22 Surefire Ways To Make Money Online
The internet is changing. We can all see it happening in real time. It’s clear as day. And what we’re witnessing will go down as one of the most historic transformations in human history. That’s no exaggeration. Because AI and automation are about to turn lives and businesses upside down.
Industries will be decimated. Jobs will be lost. And the way we communicate, live, shop, work, and make money online will change forever. As we battle to control AI before it controls us, a power struggle will emerge.
No one knows who will win. But we do know who will lose. The everyday average Joe. The working man. And woman. The question is, are you ready for it? Are you ready for a complete upheaval of everyday life? Because whether you like it or not, it’s coming for you.
But this isn’t all about doom and gloom. This isn’t designed to make you afraid for the future. It’s more so to prepare you and ensure you’re ready for the tidal wave. Mostly because the way we make money online today is shifting so dramatically that everyone needs to be prepared.
The New Online Currency
There are millions of people vying for something that only a few have. It’s something that we all want but very few of us get. This “thing” is the new online currency. And as AI and automation change everything for us, making life and business much easier, the shift to this new online currency will only accelerate.
The new currency of the internet is attention. Without attention, you’re a fish out of water. But getting attention is hard, right? Sure, you can easily pay for attention. You can run an ad or boost a post. Everyone knows that they can do that at any moment of any given day.
But real attention that’s organic and natural should be your focus. Because no matter what changes occur, your ability to command attention will ensure your ability to make money online and offline for years to come. So how do we command attention?
There’s one primary way to do this—post often. Commanding attention isn’t easy. So you have to post often. And to do on the platforms that count. Today there are so many platforms. Google, YouTube, Medium, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook, and more.
The point is to put a system in place to post authentic content that shows you in your element. It doesn’t matter where you post, the point is to post as often as possible about what you do. Being visible will allow you to command attention. And when you have attention, you can sell anything online.
How To Make Money Online Today?
There are lots of ways you can make money online today. But with so much changing, you need to adapt. Forget about doing low-priced gigs or bidding on hundreds of projects. That’s all a waste of time. And soon, much of that will be gone in the wake of AI and automation.
The best way you can make money is to understand a very important principle in business. Elon Musk once said, “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve.” So if you solve small problems, how much money do you think you’ll make?
And here’s the thing. People will pay a lot of money for you to solve big problems. So how do you go about identifying and then solving problems for people? There’s actually a process to this. And at its core will be your offer. Your offer is the thing that solves the big problem.
I call this the I-4 approach:
- Identify The Person: The first thing is to identify the person. This is your target audience. Create an avatar for this person. Who are they? Get very specific about the details here. It’s also important to choose the right person. Broke college kids can’t afford to pay you much money, but a dentist or a chiropractor will be able to. You need to know who this person is in great detail.
- Identify Their Problem: What is the problem that this person is struggling with? It has to be identifiable. It also has to be a high-value problem. Don’t waste your time with low-value problems. AI and automation are about to kill all of those soon. Make sure the problem is solvable by you and that it directly impacts the person’s ability to generate more revenue.
- Identify The Solution: What is the solution? Make it specific and make it measurable. If you don’t have a specific solution that’s measurable then you will struggle to make money. Remember that people are always willing to pay for solutions to their problems. And people are willing to pay a lot of money for solutions to complex problems. That will never change.
- Identify The Offer: What’s the offer? Is it valuable? Myron Golden calls this a premium value offer. And people are willing to pay a lot of money for offers that solve major problems. Think of it like this. A fast food joint can hire a cashier. That’s a small problem and thousands of people can solve it. But what about increasing traffic, sales, conversions, or the average order amount? Those are more complicated problems.
Here’s what I’m getting at. Rather than wasting your time with low-paying gigs or skills, create valuable offers to bigger problems. Spend all your time thinking about this because your ability to solve problems on this level will dictate the amount of money you’ll make well into the future.
#1 — Launch An AI Agency
With everything happening in AI, it’s overwhelming. Things are changing by the day. And when you launch an AI agency you can provide AI services to companies. You can do this by identifying bottlenecks and then providing AI as a solution to those bottlenecks.
Companies are willing to pay for this. Not just today but well into the future. There are so many tools in so many areas of AI now that it’s overwhelming for most average entrepreneurs and business owners. Use the I-4 Approach and build out a solid offer and agency sales funnel.
#2 — Build Sales Funnels
Websites are dead. They are. Today, a company needs a sales funnel to grow. Most don’t know that. But sales funnels offer a direct singular path forward. Websites have too many options. That often leads people to feel overwhelmed by the amount of choices.
The best part is that it doesn’t require any technical knowledge to build sales funnels. You simply need a sales funnel builder like this one. Most of them have drag-and-drop editors with premade templates. You simply need to understand the mechanics of how and why they work.
#3 — Build Apps
Today, you can build apps with ease using AI. There are many AI app builders out there like this one. Most of this is automated and AI builders today can turn designs into code. There is some customization required for more advanced apps. But simple apps are easy to build.
The best part is that you can make money online by building these apps for businesses. Every business needs an app. And depending on the complexity of this, you can make a lot of money (or a little money) depending on the client’s needs.
#4 — Create A Social Media Marketing Agency (SMMA)
So much has changed now. TikTok has taken over short-form videos and YouTube is pushing its YouTube Shorts heavily. Instagram is also trying its hand at the short-form game with Reels and Snapchat is still out there kicking. But most business owners still struggle with social media.
That’s where you come in. Create an SMMA and get highly visible on the top social media platforms. You can use AI to help automate a lot of your client workload. But companies are willing to pay a lot of money for others to run and manage their social media profiles. So don’t sleep on this opportunity.
#5 — Offer Professional Services
Yes, AI is taking over. And soon enough, most professional work will be handled by AI. But that’s still a little bit out. Today, you can still offer professional services to companies like copywriting services, graphic design, and more.
These professional services can either be done by you, done by AI, or done by other service providers. You can simply be the middle man to the work. Use social media, video marketing and other platforms to promote your work by creating valuable short-form video content.
#6 — Provide Automation Services
Companies are willing to pay for automation. Most don’t understand how to connect different systems. That’s where you come in. This doesn’t require technical skills or web development knowledge at all. That’s the best part about this.
You can easily automate different departments at a company by using Zapier to connect different systems. This is a zero-code platform. You can also use ChatGPT or Grok to improve code for automation if necessary. For example, you can distribute leads using automation across multiple salespeople.
#7 — Build Chatbots
Businesses need chatbots. Now more than ever. And well into the future. To make money online you can build chatbots. But the best part is that you don’t need to know how to build them. There are several AI tools you can use to create these chatbots for businesses.
Many platforms allow you to do this. Plus, you can connect the power of ChatGPT to these easily by using Zapier. There’s some legwork you have to do, but it doesn’t require any web development skills. And businesses will pay a lot of money for you to build tools like these for their businesses.
#8 — Launch An SEO Agency
Companies still need SEO. Especially when it comes to Local SEO services, this is extremely important for visibility. To make money online, consider launching an SEO agency. But make sure you understand the mechanics of how SEO really works. Because, when you do things the wrong way, you can really mess things up.
Make sure you don’t use old outdated tactics like Private Blog Networks (PBNs), low-quality content, spun content and even AI-generated content. Plus, don’t outsource content creation without using tools like Copyscape, GTPZero and others to audit the content and make sure it’s unique and non-AI-generated content. Although AI is good for some things it’s not good for this.
Learn how to build high-quality content with high-quality backlinks along with how internal SEO and page experience works. And you’ll be well ahead of 99% of most SEO companies out there.
#9 — Do Affiliate Marketing
One of the best ways to generate an online income is through affiliate marketing. But it has to be done the right way. Do not spam links and blast people with direct messages. That’s not going to help you at all. You need to build relevant content on YouTube, TikTok, and Google to gain traction.
Any type of affiliate marketing has to come with delivering real value. You need to know your audience and build a bridge page. A bridge page is just a way that you can collect contact details before forwarding a person to the affiliate offer. This way you can also add them to your email sequence.
The best type of affiliate marketing is done by creating valuable trainings upfront and delivering so much value even before a person clicks through to the offer. This way, they’re more than happy to give you their contact details because you gave them so much value upfront.
#10—Content Marketing
Content comes in many forms these days. It can be written, in video, audio, on social media, etc. Companies are always willing to pay you to help market their content. That means you’re helping to build content about whatever products, services, launches, or initiatives they may have going on.
This is an easy way to generate an income because every business needs more content. Depending on the level of content you can produce, and how deeply you can impact the key performance indicators (KPIs) will dictate just how much money you can make doing this.
#11 — Email Marketing
One of the most effective ways to make money online is through email marketing. Email marketing relies on a list. So you need to build an email list to engage in email marketing. But if you’re doing anything online to run traffic to offers, you have to make sure you build up your list in the process.
Email marketing relies on building a relationship with your audience. So you need to tell effective stories. And you use those same stories to sell your audience on whatever it is that you’re peddling. This is also known as story-selling.
#12 — Blogging
Blogging is a great way to generate an income. But it takes time. Blogs can take years to build up enough authority to rank for competitive keywords. In the meantime, you can create excellent content on platforms like this one. Medium has a massive following and is a great place to build content to reach a wide audience.
However, building your own blog is important. Yes, creating content on other platforms is terrific. But you want to have your own place you make as your online hub. This is typically where you’ll link out to your lead magnets.
For blogs, it’s also important to stick to a niche. Pick the topic you’re most passionate about and build the blog in that niche. Make sure it’s a niche that you can monetize if you’re serious about using your blog to earn an actual income. Keep in mind, most blogs don’t make any money. So to make it happen you have to stay persistent with it.
#13 — Manage Vacation Rental Properties
Vacation rentals are a very popular thing. Even today. Even in the wake of the Airbnb takeover. Airbnb gives you a platform for managing rentals for others. So you don’t need to actually own the properties. Find property owners that have second homes in your area and offer to help them rent it out on Airbnb.
Most property management companies will take a 20% to 40% rake on the gross rental rates. So depending on the quality of the rentals, you could stand to earn a substantial amount of money with this.
#14 — Build An Online Membership
Today, online memberships are easy to build using sales funnel software. All you need to do is find something you want to teach people about and create a membership area where you can deliver content regularly.
Memberships are also a great way you can generate recurring income. Meaning, it’s income that will keep going every month without having to find new customers all the time. Think about it like online real estate. It’s almost like you’re renting out apartments.
#15 — Sell On Amazon
Most of the products found on Amazon are sold by third-party sellers. Amazon calls this Fulfilled-by-Amazon (FBA). While you can sell other people’s products, this can get tricky. It’s best to create what’s called a private label brand.
A private label brand is basically your own brand of products on Amazon. This way you don’t have to deal with copyright issues trying to sell someone else’s product. This is not a quick way to make money though. It takes time.
Not only do you have to create the products, order the inventory and get it all to Amazon. But you also have to optimize those listings, get reviews, and actively run ads on Amazon. So it’s not easy at all. But once it takes off, it is well worth it.
#16—Create A Shopify Store
E-commerce is booming. And it’s only going to go higher from here. If you want to sell something, create your own Shopify store. It’s simple and easy to do. The only hard part here is getting people to your storefront. To do that you have to command attention.
You can sell your own products or you can sell products for others. Either way, you need to get people to the store and find products that give you enough margin that you can make a profit after acquiring the customer.
#17—Faceless YouTube Videos
Another way to make money online is to simply make YouTube videos. You don’t need to be in front of the camera if you’re worried about that. You can make faceless YouTube videos. As long as your videos are educational or entertaining, and you can get people to watch most of the video, your channel will grow.
Pick a niche and focus on it. Find problems people struggle with in that niche and create content around it. You can also use AI tools like Synthesia to convert simple text into video in minutes. This allows you to build out your video content incredibly fast.
You can also use ElevenLab to generate your voice using AI alone. All you need to do is upload voice samples. You can even use AI to generate a completely different sounding voice, in the case where you don’t like the sound of your voice.
#18 — Create An Online Webinar
To supercharge your money-making capabilities, you can create a webinar. A webinar is a web-based presentation. Webinars help to sell high-ticket products or services by helping customers break false beliefs that are holding them back from buying the thing you’re selling.
People have false beliefs about the vehicle (the thing you’re selling) based on past experiences with something similar. They also have false beliefs about what they are capable of doing (internal). And they have false beliefs about other things (external) that get in their way like time or money.
Webinars are generally around 90 minutes and longer. To learn more about creating a webinar you should read this book that breaks the entire thing down for you.
#19—Create Online Courses
There are several online marketplaces and platforms where you can create courses. Depending on how much control you want over your course, you could pick one over another. You can build courses on Udemy, Kajabi, ClickFunnels, Teachable and others.
Depending on how much involvement you want in marketing your course, you have to choose the right platform that’s a good fit. The most amount of money you can make is when you take full control of the course and design it using the I-4 Approach and you do all the marketing yourself.
#20 — Launch A Podcast
Podcasts are a great way you get both get attention and generate an income. Although podcasting takes time, you can accelerate your podcast growth by posting clips to social media platforms like X, TikTok, YouTube and others.
There are several AI and automation tools you can use to create podcast intros, edit vocal tracks, and even cut up podcasts for you. You can also use ElevenLabs here to take text you’ve written and convert it entirely into a podcast. Although, it likely won’t sound as good as a native recording (yet).
#21 —Do Virtual Tutoring
If you have a skill that you can teach someone, you can do that with virtual tutoring. Although directly exchanging time for money isn’t the best route (since time is our most precious resource), if you’re looking for something that doesn’t require too much marketing or planning, virtual tutoring might be in the cards for you.
Do you know other languages? Skills? Subjects? Are you great at science? Mathematics? Religion? Or any other topic for that matter? Can you play an instrument like the guitar or the piano? There are so many skills you can teach to others. You find students on popular platforms like Tutor.com or find them on your own and teach them via Skype.
#22 — Print On Demand (POD)
Print On Demand (POD) is a simple and easy way to create products without worrying about production, inventory or even shipping. The beauty of POD is that you simply need to create the designs. Companies like Printful, Printify and others do all the heavy lifting for you.
To succeed, you need to appeal to a niche audience and be able to reach that niche audience affordably. Yes, you can do this through paid ads. But you can also use organic methods such as social media, SEO, and even influencer marketing.
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