Looking to make money online? If you clicked this link, I am assuming you want to learn how to make money online.

Legitimately.

Before we cut to the chase, remember there is no fast and easy way out. You have to be willing to put in the hard work and time to see results. Remember, it doesn’t matter your age, location or background, the internet has possibilities for everyone… You can! You too… can!

The first on my list of course has to be blogging. If you have a passion for writing or selling information , well don’t sell your self short. You know what to do.

I will start by listing top ten ways to make money online, while having a long term focus in mind. If you are searching for how to start a true online business without fear of investing months and years of hardwork and time, money, well this is for you. If not, check out my other post on how to make money online without investments.

Top ways to make money online

• Launch a Niche Blog and implement Affiliate Marketing

If you have an interest in writing and there is a niche you are interested in, one of the ways to generate income while doing what you are passionate about is starting a blog ad using affiliate marketing . It doesn’t require any extensive technical skill or expertise.

It can seem like a handful at first sight but my free master course is here to help you. It addresses what you need to do from inception to your first published post. One of the ways to make money off blogging is through affiliate marketing. Once you have launched your website, the next step would be to figure out what products you want to be partner with.  Think about products that will be useful to your readers.

Affiliate marketing is selling someones product in order to get a percentage by referring customers to their online store or platform.

Research is your best friend at this stage. Find profitable affiliate companies that will pay you to send them customers.

Now that you have researched your niche, next step is to build your site and start blogging.

Find and buy a domain name that’s inline with your niche on a domain registrar like  Bluehost, NameCheap or GoDaddy.

Now that you have officially launched your blog, start writing tailored posts to your niche. You can go a step further by using google key planner to optimize your blog posts. Good luck!

• Launch an eCommerce Site 

With sites like shopify starting an eCommerce site has never been easier. It’s easy to build and customizable, why don’t you start selling products now? You can do this by either:

1. Buying goods at low cost from manufacturers, repackaging and selling them for higher prices on online stores.
2. Sourcing and creating physical products people will love.

Things to consider when selling your own new products or reselling:

1. Quantity of stock to have.
2. How to fund purchasing cost.
3. Where to store inventory . Except  you are thinking of drop shipping.

With drop shipping you need not worry yourself with inventory, handling products yourself or shipping by hand. The manufacturer does all that for you. Sounds interesting right? All you need to do is partner with a manufacturer, create a site and fill with the products and bring in customers.

Other marketplaces to look at asides shopify include Etsy, Ebay, Amazon and craigslist.

•  Start a YouTube Channel to Entertain and Educate

YouTube is the second largest search engine. YouTube uses the traditional advertising system, leveraging on the number of viewers you get. More views equals more money. Apply for the YouTube partner program and once approved, you can start including ads on your videos and you will make approximately $2-$4 for every 1,000 views. Imagine of you have 100 videos with 5000 views a month, you will be making between $1,000–$2,000 and if that video gets millions of views…. Whew!

With YouTube, the type of content you create just like blogging matters a lot. Successful YouTube videos are either Educational or entertainment based.

Entertaining content could include web series, comedy videos, pranks, reviews, product reviews etc

Educational content is usual geared towards passing valuable information. It includes ‘how to’ phrases. For example, ‘how to monitize your blog’.

Set up and build your  YouTube channel by either using your gmail account or registering a new one. Use relevant key words relevant to your post . Make sure you use a high quality camera, your smart phone can suffice for now. Consistency is key. Putting out content often will help you build a decent following.

You can start monetizing your videos by selecting “Monetize with ads” under the monetization tab of your channel, once you hit the 1,000 subscriber/4,000 hour threshold.

• Record a Podcast 

Successful podcasting just like YouTube channel or blog boils down to building an engaged audience and this can be done by telling interesting stories. If you like speaking, conducting interviews, sharing opinions then podcasting might just be for you.

Creating a successful podcast does not only require high quality audio but also high quality content. Start by coming up with a list of topics you want to talk about and do some podcast research by using sites like cast.market to see what is popular.

Minimum you will need is a microphone and a software to record your voice. To start recording today, you can check out Blue, Focusrite, Behringer (Behringer, Blue, Focusrite,) for studio-quality plug-and-play podcast setups.

You can do a few mock interviews first with friends or family If you’re planning to do interview-style podcast. You can also leverage on your existing social network to reach out to people you already know or are connected with on Twitter or Facebook.

You know I am big on research (big tip about me – I have a Phd  and research was all i did for a long time) You need to go through the top podcasts on iTunes and write down what made you enjoy their podcast, was it humor or story telling technique etc.

Podcast just like the afore mentioned depends on the size and engagement of your audience. To earn a decent living, you need a larger audience and more podcast downloads. Below are few options you can choose from when you’re ready to monetize:

• Selling your own products
• Donations and crowdfunding
• Getting sponsors
• Putting on live shows
• Selling “subscriber-only” content

Goodluck!

• Become an Influencer on Instagram

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms out there and building up a following on your Instagram account could quickly be making you extra money online.

Although it’s becoming more difficult to build a large following on Instagram, it’s a pretty easy way to make a nice living online as major brands are willing to cough out $500-$5,000+ per post to get in front of your audience. You will need a great camera to take photos.  You will need to be consistent and will have to spend lots of time on your phone.

What did I miss? what other ways have you been using to make money online?