6 Ways to Make Money Online in 2021

 

Making money online has become even more popular due to covid-19.

Because many people lost their jobs and started looking for new ways to supplement their main income or find a completely new way to make money instead of their lost job.

Many people that have online businesses report of the increased income even during lockdown.

And it’s not surprising because most people are now making purchases online. So, COVID-19 pandemic proved once again that it’s a great time now to start a business online.

It’s highly recommended to start it as soon as possible because it will take a considerable time to start earning money online consistently.

In this article I want to discuss 6 most popular ways to earn money online and I will show both pros and cons of all those ways so you can decide which one to choose.

 

 

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is probably the best method to make money and it’s the very foundation of online business.

I remember when I started my first website back in 2000 and had a travel site. It was my first experience and I made a lot of mistakes but still I made something around $1.000.

Most internet gurus making money online today didn’t know anything about affiliate marketing in 2000.

So, affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start an online business because it doesn’t require any specific super skills, big investment or a product to sell. 

All you need is your willingness to work hard, patience and some basic knowledge about computers so you can use it and of course internet connection.

Most people today have an internet connection and pc, so it’s not a big challenge to become an affiliate marketer. 

All you need is to pay a few hundred bucks, probably something around $300 per year to join an online business community like Income School, Wealthy Affiliate, Affilorama, Authority Hacker or Savage Affiliates and go through a step-by-step affiliate marketing course to get the required education so you know and understand what to do to start making money online.  

To become a successful affiliate marketer, you don’t actually need a product to sell.

All you need is a simple affiliate blog type website and join one or a few affiliate programs that have a popular affiliate course or any other digital product.

You sign up for the product and get your affiliate ID number and then use this number in your affiliate links.

You can promote that link on your affiliate blog (website) when writing blog posts for your website or YouTube channel or use your link in your social Facebook, Instagram accounts.

When someone clicks your link and buys the product you promote, you will earn a commission that will be paid to you by a merchandiser whose product you promote.   

Some merchandisers pay only 10% while some pay up to 50% or even more. When you choose a merchandiser, try to choose the one that pays more.

Because when commission is low that means you have to drive a massive traffic to your website in order to make at least $1.000 per month.

If your commission is high, you can earn a considerable amount of money even with a low traffic website.

This is an example and proof of my affiliate website that lost most of its traffic but still making me money consistently. 

As an affiliate marketer you must know a few things before you start your online business.

Once you have your affiliate website up and running, it doesn’t mean you will be making money immediately.

Because in order to get traffic you need to write at least 100-200 high quality blog posts that will generate at least 500 visitors a day.

Preferably 1000 visitors. This kind of traffic will allow you to monetize your website and earn $1.000-$5.000 per month. 

In case your blog posts get ranked on Google you will get a massive free traffic that will allow you to monetize your affiliate website without spending a single dollar.

Free traffic is a dream of any affiliate marketer. If your content doesn’t get ranked you will have to buy traffic through display ad networks (PPV), PPC, solo ad. 

This scenario is for advanced affiliate marketers only. Because you can easily waste all your budget without making a single dollar. 

Paid traffic can drain your budget if you don’t know how to run paid campaigns properly or if your promoted product or service pays you low affiliate commissions.

If your commission is low, you will always be spending more than actually earning. That’s why you need to be very careful when running paid traffic campaigns.  

Now let’s summarize what we have learned so you understand affiliate marketing in simple terms.

 

Pros of affiliate marketing are few:

 

• You can start an online business without spending a lot of money
• You can earn a lot of money per month
• You don’t need your own product in order to make money online
• Free traffic can make you a lot of money without spending a single dollar

  

Among cons of affiliate marketing are few:

 

• It requires from you to be a hard working man
• It requires some monetary investment in affiliate course
• Free traffic requires from you effort and patience (12-24 months)
• Paid traffic requires some solid monetary investment (up to $1.000 per month or more) 

 

 

 

 

Dropshipping

Dropshipping is another type of online business  that can make you a lot of money. It’s different from the affiliate blog type of website.

For example, you can build a website and write product reviews about ipads, iphones, computers, or any other products. It still will be an affiliate blog, not drop shipping.

You will be writing reviews and recommending products by sending your readers to Amazon or Walmart or any other merchandiser website and when they buy something you will earn an affiliate commission. 

Dropshipping is another type of business and website. You will be writing product descriptions and selling real physical products through your website.

Your website will be organized in a slightly different way, not like an affiliate blog.

In affiliate marketing you don’t need to handle products or product returns or talk to your customers, or charge your customers credit cards or contact the supplier to ship the product. In dropshipping you have to because it’s a different type of business. 

Also, dropshipping training courses are way more expensive than courses on affiliate marketing. Good dropshipping courses may cost you up to $1.000 upfront.

Affiliate marketing courses are way cheaper. Especially when it comes to traffic, dropshipping will require from you a solid monetary investment in paid advertising. 

In dropshipping you can make more money than in affiliate marketing. Because you earn higher commissions as a seller of physical products. For more information about dropshipping read here.

 

So, advantages of dropshipping are few:

 

• You can earn more because of higher profit margin
• You are more independent because you don’t depend on affiliate programs

 

Cons are few too:

 

• Education is more expensive
• More effort and hard work required
• Paid traffic requires a solid monetary investment

 

 

 

Display Ads

Display ads is another form of online business similar to affiliate marketing. It works in a slightly different way.

As an affiliate marketer your goal is to get traffic and get your customers click your affiliate links and buy your promoted products or service so you can earn your affiliate commissions.

When it comes to display ads, you don’t need to promote anything on your website. Your task is to create a website and choose a niche or your interest and write a lot of content on that topic.

The more content you create the better will be for your website. But you must create a high quality content to get it ranked in search engines such as Google.

Your main task is generating as much traffic as possible.

Once you start generating a lot of traffic, 500-1000 visits a day, you can start earning money consistently from your website.

You will be placing ads on your website like those you see when watching youtube videos.

When your visitors click on those ads you will earn a commission from display networks like Google (Google adsense), Ezoic, Medianet, Mediavive, Monumetric. 

Among display ad networks the best for monetization are Mediavine and Ezoic but they have some requirements.

Mediavine accepts only sites generating at least 50.000 views. Ezoic has some other rules that I don’t know.

Recently they removed their minimum traffic requirement but still didn’t approve my site without any explanation though before it was approved.

Anyway, you can join other networks mentioned above. In my opinion, Google adsense is the best network because they have no minimum traffic requirement. 

So, among pros of display ad type of websites:

 

• You don’t need a product 
• You can earn a lot of money just writing blog posts for your websites 

 

Among cons of display ad method: 

 

• You need a lot of traffic
• Getting a lot of traffic takes 12-24 months 

 

 

 

Youtube Monetization

Youtube monetization is another very popular way to make money online. It’s also considered affiliate marketing in the form of video marketing.

All you need is to create a channel on any topic you like and record interesting engaging videos.

Once you get 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of views, you can start monetization of your channel.

Also, you can sell ad space on your channel, promote products, services through your affiliate link.

You need to invest some money in professional equipment, such as a microphone, video camera etc. Among advantages of youtube channel are:

 

• You don’t need to write content 
• Videos are ranked very quickly  
• Traffic can be massive

 

Among cons of youtube monetization are:

 

• Youtube can ban your channel and you lose your entire business
• Recording professional videos requires time and skills
• Channel promotion is not easy

 

 

 

Freelancing

Freelancing is another very popular method to make money online. With this method you don’t even need to build a website or pay for an affiliate marketing course.

But it’s highly recommended to pay for training that will teach you some secrets of freelancing activity. You can find good freelance courses on udemy.com.

That would be the easiest and the fastest way to your success online.

Because you will learn from experienced entrepreneurs how to create a profile on sites like fiverr.com, upwork.com, freelancer.com, how to get new orders, how to build a positive track record for your profile quickly.

Because the number of orders and profit depend on your profile. If it’s positive you will get a lot of orders and make money consistently. 

Making money as a freelancer doesn’t require affiliate marketing skills, waiting for Google rankings for months.

All you need is to choose an area of your future activity based on your knowledge and skills.

You can build or customize websites, edit or record videos, do keyword research for someone, translate texts, edit texts, work as a graphic designer, perform SEO service, do video animation and more. For more info read my article here.

BTW, as a freelancer you can earn a considerable amount of money, from $500 and up to thousands of dollars per month.

But before you reach that point you need to get orders and prove to your audience that you do your job on time and as promised so you can get enough positive comments from your customers and build your brand trust.

 

Among pros of freelancing are:

 

• You don’t need a website
• No monetary investment required

 

Cons of freelancing:

 

• Some time required to build a positive track record on your profile  

 

 

 

 

Creating a Digital Product 

Creating a digital product is also one of the best methods to make a lot of money online. It’s also known as affiliate marketing but in this case you don’t promote products of other merchandisers.

Instead you promote your own product which can be a PDF guide on any topic you want or it can be a video course.

This type of business is now very popular and there are many ways you can use to profit from it.

You can sell this course on your own website, you can sell via your social media account on Pinterest or Tik-Tok or Instagram. You can promote it via your youtube channel or udemy.com.

The best part of it is that you keep the most of the profit because it’s your own product that you have created.

A know affiliate marketers who once made $100.000 per month by selling such a course.

This must be a topic you have deep knowledge and experience and can create something that people need. 

 

Among pros of this business:

 

• You keep the most of the profit

  

Among cons of this business:

 

• It takes time to create a high quality product
• You need a high traffic website