Earning money has typically been associated with and restricted to the traditional ‘offline’ route. With the Internet taking over a large part of our lives, more people are looking for ways to earn money online to increase their financial inflows, with secondary income streams.
You should be mindful of the platform that you choose. While there are numerous ways to earn money online, some of these might be fake. Also, do not expect to earn a huge amount quickly when using online avenues to earn money.
Social media management, strategy
In addition to interacting with friends and strangers, social networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat can be used to make money. Companies and brands pay social media strategists to further boost the popularity of their products. With lots of competition around and the constantly shortening of attention time of online viewers, creativity is essential to create posts, videos, etc that can go viral quickly and enhance the brand value. Remember, social media needs dedicated time and energy to stay relevant. Hence, you need to share posts regularly and interact with your followers regularly.
Web designing
Not all business owners are tech savvy but the need of the hour is to have a website of their own. Those who have a knack for all things- tech, especially related to websites, can help small businesses set up their websites and earn from it. Coding and web designing are the essential ingredients in setting up websites. Further, websites need maintenance and may require frequent updates, which may add to one’s revenue.
Content writing
Online platforms can be a good starting point. Depending on the quality of the articles, one gets paid. One may be asked to work upon articles with specific guidelines as well. Develop a niche in your area of expertise and build strength in that domain to increase the revenue stream.
Blogging
It starts with a hobby, interest, and passion, and soon blogging becomes a career option for many bloggers. There are several full-time bloggers. There are two ways to start a blog: you can either create a blog through WordPress or Tumblr, which requires no investment or go for a self-hosted blog.
In the case of the latter, you will have to invest in and spend money on domain name and server hosting space that can cost you between Rs 3,000-Rs 5,000 a year. Self-hosted blogs have the added advantage in that it allows you to customize the elements and functionality of your website. In the case of the former, you need to make peace with the tools and plug-ins made available by the service provider.
However, your information is also used in negative and sometimes criminal ways. For example:
By companies and organizations who want to use your information in ways that act against your interests
Insurance companies use information posted on blogs to deny coverage of medical claims, car accident claims, and so on.
Companies that use information about you to reject your job application or find reasons to fire you.
Schools who reject your applications due to information they discover
By criminal organizations or individuals building profiles of people to scam, steal identities, hijack computers, find interesting homes to break into or cars to steal, people to physically harm, and so on
By someone who wants to embarrass or bully you
Plagiarists who want to claim your content as their own
