5 Legit Ways to Make Money Online in 2023: #2 is One of the Best!
10 min read You may have read many articles online about how to make money online. But not all of them work. Can you make money? You could. But it may not be enough to replace your 9-5. The side hustle always stays on the side. That is the sad part for many.
In this article, I will list 5 legit ways to make money online. I have a few bonus ideas in addition to 5 legit ways to make money online.
All you need is a computer/laptop and a solid internet connection. In addition to that, you may have some negligible startup costs.
Let’s start.
1. Start Blogging with Affiliate Marketing
It is an “old-school” method of making money online. Yet, in our list of 5 legit ways to make money online, it is still getting #1 place. It is going strong with various success stories, such as Adam Enfroy.
It is possible to make a decent income from your blog if you know what you are doing. There are various online resources available to learn the steps. The information out there on Blogging is overwhelming.
It is simple as getting basic hosting from a hosting company such as BlueHost and installing WordPress to get started.
They are some plugins and SEO tools that will help you to succeed in this space.
All you need is your computer, internet connection, and consistent writing of posts for Transactional Intent keywords.
How do you make money with Blogging? Affiliate Marketing. Most blogs depend on Google AdSense, which works if you have massive traffic to your site. But in the beginning, the traffic to your site will be low. To make money with a few visitors, you need to promote products that pay you an affiliate fee for every referral you send to them.
Blogging is a long-term business. It should not be a hobby. Treat it as a real business and write consistently. The success of your blog depends on picking the right niche where you can find lucrative affiliate programs and low-competition keywords.
I am writing a detailed post on starting your blog with step-by-step instructions. I will link it here once it is ready. Bookmark this post, and stay tuned.
2. Start a Print-on-Demand Business
Print on Demand (POD) is #2 in our list of 5 legit ways to make money online. If you want to start a business with a low startup cost, you should give Print On Demand a try.
It is similar to Dropshipping. You don’t need to carry any inventory. All you need to do is design and push the products to your own Shopify or WooCommerce site.
Here is the twist. In addition to your site, you should use Platforms such as Amazon to sell your products. Printful is a service that lets you push your Print on Demand products to Amazon. Printful has tight integration with Amazon to receive orders and fulfill them automatically. It is like having your shop in a mall.
Services like Printful have a wide range of products to sell, not just T-Shirts. Besides T-Shirts, you can sell Beach Towels, Embroidered aprons, Swimwear, Embroidered shirts, Leggings, Posters, Hoodies, Sweatshirts, Hats, Phone Cases, Throw Pillow and much more.
Starting with Printful is easy. Sign up, design a product and push it to the Shopify site and Amazon. To succeed, you need to create a lot of good designs consistently. If you can, try running ads on Amazon to get immediate results.
3. Start a YouTube Channel
If you are starting a YouTube Channel, you are late to the party. But still, it is #3 in our list of 5 legit ways to make money online. You can still succeed if you choose the right niche and consistently create great content.
Starting a YouTube Channel is easy. Signup with your Google Account, customize your channel with catchy graphics and create content.
To monetize your YouTube channel, you need 4000 hours of viewing for the last 12 months and 1000 subscribers. To achieve this, consider making evergreen content (something that viewers will be interested in watching in a year or two in the future) and host live streams.
Once you reach the milestone of 4000 hours of viewing and 1000 subscribers, you can start making AdSense money from Google.
Besides AdSense monetization, you can also make videos about the products you use, like, and believe in and refer your viewers to make a purchase. If they do, you will earn a commission. Be transparent here. Let your viewers know that the link in the description is an affiliate link, and you make money when they buy through them. They will like your honesty and support you by purchasing via your link.
If you are shy about showing your face, you can start faceless YouTube channels with screencasting videos for coding/programming, online/physical product reviews, and music loops for relaxing/sleeping.
In case you want to download YouTube videos to your local computer, see this.
4. Become a Social Media Influencer
If you want to start a business with zero startup cost, become an influencer on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
It is #4 in our list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
Pick a niche, create consistent content and post it on Instagram and TikTok.
You have to create a lot of content to succeed in this business. More content will help you reach your target audience easily. Focus on getting more followers. Analyze the data and create the content that works (most liked, viewed).
Once you reach a good number of followers, you can start seeking brands/products for sponsored posts and get paid for it. The number of followers highly depends on your niche. In some niches, 10000 followers are good enough.
You may have multiple accounts for different niches to scale to your desired income.
5. Create an Online Course
Every online course you create is a digital asset that will get you paid for years to come as long as you are updating it with new information/changes.
It could be one of the most passive ways to make money online. It is #5 in our list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
If you are starting with this, you should consider launching it on a platform like Udemy. Platforms like Udemy attract millions of students, and getting that first dollar online will be easy launching your course on it.
Not all courses are created equal. Just like in any other business, you need to do your research on a niche and create courses around that topic that sells well. You can learn and teach others if you are not an expert in that topic. Remember, you don’t need to be an expert. You need to know a little more than your students.
There you have it. The list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
In the bonus section below, I want to give another 5 legit ways to make money online.
Bonus – Another 5 legit ways to make money online
1. Write E-Books
E-Book is #1 in our bonus list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
Selling E-Book online is one of the oldest ways to make money online. But it is still a legit way to make money online now.
If you are shy about creating videos, you can turn those content into an E-Book and sell them online.
If you are starting, you should consider selling them on a platform like Amazon, where you could get the readers quickly.
Write the content. Use Fiverr to outsource the content formatting for Amazon Kindle and the book cover. Signup for Amazon KDP. Submit the book. Once it is approved, you will start receiving sales. You could price your E-Book between $0.99 and $9.99. But I suggest pricing it around $2.99. If the content is related to Programming or Coding, you could charge around $9.99. You could get 70% of your sales if the price point is $9.99. Something to remember when you are pricing your E-Books.
2. Become a Medium Writer
Become a Medium Writer is #2 in our bonus list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
Medium is a popular platform for writers to share content and get paid when their content is viewed/read.
Writers like Tim Denning make a living (more than living) by writing on Medium.
I suggest reading some of the content in your niche first. You research the topic within your niche that gets more views, claps, and comments. Create content around the same topic with your twist and post them on Medium.
Just like blogging, consistency is the key. Post the content in regular intervals, and the Medium algorithm will help you reach the target audience that will get you views, claps, and some insightful comments.
If you want to learn more about this, you may check out this course on Udemy:
3. Become an Online Tutor
Becoming an Online Tutor is #3 in our bonus list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
The pandemic made online learning a must for everyone around the world. Some learn at their own pace using platforms like Coursera and Udemy. Some needs instructor-based teaching. It is easy to become a teacher if you already have a teaching degree. Regardless of your degree, you can still become a tutor to teach Maths, Science, Coding, and English.
If you are an expert on a niche or topic, becoming an online tutor is the best way to make money online.
If you choose to become an online tutor, try the following platforms to get started:
4. Sell Your Photos
If you are into photography and are an expert in getting that perfect shot, selling your Photos is a great way to make money online.
So, selling photos is #4 in our bonus list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
You don’t need to be a professional photographer to start with this hustle. If you are obsessed with taking great pictures, selling photos online is right for you.
Once you have a few great shots, you can start listing them on platforms like Shutterstock and Alamy. When someone downloads a copy of your photo, these platforms pay you royalty.
Another alternative method is to list your portfolio of photos on the Foap app. Foap is a smartphone app that lets you make some quick cash with your images. When an agency or brand purchases a photo or video from your portfolio, the Foap app is sharing the profit with you 50/50.
5. Start a Dropshipping E-Commerce Store
Unlike other ideas in this list of 5 legit ways to make money online, I kept Dropshipping as the last option.
The reason is that Dropshipping requires some upfront investment to run Ads if you want to see some results quickly. Alternatively, you can get customers to your dropshipping store through SEO and Social Media marketing.
If you already have an audience on Twitter, Instagram, or Tiktok, this could be a perfect hustle to get in. You could easily share the product on your feed to get sales. In addition to that, you can reach out to influencers in your niche to place your products on their feed.
Contrary to popular belief, dropshipping is hard if you don’t have any following on Social Media or any upfront investment to run Ads. Even with Ads, you need to test a few products to narrow down the winner. During your test phase, you will lose money. But once you find your niche and the products, all you need to do is scale to achieve your desired income.
I suggest the Shopify platform for starting a dropshipping e-commerce store. It is easy to get started, and you will have plenty of apps to address different needs when you want to scale.
Choose Klaviyo for your Email Marketing and reach out to convert those abandoned carts. With Klaviyo, you can create flows to send emails to the customers who haven’t purchased recently, send out coupon codes to new customers to get repeated sales, etc.
Summary
That is all for our list of 5 legit ways to make money online.
You have not 5 but 10 legit ways to make money online. Pick one that suits you and start working on it. Whatever you choose, consistency is key. I suggest starting anything as a side hustle while keeping your 9-5 job. Even though it is a side hustle, you should treat it as a real business. Once you reached the income of your 9-5 job, you may consider leaving it and focusing on your side hustle full-time.
Good Luck and Happy Hustling!
What is going to be your side hustle, and why?
