How to start working from home? Online income ideas

Working online is a great way of earning location-independent income! Whether you want to start working from home or gain full location independence, here are 10 online income ideas to get started with.

I became a self-taught freelance graphic designer when I was 19. Through the years, I learned how to monetize my blog, earn affiliate income, as well as create and sell online courses.

With these online income ideas, I want to inspire your location independence and show how there are plenty of different ways to earn money online! 

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links.

10 online income ideas

IDEA #1 Freelancing

Great for you if:
– you have any skills you can sell online
– you’re interested in learning new skills
– you’re comfortable in front of your laptop (and you have one)

I started digital nomadism while being a freelance graphic designer.

If you’re interested in freelancing, it’s important to spot the skills you could sell online.

Most of us already have some!

For example, you might be s tech-savvy, inspirational writer or digital marketing guru. Whatever is your field (or dream) – it’s not as hard to get it going as you might think.

The fastest and easiest way to get started as a freelancer is to search online job boards. These days, another great way how you can find clients is with Instagram!

The baseline is: find a profitable skill you have or you’d like to learn and just get it going.

IDEA #2 Affiliate marketing

Great for you if:
– you love writing
– you’re interested in more passive income
– you’re ready to sell
– you have some marketing skills (or interest to learn them)

Affiliate marketing is one of the most passive online income ideas.

It’s an amazing way to monetize your blog, as you can add affiliate links within your blog posts. For example, as a course creator, I often do platform reviews that include affiliate links and generate additional passive income.

At the same time… Blog monetization definitely is a hard way to earn online income in a steady and consistent manner. But if you find the willpower to invest your time and ideas, your blog CAN be your full-time income source.

It’s fun but it’s also a long-term deal you’re signing up for. No blog has grown within a day. It takes a lot of writing, strategical thinking and patience to monetize your blog effectively.

The most important part of blog monetization would be the traffic. Therefore, it’s important to write compelling, creative and very informative blog posts people will be interested in. Then, you have to find a trustworthy source of income and make sure to improve your content and traffic each day.

If you’ve started blogging, one of the most important things is to STAY CONSISTENT. Decide on one or several topics tailored to your audience interest, write weekly, share on social media, use unusual ways to promote your blog and KEEP GOING. It’s a matter of time and dedication!

IDEA #3 Online courses

Great for you if:
– you have a lot of knowledge you’d love to share
– you’re interested in building connections online
– you’re ready to work on a long-term business plan

Online course creation is one of the most effective ways to make money online, besides that – it’s a rather passive way to do that, once the hard part of the job is done! If you have any skills someone might find useful, creating an online course could be one of the best ideas to grow your income on the road.

When thinking about the topic of your course, get creatives. Your skills don’t have to be specifically online-based! It can be cooking, photography, editing, fast reading, painting or couch design…

But, first, you should note – online course creation doesn’t stop once your course is ready. In this process, you should also include all the related marketing: how people will get to know about it? How will people trust you and your knowledge? This can include blogging, email marketing, social media, videos, Facebook group creation and so much more!

Plus these days there are just so many great platforms to use for setting up and selling your digital courses! Get a free platform guide here.

Create your first course with Your Course Creation Membership!

IDEA #4 E-commerce

Great for you if:
– you have a product to sell online or the idea for it
– you’re a hands-on person with an interest to take charge
– you’re a rather slow traveler

While starting an e-commerce business might not be the best choice for a location-independent income, it definitely can be a great choice for some!

Etsy is one of the most popular e-commerce platforms for new, small or rather home-made businesses but it doesn’t really matter what is your field – e-commerce is an option as long as you create (mostly) physical products. There’s also an amazing group of Etsy sellers where you can get some motivation and inspiration.

• You can just as well open up a shop on Shopify. This would mean that you don’t need an actual website – everything is right there!
• For cheaper options, look into Payhip. It gives you a chance to sell various types of digital products.
• You can also build your own shop with a self-hosted WordPress website.

If you decide to go this path, you also should keep in mind the marketing aspect of the business.

Creating a product and having a shop is one thing while getting is SOLD is another. I’m not into e-commerce myself so I don’t have much of practical marketing advice here but I know that there are many different ways to go.

The first can be a beautiful Instagram profile for the shop!

IDEA #5 Video making

Great for you if:
– you’re into video making
– you feel good in front of the camera
– you have another income stream and time to build your audience

Video making is another fun and rather creative way of building your income as a digital nomad.

Here are just a few examples you can take inspiration from:

• travel vloggers sharing their adventures
• how-to videos for… well… literally anything! Including, for example, How To Photoshop a Photo, How To Cook Pasta, How To Choose the Best Dress…
• DIY videos
• alternative news videos, sharing your thoughts and insights
• fitness, food, joke videos…

Once you’ve started creating videos and you’ve got some audience who are interested in them, you can start getting money from ads, selling products on your videos or monetize them any other way.

It’s definitely one of the hardest digital nomad income ideas. But if you are into video making and might do it anyway, why not to monetize it?

There are many huge vloggers and video makers online who are really getting all of their
revenue from their videos. It’s definitely possible! As long as you have the editing
skills, creativity to make these videos and skills to be in front of the camera.

Besides that, don’t limit yourself to the obvious options only. These days having a stunning video is a great asset for almost any social media platform! 

If having a blog scares you but video-making feels like your jam – give it a go.

IDEA #6 Dropshipping

Great for you if:
– you’re interested in sales and marketing
– you’re a rather slow traveler
– you’re reading to invest

Dropshipping is something that’s becoming really, really popular. I have never been a part of this so I can’t give you a great insight into this business but you can definitely read this book to get the idea: Delivering Happiness.

Simply said, dropshipping means that you’re buying from someone and selling further. One
sample would be people who sell $50 watches that are bought for $5 on eBay. While this might not seem like a fair deal, there are many other, way more karma-friendlier options.

Very often drop shipping business offers some wholesale items that are hard to get any other way or offer any kind of service that makes it more appealing to a person than purchasing this item elsewhere.

Once again I have to say that this is not always the best way to go if you’re a digital nomad
but there are ways to make it work. For example, if you’ve established a working drop shipping business and you don’t have to be on spot, you can definitely be a digital nomad with some decent passive income, managing your business from abroad! Besides that, you can travel with this kind of business as well. Just be mindful of your options.

IDEA #7 Social media monetization / Influencers

Great for you if:
– You looove social media
– You already have a bit more following than your friends
– You’re ready to see your currently “personal” life as your business opportunity

Well, here’s something you might’ve expected all along. Social media monetization is THE method these days to get the passive income in somewhat an easy way. Okay, don’t get me wrong. It’s still TONS of work and it’s never crazy easy. But it is a bit easier than some of the other methods I’ve talked about.

Social media monetization means that you have a following huge enough to sell something for them in a very effective and easy manner. That’d mean tagging companies in your Instagram posts, providing affiliate links in your Twitter and selling products in Facebook live videos.

I just have to warn you in advance that the market for this currently is CROWDED. There are SO many people who are striving to monetize their social media that you really have to be a BOMB to stand out. Making pretty photos and following-unfollowing is so 2000s. Now, if you really want to grow your social media and monetize them in a way that’ll let you be location independent, you should provide unique value, fun point of view or anything similar that will make people remember you.

So the best bet to start social media monetization fast and easy is if you already have at least 10K followers on your preferred social media. It’s a decent start! But you can always do better. So start working.

IDEA #8 E-books

Great for you if:
– Writing is your jam
– Writing like REALLY is your jam
– You have an interesting, creative or anyhow unique idea to put into an ebook

It’s important to understand that e-book writing can make you crazy rich only if you have crazy good ideas or a huge crowd of existing fans. Usually, it can be more like a passive side income, coming in along with other sources of online income.

Let’s say you write an e-book, price it at $8.99, put it on Amazon and share it with your audience. Depending on the topic of the book and a dose of your luck, you can get a decent few hundreds per month for this book. Of course, it also depends on your marketing skills and how good the book really is.

Payhip is one of the platforms where you can easily start selling your digital products. 

IDEA #9 Ads

Great for you if:
– you already have a well-known blog, Youtube or any similar account
– you’re interested in starting and growing a blog
– you’re not into product creation

Using ads for additional income is another great way to do it without much of your own effort, as long as you have a blog or you’re interested in starting one!

There are many different online ad providers that give you the revenue either per click or per view. One of the biggest players in the game is Google AdSense but there are many other options to choose from.

Using ads on a new blog can be a very tricky move. Very often, ads annoy people and as a new blogger, you really want them to stay for longer instead of rushing away.

Normally, you’d need at least 10K monthly traffic to earn a few hundred per month. Also, most of the bigger and better ad networks request at least 20K monthly views to join.

Once you’ve gained consistent traffic and trustful audience – that’s when ads can pay off!

IDEA #10 Work remotely

How about working remotely for the last online income idea?

Many people confuse freelancing with remote work although they are slightly different and really can offer you various options.

Working remotely means working for one company at a time for a full or half-time under a consistent contract, with additional benefits, just like it would be for your usually 9-to-5 contract but… better – because remote work includes location independence.

The main difference between freelancing and working remotely is a trustful source of income. There are all kinds of remote positions and they’re becoming more and more popular, especially with the almighty C ruling the world these days.

If you currently have a 9-to-5 job that could be a remote position – give it a shot!

If you’re planning to quit anyway or would like to change something, sooner or later, make sure to suggest your boss this option to work remotely. This would mean taking your tasks on the road. You’d still be by your computer (if we assume that it’s your current position), you’d still be getting things done but on your own terms regarding when and where they get done (as long as you meet all the deadlines, of course).

It can be a lot easier with companies who are already practicing working remotely and maybe even the whole company is remote. The good news is – there are many of them! For example, check out this page.

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