There are many ways of making money online in the modern life scenario. This article documents some of the most popular ways of making actual money.

If you do a simple Google search about “how to make money online, ways of making money online, working online” etc., you will get millions or thousands of search results. You end up having a problem choosing which methods are legitimate and which ones are scams.

Those of you who have tried to look for ways of making money online can agree with me that some of the websites tend to promote their content and leave you stranded. You end up signing up for endless seminars, webinars or training sessions of many mailing lists which portend how you will soon become a billionaire. In fact, some sites seven sell you products which do not work. In the long run, you are defrauded of your money and your precious time and you end up getting unsolicited emails in return. If you come across websites or article promising you to make quick money with no effort within a short period of time, tread carefully lest you be swindled of your heard earned income. I was once a victim and I even abandoned one of my emails for getting many uncalled-for emails.

Let me assure you that there are many genuine methods of making online money. In spite of online fraud and prevalence of scammers, we must never rule out the existence of legitimate online jobs. We know that there are two conflicting sides always. The right and the wrong, legit jobs and scams are always conflicting. The main problem with these jobs is that real ways of making money online are not “get rich quick” schemes. The best online money makers require a lot of hard work, dedication and perseverance before the real fruits can be seen. The main consolation is that any idea can be changed into online money, work from home or online business. In this century, almost everything can be traded online.

In order for you to reap the full benefits of online money generators, you must also be a legitimate candidate. I hope that you are serious now that you have read this post up to this point. You must note that all of these are almost the same as real offline jobs. In order to succeed in any of these, you need to grasp these tips:

• Be committed to your work. All employers like committed employees. If you are going to make any money online, you must at least be ready to make an adequate input in terms of your time and organization. Investing your time online shall never go in vain.
• Follow simple rules. Just like in any job, it is essential to follow rules and regulations carefully. You may lose or attract more clients by simply following the stipulated guidelines. As you work, you’ll get more experience on each type of work.
• Take your work seriously. You are online and this is your office. Let nobody lie to you that you can afford to be careless now that this is a virtual office. If you are to become successful, then you need an impeccable reputation. The best way of building your brand is by being serious and earnest right from the start. This is a real job just like any other job in the physical world and your competitors are far more willing to take your place in case you show any sign of weakness.
• Be professional. Make sure that you show high level professionalism in all that you do. Right from the time you submit your personal details and your curriculum vitae create a positive impression of yourself to the recruiter. Make the employer realize how much an asset you are. In all your correspondence, make sure that you use formal language unless otherwise stated. You must also master language and avoid common mistakes that may otherwise sell you as an incompetent fellow.
• Always proofread your work. Make sure that you always double check your work for any errors before submitting it. Ensure your resume, CV, email, sample paper or portfolio is well formatted and spell-checked for any grammatical mistakes using the appropriate spell-checker. Check everything including the name of the company you are applying to, names of people and even your name.
• Have high level integrity. Many people believe in the bible and other holy books. You do not have to be a Christian to believe that integrity is important in business. If you spend your time swindling other people of their commodities, beware that you shall not enter the kingdom of God. Fear God and give glory to Him. Do not steal from your employer or your employee and God shall make your work to prosper.
• Be patient. Everybody knows that patience pays. Do not rush to make money online. You should rather rush to develop a close relationship and trust with people. When people trust your product, your work or your brand, money will chase after you instead of you chasing after it. Do not chase success; just be in the business of doing the right thing and success will chase you. In Galatians 5:22, the Bible records some of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Patience is mentioned among them. Love is also important. I love you all.

Remember the main aim of this post is to introduce you to real ways of making money online. By providing the above tips, I am not in any way losing my focus on the subject matter of the post. I am preparing you to face the online hype and become the best you can as far as making money online is concerned. Now let us face the real thing. Here are some of the ways of making money online:

1. Academic writing

Many students, scholars, researchers, workers etc. find it hard to complete their assignments in good time. They resort to help from online freelancers. Academic writing involves completing school work assignments, annotated bibliographies, articles, course works, dissertation, dissertations, essays, laboratory reports, multiple choice questions, personal statements, power point presentations, proofreading works, reaction papers, research proposals, resume writing, scholarship essays, speeches, presentations, statistics projects, term papers, thesis proposals, and answering tricky questions.

There are many ethical connotations about these jobs. However, many people need assistance in such areas and writers make a living out of the business.

2. Freelance Writing

One of the best and legitimate ways of making money online is to do online freelance writing. Some successful freelancers earn about 50 cents to $1 per word. Some even earn more than that. You can imagine how much you can possibly earn just by arranging your words correctly so that they make sense in a post like this one. Let us take an example of this post. Now that this post has above 3000 words, that adds to a staggering $1500 legitimate cash. I can write about two such posts in a day. Even if I write just one, I can pay rent and live more comfortably than some people that have big titles in offices somewhere. In fact, I do not have a boss to throw dirty words at me in case I report to work late. I feel good when I am able to make clean money without having to steal, kill somebody or sell elephant tusks and rhinos’ horns. I think you are now realizing the immense power of online freelance writing.

Do not be too interested in the money first. Let’s start from your resume and make it sell out. You really need to build your portfolio slowly but surely. Start by following which freelance writing you are interested in. read the rules and regulations and stay focused. Make sure you are doing something which is interesting instead of doing it just for money. As I stated earlier, it is better to let success chase you than to chase success. If you allow yourself to be led into writing for the sake of money, you may not go far before you give up. You may even get a few coins and decide to chicken out.

Assuming that you love writing, it is crucial to make your CV and resume captivating. Your CV or resume are the first things that any serious online writing agency or company will look at before approving you to become one of their freelance writers. Once your CV and resume are ready, start off by selling yourself online. Start with simple sites like Facebook and list your abilities. Make sure that nothing contradicts with what you have stated in your CV. You can start a blog by making use of the free blogs like Blogger and WordPress. In your private blog, accentuate your skills and make yourself known. Post in public forums and post something that can catch the attention of a reader. Make sure you include links to your blogs in all your CVs and resumes. Remember also to include your links in your LinkedIn profile and all other social platforms. Once you have made yourself public, any serious site can see your seriousness and hire you as one of their freelance writers.

The following are some of the sites that can readily absorb you as a writer once they discover your strengths and capabilities:

A List Apart – A List Apart pays $200 for each accepted post. They accept posts with no fewer than 1,500 words per post. However, they publish fewer articles and your chances of getting your articles published are smaller.

Funds for Writers – FundsforWriters pays $50 for each accepted post. They only take articles that talk about writing and making money. They accept 500-600 word articles of high quality.

International Living – International Living pays $75 for each accepted post. Their articles are normally about travel experiences from any country that you have visited. More often than not, it takes personal experience to write for this site than your own writing ability.

iWriter – iWriter has a variety of jobs. For article posts, they pay up to $15 for each accepted post. Although the amount seems a small amount, they are not as strict as other sites. They also offer you the flexibility of choosing what you want to write.

Listverse – Listverse pays writers $100 for any post accepted for publication. For the article to be accepted, it must be a list and have more than 1,500 words. The article must talk about something interesting and name at least 10 solutions, things or procedures of solving the underlying problem. The write-up must be very creative above all.

Matador Network – Matador Network pays up to $60 for each accepted post. The normal standard pay for most beginners is around $20-$25. They allow you to write content of up to 1,500 words. So long as your content is of high quality, they do not have a problem with you.

Textbroker – Textbroker pays up to five cents per word for 5-star writers. When you sign up with them, you’ll normally start at 3 starts. You may upgrade your position by submitting high quality and great content regularly.

The Penny Hoarder – The Penny Hoarder pays up to a staggering $800. The pay depends majorly on the number of page views resulting from your post. For example, a writer gets about $100 for 50,000 page views and the pay rises rapidly if the post receives more views.

TopTenz – TopTenz pays $50 for each accepted post. They accept articles that are in list formats of not less than 1,500 words. In some exceptional cases, they accept articles with fewer words. Since they post their articles more often, your chances of getting accepted are high. Why don’t you try your luck?

Uxbooth – Uxbooth pays $100 for each accepted post. They normally take about one month to about one and half months to accept and post new articles from writers. Again this calls for patience from the part of the writer since this clearly is not a quick money maker. If your content is novel and amazing, they must publish it in the long run.

From the foregoing, it is clear that you can earn a lot of money working online as a freelance writer. I shall update the list of sites as time goes on and of course with your help at the comments section below. As noted, you can make a lot of money once you have built your portfolio right. Otherwise, with a little perseverance and practice, anybody can make money online so long as they follow the laid down procedure.

3. Blogging

You are wondering why I am talking about ways of making online without mentioning blogging. Blogging is an important way of making money online and it cannot be left out. Many online gurus started off as bloggers and built their portfolios in various dimensions ending where they are at the moment.

Making money out of blogs is a systematic way and it requires a lot of patience persistence and discipline. Now again, we are mentioning the most dreaded word for “quick money makers”, the word “patience”. It is possible to write for more than a year or even two before you can start making any serious amount of money from the blog. However, with the best tact and practice, all is possible. Many bloggers agree that it takes considerably longer to build a portfolio in blogging than in any other online avenue of making money. Trust me, when you start making money out of a blog, the money flow may remain steady on “autopilot mode” without you having to do much about it.

According to information provided by some bloggers, it is possible to make money from blogs that have less web traffic. The general rule is that “the more the number of people browsing through your web pages, the greater the chances of making more money are”. This brings us to the point of web traffic. I shall post a full article about ways through which you can increase web traffic to your website. Assuming you are already attracting many people to your site, the following are possible ways through which you can monetize your blog and make good cash out of it.

Advertising – Selling advertising space on your website is one of the oldest ways through which you can monetize your blog. Once your website attracts a considerable amount of traffic, you can directly sell advertising space to companies that need to advertise their products or use services like Google AdSense, Media.net, Infolinks, etc to make money through advertising. The amount of money generated from web advertising increases with increase in targeted web traffic.

Membership – If you have a special product or an exclusive content, you can create a “members only area” on your blog. This is a great way of getting money from subscribers. The challenge with this is that you must create something that is not generally available in the internet or elsewhere. Once you have set your product, you may decide on the amount each subscriber pays to have access to your content or product.

Affiliates – Affiliate networks pay their ambassadors a good commission once a promotion is successfully done. Affiliate networks like FlexOffers and CJ Affiliate provide you with opportunities of promoting other people’s products, services at a commission. All you have to do is to include a link to the product or service in your website and earn a commission when a buyer clicks the link through your website and buys the product. As you can clearly see, you do not have to do much other than putting the links or banners at the right place in your website. It is easier to sell items that are within your blog’s category than selling the ones whose niche is outside your blog’s category. Once your blog develops and attracts enough web traffic, you are likely to make a lot of money through affiliate programs. Make sure that you become an affiliate of more than one product to increase your revenue. However, you must ensure that your blog or website does not contain ads only as they may scare away your fans, potential customers and subscribers.

Products – If you have a product, you can decide to sell it online in your blog. Products such as media files, videos, eBooks, computer software and applications can be sold in your blog to make money. You may also come up with some advice on how to do something and money out of it. Your blog is the chief promotion tool for any legitimate product that you may wish to sell. So long as your blog has traffic and your product has value, somebody somewhere may like your product and purchase it.

Services – You can easily offer special services on your blog and make money from them. Such services include blog coaching, tutoring, financial planning, offering budgetary advice, writing business plans and business proposals and even goal setting and financial planning. Make sure you follow all legal procedures and offer quality services for which you are competent and professionally endorsed. For such services, all you need is a good description of the service, excellent web traffic and then you are ready to sell yourself to the online community at a fee. However, you must convince people that your service is of high quality and that the product meets their needs before making a kill out of it.

Sponsored/paid posts – Large companies and organizations sometimes approach reputable bloggers and request them to publish certain articles about their companies and even products. Such posts can earn you a good amount of money since they are sponsored by the companies. However, in order to get such orders, you must have a large web traffic and good reputation since large organizations are out to reach many people.

Subscription – Subscription money is money that is paid periodically for a specific service or product. Examples of services that need subscriptions include an online newsletter, magazines, internet connection, software, sms plans and many more. The subscription fee may be charged monthly or annually depending on terms of service. You must have a good product or service and good web traffic in order to get customers and regular subscribers.

Videos – YouTube videos are good sources of money. It is not possible to exhaust possible ways through which you can make money in your blog using YouTube videos. Video blogs are on the rise and if you have what it takes, why can’t you have a try? All you need is a blog, a good camera, editing software and of course the service or product that you want to cover in your video. Once you have enough web traffic, you can be sure of making money through your YouTube videos.

Blogging is a lucrative leisure activity and money making strategy. In order to become successful as a blogger, you need to build your online traffic. From there, the rest is about targeting your traffic and making money out of your blog visitors. You must have noted by now that making money out of any blog has most to do with creating enough web traffic. Go ahead and start your blog and tell us what the result looks like. You may start with free blogs like WordPress and blogger before owning your domain. You have questions on how to start a blog? Feel free to post in the comments section below this post.

4. Work from Home Websites//Companies

Work from home companies are employers for whom you can work from the comfort of your home without reporting to work in a physical location. You simply do the job while staying at your home. The following list provides some of the companies which provide work from home jobs. The companies are not organized in any order of supremacy. Feel free to sign up with any which interests you and you shall soon start making money at the comfort of your home.

CrowdSource – This site offers many types of jobs starting with micro-tasks and mini-tasks to large writing jobs. It is up to you to choose the type of work which you are comfortable doing and completing. All of the jobs can be completed from the comfort of your home. The amount of work you can complete depends on your daily routines and the amount of money you wish to make each day.

Demand Studios – Demand studio hires a variety of creative professionals especially in the digital industry and writing. Here, you choose any job that you are competent to do and you are assigned. The amount of money given is commensurate to the type and amount of work done.

Fast Chart – Fast Chart is a medical transcription work from home job. If you meet the requirements stipulated on their site, feel free to sign up with them and start making money. It is common practice for many online workers to sign up for what they are able to do.

Leap Force – Leap Force is among the many ways through which Google rates websites for search engine ranking. They provide you about $11/hour viewing and ranking websites. You may apply if you find it challenging and interesting to you.

Liveops – At Liveops, your main duty is to manage calls while at the comfort of your home. You are set up to manage calls at the right time according to the schedule that you provide to them during the signing up process. They generally pay about $10 per hour and you may even end up making much more with commissions depending on your diligence and availability to work.

SpeakWrite – At SpeakWrite, you are likely to make about $15/hour in transcribing information. All you need is a good typing speed and excellent listening skills and you’ll be ready to work from the comfort of your home.

I shall update this list from time to time. However, you should feel free to help me update the list by giving more suggestions in the comments section below this article. One thing I have learnt is that there are many ways of making money online. If you have a computer and some working internet connection and a few tying skills, let nobody hear you saying that there are no jobs for you in whichever country you are.

5. Websites That Pay their Users

If you are new, you may be wondering if there are real websites that pay you for visiting them. I would like to tell you “YES” there are many websites that are more than willing to pay their users. Such websites pay you for doing things as testing their commodities, using their search engine, taking surveys, shopping on their website, posting content and posting photos. These websites will not make you so rich but they will add you some extra income without doing much.

The following list presents some of the websites that can pay you just for using their website:

Fiverr – Fiverr offers many products (gigs) costing exactly $5. Whether you sell or buy, all gigs cost $5. You can check this site and offer any service for $5 or purchase something. It is a good site.

InboxDollars – InboxDollars works just like Swagbucks. They offer you opportunities to survey and shop and pay you for that. You can sign up with both of them and make money doing your own things online or completing their surveys. For this site, you earn as much as $5 for just signing up with them.

IZEA – IZEA gives an opportunity to earn by tweeting, blogging, taking photos and even videos. The amount of money you get depends on the amount of web traffic you generate and the amount of your following.

Project Payday – Project Payday is a well-paying site with many people saying that they have made a lot of money from getting trials of certain products. This site assumes that by giving you a free product, you may find it good and purchase it. Since they take your payment details, they also hope that you forget to cancel the trial so that they charge you for purchasing the product. However, you are free to cancel the trial if you do not like the product. The site does not give you too much to stop your career aspirations but the money obtained is high compared to the work done.

Swagbucks – Swagbucks offers you the opportunity of earning points just for using their search engine in doing web browsing. Once you have accumulated the points, you can withdraw them for prizes or money as you wish. Apart from using their search engine, you can take surveys to increase your revenue.

User Testing – User Testing is an incredibly excellent website which pays $10 for testing websites. Website tests normally take about 15-20 minutes. You get paid because the website owners want to see how their websites behave when users are navigating through them so that they can improve them.

6. Selling Your Personal Stuff

It is possible to make money online selling your personal used or new stuff. In order to sell online effectively, you need to have good photos of your stuff and build a good reputation.

Amazon – Fulfilled by Amazon aka FBA involves bulk purchase of products and stocking them at the Amazon store. After that, Amazon sells the products and sends you your money after deducting their commission. In case you have used stuff, you can also take them to Amazon for sale.

CraigsList – At CraigList, you can have your commodity listed for all people to see. Once a potential buyer sees the product, they can contact you through email or phone for more shipping details and follow up processes.

eBay – You can sell your products on eBay to de-clutter your home or as a way of making money online. For the latter, you can set up an eBay store for yourself. You may also like to do drop-shipping business.

Etsy – Etsy offers a good online marketplace for selling arts and crafts. In this site, all you have to do is to sign up and start posting your creations for people to buy. Apart from the listing fee of 3.5 % that they take, the rest is your money and it can be channeled to your most favourite payment method.

Facebook – Facebook is the largest social media network. Some people think that Facebook cannot help them make money. You can use Facebook in selling your stuff to the local population. You can take a picture of your product and get swap shops near your region. Once you join the group, you can sell your product and even direct traffic to your page. Therefore, instead of just using Facebook for non-profitable chatter, you have the power of turning it to a shop. There are many other ways of making money on Facebook. I shall discuss that in a different post.

Should you find any of the above jobs interesting, please do a more thorough research on the site and what they require before signing up. When you become successful, remember to come back and submit your experience so that all people reading this post may benefit. Otherwise, for any online job, you really need to keep learning in order to stay relevant and to offer your best. I have seen cases whereby clients give workers bonuses for timely delivery of solutions, exceptional performance and orderliness. Above all, be diligent and honest in your work and you shall have many people looking for you.