Obviously, one of the most asked questions I get is how I make money. Because after all, I still need money to survive and travel.
The thing is, I make money in several ways. The most money is made through my affiliate websites. These are niche and authority websites that get visitors through SEO, the free results in Google.
On these websites, I have some links to big webshops. Whenever a visitor visits one of my websites, clicks on one of these links, and buys a product, I receive a commission.
However, next to my websites, I also work for Belgian clients. I mostly work white label for agencies/freelancers.
On top of that, I have some small investments. These investments were made with the money I made from the affiliate websites when I was still working full time as an online marketeer at a Belgian company. Of course not everything was invested in stock and peer-to-peer loans, most of it was invested back again at the affiliate websites.
The main goal for the future is not to have to rely on income through client work and fully focus on my affiliate websites and investments.
Since for these affiliate websites, I almost completely rely on Google and webshops, that is kind of risky. In order to reduce the risk of these affiliate websites, I will work on making one of the affiliate websites as a real brand.
That means a brand people know, has good social media presence thus attracts visitors through social media, as well as email marketing, marketing automation and even online ads.
As a monetization method, I will sell (my own) digital products and work with bigger brands to sell them sponsored posts on my website.
If you’re wondering what other online money making methods exist, I sum up quite a few of them below.
1. Online writing
There are sever platforms where you can apply as a writer and get orders. Most well-knows platforms are Textbroker, Upwork and Fiverr.
There is a difference between these platforms though. Fiverr is often more used for low quality and very cheap texts. Whereas Upwork can be used by clients with bigger budgets, looking for better quality texts. Textbroker is somewhere in the middle. There are good writers on textbroker as well as bad ones.
The most difficult part on each platform is to get your first orders. You would have to work for cheap and deliver quality work to get your first good reviews. As soon as you get some good reviews, you can start charging more money.
Another difference between the platforms is how you get paid. On Fiverr, you get paid per order. An order can be 1 text of 500 words for $5, 1 text of 300 words for 15$… you get the point.
On textbroker you will get paid per word count. The more words you write, the more money you earn. However, the total word count has to meet the requirements of the client. How much you get paid per word depends on your “level”. This level is determined by Textbroker. You would have to do some tests to determine your level.
On Upwork, you can decide how much you get paid. You can charge the client per hour or per word count. The easiest way to get your first orders is to go to the jobs page and apply for jobs that you can do. Like this, pricing will be often set by the client.
2. Surveys
Definitely not my favourite method but you could earn some cash by filling in online surveys. It’s one of the oldest methods to make money online, however, I don’t advise this one. It will not make you enough money to be worth the hassle.
3. Affiliate Marketing
My favorite way of making money is affiliate marketing. If done properly, affiliate marketing can generate you a passive income. Don’t fall for the grow rich quick schemes though.
Affiliate marketing requires a lot of work, persistence and patience. If you’re starting from zero, expect to be working at least 1,5 year to make some decent money. If you’re taking the right courses, you can do the same in about a year.
But still, to make enough money and quit your job, you will probably be working for at least 2 years next to your current job. After these 2 years though, you’ll have enough experience to start new affiliate marketing projects and grow your income quickly. Before you know, you’ll be ready to start a digital nomad life yourself. At least, if that’s what you’re after.
4. Buying an existing business
If you have a big cash stack, buying an existing business might be a way for you to make money.
This can be e-commerce stores, dropshipping businesses, affiliate websites, advertising websites, SaaS products…
Buying an existing business however, is not advised if you don’t have experience managing a business. So this method might be an option for (previous) business owners only.
If you’re looking for business to buy, you might want to take a look at EmpireFlippers or Flippa.
5. Become an influencer
A lot of young girls dream about becoming an Instagram celebrity. Travelling the world and earning money by being an online influencer. But did you know that you don’t actually need a big follow number to be an influencer.
These days, more and more advertisers are looking for micro-inluencers. And anyone can be a micro-influencer.
6. Work as a Virtual Assistant
You can perform work as a Virtual Assistant online. The jobs you get are very diverse. This can go from doing customer service, cold calling, cold emailing, scheduling appointments, doing some administrative work, data entry, online research, editing work…
For Virtual Assistans, there are several platforms where you can apply. The most well-known ones are Upwork and Fiverr.
7. Photography
If you have some photography skills, you might as well monetize them. Travelling to beautifull places, taking photo’s and selling these online is what a lot of digital nomads do.
8. Selling guest posts
A lot of SEO’ers know the term guest posts. They are needed for making websites rank in search engines like Google.
What you can do is start a website and sell guest posts to other webmasters. Depending on the website of a guest post on your website, you can charge these webmasters as little as $5 where they have to deliver the content for the post up to thousands of dollars.
9. Manage social media accounts for clients
Another option is to manage the social media accounts for clients. This means that you’d be in charge of researching an posting updates on the accounts. Don’t only think about Facebook and Instagram, also think about LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit…
10. Translating
If you don’t like to do research for online writing, translating documents might be an option for you. Chances are big that you know two languages. If you’re proficient in translating from one language to the other, you might as well monetize this skill.
Well-known platforms to find jobs as a translator are iTranslate, Fiverr, Upwork, Textbroker..
11. Online Teaching
A lot of digital nomads are online teachers. Teaching english classes online to children or adults on a regular base, might generate you a stable amount of income.
12. Sell courses
If you’re really good at something, you might as well teach it to others by creating a course and selling this course.
13. Web design
If you have some coding skills, you could look into selling web designs. Only templates, or full ready websites or webshops. Options are endless.
14. Graphic work
Know how to work with Photoshop? Great! You can do some graphic work for clients.
Best platforms to find clients online for graphic work are Fiverr, Upwork, 99designs,..
15. Youtube
If you’re willing to make videos, you can start a youtube channel. It might take some time before you get enough viewers to monetize these views though. But once the ball is rolling and you get more subscribers, you can grow your audience quickly.
Example of a succesfull youtuber is PewDiePie who is making well over tens of thousands of dollars every month by uploading videos about games.
16. Sell eBooks
If you know how to write, you might want to look into the option of selling eBooks. These eBooks can be informative/educational or fiction novels. Up to you.
17. Investing through P2P loans
Lending money to other people (without face to face interaction) on platforms like Mozzeno can give you a nice return. Not as good as some stock dividens but definetly better than letting your money decrease in value at your savings account on the bank.
18. Give webinars
If you have good information to share and have a way to reach the right audience, you can give (paid webinars).
19. Give Podcasts
Podcasts are on the rise. You could make a podcast and reach out to advertisers. Depending on the amount and quality of followers you have, you could earn up to thousands of dollars per month, by adding a short clip at the beginning, end or in the middle of the podcast.
20. Set up a lead-generating website
You could set up a websites that generates leads. These leads can be sold to business owners in search for extra quality leads.
21. Build an online community
You could set up an online community. By having an online community, some advertisers might be interested in reaching your community since they are in their target group. You can sell these advertisers some space in your newsletter, a post on social media…
22. Online Trading
This one is winning in popularity fast. By trading of Forex markets or Crypto currency markets you can make a nice little extra money to a bunch of money. Keep in mind that you can still lose money as well. Therefor, it’s advised to educate yourself first about the whole online trading process. You would have to learn about technical analysis, risk management.
There are several trainers who could sell you courses that cost well over a few thousands of dollars. Or you could go for a subscription based, online program, teaching you all the ins and outs of forex and crypto trading. The best platform I found until now is im.academy