Now that we have talked about how going online presents you with an array of income opportunities, we will tell you how you could make the best use of your expertise.
Here is what you need to know in short – working online opens up a plethora of opportunities.
If you have a skill, there is a job for you. And then some jobs don’t require any particular kind of skill either. Here is a snapshot of some of the ways you can make money online using your skillset. We will take a look at the different ways to make money online by using your skills. With the right freelance writing jobs, you will get started on your freelancing career before you know it.
1. Work as a Freelancer
This is the best way to make online over the longer run. Several sites offer freelance work like Crowd Content, Upwork, Freelancer, People Per Hour, and Fiverr. You need to find a legit way of making money from home opportunities.
Not all are the same, though, and you would need to see which platform is the right one for you.
Take Upwork, for example. Signing up is free, and with a free account, you can bid on 30 projects a month. To join most of these sites, all you need is to enter a few valid details like your email id, and name, as well as take a test.
You then need to create a profile showcasing the kind of services you are offering. It has more than 5 million clients and 12 million registered freelancers and offers work for almost every kind of freelancer like web designers, writers, data analysts, testers, and developers with levels of expertise ranging from entry-level to expert.
When you find a job that matches your skill and expertise, you can bid on the project. Some projects might require you to attach a cover letter or a sample of your previous work. The clients will interview you to match their requirements and can engage you with short and long term projects.
What you wouldn’t love as much?
There are hundreds of thousands of people like you already online, and you would have to deal with people from countries all over the world, who can work at rates that could seem peanuts to you.
The minimum hourly rate on Upwork, for instance, is $3 and 20% of your earnings go to Upwork as commission.
The Other Costs
If you are a paid member of Upwork Pro (monthly fee of $15 currently) you get around 100 proposal credits. You can also see your competitor bids.
However, subscribing to the pro plan does have its benefits.
As an Upwork Pro member, you can charge between $30 – $70 an hour if you are a developer.
How Should You Go About It?
Before demanding the big bucks, do a few oddball lower paid jobs to rank up your profile. You would get the feedbacks needed from clients, and could just gain more visibility you need to get noticed.
Designers and creative artists charge $20-$75+ an hour, marketers and writers charge $20-$75+, and freelancers offering customer support charge between $10-$30+ an hour.
Similarly, Freelancer charges up to $199.05 a month from freelancers and takes 3% of your earnings.
2. Teaching Online
If you like to teach or have a particular skill for which you think you can become an instructor, there are several sites you can enrol with.
Udemy, for example, has 20,000 instructors and 15 million students looking for a teacher who they can learn something from. These sites come fully equipped with course design tools which will let you design your own online course. You can earn good money by reaching several students at your chosen time and earn handsome payments.
The Costs
All you need to do is create a profile, publish your content and promote it. Udemy charges 3% processing fee on your earnings when you promote your course and 50% commission when Udemy promotes it for you. Most instructors on Udemy make $7,000 a year.
You can also operate out of several sites like Brainmass, Clarity, Ether, and Createpool which allows you to teach any of the skills you have.
If you do not want to use any of these sites you can also promote your brand by advertising your services online on sites like OLX.
If you are able to connect with students, you can get them on Skype or any such video calling apps and take an online class after you mutually decide upon payments. You can also host your own website using WordPress or LearnDash.
On WordPress, you can create courses using LearnPress and make use of its free testing and quizzing tools. You can also create your website using GoDaddy which allows you to choose any course topic, design a course, record course videos, edit and publish your course, and promote it using social media.
What can you teach?
Teaching doesn’t just have to be about formal education. You can teach music, photography, fashion, technology, just about anything. Skillshare is another platform where you can get in touch with people who are willing to learn such skills. Classes on Skillshare are pre-recorded and average 30-40 minutes. You can earn in royalty whenever someone accesses your classes and can earn up to $3,000 a year.
Another way to teach your skills is by uploading videos on YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon and CloudFront. On Cisco Webex you can also offer live training.
WizIQ is a platform that allows you to deliver courses live by hosting a webinar.
3. Write content for Websites and Magazines
If you have good command over a language and can produce engaging and interesting content, you can also make money online as a writer writing for magazines and websites who can pay you very well.
You can choose to work out of freelance website like was discussed earlier. Or you can also approach websites who are willing to pay you to write content for their website or for write article or guest posts. Some of these can even pay you up to $300 for a single blog post. But, you need to have what it takes to get there.
TopTenz is one such website which publishes over 2.4 million pages of top 10 lists that are read by 1.6 million visitors every month. They can pay $50 for a post. Listverse is another website that publishes listicles and pays $100 for one post. Make a Living Writing and Dollar Strecher are some more genuine websites that will pay you good money for your words.
WOW (Women on Writing) is an online magazine that pays you $50-$150 per post. Smashing Magazine is another online magazine for web design and development. It invites post about best practices and useful techniques in the niche and the pay depends on the quality of your content and the word count.
SpyreStudios is another online magazine in the same niche. There are also several magazines for photographers and UX developers, technology enthusiasts, lifestyle writing, travel, and parenting. If one particular niche is your strong suit, then option are certainly many.
If you really have the skill, you can also approach some popular magazines like the NY Times, and New Statesman.
4. Develop Educational Content for Websites
You could create educational content on a variety of subjects on websites like Udemy. Udemy is one of the largest online educational marketplaces and is very easy for instructors to get started. They handle all the payment processing and video hosting. Educational content can be shared in the form of Power Point, PDFs, or videos.
You can price your courses anywhere between $20-$50 and Udemy will take 50% of the revenue for promoting your course when someone accesses it. You may want to go individual over the longer run but if you’re starting out, Udemy is a good option.
Teachable is another such platform. Unlike Udemy, Teachable helps you host courses on your own website and also lets you control student data and pricing from one place. They charge $1 + 10% of all your transactions.
Even if you have a day job as a teacher or used to be a teacher, you can now be an online tutor with these sites and reach students across 190 countries worldwide.
There are several other sites like Tutorvista, tutor, Transtutors, and Buddyschool, all of these are online marketplaces for selling your expertise as a teacher in the educational niche.
You can also publish and sell your courses on WizIQ or create an educational website with WordPress like some of the top schools like Harvard have done.
5. Write and sell eBook
Digital reading devices are a rave these days and authors are now capitalising on eBooks. All you need is to choose a topic you are knowledgeable and passionate about to create an informative and interesting eBook. Identify the target market and centre the content in the book around their needs. The content should be unique and have a catchy title.
Use good imagery, and consistent formatting, proofread it yourself when you complete it or maybe hire an editor to do it for you. Once your book is ready, create an attractive cover design so that your book is not left behind being judged by its cover.
Create a cover that will make the book a seller. Convert the eBook into a file format that is supported by major platforms like Amazon Kindle, iTunes etc. The universally accepted format is ePub. You can also sell it as a PDF which is convenient for many readers.
If it is your first time, make the price a bit competitive. Once you become popular, you can charge a good price. Make use of social media to promote your eBook or talk about it on your blog. Spread the word among your family and friends. You can sell it on your blog itself if you already have a good following or select an online marketplace.
Since this is an eBook also make sure it is SEO optimized. You can also get in touch with bloggers that write about the same niche and ask them to review it. You can sell your eBook on Amazon, Craigslist, PayLoadz, etc. You should have a good marketing strategy to get your book more exposure. If the book doesn’t sell as you had expected it to, then you will need to revise your marketing strategy.
One of the best ways to earn money though, is to invest in e-commerce. It’s a sure shot way to earn money, and one of the best avenues to double your income. We will have a look at it in the next part of the course.
