You’ve heard the story before. Some unknown genius creates an amazing online blog or business that takes over the industry, makes them a fortune, and suddenly they’re crisscrossing the globe, having the time of their lives. You’ve probably seen the articles in major publications, usually led by a title somewhere along the lines of “Man Quits Finance Job to Travel the World” and paired with photos of these individuals lounging on a beach, sipping coffee and working from a rooftop bar overlooking a cosmopolitan metropolis.
Yet while these stories excel at selling the dream, they leave out the part about how just about anyone can do it too.
You don’t have to be a genius to become location independent and chase your dreams. All you have to do is set goals, devise a plan and put in a little hard work. Now, we know that version might sound pretty oversimplified – and it is. But don’t worry: we’re going to take you step by step through the process of how to make a living online. First, we’ll help you figure out where to start.
One of the easiest ways to make money online is by selling things you no longer use. If your clothes are designer and in high demand, you may earn more by listing them individually on Poshmark or eBay. Sell Clothing Online. Another way to make money is by selling clothes online. Selling clothing can easily be an “evergreen” side hustle. After all, we all get dressed in the morning. Not only can you clean out your closet, but you could also flip the clothes you bought for a bargain. Create an email list and treat them right — One of the best ways to make money online is by marketing to an actively-interested group of email subscribers. While most people think that email. Resell hosting is another great way to make money online. In fact, we offer this service on our sister project Hosting24. The basic idea of reseller hosting is providing a dedicated server space, which you can use to build your very own web hosting brand. How to Make Money From Home in 2020. If you’re looking to make money online, you’ll need to exercise caution. There are a lot of scams out there, but don’t fret: We’ve tested dozens, if not hundreds, of different money-making strategies and included only our favorites. Yup — none of them involve Nigerian princes, and you really will.
When you’re thinking about how to make a living online, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the endless options, and be intimidated by all of the scams and pitfalls out there. The first thing you have to do is set aside your feelings of intimidation. Realistically, becoming location independent is not easy, but it’s also not as hard as most people think. Once you’ve got your mindset right, you can tackle the first and biggest question involved in making a living online: what services will you offer?
The easiest way to answer this question is to figure out what your strengths are and what skills or certifications you possess. Once you’ve identified what value you have to offer, you can figure out which industry or target market can benefit from these services. (If you want more information on how to figure out where to start, check out our article on how to create a location independent business which offers tips on how to get started in 9 different industries.) Here, we’ll break down a few things to note before getting started and then outline the best ways to make a living online.
Typically, your skills and experience will be diverse enough to adapt to many different online jobs and industries. So once you’ve identified your strongest skills, and potential jobs or businesses you can use them in, you’ll want to rank which ones will work best for you.
Some remote jobs and online gigs can have very slim profit margins, meaning you’ll have to do a lot more work in order to make an income you can live on. This is particularly important if you are selling products. Since you’ll be working remotely, it’s easy to keep overhead costs low as you won’t need to rent office space, equipment and so on.
Put some thought into what products or services you want to sell and analyze any costs you may have both financially and in terms of time before moving forward with your plan.
Whether you are selling yourself as a business asset or selling a product, you will need to decide the value of what you are offering to the target market. This also means evaluating the price of your services before agreeing to do any work. When looking for new clients, you want to make sure any products or services you are selling will be worth the effort.
For example, if you’re a freelance writer, you wouldn’t want to write 1000 word articles for $8 since you’ll be spending a lot of time and effort for very little financial gain.
Websites like Fiverr are great if you’re trying to make some spare cash, but make sure that you price your services based on how much time and effort you’ll be putting in. Otherwise, you might sell yourself short.
As you create your location independent business, you want to make sure that your work isn’t going to consume your life. The whole point of the nomadic lifestyle is to get away from the rat race, so creating an online business that can be scaled means you’ll be able to increase your income without having to increase the amount of time you put into it.
You also want to consider whether your business has passive income potential or not. Passive income is the holy grail of web based income and the nomadic lifestyle.
What is passive income? Basically, passive income is money that you make without having to put in a lot of effort. Typically, it means creating a product or service that can be sold repeatedly without you having to put in any extra effort for each additional sale. Some examples include: investing in the stock market, owning real estate and writing e-books. All of these endeavors, and more, can contribute to your passive income and free up more time for you to explore the world.
If you have a background in education or are an expert in a particular field, you can use your knowledge to create and sell courses online. You can sell courses directly on your own website, or if you are intimidated by creating your own platform you can use something like Teachable, which does the hard work for you. Teachable is an online platform of more than 22,000 instructors where they can offer courses on everything from graphic design to finance and investing. You can also sell digital products such as e-books or study guides to earn extra money.
With the Internet increasingly taking over every aspect of our lives, there is a huge demand for design services. As businesses move online, there is the need to create visually stunning websites and graphics such as logos and business cards to market to larger audiences. If you are skilled using web design tools such Webflow and design tools such as PhotoShop, you can start an online business creating beautiful imagery and websites for your clients.
Back in the day, you used to have to sell products directly to consumers in your local area, pay for television advertising to reach new markets or spend a ton of money to create a distribution network large enough to reach customers. Today, you can sell products right out of your own home thanks to websites like Craigslist, eBay and Etsy. As you build up clientele and a good reputation, you can turn your favorite hobby into a full-time job.
By setting up your online store, you can offer both used and new products to earn a living online. eBay allows you to sell old clothing and tools to make some extra cash or scour your local store for flash deals and resell the items for a profit.
There is a large market for unique, vintage and handmade goods and Etsy is arguably the top site for buying and selling these kinds of goods. If you know how to sew, make phone cases or are an expert in woodwork, you can set up an Etsy store to sell your products to an international audience.
Freelance writing is one of the easiest industries to make money online if you have excellent writing and communication skills. As a freelance writer, you can create everything from short content such as product descriptions to in-depth research studies and lively blog posts. As a writer, you can work on your own time as long as you hit deadlines and consistently provide quality content. This job is easy to transition from part-time to full-time as you gain more clients, and the only tool you need is a laptop.
Brand ambassadors use social media to earn money by promoting products from their favorite companies. If you want to be a brand ambassador, you’ll need to have followers on social media that are interested in the products offered by the company you will represent. You’ll be expected to post products on your social media and include links to the site where they can purchase them.
Typically, only the most successful people or those with huge amounts of followers will be able to make this their main job. However, if you have great engagement and a decent amount of followers on social media, this is a great way to make extra money. To become a brand ambassador, you can start by reaching out to some of your favorite companies and pitch a potential partnership by letting them know why you would be a good fit to represent them. If it’s your first time, start by approaching smaller, local companies that are more likely to respond to a brand ambassador just starting out.
As a virtual assistant, you’ll support clients with everything from data entry to customer support. If you are already an assistant or secretary, you can approach your current boss and propose turning your existing position into a location independent one. If not, there are online such as Zirtual that connect virtual assistants with entrepreneurs and professionals. You can also offer your services on Upwork to find your own clients.
Podcasts aren’t profitable by themselves; you actually make money through ads that are heard by your listeners. So to make money as a podcaster, you’ll need to grow an audience in order to be attractive to advertisers.
First, though, you’ll have to start broadcasting. Besides having expertise in a certain field, you’ll need to purchase sound equipment (and, potentially, computer programs) to create and edit your podcasts.
Once you have the hang of the technical aspects, you can focus on growing your listenership. One of the quickest ways to grow your podcast is to feature prominent guests on your show. Their audience will tune in and if they like what they hear, they will return week after week to hear what you have to say.
Are you good at picking out the next trend long before everybody else does? If yes, you can make good money flipping domain names. The idea here is that you buy a website domain in the hopes that someone will want to buy it from you in the future. While riskier than most of the other ways to make money online that we’ve gone through, there is potential to make big bucks if you’re good at it.
You can buy domain names you think will be popular in the future, or try to snag a few that are already popular now. When it comes time to sell, some buyers will approach you directly, or you can reach out to people you think may be interested in your domain names.
This money maker has skyrocketed to fame since launching the careers of huge stars such as Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes and Kate Upton, who got their starts after being discovered on their YouTube channels. It’s not just for singers; the beauty of the YouTube platform is that it is versatile enough for hundreds of industries. If you’re a musician, you can post videos of yourself playing an instrument or singing a song, but you can also use the platform to post instructional videos, funny skits, or daily travel vlogs depending on your target audience.
If you have a website or are a social media influencer, you can make money as an affiliate marketer. As an affiliate marketer, you promote products you love and earn a commission every time someone buys those products through your links. While it’s difficult to earn a full-time income as an affiliate marketer, you can still make a nice chunk of change if you have a large following.
These days, many major companies – including Amazon, Target, and Walmart -offer their own affiliate programs where you can make money. All you have to do is set up an account and include affiliate links in your blog posts or on your promotional videos. Make sure to read the fine print of your affiliate contracts as some offer payment in the form of gift cards while other pay through PayPal.
Many online entrepreneurs start of as bloggers or create a blog to share their expertise. When blogging, you want to create content that will drive traffic to your website so you can sell your products or make money through partnerships and affiliate marketing.
Focus your blog posts on a niche market and try to create content that isn’t already out there. Once you figure out what you want to write about, identify target keywords that people may type into search engines, and increase your chances of being found by creating content to fit those queries
You can increase traffic to your website by paying for ads using Google AdWords or by promoting your content on free sites. Pinterest is a great choice if your blog is visual and can be particularly useful for things like photography, cooking and beauty blogging.
With some of these ideas, you can start to earn money online today. Others require a little more preparation and planning to scale or build your income. You can choose one income stream or you can mix and match a few of these ideas to create a bigger and more diversified income. Thanks to the Internet, there are hundreds of legitimate ways to make money online.
Speaking of all the resources the web has to offer, our Location Indie community is dedicated to helping you chase your dreams and develop your own location independence.
Our community is made up of hundreds of individuals just like you who are looking for ways to make money online or have already created remote businesses that allow them to travel. You’ll have access to the forum where you can ask questions, get support, and receive community updates and guidance for making your location independent lifestyle a success.
The prospects for finding reliable ways to make money from home are expanding all the time.
Job seekers who do their research can find legitimate opportunities to work remotely that are neither suspect nor sketchy, and can provide part-time supplemental income or a full-time career.
While there are great flexible jobs across many industries, it may be helpful to home in on specific job sectors if your goal is to work virtually.
Having access to an up-to-date computer and a good Internet connection is essential, virtually without exception, to make money from home. You’ll also need a dedicated workspace and a good degree of discipline to stick to a schedule the works for you.
If you have the skills you need to work from home, scope out the best scam-free resources to help you find jobs that are a good fit. Of course, FlexJobs is the premier source for avoiding job scams in your search for hand-screened, work-from-home jobs that are fully vetted and verified.
The career fields below offer real jobs that can be done from home.
Note:
FlexJobs is a subscription service for job seekers that features flexible and remote jobs. With an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, the monthly subscription costs allow us to fully vet and verify all of the jobs on our site—ensuring that customers have a safe and positive job searching experience.
(Click on a title to see open jobs in that category.)
Account management jobs can be done from home as the main task involves managing client relationships. Account managers may use phone, email, and in-person visits to ensure company clients are happy and to upsell or cross-sell products.
Accounting and finance jobs can provide a variety of options to make money from home. Bookkeepers, tax advisors, accountants, finance assistants, and more are some remote job options. These roles most often require experience in finance, and many can be completed 100% from home.
Many teams and individuals seeking administrative assistance allow for the work to be done from home. Executive assistants, paralegals, administrative specialists, and program coordinators are some common remote job titles. Many of these roles only require a high school diploma.
Computer and IT jobs are a shoo-in for remote work. These jobs can be done entirely remotely with their heavy reliance on computer work. Tech support and even technical writing are two great options to make money at home.
Consulting provides great flexibility in how much you work and your work schedule. This role allows people to share their experience and knowledge with others to better their lives and business practices. They often utilize tools like job shadowing, surveys, and interpersonal studies to determine issues and suggest solutions and provide training or coaching.
To make money from home in customer service, you’ll need a high school degree or the equivalent for many jobs. For some customer service jobs, a post-secondary degree or some college may be required. Customer service jobs from home involve using phone, messaging, email, and social media to answer customer questions and provide information and assistance.
Often working as part of a team, data entry professionals may be asked to log into a company’s database system to make entries or access data for other purposes. Depending on the employer and industry, a high school degree and additional certification may be the minimum education requirements.
You’ll almost certainly need at least an undergraduate degree to qualify for many online teaching jobs for K-12 online schools, universities, and other virtual education organizations. Remote teaching and tutoring jobs can be great to do part-time or as a side job, as many roles require just a few hours per week.
The marketing field is ripe with remote jobs and ones that can be done on a project basis or part-time basis, making it an ideal way to make money from home. Marketing professionals promote and educate others on products and services. Working with online content, social media, and print materials are common for marketing jobs.
In an era of aging baby boomers and changing healthcare laws, medical coding and billing jobs offer relatively stable ways to make money from home. Inputting patient medical data with an extremely high degree of accuracy is the main task of a medical coding job. Medical billing professionals primarily input and submit payment and insurance data relating to medical care and procedures.
Project managers develop requirements, budgets, and schedules for an organization’s projects. They will make sure projects are completed on time and may work with internal and external clients and vendors. Project managers can work from home full-time or on a project-by-project basis.
Sales professionals can make money from home by working closely with customers to help them identify needs and introduce products or services that will meet those needs. There may be sales quotas to meet as well. Sales rep, sales manager, business development manager, account executive are some common job titles.
Transcription jobs offer many options to work remotely, as a freelancer, and with flexible hours. This role most commonly converts audio files into text. Certification as a transcriptionist and familiarity with transcription programs like Express Scribe will put you ahead of the competition.
Working as a virtual assistant may be a good way to put those skills to use to help you make money from home. You may be asked to use administrative skills to assist an executive or a team with managing schedules, travel, phone calls, email, and record.
Writing is one of the greatest time-honored home-based jobs, and editing isn’t far behind. Many employers look to hire content writers who are experienced and can provide examples of their published work, online or on other platforms. As for editing positions that let you make money from home, hiring managers frequently look for demonstrated editing skills or an area of specialty.
No matter your schedule or area of expertise, making money from home can be done. Using FlexJobs to find a job keeps you safe from job scams that abound in the work-from-home world. We verify every job and company before posting it on our site, so you can rest assured you’ll only find real, legitimate jobs.
Whether you want to work full-time from home, or just want to find a side job or a part-time remote job, FlexJobs has jobs in over 50 different careers to help you find just what you need.
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