20 businesses you can start with 20k according to Lagos entrepreneur

 

Lagos based Realtor and Entrepreneur, Olanrewaju Salu shares 20 businesses you can do with just 20k in Nigeria.

Lack of money is usually the excuse many people give for not starting a business, but lack of idea is a worse problem you've got to think about.

There are businesses you can start with as little as N20,000, but if you have no idea of what to do with 20k, you'll probably think starting a small scale business is the most difficult thing to do.

You don't have to think this way anymore, Olanrewaju Salu, a Lagos based Realtor and Entrepreneur, recently shared some fantastic business tips on Twitter and many have commended him for sharing such amazing business ideas.

Average Net Worth of the 1%: Here's how much the super-rich in the world are really worth!

 

Many people perceive being wealthy as having nice houses and a pleasure yacht. But the kind of money that the wealthiest 1% of the world's households has dwarfs this concept. This segment of the population large portions of major corporations, multibillion-dollar investment funds, islands in the Caribbean, and even rocket ships taking them into outer space.

The average net worth of the 1%, aka the richest 1% of the global population's households, has mushroomed over the past two decades. It now towers higher above the net worth of the average citizen than ever before. Here are some of the basic facts about how the 1% lives.

6 Investing Mistakes the Ultra Wealthy Don't Make

 

The ultra-wealthy, known as ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs), make up a group of people who have net worths of at least $30 million.

The net worth of these individuals consists of shares in private and public companies, real estate, and personal investments, such as art, airplanes, and cars.

When people with lower net worths look at these UHNWIs, many of them believe that the key to becoming ultra wealthy lies in some secret investment strategy. However, this isn't usually the case. Instead, UHNWIs understand the basics of having their money work for them and know how to take calculated risks.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ultra-high-net-worth individuals often understand the importance of savings, the basics of investing, and how to take calculated risks.

Concentrating portfolios with investments only from the U.S. and the EU is an example of an approach that overlooks potential opportunities elsewhere, such as the emerging markets.

UHNWIs do not try to keep up with their neighbors or compare themselves to others but focus instead on achieving their objectives and goals.

Periodically rebalancing portfolios is essential when trying to achieve the right mix of stocks and bonds over time.

UNNWIs often find opportunities in private markets that are overlooked by investors that focus only on public markets.

In the words of Warren Buffett, the No. 1 investing rule is not to lose money. UHNWIs aren't mystics, and they don't harbor deep investing secrets. Instead, they know what simple investing blunders to avoid. Many of these mistakes are common knowledge, even among investors who are not particularly wealthy. Here is a list of the biggest investing errors UHNWIs avoid making.

1. Only Investing in the U.S. and the EU

While developed countries such as the United States and those within the European Union are thought to offer the most investment security, UHNWIs look beyond their borders to frontier and emerging markets. Some of the top countries that the ultra-wealthy are investing in include Indonesia, Chile, and Singapore. Of course, individual investors should do their research on emerging markets, and decide whether they fit into their investment portfolios and their overall investment strategies.

2. Investing Only in Intangible Assets

When people think of investing and investing strategies, stocks, and bonds normally come to mind. Whether this is due to higher liquidity or a smaller price for entry, it doesn't mean that these types of investments are always the best.

Instead, UHNWIs understand the value of physical assets, and they allocate their money accordingly. Ultra-wealthy individuals invest in such assets as private and commercial real estate, land, gold, and even artwork. Real estate continues to be a popular asset class in their portfolios to balance out the volatility of stocks. While it's important to invest in these physical assets, they often scare away smaller investors because of the lack of liquidity and the higher investment price point.

However, according to the ultra-wealthy, ownership in illiquid assets, especially ones that are uncorrelated with the market, is beneficial to any investment portfolio. These assets aren't as susceptible to market swings, and they pay off over the long term. For example, Yale's endowment fund has implemented a strategy that includes uncorrelated physical assets, and it returned an average of 10.9% per year between June 2010 and June 2020.

3. Allocating 100% of Investments to the Public Markets

UHNWIs understand that real wealth is generated in the private markets rather than the public or common markets. The ultra wealthy may gain a lot of their initial wealth from private businesses, often through business ownership or as an angel investor in private equity. Additionally, top endowments, such as those run at Yale and Stanford, use private equity investments to generate high returns and add to the funds' diversification.

4. Keeping up With the Joneses

Many smaller investors are always looking at what their peers are doing, and they try to match or beat their investment strategies. However, not getting caught up in this type of competition is critical to building personal wealth.

The ultra-wealthy know this, and they establish personal investment goals and long-term investment strategies before making investment decisions. UHNWIs envision where they want to be in 10 years, 20 years, and beyond. And they adhere to an investment strategy that will get them there. Instead of trying to chase the competition or becoming scared of the inevitable economic downturn, they stay the course.

Further, the ultra-wealthy are very good at not comparing their wealth to other individuals. This is a trap that many non-wealthy people fall into. UHNWIs stave off the desire to purchase a Lexus just because their neighbors are buying one. Instead, they invest the money they have to compound their investment returns. Then, when they've reached their desired level of wealth, they can cash out and buy the toys they want.

5. Failing to Rebalance a Personal Portfolio

Financial literacy is a big problem in America, but everyone should understand the practice of rebalancing their portfolios. Through consistent rebalancing, investors can ensure their portfolios remain adequately diversified and proportionally allocated. However, even if some investors have specific allocation goals, they often do not keep up with rebalancing, allowing their portfolios to skew too far one way or the other.

A balanced portfolio typically includes the right mix of cash, stocks, and bonds based on a person's age and risk tolerance.

For the ultra-wealthy, rebalancing is a necessity. They can undertake this rebalancing monthly, weekly, or even daily, but all UHNWIs rebalance their portfolios on a regular basis. For the people who don't have the time to rebalance or the money to pay someone to do it, it's possible to set rebalancing parameters with investment firms based on asset prices.

6. Omitting a Savings Strategy From a Financial Plan

Investing is essential to becoming ultra-wealthy, but many people forget about the importance of a savings strategy. UHNWIs, on the other hand, understand that a financial plan is a dual strategy: They invest wisely and save wisely.

As a result, the ultra-wealthy can focus on increasing their cash inflows as well as reducing their cash outflows, thus increasing overall wealth. While it might not be common to think of the ultra-wealthy as savers, UHNWIs know that living below their means will allow them to achieve their desired level of wealth in a shorter amount of time.

Top 10 Business Ideas in Nigeria You Can Start with 100,000 Naira

In a country where economic deficit and unemployment have become the order of the day, conceptualizing a business idea in Nigeria and subsequently starting it can be likened to a goldmine which offers an opportunity for people to tap into a better livelihood.

According to Statista.com, a total of 32.5% of Nigerians were unemployed in 2021, with a forecast unemployment rate of 33% in 2022. 

Apart from being a gateway to self-employment and helping to put an end to job hunting, starting a private business from various business ideas also comes along with several advantages which include but are not limited to: 

Unlimited freedom 

Unlike working under someone or organization, where your mode of operation and work is being dictated by your boss/superior, personal l business gives you the privilege to work at your own pace and with ease. This is most suitable for people who may not have what it takes to work for a company due to certain conditions such as old age, underlying medical issues, limited time, etc.

Fulfillment of dreams and ambition

Getting a job is one thing, getting a dream job is another. While the former may be a little bit difficult, the latter is almost next to impossible to come by. We live in a country where a majority of people do a job they don’t really want or because they have no option. But with a proper business idea and conceptualization, one can fulfill his/her lifetime dream by starting a business that is in line with such a dream.

Financial freedom

Financial reward is yet another importance of starting a personal business. It is no longer news that most employers in Nigeria pay their staff peanuts for salary. The prices of commodities are on the high side, and the money being paid to the average worker is far from being enough to cater to their daily needs. A good business idea when materialized is capable of turning things around and subsequently giving financial freedom to the originator.

From the foregoing, it can be deduced that having a business idea and materializing it is of immense importance for whosoever deems it fit to give it a shot.

While there are many constraints to starting a personal business, capital to start with remains a major constraint.

In this article, we will be looking at 10 businesses you can start in Nigeria with as little as N100,000 which guarantees 100% return on investment in 30 days or less.

1. POS/E-PAYMENT

POS (point of sales) tops the list of business ideas in Nigeria you can start with 100,000 naira for obvious reasons. The business is one of those businesses that has come to stay for a very long time. Financial transactions are an integral part of human life and the banking sector habitually fails to live up to the people’s expectations in that regard.

POS serves as a subtle alternative to banking transactions and saves people from wasting their precious time that could be spent on something productive in bank hall queuing because of basic financial transactions. Financial transactions such as transfer of funds and withdrawals, payment of bills (DSTV, GOTV, PHCN), recharging of airtime, and selling of data among others can be taken care of by POS.

Mr Tayo Adewale, a 26-year-old HND holder from one of the federal polytechnics in Nigeria, after graduating and wrapping up his mandatory NYSC was unable to secure a white-collar job. He finally decided to go into the POS business, courtesy of N100,000 donated by his family which he used to kick-start the business. As of today, Mr Tayo claims he has been making nothing less than N100,000 return on investment since he started the business while some of his colleagues are still on the streets still searching for a non-existing white-collar job.

In starting a POS, one of the most important things to consider is the location you want to situate the business. The nature of the location your business is sited can either make or mar your POS business idea. While determining the kind of location, some of the things you should consider are: 

GSM network/Internet

This is an important factor that must be considered before opting for any location. You must ensure your POS business is situated in an area with a very good GSM network, to ensure hitch-free business transactions.

Proximity to banks

Another important thing you should consider before choosing a place to locate your POS business is how close the area is to the banking area. Locating your POS in an area very close to the banking area can be likened to efforts in futility and may not bring about the return on investment as expected. This is because the majority of the people may rather prefer to visit the banking for their transactions since it is close by.

Security

While searching for a place for your POS business, you should ensure the place is secured and has little or next to any history of crime. This is because you will be dealing with cash daily which makes you vulnerable and a soft target for criminals if the location is not secured.

What you need to start

Some of the things you will need to get the business started are business capital, space/shop or container, a banner, and most importantly a POS machine for the operation of the business. You can get your POS machines from banks like GTB, UBA, Zenith, First Bank, Access Bank, Polaris Bank, and hosts of others. 

2. Phones and other gadgets charging 

Phones and gadgets charging is yet another business idea in Nigeria that can be materialized with as low as 100,000 naira. It is no longer news that the electricity supply in most states of the country is unstable and unreliable, which makes the business of changing phones a very juicy one to venture into with relatively low capital.

Also, the cost of petrol for generators that could have served as an alternative power supply has become expensive and unaffordable. Hence, most lower and middle-class citizens who cannot afford to purchase a generator often resort to phone charging vendors, paying a minimum of 100naira to get their phones and other gadgets charged.  

Mr Wale Olakunle, a middle-aged man who owns a phone charging shop in Oke-Odo, a neighborhood close to the main campus of University of Ilorin, relished his humble beginning in the business and how far he has come since he started the business about three years ago.

“I started this phone recharging business three years ago with a 100,000 naira loan I took from a microfinance bank. When I first started, the first two weeks were dull and I was already thinking of giving up on the business. But towards the last weeks of my first month, the business started booming and the rest like they used to say is history. At the moment, my take-home from this business is nothing less than 7,000 naira daily after deducting all expenses. That is around 200,000 naira monthly,” he explained.

What you need to start

While starting a phone and gadget recharging business, one must consider the location. It is preferable to locate your business in an area with a poor electricity supply. This will make it inevitable for people to patronize your business. As a phone recharging vendor, you should also develop a good charisma which will allow your potential customers to freely relate with you as you will be dealing with different types of people dailySome of the things you will be needing to kick-start the business are a container/space, a covered or shaded stall, a small generator for power supply, fuel to power the generator, original chargers and desktop, and an electric socket board with multiple electronic sockets for charging. 

3. Mobile food vendor and delivery business 

Food is an important aspect of human existence that is simply inevitable. Regardless of the situation, we must always find something to eat. This, and other reasons are why online food vending and delivery business occupy the number 3 position on the list of business ideas that you can start with 100,000 naira.

At the moment, a good number of people find it difficult to cook food at home due to the nature of their work and busy schedules; hence, they result in employing the services of these food vendors. Working-class, students and artisans are some of the examples of people that fall into this category.

While starting a mobile food vendor business, one needs to have learned or possess cooking skills, which will give you a sharp edge over your competitors, as you have many alternatives like eatery, restaurants, and other mobile food vendors racing to have your customers. Your ability to prepare delicious, nice, and affordable meals will set you above your competitors.

 

While interacting with a popular mobile food vendor in OjoduBerger side of Lagos, Mr Kelechi Emmanuel expressed that his life has turned around for the better since he started the business a few years back. He expressed gratitude to a friend who first spoke about the business idea with him. However, he lamented the current price of cooking ingredients and foodstuff, urging the government to please find a lasting solution to the price hike.

What you need to start

Fast and reliable means of transportation are important aspects that must be in place for the smooth running of the mobile food business. 

The good news about the business is that you don’t necessarily need a shop or office to cook your meals, you can start by cooking from the comfort of your home and expanding the business as time goes by.

4. Copywriting

Copywriting is one of the most profitable online businesses in Nigeria you can kick off with a low cost of 100,000 naira and below. If you have good writing skills and firm control of language, then this business will be your ticket to financial freedom. 

The copywriting business comes in different forms: it could be writing of advert copy, blog posts, video scripts, presentation, direct mails, jingles, creative content, and so on. The main task of a copywriter is to weave content in such a way that will be convincingly enough to persuade or promote a certain product, idea, service, or cause. A copy, when well written, can perform magic on any product or services.

It can be done as full-time or a side hustle that guarantees a return on investment if one knows his or her onions very well.

Particularly, students, who have good writing skills, can explore this business opportunity to support their parents in catering for their academic financial needs.

The salaries of a copywriter in Nigeria ranges from 100,000 –300,000 naira depending on the nature of copy and organization. Some copywriters also charge clients per word. On an average, a copywriter charges 11-20,000 per 1,000 words.

To get clients as a beginner in copywriting, you can apply for a position of freelance job board, cold pitching, speaking at conferences/workshop and promoting of your business on professional platforms like LinkedIn 

A final year student of the University of Ilorin, Seyi Olawaleexplained that he has been surviving from the proceeds of copywriting since he lost his father in year two at the university.

He stated further that he no longer asks his mother or family for monetary help, as the money he makes from the business is more than enough to cater for his financial needs.

What you need to start

Apart from having an inherent writing skill, copywriting just like every other skill can also be learnt.  You can build from scratch or improve your copywriting skills by reading books on copywriting, watching copywriting videos on YouTube, following copywriting blogs and taking copywriting courses on online learning platforms such as Udemy and Coursera. Getting a copywriter as a mentor can also be of immense benefit while you are trying to improve or learn copywriting.

Another good news about this business is that, it is a remote one, and you practically don’t need to situate the business in a particular geography. All that is needed to start up the business is your smartphone or preferably a laptop system, a good internet connection, and, an adequate power supply.

5. Graphic design

 

As the saying goes, “A picture is worth much more than a thousand words”, going by this saying, it is free to say that graphic design is therefore worth much more than a million words. Graphic design is a process of projecting visual communication to communicate a particular message. It combines different elements to communicate a message to an audience.

Corporate organizations, government establishments, politicians, partisans, and virtually every sphere of human endeavor employ the services of graphic designers. While contemplating on venturing into graphic design, it is important to get yourself acquainted with the basics and fundamentals of graphic design such as: hierarchy, color, typography, lines, shapes, balance, texture, alignment, proximity, and contrast.

An Ilorin-based young graphic designer by the name, Ayomide Adeniyi stated that he makes nothing less than 120,000 monthly from graphic design simply by helping different organizations and individuals to design flyers, e-book covers, and banners. He continued that another means he makes money from the business is through the teaching of the skills to interested students.

On how he promotes and gets clients to patronize his business, the young designer explained that he gets most of his customers from a referral by people he has designed for in the past and also by showcasing and posting his designs on social media space like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter.

What you need to startStarting a graphic design just like other digital skills does not require having a particular shop/space, what is most important is learning the skill. There are various ways you can learn graphicsdesign which  includes watching graphic design videos on YouTube and also by paying a professional for master classes where you will be trained on the fundamentals of graphics and how to monetise the skill.

The tools you will be needing to materialise the business idea are your laptop and smartphones. For laptop design, you will be needing software like Corel draw, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe illustrator, and a host of other similar software while you will be needing applications like Canva, Pixellab, Logo maker. 

6. Selling of clothes

The importance of clothes can never be overemphasized. Clothes form part of the three basic needs of man, the others being food and shelter. Hence, it is one of the lucrative business ideas in Nigeria that can be started with a relatively low capital of 100,000 naira and below.

According to a young male clothes vendor, who is based in Ilorin, he explained that having a good relationship with your customers is the best way to grow your business. He continued that, you must also be willing to advertise your business through one on one interaction and most especially on your social media platforms to convince your existing and potential customers for patronage.

Some of the types of clothes to sell are children’s wear, native wear, English wear, jeans, underwear among others. Purchasing of these wears for resales can be made at popular clothes markets, such as Balogun market, Aswani market, Katanguamarket, Tejuosho market, Onitsha market, and Aba Market.

What you need to startWhile starting the business, having a shop may not necessarily be important from the onset, as you can simply purchase clothes and deliver them to the doorsteps of your customers.

One of the most germane qualities you must possess to make it big in the business is the ability to convince your customers on the need to purchase your product. Without proper pacification, your customers may not see the need to patronize a particular dress, as many other needs are competing for the capital of your customers.

Equally, it is also important to have good networking to people and maintain a good rapport with your customers who can in turn help to refer you to other potential customers for patronage. 

7. Laundry business

Laundry is yet another lucrative business in Nigeria that is often overlooked. Due to the busy nature of most people’s jobs, it is difficult to create time for washing clothes, and that is where the laundry service provider comes in.

Richard Ojigbede, a student of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, while talking about his journey so far in the laundry business stated that he used to watch customers’ clothes with bare hands in the past but the proceeding from the business has bought him 2 washing machines and a generator. He explained further that most students have no time for washing clothes due to academic stress which is of immense benefit to his business. He concluded by saying he makes nothing less than 10,000 every day from the business.

What you need to startOne good thing about the business is that you can comfortably work from the comfort of your home without necessarily owning a personal shop or space.

All that is needed to materialize the business idea are the basic tools like washing machine, iron, and generator in case of a power failure.

Laundry just like most other businesses requires you to be honest. As a laundry service provider, you must at all times be a promise keeper by ensuring the readiness of your customers’ clothes as at when due.

It is also important you establish good connections with your customers in order to improve the chances of referral to other potential customers.

8. Shawarma selling business

Shawarma is a snack that is made of beef or chicken filling. It has over the years become one of the favorite snacks of people, most especially the younger generation. This lucrative business idea can be actualized with as little as 100,000 naira and below. 

Mr Sunday Agbor, who owns a popular Shawarma spot close to a supermarket in Ojodu Berger part of Lagos State explained that starting a Shawarma business requires a lot of dedication and patience. While recounting his own experience, the young man said that, the initial stage of the business was not too rosy, as he only made a few sales during the period. He continued that he presently makes more than 250,000 every month from the business.

What you need to startBefore venturing into the business of shawarma, you must first get trained on the process of shawarma making. You won’t want to start the business without a proper understanding of how it is made and start selling low-quality shawarma to your customers. This will kill your business even before it starts.

After getting trained, the next thing is to look for a good location where you can situate your business. Preferably, it is good to locate your shawarma spot in an urban area where you can easily meet with your target audience. Places like students’ area, supermarket surroundings, the entrance to an estate, bar, hotel, and T-junctions are a few of the best spots you can locate your shawarma business in order to make high profit and return on investment on the business.

Some of the equipment required for the business are shawarma toaster, show glass, pot/utensils, spron, and insect killer for flies. 

9. Data reselling business

Presently, we live in a digital era where the world has become a global village and everyone needs to be connected to stay informed about what is happening in their immediate environment and the world at large. To this end, purchasing and having a data plan becomes inevitable.

According to a 2021 report from Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Nigerians consume an excess of 80,000 terabytes of data every month. 

A data reseller is an individual who purchases data in bulk from VTU platforms and telecommunication companies at a relatively cheap price and then resells it to customers at his or her convenient rate.

A student data reseller, Miss Sharon Odewunmi expressed her satisfaction with her choice of business. She further stated that the business just like every other business requires one to have patience and good networking, as the business cannot grow without referrals to potential customers from the previous ones.

What you need to startSome of the requirements to start a data reselling business are a laptop or smartphone, capital for the initial purchase, good internet connections, and a bank account as a medium of payment.

To make money from this business, one needs to be a good marketer, this means that you must be actively able to advertise your business through face-to-face communication and your various social media platforms. You should also reduce the price of your data plans to give you a sharp edge over your competitors and equally convince your customers to purchase data from you as against buying it directly from their network service provider.

10. Declutter agents business

The advent of social media has been a blessing to humanity not just only by providing an avenue to make friends and stay connected with one’s family, but also it has continued to provide means of livelihood to some of its users. Declutter agent business is one of the fastest routes to financial freedom on Instagram. 

As a declutter agent, you simply rake in your money by helping sellers to display their product for potential buyers to see and if satisfied with the product, the buyer makes the payment and you get your own percentage from the proceeding of the sales. Your job is that of a middle man who connects buyer and seller. 

There is virtually nothing that can’t be sold via decluttering agents. Products such as: furniture, mattresses, generator, television, fans are few examples of varieties of things that can be sold and bought through the declutter platform.

According to a popular declutter agent on Instagram with the Instagram handle “deluxe_declutter” which has 13.5k instagram followers, she explained that she started the business with just 5,000 naira but currently makes nothing less than 300,000 monthly from the business. On how she promotes her business, the young lady stated that she reaches her audience through Instagram sponsored ads. She, however, described trust and sellers’ disappointment as the greatest challenge she faces in the business.

What you need to start

Starting this business does not also require situating it in a particular geographical location. It is a remote business that can be done at the comfort of your bedroom. What you will be needing for the business are your smartphone, Instagram accounts, data bundle and adequate power supply.

Having high followers on Instagram is also an added advantage. The more the number of your followers, the more chances of buying and selling through your platform and the more you make money from the business.

It is also important to have a good online reputation, as this will improve the people trust in you and their chances of making sales and purchases through your platform.

Conclusion  

In conclusion, there are many business ideas in Nigeria that you can start with as low as 100,000 naira. What is most important is your ability to look in depth and analyze the category you best fit into. Also, it is important to have patience, as the initial stage of personal business may be frustrating and not yielding enough as expected, but with dedication and hard work, it will just be a matter of little time before you unlock your financial freedom in the business.

33 Unique Ways to Make $1,000+/Monthly

A recent survey by the Research Department of Statista.com revealed that 34% of Americans had less than $1,000 in their savings accounts.

This might sound disturbing, but this was actually far better than a survey CNBC reported on a few years ago that nearly 70% of Americans had $1,000 or less in savings.

Personally, I don’t think it matters which statistical bucket you fall in to claim the following: making an extra $1,000 per month would dramatically improve your life.

I know this because I’ve personally witnessed how making an extra $100, $500, or $1,000 per month has positively impacted hundreds of families.

It’s why I’ve shifted a lot of my work to helping people make extra money as a side hustle and eventually creating multiple passive income sources. The best part is there are hundreds, if not, thousands of different ways to make extra money.

I’ve purposely made this list to include strategies that can work for people with all kinds of skills and talents. You may not be able to do every one of them, but you’ll probably be able to do a few.

You’re also going to see some strategies that probably won’t fetch $1,000 per month, or at least won’t do it right away. But I included them because it’s possible to combine two or three strategies to reach the target.

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How to Make $1,000 Fast Online

1. Selling E-books 

If you have an idea for an e-book, this might be one of the very best ways to create a regular income. Maybe best of all, once you get your book published and marketed, the income is totally passive! And if you can find success with one e-book, you can just rinse and repeat.

You may already be familiar with e-books, but what you may not know is how many are being published each year, and how much money people are making publishing them.

According to Amazon, thousands of independent authors have self-published e-books and earning more than $50,000. More than 1,000 have earned over $100,000 in royalties.

It’s best to make the topic on a subject you’re experienced with. But it’s also important to make sure there’s a proven market for that topic. There are ways you can research a topic idea to make sure it’s a popular one.

Once you create your e-book, you’ll need to create a sustained marketing program. That’s not easy, so check out our post How to Make Your First $1,000 Selling Ebooks to get a primer on how you can create and market your first e-book.

Skills needed: Basic technical knowledge, formatting, Google docs (or Microsoft Suite), specific knowledge about a topic, and social media knowledge.

Earning potential: Depending on the market and how you brand yourself and your product, e-Books can sell anywhere between $0.99 and $15.00 for more advanced pieces.

2. Freelance Writing 

Do you see all that content out on the web? Somebody had to write each and every one of those articles and posts. And most likely, they got paid to do it.

You could be one of them, and it’s one of the best and most lucrative side hustles there is. You can easily make $1,000 or more each month writing just a few articles.

And like so many other income opportunities in this guide, this is one side hustle that can easily be turned into a lucrative full-time career.

Don’t worry if you have never written professionally before. Creating content on the web is different from book writing or print media. It’s much more casual and based more on personal experience than technical knowledge.

“I started freelance writing on the web with no previous writing experience whatsoever. But within a few years it became a full-time career, complete with a six-figure income.

More than anything, it takes a commitment to try and willingness to learn as you go along. Once you find your niche, you’ll find clients all over the web.”

– Kevin Mercadante, Freelance Writer since 2010

If there’s a topic area where you’re knowledgeable, and you have a desire to write on a regular basis, this could be the side hustle for you. And once you get up and running, you can expand to writing all kinds of content.

“I write online content for a living, earning an average of $20,000 to $30,000 per month writing articles, book chapters, and slideshows for a variety of websites and individuals.

With more money at our disposal, we maxed out our retirement accounts and invest in real estate, while we travel 12 weeks annually.” – Holly Johnson, Freelance Writer and Blogger at ClubThrifty.com

Holly has become so successful as a freelance writer that she now offers a course helping others succeed on the same path. You can read all about it in her article, How to Become a Freelance Writer (from 0 to $30,000+ per month).

Skills needed: Strong writing skills, time management, some marketing and SEO knowledge, ability to accept constructive criticism, researching

Earning potential: Once you’re well-established within an industry, there’s virtually no limit on your income potential if you manage to find the right clients. The average freelance writer can make around $150 per article.

3. Blogging 

As you might’ve guessed, I’m really partial to this one! That’s because it’s been my primary bread-and-butter now for close to 14 years and it’s enabled me to provide a good living for my family. I know dozens of other people with the same experience, enough to believe that so many more could do the same thing.

The great thing about blogging is that it’s really an extension of you. That is your interests, skills, and experiences. If you feel you have a compelling story to share with others, one that will enable you to produce content on a regular basis, it’s a perfect way to help others while creating a whole new income stream for yourself.

One of the things I’ve always liked about blogging is flexibility. Like a lot of bloggers, I started out because I had my own story to tell. In my case, it was my experience as a financial planner. Think about what you’re doing now, or even what you would like to do, and work on turning that into your own blog.

But once you start one, think of it as a business. It’s another one that can start out part-time, and eventually, become your main career. And because it is a business, it’s a way of building a major asset.

Another blogger who I’ve become friends with over the years, Larry Ludwig, recently sold his blog for—get this—$6 million. Larry’s hardly the only one who’s done that. But it does give you an idea of the business potential blogging can create.

I think for most people, the hard part is getting started. You may have an idea about starting a blog, but you’re not sure exactly how to start or what topics you’ll take on. But like everything else, you can learn how to blog. It didn’t happen overnight for me, but then few blogging resources were available when I started out in 2008.

If you’re interested in starting your own blog, take advantage of my guide, How to Start a Blog From Scratch and Make it Work. It’s free, and right here on this website. In it, you’ll find all the resources you need to start a successful blog.

If you want a more specific instruction guide, sign up for my

Make $1k Challenge. Order the program, and you’ll get the exact blueprint for how I took my blog from a hobby to a $1,000 per month venture.

Skills needed: Technical knowledge (WordPress, SEO, web marketing), writing ability (doesn’t need to be perfect when you start), social media, topical expertise (although being passionate about something might prove just as effective).

Earning potential: Unlimited. Once your blog becomes well-known as frequented by users across the world, there’s practically nothing to prevent you from earning top dollar for your content.

4. Facebook Ads for Small Businesses 

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world, with nearly 3 billion users globally. That creates plenty of ways to make money on Facebook.

One popular way to do that is to run Facebook ads for local businesses. You don’t need to be an advertising professional to do this, only someone who knows their way around Facebook and is willing to put in the effort. After all, small businesses don’t have advertising departments.

One gentleman who has found success in providing Facebook ads for small businesses is Bobby Hoyt from Laptop Empires.

“When I first started working online back in 2015, I started in the digital marketing world, helping small business owners reach more customers,” Bobby reports. “Many of them who wanted to run Facebook ads for their business didn’t know how to themselves, so I provided the service for them.”

This is another one of those skills where you don’t necessarily have to be an expert, you just have to know more than the average person. And like everything else, you’ll get better at it with time and experience.

Skills needed: General knowledge of Facebook, Facebook Ads, campaigns, and digital marketing.

Earning potential: Depending on how quickly you’re able to find new clients and develop a working portfolio, your potential earnings could easily top the $1,000 mark designated on this post.

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5. Crypto Bot Trading 

This is one for the cryptocurrency investors in the crowd. I’ve been increasingly earning income from various activities in the crypto space. Turns out there are more ways to make money there than just buying one or two cryptos and waiting for the prices to skyrocket.

One way I do this is through crypto bot trading. It’s a way you can engage in actively trading cryptocurrencies without having to sit in front of your computer and monitor the crypto universe all day. Instead, you use a software program that does the trading for you, which is why it’s referred to as a bot.

Crypto bots trading

One way to do this is through what’s known as grid trading. That’s where you place buy and sell orders at predefined intervals based on a fixed price. You can set a specific buy price, as well as a sell price. As the price rises within that range, you’ll make a profit. Once you set the price points, the whole process will be completely automated.

The strategy works best on a crypto with consistent price fluctuations, which is really most of them. The more they fluctuate, the more profit opportunities you’ll have.

It’s not a strategy for everyone, but if you’re into crypto and looking to capitalize on short-term trades, this is definitely a way to go.

Skills needed: General crypto knowledge, investing knowledge, financial literacy, technical savvy.

Earning potential: Dependent on investible sources and market returns, volatility, etc.

6. Dividend Income 

Admittedly, this isn’t a strategy for many readers. But if you have a couple hundred thousand dollars in investible funds, or you’re on a path to get there, this is a workable strategy. It’s also a way to earn a relatively safe return without resorting to the 0.0-something percent being paid on savings accounts, or >1% being paid on 12-month certificates of deposit.

I cover the nuts and bolts of dividend income in How to Make $1,000 Per Month in Dividends, but let me give you the summary version here.

To generate dividend income successfully and consistently, you’ll not only need to invest in high dividend-paying stocks but also those that have a proven track record of paying them. Just because the stock pays a high dividend doesn’t mean you should invest in it. After all, companies can cut dividends.

Skills needed: Intermediate investing knowledge, investible funds, 

Earning potential: Depends on funds you have to invest and the average dividend yield on stocks held in your portfolio.

BONUS: Where to Find High Dividend Stocks

A better idea is to choose among a list of stocks known as the Dividend Aristocrats. These are companies that are included in the S&P 500 and have provided at least 25 consecutive years of dividend increases.

A website called Sure Dividend puts out a list of Dividend Aristocrats that’s updated daily. (You’ll need to enter your email address to get the full list.)

There are currently 66 companies on the list, and many of them are household names. The dividend payouts have a wide range, but there are a handful of stocks that pay above-average yields. That means this is a situation where you may be better off buying individual stocks rather than a fund tied to the whole index.

Examples include:

Chevron (CVX), 4.3%

AbbVie (ABBV), 3.9%

Franklin Resources (BEN), 3.8%

Leggett & Platt (LEG), 4.4%

3M (MMM), 4.0%

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), 4.1%

IBM (IBM), 5.3%

Amcor (AMCR), 4.0%

Realty Income Corp (0), 4.4%

Exxon Mobil (XOM), 4.6%

Those are the 10 highest dividend-paying stocks on the list. If you are to divide your portfolio with equal allocations to each of the 10 companies, you have an average annual dividend yield of 4.3%.

A quick calculation shows you need about $279,000 to earn $1000 per month, or $12,000 per year, with a 4.3% yield.

But even if you don’t have that much money, you can use whatever capital you have to generate a high and relatively safe return.

You can invest in individual dividend stocks through online brokers, like Robinhood, M1 Finance, Ally Invest or SoFi. Best of all, none of those brokers charge commissions for buying and selling individual stocks.

“I don’t own a single asset, anywhere, that doesn’t pay a dividend.”

Kevin O’Leary

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7. Crypto Savings Accounts 

This can be an even better way to earn high interest on your money than dividend stocks. And higher returns mean you’ll need less capital to get the income you want.

One of the best sources of high interest are crypto savings accounts. These are available on crypto exchanges. Those exchanges, which naturally specialize in trading cryptos, have expanded to offer other services, like interest-bearing savings accounts.

As an example, BlockFi—which is a crypto exchange I invest in – was paying as much as 9.25% interest on certain cryptocurrencies.

Celsius crypto savings account

Another platform, Celsius, is currently offering an unbelievable 17% rate.

Note: On July 13, 2022, Celsius Network and certain of its affiliates filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Now I have to caution that this is not the same as having money in the bank. None of these accounts are protected by FDIC. But if you’ve got money to spare, and you want higher returns than you can get at a bank or even on dividend stocks, this is an income source to consider.

Skills needed: Basic understanding of the crypto market, the right crypto exchanges, and which currencies pay the highest interest (most pay none at all).

Earning potential: Depends on funds you have to invest and the average interest paid on the cryptos you hold.

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8. Real Estate Income 

This is one of the most time-honored ways to earn consistent, long-term income. Probably the most popular way to do it is with rental income property you purchase at a good price, perform any renovations, and rent it out to tenants.

As time goes by, and rents rise, your income from the property grows. With just a couple of properties, you could be earning a net profit of $1,000 or more per month in just a few years.

And since you’ll be using mortgage financing for most of the purchase price, your upfront investment will be relatively low.

To get more information on how to invest in real estate successfully, read

Joseph Hogue’s post on this site, 7 Rules I Learned After Going Broke in Real Estate Investing. The rules he lists will help you avoid the pitfalls that can turn real estate investing into a complete disaster.

Skills needed: Communication, management, market analysis, negotiation, and vision.

Earning potential: Dependent on your ability to manage multiple projects, keep them occupied, increase monthly income streams.

9. Personal Coaching 

If you’re fairly accomplished in your field, meaning you have more experience and success than the average person doing the same job, personal coaching may be a way to earn some extra money.

Let’s say you’re a career professional, occupying a middle-level management position. You may be able to use your combination of experience and skills to coach those who are either new to the field or less experienced.

You may not think you have much to offer, but to a person lower on the career ladder, you may have more than you think.

Being a personal coach isn’t limited to career development, either. You can also branch out to become a personal life coach. That can include helping people better manage their finances.

There are plenty of online resources to help you become a personal coach. For example, if you want to become a financial coach, you can sign up for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Coach Master Training.

Skills needed: Listening skills, empathy, vision, honesty, and good communication skills.

Earning potential: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics places life coaching in the $33K to $95K salary range.

10. Online Communities (Membership Sites)

This is one of the more advanced moneymaking strategies on this list. Basically, it involves creating a website that will require a paid membership to access.

That can be a tough sell given that there are so many free websites across the World Wide Web. But visitors will pay to join a site that provides highly specialized information. And charging a monthly membership fee is a way to generate a steady cash flow. Meanwhile, you can add other revenue streams from the site, like display ads and product promotions.

If you have highly specialized information or access to sources of it, there’s plenty of potential here. The website SmartBlogger offers 7 Membership Sites that Make $100K+ Per Year. Examples include sites dedicated to growing orchards, business coaching, blogging, weight loss, and other topics.

One popular strategy is to create a free website providing valuable information but setting up a paywall for those who want the really good stuff.

Skills needed: Networking, social media marketing, web development, marketing, topical expertise.

Earning potential: Depending on the industry, your income potential can be anywhere from $1,000 to virtually unlimited income.

11. Podcasting 

You can probably think of podcasting as the audio equivalent of blogging. It’s becoming increasingly popular since people will listen to podcasts while driving, working out, and doing other routine tasks.

Podcasts can appear on blogs and even be placed on YouTube. But two of the most popular destinations are Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Much like blogging, you can make money promoting specific products or services through affiliate marketing, sponsorships, selling online courses, and even coaching and consulting.

Skills needed: Speaking and communication skills, audio production, organization, marketing, personal brands, and passion.

Earning potential: Top-earning podcasters can make anywhere between $500 and a couple thousand dollars per episode.

12. YouTube

This is another moneymaking venture I participate in. I started my YouTube channel, Wealth Hacker – Jeff Rose, a few years ago, and already have nearly 400,000 subscribers.

If you’re committed to creating quality content, YouTube can be a steady moneymaker. For some, it’s even turned into a virtual gold mine.

Part of what makes YouTube so interesting is that you can create video topics you’re interested in and where you have at least above-average knowledge. But it also offers multiple ways to generate revenue.

You can use your YouTube channel to promote your business, product, or service you’re selling. That can include online courses, personal coaching, or even promoting your blog or website.

But you can also monetize your channel through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, or Google Adsense. The cool thing about these income sources is that they’re completely passive. Once you have your videos up and running, revenue is coming in 24 hours a day, seven days per week. If you get a bunch of videos up and running, you can really make bank.

If you don’t think you can find success on YouTube, please read my interview with Emily Dihle (formerly Eddington),

Beauty Broadcast’s Emily Eddington: How a Small Town Girl Got 17 Million YouTube Views and 100,000 Raving Subscribers. Emily has been able to build a big-time YouTube channel centered around makeup.

Now, beauty may not be the subject that appeals to you, but Emily’s story gives you an idea of what can be done with YouTube. People are turning all kinds of topics—diet and exercise, finance and investing, beauty, travel, politics, and many more—into successful YouTube channels.

If YouTube is something that interests you, check out my guide, How to Make Money on YouTube.

Skills needed: Excellent voice and communicational skills, video editing skills, networking skills.

Earning potential: High-value YouTube channels make around $3 to $5 per 1,000 views on the platform.

13. Flea Market Flipping 

This is an activity I’ve only dabbled in. But I have enough experience to know that there’s some serious money to be made with flea market flipping. Thousands of people are doing it, and you can too.

It’s all about buying salable items for a fraction of what you can sell them for. I even put together an article, Best Items for Garage Sale Flipping for Fun and Profit, listing some of the best items for profitable sales.

A couple I discussed in the article above, Rob and Melissa Stephenson, have become full-time flea market flippers.

They even host their own website, Flea Market Flipper, to help others find success in the venture. If you’re interested in turning this into a serious side hustle—or even a full-time business—they offer several courses to help you get there.

You can make a few hundred dollars a month, a few thousand dollars a month, or—like the Stephenson’s—turn it into a full-time business earning six figures.

Skills needed: An eye for valuable items, networking, some social media knowledge, photography.

Earning potential: Anywhere between a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand if you’re good at finding invaluable items.

14. Selling Sneakers

Flea market flipping is just one way to play the flipping game. You can even specialize in very specific items to sell. To give you a personal example, and seasoned investors.

And with the recent volatile activity in the stock market, options may be more valuable than ever.

Options give investors two important advantages:

The ability to minimize losses on current stock positions, and

The ability to profit from the purchase or sale of securities you don’t actually own.

Either scenario is possible because while an option gives you the right to buy or sell a security, there is no obligation to do either. You’ll pay a relatively small fee for the option.

If the stock the option applies to performs as you expect, you can exercise the option to either buy or sell the security and realize a nice profit without ever owning the stock.

And if the stock doesn’t perform as hoped, you can simply let the option expire. Your only loss will be the cost of the option itself. That small investment will give you the ability to speculate on different stocks with only a fraction of the investment capital you would need to buy the stocks outright.

You can get a good overview of options trading in my guide, Trading in Options: A Guide for Beginning Investors.

Skills needed: Research, investing knowledge, discipline, patience.

Earning potential: 10% – 50% per trade, depending on your investible assets.

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17. Credit Card Rewards

This is another strategy that may be unlikely to generate $1,000 per month consistently, but it can definitely help you reach that goal in combination with other strategies.

You’ll want to start by choosing among the best cash-back credit cards available. Many of these cards also pay sign-up bonuses, which will pay several hundred dollars if you meet minimum spending requirements within the first three months of having the card.

If you like to travel, you can also choose travel-related credit cards. They’ll enable you to accumulate points toward travel, and even get you free travel deals.

I was able to take my family on a $15,164 all-inclusive resort vacation to the Dominican Republic. If you can do that just once each year, that would be the equivalent of well over $1,000 per month!

Now admittedly, that’s an exceptional deal. But the point is, there are very lucrative travel deals out there to be had with the right credit cards.

Meanwhile, you can earn cashback on everyday purchases using your credit cards. You’re going to spend the money anyway, so why not use your credit card to build up cash rewards and points?

But if you do use this strategy, be sure to pay off your credit card balance in full each month. The purpose here is to get the benefit of the rewards, not to spend yourself into a debt hole you can’t get out.

Skills needed: Buying power – the more you use your credit cards, the more successful you’ll be; willingness to track the credit card rewards market to find the most lucrative offers.

Earning potential: Capped, dependent on how much money you spend and the rewards level provided by your credit card(s).

18. Pay Off Your Student Loans

The statistics on student loans are downright scary. 43.4 million people owe $1.75 trillion, with an average balance of $40,904. The monthly payment on that debt approaches $400.

Debt numbers like that can keep a lot of young people from ever getting out of the starting gate. That’s why it’s so important to pay it off.

But paying off your student loans will also improve your cash flow. If you fit the “average” category, paying off your debt will free up about $400 per month.

What’s more, that will represent a source of income that isn’t taxable. If it were, monthly income would likely be something higher than $500.

There is no magic formula for paying off a big student loan debt. But in How To Payoff Student Loans Faster Than Ever, I spell out nine strategies to get the job done in a lot less time. That’s important because student loan balances don’t seem to drop the longer they are outstanding.

One pay-down strategy is to dedicate income from a side hustle – like the ones I’m presenting in this guide – to paying off your student loan debt. That can erase the debt from your life in a lot less time, without disturbing your regular paycheck.

Skills Needed: Commitment to live beneath your means, and target extra funds into debt reduction. Also requires healthy doses of discipline and patience.

Earning Potential: Determined by the size of your monthly payment (s). The nationwide average is $460 per month.

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19. Amazon FBA

If you’ve been looking for ways to earn additional income, you’ve probably at least heard of Amazon FBA. It’s a way to earn money by piggybacking on the world’s largest home delivery service. Though many use it as a side hustle, more than a few have turned it into a full-time occupation.

You can read our guide, $0 to $1000 a Month with Amazon FBA, written by John Elder. In it, John covers everything you need to know to launch an Amazon FBA channel.

One of the biggest hurdles for would-be Amazon sellers is product selection, and that is a major issue. But John covers that all-important topic in the guide.

“This is where most people go south,” writes John. “The harsh reality is that most fail on Amazon due to improper upfront product research. Most go with their gut or chase seasonal-type items.

The worst is chasing trending items like face masks. Thanks, Covid! Instead of chasing trends, chase evergreen products.

Evergreen products are sold year-round, 365 days a year with no end in sight. Examples of evergreen products include things like Phone chargers, kids’ toys, and office supplies. Those are just a few. The vast majority of what is sold on Amazon is considered ‘evergreen.’”

Skills Needed: The ability to identify the most profitable items to sell, as well as marketing skills, organization, and the ability to manage a network. Having a passion for a specific product or product line is a major advantage.

Earning Potential: Varies, but at least $1,000 per month, according to our guide listed above.

20. Become a Virtual Assistant 

There are millions of small businesses, including blogs and websites, that need specific services performed. Since they’re small businesses they may not have the workload or the budget for full-time employees.

That’s why many of these businesses are hiring virtual assistants to handle these tasks.

Virtual assistants are needed for all kinds of jobs, like data entry, proofreading and editing, customer service, bookkeeping, research, and so many more. The work is done entirely online, which means you can work from home and typically on your own schedule.

You can think of being a virtual assistant as having a part-time job, except that it’s done from home. You may be paid either on an hourly basis or by the job.

I share more ideas on becoming a virtual assistant in my post, How to Become a Virtual Assistant.

Skills Needed: Training and experience and commonly needed skills, including administration, accounting and bookkeeping, marketing, communications, customer service, and many other capacities.

Earning Potential: The average hourly pay for virtual assistants nationwide is $21.34. You can earn over $1,000 per month five working roughly 50 hours, or about 12 hours per week.

21. Create an Online Course

I’ve covered various moneymaking strategies in this guide, including YouTube, blogging, and podcasts. If you do any of these, creating an online course is an excellent way to earn extra money using those strategies.

But you can even sell your online course through other people’s blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts, by paying an affiliate fee for each sale.

I’ve done this myself by creating an online course geared toward financial advisors, to help them build their online presence, so I know this strategy works. The course has earned more than $200,000 since I launched it a few years ago.

That was my online course niche, but the field is wide open. You can create a course based on whatever your expertise is. Usually, the best choices will be those where there’s plenty of competition.

For example, there are a lot of successful online courses for investing, cooking and baking, photography, and even how to create online courses.

There’s a lot more to this strategy than just creating a course and putting it up for sale. If you’d like to learn how to launch an online course, check out my guide, How to Create an Online Course: A Step-by-Step Guide.

Skills Needed: Expertise in the topic area your online courses will focus on; organizational skills, the ability to incorporate outside resources, good presentation skills, and marketing skills. You’ll also need the ability to develop an affiliate market to expand sales. It may also require an investment of several hundred or several thousand dollars to create the course.

Earning Potential: With the average price of $137 for an online course, you can make over $1,000 per month by selling just eight each month. After that, the sky’s the limit!

22. Create a Digital Product

This strategy covers a lot of ground, including some already listed in this guide, like online courses and e-books. But those are just two of the potential products to consider.

A digital product is any product you can create that is both marketed and sold online. That includes how-to guides, music, videos, audiobooks, art, photography, video games, and—if you have the skill—computer software.

This is another income source that has strong potential to become passive income. Once you create and market your digital product, sales—and money—will come in with not much more effort on your part.

There’s a big advantage if you already have a blog or YouTube channel to market your digital products. But even if you don’t, you can market through other people’s blogs and YouTube channels through an affiliate arrangement.

And if you find success with one product, you can create others. As you expand your marketing reach to many different blogs and YouTube channels, this is one strategy with serious potential to scale up.

Skills Needed: Expertise in the topic area that will be the subject of your digital product. Presentation skills, marketing, search engine optimization, and networking.

Earning Potential: Potentially unlimited, especially if you can develop a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

23. Become a Freelancer in Your Area of Expertise

I spent a good bit of time covering freelance writing in #2 above, but the freelance concept could really be applied to just about any skill you have.

Other skills include:

web design

social media manager

data analyst

graphic designer

photographer

video editor

SEO consultant

interior designer

digital marketer

You can take a skill you are using in your job and sell your services as a freelancer. But it may also be possible to provide an unrelated service where you have expertise.

One of the benefits of freelancing with anything is flexibility. Though it can start out as a side hustle, it has real potential to turn into your primary occupation. It all depends on how far you want to take it.

The website Upwork has an excellent article on how to market your freelance service, 6 Effective Ways to Market Your Freelance Business. And, not coincidentally, Upwork is also a well-recognized platform where you can market your services to potential clients.

Skills Needed: Training, experience, and certifications in any common trade or skill. Ability to market your services, meet deadlines, and troubleshoot problems are essential. Must also be willing to advance your skills settling and successfully adjust to changes within the field.

Earning Potential: Easily over $1,000 per month if you have the needed skills, available time, and a willingness to put in the effort. More highly skilled individuals can earn much more.

24. Tutoring

Of course, this is a perfect site helpful for teachers. But don’t rule it out if you aren’t a teacher. Nearly anyone with a specific skill can be a tutor, either for students or for adults looking to up their career skills.

If you want to provide tutoring to students, you can market your services through local schools and colleges. Depending on the subject, tutors can earn between $25 and $50 per hour.

You can choose to tutor in-person, one-on-one, or provide virtual lessons. In-person tutoring will be limited to your geographic location. But if you go the virtual route, your market can be national, or even global.

As is the case with just about anything you want to do these days, there are web platforms to help tutors. Two examples are Wyzant and TutorMe. Each is an online platform that matches students with tutors in specific subjects.

While academic subjects, like math, science, history, and test preparation, are always in demand, you can also offer tutoring in professional skills, like computer science, engineering, professional disciplines, and, if you have the skill, a foreign language.

Skills Needed: A degree and certification in teaching is helpful. But a major in any common subject, particularly math or science, combined with above-average command of the subject matter are more important. Other skills include patience, positivity, empathy, ability to listen and communicate, and good time management skills.

Earning Potential: Varies by hourly rate and number of hours worked per month. $500 to $1000 working 20 hours per month.

25. Teach English as a Second Language

Speaking of foreign languages, it’s also possible to make extra money teaching English as a second language. Not only are there a large number of recent immigrants to the U.S. who are looking to learn the language, but it may also be possible to teach English to students in foreign countries.

English, after all, is practically the global language of both business and the Internet. Millions of people in other countries are looking to master the language as a way of improving their business skills.

Like tutoring, you can market your skills locally through area school districts. But if you want to tutor international students, there’s a website called SayABC that can make it happen.

You’ll need to be certified in teaching English as a second language, but they have a ready market for potential students. They currently pay $17 per 40-minute tutoring session.

The big advantage with SayABC is that the lessons are provided virtually. That means you can work from home and decide exactly how much time you want to commit.

Skills needed: Overall grammar, linguistics, and written English language education, communication skills, presentation skills, classroom management. 

Earning potential: Salaries may range from $14 to $25 an hour, depending on location and other factors.

26. Sign Up to Be an Amateur Sports Referee

If you’ve ever been to a sporting event for school-age kids, you’re aware there are always referees. In many cases, those referees are being paid for those games.

That takes in both school-related sports and local recreation leagues, like Little League baseball. Referees can earn between $25 and $50 per hour and there are often no certifications required.

You can usually qualify if you are knowledgeable about a sport, especially if you currently play or have played in that sport in the past.

This is a real thing. I knew a high school-age girl who was making about $40 per hour refereeing recreation soccer for kids under 14. Her only qualification was that she played soccer when she was under 14 herself.

Another guy I met a few years ago was making over $1,000 a week refereeing high school football and baseball games during a time of extended unemployment.

I have a feeling his unemployment lasted quite a bit longer because he was enjoying the work and the lack of stress that comes with a “real job”!

Skills needed: Teamwork, stamina, decision-making, reflexes, sports rules knowledge, communication, conflict resolution.

Earning potential: Anywhere between $25 to $500 per game, depending on the specific sport and participant age level (recreation league, high school sports, college sports).

27. Become a Handyman

Do you have a knack for being able to fix things around the house? If you do, you can turn that into a steady second income. Don’t underestimate what the potential is here.

As millions of people have moved into professional, managerial, and technical positions, they no longer have the time or expertise to perform routine home repairs. And contractors can be expensive!

There was a guy in my former neighborhood, an IT professional by trade, who started doing home repairs around the neighborhood. Roland was mostly doing odd jobs for people he knew. But as word got around about his skills, he was soon getting calls from people he didn’t know.

In time, he became the neighborhood handyman. And from there, he expanded his services into three or four neighborhoods. He earned enough from his handyman work that he was able to quit his IT job, which he didn’t much care for.

Just from the endless supply of word-of-mouth referrals he got from that handful of neighborhoods, he didn’t even need to advertise. In fact, he turned away calls from people who didn’t live in those neighborhoods.

You don’t have to become a full-time, self-employed handyman as Roland did. But if you know how to perform routine repairs, you may be able to generate a nice second income just helping people in your neighborhood.

Skills needed: Plumbing, carpentry, electrical work; fixtures, maintenance, masonry, concrete, repair work

Earning potential: Part-time and full-time handymen make between $24K to $60K a year, respectively.

28. Rent Out Storage Space in Your Home

In #8 I covered real estate income. This one’s a variation on the same theme. If you’re already a homeowner, but you have no interest in buying a rental property, you may be able to generate income from unused space in your home.

Let’s say you have extra space in your garage, an empty shed on your property, or even attic space. You may be able to earn several thousand dollars per year renting out the space to someone who is looking for storage.

If you do have garage space, you may be able to collect the rental for the storage of an additional vehicle.

There’s even a web platform called Neighbor that will help with the process. You can list your available space on the platform, entertain requests from potential renters, then schedule prices and terms.

It can be the perfect way to generate a passive income from your home, effectively monetizing space you aren’t using anyway.

Skills needed: Networking, time management, resource management, real estate property.

Earning potential: Dependent on how much rentable space you own and have available.

29. Offer Your Artistic Talent on GigSalad

Do you have an artistic talent you’ve been looking to put to good use? There’s a website called GigSalad where you can list your services for hire. The platform provides everything you need to book gigs, including getting leads, sending quotes, and even collecting payments for your services.

Don’t underestimate your potential here. Many thousands of businesses and individuals are looking for specific talent for one-time or short-term gigs. They have a long list of artistic skills on the platform.

Examples include singers, solo musicians, bands and groups, actors, speakers, characters for children’s parties, acrobats, and comedians. But there’s also a need for hairstylists and makeup artists, bartenders, caterers and wait staff for special occasions, entertainment for outdoor parties, and of course, photographers and videographers.

Skills needed: Photography, music, handcrafting, home repair, home improvement, etc.

Earning potential: Dependent on your marketable skills and ability to perform multiple gigs. Some gigs pay more than others.

30. Flipping Websites

You’re probably familiar with house flipping, or even business flipping, where people buy houses or businesses, improve them, then sell them for big profits. Well, the flipping concept is extended to just about everything, including websites.

The market here is huge. There are literally millions of websites, and some of them are up for sale. That can include websites that are no longer active, and the owner wants to sell. Each represents an opportunity to buy a live website that you can build up and sell for a nice profit.

And much like trading stocks, this is the kind of business you can do as a side hustle, and on a regular basis. There are plenty of websites available to keep you going. It could be the perfect side hustle if you have a specific topic niche you can blog about, then upgrade the site, its traffic, and revenue.

I wrote about how Larry Ludwig sold his site for $6 million in #3. This is a similar principle except you’re doing it on a much lower level. It’s possible to buy active websites for just a few thousand dollars, or even a few hundred. With an additional investment of just a few hundred dollars, you may be able to build up the site and sell it for several thousand dollars.

Where can you find websites to buy—and later sell?

It turns out website flipping is now a well-developed industry. Web platforms like Flippa and Empire Flippers can be used to both find and purchase new websites, and to sell sites when you’re ready.

Skills needed: Web development, design, content marketing/creation, social media marketing, networking.

Earning potential: Unlimited.

31. Buying Websites to Generate Passive Income

There’s one other way to play website flipping, and that’s to buy sites that generate passive income. I have a website, Life Insurance By Jeff, where I earn several thousand dollars per month with only a few hours of work each week.

Now I didn’t buy that site; I built it from the ground up. The revenue model is a little bit different from most websites because the income is generated by selling leads from the site to insurance agents.

But you can use the same principle in buying existing websites in your favorite niches, building them up, then getting the benefit of the almost passive income they generate.

For example, you can typically buy a website for about twice the annual revenue it generates. With an investment of $6,000, you can purchase a website that produces $3,000 per year in annual income. That works out to be $250 per month. Buy four sites, and you’ll be looking at $1,000 per month.

You may have to do some work to upgrade the sites when you buy them, and then periodically add content to keep them fresh and active. But if you can get up and running, it can create additional revenue streams using web topics that interest you.

Skills needed: Resourcefulness, buying power, web development, content marketing, eye for detail.

Earning potential: Unlimited.

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32. Create and Sell Crafts on Etsy

Etsy is practically a cliché when it comes to making extra money, and it’s a legitimate one at that.

If you have skills in creating crafts, it can be the perfect way to sell them to a global audience, rather than limiting yourself to local craft shops or flea markets.

Emma Healy has an excellent guide on what to sell on Etsy, 30 Things to Sell on Etsy To Make Money (2022 Guide), over at Mums Money. There are plenty of online resources to help you start and grow your own sales channel on Etsy.

If you have a talent for creating items, this is a good way to monetize that skill by doing something you enjoy.

Skills needed: Photography, social media marketing, textiles, woodcraft, papercraft, jewelry, pottery, and more.

Earning potential: Dependent on your ability to manage time effectively, market your products, and establish a following.

33. Get a Part-time Job – The Rates Have Gone Up!

This may sound too obvious—and conventional. But the pay for part-time work has increased dramatically in just the last couple of years with the Great Resignation.

With the current labor shortage, it’s hard to find an operation anywhere that doesn’t have a “help wanted” sign. Restaurants, grocery stores, retailers—you name it, they all need people.

Even though the federal minimum wage still sits at a ridiculously low $7.25 per hour, most employers are paying a lot more. It isn’t hard to find a part-time job paying $15 an hour or more, especially if you bring specific skills and experience to the job. And on top of the higher pay, some employers are even paying sign-on bonuses.

It’s true enough that at $7.25 per hour you’d have to work about 138 hours per month (or 31.75 hours per week) to earn $1,000. That’s practically a second full-time job!

But at $15 per hour, you only need to work 67 hours per month—or a little over 15 hours per week—to clear $1,000. Actually, you don’t even need to do that.

By working just 10 hours per week, which may be just a couple of shifts, you can make about $650 per month, and earn the additional $350 using one of the other strategies above.

Think of it as a hybrid strategy to make an extra $1,000 per month.

Skills needed: Soft skills, spare time, adaptability, honesty, resourcefulness, punctuality.

Earning potential: $350 – $1,000 per month.

Bottom Line on Making $1,000 Monthly Fast

For every person that claims that making an extra $1,000 per month is not possible, there is someone else out there willing to experiment and test out new ideas.

My hope in publishing this article is to demonstrate several ideas that I, or someone else, have personally achieved success with generating extra monthly income.

The key is reprogramming your mindset to believe you have the skills and capabilities to generate an extra 1,000 dollars on the side. Chances are the $1,000 idea won’t work – and that’s okay!

Chalk it up to a learning lesson and move on to the next idea until you find one that works. Repeat this process and I’m confident you’ll be making MUCH more than $12,000 per year.

In fact, I believe you’ll be on the fast track to achieving financial freedom. It’s time to get to work!

About the Author

Jeff Rose, CFP® is a Certified Financial Planner™, founder of Good Financial Cents, and author of the personal finance book Soldier of Finance. Jeff is an Iraqi combat veteran and served 9 years in the Army National Guard. His work is regularly featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Inc.com and Entrepreneur.

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How I Bank over $120,000/Year from Affiliate Marketing

How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing In 2022: I’ve Been Hitting $150k/Year And Want To Show You How

I never thought this would happen to me.

In 2 years I went from making $20k to $80k, and am now hitting about $150k/yr (see PayPal report). I did this by dropping all my clients and tried making money with affiliate marketing.

So what do I do? My about page has my whole story, but here’s the gist:

I write tutorials on WordPress speed optimization and how core web vitals are a ranking factor in Google. Speeding up your website involves hosting, cache plugins, CDNs, lightweight themes, and other services that happen to offer affiliate programs. I show people how to speed up their website (with very detailed guides), then they buy stuff through my affiliate links. It’s a win-win.

But there’s one big problem. Affiliate marketing has gotten more competitive. And the amount of bloggers/YouTubers creating affiliate content is insane (people have also become skeptical). So how do you stand out? How do you get people to trust you? I’ll explain all of this.

This guide includes a comprehensive list of 50+ affiliate programs.

$150,000/year did not happen overnight. I was broke for a couple years while creating content. But it literally changed my life… I moved out of my parent’s house into a nice apartment in downtown Denver, bought my first car (a Mercedes c300), adopted 2 kitties, and my credit raised 45 points. I also donated $6k to GoFundMe campaigns and 6k to my parents. I’m a humble dude but in affiliate marketing, the numbers do the talking. Now I have 0 clients and 100% freedom. There’s a lot of BS out there on affiliate marketing – which is why I wrote this.

How to make legit money with affiliate marketing

Find your niche

Start a blog or YouTube channel

Sign up for affiliate programs

Be careful with Amazon

Learn how affiliate programs work

Add affiliate links to content

Be a “how to start a blog” YouTuber

Use coupon codes

Get traffic before sales

Master SEO

Create the perfect pitch

Get involved in Facebook Groups

Bookmark affiliate statistics in your browser

Set up email alerts when a sale is made

Build your community

Avoid Google penalties

Monitor conversion rates

Use an affiliate disclaimer

Mistakes I Made

Donate to charity

Share your story

Promote Black Friday deals

2021 PayPal report

About My Blog

I write about website speed (and some SEO/affiliate marketing).

I spend a lot of time in Facebook Groups learning about my industry.

I try to publish original content and not regurgitated crap like a lot of blogs.

I have about 3,000 visitors/day, 90% is from Google (I’ll show you some SEO tips).

It took blogging full-time for several months with minimal income to see results. I’ll bet you 90% of people don’t start because they’re scared their work won’t pay off. Just do it!

Tom with monkey

Affiliate marketing has given me the time/money to travel and be financially comfortable

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

You partner with a company selling products/services you would like to recommend to your audience. If they buy something using your affiliate link, you get a commission from the sale. There are other types of affiliate programs, but this is the most common and is also what I do.

 

1. Find Your Niche

My career journey went like this: online marketing > web design > WordPress web design > WordPress SEO > WordPress speed optimization. Now I’m focusing on WordPress hosting.

While I was doing WordPress speed optimization I noticed lots of people needed it, but very few people supplied it (there were a lack of services and tutorials when I researched Google). I also knew hosting was the #1 factor of website speed and hosting companies paid up to $200/sale. Hosting is a competitive space but the commissions and lack of supply enticed me.

I expanded my SEO blog and started writing about hosting, cache plugins, and other relevant topics… while recommending Rocket.net in many guides. I added proof like Facebook threads and performance benchmarks. Each tutorial was super detailed (like this one) and tons of people found them helpful – many get 100+ visitors/day since great content = higher rankings.

Once I found my niche (WordPress speed optimization), a solid hosting company with a high commission affiliate program (Rocket.net) and created tutorials around topics people in my niche would find helpful (and might want to change their host), that’s what got me to $150k.

Once you find a niche with high demand, little supply (do your Google research), and a reputable affiliate with high commissions… and you have patience to wait for financial results while creating your assets (I’m talking about content), you should take the leap!

 

2. Start A Blog Or YouTube Channel

A blog and YouTube channel are completely different, not just because one is writing and one is shooting videos. But each of them are different in terms of SEO, conversions, time, and the cost.

Blogging vs. YouTube Videos

Competition – the SEO competition in YouTube is often less than Google.

Ownership – you own your blog, you don’t own YouTube (or their policies).

SEO Traffic – it takes longer to get SEO traffic to a blog than YouTube.

Cost – YouTube is free, blogs require domain, hosting, development costs, etc.

Content Updates – it’s easier to update a blog post than to remake a video.

Coupon Codes – YouTube is great if your affiliates let you use coupon codes.

Time – it takes longer to set up a blog, but starter templates have made this easier.

Expectations – in your niche, do people prefer watching videos or reading articles?

Start A WordPress Blog

Domain – GoDaddy or Namecheap.

Hosting – Rocket.net, Cloudways, or NameHero for the win.

WordPress – what I recommend building your website/blog on.

Themes – GeneratePress and Blocksy are solid choices. They use the Block Editor (Gutenberg) which is much more lightweight than Elementor, Divi, and other page builders, yet still easy when you use GenerateBlocks. I built my site in the GeneratePress “Search” theme and am very pleased. Kadence theme is good too but also very expensive.

Have A Developer On Hand – I’ve been working with the same overseas freelancer since 2011 who has saved me a lot of time when I can’t do things. Here’s his freelancer profile if you need help setting up your website. His name is Pronaya and he’s from Bangladesh.

Generatepress website library

I use GeneratePress for my WordPress theme

 

3. Sign Up For Affiliate Programs

Hosting, Amazon, and affiliate programs related to “making websites” are very popular.

Websites – if you’re in the “how to make a website/blog” industry, I’ve accumulated a list of affiliate programs for WordPress, hosting, themes, plugins, SEO, email, CDNs, and services. Remember that to get approved, some companies require you to be somewhat established.

Affiliate Program Category Commission Recurring 2 Tier

A2 Hosting Hosting $55 – $125 x ✓

All In One SEO Pro SEO 20% x x

Astra Themes 30% x x

Asset CleanUp Pro Plugins 20% x x

AWeber Email 30% ✓ x

Beaver Builder Themes 25% ✓ x

Blocksy Themes 30% x x

Bluehost Hosting $65+ x x

BunnyCDN CDN $20 credit x x

Cloudways Hosting $50 – $150+ ✓ ✓

Convert Pro Plugins 50% x x

Constant Contact Email $105 x x

Divi Themes 50% x x

Elementor Themes 50% x x

FlyingPress Cache Plugin 20% ✓ x

GeneratePress Themes 30% x x

GoDaddy Hosting 15% x x

GreenGeeks Hosting $50 – $100+ x x

GridPane Hosting 1 free month x x

Kadence Theme 20% x x

Hello You Designs Themes 20% x x

Hostinger Hosting 60% x x

HostGator Hosting $65 – $125+ x x

JohnnyVPS Hosting 2x monthly price x x

KeyCDN CDN 100% of 1st payment x x

Kinsta Hosting $50 – $500 ✓ x

LearnDash Plugins 35% x x

Long Tail Pro SEO 30% ✓ x

MailChimp Email $30 credit x x

NameCheap Hosting 35% x x

NameHero Hosting $50 – $125+ x x

Ninja Tables Plugins 20% x x

NitroPack Plugins 20% ✓ x

OceanWP Theme 30% x x

OptiMonster Plugins 20% x x

Perfmatters Plugins 20% ✓ x

Pretty Links Affiliate 25% x x

Rank Math SEO 30% x x

Refer WordPress Other 20% x x

Restored 316 Designs Themes 20% x x

Rocket.net Hosting $150 x x

Scala Hosting Hosting $50 – $200 x x

Schema Pro SEO 30% x x

SEMrush Analytics $200 x x

ShortPixel Plugins 30% ✓ x

ServerPilot Control Panel $25 x x

SEOPress SEO 20% x x

SiteGround Hosting $50 – $100+ x x

SpinupWP Control Panel $25 credit x x

StackPath CDN $20+ x x

StudioPress Themes 35% x x

ThemeForest Themes 30% of 1st payment x x

Themeisle Themes 55% x x

Thirsty Affiliates Affiliate 30% x x

TubeBuddy Other 30% – 50% ✓ x

UpCloud Hosting $50 credit x x

Whitespark SEO 20% x x

WP Coupons Affiliate 40% x x

WP Engine Hosting $200 x ✓

WP Johnny Other 25% x x

WPX Hosting $70 – $100+ x x

WP Rocket Plugins 20% x x

Affiliate Marketplaces – these have hundreds of merchants to choose from. It’s nice to login to 1 place and check the performance of multiple affiliates without going to each individual portal on their site. Many programs aren’t part of a marketplace though. I use ShareASale and Impact.

Affiliate Marketplace Number Of Brands Popular Brands

ShareASale 15,200+ Hewlett Packard, Sears, LovePop, Grammarly, Daily Harvest, NameCheap, WP Rocket, WP Engine, Envira Gallery

CJ Affiliate 3,800+ Overstock, GoDaddy, Zappos, Walgreens, TurboTax, QVC, Newegg, Hotels.com, HelloFresh, TeamViewer, Guitar Center

Impact 800+ Airbnb, AppSumo, Constant Contact, Envato Market, HostGator, InMotion, Lending Club, Levi’s, Squarespace

Rakuten Marketing 50,000+ Udemy, Walmart, Macy’s, StubHub, Hulu

Favorite affiliate network

Source: Anil from Bloggers Passion Facebook Group

Other Online Retailers

Ebay – 5 – 7% (roughly) based on categories, only 24 hour cookie tracking.

Etsy – 4 – 8%.

Target – 4% in most categories.

Walmart – 4% in most categories.

Aliexpress – 3% for electronics, 7-9% for everything else.

Newegg – 0.5 – 1%.

Overstock – up to 6%.

Do the math – to make $300 in a day, I would need to refer about 2 people to hosting, 10 people to themes, or 30 people to plugins. Before deciding on a program, ask yourself a few questions. I personally have roughly 3,000 readers/day and make about 2-3 sales per day at $150 per sale.

What commission will you get?

How many sales will you need per day?

How much traffic will you need to get those sales (roughly)?

 

4. Be Careful With Amazon

Amazon’s commissions are based on categories and you’re only making 0-5% unless you’re referring people to Amazon games, Luxury Beauty, or Amazon Explore. Otherwise you will need a lot of sales to actually make a living and will likely need to refer people to big ticket items (video equipment on YouTube is a big one especially if you’re into cameras, lenses, lights, etc).

Amazon affiliate commission rates

But be careful with Amazon’s affiliate program.

They have a long history of reducing commissions and writing content that competes with affiliates (and most people go directly to Amazon). I don’t recommend being an affiliate for any monopoly. You could very well end up getting trampled on, like most Amazon affiliates have. However, if you get lots of views, many affiliates are making “how to do something” YouTube videos and listing their equipment in the video description. A million views can make it worth it.

Amazon decreases affiliate commission rates

Examples of people making money with Amazon:

How he makes money – at 1m26s he focuses on his video equipment. The video description includes links to geniuslink.com. This is a website that showcases different stores (e.g. Amazon) where people can buy the equipment (using his affiliate links). Genuinely helpful video though.

How she makes money – at 40s you will see the video is sponsored by Skillshare and she also uses an affiliate link in the video description, as well as affiliate links to Amazon for the video equipment she uses. Another person recommending video equipment (that’s a hint for you).

How he makes money – he found a keyword on YouTube “best gadgets on Amazon” which has a lot of searches. People are searching this on YouTube (not Google or Amazon) which means they’re looking for a video review of the best gadgets, otherwise they would have gone directly to Amazon. His Amazon affiliate links to each of the gadgets are found in the video description.

Conclusion: a lot of people are making money by referring people to video equipment they use.

 

5. Learn How Affiliate Programs Work

One Tier – get a commission when a sale is generated from your affiliate link.

Two Tier – get a commission when you refer other affiliates and they start making sales (think multilevel marketing). An example is WP Engine’s program where I tell my readers about their WordPress hosting, they start making sales, and I earn $50/sale from each sale they generate.

Climbing Tiers – increased commissions as you get more sales.

Siteground affiliate program tiers

Recurring Commissions – usually happens with subscription services… you continuously receive commissions as long as people are signed up. AWeber and SEMrush are examples.

Sitewide Commissions – get a commission no matter what people buy on the affiliate’s website. Amazon’s affiliate program does this.

Pay Per Lead – get a commission based on the number of leads (e.g. contact form fill-outs) you send to a business. Be sure to set up your analytics to track this and have a solid, written agreement with your affiliate. You don’t want to spend tons of time and get burned like I have.

Cookies – amount of time after people click your affiliate link you will receive a commission if a sale is generated. Usually 30-90 days but shouldn’t be a deal breaker when choosing affiliates.

Individual Affiliate Programs – affiliate programs that are located on their website.

Individual affiliate programs

 

6. Add Affiliate Links To Content

Step 1: Sign up and get approved. You usually need a decent amount of traffic (or a history of sales) before getting approved. If you have a large following somewhere else (i.e. YouTube), you may be able to convince affiliates to approve you. Otherwise, you need to generate traffic first.

Step 2: Get your affiliate links. Login to your affiliate dashboard and grab your affiliate links. With most individual affiliate programs, they assign you an affiliate ID which you can add to any URL on their website to turn it into an affiliate link. In affiliate marketplaces like ShareASale, they preassign affiliate links but also have a custom link generator. Use these to add deep links.

Cloudways affiliate link

Add your affiliate ID (mine is ?id=262128) to any URL on their website to create an affiliate link

Impact affiliate link

Custom link generators are found in some affiliate programs/marketplaces like ShareASale

Step 3: For blogs, install an affiliate link management plugin (I use Thirsty Affiliates) and add your affiliate links here. This lets you organize, track, cloak, nofollow, and add affiliate links.

Affiliate links

Import your affiliate links into the Thirsty Affiliates plugin

Step 4: Configure the Thirsty Affiliate plugin settings.

Choose a link prefix (I use /go/)

Enable statistics in the “Modules” setting

Use nofollow + sponsored (recommended by Google)

Consider Thirsty Affiliates Pro if you want automatic keyword linking

Thirstyaffiliates settings

Configure the Thirsty Affiliate settings

Step 5: Add affiliate links to posts. If you’re using the classic editor like me, use the Thirsty Affiliates button to add affiliate links. When you do it this way, all the attributes you configured in the settings (cloaking, nofollow, sponsored, etc) are automatically added to the affiliate link.

Add affiliate link to content

Use the Thirsty Affiliates button to add affiliate links

Amazon video affiliate links

Or add them to YouTube video descriptions

Step 6: Use your affiliate dashboard to track sales, statistics, and get to know your affiliate dashboard because it can be very helpful (especially when trying to increase conversion rates).

Cloudways affiliate commissions

Take advantage of features/statistics in your affiliate dashboard

Banners – banners don’t work well. They’re easy to throw up, but distracting and probably won’t get great results. If you try them, be sure to show specific sidebar banners based on the type of content people are reading on your blog (for posts that fall under my SEO category I would show a banner related to SEO, and for posts under my website speed category I would show a different banner). You can control sidebar banners using a plugin like Widget Logic.

AdSense – It’s easy to throw up AdSense on your blog, but good luck making decent income. It is NOT personalized whereas affiliate links involve people taking YOUR recommendation on very specific things. AdSense makes your site slower than a turtle. Not good for monetization.

 

7. Be A “How To Start A Blog” YouTuber

Want to know why this topic is so popular?

Refer people to hosting = $$$

Refer people to WordPress theme = $

Refer people to Elementor products = $

Total income if one person signs up for all three: $200+

The bad news: the industry and keywords are super competitive.

The good news: the amount of people looking to start a blog is enormous. You just need a slice. Many hosting companies pay up to $150/sale once you start generating a good amount of sales.

People are also searching for how to start a food, fashion, travel, and lifestyle blog. You don’t have to limit yourself to 1 single keyword. Learn about hosting, self-hosted WordPress, and Starter Sites. I could literally start a WordPress blog in 10 minutes. Show people how to do that.

Youtube seo keywords

Let’s take a look at some examples:

How he makes money – at 66s, you can see they created their own domain search on their website. When people search, it’s followed by a “get hosting” button which leads to GoDaddy.

How he makes money – he begins his hosting pitch at 4m34s, but at 9m31s he presents his HostGator coupon code which not only saves viewers money, but it credits him for the sale (without people even having to click any affiliate link). That’s why coupon codes are so powerful for YouTubers. Don’t use HostGator though; they’re cheap but a slow/terrible hosting company.

How she makes money – she begins her hosting pitch at 4m48s for Bluehost, but only uses an affiliate link in the video description (no coupon code, no domain search on her website, and no timestamps to help people navigate the video). She could probably increase sales if she did one of these, but Bluehost doesn’t let affiliates create coupon codes so an affiliate link is necessary.

 

8. Use Coupon Codes

It’s a huge bonus if your affiliate lets you create coupon codes.

Since your coupon code is attached to your affiliate account, you will get credit for the sale if anyone uses it. So in YouTube videos, people don’t even need to click your affiliate link – just give them your coupon code to save them money, and you will get your affiliate commission.

Coupon-code

 

9. Get Traffic Before Sales

One of the biggest mistakes bloggers make is focusing on money first.

This is bad for a few of reasons:

No traffic = no sales

Most affiliates require you to have some traffic

Your authenticity is ruined if you’re too salesy from the start

But it definitely helps to have money in mind when you start. That way, once you get traffic and are approved by affiliates, you can easily add affiliate links to blog posts where you already mention your affiliate products/services. Don’t focus on money first, but have it in your plan.

Blogging affiliate marketing mistakes

Source: Blogging Newbs Facebook Group

 

10. Master SEO

Most affiliate marketers get most of their traffic from SEO (or Pinterest which I’ll admit to knowing nothing about). But I do know SEO is a more popular way to get consistent traffic.

The key steps to SEO are:

Researching a keyword, its search volume, and competition.

Creating in-depth content that is better than whoever’s in the top results.

Making content user-friendly (YouTube chapters, table of contents on blog).

Using your keyword in the right places (title, description, content, video file name).

Increasing click-through rates (titles, custom thumbnails, Google’s featured snippets).

Researching A Keyword – find a keyword in YouTube’s autocomplete dropdown (or Google Autocomplete for blog posts). You can use the underline character _ to fill-in-the-blank. Broad keywords have more searches but are more competitive. The best keywords are broad (lots of volume) with weak content in the top results. vidIQ helps you learn a keyword’s competition in YouTube and MozBar helps you learn competition in Google. I find the competition in YouTube is much less than Google, so choose broad keywords for videos and specific keywords for blogs.

Review Keyword Examples

Apple MacBook Pro 16 review

What is the best WordPress hosting

SiteGround WordPress Hosting review

Solution Keyword Examples

How to do yoga at home (recommend a yoga mat)

Why is my website slow (recommended faster hosting)

How to connect laptop to TV (recommend an HDMI cable)

Youtube amazon seo keywords

Creating In-Depth Content Around Your Keyword – 10+ minutes for YouTube videos and 1,500+ words for blog posts depending on how extensive the topic is. Extensive yet concise! If your content is long, make sure to include timestamps in your video descriptions or create an HTML table of contents for blog posts so viewers can jump to specific sections of your content.

Long content word count

Making Content User-Friendly – the two easiest ways are to use timestamps in video descriptions and an HTML table of contents in blog posts (see below). Get a good camera, invest in good hosting to make your site faster (for blogs), and design nice, crisp graphics using Canva.

Use Your Keyword In The Right Places

For YouTube videos, use your keyword in the:

File name (before uploading)

Video title (find a balance between using the keyword and making it catchy)

Video description (about 2-3 times), the description should be decently long

For blog posts, use your keyword in the:

Post title

Permalink

SEO title (in your SEO plugin)

Meta description (in your SEO plugin)

Content body (about 2-3 times, once in the first couple sentences)

Increase Click-Through Rates – for YouTube videos, it’s all about catchy titles and thumbnails. For blog posts, it’s all about a catchy SEO title and meta description (in your SEO plugin), getting in Google’s featured snippets (photo below), and using rich snippets like review stars and FAQs.

Featured snippets can be achieved by answering a question keyword in a very concise way (usually with a paragraph or list from the content). Lists are usually pulled from your table of contents or h3 subheadings. To get a featured snippet for my keyword “how to make money with affiliate marketing” Google will likely use my TOC or maybe (let’s see), this paragraph:

To make money with affiliate marketing, set up a blog or YouTube channel and find relevant products/services to refer your readers to. Sign up for affiliate programs, create affiliate links to products, and add them to your content. Most affiliates rely on SEO or Pinterest to get traffic.

Designing a nice image with your exact keyword helps too!

Featured snippets

List featured snippets

How To Rank YouTube Videos:

YouTube SEO relies heavily on engagement signals.

Find a keyword in YouTube autocomplete with good search volume.

Research the keyword’s competition by looking at videos’ number of views, likes, comments, and other signals top videos have (vidIQ Chrome extension is great for this).

Cover the topic extensively – aim for 10 minutes and be concise (scripts/editing)!

Label the video file (on your computer) as your keyword, and upload it to YouTube.

Craft a nice title that entices people to click your video, with your keyword in front.

Write a long description with timestamps, links, and use keyword in first sentence.

Review the transcript automatically generated by YouTube, then make corrections.

Upload a custom thumbnail (1280px by 720px) that gets people clicking the video.

Always respond to comments, and embed the video on your blog if you have one.

Incorporate your video in your blog, email, social media, other marketing channels.

How To Rank WordPress Blogs:

Use Rank Math Pro and learn how to use it for schema.

Use SSL from the start, most hosts have free Let’s Encrypt SSL.

Choose a fast host + WordPress themes (I like Rocket.net + GeneratePress).

Use post name permalink structure in WordPress under Settings > Permalinks.

Create content around keywords from tools like Google Autocomplete.

Learn about image optimization, internal links, lightweight plugins, OG images.

Add publish dates to blog articles to make content look fresh and increase CTRs.

Use multimedia – whether it be videos, infographics, or audio clips – people love them.

Set up Google Search Console and use it to track rankings, CTR, impressions, etc.

Make your WordPress site load fast (FlyingPress + Perfmatters are both solid plugins).

 

11. Create The Perfect Pitch

Back in the day, I created a pitch recommending a host, then copy/pasted the same pitch to multiple articles where it made sense to talk about.

This is fine if you don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. However, I’ve recently been trying to make it more personalized (since it’s the most important part of your site for making money). Now I have about 5 different variations of my pitch depending on what the article is about (general speed optimization, reducing CPU usage, WooCommerce, speeding up WP admin, etc).

It looks something like this:

Most hosting recommendations are garbage and I suggest joining the WP Speed Matters Facebook Group to get unbiased feedback on hosting and site speed. SiteGround has a slow TTFB, GoDaddy is a big NO, Bluehost is also very slow, and I would stay away from Hostinger.

Rocket.net – look at their specs and have a conversation with Ben Gabler (that’s all it took for me). They average a <100ms global TTFB which you can measure in KeyCDN. Their free Cloudflare Enterprise is superior than Cloudways/Kinsta with full page caching, smart purging, and built their data centers in the same ones as Cloudflare (Ben was StackPath’s Chief Product Officer so that makes sense). Just to give you an idea, their plans start at $25/mo with 32 CPU cores + 128GB RAM + NVMe SSDs + Redis. No PHP worker limits because only about 10% of traffic actually hits your origin. Everything is free (no paid add-ons) and their powerful stack makes scaling affordable with plenty of resources. I asked Ben to create a coupon OMM1 to make your first month $1. Compared to Kinsta, they use about 16x more RAM, 32x more cores on staging sites, and up to 25x more monthly visits. Top performer on wphostingbenchmarks.com with a 4.9/5 TrustPilot rating too? Take 5 minutes to compare specs and see for yourself or see my Rocket.net review.

Keycdn performance test cloudflare 1

Cloudflare free (no full page caching)

Rocket. Net keycdn performance test 1

Rocket.net Cloudflare Enterprise + full page caching

Rocket. Net top tier wordpress hosting benchmarks

Top performer on wphostingbenchmarks.com by Kevin Ohashi

Rocket. Net ben gabler testimonial

Spend 5 minutes talking with Ben Gabler

…something like that!

 

12. Get Involved In Facebook Groups

My conversion rate went from 2.5% to 8% just by including Facebook polls where Cloudways was rated #1, along with a few Twitter screenshots of migration results and conversations from Facebook Groups. Whether it’s Amazon reviews or Facebook polls, you NEED to include unbiased reviews. That’s why I don’t like collecting reviews on my website – they look biased.

People want evidence, not opinions.

There’s a Facebook Group for everything. For me, I mainly use the WordPress Hosting, WP Speed Matters, and WP Speed Up Facebook Groups to keep track of the web hosting industry.

Search facebook groups

 

13. Bookmark Affiliate Statistics In Your Browser

Go to your affiliate dashboard(s) and bookmark the “statistic” page so it saves to your browser. This saves time especially if you’re someone who likes to constantly check sales/performance.

Bookmark affiliate pages

 

14. Set Up Email Alerts When A Sale Is Made

This only works if the affiliate sends you an email when a sale is generated. Any time I make a hosting sale, I get a custom notification on my phone. It is very ENCOURAGING to get these.

Create custom alerts on your phone for affiliate sales – if you use Gmail, go to your settings and create a filter so all emails with “SiteGround Affiliate Sale Generated” in the subject line go into their own folder (tweak the subject line to match whatever email notification your affiliate sends you). Then set up a custom alert on your phone using the Gmail app so whenever you generate a sale, you get a custom alert (here’s a tutorial for Android and here’s one for Apple). I have different notifications for Rocket.net, Cloudways, others. It makes your day a little better :)

Custom gmail filter

 

15. Build Your Community

Respond To Comments – some of my articles have 400+ comments. It’s hard to keep up sometimes but this is a key part of building a community and allowing readers to ask you questions and leave their feedback. You should especially respond to YouTube comments because they are a ranking factor and encourage even more people to leave more comments.

Respond to comments

Build That Newsletter – I use Mailchimp and can’t stress how important it is to build your email list from the start (it’s free until you reach 2,000 subscribers). Once you create an account, add an email sidebar on your blog or create a dedicated newsletter page where people can sign up.

Be Open, Not Salesy – I hold back zero information on my blog, don’t recommend anything I don’t truly believe will help my readers, and try my best not to recommend hosting on every single post I write (only where it makes sense). Valuable information first, affiliate sales after.

 

16. Avoid Google Penalties

Follow Google’s guidelines for affiliate marketing.

Avoid short, thin pages that offer little value to readers.

Don’t always list affiliate products first – Google knows!

Don’t overuse affiliate links in your posts, drop them where it counts.

Avoid too many “list posts” where you just list a bunch of affiliate products.

Write an affiliate disclaimer (you’ll see mine at the very bottom of my blog).

Consider writing a review of your affiliate’s product/service and linking to that post (instead of using an affiliate link) to reduce the amount of affiliate links on your site.

Google affiliate guidelines

 

17. Monitor Conversion Rates

The way you endorse a product or service and the social proof behind it (Facebook polls or maybe reviews from other customers) are the main reason I was able to go from 2% to 8%+. If you don’t see these in your affiliate dashboard, use Thirsty Affiliate’s pro version to see them.

This is from 2017 when I started hitting it hard. Look at that CR (conversation rate) increase!

Siteground conversion report

19. Mistakes I Made

In my Google Analytics graph you’ll see a sudden drop in traffic followed by a long flatline in 2015/2016. These were pretty tough years for me and I hope I can save you from making a few bad mistakes I made, which resulted in years of financial hardship. Here are a few simple tips.

Don’t hire a sketchy link builder to boost rankings.

Get links from great content or hire someone who knows what they’re doing.

Don’t skimp on a free WordPress theme, cheap hosting, or use bloated plugins.

Don’t set a goal to write 3 blog posts a day… set a goal to write 1 blog post a week and make that post super helpful, long, and filled with information that is so valuable you will say “yeah, people will link to that.” 90% of my traffic/affiliate income comes from just 20 tutorials, many of which are 5 years old, but I constantly update content to make it better.

Do this and you should see consistent “small spikes” in your Google Analytics.

 

20. Donate To Charity

Once you’re financially stable, I hope you start giving back. It feels good and people like the idea of supporting a good cause (they will be more likely to click your affiliate link). This also means you don’t have to use as many links in your content. In total, I have given $6,000 to GoFundMe campaigns and $6,000 to my parents who let me live in their house while I worked on my blog.

21. Share Your Story

This is now the #1 visited post on my blog! I knew I could outrank all the fakes.

How to make money with affiliate marketing top page

Many companies have Black Friday + Cyber Monday deals (usually for about 2 weeks) and you can easily make 3x your normal sales during this time if you promote it right. I’ve made $2,000 in a single day during Black Friday season. You can make a “Deals” page but what I like to do is use the Better Search Replace plugin to bulk update all pricing screenshots to a screenshot of each company’s new Black Friday prices. Then when Black Friday is done, I just run another search/replace to change the screenshots back. Doesn’t take much time, but it’s very effective.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when you refer people to products or services from a merchant who agrees to give you a commission when a sale is made through your unique affiliate link.

How do I make money with affiliate marketing?

The most common ways are to set up a blog or YouTube channel, grow your audience, then sign up for affiliate programs that make sense to refer your viewers to.

How fast can you make money with affiliate marketing?

It can take anywhere from a couple months to several years to make consistent money with affiliate marketing. It depends on your ability to drive traffic, build trust, and successfully promote your affiliates.

What are the highest paying affiliate programs?

Web hosting programs like Rocket.net, Cloudways, WP Engine, and Bluehost typically pay $150/sale once you start making a lot of sales. That's why the space is so competitive.

Is affiliate marketing passive income?

Affiliate marketing income is not 100% passive income. You still need to create content, keep content current, and adapt to your industry while monitoring sales and conversions.

How much money can you make with affiliate marketing?

Some affiliates make a couple hundred dollars per month while other super affiliates make $10,000+ per month. You will get there quicker if you make it your full-time job and create awesome content on a consistent basis.

How do you get paid in affiliate marketing?

Most affiliates get paid through PayPal or directly to their bank account. Typical affiliate programs make payouts each month or once you reach a specific amount in commissions.

How can beginners make money with affiliate marketing?

If you're a beginner, you can make money with affiliate marketing by setting up a YouTube channel and teaching people how to start a blog while referring your audience to hosting. This is the most popular way beginners start making money.

What are the best affiliate programs to make money?

Amazon and hosting companies are two of the best affiliate programs to make money. Amazon is the most popular online retailer, and hosting affiliate programs offer some of the highest commissions. Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator are a few examples.

How do I make money with affiliate marketing without a website?

Setting up a YouTube channel is the easiest way to make money with affiliate marketing without a website. It's free, easy, and you can start creating videos instantly. Once you grow your audience, sign up for affiliate programs and promote products on your channel.

Is affiliate marketing worth it?

Yes, affiliate marketing can be well worth your time. But you need to have a plan on where you will promote products, which companies and products you will promote, and a strategy for getting traffic. Traffic is where most affiliate marketers fail.

How do YouTubers make money with affiliate marketing?

Most YouTubers add affiliate links in the video description or mention promo codes in their video which credit them the sale.

Final thought: It’s A Long-Term Investment