5 Real ways to Earn Online

You have an internet connection at home. This is the only thing required to earn money online. Yes it’s possible. It can be an excellent supplement to your regular income. In future this is going to go the service industry way.

Online Dollars!!!

Here are some easy ways you can follow to earn money online. One or many of these might be useful for you.

• Writing and Editing – If you have passion for writing and command over even one language, you can rock. There are many options like writing an e-book, becoming a proof reader or copy editor. You will get decent payment in all the above.
• Online Tutoring – This is the future. Classrooms are going to disappear soon and online classroom will take its place. You just need to have a webcam which is on every computer now. There are many platforms on which you can teach and earn handsome. If you gain popularity on this platform, you can conduct paid webinars also.
• Affiliate marketing – This is the buzz word. If you have good marketing skills you can become an affiliate with an established seller. You can be your own boss and sell products to earn good profits.
• Advertising – If you have your own website you can earn some extra bucks advertising other brands on your website. The space you sell on your website can help you generate that extra dollar.
• Selling Photos – If you are interested in photography and have a collection, rejoice! There is an unending demand for photos on the internet. You can get paid good amount for your clicks.

I hope one of the above methods works for you. I am making money on all and have tested all methods before advising. Do not wait go online!!!!

WhatsApp – Open Source and Monetizing?

I don’t think I need to introduce WhatsApp anymore, the instant messaging platform that is apparently used by 600 million people worldwide. You have it on your phone, it uses your telephone number and checks whether any of the people in your phone book use WhatsApp too and then gives you the possibility to chat with these people via the internet.

The idea is quite simple (as pretty much all genius ideas are, of course) and its very much an individual decision how much of this technology anybody wants to use. There are actually two aspects within the business model that caught my eye: on the one hand, the source code of WhatsApp is open source and has been from the start of its development in 2009. On the other hand, certainly facilitated by Facebook buying  WhatsApp in February 2014 for 19 billion US Dollar (yes, Billion with a capital B!), there are clear plans to try to monetize this messaging app.

Now, you might think there is nothing wrong with this combination but for me, this is new. The idea of Open Source was always that everybody should have access to these softwares and also could develop them further if they wanted. Open Source is about sharing and furthering development, not about making money. The fact that an Open Source project goes capitalist is certainly not new but still quite astonishing. Of course, Facebook wants to earn the money they have spent. But I do wonder whether the community, the users, will accept this move. At the moment, WhatsApp charges 1 US dollar subscription a year but this is likely to go up.

The vice-president for business development Neeraj Arora stated: “Monetization is on the cards. It will happen over the next few years. We believe in the subscription model and not in advertising as people do not like to have ads as they converse.” While I certainly agree that ads would drive people away from WhatsApp, I am also quite sure that any other “monetization” strategy will too. Once people are used to Open Source, you cannot take it away from them!

Ello & the non-care for money

So Wired had this article on the new alleged facebook killer that is coming out and slowly eating up users. It’s underground at the moment but it’s been getting a lot of buzz and interest online. I mean sure it’s telling people now it is different than facebook but how do we really know it is different? Every startup has lofty ideals when it starts but when you are thrown a bunch of money where do your values as a startup go? Naturally they change with the scope of your business. The whole point is based off of the fact that we are bought and sold on facebook through advertisements.

[“Ello’s founders, a group of designers and programmers led by artist Paul Budnitz, use the statement to criticize social networks for building businesses that track members’ personal data and sell it to advertisers. “Your social network is owned by advertisers,” they write. “Advertisers buy your data so they can show you more ads. You are the product that’s bought and sold.”]

I’m wondering if this is going to fall into the trap of trying to not care for money but ultimately there is money to be made. Let’s face it, the internet has a multitude of uses, and one of the predominant uses is to make money and act as a digital space for markets. Only time will tell how this will turn out.