10 Ways To Make Money Online From The Comfort of Your Home

*Asterisks set out in this article relate to advertising and they indicate that the author receives a small share of sales through the related link.*

The great thing about living in this time period is that we have access to the internet. This enables us to see lots of funny cat video and memes, but that’s not the point!

Most people have internet in their homes and have laptops/computers and smartphones, which makes earning extra money much simpler than it has been in the past.

Many of us want to earn extra cash, for things that we deem important, such as:

Paying off debt
Saving for a house
Saving for a holiday
Treats
Saving for a car

All very worthwhile things, and it’s important to note that millionaires have an average of 7 income streams – relying on one income stream (for example your 9-5 job) means that if something happened such as an unexpected redundancy or illness, you would be left with no money coming in. We can’t have that!

I am a huge advocate of earning extra because it got me out of debt, which I found myself in during a period of postnatal depression, so it was a really tough time for me.

I found myself feeling much better when I focused on additional income streams and was able to start tackling my debt.

There are a bunch of flexible things that you can do from home, and this is appealing if you have an already busy schedule, kids etc. This is what held me back initially, as I had a small child and didn’t think that I could find anything that would fit around her easily.

But do you know what?

I was wrong! In a good way of course – I found loads of things that fit around me looking after her – things that I could do when she was asleep, or things that I could do that could involve her (such as mystery shopping in a kids clothing store, or a soft play visit).

I’ll always try and share things with you that I have personally done, or things that I know could work for you even if I haven’t done it – but this would usually just be because of lack of time on my part. I do try to do all the things, but I tend to focus on one more than the rest e.g. blogging.

So without further ado…

Blogging

Well, I had to start with blogging after just mentioning it as something that I enjoy spending a lot of time on! Blogging is, in my opinion, a great way to bring in some extra money, for a lot of reasons, but mainly:

It has a very low start-up cost compared to a lot of companies
It is flexible – you can do it any time of day
You can dedicate as much or little time to it as you want
It is a great creative outlet
You feel like you are making a difference and helping people
You learn more about your chosen subject just from doing research on topics and engaging with other bloggers

Sounds good, right?! Now to be honest with you, blogging takes a lot of hard work and effort if you want to reap the rewards. I wish it were as simple as just throwing up a website and some articles and wait for the money to roll in, but it’s sadly not that easy. There is a lot of marketing involved, good content writing, networking, and there are many new things that you have to learn.

I adore blogging, because once I started my whole life changed for the better, and I have always wanted to earn money from writing, so I feel very lucky to make anything at all – I’m nowhere near the millions that some people make from their blogs!

The main ways in which bloggers tend to make money from it are:

Sponsored posts
Affiliate marketing (such as with networks like Awin*)
Ads
Products
Services

Blogging can be a slow burner, but there’s no reason why you can’t make money from your blog, but you need to be realistic about the amount of time that you can put into it.

I get a lot of questions about starting a blog, which is why I put together a step-by-step guide on how to set one up, and then additionally, a free 7 day email course which runs through the other steps you need to take once you’ve set up your blog.

Matched Betting

In my opinion, one of the best ways of getting the extra money coming in because pretty much anyone can do it.

You don’t need to be good at maths, or know anything about betting…it’s actually nothing to do with traditional betting/gambling, to the point where I should really call it something different because people are put off by the thought of gambling!

So as I said, it’s not gambling.

Essentially, what you are doing is placing 2 opposing bets on 2 different sites, which cancel each other out. The reason for doing this is because you want to get the free cash bonus that the sites offer you – back in real cash form.

If it sounds complicated in any way, it’s actually pretty simple, and I try my best to explain it in the post that I’ve written about it. However, I would suggest just diving in and starting it, because you truly do learn by doing!

In case you are worried about the cash potential drying up, don’t be – there are constant re-load offers and you can earn hundreds of pounds consistently every month.

Answering Surveys

Completing surveys was one of the first ways that I tried out earning extra money online – I was quite wary, and I think it’s good to be wary because there are so many scams out there and dodgy sites. I tried a LOT of sites and quickly weeded out the not so good ones.

My favourite survey sites are:

YouGov*
Pinecone Research
Prolific Academic*

Some survey sites for my U.S. readers are:

Survey Junkie*

Vlogging

This is definitely something that I have planned for the future of this blog branching out, but to be 100% honest with you as I tend to be (I’m an oversharer!) I am waiting until I am happier with my appearance until doing so.

This may sound ridiculous to you guys but I just wanted to be honest and explain why I haven’t started this potentially lucrative side hustle yet.

Vlogging is something that you will probably have seen or heard of already, but in essence, it is a video blog.

There are plenty of people who make a full time living from their Youtube channel, and if you have a look at the channels of the top earners you can definitely see why – they have engaging content and amazing editing skills.

Many bloggers have a Youtube channel as an additional arm to their business, so this is something that you could look at on a part-time basis for some extra cash too. Money can be made from affiliate links, adverts or sponsored videos.

100 side hustle business ideas

Facebook Ad Management

This is a pretty new side hustle that I’ve come across, and I don’t do it personally but I know of people who do and are having great success with it.

It’s definitely something that a LOT of bloggers and companies would pay for, as Facebook ads are great for reach, but they are complicated and you need to know what you are doing in order to target your specific audience.

Ad management is something that you could test and tinker with yourself, but there are courses that guide you through the best ways of doing this successfully such as Bobby Hoyt’s popular course where you can emulate his success.

Virtual Assistant

Once you get into the blogging world, more and more job opportunities come up, such as being a virtual assistant, or a VA as it’s commonly referred to.

This is where you are supporting someone in their online business, such as a blogger.

Examples of services that you can offer as a virtual assistant include:

Scheduling on social media (e.g. Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook etc)
Email management
Proofreading/Editing
Tracking and analysing analytics
SEO
Email marketing
Printable creation
Invoice chasing
Photo editing

In addition to the list above, there are a ton more things that you could offer!

And as you can see, us bloggers have a lot to do behind the scenes – it’s not all about only the content creation, there’s a ton of extra work that goes into it, but most bloggers tend to enjoy some parts of the business more than others – so you can offer yourself as help on the areas that they don’t enjoy doing and need help with.

Freelance Writing

I know lots of bloggers who make money from doing freelance writing regularly, and it’s definitely a part of blogging that appeals to many, but there are businesses (or other bloggers) who are so busy that they need help with their content creation.

Even though I said above about blogging not just being about the writing part, the writing part requires a bit more effort than you perhaps realise, in terms of a particular writing style that you need to use in order to generate sales, and SEO centred in order to rank highly in Google.

However, with that in mind, you can offer your services as a writer to help out people who need copy but don’t have the time to dedicate to it. There are sites that you can sign up to as a beginner, and once you start getting clients you can increase your fee and move on to other sites.

I wrote a post all about the best places to find freelance writing work when you are just starting out, and there is also a course available from a lady who has had huge success in this area (it’s a free course).*

Affiliate Marketing

In case you are wondering if I am repeating myself on this point, I’m not! There are lots of other platforms other than a blog on which you can do affiliate marketing.

You can, of course, set up a blog with affiliate marketing in mind for your monetisation strategy
Set up affiliate websites
Social media platforms e.g. Facebook page dedicated to sharing affiliate offers

There are tons of affiliate programmes out there, and some companies run their own specific programme, whereas lots of others are on affiliate networks. It’s definitely worth signing up to the affiliate networks and requesting to join the programmes which will work well for you. Some networks include:

Awin*
Impact Radius

If you can’t find the company that you are looking for on the ad networks, it’s worth doing a google search, or reaching out to them to see if they will create a unique referral link for you – it’s in their best interest to get you promoting them after all!

I just completed a course from a fellow blogger called Emma who makes thousands each month from affiliate marketing. The course is really affordable and I highly recommend it! Click on this link to sign up and find out all you can about how to succeed in affiliate marketing.*

Use Cashback Sites

This is one of the easiest ways to earn extra income from home and requires such a minimal effort from you, that it’s well worth the rewards that you get from it.

All that you need to do is log onto your chosen site – Quidco* and Top Cashback* are the best – search for the company that you are about to use e.g. Thomas Cook; find the best deal (there will be different deals listed with various amounts of cash back), then click on it and it will take you through to the normal website.

From there you just complete your purchase as you would usually do.

The way that this works is that it tracks your purchase once you have clicked through, and this will generate the cash back.

Be warned that they usually take a while to process and pay this out, so it’s not a quick cash fix, but for the sake of a couple of clicks, you can earn money on pretty much every purchase that you make online.

Gigs on Fiverr*

Have you heard of Fiverr* before? It’s an American website, where a variety of services are offered. I’ve personally bought things from Fiverr before, such as my media kit and rate card design for my blog.

It was a task that I had put off for months and really needed doing, so I was happy to pay a little bit of money for someone to do it, and do a better job than I could have done personally!

The jobs are referred to as ‘gigs’ and you can sell pretty much anything on there – have a look at what is being offered and you will see what I mean by that!

It’s called Fiverr because you guessed it – most start off at $5 (very cheap when you look at the conversion rates!) but the way that you are able to make extra money on Fiverr is by offering additional services.

For example, you could offer the same service with a faster turnaround for more money or any other extras on top. The media kit and rate card that I bought were not $5, but a little bit more (only a little bit, I got a great deal!).

Obviously bear in mind that it is quite competitive on there, and there are people from other countries offering the same services and are used to receiving low wages so they are happy to receive that amount on there.

However don’t be put off, as I have seen some people have great success on Fiverr*, and it’s definitely worth offering something that will take a minimal amount of time for you to do.

So to sum up: