Losing a job is never easy and even if you are still being supported by your employer in this health crisis or have some savings, money will run out eventually. You need to have a plan for long term, just in case it takes more than normal time to get back up again.
Immediately after you’ve been let go, you may find yourself experiencing a range of emotions – panic upon not getting a regular pay check anymore, a sense of mixed happiness or exhilaration as you embrace a new life without a set routine, rage when you reflect on your employer let you go after so much hard work and loyalty you gave to the job.
If you are a person comfortable doing a job, then letting people know you’re available for new opportunities is the first step in getting your job search off the ground and don’t forget to register with Centrelink. Otherwise considering new options is an opportunity and a plan for now.
The plan is not to get caught up in emotions, recognise that they’re all normal – move on and focus on the future.
You can look at other options while you have the time to earn money online via the internet. There are websites online that can help you make money on the side from home. PayPal is a essential tool you will need to receive money online for any services provided or any side hustle.
2020 has been a tough year for holding a steady income and surviving. Below is a list of different ways you can make money online today by basically taking advantage of the internet and online opportunities.
That Pet Project or Business idea
Remember that business idea you had or pet project that you had in mind when you had a job and was all secure financially, now is the time to give it a go. It can be anything from creating crafts to sell or starting your own takeway.
You have the risk of losing money with any new business idea if things don’t pan out, but it’s your call and you have the time right now (if you have some spare money). If you are more risk averse, then maybe looking to do something online and earning money should be your plan, read on.
Provide a service /freelance
You can easily earn money online by providing a service through the internet. Did you know that Approximately 57 million Americans were freelancing in 2019. This is called the new “gig economy” or freelancer economy.
You can be called a virtual assistant or freelancer. The jobs that you do online can vary from being a virtual assistant for a specific task, writing an article for website or blog, making a promo video , translation of text audio, transcribing, creating an audio track, entering data into excel word, accounting work, online marketing work and many more services that you can provide online.
On these websites (listed to the right) you can charge people using your services anywhere starting from $5 to $500 depending on the value of the service you are providing. You can advertise your service, fees and time you will take to complete tasks on the platform. The freelance website will take a cut from your earnings as their service fee.
"Links"
Three popular websites online that can help you find work online are given below
Stock Trading & Investment
Many say investing in the stock market is as good as taking a gamble at the casino and in such troubled times picking a winner can be fraught with risks. So, this is an option not for the faint at heart.
If done right there could be good returns, but there is always the risk. I would suggest that don’t put in money that you can’t afford to lose. Investing int eh stock market can be from as low as $500 , however to make some kind of decent returns at least $20,000 investment as start is recommended.
Most big banks (CBA, NAB, ANZ & Westpac allow you to trade shares with them once you open a share trading account with them. Trading a share can cost you anywhere from $8 to $20 per trade. Apart from the big banks there are brokers like self-wealth and Ig Markets that allow you to trade shares.
Starting a blog
This can be a hobby if you go the time or you can turn this hobby into a business if you can get many people visiting your blog or website. If you like gadgets you can start a gadget blog with reviews of gadgets or then if you like writing about life or cooking you can start a lifestyle or cooking blog.
How you can make you hobby into a business online with a blog is by providing links to cookbooks in your cooking blog or links to gadgets in your gadget blog and when visitors click on these links and buy you get a commission. You can sign up with an affiliate program or amazon to get these links to put on your website or blog. Check this article on how to create a blog withing 10 to 15 minutes on this article.
Selling stuff online
This is a continuation from what I just said about starting a blog above. However, if your sole purpose is for starting a website to sell something online then you will be just listing your products online, advertising and expecting sales. This is also called ecommerce.
For this I would suggest a platform that is specifically designed for easy set up and use even by beginners. I would recommend shopify platform.
This platform makes it easy to list your products on your shopify website and is easy to integrate with facebook to sell to Facebook audience.
People are increasingly using social platforms like Instagram and twitter to sell online. So, making your personal or business profile on these platforms might help sales for your business. You can also pay influencers to spruik your products online to get massive sales. Some people are also making a living by just selling stuff on facebook marketplace online and gumtree.
You can design and make you own product in china and start selling it on shopify, or then make your own product locally and sell online or then even sell an online product eg. like an ebook, knitting design templates for an online delivery.
Study / Do an online education course
If you ever thought of going back to school, this is the time to do it.
If enrolling in a class or two will make you more marketable and you can afford it, go for it. During your downtime you can do workshops and they could boost your self-esteem and offer a positive outlet.
Get yourself some online education by studying a new course or skill. This might come handy in the short to longer term. Maybe get a skill or education that will add to your existing qualifications.
There are many education institutes in Australia offering study courses online apart from specialised online study organisations. Below are some of them.
Rent out your home/ take an overseas student (homestay)
Got a spare room in your house or a spare house. You could rent it out, take in a homestay student or make it Air BNB rental or stayz holiday home. Register with Air BNB or stays to list your house for short term rentals. If you need a renter, list your room online on an online listing website, or a rent a room website or on your local uni student board.
Homestay is when you accommodate a student/overseas student in your home and provide meals for them. You get a paid a fee to do this and the student gets to learn local culture while getting an Australian education. May universities and schools are on the lookout for homestays for their international students.
Answer surveys online to make money
Many people don’t know this, but you can make money answering surveys online or even taking surveys for survey companies. Answering surveys is as easy as registering with a survey taking website and answering their surveys.
There are a few survey websites that allow you to make money in this way like survey junkie, swag bucks. Google has got into this as well.
https://surveys.google.com/google-opinion-rewards/
With google every time a new survey is available, you will get a notification and between one to 10 multiple choice questions. While payout is usually a few dimes or quarters, when you hit $2, you can transfer the money right to your PayPal account.
The money is not great, but it is something to do.
Become a tutor
Have a skill. Good at maths. Good at singing. Good at computers. Become a tutor and teach others.
There are plenty of people willing to pay money to learn new skills and gets hands on training. There are many online platforms today where you can advertise your skills and willingness to teach for a fee. If you have qualifications in your skills from a certified education institution, you can be at an advantage. You might need to get further relevant local security clearances for your job.
Sign up with a tutoring agency and get a tutoring job.
Rent your car / dress/ shoes
In today’s world almost everything is made used of – and nothing goes to waste. Go a car that you hardly use, there are websites on which you can list them for people who don’t have cars to use them and pay you.
Got a Gucci shoe/bag that you paid $1200 for, got a valentine or Piccioli dress that you paid a couple of grand for – just rent it on one of the local popular rent a dress/shoe website and earn some money
Work from home Jobs
At such time there is not many jobs going around, but some successful jobseekers online might be able to snare a job working online and not even have to attend a workplace.
Some popular Australian online job sites are
- seek.com.au
- indeed.com
- linkedin.com
- https://www.jobaccess.gov.au/home
Recruitment companies
Making money from Social Media like – Youtube, Podcasts, Instagram, twitch and Facebook
Making money using social media is a new avenue of making money that many youngsters are taking advantage of be it running a podcast , becoming a Instagram influencer or becoming a youtube star or making use of new social platforms like tik tok and twitch (gaming). Online gaming is also a big niche today. This social media method relies of you getting many fans or followers/subscribers online via social media which has a predominantly younger customer base. Read more below
Become a YouTube Star
You-tube today has grown to be an alternative to TV as well. Most smart tvs have you tube app readily available to watch it online on your tv and it is easily available also from your laptops and desktops increasing its reach to billions of people.
Savvy youngsters are taking advantage of this and making a name for themselves online via their self-created video channels. This also opens this medium to make money by anybody who can create a loyal and popular fan following on many numbers of viewers to their video channel. In YouTube terms it is called channel subscriptions. The more people subscribing to your video channel and watching your videos, the more popular you are considered online.
Create a Youtube Channel:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=l0eM1_JVqHE
Starting a video channel can be anything from making videos of opening children toys and explaining how they work to talking about stock market trading and educating people on how it works. The things that people do on youtube are so different yet many people successfully can make up to $40,000 + a month from a YouTube channel.
How money is earned – People watch your videos on YouTube – in between watching your video an ad pops up ,every ad that a viewer sees you are paid money for it. More people watching your videos = more watching the ads in between =more $$
There is a website called social blade that lists estimated earnings of youtube stars online. Check out popular Australian youtubers channels here.
Become a Instagram Influencer
Instagram is more popular within the fashion, Food, Travel and health and wellbeing niches today. There are many celebrities on Instagram. Many people are making money promoting make up products, Perfumes and designer clothing brands and many more innovative products on Instagram. Money is made by sponsored posts on Instagram.
Register for Instagram website or app : https://www.instagram.com/
For eg. You can just make an Instagram post saying you really liked this new perfume and if you have 120,000 followers that means you just promoted this product to all 120,000 of them and some of them might actually buy it. The perfume company could pay you anywhere from $200 to $20,000 for a sponsored post mentioning their perfume.
It works on the same principle as other social media methods- the larger following you have (followers) the bigger audience you can promote too and therefore earn more money.
Become a Podcast Broadcaster
A podcast is an audio channel that people subscribe too. Its like listening to the radio online. People have their own podcast talking about different subjects, conduct interviews of other people online and you can listen to it on demand. Podcasters generally cre
ate a series of their podcasts so that people can subscribe to them and listen regularly.
The first time I heard of podcast was thanks to the apple products ipad and iPhone that promoted podcast (even though I am a
Samsung fan)
Top podcast websites:
- Apple podcasts/itunes (could not find the podcast weblink without downloading an apple app)
- Tunein
- Spotify
- Google Podcasts
The more people subscribing and listening to your podcast regularly, the more potential for you to make money. Money is made by you mentioning and advertiser’s product on the broadcast or allowing an ad to be broadcast in your podcast. The ad could be in between your podcast or at the start or end of the podcast.
Eg. $25 per 1,000 downloads for a 60–second mid–roll slot
Her is a list of top podcaster platforms ( no surprise that it does only list Amercan podcast websites)
Become a Online Gaming Broadcaster/Publisher
This is a new niche that is currently just gaining traction and has become quite lucrative as well. Many online gamers today are using this method to make money while enjoying playing online games.
How it works is – you sign up with a platform to record yourself playing games online like eg Fortnite, Minecraft, counterstrike or GTA online and this gets broadcast live to an audience while you are playing the game. If you are an expert in playing that game, other gamers will subscribe to your regular broadcasts to learn how to play better from you. Players also ask for donations online while playing to show off their particular gaming skills. Female gamers increasingly have taken to this platform with growing income potential as this has been mainly a male interest niche so far
The more people subscribing to your live/recorded gaming broadcasts they more potential you have of earning money online.
Popular online gaming platforms:
There are new online platforms today like patreon and onlyfans.com that cater to other niches while also being adult oriented to cater to a more diverse audience. They are many people from the Adult industry that use these platforms for obvious self-promotion reasons.
Making money from home can sound like all glitz and glam and kind off a lifestyle choice — however if you want to seriously make money from your venture it can be quite similar to doing a fulltime job, but it can be also satisfying when you earn a good income and because you are working for yourself.
is in the game.
