Why These Are the Best Ways to Make Money on the Internet Right Now
E-commerce stores, marketing agencies, and SaaS companies are constantly hiring freelance analysts to track sales trends, ad performance, and customer churn — often on a part-time, recurring monthly contract, which gives you a predictable income floor.
The Internet is changing more in the past three years than in the previous 10 years, as to how to make money online. I remember good old “work from home” where you would stuff envelopes for a few cents a pop. My neighbour Hamza is now earning 6 figures a year from his kitchen table as a freelance data consultant and has never met many of his clients.
If you are looking for genuine methods to earn money online — not the “Click right here and you can get rich” scams that litter each and every Facebook page you see — you are in the proper place. I’ve used, seen people do full time jobs out of these ideas, or done the research, and am convinced by them, so here are five ideas that I tried, saw friends do, or have studied to the satisfaction of my own research. The latter can also become a source of passive income, if you manage to get through the initial “rough setup” stage.
A minimalist infographic with five flat icons in a line, background in soft pastel, minimal design.Five flat icons: laptop with code brackets, bar chart, shield with tick, microphone, shopping cart are displayed in a row, background is soft pastel with minimal design. Alternate Text: “5 Ways to Make Money on the Internet Infographic”
Table of Contents
- Freelance Programming
- Data Analysis
- Ethical Hacking
- Create content that generates passive income.Develop passive income producing content.
- Affiliate Marketing
- Other methods of obtaining money via the Internet that are worth a shot.
- Final Thoughts
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1. Freelance Programming: One of the Most Reliable Ways to Make Money on the Internet
In this day and age, every business out there requires a website, an app or any custom-built software and most businesses would prefer to hire a freelancer rather than form an in-house team. It’s a perspective that’s why freelance programming remains one of the most stable methods of earning cash online.
One of my friends, Sara, learned JS for free on YouTube with her retail job. She got her first job after 8 months of doing the same job to help a small online store fix a broken shopping cart at $400. 18 months later, she gave up being a sales clerk altogether.
How to Start Without a Computer Science Degree
- Select one stack and stick to it – for most people who are just getting started, these are fast options to paid work: Web (JavaScript), or Automation/Backend (Python).
- Create 3-4 small real-world projects that you’ve made, this could be a booking form, a dashboard, a simple API, anything where you’ve learned something.Create 3-4 small real-world projects before you even apply for paid gigs: a booking form, a dashboard, a simple API, anything where you have learned something.
- Make an account on Upwork and apply for Small “Starter” jobs, even though they might be less highly-paid initially — reviews will have more weight in the first month.
What You Can Realistically Earn
The typical freelancer will begin charging from $10 per hour to about $25 per hour. $40-$80/hour is a very achievable price range for web and app development after 1-2 years of consistent work with clients and having a solid portfolio of work. Nothing here is quick, easy, fast, and easy — it is a skill you acquire and it is no lottery, no get-rich scheme.
2. Data Analysis: Turning Spreadsheets Into Steady Income
Data analysis could very well be the least talked about money-to-be-making-way-on-the-internet from this list of ways to make money on the internet if you really like discovering patterns in disordered numbers. Whether it’s a 5-person start-up or a worldwide retailer, nearly every company has data that they’re not using.
I’ll be honest, this one was harder for me to get into than programming because you need to show a client you can take some raw numbers and make them into a “decision” you can make on. After creating two sample dashboards based on data from open, public data sources, the whole approach to potential clients shifted.
Skills That Actually Get You Hired
Reports easily generated in Excel/Google Sheets to analyse quickly.
Finally, there is an SQL for retrieving data from real company databases.
Python (pandas) or Power BI/Tableau for identifying trends that clients are able to understand!
The Google Data Analytics certificate on Coursera is an excellent and well-organized introduction that is based on actual hiring needs instead of theoretical concerns.
Where Companies Are Hiring Right Now
The ecommerce stores, marketing agencies and SaaS companies are always looking for a freelance analysts who can monitor sales, ad performance, and churn rates, with monthly contracts often being paid on an ongoing basis — with a guaranteed bottom line.
3. Ethical Hacking: A High-Paying, High-Excitement Way to Earn Online
Ethical hacking, until it’s explained, might seem like a frightening prospect, but it is actually an occupation in which companies hire you to break into their own systems prior to the criminals breaking in. It’s one of the more exciting methods to earn revenue online and as more businesses are moving online, the demand for the same has only been increasing.
So my friend Bilal, a former classmate of mine, began to play free “capture the flag” hacking games on the weekends. He would be reporting bugs through bug bounty sites and getting paid for responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities within a year; often for merely one vulnerable bug he was paid more than even his part-time job paid for in a month.
Certifications Worth the Investment
CompTIA Security+ — a good, cheap and easy introduction.
The Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) course is one of the most recognised courses by the employers.
OSCP (Offensive Security Certified Professional) — a tougher credential to obtain that can lead to more in-depth freelance and/or full-time employment opportunities.
Bug bounty programs, along with other platforms, give you a chance to try out your skills on a real company system without being subjected to legal repercussions; and if you land a good find, you are paid — always in accordance with the rules established by each company.
Realistic Income Expectations
The amount of work that a security expert gets for entry level rates begins modestly, but very good ethical hackers or penetration testers typically get paid anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour for contract work, and top bug bounty hunters for doing just a single bounty of high severity earn even more per finding.
4. Content Creation: The Clearest Path to Earning Passive Income
Of all these methods, creating the content is the one that most people think of earning passive income. Content that you create on your blog, video on YouTube or send in a newsletter can continue to generate income for the years to come in the form of ad revenue, affiliate sales or sponsorships.
It was three years ago that I began a little blog on budget travelling. The first six months made hardly a dime. Old articles that I never remembered to write were slowly drawing in visitors and revenue by the month 10 by now, and I had been impressed with the steady stream of traffic and possibly money that was still coming in from them. This is expected and is why most stop just prior to when it will begin to work.
Blogging vs. YouTube vs. Newsletters
- Blogging is the easiest to start, requires patience for SEO, is the cheapest way to do it (just domain and hosting) and provides lots of rewards.
- YouTube values consistency and personality – if it’s monetised it will be ads and sponsorships.
- The audience that grows the most direct and loyal is that of newsletters, which are more and more monetising via paid subscriptions.
Passive income is defined by Investopedia as “Income from an online presence that requires minimal to no daily effort to maintain.As long as you have a well-ranked blog post, or an evergreen video on your channel, you will have passive income going on without much effort on your part, daily.
Why It’s Called “Passive” (Eventually)
It is not passive the first day! Passive on day 300 when you’ve been around long enough that, much like a well-loved book, age loyals are coming back to you and subscribing, returning customers bring in new profits to your website while you sleep.
If you have your own blog, connect this paragraph to your own blog’s “how to start a blog” or “SEO for beginners” post (if you do) so you can link to this topic there as well.
5. Affiliate Marketing: One of the Easiest Ways to Get Money Online
It’s also an initial method some newbies start working with for earning cash on the internet and it’s easy — there’s nothing to build, you just point out something you use and make money when people purchase it through your link.
I have a cousin who does a small blog that reviews affordable tech fads and products on Instagram. She doesn’t make anything. She only tests the cheap gads, provides honest reviews and links to the gads through an affiliate program. What it’s not, it’s not life-changing cash, though it’s enough to cover her monthly bills and it increases a bit each month without any additional effort on the previous posts.
How Affiliate Marketing Actually Works
- Join a program (the simplest is Amazon Associates, and quite a few other, similar retail programs)
- Use unique tracking link to a product
- Share that link via a blog, social media or YouTube video
- Make a commission if you make a sale at a qualified site with your link.
Picking Products You’d Actually Recommend
The worst thing a beginner can do is to sell something he or she doesn’t really believe in for the highest commission, rather than the one that has the highest sale value. Any audience can tell if it’s not happening nearly at once and once lost, trust that cannot be regained.
Other Ways to Get Money Online Worth Trying
If you’re looking for other ways to make money online, you may want to consider these proposals.
- Online tutoring is the method of teaching a language, school subject, or something you already speak or know how to do on the Internet.
- These platforms allow you to sell digital products, such as templates, presets, or guides.On platforms like Etsy or Gumroad, you can sell digital content like templates, presets, or guides.
- Stock photography/video — uploading your own photos or clips to stock marketplaces
- Virtual assistant tasks, such as handling emails, scheduling, creating social media posts for busy entrepreneurs
All of these do not need to be in place as replacements for your primary source of income; they’re great options as an additional income source once you have something regular going on.
Final Thoughts: Which of These Ways to Make Money on the Internet Is Right for You?
This isn’t an open and shut case here: It’s whatever method is appropriate for the time, skills and patience you have at the moment. If you enjoy working on problems, try out freelance programming or data analysis. If you have a curious nature and are somewhat rebellious, ethical hacking may sustain more interest than any of the other items on this list. But if you’re looking to create something that continues to pay off long after you put the final pieces together, it’s here where you’ll find the patience rewarded and where content creation and affiliate marketing fit in.
Pick one. Put effort into it and see how it goes for a minimum of 90 days and then judge if it is “working.” It seems that almost everyone who gets successful in any aspect of the internet business began here; just a little further down the road of taking action.
If you have any of your own guides, articles or tutorials on your site that would benefit a reader, be sure to connect them with your article in this manner.If you are creating more tutorials or guides of your own, for instance a freelancing guide or a “beginner’s guide to passive income”, then be sure to link these pages to your article, referring to it as related.
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