Year: 2018

How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business and Actually See Success

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Okay, by now, we’ve all seen affiliate marketing images like this online:

Affiliate marketing earnings

They’re usually attached to an article claiming affiliate marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And now, you’re interested in how to start an affiliate marketing business and start pulling in some of that sweet, six-figure income.

If done right, this business model can lead to passive income (who doesn’t want to make money while asleep?), freedom to do what you want when you want, and more control over your life.

I’ve been extremely blessed to have affiliate marketing be my sole source of income since 2009. I know the blessings that it can bring. I also know the challenges, struggles, and hardships as well.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most cost-effective businesses you can start online.

The general idea is you build a website, help connect people with the information they are searching for online, then hand them off to the retailer. The retailer then pays you a percentage of the sale as a commission.

Your website works for you 24/7 without a human manning your site and can pull earnings in around the clock. You have a never-ending list of products and services to promote. And, my personal favorite, you don’t even have to worry about inventory, storage, customer service, handling, shipping and other day-to-day operational issues faced by ecommerce stores.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

In this business model, you (as an affiliate) earn with just a couple of steps:

  • You promote another person’s or company’s product or service on your blog, social media accounts, YouTube, online ad, or other online platforms of your choice.
  • If one of your followers clicks on the affiliate link and then buys the affiliate product or subscribe to an affiliate service that you’ve promoted, this transaction is credited to you.
  • The affiliate program then computes all conversions and sends commissions your way.

The concept is actually pretty simple and has been used in businesses long before the internet even existed.

In the past, referral commissions are given to people who bring new customers to a company. The main difference in today’s affiliate marketing is that you use a traceable link when promoting a product/service and the affiliate program uses a browser cookie to track the shopper’s purchases before the cookie expires.

How much capital do you need to start an Affiliate Marketing business?

If you’re just on the planning stages of your online business and can’t dive into affiliate marketing just yet in fear of a high startup capital, you’d be amazed that this make-money-online model allows you to operate at virtually no cost.

Of course, as you earn commissions and expand your business, it’s inevitable that expenses will creep up as well.

To jump right into the world of affiliate marketing, you’ll need:

  • Domain name – A domain name is the name of your website. It is the address internet users type in to access your site, instead of entering the numerical IP address. If you don’t have a hosting provider yet, you can get a free domain name with any of the shared hosting packages on BlueHost. If you already have hosting, you can purchase a domain a la cart for as low as $9 per year.
  • Hosting – This is where your new website will be hosted. You can start with just the most-basic plans of popular hosting companies. For example, Bluehost’s Basic shared plan already has a free domain included, plus everything you need to begin your affiliate marketing journey. It’s priced normally around $8, but is often on sale at $4/month. Like all hosting providers, the longer subscription you pay upfront, the bigger your savings.

Bluehost Pricing Comparison

  • Keyword Research Tool – Any serious affiliate marketer should invest in a keyword research tool (we use Jaaxy for ours). This will be your secret weapon for successful campaigns with your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. It helps you come up with ideas for content, keywords, and niches.
  • Marketing techniques – You might incur additional monthly expenses based on the marketing technique you choose to use.
    • E-mail marketing – One of the best ways to nurture leads is to run an e-mail campaign. There’s no other e-mail tool better than AWeber, which starts at about $19/month and goes up to $200 or more (depending on the number of subscriptions).
    • Pay-per-click – Another effective way of attracting customers to your affiliate site is to advertise or pay for PPC. You don’t have to go far to look for this one, since Google’s own paid advertising can already do wonders on its own. Fees are only in cents per-click, but this adds up pretty quickly, so expect to shell out $50 or more for a low-budget campaign.
  • Content and media – If you have a knack for writing, or is good with photography or Photoshop, then you can save some money and do these yourself. But if for any reason (lack of skill or time) you can’t create content or media like photos and videos, there are people willing to do them for you. You can hire freelancers either by the hour or on a flat fee.
    • Copyright Photos – You can also buy ready-made images straight off sites like Dreamstime and other stock photography sites for as low as $2/photo. Another option, you can use CC0 licensed images for free through a service like Pexels.

You don’t need to buy every affiliate marketing course you could get your hands on. Stick with just one highly-recommended training and go from there.

This is important not only to keep you from getting overloaded with information, but also to spend more time actually working on your affiliate site rather than being stuck at the planning stage forever.

If you play your cards right, you’d be able to build a fully functional affiliate website with just under $100.

How much can you earn from Affiliate Marketing?

There aren’t any set limits here. Some affiliates see $10 per month, others see $100,000. You can fall anywhere in between.

The beauty of this business is if you have a website that gets highly ranked in Google, you can earn money for months, or even years, long after you created the content.

You can put in a few hours of work today, and continue to profit off of that for years to come.

The amount you make depends largely on these five factors:

1) Your Keyword Research and SEO Game – Keyword research should begin the second you decide to build an affiliate marketing business from scratch. This business model may seem like it could adapt to a “come as you go” method. In reality, the better researched your niche is, the higher chances your affiliate site would succeed.

Search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play once your website is live. Both on-page SEO (steps you can do from the site to make it search engine-friendly) and off-page SEO (things you can do on third-party sites to make your website more attractive to search engines) are important.

Both your keyword research and SEO game should be on point, and continuously conducted throughout the life of your affiliate sites.

2) Pay-per-click Ads – PPC is a powerful type of advertising that can drastically improve sales on ecommerce websites. When it comes to affiliate marketing, using PPC ads is completely optional, but if you want your business to expand quickly and bring in more targeted traffic, pay-per-click ads are the best route to take.

Of course, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with AdWords, Facebook Ads, and other popular PPC ads, master effective copywriting techniques, and find the perfect balance with low cost per click and high conversion number.

3) Number of Affiliate Links and Product Features Posted – Every time you post a product feature with its respective affiliate link, you get a chance for a commission. The more posts you publish with different products (and affiliate links), the likelihood of someone buying from your links increase over time. Now imagine you’ve religiously added a unique product post daily for an entire year – you have 365 links that are readily available for your readers to click.

Of course, when you expand your affiliate marketing business from one website to two (or more), your earning potential multiplies as well.

4) The Site’s Niche – Check out Commission Junction and Clickbank… and you’ll see that there is virtually an endless list of products you can promote. However, the “Best-Selling” or “Top Products” from affiliate networks shouldn’t be the only deciding factor when picking your site’s niche. Choosing a niche for your affiliate site should involve more research and analysis than that. After all, the success of your site relies mostly on your topic’s level of demand and how well you take advantage of your readers’ needs.

5) Marketing Effort Done – Marketing your website everywhere helps in increasing traffic to the site. And when traffic shoots up, more people are able to read your content and decide if the product or service you’re promoting is worth checking out. As a result of the amount of marketing effort you commit, your chances of earning commissions increase with every person that visits your site.

As you can see, your earning potential from affiliate sites has no limit, as long as you put in the work for research, traffic generation and marketing. Of course, you’d have to invest in the right niche to maximize your site’s growth.

How do you become an affiliate marketer?

There is no master plan to build and run an affiliate marketing business that fits everyone’s budget and goals. You’ll be deciding on multiple issues, from the number of websites to create, to the method of traffic generation, advertising and other major decisions that can affect your business.

The steps below follow only the basics. You can definitely change some of the steps, if you have a higher budget to use, or decide to expand into two or more affiliate sites.

1. Brainstorm and gather ideas.

Planning should always be the first step when drawing up any kind of business. Even if affiliate marketing operates completely online, it should still be considered as a full-blown business and given ample time for research.

If you’re lost which idea you should be checking out, stick with what you know, what you’re passionate about, and products you can’t live without. Whether you’re planning to expand a generic product (such as “fitness toys for dogs”) or focus on a specific brand (such as FitPAWS), it’s essential that you know what the competition is like if you decide to go through with such a topic.

You should also be checking out if these branded products offer affiliate programs. If not, move on to another idea. If so, do a bit of research and determine if this niche can provide years-long of topics or unlimited number of products to feature.

  • Use tools. One awesome (yet completely free) tool you should use when brainstorming niche ideas is the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. While predominantly used for AdWords and PPC, you’ll love the detailed information provided, which includes average CPC, competition level, and more.
  • Test your ideas. The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to build a website first to find out if your idea is viable. Instead, you can join affiliate networks, browse products that fall under your chosen niche, and conduct research to see if these products would “sell.” Find what is trending online to see what ideas would bring more money to the table.
  • Decide on a niche. You can only go so far when it comes to your initial research. But once you find a niche that you are passionate about and have potential for growth, go for it.

2. Build your website.

There are a couple of decisions you’d have to make when creating a website for your affiliate marketing business. For example, the platform you choose could slow down page loads, which in turn, affect your site’s ranking. This will reduce its ability to become a click-worthy affiliate site.

Other considerations when building a website include:

  • Domain name and hosting: As we’ve mentioned earlier, the domain name and hosting make up the basic requirement to set up a website. You’ll spend a lot of time coming up with a user-friendly domain name and comparing hosting packages. Don’t take these decisions lightly.
  • The platform: You have several options for your site’s platform, including your hosting provider’s built-in website builder that features drag-and-drop style site creator perfect for beginners, or coding the website from scratch (which provides the most flexible option when it comes to customization but require advanced HTML and programming skills). The most popular platform used across the board is WordPress. It’s the industry standard and used by a third of every website online.
  • The website layout: You can make affiliate marketing work no matter what website layout you choose. For example, if you’d like your site to look more like an online store similar to the popular Odditymall, nothing is stopping you to do so. There’s no rule preventing site owners from showcasing affiliate products this way. Many affiliate marketers choose a blog layout instead, often writing product information or reviews along with links going to the store.

3. Choose the right affiliate network.

Affiliate marketing has been around since the late 1990s, which is why you shouldn’t be surprised that there are dozens of affiliate networks beyond the ever-so-popular Amazon and ClickBank.

There is no right or wrong affiliate network, but your choice would depend on these three things:

1. The products you wish to promote

ClickBank is known for handling the affiliate programs of digital products like ebooks, software and even membership sites. So if you wish to promote toys, clothing, or other products on your website, ClickBank wouldn’t be the most appropriate network to join.Amazon Associates continue to be the choice of people new to affiliate marketing, since Amazon has thousands of products readily available at any given time.

If your website isn’t a made-for-affiliate marketing site, you’d have to be careful in promoting products that reflect your niche and values. For instance, a beauty blog couldn’t just recommend a kitchen item or online marketing ebook out of the blue. This blog, however, would do much better with affiliate links that come from a shop like Sephora.

2. Commission per sale

All the work you do promoting third-party products shouldn’t be in vain. You have to understand that commissions in affiliate marketing aren’t guaranteed – you’d have to make sure your blog has traffic first, and that you’re able to encourage people to click the affiliate link. From there, you’d have to cross your fingers that these people buy something from the affiliate network so you can earn a cut from the sale.

Every affiliate program offers different commission rates (along with rules that you should know). For example, some programs give out 20% commission, but only on the exact product you posted on your site. In other affiliate programs, you’d receive commissions from any product sale the referred person bought from the store, as long as he/she completed a full checkout within a specific period of time. For example as an Amazon Associate, you are given a 24 hour cookie window.

3. Cookie period given to affiliates

Cookie period is the time wherein affiliates can still be credited for commissions. It is set by the affiliate network. The browser cookie links a sale to you whenever your site visitor clicks on a particular affiliate link and makes a purchase. The cookie period refers to the time they reach the destination website to the actual time they purchased something from the store.

So if you read 90-day cookie period, it means you’ll get a commission if your site visitor makes a purchase in 90 days or less after clicking your affiliate link. The longer cookie period an affiliate program/network offers, the higher your chances for revenue.

4. Develop your content strategy.

Content Strategy

Now that you’ve decided on a niche and affiliate network, you probably have a good idea of the products you’re going to feature on your affiliate site. Before you go on a publishing spree, make sure you create a workable strategy and put it on writing. This doesn’t have to be perfect, since you can adjust it as you go along, but it makes a whole lot of difference if you follow some sort of guide.

Content refers to everything from product reviews, features, images, videos, infographics and other types of media. This strategy may include topics for future publishing, products to prioritize, search engine optimization tasks, categorization, and more. You can list them down on a spreadsheet, on paper, or even on a to-do list app.

Developing a content strategy is particularly useful for team collaborations. If you’re planning to outsource writing, SEO, or website management, this guide will help keep things organized.

5. Write content.

Including this as a step is kind of unfair.

Once you get and idea picked out and your website setup, creating content is going to be your sole focus for the remainder of your affiliate marketing business.

If you’re planning to create content on your own, you’ll have to commit to it wholeheartedly because the life of your affiliate marketing business relies on regularly-published content. If you’re planning to hire someone to craft the content for you, that’s totally OK too. Either way, here are awesome tips you could follow when it comes to creating content for your affiliate marketing site:

  • Strive to become an authority. It doesn’t matter if your niche is the silliest topic in the world, as long as you’re “THE” site to check out when it comes to everything about fidget spinning (or whatever niche you decided to focus on), then your website is a success. To become an authority within your niche, you have to be consistent with publishing content, provide value to your readers, and make it a goal to earn your readers’ trust.
  • If you can test the product first, do it. There’s a reason why many affiliate marketers stick to digital products – they’re cheaper to buy, test and review. But if you can find a way to get a hold of the product first before promoting it to your readers, your post about that particular product would hold much more value since you’ve tested it firsthand. You don’t even have to buy it – some manufacturers would gladly ship out a product free if you’re already an authority in your industry.
  • Tackle content beyond your website, too! Aside from your website, you’ll also need to think about content for email campaigns, social media, and other marketing techniques you’re going to use (more on this on the next step).

Don’t get stuck on your niche forever. Once you feel that your level of authority has risen a few notches, try to discover sub-niches that’s related to your topic. For example, if your niche is weight loss exercises, you can tackle supplements or diet food as well.

If you’re having writer’s block, here are 20 article ideas to get you out of it.

6. Expand your traffic-generating techniques.

Unfortunately, people won’t magically find your website out of the millions of websites around. It’s either you pay to get traffic directed to your site, or you spend time marketing your website all over the web. And your website definitely needs visits from real people. Tons of them, if you’re hoping to earn from affiliate marketing.

Here are some tried-and-tested ways of generating traffic to an affiliate marketing site:

  • E-mail marketing – When done properly, an email marketing campaign can be a powerful tool of increasing visitors to your blog. You can even hire email marketing specialists if you want a campaign done right for you.
  • Social media campaign – Consider each website as a company and open up social media accounts for each of your site. Keep these accounts updated regularly.
  • Two-way guest blogging – You can invite other people to write on your blog and you can start guest-blogging on other people’s websites. It’s a win-win situation, especially if you have valuable information to share. With this technique, your goal is to encourage visitors from other blogs to visit yours, and build a rapport among other bloggers.
  • Conduct on-page and off-page SEO – Performing SEO tasks improve a website’s chances of getting into the first page of search engine results. Not sure where to start? Check out these 20 elements that could help make your site SEO-friendly.
  • Expand your network – Get to know other affiliate marketers within your niche. Make friends with other bloggers. Follow other authority figures on their respective social media accounts. These small tasks add up in time and before you know it, your network of connections can become pretty impressive.
  • Build a small community – Take care of your readers. They’re the ones who will turn into buyers and allow you to get a cut from their purchase. Reply back on reader’s comments. Answer their e-mails. Make them feel welcome on any page of your site.
  • Check out competition – Don’t be scared of your competition. Research them. Learn about their marketing techniques and copy what works (then scratch what doesn’t). Try to find out what lacks on your competitor’s site and offer it on your site.

7. Understand your audience

If you’re serious about your affiliate marketing business, you’ll need to learn everything you can about the numbers and data. There are two non-negotiable analytics that you should master:

  • On-site Analytics (preferably Google Analytics) – It’s free and can be easily integrated with WordPress and other website platforms. Google Analytics lets you see bounce rates, sources of traffic, keywords used to land your site, and a whole lot more. You can use this information in developing your topics that your readers like best and improve traffic of your site.
  • Analytics of Affiliate Program/Network – Almost all the major affiliate networks have their own analytics tool to help you check conversions, commissions and everything related to your account. Pay attention to the small details. It would help you figure out which products to feature next.

There are other paid analytics tools available, usually included as part of internet marketing programs, but these two would work pretty well.

Aside from data, you need to understand that these are real people coming to visit your site.

You are never going to succeed if you just push out poorly written content, filled with affiliate links.

The Bottom Line

Here are the steps you need to take to build a successful affiliate marketing business:

  1. Brainstorm and gather ideas.
  2. Build your website.
  3. Choose the right affiliate network.
  4. Develop your content strategy.
  5. Write content.
  6. Expand your traffic-generating techniques.
  7. Understand your audience.

Like any kind of business, affiliate marketing requires hard, consistent work.

Don’t believe anyone who tells you that you can become rich overnight with an affiliate marketing site. However, there are several advantages of this business model over traditional brick-and-mortar businesses.

For one, you don’t need a lot of capital. If you’ve got a knack for writing, you can do everything yourself and learn the rest from editing photos to setting up a WordPress site through research. After all, the internet has given us everything we need to build a successful affiliate marketing site.

According to Internet Advertising Bureau, affiliate marketing represented 6% of the United Kingdom’s online economy in 2012 (that’s about £9 billion in sales).

The future of affiliate marketing doesn’t seem to wane, even in 2018.  But as Google and other search engines continue to put value towards sites with high-quality content, your goal is to up your game to compete with older websites and relentlessly provide value to your readers no matter what products you’re planning to promote.

Have any questions before you get started?

Affiliate marketing has been my sole source of income since 2009.

If you have any questions about what it takes to get started, just leave me a comment below and I’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

12 Best Web Hosting Affiliate Programs to Sign Up For

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As of this writing, there are over 1.9 billion websites online right now, with more added every single day. Every single one of them lives on a web host somewhere. It’s no surprise then that the web hosting industry is both lucrative and competitive. To help them market their services and hold on to their own piece of this multibillion-dollar pie, many web hosting companies have affiliate programs where affiliate marketers can sign up.

Affiliate marketers promote these web hosting companies in exchange for a commission from the sales they generate.

Because web hosting is constantly in demand, this niche provides a great opportunity to earn passive income for aspiring affiliate marketers.

Today, we list down some of the best web hosting affiliate programs so you can make an informed decision. In addition, we’ll give you a few tips on how to increase your sales and as a result, your commission earnings.

How Much Can You Earn From Web Hosting Affiliate Programs?

Web hosting packages start at around $2 to $12 per month, but this doesn’t always mean web hosting companies only pay its affiliates a percentage of this package plan. Instead, since hosting packages usually require customers to purchase a minimum length (3-month, 6-month, 1-year service, and so on), web hosting companies can afford to pay commissions somewhere between $50 and $200 per sale.

The only problem is that in order to make a stable income from commissions, you’d have to be able to sell more than one plan each month. You can do this by either promoting multiple web hosting companies (yes, this is the reason why there are hundreds of web hosting comparison sites around), or working hard to become an authority figure so that even if you promote just one web hosting company, you’d be able to receive a sizable chunk from commissions.

Bluehost Commission Payouts

12 of the Highest Paying Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

When you’re looking for web hosting affiliate programs, you’ll encounter hundreds of companies with varying commission rates and terms.

Some give a one-off commission per sale, others add a monthly recurring commission (that is, every month the customer you referred continues to subscribe to the service).

Still other hosting companies provide a more complex commission table with sliding commission rates.

Even how they’re being distributed can vary. Some web hosting affiliate programs are in-house, while others are hosted by affiliate networks like CJ or ClickBank.

Working with affiliate networks may mean you’ll have to share a small part of your commissions with them, but it also means that setup is simpler and more often than not, their customer support is more responsive.

If you’re not clear about how affiliate networks work, read up on our article on affiliate marketing basics.

Here are some of the best, highest-paying web hosting affiliate programs to choose from.

1. Bluehost

Known for its superb reputation, Bluehost has its own in-house affiliate program, which pays $65 per sale, up to $130 depending on performance. While the commission rate is lower than the others on this list, note that the company’s solid standing leads to more sales that could quickly add up to your commissions.

Commission: $65 to $130 per sale
Cookie Duration: 90 days

2. LiquidWeb

Aimed at enterprise-level customers, this company pays affiliates 150% of the monthly hosting cost with a $150 minimum.

This means if you refer a $19/month Managed WordPress Plan for one site, you’ll receive a $150 commission; if you refer a $549/month Managed WordPress Plan for 100 sites, you’ll receive an $823.50 commission. You’ll earn even more if you refer dedicated hosting plans.

Commission: $150 to $7000 per sae
Cookie Duration: 90 days

3. WP Engine

This web hosting mainly focuses on WordPress websites, but pays higher and pays consistently.

You can earn even more when you refer customers to their StudioPress themes and other WordPress site tools.

Commission: $200 or 100% of first month payment (whichever is higher) plus bonus commissions for 5 or more monthly referrals
Cookie Duration: 180 days

4. HostGator

HostGator is one of the oldest web hosting providers, with millions of users globally. It’s no surprise that their affiliate program is also one of the most popular.

Commission: Tiered according to number of monthly referrals; $65 to $125 per sale
Cookie Duration: 60 days

5. SiteGround

SiteGround is another established name in the web hosting industry with a tried-and-tested affiliate program.

In contrast to the usual monthly payout scheme for web hosting affiliate programs, SiteGround pays its affiliates weekly.

Commission: Tiered according to number of monthly referrals; $50 to $100 per sale for up to 20 monthly referrals; custom commissions for 21 and greater monthly referrals
Cookie Duration: 60 days

6. iPage

iPage is well-known for their $1.99/month hosting plans, but you might be pleasantly surprised to know that its affiliates can get up to $125 per sale.

Commission: Tiered according to number of monthly referrals; $65 to $125 per sale
Cookie Duration: 120 days

7. WPX Hosting

WPX is one of the best managed hosting providers around.
Affiliates start out with $70 per sale up to the 25th From 26th to 99th, you’ll get a raise of $15 per sale and take home $85. But if you refer over 100 customers, you’ll start earning $100 for every sale moving forward.

Commission: 1 to 25 referrals: $70 per sale; 26 to 100 referrals: $85 per sale; 101 and more referrals: $100 per sale
Cookie Duration: 60 days

8. Kinsta

Kinsta is a managed web hosting service with cloud servers powered by the Google Cloud platform that is aimed toward online businesses.

Commission: $50 to $500 per sale; 10% monthly recurring commissions for the lifetime of your customer referral
Cookie Duration: 60 days

9. Cloudways

Cloudways is also a managed web hosting service with cloud servers, also aimed toward online businesses.

What makes it different from most other web hosting affiliate programs is that you get to decide your payout scheme.

Under the Slab plan, you can earn up to $125 per sale depending on your Performance Slab; that is, if you refer up to 5 customers in a month, you earn $50 per sale. When you’re able to refer up to 80 customers in a month, you earn $125 per sale. More than 80 and they’ll need to contact you directly, but it’s possible to get $200 per sale if you’re that “super affiliate.”

Under the Hybrid plan, you earn $30 per sale plus 7% commissions on your customers’ monthly subscription for as long as they’re subscribed to Cloudways. The amount of the 7% depends on which cloud service and amount of data they choose.

Commission (Slab): $50 to $125 per sale
Commission (Hybrid): $30 per sale plus 7% lifetime commission
Cookie Duration: 90 days

10. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting offers various plans to fit everyone, from beginner bloggers to high-traffic business sites.

They offer a tiered commission plan where your earnings per sale increase as your number of referrals increase.

Plus, if you refer other affiliates to their affiliate program, you get $5 for every sale they make.

Commission: $55 to $125 per sale
Cookie Duration: 90 days

11. Squarespace

Squarespace is a popular web hosting service especially geared toward websites for online stores and services.

Their affiliate program allows you to earn commissions for every website or commerce subscription from every first-time customer you refer.

Commission: $100 to $200 for Squarespace Core
Cookie Duration: 45 days

12. Hostinger

Hostinger offers shared hosting, cloud hosting, and VPS plans, and you get a 60% commission from each sale, with a maximum of $300.

Commission: 60% per sale
Cookie Duration: 30 days

Ways To Earn More Commissions from Web Hosting Affiliate Programs

Hostgator Affiliate Program

If you are starting your affiliate program with the best hosting deals out there on a cheap hosting service, it is obvious that you won’t have success. Cheap hosting providers are not reliable and often find your site offline than online. If you are looking for some of the fastest web hosting services, read all about them here.

As you’ve probably learned at this point, there are plenty of web hosting companies and most of them have affiliate programs.

Choosing the highest-paying web hosting affiliate program is but half the battle; promoting your affiliate links and converting them to sales is a huge part of your success in affiliate marketing.

Here are several ways to make more sales from your web hosting affiliate programs.

1. Write blog posts.

Blogging is the most common way of promoting web hosting plans – or any other products or services as part of your affiliate marketing efforts. There are a number of techniques you can do this, such as:

  • Feature one web hosting company and its packages offered
  • List all authority figures using the web hosting (this is easy since many popular marketers continue to earn from web hosting affiliates, except they only promote the one they actually use)
  • Comparison posts get clicks because people in the market for web hosting services have often narrowed their choices to two or three, and they tend to search Bluehost vs. Hostgator. The result would depend on how smart you write your review – are you promoting both (perhaps they’re good for different types of clients) or are you just promoting one? (conclude the post with a solid recommendation for one of them)
  • Share your complaints. Instead of focusing on the pros, you can also write about the bad side of a web hosting company. Make sure this is a valid complaint, which means you have to be a client recently. If you want, you can also include a post discussing the reason why you’re moving to another web hosting company.
  • Know a popular person or company who uses your preferred web hosting company? Compile this list and show it off to your readers.

2. Create an eBook.

The book doesn’t have to be focused on web hosting per se, but you can always squeeze in details of your recommend web hosting company or plan when it’s relevant.

For example, if you’re writing an eBook about how to start a blog for beginners, you could feature your chosen web hosting company on the chapter where you discuss domain names and hosting.

Many authority figures in the internet marketing or SEO space talk about a wide range of techniques but never forget to include a “tools of the industry” page where they list down tools (products/services) they use to become successful.

This can be the part of an eBook where you place your web hosting affiliate links.

3. Build a website dedicated to reviewing and comparing web hosting plans.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, one of the reasons why you find tons of website comparison sites aimed at web hosting is because promoting multiple companies or hosting plans at the same time increases your chances of bagging a sale.

You can implement this in many ways, such as developing a chart that welcomes visitors with the Top 10 web hosting plans or maintaining a blog with helpful posts like “alternatives to X company,” “pros and cons of InMotion Hosting,” “x company vs y company” and so on. You can choose to make the posts as simple or as comprehensive as you like.

4. Create YouTube videos discussing web hosting plans.

You don’t even need a website with full-length posts to promote web hosting plans. If you’re not much of a writer, you can make a video tutorial highlighting the web host plan or company of your choice.

The great thing about videos is that you can put together a comprehensive guide with the simplest topics, such as ‘installing WordPress on BlueHost’ or ‘exporting your website from company z.’

5. Build a web hosting deals website.

People love deals, and web hosting is no exception.

You can target more people with a deals site: there are people who are new to the web industry and looking for the best web host available, current customers looking to renew their hosting plans, or existing web host customers looking to shift to another company.

As affiliates, you are given discounts by web hosting companies and you can offer these deals to your target audience to increase your referrals and your commissions.

You can use tried-and-tested marketing techniques to promote these deals on shopping holidays such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Contests and giveaways are also good ways to promote these deals.

6. Negotiate with web hosting companies to give your readers exclusive deals.

Aside from the web hosting deals and coupons that you can create on your affiliate dashboard, you can also negotiate with the hosting company for a unique deal you can give away to your readers.

Of course, hosting companies don’t just give in to anyone’s request. You should have the numbers, reputation, and following to back up your request for an exclusive deal.

7. Use social media.

Don’t underestimate Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or any other social media platforms to promote your web hosting affiliate links.

You can use social media as a complement to your website or use it as a stand-alone promotion technique. Some affiliates don’t even bother with websites anymore and just create a free Facebook page and market their links exclusively on that page and via Facebook ads.

8. Take advantage of ad banners.

One way to promote your web hosting service of choice without hard selling on a blog post, email newsletter, landing page, or other content is to display ad banners on your website.

Web hosting affiliate programs would normally provide ad banners that you can display straightaway, but if you can design your own ad banners that are more attention-grabbing and more customized to your website, you might have a greater chance of converting casual visitors to your site into sales.

9. Teach people.

If you already have an online following, you can try to launch a webinar, podcast, case study, or other teaching method you prefer and link to your affiliate products.

However, note that the more people look up to you, the more you should recommend only trusted products/services that you’ve actually used.

10. Make a guest post on other blogs.

In the online world, networking is a proven way to make it as an authority figure in any field. While it’s important to pinpoint and follow your competition, it’s just as important to build relationships with other people within your niche.

In fact, if you have the chance to guest post on other blogs, find a way to squeeze in your web host affiliate links in there (if it fits). Don’t force the links if you’re talking about something too far away from web hosting.

Also, bear in mind that some blogs do not allow affiliate links in their guest posts, so be mindful of this when you’re creating your guest post.

11. Market your chosen web hosting package via newsletters.

If you already have an existing mailing list, don’t forget about promoting your affiliate links via newsletters.

Marketing via email still works, as long as you practice restraint and focus on what your audience needs. Putting together a product giveaway, offering coupons, or sending an interesting e-mail about a newly published blog post can pique the interest of your readers.

12. Create a unique landing page.

When it comes to web hosting, the landing page should act as your reader’s gateway to awesome web hosting deals.

That said, landing pages don’t have to be boring. With an eye-popping design and an irresistible offer, you’d be able to convince people to buy any product you’re selling.

Sign Up For a Web Hosting Affiliate Program Today!

Web hosting services will always be in demand, and affiliate programs have proven to be good for both the service providers and affiliate marketers.

Now that you know the best affiliate programs for web hosting service providers, take your time choosing, and don’t forget to strategize.

Like the idea of affiliate marketing but web hosting doesn’t really excite you? Check out other high-paying affiliate programs that may be a better fit for you than web hosting.

10 Profitable eCommerce Ideas to Consider in 2018

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Before 2017 ended, I discussed 9 new business ideas – such as drones and urban gardening – that would be perfect for your new online venture. Don’t worry if you haven’t started. 2018 just begun and you’ve got nine more months to build an ecommerce business from scratch to top.

What Profitable Ecommerce Niches are there?

Apparel, food and electronics never run out of fashion, which make them profitable ecommerce ideas regardless of season or trend. The problem with traditional niches is that competition is tough, especially when major marketplaces like Amazon and China-based Alibaba (among others) offer everything under one roof.

But if you’re targeting a sub-niche – along with a special group of people who would be passionately interested in this particular sub-niche – then the rules become a little flexible with your goals and earning potential increasing tenfold.

For example, instead of just selling “kids clothes,” a sub-niche like kids formal would increase a store’s chances of attracting a highly-targeted audience whose main goal online is to find the perfect tux for a boy or an age-appropriate flower girl dress.

Finding the best market continue to be the #1 key to a successful ecommerce site, so for those just getting into this online business, here are must-try ideas this year:

10 Hot Ecommerce Business Ideas for 2018

1. “Buy it for Life” (BIFL)

People are shifting away from budget-buys and saving up money to buy a high-quality item that would last a lifetime. Whether it’s a briefcase, pair of boots, jacket, dog leash, or any other premium quality product that you could pass on as heirloom to the next generation, BIFL items are hot. So hot that they even have their own Reddit and sub-reddits by country.

As with most entries on this list, you can either earn money through affiliate marketing commissions, or build a business from scratch selling your own products.

Regardless of which route you take, the best thing about BIFLs is that it encompasses a wide niche, from kitchenware to fashion, bedroom essentials, and so much more. This niche ticks all boxes when it comes to earning potential, scalability, and profitability.

The awesome thing about focusing on ‘Buy it for life’ products is that affiliate marketing commissions are generally higher because of BIFL’s tag price and luxury-seeking target audience.  Production of any BIFL product may mean higher capital, but you cannot buy the loyalty given by those who are passionate about BIFL.

2. Smart Clothes (Fashion Meets Technology)

This business idea isn’t new at all, but smart technology combined with the fashion industry is gaining traction and there’s no stopping it now.

From theft-proof backpacks that also serve as charging stations with Bluetooth and other gadget must-haves, to an unassuming beanie with headphones built into the woven fashion accessory, the smart fashion niche is on the top of its game with more new inventions being added on a daily basis.

Smart tech clothing merges with other industries as well. Health-related products, such as the OMbra that was designed to check your heart rate and breathing throughout the time you’re wearing the smart bra. There’s even a pair of leggings that check your measurements automatically and recommend where to shop for the best pants to fit you.

Brands are releasing their own tech-infused items as well. iPhone-charging bags, Rebecca Minkoff’s phone-charger keychain, or Jansport’s planned programmable backpack are great examples of technology making fashion smarter and connected to the internet.

You can either promote these branded products, or partner up with a tech startup to build your own invention to sell in the market.

3. Everything Unicorn

If you were studying in the 80s and were a fan of Lisa Frank, you’ve probably lived through the first unicorn fever and loved the splash of pinks, blues, and purples on everything from Trapper Keepers to posters and everything in between.

The love for unicorns have been slowly increasing and reached a peak in April 2007 when Starbucks released its 5-day limited Unicorn Frappuccino.

Since then, unicorns have invaded virtually every niche beyond fashion, accessories and jewelry. You can find unicorn-themed restaurants and cafes, books, home décor, toys, cosmetics and a whole lot more. And instead of just catering to the young (unicorns used to be targeted at teens and below), even adults have gone gaga over the unicorn trend.

Do note that this unicorn trend is expected to lay low sometime this year, as most fads do. However, unlike regular fads, this niche has the potential to get back into the limelight after a few months or years thanks to loyal fan base of sub-niches like My Little Pony.

4. Teeth Whitening or Anti-Snoring

If you’re interested in the health and wellness niches, teeth whitening and anti-snoring products continue to be the most sought after items in this category. You can choose either one, or tackle both embarrassing problems by offering a solution as the heart of your online business.

Even if these niches seem over-saturated, one quick look at the search history will tell you that their demand increased gradually since 2012 and the trend upward will likely continue for years to come regardless of season.

The teeth whitening niche includes popular products like bleaching kits, whitening strips, and charcoal powder. Meanwhile, in-demand anti-snoring items include sleep apnea kits, mouth guards, anti-snoring nose clips, chin support straps, and more. Because these items are focused on solving a serious problem, people eat them up until they find one that works.

Both teeth whitening and anti-snoring niches fit perfectly with a dropshipping business model. If you’re interested in selling products but don’t have the capital or resources to manufacture, check how you can dropship these products from AliExpress.

5. iPhone Repair Kits

Fortune.com reported last year that over 700 million iPhones are currently being used worldwide. And because Apple is gearing up to its 1 billion sale in the near future, the iPhone niche will continue to be a money-earning ecommerce idea for years to come. If you’re looking for a lucrative product for your dropshipping business, check out iPhone repair kits.

The selling power of iPhone repair kits can be seen with a quick search on AliExpress. Even those priced at only $3 or below can become your number 1 money-maker, especially if it leads to thousands of sales.

What’s great with this niche is that it can be expanded into a whole lot of iPhone-related accessories, including iPhone cases that are always in-demand. The only problem with this niche is the fierce competition, which means you’d have to double-time your marketing efforts if you wish to make a dent in this business and compete with ecommerce heavyweights like iFixIt.com.

6. Matcha

Matcha is a finely ground green tea characterized with a more concentrated taste because it came from tea leaves powdered to perfection (instead of steeped as regular teas are). Traditionally, matcha is a type of tea used in ceremonies, but since it exploded in 2015, matcha has been made into a wide range of hot and cold drinks.

Today, matcha has been adapted into various desserts, pastries, and even savory dishes. Even brands like Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs, and Jamba Juice have incorporated matcha into their menus.

In 2016, the global market of matcha was valued at $2.62 billion, which is expected to grow annually at 7.6% until 2025. And since consumers have been increasingly conscious about healthy food and drinks, matcha fits right in with current buyer behavior.

Outlook for matcha as an ecommerce niche is promising, especially since experts don’t consider matcha as just a passing fad. Instead, the “rediscovery” of matcha could lead to an enduring trend and anyone interested in this business has the opportunity to cash in for several years.

7. Specialty Coffee

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world, next to crude oil. Many people couldn’t start their days without drinking a cup of their favorite coffee. For several years now, coffee lovers have been slowly letting go of traditional mass-produced brands and making the switch to premium-grade coffee even if it is more expensive and more difficult to find.

Of course, the difference in quality and taste are enough reasons for people to choose specialty coffee over store-bought coffee. More local and smaller roasting companies are taking advantage of this increasing demand, which means availability wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

In fact, several subscription-box companies already operate successful coffee stores online.

Even entrepreneurs without a roasting company can build an online store dedicated to specialty coffee. All it takes is a good amount of passion for high-quality specialty coffee, a reliable supplier, and marketing skills to pull off this business.

8. Kitchen inventions

When it comes to the home and living category, the best-selling items are always the tools that make food prepping easier. This is the reason why portable juicers, spiralizers, vegetable cutters, and other task-specific kitchen items sell like hotcakes. And if you check out Google Trends, you’ll discover that this niche is stable all year-round.

What’s interesting with buyers of these kitchen inventions is that they don’t really seek a particular brand, which mean you’ll be able to explore more items without getting limited by certain brands. This niche can also be marketed to a wide range of target audience, from full-blown moms to young adults living on their own for the first time.

Unlike big-ticket kitchen items like stand mixer, espresso machine, and the like, going with smaller kitchen tools encourage more people to buy from your store.

If you’re planning to dropship kitchen products, check out the best-selling kitchen items at AliExpress to get an idea of what other similar items to sell.

9. Electronic Cigarettes

You don’t have to be a former smoker to know the value of electronic cigarettes in this world. And because more and more governments around the world are banning smoking in public, the appeal of vapors, e-cigs, vape mods and  electronic cigarette accessories grows by the day.

Not only do e-cigs serve as a legal alternative to smoking in public, they also have been proven to decrease or totally remove a person’s smoking habit.

The debate as to the effectiveness of e-cigs or vaping continues, but many smokers who turned vapers attest to how their lungs improved with vape use.

Do note that if you ever decide to build an ecommerce site focused on electronic cigarettes and sell vaping products and e-juice, you can’t add Google AdSense to the site. As of 2018, AdSense still lists e-cigs under the tobacco category, which unfortunately, is included in Google’s banned topics.

10. Fake Nails

For those looking into the beauty niche as an online business, consider starting an ecommerce store featuring fake nails. These nails received extreme feedback when it first arrived on the scene, with people either loving them or hating fake nails with a passion.

But today, fake nails already have a special place in the nail design industry and they continue to be a growing trend.

Fake nails sell convenience to its users, since anyone can just “press-on” the nails even without going to the salon. And because there are now hundreds of designs to choose from, you won’t run out of fake nails to sell on your store. Afraid you won’t have the capital to feature as much fake nails as possible? Go the dropshipping route instead.

Ecommerce Ideas with High Profit Potential

Everyone wants to find the most lucrative business idea for their ecommerce site, so I hope these 10 niches help you jumpstart your creative juices.

Remember that most ecommerce ideas with high profit began with just a noble idea. With continuous work and relentless marketing, the idea has blossomed into successful businesses that operate with just minimum work required.

100 Different Side Hustles to Fill Your Pockets with Cash

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In the past, when you looked for side hustles, you’d have to take in odd jobs like babysitting, car washing, newspaper delivery, lifeguarding, tutoring, shoveling snow, and a whole lot more.

Today, the internet has opened up a ton of side cash generating jobs – from those you can complete in under an hour (like answering surveys), to something a bit more complicated that requires advanced skills (like website development).

If you have some free time, you can make sure you have fast cash for an emergency expense that’s beyond your budget, or stow away for a rainy day.

Here are 100 easy ways to earn side cash without the need for a second full-time job.

Quick Online Tasks

If you’re constantly on the internet and you have a few minutes to spare every so often, there are quick and easy ways to make money with side hustles that won’t take too much of your time.

Side hustles online

1. Answer short surveys

Third-party companies pay these survey companies to find out what consumers think about their products or services. Most get-paid-to-take-survey gigs let you earn points for every survey completed.

You can then choose to redeem these points for e-certificates, vouchers, gift cards, or real cash into your PayPal or bank account.

Tons of survey sites exist, but only a few legit survey sites are known to consistently pay its users.

2. Listen to music online

Listening to music seems too mundane to ever earn money from.

But there are a few ways to make money from this.

You can check out new music and earn points by rating and giving feedback on the artists’ work, or listen to Internet radio and get paid to subscribe or listen to ads, or let market research companies know what type of music you like listening to.

You’ll mostly earn cents per listened song, but this can add up quickly if you’re on the website for an entire day.

Here are just some of the ways you can get paid to listen to music.

3. Perform micro jobs at Clickworker

There’s no advanced skill needed for becoming a pro at Clickworker.com.

You have the potential to earn $5 to $20 per hour on easy tasks, but the competition is fierce and task availability may be few and far between.

4. Perform data mining or research for Microworkers

The quick jobs that Microworkers offer are more complex than surveys and filling out CAPTCHA forms. You’ll need a bit of internet marketing knowledge to perform assignments.

Get a chance to earn points from tasks like data mining or tagging, content evaluation, research, and more.

5. Play Online Games and more with Swagbucks

Swagbucks gives you $5 just for signing up. From there, you can earn SwagBucks (its virtual currency) from a wide range of activities such as playing games, online shopping, taking surveys, etc. The SwagBucks you collect are redeemable for coupons, gift cards, and other goodies.

6. Join Amazon as an mTurk worker

Common tasks in Amazon’s micro job site include image verification and tagging, as well as data gathering, verification, and processing.

You’ll be overloaded with a ton of tasks, so you have to install a few tools to keep mTurk assignments organized and free from scams.

The best thing about this platform is that there is plenty of work to be done, priced at cents to dollars a pop.

7. Sell photos taken from your phone

It’s an interesting concept—take a photo using your smartphone, upload it into the Foap app, and share 50/50 profit with Foap whenever your photo gets sold for $10 in their marketplace.

If you’ve got a flair for photography and eye for unique subjects, learn how to earn side cash with Foap.

8. Make money with memes

Is your meme game strong? Do you love spotting, sharing, or creating photos, videos, GIFs, or other content that most likely get reactions from people?

Running an Instagram meme page or a YouTube meme compilation channel are easy ways to make money from memes. Being a freelance meme maker can also put some cash in your pocket.

Here’s how you can earn side cash from memes.

9. Assess search engine performance

You don’t have to be a master programmer to assess if Google’s search results provide value to you (the searcher) or not.

You only have to check if ads posted on websites or search engines are relevant, or if the search results are actually relevant to the keywords you search for.

This job is rare but pays by the hour when available. Here are some search engine evaluator jobs you can apply for.

10. Join crowdsourced contests

If you’re a creative who’s up for a challenge and looking to constantly hone your skills, joining online contests gives you this opportunity plus the chance to earn rewards, gift cards, or cash for your trouble.

Crowdsourced contests are available for writers, graphic designers, video creators, data scientists, or even those who are awesome at idea generation or branding.

11. Download apps that offer rewards or cash

There are tons of apps geared at gathering information from users in exchange for discounts, rewards, or cash.

For instance, ibotta is an app that finds coupons and discounts for you, such that you pay less for items you were going to buy anyway. In exchange, they get to know a bit about your purchasing habits, such as where you shop and what you shop for.

Here are more apps that you can download and use when appropriate.

12. Perform data entry tasks

Data entry jobs are still sometimes used by scammers to get hold of people’s cash.

Since many are desperate to work from home in the past, they were duped into paying for a list of companies that offer data entry jobs. Now, the scams have evolved to ask people to pay to get a job.

If you ever encounter one of these websites, run away. You should never have to pay a legitimate company to work for them.

That said, here are legit companies that actually pay on an hourly or per output basis.

13. Install the Nielsen App to earn $50 yearly

The Nielsen Computer & Mobile panel is a platform to get connected with Nielsen Digital. By registering on this site and installing the app, you’ll be paid $50 every year. What’s great is that you’ll also have the chance of winning prizes, since Nielsen gives away $10k in prizes each month.

Writing Gigs

If you’re a writer or an aspiring one, these gigs may be the right ones for you. Here are some side hustles through writing.

Writing Side Hustles

14. Jingle writer

Do you think you’ve got the chops for making these jingles commercial? Got cleverly made-up jingles stuck in your head for weeks? Know what makes an earworm?

You can make some money from writing jingles for various companies and brands. In fact, if you turn this into a full-time job, it’s possible to make $10,000 per jingle.

15. Contributing writer

If you don’t have a steady, full-time writing job, writing articles for other blogs and websites can make you some side cash while you’re building your writing career.

16. Legal writer

It’s not easy for laymen to craft legal documents, so if you have a law background or a special passion curating legal content, use this knowledge to earn some side cash.

Sites like Quimbee (pays $25 for a quick summary) or LegalMatch (pays $10.50/hour) can help you if you’re starting out, plus you can explore other sites that offer legal writing jobs if you want to expand your reach.

17. Copywriter

Online advertising is one of the most effective techniques of targeting online customers, and is therefore big business.

If you know how to persuade and entice people to purchase, subscribe, or do other actions through your writing, copywriting gigs could quickly make you some money.

Sites such as Copify ($30 per 500 words) and Contently ($15 per hour) can help you earn some side cash. Here are more copywriter jobs you can apply for.

18. Editor/Proofreader

Correcting and improving other writers’ work may be more up your alley, and there is plenty of work to go around, as internet writers put out content at a high rate.

Those who have a passion for proofreading or editing, with or without experience, can get proofreading jobs.

19. Poet

It’s time to dispel the trope of the penniless poet.

If poetry is flowing through your veins, let it run wild and earn from them on the side. You’d be amazed at how many sites and magazines are willing to pay people for their poems. You can earn from $25 to over $1,000, depending on the policies of the site you decide to join.

20. Short Story Writer

Fiction writers need not feel out of place. There are legit literary sites that will willingly buy your short stories and other fictional works for $100 or more.

21. Online Dating Ghostwriter

Online dating can be tough, which is why many people hire others to “write” or “fix” their online dating profiles. If you’re an awesome writer who can turn any person’s voice and goals into words that are able to attract other people, then this gig may be for you.

22. Blogger

Of the rest of the writing gigs here, blogging is the one that can open up opportunities for you beyond writing.

You can talk about anything under the sun on a blog. From diary-like life experiences to business informative posts, everyone has something they’re interested in.

What’s amazing about blogging is that aside from allowing you to practice and hone your writing skills, you can monetize most of your interests, with some exceptions (nudity, guns, cigarettes, and so on).

Teaching Gigs

Educating people on certain subjects or demonstrating how to do certain tasks can bring in some cash. Here are some teaching and tutoring gigs that you can do.

Side cash from teaching

23. ESL teacher

Some websites require you to be a native English speaker or have some kind of teaching experience, but most ESL tutor sites just look for people with a passion for teaching English.

This job is paid hourly (from $10 to $50+ per hour depending on experience), so the amount you could potentially earn depends on how much free time you’re willing to spend teaching.

24. Homework tutor

You can help students and earn at the same time if you’re willing to tutor someone with his/her homework.

The average fee per hour is around $20, but this rate could go lower or higher depending on your educational credentials (those with a teaching or master’s degree earn higher), the site you decide to join, as well as the subject/s you teach.

For instance, tutoring grade school students on their math homework would pay lower than tutoring high school or college students on calculus.

25. Personal trainer

Here’s another soul-fulfilling, money-making side gig for anyone with expert-level knowledge about diet, fitness, weight loss, and everything in between.

You can offer online one-on-one or group coaching lessons to people interested in losing weight. You can eventually turn this into a long-term business if you have the passion and the drive to maintain it.

Here’s how to become an online personal trainer.

26. Life coach

If you’re able to guide a friend or a few through their rough patches in life, there’s a good chance you can earn from being a life coach. Unlike therapists that require credentials, consider a life coach as a best friend whose main goal is to ensure you deal with your specific problem through the end.

You can get started with Vida (for health-related coaching), AskMarsVenus (relationships niche), or Tony Robbins (business coaching).

You can also check out our article on how life coaching gigs can turn into passive income if you like life coaching enough to do it long-term.

27. Video course instructor

Anyone with a unique idea, invention, or knowledge can earn money by sharing it with the world.

You can start a YouTube or Vimeo channel and upload short video lessons during your free time.

For more complicated topics, you can create a Udemy course bit by bit, either text-based or video, and then market your online course.

28. Technical writer

If you’re into technical subjects like software development, DevOps, production systems, and other related topics, you can earn from $50 to $100 on regular tutorials and even more for longer or more specialized pieces.

Check out sites like Digital Ocean, IONOS DevOps Central, Clubhouse, Honeybadger, and more. Many of the higher-priced gigs require technical writing skills, so this may not be suitable for everyone.

Graphic Design Gigs

Plenty of companies are offering jobs to graphic designers and visual artists. Here are some graphic design gigs that may be an easy way for you to make some side cash.

Graphic design gigs

29. Branding and marketing designer

Plenty of companies have a need for a branding and marketing designer to help translate their companies’ mission, vision, products, and services into images.

From creating logos, banners, and hero images for websites, which take a few hours to make, to creating an entire WordPress theme complete with iconography, fonts, and background images, which can take a few weeks to months to finish, the possibilities are endless.

You can find this type of gig in freelance job boards like Fiverr, and especially on job boards that cater specifically to graphic designers, such as Behance, Dribbble, or 99designs.

The earning potential in this line of work varies depending on your skills and how much time you can spend looking for projects, possibly bidding on them, and doing the actual work.

30. Caricaturist

Here’s another gig for the artsy.

If you’re gifted with caricature skills and can easily turn any face or picture into a cartoon, you can earn somewhere from $20 to $500 on various projects posted on job boards, such as Freelancer, Guru, Upwork, and more.

31. Webcomic artist

Webcomics have been increasing in popularity in recent years, thanks to crowdfunding sites and social media.

Webcomic artists can now also earn side cash by selling merchandise with their webcomics printed on them. Passive income can also come from building a blog or offering your webcomics via a subscription service.

32. Custom artist/designer

For artists struggling to make enough income, there’s a special place on Fiverr.com for creatives like you.

You can custom-draw pets in Disney style for $15 to $45 per order, or paint a client’s portrait on canvas. You can also design personalized wall art, word art, or even jewelry.

This gives you the artistic freedom to conceptualize and create while earning some cash out of it.

33. Animator

Know how to do 2D, 3D, or stop-motion animation? You can easily make $50 to $500 per project, maybe even thousands of dollars, depending on the complexity and quality required from you and the overall size of the project.

You can find such gigs or jobs in Animation Jobs, Animation World Network, Animation Career Review, and Netflix Animation.

34. Tattoo designer

Tattoos stay on one’s skin forever. When one decides to have a tattoo done, they’ll want to have their vision turned into reality by a tattoo designer who knows what they’re doing.

You can offer your tattoo design services on job marketplaces, such as the ever-reliable Fiverr or 99designs, as well as on websites specifically dedicated to graphic artists who offer tattoo design and artistry, such as Tattoo Designs by Designhill, Custom Tattoo Design, or Tattoo Designs by DesignCrowd.

35. Print-on-demand designer

If you have a knack for designing eye-catching images for t-shirts, tote bags, hoodies, mugs, pens, pillows, phone covers, and the like, you can make that into a regular gig by joining print-on-demand (PoD) websites as a designer.

Here are some PoD sites you can join to help you get started.

Audio and Video Gigs

Written and visual content aren’t the only formats out there. In fact, audio and video content are equally, if not more, popular forms of content nowadays. There are plenty of audio- and video-related gigs that you can do to make some quick side cash.

Audio visual side hustles

36. Transcriber

Is your hand-ear coordination super-fast? Can you type spoken words quickly and accurately? Then maybe transcription gigs are a good fit for you.

Jobs are paid from $15 to over $100 per audio hour. Note that the industry standard for completing the transcript for an audio hour is four hours, but beginners might take longer.

Here are some companies offering remote transcription jobs.

37. Closed captioner

Closed captioning is the process of displaying the dialogue, sound effects, musical cues, and other audio information in text format on television programs and movies that assist the deaf and hard of hearing in comprehending what’s happening onscreen.

If you’re adding doing offline captioning, that is, adding closed captions to pre-recorded videos, you’ll have to be precise in applying the time codes so that the text is displayed at just the right time. Beginners can earn from $10 to $15 per hour.

By contrast, if you’re doing real-time captioning of live shows or events, you’ll have to be a next-level transcriber. Usually, the only ones who qualify are court reporters, who are able to drum out words at a minimum of 180 wpm. These captioners can earn up to $150 an hour.

Take a look at these companies that hire closed captioners.

38. Voice-over artist

Anyone blessed with a perfectly modulated voice and excellent diction and enunciation can work as a voice-over artist and read audiobooks, narrate commercials or documentaries, introduce podcast hosts, outline IVE phone options, and many more.

You can earn somewhere between $100 to over $500 just for a 5-minute voice-over project.

The complexity, application process, and payment depend on which voice-over site you join.

39. Singer

Unless you’re one of the lucky ones, having an amazing singing voice doesn’t automatically translate to fame and fortune.

Singing can be a pretty lucrative side gig, though. From singing a love song while a guy proposes to his girlfriend, to singing for a demo track, or adding backup vocals to an existing song, you can offer your services on various job marketplaces.

And if you’ve got the singing chops, there are plenty of side cash opportunities for you.

40. Musician

Similar to singing, being a musician doesn’t necessarily translate to fame and fortune.

You can still earn some quick cash, though. You can work as a session musician, or as a music producer or composer. You can even transcribe music into sheet music, guitar tabs, or a midi file.

Here are some more jobs online jobs for musicians you might be interested in.

41. Podcaster

Podcasting has increased in popularity in recent years, and as the audiences grow, so does the number of podcasts.

Think of a topic that is interesting to many people, and if you are articulate, witty, and charming, you can start your own podcast.

Podcasting is a fulltime job for some, but if you’re only starting out or have a day job, you can do this as a part-time gig first.

42. Viral video creator

If you’ve ever been the life of a party, or the subject of a viral video, you might be pleased to know that this can turn into a lucrative side job.

Because you’re the one crafting ideas and recording the viral video for your clients, you need to know what’s popular, how to turn your ideas into reality, and how to bring the house down with your performance.

Need ideas on how to earn from viral videos? Check tons of viral video gig examples here.

43. YouTube vlogger

Love taking videos of yourself, your life, your experiences, your skills? Upload as many videos on YouTube as you can, then apply for the YouTube Partner Program. Once you’re approved, you’ll be able to earn cash from views on each of your uploaded videos.

The good thing is that you can just take videos and upload them whenever you have free time. A committed schedule would be preferable, but it’s not strictly mandatory.

Web & Mobile Development Gigs

Website development is another field that offers many lucrative side gigs. Here are a few to get you started.

Web Development gigs

44. Website tester

You can get paid to test a website’s usability, search feature, layout, ad placement, and more. You can even review a site’s logo, design, and content, or discover bugs in exchange of a fee. There are over a dozen companies that pay to test websites from $5 and up.

45. Video game tester

For many people, testing video games is the job of their dreams. The competition to land these jobs is fierce, but they’re real if you know where to look. If this is something you’d be interested in, check this guide on how to avoid scams and discover which companies to stalk for video game testing gigs.

46. Web developer

For those with experience coding websites from scratch, using Shopify to build a secure online store, or mixing and matching WordPress themes and plugins to craft a unique website, there are plenty of online opportunities for you to make side cash quickly. You can even offer to take over a web dev project or create custom plugins for a site.

Internet Marketing and Social Media Gigs

Digital marketing is big right now and will continue to be in the foreseeable future since everything lives on the internet nowadays. This field offers plenty of fulltime opportunities, but also plenty of side hustles.

Social Media side hustle

47. Email marketer

Email campaigns can be pre-written for future marketing use, so those with a flair for writing can find work as an email marketer on the side. It’s a lucrative gig (where you can earn $30 to $50 per hour) and you have the option of accepting one-off projects or a full-time contract.

48. Internet marketer for local businesses

With everything going digital, some brick-and-mortar companies are dying, not because their products are bad, but because they’re unable to compete with technologically advanced companies.

You can earn cash by helping local businesses build their online presence, understand how search engines work, take advantage of social media, and compete even in the online world.

49. Branding strategist

It doesn’t matter if you’re not yet adapted to modern internet marketing. As long as you have a marketing background and you know what it takes to build successful branding, you can earn side cash creating company taglines, product logos, business names, brand stories, and more.

The branding packages you can offer can be as simple as brainstorming business names for $5, or as complex as identifying company mission/vision, product color templates, logos, taglines, product description and more.

50. Website traffic consultant

Getting traffic to websites is a science. You need to achieve the right balance of paid advertising, organic traffic, and multiple marketing and SEO techniques to achieve traffic goals. Factor in the ever-changing rules set by search engine giants like Google to the mix and this job becomes super challenging.

If you know the ins and outs of internet marketing or search engine optimization, you can offer to help companies with their increasing organic website traffic. The commitment level or duration of the project is completely up to you.

51. Affiliate marketer

Probably the most effective way of earning cash daily is through affiliate marketing.

However, this requires hard work in the beginning, before you can actually call it a full-time online business. To succeed in affiliate marketing, you’ll need a blog, a topic you love, and a bit of guidance from experienced affiliate marketers.

52. Social media manager

If you’re a pro at all social media platforms, you’re already one step closer to making money online as a social media manager.

There’s quick cash to be made in this line of work, especially for brands that do not have an online presence yet, since you’d be creating social media accounts and gathering followers for each platform. The amount you earn, however, depends on the duration of the contract and the specific tasks assigned to you.

53. Social media strategist

A social media strategist is another social media job that involves assessing the current social media strategy of a company or business and sets relevant goals, draws up plans to meet those goals, and implements those plans with the help of their clients and social media managers.

This requires extensive knowledge of how social media works and how to analyze data.

Virtual Assistant Gigs

Virtual assistants are exactly what they sound like—they help companies or individuals from online instead of going to a physical office. Depending on the tasks assigned to you and the skills that you can offer, this can be a pretty quick way to earn some cash.

Virtual assistant gigs

54. General virtual assistant

General VAs are personal assistants, secretaries, and office administrators all rolled into one, who work online.

The basic online skills that general VAs need to have include research, data entry and analysis, typing, email management, calendar management, bookkeeping, report making, and personal online errands. Thus, this kind of gig is great for people just beginning to work from home jobs.

Read more about how to become a jack-of-all-trades virtual assistant.

55. Travel agent

If you want to dip your toes in the travel industry, being a travel agent can be a great gig.

Travel agents plan and book business trips and holidays for their clients. Being a freelance travel agent can be an easy way to make money since you get to decide which clients to take and how much time you want to work per day.

This is a gig that has a great opportunity to become a full-time business as well, so this is a good first stepping stone.

You can learn everything you need to know about working as a travel agent here.

56. Travel itinerary planner

There are websites and applications that allow you to plan your own trip, but having an actual human who has gone to these places plan an itinerary is still preferable.

They have knowledge that no machine or app can ever match. Human itinerary planners can create highly personalized, specific itineraries, such as a 5-day family-friendly trip on a budget. Plus, you don’t have to book the trip; your clients can either take your itinerary to their travel agent or make the travel arrangements themselves.

Read more about how to offer custom travel itineraries.

57. Tax return preparer

Those with an accounting background with a valid Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) can help other people prepare tax returns. It’s a great way to earn money during tax season without having to quit your day job.

58. Document translator

Companies or individuals who work with people in other countries will have a need for a document translator. If you know 2 or more languages, this can be a nice-paying gig for you.

We’ve listed some legit companies known to pay for translation work.

59. Customer service representative

If you’ve been in the customer service industry and have had experiences in taking calls, answering e-mails, manning live chats, and so on, you’d be thrilled to know you can jump in and join various companies, provide customer service and earn even while doing it as a sideline.

Payments range from $5 to $25 per hour, depending on the company or agent experience. Some jobs even offer commissions.

60. Online recruiter/headhunter

If you have a knack for being able to find job hunters with the right job openings in the right companies, being a freelance online recruiter may be for you. This is also one of those gigs that can turn into a full-time job or a business.

Work with a legitimate recruitment system and you’ll find yourself with a side gig that pays. Check out Recruiter.com, which offers recruiter training and certification.

61. Non-voice customer service agent

Customer service jobs that require you to talk to people over the phone demand a quiet workplace, a high-quality, noise-canceling headset and mic, and a personality that can handle it.

Unfortunately, not everyone has all of the above.

Fortunately, non-voice customer service jobs exist. You can work as a chat or email agent instead. Salaries range from $8 to $20 per hour depending on the company.

62. Post on Forums

Some companies pay people to post on forums and jump-start conversations within the threads. Believe it or not, many of the marketing forums you know started with paid posters. Today, you can still earn quick cash as a forum poster, especially if the aim is to build backlinks to a certain website.

Sell Stuff for Extra Cash

If you’re not interested in working for other people, one of the easiest ways of making extra cash is by selling stuff you already have or can source, items you created by hand, or digital products you think other people would need.

Sell stuff for cash

63. Sell things you don’t need anymore on eBay

eBay remains a popular buy/sell marketplace where you can discard your pre-loved items without leaving the house. If you’re not a fan of garage sales, then you can sell old clothes, vintage items, and other things you’re willing to let go of. For those interested in a long-term eBay business, learn how to start your own eBay consignment biz.

64. Sell crafts on Etsy

Those who have bouts of creative streaks and piled up projects in the garage shouldn’t just leave their homemade blankets, handmade lamp, and so on to gather dust. Instead, make quick cash by selling your art and crafts at Etsy.

There’s a ton of sub-niches in that lively artsy community, so it’s easy to build your own special space on Etsy.

65. Sell on Amazon

If you have products to sell but don’t want to have to quit your day job, you can become an Amazon seller with FBA fulfillment by Amazon.

This is also perfect for those who have no capital yet to fund a complete operation that handles shipping, customer service, marketing, logistics, and everything else.

66. Flip furniture

Flipping furniture can be an easy, lucrative gig if you have an eye for worn, damaged furniture and the skills to transform them into functional works of art.

Here’s how to start flipping furniture and making side cash without having to quit your fulltime job.

67. Sell meal plans

Whether you successfully lost weight by following a diet plan, have a medical background, or a fan of healthy eating, you can customize and sell meal plans to clients. You can even create and offer meal plans for specific conditions, such as diabetes, childhood obesity, or food allergies.

You can sell your meal plans on Etsy or your own website.

68. Sell Microsoft Excel spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel may not be the best spreadsheet software there is, but it’s certainly the most popular because of its flexibility. You can create templates for financial records, calendars, to-do lists, events planning, business planning, household organization, and so much more.

You can sell your spreadsheets on Etsy, SpreadsheetNut, or on your own website.

69. Sell lesson plans

Anyone with a teaching background can create lesson plans and sell them to other teachers who might not have the time to make one from scratch. Would you ever imagine that this kind of side gig can earn you a six-figure income? Read up on some success stories and discover how you can replicate these teachers’ success with selling lesson plans.

70. Sell mobile apps

Even if there are thousands of mobile apps already on Google Play and Apple Store, the app industry is still worth billions of dollars.

Aside from the ability to conceptualize applications that people are willing to pay for, app development requires advanced programming skills and business savvy to market the app after launch.

71. Sell WordPress plugins

Those who use and love WordPress can easily spot problems that need solving. If you find an issue that you think can be resolved with a plugin, create that plugin and sell it to the highest bidder. You can also seek custom WP plugin jobs via Fiverr.com for a guaranteed sale.

72. Sell artwork

Being a talented artist means being able to design various collectibles, such as vinyl stickers, canvas art, stencils, sewing patterns, jewelry, and other artwork. You can sell your own designs and then accept custom work when your popularity increases.

You can also design and sell seasonal items such as calendars, planners, posters, wall art, greeting cards, printables, and other season-specific items.

If drawing comics or cartoons is more your style, there’s always a market for pop art, portraits, anime, pencil sketch, or any other drawing styles.

Sell your art or commission services on artwork marketplaces such as DeviantArt, Imagekind, or Zazzle.

73. Sell hand-calligraphed items

Writing old school is in and lucrative, which is great because calligraphy is an expensive hobby: the inks, pens, nibs, markers, special papers, and other necessary tools all cost a pretty penny.

Hand-calligraphed items, such as posters with You can create posters with inspirational quotes, vinyl stickers with witty sayings, holiday cards, and many more.

Your craft is also very much in demand for weddings: invitations, place cards, bride-and-groom wineglasses, favor tags, thank-you cards, and sometimes even the menus.

Do it part-time for quick cash, or maybe turn calligraphy into a full-time job in the future.

74. Sell your fonts

If you know calligraphy and hand-lettering, you might be able to make fonts out of them.

Font makers can earn quick cash by selling their fonts to buyers directly. If there’s no buyer biting your bait, you can always go for font retailers such as FontShop.com, Fonts.com, or Linotype.com—all of which pay creators 50% with every font sale.

75. Sell WordPress themes

Make use of your Photoshop and advanced programming skills by creating WordPress themes. If you’re lucky and your WP theme fills a void missing in the WordPress space, then you’ll be able to sell the theme quickly. Note that unless you sell your rights to the theme, you’re going to handle customer service and helpdesk for your theme’s clients.

You can sell your WordPress themes on Themeforest, TemplateMonster, or Creative Market.

76. Flip domains

It may be 2020, but there are hidden gems yet to be registered as domain names. If you’re creative, have a knack for words, and know a thing or two about getting traffic to a newly built website, then flipping domains can still be a lucrative side gig for you.

77. Sell old stuff

If your house is filled with various stuff you no longer use, don’t automatically throw them in the trash. You can sell them on various websites, such as Decluttr (for phones and other electronics), Poshmark (for clothes), and BOXSMART (for boxes).

Here are other everyday things you can get paid to recycle.

78. Sell stock photos

Got an eye for photography? If your camera is your go-to gadget everywhere you go, there’s a good chance you’ve taken hundreds of photos that are worthy to be sold as stock photos.

Here are plenty of other ways to earn side cash from taking photographs.

79. Sell Pokemon cards

Pokemon has had a resurgence lately, so if you have any old but mint-condition Pokemon cards lying around, you might want to make quick cash off them. Here’s a guide on how to sell your Pokemon cards.

80. Sell baseball cards

If you’re more of a baseball fan than a Pokemon fan, there’s also a market for your baseball cards! Do your best to keep your baseball cards in marketable condition so you can get as much cash for them as possible.

81. Sell vinyl records

Vinyl records are also making a comeback, so if you have some vintage vinyl records in your basement or in the attic, it’s worth checking them out and finding out if they’re worth anything. Learn how to sell vinyl records here.

Simple Offline Side Hustles

I did mention that errands are the classic side hustles, but they are still quick ways of making money. Even if they’re offline tasks, you’re still aided by technology. Here are some examples.

Simple offline side hustles

82. Be a secret shopper

In mystery shopping, you have to physically go to a store and rate the store’s layout, how the staff handled customer service, upselling/marketing skills, store cleanliness, product knowledge of the staff, and other criteria listed on the job description.

Aside from cash (about $5 to $20 per job), you may also be gifted the product you “had” to buy from the mystery shopping assignment.

Here’s where to get the best secret shopper jobs.

83. Earn while you travel

Whether you’re on a quick run to your local grocery store or touring another country, you can download a couple of apps and take advantage of rewards they’re offering in exchange for luggage space (Airmule), or answering travel-related surveys and doing other travel-related tasks (Field Agent).

84. Deliver packages

A lot of car owners are using their cars as an Uber and making money from it.

But if you’re not willing to do ridesharing, how about delivering other people’s packages while on your way to work, to the school, to the grocery, or elsewhere you’d normally pass anyway?

Roadie and Amazon Flex follow the same concept—it lets people make money by delivering packages to destinations that are within your commute.

Roadie and Amazon Flex match drivers with packages, and these gigs pay somewhere between $10 to $50 for local trips and over $500 for long-distance delivery.

85. Deliver cars from one point to another

If you know how to drive and how to follow directions or a map, you can deliver cars from point A to point B. You can make $300 to $400 per vehicle you move. If you need to make some quick cash, this can be a good gig.

Here’s all you need to know about delivering cars.

86. Shop and deliver groceries

Grocery shopping can be a pain in the butt for busy people. So help these people by becoming a personal grocery shopper and earn some cash doing it. You can join websites such as Instacart and Postmates.

Instacart and Postmates are available in the major cities in all 50 states. The average take-home pay of personal shopper is around $15/hour, plus tips and bonuses. This can go up or down depending on the distances of your deliveries, how many deliveries you make, and the places your clients order from.

87. Remind people to take their meds

Pleio is a site that reminds its clients to take their medication and help out with basic prescription-related questions. You can be a GoodStart Mentor and earn an hourly wage from home while helping other people follow a good routine with their medication.

Everyday Stuff

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to earn some cash from the mundane things one has to do? That’s probably the quickest way to make money. Here are some everyday tasks you do that can earn you some side cash.

Everyday side gigs

88. Watch TV

It sounds like a scam, but there are actually ways to get paid to watch TV or online videos the whole day. Check out our list of simple ways to make money from watching TV.

89. Eat

You can now get paid for indulging your taste buds. What a time to be alive, yes?

Read up on just some of the ways you can get paid to eat.

90. Walk

Almost all the ways to get paid to walk are fitness-related, but some of them involve walking to do some nearby errands.

91. Text

If you can hold your own in a text conversation, this might be one of the simplest ways to make money. Here are a few gigs to get you started.

92. Hang out

Yup, you can get paid to hang out… in somebody else’s house.

House-sitting is an underrated way to earn money. You’ll normally be assigned some tasks to do in the house, but it should be nothing more than what you’d be doing in your own house. You can negotiate your pay for extra tasks, such as pet-sitting and forwarding their mail.

Unusual Ways to Earn Extra Money Online

There is a place for everyone on the internet, even for the strangest, most unique jobs. Check out these unusual, but definitely real, ways to earn money online.

Unusual side hustles

93. Model

Whether you’ve offered to model a product, dress up in cosplay, or pose for a professional photo shoot, there’s a company or marketing firm that may just bite. Just take a look at the hundreds of models-for-hire on Fiverr to see that both men and women can turn this into a money-making side gig.

94. Fortune teller

If you’re a professional palmist or fortune teller, you can offer your fortune-telling services online for as low as $5 for a quick psychic reading to over $100 (predicting specifics such as marriage or future employment).

95. Lose weight

Yes, you can get paid for losing weight or getting healthy. For instance, the app Achievement, but this one gives you points for walking, eating healthy food, and so on. Once you get 10k points, you can convert them into $10.

96. Recommend business names

If you’re good at making up catchy names or products, you can earn quick cash by recommending business names. You have to compete with other people for the best names though, so only join if you’ve got time on your hands and your naming game is strong.

97. Decide on a case

Online mock juries are used by attornies and jury consultants to gauge jury reaction to defendants, witnesses, evidence, and other aspects of a case that can affect the outcome of a trial so that they can formulate a convincing legal strategy.

You don’t volunteer to become part of an online mock jury, but if you register with companies that pay people to participate in mock trials, you can be chosen to join. Payment ranges somewhere between $10 and $50 per case.

98. Be a Friend

People move to other places in the country, and sometimes it’s daunting to explore a new city all by themselves. Or maybe people merely want some company during the weekends to do something together, like watch movies, visit an art gallery, picnic at a park, and other normally mundane activities.

If you feel you can be a good friend and companion, check out our guide on Rent-A-Friend and start getting paid to help others.

99. Cuddle

Lack of human contact and interaction has been shown to be harmful to our mental and physical health.

Some people resort to dating apps, while others pay professional cuddlers to simply embrace them and talk to them, with no other expectations and messy entanglements.

If you’re a hugger and don’t mind platonic touch and small talk, this can be an easy side hustle for you.

100. Sleep

Getting paid to sleep is not as easy as it sounds. You’ll have to have a physical exam, a psych exam, and other exams just to make sure you can participate in the sleep studies. You’ll also have to contend with having to wear equipment, possibly keeping a diary, and being isolated.

But at the end of the tunnel, you can get paid up to $6,000 for a 5-day study, and $10,000 or higher for a 30-day study.

Choose a gig and start making side cash!

Isn’t it awesome that the present work-from-home environment is so widely accepted by small to big companies that they make part-time, full-time, or freelance gigs available throughout the year?

I hope you can find something that fits your skillset from this huge list of online gigs and earn side cash whenever you need it.

10 Cryptocurrency Scams That Could Rob You

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Cryptocurrencies have been around since 2009, but only really hit mainstream last year as Bitcoin began 2017 under $1,000 and ended December at a whopping $13,000+. This meteoric rise also saw a similar rise in cryptocurrency scams.

The upward climb was also evident with Ripple, Litecoin, Ethereum (it started at $8.17 in 2017 and reached about $850 by the start of 2018), and other popular cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency craze remains at an all-time high in 2018, despite the rise of cryptocurrency scams and the relentless creativity of scammers taking advantage of people’s interest in everything Crypto.

And because millions of people around the world are taking notice, from average Joes to millionaires like boxer Floyd Mayweather, scammers have a never-ending supply of target audiences to scam.

The Unparalleled Explosion in Cryptocurrencies

A lot of the interest revolving cryptocurrencies come from the Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) the cryptocurrency startups create. Like in traditional IPO (initial public offering), an ICO raises funds by selling a percentage of that currency (hard cash in exchange for tokens) in order to help the startup launch. So it means a lot (up to millions of dollars in funding) to crypto startups whenever a celebrity endorses a particular cryptocurrency.

Celebrity Endorsed Cryptocurrencies

And there are a lot of celebrities heavily invested in cryptocurrencies.

Sure, 50 Cent was lucky enough to have forgotten his 700 bitcoins collected as payment for his 2014 album Animal Ambition. Those bitcoins, which were valued $600 each in 2014, ballooned to $10,000 per bitcoin when he remembered and announced about his treasure in January 2018. (That’s some serious passive income.)

Celebrities like Ashton Kutcher (who is turning into an IT investor genius) and Richard Branson (of the Virgin Group empire) who have bitten the Cryptocurrency bug earlier than the 2017 boom are definitely reaping the rewards much more than those who joined the party late.

But even if the likes of Katy Perry entered the Crypto world only when she sought the advice of Warren Buffett about his thoughts on cryptocurrency in late last year, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn that their investments would triple by the end of 2018.

Warren Buffet & Katy Perry Talk Crypto

However, like every other product endorsed by celebrities, you shouldn’t just buy that product and believe these celebrities hook, line and sinker. Cryptocurrencies are not created equal, and many of them have been proven to be a scam.

Just look at former action star Steven Seagal’s latest endorsement – a suspicious cryptocurrency venture known as Bitcoiin2Gen (yes, that’s Bitcoin with two “i”s) and you’ll understand how easy for “startups” to make claims.

How to Spot a Cryptocurrency Scam

With over 1384 digital currencies in existence (as of January 2018), how will you know which really is “the next Bitcoin” and which is just out to scam you?

There are two common ways investors lose out their money to cryptocurrency scams:

  • First is when hackers attack the coin “bank” (this could be anything from the mining company, digital wallet, exchanges, or even your web hosting provider) and steal coins directly. Just imagine the staggering stats of stolen Bitcoins – about 980,000 bitcoins valued at around $15 to $18 billion has been stolen since 2011 (this includes the $460 million hack from Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in 2014 that resulted in the company closing shop for good).
  • Second is when the scammers directly contact people to become investors in order to seek “funding” for a nonexistent crypto startup, steal personal details to gain access to your digital assets, fool you into clicking phishing emails, or other devious schemes.

Learning about the existing cryptocurrency scams could lessen the risks involved in investing in this market.

10 Most Common Cryptocurrency Scams

1. Fake Wallets & Shady Exchanges

Because cryptocurrency has to be stored somewhere investors could check it, the first choice is to go with virtual wallets. Not all of these wallets are dangerous, but those fake ones made specifically to steal your savings are. A good example of this is the scam site mybtgwallet.com (My Bitcoin Gold Wallet), which was built so people would associate it to the popular Hard Fork Bitcoin Gold and ultimately steal over $3 million.

The legit wallets are being proactive about this. For instance, MyEtherWallet warned its users and other people that may be interested in downloading the app that a copycat app is rising to #3 spot in the iOS App Store’s finance category.

My Ether Wallet Fake App

To avoid fake wallets, you can either use an offline hardware wallet or choose a service recommended by the cryptocurrency platform.

When it comes to exchanges… they’re everywhere, and are continuously competing to get investors’ attention and earn from transaction fees that come with the service they provide. Many of them are legit but have ridiculously high fees. But the worst exchanges are those that disappear into the night with your coins still stored with them.

If you plan to buy cryptocurrency but don’t know where to go or exchange your altcoins, start with these trusted cryptocurrency exchanges:

  • GDAX – Supports the big 3 (Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin) with 0.25% taker & 0% maker fees
  • Kraken  – Supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and smaller altcoins like Augur. Has 0.26% taker/0.16% maker, but fees can be negotiated if you transact with them regularly.
  • Coinbase – Support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Known for exceptional support.
  • Poloniex – Also supports the big 3 and a whole lot of altcoins. Offers 0.25% taker & 0.15% maker fees.

This is just a tiny list, out of the hundreds of exchanges operating 24/7 around the world. Whether your coins are stored on a digital wallet or on an exchange, the best way to prevent theft is to invest in an offline hardware wallet and transfer them daily. After all, it only takes a few minutes to transfer them back digitally.

2. Crypto Ponzi Schemes

Scammers have also adapted Charles Ponzi’s famous 1920s scheme to the world of cryptocurrencies and is leaving victims left and right. In a Ponzi scheme, the first group of people who invested in a product (like stocks or cryptocurrency) believe that their investment are successful not knowing that the returns they’ve received come from money invested by later investors (and not the product actually bearing fruit).

The most popular Ponzi-styled crypto scam comes from the Mumbai-based company called OneCoin. It ran on a private blockchain managed by Onecoin Ltd and was able to gather $50 million USD within a span of a year thanks to upselling, a strong social media marketing strategy, positive media coverage, and investors’ lack of knowledge about the technology being sold.

The main Onecoin business sold trading-focused educational packages that cost 100 to 118,000 Euros and included tokens to mine Onecoin token in Hong Kong and Bulgaria. The company tried to claim that they were only selling educational material (and not selling cryptocurrency).

By 2016, dozens of countries either banned or released public warnings about OneCoin. In April 2017, OneCoin held an event and was raided by Indian police. 18 OneCoin representatives were jailed for operating a crypto Ponzi scheme, but the company had already moved about $350 million.

Onecoin isn’t the only one. There are over 100 known crypto Ponzi schemes and more will pop up in months and years to come, so research extensively before investing in any of them. 

Don’t believe anyone telling you that you’ll need a “broker” to invest bitcoins for you, or claiming “guaranteed returns” on a cryptocurrency. As with any investment, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

3. ICO Fraud

ICO, or Initial Coin Offerings, is when a newly-invented cryptocurrency is introduced to investors. Like how IPOs operate, ICOs are announced even before the technology or product is truly ready, which means investors only have to rely on a whitepaper.

The Securities and Exchanges Commission is aware of ICOs and the risks involved in them, but ICOs are mostly unregulated, especially since cryptocurrency and altcoins pop up so quickly for the SEC to keep up.

Cryptocurrency Scams: ICO Fraud

ICO fraud can be due to crypto startups overestimating the value of their product, or true-blue scammers aimed at taking advantage of the gold rush.  The most obvious ICO fraud involves a fake company creating a dubious ICO in order to steal any funds investors give them. In December, SEC froze the assets of PlexCoin for promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month. The company raised over $15 million from thousands of investors within a 5-month ICO period.

Because the technology behind cryptocurrencies can be confusing to those new to the market, victims of ICO fraud increase by the year.

It doesn’t help that cryptocurrency has the potential for large short-term profits, so scammers advertising discounted Bitcoins or pre-sale of mining hardware may seem like such a good deal to investors.

The only thing you can do to avoid falling from ICO fraud is to do your own research to triple-check the legitimacy of any ICO you’re interested in. If in doubt, check SEC’s tips on ICO investments.

4. Phishing Scams

Bittrex Phishing Scam

Like any other phishing scams, the scammer pretends to be a legit company and invites the would-be victim to invest in the company. In most cases, the scammer uses a copycat email address and website, Facebook page, or any other branding that may associate them with the real crypto company.

Once a person clicks on the e-mail and redirects him/her to a phishing site, he/she pays for the digital currency thinking the investment would go to the official ICO, only to find out later that he/she has been duped.

It may seem like a pretty obvious scam, but you’d be surprised at the number of people victimized. Chainanalysis reports that about $225 million from 30,000+ investors were stolen from January to August 2017.

Even worse, hackers are now using Unicode to disguise their URLs and make it look like you are on a legitimate website.

Make sure you enable 2-Factor Authentication on every exchange. Use a password manager like LastPass to fill in your passwords as well.

5. Crypto-stealing Malware, Malware Mining, & Ransomware

There are two kinds of malware you need to know if you’re involved in cryptocurrency – the malware designed to steal your coins and malware aimed at stealing PC resources for crypto mining.

With the first type of malware, it could attack your system and steal coins in various ways, from getting it from your wallet, stealing your information, or even bypassing security channels while you’re in the middle of a cryptocurrency transaction.

In both malware mining and ransomware, scammers access another person’s (or company’s) computer. In the first type, there is little to no interaction between attacker and victims since scammers hijack the victims’ PCs and use them to generate cryptocurrency without the victims’ knowledge. Check Point Software estimates that around 55% of businesses have been victimized by crypto mining applications, either from browser extensions, third-party programs, or apps.

Malware mining isn’t going anywhere soon. Just recently, it’s been reported that around 526,000 computers around the world are infected with the crypto mining botnet Smominru thanks to the leaked NSA exploit.

Ransomware is different because scammers access the victims’ PC, infects the system with ransomware, and then demands a ransom payable in cryptocurrency. A great example of this would be HBO’s 2017 dilemma about paying hackers Bitcoin as ransom, or else they would leak a ton of content including a new episode of Game of Thrones. Netflix also had the same problem, but the ransom was the entire new ‘Orange is the New Black’ season in exchange for “tens of thousands of dollars in electronic currency.”

6. Phone Porting

Phone-porting, or mobile phone identity theft, occurs when thieves seize a person’s phone number and tricks his/her mobile provider into giving them control of the victims’ account. Once they’ve successfully do this, they’ll try to hijack a digital wallet and drain its coins.

Unfortunately for the real account holder, he/she would lose everything stored in the wallet since cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible.

Your best bet to avoid phone porting is to change passwords regularly, add a unique PIN and verification question, or perform any other available identity theft protection.

7. Non-Existent Coins

In August 2017, London police arrested a man who ran a call center within the financial district. Apparently, his cryptocurrency business had been cold-calling people to sell non-existent digital currency. Unfortunately, the scam has victimized at least nine unsuspecting investors with combined losses exceeding over 160,000 pounds.

Some scammers use legit cryptocurrency, but with a twist. For instance, Trusted Reviews has spotted that a ton of Facebook ads have been promoting a non-existent funding round for TON, Telegram’s upcoming Bitcoin rival.

Unlike two years ago, trading cryptocurrency isn’t a hush-hush activity anymore. There are plenty of resources to double-check authenticity of cryptocurrencies or digital currency news. Be aware that most legitimate ICOs wouldn’t be cold-calling people to invest. And should that ever happen to you, list down the caller’s name, his/her company name, business address, and other company information available.

Don’t deal with the caller just yet – check with the SEC first before handing over your hard-earned cash.

8. Cloud Mining Scams

Cloud mining is the process of using a remote datacenter with shared processing power that would enable users to mine cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, even without hardware management. Companies offer cloud mining services to people interested in having another stream of passive income, but without learning all the technology involved with mining per se.

Technically, cloud mining isn’t a scam, but because these companies often oversell their services to encourage clients to subscribe to its monthly fee (or sometimes, on a price per hashing rate), and then fail to deliver due to volatile cryptocurrency prices and difficulty of actually mining… it’s understandable that those who were fooled would call cloud mining a scam.

A popular example of this type of cryptocurrency scam comes from cloud mining company HashOcean, which successfully provided the service for an entire year until finally disappearing when they couldn’t pay out users anymore.

9. The Classic Pump and Dump

In finance, pump and dump is a securities fraud practice wherein a person encourages investors to buy shares in a company in order to inflate the price artificially, and then sells one’s own shares while the price is high.

When it comes to cryptocurrency, the prices of major players like Bitcoin and Ethereum can no longer be manipulated. However, hundreds of smaller altcoins are still existing, so be wary about groups of investors (from Telegram, Discord and other platforms) gang up to inflate a cryptocurrency’s value artificially. These groups are known to hold regular meetings and a monthly vote to determine which altcoin they’d target next.

10. Market Manipulation

Aside from pump-and-dump practices, other market manipulators such as spoofing are being used. Spoofing involves “bidding with the intent to cancel the bid or offer before execution.” The idea is to create panic among other traders that somebody with influence or money is preparing to buy or sell.

Spoofing and similar practices aren’t actually scams, but just shady habits you should be aware of, since other people can be doing it to the coin you’re currently trading without letting you know. For more real-world samples of market manipulating techniques, check out this in-depth guide of spoofing and how you can protect your coins from spoofers.

The Bottom Line

Financial analysts have been warning people about cryptocurrency since Bitcoin was launched in 2009. Aside from being too volatile, cryptocurrency is mostly unregulated and unprotected. The SEC isn’t able to go after all of the cryptocurrency scams, but they’re trying to be on top of things by filing complaints against companies or individuals trying to rip people off.

Unfortunately, having clearer rules won’t wipe out cryptocurrency scams overnight.

Human beings have been trying to steal each other’s money for thousands of years, it’s just that cryptocurrency is the latest market they could test their practices out. Your protection against these scams is to do your due diligence, and research everything you can about an ICO or investment opportunity before handing over your cash.

And if you’re serious about cryptocurrency, mining coins, blockchain technology and everything in between, consider investing on additional security measures first. Encrypting the internet with a VPN (virtual private network), buying hardware wallet, and using advanced antivirus program for your phone and PCs can already avoid half of the cryptocurrency scams listed above.

Lastly, as with any investment, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Internet Careers Online Review: Avoid this Scam!

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There are many ways to make money online, but can I tell you a secret? There are no shortcuts!

Just like in the “real world”, making money on the internet takes time, perseverance and a little luck.

That’s why at I’ve Tried That we review as many systems as possible that claim to be able to make you money online easily. You see, more often than not, they turn out the be scams, or at the least not very good.

Today, we have Internet Careers Online by Kelly Scott, and boy is this one misleading.

Internet Careers Online by Kelly Scott

For such a specific product name you may be surprised to learn that Internet Careers Online actually has nothing to do with careers.

Instead it is focusing on a very specific way to make money, something they call “link posting” which I’ll explain shortly.

There are also a number of red flags raised on the sales page for this product which concern me greatly and should concern you too!

Link Posting

First off let me explain the concept of link posting.

The idea is that you place links or adverts online in places like Facebook or Craigslist and when someone clicks it you earn money – or at least that’s what all the link posting scams tell you.

Internet Careers Online - 123

The reality is there is no immediate payment to you when someone clicks the link; instead they need to complete an action after clicking the link, usually in the form of buying something.

When they do buy something you get a commission from the sale. This is called affiliate marketing and is a legitimate way to make money online.

HOWEVER.

Kelly Scott is dressing up affiliate marketing as something it’s not. She is lying about the opportunity, process, earnings, and amount of work required to get started.

“Link posting” tarnishes the tried and true method of affiliate marketing.

Companies Don’t Want This

According to the sales page for Internet Careers Online big name companies like Apple, Dell, Microsoft and Best Buy will pay you to post links on the internet.

They claim that the companies will pay you to do it as it’s cheaper than hiring staff.

Internet Careers Online - apple

This is all utter nonsense!

First off, these companies aren’t “hiring” people to place links anywhere. What you can do is sign up through their affiliate platforms and link to their website from your own. They will then pay you a commission if you send someone to their site who then buys.

These companies aren’t hiring anyone. You aren’t staff. If anything, you’re an independent contractor who gets paid if, and only if, you refer a sale.

The claims made by Internet Careers Online are, at best, misleading.

Ever Heard of Spamming?

The problem I have with link posting scams is that they all tell you to take the pre-created links and post them on Facebook, Craigslist, in forms and other social media outlets.

The thing is you will be one of many people posting the same links on the same sites and you’ll all be doing it without context.

What this means is that you’ll be effectively spamming. It will likely result in you being blocked, banned and labelled as a spammer depending on how vigorous you are at it.

Affiliate marketing works because you create a site or a brand on social media that interests’ people and who people can trust and you promote products to them that they may find interesting.

When was the last time you clicked a random link on the internet, especially in the age of malware and viruses?

On the flip side, when was the last time you listened to someone you know (even virtually) who recommended a product to you?

See the difference?

Internet Careers Online isn’t interested in whether you succeed or not they just want your money!

Paying to Work?!

Internet Careers Online - 97

On the subject of handing over money, the product offered by Internet Careers Online costs $97.

The mantra “never pay for a job” holds true here. In this case, it looks like if you pay to sign up, you’ll be given a position where you can post links and get paid to do so.

There is no guarantee that you will ever make money here. You will be paying for information.

The Guarantee Doesn’t Hold Water

You might be thinking that I’m crazy and it doesn’t matter if you pay out the $97 because there is an iron clad 60-day guarantee.

Well, I hate to break it to you but the terms suggest otherwise.

Internet Careers Online - terms

The terms state that “All we ask is that you examine everything and put forth an honest effort for the first 30-days”.

This is a very vague statement to make and effectively creates a loophole in the guarantee – you ask for a refund, they ask what you did to put in “honest effort” and they say it wasn’t enough so there’s no refund.

I obviously can’t guarantee that this will be the case, but the loophole exists and that should make you nervous.

The Company is Dormant

The company supposedly behind Internet Careers Online, one Internet Careers Online, LTD (I know, inventive right?), is a real UK company.

It’s also listed as a Non-Trading company, meaning it’s dormant and inactive, and only registered back in February 2017.

As it’s non trading, it should not be taking your money!

The Bottom Line

Link posting scams are numerous and I should know as I’ve now reviewed dozens of them.

They all follow the same patterns and none of them are legitimate.

Essentially, they are selling you affiliate marketing training. Affiliate marketing is a real and legitimate business, but it is not as easy as Kelly Scott would have you believe.

In the end, this one will cost you $97 and leave you with a bad taste in your mouth and no clue on how to make money online.

SurveySay Review: Not a Job, Just a Waste of Time

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Didn’t I already give SurveySay a review?

I could have sworn this program looks familiar.

Surveysay Form

Ah!

That’s right. It’s just BigSpot with an even worse logo.

Bigspot or Surveysay?

I wasn’t a fan of BigSpot back when I first reviewed it in 2011 and it doesn’t look like much has changed since then.

SurveySay isn’t hiring, despite the jobs ads.

Odds are, you saw a job posting on Snagajob (another site I recommend you steer clear of) advertising either a part-time, or full-time, ‘Online Survey Taker’ job opening.

There isn’t much more to the job posting than that. However, the ad is currently airing in pretty much every town across America.

While I write this article, there are currently 2,489 active job postings on Snagajob alone.

Surveysay on Snagajob

These guys are busy to say the least.

The job posting is just as shallow as their website. The title and ‘apply’ button both take you directly to the signup form where you can “Start getting paid for your opinions!” just after you hand over some of your personal information…

Is SurveySay a Scam?

Well, yes and no, but mostly no.

Yes, in the sense that they aren’t actually hiring online survey takers.

Instead they are merely collecting your personal information and then showing you a list of survey companies that are currently accepting members.

I filled out the application form with a temporary email just to take a look inside…

Inside SurveySay

As you can see, they are simply listing affiliate opportunities and nothing more.

There is no “job” here.

SurveySay and whoever is behind the mysterious VarsityPlaza, LLC gets a few bucks from each of those companies if you were to fill out an application.

The “no” in the not a scam, is that these companies are free to join. Plus, they are reputable survey companies.

The real problem I have with SurveySay is that you need to hand over some of your personal information just to view a list of companies.

SurveySay was created by VarsityPlaza, LLC and they operate BigSpot as well.

The company does have a solid BBB listing with only one negative review. Their Privacy Policy does state that they do not sell or share your personal information “without your explicit consent.”

While reassuring, they are still requesting your personal information when they have no need for it.

SurveySay and Snagajob

I found it interesting that SurveySay has over 2,000 active job postings on Snagajob when Snagajob only allows employers to post a max of 3 job postings for $249/month.

Snagajob Pricing

At those prices, SurveySay would be paying Snagajob over $200,000 per month to keep their listings up.

We both know that’s not happening.

I couldn’t find any links to the two programs being related, but Snagajob appears to be allowing them to advertise through some sort of partnership.

Snagajob is filled with other affiliate programs masquerading as jobs. For instance, there are nearly twice as many Uber job postings. Uber is free to join and you do not have to apply through a job board to work there. However, if you refer a new driver to Uber, you can get paid up to $2,250.

Snagajob Uber

While not particularly noteworthy, it does raise some questions about the validity of their offerings.

Can you get rich taking surveys?

No.

Absolutely not.

Online surveys have been plagued with the falsehoods that you can make a full-time income just answering questions in your spare time.

In reality, you will spend weeks, or even months, answering questions to even see if you qualify to take a survey. In the off chance that you are invited to fill out an actually survey, you will usually be compensated anywhere from $1 to $10 for 15-20 minutes of your time.

I like finding a random five dollar bill as much as the next guy, but I’m not going to spend a month of my time searching for one.

Treat surveys as found money. Don’t go seeking it out, but if you get an invite to participate in one, and don’t have anything better to do, by all means, fill it out.

But, for the love of God, do not ever pay money to take a survey and do not trust anyone telling you that you are going to get rich overnight filling out surveys.

That’s never going to happen.

Alternates to Surveysay

If you still want to take surveys, I do have an approved list of survey companies I recommend. Better yet, I won’t charge you an email address just to gain access.

Why trust me over SurveySay or BigSpot? Because these are programs that I have used for years, cashed out hundreds of dollars from each, and can verify they are legit.

Here are my top 3 survey companies:

  1. Swagbucks – Surveys are just one part of the Swagbucks experience. You can watch videos, play games, participate in polls, and they all pull in cash. If there’s only one program you join today, pick this one as I’ve personally cashed out over $900 just by using them in my spare time.
  2. SurveySavvy – Here’s your more traditional survey site. They send out surveys regularly and invite you to take part in longer studies as well. I’ve had a few $50+ survey invites.
  3. PaidViewpoint – PaidViewpoint is all about market research. They connect you with surveys that you absolutely qualify for and do not kick you out just before the final question. It’s fun, easy, and well worth checking out.

Those three should keep you busy enough.

The Bottom Line

While SurveySay isn’t technically a scam, it’s still a colossal waste of time.

They are unnecessarily collecting your email and personal information to showcase a list of companies for which they make money if you sign up and join.

I still don’t like that they are advertising on job boards seeking work at home applicants to become online survey takers. It’s misleading to say the least.

Online surveys are just about my least favorite ways to make money online. There are just a million better ways to spend your time, especially if you are looking to start pulling in some real money.

You can also check out my top recommendation here if you are interested in learning how to make serious money online.

10 Online Passive Income Ideas You Can Start Today

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Are you thinking about earning some extra cash on the side on a regular basis while not having to worry about it too much? It’s time to get inspired with a few passive income ideas!

Passive income is an income stream received regularly with zero or very little effort on your part. I mean, who wouldn’t want to make money while they sleep?

Also, a consistent cash flow, especially one that comes from multiple sources, supplements income sources that aren’t as steady, so it’s particularly attractive to freelancers or small business owners.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a sick day or simply a mental health day and continue to earn?

Today, I’ve compiled a list of passive income ideas to inspire you to start setting up this year!

10 Passive Income Ideas to Get You Started

Just a note before we dive into the list.

There are plenty of passive income ideas out there, but I focused on passive income ideas you can do online.

If you have a computer and an internet connection, you can get started today!

1. Create a blog and monetize it.

Being a blogger isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it type of deal. Obviously, you’ll have to write articles, respond to comments, and maintain your website.

However, if you pick and choose the right ways to monetize your blog, you can set it up so that an article that you wrote once can generate income long after you’ve written it.

One of the most basic ways you can earn passive income through blogging is through displaying website ads, and one of the most reliable ad networks to join is Google Adsense.

Google Adsense

It’s certainly not the highest-paying passive income stream, but it’s one of the most reliable. If you can regularly produce useful content for a niche audience, then you can show them targeted, relevant ads.

You earn in cents per ad you show your visitors, but if you have a high volume of website visitors, the cents can really add up to real money.

Another way to monetize your blog is via affiliate marketing.

You can join one or a few affiliate networks, find products and services that fit your target audience, publish articles about these products or services, and put in an affiliate link that your readers can click so they can buy these products. In return, you get a commission for everyone who purchases through the links you posted.

If this is something you’re interested in, you can read our complete guide to starting on affiliate marketing.

2. Write an ebook.

If you have a knack for writing, writing an ebook could be a good source of passive income for you in the form of royalties.

Whether you’re into fiction or you prefer writing about a particular topic you’d like to share your knowledge about, creating an ebook and working with a publisher or even self-publishing it can earn you money for months or years to come.

You can even add to your income by creating audiobooks and expanding your audience. Some people simply prefer listening to books rather than reading them, especially those who like to listen while doing something else like driving or cleaning their house.

Check out our guide to self-publishing your ebook if you want to know more.

3. Become a vlogger.

Become A Vlogger

Are you comfortable in front of a camera? Is there a pressing topic you’re just bursting to talk about in front of an audience?

Becoming a vlogger just might be the passive income stream for you!

You can start a channel on YouTube or on Twitch with nothing but basic equipment: your computer, a webcam, a microphone, and your knowledge.

The main source of YouTubers’ income comes from Google’s YouTube Partner Program, which is made available for accountholders who meet certain criteria.

Once your account gets approved for this program, every video you upload on YouTube is served with AdSense ads and you earn from them continuously.

It’s a different story with Twitch; vloggers earn on Twitch mainly through affiliate marketing and sponsorships.

Whether you go with YouTube or Twitch or some other platform, being a vlogger is definitely a workable passive income idea.

4. Start a podcast.

Fun fact: 57% of US consumers over the age of 12 listen to podcasts, and nearly 75% of podcast consumers enjoy listening to podcasts to learn new things.

Why not share your knowledge about an interesting topic and get some passive income out of it?

A podcast is a periodic digital broadcast available for streaming and downloading to a mobile device or a computer. It’s similar to radio shows, except the sound doesn’t go through the airwaves; it goes through the internet.

Podcasters usually earn passive income from ads, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing, and you can further increase this if you do your podcast in front of a web camera as well and then publish it as a vlog. That way you get double the passive income opportunities.

5. Become an influencer.

According to the official HopperHQ List 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo was the top-paid Instagram influencer that year, with a fee of around $1.6M per post.

You might never get to command a fee like that, but if you’re social media savvy and you can amass a following or you already have one, being a social media influencer is a viable passive income idea.

The first thing you need to do before this becomes a regular source of cash is to build up your follower count on various platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or YouTube.

And you do this by posting relevant, timely content on a regular basis, as well as engaging with your audience. Genuine engagement with your followers goes a long way to growing them. Reply to their comments, follow back your most popular followers, and like some of their posts, too.

When you have enough followers to qualify for affiliate programs and ad networks, then you can start gaining passive income through those.

Plus, when you have enough followers to get noticed by brands, you can become a brand ambassador, too.

You do have to post regular content for you to earn regularly from ads and affiliates, but as you grow in popularity, the amount of money you can charge per post also goes up.

6. Sell digital media.

Artists and creators nowadays realize that the internet is a boon. It gives artists a chance to work with new media, explore new ways of creating, and showcase their art to new audiences.

Of course, the obvious downside is that there is plenty of competition, but if you keep at it and manage to get your creations in front of a paying audience, you can potentially earn passive income while getting to do something you love.

Here are some ideas for digital media to create and sell, either on your own website or through digital marketplaces like Envato.

  • Stock photos
  • Photoshop filters and presets
  • Wallpapers
  • Digital art
  • Graphics
  • Logos
  • Icon sets
  • Emojis
  • Fonts
  • Designs
  • Patterns
  • Instrumental music
  • Ringtones
  • Beats
  • Sound effects
  • Applications
  • Website design themes
  • Website plugins
  • Printable journals and trackers
  • Printable meal prep guides
  • Printable workout guides
  • Templates

7. Sell online courses.

Online Course

If you enough about a topic to be able to teach it to everyone who’s interested, you can create and sell online courses. That way, you only have to plan it and create it once and then students can buy it continuously for the foreseeable future.

You’ll have to update your courses according to your students’ feedback as well as with new information in that field, but other than that, once it’s up on an online course platform or on your own website, it’s going to earn passive income as long as it’s up and as long as students are enrolling.

Similarly, this opens up additional passive income streams from an accompanying ebook and possibly a membership website where interested students can subscribe for bonus content and an exclusive forum where virtual classmates can discuss the lessons and swap additional knowledge.

8. Set up and automate a dropshipping store.

Dropshipping is an amazing ecommerce business model that lets an online store owner sell products without an inventory or storage facility. In order to make this work, the owner sets up connections to merchants who will handle everything from processing the order to shipping them out.

In return, the dropshipping store owner either receives a cut from the sale or is paid a referral fee by the merchant.

A dropshipping online store can become a lucrative business, but it still requires a ton of work after setting up. In order to really turn this into a passive income-generating business, you’ll have to automate the whole process (from forwarding an order to sending the customer an email about their order details).

Setting up the store is as easy as setting up any website or blog. If you really want the easy way, you can even check out ready-made stores from providers like Shopify. Do note that because you’ll be hosting your store on Shopify’s database, Shopify gets a cut from every sale.

9. Rent out your assets.

A good source of passive income is getting assets that you don’t use or barely use to work for you.

You can sell these assets, but it’s a one-and-done deal.

Renting out a room or a house you own that’s not lived in, or a car you barely drive, or useful stuff around the house you aren’t using every day can help out other people who do need them while you earn some passive income out of it.

You’re going to spring for maintenance of your properties, but for the most part, you can earn some side cash out of these assets on a regular basis.

10. Invest in equity microfunding.

This one may be for those who have a bit more money earmarked for investing, aka money you can afford to risk for a greater reward.

But if you’ve built up one or more passive income streams and have no immediate need for the money, you may be able to place the funds into this type of investment and potentially make even more.

Traditionally, startup businesses raise funds through loans or appealing to angel investors or venture capitalists.

Equity microfunding is like crowdfunding but with higher stakes; that is, investors in equity microfunding get equity ownership in the business.

Startup businesses create online profiles on crowdfunding platforms where potential investors can see their pitches, financial statements, and other relevant information about their businesses.

You as an investor get to pick and choose the businesses you believe in. There are guidelines in place regarding how much you can invest in a certain time period, and you’d need to educate yourself about these guidelines.

Equity microfunding is the riskiest one yet out of this list, and yet it has the greatest earning potential, especially if you invest in the right startup businesses.

Here are some crowdfunding platforms offering equity crowdfunding:

The Bottom Line

Having a 9-to-5 job sounds so much better than being unemployed.

But being stuck in a job that you don’t really love and more than likely won’t make you rich is the worse.

Unfortunately, we’re all here trying to win the unbeatable rat race with regular jobs. To finally become financially free, you have to find ways to earn passive income.

Earning money while you sleep is completely possible, but people who have successfully done so had to put some conscious effort and work into getting there. If you are serious about running a business that earns income passively, you have to accept that the initial workload would be challenging.

Don’t believe anyone that says building a passive income-generating business is easy.

It isn’t.

But the rewards are definitely worth the effort. Just imagine earning an extra $100, $500, $1000, or even up to $10,000 a month just because you’ve set up multiple sources of income streams a few months back. 

What are you waiting for?

List down the passive income ideas relevant to you, and start working on them now.

Jingle Writing Jobs: Get Paid to Write Catchy Tunes

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If you’re musically gifted and obsessed with catchy tunes, maybe you’d be interested in jingle writing jobs.

Maybe you’ve been making tunes in your head your whole life, never knowing you can turn this passion into a full-fledged job.

Have you ever heard an advertisement on TV or the internet once, had it stuck in your head the whole week, and found yourself humming it a month later?

Maybe you thought to yourself: I can do that too!

With the right equipment and skills, you’re in luck. You can turn these tunes from imagination to reality! 

The internet and advanced technology opened up opportunities for all types of artists to be seen and hired by anyone from individual entrepreneurs to SMEs to big companies. And not just locally, too! Clients can be from anywhere in the world.

Do you think you have what it takes to write commercial jingles? Read on to learn where to start.

What Do You Need to Create Your Own Jingle?

Before you land jingle writing jobs, you’ll need to create jingles first.

Jingles are those tunes you hear in a video or audio ad for a company’s product or service, normally with a memorable tagline that becomes the hook.

Either the company’s slogan is made into the hook, or the hook eventually becomes the company’s slogan.

Whichever it is, the goal is to create a jingle that makes people think of the brand when they hear it.

As such, jingles should be able to reflect a company’s values and highlight what the product can offer their target market as well.

Striking the right balance between creativity and product marketing is important, but extremely hard to do.

Like many careers, you have to have the passion for crafting jingles, or the result wouldn’t be as good as Dr. Pepper’s “Wouldn’t You Like to Be a Pepper Too?” or Kit Kat’s “Give Me A Break.”

Your heart should be in the right place before you can turn jingle-writing into a money-making career.

You’ll also need:

1. Writing Skills

Take away the music of a jingle and you should be left with awesome taglines that consumers will associate with a company.

Writing lyrics requires advanced composing skills, and a good mix of extensive vocabulary, knowledge of proper phrasing, and a deep love of rhymes.

2. Musical Abilities

Memorable slogans won’t be enough to make a successful jingle.

To create an irresistible jingle that anyone would instantly recognize, you have to pair the words with beats and tunes that would blend perfectly together.

You don’t necessarily have to be an amazing singer to do this job well. However, you should know what it takes to compose music.

Of course, having the ability to play the piano, keyboard, or other instruments help in turning your idea into reality.

If you have recording experience, then composing jingles would be much easier.

3. Creativity

Clients usually only provide simple instructions about what the jingle should include and what message it should convey.

Here’s an example of something a client would ask for: “A happy tune conveying rainbows and sunshine” or “gloomy low tune with an inspiring ending.”

As such, jingle composers must be creative enough to work with even the vaguest of creative briefs or “client requirements.”

4. Extensive Knowledge of Jingle Culture

What makes a jingle an ear-popping success?

You should know that it isn’t just about the tunes, but also about bringing out emotions to anyone who hears the jingle.

It can bring out laughter, tears, childhood memories, and a bunch of emotions we never knew we had.

In short, your jingle should be able to make an impact on people. And with short-form videos and online ads, the impact has to be made within mere seconds.

5. Pop Culture Knowledge

You have to know what’s hot and trendy for a jingle to work.

Guy Bommarito, former creative director of Austin-based ad agency GSD&M, wrote the ever-so-popular “I Want My Baby Back Baby Back Baby Back Ribs” jingle for Chili’s in the 90s.

Bommarito had never tasted Chili’s ribs. But he did have enough pop culture knowledge to complete the client’s project.

But the jingle got a life of its own, appearing in the movie “Austin Powers.” It had since been mentioned on popular TV shows “The Office” and “Scrubs.” It was even given an NSYNC commercial version at the time.

Chili's Baby Back Ribs

Jingle Writer Education and Experience 

There’s no educational background or special degree needed to become a jingle composer.

If you’re looking for an office job, the most common requirement you’d find is experience working in ad agencies.

As a jingle writer, you have the option of working a full-time job at ad agencies.

Some jingle creators also opt go freelance and offer their jingle-writing services to multiple clients.

Freelancers must have excellent marketing skills. Since you’re the boss, marketing department, and jingle maker in one, you’d have to be a master in representing yourselves in front of would-be clients and ad agencies.

How much can you earn writing commercial jingles?

The average fee per jingle is about $10,000 if you’re catering to local or regional markets.

But if your jingle-writing gig expands to the national market, it could go as high as $50,000 per jingle.

There are various factors that may dictate the amount you could get as a jingle writer.

These factors include years of experience, past successful jingles, connections, your portfolio, and the client’s requirements.

Jingle writing jobs are often completed on a freelance basis.

You need to build a network of contacts from the fields of advertising, entertainment, media, arts, and public relations, among others. Thus, the field can become extremely competitive but highly lucrative if you’ve got the right skill set and know the right people.

For jingle composers who are employed at ad agencies, income may be as low as $20,000 a year or as high as $85,000 annually, depending on the same factors.

This means that if you have master composing skills and an impressive jingle portfolio, you won’t have difficulty bagging work since you’ll be on the top of ad agency heads’ minds whenever the need for a jingle composer arises.

Veteran jingle composers can earn more than their per-jingle fees if they negotiated terms, such as earning royalties or agreeing to a deferred compensation agreement.

In these cases, the upfront fee would be smaller than average, but you’ll be earning commissions whenever the jingle is played or receiving extra cash if the jingle goes viral in the future.

Writing jingles for a living has an optimistic future with a 10% expected growth from 2010 to 2020. Do note that this job outlook isn’t as high as the 15% (or higher) outlook of other arts-related occupations.

Home Music Studio

How to Start Your Career Writing Commercial Jingles

There are several ways to start your jingle composing career. All of them require you to build a portfolio (often called a reel) and improve your online presence.

Here are FOUR routes you can take as a jingle writer:

As a freelancer with ad agency connections

You need to find as many advertising agencies online or even locally. You should also have an insider who will give you tips whenever a client requires a jingle made.

Every time you discover a jingle project, you’ll still have to compete with other composers wanting to bag that job.

Unless your jingle-writing reputation is unmatched and ad agencies choose you as their first pick, you need to prove your worth as a jingle composer and build your connections.

As a freelancer seeking online-based jobs

Scan all the job boards, from Freelancer.com to Fiverr.com, for jingle writing jobs.

Not only does this help you build an online portfolio complete with client feedback, it also improves your communication and analytical skills, both of which are important in turning a client’s ideas into a real ear-popping jingle.

Probably the best job board for talent like you is Gig Salad, a platform wherein thousands of entertainers, performers and other artists showcase their work and offer their services to potential clients.

Guru is another platform where you can offer your services and allow potential clients to contact you.

As a blogger writing about jingle making

Whether or not you’re new to the field, this route is always recommended because it provides multiple income streams and serves as an online portfolio as well.

You can upload your jingles on YouTube (and earn from them too!), embed the videos on your website, and talk about what jingle composing is all about.

And since you already have a knack for writing, you can use your voice to build a following and hopefully catch the attention of big-ticket clients through your blog.

Plus, there’s always a chance to earn passive income with a successful blog.

As a social media influencer

Not feeling the blog experience?

You can always stick to social media instead.

Open up a Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram page, YouTube, and other social media accounts that you can handle.

Make sure to keep them updated with your jingle samples, trivia about the industry, and other insider tips you might want to share.

What’s great about opening an account on social media platforms to promote your jingles is that you can also earn money from these platforms. Want to know how? Read up more on how to earn money from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn.

Word-of-mouth remains one of the most effective ways to promote your service, so whichever route you plan to take, make sure you focus on showing off your jingle-composing talent, and if you do it right, jingle writing jobs will come to you.

Do all FOUR Routes at the Same Time

To increase your chances of succeeding in the jingle writing industry, you should try all routes possible:

  • Networking with ad agencies,
  • Building your freelance clients,
  • Maintaining your own blog where you can showcase your talent, and
  • Growing your social media audience.

And if waiting for clients to come feels too slow or doesn’t work for you, you can always market your talent more aggressively.

Prepare several types of jingles that you’ve crafted, and present them to local businesses, ad agencies, PR firms, political campaigns, sports organizations, and other types of companies that may advertise on TV, radio, or social media.

You can do this online, but focus on companies from your city first so that you can attend meetings if a client decides to try your services out.

5 Important Tips to Land Jingle Writing Jobs

As I’ve mentioned, jingle writing is a competitive field.

Here are some tips from seasoned pros to help you launch your jingle writing career off the ground.

  • Manage your expectations.

In recent years, the jingle market has shrunk considerably as companies are increasingly licensing, using, and remixing existing tracks instead of hiring jingle composers.

Opportunities are still around, but you need to brace yourself for a lot of disappointment before you can truly make it big time.

Take into account the fierce competition in this industry as well. The number of opportunities and clients are significantly lesser than the jingle writers looking to land the gig.

  • Always have your demo reel ready.

Put together your best seven or eight compositions, take 45 to 60 seconds of each one, and edit each snippet together in one audio file.

This is the sample you can burn in CDs and save in little flash drives and send to brands and ad agencies.

Save it in your smartphone as well so you can whip it out when potential clients ask. You never know when a job can drop in your lap so it pays to be ready.

You can also upload a sample of your work on platforms like YouTube, SoundCloud, Google Drive, or even on your own portfolio website.

  • Know your strengths so you can take risks.

As a composer, you’ll have particular styles or genres that you’re good at. Those tend to be your comfort zone as a jingle composer.

If you know which musical genres you’re good at, you should also be aware which ones you’re not very good at so you can work on studying them and take a risk composing something that you’re not very familiar with.

Being diverse is always better than being a one-note composer. You may be good at EDM beats, but other companies will be looking for pop or country tunes, and you need to be able to compose for them, too.

  • Use technology to your Advantage.

Like most jobs under the arts umbrella, jingle writing jobs have been included in the list of jobs that are expected to be automated.

But this is definitely still debatable.

While you can still find a demand for traditional jingle-making, other clients may require you to use new tools to make the jingle pop or sound “new.”

Be up-to-date with automated music production tools and AI tech. Master them and incorporate this knowledge into your craft.

  • Find an Edge. 

Writing jingles can pay well, if you land the project or job.

The problem is fierce competition, so you need to dig deep and find an edge. Something you can create that other jingle writers cannot do.

          This edge will be your secret to making it in this competitive line of work.

Jingle Writing Job Outlook: Crafting Jingles in 2024

The income of jingle writers isn’t listed on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

You know why?

It is probably like with many freelance jobs, the amount you earn totally depends on your skill, perseverance, and how well you’re able to market your talent online and in the real world.

Jingles aren’t like what they used to be in the past. This means your vocabulary and taste in music should also adapt to modern trends.

However, because the internet is a gift that keeps on giving, what used to be side gigs like jingle composing can now become a full-time income-generating career for the right people.

If you’re determined to make money from music, explore our list of online jobs for musicians or different ways you can get paid to listen to music.

50 Ways to Start Your Own Business and Operate Completely Online

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The internet has paved the way for people to conduct businesses completely online. What’s interesting is that even if it may seem that all ideas have already been tried and tested in recent years, it’s never too late to start a business online and even go head-to-head with older businesses. With the right idea, proper implementation and enough hard work, you can become an online business owner even without a huge capital.

Start a Website

The simplest and cheapest way to start an online biz is through a website. Plus, you can set-up a website as quickly as under an hour with this free training and get the support and training you need to start making money from it. The secret of a successful online business is to focus on your strength, so depending on your skills, here are some types of websites you could build:

1) Travel blog – Those who love to travel can blog about their adventures and earn money through several channels. Aside from displaying ads, travel bloggers can also earn through sponsorships. The most successful travel bloggers no longer pay for most of their trips – they are invited by hotels or resorts, and given two-way tickets, accommodation, food and other freebies in exchange for writing their experience on the blog.

2) Photography site – If you don’t have a knack for words, but can take a stunning picture any time, you can have a future with a photography site. Focus on something you love. Take for example Japanese miniature maker Tatsuya Tanaka and his impressive works of art on http://miniature-calendar.com/. Don’t forget to join Instagram and feature some of your photographs there too – it’s quicker to make your posts viral through social media.

3) Review site – For true blue consumers who love buying stuff and reviewing them online, it’s about time you stop doing it for free on Amazon. By using your blog as a review site, not only will you get a chance for brands to send products directly to you, you’ll also never run out of topics to write. You have two ways to earn from a review site – affiliate marketing commissions or direct payment (ideal when your blog has a lot more following).

The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that you only need to post the link of the product you’re promoting and you can earn from anything your readers buy right after clicking that link. Yes, even if they bought a different product, or even if they bought something 3 days after clicking through your link.

4) Info Site – An info site, or niche site, talks about a very specific subject. For example, an espresso machine info site will review every new model that comes out in the market. Other topics may include tips for the perfect cup, cleaning techniques, accessories and more. Earnings from these types of sites may come from ads (like Google AdSense), affiliate commissions, or private ad networks. You can keep it small to below 20 pages, or grow it out into an authority site.

5) News Site – The best thing about news sites is that you can choose the topics you want to focus on. If you’re a movie fan, you can skip all the serious news and discuss only entertainment, film, and other relevant news. Fan of Apple products? You can write about nothing else but iPhones, iMacs, iPads and other Apple news. You don’t need to be a journalist to do this, as long as you stick with the facts.

6) Coupon and Group-buying sites – If you can’t commit to crafting long posts and photos regularly, a coupon site or group-buying site like Groupon offers a simpler business model. By setting up these kinds of sites, you offer people with discounts, deals, and group-buying vouchers. It’s a win-win: you develop a successful site, while people get to save money from deals you publish.

7) Job boards – While the initial set-up may be more complicated than ordinary blogs, a job board can bring in multiple sources of income. You may ask payments from job posters, plaster ads throughout the site, or even sell ad slots. The benefit of job boards is that owners don’t have to think about updating its content, since job posters will do this for you.

8) Podcasting Sites – If you’ve always dreamt of having your own radio show, a podcasting site can be the solution you’ve been waiting for. Like Steli Efti and Hiten Shah’s podcasting site “The Startup Chat” that discusses business and startup concerns, you still need to be an expert in something for your podcast site to work and have followers. However, once you do earn enough followers, only then will you get to try out several monetization options suitable for podcasting sites.

9) Video Sites – Videos are preferred by people because they’re easier to digest, even if you watch them continuously at hours on end. And since videos are perfect for entertainment, just as they are for teaching, you can build a video site with the content you prefer.

10) Forums or other types of online community – One of the easiest ways to produce user-generated content is to build a site that can serve as people’s hangout. Encourage them to spend as much time on the site by adding sub-categories and assigning special roles to members. There can be multiple income streams on online communities, but it depends largely on the size of your community.

11) Auction sites – Here’s one type of marketplace that doesn’t require you to sell anything. Auction sites like eBay and Facebook marketplace host users who either buy or sell items from the site. Your auction site can be as specific as “Siamese cat accessories” or as general as “cat accessories.” It’s entirely up to you. But you’ll be able to earn either through commissions with every sale, membership fees of users, or ads.

Start an eCommerce Store

Traditionalists who are on the fence of going through with an online business should take the ecommerce route. Because ecommerce is more like a brick-and-mortar business that operates with goods or services as product, starting a product-backed online biz wouldn’t be such a huge leap.  

If you want to get started in ecommerce, look no further than Proven Amazon Course. Jim Cockrum will teach you how to leverage the power of Amazon to build a six figure ecommerce business from the comfort of your own home.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are common ecommerce stores you could check out:

12) Craft store – You don’t need a production plant, or a ton of employees to operate a craft store. You can join art-loving communities like Etsy and ArtFire, where you can open up an online store there and sell handmade items, such as beaded jewelry, crocheted blankets, or anything your mind can create. Building a craft store has low startup cost, which makes it highly attractive to work-at-home entrepreneurs.

13) Branded merchandise (white label products) – Look no further than the store of National Geographic or your favorite online magazine to see how white labeling and branding makes a whole lot of difference when it comes to selling products. Because you can get readily-produced items and simply add your branding to products you choose, this technique works well for websites and online brands with an active following. You won’t have to spend money on equipment or extra labor required in product manufacturing, since technically, a third-party company will handle it for you.

14) T-shirts – The t-shirt biz will continue to be one of the most stable markets online. It’s a simple business concept, since you can double your capital regardless of how popular your brand is or not. You have numerous options on how to start a t-shirt company. If you have the talent for the design, you can join print-on-demand sites and wait for people to order a shirt from your catalog. If your goal is to double your capital as quickly as possible, you can be a white label provider by ordering plain shirts on bulk and marketing your products for other companies to add their branding onto.

15) Food – You don’t have to hold copyright over a specific type of food to get in on the food business online. But you can be a bit creative and find a way to enter the market. For example, target bakers and offer a monthly subscription box of the most “hard-to-find baking ingredients” or “cookie dough month.” This idea can even extend to drinks (alcoholic or not), preserves, snacks, or other pantry staples like “coffee.”

16) Affiliate marketing – If you don’t want to deal with inventory, one way to join the ecommerce industry is through affiliate marketing. In this business model, your job is only to promote other products you believe in. You can even do this without a website (stick with social media or perform e-mail marketing), whichever way you feel comfortable. To earn from affiliate marketing, you’ll need to setup an affiliate account from platforms like Amazon and Commission Junction (among others), where you’ll be collecting commissions based off customers you’ve sent their way.

17) Drop shipping – Like affiliate marketing wherein your business model doesn’t involve producing your own products, drop shipping can also be a cost-effective online business. The main difference of affiliate marketing and drop shipping is that you communicate directly with “dropshippers” and has a bit of control over pricing. To start a drop shipping store, you’ll have to choose a niche, find products to sell, check availability of dropshippers in that specific niche, and open an online shop selling products. In this scenario, you don’t have a warehouse for storage or even the products on hand. Instead, you forward a customer’s order to the dropshipper and they will take care of packaging, handling, and shipping the product for you.

18) Monthly Subscription Services – Crate boxes are heaven-sent for consumers who want shopping easy and stress-free, particularly for basic needs such as shaving or coffee. Dollar Shave Club and Misto Box are great examples of crate boxes. This type of packaged product even works with items that doesn’t necessarily fall under “basic needs,” such as movie memorabilia (lootcrate.com), food from all over the world (trytheworld.com), or the popular professional makeup/beauty kit… beautyfix). Because they’re subscription-based and often paid up front, there is less risks involved in starting this kind of business. However, you do need a good following for people to subscribe to what you’re offering.

19) Go for trendy – The problem with product-based ecommerce stores is that consumers spend according to various factors such as season, need, budget, and more. If you’re worried about these factors and want to offer something that’s guaranteed to sell, be on the lookout for trendy items and only offer those on your store. The advantage of this route is you’ll always be on-trend and selling the item like hotcakes during its peak. On the flip side though, it can be hard to determine what product sells way ahead everyone else. Plus, the risks of selling trendy items are higher compared to regular products that may be on-demand for a given period throughout a calendar year.

20) Customized Products – A store that gives its customers plenty of customization control over the items they wish to buy is always a great marketing pitch no matter the type of product you’re selling. It can be as simple as options for color or material, or as personalized as adding your own print, choosing your own style, or other advanced customization.

Provide a Service

Globalization has given entrepreneurs a cost-effective way of connecting with clients from all around the world. And since a service provider can perform his/her job even located from almost anywhere, he/she can build a service-based company and conduct business even with just a single employee.

You can be the boss and employee of your company. But the coolest thing about trying to expand your home-based company is that the overhead costs would still be lower than traditional companies.

Not sure if your skill set can build an entire company? Here are the most in-demand services that you can provide even when on-the-go:

21) SEO consultant – Many entrepreneurs and small companies that conduct their business online will need help with SEO (search engine optimization) at some point. Whether it’s for developing a long-term SEO campaign or just quick help with setting up Google Analytics, SEO skills are one of the most sought-after services online because any business benefits from a well-ranked website.

22) PPC expert – PPC ads are the most effective type of advertising online, but it can be tricky to understand the ins and outs of pay-per-click advertising. To ensure businesses and entrepreneurs don’t waste money; PPC experts help them “buy visitors” to their websites via PPC effectively.

23) Business coach – As a business coach, your goal is to help build or improve the profit of a company. It doesn’t matter if the business is a startup or established one. Your job is to assess competition, evaluate business operations, and find opportunities to earn more money or keep up with demand. Of course, extensive business experience is needed, so you can perform the work remotely.

24) Virtual assistant services – A virtual assistant (VA) is a modern-day secretary who performs mostly online-based tasks, such as checking e-mails, scheduling meetings, and performing a wide range of day-to-day tasks involved in the operations of a client’s business. The responsibilities and job requirements of a VA varies depending on the needs of a client.

25) Content marketing – Any kind of website requires a sufficient amount of content to build inbound traffic organically. As a content marketer, you’ll lead a group of writers in crafting engaging and relevant content for a site. This job requires advanced internet marketing knowledge and SEO skills.

26) Web design services – Probably one of the oldest type of service sought by clients online, web design continues to be an in-demand service since entrepreneurs and companies (both small and huge) still build websites to this day. Putting up a web design company may seem futile due to the number of web design services available online, but if you got the skills and can bring something new to the table, it will be easy for you to compete with existing web design companies.

27) Tech support – Online companies are able to conduct business over the internet, but if technical problems occur, one common issue is that these companies do not have in-house IT support. If you have the skills to provide tech support services remotely, whether as on-call basis or full-time, you’re in the best field since home-based tech support has amazing outlook in the next 5 years.

28) Social media consultancy – Social media has been proven a cost-effective marketing technique for any kind of businesses. A company that has no online presence would hire social media experts to create a customized marketing plan. It’s much cheaper to hire a social media guy or team than for companies to make mistakes in implementing social media strategy, so if you’re pretty savvy with social media and mastered the best tactics for maximum online exposure, take advantage of your skills and offer them to any individual or company that would bite.

29) App development – Apps have taken the world by storm and it’s not stopping anytime soon. As an app developer, you’ll cater to both individuals and companies getting into the app world. Coding skills is definitely one of the most in-demand skills today, so if you’ve been making apps for a while now, you can always start your own app development company from the comforts of your own home.

30) Video Editing Services – Video is the content of the future and it is expected to fill up about 90% of internet traffic by 2019. If you tinker with Adobe Premiere, Avid or Final Cut and consider yourself an expert in video editing, this business can become very lucrative if you target the right market. If you have no idea where to start, check out Wipster.

31) Bookkeeping – Online companies mostly survive with only a handful of employees. To ensure these businesses keep legalities checked and taxes paid appropriately, professionals like bookkeepers or accountants ensure the company’s cash flow is well documented. If you’re a certified bookkeeper with experience, you can balance books from home using accounting software like Quickbooks, Xero or Sole Trader.

32) HR services – One of the most amazing things with globalization is that even office-based tasks like job interviews can now be done remotely. As such, those with extensive experience in human resources could open up shop online and find third-party companies the right employees. Providing HR services can go beyond employment… and extend to other tasks such as developing talent programs or updating employment policies based on current laws.

33) Lead generation – Finding leads can be frustrating or confusing to many new online entrepreneurs or companies. It’s a special kind of skill that only experts in internet marketing or SEO can provide. The cool thing about lead generation is that the job is often localized, which means there will be fewer competition if you’re interested in opening a lead generation company. Plus, you can still conduct business completely online.

34) Customer Support Services – Companies that rely on paying customers shouldn’t just focus on getting new leads; they should also maintain these leads by taking care of their customers. An effective customer support program can do this for any company, especially online businesses with only a few employees. The program can involve traditional inbound/outbound phone support, or other methods like online chat, HelpDesk, e-mail and more.

35) Photo Editing – If you’re running a serious business, having a go-to person perform photo editing or manipulation can do wonders for your website, social media, or overall online presence. Those who have an eye for details will surely succeed in this field. Of course, you’ll need advanced skills in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or other similar photo editing software, too! Setting up a photo editing business online is easy, since you only have to offer a list of services, prove your worth, and let the reviews of past clients do the talking.

36) Content Writing – Content will never fade away, no matter how much videos, photos, infographics and other types of media become popular. Whether a business relies on blog posts, product descriptions, daily news clips, ebooks, or other types of content, you’ll never run out of clients in need of stuff to publish on their websites. Writing isn’t easy, so you should have extensive writing experience and knowledge of keywords, LSI, and writing for the web.

37) Translation Services – If you can write or speak two or more languages with 100% accuracy, then you can offer translation services as your online business. The market for translators extends across different industries from publishing to IT, education, web development, and more. As long as there are clients looking for experts in a local dialect or foreign language that you know, your translation company will flourish even if you’re conducting the entire business from home.

38) Transcription – Transcribing documents may seem easy, but when you try it once, you’ll know that the precision, accuracy and speed involved in transcription can’t be done by just anyone. And if you have special transcribing skills with the ability to listen to any accent or language with ease, you can turn your talent into a full-blown company.

39) Language tutorial – If you’re good at teaching and are proficient in any foreign language, starting up a language tutorial business is definitely a natural progression from tutoring. English remains the most popular language, especially from students in Asian countries, but other languages like Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Chinese also have plenty of demand. Plus, you can start this business with just a couple of computers with microphone, headset, and a quiet space.

40) Life Coaching – Coaching people with their business, jobs, schooling, relationships, and other aspects of their lives can be good money for the right people. If you’re naturally helpful, wise beyond your years, and have the ability to see things outside the box, you can turn your side gig into a working company once you’ve taken in more than two clients at a time. You’d have to perform plenty of research with a life coaching business, but the rewards of helping people reach their goals can be absolutely satisfying.

41) Research – You’d be amazed at the amount of jobs available for researchers these days. Ironically, in the modern world where search engines have become advanced, the need for researchers remains as more information is uploaded online on a day-to-day basis. You can even start a research company that specializes in super-specific categories, such as collectibles (searching for antique dolls, etc.), go for consumer research, or develop your own niche in the research field.

42) Travel Agency – Building a travel-related business online depends largely on your interests and effort you’re willing to put in. For instance, if you’re excellent at creating travel itineraries with budget and customized recommendations, you can make a killing as an itinerary planner. If you worked as a travel agent for years and you wish to expand your career, you can also open up a full-scale travel agency from home, but this would entail more capital, equipment and effort.

43) Blog/Website Management – Managing and keeping a website updated can be a huge task, even for professional bloggers or small companies with a growing website portfolio. If you’re an expert in WordPress and other CMS platforms, online marketing, advanced on-page SEO, and daily tasks of publishing content and other media, you can be a website manager for other people. If you’re a web content writer already offering your writing services, you can bundle your service to include blog management as well. In some cases, like in an online store, you might need to update product information or process orders as well.

44) Graphics Design – If your creative skills go beyond photo editing, and you can easily create a poster, marketing banner, advertising material, infographic, logo, and other types of graphics, you’ll find a huge market in need of up-to-date visuals for their websites. The coolest thing about setting up a graphics design company is that you can start without any other staff member and expand your business by just relying on your own skills.

45) PR Agency – Who would have thought that an industry known for networking with professional contacts face-to-face can now be conducted remotely? If you have experience with helping businesses grow through tried-and-tested techniques involving media and public relations, you should build a PR agency and operate it online. It’s a competitive business, but if you choose to market your public relations services to a specific industry, a breakthrough in the field is still a possibility.

Find a Specialty

Here are 5 more business ideas that you might be interested in:

46) Online Courses – If you’re an expert at something you think people would want to read, watch, or listen to, you could build a business around this expertise by writing a book, producing videos, or recording podcasts. As long as you have valuable information that many will be willing to pay for, selling online courses or subscriptions can be lucrative to the right person.

47) Forex Trading – The stock market is open to anyone with internet access, so you don’t need to hire a broker to play the stock market. Because of this, people have turned Forex trading into a lucrative business. It does require tons of experience, trading knowledge, and practice, but if you’re confident with your trading skills, this business may be the right choice for you.

48) SaaS (Software as a Service) – SaaS is any online program that is designed to solve a problem of an individual or company. The users often pay subscription fees (either monthly or yearly) in order to continue using the online tool. A great example of this is Dropbox, so if you have an idea of a one-of-a-kind SaaS business, turn it into a reality and join the competitive SaaS community.

49) Flipping Websites – If you’ve ever heard of house flipping in real estate before, this concept has been adapted into websites. It means that you can buy a domain name, create a website, improve it, rank it, and promote it for traffic, then sell the website for profit. This business involves a lot of work, but if you’re up for the challenge and you have skills in web development, graphics design, and writing, you’ve got flipping websites in the bag.

50) 3D printing Services – 3D printing is one of the hottest trends today, so it’s understandable why you should check it out if you’re interested in building an online business from scratch. Of course, this business would require you to purchase expensive 3D printers, but since virtually no ordinary person will have a 3D printer at home, your business can produce 3D blueprints, prototypes, documents, and other projects that no other company can.

The Bottom Line

Starting an online business is easy, but deciding what kind of business to invest in is hard. If you’re planning to set up a business from the comforts of your own home, but want to make sure you’ve checked out every idea available before diving in head first, this list will help you discover what kinds of businesses are already out there online and hopefully guide you to the right kind of online business that’s perfect for your situation, interest, or skills set.

Please Give Us a Share

If you found this article useful and you know of someone who is looking for a work at home job, please do us a favor and help us spread the word!

How to Start a Successful Life Coaching Business

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Do you love helping people get through obstacles to their dreams? Do you always have the right words for anyone who needs encouragement? Have you always wanted to start your own business from home? If you answered yes to all these questions, starting a life coaching business may be for you.

In recent years, people have increasingly been seeking the advice of life coaches as they strive to improve themselves, learn how to deal with the stress of modern life, and overcome adversity to achieve their goals.

But what exactly does becoming a life coach involve, and how can you make a career out of changing other people’s lives?

Today, you’ll learn how to start a life coaching business and make money doing something fulfilling.

What Does A Life Coach Do?

A life coach provides counseling, motivation, and guidance for the purpose of helping their clients achieve their goals for a particular aspect of their life: personal life, relationships, finances, career, business, and many others.

Being a life coach involves listening to clients to find out what they want to achieve, where they are currently, and what hindrances they’re encountering on the way to their goals.

With this knowledge, life coaches can help their clients set realistic goals, create a concrete plan, and learn how to deal with and overcome obstacles to their plans.

These hindrances can be one of the following: crushing debt, unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms, anxiety or any other mental health struggles, toxic relationships, unfulfilled or unacknowledged emotional needs, sudden life changes, such as illness, death, divorce, unemployment, retirement, and many others.

Unlike therapy that examines past behavior through counseling, life coaching focuses on the now and helps whatever a client wishes to achieve in the future. As such, the title of a life coach may change depending on the type of help provided, such as business coach, personal finance coach, health coach, and more.

What does a life coach do

How Much Can You Earn as a Life Coach?

Life coaches can make anywhere between $12.45 to $147.68 an hour (around $25,900 to $307,000 annually).

If this range seems too wide, that’s because a life coach has plenty of job descriptions, tasks, and other potential sources of income.

Life coaches who are full-time employees of a company can expect to make up to $32 per hour.

However, if you go your own way and start your own life coaching business, you can make at least $65 to more than a hundred dollars per hour, with business coaches making up to $300.

The more clients you take in, the higher your earnings are, which is true for most consultation type jobs.

Other side cash opportunities for life coaches include group coaching, workshops, speaking engagements, online courses, and other services.

Note that the incomes of those who coach remotely (via phone, e-mail, video conferencing, Skype, or other similar means) are often lower than those who work with clients in person.

What You Need to Have a Successful Life Coaching Business

If you’re going to run your life coaching business from home, the first thing you’ll have to set up is your home office.

Find a space in your house that’s quiet, with minimal background noise and foot traffic. In other words, setting up your home office in between your living room and the kitchen is a bad idea.

At the minimum, your home office needs to have a computer or laptop that can run video conferencing software, a noise-canceling headset, and a high-definition web camera

When you have your home office in place, you can now think about what else you need to actually succeed as a life coach.

Like most jobs that deal with helping other people, you need certain expertise and characteristics to turn your passion into a full-time career. Here are some of the requirements for success:

  • Training and certifications – You don’t have to have a bachelor’s degree to start being a life coach. However, you’ll need to invest time, effort, and a bit of cash for training and certification. If you’re able to get just one certification, get it from the International Coaching Federation (ICF), which is the only globally recognized credentialing program for life coaches and coach practitioners. To get this certification, you’ll have to enroll in an ICF-accredited training program, offered in many different places.
  • Patience – People have different timelines when adapting to change. Some adapt quickly, while others may have a learning curve when it comes to following new routines, accepting new ideas, or adapting new life-changing techniques you may recommend. As a life coach, it is your job to patiently guide a client through their action plan at their own pace.
  • Time management skills – To provide your life coaching services to multiple clients over the course of the day, plus to take care of he day-to-day tasks of a business, you need to be able to manage your time properly.
  • Passion and experience – A life coach must be passionate about what they’re doing. If not, it will be impossible to become interested in another person’s troubles and help them with their challenges. Of course, it is just as important to have enough real-life experience to provide solid advice to clients. Your own personal life experience will be your most important tool to get clients to pay attention to you.
  • Research skills – Every time you take in a new client, you’ll be faced with a unique set of challenges to work on. While you may be an experienced life coach who has helped numerous clients, you’ll still have to do extensive research, additional training, and combine two or more techniques in handling a particular case.
  • Communication and active listening skills – Life coaching always goes two-way. Your clients need to tell you all about them and you need to actively listen. When you know enough to help them, you need to be able to effectively tell them what they need to do to help themselves.
  • Goal-oriented – Most clients have a timeline in mind when signing up for a life coach’s services. While every person’s needs are different, it’s important to be upfront with a realistic timeline and strive to help the client meet their goals within that timeframe.
  • Empathy – Life coaching shouldn’t be all about business. At its core, your role is to help people. You can only do this effectively if you’re in tune with the feelings and emotions of your clients.
  • Authenticity – You don’t have to oversell your skills just to sign a client onto your services. People can see right through this. Always be authentic when doing your job as a life coach. Be honest about what you know, how much experience you have, and how you can expect to help them.
  • Perceptiveness and inquisitiveness – Some people may not be able to communicate their concerns properly or find it hard to open up to you as easily. As such, it is important that you know how to ask the right questions and how to interpret what they’re saying (and what they’re not saying) to learn as much as you can about the client.
  • Willingness to learn – Life coaching isn’t a static field. Every day there is more and more information about the brain, emotions, and our response to both stress and motivation. You must be willing to always be learning so you can improve your coaching styles and be able to adapt to each and every client.

Aside from being a great life coach, you’ll also need to learn how to run your own business. Do your best to learn as much about digital marketing, administration, and financial management to make sure you keep your business afloat.

Pro tip: Even if you believe you have most, if not all, the life coach qualities listed above, one of the best ways to determine if this profession is for you is to hire a life coach for yourself. The experience would help you understand the coaching process and even pave the way to start your life coaching business.

Life Coaching

How To Start a Life Coaching Business

So now that you know what is expected of you, here’s how you can begin to build your life coaching business.

1. Find your life coaching niche.

Life coaching is actually a wide field. If your offer is vague and the results you promise are too generic, finding and retaining clients is going to be a pain.

You need to be able to find your niche so you can use your unique combination of expertise, experience, skills, and personality to be able to solve specific problems and deliver precise, time-bound results to a defined group of clients.

Here are some niches you might consider:

  • Businesses/Organizations
  • Career transitions/Job searches
  • Creatives (e.g., writers, artists, actors, etc.)
  • Executives (e.g., CEOs, presidents, etc.)
  • Academics
  • Health and Fitness
  • Leadership
  • Life vision and enhancement
  • Romantic relationships
  • Family
  • Spirituality
  • Financial
  • Aging/Retirement
  • Mental wellness

As a side note, many life coaches begin their careers as a blogger in a particular niche, and what makes them effective as life coaches is that they’ve already established a niche and built an audience base of people who are interested in what they have to say about that niche.

So if you’re already running a blog with plenty of readers and subscribers, consider offering life coaching services on the side.

2. Work toward your life coach certification and complete a training program (or a few).

As I’ve mentioned, the main certifying organization is the ICF, but there are other professional life coaching groups and associations. To get your credentials, you’ll need to complete a certain number of hours of training, as well as hours of coaching experience and a certain number of clients.

Legally, credentials aren’t required for you to offer life coaching, but having them goes a long way toward building your credibility with your clients, both current and potential. It shows you’re serious about learning more and doing your job better.

Also, networking through these groups gives you an advantage in that you get to learn best practices and know the most recent coaching trends and whether they’re a good fit for you.

The thing is you’ll have to spend for these training programs and credentials, but perhaps thinking of that money as capital for your business.

Here are some professional associations you might want to look into.

3. Practice and hone your life coaching skills.

If you want to get paid coaching experience, you can look for companies that have life coaching job openings so you can apply your training and sharpen your skills.

You may want to search online job boards first, such as FlexJobs, Indeed, or LinkedIn.

Examples of companies that hire remotely include Real Appeal (health niche), Vida (mental and physical health niche), AskMarsVenus (relationships niche), Tony Robbins (business niche), among others.

You can also find work in your local vocational counseling centers, abuse centers, family services facilities, and nursing homes.

Large corporations are also starting to hire in-house life coaches to help their employees set their career goals and achieve them.

Do note that because you’re affiliated with a company, you may not be allowed to coach clients on the side just yet.

You may think that this will delay the start of your life coaching business, but think of it as a worthy one, as you’ll become credentialed plus the experience makes you a better life coach.

3. Register your business.

To protect your private assets in case the business becomes bankrupt or get asked to pay damages or fines, make sure you apply for a business classification, such as a limited liability company (LLC), as well as business insurance.

You may think it’s an unnecessary expense, but actually being registered as a business helps your credibility, entitles you to tax breaks, and as I’ve said, protects your personal savings and assets.

4. Create your core coaching package.

Remember that your clients come to you for solutions to their problems that they cannot find by themselves. It is your job to find out what problems your target customer is having so you can show them solutions.

As you’re only beginning, it is advisable to start your life coaching business by creating one specific package for a specific market and become good at actually delivering results with this package.

The better you get, the more the word goes out, and the more clients you can get. This is the time to branch out and expand your client base.

An example of a package is 10 video call sessions with 50 minutes per session for $1,000, or two in-person sessions plus 8 video call sessions for $1,500.

Part of creating a package is deciding on the price, too, so do your product research and compare your packages with other coaches in the same niche.

5. Establish your online presence.

As I mentioned, marketing is an integral part of your life coaching business.

Plan and implement your marketing techniques continuously, whether it involves simple forum posting, or a more complicated lead generation campaign. The important thing is you work on it relentlessly.

Other examples of online marketing you could try to mix and match are email marketing, Facebook groups, guest blogging, paid advertising, and more.

6. Invest in continuous education and personal development.

Your life coaching business relies mainly on your own skills, you’ll have to include the cost of continuous training and personal development in your business cost.

Fortunately, there are plenty of webinars, online courses, membership sites, and other online resources to gain more knowledge and learn about coaching skills that you can use to change your clients’ lives.

Start Your Life Coaching Business Today!

Life coaching can be the most challenging, and yet fulfilling and life-changing careers one can ever follow.

Imagine having a business where you can earn a better-than-decent income that still gives you plenty of free time while changing and improving other peoples’ lives.

However, this path isn’t for everyone. It takes a certain kind of personality to be able to help clients help themselves by allowing them to be vulnerable and talking about their problems and deepest, darkest secrets.

And if this is you, then you’re all set with a life coaching business.

If it’s not, perhaps your career path is in our massive list of work from home jobs.

Do you have what it takes to start a life coaching business? Or would you rather work for a company as a life coach? Sound out in the comments below!