From online surveys to envelope stuffing, there are lots of popular get-rich-quick money-making ideas. But do these methods really work? Usually, they don’t. You might earn a little bit, but the real issue with these gigs is their lack of stability and potential for long-term success.

Fortunately, there are legitimate ways to make money online. Unlike quick-fix schemes that promise much but deliver little, these reliable methods can lead to sustainable earnings and even career growth. And the best part? You only need a laptop and a stable internet connection to pursue them.

How to make money online: 35 real ways

1. Start a dropshipping business

Dropshipping is a business model where you sell a product to a customer, but the supplier handles the storage, packaging, and shipping on your behalf. You can dropship through your own ecommerce store—just install a dropshipping app and you’ll gain access to dozens of suppliers across various product categories.

Ready to start a dropshipping business? Shopify is the platform most online entrepreneurs use to sell products without inventory. With Shopify dropshipping apps, you can source a variety of products and have them shipped to your customers.

→ Click Here to Launch Your Online Business with Shopify

2. Try print on demand

Print on demand (POD) is another popular way to earn money online. Many entrepreneurs are drawn to it because it allows for low initial investment and easy setup. You create designs for products such as t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags, and then a POD service prints and ships the items directly to your customers.

How does it differ from dropshipping? First, you can make your own custom products, which is great for brand recognition. Second, you can choose from specific items rather than a vast range of categories. Most print-on-demand companies offer products that are easy to print on, like t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags.

3. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money online. Throughout the years, its popularity has gone up and down, but it continues to be an effective way to earn passive income. The best part about affiliate marketing is that you choose from a vast range of companies to partner with, including Shopify, Amazon, and Uber.

This business model allows you to earn a living by promoting other brands. Once you’ve signed up for an affiliate marketing program, you’ll start earning commissions from sales of retail products, software, apps, and more. While the commission may seem small, keep in mind that you can be an affiliate for several brands and promote a variety of products across different platforms.

4. Start a YouTube channel

If others are profiting from YouTube, you can too. Your YouTube channel should focus on a single niche so you can build a strong, loyal audience. For example, you can create makeup tutorials, stream video games, review products, teach skills, create prank videos, or do anything else you think there’s an audience for.

The key to earning money on YouTube is creating content people want to watch. Enticing headlines and keyword-optimized descriptions can draw viewers to your videos. Once you hit the 1,000-subscriber mark, you become eligible to earn advertising revenue through running ads on your content.

5. Become an influencer

Building a personal brand can also help you make money online. Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo charges more than $2 million for a sponsored Instagram post, for example. While it may seem like reality stars, singers, and athletes are the biggest influencers, keep in mind that even smaller-scale influencers can make more money today than they did a few years back.

To become an influencer, you need to build a healthy following. The best platforms to get started on? Instagram and TikTok. Some of the biggest non-celebrity influencers often gained their first taste of exposure on these platforms. You might want to check out how to get more Instagram followers if you want to build a big audience on the platform.

6. Create an online course

Selling courses ranks as one of the top strategies for earning money online. If you’re an expert in a particular subject, you can capitalize on your knowledge by creating online courses. You can sell these courses on online platforms like Udemy or through your own website if you have a dedicated audience. Some entrepreneurs earn as much as $5,000 per month from their online courses.

The platform you choose to sell your course on will shape your online money-making strategy. Selling on Udemy means you won’t have to focus much on promotion—it practically takes care of itself. You may want to enhance its visibility through blogs or social media networks. On the other hand, if your course is on your own website, consider using ads for promotion.

7. Publish an ebook

With Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, it’s never been easier to publish an ebook. All you need to do is write the ebook, format it, create an ebook cover, publish it, and promote it. You can choose to hire a writer for your ebook, a graphic designer to design the cover, and a manuscript editor to eliminate errors from the content.

When researching the topic, focus on keywords based on popular searches on Amazon. The Keyword Tool is a great choice for finding the words people use while searching, so you can craft your title around them.

8. Start a blog

Blogging is one of the oldest methods for making money online. People who love writing tend to start blogs with a niche focus. For example, a blog about procrastination, cars, dropshipping, toys, etc., is often a narrow enough focus to build a loyal following and big enough that you can cover a lot of ground. For those looking to make money online fast, this method can be a rewarding venture.

You can start a blog on various platforms, such as Shopify (remove the checkout feature so you don’t have to pay a subscription as you build it out) or WordPress. When you start your blog, focus on very specific keywords with a tight focus and continue to expand into additional but still relevant categories as you grow and dominate new spaces.

9. Consider freelancing

The easiest way to make money online is to take your current 9-to-5 job and do it online instead. For example, if you’re a writer, data entry specialist, graphic designer, teacher, or developer, you can market these skills and find clients online who are willing to pay you to apply them.

There’s a never-ending list of job platforms for each type of freelancer too. For example, freelance writers can apply for jobs on specific online writing job boards, but also on general freelance websites like Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, and all the others. Remember, freelancing is a numbers game: the more applications you fill out and submit, the more likely you’ll be to get a response back.

10. Create an app

If you’re not a developer, you’re probably looking at this money-making idea and feeling a bit stuck. Fortunately, you can hire someone with programming skills to build an app for you. Sites like Toptal will connect you with plenty of app developers who are open to working with entrepreneurs to turn their vision into reality.

All you have to do is come up with a unique app idea, identify the audience you want to target, and create a brand image for your product. The programmer you hire will take care of things on the development front.