Whether you want to generate a passive income, earn some fast cash or launch a multi million-pound (or dollar) business idea, the internet is the perfect place to do it. Making money online gives you the option to work from home, abroad or even on the move.
The internet offers countless opportunities to earn, whatever your skill set or level of experience. It’s also quick and easy to start in most cases with no need for equipment or initial investment. You can access the web from anywhere in the world, meaning you can pick up and drop these ideas as and when you need to make money.
Ready to get started? Find your ideal earner with our definitive list of the best 100 ways to start making money online.
1. Test and review products
Brands and businesses are always in need of people to test and review their products and provide feedback before they launch to the public. Electronics, toys, food, and beauty companies are among the many that require frequent product testing.
Most sites will allow you to keep the product for free and in some cases will pay you for your feedback. In some cases, you can sell on tested products for a profit, depending on the company’s terms and conditions.
To get started reviewing products, you can sign up to market research sites such as ProductTestingUK. You’ll need to fill out a questionnaire to determine which target markets fit your demographic. You can also get paid to test digital products, known as usability testing. Here you’ll have to check online products such as websites and apps and may have to record yourself using the products. You can find digital product testing opportunities on sites such as UserTesting, Webusability and TestingTime.
2. Create a killer app
The brains behind today’s viral apps earn millions every year. Amateur coders are now in abundance, but creating a killer app is a lot trickier. For an app to go viral, it needs to be something innovative, exciting and most importantly, universal.
Take TikTok, for example. In 2019 the online video sharing platform became the most downloaded app on the Apple Store, surpassing its far older predecessors like YouTube and Instagram. The app allows users to create short, entertaining video clips using filters, background music and audio from films. It’s funny and addictive and appeals to a vast audience with all kinds of interests.
Your best bet at creating a trending app is to target a younger audience. Increased phone use is still strongly associated with the younger age bracket – 41% of TikTok’s users are aged 16 – 24. To hit maximum download potential, create an ethical concept that appeals to youngsters first.
3. Become a white hat hacker
If you’ve got the technical skills and enjoy a high-pressure job, white-hat hacking could be for you. White hat hackers, sometimes known as ethical hackers, are responsible for carrying out penetration testing: testing a company’s security on all their computer systems and networks. You’ll need to be an expert in coding and encryption and have good judgment.
All businesses rely on trade secrets to a certain degree, some far more than others. Sensitive information needs protecting from cyber-attacks. Your job will be to attempt all the hacking methods of criminal hackers to expose any weak links in a client’s system. Your clients need to be able to trust you – it can seem alarmingly counter-intuitive to pay somebody to breach your company’s firewalls. One way to build the trust of prospective clients is to complete an Ethical Hacking course through EC-Council or itgovernance.co.uk and gain certification.
Due to the specialist skillset required, white hat hacking is both high in demand and well-paid. Although you can carry out the job entirely remotely, it is a good idea to have a face-to-face first meeting with clients to build their trust before you begin.
4. Complete paid online surveys
Businesses are continually looking to get an insight into the opinions and demographics of their customers so that they can hone their products, services and marketing campaigns. For this purpose, many companies are using online surveys as a market research method to gather public opinion.
Businesses often work with third-party market research platforms to publish their surveys and attract participants. To start earning money with paid surveys, sign up to Swagbucks, Onepoll, Lifepoints and Toluna. Swagbucks is one of the largest survey sites in the world and has paid out over £400 million to survey completers.
Be sure to use reputable survey platforms like the ones listed above, as many scam websites promote paid surveys. Before you use a website, check out its reviews online. Once you have found a survey site you like, it’s quick to sign up and get going. Payment varies – some offer cash, while others pay with vouchers or rewards. Websites usually have a cap on the amount of paid surveys you can complete per month, so sign up to as many sites as possible to maximise your earnings.
5. Buy and sell cryptocurrency
Trading in cryptocurrency involves buying digital currency such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin for a specific price and selling it for a profit through platforms such as Coinbase exchange. Cryptocurrency is decentralised, meaning its exchanged directly from seller to buyer without the bank as the intermediary. In theory, crypto is therefore immune to government interference.
At the end of 2017, bitcoin reached its highest value ever, with a price of £17,000. If you’d invested in one bitcoin in 2015, it would have cost you only £215, showing just how lucrative crypto trade can be.
A foolproof understanding of your chosen currency is crucial to be successful in buying and selling crypto. You need to know the value and potential growth of each and observe market trends. Study past trends and read up on the history of the market – markets react in the same way in similar economic circumstances. Studying recent trends can help you predict future peaks and dips in market value in similar economic conditions.
Choose your cryptocurrency carefully. The four most popular currencies are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple. These tend to be the most secure, having been around for a while. To trade, you can use online platforms such as Kraken, Etoro and Bitcoin UK.
Trading online is never without risk. Many experienced traders took on large amounts of debt to invest in Bitcoin, and when the price fell dramatically, these traders were left with enormous debt. The essential takeaway here is never invest more than you have or can afford to risk.
6. Become a Youtuber
Do you fancy yourself as a YouTube sensation? Getting started is easier than you think. The practicalities are straightforward: you’ll need a camera, a computer, some editing software and a high-speed internet connection to upload videos.
Becoming a successful YouTuber takes hard work. You’ll need to be consistent with uploading content and choose a popular niche such as daily vlogs, gaming and tech videos. There are over 31 million channels on YouTube – what’s going to make yours stand out? Make sure you’re doing something unique. Engage with your audience to maintain regular viewers. It’s a good idea to grow a following on other social media accounts such as Instagram, where you can promote your YouTube channel.
YouTube pays YouTubers 45% to 50% of ad revenue every month. These figures translate to an average of £5 to £7 per 1000 views, which means you can earn an impressive passive income from old videos. The more views you hit, the more money you can make – channels with a significant subscriber base can receive paid partnership deals by endorsing a product or service in a video for a considerable fee.
7. Buy and sell limited-edition streetwear
Resellers buy trending products and sell them on for a profit. With a spike in popular demand for limited edition streetwear from brands such as Supreme and Yeezy, existing resellers are seeing returns upwards of 10 times their initial investment.
Limited edition items are the most profitable products to resell. As a result, the resale market is highly competitive. To maximise your success, learn as much as you can from veteran resellers. Follow social media accounts such as @flipping_supreme and @hustle_the_hype on Instagram, who provide resell predictions on popular releases.
Limited edition products are known to sell out in seconds, meaning you’ll need to hone your checkout speed. Some sites allow you to sign in beforehand and save your card details, which speeds up the process. Many resellers use free apps such as Fillr to reduce their checkout times, which autofill your details for you.
Once you’ve got your hands on hot, limited products, you can resell on mainstream platforms such as Depop. To achieve better prices, consider selling through more exclusive platforms such as StockX, Grailed and Stadium Goods which feature higher-end, hyped and curated collections.
8. Create and sell stock photos
Are you a passionate photographer? Selling stock photos is a fantastic way to turn your hobby into a profit. Individuals and companies purchase stock photography to save time and money in place of arranging a photo shoot. Writers of blogs, news stories and website owners also need stock imagery to use on their pages. Companies will usually purchase a subscription to a stock agency, where they have the rights to use any stock image on the site for the duration of their subscription.
You can upload your images to websites such as Shutterstock, PayLoadz and Adobe Stock. Selling stock photos is an excellent way to earn a passive income, but it is difficult to turn into a full salary. Stock imagery is a saturated market: there are over 225 million images on Shutterstock alone (your also in competition with free stock photo websites). Once uploaded, you’ll tend to earn £0.15 – £0.30 per month, per image.
A profitable market to enter is aerial photography. Well-known landmarks and popular tourist destinations such as the Eiffel Tower, London Eye or the Brandenburg Gate tend to achieve the highest sales.
9. Buy and sell domains
In 2010, the website domain CarInsurance.com sold for over £38 million. This figure by no means represents your average domain sale but demonstrates just how profitable the market can be. The low investment cost of purchasing domains makes it a great way to make significant extra income.
You can purchase domains from domain registrars such as Godaddy and Squarespace for as little as £0.99 a year. Hold on to them until they increase in value and then sell them on for a healthy profit (make sure to avoid domain squatting). Marketing on the domain itself is a smart way to advertise, as companies will seek out the domain they want for their brand. Alternatively, you can list your domains on a third-party domain listing site such as Afternic, BrandBucket and NameCheap.
The best way to make serious money buying and selling domains is to opt for the most generic names as possible – just like Carinsurance.com. Geographic names tend to bring in high revenue as well as the names of popular professions and industries.
10. Start an eCommerce store
Creating an online shop, known as an eCommerce store, is a lucrative way to make money online. An online shop is far more profitable than its brick-and-mortar counterpart as it eliminates the need for expenditure on rent and property insurance. ECommerce stores also offer scope for massive growth as you can target customers from anywhere in the world.
Keep up to date with popular product trends: intercepting the market just before products go viral can earn you thousands. Sellers who picked up on the fidget spinner trend, for example, saw 10 to 20 times their initial investment.
You can easily set up an eCommerce store on platforms such as Shopify. Generating significant income requires effective marketing: create a strong brand and advertise your store through social media and Facebook ads to increase traffic to your website.
11. Start trading online
Trading online can be a lucrative money-maker: online trading involves buying and selling stocks, shares and currency, typically through an online broker, to make a profit. In recent years there has been a boom in the number of people trading online. The FOREX market alone, a market which trades different currencies, sees a daily trading volume of 3.9 trillion pounds.
The best advice for any wannabe trader is research, research, research. Scrupulously studying the market is critical to becoming a successful online trader. You’ll need to be hot on the different types of trading and be aware of market trends. Once you’re clued up on the market, you then need to decide on the kind of trading you want to engage in: cryptocurrency, for example, has proved a popular medium in recent years.
Next, decide on a broker to use for buying and selling. Popular platforms include Etoro, Plus500 and IG. Many trading platforms provide trading simulators for new traders to practice on; take advantage of the option to trade with no money in play before entering live trades.
No matter how much research you do, online trading will always be a risky venture. Only 5% of online traders are successful. The trick is to start investing small amounts and scale up as you gain experience. Remember, always keep your trades to low percentages of your overall available capital. That way, one bad deal won’t clear you out.
12. Start dropshipping
A rapidly growing branch of eCommerce is dropshipping, a retail method of selling online without ever physically handling the stock. Instead, you’ll only order products from your supplier when you receive orders from customers. Crucially, the products are delivered directly from the supplier to the customer, saving on upfront investment and storage for stock.
To set up a dropshipping store, consider using platforms such as WordPress, 3dcart or Shopify. These are some of the most popular free (WordPress) and subscription-based online storefront hosts. Shopify is particularly beginner-friendly as it takes you through the setup process. Decide on the products you want to sell and look for suppliers. For a smooth-running operation, ensure your suppliers are reliable and can provide a fast delivery time. To find suppliers, search on Aliexpress, Alibaba and Salehoo where you can find an extensive range of suppliers in multiple industries.
The final step to dropshipping success is advertising. Your marketing strategy will largely depend on your industry and your target consumer. For a younger audience, for example, capitalise on social media campaigns and Facebook ads.
13. Get paid to test websites and apps
Before launching a website or app, companies employ usability testing to evaluate how easy a service is to use and to expose any bugs or glitches. You can earn money as a user tester with just a computer and a microphone. For many tests, you’ll need to record yourself so that the company can evaluate an authentic user experience.
With an endless amount of software providers, new apps and websites, user testers are always in high demand. Web testing covers user experience, user interface testing and development testing.
You can find lots of products and services to test on third-party websites such as TryMyUI, Webusability and Enroll. Signing up takes a matter of minutes. You’ll then receive some training material and guidance on how to use the testing software. Once you’ve set up your account, most platforms will provide a list of testing opportunities from which you can choose. Companies may also contact you directly to test products.
Payment differs per provider, but you can earn anywhere from £1 to £36 per test. If you want to increase your income per test, consider taking a course in UX or UI development. Specialist testers with coding or design knowledge can take part in better-paid testing opportunities.
14. Enter competitions
Entering general or business competitions is a great money-making tactic as its simple, fast and exciting. With an average of 30,000 competitions uploaded at any one time in the UK alone, there’s no shortage of opportunities to win big. Competition prizes vary from freebies and cash to sports cars or even houses.
To start winning prizes, we recommend getting organised. Decide how many hours you will spend entering each day or week, how many competitions you aim to register for and produce a table where you can list which competitions you have entered, as you’ll quickly lose track. Consider making a new email address so that all competition results go to one place – this also stops your personal email address from being flooded with promotions.
Finding competitions online is super easy. Check out The Prize Finder, which regularly updates lists of free competitions to enter. Be sure to read the terms and conditions when filling out your details, as some third-party sites will ask for a monthly charge on signing up.
15. Make money by mining cryptocurrency
Mining cryptocurrency is the process used to authenticate cryptocurrency transactions and add them to the blockchain, a digital ledger for cryptocurrency. Miners receive rewards for this process in the currency they mine, meaning you can earn cryptocurrency without buying it. As a miner, you’ll verify transactions to prevent illicit ‘double-spending’, where cryptocurrency users spend the same tokens twice. Mining also uncovers new coins to be circulated in the market.
To become a successful miner, you’ll need an in-depth understanding of Bitcoin and the blockchain. Mining cryptocurrency is hugely competitive. The reward goes to the miner who gets the solution first, completing the block of transactions. This process takes a lot of computing power to be successful. To set up a mining rig, you’ll need to invest in the right hardware: you’ll need a GPU (graphics processing unit) or an ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) to get going.
You can choose from several different currencies. The best-known coins are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple. These are also the most competitive currencies, making it even harder to mine.
Mining cryptocurrency can be an extremely lucrative way to earn money if you’ve got the know-how. It requires a very specialist skill set and has high investment costs, so it’s quite a risk for Bitcoin newbies: the computer equipment alone can cost up to tens of thousands of pounds. For crypto pros, however, it’s worth the investment.
16. Get paid to search the web
Getting paid to search the web has never been easier. Browser add-ons such as Qmee enable you to earn quick cash by simply searching in browsers such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. It works bringing up sponsored results next to the usual results list when you type something into your search engine.
Most of us already spend vast amounts of time searching the web. If you’re one of these people, using this add-on is a no-brainer to bring in a passive income. There’s no minimum cash-out amount, meaning you can withdraw your earnings whenever you like. To get started, download an add-on such as Qmee. It’s straightforward, merely requiring you to sign up and follow a step-by-step tutorial on how to download their software.
You’ll earn a cash reward every time you click on one of the Qmee sponsored results. Typically, the cash reward per result is about 15p.
17. No-risk matched betting
Also known as the risk-free betting method, no-risk matched betting is where you use bookmakers’ free bets, bonuses and additional promotions to make a profit. Most betting sites offer promotions and special offers, particularly to new customers. These promotions usually come in the form of a free bet after you’ve placed your first bet, to encourage first-time gamblers. You can capitalise on this by placing your free bet and cancelling out the risk by betting against yourself, at the same odds, on a different betting site.
Most failed no-risk betting comes down to human error other than the method itself, so it’s essential to familiarise yourself with the processes of lay betting and back betting.
Always remember to check the terms and conditions of each promotion, as some offers have high withdrawal regulations. Bear in mind that betting can become very addictive, and matched betting can act as a gateway to full risk betting. Only ever risk what you can afford to lose.
18. Test apps for cash
App testing is a fun and easy way to make money online. As an app tester, you’ll download a new app before it’s launched to the public to give feedback on its usability, functionality and consistency. Your feedback will go towards improving the overall performance of an app before it goes live.
Over 194 billion mobile apps were downloaded in 2018 alone. It’s therefore no surprise that app testers are in high demand. To become an app tester, you will need a smartphone or tablet. Sign up to a third-party platform such as Ubertesters. Here, you’ll need to fill out a short form giving information on yourself and your technical skills. For higher-paid testing opportunities, consider taking some online training on general programming and app development. Once the site has certified your account, you’ll receive requests to start testing apps.
The average payment for individual app testing is approximately £5 to £7. That said, some platforms pay up to £75 depending on the intensity of the test. We recommend that you sign up to more than one testing platform to maximise your earnings, as this is a great way to generate some quick cash in your spare time.
19. Start or monetise a blog
A blog is a fun and easy way to earn some extra cash, but you’ll need to grow a decent readership before you can make any money. The best way to attract readers is to be authentic – choose something you’re genuinely passionate about. There are hundreds of thousands of blogs on the internet, so try to create a unique brand or come up with an innovative concept. Blogs are a great way to share your story or experiences or inform others while building a community.
Once you’ve established a blog, you can quickly turn it into a money-maker. For social or personal blogs, endorsing brands and using affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn an income. For more educational blogs, consider adding the option to pay to become a member to receive exclusive content on a monthly subscription basis. With enough website traffic, you can also approach businesses and offer banner adverts or request sponsorship in exchange for marketing.
The easiest way to produce a blog is by using WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Blogger, which are free to use and accessible for website newbies. Once your page is online, you can promote it through reciprocal sharing sites such as Triberr and Viral Content Bee.
20. Work as a freelancer online
Do you have technical skills such as software development, web development, writing, data entry or graphic design? Almost any skill is marketable thanks to the internet. Offer your services online as a freelancer and start making money today.
Working as a freelancer has many perks, the most apparent being flexible hours. Working for yourself means you can work as and when you like. Platforms such as Upwork, Lemon.io and Fiverr have made it quick and easy to get going. What’s more, if you’re already proficient in your marketable skill, it’s likely you already own the necessary equipment to do the job – making it a venture you can start with next to no start-up costs. Consider expanding your knowledge in your market by taking some online courses to boost your credibility, meaning you can charge more for your services and attract more clients.
Freelancing websites such as Bark and PeoplePerHour are a few of the many platforms available to market your services. You’ll need to create a personal profile where you can detail your skills, education and experience as well as publish your portfolio. To maximise your exposure, consider putting yourself on more than one website.
Income for online freelancing varies massively depending on your skillset and payment structure. Most freelancers charge either per hour or per project. On average, online freelancers make anywhere from £7.50 to upwards of £750 per hour, depending on the service they’re offering.
21. Become a virtual assistant
As a virtual assistant, you’ll offer a range of remote services to businesses. Tasks usually include appointment scheduling, marketing and event management, among others.
Many business executives don’t have time for small tasks, but these tasks are essential to the smooth operation of a company. This is where you step in – working as a remote virtual assistant offers ample freedom. You can work from home, on holiday or in a café. You can set your hourly rates, and the initial investment is low. You can also determine the tasks you’ll offer, meaning you can do what you enjoy.
One of the biggest challenges for remote workers is working productively. It can be difficult to avoid distractions when working at home. We suggest putting together a work schedule as well as setting up a work station, to separate work and play.
To reach clients, you’ll need to set up a website to market your business. One of the most beginner-friendly platforms to use for this is WordPress. Alternatively, take advantage of platforms such as LinkedIn, which is an excellent tool for reaching out to specific people in different companies and industries.
22. Fiverr gigs
Providing gig on Fiverr is where you offer your services for a fixed fee. This service can be anything, like video editing, graphic design, market research, to name a few. Anybody who needs these services can place an order with you, whether that’s an individual or a company. Gigs start from £3 but can reach anywhere up to £500, depending on how specialised the service is that you’re offering.
With 5.5 million buyers on Fiverr and an average of 50 million transactions monthly, offering freelance services on this site is a fantastic way to make money online. The site provides you with excellent exposure, meaning there’s no need to spend money on marketing.
Getting started on Fiverr is straightforward. Sign up as a seller and create your profile. This page will be the first thing prospective customers see, and when competing with hundreds of other similar services, a sleek profile can be the make or break in closing a sale. To stand out against the competition, make sure your profile appears as professional as possible and include a portfolio of your work if you can. Concisely explain what it is that you’re offering and provide an overall estimate of the price.
Having video content on your profile to pitch your gigs has been proven to increase sales – consider adding short descriptive videos to your page to explain a bit about you and the service you’ll provide.
23. Write and publish an eBook
72% of publishers now publish books digitally. Electronic books, or eBooks, are available on any electronic device, from tablets, phones and computers to specifically designed eBook readers, such as a Kindle. eBooks have made publishing a book far more accessible. It’s an easy way to make a passive income: websites such as Amazon allow you to self-publish and sell eBooks for free.
If you enjoy writing or want to share a passion for a particular subject, you can write an eBook yourself and publish it online. Writing an entire book can be tricky. It’s easiest to stick to a topic you know – non-fiction tends to be a more accessible category than fiction. Once you’ve written your text, choose appropriate formatting. It’s best to use a sans-serif text such as Verdana or Ariel in size 11 or 12 to enable easy reading.
Next, you’ll need a professional book cover. Despite the well-known saying, consumers really will judge the content by its cover, and a catchy design can go a long way in selling your eBook. If you don’t have experience in graphic design, you can outsource this task to a designer on eBook launch, where covers cost £75 on average. Alternatively, you can find a designer on Fiverr, which tends to be a cheaper option.
Once you have a book and a cover, you will need to convert your text into an appropriate format. Different selling platforms require varying forms, so be sure to check the conditions for the site you choose. The best places to sell an eBook are Blurb, Amazon Kindle and Payhip as they attract high traffic volume – perfect for a passive income.
24. Clickwork
Clickworkers carry out small, digital tasks on the internet for individuals and businesses. It’s a quick and straightforward way to earn money from home, requires no experience and you’ll need nothing more than a computer and the internet.
Clickworker is a platform which provides such tasks to interested workers. It’s free to sign up, and you can complete the work from your computer, tablet or mobile and start earning money wherever you are. When you sign up, bear in mind that the more information you add, the more tasks the site will offer you. Different jobs require different skills, so be sure to list as many as you can.
Before you can start, you’ll need to complete an assessment to determine your eligibility for different types of task. You’ll also receive a brief online training session, to familiarise you with the workplace interface. Once your profile is complete and verified, you can choose from a range of available tasks based on your skills, interests and past work experience.
On average, a clickworker can earn anything above £7.50 an hour, depending on their skills and experience. Working as a clickworker is ideal for generating some extra cash or for topping up your income – due to the unstable nature of the work, Clickworker insists that it is not a suitable substitute for full-time employment.
25. Sell your notes
Are you a student looking to make some quick cash? If the answer’s yes, an excellent method is selling your studying material online through sites such as Stuvia. Over 175,000 students use Stuvia to gather notes to help them study subjects such as law, chemistry and medicine, to name a few. Some student sellers make over £2000 a year on this platform alone.
Selling on Stuvia couldn’t be more straightforward. Simply sign up to the site, upload your notes and set a price for each. You can sell anything from lecture notes and revision notes to case studies and essays. For maximum downloads, make sure your notes are well presented, preferably in digital form, and provide a free preview so that buyers can see what they’re getting for their money. Include a detailed description so that people know exactly which subjects are covered.
You should experiment with your prices to determine what pricing structure works best. Remember that your target audience is other students who may be strapped for cash. Charging a lower amount for each download tends to increase your sales, providing you with a better overall profit.
26. Start your own website
If done right, websites can bring in a lot of money. There are several ways to monetise a website. Accepting paid ads is the easiest way to generate an income, although you’ll have to demonstrate high website traffic to make money from ads. Another way is to create a membership site, where you offer some information or content for free and premium content for paid members.
First off, you’ll need to create a website. A popular and simple way to make a website is to use WordPress, which also offers an added membership plugin should you wish to monetise your website that way. To boost your website’s traffic and search engine ranking, you should be familiar with SEO and understand how it can help increase traffic to your site. Once you’re achieving consistent website traffic, you can start making money from advertisements.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative options – use your website to endorse products and provide an affiliate link to the vendor’s webpage. When customers purchase through the affiliate link, you’ll earn a commission. Pay Per Click advertising can also be a profitable option: apply for Google AdSense which will choose relevant ads to your website, and you’ll earn money every time someone visiting your site clicks on the advertisement.
There are numerous opportunities to make money from a website, but they all rely on visits to your site. Creating a website within a particular niche can help attract paid ads from companies that share your target audience.
27. Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing is a sales technique used by companies to increase their brand exposure and to generate more traffic to their website. Becoming an affiliate marketer is an easy way to earn money, particularly if you already have a significant online presence. Your role will be to endorse a product or service in any way you like on the internet and provide an affiliate link to the merchant’s website – any sales generated through your link will earn you a commission.
Affiliate marketing is a no-brainer for brands and businesses as a marketing method, as it generates sales they wouldn’t otherwise receive for a comparatively small price. It offers enormous potential for growing brand awareness and expanding the target audience. Many brands give out affiliate links to social media influencers, who will endorse a product on their Instagram profile or YouTube channel, for example. For individuals with large followings, it can be a lucrative way to earn money.
With that in mind, the best way to earn a significant income through affiliate marketing is to grow your audience. You can reach a broad audience through a blog, website or your social media accounts. Affiliate marketing is an ideal money-maker if you already have a website with high volume traffic.
If you share a target market with a brand, they’ll be particularly interested in working with you. Approach brands that operate in a similar niche to your own. For example, if you have an online photography community, a camera equipment start-up will be far more interested in marketing with you than with a makeup brand.
Businesses that you work with will ask you to link their products in your posts, video descriptions or blog articles in exchange for a commission per sale. The commission varies depending on the brand, but most affiliate marketers can negotiate a figure between 5% and 20%.
28. Start a clothing brand
For fashionistas and talented creatives, starting a clothing line is a fun way to earn money. You can get a clothing line off the ground with as little as £200, and there’s no better way to reach prospective customers than by selling online.
To minimise your start-up costs, start your business off with a print-on-demand model. Printing to order is an excellent method for people to get going with a low budget, as a third-party company will only produce your clothing when you receive an order, preventing the need for large orders or the need to store vast amounts of stock. A downfall of this method is lower profit margins, as prices for one-off items tend to be higher than for bulk orders.
To reach a wider audience, host your clothing store on platforms such as Shopify and Printful. They’ll also take care of much of the business side of things.
29. Set up a daily deals site
Creating a daily deals site is an ingenious way of making money without dealing with the end-to-end sales process. You won’t have to deal with product manufacture, storage or delivery – you’re merely matching customers will products and taking a cut of the profits.
A daily deals site offers discounts and offers on products and services for one day only. Finding merchants is relatively easy – they need only provide discounts for a day, and they will often experience a boost in sales, making them likely to return.
To get going, all you need is a website. After this, you’ll need to find merchants who can offer credible products and services with attractive discounts.
30. Manage social media presence
A social media manager is someone who curates a business’ online presence through social media to grow brand awareness. They’re responsible for running and monitoring the accounts as well as measuring the overall performance of a brand’s social media platforms using social media analytics.
As a social media manager, you’ll post content, respond to private messages and monitor follower engagement. You’ll have to produce content such as photos, articles or short videos, as well as define marketing strategies and implement automation tools. It’s helpful to have experience in copywriting, SEO, market research, customer service or visual intelligence, as well as a background in social media.
Of course, the best place to market your social media management business is on social media itself. Make sure you have an online presence on the leading platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Spend time getting to know how to maximise your accounts before you offer your services to other people. To grow your skillset, sites like Hootsuite, ConstantContact and Buffer provide training courses which cover topics like social media advertising, marketing and scheduling training.
It’s a good idea to decide how you’re going to offer your services. Many social media managers offer packages to clients which cover specific platforms and are priced according to the level of service you’ll provide. Social media managers tend to sell their services on a monthly rate, though you can also charge an hourly rate for smaller clients.
Once you have a selection of packages to offer, you can grow your clientele by posting on B2B sites, pitching to businesses via email and signing up to platforms such as Flexjobs. Social media managers can earn up to £200 per hour for high-profile clients – the average annual salary for a social media manager is £45,000.
31. Edit videos
If you enjoy editing videos, there’s no reason you can’t turn your hobby into a side-hustle. You’ll need some editing software and a computer, after which you’re good to go from the comfort of your own home. Video editing involves manipulating and arranging video shots to create one whole video.
65% of the population are said to be visual learners, which makes videos an effective medium to catch the interest of customers. As a result, many businesses are turning to video media as a means of engaging with their audience, meaning video editors are in high demand.
To offer a video editing service, you’ll need to brush up on your grasp of editing software. YouTube and Udemy are useful places to find tutorials and how-to videos to get you up to speed. To edit videos, you’ll need a good computer or laptop with relatively high processing power. It’ll also need a decent amount of storage to be able to store content and your editing software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro.
You can easily find clients through freelance platforms such as Fiverr or Valoso. The average hourly rate for video editing is about £15.
32. Buy and sell websites
Buying existing websites and improving their overall functionality, performance, appearance and traffic before selling them on can be a very profitable earner. For companies, buying a pre-existing webpage is a fantastic way to get instant access to a broad audience through an established brand, saving them time and money on advertising and brand exposure.
You can start flipping websites without any specialist knowledge of programming. That said, a basic understanding of web design and coding is beneficial for increasing the value of a site. You can buy websites through FEinternational.com, Wesellyoursite.com, Flippa.com and WebsiteBroker.com. Once you’ve purchased a site, look at improving the overall content and layout and work on SEO. You can then list the site on auction platforms such as BuySellEmpire, or the ones mentioned above.
Flipping websites works much the same as flipping houses, except you’ll also earn a monthly profit in the meantime. Any website you’re working on will generate a monthly income before you sell it, making it a super-profitable venture that you can get going from home.
33. Conduct market research for businesses
Do you have a background in sales, advertising or market research? You can offer to carry out market research for companies for a fee to help them define their target audience and market their products and services. Market research is essential but time-consuming and requires analysis of the current market, target audience and competitors. Many businesses will outsource this role to a professional.
You’ll need to be familiar with compiling and analysing data in a given industry. You’ll need knowledge of quantitative and qualitative market research methods, including surveys, one-to-one interviews, focus groups, observation and field trials. You’ll then need sufficient industry experience to interpret the research and produce reports for your client, breaking down the results into information on the target market and the competition, to assist in building an effective marketing strategy.
Create a website to market your services and make use of networking platforms such as LinkedIn to reach out to businesses in your chosen industry.
34. Rent out your spare room on Airbnb
Do you have a spare room or vacant property and are you in need of extra income? Renting your surplus space out online is an easy and effective way to earn extra cash.
With the launch of websites such as Airbnb, HomeToGo, FlipKey and HomeAway, listing your room or property has never been easier. There are over 257,000 active listings on Airbnb in the UK, a platform which has hosted 400 million guests since its launch. Renting on Airbnb is a highly profitable way to make income from an asset you already own (you can also use websites like Stashbee to rent out your garage for storage purposes, driveway or parking space).
Before you get started, get to know your local market. Look for properties in your area and get a feel for what sort of prices guests expect to pay for different types of listings around you. Before advertising, you’ll need to decide on the details of the let. Is it going to be a short term let or a long term tenancy? Are you going to offer a private bathroom, or will it be shared? How many people will you accept in the room? Once you’ve established the details, create a listing on one of the websites mentioned above.
On most sites, it’s free to post a listing. When you receive a booking, however, hosting platforms will deduct a fee, which varies from 5% to 20%. The platform will then release the payment to you after the guests check-in.
The average income varies from location to location, but Airbnb estimates that a typical host earns £3,100 a year. To increase your booking potential, upload high-quality photos of your property with a very detailed description of the amenities included, such as free WiFi, parking, air-conditioning. To break into the market and build up a portfolio of positive reviews, consider renting for slightly less than the market value.
35. Get paid to watch videos online
Are you someone who spends your free time watching videos online? Websites are now paying people to view a range of videos from the comfort of their own home, in exchange for gift cards or cash.
Media platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo have become increasingly competitive in recent years. Views, comments and subscriptions translate into revenue. Increased engagement from viewers has also become crucial to profit from YouTube’s algorithm, which associates more engagement with better content. The algorithm will promote these videos to larger audiences, which works as free advertising. That’s why many businesses are now paying people to view videos, leave comments and subscribe to channels.
To start earning money from watching videos, you can sign up to websites such as Swagbucks, Perk.tv and Paid2YouTube where you can access a catalogue of videos. Start watching and begin earning. To increase your pay-out, be sure to check the terms and conditions of each video. Some require you to view a specified amount of the video, like it or leave a comment to get paid.
Watching videos is one of the easiest ways to make a passive income, and it’s fun too. It’s not a quick way to make money, but you can earn £2 to £10 a day just from sitting on your sofa.
36. Become a remote worker
Do you want to earn consistent money from home? More and more companies are turning digital and are giving employees the option to work from home. Not only does remote working offer more flexibility, comfort and freedom for the employee, but it also cuts down on expenditure for the employer, such as office space rental. Employers now seek to take on staff on an entirely remote basis, saving even more of these costs.
Working as a remote worker is a fantastic way to earn a full, steady income. You’ll operate at the same time and for the same salary as if you were in the office, just without the travel costs and the added option to stay in your pyjamas. If you’re already employed, approach your manager to explore moving to a remote working position. If you’re seeking employment, you can use remote job searching sites such as Remote and RemoteJobs.org to find a variety of part-time and full-time roles.
If you don’t want a fulltime position, or you want the freedom of working for yourself, you can also work remotely as a freelancer, as listed above.
37. Sell logo and design work
If you’re a creative with a background in visual concepts and design, and some knowledge of editing software, you can use your skills to make significant money online through freelance graphic design.
Logos are integral to a company’s brand identity, meaning you can charge significant amounts of money. Approximately 660,000 new businesses are launched every year in the UK, creating a massive demand for new logos and design work.
Sites such as SolidGigs, Flexjobs and 99designs are reputable platforms offering freelance and remote graphic designers a place to upload their services to an established market, making it easy to find paid work. Having a portfolio and sensible pricing strategy are two of the main factors in attracting customers. Consider offering your services for free to local businesses and reputable brands as a way to build a credible portfolio and expand your reviews. Scope out the competition to establish a competitive and profitable pricing structure.
Payment for freelance designing varies hugely from client to client, but statistics show that the average graphic designer earns almost £30 an hour.
38. Buy and rent equipment
There are all sorts of types of equipment which have particular, limited uses. For most users, such an investment for just one or two occasions is a wasted expense. This has opened several markets where you can rent out equipment for a profit: building tools, camera equipment and party supplies are some of the most popular items to rent (for large/high value equipment you might consider using asset financing to to acquire reducing the upfront cost) .
First off, decide on a market in which you’d like to invest. Make sure it’s a market you know a lot about, or do your research: find out what the demand is in this market and figure out the needs of your prospective clients. When choosing your market, consider your investment budget: setting up a party rentals business will be far cheaper than luxury car rentals.
Next, scope out the sorts of equipment and prices offered by competitors so that you can offer a competitive package. The trick to quickly making money is not to overbuy. Buy what you need for now, and only expand your inventory as your business grows.
Short-term rentals are the easiest way to make money. You can rent out equipment for as little as a few hours or days. Create a website to generate customers and set up social media channels for your service – this is particularly effective in the party industry. You can also advertise on sites like Gumtree and the FridayAd where people will be looking for second-hand equipment.
When buying your kit, consider buying second-hand. For some markets, this may have an impact on the quality of your service and reduce your prices, but for equipment with a long life, this can be a smart way to reduce your initial investment and speed up your profits.
39. Become a web developer
As a web developer, your role is to design, create and maintain websites and apps. This job can be done from home and gives you the freedom to take on as much or as little work as you like. The internet grows exponentially day by day: with nearly 380 websites created every minute, web developers are in high demand.
Becoming a web developer requires specialist skills. You’ll need a high level of technical computer skills, expertise in graphic design, HTML coding and SEO. It’s a good idea to take an online course to brush up on up to date tricks of the trade. Online courses can be an expensive investment but offer long-term payback as you can charge more for your services.
To attract high-paying clients, expand your portfolio by creating example websites in various industries. This also serves as good practise to experiment with different skills and demonstrate the variety you can offer. Be sure to spend a lot of time on your website. Your page is the biggest showcase of your abilities and will be crucial to attracting clients.
40. Sell crafts on Etsy
Are you passionate about arts and crafts? Would you like to make extra cash from doing something you love? Creative skills are easy to monetise and selling your art pieces on Etsy is a great way to start earning an income from your hobby.
Etsy launched in 2005. Since then, artists worldwide have used the platform as a means of having an online storefront. Etsy is accessible for new sellers and guides you through creating an online shop. You can set your currency, shop language and location. When listing your products, make sure you upload high-quality photos as strong aesthetics go a long way in attracting sales.
Starting an Etsy shop is a fantastic way to make a passive income. The popularity of the site means your shop will achieve significant online footfall with little effort. To increase your Etsy revenue, you can market your Etsy shop on social media. Instagram is a great way to advertise visually appealing items and can attract significant engagement.
41. Proofread content
A proofreader is someone who examines written content such as articles, essays and other documents for grammatical, typographical, punctuation and formatting errors. As a proofreader, you’ll be responsible for correcting most of these mistakes and drawing attention to others. You’ll need excellent written skills and impeccable attention to detail to spot even the smallest of errors, such as an extra space.
There’s a high demand for proofreaders, as the removal of small errors can dramatically increase the professionalism of a document. Translation agencies frequently look for bilingual proofreaders to check the consistency and accuracy of a translation by checking a text side-by-side with the original.
For skilled writers, proofreading requires little effort and is easy to do from home. Sites such as PureContent and Scribe Media frequently advertise for editing and proofreading roles. Some proofreaders make up to £2000 a month on Scribe Media alone. To speed up and hone your service, consider using software such as Hemingway, Zenpen and Grammarly.
42. Become an online dating guru
Do your friends often turn to you for dating advice? If you’re a bit of a dating pro, offer your services as a dating guru online and start making money, today. The online dating industry has exploded in recent years, opening a huge market for online dating consultants. Being an online dating coach involves offering expert advice and coaching to clients who need help and support in their love lives.
Coaching can be done online through Skype, GoToMeeting or over email or instant chat. To advise clients effectively, you’ll need extensive knowledge of the online dating scene. Make sure you familiarise yourself with the leading online dating platforms. Some of the most popular sites and apps dominating the online dating market are Tinder, OkCupid, Bumble, Hinge, Match.com, Happn and eHarmony. Be sure to research the algorithms of each site to best advise your customers on increasing their matches.
You can become a professional dating coach without any particular qualifications. However, a background in psychology or training as a therapist will add significant value to your service and make you far more appealing to potential clients. You will also need to decide which consulting method works for you. You can coach clients through phone calls, video calls, email or instant chat.
To market your coaching business, consider starting a dating advice blog. Grow your blog readership and website traffic before advertising your services, and make sure you ask your clients for reviews to add legitimacy. Offering dating advice can be a lucrative earner; the average online dating consultant earns around £50,000 a year!
43. Create an online training course
Creating an online training course is a great way to create a passive income. Once you have made and uploaded an online course, people can purchase it from anywhere in the world. Some of the most popular subjects for online courses are digital marketing, financial understanding and workflow improvement.
The online course market is growing exponentially. For companies, it’s a cheap way to educate their staff without losing business time. It also cuts out transport costs and the need to hire a venue.
Many individuals look for online courses, whether it’s to further their education or develop a hobby as it offers flexible learning. With no need to attend a weekly class in person, people can now spend an hour a day learning whenever and wherever they like, whether it’s on their way to work or just before bed.
To begin making your online courses and earning cash, you can use sites such as Thinkific, Teachable and Podia. Thinkific serves as a selling platform and also allows you to educate yourself on how to create the perfect course. Creating a storefront is straightforward, and their established customer base means high exposure straight away.
The average price for an online course is £120 but can vary hugely depending on the length and content. Research the competition to make sure you price your course appropriately, based on the market and demand.
44. Digital personal trainer
Are you a fitness fanatic and do you have an interest in personal training? If so, this one’s for you. Becoming an online trainer can be a very lucrative source of income and requires very little upfront investment. The role of an online personal trainer is to educate clients on health and fitness and coach them through a plan to achieve their fitness goals.
The fitness training market is one of the biggest new markets to go online. Personal trainers have realised they can reach more clients by going digital and gain more customers by offering a more flexible and less time-consuming service for their busy clientele, accessible for a reduced cost and from anywhere in the world.
There’s a lot of options open to online personal trainers. You may choose to develop several online programmes complete with nutrition guides and exercise regimes that you sell on to clients. Alternatively, you can offer a more personalised service by producing bespoke programmes unique to your clients. Coaching can vary from email check-ins, weekly workout videos and monthly targets.
You can use sites such as Truecoach to launch your digital coaching platform. Truecoach offers a fantastic framework for uploading content, building programmes and secure communication for staying in regular contact with your clients, all in one place. Clients will have an interface where they can upload progress whenever they like. Truecoach operates on a subscription basis, with monthly subscriptions ranging from approximately £15 to £79 a month.
Alternatively, many personal trainers build a substantial following on YouTube or Instagram and advertise their business directly through their social media channels.
45. Become an online tutor
Being an online tutor consists of providing tutoring virtually via apps such as Skype for one on one tuition, or Google Hangouts for group tutoring. The market for virtual education is growing as it’s far more flexible than enrolling in a formal course and allows customers to find better tutors, who may not be local.
You’ll need to have extensive knowledge in your subject area. Depending on the level you’re offering, you’ll need appropriate qualifications. The higher your certification in a subject, the more you can charge. You can provide one to one video sessions or deliver your teaching over email and online chat facilities. OwlTutors, Preply, and Tutorful are useful platforms for remote tutors to attract clients – be sure to specify your rates, the levels you offer and give details of the type of tutoring you can provide; whether that’s one to one or group sessions.
The highest demand for tutoring comes from examination-based education to help students boost their grades for GCSE or A-level examinations. The other popular tutoring market is language tuition. Most tutors charge between £15 and £40 an hour, depending on their level of expertise.
46. Become an online travel advisor
The role of an online travel agent is to understand a client’s travel needs and find the best possible travel arrangements, from accommodation and transport to activities and excursions.
The most popular target market for this type of service is busy professionals. Many businesspeople require precise travel arrangements in terms of location and timing, often last minute, and don’t have the time to book these themselves. Many professionals are happy to pay to outsource this task to someone with experience, who can do this efficiently and quickly.
Becoming a travel advisor can be a great money earner. The average home-based agent earns upwards of £21,000 a year. Your annual income can be significantly more if you specialise in luxury travel or wedding trip arrangement. To become a remote travel consultant, you can offer your services as a freelancer or apply to companies looking for remote consultants, such as Carnival, Hilton, Working Solutions and World Travel Holdings.
47. Create a podcast
A podcast is an audio show or series which can be downloaded or listened to online on websites such as Buzzsprout, PodBean and Simplecast. The podcasting market has seen exponential growth in recent years with approximately 150 million listeners each month in popular topics such as business, comedy and health.
Producing a podcast and growing a listener base requires a lot of time and effort but can be a super fun and exciting way to make money. Investing in the right equipment is crucial to producing a professional podcast. The minimum you need is a high-end external microphone, a computer and audio editing software. You can get all this for as little as £50.
Next, find your niche. Such a saturated market means a lot of competition. Make sure it’s a sustainable topic so that you can grow your frequent listener base and retain customers. Upload your podcast to as many platforms as possible. Bigger sites like Apple Podcasts and Spotify attract the most traffic but tend to take more significant cuts in commission.
Once you’ve established your podcast, there are several ways to make good money. If you’ve got a lot of listeners, sponsored podcasts are the most lucrative option. Brands will pay you to mention or endorse their products or services, based on the number of sales, downloads or visits that you generate. Selling tickets to live-recorded podcasts can also boost your revenue as well as listener engagement.
48. Build a Chrome Extension
Chrome extensions are add-ons which extend the standard features of Chrome to include extra functions. Chrome users can download these extensions to customise their browsers to perform additional tasks. If you’re familiar with coding, you can quickly produce a Chrome extension which you can sell, for free, on the Google Chrome store.
Selling through the Google Chrome store gains you colossal exposure and has the advantage of being a reputable marketplace. Popular Chrome extensions include Adblocker and Honey. Add-ons such as Adblocker are free and monetise instead by charging for a better, upgraded service.
Offering a limited service for free is an excellent way to spike interest and encourage downloads, meaning you can offer monetised services to a bigger audience.
49. Get paid to write business plans
Companies hoping to secure funding depend on clear, professional and impressive business plans to present their business model and procure investment. It’s a crucial step in starting or growing a business, so it’s one that many companies will pay to get right. You can earn money online by offering a business plan writing service to these businesses.
There’s very little investment involved with starting a writing service. You’ll need to be fluent in business English and have an excellent understanding of what goes into a business plan. Build a website and reach out to local companies and startups to find clients. Not only startups need business plans – mature companies also need them to develop or secure commercial loans.
You’ll be more successful procuring clients if you can offer a sample of your work on your website, so that prospective clients can see what you can offer.
50. Become a mailing list broker
Companies use mailing lists to promote their services to prospective customers. It’s an effective form of marketing that reaches target consumers directly. It can be difficult and time-consuming to analyse the market to define an appropriate target consumer, let alone curate full mailing lists of suitable people. This is where businesses require mailing list brokers.
As a mailing list broker, you’ll take over the market research side of things to find potential leads for your clients. Experience in market research or sales is helpful for this job. At the very least, you need to choose an industry you’re familiar with so that you can carry out analytical market research for your clients. The next step is to use this information to find mailing lists of people who fit the target market for your client. Mailing lists can be either sold or rented to clients.
While this idea requires a fair amount of industry-specific knowledge, it has the benefit of being a business idea with minimal start-up costs. The minimum essentials are a computer and internet connection. It is also a lucrative option as companies reserve big budgets for marketing.
51. Offer database consultancy services
Even small companies store vast amounts of data online, from customer data to sales information to accounts. These databases require regular maintenance. Many companies opt to outsource this job when they don’t have the resources, personnel or specialised knowledge in-house.
If you have the technical know-how, you can offer your services as a database consultant to help companies manage their online databases. IT-savvy people can take online training and quickly get to grips with the specific skills needed to deal with databases.
Database consultants are in growing demand as more and more businesses receive pressure to become paperless, so it’s an excellent industry to tap into at present.
52. Integrate systems
Do you have specialist coding knowledge? Are you able to build and programme software and hardware? Technophiles can make a significant income online by offering system integration services.
Many companies operate on multiple online and offline systems and programmes, which don’t interact with each other. This results in significant time spent manually updating separate programmes. As a systems integrator, your role is to connect these independent systems to create a bespoke software solution that incorporates all the company’s software needs into one place, boosting efficiency and eliminating the need for manual data entry.
With more and more businesses operating online, this service is in growing demand. Cold-calling is the most effective way to acquire clients, as speaking directly to companies is the best way to identify their software needs and explain how the integrated systems you offer can save them time, money and resources.
53. Marketing consultant
Having an effective marketing strategy is essential to establishing any brand or business. New businesses and mature companies alike need to grow and maintain a loyal customer base. Marketing can be the difference between a company succeeding and failing, and for that reason, a considerable part of many companies’ budget goes towards marketing.
If you’ve got experience in advertising or marketing, you can make a generous income online as a marketing consultant. Businesses will use marketing consultants when they don’t have the expertise inhouse, or when they want specialist direction to help their marketing team get going. You’ll need skills and experience in online marketing, social media marketing, copywriting and direct response marketing.
It’ll be your responsibility to work with a company to create and implement marketing strategies within their company to achieve targets. You’ll have to heavily research the market to understand the target audience and how to market appropriately. We recommend taking some online training courses in marketing areas you are less familiar with, such as SEO (search engine optimisation), SMM (social media marketing) and branding and reputation management.
The best way to attain clients is to grow your network by attending local start-up, marketing and business events. Websites such as Meetup are a great way of finding events in your area.
54. Give webinars
A webinar is a lecture, workshop or presentation hosted and live-streamed online where the audience can interact with the presenter. Anybody with expertise can host a webinar. Figure out what topics you’re going to cover and define your target audience so that you can market your webinar appropriately. The advantage of virtual seminars is that you can attract clients from anywhere in the world.
You can limit the number of people that can sign up depending on how much engagement you want with your audience. You can set up a registration page where participants can sign up by giving their name and email address. You can host your webinar for free on platforms such as AnyMeeting, Google Hangouts, Big Blue Button and MeetingBurner. These websites offer a variety of features such as surveys, whiteboard and streaming at no additional cost.
Promote your webinar through LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter as well as through a direct mailing list. To earn money through your webinars, you can consider promoting a product or service at the end of a video and provide an affiliate link. Some companies will even sponsor you to use their equipment for every video as a form of marketing.
If you’re delivering a live-streamed webinar, consider the time zones of your prospective clients and try and pick a time that accommodates for as many as possible.
55. Sell your recipes
Are you passionate about cooking and love creating recipes? Another hobby-turned-profit-maker is producing and selling recipes online.
Magazines in markets such as health, household and lifestyle are always looking for recipes to feature. You can start making cash straightaway by uploading your recipes to magazine sites such as Taste of Home, Cuisine at Home and Cooking Light, which pay up to £75 for each one they publish. Sites such as EatingWell pay around £0.70 per word, which can generate an even better payout.
If you would rather create a brand yourself and sell your recipes to individuals, you can consider using platforms such as Etsy, where you can earn anywhere between £1.99 and £25 per recipe. You can also use a different publishing method, such as creating an eBook. An eBook has very few production costs but can generate a much more substantial income.
Try and create a brand and come up with something unique. One example is to create a family-based book by basing your recipes on a grandparent’s cooking style and including some personal anecdotes on how the cooking style developed over the years.
56. Instagram influencer
One of the newest and most attractive careers born out of the internet is being a social media influencer. Being an Instagram influencer consists of sharing visual content on Instagram and building an engaged audience around a niche such as travel, fitness or lifestyle.
Instagram influencers reach a considerable audience and businesses are now capitalising on this by offering to pay influencers to endorse or market their products or services as a way to boost brand awareness amongst their target audience. Fitness influencers, for example, are frequently approached by sportswear brands and businesses selling protein supplements as a way to reach their exact target audience.
Not only are influencers great for creating brand awareness and exposure, but the nature of being an “influencer” means that followers are usually fans on some level and are therefore likely to want to use and own the products endorsed by their stars.
Being an influencer seems like a very glamorous job, which is why so many people are trying to do it. The reality is that it takes consistent and relentless hard work to produce consistent, engaging and innovative content. Even the best influencers take years to build a loyal following. To make money, you need to grow your Instagram following to about 10,000 or more. Once you’re hitting enough traffic, you can begin reaching out to brands in your niche market and offer paid promotions, either through messaging directly on Instagram or sending emails to the marketing teams of relevant companies.
Income differs from promotion to promotion based on the size of your following and the size of the brand. That said, influencers tend to charge anywhere between £100 and £1000 to post a 24-hour story and even more for posting promotional content on their feeds.
57. Offer consultancy services
A consultant is a specialist who advises individuals and companies on a particular topic within their area of expertise. Consultancy covers a range of markets including careers, leadership and HR, to name a few.
Companies and individuals turn to consultants for all sorts of reasons. Many companies choose to outsource particular problems to consultants to save on hiring full-time employees or when their need for expertise is temporary. Common consultancy areas include accountancy, management, finance, marketing and many others.
Most experts and specialists already have an extensive network in their industry. Utilise your experience and contacts to promote your services and to find clients. Create a website and make use of professional social networking platforms such as LinkedIn to reach out to key players in your field.
58. Create presentations
Do you have experience in building presentations with programmes such as PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides? If the answer’s yes, you can sell your skills and earn money as a freelance presentation designer.
Most businesses don’t have an inhouse design team who have the time to create high quality, professional-looking presentations to show to their bosses, clients and stakeholders. Companies tend to outsource presentation creation to freelancers when they lack the skills, time or resources to do it themselves.
It’s easiest and most effective to find clients on freelance websites such as Fiverr and PeoplePerHour. Make sure you’ve got a portfolio showcasing your best work to generate clients. If you haven’t got a collection of example work, you can offer your first few presentations for free to local businesses.
59. Start a digital marketing agency
As a digital marketer, you’ll be offering business services such as SEO (search engine optimisation), SMM (social media marketing), paid marketing, copywriting and content writing. Your role will vary from offering advice on marketing strategy in a consultancy capacity to complete management of a company’s ad campaign.
Businesses recognise that marketing is everything when it comes to growing a company. For many companies, it’s most cost-efficient and effective to outsource marketing management to experts, to achieve the best possible results. To start a digital marketing agency, you’ll need experience in advertising or marketing through digital media. The start-up costs are relatively low, particularly if you outsource advert creation to freelancers. Try to establish partnerships with the media outlets you intend to use most, as you’ll likely be able to negotiate deals if you use them frequently.
To brush up on your online marketing skills, consider taking a course on Udemy.
60. Analyse data for money
As a data analyst, you’ll be responsible for collecting, interpreting and presenting all sorts of data relevant to a company or industry to help businesses make decisions about their future direction. You’ll use data from sales figures, market research and logistics.
Experts use data analysis to scope out the competition, to better understand their customers and to predict future market trends. To become a data analyst, you’ll need to be fluent in data processing languages and software such as Excel, Tableau and SQL, as well as be proficient in maths, statistics, domain expertise and data visualisation.
Freelance platforms such as Upwork, Toptal and AngelList are fantastic for connecting you with potential clients and job opportunities. Freelance data analysts can earn up to £180 an hour for their expertise, making it a worthwhile business venture for any maths-minded person.
61. Transcribe audio and interviews
Transcribers convert audio recordings into a text format, turning a recorded interview into a Word document, for example. Businesses often use transcribers as it’s far more efficient to forward on, refer back to and document a written file as opposed to an audio one.
To work remotely as a transcriber, you’ll need excellent listening and written skills in English, including impeccable spelling and grammar. You’ll also need fast and accurate typing skills, a good computer and a reliable internet connection.
Many transcribers use a free software programme called Express Scribe which allows you to control the audio playback speed via a foot pedal. Other good options are oTranscribe and Inqscribe. Platforms such as Appen, Casting Words, Crowdsurf and Daily Transcription are all beginner-friendly sites offering a range of opportunities that offer paid work.
62. Set up a Shopify store
We’ve already covered eCommerce, but it’s well worth going into more detail on setting up a Shopify store. Shopify is a subscription platform that allows you to start and manage an advanced eCommerce store with little to no web development experience.
Shopify offers a vast range of add-ons. Some of the best examples include HubSpot CRM, which helps with organising and tracking potential leads and customers, Spocket, which finds ideal products based on your niche, Outfy, which improves social outreach management, and Snappt, which connects your store to Instagram.
These features help to add significant value to your eCommerce store, making a Shopify store one of the most profitable ways of selling online.
63. Find and sell leads to businesses
A lead generation business builds brand exposure and curates lists of contact details of prospective customers to increase a company’s client base and revenue. Companies are heavily reliant on lead generation as it’s intrinsic to their overall growth. Industries such as insurance, mortgage and home improvement are some of the many markets that need constant new qualified leads.
To get started with lead generation, you will need to determine which industry you will focus on based on demand. Your chosen industry will influence your marketing strategy – for certain products, using paid ads on Facebook is a cheap method to reach massive audiences. Creating a landing page is the most effective way to collect lead data. Place ads online that redirect to this landing page, where you can ask interested customers to fill out their details in return for more information on the product they’re interested in – these are generated leads which you can pass on to your clients.
One of the main advantages of starting a lead generation business is that you can turn into a fully automated operation. Once ads are in place, you can use software to automatically transfer the lead information from your landing site to your client.
64. Become a writer
Being a freelance writer is a super varied and exciting role that can earn you money from the comfort of your own home. You can produce copy for adverts and marketing campaigns for one-off clients or establish long-term contracts for creating content for websites and magazines.
To do well as a freelance writer, you’ll need to build up a credible portfolio. Alongside flawless grammar, you’ll need to be able to write in an appropriate tone for the client and type of project you’re producing. If you’ve got experience in a specific industry, you’ll be able to provide more competitive content and charge more for your services.
You can advertise your services online through freelancing websites such as PeoplePerHour and Fiverr or apply for writing roles through A List Apart or Academic Experts, platforms regularly hiring expert writers to produce weekly articles.
If you’ve got a specialist skillset, you can charge far more for technical writing or specific writing services, such as legal writing or writing business plans.
65. Sell in-game currency or items
Are you an avid gamer who dreams of making money while playing games such as Runescape, Diablo and CSGO? The gaming market is rapidly growing, with 250 million people playing the popular game Fortnite alone. This growing market has opened up an aftermarket for rare and limited-edition gaming items such as characters, skins, accessories and weapons for use in many online games.
To start making money from farming, a term for collecting either in-game currency or in-game items, you will need to find out which games have the most demand for extras. Researching the market on sites such as UsFine and Sythe will help you determine which games will make the most profitable investment.
You can buy and sell your in-game items on GameFlip and MuleFactory. It’s tough to determine how much you can make from farming and selling in-game items, but experienced gamers can make up to £1000 a month from selling Runescape gold alone.
66. Rent out your property for filming
Do you own a stunning home or property that would be an ideal backdrop for films or photoshoots? Renting out your property is a smart way to make extra income from an asset you already own.
Film and photography companies are always scouting for the perfect location for photos and filming. Renting out property or land saves time and money and often produces higher quality than setting up a staged set.
To begin earning cash from your property, you can register to list your space on LocationWorks and ShootFactory. To apply on these sites, you’ll need to upload high-quality images of the property, including areas like outhouses and cellars. If the agency feels that your property has potential, they will publish a listing of your property and contact you when they receive an inquiry.
Payment ranges from property to property but the base rate per day is usually around £150, making it a fantastic source of passive income.
67. Buy and sell second-hand books
Second-hand books are one of the most lucrative items you can buy and sell online. There’s a massive demand for second-hand books which beat the prices of retail stores. One significant market is students, who frequently look to buying used study material to save money on piles of expensive textbooks.
There’s no shortage of ways to get hold of used books. Libraries sell extensive collections of books through online actions, which can be a great way to get hold of large quantities of initial stock. You can source wholesale collections on sites such as eBay, Craigslist and even Facebook marketplace. Buying books wholesale will reduce the cost per book and massively increase your mark-up.
You can sell the books you’ve gathered on WeBuyBooks, FatBrain and Abebooks, or you can build an online store on sites like eBay. Remember that most platforms charge a commission fee per sale: eBay, for example, costs 10% of the overall sale price.
68. Sell your videos
Are you a passionate videographer seeking some extra income? Earning money from creating videos and putting them online is easier than ever before, thanks to sites such as YouTube, Uscreen and Vimeo.
Businesses are coming to recognise how effective video content is for growing brand awareness. Many companies are therefore seeking video creators to produce short videos to use in ad campaigns and on their website.
The trick to making money on YouTube is to get enough followers and viewers. The more people your video appeals to, the more money you’ll make through paid YouTube features and the more likely you’ll attract affiliate brands and sponsorship. YouTube offers a monetisation tool where they will promote ads at the start of your video and give you a portion of the ad revenue in return.
Uscreen helps videographers to capitalise on their skills by offering a platform to upload and sell video content. Users can set custom pricing and decide if they want to sell the videos on a subscription, rental or one-time payment basis. Vimeo also allows you to sell and rent videos online.
If you want to produce bespoke videos, consider going freelance as a videographer. Getting commissioned to create a custom video for a client tends to be far more lucrative.
69. Review software
If you’ve got some knowledge in coding, programming or software construction, then you could earn a bit of extra cash from offering your feedback on different types of software. It works on the same principle as testing and reviewing apps but requires slightly more background knowledge. Often, the software you’ll review is made for the finance and IT industries.
As a software reviewer, you’ll need to download and install a programme or piece of software listed on a reviewing site onto your PC or laptop. You’ll then evaluate the app based on the functionality and usability of the features, as well as providing feedback on the overall performance. Sign up to websites like Capterra, Gartner, ApperWall and G2Crowd which pay for your software reviews.
Some sites offer payment in the form of vouchers, rewards or gift cards. Otherwise, you’ll tend to earn between £0.30 and £0.50 per review – as the remuneration is minimal, we recommend signing up to as many software reviewing websites as you can.
70. Review music
Are you a music lover who regularly listens to new artists in your spare time? Reviewing music is a great way to earn a little extra cash from doing something you enjoy.
Sites such as slicethepie are paying users to listen to a range of new music and leave reviews. On signing up, you’ll have to answer a few questions based on your music taste and the types of genre you usually listen to. You can then get listening and earning straight away.
The payout per review varies on the type. A bonus level review can earn you £0.09, but a basic one-star review makes less than £0.01. When you have made a minimum of approximately £10, you can withdraw your earnings straight to your PayPal.
71. Get paid to play games
Do you like playing games on your computer, tablet or mobile? Great news – you can now get paid to play online games from the comfort of your living room.
Sites such as Swagbucks, InboxDollars and PointClub host hundreds of games which you can play for cash. You’ll get paid to try out new games or for reaching a certain level. The minimum withdrawal limit varies from £7.50 to £10, making it a decent opportunity to make a bit of extra cash.
If you’ve got a social media following, you can consider further monetising your game playing by uploading video recordings of your gameplay to YouTube for others to watch. You can also become a game tester to test games before they’re released, through websites such as PlaytestCloud.
72. Remote security guard
Remote security guards monitor entry and exit points of communal or private buildings, such as apartment blocks or office spaces, making sure that only authorised persons are entering and leaving. The best part – you can do it from your own home.
Remote security guards have become more and more popular. High-tech cameras observe the perimeter of a building and remote security guards operate in shifts to monitor the cameras and bring attention to any issues. Despite the guard not being present on-site, they’re able to quickly sound the alarm and initiate intervention, making it just as effective. What’s more, they can observe all areas and angles of a property simultaneously, in one place.
Remote working as a security guard is also far safer than being there physically. Many experienced security guards are enjoying taking their career remote.
73. Design newsletters
A newsletter is a printed or electronic document providing information and updates on a company’s activities, which is sent to customers, members, employees and subscribers to increase customer engagement.
Businesses use newsletters weekly, monthly or quarterly to increase brand awareness, promote their products or services, advertise promotions or to provide overall coverage of updates within the business. The growing need for newsletters has opened a spot in the market for creatives with knowledge of graphic design.
To start earning quick cash from designing newsletters, you’ll need a computer and some simple designs software. To attract higher-paying clients, build a credible portfolio. Advertise your design services as a freelancer on platforms such as Fiverr.
Newsletter designers can earn upwards of £150 per newsletter depending on the client.
74. Investing
A popular way to make money online is to invest. Here we’re talking about small, short-term investments that can make you money fast.
Investing online takes many different forms. The most common route is investing in stocks and shares. This type of investment is high-risk but holds the potential for high rewards. To make money from investing in stocks, you need to spend time studying the markets to look for signals of when to cash out. Making money is all about timing, experience and keeping a keen eye on market trends (remember always be careful and never risk more than you can afford to lose).
Another popular option is peer-to-peer lending. Lending platforms such as Lending Club, Peerform, Fundrise and Funding Circle unite businesses and entrepreneurs with investors. Here, you can invest small amounts of capital and earn interest on the return. This option removes much of the risk of traditional investment and typically makes you a far better interest rate than any savings account.
75. Make money as a university admissions writer
With the number of university applicants increasing year on year, a new market has opened for online writers. You can make money online by offering to write competitive university admissions applications, in exchange for a fee.
Students are easy to target via social media. Once you’ve attracted your first few clients, news of your service will spread by word-of-mouth. It’s quick and cheap to get a writing service up and running: you can get going today with just a laptop and internet connection.
Good results generate more business – to produce successful applications, you’ll need to research the application and admissions process at your clients’ chosen institutions. Make sure you take the time to understand your clients, too, to understand who it is you’re selling to prospective universities.
76. Counsel clients online
Online video chat platforms such as Skype have enabled many face-to-face services to migrate online, too. Providing you’ve got accreditation, you can offer your counselling services on the internet with one-to-one Skype sessions. You can also deliver counsel via ongoing exchanges, typically over email.
To become an accredited counsellor in the UK and set up your own online practise, you’ll need to undertake a BACP approved course. Some routes require you to accrue a specified amount of hours before you can become accredited and start your own business: make sure you comply with the BACP guidelines for online counselling before you begin.
To get going, set up a website and consider how you’re going to market your services. If you’ve already got a physical practice, you may have a pre-existing client base. Otherwise, consider using paid advertisement and tapping into email databases to reach prospective clients.
77. Landing page specialist
Creating a landing page is a fantastic way to generate leads and grow brand awareness and exposure. It can be one of the most effective ways to generate new clients and expand a company. However, many existing landing pages don’t generate leads as efficiently as they should: this is where a landing page specialist steps in.
As a landing page specialist, you’ll be responsible for producing an effective landing page for your clients to generate leads and, crucially, to convert prospective customers into customers. If you’ve got experience in making landing pages or online marketing, this is a lucrative way to make money at home. You’ll need to be familiar with website design to create a sleek webpage and be up to date with the best methods for optimising landing pages.
Most companies miss the essential point of a landing page: to get people to act on what they see, by filling out an opt-in-form or clicking on a CTA (call to action) button. As a landing page specialist, you’ll help your clients maximise the chances of conversion by optimising the design and setup of their landing site.
78. Earn cash through private labelling and selling products on Amazon
Buying and selling is an easy way to make money on the internet. Private labelling is a way to sell products online without the hassle of production. Amazon offers a fantastic Fulfilment-by-Amazon scheme whereby you can sell on Amazon, and they’ll take care of the packing and shipping part of the operation, making this earner even more straightforward.
Private label products refer to products which are manufactured by a third party and bought by a brand for them to sell under their name and branding. A typical example of private labelling is supermarket’s own brands – Sainsbury’s Basics, Tesco Value and the essential Waitrose ranges, for example – where they buy products made by another company and sell them under their label. You can purchase products and sell them under your own branding – the best way is to find suppliers and manufacturers on sites like Alibaba.
To make money, create an identifiable brand and opt for hot products. You can see what products are trending on sites such as Amazon.
79. Build custom software for freelance clients
If you’re a proficient coder and have skills in software construction as part of your arsenal, you can sell this skill to freelancers. Many of the software solutions available for different industries do not cater to freelancers or individuals running a much smaller operation.
You can create tailor-made software specifically designed to fit your client’s needs. People need software produced for all kinds of reasons, whether it’s to run a small business or for clubs to keep track of events and membership payments.
Consider advertising your services as a freelance software developer on websites such as Freelancer and Fiverr.
80. Sell your designs on TeeSpring
If you want to try your hand at something a little more creative, you can make money by selling t-shirt designs on TeeSpring. Designs are easy to produce, and you can get selling straight away. The website will take a base price from each sale, but the sale price is up to you – all profits are yours to keep.
Making money then comes down to how many sales you make. TeeSpring attracts a lot of users, so for a passive income, you can leave your designs on the site for people to find. If you want to boost sales, you can advertise on your own social media pages and spread the word to family and friends.
The best part about TeeSpring is that it’s free to set up an account and get designing, making it a fun way to earn some extra cash.
81. Start a medical transcription service
Anybody with a medical background can make an income from offering a medical transcription service. It’s a quick venture to get off the ground and has very few start-up costs.
Hospital appointments and medical reports often come in the form of recorded dictation which then needs converting into hard, paper copy for patients’ health records or referral letters. Provided you’re familiar with medical terminology, transcribing is a straightforward way to make money. Transcription software and a good pair of headphones are the only necessary investments to get going.
A must-have skill for this job is typing proficiency! Being quick and accurate will save you valuable time and money. You can improve your speed and accuracy by completing online typing courses.
82. Become a freelance telemarketer
If you’ve got a slick sales pitch and enjoy customer-facing roles, then telemarketing is the money-maker for you. Telemarketing involves calling and speaking to prospective customers as a way of marketing your clients’ products or services.
To be a convincing salesperson, you need inside-out knowledge of the industry you’re selling in. Once you’ve chosen a field, you can start building call lists of target consumers relevant to the industry. Directly calling companies is the best way to find clients, as they’ll be able to experience your services first-hand for themselves.
You can make money quickly as a telemarketer as there are few setup costs involved. Next to a computer and internet connection, all you need is a headset and a landline.
83. Print 3D products for money
3D printing is becoming a more viable method of manufacturing. If you’ve got a 3D printer or fancy investing (you could also finance the asset purchase), you can monetise your equipment on the web.
Treatstock is an online platform which means you can make money quickly from this idea. People use it to find 3D printing services when they have a design, prototype or product that they want printing. Here, you can advertise your printer and your prices and find clients. What’s more, you can list your location to find local clients, which cuts out the need to pay for long-term storage or even shipping, if you arrange a collection with the customer.
If you’ve already got the equipment, this is a fantastic way to make a passive income. If you’re looking to grow your business, you can create an online print shop and invest in marketing to expand your client base.
84. Offer anger management counsel
Online counselling can cover a massive range of services, from marriage counselling to grief counselling. To hone the service you provide, you may wish to focus on offering one service. One of the most popular requests for online therapy is anger management.
Online anger management has had proven success as clients can access progress reports and extra help sheets at any time between sessions. It’s also beneficial for many customers who wish to remain anonymous or would otherwise resist counselling due to stigma. You can attract more customers and take on more clients than you would in face-to-face counselling.
It’s imperative that you have the right accreditation to start an online practice. You can check the regulations for online counsellors on the BACP website.
85. Start a legal writing service
Anyone with a legal background and a knack for writing can make money online by offering a legal writing service. To procure credible clients, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate significant experience in the law industry or a relevant degree.
Companies require all kinds of legal writing, including employment contracts, meeting minutes, non-disclosure agreements, GDPR statements and copyright notices. You can easily advertise your services as a freelancer on websites such as Upwork.
Advertising on the web can generate customers from all over the world. While this is fantastic for business growth, be sure that your services comply with the relevant laws and regulations in that country.
86. Creating & sending press releases
You can produce and send press releases as part of companies’ public relations campaign as a way of making money online. Many companies use press releases to inform prospective clients about the services and products they offer to increase company exposure and boost sales. It can be a handy marketing tool, meaning many businesses are willing to pay to have them produced.
Producing press releases is a fantastic idea for anybody with marketing experience. Once you’ve had a few clients, you can establish a format you’re happy with, making it easy to replicate and reproduce successful press releases for different clients.
It’s a quick idea to get off the ground – you can start today with just a computer and an internet connection.
87. Write CVs and cover letters
Finding a job can be a long, hard slog. Jobseekers are familiar with countless rejections, which is why more and more job hunters are turning to professionals with help in producing impressive CVs and cover letters.
It’s a good idea to take an online course in CV and cover letter writing before you start. These courses will help you understand precisely what employers are looking for, to be able to offer an excellent service. A comprehensive CV and cover letter writing service includes several telephone or email exchanges with clients to find out their skills and qualities, determine what type of jobs they want and how they want to come across.
Advertising on LinkedIn is a great way to attract job-hunters. Another option is to invest in paid ads on job listing websites to link to your site. Make sure you include a few samples of CVs on your website so that clients can see examples of your work.
88. Translate for money
Language skills are in high demand in the UK. If you can speak another language, you can easily make money online. Translation services cover anything from letters, emails, full documents, books or passports. You can charge a fee per word, per page or per document for larger projects.
Translation is a difficult skill. Part of translation is matching the same tone, register and feel in the target text as readers will get from the source text. Stick to a subject you know inside-out to make sure you get the right terminology and create the right impression in the target text.
In the UK, there’s no certification required to translate official documents such as birth certificates passports. For some countries, however, you may need official accreditation to ensure that translations of official documents like passports and driving licenses are legally recognised. If you’re translating from English into another language, be sure to check you have the appropriate accreditation for translating official documents in the country of the target language.
89. Offer SEO services
Are you familiar with search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques? If so, you can make significant money by helping online businesses optimise their content and marketing to expand their client reach and company exposure.
You’ll need to be familiar in keyword research – what words to use and how in any text on a company’s website to maximise their appearance in Google searches. SEO services are in high demand – advertising on LinkedIn is an effective way to reach potential customers.
This idea can be a lucrative earner, and you can work for as many companies, and for as many hours, as you choose. While SEO agencies usually charge per project, freelance SEO consultants tend to charge per hour. You can expect to earn up to £40 an hour.
90. Project manage remotely
Many companies turn to external project managers to plan, organise, lead and oversee a project. If you’ve got experience in project management, this is something you can start doing online, for a significant profit.
As a project manager, you’ll have to organise the timescale for a project, hold meetings with the appropriate suppliers and clients and delegate tasks out to members of a team. Open communication is critical for the smooth running of any project. It is also vital for building a trusting relationship with your clients so that they use you for future projects.
Many project management consultants use software programmes to help them operate, including MS Project, SharePoint and Project Server. Choose an industry in which you have significant experience. Not only will this be helpful for networking when finding clients, but it’ll ensure you have the necessary skills to manage projects successfully.
91. Manage PPC campaigns
Advertising is the make-or-break for many businesses. If you’ve got experience in marketing, advertising or sales, this is a skill you can use to make considerable money from home. Companies will invest huge amounts into their ad campaigns and often choose to outsource the management.
A PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign is a model of online advertising whereby advertisers pay every time somebody clicks on their ad. Businesses effectively pay to increase traffic to their site. For companies with expensive products and services, the pay per click becomes a very insignificant amount to pay in relation to a profitable sale.
Google Ads is the most popular PPC system on the web. To manage PPC campaigns, make sure you’re a Google Ads pro: you can complete online training to learn to master the art of online ad management.
92. Provide virtual tech support
Many companies need tech support for their purchased IT equipment and online systems or require help accessing the internet and connecting networks. Many freelancers and smaller companies will seek external tech support to give advice and for general technical troubleshooting.
If you’ve got a solid technical knowledge of computers and online networks, you can easily make money from the comfort of your own home by offering virtual tech support. You can advise over the phone or answer questions via email. The average annual salary for a remote IT technician is just shy of £30,000. Depending on how much you work, you can earn far more.
You can accept individual queries and requests for support or offer a more permanent remote service for long-term clients. For a more stable income, establishing long-term partnerships with companies is a better option. You’ll also be able to get to know their online systems and programmes and be able to offer a more comprehensive service.
93. Web theme & plugin developer
For experienced coders, designing web themes and developing plugins can be a lucrative way to make money online. When companies look to create websites, many will purchase theme packages with specific graphics to create a uniform design. Plugins add particular features to websites, for example, adding membership options or embedding features from other sites such as YouTube.
There are several options for making money as a web theme and plugin developer. You can either produce set themes and plugins to sell, or you can charge more to create bespoke, custom themes and plugins for individual clients.
The best way to generate download volume for your plugins is to offer a limited version for free. A free taster will maximise your exposure and encourage more people to pay for the upgraded version with premium features.
94. Sell your illustrations
Any creative skills are super easy to monetise. If you’re a talented artist, you can sell your designs on an online shop for money. Websites like Etsy are helpful platforms to post, promote and sell your designs and are perfect for generating a passive income.
To generate a more active income, you can advertise your services through a freelance website. Individual and corporate clients may commission you for all kinds of projects, which is a far more lucrative way to earn as an illustrator. Larger projects or batch work can make you a significant profit.
If you want to expand your business, you may also set up an online shop through your own domain once you’ve established a brand. You can also market your online shop or Etsy shop via social media, word of mouth, or even paid advertisement if you’re hoping to grow your client base significantly.
95. Sell stories to newspapers and magazines
Magazines and newspapers are always looking for page-turning content, and many are happy to pay to print your personal experiences, meaning you can turn your embarrassing story, hair-raising experience or celeb run-in into a profit.
Magazines such as Reader’s Digest look for short, true stories about their readers written in less than 100 words. If yours is published, you’ll get up to £100. Some magazines pay far more – Bella Magazine, for example, pays up to £1,000 if they publish an article about you. Send them a brief overview of your experience, and they’ll contact you if they like it. You can double your earnings with Take a Break, who offer £2,000 for chosen stories of love and infidelity. All you have to do is fill in their online form. If selected, you’ll need to take part in a telephone interview with one of their journalists.
If you’ve got an account to share that’s relevant to a particular niche of magazines, such as a weight-loss journey, you can contact health and diet magazines directly to see if they’ll pay you to print your story.
96. Set up an online SaaS business
For proficient coders and software engineers, an easy way to make money online is to sell software. SaaS, software as a service, is where customers subscribe to centrally hosted software stored on the cloud on a subscription basis.
Creating a successful SaaS business relies on a functioning product. Make sure you thoroughly test your service for bugs and glitches before you launch – this will make your business a lot more credible and encourage word-of-mouth downloads. But a flawless service is nothing without customers. Create a mailing list to reach a huge target audience personally. You can use platforms such as MailChimp to manage your mailing list and create personalised emails to each customer, which will maximise your chances of attracting customers.
It is well worth considering adding motivation for customers to share the service with friends or colleagues as a way to grow your download volume. This motivation could be in the form of a discount when you refer a friend or some other bonus.
97. Launch a start-up
If you want to make a steady income online, consider launching an online start-up. There are hundreds of possibilities for starting an online business, and some are super speedy to set up so you can quickly start seeing a profit. There are numerous advantages to owning an online company, from flexible hours to remote working as well as reducing the amount of initial seed money needed to get going.
If you’ve got experience running a business or have worked extensively in a particular industry, it’s relatively straightforward to start your own business. You’ll firstly need to register your business before investing in paid promotion and defining a clear marketing strategy. Writing a business plan is also an essential step to launching a successful business – many entrepreneurs skip this step and run into problems later down the line.
To get your business off the ground, take a look at the types of funding you can get hold of in the way of grants and seed investment schemes.
98. Narrate audiobooks and voice-overs
One of the most exciting ways to make money online is to become a narrator or voice-over artist. It’s a quick money-maker as it requires little equipment. You can get hold of a decent microphone and some professional recording and editing software for a modest price and get going straight away. Audacity is free to download and straightforward to use.
Narrating audiobooks is one of the more fun-filled options. You can get in touch with self-published eBook authors to offer to narrate their audiobooks. Companies also need voice-over artists for ad campaigns. Market your services on freelance websites like Freelancer and Worksome.
To be able to charge more for your services, your best bet is to build a portfolio to boost your credibility. You can do this by offering your service for free to several reputable clients and showcase snippets of your work on your website.
99. Produce and sell your music on the web
Another easily monetised skill is musical ability. You can either record your music yourself or pay for a session at a studio to record some tracks. After that, you can upload them to any music distribution site to start generating a passive income. Stores like iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play and SoundCloud are the most popular for budding music artists.
If you want to grow your music into a profitable business, it’s a good idea to set up a website. While it can be slow to reach fans and generate traffic, you’ve got the added advantage of having your fans’ contact data, such as their email, which will help promote your future work. SoundCloud works nicely as a marketing tool when coupled with your own website, as you can upload a buyer’s link to your site directly, allowing you to profit from SoundCloud’s exposure.
Be sure to grow your online presence with social media accounts. Instagram and YouTube are optimal platforms for artists. Consider making use of the Instagram Live feature to play your music live to your followers to increase their engagement with your music and help grow your following.
100. Become an online coach
As an online coach, you’ll provide mentoring and guidance on a range of subjects such as careers, business and health, through interactive mediums such as Skype, Google Hangouts and GoToMeeting.
Online coaching has become more and more popular in recent years as it fits neatly into a busy schedule. Not only does it cut out travel time and cost, but it allows clients to access advice wherever they are, or on the move.
First off, you’ll need to determine the type of coaching you’d like to offer. Life coaching and business coaching are two popular markets which are always in high demand. That said, the more popular the market, the more competition you’ll experience. Define your USP (unique selling point) and sell what makes your service different. Your USP could be anything from teaching style, background experience or personal experience.
To market your services, set up a website and invest in some marketing. WordPress is a cheap way to create a professional website. To reach as many prospective clients as possible, consider listing yourself on coaching directories relevant to your field of expertise. For business coaching, you can also use platforms such as LinkedIn to target high-level professionals or hopeful entrepreneurs.