A cash cow for the enterprising, the
Internet is littered with opportunities to make a fast buck. While it
rarely qualifies as a solitary source of income, the Net can easily help
you supplement it. However, the amount you earn depends on the time and
effort invested. Go through these 20 options and find out which ones
work for you.BloggingIf
you're a passionate closet writer who wants to be published but can't
find a way to do so, make each keystroke your way to wealth by penning
your own blog. Starting a blog doesn't require extensive technical
skills but it's important that you have expertise in the field you are
writing on. This will attract visitors to your site. Building a large
following will enable you to earn profit by luring advertisers, writing
paid reviews or getting commissions for promoting other people's
products.
Paid WritingIf
maintaining a blog is difficult for you but you still want to indulge
your passion for writing, you can jot down articles for other blogs or
sites such as Weblogs, Helium or PayPerPost. Writing an e-book can also
be a good option. E-books are investment free, with no cost for printing
and shipping. If you have a strong command over languages, you can
become a copy editor, where Webmasters will pay you to read articles and
correct grammatical errors, sentence fragments, etc.
e-tuitions/WebinarsThe
demand for tutors is high and growing. So, if you like helping others
learn, e-teaching could be the earning ticket for you. All you need to
become an online tutor is expertise in your subject and a few spare
hours per week. TutorVista, e-tutor, SmartThinking and Tutor.com are
some of the sites you can enroll with. If you gain a good reputation as a
coach, you could even conduct Webinars-lectures or seminars transmitted
over the Net. College and university students are willing to pay to
gain entry to a well-respected Webinar.
Affilliate/ResellerFor
those who have the knack of selling, one of the best ways to make money
online is to become an affiliate/reseller. An affiliate is a person who
gets a commission for selling every product that he promotes, whether
on his Website or through any other avenue such as eBay. You don't have
to own the product. You only need to sign up for an affiliate program
with a company and start selling its products under your referral link.
Firms such as Commission Junction or Click Bank have a large pool of
products.
Buying/Selling domainsBuying
and selling domain names is another way to make money from home and
requires very little investment or time. You can buy domains at their
registration prices or even cheaper and trade them at a profit. However,
always research on sites such as sedo.co.uk, afternic.com, ebay.com or
other domain auction sites to get an estimate of the hottest selling
names. The best way to find good ones is to use terminated domain lists,
which contain several expired names that are back in the pool.
Freelancing for ProfessionalsFreelancing
is a great option for professionals who are experts in their respective
trades and know how to ensure customer satisfaction. Various
freelancing and project-oriented sites allow companies that need help to
describe their projects. Freelancers and small businesses offer bids,
ideas or proposals, from which the buyers can choose what they find most
suitable. Websites such as Elance cover everything from programming and
writing to data entry and design, while RentACoder focuses on software
programming.
AdvertisingYou
can sell space on your Website or blog for advertisements and you earn
when these ads are clicked by visitors to your site. The sorting and
placing of ads is free. The profitability of pay-per-click advertising
depends on the traffic level of the Website and, most importantly, on
the clickthrough rate and cost per click. Google AdSense is the most
popular option, while others are BidVertiser, Text Link Ads and Blogads.
Direct banner and RSS feed are some other forms of online advertising.
GPT ProgrammeGPT
or Get-paid-to sites are becoming increasingly popular among teens. You
get paid for signing up for free Websites, newsletters, playing games
and filling out online surveys. These are suitable for people who don't
have a skill set but want to earn extra money. Taking online surveys is
simple- register with a few legitimate, paid survey sites and answer
questions. The topics range from shopping to politics. This might not
help you make a living, but you can earn good pocket money. Contests2win
is one of the trusted GPT Websites.
Online MarketingOnce
a Website is created and optimised for search engine (SEO), the SEM or
Search Engine Marketing begins. A treasure trove lies hidden here. An
SEO/SEM expert, who is responsible for marketing a Website, can promote
it in various ways. These include article marketing, writing press
releases, forum posting, blog posting, submitting your site to
directories and search engines, social bookmarking, etc. Most companies
don't do this in-house and pay you to conduct the SEM for them.
Making themesAs
more and more people seek an online presence, the demand for Website
templates and WordPress (Blog) themes will keep increasing. If you are
good at Web designing and coding, you can earn a lot from designing Web
themes. In this segment, there are mainstream Websites, such as
TemplateMonster and ThemeForest, which act as a marketplace where you
can sell your themes. Templates are sold and priced depending on the
rights and features that are bundled with them.
Selling photosIf
you enjoy photography and are good with a camera, you could be sitting
on a huge reserve of revenue. There are people who will be interested in
your collection of images. Nowadays, it's easy to take your photos to
the public, providing a convenient way to build a secondary income
stream. Many stock photo agencies, such as Fotolia, Dreamstime and
Shutterstock, offer incentives for people to earn from their photos.
Support & serviceProviding
coding or fixing other Webmasters' issues is another great way to earn
extra bucks. There are simple jobs ranging from adding a script to
setting up sites, but knowledge of Web coding is essential. One can
offer support for Web CMS (content management systems) like Drupal or
Joomla. After you are comfortable with your own installation, you can
help other people to set these up and configure them.
Stock/forex tradingJoining
the stock/forex market may seem a bit risky. However, you can start
small and continue researching till you gain experience in this area.
Once you do, it will be easy to earn from exchanging foreign currencies
and/or stocks. Their rates fluctuate depending on supply and demand, and
economic and political influences in the world. The aim of any trader
is to spot which currency/stock is likely to rise or fall in value
against another. The more time you put in, the more you will earn.
Selling your own brandIf
you have a flair for designing cool images, don't bother about creating
your own inventory. As long as your design can be printed on a product,
you can pocket some money. You can upload designs on various Websites
such as CafePress, and if somebody orders these designs, the company
will print them and distribute the products. It could be designs for
T-shirts, hats, bags, books, posters, calendars, greeting cards, etc.
You will receive a commission for each sale. Other such sites include
Lulu and Zazzle.
Virtual AssistantSmall
businesses always need help in running their processes, but may not be
willing to hire a full-time employee. As a virtual assistant, you are
expected to perform practically any administrative task that a
traditional secretary or assistant would, such as make travel
reservations, handle expense reimbursements or pay bills. You can do it
from the comfort of your home, interacting with clients either online or
by phone. Your expertise will decide how much moolah you rake in.
Inbound call centreMany
companies, who are facing space constraints, especially those in metro
cities, prefer to hire workers outside their offices or outsource
certain processes. You can set up an inbound call centre at home to
handle such jobs. Research different companies that are outsourcing
their work as they may have opportunities for inbound call centre
agents. You can work for more than one company. This can be either a
part-time or fulltime engagement, depending on your need.
You TubeIf
there's a dramatic performer hidden inside you who craves applause and
adulation, upload yourself on YouTube. You can be a filmmaker, musician
or comedian who wants a wider audience. Your earnings will come from ads
displayed on your video page. This process is similar to the
pay-per-click advertising program common to other Websites and blogs.
Sites such as Flixya and Mediaflix can be helpful in this regard.
Researching for othersDon't
be morose if you can't write, design or code. Lack of talent cannot
stop you from making money online. If you're willing to work hard for a
few hours a week, you can take up simple research jobs for other people
who don't have the time to do it themselves. You could search for
opportunities in organisations that provide funding for research and
offer to assist them through online investigation.
Building ApplicationsWith
smartphones gaining popularity, the demand for their applications, or
apps as they are popularly known, has also shot up. There are over 3
million apps for the iPhone and over a million apps in Google's Android
market. Most of these are selling like hot cakes. Developing and selling
your own smartphone app is becoming a lucrative way to make money on
the Internet. Apps cost virtually nothing to develop and entail no
storage or shipping costs. So they enjoy the best profit margins.
TranscriptionMedical
transcription involves making written copies of oral material dictated
by doctors or other medical experts. These may include history and
physical reports, clinical notes, consultation notes, reports, letters,
psychiatric evaluation and so on. The dictated material needs to be
transcribed swiftly and accurately, which is the most challenging aspect
of the job. To become a medical transcriptionist, you need to have a
good knowledge of medical terminology and a high typing speed along with
accuracy.
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