Has there ever been such a misused and tarnished phrase such as “Make money online”?
Undesirables and gold-toothed snake oil salesmen have banded that phrase around for so long, the second we hear it, up come the shutters.
Yet here I am, about to embark on a blog post so I can show you 11 fine examples and legit ways to make money online, including both active and passive income.
T’is true…
There are many legit ways to make money online, even if you:
- Are not technical
- Have very little budget
- Don’t possess any fancy pro-level equipment
- Lead a busy life
- Suffer a stressful 9-5
I tick a few of these boxes myself, so trust me. If your willing to put the work in and learn, then one of these 11 legit ways to make money online (active & passive income) could be perfect for you.
*If you prefer to watch the video then here it is:
What is passive income vs active income?
First, let’s explain what the difference is between active and passive income.
Active is where you get paid for your time spent and the work that you actually do – for example, your 9-5 job.
You go to work for 40 hours each week. at your hourly rate, and you get paid exactly that.
No more, no less.
Click To Learn How To Make Passive Income Online
At the weekend you will make zero earnings because you’re off the clock. Inactive from work, ineligible for pay.
Whereas, Passive income has the potential to be exponentially more.
In other words, with passive income you put the work in once, then the income has the potential to keep coming in afterwards – on autopilot.
Does passive income really require no work?
This is the biggest misconception around making money online with passive income, people genuinely believe it requires zero work.
WRONG.
You still have to do all of the things – research, test, implement. But the idea of passive income is that you do this upfront work once, then move onto the next piece. All the while that piece of content is working away on autopilot in the background.
Keep watching and I will show you some examples
Examples of Active Income Opportunities
First, let me show you a couple of active income opportunities – where you get paid for your time.
The reason I am including them is that sometimes we have to work for the income that allows us to invest in more passive or automated methods.
Fundraising, capital, spare cash that we can take risks with without affecting the money we support our family with.
Active income streams can be a faster way of earning additional money, but not always scalable.
Let’s start with
Fiverr.com
Fiverr is an online marketplace where people monetize their skills and knowledge.
You simply create a profile and tell the world; what it is you do and how you can help them.
As you take on clients you grow a reputation and gather testimonials and feedback, with the view of attracting more clients.
Some people make vast amounts part-time and full time on Fiverr.
It covers a huge array of different services, but a few examples are
- Creating artwork for YouTubers
- Translating content into another language
- Designing logos
- Recording voiceovers
- Pretty much anything
With Fiverr, you are getting paid for your time, but there is huge potential here as anyone in the world could hire you for their next project
Teach English Online
There are lots of companies that provide a service teaching English to Chinese youngsters – Teachaway, Gogo kid, VIPKids, QKids, to name a few.
Check the sites carefully and do your due diligence, but if you have a background in teaching then this could be a great way to start earning a little more.
Whilst this isn’t going to make you rich. It can be a really good way to make some additional cash flexibly and teaching from your own home using remote technologies.
Whilst the thought of teaching from home may have scared people off at one point, due to the global pandemic, many of us are adapting to remote teaching.
Who knows, maybe you could even start your own business using the same techniques?
If you like the sound of teaching but not English language then stay tuned as I’ve got the perfect passive income opportunity for you
TextBroker.com
Do you enjoy writing? Then this could be for you.
Textbroker is a platform that people in need of content will go to, and pay for someone to write content for them.
They could be bloggers, businesses, anyone who needs some written content (of many different styles).
Well, that person could be you.
Textbroker takes care of all the admin and marketing and offer you a free registration where you can seek paid jobs and work flexibly with whatever free time you have.
So with 100,000 content orders processed every month, maybe this is a great opportunity to monetize your passion for writing?
Upwork.com
Ok so this is the last active income site I am going to mention, but its one of my favourites.
I have used it several times to hire people to help me with my blogs and youtube channel.
Similar to fiverr it’s a place to showcase your talents and charge for your services – now that could be writing, designing, a virtual assistant maybe?
It’s a service-related marketplace with a great reputation.
So if you have a skill or talent, go browse through the categories on Upwork and see if you can find any way to serve others and get paid for your time.
What are some examples of passive income?
Let’s look at some of the best ways to make passive income now, where we can create content once then leave it out there to do its thing, whilst we focus on the next money maker.
YouTube
79 percent of internet users have a youtube account. (Source)
As technology advances, we consume video more and more. Every day people watch one billion hours of video on YouTube.
But did you know, that you can actually make money on YouTube and for free?
Many do this by allowing YouTube to run adverts – this then generates an income for the channel owner without them having to do anything.
But they don’t make it easy, you need to qualify first, so only the dedicated will get this point.
In order to qualify and run adverts on YouTube you need 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers in a 12 month period.
No mean feat, but absolutely possible.
The good thing is, there are other ways of making money on YouTube and I’ve outlined them all in this video.
But the main YouTube business model for me, is affiliate marketing, where you recommend a product and if someone buys through your special link then you get a commission.
Simple yet powerful, and how I have managed to earn commissions this year as high as $2000.
Now some sites may give you a measly 2-5% commission (Looking at you Amazon!) but equally if you promote the right products they can pay much higher. This is referred to as high ticket marketing, an area my own mentor excels at.
If you want to watch his free training and see how you can get started then hit the button below.
Click To Learn How To Make Passive Income OnlineHowever, the key here is to create content that helps people, and in turn, encourages your channel to grow
YouTube is a hugely powerful platform that can help people make money online with passive income, in almost any subject.
Create videos, then move onto the next. One day you could have tens of thousands of people backtracking through your catalog.
** CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL: If I can get started with a YouTube channel then you absolutely can too! **
Local Digital Agency
Given that this post is written in summer 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, there’s never been a more important time for local businesses to get their message out online. As well as looking to generate leads and additional customers.
This opens a world of opportunity to those that are more tech-savvy.
Remember many small business owners today won’t have the same skills you have, we didn’t have cellphones or internet back in the day.
You could create a service for helping small businesses with:
- Social media
- Content management
- Building sales funnels
- Creating lead magnets
- Managing email outreach
- Advertising…. you name it.
My advice, start local.
You understand your area and the people there and you can add that face to face approach where required.
Find something your good at and you can always scale out from there.
But Jon this isn’t passive?!
You are correct.
But it can be. Charge low but ask your customers to use your product links – for example, signing up to Clickfunnels for a landing page could net you $38-118 each and every month from affiliate marketing.
The more success you have, the better chance you have then of telling others how you built this business – promoting the tools, creating training.
But you have to start with the basics – help people and provide value.
Write a blog
If you prefer to write than speak, then writing a blog could be your gateway to additional income.
The OG of making money whilst you sleep.
Similar to YouTube in that you have to spend time upfront researching, writing and then promoting your work. Which may sound daunting but honestly, anyone can learn.
Click To Learn How To Make Passive Income OnlineIt’s a way that we can use the written word to help people, guide them, show them solutions….which coincidentally can earn you a nice commission through affiliate marketing again.
Blogging is awesome, and the costs are still low, for less than $100 you can have a domain name and hosting (this is my favorite!), and the more you develop your skills you can upgrade as you go.
Merch Design
Sites like redbubble, society 6, teepublic, all provide original and unique designs that you won’t necessarily find on your high street.
This could be t-shirts, posters, mugs, hoodies.
Lots of designs that are specific to one of your interests – for example, “Famous YouTubers”.
The reason they have so many different designs is that unlike retail, they don’t make anything until someone orders, this allows them to outsource all the designing to you!
Yes, if you have some basic graphic design skills – even if that’s just typing in words and phrases, then you can upload designs to these merch sites and set your prices.
It’s really that easy.
Redbubble takes care of getting people to the site, you just get a cut off the final price.
As with anything, it’s a numbers game.
The more quality designs you get in there the better, but once they are done, they can sell passively to clients all around the world at any time of day and you have to do absolutely nothing – true passive income online.
If you went down the YouTube route we discussed a minute ago you could even advertise your unique branded shirts in the description boxes for your videos.
Etsy
Etsy is a marketplace for buying unique handcrafted goods – jewellery, gifts etc. A community of creators and makers.
Now, this is active income because we have to make the goods:
- Glueing
- Sewing
- Assembling… and breaking.
However, one thing many people don’t realise is that you can also make passive income on Etsy – in two ways.
One is to design and sell digital downloads.
Quotes are great for this – Google some famous quote or phrases specific to your niche, design the quote in an interesting way (I would use Canva), upload the file and let Etsy take care of the rest.
Etsy will point people towards your designs and handle all of the sales processes.
The second way to make money with Etsy is using a blog or YouTube, or in fact any social media account – Instagram and Pinterest are also great for this.
You want to create content that people find interesting and include examples from Etsy – use their affiliate scheme to earn around 4% on any sales through your link.
If you are just getting started with affiliate marketing then personally I would recommend high ticket affiliate and try and earn way more than that 4% but I wanted you to know its still an option.
Dropshipping
It’s surprisingly easy to create your own online store these days.
Sites like Shopify allow you to pick a templated shop, add some details, import some products and start selling.
They take all of the technical wizardry out of it.
Now that’s great if you manufacture your own products but what about those of us that don’t?
Well, good news, Its actually pretty straightforward, you can use services like oberlo to dropship. Oberlo will take a lot of the hard work out of it for you and help automate dropshipping into a legit way to make money online and passive income source.
Dropshipping is where you don’t have to buy any upfront goods, you set your prices and when you make a sale you then order directly from the manufacturer and you just play the broker.
The middle man/woman.
As far as the customer is concerned they think they ordered it from your professional-looking retail store.
Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people, on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more.
I have just started using this myself and I am going to be building out my teacher profile – uploading videos that help people with certain software.
Now the reason it took me this long is that I’ve always thought, I cant teach until I’m an expert, until I know everything about that subject.
Well, that mindset held me back.
You can learn almost anything on the internet using google and YouTube.
With a little practice, you can then teach others.
They don’t need the full A-Z, often they just need the answer to something much smaller and more specific i.e. how can I create youtube thumbnails, how can I create an ebook in canva.
Skillshare gives you this opportunity.
You upload small video lessons and tutorials and then you can make money in 2 ways.
- If someone signs up to skillshare then you can a small introductory commission – that’s nice
- If you create content then skillshare will pay you for each minute watched. So unlike having a big course that you have to try and sell, with skillshare you’re making money just on the time people spend on your lessons. I know a few people that are earning several hundred dollars a month with a relatively modest amount of courses.
What makes this a legit way to make money online and passive income, is that once you’ve created the course you don’t need to do anything else.
The upfront work is done, so now walk away and leave it.
If you want to check it out – to brush up on some of your skills or even register as a teacher then I’ve left my link below.
Sign up for Skillshare & get 2 months FREE
Does passive income really work?
Now passive income does not mean easy.
I like to look at it like digital real estate – each piece of content I create, I put the work in to make it, then I send it out to the world, and move onto my next piece…..
Meanwhile in the background people start to find your previous work. reading it, watching it, clicking on your money-making links all whilst you busy on the next content.
This is the true beauty of passive income. Being consistently rewarded for taking the time to create that content.
Active income is all point in time. You work, you get paid.
Passive income, on the other hand, means that 1000 people could click on one of your affiliate links on the same day, then the next day too…..
READ NEXT – Secret Affiliate Marketing Hacks Review 2020 (Zach Crawford)
Let me know below, which is your favourite make money online opportunity from the list above? Do you have any of your own that I may have missed?