Earn Money Online: 20 Clean Methods of Using Your Skills

You can indeed make decent income from Internet by doing computer-based jobs at home. You can use your various skills, like writing, singing, voice-over, data-entry, music, photography etc. and sell your services or products to earn regular income without making much investment.

Oh, everyone wants money! As the web of Internet is spreading around the globe, one of the often asked question has become “How to make free money online?”. Bloggers, housewives, students and even salaried professionals keep on looking for ways to earn money through Internet. It is good that instead of wasting time people are willing to work extra hard in their spare time and earn a few extra bucks to pay their bills. A large number of people feel that the internet is full of fraudsters and rouge schemers who lure them with the offers of making money. Such worries are not entirely baseless. But all you need is the right information on how you can become an online entrepreneur. Due to lack of right information on what are the clean and legal methods of making buck from Internet, some people get trapped in scams as well.

But don’t you worry, there are several ways in which you can utilize your skills and creativity to get earnings from net. Today, I am going to tell you about a few of such methods. Are you ready for an exciting ride?! Here we go!

How much can I earn online?

Before I tell you about the methods, let me put a word about the expected results. If you think earning online is an easy job —if you think it is a cakewalk —you’re wrong. You will have to work hard and take your online job very seriously if you wish to be successful. And how successful can you become?
Well, it depends. And it is no rocket science to understand what it depends on! The skills you have, the work you choose, how good you are in your craft and how much time you can dedicate to work —all this affects your total sum earned —just like in “real life” jobs.
If it can motivate you, there are lots of people who are earning hundreds of thousands of dollars (and even millions) from Internet entrepreneurship / profession. And yes, that too while working alone from home!
There is no such indicator as to how much you as earn. Also, in my view, you should not look for such information. Just focus on what you enjoy doing and if you put in sufficient amount of time and hard-work —soon you’ll being to see the rewards. Believe me, if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing —then you should forget about success!

There are plenty of options available online for utilizing your skills for making money.

Methods of Making Money Online

Now, buckle up, I will present a number of options before you. Take your pick according to your taste and qualifications. Let’s get… set… and go!

1. Blogging

Blogging is a nice way to make free money.

Obviously, this was going to be the first on my list (I am also a professional blogger after all!). Professional blogging is one of the best known method of getting income from computer based jobs. We all arrive at blogs while surfing and we see advertisements on many blogs. So, we can easily know that the owner of that blog is earning some amount of money from writing the blog content.
There are a number of good and free blog sites where you can easily setup your blog. After setup, you should write about things that really interest you. Once your blog is adequately settled (let’s say when it begins to receive 100 visitors a day), then you should put online ads on it. You can use Google AdSense for getting ads (like I do on TechWelkin) or you can use ad service provided by other networks like Yahoo! Media.net. WordPress.com also provides its own ads.
By the way, did you know that Google makes 95% of its revenue from advertisement? Bloggers get share from this revenue if they publish Google ads on their blogs. I keep on writing articles about how to become a successful blogger. You should keep an eye on these articles.
Skills required for professional blogging: Good command on language, ability to write in an interesting way, familiarity with basic coding and other technical stuff like SEO.

2. Design Themes

Design themes for platforms like WordPress and Blogger.

All websites and blogs require a “theme” (also called template or skin) which dictates how the site looks like. For example, TechWelkin theme is based on Genesis Framework and I have designed it myself.
You can also become a theme designer if you have good sense of design and other required skills. Once a theme is done, you can sell it on theme stores or you can setup your own website through which people can buy your themes. Designing themes for platforms like WordPress, Blogger, Joomla, Drupal etc. is a lucrative business. You can earn decently income from this profession.
Skills required: Web design sense, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Photoshop, knowledge of the target platform.

3. Teach Online

You can impart knowledge and be a teacher on Internet.

Yes! you can be an online teacher. And the great thing about it is that you can teach virtually anything. So, whatever is your skill and expertise —you will be able to offer lessons to perspective students.
SkillsShare is one such service which allows you to be an online teacher. After registering, you can create courses (classes) on whatever subject you know. It could range anything from cooking to mathematics to engineering to designing to languages to whatever!
There is another similar service called Udemy. On these websites you basically sell your courses to earn money from online teaching service. You get paid when a student takes the online course developed by you.
Skills required: expertise in subject on which you’re offering course. Knowledge of Photoshop and making videos is also useful as these things can make your course more interesting and easy to understand.

4. Become an Online Author

Writing and publishing e-books can bring you loads of money!

If you have a story to tell or if you want to share your expertise in the form of a book, well then, go ahead and write a book! What better could be there than writing a book! You don’t need traditional pen and paper. Become a completely tech-savvy author. Use MS-Word to write your book. Once the book is ready, you don’t even need a publisher! You can self-publish and sell e-book versions through platoforms like Amazon’s Kindle, Google Play Store and Apple’s app store (iBooks). If you’re in India, Flipkart, Infibeam etc. are also great choices. You can sell both e-books or printed books.
Also there are online services like Lulu where you can order print copies of your book. Buyers will be able to purchase print copies right from there or you can put print copies on sale through Amazon, Flipkart, eBay etc. Pothi.com is an Indian venture that can print self-published books.

NOTE: If you have only little time, you can also find Small Micro Jobs

 

5. Sell Designer Merchandise

You can sell personalized designer items online to earn money.

Can you draw well enough? Have you ever thought that even your drawing (or even doodling) can help you make free money online?
You can print designs, drawings or photos created by you on items like coffee cups, t-shirts, bags etc. and then sell them. A friend of mine is pretty good at making designs. She created her own zazzle online shop and began to sell stuff. Here is how it works:

• Create your design and fine-tune it
• Register at Zazzle.com and create your own shop (it’s very easy!)
• Zazzle has merchandise items like cups, cards, t-shirts etc.
• Customer comes to your online shop. He selects a design from your catalog and then selects a merchandise item. Customer then places order to get the item with your design on it.
• Zazzle prints your design on selected item and send it to customer.
• You get your share from the money earned by Zazzle.

Besides Zazzle, CafePress and Threadless services are also good options for minting online income!

6. Become Video Publisher through YouTube Channel

YouTube pays well for the monetized videos. Create interesting videos to make money from Internet.

I am sure you have watched more than one videos on YouTube. All internet users have! It is after all the world’s largest video sharing service. But now enough of just watching. Create your own videos and share them with the world. What’s more, you can earn money from these videos!
You can shoot small (or big!) video clips using mobile phone, handycam or professional video camera. Or you can make videos from pictures using your computer. OR you can create animated videos and tutorials. Once your video is ready, upload it on YouTube and monetize it. YouTube will show ads along with your video and share revenue with you.
A lot of people have earned great amount of money through this online work. Most of it is home-based job —but you may need to venture outside to shoot videos.
Skills required: Know how of shooting and editing videos.

7. Find Online Jobs of a Wide Variety

If you’re looking for providing admin or technical support to others, there are several places where you can find jobs. Just browse through them and select the one that suits you.
oDesk, for example, is one such place. Clients post job details on oDesk and job seekers like you take on the work. Mostly the work involves working through computer and internet. However, it entirely depends on the specific job. You may get work like software or web development, writing assignments, proof-reading work, business development etc. There are lots of jobs to choose from.
Other similar places are eLance and TaskRabbit. TaskRabbit also offers jobs that are not entirely online (for example, helping someone with moving their house).
Skills required: Depends on the job you select.

8. Become a Translator

Lots of translation jobs are available online for language experts.

If you know any two languages very well, there are plenty of translation jobs available online. And they pay well. You make good money from online work of translation.
Translatorsbase.com is perhaps the best website I know where you can regularly get online translation work. You will need to bid for every piece of work and if you win the bid, work is yours to do and the client pays you through the website. You can do translation work on your computer and submit the finished work through Translatorsbase.

9. Online Transcription Jobs

In transcription, usually you need to listen to an audio or video and type out what was spoken in that. Or you may be asked to look at an image (like a receipt) and type out the text details visible in there. It may sound easy, but trust me this work requires patience, experience and skills. Being able to understand various accents, hand writings and thorough knowledge of the language is a must.
Such jobs are available through oDesk, eLance etc. But Amazon Mechanical Turks is a specialized service that offers what they call “Human Intelligence Tasks”. These are the tasks that computer can not do perfectly and therefore require human intervention. That intervention is what you provide!
Client offers a specific payment amount for every such job. You can decide whether you want to do that job of the offered price or not.

10. Affiliate Advertisement Income

Affiliate Marketing is a great way to earn money from your blog or website.

If you have a successful blog or website, you can also get affiliated with other vendors and show their ads on your website. If a customer sees an advert on your website and through that purchases an item from vendor’s online store, you get a commission from the sale amount.
Affiliate advertisement is different from Google AdSense. You get paid from AdSense on clicks (cost per click or CPC model)… but in case of affiliate ads, you get paid only when customer really purchases the product through an advertisement on your website.
Commission Junction (now known just as CJ) is probably the best place to find affiliate ad opportunities. It is a website where you can get affiliate offers from a large number of brands and vendors. Companies like Amazon, eBay, Flipkart also run their separate affiliate programs. You can use them too. I would recommend that you select an affiliate product which is relevant to the content of your own website. Such products convert the best into real sale (and therefore into real money for you). For example, if you have a blog on books, you can show affiliate ads from Amazon showcasing only books.

11. Sell Your Old (and New) Stuff

There are hundreds of online services where you can easily sell your things that are no longer in use. For example, if you’ve an old mobile phone handset lying useless in your drawer, you can sell it on eBay or Cragilist (oh, this Craiglist thing was really useful when I was living abroad!). If you’re in India you can use OLX and Quickr. These are free classified ad websites. Almost all of them have a mobile app as well. All this makes it pretty easy to convert old and useless stuff like CDs, books, clothes, stationary, toys into money.
I wonder if you would put this under “making money online” category! Well, I certainly would!

12. Online Coding Jobs

If you’re a programmer, you can find ad-hoc coding jobs online. Just take the project, build it, test it, submit it and get the payment. Freelancer (formerly known as Rent-a-Coder) is out there for years. It does not matter which programming language or platform you can work on, you’ll find jobs for all. Freelancer website does the job of connecting programmers with clients. There are other alternatives like Guru, oDesk, eLance and TaskRabbit.

13. Start an Online Newsletter Magazine

Ok, I have already told you about writing a book and also about becoming a blogger. But if you don’t want to post daily (as a blogger does) or sit for weeks or months to write a book —then you can opt for the fabled Middle Path; that is to say that you can serve content as a periodical.
You can start a e-newsletter (or a e-magazine) and ask people to subscribe to it for a fee. Websites like MailChimp can help you manage subscriptions and dispatch of your e-newsletter. If your newsletter has a wide reach, you may also be able to show ads in your newsletter and/or find sponsors for your newsletter.

14. Be Creative, Sell Online

Many websites like ArtFire and Etsy allow you to sell whatever creative you can make. Take a look at these websites and you’ll be astonished at the variety of stuff people make and sell it through Internet. Larger web stores, like eBay, also allow you to make money from your creative instincts.
You can make interesting stuff with junk, knit wooly patterns, create funky jewellery, hand-paint vases, make stuffed toys —trust me if you try; you can really work at home and then convert it into a business with the help of the network of networks, the amazing Internet. Earning from internet is not entirely a myth after all!

15. Lend Your Voice!

Got a good voice? Record. Send File. Get Payment! There are hosts of voice-over jobs available on Internet.

Have you got a deep baritone voice? or a bubbly, chirpy one? or may be the one that has the chime and clarity of a tolling bell! If yes, you can online lend your voice as voice over artist. You can narrate stories, news and other text items. A friend of mine uses Umano and he is pretty thrilled with the experience. You can also use VoiceBunny or Voice123 for the same purpose.
You would need to have a good audio recording setup at home and that’s all. Just pick a job from above mentioned websites, do it by recording your narration, upload the resultant audio file. And then get paid for your work. All this can be done from your desk at home. Dreamy? Nah! it is a good reality. Come on! jump on the bandwagon of online professionals.

16. Help Kids in their Studies

I have already mentioned SkillShare and Udemy as websites where you act a bit like a lecturer. You make courses and people buy them. But if you don’t wanna get into full-fledged course development and just want to help students with their current academic issues, you’re still in luck as there are several online places where you can get tuition assignments also.
Here you can help kids with their school or homework and teach them specific subjects. Tutor.com and TutorVista.com are among such websites where you can get online tuition assignments.

17. Sell Photos Online

Photographers can sell their work through various websites.

Do you love photography? Do you click good enough photos? Well, if yes, you can find a buyer on websites like iStockPhoto and CreativeMarket. Don’t think that your photos are not good enough. Give it a try —and you may be in for a surprise! Folks out there need all sorts of photos for publishing online and in print. So, number and variety of photos required is never enough. Go ahead and be a professional photographer!
And, by the way, if you look great… you can even sell your selfies. But first you’ll have to learn how to take good selfie photos. Then try your luck (however, you must consider privacy concerns in case of selfie.)

18. Sell Website, Domain Name or Mobile Apps

If you own a domain name or a website (even a defunct one!) or a mobile app… and you want to sell it off, you should visit Flippa or Sedo or GoDaddy Auctions. On these websites, you can set a base price for what you’re selling and then perspective buyers bid in an auction format. Such a model maximizes your earning from selling domain name or website or mobile app.
I have mentioned above about building website or a blog in order to earn money online. But it is not always that people become a successful blogger. After a point of time, most bloggers feel frustrated, just call it a day and quit. What’s left behind is a constructed website and a domain name. If you have no plan to proceed further with your website or blog, you can always sell it to get money from what’s left.
A word of advice here, do not get into full-time blogging from the beginning. Professional blogging is a tough nut to crack and it takes quite a bit of time before you will be able to earn enough money from blogging alone. Begin as a part-time blogger and then later on switch to full-time.

19. Become an Online Website Tester

UserTesting is a place where crowd tests websites. Webmasters and e-commerce companies hire people like you to surf their newly built or renovated website. You surf the website and provide them with the feedback. And you get paid or this! Easy, isn’t it? Well, yes, it is one of the easier online jobs. But again, you need to take it seriously. The more useful feedback you can provide to the website owner, the more jobs you’ll be able to find in future.

20. Make and Sell Music

Apart from voice-over, which I mentioned above, you can do another recording based work. If you know how to touch the right chords on a musical instrument —you should compose music and then sell it online. No need to keep running after music companies. Other companies also need music. You can compose and sell smaller tunes like jingles, ringtones and even full-songs.
There are online music stores where you can directly sell music MP3 files. These stores include iTunes (oh well, you already know it! don’t you?), Pandora, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play etc. There are also online services which put your music in these stores on your behalf. DistroKid and loudr.fm are among the better choices.

21. Become a Guest Writer

If you’re an expert in a particular field (like technology, health, cars, business development or anything else) you can write guest posts for bloggers who run profitable blogs on these subjects. Some big bloggers who make money from blogging, can pay good amount of money if you can write an authoritative post for them. You can even earn as much as $500 by writing just one article! I have written an article about what is guest blogging and how should be done.
Remember, easy it may sound, but you get money from guest blogging if you really are an expert in your field. People do not pay for mediocre guest articles.
I hope this information was useful for you. Please feel free to ask should you have any questions on this topic. I will be happy to try and help.