what are the best ways to make money online

In this article, we review some of the best ways of making money online that leverage 'platforms', or online services that you can tap into to give yourself a kickstart.

Hub Pages Review - Earn Affiliate Commissions Writing Articles

  • Ease of Use (2/5)

  • Earning Potential (3/5)

  • Fun Factor (4/5)

Don’t have the technical knowledge to create your own blog site? Are you passionate about a particular subject matter (hobby, career, etc.)? Do you like writing or at least want to practice this skill and at the same time earn from it? Look no further, HubPages is the earning opportunity for you.

Earn from ads and Amazon affiliate links placed on articles you write with HubPages. You can earn anywhere from a few cents to a thousand dollars per month depending on the quality of your articles and the number of followers you have. No need to create and maintain your own blog site, write your passion down with HubPages – free! How much you earn depends a lot on how many visitors you attract with your articles.

You can write anything from staying healthy, sports, spirituality, hobbies, cars, show business, politics, personal finance, pets, religion, travel, technology, and a lot more! Write anything you are knowledgeable with, add value, and earn from it. See the example below of a top writer from HubPages. Notice he wrote 65 articles with pictures and videos and earned $71k for it.

Website: HubPages

Availability: All Countries

Mode of Payment : –

  • Paypal

  • PRO Tips

Get your mindset right – this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You need to write articles that you are knowledgeable and passionate about. In this way, you can create articles that are original, detailed, and will bring real value to its readers.

Aim for 1000+ words per article. They need to be well-written and researched. Incorporating videos and pictures will attract readers.

It takes time to get readers and followers. Consistently publish high-quality articles that people will notice.

Share your best articles on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)

Hub Pages - Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

Few cents to a few thousands depending on how many visitors you attract with your articles. The more readers you have, the higher chances someone will click the ads or Amazon affiliate products placed on your articles, and this is how you earn.

When will I get paid?

You can request payment when your earnings reached $50. Payment disbursed every 28th of the month.

Does HubPages have any referral programs?

Yes. You can earn up to 10% of what the writer earns per article.

High Payout Affiliate Programs – Travel Payouts Affiliate

  • Ease of Use (3/5)

  • Earning Potential (4/5)

  • Fun Factor (3/5)

Create your own Skyscanner or Booking.com kind of website with TravelPayouts and earn every time someone books a flight from your website via the TravelPayouts Affiliate Program. If you search for high payout affiliate programs, Travel payouts should be high on the list.

You can set this up in 2 different ways:-

(1) Put TravelPayouts in your existing blog or website.

(2) Refer a friend using your referral link to TravelPayout’s own website (Jetradar) and earn commissions from it.

TravelPayouts will scan the internet for all available flights, all you need to do is to provide the traffic.

When people book flights, you will get a commission of around 1.1 to 1.5% of the ticket price, see FAQ for the computation. If a person books a $500 ticket, you get approximately $5.5 to $6.2. The best part is, you only need to set this up once and the rest will just be driving people to your website.

Start by signing up with the TravelPayouts website and check which of the many website tools you can use. If you want to set up TravelPayouts on an existing website as a subdomain select “White Label” and direct your subdomain to TravelPayouts.

If you have a WordPress website you can also embed TravelPayouts there. If you don’t have an existing website, you can purchase a web-hosting service from Hostgator, GoDaddy or BlueHost then set up the search bar tool inside the website. You will need basic HTML knowledge to be able to create a simple website, but it should be fairly easy.

Availability: All Countries

Mode of Payment: –

  • PayPal

  • Bank Transfer

  • WebMoney

  • ePayments

Trustpilot: Click here for TravelPayouts Trust pilot reviews.

Travel Payouts - PRO Tips

A good way to do this is to run a travel blog and embed the TravelPayouts engine there. It would take a lot of work but this will ensure that people viewing your site are actually those who are interested in travelling. If you decide to take this route and you don’t have time to write the articles yourself, you may consider outsourcing a freelancer using Fiverr.

Driving traffic to your website is one thing, convincing people to book tickets is another thing. Make sure you do your marketing mix right and create a website that looks professional and trustworthy.

Start marketing your travel booking website with friends and relatives on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms. They are booking flight tickets anyway so why not do it on your platform.

You can earn more with the TravelPayouts referral system. You get 5% of your referral’s earnings.

Travel Payouts - Similar Sites

  • Wego

  • Skyscanner

  • Kayak

Travel Payouts - Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

You will earn approximately 1.1% to 1.5% NET of the total booking fee.

Different partner programs of Travel Payouts (Kiwi, Voyagin, Viator, Hotels.com, etc) have different commission system and 50%-70% of your gross earnings will be shared with Travel Payouts. If Kiwi.com gives 3% per booking, 50% of the 3% goes to Travel Payouts and 50% goes to you, so that would be 1.5% for you.

Do I need to pay anything?

You do not need to pay for registration at Travel Payouts or by using their tools. You do need to invest some if you are planning to setup your own website. Domain name registration will cost around $12 per year, hosting with security features around $6 per month.

When will I get paid?

Payouts are released every 11th to 20th of the next month via Paypal (minimum $50) or bank transfer (minimum $500). Example, earning for November will be paid December 11 to 20.

Do they have any referral programs?

Yes! You get 5% of the income generated by your referral

Is Izea Legit? Does Izea Work?


Ease of Use (2/5)

Earning Potential (4/5)

Fun Factor (3/5)

Izea started as PayPerPost, Inc. in February 2006 in the US and became a publicly listed company in 2011. The platform connects people with high online influence with marketers who wants their message to get promoted on social media. You know when you watch YouTube and some people review lipsticks, lotions, engine oils, food, etc? That’s how this works.

Companies spend a lot on social media advertising because unlike traditional online ads (where people can’t wait to press “skip ads”), social media utilizes the “word of mouth” type of marketing which has been proven to be more effective. You can earn with Izea by posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, or blog sites.

Izea will work well for people who have a lot of followers as they can demand higher rates.

Start by signing up in Izea as a creator and confirm your email. Log in to your account then click the top left corner icon where you can find your initials. Click “Connections” and connect all your social media accounts. You need to agree to all the permissions being asked such as “manage pages”.

After connecting, tell Izea what kind of “Communities” you are serving which means mentioning the interests and demographics of your target audience. All this information will be used by marketers to determine if you are the right fit.

Once done, go to the “Content” tab on the left pane then click “New”. This is where all the jobs are posted. Click the one that interests you and submit a bid together with a short description of why marketers should pick you.

Having a lot of followers will surely come in handy when doing Izea. If you tell advertisers you have 20,000 followers on your Twitter account then you can demand higher compensation per post.

Availability: – All Countries

Mode of Payment: – PayPal

IZEA – Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

Anywhere between $10 to $400 per post depending on the project.

Do I need to pay anything to be a content creator with Izea?

Izea has a Free plan which you can already use to earn but will be limited to 5 bids per month. If you get the Basic plan ($1 per month) or Pro Plan ($5 per month) you get unlimited bids. Pro plans also have priority customer support and a lower cashout threshold.

What are bids?

Influencers and content creators need to bid to get a project.

When will I get paid?

Minimum payment depends on the plan that you are in – Free plan=$100, Basic plan=$50, Pro plan=$25. Funds will be available on the Izea website 45 days after publishing your content.

Does Izea have any referral programs?

Yes! The more creators you invite the higher your commission.

  • 0-9 creators=2.5% of referee’s earnings

  • 10-24 creators=5% of referee’s earnings

  • 25-99 creators=7.5% of referee’s earnings

  • 100+ creators=10% of referee’s earnings

To access your referral link: From Dashboard > select your Avatar > Account Settings > Referrals

Note that referrals expire after 24 months and the maximum referral payout per job is $100.

Do you have experience with IZEA?

Tell us about it in the comments…

Make Money on Indeed.com with Seen

  • Ease of Use (3/5)

  • Earning Potential (2/5)

  • Fun Factor (1/5)

Indeed is a global job search engine platform that caters to all professions. It has a specific program called Seen by Indeed that filters top-calibre candidates for technical positions. Seen by Indeed referral program allows you to earn $200 in gift cards if the referred candidate is contacted by the employer or $2,000 for a successful hire and if the person stayed at least 3 months with the company.

Jobs available range from data science, software development, robotics, IT, online marketing, product management, and UI/UX design. Having technical education and background will be an edge with this opportunity as they will have the right network of people and connections. You can get rewarded for a maximum of 5x per calendar year with this opportunity.

You can also earn by referring to hiring companies to use Seen. The “Employer Referral Program” can earn you 500 USD in gift cards if you are in the US (500 GBP in the UK, 500 EUR in Ireland, and 500 CAD in Canada) if the company uses Seen services for at least 3 months. You get the same limit of 5 referrals per calendar year.

Availability: US, Canada, UK & Ireland

Mode of Payment: Bank transfer

Does Skillshare Work?

With a bit of effort and time the answer to “Does Skillshare work?” Will be… YES. Like anything else, if you spend some time on the platform have a useful skill you can help others to learn, it should work just fine.

  • Ease of Use (2/5)

  • Earning Potential (4/5)

  • Fun Factor (4/5)

SkillShare is a website to get quality courses taught by creators, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Learn (or teach) anything from creative writing, design, web development, photography, music, soft skills, social media marketing, storytelling, business analytics, leadership, management skills, and a lot more. If you want to jumpstart your freelancing career, SkillShare is almost a necessity. There are tons of quality information for a small price. You can join SkillShare for free and get access to 1,800+ courses. Ramp up your learning and access 25,000+ additional courses just for $6-$12 a month. That’s a lot cheaper than other learning websites where you need to pay per course.

Let’s talk about earning with SkillShare. As a course creator, you can earn anywhere from $200/month up to $100k/year! That’s almost comparable to a full-time job. Teachers get paid by the minute that students watch their videos. It works like a royalty system. SkillShare charges a monthly subscription from its students which then gets pooled and distributed to its content creators monthly. Let’s say the monthly subscription pool collected is $1000. If the overall watch time on SkillShare is 100 minutes and your videos were watched for 10 minutes, you get $100 or 10% of the $1000 subscription pool. Don’t start telling your mom to watch your videos 24 hours a day. As long as your topic stays relevant and students watch it, you get paid.

Availability: All Countries

Mode of Payment: PayPal

Skillshare Tips

Teach a subject that you are very familiar with. Experience adds depth and substance to what you are teaching.

Make the course fun and informative. Keep students engaged until the end. Remember the longer students watch your videos the more you earn.

Promote your class on the internet – Facebook groups, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, speciality blogs, and websites.

Skillshare Frequently Asked Questions

How can I start teaching?

Visit the site, sign up and start creating courses – no prior approvals, no certificates or qualifications required. SkillShare routinely checks videos if they adhere to the guidelines which include; no hate speech, no illegal content, no self-promotion services outside SkillShare.

What is the minimum length when creating videos?

Minimum of 10 minutes but most videos run for 30 to 90 minutes.

How much will I earn?

You will earn by royalty system based on the total minutes watched per month.

When will I get paid?

Payments are scheduled for every 16th of the following month. For example, September 1 to 30 earnings will be credited to you on October 16.

What can I teach?

You can teach a musical instrument, animation, writing, drawing, painting, graphic design, photography, web development, cooking, baking, interior design, journaling, business analytics, marketing, leadership, productivity, language classes, and soft skills.

Does SkillShare have a referral program?

Yes. Students who sign up under your referral link gets 2 months premium membership free and you get $10 per sign up. You can get your referral link when you signup under Profile > Refer a Friend > Share your link.

Similar Sites to Skillshare

Teacheable

NewsFlare Review

  • Ease of Use (2/5)

  • Earning Potential (3/5)

  • Fun Factor (2/5)

Earn by selling videos online with Newsflare. It can be anything from current events, festivals, weird customs, funny animals, fail videos, celebrities, sports, bizarre weather, and road incidents (check your dashcam quick!). As long as they are yours and original, you can sell them.

When you upload a video, you are granting Newsflare the license to sell them to interested buyers. You still retain the ownership of these videos but it is important to note that you maintain an exclusive arrangement with Newsflare. This means you can sell your videos on other platforms.

You can earn from Newsflare by direct purchase or by royalty payments. With direct purchase, you will get your money in 24 hours via Paypal. This is a simple buy and sell transaction. Royalty payments, on the other hand, are based on the total number of views from partner websites which include; Yahoo, MSN, AOL, Liveleaks, etc. You will get paid within 90 days.

You can also earn by shared ad revenue with YouTube. Newsflare will use your video and post it on their YouTube channel. You get to share the ads revenue with Newsflare. This method is especially helpful for “ordinary people” to monetize their videos without being a YouTube personality.

Because YouTube now is prioritizing people who do video creation full time. You need at least 4,000 hours of view time and at least 1,000 subscribers in the past 12 months before being able to monetize your videos. You can only do that if you are a hard-core video creator.

Availability: All Countries

Mode of Payment: –

  • PayPal

  • PRO Tips

Check out Video Brief section and post videos there. These are videos that buyers want and will boost the visibility of your video. They can be anything from festivals, events, specific locations, tourist spots, outdoor activities, sports, weather phenomena, cute pets, and others.

Consent of people featured in your videos should be obtained.

Upload videos with proper tags, description, location, catchy title, and date/time. This will help with the visibility of your video.

NewsFlare - Similar Sites

ViralHog

Uscreen

NewsFlare - Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

For direct sale, your vides can pick up anywhere between 25-100 GBP. Really popular videos can get you over 1000 GBP. You can also earn by shared YouTube Ads with Newsflare.

When will I get paid?

Once buyers pay Newsflare fund will be available for you within 24 hours. Minimum payout is 10 gbp.

Do I retain ownership of videos I sold?

Yes, the video is still yours. You are just giving license to buyers to use your videos.

Can I still sell my videos with other sites after selling in Newsflare?

Unfortunately no. You are entering an exclusive arrangement with Newsflare with the videos.

What do I need to note before selling my videos?

They need to be your own videos. They cannot be copied from somewhere else especially if you don’t have the permission to do so.

If your video has background music, make sure they are not copyright protected.

If there is a recognizable face in your video, make sure you get their consent for being in the video.

If you have a minor in the video, make sure you have permission from the parents or guardian.

Does Newsflare have a referral program?

Yes! You get to earn 10 BPB paid straight to your Paypal account if a person you referred is able to sell a video for no less than 40 GBP.

Have you sold videos through Newsflare? Let us know in the comments…

Is Shopify Worth It?

  • Ease of Use (1/5)

  • Earning Potential (4/5)

  • Fun Factor (2/5)

Set up an online store and reach millions of potential customers with Shopify. The website provides templates so you can easily customize and publish your shop even without coding knowledge. It comes with useful features such as Facebook integration which can maximize your shop’s exposure. The basic plan costs $13, then $54, and the advance is $107 per month. The difference between the plans is the number of staff that can access the account, reporting tools, and transaction fees. The calculation for shipping rates is available in the advance plan.

You can purchase your own domain or use the free myshopify.com domain. Having your own domain usually sounds more professional. You are given unlimited bandwidth included with the monthly fee. This means your site can accommodate an unlimited number of visits. You can also install “apps” on your Shopify store to add additional functionalities such as chat features, express checkout, inventory management, popups, email marketing apps, surveys, and a lot more. You do need to pay additional fees to use some of the apps. Below is an example of Shopify apps:

The hardest part of selling online is establishing your presence. Sometimes no matter how good your products are, it’s just so hard to get people to buy from you. Good thing Shopify comes with a lot of useful tutorials online. Simply search “Shopify” or “drop shipping” on YouTube and you get a wealth of information. Learn to decipher which ones are useful.

Availability: – All Countries

Mode of Payment: –

  • PayPal

  • Bank Transfer

Similar Sites: –

  • BigCommerce

  • Volusion

  • WooCommerce

Shopify - Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

It depends on how much you sell. You are in complete control of what you sell, the price, and the quantity.

How much is it to join?

Shopify offers a free 14-day trial without entering any payment details. After that, plans are $13, $54, and $107 per month. The $13 per month plan is enough if you are starting out. You get a 10% discount on annual plans and a 20% discount for a 2-year plan.

I don’t have any products to sell?

You can do dropshipping. You do not need to keep stock of any item, if a customer orders from your Shopify store, it will automatically route to your supplier. Your supplier will pack and ship the item direct to your customers.

Visit shopify.com/guide/what-to-sell for more info.

Does Shopify have a referral program?

Yes. You can apply to become a Shopify affiliate and you will get approximately $58 for every user who signs up with a paid plan.

Is Appen Any Good?

Ease of Use (2/5)

Earning Potential (3/5)

Fun Factor (2/5)

Appen is not your typical freelance service marketplace like Fiverr or Upwork. When you apply at Appen, you actually become one of the 1 million contractors of the company worldwide. Unlike other conventional companies though, Appen workers get to enjoy the benefits of working from home with a flexible schedule. Appen has a presence in 130+ countries and speaks 180+ languages and dialects.

Jobs include data annotation, translation, transcription, data collection (survey), social media evaluation, research, finance, accounting jobs, and much more. Apply online and Appen will match available jobs to you according to your profile. You do need to pass a qualifying test before starting.

Availability: – All Countries

Mode of Payment: – Bank Deposit, Payoneer

Appen - Frequently Asked Questions

How much will I earn?

Varies per project.

Do I need to pay anything to work at Appen?

Nope. You do need a computer with an internet connection.

What do I need to get started?

You need to pass a qualifying exam. The whole process of admission can take up to 14 days. You need to be at least 18 years old to work.

When will I get paid?

Once a month via direct deposit or by Payoneer.

What is the application process like?

Select “Join Appen” then key in the required information such as; location, primary language (press “Add another Language” if applicable), name, address, email, resume, residency history, education. Select Submit then you will be asked to verify your email and cellphone. Make sure you have an internet connection and a QR code reader on your mobile phone. You will then be asked about your familiarity with the internet and computers. After that wait for an email from Appen for the complete instructions.

Does Appen have any referral programs?

No


Is Teespring a Scam?

Is Teespring a Scam? Nope. Teespring is one of, if not, the longest running tshirt platform on the web…

Ease of Use (3/5)

Earning Potential (2/5)

Fun Factor (4/5)

Earn when you design and sell shirts, mugs, pillows, socks, stickers with Teespring. The website will take care of the production, shipping, and payment management. You only need to design and market your product.

You can immediately create designs after signing up with Teespring. The tools are web-based so you do not need to install anything. List the items and create a campaign so that you can market your product. List down the start and end date, set the renewal frequency, and estimate how many can you sell. Teespring will generate a web address that you can use to market your product.

One way to sell your product is by running Facebook ads. Identify a niche group and target them with ads. It can reach hundreds even thousands of people with this method. You can use Teespring’s Boosted Network which allows you to connect with Amazon, Etsy, Rakuten, eBay, and other popular e-commerce platforms. Once the campaign period ends, payment can be requested within 24-48 hours.