Top 8 Best Ways To Make Money Online

As we struggle our way through 2022, all we hear about is side hustle this and side hustle that. With a massive increase in living costs, the rising fuel bills and energy hikes it has become a necessity to earn that bit of extra cash. 50% of millennials have now started a side hustle. And out of these ambitions millennials, 50% of them are doing it out of pleasure and not necessity. There has never been a better time to make money online and in fairness it has never been easier.

As the internet evolves, so does the entry requirement to start a side hustle and make money online. Whether you just want to make a bit of extra beer money, or if you want some extra money to go towards a family holiday. Hell if you stick with an idea and put in enough time and energy you could actually replace your 9-5 income and become a side hustling legend.

Below I have chosen 8 of the best ways of making money online. Fasten your seatbelts, fire your kettle up and grab a notepad and pen.

1. Digital Marketing

Really good digital marketers are few and far between. As the digital landscape and technology changes so quickly, it’s hard to keep up with online marketing. Successfully companies big and small are struggling to keep up with social media, online advertising and all of the other available channels that have become popular to marketing your business / services. That’s why there is such a big gap for online savvy entrepreneurs to dive in for a slice of action. There are a number of ways you can approach this hustle. Whether you want to start as a freelancer, a solopreneur or a full scale digital marketing agency. Here is my favourite list of Digital Marketing Side Hustles.

Social Media Marketing Manager

Social media for most business owners is a minefield. Mostly because there are so many these days. Do you post on Pinterest? What is a sponsored post? Is Instagram marketing worth it? Most business owners don’t have the time or the energy to work any of this out, they quite frankly just want to concentrate on being a business owner. This is where you come in. Most people these days spend the majority of their waking day on social media which means you are probably far better educated than you think in this field. Companies are willing to outsource a lot of this work and the money they are prepared to spend means this could be an extremely lucrative option for someone wanting to make money online.

Social Media Ads Expert

If you possess a lot of the skills that a Social Media Manager has but you want to niche down more, a Social Media Ads Expert could be more up your street. Just like a Social Media Manager, an ads expert works freelance for one or many companies helping them run their social media ads. This is anything from creating ad copy to keyword research and also finding a particular demographic for that company. You can offer this kind of service as a Social Media Manager however a lot of companies will know the difference between someone who can mange their social media and someone who is specialist in the field of ads. Because this is more specialist and because this takes way more time and expertise, ad specialists can usually demand more money by way of monthly retainer.

Fancy starting a Digital Marketing business? Check out my blog here:-

Other Digital Marketing Hustles

• Email Marketing
• SEO Services
• PPC Specialist
• Website Designer

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If you fancy building your own digital marketing agency I strongly recommend you go ahead and follow Neil Patel. Neil Patel is one of the most knowledgeable marketers in the world and his blog literally runs through everything you need to make it in the digital world.

Without realising, Affiliate Marketing is all around us. A lot of the time you will have been recommended a product by your favourite youtuber or Instagram influencer and gone ahead and bought it. Chances are they were using an affiliate link and as soon as you purchased that product / service they will have received a % of commission. So what is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing involves earning a commission on a product that you have recommended. The amount of commission you receive can vary depending on the company who’s affiliate programme you are using. A lot of the big players in the game can offer up to 50% commissions if somebody purchases a product through your link. These are known as ‘high ticket affiliate products’. Not all companies will offer such high commissions so it’s worth doing your research as typically you will receiving around 20% commissions.

Where do I post these links? Well the best thing about Affiliate Marketing is you can literally advertise these products anywhere. I personally use a lot of Affiliate Links in my blogs but if you are a Youtuber or influencer you can add these links to you bio. Not got a big social media following? You can set up a Pinterest account and create pins promoting these products. Literally the world is your oyster with Affiliate Marketing! The only draw back I would note is that it’s easier to cash in if you already have a larger following. But don’t let that hold you back, just hustle harder.

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3. Dropshipping

What is Dropshipping? Well you would find a product from China (most people use Aliexpress) and create a website. Someone would place an order for that product on your website but you wouldn’t hold that stock. You would simply place that order direct with the supplier (Aliexpress for example). They would send it directly to the customer that placed the order on your website. You are essentially the middle man (or woman). You don’t hold any stock whatsoever you simply place the order.

Ah Sam that’s genius! Well this side hustle sounds easy and I can make a sh*t ton of money. Wrong. on the face of it this side hustle is great and I believe that the model is one of the best business models out there however. The problem is that all of the ‘get rich quick kids’ have taken the concept, found the easiest way to rinse it and then left it in disarray without any care for the customer. You see as most people know when you order from China, the lead times for delivery can be months. Look at Wish They are the kings of Dropshipping. But they have one of the worst reputations as they use millions of Chinese sellers. Long wait times, unsatisfied customers and a never ending backlog of returns (that China don’t like accepting).

So that means Dropshipping is dead? Well no not quite. Dropshipping as a model will not go away anytime soon. It will evolve and change and people will always find another way of using this model. The key to succeeding at this model is to find the right niche and to use sellers who can dispatch your items quickly. I have written a full guide of how to Dropship successfully here:-

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4. Dropservicing

Dropservicing like Dropshipping involves being the middle man between two parties. Instead of being the middle man between the supplier and the customer, you would being connecting the customer with a service. This is usually done by way of Digital Marketing. An example of this would be a customer comes to your website looking for a graphic designer. You tell the customer you can carry out the work for X amount. Once the order is placed with yourself you then outsource the work to a graphic designer who will charge you Y. Obviously for this to work, your Y has got to be cheaper than X.

Most people use freelancing platforms such as Fiverr or Freelancer to outsource their work as these freelancing marketplaces tend to attract cheaper rates per hour or project. So how easy is Dropservicing? Well that depends how much work you are going to put in. I would say that this business model can be highly lucrative but just like starting a Digital Marketing business, you will always struggle to find your first client. Once you do find that first client though and once you have found your circle of decent freelancers, this side hustle could literally change your life.

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5. Digital Products

Digital Products in 2022 is big business. As the world recovers from Covid, the way we learn and the way we shop has changed forever. One of the biggest things to come out of the pandemic is the way we learn. Online learning reached a value of 253 billlion (USD) in 2021 and is expected to grow by a rate of 15% by 2026. We learnt that we do not always have to be present in order to learn. Actually learning online at your own pace has become easier for the everyday busy person. We can comfortable say that this is an extremely popular and lucrative way of making money online.

Here is a list of the most popular digital products:-

1. Online Courses
2. Consulting / Coaching Services
3. Membership sites
4. Digital Art
5. Planners / Organisers
6. Graphic Design
7. eBooks

Digital Products are a great way to add additional income or to monetise your website / social media. The best thing about these examples is the majority of them are passive. What I mean by passive is that they will take a lot of work up front to plan and create but once they are ready, you can sell them in your sleep and make reoccurring income. Want to know how to sell these products? Check out my how to blog:-

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6. Blogging

Want to get paid in your sleep whilst you rant about your views and opinions? Blogging just could be one of the best ways of making money online.

So isn’t blogging dead? We get this question a lot. To put it into context there are over 570 million blogs on the internet and around 7 million blog posts are published everyday. So I hope that outlines just how popular blogging is. So what are blogs then?

A blog is usually a website that showcases published content from an individual or group of people usually in a niche that they are associated in. Most of the websites you are led to when you google something will lead you to a blog. The reason you don’t think that you have landed on a blog is that you are expecting a blog to be something like ‘hey guys, this morning I had smashed avacado on toast. It was really nice’. See blogs have come on a long way from what they were. There are now millions of blogs that are jam packed full of helpful information from ‘how to find the best hoover’ to ‘how to start a business’. So blogging sounds great but how the hell do I make money from it?

The best thing about creating a blog is the many ways you can monetise it. Blogs themselves don’t actually make any money. Most of the blogs on the internet are created so that your neighbour Linda can blog about their favourite Sunday outfit. These are known as ‘hobby blogs’. These people don’t care about making money online. They just want to tell the world what they are thinking and sleep better knowing somebody read it. Now if you want to actually make money from blogging you need to treat it like a business from the get go. See here a few ways you can monetise your blog:-

• Affiliate Marketing
• Sell Digital Products
• Sell Ad Space
• Sell An eBook
• Get Paid To Guest Blog
• Paid Membership Area

You can choose to use as many methods of monetisation you desire. This is the beauty of blogging, you aren’t reliant on one stream of income. You can choose blogging as a stream of income but have many streams of income within that. So blogging is pretty easy right?

Not necessarily. Blogging it’self is quite easy. Building an aesthetically pleasing wordpress site, spending hours writing your blog posts, optimising for SEO and creating courses and an eBook is not so easy. However if you are happy to build something over time and are willing to keep sticking at it until you build up your traffic, blogging is personally one of the best ways of making money online. Want to know how to build a blog? Go check out my guide to building a blog here:-

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7. Virtual Assistant

Another revelation to appear from the pandemic was the ability to work remotely. As the world was shut down and travel was restricted we were all to find new ways of working in the ‘new normal’. Businesses furloughed a lot of their staff and the majority of staff were to work from home. It turns out that people actually like working from home. No arguing over who left the milk out, no strenuous commute and the fact you can work in your pyjamas makes it way more appealing! But we aren’t here to talk about how you can find a job working from home. We are here to find ways of making money online so that you can quit that 9-5. Queue the virtual assistant.

Do you have specific computer based skills? Can you format a spreadsheet? Are you organised? Like taking on different tasks? If yes then starting a virtual assistant business could be what you are looking for.

Most virtual assistants come from a PA/admin based role and they usually enjoy a varied role. So what exactly is a virtual assistant? Well a virtual assistant is in the name. You are offering your assistance virtually from anywhere you wish to work. You pick your hours, your clients and essentially your rate of pay. Is it lucrative? Hell yes! Virtual assistants can usually command around £20-25 per hour based on their skill set. Do you have more niche skills like social media and web design? Well you could be asking for even more per hour!

Ok sounds good. Good pay, choose your hours, work in your dressing gown so what’s the catch? Well just like all good side hustles, it’s not going to be easy to transition from your 9-5. You will need to build up a book of trusted clients before you feel financially free enough to quit that job. However because you can demand such a high hourly rate you might be able to quit sooner than you think.

If you fancy starting a Virtual Assistant Business I highly recommend you jump over to my How To Become a Virtual Assistant guide:-

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8. Print On Demand

Calling all artists and designers that want to supplement their income! Got a load of designs or artwork that you fancy placing on your own merch and selling online? Print on Demand could be the one for you. So what is Print on Demand? As the name suggests, this is pretty much printing on demand (as and when you need it). Essentially you promote one of your products (could be a mug or t-shirt) with your design on it.

Somebody comes to your website and places an order for this. You push this order through to a Print on Demand supplier and they fulfil the order for you. Wait, what? They will print, pack and send this to the customer direct for you? Yup.

Before you get to giddy about Print on Demand let me burst your bubble (a little bit). Because you are essentially using someone else’s stock and printing material and packaging boxes and they are paying your postage, this will obviously eat away at your profit margins.

Look at this example – You sell a mug with your artwork on for £15. Customer purchases this so you get £15. But you have got to place the order with the supplier. With the supplier your mug with your artwork on costs £6.99. They are then going to add Tax / VAT (£1.40) and then they have to post it to your customer (£3.50). This means that your cost is now £11.89. Deduct this from your £15 and your total profit is £3.11. Obviously you haven’t had to do too much to earn your £3.11 but if you make 10 sales you earn £31.10 not too bad eh!

As you can see, Print on Demand can be lucrative and certainly scalable but please don’t listen to these Print on Demand gurus who claim you can become a millionaire with this over night. On the other side on the coin this is a great side hustle that can be pretty passive. I am also a big fan of any way that artists and designers can earn extra money online. Not got any design skills? You can literally make your designs on Canva. Still too lazy? You could outsource the design work to someone on Fiverr.

Fancy starting a Print on Demand business? Go check out my How to start a Print on Demand business post here:-

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As you can see, there are plenty of easy(ish) ways to make money online. All of these above examples are easily doable with a bit of grit and determination. Whether you are looking at starting a new business, want to supplement your monthly income or if you are just looking to add another stream of income these business ideas could help change your life.

If you are struggling to unlock your true passions in life check out my guide on How To Find Your Passions And Get Paid For Them.