Today I’m writing about the top 7 ways to make money online in 2020, tried and tested by either me or my friends.
These are really difficult times for everyone so if you’ve temporarily lost your job or need to supplement your income, I hope these unique ideas will help you get starting earning money from home.
VIDEO: 7 Unique Ways To Make Money Online in 2020
7 Ways To MAKE MONEY ONLINE in 2020
1. Teach English Online
Teaching English online is probably the easiest and most popular way for most people to make money online in 2020.
VIPKid is the worlds largest online learning institute, with most learners based in China. Due to Covid19 and most of China being on lockdown and off school, the demand for online English classes is higher than ever.
VIPKid gives preference to teachers from North America (USA and Canada), and pay is between $14 $20 per hour as the base salary for beginner teachers.
The more qualified you are and the more experiences you are teaching these online classes, the higher the pay, with rates going up to $22 per hour.
If you are based in Australia, England or Ireland and want to teach online, then PalFish is your best option. Pay rates are between $10 and $18 per hour, but most classes are 25-30 minutes long. Some teachers make as much as $22 per hour if more experienced.
How to Pass Your Interview and teach English online with PalFish
Other nationalities that can apply fro PalFish include people from North America, New Zealand, South Africa, Philippines and people from non-native countries with a Neutral accent.
Finally there’s a site called Cambly, the pay is a little lower but the task seems easy. Here you apply to be a private tutor for people looking to learn English online.
It’s very informal which means you are essentially paid $10 an hour to chat with people from all over the world. seems like a good use of your time if you’re in quarantine.
2. Blogging
I couldn’t write this post without talking about blogging. Travel Blogging has been my sole source of income for almost 5 years now and has allowed me to live on 5 continents and travel to almost 100 countries. You can read about how I make money blogging here.
Now things are a little different in the current climate with borders closed, flights cancelled and everyone being told to stay at home, for weeks and possible even months. While my travel blog is definitely not making anywhere near the amount of money it was making 2 months ago, it is still making money and the best part is that it’s 100% passive income – and thus I still feel confident encouraging people to see up blogs as a fun way to make money online. Be it through ads or affiliate marketing, blogging is a great way to make money online.
While income from travel blogging is down, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time to start a blog. Either you could use this downtime to start the travel blog you’ve always dreamed of doing, and write about all the places you’ve visited over the past few years – perhaps promoting the articles once things calm down a little and people aren’t feeling fearful of the travel world.
Another option is to set up a blog that would do particularly well in the current economic and political climate. With lockdowns in countries all over the world and the closure of gyms, restaurants and even schools, there’s a lot of demand for cooking recipes, baking, home work outs and activities to do at home with kids. If you feel passionate or confident writing about any of those topics, then now is a brilliant time to start a travel blog in that niche.
3. YouTube
YouTube is another way I make money online. I only started to monetise my YouTube 12 months ago, and now I’m making a few hundred euro each month thanks to you guys watching and sharing my videos. It’s not a lot, but there more more views and subscribers you get, the more money you earn.
Now that all entertainment venues such as bars, clubs, cinemas and sporting events have been closed or cancelled, there’s a huge demand for online entertainment. Streaming sites such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Spotify are doing better than ever and it seems more people are also sitting at home and watching YouTube videos.
While it’s not the right time to be making travel videos as no one can travel for the foreseeable future, you could produce music videos, cooking tutorials, how-to videos for beauty or even home workouts. Depending on your passion and skill, you can honestly make videos about just about everything and will always find an audience.
To monetize your channel with ads, you will need 1000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. However, even if you’re just starting out and only have a few hundred subs, you can still make money by adding affiliate links in the description of your video for any products your viewers might be interested in.
4. Content writing
If you don’t want the hassle of setting up your website but love to write and produce content, then you should consider becoming an online content writer. There’s always a demand for good writers, be it in the travel, personal finance, food, fitness and technology sectors.
You can start out on places like UpWork to find your first few clients, or keep an eye on Facebook groups where people post that they’re looking for content writers for their blog or business.
Alternatively you can send cold email pitches to online publications, bloggers you know of or even local business to see if they need help with content for their site. Rates can vary from between $40 to $200 for a article 1,000 word article, and more if you’re writing for a well known newspaper and publication. You can slo use sites like Fiverr to begin with, although the pay is a lot lower there.
5. Sell photos and video footage
If you’re more into photography and making videos than writing, than you can make a good but of money by uploading your footage to stock sites. This is a great thing to do while in lockdown or quarantine, as most people never seem to have enough time to go through all their old photos and videos to put them on stock sites.
Sites like ShutterStuck and Envato Market are best for selling footage online. Video footage is worth more (sold for more) than photos. Videos filmed in 4K can sell for over $150, and time lapses seem to do especially well. You just upload your photos and videos, add tags and descriptions and sit back while (hopefully) the money rolls in.
If your videos are more of the viral style, like the ones you see shared thousands of times on Facebook, then you can upload to online licensing sites Rumble or JukinMedia while will license your video for use on online news sites and you can make hundreds of dollars.
6. Become a Virtual Assistant
Even during these trying times, there is still a big demand for personal assistants. While some industries are suffering, other industries like food and home fitness are taking off. People running these type of niche sites may need some help so it’s worth either reaching out to them or searching in groups for people looking ton hire a Virtual Assistant.
A few of my friends have also done courses in the past that teach you had to be a successful Virtual Assistant, land your first few clients, and make money on an ongoing basis.
Working as a VA could involve Pinterest management, writing Instagram captions, editing blog posts, replying to emails and general admin. You can also sometimes find VA jobs by looking on Fiverr or UpWork.
7. Make and sell your own course
Have you got a skill to share? Knowledge you would like to pass on to others? What better time than NOW to film and upload your own course. This can be about ANYTHING! Blogging, photo editing, making cocktails!
Once you’ve filmed your course, say maybe a series of 5 or even 10 videos, you can upload to sites like Udemy and SkillShare. These sites pay out based on how many people watch your course, and how long they watch each video for. People make on average between $200 and $3000 fro the courses they upload, per month. The more videos and courses you upload, the more money you can make.
On top of Udemy and SkillShare, you can also upload these videos on your YouTube and hopefully make money through Google ads, affiliate sales of products mentioned in your videos and of course grow your subscriber base.
Hi! I’m Janet Newenham, an Irish-born digital nomad and blogger. My blog, Journalist On The Run, is a journal of my travels and career hurdles, as well as a “bucket list for life.” In my youth, reading inspired me to create and achieve goals for my future.
My long list of goals took me to places I could never have dreamed of, each one inspiring me toward the next. Along the way, I picked up a few awards like “Digital Media Travel Journalist Of The Year” in both 2017 and 2019 while simply doing what I love.
Now, well into my 30s, I’ve seen so many of the world’s alcoves that it would be wrong not to share my experiences with you. This blog is my way of taking you around the world with me, and I hope you enjoy the ride.
My goal was to visit 50 countries before I hit 30. I never imagined that at 37, I could proudly say I’ve seen 101 of the world’s beautiful countries. Of course, no matter how much you think you’ve traveled, there is still so much left to see, and I look forward to going on the run with you.
