A cash cow for the enterprising, the Internet is littered with
opportunities to make a fast buck. While it rarely qualifies as a solitary
source of income, the Net can easily help you supplement it. However, the
amount you earn depends on the time and effort invested. Go through these 20
options and find out which ones work for you.
1. Blogging
If you're a passionate closet writer who wants to be published but can't
find a way to do so, make each keystroke your way to wealth by penning your own
blog. Starting a blog doesn't require extensive technical skills but it's
important that you have expertise in the field you are writing on. This will
attract visitors to your site. Building a large following will enable you to
earn profit by luring advertisers, writing paid reviews or getting commissions
for promoting other people's products.
2. Paid Writing
If maintaining a blog is difficult for you but you still want to indulge your
passion for writing, you can jot down articles for other blogs or sites such as
Weblogs, Helium or PayPerPost. Writing an e-book can also be a good option.
E-books are investment free, with no cost for printing and shipping. If you
have a strong command over languages, you can become a copy editor, where
Webmasters will pay you to read articles and correct grammatical errors,
sentence fragments, etc.
3. e-tuitions/Webinars
The demand for tutors is high and growing. So, if you like helping others
learn, e-teaching could be the earning ticket for you. All you need to become
an online tutor is expertise in your subject and a few spare hours per week.
TutorVista, e-tutor, SmartThinking and Tutor.com are some of the sites you can
enroll with. If you gain a good reputation as a coach, you could even conduct
Webinars-lectures or seminars transmitted over the Net. College and university
students are willing to pay to gain entry to a well-respected Webinar.
4. Affiliate/Reseller
For those who have the knack of selling, one of the best ways to make money
online is to become an affiliate/reseller. An affiliate is a person who gets a
commission for selling every product that he promotes, whether on his Website
or through any other avenue such as eBay. You don't have to own the product.
You only need to sign up for an affiliate program with a company and start selling
its products under your referral link. Firms such as Commission Junction or
Click Bank have a large pool of products.
5. Buying/Selling domains
Buying and selling domain names is another way to make money from home and
requires very little investment or time. You can buy domains at their
registration prices or even cheaper and trade them at a profit. However, always
research on sites such as sedo.co.uk, afternic.com, ebay.com or other domain
auction sites to get an estimate of the hottest selling names. The best way to
find good ones is to use terminated domain lists, which contain several expired
names that are back in the pool.
6. Freelancing for Professionals
Freelancing is a great option for professionals who are experts in their
respective trades and know how to ensure customer satisfaction. Various
freelancing and project-oriented sites allow companies that need help to
describe their projects. Freelancers and small businesses offer bids, ideas or
proposals, from which the buyers can choose what they find most suitable.
Websites such as Elance cover everything from programming and writing to data
entry and design, while RentACoder focuses on software programming.
7. Advertising
You can sell space on your Website or blog for advertisements and you earn
when these ads are clicked by visitors to your site. The sorting and placing of
ads is free. The profitability of pay-per-click advertising depends on the
traffic level of the Website and, most importantly, on the click through rate
and cost per click. Google AdSense is the most popular option, while others are
Bid Vertiser, Text Link Ads and Blog ads. Direct banner and RSS feed are some
other forms of online advertising.
8. GPT Programme
GPT or Get-paid-to sites are becoming increasingly popular among teens. You
get paid for signing up for free Websites, newsletters, playing games and
filling out online surveys. These are suitable for people who don't have a
skill set but want to earn extra money. Taking online surveys is simple-
register with a few legitimate, paid survey sites and answer questions. The
topics range from shopping to politics. This might not help you make a living,
but you can earn good pocket money. Contests2win is one of the trusted GPT
Websites.
9. Online Marketing
Once a Website is created and optimised for search engine (SEO), the SEM or
Search Engine Marketing begins. A treasure trove lies hidden here. An SEO/SEM
expert, who is responsible for marketing a Website, can promote it in various
ways. These include article marketing, writing press releases, forum posting,
blog posting, submitting your site to directories and search engines, social
bookmarking, etc. Most companies don't do this in-house and pay you to conduct
the SEM for them.
10. Making themes
As more and more people seek an online presence, the demand for Website
templates and WordPress (Blog) themes will keep increasing. If you are good at
Web designing and coding, you can earn a lot from designing Web themes. In this
segment, there are mainstream Websites, such as TemplateMonster and ThemeForest,
which act as a marketplace where you can sell your themes. Templates are sold
and priced depending on the rights and features that are bundled with them.
11. Selling photos
If you enjoy photography and are good with a camera, you could be sitting on
a huge reserve of revenue. There are people who will be interested in your
collection of images. Nowadays, it's easy to take your photos to the public,
providing a convenient way to build a secondary income stream. Many stock photo
agencies, such as Fotolia, Dreamstime and Shutterstock, offer incentives for
people to earn from their photos.
12. Support & service
Providing coding or fixing other Webmasters' issues is another great way to
earn extra bucks. There are simple jobs ranging from adding a script to setting
up sites, but knowledge of Web coding is essential. One can offer support for
Web CMS (content management systems) like Drupal or Joomla. After you are
comfortable with your own installation, you can help other people to set these
up and configure them.
13. Stock/forex trading
Joining the stock/forex market may seem a bit risky. However, you can start
small and continue researching till you gain experience in this area. Once you
do, it will be easy to earn from exchanging foreign currencies and/or stocks.
Their rates fluctuate depending on supply and demand, and economic and
political influences in the world. The aim of any trader is to spot which
currency/stock is likely to rise or fall in value against another. The more
time you put in, the more you will earn.
14. Selling your own brand
If you have a flair for designing cool images, don't bother about creating
your own inventory. As long as your design can be printed on a product, you can
pocket some money. You can upload designs on various Websites such as
CafePress, and if somebody orders these designs, the company will print them
and distribute the products. It could be designs for T-shirts, hats, bags,
books, posters, calendars, greeting cards, etc. You will receive a commission
for each sale. Other such sites include Lulu and Zazzle.
15. Virtual Assistant
Small businesses always need help in running their processes, but may not
be willing to hire a full-time employee. As a virtual assistant, you are
expected to perform practically any administrative task that a traditional
secretary or assistant would, such as make travel reservations, handle expense
reimbursements or pay bills. You can do it from the comfort of your home,
interacting with clients either online or by phone. Your expertise will decide
how much moolah you rake in.
16. Inbound call centre
Many companies, who are facing space constraints, especially those in metro
cities, prefer to hire workers outside their offices or outsource certain
processes. You can set up an inbound call centre at home to handle such jobs.
Research different companies that are outsourcing their work as they may have
opportunities for inbound call centre agents. You can work for more than one
company. This can be either a part-time or fulltime engagement, depending on
your need.
17. You Tube
If there's a dramatic performer hidden inside you who craves applause and
adulation, upload yourself on YouTube. You can be a filmmaker, musician or
comedian who wants a wider audience. Your earnings will come from ads displayed
on your video page. This process is similar to the pay-per-click advertising
program common to other Websites and blogs. Sites such as Flixya and Mediaflix
can be helpful in this regard.
18. Researching for others
Don't be morose if you can't write, design or code. Lack of
talent cannot stop you from making money online. If you're willing to work hard
for a few hours a week, you can take up simple research jobs for other people
who don't have the time to do it themselves. You could search for opportunities
in organisations that provide funding for research and offer to assist them
through online investigation.
19. Building Applications
With smartphones gaining popularity, the demand for their applications, or
apps as they are popularly known, has also shot up. There are over 3 million
apps for the iPhone and over a million apps in Google's Android market. Most of
these are selling like hot cakes. Developing and selling your own smartphone
app is becoming a lucrative way to make money on the Internet. Apps cost
virtually nothing to develop and entail no storage or shipping costs. So they
enjoy the best profit margins.
20. Transcription
Medical transcription involves making written copies of oral material
dictated by doctors or other medical experts. These may include history and physical
reports, clinical notes, consultation notes, reports, letters, psychiatric
evaluation and so on. The dictated material needs to be transcribed swiftly and
accurately, which is the most challenging aspect of the job. To become a
medical transcriptional, you need to have a good knowledge of medical
terminology and a high typing speed along with accuracy.