32 Not so Difficult Ways to Make Money Online Without Blogging About Blogging

It’s amazing to me to think that I’ve been blogging since 2012. It’s actually something that I continue to enjoy and I imagine that I will continue running blogs for the next couple of years. When I started I never intended to make money online. In fact, I randomly ran two very different blogs-one about personal finance and the other about Colorado. In 2015, I took the leap and decided to try making money outside of a regular 9-5. I loved the idea of making passive income but I wasn’t serious about it until about a year ago. In between 2015 and now, I’ve made money online a number of different ways and have observed many other people doing the same. Let’s be clear, the online content creation is still in the “Wild West” stage of possibilities. What do I mean by that? There is still a crazy amount of opportunities to leverage with online business. If you don’t think making money online is possible for you, please remember an artist sold a DUCK TAPED BANANA to a wall for $120,000 at the Art Basel show in Miami in December 2019. You can make money online. You just have to put in the work, focus, and make adjustments when things aren’t working the way you would like them to. Read on.

*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*

Thinking About Starting a Website for Your Project?

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32 Ways to Make Money Online

Most people get a little salty about the fact that a lot of people are making money online by…talking about making money online. Well, don’t get salty! Here are some additional ways to make money online that may be a better fit for you.

• Host Webinars/Events–You probably have a question that people ask you all the time. Those people may live in your town, or have connected with you online. You can help all of them out by hosting a webinar that you charge admission for and then teach all the things! This is a great way to make money because it: saves you time from time intensive “pick your brains” and you’re able to help people who are looking for your advice. Finally, you are paid for your time which also communicates the value of the information that you’re sharing with your webinar attendees. You could also create unique events that aren’t specifically a webinar. Maybe you have a specific area of interest…like ComicCons. Maybe you host ComicCon Cosplayers to talk about “How to Build a Cosplay Business” or “How to Create Cosplay Costumes that Stand Out” think outside the box!

• Host In-Person Events-Now, yes, the whole idea of this post is making money online. But, you would be selling your tickets via: Online ticketing platforms, social media, and your personal platform. In-person events are a great way to connect with people who have been following what you’ve been working on.

• Affiliate Income–I have to admit, affiliate marketing is one of my FAVORITE ways to make money. Basically, you’re sharing your favorite goods and services that you are obsessed with and swear by via the content that you’re creating. This could be via your blog/vlog/podcast/podcast show notes/social media. When people sign up for these products as new users, you get a small percentage of their initial purchase (if they sign up using your affiliate link). A great resource to help you get started with this process is “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing” a course created by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner who has made over $5 million online, the majority via affiliate marketing. I know her personally and she knows what she’s talking about! Listen to the following podcast episode with Michelle where she shared her tips and tricks for reaching her firs $10,000 months with affiliate income.

• Podcast Sponsorships-So many podcasters are so passionate about the topics that they share with the world. But, they are so uncomfortable with the idea of pitching for sponsors. There is the belief that: you need a ton of downloads, a huge audience, etc. in order to get a podcast sponsor. My first sponsor never even listened to my show. He just liked the mission of the show. Remember “A closed mouth doesn’t get fed.”  If you know you want to make money with your podcast when you launch it, start pitching for sponsors before you launch. Your potential sponsors will say either “yes or no.”

• Write and Publish Ebooks-I LOVE THIS STREAM OF INCOME!!! I actually run a course called “Make Money with Ebooks” and make thousands a year self-publishing non-fiction and fiction books. Do want to know the best thing about publishing your own books? If you’re creating your own brand, you can self-sponsor your podcast/vlog/blog/etc. with your own books. It’s a great way to build passive income into your business that introduces future customers/clients to you at a low price point. Then, when you would like to sell something at a higher price point, it’s easier to sell to those customers.

• Virtual Assistant Business-When I first took the “leap” and was self-employed, part of my income came from Virtual Assistant work. I managed to land a couple of really cool clients and think that VA work is a great way to transition into online work. But, I wish that I’d had access to the following tool “$10KVA” a course that my friend Kayla Sloan created. She regularly makes over $10,000 a month as a virtual assistant and now teaches the following: how to set up your business, the legalities, how to find clients, and the course also has a client database where you can find well-vetted future clients (who pay good money) for virtual assistant services. Listen to the following podcast episode with Kayla as she breaks down how to get started as a Virtual Assistant.

Sell Your Skills Online

Do tasks that people don’t enjoy doing!

• Podcast Editing-I love being a podcaster, but editing your own shows can be a pain in the a$$ and super time consuming. If you love podcasts and are great at editing audio content, this could be a lucrative business for you. Podcasting continues to grow as a content medium and a lot of hosts don’t have the time to edit their shows.

• Video Editing-To be honest, people are sleeping on this as a way to make money because they are overthinking what it means to be a video editor. You could run classes to teach people how to edit their own video. Especially, how to shoot and edit video on Android or Iphones (two separate classes). Then, you could also offer the actual service where you have clients send in video that they’ve shot and you edit the content for them. In fact, I’ve been waiting for a service like this for years because I’m not excited about learning video editing. Now, there is a business in Denver that does what I’m looking for. Check it out to get some ideas.

• Social Media Marketing Services-If you’re running a business in 2020 and beyond, not only are you focused on the day to day activities that generate sales, you also have to focus on social media/branding/and sales. If you’re obsessed with helping business sell their products online, business branding, and are organized-this is a great way to make money because EVERYONE in business has at least one social media profile.

Teach What You Know

• Host Sponsored Digital Webinars-Specific to certain types of content. Find a sponsor for a webinar that you would like to run and also charge a small fee for attendees. The most challenging part? Pitching!

• Become Known as “The Authority” in whatever are of interest that you’re focused on. Basically, become know for talking about one thing and one thing only. And exploring every single aspect of that topic. My friend Sandy Smith is known for talking about side-hustling. She’s created a 14,000+ community for women of color looking to earn more money via side-hustles. She now has: courses, an academy, sponsorships, and an event as a result of becoming known as the go to person for the topic of making more money side-hustling. By the way, Nick Loper/Chris Guilleabeau are also in that space. But, the audience that they attract is completely different.

• Optimize Your Podcast Show Notes for affiliate income. It drives me crazy when podcasters resist having a website. Note: I didn’t call it a blog. But, a website. It drives me crazy because it’s a lost opportunity.
  1. Most people who don’t have the Iphone native podcasting app actually find shows via organic searches
  2. Those shows lose SEO search engine juice. The shows are only existing on someone else’s app service
  3. You can’t optimize your show notes for affiliate income if you don’t have a website. It’s very difficult to do. Yes, people listen to podcasts. But, they also will go to the show notes to sign up for helpful resources or to check out something that was referenced in the show. And, most of us won’t remember everything so sending us to your show notes is super helpful.

• Create a membership program! You may decide to share your expertise in small bites with your community via a membership program. I’ve seen this organized in a couple of different ways. Online influencers will charge a flat fee for the year or an ongoing monthly fee and host their community in a closed Facebook group or a self-hosted space that the organizer pays for. It’s my view that you should always have the goal of moving your community to a space that YOU own. Remember MySpace? Exactly.

• Become an Online Coach-I’ve paid for online coaching services to help me with branding and marketing and it was worth every penny. As an online coach you can help your clients in a couple of different ways. You provide access to you during the duration of your coaching program. Coaches can create “done for you” or “help you as you go” programs. Coaching can be quite lucrative, but you’re dealing with people and you have to make sure that you’re able to help your clients with the transformation or support that they’re paying for. Types of coaching examples include: Mindset, marketing, sales, brand building, fitness, health and wellness, and confidence to name a few.

• Create a Course-One of the best actions that I took in my business was creating my course “Make Money with Ebooks.” It has been growing nicely and has helped a number of people become non-fiction and fiction authors. By creating a course, I am able to direct people to a pre-made resource that is available to them at the click of a button. Once you’ve created a course, you can create an affiliate program and have other people sell your course for you. If you run a Vlog/Podcast/or Blog you can self-sponsor those with your course.

Sell Stuff

• Sell your photos/Stock Photo website-Especially if you’re a person of color. Create a subscription service for your photos. Or, sell your photos to other websites. If you’re constantly looking for photos that represent YOU then you know other people are as well. That’s a business opportunity.

• Sell Things on Ebay-Do you have a good eye for items that will resell at a higher price? Sell them on Ebay! I’m not sure how it works, but my friend Jason Butler runs a course all about it.

• Monetize Your Existing Facebook Community-No, I’m not saying charge to be a part of your community. What I’m suggesting is directing your members to different products that you sell-in as natural a way as possible. You don’t have to do a hard sell to get people to click on your affiliate links, get cookied for your courses/affiliates/etc. But, they can’t buy from you if they don’t know that you’re selling something. And, get them on your email list. Facebook provides group leaders the opportunity to ask three questions when new members are opting into your group. Provide a useful tool or resource as one of those questions. Get them on your email list and share products with them via email.

• Ads-This one can be controversial, but having ads placed on a website that is generating a good amount of traffic is a great way to grow passive income. One thing to consider if you do this is: user experience. I have to websites, one site I have no problem at all adding ads to it. The other site I’m less enthusiastic about it.

• Sell Your Services on Fiverr-AND, make sure to have upsells for those services. Create different packages for your services, then additions to those services that clients would pay for. Before you do this, you need to really think about how much time it takes you to complete each task. Don’t undercharge.

• Create Niche Websites-My Colorado website, Square State,  is a niche website. I love sharing content about Colorado and I decided that it would be better to share that content and interest on its own website.

• Partner with Brands as a Brand Ambassador-You would work out the deliverables that make the most sense with the brands that you’re partnering with. For example: they may want you to do a Twitter chat/Take over their Instagram Feed/A podcast interview/or create a blog series. It could be a mix of all of them. No matter what, go above and beyond when you work with brands. Have them coming back for more.

• Freelance Writing-Is so lucrative! There are so many people/organizations/businesses that don’t have the time to work on their blog related content even though it’s a valuable part of their marketing strategy. I’m about to add freelancing back into my revenue streams and typically I’m paid a minimum of $275 or more a post. It depends on the organization/scope of work. Because I’m growing my passive income, I’m picky about my clients and will drop them like a hot potato if there are issues.

• Launch an Amazon Store-Sell actual physical products that YOU DON’T HAVE TO TOUCH and get them to your store’s clientele. Sandy Smith from The Hustle Crew has a course all about setting up your Amazon store. Click here to check it out.

• Sell Maker’s Items on Etsy-I love Etsy! And, if I were crafty at all, I would be selling on it too. If you’re a creative and love making macrame, finding cute vintage clothing, making jewelry and more-sell on Etsy.

• Start a T-Shirt Store-People love, love, love wearing t-shirts. Start selling yours today. And, Sandy Smith has a course about creating a t-shirt business as well.

• Become a Pet Concierge-There is a guy in my neighborhood and all he does is walk dogs. He is making BANK. Is super chill and loves what he does. But, a pet concierge would do other things in addition to walking the dogs. You could get people to schedule everything via your website, provide information on dog friendly places in town. create partnerships for people and puppy events. Pick up dogs and take them to their vet appointments when their person aren’t able to do it and more. All for a fee of course! Work out different packages or a monthly subscription service for it.

 More Ways to Make Money Online

• Create an Agency-For one of the following services: marketing/website fixes/podcast editing, etc. Hire on other people to fulfill easy projects that would take up too much of your time. You would get a percentage of for each project completed.

• Get Paid to Speak-You don’t always have to travel as a speaker. You could speak in large Facebook groups and negotiate with the group leader the possibility of selling/sharing whatever you sell that is appropriate for the community that you’re speaking in. Typically, the group leader would get a percentage as an affiliate.

• Sell Helpful Resources-For specific communities. A great example of this is selling teaching plans. Teachers spend a ridiculous amount of time planning their coursework. Tools that help them save time and help them professionally are a win-win.

• Become an App Developer-There are actually websites that help would be developers create a customizable app for the community that they would like to help.

• Teach What You’re Doing-The old “Blog about Blogging” system for making money online. Haters can hate, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching people how to run a blog/vlog/podcast/etc. I think what many people forget is that the messenger can make a big difference to the recipient. Some people are wonderful teachers for me and other people are horrible for me. This is why it’s possible to have 1,000 people teaching the same exact topic. Also remember that you only need a small number of people to make life changing money.

A Word of Caution

There are so many ways to make money online that you can find yourself going down a rabbit’s hole of choices. Try out a couple at a time and see how it works for you. Even though I am adding freelance writing back into my revenue streams, it’s not one of my favorite ways to make money. But, because I make passive income with ebooks/affiliates/and my courses/I’m able add in other revenue streams and drop them whenever I feel like it. Currently, I’m growing 8 different revenue streams and I will be honest and say it took several years to figure out the mix that worked best for me/my readers/and my listeners.

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Michelle

I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.

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