Remember what they told you about making fast and easy money online? Yeah, Forget it. Wealth creation is a gradual process that requires hard work and dedication. Rather than waste your precious time and money trying to start “making $1000 a day” (a fraudulent scheme that many so-called internet mentors use in swindling your hard-earned money), it is best to start slowly and begin earning a realistic amount of money online.

In fact, you should only consider paying for “training” materials if you have some extra cash to spare. It is encouraging to see results, no matter how little, because it would encourage you to work even harder. Signing up on freelance websites is a good starting point as these would allow you to earn money online without spending a dime. The following is our top picks for how to make money online.

10. Freelancing

What we love about freelancing is the fact that you can start earning money right away. No matter how good you are at what you do, you need to, first of all, develop your portfolio because nobody wants to order a service from someone who has no reviews due to the chance the seller might be inactive. One way to build your portfolio is by establishing trust. If you don’t have a sales history and great reviews, only a few people would be willing to risk buying your service.

Encourage your friends or family to order your service and leave you a great review. You also want to make sure that your service is super competitive. You should absolutely beat the price and delivery time of your competitors. Let’s say you have only three reviews, for example, but offers a $50 service at $10 and deliver in a day when others do the same in 5 days, you would have a better chance of making sales. Make sure your reviews are recent and offer only services that you are very good at.

9. Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a fancy word used when hiring people with the technical know-how on providing services to a company or meeting an individual’s needs. It has been in existence for decades; however, it’s gaining more prominence in our fast-paced world. Outsourcing, or in this case, re-outsourcing will not necessarily earn you “passive” income, but it is one of the laziest ways to make money online.

Just so we have a frame of reference, let’s pretend you spent $100 on an SEO service, which made your website rank first page on Google. There are several businesses out there that would pay you over $2,000 to get the same result. Outsourcing also helps you take advantage of the popular misconception that the price of something is proportional to its value. As long as you know where to find skills that other people or organizations require, you have an opportunity to earn lots of money.

8. YouTube

One can hardly go a day without watching a video on the internet these days. Creativity has perfect expression through individuals who have leveraged on the video sharing website, to upload valuable content in various niches that service the needs of the teeming online viewers. Making money off YouTube requires a lot of patience and consistency. You need to upload videos regularly. As your list of subscribers starts to grow, you will see the results in your earnings as well. Understand your audience, and upload content in line with their expectations– promote your channel by consciously asking viewers to subscribe.

7. Blogging

Blogging is now one of the main ways to make money online, and still have enough spare time to attend to other activities— plus you get to decide your working hours. In fact, if anyone told you they made a lot of money online, chances are, they also have a blog. Blogging allows you to have multiple streams of income, from advising to guest posting to affiliate marketing. It involves creating a website where you, the blogger, make contents at predetermined intervals.

To become a blogger, you need a domain name, a hosting company and possibly a niche to focus on. To become successful as a blogger, the first thing you need is to register your domain name under a good hosting company with amazing speed and unlimited bandwidth. Secondly, create original and engaging contents to serve the needs of your readers. Once your blog starts to get some attention, monetize it.

6. Sponsored Posts

If you have a high traffic blog, you should definitely consider making money off sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are usually for companies and brands that are seeking to create awareness and advertisements, usually in a particular niche— this is where you come in as a blogger and make money. Companies will pay for the space they use up on your site for publishing posts, videos, infographics, as well as writing product reviews, announcements, and offer summaries. You or the sponsoring brand itself can write the sponsored posts. If the brand expects you to write the post, you should charge more since they are not just renting space on your website.

5. Drop shipping

Today’s world has created numerous opportunities to tap from, and Drop Shipping is one of the top e-commerce businesses you can start to rake high profits. With drop shipping, you don’t have to worry about having a physical store for your products, as you have direct access to the product suppliers who do all the hard lifting on your behalf. Create an online store, promote the products you are retailing online, and watch millions of online shoppers contact you for sales. Do not just sell a product, sell value and build your pool of satisfactory reviews from customers and boost the confidence of prospective buyers to patronize your store.

4. Sell your social media accounts

Social media has taken over the traditional form of media we used to know back in the days. It is going further to become a top business tool in the world today; anyone with a large following on any of the social media websites running into thousands of followers stands the chance of earning a lot of money. While some people find it very easy to gather followers on social media but have no idea how to make money off it, others know how to convert a large following on social media into a revenue-generating business. If you’re in the first category of people, you could sell each of your social media accounts for thousands of dollars.

3. Teach what you know

Knowledge is power! Knowledge is also leverage! Everyone has talent, and any talent you work at consistently becomes a skill. A skill set you possess will always meet the needs of someone elsewhere. You can teach online courses in different niches via webinars and conference calls. Earn money online regularly by teaching others what you already know is quite easy. Build your chances of success by having valuable content in whatever niche you deal in. Maintain your relevance by updating, reviewing and recreating your content to meet a larger group of users. Apart from online courses, you could teach language classes online, such as the English language to people whose first language isn’t English.

2. Invest in Crowdfunded Real Estate

If you have some money sitting in the bank, the best way to make money online with little to no effort is through real estate investment crowdfunding. Crowdfunded real estate investment websites are particularly attractive to non-accredited investors with a net worth under $1 million or annual incomes less than $200,000 due to the possibility to invest as low as $1,000.

1. Affiliate marketing

You can now earn commissions at an ever-increasing rate more than ever— thanks to affiliate marketing. You don’t need to have a product of your own, simply promote an already established brand and earn money each time someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link. The beauty of affiliate marketing is the fact that you can earn through several channels depending on the plan the company established for its affiliates. Affiliates can also determine to become vendors or merchants and sell their products using the platform. It really is all about teamwork when it comes to affiliate marketing, and you go on to earn lots of money in the process.

There are several other ways to make money online, but if you are just starting out, we recommend you try these tested and trusted methods before taking any risks.