20 ways to earn money online

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