So, you want to build the next highly profitable niche site?

Welcome to the club.

Niche sites are an awesome way to start building up passive income, not to mention blogging experience.

But there’s always one place people get stuck, and arguably, it’s at the most important step: figuring out what specific niche your site is going to focus on.

Choosing the best option can feel overwhelming and time-consuming; there are about a billion choices out there. Make the wrong step, and it can be a lot harder to make money blogging.

But, finding a great niche with low keyword competition and great affiliate programs can make your path to building a successful online business out of your site so much easier.

How do you pick the best niche site ideas?

If you’re stuck on this step, we’re going to make things easy for you. In this post, I’m sharing what I think are the 12 best niche site ideas to get started on this year.

But before we get to that, you might be wondering who I am and why you should trust me.

My name is Sean Ogle, and I’ve helped thousands of people create online businesses and work remotely over the last ten years through my community, Location Rebel Academy.

On top of that, I have a system that lets me repeat and scale building niche sites, generating passive income in areas ranging from photography software reviews to golf and cocktails.

So, you could say I spend a lot of time researching potential niche website ideas.

With this list, a lot of that work is done for you. You’ll get some of the best opportunities out there you can tap into and start creating sites of your own.

Sound good?

Let’s do this.

What is a Niche Site?

A niche site is just a website that focuses on a small part of a broader market with the end goal of monetization.

There are multiple paths to make money with niche sites, including through affiliate marketing programs, ads, online courses, digital products, consulting, sponsored posts, and more.

My favorite form of monetization is affiliate marketing.

For a niche site to be successful, you have to:

• Create a website with a website builder or WordPress.
• Conduct keyword research and write quality content with good search engine optimization (SEO).
• Work on obtaining backlinks from reputable sites in your niche to build Domain Authority (DA).
• Update your posts frequently to start ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Join affiliate programs and strategically place your affiliate links to start earning commissions.

Next, once you get to a certain level of traffic (think 50,000+ visits per month), you can add display ads as well for even more passive income. I recommend you check out ad platforms like Mediavine or AdThrive, which provide higher earnings than Google AdSense.

Overall, to make money online with a niche site, you need digital marketing chops, a methodical approach, and hustle.

Why Your Niche Website Topic Matters.

You want to think about your niche site as a business. That means a lot of planning and brainstorming has to go into it.

Anyone can pick something to write about and call it a day.

But, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get traffic, rank for quality keywords, or make any affiliate income.

To do that, you need to start with the right topic.

The primary thing you want to focus on is the potential for your niche to make money. Otherwise, you’ve just got a hobby site.

What you want is to start a blog that has earning potential from the start. For more in-depth strategies, you can read Adam’s guide on how to start a blog like a business or my step-by-step guide to start a successful blog this year.

So, you need to remember that and focus on three primary drivers of any successful online site:

• Affiliate products: I look for high priced items where I can make more selling one thing than programs where I need to sell dozens to make a profit.
• Commission rates: Browse different affiliate networks and Google individual affiliate programs to see their commission rates. This is the percentage you make for each sale. You’ll also want to check the cookie duration, or the window of time that you get credit for the sale after the affiliate link is clicked.
• Keywords: Keywords are crucially important. I always look for buying keywords that have a high search volume but low competition or difficulty score. Different SEO tools like Ahrefs will help you find great keywords.
• Competition: Are other people making money in this niche? I always keep an eye out for product reviews with affiliate links because that generally means it’s a program with high commissions. Typically, the higher a company is placed in an affiliate article, the higher their earnings.

Here’s the basic formula I like to use when thinking about niche topics:

Good buying keyword traffic + review posts with affiliate links + high priced products that offer good commission rates = a pretty good chance people are out there making money in this niche.

Now, that’s not the end-all, be-all way to approach niche and affiliate sites, but keeping to that general framework has worked pretty well for me over the years.

Without any of these, it’s going to be an uphill battle to see progress or make a substantial amount of money through your site.

That’s why keeping these three things in mind is so crucial when picking a topic. If you don’t build your site around a topic with good keywords and affiliate programs, you’re not going to get any traffic.

And that means you’re not going to make any money.

What is a Niche-Within-a-Niche?

One more thing to cover before we jump into the best niche ideas is the idea of a niche-within-a-niche.

This is one of the most important things you can learn if you’re just getting going.

First off, most “niche” ideas you have are probably more accurately industries.

Golf, travel, and video games for instance are all industries.

In order to differentiate yourself and create a successful authority site, you need to think smaller.

As an example, golf is an industry and has a ton of competition.

Golf equipment is a niche, but still has quite a bit of competition.

Golf swing improvement tools is a niche-within-a-niche. There’s less competition, it’s very focused, and there’s a lot of potential to make money faster.

We’ll cover more examples of how this works throughout this post, but be thinking about how you can take your big idea, and niche down to give yourself less competition.

Remember, you have to be the clear leader in your specific niche. If you don’t have confidence that you can be a top 10 golfing website, niche down and be known for something a little smaller.

Ok, now that you know how important it is to choose the right topic, let’s get to the list.

What Are the Best Niche Ideas?

Alright, now that you know the main things I look for when creating a niche blog, here are some of the topics to explore right now.

1. Remote work tools

Here’s a question I bet I already know the answer to, but I’ll ask anyway.

Raise your hand if you’ve had a Zoom call in the last week or two.

Pretty much everyone would raise their hands to that.

With everything that’s going on in the world, remote work has become more important than ever.

Since so many people are working from home, which doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon, remote tools are in higher demand than they’ve ever been.

Now people need all sorts of stuff they’ve never thought about before:

• Noise-canceling headphones
• Ring lights
• Laptop stands
• Second screens
• Wireless keyboards

Plus, everything else they either had in the office or didn’t need at home.

Then there’s software – video conferencing tools, team messaging apps, webinar software – these SaaS tools all require monthly subscriptions and many have affiliate programs.

Even when people start going back to work, chances are a good percentage of them will still end up working from home either full-time or just a few days a week.

So, they’ll still need all that software and equipment.

That’s why building a niche site around work from home tools presents a huge opportunity.

An easy way to start with a site like this is by building a niche site that first relies on Amazon affiliate links.

While the Amazon Associates Affiliate Program’s recent commission cuts have made it a little less appealing than it used to be, it’s still an easy way to start.

Pick the remote working tools you want to highlight, create killer reviews for them, and post away on your site.

2. Video and recording equipment

At this point, everyone but my mom has decided to start a podcast or YouTube channel.

Even if you aren’t into podcasting or becoming a YouTuber yourself, it doesn’t matter, because there are a lot of opportunities out there for people looking for equipment.

I can speak to this myself.

I started my YouTube channel a few years ago, and over the years, I’ve gotten more and more sophisticated gear to try and keep up with the likes of Peter McKinnon (it hasn’t worked yet).

But, think of all those people who are at that beginner and intermediate stage of getting a YouTube channel or podcast up and running.

You can create a niche site all around the best gear for it.

This can include everything from the high-end stuff like cameras and lenses to the more moderately priced gear like microphones, tripods, accessories, video editing tools, and more.

Since the sound on YouTube and podcasting is what really matters to listeners, there’s a lot of content you can create around audio techniques and audio editing software.

Gerald Undone is one of the most impressive examples of this and is also a great example of how you can leverage YouTube and video when growing your niche site.

And the best part?

As you gain a little bit of traction, many of the biggest affiliate programs in this space like B&H Photo and Adorama will actually send you gear that you can borrow for reviews.

3. Credit cards

When it comes to making money online, three of the most popular industries are money, weight loss/fitness, and dating.

There’s a ton of competition in each of these, but if you can find the right sub-niche and position yourself in the right way – there’s a lot of potential for a successful niche site.

As you might expect, a niche site around credit cards can be extremely lucrative.

The affiliate programs can often be tricky to qualify for, but once you do, there are big commissions to be had.

The key to making a site like this successful is to find your unique angle. Are you going to focus on travel rewards? College students? Business owners?

Any of these target markets can work

I’d look at BankRate as a starting point for jumping into this niche. It features all the big names in cards, and you can manage it all from one place.

Another great thing about credit card affiliate programs is they go across any and every niche and industry. Do you have a travel blog like my buddy Nomadic Matt?

Then you can create a round-up review of all the best travel credit cards out there, just like he did with this post.

4. Outdoor gear

An underrated way to figure out a good niche is to talk to your friends. See what they’re obsessed with, and go from there.

Way back in 2010, my buddy, Dave, quit his job and thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). He always loved the outdoors, but that adventure was the spark he needed to create his website, CleverHiker.

It’s hard to get more SEO optimized than that selection of posts!

Fast forward to today and Dave and his partner, Annie, are making a living off a niche site built around outdoor hiking and camping reviews.

Obsessive hikers and campers are willing to spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on the latest gear. Plus, it’s a niche that’s not oversaturated, and you can find all sorts of niche-within-a-niche opportunities.

For example, you could create a niche site around women hikers, camping with kids, and hiking with dogs, just to name a few ideas for you.

Either way, the fact remains that more and more people are going to be looking to get out into nature over the next few years, as the pandemic has shifted priorities and travel plans.

5. Expensive sports

In the same way, you’ll find campers who will spend a lot of money on stuff; you’ll find sports enthusiasts too.

Being a golfer, I know this well. It’s very easy to spend hundreds of dollars on just one club in your bag, not to mention range finders, balls, and shoes.

Golfing isn’t the only opportunity for this.

Think about people who love stand up paddleboarding; a single board can easily run from $300 to $1,500 and beyond.

Build up a quality site around paddleboards, and now you’ve got the potential to make some real money. Plus, you can toss in all the extra gear that you need for paddleboarding, including oars, car racks, storage racks, life jackets, and so on.

The same goes for a sport like cycling. You can see with the Competitive Cyclist affiliate program; the average order value is over $250.

Think about other expensive niche sports too; hang gliding, wind sailing, and fishing all come to mind.

6. Hotels

You might be thinking, hotels? Now? Hardly anyone is traveling!

Where there’s change, there’s opportunity.

There are a lot of commissions to be had in the travel world, and hotels, and real estate in general.

By coming up with a unique angle to approach hotels, you could see some great returns in your own niche market.

Perhaps you create a site about 5-star hotels that you can currently stay at for more than 50% off due to COVID.

Or maybe you do reviews of the best “socially distanced” hotels or travel destinations.

Either way, right now there are a lot of people with severe wanderlust and pent up demand for travel.

A lot of travel bloggers have packed it in too, so there will be opportunities over the next couple of years for a new crop of different niche sites to become successful.

If the idea of this feels daunting (and like a lot of work), then try and niche down even more.

Focus on a specific city, for instance. Jeremy Jones of Discover the Burgh has created one of the best single city niche sites I’ve come across.

Keep in mind, the commission percentages aren’t huge, but when you consider single bookings can easily be a thousand dollars or more – it can add up fast.

7. Pets

Simply put, people love their pets.

And almost as much as that, they love spending money on their pets.

The industry is growing in a big way; it goes way beyond chew toys and leashes.

Today, you can get high-tech gear for your pets, known as pet tech. This gear is pricey and often has higher affiliate commission rates than the standard 5-8% you see in many places.

For example, check out the Fi Dog Collar:

It takes your typical dog collar and transforms it into a GPS tracking device.

You’ll never lose Lucky again with something like this, and at $150 a pop with a 20% starting commission rate, you can make $30 a pop for every sale.

If you wanted to go all-in on pets as a niche site, you could go in many different directions. But a great approach is to pair a few key pet tech affiliates with all sorts of other pet-related and complementary affiliate programs.

Think about pairing pets and hotels, how about a niche site all about the best pet-friendly hotels in the U.S or just New England?

Another way to focus on pets and get some of those higher commission links is to write about pet insurance too. Most people end up getting pet insurance since a visit to the vet can cost a lot of money, and a lot of the biggest pet insurance companies also offer affiliate programs.

8. Web hosts

Want to start an online business? Well, the first thing you need to do is get online by getting a domain name and choosing a web host like Bluehost.

Just look at how many times “how to start a blog” is searched in the U.S. alone each month.

Web hosts are known for the high commissions for each new customer. As such, there is a lot of competition for search terms related to this.

But if you get creative, you can still find ways to make serious money in this niche.

You might find there’s too much competition to go for a straight “web hosting review site,” but sticking with our theme of a “niche-within-a-niche” you could make it a bit more focused and have success.

Perhaps you focus specifically on helping retirees build their side hustle, and then recommend web hosts and domain name providers specifically for that market.

Or perhaps you focus on one industry, like freelance writers who need portfolio sites and target your reviews at their needs.

With this niche, target any entrepreneurial audience first, then recommend web hosting second.

In 2021 and beyond the most successful niche sites are going to be the ones that think outside the box and potentially combine two different industries to build something unique.

9. Home gym equipment

To put it simply, with a pandemic happening, more people than ever are staying home rather than going to the gym.

Home gym sales are skyrocketing, and that’s a trend that’s not going to end anytime soon.

Specialized home gym equipment is a great area to build a niche site. And where you can really find some up and coming niches is by investigating growing workout trends.

A few of the more ‘trendy’ workout gear over the past few years include cross-fitters, kettlebells, flexibility and mobility equipment, yoga mats, and so on.

Resistance bands were gaining a little bit of traction in early 2020, and then boom, look at it skyrocket during the lockdown and summer.

If you were ahead of the curve on creating a niche site around resistance bands, you probably were able to see some nice commissions.

Not to mention more high tech options in fitness like Peloton or Nordic Track, or fitness trackers such as the Apple Watch.

This is a booming industry worth building a site and social media presence around.

10. Food and cooking

Food blogs feature some of the most successful niche sites out there.

There’s still plenty of opportunity for you, however. More people are eating at home than ever before.

Think about what unique spin you can create on a site like this that doesn’t have quite as much direct competition.

Think of what’s already in your kitchen and again go on the trends. InstantPots have been a huge driver of all sorts of food and cooking sites in the last two years.

Sites like Wirecutter, run by the New York Times, have built a loyal following because it reviews a ton of kitchen and cooking supplies.

Want to know the best knives or juicers or cast iron skillets? Wirecutter has probably reviewed it.

You can do the same thing, just niche down. Consider creating a niche site around just one of those types of products.

Perhaps a site all about the best blenders for green or raw foods enthusiasts, or the best Japanese knives or marble pastry boards.

With high end and niche cooking becoming more common, people are spending money on the tools you’d normally see in professional kitchens.

11. SaaS Products

Keeping with the working from home trend, many of us are having to rethink how we work, stay on top of tasks, and remain productive.

There are hundreds of software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses out there that focus on productivity and related themes. From scheduling tools like Woven to full-fledged project management tools like Asana – there’s a lot of opportunity for a niche site that compares and contrasts these types of tools.

And productivity is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SaaS ideas. There are also email marketing companies, SEO tools, ERP systems – the list goes on.

A niche site dedicated to any of these industries could be incredibly profitable.

Some of them even have affiliate programs that pay on a recurring basis, so you can make one referral and continue to reap the rewards as long as they remain a paying customer.

12. Streaming Services

I used to be someone who religiously checked out the latest movies to rent through RedBox every time I went to the grocery store.

Now with the rise of streaming services, I haven’t rented a Blu-Ray or DVD in years.

In 2020 we’re seeing more new streaming services than ever. Not only do you have the incumbents like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video, but you have Disney+, HBOmax, and at least a dozen others.

The good news is between all of them, you can pretty much watch anything you want.

The bad news is trying to figure out what you can watch and on which platform.

There’s a lot of opportunities to capitalize on this growing trend by creating a niche site devoted to the different streaming software and services, reviews, content updates, and so on.

There are certainly some affiliate opportunities, but display ads would also be a great monetization tactic for sites like this. Building a high-quality email list and sending streaming updates would also be a good strategy.

Best Niche Site Ideas – Summary.

Regardless of what kind of niche site you want to run, there are many potentially great ideas out there that can bring in passive income.

All you need to do is spend some time finding the right ideas and then getting to work.

Remember, you want to approach your niche site like it’s a business; the end goal is to find the right combination of long-tail keywords, affiliate programs, and traffic that will get people to your site and primed to buy.

From there, it’s all about creating killer content that educates your readers and builds trust. If they can trust what you’re telling them, they are going to be far more likely to buy from you.

Build your niche site the right way and you can scale and repeat this process over and over again. I know, because I’ve done it multiple times.

All it takes is some solid research, time, and dedication.

Decide you’re ready to do it and take steps every single day to make it happen. Taking that approach, rather than focusing on slapping something together to make a quick buck, will pay off over the long run.

So, if you’ve been thinking about getting your own niche site up and running, there’s no better time than now.

I know you can do it.

Work from home jobs are on the rise and social distancing is only accelerating this trend.

And it makes sense.

Why should someone have to sit through rush hour traffic and go to an office when all they need is a computer and Internet connection?

Working from home offers a lot of benefits too.

• A typical employer saves around $11,000/year for every employee who works from home half the time.
• Additionally, employees save up to $4,000 per year working from home half the time. This number increases substantially when you factor in living in a less expensive area to work remotely full time.

Second, we live in a world of convenience, and more people are staying home these days. All it takes is an Internet connection, and you can order food, stream Netflix, order products with Amazon’s two-hour delivery, and enjoy modern conveniences most couldn’t dream of a few decades ago.

The days are here when anyone can work from home (or any virtual location) with a computer, webcam, and video conferencing tool.

That’s why this article covers the best work from home jobs to check out so that you can make money online – and do it from home.

To this day, most articles about work from home jobs talk about the same low paying tactics:

• Online surveys
• Coupon clipping
• Home data entry
• Call center work
• Virtual assistant
• Home customer care
• Administrative assistant
• Home customer service agents; customer service representatives
• Most articles even featured babysitting as a tactic

What year is it – 1993? Have I been sleeping this whole time like Chris Farley with Hibernol?

It’s 25+ years later, so I scoured through the minimum wage, entry-level, work-at-home jobs to find the high paying online jobs and business ideas that are best for this century.

Let’s get started.

What Are the Best Work From Home Jobs?

With most jobs, we trade our time for money. So the best work from home jobs help you make the most money in the least amount of time.

Here are the top 11 legitimate work from home jobs to start earning money from home on your own time.

Best Online Job #1: Work Remote as a Premium Freelancer

Getting a remote job as a freelancer is a great first option.

You are working straight from your home and choosing your clients. More productivity. No more sitting in pesky traffic. Amazing work-life balance. These are some of the perks of becoming a premium freelancer if you can leverage your knowledge.

The first step is to sign up for FlexJobs to find premium, flexible remote jobs that you can do anywhere in the world. 

Freelance revenue is exploding. This infographic by Upwork shows that 57.3 million people freelance, making $1.4 trillion per year:

Moreover, getting jobs as a freelancer is no more difficult than getting a regular job. Many often wonder how they can land a lucrative gig. Sometimes, prospective freelancers look for work from home freelancing jobs for months and months to no avail.

The problem is that most freelancing websites get tons of applications, and hiring for positions are limited.

Therefore, for starters, you have to get creative with your approach. Sending out your proposal and then twiddling your thumb, waiting for someone to contact you won’t get you anywhere.

Here’re some of the tested ways that will help you get your first freelancing gig in no time:

1. Create a portfolio.

The first step is to create a portfolio. Of course, you would need to demonstrate your skills to get some credible freelancing gigs.

Your portfolio should be able to:

• Perfectly showcase your expertise
• Showcase your experience in the niche
• Show your personality

2. Write extensively.

Another important tip I can give you is to write, write, and write!

It doesn’t matter if you are a graphic designer. Or a coder. Or a ninja warrior for that matter.

The only thing that matters is that writing is your best bet to get your name out there.

Are you not a good writer? Then suck it up and still write.

Once you start writing about your niche, clients will come flocking to give you jobs, not the other way round.

I have accomplished a lot due to my writing. And even if you’re a blogger outsourcing some of your content writing, you need to be a great editor regardless.

From writing newsletters to blog posts or even a simple email to clients — it all starts with the written word.

I hope you get the idea. So get started with writing, and you will see a barrage of inbound clients coming your way.

3. How to find your work from home freelance jobs?

If you are reading this blog, you may have just started to think about the option to work remotely. Many companies like Formstack are offering remote work for their employees.

While you build your credibility in the job market, you can easily find jobs on various freelance sites as well.

Finally, if you want to start making money online, remote freelancing with Flexjobs is my #1 choice.

First, Flexjobs screens employers for you so you have the best matches.

FlexJobs comes with a small monthly fee – not a percentage – and in return, they vet all job opportunities so you can start making money right away.

Start your freelancing journey today with Flexjobs and start making money.

Get started with Flexjobs

Best Online Work from Home Job #2: Start a High-End Blog

It seems that everyone is blogging these days — from your nosy co-workers to distant acquaintances and even Grandma Mary.

Let me be blunt: if you are going to treat blogging as just writing about your passions and hoping you make money, you may be disappointed.

Because once you see that you’re not getting desirable results, you are likely to quit — just like at least 59.3% other bloggers.

However, if you are serious about learning how to start a blog to make real money, then keep reading.

The first step is to get a paid domain name and WordPress hosting. I recommend Bluehost, and they’ve helped me tremendously in scaling my blog to make over $80k/month.

1. Focus on building a personal brand.

If you’re not a great writer yet, don’t worry. You have to become the next Hemingway or Shakespeare to build a personal brand presence online.

Blogging is not penning an editorial to the New York Times.

With blogging, you have to write like you talk — because here, your main motto is to influence others to act.

And you cannot influence others under the guise of intellectualism.

Part of being a blogger is sharing your story with the world and not holding things back.

This is what my About page looks like:

As you can see, I don’t talk about any business success or what I claim to be good at – it’s mostly just a photo of me as a baby haha.

By being vulnerable and real in your content, you can break through the noise, connect with your followers, and build your influence faster.

You will also be happy to know that influencers are in high demand these days. According to statistics, influencer marketing has skyrocketed 90x since 2013.

Here are the main steps that turned my blog into an effective personal brand platform:

2. Pick a profitable niche.

“Follow your dreams; write about what your heart says, and money will follow.”

I reject this popular notion.

I’m passionate about all kinds of topics – distance running, astronomy, traveling to far off places, fantasy football, elephants lol – but if I had to write about any of these topics incessantly without seeing any readers or income, I’d quit 100% of the time.

This sort of advice is not only wrong but also ineffective.

Whether you’re a starving artist, graphic designer, coach, consultant, teacher – anything in life – recognition and human connection are what we’re after. And focusing just on your passions without a business plan is no way to start a project that is supposed to build a following and generate income. So rather than focusing first on just your passions and hobbies, begin with a business mindset.

You should first pick your niche based on market factors.

When it comes to blogging, start by picking a niche that you’re well versed in, but also has decent search volume on Google and market demand.

For instance, if you are trying to tap into the digital marketing industry, then don’t only base your blog on “Digital Marketing.” It’s too broad.

Instead, start more narrow like SaaS SEO, B2B content marketing, or any other sub-niche.

Start as the #1 expert in one small niche with an audience you cater entirely to. Then you can expand and work toward other niches in the same vertical.

Ultimately, your niche needs what I call ARP – audience revenue potential. How much money is your target audience willing to spend with you?

When selling, it works better to go after a high-quality B2B audience that can drop $5k at the drop of a hat, rather than an audience with less money. For example, it’s harder to sell to a struggling college student with $15 or less for pizza and beer (been there, done that).

In the end, money and recognition fuel human passion more than tortured writing ever will.

Focus on high-end consulting when starting out.

Once you’ve positioned yourself as an influencer in your industry, the first step to monetization is selling high-end consulting services.

The great thing with high-end B2B consulting is you don’t need much traffic to make a lot of money.

It’s a simple formula when you’re just starting:

• A blog at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an “unbalanced” force of SEO knowledge
• This law shows how traffic, links, and audience potential are related, as shown in the equation below:
• Low Traffic * High Price = High Traffic * Low Price

It’s pretty simple. When you’re just starting out and not getting as much traffic, you naturally need to charge a higher price and do more hands-on consulting work to make the same amount of money from lower traffic. For example, if when you start your blog and are getting 10x less traffic than in the future, you need to charge 10x more to make the same amount of money from your passive income streams.

You can check out my email newsletter to dive into this further, but with the right guest blogging strategies to grow your Domain Authority, you can use your consulting profits to accelerate your blog’s growth with content and links.

In the end, I want you to start making a lot of passive income in 3-6 months, not 3-5 years.

Remember, you first have to position yourself as a high-end consultant. Make sure that you focus on converting your visitors into business clients and providing excellent customer service experience.

Next, remember you’re not just a blogger, but a business owner so thinks like one. Hire writers instead of writing everything yourself, focus on sales at the beginning, and realize you can be successful fast if you put in the work.

To summarize again, start by focusing on consulting, then use this revenue to fund your blog and accelerate your content production. As your traffic grows, you can then move into passive income streams like affiliate marketing, digital products, and online courses.

The first step to start a high-end blog is to sign up for web hosting with Bluehost.

You can get started with them for just $2.95/month (63% off) and start your blogging empire.

Get started with Bluehost

#3 of the Best Jobs Online: Dropshipping

What if I tell you that you can get involved in selling products without worrying over inventory or fulfilling orders?

That method of ecommerce is called dropshipping.

Here’s how dropshipping works:

1. You (the retailer) launch an ecommerce store and advertise a manufacturer’s product.
2. A customer completes an order on your website.
3. You then forward the customer and order information to the manufacturer, and they handle the shipping.

Here’s how the whole process works compliments of Visual.ly:

The process is simple and only requires a website to become an online retailer of thousands of potential products online.

However, like any business models, it has a few downsides:

• Lower profit margins than selling your own products. When it comes to dropshipping, overhead is low — but so are the profit margins. A large chunk of what you will earn is going to be skimmed off by the supplier.
• High competition. If you’re selling commodity products, there are likely many others doing the same. Therefore, it’s a given that the competition is pretty high.
• Less control over branding. Since you’re selling a manufacturer’s products, your brand image can suffer. One way to mitigate this is by having your manufacturer place custom branded inserts into the boxes.
• Less control over customer service. As you’re not shipping the product yourself, you could get bad reviews from things completely out of your control.

Overall, around 27% of online retailers have adopted dropshipping.

The competition is pretty high. However, if you go about it the right way, there’s a lot of potential with dropshipping.

If you need help to get started with dropshipping, you can rely on an expert freelancer from a site like Fiverr. Fiverr’s dropshipping section includes freelancers that can help with anything from setting up and designing your store to syncing your products and marketing your business.

Overall, here’s a quick guide for you to get started with dropshipping:

• Choose a niche market and research which products are best suited for your audience.
• Conduct competitor research to see their products and pricing.
• Choose an ecommerce platform and design your online store.
• Carefully find a reputable dropshipping supplier.
• Sync your product inventory with a supplier like Inventory Source.
• Launch your ecommerce website.
• Start marketing your online store.

To get started, I recommend Wix as your ecommerce platform since they’re super easy to use and integrate with lots of dropshipping tools.

Ultimately, to succeed as a dropshipper, you have to build a real brand behind your products. It’s more challenging to do this when you’re selling other wholesaler’s products. But by only selling 5-10 highly unique products, you stand the best chance at real success.

You can get started for free with Wix and upgrade to a business plan. 

Try Wix

Digital Marketing Freelancing

Online digital marketing jobs are in high demand, and there is a skills gap that can’t fill these positions. They’re a great way to use your creative chops and analytics skills to help businesses grow their online presence.

According to a study, around 50% of modern businesses lack skilled workers.

With advances in globalization, we are currently witnessing an upsurge in companies outsourcing their digital marketing functions – and you don’t need a Bachelor’s Degree, a college degree, (or even a high school diploma for that matter) when you’re freelancing.

Therefore, it’s a win-win situation for everyone.

On the one hand, companies are saving extra money and unnecessary headache this way. They don’t have to hire a skilled team for each department when they can outsource them. And on the other hand, those willing to work from home are getting more lucrative opportunities.

If you feel that this is something that you want to do, then here are some tips on how to make it happen.

1. Work on a specific skillset.

Choose a particular niche within digital marketing.

SEO. Pay Per Click Advertising. Paid Social. Analytics. Content Marketing. Conversion Rate Optimization. Affiliate Marketing.

There are a lot of disciplines.

You can capitalize on more than one digital marketing skills you might have. But the key is to identify your most profitable skill set.

Here’re a few skills that every digital marketing professional should have:

1. Content Marketing & SEO.

The digital world runs on content. And the disciplines of content marketing and SEO work hand-in-hand.

Online businesses are in need of people that can write exceptional content, and get it to rank on search engines.

This is a comprehensive skillset that includes lots of disciplines:

• Keyword research.
• Content calendars and project management.
• Writing skills
• Knowledge of commonly-used SEO tools.
• Technical SEO.

2. Paid Digital Acquisition.

Jobs that pay well include search engine marketing (SEM), affiliate marketing, and paid social.

But when it comes to social media marketing, most people could use help as advertising on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other channels can get, And this is where you enter the game. You can make money online building Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Pinterest, or even Snapchat and become a remote Social Media Manager.

3. Analytics.

Understanding data to make informed marketing decisions is a skill in high demand.

Growth marketers and analytics experts analyze reports to understand website user behavior.

Knowledge of Google Analytics is a good start. You can then move onto more advanced data visualization tools like Adobe Analytics and Tableau.

Apart from these, there are a ton of other digital marketing jobs in areas like conservation rate optimization (CRO), content marketing, marketing manager, project management, etc.

Now comes the most crucial part.

Where can you find the most lucrative work from home jobs for digital marketing specialists?

If you don’t have any official digital marketing experience yet, it’s a good ideas to obtain experience as a freelancer. Getting real hands-on experience and building up your resume is a great way to find the best opportunities.

The best freelance site to get started with is Flexjobs.

In exchange for a small fee, they provide access to thousands of marketing opportunities and deeply vet each one for you so you can start earning freelance money faster.

Try Flexjobs

Other places to find digital marketing jobs include:

• Angel.co – a site for startup jobs.
• LinkedIn – set up a job search with keywords like “digital marketing”, “content marketing”, “SEO”, etc.
• Indeed.com – search for “digital marketing.”

Online Courses, Coaching, and Consulting

Let’s talk about another great online job – being an online coach. With the rise of eLearning and remote work, it’s a great time to enter this field.

If you enjoy working with others and helping them reach their goals, then this work from home job is perfect for you.

First, you have to think about your niche areas of expertise and the experience you have in certain industries.

There are many types of coaches, such as:

• Life Coaching
• Career Coaching
• Business Coaching
• Executive Coaching
• Wellness Coaching
• Financial Coaching
• Spiritual Coaching

And these areas can be broken down further. For instance, a wellness coach can focus on things like meditation, eating disorders, or fitness.

How can you start your own work from home job in coaching?

Here are some tips to help you get started as an online coach.

1. Build expertise in your niche.

Once you’ve decided what kind of coach you want to be, you need to start building expertise in your niche.

For example, this blog is my personal brand and way to teaching people things about marketing and digital entrepreneurship. Before I took on this blog full-time, I was the Head of Digital Marketing for a large tech startup in Austin, Texas. This career knowledge was a natural starting point for this blog’s content, and I used my professional leverage to help get it started.

You can build expertise in a lot of ways:

• Starting a website and writing blog posts about topics in your niche.
• Writing guest posts on other authoritative sites in your niche.
• Speaking at industry events.
• Selling an online course.

It’s impossible to seek advice from someone who can’t be found online.

So start by creating a blog around your online course topics. Your blog posts can be short teasers/mini-lessons based on what is included in your online course.

Create and sell online courses.

By using an online course platform, you can create and sell online courses.

Here are the steps to get started:

• Choose an online course platform like Thinkific.
• Plan your online course and create an outline.
• Optional: Create a sales page and pre-sell your course to validate your idea.
• Shoot your video lessons and create your assignments.
• Edit and upload your course content.
• Publish your course and promote it to your audience.

You should also consider offering discounts and tiered pricing to maximize your sales. Plus, think about adding add-ons like bonus files, 1:1 coaching sessions, or weekly coaching calls to increase your course value.

I recommend you try out Thinkific – my #1 recommendation for the best online course platform. This tool will help you create lessons and share them with a large audience base. You can read my full Thinkific review for more detailed information.

If interested, you can secure a 1-month free trial of Thinkific to start selling online courses. 

Try Thinkific

Professional Video and Audio Editor

If you’re an expert with video editing tools, one great business idea is to be a full-time remote video editor.

Another benefit of being an audio and video editor is the tendency to get more remote work. Because unlike directors, lighting experts, or the camera crew, an editor can work from anywhere.

While most people can edit simple videos, it takes an expert to cut together an amazing short video or film.

And with the upsurge in video marketing, your demand is only going to go up.

Take a look at these video statistics:

That’s an unbelievable amount of video content.

While it’s difficult to break into video editing in TV and film, you can create a lucrative work from home business targeting brands that need video content.

Here are some options to earn money as a video/audio editor:

1. Sell stock photos and videos. If you are looking to earn passive income on the side of your regular job, selling stock photos and videos is a great idea. You can shoot HD-quality shots of nature, cityscapes, people performing tasks, etc.

Some popular stock libraries include:

• DepositPhotos
• Shutterstock
• Fotolia
• Getty Images
• iStock
• Stocksy

2. Sell virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree Videos – The ability to create VR videos can take you places. Both the VR and 360-degree videos allow you to explore every inch of the frame of the video. Plus, VR videos offer you the capacity to interact with the video, which is the most significant selling point. For example, this technology could be used to preview real estate listings and other virtual tours.

Programming and Coding Jobs

Today, small and medium businesses are trying to curb their expenditure by hiring work from home freelancers.

And that’s the reason we see a boom in the freelance industry.

Some examples of who’s looking to hire freelance coders:

• Entrepreneurs – hire freelance coders and programmers to build a proof of concept to demonstrate their idea.
• Small businesses – usually on the lookout for temporary or even permanent services. Without paying for additional benefits like healthcare, job security, and so forth.
• Individuals – Yes, even individuals with a coding problem hire freelance coders and programmers from time to time to fix a problem or to seek help with their homework or something.

Did you notice the unifying characteristics of these jobs?

They all are small and temporary — and can be quickly done sitting at home.

Freelance coding and programming jobs are relatively easy to get and boast a high hourly rate. You would be surprised to see how many people are looking out for freelance coders on countless freelance websites on the internet.

The number of freelance programming and coding jobs far outweigh other positions in terms of volume.

Don’t let me dictate you into believing this, see for yourself:

Some of the most current and emerging work from home coding jobs include:

• Website Development
• Data scraping
• Mobile app development
• Building chatbots for websites
• Simple games
• Micro-controller programming

How do you get coding jobs?

Picking an excellent job website and setting up job alerts is likely to increase your odds of getting good work from home coding or programming job.

It’s better to search in places that have high-demand and where employers are willing to offer decent pay.

Some of the places that I would suggest include:

1. Build a GitHub profile – While having a personal website is imperative; programmers should not forget to put their codes on GitHub as well.

There are so many reasons why building your GitHub profile is essential. For one, it’s an excellent place to get a decent exposure, which might result in bagging more clients. Secondly, your GitHub profile can serve as your portfolio that you can show every time approach a prospective client.

2. Standard freelance websites – You will have to compete with others from all over the world on these websites. That said, this also means that you will get massive opportunities from customers around the world, and control your pay rate.

Here are some of the standard freelance websites to find work from home coding and programming jobs:

• Flexjobs
• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Guru
• People per hour
• Freelancer

Ultimately, Flexjobs is your best pick to find these coding jobs.

Try Flexjobs

Freelance Writer/Editor

Writing is one of the most popular work from home jobs in recent years.

As I mentioned before, no matter what you do and where you go — content is everywhere.

And that’s why you see the upsurge in both freelance writers and jobs. Bonus points if you can write in other languages like Spanish or French. 

However, when many initially step foot in the freelance writing job market, they have no clue what they are doing. Sometimes they resort to stalking other freelancers and looking at what they are writing, reading several old blog posts, and more.

But, you don’t have to try out this hit-and-miss approach. I have found out some great ways that will help you land your freelance writing job without much hassle.

1. Start cold pitching. Cold email is sending emails or messages via social media platform to companies, small and medium enterprises, entrepreneurs, or startups to let them know about your services.

Make sure that your pitch doesn’t sound repetitive. Add some character by talking about how you know their business and how your services can solve their problems.

2. Pitch to prospects listed on Job Boards – Are you itching to find a quality work from home job? Then pitching to Job Boards is your safest bet. It is also the best way to find consistent work without losing a steady income as a freelancer.

Here are some of the most lucrative job boards you can consider pitching to:

• Problogger
• Blogging Pro
• All Freelance Writing Job Board
• Content
• Flexjobs

3. Follow the Twitter handles of job boards – Social media can do wonders when it comes to getting quality work from home job.

Twitter is a great place to land writing jobs, given that you follow the right handles. Such handles provide a lot of freelance writing/editing jobs like this:

Here’re the Twitter handles I would recommend you to follow:

• @Write_Jobs
• @Monster
• @FreelanceWJ
• @JJobs_tweets
• @WhoPaysWriters

Work from Home Medical Jobs

Work from home digital medical jobs are on the upswing for some time, and the trend shows no sign of going away.

But what will you do as a freelancer in the field of medicine?

Well, you don’t have to guide a surgeon for sure.

Instead, you can try out simple digital medical jobs, such as:

1. Medical transcriptionist. Becoming a medical transcriptionist while you hustle and try to build your portfolio is not a bad option. As it turns out, you can earn some decent amount for merely typing out the recorded dictation from doctors.

2. Spokesperson – Many companies hire credible doctors to be the spokesperson for their supplement products. Please note that this job is for specialized doctors and experts in the field of medicine. The most significant upside of this job is its high pay.

3. Researcher – You can help pharmacy-based consulting companies research various subjects, including Pharmaceutical Market Research, the aging population, cancer treatments, and so forth.

4. Copywriter – We have already covered writing and editing in our previous point. However, the health industry also hires transcriptionists in addition to traditional writers.

5. Associate Scientific Director – Do you have an advanced degree in life sciences? Then this job is an excellent option for you. Working as a freelance associate scientific director primarily entails creating content for a variety of therapeutic areas.

Where will you find remote jobs in the digital medical field?

I would recommend pitching to freelance websites, such as:

• Flexjobs
• Upwork
• Indeed
• Glassdoor
• Healthcare Jobs – Remote.co

Online Design Consultant Jobs

Do you have an eye for visual aesthetics?

If yes, then you can leap into design consultancy jobs. The best part is that having a formal degree is not a barrier in this field when you’re independent.

Your creative insight and ability to self-educate can make you grow by leaps and bounds.

Design consultants can work in several domains, including:

1. Web design.

Just like content, you can’t space web design either. Every page on the internet requires UX and design. That’s the reason why this job is so popular among freelancers.

Your work as a website design consultant includes analyzing a website’s design and determine how it can be improved visually to increase conversion.

Once you start growing and start to get more clients, you can even expand your solo work from home gig to a virtual web design agency, increasing your pay ranges.

2. Graphic design.

If you are adept at using various Photoshop and Illustrator tools and have an innate sense of creativity, then you shouldn’t think twice before foraying into graphic design.

However, to be a consultant, your technical knowledge alone isn’t enough. You should also have extensive experience in client and project management.

That said, you don’t require a diploma or a degree in graphic design to pursue this career. You can do well enough by educating yourself at home by taking up credible online courses.

3. Interior design.

Foraying into freelance interior design consulting has several upsides — but it requires a lot of work. Your job as a freelancer interior design consultant is pretty much the same as a regular consultant.

To get your name out there in the market, you can use platforms like Houzz, where millions go to find interior design advice and inspiration.

Online Jobs for a Remote Tech Company

Tech companies, especially startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are increasingly shifting their workforce from in-house to remote.

Think of the most common job titles in an office: sales representative, human resources specialist, business development rep, customer service admins, etc. They all can work remotely.

I worked for a startup and while I worked in the office, I also was able to work from home.

And with the rise of social distancing, many companies are allowing their workers to stay remote full time.

According to Mercer, we live in an age of disruption and companies are implementing more remote-friendly work arrangements.

This type of work can benefit organizations in plenty of ways, such as:

• Reduced attrition among workers.
• Lower overhead cost, making premiums like health insurance more comfortable to pay for.
• Access to a broader talent pool.
• Potential increased productivity.
• Save both the company and the employee time and money.

As for the people, they enjoy even more significant benefits when it comes to working from home:

Not only this, those who work from home are more productive than those working in offices.

In fact, according to a report by Flexjobs, every 2 in 3 workers claim increased productivity working at home.

You cannot refute the value and popularity of working from home. You get paid every week for your service and don’t have to commute to work.

As we move toward the economy of the individual, your income is only limited by your knowledge and service.

It’s up to you to build your brand and reap the future profits of this virtual economy.

Work from Home Jobs FAQ.

Around the globe, five billion YouTube videos are watched every day. YouTube is as popular as ever with users spending an average of 40 minutes per YouTube session.

In line with this digital shift, the next thing you should learn is how to make money on YouTube. All you need is video editing software and a computer and you can get started on YouTube.

For example, on Ryan’s Toy Review, young Ryan makes a whopping $22 million by playing around and disassembling toys. Not bad for playing around with gadgets.

Making money on YouTube is no longer exclusive to a select few platinum musicians or huge influencers. There are plenty of opportunities for everyday people to make money from YouTube.

However, you have to be more strategic in your approach.

In this article, I’ll go over the different ways you can start making money on YouTube this year.

Let’s get started.

How to Make Money on YouTube

While it is possible to make significant income from YouTube as a content creator, it is not the easiest either. Four hundred hours of video upload to YouTube every single minute across the world.

Numbers don’t lie. Therefore the competition is pretty intense, and making a lot of money online becomes more challenging. Here are some powerful strategies you can employ to jumpstart your earning potential from YouTube.

1. YouTube Monetization: Use affiliate links on YouTube.

Promoting affiliate links can be a massive earning opportunity for channels that offer in-depth tutorials as well as insightful product reviews. For example, if you recommend a product and a user visits your link to buy, you’ll start earning commissions. You can place these links in the first few lines of your description and speak about your link in your video content.

Posting affiliate links on YouTube shares a typical resemblance to promoting affiliate links on your blog. Thus, you shouldn’t pour affiliate links all over your YouTube content just for the monetary benefit. Don’t forget that viewers will only follow these links when they believe you are a trusted resource.

To build trust with your audience, help them solve concrete problems and provide tutorials. As a bonus, you can create videos that offer solutions you have previously accomplished yourself.

There are plenty of affiliate programs for you to join. You can join many different programs in one place on a popular affiliate network like Shareasale or Awin.

The best step to maximize revenue is to start a blog in unison with your YouTube channel and add affiliate links there too. That way, you’re monetizing YouTube and also have a website on a platform that you own yourself.

The first step to starting a blog is to get started with Bluehost web hosting.

Bluehost is the “official” WordPress.org recommended web hosting platform and you can read my full Bluehost review here.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to Bluehost.com and click Get Started
2. Choose your hosting plan ($2.95/month is cheapest with my link)
3. Enter a new website domain name or select one you already own
4. Enter your account information, account plan, and billing information
5. You can uncheck the add-ons Sitelock Security and Codeguard Basic
6. Click Submit and you’re ready to go!

Try Bluehost

2. Become a YouTube Partner and earn from ads.

For many YouTubers, ads are the most essential revenue stream.

As a YouTube Partner, you make money in different ways. You can make money from ads before your videos, channel memberships, or Google AdSense banner ads.

However, there are some ground rules to observe before becoming a certified YouTube Partner as well as some prerequisites needed to start. Aside from adhering to YouTube’s ad rules, you must amass a minimum of 4,000 video watch hours on your channel in the last 12 months and have 1,000 subscribers.

There is no concrete timeline or format to get these foundational 4,000 hours. You can get 100 hours each on 40 videos or any combination to get your total to 4,000.

For example, the famous international hit Gangnam Style took an enduring five months to achieve 1 billion views. However, Despacito was less patient rushing to 1 billion views in barely 97 days.

After successfully achieving the 4,000 hour-threshold and winning your place as a YouTube Partner, you can start earning from ads.

In your Video Manager, a green “$” next to your videos indicates that you can now tap into YouTube monetization.

With YouTube Premium removing ads for viewers for a monthly fee, YouTube still helps support creators by paying based on the percentage of total watch time.

However, you may not always be able to base your revenue generation on YouTube from advertising alone. There are other avenues by which you can consolidate your earning potential on YouTube.

3. Make Money on YouTube with Funding from Your Fans.

If you’ve built a following of loyal fans, encouraging them to crowdfund your channel can help you fund your new videos and profit.

A platform like Patreon introduces more seamlessness to the process of getting paid for your content. For as little as a dollar, your fans can make subscriptions to their favorite channels, even going home with some exclusive rewards from their favorite content creators. Tipee is another service that allows you to enjoy a combo of recurring and one-time donations.

For-profit and nonprofit channels alike are leveraging this fan-funding with their audience to keep their video operations running smoothly. As long your content is interesting, entertaining, or providing value, you would be amazed at how your viewers open the floodgates of generosity.

4. Master Your YouTube SEO.

For video creators who have not built a significant following yet, you have to step up your game and maximize YouTube SEO this year.

To do that, perform keyword research like you usually would – however, think a little differently based on what people are searching for on YouTube. Next, make sure you are using high-value keywords in your video title, description, and video tags.

Once launched, you can check your YouTube “Traffic Source: YouTube search” report to get an idea of what people are searching for when they find your videos.

In general, Google provides video results for keywords on how to, reviews, tutorials, and funny video terms.

There are also five key YouTube SEO ranking factors to consider:

• Number of comments
• Subscribes after watching a video
• Thumbs up/thumbs down ratio
• Video length
• Click-through-rate on the YouTube search results

5. Make the most of your YouTube marketing funnel.

Optimize your YouTube channel for sales. Choose your niche, become a YouTube partner, and start planning your marketing funnel.

YouTube is one way to spread your message, but you can make more money by using YouTube in unison with a blog. That way you’re collecting more email addresses and eventually selling products to your fan base.

For example, if you write a blog post about an affiliate product you’re recommending, repurpose that content, and create a YouTube video embedded in the post. Then send users from YouTube back to your blog and to the affiliate links to both earn commissions and build blog readers.

6. Become an Amazon Influencer.

The Amazon influencer program is becoming more popular. This influencer program allows you to maximize your YouTube (social media in general) presence to make money via Amazon recommendations.

After joining the program, you can review and recommend products and direct your viewers to Amazon to purchase via affiliate links. When your viewers click through and make Amazon purchase, you get your cut of the commissions – typically 8-10%.

However, this program isn’t open to everyone. Social media follower count and other metrics dictate approval odds.

7. Explore extra gains from YouTube Red Subscribers.

YouTube Red allows users to pay $9.99 for ad-free YouTube viewing. Even without ads, content creators can still generate money and make 55% of revenue, based on view time. There are mixed reviews on whether YouTube Red increases or decreases CPM rates.

With YouTube Red, your watch time matters, so check your YouTube Analytics to view your statistics like watch time and video engagement.

How Much Money Can You Make on YouTube?

The short answer: it depends.

By using ad monetization, affiliate links, and selling sponsored placements in your videos, you can maximize your revenue potential.

On YouTube, you can make money from ads on a CPM, CPV, and CPC basis. With cost per impression (CPM), a typical YouTuber makes $7.60 per 1,000 views.

Nonetheless, by Google policy, creators get 55% of earnings accrued from advertisements while Google keeps 45%.

Now if you are using affiliate marketing as a channel owner, advertisers disburse payment with different models – typically cost per sale or cost per lead. Here, your earnings directly correlate with the number of conversions and sale commissions you get from advertisers.

You can also sell sponsored product placements in your videos. Here YouTubers make money by selling either short mentions or more extended product recommendations on brands looking for exposure.

However, if you have been able to build a measurable following on your channel, brands will pay you. This price may range from $20 to $50 for every few thousand views they get on your channel.

So if for example, their video on your channel hits millions of views, you can be dancing to the bank anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. This strategy is a better way to monetize when you aren’t generating millions of views.

How Much Money Do YouTubers Make?

For thousands of YouTubers, this answer may be nothing, or barely anything. For popular YouTubers, this could be a million dollars or more per year.

It’s getting tougher to make money, as ad revenue can range from $0.35 to $5 per view, with the safe assumption being $1 per 1,000 views.

The profitability of your channel is tied to both your views and your niche.

YouTubers in highly-viewed niches like listicles, news, celebrity gossip, makeup and beauty, and popular fails quickly pull in revenue with millions of views.

There are also YouTube revenue calculators to help you understand how much you can make based on video views and engagement.

How many views do you need to cash out on YouTube? Once you attain a balance of $100, YouTube pays you.

And can you earn from YouTube on a pay-per-subscriber basis? YouTubers just rolled out a subscription service to YouTubers with high follower counts.

How to Make Money on YouTube FAQ.