The money is never enough and the expenses are endless. We get it. And those of us who didn’t quite realise the value of money earlier, have been educated rather harshly during the lockdown. Thousands of people have lost their jobs and many hundreds of businesses have shut operations because of the global pandemic. But know that you’re not alone, we are all in this together going through struggles of our own. The majority of us are homebound–either working from home or looking for ways to make money from home. But how?
The answer is–go online! As for your next question which is probably going to be ‘How to earn money online?’, here are 13 ways to make money from home. All you need is a good internet connection, a laptop or a computer, and the right skill to get started and earn your way to a steady online income. Whether you’re looking to start fresh or for an additional stipend, read on to find out how to earn money from home easily.
Get Paid For Surveys, Searches & Reviews
There are so many user research studies that companies and individuals hold to get productive feedback on their products or services. This is valuable information that people are willing to pay you to participate in. You can either fill out online surveys for them or participate in researches and get paid accordingly.
Furthermore, there are also companies that would pay you to write reviews on their products. The pay is usually on per review basis. That’s easy money right there! However, the money isn’t that great and a lot of people may try to fool you and get you to do it for free. You should also watch out for pay that looks too good to be true as it can be a scam to get your banking information. Go for reputable companies only.
Make Money Via Youtube
The world is going digital, and while at it, visual. The successor to blogging, vlogging is the new wave that has hit influencers. Just like so many examples around you, you can start your own YouTube channel and make videos on a specific topic of interest to your target audience. The more subscribers you gain, the higher your potential of making money will be. You can also try podcasting which is making digital audio recordings (non-visual format).
Start Your Own Website – Blogging
If you have a flair for writing, there’s nothing better than blogging for you. Just like in vlogging you create a YouTube channel, in blogging you create your own website and write articles on any subject of your interest (and your audience’s). Once your blog gets enough subscribers or followers, you can monetise it. Although the returns are slow. Some examples of free platforms where you can start your blog are WordPress, Blogspot, Medium.
Sponsored Posts
If you have a YouTube channel or a blog or a large social media following, you can make money off it by doing sponsored posts for brands. You’ll be promoting their product in exchange for money while the brand will get access to your huge audience base. In fact, influencers and businesses have rate cards defining their cost per post or video or article to make money online. It’s a whole business in the 21st century that has made thousands of people richer. That’s the power of being online!
Plixxo, the influencer marketing network by POPxo, is a platform for brands, influencers, and budding influencers to connect. As a content creator, you get plenty of opportunities to collaborate with awesome brands to monetize your online presence and grow your audience too. Once you sign up, Plixxo sends you invitations to brand campaigns. If you accept and complete them, you get paid.
Ads
Another way you can monetise your online presence is through ads. Again, if you have a big following, you can run ads on your content and get paid in return. A lot of influencers and businesses follow this model to earn extra (read effortless) money by giving a small space to brands on their platform – it can be your YouTube channel, your website or your social media.
Affiliate Marketing
Once your website is up and has decent visitors, you can further opt for affiliate marketing to make money online. How it works is – you partner with relevant brands/businesses by including their product in your content with a buy link with a unique affiliate code. Whenever a user clicks on the link and makes the purchase, you get some percentage of money out of it. Think of it as your commission for the viewer to buyer conversion.
Lead Generation
To understand lead generation or lead sales, consider the following steps that you need to follow to make it work. Step 1: Set up a website. Step 2: Get traffic on that website. Step 3: Collect leads (people coming to your website for information or help). Step 4: Find a lead buyer who’d be willing to pay you for your relationship with your leads. For instance, if an insurance advisor brings his leads (potential clients) to the agency he’s tied up with, he gets a commission, the agency gets more business, and the lead gets insurance. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Language Translation
Knowing a language other than the common tongue can have money-making benefits. If you know a language other than English or Hindi, this is one category you can explore. The demand for language translators is more than the supply. Not to mention how time-consuming the process is. Therefore, people hire translators who can work remotely and translate documents for them online. This may include Spanish, French, German, etc. You can look for projects in regional languages too.
There are several websites such as Freelancer.in, Fiverr.com, Worknhire.com and Upwork.com where you can find translation projects–an easy way to make money from home, am I right? The pay is on per word basis which can be anything between Re 1 to Rs 5 or even Rs 10, depending on the language.
Online Tutoring
Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the world has gone indoors and online. Months from March to date are proof. Schools and colleges are taking online classes, gyms have gone live too, people are teaching cooking via Zoom meetings. That can easily be you! If you are an expert in a particular subject or have an interest area, something you feel passionate about, you can earn money from home by tutoring people online. You can connect with information seekers of all ages spread across the country at the same time!
The most popular example, for your reference and understanding, would be BYJU–they have a website, an app as well as a YouTube channel with videos for different class students and on a wide variety of topics.
If you don’t want to work for an organisation or want to start something of your own, create a YouTube channel on a subject of your expertise, upload short videos explaining different concepts and make money from it. Watching tutorials and concept breakdowns on YouTube is what helped me through college. As a user, you can watch them over and over again until you get it right; as a tutor, you get more views and, by extension, money. You can also host live classes or conduct webinars at a time of your convenience.
Websites like Vedantu.com, MyPrivateTutor.com, BharatTutors.com, TutorIndia.net, Teachable.com to name a few allow you to sign up and create a profile listing the subjects or classes you want to teach, your experience, qualifications, etc. Once the due process is followed and you are listed as a teacher with them, you can make between Rs 200 to Rs 500 or more per hour, based on your experience.
Open Digital Store – Sell Your Own Product Online
E-commerce and its scope know no bounds. If you have a unique product (it can be handicrafts or other handmade/homemade products), all you need to do is create your website and sell it via the world wide web to make money online. With the help of affiliate marketing programmes, you can further your earnings. Alternatively, you can partner with platforms like Amazon and Flipkart to sell your product online. They have a lot of users which gives you higher chances of selling.
Consultation
If you’re an expert in any field, you can find people willing to pay you for your counsel on their business matters. Hiring a consultant for specific projects/assignments, on a short-term basis or long-term is more cost-effective and efficient to companies than a full-time employee with a mediocre experience. You can consult as a social media strategist or SEO personnel among others, you’d be surprised at the types of expertise people pay for. Also, consultation generally allows you to take up other jobs simultaneously as you are not an employee of the company (unless your agreement says so).
Learn Stock Trading
Unlike other mentioned ways to make money from home, stock trading requires some capital investment to get started. Depending on the stock market trends of bearish (down) and bullish (up), your earnings will depend. Note that there is no guarantee of getting your money back, let alone making a profit, in this setup. If your knowledge of the stock market is good, you can earn some side money via online stock trading. If not, there are many online courses to learn stock trading before you jump in with all your money.
Freelancing
A lot of companies and individuals are always looking for people who can work on a freelance basis. For example, most content websites hire freelance writers and pay them on per word/article basis. It’s a temporary role, saves them the cost of hiring a full-time writer, and also gives people the opportunity to work from home. A great option for those who can’t commute, freelance writing can pay anything between 50 p to Rs 5 per word, depending on your experience and writing skills. But freelancing is not limited to content writing.
Companies are also willing to pay people for other skills like web or graphic designing, video editing, translating or simply transcribing audios. The best part is that you can finish these projects more or less according to your own time and convenience. Data entry jobs are also outsourced via freelancers these days and paid on per hour basis. You can check out Freelancer.in and Media Jobs Daily (India) on Facebook, a close community, for such openings.
#POPxoProTip: Whatever kind of job you are looking for, make sure you and your resume are visible on certain platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed.com and Naukri.com as all the recruiters are sitting there, waiting to hire.
Ready to make some bucks from the comfort of your homes?
Featured Image: Unsplash
