How to Make Money Online
The Internet has produced numerous millionaires in recent years.
Men and women who have managed to build a digital empire from home and armed only with their own PC.
Therefore, more and more people are asking themselves the question: Can I do that too? Is it really legal to make money on the internet?
The answer is: Yes, it works!
However, caution is advised, because many providers and tactics that promise quick money are much less sincere than you might think at first glance.
In this article I will therefore tell you 17 serious, legal and above all proven ways to make money online.
- 1. Start a blog
- 2. Become a creator or influencer
- 3. Sell online courses
- 4. Write and sell books
- 5. Become a copywriter
- 6. Affiliate Marketing
- 7. Dropshipping
- 8. Test websites / apps
- 9. Sell photos or graphics
- 10. Test computer games
- 11. Virtual Assistance
- 12. Freelancers
- 13. Become a YouTuber
- 14. POD (Print on Demand)
- 15. Selling Handmade on Etsy
- 16. Giving online tutoring
- 17. Develop your own app
- FAQ
1. Start a blog
You love to write and have a lot to tell? Maybe even a special hobby or a topic that interests a wide range of people?
Whether you’re traveling around the world, raising rabbits in your garden, or just tinkering with your tuned Manta, with a blog you can share your passion with other people, offer help or tips, and thus build a large community.
Your own blog is a brilliant way to get started in the online world and to test your own idea without high monthly costs (depending on the platform, these are between €10 and €30 per month).
It’s really easy to get started and it only takes a few hours to set up before you can publish your first post.
You can then earn money in many different ways. Either you integrate advertisements (e.g. Google AdSense), sell paid guest posts or you advertise products and generate income from their sales (affiliate marketing).
Advantages
- Inexpensive
- Suitable for beginners
- Independent of third parties
- Huge revenue potential
- No limits in theme design
Disadvantages
- Training period required
- time consuming
- No earnings until blog is known
2. Become a creator or influencer
Influencer is probably THE dream job for every teenager today.
It also sounds too good to be true: build a loyal community that adores you, use free products from different manufacturers and also get money from their sale through cleverly placed advertising links.
In fact, the work of an influencer works exactly like this.
But…
The time investment is significantly higher and the chance of being really successful with this business model is significantly lower than many assume.
To really take off as an influencer on social media, you need to know exactly how your channels are found, how to create a professional post, and how to identify content that generates high clicks.
This requires a lot of training and, above all, perseverance. If you don’t bring that with you, you should rather stay away from this activity.
Advantages
- Free / risk-free
- No entry requirements
- Can be perfectly integrated into everyday life
Disadvantages
- Big competition
- A lot of time is required
3. Sell online courses
Online courses have been among the most lucrative sources of income on the internet. Not only because they are sold in price ranges between €100 and €10,000, but also because they can be scaled as required.
Means: Once produced, you can sell an online course to any number of people.
However, online courses are also one of the most difficult online revenue streams to implement. It is not enough to produce a course. You also need to successfully sell this to potential customers.
You can only do this if you have already built up reach and trust. So it is a long and rocky road to the first course sold, which can easily take several years of your time.
Advantages
- Very high income potential
- Scalable
- Inexpensive to produce
Disadvantages
- Customer generation very, very difficult
- Big competition in almost every niche
4. Write and sell books
Have you ever thought about writing your own book? A book with your name on the cover?
It doesn’t have to be a dream anymore!
Numerous providers enable you to sell your book online (regardless of whether it is a novel, non-fiction book or cookbook). Both as an e-book and as a real print book. If you don’t consider yourself the greatest writer, there are quite a few tools out there today that can help you write or even do most of the work.
Thanks to print-on-demand – the book is only actually printed and sent to the customer after an order has been placed – you can test this business field without any risk. All you have to do is send your draft to one of the many providers in the form of a Word document. He then takes care of everything else for you, i.e. online presentation in the shop, printing and sales.
The only downside: You only receive a small part of the sales price in the form of royalties.
Incidentally, one of the best-known providers in this area is Amazon with its “Kindle Direct Publishing” service.
Advantages
- No entry requirements
- Possible without start-up capital
- Sales process is transferred
Disadvantages
- Only a small part of the sales price is passed on
- Dependent on third-party providers (e.g. Amazon)
5. Become a copywriter
As an online copywriter, you can build a nice extra income from home.
The great thing about this field of activity is that you don’t even have to take care of acquiring orders yourself. There are numerous “copywriter marketplaces” on the Internet that bring clients and copywriters together.
All you have to do is register on such a marketplace and you can start writing straight away.
Advantages
- Can be implemented immediately
- No prerequisites necessary
- Workload freely definable
- Growing earnings with increasing experience
Disadvantages
- Partly very low word prices
- Classic “time-for-money model” and therefore not scalable
6. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular online earning opportunities and at the same time one of the oldest.
The principle is simple: you receive an individual link that leads to the sales page of a product or service. If there is a transaction afterwards, you will receive a commission for referring the customer.
One of the most well-known partners in this area is Amazon.
Even if the principle seems simple, the practical implementation is by no means so. Because in order to actually be able to earn money with affiliate marketing, you also need people who click on your link. A high reach is therefore an essential prerequisite for this activity.
Advantages
- Easy to implement
- For free
- There are suitable programs for EVERY topic
- Can be used flexibly (blog, social media, etc.)
- Partly high, recurring commissions
Disadvantages
- Sometimes long range required
- High competition
7. Dropshipping
Dropshipping was the successful model of the 2010s and is still a very lucrative activity today, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for beginners due to the enormous competition.
What is Dropshipping?
Very simple: You offer products (via Amazon, Ebay or your own shop , for example at Shopify), which you do not manufacture or store yourself. If a sale is made, your partner takes care of shipping and sales processing.
That sounds very simple in theory. From the technical point of view it is also in practice. However, the difficulty is finding a good product that sells.
Here, too, the best-known provider is Amazon with its Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon) program .
Advantages
- High earning potential
- “Real” business with a real product
- Frequent entry into entrepreneurship
Disadvantages
- Not possible without seed capital
- Big competition
8. Test websites / apps
That’s right: You can actually make money by testing websites or apps for their practicality.
This usually happens before it is officially released. After all, it is a major goal of the provider that no errors have crept in and that the operation works intuitively.
Since you only have to belong to the potential target group of the website or app, there are no further eligibility requirements.
However, the earning potential is only in the middle.
Advantages
- No eligibility requirements
- Multiple providers available
- Simple activity
Disadvantages
- Time versus money model
- Depending on the order situation
9. Sell photos or graphics
There are countless different image databases on the Internet , all of which allow you to upload your own images and sell them automatically.
The great thing is that almost any image can be used (pet snapshots, landscape shots, etc.) and once uploaded, the images sell without any further action on your part.
You probably won’t become a millionaire with this job. But you may be making higher four or even five-digit monthly sales per month if you manage to create really brilliant photos or graphics that are downloaded millions of times.
Advantages
- You don’t have to worry about selling
- A picture can sell thousands or millions of times
Disadvantages
- You may need professional photo equipment and image editing programs
- You must be a good photographer or graphic designer
- You have to develop a sense of which images or graphics are currently in demand
10. Test computer games
Gamers and gamblers can turn their passion into a profession. Before new games come onto the market, they have to be put through their paces.
Not only errors in the game, but above all logic and usability play an important role here.
However:
This activity is not a casual pastime. Game manufacturers spend a lot of money on testers, but they also expect you to take your work seriously and carefully document your observations.
Advantages
- Very entertaining
- Ideal for gamers
- Good hourly wage
- Some very popular games
- Available for board and computer games
Disadvantages
- Very extensive documentation required
11. Virtual Assistance
If you work organizationally and enjoy things like data maintenance, editing or similar, then working as a virtual assistant is certainly worth considering.
The great thing about this job is that you usually work for experienced employers and can thus gain deep insights into the online world yourself.
The tasks as a virtual assistant are very diverse and range from customer acquisition to filling in Excel lists. So there should be something for everyone here.
You can offer your services on platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.
Advantages
- No seed capital required
- Flexible working hours
- Changeable
- Often benefit from experienced clients
Disadvantages
- Time versus money model
- Low hourly wage at the beginning with missing references
12. Freelancers
I would like to use the term freelancer to summarize all activities that fall under the heading “freelance online work” and do not appear elsewhere in this list.
As a freelancer, you can pass on your individual talents and expertise to others in the form of a service. The possibilities range from the voice-over artist to the web designer or graphic artist.
Platforms like Fiverr or Upwork make it possible for you to make your services accessible to a large number of people without having to operate your own website.
So: Think about what things you are particularly good at on the PC and make an individual offer out of it.
Advantages
- No seed capital required
- Flexible working possible
- No limits on the service offered
- High hourly rates possible depending on expertise
- Processing of orders via renowned platforms
Disadvantages
- Partly high competition
13. Become a YouTuber
Have you ever considered becoming a filmmaker?
YouTube gives you the opportunity to produce your own videos and make them available to an audience of millions.
You don’t even have to step in front of the camera yourself. Explainer videos on various topics are also becoming increasingly popular and are among the most frequently clicked content on YouTube.
If you have met various requirements (currently 4,000 hours of viewing time and 1,000 subscribers), you can monetize your channel through AdSense with commercials.
Advantages
- No seed capital needed
- For free
- You don’t have to be in front of the camera
- High automated earnings possible
- community building
- Affiliate marketing is also possible
Disadvantages
- Very big competition
- Video editing very time consuming
14. POD (Print on Demand)
In addition to an on-demand service for books, which I have already introduced to you, this also exists for many other plastic products – but here under the name POD, which stands for print-on-demand.
However, the procedure is identical to books: You create a design that can be printed on fashion, tableware or pictures and then upload it to a marketplace. If a customer likes this design, the article will be produced with the order.
In addition to Amazon MBA (Merch by Amazon), marketplaces such as Spreadshirt or Redbubble are very popular.
Advantages
- No seed capital required
- Free use of the marketplaces
- Easy to implement
- High earning potential
Disadvantages
- The competition is huge
- Graphic skills required
- Third Party Dependence
15. Selling Handmade on Etsy
Cardigans, crocheted blankets or other handmade items have experienced a real rebirth in recent years and are also very popular with a newer target group.
These products are great for selling online from home without having to open a shop yourself.
Marketplaces like Etsy allow you to sell handmade products.
By the way: Here you can not only sell physical products. Digital items such as Canva templates, print templates such as calendars or complex Excel spreadsheets for every need also run excellently here.
Advantages
- Turn your hobby into money
- No own online shop required
- Cost only on actual sales (excluding small listing fees per item)
- No technical know-how required
- You can really sell anything on Etsy
Disadvantages
- No branding
- Dependent on third party
16. Giving online tutoring
Do you have a high level of expertise in a specific school or study subject? Then you can decide whether you want to give online tutoring.
There are now many platforms on which you can register for free. An advertisement can even take place via classified ad portals.
Implementing a tutoring lesson is relatively simple and even free of charge thanks to tools such as MS Teams or Google Meet.
Advantages
- Existing expertise can be used
- help other people
- Own skills are strengthened
- Conveniently doable from home
Disadvantages
- Classic show-for-money model
17. Develop your own app
If you like working with computers and are proficient in a programming language such as Object C or Java, then you should consider developing your own smartphone app.
There are even app makers today to help you with that.
The app can later be monetized through advertisements, a classic subscription model or in-app purchases.
The proof of success
Due to the great competition, it is actually very difficult to generate large sales with your own app. Numerous studies have also proven this.
However, there are always successful examples. And if you also enjoy programming a lot, then your own app is certainly a way to build up an extra income.
Advantages
- No costs
- Access for everyone to the iOS and Android marketplace
- Supporting tools for development are available
- Different earning models
- High income possible
- Passive Income
Disadvantages
- Gigantic competition
FAQ
Here I have put together answers to 5 frequently asked questions about making money on the Internet:
How do I recognize a reputable provider to make money online?
If online providers lure you with quick money without a lot of work, you should always be careful!
There is no such thing as quick money without effort on the Internet either!
I recommend that you check a provider according to the following criteria:
- Imprint available?
- Several contact options, especially telephone?
- Google search with the term “vendor name experiences”
How fast can I make €100 online?
There is no general answer to this question and it depends on the chosen activity. If you work in a classic hourly model, for example as a Clickworker or online assistant, a simple calculation is possible.
The situation is different, however, if you run your own blog, for example. Here you will certainly have to make advance payments for several months before you can generate the first income.
What online activity can I do without experience?
There are numerous jobs on the Internet that do not require experience. These include, for example:
- answer surveys
- testing websites
- textwriting
Do I have to register a business if I pursue an online activity?
It always depends on the type of work. If you are artistically active and fall under the liberal professions, then this is not necessary. By the way, not even if you sell self-produced goods (painter, photographer, etc.) in a shop.
The situation is different with models such as affiliate marketing. A business registration is always required here.
Be sure to check with your community!
Do I have to pay tax on online income?
Yes. Income from an online activity is of course taxable.
Please contact a tax advisor to discuss this topic individually and above all in a legally secure manner.