In the highly modern and technologically advanced world of today, we now have the internet where we can conveniently look for anything we want. From a certain product to a person, or place, you can rely on your device to throw up thousands of relevant results. Among these an important activity that the internet can help you with is earning money. You will find a lot of options, even if you don’t look hard.
What makes this even better is you can walk down this path even if you’re a student, a parent who doesn’t have the time to go out or someone who doesn’t have a lot of qualifications. Here are ways in which you can actually make money online.
Sell Products Online
Considering how large the consumer market is in India, it will be a good idea if you start selling products online. This means entering the field of e-commerce. If you don’t know what e-commerce is yet, it refers to the online market. Platforms like Amazon and Flipkart are some examples.
Going back, there are a lot of things that you can sell. You’re basically presented with unlimited choices if you plan on starting this gig. Not only that, but you’ll also be glad to know that you handle your own time. Unlike in physical stores, you don’t have to deal with early opening hours and late closing hours. You’ll also save a lot since you won’t need to hire a lot of manual workers.
For products, you can craft your own or source from manufacturers and other suppliers.
Start An E-commerce Store
Starting with the most common, we have: starting an e-commerce store. You can create your own website if you have the budget to invest in website creation tools or services. This is recommended if you want to increase brand visibility and awareness because online users can see you even without specifically typing out your brand name.
If you’re not ready to invest in a website yet, then you can opt for a social-media-based shop. This is actually a thing these days. Here, you, or the business, will simply create an account on either Facebook or Instagram, and that is where they post their product’s photos. The two social media platforms already have built-in messaging platforms, so it won’t be hard to connect with inquiring customers.
Dropship Trending Goods
Dropshipping is one of the latest trends in online selling. Here, there’s no need to buy bulk products from your suppliers and manufacturers without having any assurance that you can sell them all. This eliminates the need to have a physical room for inventory, which is one of the main things that a physical store spends on. Instead, you only buy a certain item once a customer places an order.
Here’s how dropshipping works:
- You create a website containing the products from your dropship supplier.
- A customer places an order on your website.
- You place an order on your dropship supplier. You just need to buy the certain quantity that your customer asked for. Depending on the payment method, you can either use your own money first or from the money you received from your customer.
- Once your dropship supplier confirms the order, they will process the shipping and delivery, so expect that you will be required to send the address and other personal info that your customer provided you with.
Don’t forget to mark up the prices of the products from your dropship supplier. This means increasing the price. It will serve as your profit for each item you sell.
Offer Your Skills And Services
Freelancing is another effective way to earn money online in India. This field is all about offering your skills and services to the online client market. It covers a broad range of industries, including marketing, education, and those under the creative industry, such as writing, filmmaking, and designing. Basically, if you have talent in anything specific, you can expect to find a certain freelancing gig for you.
If you want to start doing this, you can, again, create your own website. If you want the less costly and more effective way, then you should consider signing up for freelancing platforms, such as Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com, to state the most popular.
If you want some recommendations, here are some of the most commonly availed services that you can offer:
Writing, Transcription And Translation Services
If you’re good at working with words, writing articles, creating stories, making product descriptions, or anything else related to writing, then you can offer freelance writing services. You can write under your name or another person’s if the gig’s description includes ghostwriting. Either way, the minimum rate starts at 0.5 paise.
For those that don’t work too well with drafting articles but still want to work in a related field, how about offering transcription services? Here, you just need to type in what you hear from recordings. Depending on the client, you may either have to work with a video or a voice clip. The minimum rate for this starts at INR 200 per hour of transcription.
Another option, if you’re knowledgeable in other languages apart from Hindi, you can offer translation services. The most common gig involves Hindi-English and vice versa. Projects, on the other hand, can range from short-term documents to full-on books and stories. Rate starts at 0.5 paise per word.
Marketing
If you’re knowledgeable in the field of marketing, or even better, prior experience in working in the field, you can offer freelance marketing services. Since we’re talking about online-based services, you will mostly have to deal with digital marketing strategies if you start majoring in this gig.
Offering marketing services come in a lot of forms. Depending on your expertise, you can offer writing and sending email marketing content, managing social media platforms, or handling a brand’s affiliate system. This gig is paid by the hour and will depend on the actual task description. The good thing about this is it comes with several opportunities for a full-time position.
Note that this gig usually has higher requirements compared to other freelancing jobs. You need to have something to back up your claims, such as a related degree, experience, or certification. If you don’t have any, then consider attending seminars that offer completion certificates as a start.
Logo Design
People who are talented in digital design can offer logo design services to businesses, brands, and public figures in general. You will need to mix this talent of yours with the ability to come up with innovative ideas and have a good eye for aesthetics in order to set yourself apart from the competition. One can actually earn a lot from here, considering that the minimum rate is INR 100.
You don’t have to immediately invest in expensive design platforms if you’re just starting out. Consider this once you already have enough clients and you’re generating a higher rate than the minimum.
Virtual Assisting
For those that have exemplary skills in time management, multitasking, and basically learning all the ropes without being spoon fed, being a virtual assistant may be one of your best choices.
This can either be a part-time or full-time position, but it’s usually the latter. The good thing is beginners still have a lot of opportunities to start becoming one despite having literally no experience at all. There’s also a lot of earning opportunities because of the high rates offered. At the very least, you just need to have your own equipment, specifically desktop and working headphones.
Become A Content Creator
Do you have the skill to attract an audience through your personality? How about expertise in a certain field? Being a content creator may be the answer to your extra income needs.
This is a rather slow-paced career since you will need to invest a lot of time before you can expect high and stable earnings from your platform. You also need to spend effort because you need to think of new ideas for the content you’ll publish. Not to mention, you will also need to edit either photos or videos to effectively deliver your goal.
You can earn from content creation through ads, sponsorships, or the creator fund provided by certain platforms like Youtube, Tiktok, and other social media sites.
Content creation can be done in many ways. Below are just some of your many choices:
Create Videos
Creating videos is one of the best ways to get your name out there. You can create long-form videos on Youtube or short-form skits on Tiktok. Any content will be fine, actually. You can just choose whichever you like the most.
Keep in mind that you will also need to know how to edit videos if you want to make your video as appealing as it can get.
Start A Podcast
If you’re not really into filming yourself and are more of a speaker, how about starting a podcast instead? It’s usually done over Spotify for the broadest audience reach, but you still have the option to turn to Youtube or other social media platforms. Again, you can just talk about whichever you feel comfortable in.
Write Blogs
Not into filming or recording anything at all? You can always write a blog about your journey and experiences. You can also just share knowledge about your audience. No matter what, all you need to start blogging is your own website.
Look Into Your Possible Investment Choices
If you’re looking for more of a passive income rather than something that requires a lot of effort, then you can always start investing. You will need capital to start this since investing basically means growing your existing money.
Here are some platforms where you can invest in:
- Cryptocurrency
- Stocks
- Banks and other financial institutions
Before everything else, remember that investing is not “easy” money. It comes with a lot of risks, and if you don’t make smart decisions, you can end up losing the money you invested.
Bottom Line
To sum it up, some of the best ways that you can make money online include selling products online, offering your skills and services, creating content, and, last but not the least, investing.
In choosing what income source to major in, you should take certain factors into account. For instance, start by knowing your expertise. Ask yourself questions like “What qualities and skills do I currently have?”, “What do I excel most in?”, “What do I want to do?” and “How much can I invest in tools and platforms to do this specific gig?”.
It’s best to start with just one gig at first, especially if you’re a beginner in the field. Over time, you can take on new gigs or simply focus on growing your existing career.
