21 Ways to Make Money Online by Working From Home in 2024

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, making money online has become a valid career move. After all, we all had to stay home during the pandemic anyway!

So if you seek to embark on your new remote work adventure, this article lists 21 valid methods of earning extra money using online and work-from-home jobs.

Let’s get to it! No time like now to start making a mint!

Long-Term Ways to Make Money Online

First, we’ll focus on a dozen methods to build a lasting business rather than earn paycheck after paycheck. You might need to develop multiple skills to make them work, but the potential rewards are significant. Check out these 12 long-term ways to make money online.

1. Write and Run a Blog

Blogging doesn’t limit how much you can earn, and it has several money-making avenues, from advertising on your blog and profiting from affiliate marketing to writing sponsored posts and reviews and offering premium content unavailable elsewhere.

Be that as it may, it may take up to a year to bring your site to a respectable level, at which you’ll observe a significant return on your time investment.

Successful bloggers can earn anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of dollars monthly. However, to get to that level, you’ll have to overcome several challenges, such as choosing the right niche, creating quality content and growing your audience.

2. Start a Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping businesses are the new craze as they help owners rake in the money without having to stock inventory, juggle supply chains or deal with shipping.

Profits can vary significantly when starting out, but dropshipping businesses have high success rates if done right. If you persist through the first 3 to 6 months, you can expect your returns to stabilize, and your new business will start paying off little by little.

You’ll make money by selling products at a higher price than what your supplier charges you. But you’ll have to research and select a profitable niche, find a reliable supplier, create your online store, and promote your products across most channels.

Your biggest challenges in running a successful dropshipping business are finding profitable products, managing inventory, and dealing with customer service issues.

3. Sell Your Creations on Etsy

Sellers offering their wares on Etsy are passionate creators that make everything from jewelry and knitted clothes to home decor items. However, to see consistent returns there, you must find an audience interested in your creations, which may take up to a year.

That said, if you figure out what’s currently trending and focus on creating in-demand products, your business will be booming in no time, and you’ll be seeing profits monthly.

When selling your unique creations on Etsy, your biggest challenges will be standing out from the crowd with your unique niche and managing order fulfillment.

To get going, you’ll need to set up your Etsy shop, create and list your products, optimize your listings, and promote your shop to attract your target customers.

4. Create Online Courses

Course creators who can share their expertise online can earn substantial money, but it can take several months to create, launch, and see results from an online course.

However, before you start making money by selling access to your professional online courses, you must deal with several challenges, including creating high-quality course content, marketing your course, and dealing with various technical issues.

To get started, identify a profitable niche, plan and create your course content, choose a platform to host your course, and promote it to your target audience.

5. Turn Your Photos Into Cash

Earnings from selling photos online can range from a few dollars per photo to a few hundred dollars per month, depending on the quality and popularity of your work.

While it may take a few weeks to a few months to find an audience and see consistent earnings from selling photos online, you may speed up that process if you focus on an in-demand niche and consistently deliver quality photos.

High competition, maintaining a steady flow of quality photos, and marketing your work are some challenges that business owners face.

To generate revenue from your business, sell licenses to your photos on stock photography websites or use them on prints, T-shirts, phone cases, and more.

Start the business by building a portfolio of high-quality photos, researching and choosing the best stock photography websites, and promoting your work.

6. Make Money on Pinterest

Did you know you can make money on Pinterest? It’s true! Pinterest users can earn a few hundred to several thousand dollars each month. But to get there, it may take up to half a year under the best circumstances since Pinterest is an incredibly competitive platform. 

You can make money on Pinterest through affiliate marketing, sponsored pins, selling digital products, or driving traffic to your website or online store. Joining the Pinterest Creator Fund or Rewards Program are also profitable avenues for top-notch creators.

Start by setting up a Pinterest business account, creating high-quality pins, optimizing your profile, and developing your pinning strategy.

The common challenges you can expect include growing your audience, creating engaging pins, and staying consistent with your marketing strategy.

7. Become a Social Media Influencer

There’s almost no limit to how much Social Media Influencers can earn per post; however, your success will depend entirely on your audience size and level of engagement.

That said, growing a substantial following and getting sponsorship offers takes years, so if you want to make this your full-time job, you must commit most of your time to it.

First, you must choose a niche, create your social media persona, and produce high-quality content constantly, even if your follower numbers are low.

Then, you can generate revenue by promoting sponsored posts, participating in affiliate marketing, selling your products or services, and collaborating with brands.

Becoming a social media influencer can be challenging: you must grow your audience, stay consistent with content creation, and secure brand partnerships.

8. Assist Businesses Virtually

Virtual Assistants earn a few hundred to thousands of dollars every month, depending on their expertise and the demand for their virtual assistant services.

To grow your virtual assistant career, you must master your organizational, communication, and time management skills and gain proficiency in various software and tools.

When starting out, virtual assistants have to overcome several difficulties: finding clients, managing multiple tasks, and maintaining a high-quality service. 

However, you must first create a resume and/or portfolio showcasing your skills, set up a profile on freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, and apply for relevant jobs. Then, you can expect to receive your payments through PayPal, direct deposit, or other platforms.

9. Sell Various Digital Products

Earnings from selling digital products online can range in the mid to high thousands per month, depending on the popularity and quality of your products. Additionally, it can take several months for your audience to recognize your product quality.

Some digital assets you could sell include everything from music or film recordings, 2D or 3D designs, plug-ins for various visualization apps, printable info sheets, flowcharts, user personas, web layouts, graphics templates, eBooks, and much more.

You can find an audience for these products either via third-party marketplaces or by creating your own online destination. Start by identifying a niche, creating your products, setting up a platform to sell them, and marketing them to your target audience.

The common challenges you will have to overcome include creating high-quality and in-demand digital products and marketing and selling your products.

10. Design & Sell T-shirts

Designing T-shirts and selling them to discerning customers can also be a lucrative business. However, to break through on this market and see consistent results, you’ll have to create unique designs that appeal to a large target group.

This venture may take you several months as you’ll have to overcome a number of challenges, from creating high-quality products to marketing and shipping them.

On top of that, you’ll have to choose a quality yet cheap print-on-demand service, set up an online store, and work on promoting your T-shirts across social media.

11. Flip Website Domains

Flipping domains works like flipping real estate: you search for, identify, and buy cheap domain strings, which you’ll later strive to resell at a profit.

Is it profitable? Well, if you luck out, you can make millions of dollars. One such example is the sale of business.com, which was purchased for $7.5 million but sold for $350 million eight laters later—almost 50 times its original value.

That said, you can expect to make between a few hundred to thousands of dollars per sale, depending on the demand for your domain name.

The hurdles you’ll experience initially include identifying valuable domain names, negotiating deals, and managing the transfer process. Later on, you’ll have to estimate the price at which you can resell them, choose your platform, and lock the sale.

Note: Shorter domains and/or those including .co and .com as TLDs are more valuable.

12. Stream Your Gameplay

Perhaps one of the most fun ways to make a living in today’s online world is by playing games. Yes, you heard that right! You can have heaps of fun and get paid too!

However, becoming a game streamer takes dedication, passion, and gaming experience. Not to mention the thousands of dollars you must invest in a streaming machine.

That said, if you make a name for yourself as a game streamer, which takes years, you can make a lot of money each month, which will vary based on your audience size, the streaming platform, and how often you engage with your fans.

The biggest challenges that you’ll face as a streamer are getting traction beyond your friends and family and keeping your fanbase engaged. If you do that, you’ll be making money through ad revenue, subscriptions, donations, and sponsorships.

In the initial stages, you will have to choose a streaming platform, set up your streaming equipment, create a streaming schedule, and promote your streams to attract viewers. You’ll also need to make engaging content that people find entertaining.

Making Money Online Fast

Now, let’s look at several gigs you can quickly pick up and use to start making money immediately. You don’t need any special skills to monetize from these hustles, and best of all, you’ll get paid as soon as you complete your tasks.

13. Participate in Surveys

Participating in online surveys is a very flexible online gig since you can do it everywhere, at any time, and from any device. Are you waiting at a bus stop and got time to spare? Fill out a couple of surveys from your phone. Ka-ching!

Some popular survey sites that pay in Canada include Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, and Pinecone Research, and all you have to do is sign up, complete your profile, and start ticking boxes or filling out empty fields with your opinions.

Earnings from participating in surveys fall in the range of a few dollars to a few hundred dollars per month, depending on the type and number of surveys you do.

No specific skills are required, just the ability to provide honest opinions and feedback. However, you may still spend a lot of time finding paying surveys for which you qualify. Once you do, though, you’ll be paid in gift cards or with money via PayPal.

14. Get Paid as a Writer

Can you string a few good words together to produce compelling writing pieces? Then, you have the tools necessary to make money by writing. 

While researching and composing informative pieces on a variety of popular topics is the more lucrative approach. Even fiction writers can make a living as ghostwriters.

Depending on your expertise and the demand for your services, you can make from a few hundred to several thousand dollars monthly. Writers working in the technical fields and/or those with SEO knowledge can expect to make more than everyday bloggers.

You need to have strong writing skills, grammar, and a grasp of different writing styles and formats to succeed in this field. You’ll also have to tackle challenges such as finding a client, meeting deadlines, and completing revisions.

Get started with your writing business by creating a portfolio of your writing samples, setting up a profile on freelance platforms, and pitching to potential clients.

15. Proofread Your Way to a Paycheck

If you don’t have what it takes to make it as a writer, you can also look for proofreading positions, which only require you to read through articles and mark any errors you encounter. Therefore, you don’t have to do research or write the piece from scratch.

That said, you still need an excellent command of English to recognize grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. Attention to detail is one skill you’ll definitely need since missing minor mistakes happens often, even among professional writers.

The earnings you can expect to make, the payment scheme, and the application process for proofreading gigs are very similar to those that apply to writers: you’ll need a portfolio, an account on a freelancing platform, and the tenacity to find clients.

16. Provide Editing Services

The last step on the writing ladder belongs to the editor—the person in charge of conducting the final checks about the content and the language of written pieces. 

On top of that, editors have to rewrite and/or restructure the text to make it understandable for the target audience and verify the facts stated within. They also need a strong command of SEO principles since the internet has taken over the publishing business.

If you believe you can operate on such a level (above proofreaders and writers), you can also apply for an editor’s position and make a few thousand dollars a month.

The typical challenges for the position involve finding the right clients and meeting deadlines since editors have to deal with all types of texts with unforeseeable issues.

Again, the application procedure involves creating an editing portfolio, opening an account on professional social media sites like LinkedIn, and looking for gigs via Fiverr and Upwork. Then, you’ll have to pitch to potential clients and showcase your skills.

17. Shop as a Mystery Buyer

Many businesses need insights into how their products sell to discover problem areas and improve their performance. To achieve that, they pay companies to send random consumers to test their service, and they are unaware of who these mystery shoppers are.

So if you’ve ever wanted to get paid for shopping, you’ll only need to sign up with a provider like that, such as Toronto’s Shoppers Confidential. You’ll only need a very observant eye, a device to take photos, and the writing skills necessary to write a detailed report.

While you can quickly apply, your approval may take a while since the company must ensure you are old enough to carry out your tasks and you have a driving license and internet access. Your main tasks will include evaluating the brand’s customer service, the expertise of its employees, their sales abilities, and the store’s appearance.

You can expect to make around $15–$50 per assignment, plus your expenses will be reimbursed. That said, certain shops choose to pay with goods and services.

18. Sign Up for TaskRabbit

Are you handy with various home repairs, got a van to handle furniture transportation, or have many other talents and advantages you can profit from? Then, you must sign up for TaskRabbit—the best platform for odd one-off gigs.

To get started with this handyman service, you must create your profile via their mobile platform, provide the info and proof needed to get verified, and set up your payment method. You’ll also get to choose the jobs you excel at and want to get hired for.

So if you are an adult with a smartphone and a payment account, download the TaskRabbit app, sign up, and start accepting all sorts of odd jobs you know how to do, ranging from furniture assembly and yardwork to making deliveries, bartending, and waiting in line.

Depending on your skills and the nature of the gig, you can expect to make between $20 to $120 per project. That said, some jobs pay per hour.

19. Test Apps and Websites

You can also get paid by simply navigating to certain websites or installing specific apps and testing how well they function. Your typical tasks will include navigating the user interface and recording your feedback via a screen and/or voice capture.

You’ll only need a computer, an internet connection, and, most often, a microphone and/or a webcam to get started. Your English speaking and writing skills should also be satisfactory since you’ll have to convey your experiences fluently.

The main challenges include finding the right testing opportunities and boosting your tester rating sufficiently to increase the number of jobs you can get.

20. Do Voice-Over Work

Many of us have dreamed about becoming famous actors, and we won’t promise you can do that here, but you can get a glimpse of that world by doing voice-over work.

If you’ve been gifted with a pleasant voice or are a one-of-a-kind radio star, the only things you’ll need are a laptop, a professional-grade microphone, and a basic editing app.

Then, you’ll need to create a brief voice-over demo reel showcasing your talents, which you’ll use whenever you apply for gigs. Until you land one, you must keep practicing your emotional expressions and improve your recording and editing skills.

When you make it, you’ll be earning several thousand dollars monthly; however, getting there is difficult since you’ll have to hone your skills and find the right clients. The best places to do that are freelancing sites, including Upwork and Fiverr.

21. Tutor Students Privately

Last but not least, you can also pass on your knowledge and expertise over the Internet to students eager to learn everything from maths to programming languages.

If you have done excellent in school and are extremely proficient in all sorts of subjects, you can start a very lucrative side gig by becoming a private tutor. You can base your rate depending on your experience, expertise, and the demand for your knowledge.

Several websites welcome profiles like that, including Tutor.com and Care.com, but you’ll have to create an account before you reach your audience. Then, you’ll select and prove your expertise, either by taking an exam or by submitting an acceptable diploma.

Once you get going, you’ll mostly have to deal with finding eager learners, scheduling your lessons,  and meeting the individual needs of your students.

Note that online tutoring requires strong communication skills, patience, and the ability to explain complex concepts. A teaching degree can be a huge asset too!

Conclusion

Working from home has always been possible, but this movement has gained popularity recently due to global events requiring us to spend more time inside. Thankfully, there’s something for everybody, regardless of their skills and interests, and if you like making a living while spending time with your loved ones, the good news is: you can. The digital era enables us to gain financial freedom even in our pyjamas, and we are not going back!

While this guide should prove enough to get you back on your feet quickly, check our other articles on making quick money and earning a passive income in Canada.