazon.com don’t pay much, referring to high-ticket accounts may pay hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Affiliate marketing is best when visitors understand why a product might be right for them. This is why you will often see it deployed to content-focused websites. You’ll also see many sites competing for the term “best gaming laptops 2021” in search engine optimization.
Niche-to-win applies here, too. You won’t be able to compete with professional publications like Wirecutter if you don’t have 50 writers on your masthead. However, you may be able to rank and write about terrariums and high-intensity interval exercises.
The best affiliate content is one that helps readers solve problems or makes decisions. It also showcases the right products to help them.
