Making money—and doing so in the fastest way possible, has been top priority for many Americans. Recent Google search trends data from Semrush reveals that searches for “how to make money” stood at 90,500 and “how to make money fast” stood at 74,000. That’s not surprising, given the current cost of living.
1. Create a Newsletter
Revenue potential: You can start with $10/month per subscription and reach up to $2,000 through sponsorships as your audience grows.
Age threshold: 16+
Setup ease: Beginner level
Total time to first pay: Varies based on monetization tactics
Consumers spend lots of time in their mailboxes daily for work or personal purposes. From communicating with colleagues to searching for product sales or new content, this channel is increasingly gaining ground in consumers’ trust.
If you enjoy content writing and have expertise in or passion for a field, you can start your newsletter and profit from it by building a premium subscription with exclusive content. Exploding Topics and the Motley Fool are great examples to get inspired.
You can start small by sharing a landing page on your social platforms to gradually build an audience. Once you gain more traction, you can invest in a website and motivate your greatest fans to move to premium. Explain all the benefits they’ll reap if they do so and try to reach up to their expectations.
2. Start an Ecommerce Business
2. Start an Ecommerce Business
Revenue potential: You can reach up to $63,000 in monthly revenue in three months and up to $127,000 in year one.
Age threshold: 18+
Setup ease: Intermediate to advanced
Total time to first pay: Immediately after the website launch, depending on promotional activities
If you’re looking for a large payout that can gradually lead to a full-time occupation, you can start an online store. Setting up a small business online has never been easier if you find the right products/services.
To build a profitable store, select products/services you’re passionate about and conduct market research to determine their potential. Then, sit down to map the logistics. You don’t have to start big; just shape your brand and take it one step at a time.
Moreover, you can also get into the world of dropshipping, a business model that has gained many fans over the years. In short, you mediate between the customer and a third-party supplier. You don’t need anything in stock, as they fulfill the orders on your behalf.
You can also offer print-on-demand T-shirts, mugs, and accessories. This way, you can design fantastic products and sell them before placing an order for them.
3. Join an Affiliate Marketing Program
Revenue potential: Novices can earn up to $1,000, mid-level affiliates up to $10,000, and advanced affiliates $100,000+.
Age threshold: 16+
Setup ease: All levels, easier with strong online presence
Total time to first pay: Approximately one to two months
Becoming an affiliate marketer should be ideal for professionals interested in making extra income. Affiliate marketing occurs when an affiliate or publisher earns a commission for a product or service they promoted successfully to their audiences.
Affiliates can choose between physical and digital products if they can convince their audience to buy them. Even though promoting physical products can convert faster than digital, the commission is usually lower.
Affiliates usually get a unique website link that tracks conversions. They place it inside a blog post or promote it via social media, like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube.
Others prefer to run Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns if they have some money to invest beforehand to reach consumers who are very likely to convert.
Let’s see some successful affiliate marketing programs you’d better watch out for.
Best Affiliate Marketing Programs For Digital Products
- Moosend: If email marketing is your thing, you can’t miss out on our fantastic affiliate program. Earn up to 40% lifetime recurring commission for every paying customer and an extra commission if they upgrade.
- Shopify: This website builder offers a generous 20% recurring commission for each referral. Earnings vary based on the merchant’s location.
- Semrush: This SEO marketing tool gives $200 for every subscription sale and $10 for every free trial signup.
- HubSpot: This customer platform widely known for its suite of CRM tools offers 30% recurring commission (for up to 1 year) for every paying customer. With performance-based tiers, you can earn more rewards like bonuses when you graduate to the next tier.
- Capsulink: Join the Capsulink affiliate program and earn a 25% recurring commission for up to 12 months. With Capsulink link shortener, you can make and share short links across various social networks and other marketing channels.
Best Affiliate Marketing Program For Physical Products
- Amazon Associates: You can earn a 1-20% commission, depending on the program. The cookie lasts for a day.
- Target: It’s another notable retail brand, enabling you to get up to an 8% commission with the cookie lasting seven days.
- eBay Partner Network: This well-known retail platform pays you a 1-4% commission based on the product category. The cookie’s life span is 24 hours.
To succeed in affiliate marketing, create exciting and relevant content for promotional purposes to make good money.
4. Become an Influencer
Revenue potential: Micro-influencers (10-50K followers) can make from $40K-$100K annually, depending on many factors.
Age threshold: 16+ (with legal permission)
Setup ease: All levels
Total time to first pay: Varies depending on the number of followers and your niche
If you love social media and creating content regularly, you can consider leveling up your social profiles, like Instagram or TikTok. If you specialize in a niche market, e.g., education or traveling, you can create more specific content and target specific people by addressing their pain points.
As your following grows, you can experiment with different content types to see what drives more engagement, and sponsorships will start coming your way.
Even though this is one of the most creative ways to make money online and turn it into a real business, you’ll need time to nurture results. Plus, competition is high in specific markets, so you’d better research first.
Here, you’ve listed some tools that will help nail your content creation process:
As long as you find the appropriate tools, you must update your content consistently to fulfill your subscribers’ expectations. Moreover, answering your followers’ comments and interacting with your audience is essential to build a strong community.
5. Start a Blog
Revenue potential: People who monetize their blog can earn $20,000-$50,000 annually.
Age threshold: 16+ (with legal permission)
Setup ease: All levels, depending on the CMS you use
Total time to first pay: A few months, but varies based on the efforts and monetization tactics
If you love expressing yourself through writing or you have experience as a freelance writer, you can become a blogger. To build a successful blog, targeting a specific niche market and audience is much more efficient.
If you publish great content consistently and apply SEO principles, you can turn your blog website into a real money-maker. For instance, you can add affiliate links to blog posts that drive high traffic or sell advertising space to other businesses.
You should dedicate time and effort to set up an online business like this. But if you have a creative spirit, this safe writing space may give you the freedom you need.
Using AI writing assistants can pivot your content creation, but keep in mind that simply adding unedited content to your blog is a damaging practice.
Here are some Content Management Systems (CMS) to start a blog from scratch, paid and free:
- WordPress: The free plan starts with limited features and no custom options. The most popular plan for freelancing is the Premium at $10/month.
- Joomla: You can start for free, but you’ll soon need to update to access top features. The annual cost for the Personal package is $99.
- Ghost: The pricing varies based on the audience you have. For example, for up to 500 members, it’s $11/month.
Lastly, you’ll also need to buy a domain name and hosting servers from registrants like GoDaddy and HostGator to host your new blog.
6. Create a YouTube Channel
Revenue potential: The average YouTuber earns $18 for 1,000 ad views and around $5 for 1,000 video views. However, the final income can vary.
Age threshold: 18+
Setup ease: All levels
Time to first pay: A few months based on monetization practices
If you’re more confident with public speaking and have solid story-telling skills, you can also start a YouTube channel to make money online. Again, sticking to a specific field is best if you want to gain authority and followers faster by creating how-to videos, so picking the right YouTube niche is a must.
