30 Legitimate Ways to Make Money Online and Offline

There are hundreds of legitimate ways to make money online but we’re going to dwell more on only just 30 of them, which are practicable in Nigeria.

More than 70% of the money-making tips you’ll find here has been tested and proven to work, while some of them are based on inspiration we got from Owen Burek’s Make Money on savethestudent.org which you can also try.

We’ll continue to add more ideas to this post when we find new workable ones. And we urge you to also share your ideas in the comments section if you’ve found new one.

30 Ways To Make Money Online

• Information packaging
• Start your own blog
• Buy and resell domain names
• Monetize your YouTube Videos
• Network Marketing
• Part-time job
• Write for other bloggers and get paid
• Sell photos
• Become a real estate
• Convert your manuscript to an e-book and sell online
• Get paid to write a book review
• Affiliate marketing
• Make money through Fiverr
• Online market trading
• Uber
• Sell past questions
• Freelance work
• Babysitting
• Independent research
• Become dealer/installer or PayTV
• Sell unused gadgets on online
• Sell products for others and get a commission
• Get paid for playing instrumental for churches
• Event planning
• Buying and selling
• Link students with the right institution
• Organise peer-to-peer group contribution
• Leverage on your skill

Information packaging

One of the legitimate ways to make money online in Nigeria is through information packaging.

This could however be done online and offline, depending on the nature of the information you’re commissioned to research on. You can find this online.

Often, you’re given a specific area to focus on. Some individuals, firms urgently need information which they might not really have time to research themselves; they are always looking for people to handle such research for them.

Another way is to independently embark on hot-selling topics like how to treat diabetes with ginger, top 100 medical secrets of cashew nut etc are some of the topical medical problem researches you can package and sell to people who need them.

Start your own blog

Starting a blog has to do with passion in a specific area, it could be writing, singing, music, creative works etc.

By the time your blog is stable and provide useful information, people will come back for more, from there you build an audience, after this, you could monetize it by showing ads on it.

There are more than 20 Ads agencies out there, but Adsense owned by Google looks promising than others.

However, we’ve seen a situation whereby bloggers source for their own ads when Adsense failed.

At the initial stage of Nairaland, we learn that Seun Osewa’s bid for Adsense was rejected severally until he began to source for independent ads for his forum.

Today, it’s the largest forum on the African continent and makes than many other bloggers who use adsense.

Starting your own blog has a lot of advantages like promoting your own personal services as well.

Apart from this, you can sign up for content promotion platforms, they include:

1. Getblogged.net (You’re paid based on your site’s ranking, the minimum I’ve seen here 15 Pounds per post. You can earn more. Payment is made through your PayPal Account)
2. Guestpost4us.com
3. Cooperatize.com

How to blog, tech blog and a review blog is one of the areas you can focus on and start to make legitimate money online.

Buy and resell domain names

A domain name is a website address like infomediang.com, npowerng.gov.ng etc. While extensions include .com, .org, .biz, .con.ng, .gov.ng, .ng, .co.uk etc.

The extension dictates the price of the domain name. Some special extensions are costlier than generic one e.g .ng is expensive than .com.

Domain names are sold by domain registrars; some of them include web4africa.com, godaddy, namecheap, etc.

When a discount is on, a domain name could go as little as one dollar. When there is no discount, a domain name with .com extension could go for 14 dollars or less.

Today, some guys make cool cash legitimately online by buying and selling domain names.

How does it work?

Follow the trend in business acquisition, and new businesses in your country (or around the world). Buy a domain name related to the new acquisition and resell. It is a profitable business for tech guys out there.

It was reported that vacationrentals.com was sold for 35 million dollars ($35million) in 2007.

In Nigeria, during the acquisition process of telecom giant etizalat, the proposed name 9mobile was made public even before the final acquisition was finalized.

It was revealed that a smart tech guy went ahead to buy (9mobile.com.ng, 9mobile.ng, and 9mobile.com) before the owners bought the domain name.

The interesting thing is that the first buyer resold it for an undisclosed great price. An unconfirmed report says he made millions of naira from the deal.

Domain name buying and reselling is another way to make money online. You would definitely be contacted when a buyer needs it.

“The trick is to find domain names which have some commercial value, snap them up and then list them for sale on site like sedo.com”

Monetize your YouTube Videos

Exclusive video clips on YouTube are one of the legitimate ways to make money online.

Gone are the days when you can monetize your YouTube videos immediately you get them uploaded, that has changed.

YouTube is a video platform owned by Google. YouTube videos have become a source of revenue for some people who upload attention-grabbing videos on their channel with the recently introduced YouTube Partner Programme

We now have Vbloggers all over the world who make cool money from their video clips on YouTube.

How it works:

When your uploaded YouTube video has got at least 10,000 views you can apply for Google Adsense through your channel, and through this adverts will begin to show on your video.

All you need do is to appropriately optimize your video before you hit publish.

In Nigeria particularly there are videos that could garner 20, 000 views within an hour.

Network Marketing

Network marketing can take different forms and you can make legitimate money online through them:

1) Network marketing where you sell physical product;

2) The other one you do not sell any physical product.

In physical network marketing sales of products are involved through which you generate income in form of commission from the products you sell, and from others who register and sell under you e.g GNLD is an example.

The second one is when you don’t need to sell any physical product. In this case, members benefit from matrix method.

The more people you bring on board, the more your referral bonuses and rewards.

One of the known Multi Level Marketing (MLM) in Nigeria today that is known for giving tablet pad, deep freezer, laptops, cars, and loans to its members is Helping Hands International

When you get to a certain stage/level you get compensated with physical material apart from the referral and matrix commission. Popularly called H2i, its registration fee is 60 US Dollars (N9,900).

You need an existing registered member to be on board.

Networking is another legitimate and simple ways to make money in Nigeria and all over the world.

The good thing about this is that you only need a little investment, and with good use of social media, your account continues to grow even while you sleep.

Please note network marketing is not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. You will have to work using your marketing skills to get people on board for you to get a great referring bonus.

The growth of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus etc has made networking so easy.

Part-time job

You can make legitimate money online by doing a part-time job. It could be online.

Either way, the availability of jobs depends on where you are based. Part-time jobs are easy to find in first-tier countries than Nigeria.

However, you can still find part-time jobs in Nigeria, but very rare.

Write for other bloggers and get paid

One of the ways to make legitimate money online is by writing for other blogs.

Apart from publishing on your own blog, you can also find an online job as a co-webmaster for a blog if you passed their integrity test and can manage such alongside your own blog.

There are lots of blog owners in Nigeria who want trustworthy blog managers and contributors.

You can do this part-time and you get paid for your services. Most of them would stipulate the number of unique article to contribute per day: it ranges from one to two articles depending on the blog niche.

You can be paid between N20,000 per month or above depending on the size of the blog.

Sell your photos on istockphoto, fotolia and other photo-based websites

Another source of making money online is to upload your exclusive and creative shots to stock websites, where you would be paid. Recommended ones for a starter are: http://www.en.fotolia.com/ and istockphoto (http://www.workwithus.istockphoto.com/en)

Become a house agent in your area

One of the legitimate ways to make money offline is to serve as a middleman between a house owner and a prospective tenant. You get a commission on the house gotten through you.

All you need do is locate the building nearing completion, talk to the owner and by the time it is completed you paste your phone number there.

Through this, you are able to negotiate with a potential tenant. Some agent in big cities like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt makes between 20,000 naira to 50, 000 naira on a three-bedroom flat.

Become a real property agent

Wealthy people are seriously investing in real property. The interesting thing about the millionaires is that they always want to buy property in first-choice areas of the city.

You can make cool money locally by sourcing suitable properties for wealthy investors who simply do not have the time to search.

Some smart guys in big cities have gone digital by opening a website and listing all the sourced properties there for anyone from any part of the world to contact them.

Though it could take time to pay off if you are starting up, with consistency and sincerity you could have list of investors who would be your indirect marketer…referring you to their business colleagues who might want to invest in properties.

You can take a step further by getting your agency registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Convert your manuscript to an e-book and sell online

Do you have interesting stories? Go ahead to convert it to an e-book and sell on platforms like click2sell, and Amazon kindle store to make money.

Kindle store is more popular than clik2sell.

Selling your e-book has never been easier with Kindle App, which can be downloaded on major app stores.

One of the sweetest legitimate ways to make money online is by converting your manuscript to e-book.

You earn 70 percent (70%) of the sale.

The major thing is to create e-book with value…plus a great cover with captivating synopsis.

Try as much as possible to encourage your buyer to drop a few lines of honest review at the end of your list.

A lot of people are limited as a result of the mode of payment, but more payment methods, other than PayPal, are now available; they include Payoneer (http://www.payoneer.com/) , Skill (http://www.skrill.co.uk/)

Sell your e-book and begin to make passive income. Your income has no end in as much the information you provide in your e-book remains relevant, or provides solution to a particular problem.

Get paid to write a book review

Closely related to selling an e-book online is writing reviews for authors and get paid for your objective review.

There are some of them that would give you free novel for you to read and come up with your views about it. One good example is Online Book Club (http://www.onlinebookclub.org/) where you get free books and could get paid for your honest reviews.

All you need do is to sign up and start getting free books for you to review. Slicethepie is another great platform to earn from writing review.

Affiliate marketing

Promoting other people’s products with the aim of making sales cum commission is called affiliate marketing.

This is another cool way to start bringing in money immediately by promoting goods, services, and physical products you think your followers might like.

There are lots of companies and websites that offer affiliate programme. Check if your country is allowed, sign up, grab your affiliate links and start sharing on your blog posts, or by creating a special page for your affiliates.

Make money through Fiverr

There are platforms you can sell your services and make easy and cool money. Of all of them, Fiverr (http://www.fiverr.com/) is the world’s largest freelance marketplace for buyers and sellers of services referred to as gigs.

Fiverr gives you the opportunity to monetize the special skills you have ranging from logo design, business card design, eBook design, digital marketing, editing, proofreading, Search Engine Optimization, animated logos, website design, programming, business, voice-over etc.

The default price on Fiverr is $5, depending on the task. There are services you find on Fiverr that cost $50 or above.

The company gets a certain percentage from the money you are paid.

Mode of payment include Payoneer, Paypal. If your PayPal account does not support payment, Payoneer is a good alternative to Paypal. Payoneer is a global payment firm that is becoming a phenomenon in global payment.

Online market trading

One of the ways to make legitimate money online apart from the above is through online market trading.

Online market trading has been made easier to the extent that you can learn and start trading on your smartphones.

You can start this business by yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.

Owen Burek recommends two of such trading platforms: Plus500 and eToro.com

You’re given free accounts on both platforms, Plus500 gives you a free £20 without depositing, but make sure you carefully read the Terms and Conditions.

eToro.com with close to five million user across the globe was recently featured in the BBC 2 documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.

Making Legitimate money offline through Uber driver

Got your own vehicle? You can begin to make extra cash by driving others around the city. Uber Nigeria is limited to two major cities at the moment in Nigeria: Lagos and Abuja and planning to get to other big cities.

Please, check uber website to know the model of the cars that are accepted.

Sell past questions and answers for admission-seeking students

A lot of guys make legitimate money online and offline through this means.

Millions of Nigerians seek admissions in Nigerian institutions every year, and more than 90% are always searching for past questions to help them pass excellently well in their UTME and Post-UTME examinations.

Most of Nigerian blogs that cover education and admission news are beginning to sell past questions and answers on their blogs.

If you want to tap into this offline, you can begin as a private tutor through one-to-one tutoring, list services on olx, jiji and other platforms.

Freelance work

If you enjoy writing, or doing graphic design, there are so many freelance jobs in writing and other simple skills you can handle for someone who might not have the time.

And the best thing about freelancing is that you can work for clients from any part of the World with just an internet connection.

A great place to start is with the leading freelance site upwork.com or Fiverr

Babysitting

You want to start making money offline? Another great way is to look after small children. Some people call it crèche. The best location for this kind of business is the school and hospital area. You can consider to advertise yourself to the nursing mothers who need the services of a child care person.

In Nigeria, there’s no official website for this kind of business, though some child care individuals place advertisement online platform like olx, no one is ready to put her child under the care of a total stranger. In the U.K, findababysitter.com is a platform where you can get a babysitting job.

Other legitimate ways to make money online and offline include:

21) Carry out independent research and get paid

22) Sign up to become dealer/installer or PayTV operators like TStv, Dstv, Gotv, StarTimes

23) Sell your unused gadgets on online market place like jiji, olx

24) Sell products for others and get a commission

25) Get paid for playing instrumental for churches, at events, particularly if you’re a professional instrumentalist.

26) Get paid to plan events for other people (event planner)

27) Buying and selling of agric produce. Make sure you study the market and make the right connection before you jump into this.

28) Link students with the right institution for during admission season and monetize your service later.

29) Organise peer-to-peer group contribution. This depends on the number of trusted people and people of integrity around you. Don’t start this with dubious people.

30) Above all lay your hands on the skill you have a comparative advantage.

We will keep updating. Please let us know if you have any other legitimate ways to make money both online and offline, share your thoughts with us.