Finding an income stream online is probably easier than it’s ever been, for two overlapping reasons. First, there’s a demand for it! And where there’s demand, resources will follow. Secondly, success begets success. As new people enter the online workforce, the demand for people to support their virtual efforts increases as well.
That being said, making it work is still a challenge, and you’ll likely need to consider a wide range of avenues before settling on the right approach for you. Let’s see what options are there, shall we?
1. Affiliate Marketing
In the interest of sparking off new ideas, a good starting point to make money online is to get involved in affiliate marketing. Yep, we had to go there! The thing is, affiliate marketing has been generating a lot of buzz in recent years, and there’s no denying that, done right, it’s one of the more scalable and sustainable ways to make money online.
Here’s a vastly simplified version of how affiliate marketing works:
Choose the thing you plan to sell – it can be anything really, from cat laxatives to shoelace dongles.
Build a decent, SEO-optimized website around it.
Make money every time your site visitors purchase that thing through your site.
If you are thinking, surely it can’t be that easy? Well, yeah. You’re right. The concept is simplicity itself. Making it happen is hard, not least of which because you’re competing with millions of other people trying to do exactly the same thing.
One way some pundits are successfully getting ahead of the curve is through skilling up via a dedicated affiliate marketing community. Wealthy Affiliate is one such resource, and many affiliate marketers swear by it as the easiest place to begin.
Wealthy Affiliate offers hundreds of hours of training and accompanying resources. That said, you’ll definitely want to go in with your eyes open.
2. Know Stuff, And Write About It
Making money through writing is one of the first suggestions you’ll likely encounter. Opportunities abound for wordsmiths. While workaday copywriting is always an option, a more potentially lucrative option you might want to consider is to become a subject-matter expert.
Here’s how it works.
Build (or harness your existing) knowledge, find marketable angles on that corpus of know-how, pitch it to industry sites.
If seeking depth and clarity excites you, becoming a subject-matter expert can be intensely satisfying. Moreover, if you find the right market for your work, it can pay surprisingly well!
If this is your path, ditch lesser freelance sites like Upwork. Opt instead for websites specializing in your subject area. Or join an industry side like N-Dash (which is completely pitch-driven) to carve out a name for yourself.
And remember. Be patient!
3. Help People For A Living
Virtual Assistant work is not sexy.
It isn’t about boldly carving a new niche, so much as it involves being a reliable, competent, dedicated backstop to someone else. But you know what? Good virtual assistants are incredibly successful, simply because that positive, supportive energy is hard to find in people.
If being helpful is your buzz, you may well be perfectly positioned to build up a name as a VA.
Here’s what you’re going to need:
A solid understanding of communication technologies.
An organized noggin with a business slant.’
An upbeat, supportive attitude.
If that describes you, you’ve got what it takes. The bigger trick is separating yourself from the poseurs who claim to have your skills but actually don’t. I won’t lie, there are many such people.
But here, time and persistence are your greatest weapons. Based on many conversations with successful EAs, the trick is starting small on a standard freelance site like Upwork, working for reputation points more than money while you’re starting out.
Once you have those first few successful jobs under your belt, you can begin strutting your stuff on LinkedIn, Monster, and Indeed. Your goal is to dazzle a busy C-suite type who desperately needs someone to make their life easier!
Keep them happy, and you keep making moolah.
4. Earn Money Through Research
Good researchers are a bit like good virtual assistants – they’re hard to find.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, Google is a big culprit for the dearth of research nous. These days, many folks assume deep research consists of delving past page three of a Google search.
If you are one of the few people who’ve figured out how to delve deeper, plundering white papers, technical reports, statistics, and peer-reviewed research to deliver unique insights, then you’re in a great position to sell those skills.
So what kind of research are we talking about?
It can, literally, be anything. A real estate agent may want to know the three biggest factors affecting condo prices in Dallas. A biotech startup may want to know what their competition is doing to attract investors. A pet food company may want to gain an insight into changing pet food trends over the past five years.
The common factor? The data isn’t easy to locate and analyze.
If this kind of sleuthing sounds like your thing, start by looking for researchers on major recruitment sites like Monster or Indeed. You may also want to look at dedicated research services like Ask Wonder.
Quality research will always be in demand.
The Bottom Line
Working online is not an easy path, and you are unlikely to land in green pastures overnight. If anyone tells you working from home is an easy transition, be suspicious, and look for the fine print!
However, if you really want to make it happen, provided you play to your strengths and treat your skills as a business, you stand a very good chance of getting there eventually.
Giving up your office job may be an incremental process, but we all have to begin somewhere. Good luck!
