5 New Ways to Earn Money Online

According to Statista, the global social media penetration rate is 54%, and the average internet user spends 145 minutes on social networks every day. This means that you will have a significant audience to sell your product or service at any given point in time, should you choose to market yourself on social networks. Beyond these, you can leverage other online platforms and make money online. Here are five new ways for Africans to learn how to make money online.

Youtube Creators

To make money on YouTube, you have to create a channel first. The channel should focus on one niche for you to build a loyal following and strong subscribers. It is wise for you to focus on a niche you are passionate about to increase your odds of succeeding. Some of the common niches best suited for YouTubers include makeup/beauty, product reviews, technology, automotive, gaming, real estate and pranks. However, you can YouTube on any subject with an audience.

Once you have a channel and a niche, create content consistently for your audience to watch. You should also optimize your headline and content for the YouTube search engine. As you do this, focus on getting 1000 subscribers for you to be able to monetize your YouTube channel.

Drop-Shipping

Dropshipping is one of the most popular online businesses, according to Google Trends. Even so, you need to be a good organizer and have good customer skills to succeed in dropshipping. Essentially, dropshipping is simply a business where you sell a merch or product to a client, but the product supplier packages, stores and ships the product to buyers. All you need to do is create a dropshipping website, list your products and start selling to customers across the globe.

To succeed in dropshipping, you need to find the right product to sell and focus your energy on finding the right clients to buy your products. Do this by selecting and editing your product images well, adding great item descriptions and having a great customer care system in place. Beyond these, you can use influencers to promote your products online, double down your digital marketing efforts, and reach out to potential customers on social media through direct messages.

Online Freelance Jobs

Freelancing is not a new concept. However, it is more popular today than it has ever been. This is mainly because of increased internet connectivity and delocalization of work. Most freelancers thrive in the service industry by offering their labour for either hourly wage or per job pay.

You can freelance in your industry of choice or specialization. For instance, you can look for writing, coding/programming, designing, teaching, and marketing freelance roles, among others. There are numerous freelancing sites where you can market your skills and find freelance jobs. They include Upwork, people per hour, Fiverr, Freelancer, and Guru, among others. For you to make money as an online freelancer, you need to create a strong online portfolio. This could mean working for reputable institutions without pay. Once you have a portfolio, you can start reaching out to potential clients.

Affiliate Marketing / Blogging

Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing where a business compensates an affiliate marketer for each customer the marketer brings to the business. A marketer receives a commission for every customer s/he brings. Its popularity has been on a steady rise over the years because of its ability to offer a steady income. Even more importantly, you can be an affiliate marketer for any company, including FabFitFun, Amazon, Shopify and Uber.

To make money as an affiliate marketer, you need to create a blog with high-quality content. You can then promote brands on your blog pages. You can attach affiliate links of different brands on one page and still make money.

Social Influencer Sponsorships

Influencers build a personal brand on social media and leverage their brand for monetary gain. To become an influencer, you have to create a healthy and loyal following online. Most influencers do this on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Once you have a substantial following, you can start charging brands for sponsored ads. You can also sell your own merchandise, create an online store, become a brand ambassador and charge for event appearance.

Most of the options above are ways to earn money online without paying anything, i.e. they do not require any or very little cash upfront before you start. However, if you do need some initial start-up cash you can always investigate what business loans might be available to yourself. This can provide you with some cash flow to help accelerate the growth of your online business. Often it is useful to test the waters in your free time in the evenings and weekends, then if you find it’s something you enjoy and can make money from, you can start investing money or quit your day job to focus on the new enterprise.