Ever since I was a young boy, I was always interesting in how to make money. I had a dream of one day saving enough money to buy a Go kart. Amazingly I saved up $500 at the age of 10 (how much the go kart cost) but unfortunately I couldn’t get it because they aren’t allowed where I live. Even after that I was still interested in how to make money. I collected cans and bottles and brought it to a recycling centre where they paid me per bottle (like 5 cense each) each month I made like $20. I did small jobs at school and around the house, sold things on eBay and many other things. I’ve tried everything, from paid surveys to freelancing to bottle collecting and everything in between.
But for those of you who don’t want to try everything, here is my list of the top 5 ways of making money online.
1. Arbitrage
The idea is simple, buy low sell high. I first did this with LEGOs, buying sets off eBay and selling them later for $10 more. (LEGOs become more expensive a while after they’re released). Later on I hired a freelance writer from elance and sold his writing services on Fiverr and Craigslist at a market up price. I was the middle man essentially. I also found someone on fiverr who did voiceovers and sold his services on elance. Just remember to ask the sellers permission first and let your buyers know that you are selling someone else’s service and not your own. There are opportunities everywhere, the key is finding the right markets to exploit.
2. Offer A Service
People often try to over complicate things and try to learn new skills in order to make money online. But its much easier to use what you’re already good at to your advantage. If you like writing, graphic design, coding, drawing, whatever you can use that passion and sell it to others, generating you income. If you have no passions that can easily be sold, then you can find something you are good at. Check Craigslist, Elance, Fiverr, 99designs there are so many platforms which help you sell your services.
3. Stock Investment
Stock investing is probably my favorite, but that’s just me. Its actually made me the least amount of money out of the tree but I just like to follow stocks. If you invest right, you don’t have to spend much time managing your portfolio. The key is to find stocks which you can hold on for a life time. Most investors today focus on the short term projections of a company but if you can look past that and see the qualities of the company you can choose companies which will last far into the future. That way you just buy it and let it sit. If you don’t enjoy following stocks you can hire a portfolio manager to manage everything for you.
Honorable Mention – Affiliate marketing
I didn’t include affiliate marketing because it takes many many hours to understand and get working, and if you’re just starting out, its probably not worth it. The options I listed above have the least amount of time and skill required but still can make some decent cash for newbies.
In the end, There are many other ways of making money online but these three are the easiest, simplest and cheapest way of getting started. Other sites recommend surveys, blogging, writing ebooks and other things which are very hard to get off the ground.