KSA عربي
KSA عربي
Global عربي
It’s easier than ever to make money online. The hardest part is knowing how to start. In this guide, we’ve broken down the 12 easiest ways to start earning money online. More often than not, it doesn’t require too much experience.
Whether you’re between jobs, looking for a side gig to top up income, or a small investor looking to earn a little extra to invest with, this is for you.
The age of remote work means that a lot of work that once happened in the office is now needed from people working from home. Popular, in-demand services include digital marketing, web development, AI prompt writing, graphic design, copywriting and more. This type of work offers maximum flexibility.
There are a lot of great platforms that can connect your skills with clients who need them (see below). Typically you just need to make a profile that highlights your expertise – uploading work samples goes a long way. Earn good reviews from completing projects and you can raise your price.
Platforms: Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour
If you want to sell items online, but don’t want to deal with inventory and shipping, then E-commerce and dropshipping is the way to go.
With dropshipping, you partner with manufacturers (popular sites that set up dropshipping include AliExpress and Spocket). You only buy the items after customers place an order.
To succeed, you need to find a profitable niche. Look for things with steady demand but low competition. Historically, niches like eco-friendly products, pet accessories, fitness gear, home decor and tech gadgets have done well.
Where do you start? You’ll want to build a recognizable brand and write persuasive product descriptions. Social media ads can help drive traffic, especially early on.
Platforms: Amazon, Etsy, Shopify
Read more about: How to Set Up a Dropshipping Business in Saudi Arabia?
A ton of great online platforms make selling print-on-demand (POD) and other digital products a great way to build passive income.
With POD, you simply upload custom designs for things like t-shirts, tote bags, or mugs and the platform prints and ships the items. You earn profit from the sales without ever having to deal with the physical merchandise.
Popular digital projects include e-books, online courses, stock photos and even Canva and Notion templates. The brilliant part is that once you’ve created the product, it can be sold repeatedly for no extra cost.
What’s popular? Those who succeed tend to create a design or choose a topic that solves a problem or inspires the audience. Again, social media marketing can go a long way, especially early on.
POD platforms: Printful, Teespring, Merch by Amazon
With affiliate marketing, you earn commissions by promoting other companies’ products or services. All you have to do is share a unique referral link, and if someone makes a purchase through it, you get a percentage. It’s low risk, since it doesn’t require any capital.
To excel, you need to have an audience online that trusts you. You can build trust with honest reviews, product comparisons, and tutorials. If you can find products that match the niche of your audience, that’s probably where you should start.
Top affiliate channels: Amazon Associates, ClickBank, CJ Affiliate, Impact
Investing in stocks and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) is a proven way to grow wealth online.
Not much capital to play with? No problem. Platforms often allow fractional investing, meaning you can buy parts of shares for as little as a few dollars. By making consistent monthly contributions, reinvesting dividends, and holding long-term you can build up wealth even with small amounts of capital.
Robo-advisors, which use automated algorithms to manage your investments based on your goals and risk appetite, can build and manage a diversified portfolio for you. Regulated online brokers offer easy-to-use apps to invest yourself.
Robo-advisors: Betterment, Wealthfront
Regulated online brokers: eToro, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood
Read more: How can a Muslim investor choose the right ETF?
Crypto and digital assets offer high-risk, high-reward investing.
If you’re a small investor, you can try dollar-cost averaging, which means you buy small amounts regularly to reduce the impact of volatility, and then hold long-term to grow with the market.
With DeFi platforms (Decentralized Finance), you can earn passive income via staking, lending, or yield farming, which are different ways to earn on crypto. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) allow artists, musicians, or other creators to monetize digital assets
- Crypto exchanges: Binance, Coinbase
- DeFi Platforms: Aave, Uniswap, Curve Finance, Lido Liquid Staking
If you’re someone drawn to media and storytelling, you might consider turning creative ideas into videos and tutorials.
If you grow an audience, you can earn from ads, affiliate links, or product sales. YouTube pays creators through ad sales in its partner program. TikTok and Instagram creators meanwhile attract brands with viral short-form content.
Beyond ads, influencers often make real income by promoting sponsored content or striking brand partnerships, meaning companies paying to promote their products to your audience. This typically works best when the products align with the audience niche and is something you authentically use.
Blogging is another option. If you consistently publish SEO-driven articles, your traffic can help you earn from display ads, affiliate programs, or digital product sales.
Another way to turn skills you already have into income is by offering online tutoring or coaching.
This one just takes a bit of soul searching. What are you good at? Many people make a living teaching languages, academic subjects, even fitness and music – if you have a passion for it, there might be global demand for learning it. Depending on the time you have, you can offer one-on-one sessions or pre-recorded lessons via the platforms below.
Platforms: Udemy, Preply, Teachable.
If you have specialized skills but can’t commit to a long-term job, you can offer small, one-off tasks that utilize your skill set.
The tasks that have demand really run gamut: everything from data entry, transcription, logo design, to editing videos and short articles. They typically pay per task, so the key thing is that you can do them efficiently. Building up a portfolio will help you get higher paying projects.
Platforms: Fiverr, TaskRabbit, or local gig marketplaces
Buy low and sell higher, that’s the wisdom of all things business. Online services now make this easier too. The trick is to source local items that can sell for more online, especially on global marketplaces where people don’t have access to your local market.
Where to start? Try to spot underpriced products like collectibles, electronics, or fashion items that someone in another market might pay more for. Try a category of products and test it. Online tools can help you track price trends and market demand.
Marketplaces: eBay, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace
With passive income, you typically don’t need to spend much effort once the setup is taken care of. A classic play is dividend stocks and ETFs, since you can continuously reinvest the dividends and take advantage of compound investing.
Earning royalties on digital products like e-books, online courses, music or photo licenses can also become a source of growing passive income if you can get your work on popular platforms like Shutterstock or Gumroad.
Renting digital assets is another emerging trend. This means things like leasing domain names, advertising space, or even virtual real estate on spaces like metaverse environments.
Read more:Compound Investing vs. Simple Investing: Key Differences Explained
If you don’t have specialized skills, there are still many simple ways to earn bits of extra money online by doing surveys, cashback apps and microtasks.
Users on the sites listed below get paid to complete small tasks, like watching videos, testing apps, tagging images, or filling our surveys. Cashback programs meanwhile reward you with money or points for shopping through their links.
It might not mean big money, but it can provide steady supplemental income.
Platforms: Swagbucks, Toluna, InboxDollars, Amazon Mechanical Turk
Cashback apps: Rakuten, Honey
Disclamer:
This post is for educational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice or a solicitation to take any financial action. It should not be relied upon when making investment or financing decisions.
