This is real, but you have to work. All of these methods need time and effort on your part and if you can follow it to the end, you can be sure of making extra dollars every month consistently.

In this article we shall focus specifically on ways to make extra income online. You just need a computer and internet connection at home to work. No more hassles. So plan your schedule and dedicate time accordingly.

If you are just starting out, you need to spend some time to learn. As your move on, slowly and steadily you shall see more opportunities lying ahead.

1. The Best – Blogging

Blogging is a very popular way to make money online. A blog is your own website where you write and publish articles on a certain topic that you have knowledge about. Other people worldwide find your website to learn about the same topic.

When other people visit your blog, they can click on an ad or an affiliate link to make a purchase somewhere. This way you end up making money.

Here are some ways to make money from your blog:

• 1. Advertisements
• 2. Affiliate Promotions
• 3. Selling your own digital course
• 4. Sponsorships and paid content

Pros

• Can make money passively
• Complete freedom
• No work commitment, or obligations

Cons

• Takes a lot of time to make money.
• Lot of things to learn.
• Small initial investment needed for domain and hosting
• Some risk involved

2. The Fastest – Freelance Writer

Freelancing is one of the fastest way to start making money online. You can work for clients from all across the world and get paid.

Freelance writing is a big business online. There are hundreds of thousands of freelancers worldwide that sell their writing services to make money online.

If you think you are good at writing then try out this method. All you need is to connect to clients that are looking for writers. And this is not difficult at all. There are online marketplaces that connect freelance writers with clients.

Here is a list of the best freelance sites for writers:

1. Upwork
2. Fiverr
3. Problogger Jobs
4. Freelancer.com
5. Guru

You can signup on the above marketplaces and start looking for writing projects.

Pros

• Start making money quickly
• Use your existing skills. Little need to learn new things
• Flexible in work timing. Work from Home
• No risk of any kind.
• No investment needed

Cons

• Like a contract job. Get paid only when work done.
• No passive income or long term returns

3. Freelance Graphics designer

If graphics designing is your skill then you can do it for clients online. People are looking to hire graphics designers for jobs like logo designing, banner designing, infographics designing, artwork etc.

You can join freelancing websites and look for projects related to graphics designing and then connect with clients to work on their projects.

1. Upwork
2. Fiverr
3. Freelancer.com
4. Guru

Besides graphics designing, thee are many more skills that are in great demand like video editing, animation designing. If you can do those fancy stuff, then you have the opportunity for work on similar projects.

Pros

• Start making money quickly
• Flexible in work timing. Work from Home
• No risk of any kind.
• No investment needed

Cons

• Needs specific skills
• May have to learn and practice new tools and techniques as per industry requirements
• Like a contract job. Get paid only when work done.
• No passive income or long term returns

4. Freelance web/software developer

Freelance software development is one of the most popular ways to make money online. I myself worked as freelance software developer on Upwork and Freelancer for many years.

Software development is a vast subject and industry and there are numerous technologies to work with. Depending on your skills, you could be a web developer, mobile app developer, or a desktop application developer.

Technologies include php, python, html, javscript, android and ios development etc. If you don’t have any experience of coding and still want to become a freelance software developer then you can first read online tutorials and watch youtube videos to learn. Then you can start looking for projects on freelancing sites and work on them.

I personally worked as a software developer for over 5 years and made a full time income from it. It works and is great if you like coding.

1. https://www.upwork.com/
2. https://www.fiverr.com/
3. https://www.freelancer.com/
4. https://www.guru.com/
5. https://www.toptal.com/

5. Voice over artist

6. Social media marketing manager

Social media marketing is a kind of skill that requires knowledge of both marketing, effective copywriting and social media. Its a completely new branch of marketing that companies all across the world are slowly beginning to use.

If you think you have these skills then there are opportunities for you out there. Small and big companies need someone to manage their social media profile and create effective marketing strategies to generate business from this channel.

For example you can manage the facebook, twitter, pinterest, instagram profiles for a company and develop a marketing strategy to generate more traffic and leads. The company pays you for this service.

Pros

• Start making money quickly
• Flexible in work timing. Work from Home
• No risk of any kind.
• No investment needed

Cons

• Needs specific skills
• May have to learn and practice new tools and techniques as per industry requirements
• Like a contract job. Get paid only when work done.
• No passive income or long term returns
• Highly Results oriented – You have to deliver results

However, social media marketing has its own challenges. You have to be able to deliver results to your clients and make sure that they achieve their goals of generating more business. Its not a submit your work and get paid kind of business model.

You have to generate more business and eventually more profit for the client and then only shall your service be considered valuable.

This needs knowledge and experience on how to use social media effectively for promoting a product or service or whatever the client is selling.

7. Translation services

Similar to writing, translation is another kind of service that has a good market out there. If you are fluent in 2 or more languages you can help your clients translate documents from one language to another.

For example from English to Spanish or the other way. Or Japanese to english and vice versa.

Translation projects are available on most freelance websites and market places like upwork and fiverr.

8. Transcription services

Transcription jobs involve listening to some audio and writing it in text format. Sometimes the audio can be in a different language and then its very similar to translation.

Transcription and translation is an ideal job for those who have a good grasp over writing in one or more languages and can help others translate audio or existing text from one language to another.

For example if you are good in both Spanish and English, then you can help someone transcribe spanish audio to english text and so on. Or you could just convert english audio to english text, though that would be a very easy job and would pay lesser.

Knowing more than one language can be a great advantage in transcription services as you would not only be transcribing but also translating which means you are delivering more value and hence get paid a higher price for your service.

Most online outsourcing marketplaces have separate categories for transcription and translation where thousands of jobs are listed every month or so. You just need get started with it.

Pros

• Start making money quickly
• Flexible in work timing. Work from Home
• No risk of any kind
• No investment needed
• No need to learn any software or application as such

Cons

• Needs specific skills
• Like a contract job. Get paid only when work done.
• No passive income or long term returns

One important advantage of this method is that you don’t have to learn any software application or new skill. You just need a computer and a software to type documents into.

Here are some quick links:

Upwork Transcription Jobs

You could also list your own transcription gigs on Fiverr, and charge your own rates.

9. Online tutoring

Online tutoring is an emerging market segment, wherein teachers or experts can help others learn a subject by giving online tuition classes. For example someone from a non-english country might want to learn english and you can help them learn english because you are a native english speaker.

Search google “online tutoring jobs” to find more resources.

10. Online data entry – Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistant jobs are probably the easiest kind of spare time/part-time jobs that you can do to make some quick extra cash. Basically you do very simple tasks like data entry into excel spreadsheets or typing documents etc.

You can find plenty of virual assistant jobs on freelancer.com and Upwork, or you can list your own gigs on fiverr, and let clients find you.

11. BONUS – Start a youtube channel

Video blogging is the new emerging trend for content creators, though not everyone has the skills or feels comfortable making videos. But starting your own youtube channel can be a great way to setup an online business.

If you think you can videos then definitely give it a try. Running a youtube channel is in itself a big subject and needs a complete training course. However there are plenty of training videos on youtube itself that teach you how to start your own channel and run it as a successful business.

Or if you know somebody who is running a youtube channel you can seek guidance from that friend to help you get started. Or may be I shall post about it sometime in future.

Conclusion

Those were some of the best ways to make money online from home. You can make upwards of $1000 per month if you have the right skills and the time to use them.

Setting up your online business is not an overnight thing. You need to put in time and energy and be patient. With efforts in the right direction you will eventually reap the profits.

Think carefully and chose the correct business model that matches your skills and mindset. If you are not in a hurry to make extra money and are willing to invest time, you might try blogging as it can be a great source of passive long term income.

On that other hand if you dont want to invest anything and just offer services in exchange for quick money then writing or virtual assistant can be a great option. But remember, that the earning potential may be lower on this route.

So you are running a niche site and want to promote other people’s product and services as an affiliate to make some extra money.

Affiliate marketing is the golden way to monetise the content on your blog or niche site and if done in the right way, it can make a serious amount of money passively.

If you already have a niche website or are planning to build one, its important to find the best products in that niche and promote them all. Yes, the more products you can promote the more are the chances of you making a sale.

Depending on what niche or vertical you are in, you may be able to promote both physical and info products or just one of them. Besides promoting products you could also promote services to generate leads.

1. Amazon Affiliate Program

The amazon affiliate program lets your promote any product from the entire collection of physical products that are selling on amazon. Its a great affiliate program for beginners because of the following reasons:

• 1. There are lots of products to promote
• 2. The conversion rates are high. Everyone shops at amazon
• 3. You get commissions for indirect sales as well (products you did not promote but the user bought).

For most niches, there are almost always some physical products on amazon that can be promoted on an affiliate site.

For example if you are in the cooking niche you could promote kitchen appliances. If you are in the travelling niche you could promote travel gear and related products. Or if you are into gardening you can pick out the gardening tools from amazon and promote them.

Commission are created after about 2 months of the sale and then payments are released when you reach the minimum threshold of $100. Payments are sent via cheque or direct bank deposit.

2. Clickbank

Clickbank is one of the oldest affiliate networks that primarily focuses on selling digital info products. They have digital products in a variety of niches and markets ranging from health, business, sports to spirituality, parenting and home improvement.

The good thing about clickbank is that the products are digital and customers get access instantly and hence the products are sold worldwide without any geographical restrictions.

Also the commission rates are quite high. There are products that pay upto 90% of the sale amount as commissions. Higher commission rates means more money for affiliates

To find out offers for your niche, visit https://accounts.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm.

On the left column you shall find the categories. Select the category closest your niche market and then start taking a look at the products.

Another alternative to Clickbank is Digistore24 which hosts digital products similar to that found on clickbank under numerous categories. If you do not find the product of your choice on clickbank, check this one.

3. Shareasale

Shareasale is another affiliate network that has a large collection of physical products being sold by various merchants on their own website. Shareasale just refers the customers to the merchant’s website and the actual transactions happen on the merchant’s website which is later reported back to shareasale.

There are lots of merchants in various categories like apparel, technology, web services etc. The process of promoting a shareasale offer is different because you need to get approval from every merchant whose product you want to promote.

Initially this might feel quite tedious, but if you have a good niche site up and running, setting up shareasale affiliate offers will take some time for once and then you are good to go.

4. Commission Junction

Commission Junction is another popular affiliate network where there are lots of merchants whose products you can promote on your website.

It is similar to Share a sale.

5. CPA Offers

CPA marketing is another great channel to find and promote affiliate offers on your website. You typically need to join a cpa network like maxbounty, affiliaxe or smartadv.

Once you are inside the network, you can browse through a huge list of offers from different niches and industry verticals like tech products, nutra products, insurance and loan offers, pet products and so on.

There are some aggregator sites that collect cpa offer details from various cpa networks and let users find the ones they need. Here are two such popular website:

https://www.offervault.com/
https://odigger.com/

6. Search Google

The easiest way to find affiliate offers specific to your niche or market is by using google.

Search google for terms like “ affiliate offers”. For example if your blog is about travel then search for

travel affiliate offers
travel affiliate programs

If its about pets then search google with the search term: pet affiliate offers. Google shall reveal some of the highest paying affiliate offers for your niche.

There are a lot of niches where brands run their affiliate programs directly on their own website or platform and not via third party affiliate networks like Shareasale or CJ Affiliate. In such a scenario it is best to find them directly via google.

Some examples of such niches are travel, fashion, pet products, apparel, flight booking, hotel booking etc. In these industries, the product owners or brand run their affiliate programs directly and you can signup on their respective affiliate portals to work with them.

7. Spy your competitors

The final and most effective way to find good affiliate offers in any niche is to spy on your competitors. Look out for websites similar to yours and see what offers they are promoting. If some other affiliate is promoting a product, chances are that the product is converting quite well for them.

This way you can quickly find winning affiliate offers for your niche without have to do the hard work of searching and testing offers all by yourself and waiting for months.

The first step would be to make a list of websites that are in your niche and promoting affiliate products. Next, start reading their website and see what offers they are promoting in their articles, posts and ad banners. Make a list of those products and search for their affiliate offers on google.

Once you have found out, start joining those programs and start promoting them on your website.

Conclusion

It is always a good idea to promote multiple affiliate offers from multiple different networks, specially if you want to make good money and be risk free.

Find the best offers that convert well and pay genuinely and timely, is not quick process. You have to shortlist a bunch of highly relevant and targeted offers and then place them in the proper place on your website in the form of ad banner or contextual link or a review article.

Then test if for several months and see the ones that are generating the most earnings. Once you find the winners you know what to do next.

I hope, the above list helps you to find high covnverting offers for your niche site or blog. If you have any questions or want to share your experiences feel free to comment.

If you are planning to build an amazon affiliate niche site or want to improve an existing one, then take a look at some of the other websites in your niche to get bright ideas.

Websites ranking well is an indication that google likes them and so you can get some insight into what kind of content google would like to see. In general google likes websites with lots of useful content that satisfies readers.

Take a closer look at your competitors to get topics and content ideas and how to structure your article. Next step would be write content on your own niche site or blog following these ideas and inspirations. It takes time but observing your competitors’ success is the best way to find the right approach to your own success.

Here are some excellent examples of amazon niche websites that you can follow and learn from. Take a look at some of the websites from your niche,

1. Outdoor Gear

Outdoor gear includes camping equipments, and accessories along with ourdoor sports accessories as well. Here are some example of niche sites promoting outdoor stuff.

www.outdoorgearlab.com

2. Power Tools

Power tools are used by engineers and workers in various construction jobs. There include drills, laser measuring devices etc. Its a great niche with a huge online market.

https://bestofmachinery.com/
https://www.drillanddriver.com/
https://www.finepowertools.com/
https://justcordlessdrillreviews.com/
https://craftsmanprotools.com/
https://cordlessdrillzone.com/
https://toolsfirst.com/
https://www.thetoolsy.com/

https://toolinspector.com/ – Reviews various products like reciprocating saws, belt sanders router tables, drill presses, electric chainsaws, angle grinders. Products sell quite well online and if you have a good understanding of engineering then this niche is a must try.

3. Home Improvement Tools

https://www.bestorbitalsander.com/
https://paintsprayerguide.com/
https://gopaintsprayer.com/
https://pooljudge.com/ – Pool related equipment

4. Small Kitchen Appliances

Kitchen appliances a perhaps one of the biggest niches. Every household needs these stuff and there a ton of brands and product varieties to promote. To get started in this niche, take a look at some of the websites to get an idea on how to write content.

https://grillsarena.com/
https://kitchengearreviews.com/

5. Woodworking

Woodworking is a very popular hobby needs lots of equipments and machines and lots of them are available on amazon. If you are a woodworking enthusiast or have some knowledge of it, then start a affiliate website in this niche.

https://mitersawjudge.com/
https://www.woodroutersreviews.com/ – Site on various kinds of wood routers and best picks.

https://firstwoodworker.com/ – Reviews products like routes, jigsaws, drill press, hammers, oscillating tools etc.

https://www.woodworknation.com/ – Reviews all kinds of woodworking equipments and has lots of guides.

6. Gardening Tools

Gardening is not just a hobby, but a lot of people grow actual food in their backyards. And there are lots of equipments that are available for gardening from small to big. Amazon sells a lot of such equipments.

If you have a website on gardening where you teach people how to grow stuff, you can also add review articles related to various gardening machinery and equipments. This would be a great way to generate more passive income from your gardening blog.

If you are planning to start a gardening blog, then check out these niche websites to get an idea as to how to structure and layout your gardening website, for the best results

https://gardenbeast.com/
https://todaysmower.com/
https://www.backyardboss.net/
https://www.gardenconsumers.com/

7. Tech Niche

Well, the tech niche is a no brainer. There are tons of tech gadgets that everybody uses all days. And people read reviews online when buying such tech gadgets. These include computers accessories like headphones, laptops and general tech gadgets like smart watches, photography drones etc. The list is huge. Check out these websites to learn more.

https://headphonesaddict.com/
https://nerdtechy.com/

Tech niche is also a very competitive niche. There are lots and lots of sites reviewing computer accessories and gadgets. So you would have to make a smart content strategy to rank your website.

8. Baby and kid products

Baby niche is a huge market with thousands of different kind of products. Babies need special care and so there are special products and gadgets for them. There are babies and moms all the time so this is season-independant niche that can be promoted all the year round.

However you do need to have some understanding on the subject before recommending products.

https://littleonemag.com/
https://www.babygearlab.com/
https://rascalrides.com/
https://www.twowheelingtots.com/

9. Industrial Products

https://weldinginsider.com/ – Covers mostly welding equipments.

10. General

These sites review products from multiple categories.

https://www.gearhunder.com/
https://trustedbeasts.com/
https://www.5best.com/
https://gadgetsdeck.com/
https://10masters.org/

11. Large sites

Here are some of the largest review sites that are very popular. They also get a ton of traffic as well.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/ – Wirecutter a big review site. Its owned by NewYork Times and they review almost all kinds of products.

https://www.toptenreviews.com/ – TopTenReviews is another big review site that builds product review tables as well as review articles on all kinds of products.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/
https://wiki.ezvid.com/
https://www.consumerreports.org/

Conclusion

If you are outsourcing content from writers, then it would be a great idea to show these websites to your staff writers so that they can learn the exact writing style needed for affiliate websites.

Looking at the content on your competitors’ website is just one way of researching the niche. If you want to study your competitors’ site in great details, I recommend that you use an intelligence tool like Semrush.

With Semrush you can find out what keywords the other sites are ranking for and what other potential keywords you can target on your on niche site. The golden rule is to target low competition keywords that are easy to rank for without building backlinks.

And the cheque denomination is in USD which makes it take longer than usual to credit in Indian bank accounts.

Here is a short note about my first experience with amazon.com USD cheques.

Amazon payment schedules

Whatever commissions you earn in a particular month are credited to your balance 2 months later. So whatever you earn in January is credited on 1st March to your earnings balance.

Afterwards, in whichever month your earnings balance cross the $100 mark, you are issued a cheque on the 31st of the the same month. So if you made $100 in commissions in January, it gets credited to your balance on 1st March, and the cheque is issued on 31st March.

Arrival via Post

Recently I received my first cheque from amazon.com associates program. The cheque was issued on October 31st and arrived at my address on 14th November. That’s about 2 weeks.

Update – 2nd Cheque

The 2nd cheque was send on 30th Jan and should have arrived by Feb 15th, that is 2 weeks later. However it arrived on 10th March. The envelope had a stamp mentioning “Passed by Customs”. So it seems that cheques might take even longer and longer to travel.

How is the cheque send

The cheques are send via US Post and not any premium courier service like Bluedart. Many years ago when Google Adsense used to send cheques, they were send via Bluedart courier service and reached faster and could be tracked on the Bluedart website.

However, no such options are available with Amazon cheques. They shall arrive via usual postal service in your city.

Clearing in Indian Banks

After having received the cheque, the next big thing to do is to get it cleared in your bank account. I am not aware of how different banks operate, but most of the major banks including SBI, ICICI, HDFC and Axis accept foreign currency cheques.

My account is with Axis Bank. The cheque deposit process is different than usual. You cannot fill up the ordinary paying slip and drop the cheque in the clearance box.

I had to go to the Forex department ( they hide somewhere in the backside of the bank premises ) and fill up a small clearance form and submitted the cheque along with that. You may have to fill in a one time declaration form to mention the source of revenue.

The cheque was submitted on the 15th of November and was credited to my account on 15th December. About 30 days later. That is too long a time. I wish this could be little faster.

Conclusion

If anyone of you have had better experiences like faster cheque clearance in the bank, then please let me know.

Some other bloggers ( here and here ) have reported that HDFC and ICICI banks also require a similar period of time to get the cheques to clear in your account. Someone said, that SBI does it a bit faster.