How to make money on the Internet legally

Is it possible to earn money on the web? This is one of the questions that I am asked most frequently, and today I decided to give an answer, I hope it will be exhaustive. Let’s start by saying that yes, making money on the Web is possible but, beware; the mechanics of the Net are not so different from those of the so-called real world. Even on the Internet, in fact, there are “jobs” for everyone, which allow you to round up your salary (for those lucky enough to have one!) And more solid businesses, which ensure greater income but require months, if not years, of sacrifices and study … without forgetting that healthy dose of luck that all start-up companies need!

Today I would like to deal with both of these types of activities, trying to provide you with valid ideas on how to make money on the Internet legally without falling victim to fraudulent circuits or sites of dubious reputation. If you are satisfied with earning a few tens of euros, perhaps occasionally and/or in your spare time, you will certainly be able to find a way to do it, such as the sale of used items or participation in paid surveys. If, on the other hand, you intend to take advantage of the Web to set up a real business activity, the matter becomes more complicated, damn more complicated! The results you will be able to obtain will depend mainly on your desire to do something, on your level of preparation for the sector in which you decide to operate and on the way in which you will be able to promote your initiative.

So, are you ready to take on this challenge? Yup? Very well! Make yourself comfortable, take your time to evaluate the various earning opportunities offered by the Web and then try to implement the “tips” that I will give you to try to understand how to make money on the Internet. Although, as I told you before, I cannot guarantee you high earnings from the online activities listed below, it costs nothing to try! I wish you happy reading and I wish you a big good luck for everything!

Index

• Make money on the Internet legally by earning small amounts
  • Selling used items
  • Write articles
  • Doing jobs on commission
  • Participate in paid surveys
• Make money on the Internet legally by working
  • Open an online store
  • Open a blog or website
  • Open a YouTube channel
  • Develop applications

Make money on the Internet legally by earning small amounts

If you want to make money on the Internet legally and are content with earning small amounts of money, you can consider various opportunities, including selling used items on online classifieds sites, writing articles, and participating in surveys. Let’s analyze all these opportunities in detail.

Selling used items

If you don’t have any professional aspirations and just want to make some money, you can sell used items (such as books, games, cell phones, etc.) on one of the many ad or auction services available online: here are some that might be right for you.

• Right away,  Kijiji and Shpock – these are some of the most popular online classifieds portals. All three allow you to sell items by publishing advertisements for free but, if you want, you can promote your ads to increase their visibility by paying. If you want to learn more about it, read the guide where I talk about it in more detail.
• Etsy– if you are good at creating handmade objects, you can try to “place” them on this platform, which has become a real point of reference for the purchase and sale of small handicrafts. Opening a shop on Etsy is free: however, you have to pay a fixed fee of € 0.17 for each advert published, plus a  commission on the final value of 5%  (excluding shipping costs), if the sale goes successful, to which you must also add a commission of 4% + 0.30 euros for the management of the payment. For more information on how to sell on Etsy, read the guide I just linked to.
• eBay– the very famous online auction portal is one of the best solutions to sell used items. It allows you to publish ads for free but, when sales are successful, you have to pay for one commission of 11.5% on the final sale (some ads may present the transfer as a payment method but which is not recommended, as it is not safe). If you want more information on how to sell on eBay, take a look at the guide I linked to you.
• Autoscout24– if you need to sell your car or your motorbike, you can turn to this very famous portal for the sale of used vehicles. Autoscout24 does not provide for the payment of fixed costs, nor commissions on published advertisements. To learn more about how it works, read the guide in which I explain how to publish ads on Autoscout24: I am sure it will be useful to you.

Write articles

Would you like to turn your writing hobby into a business opportunity? You can do this by signing up for an editorial content marketplace: that is one of those sites that allow you to write articles on commission, thanks to which you can more easily sell articles, guides, tutorials, video transcripts and other written content.

One of the most popular marketplaces you can turn to for this purpose is  MelaScrivi, an online platform that has been a meeting point between companies and freelance authors for several years now. Since registration with Melascrivi is free and since it is possible to write articles for many topics, why not try to make money from the comfort of your home by exploiting your passion for writing?

As for the earnings for each article, Melascrivi allows you to earn based on the quality of the written contents, their length and the experience accumulated over time. It starts at  0.008 euros/word for those who start with the 1-star level of quality/experience and goes up to  1.5 euros/word for those who reach the 4-star level. To this must be added the commission of 0.70 euros for each item requested. Payments are then made when the minimum threshold of 25 euros is reached and are disbursed via  PayPal. If you want more information on how to write on MelaScrivi, take a look at the Authors FAQ section of the site.

Doing jobs on commission

Doing jobs on commission is another source of income online that can allow you to earn small bucks, perhaps by taking advantage of your spare time. You can propose yourself to carry out multiple types of work, based on your skills: repairing objects, giving repetitions, being a dog-sitter, carrying out translations and so on.

To look for new jobs on commission, you can try to search on the sites to look for work  (for example  Monster and JobRapido ), or you can post ads on the job sites  I told you about in one of the previous paragraphs, such as  Subito .it  or  Kijiji.

Participate in paid surveys

If you don’t want to work too hard, perhaps because you already have a full-time job that takes up a large chunk of your time, you can try to raise small amounts to invest in your hobbies by participating in paid surveys.

Again, you can turn to multiple online portals, such as  Global Text Market or  American Consumer Opinion . If you want to deepen the subject, you can consult the guide in which I explain in greater detail how to make money with surveys: I am sure that this reading will also be useful to you.

Make money on the Internet legally by working

If you intend to work on the Internet to obtain more substantial earnings, you must opt ​​for many other solutions: among these, there are the opening of an online store, the creation of a successful website/blog or the opening of a channel. YouTube. For more information, read on.

Open an online store

If you want to be “serious” with the world of online business, you can try opening an online store. Furthermore, if you already have a physical store, opening an online store can allow you to expand your business and reach customers that you would not otherwise be able to “grab”. When opening an online store, you can opt for three different solutions.

• Ready-to-use ecommerce services – there are online services that allow you to open ecommerce sites in just a few clicks without writing a single line of code or facing complicated configurations. One of these is Blomming, which allows you to create an online store with prices starting from 9.99 euros/month (although to have a personalized domain and sell an unlimited number of items you have to pay 24.99 euros/month).
• CMS( Content Management System ) – the most professional way to open an e-commerce site is to buy a web domain, an online space and install a CMS on the latter. A CMS is a kind of software that allows you to manage the contents of the site and the objects in the store catalog in an extremely flexible way. There are many to choose from: WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, Prestashop, etc. This type of solution is suitable for those who are good enough in IT or have the budget to rely on professionals in the sector for starting their online business.
• Existingstorefronts – Amazon and eBay offer professional sellers the ability to open an online storefront and sell items on their pages. This is the ideal solution for those who already have a physical store and want to expand their online activities without getting involved in the management of an independent store.

For more information on online commerce, and to find out which of these three ways is best for you, read my tutorial on how to open an ecommerce: there you will find everything explained.

Open a blog or website

You think you have the right ideas and skills to start a successful blog or website? If so, know that to turn a web space into a stable and satisfying source of income, you have to go an uphill… very uphill! Advertising (which is usually the main source of income for an editorial reality) no longer pays as it did a few years ago and the blog market is quite saturated, so emerging is more difficult.

Anyway, if you want to be “serious”, I suggest you leave the free platforms (eg Blogspot, WordPress.com or Altervista) and proceed more professionally. Buy a web domain, associate it with an online space suited to your needs and your traffic forecasts and create a website/blog using a specific CMS ( Content Management System ). To get a better idea of ​​the steps to take, take a look at my guides on how to make a site with WordPress and how to create a site with Joomla.

What are the monetization opportunities available to those who open a blog or website? Basically they are advertising and affiliations with third-party companies. Let me tell you more about it.

• Banner ads– one of the main ways to monetize the content of sites and blogs is to publish banner ads on them. In this case, the revenues will derive from the number of unique visitors who will go to your webspace: the higher the number of visitors, the greater the revenues. To insert banners on your website, you can rely on services such as Google AdSense: take a look at the tutorial in which I explain how to make money with AdSense and you will find out how to use it best.
• Affiliate Marketing Services– You can also make money on the Internet by participating in affiliate marketing programs. What is it about? I’ll explain it to you right away. Some large companies, such as Amazon and Apple, allow you to create sponsored links and earn small percentages on objects and/or digital content that are purchased through the latter (if this happens in a more or less short period of time). To find out more, take a look at my tutorial on how to make money with a site where I told you in-depth about these systems.

If you want to learn more about how to make money with a site, read the guide I just linked to you. I also recommend that you buy “ Il Metodo Aranzulla” (published by Mondadori Electa ), a book where I offer advice on the tools needed to create an online business.

Open a YouTube channel

Opening a YouTube channel can be another important revenue opportunity. Thanks to the affiliate networks and the  YouTube Partner Program  (which you can join after reaching 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 viewing hours in the last 12 months), it is possible to earn considerable sums.

In this case, however, the speech I made to you in the previous chapter is valid: to obtain noteworthy earnings, you need to have a YouTube channel with many subscribers and, above all, with many views (since a large chunk of revenue comes from advertising ). If you want to have some advice on how to become a YouTuber,  how to make a lot of subscribers on YouTube and how to make money on YouTube, read the guides I have already published on the subject.

Develop applications

Given the growing demand for developers, an excellent revenue opportunity could come from application development. If you already have skills in using the main programming languages, all you have to do is use them to your advantage. To find new jobs to take on, you can turn to the job search sites  I told you about in this guide (such as  Monster and JobRapido ).

If you don’t have any application development skills, you can try developing this skill instead. A good starting point would be to read my guide on how to create a program, how to program in C  and how to program in Java and consult specific sites, such as HTML.it. Good luck!