Ways To Make Money Online (2025)
- ashey9111
- Mar 18
- 8 min read
Hi friends! In this blog post, we're going to take a look at some ways you can make money online in 2025. Whether you're a homemaker, a stay-at-home mum/caregiver OR you're just looking to make some extra cash, then this blog post is for you!
I think a lot of people want to move into more of a "homemaker", financial freedom type of job because let's be real, the 9-5 or the shift work grind isn't for everyone and I think that's okay. What I think is important is to make sure you set up a lot of different streams of income so that you're not solely relying on one income source. And freelancing is a job.
I did write a Ways To Make Money Online (2024) blog post if you want to check that one out "here", but I thought we could do an updated version for 2025, especially because a lot of people don't seem to understand that it's possible to earn a living working from home as a content creator/blogger/freelancer.
PIN IT
Ways to Make Money Online (2025)
Blogging: When I first started blogging, it was a very personal thing and to some degree, it still is BUT there are a lot of ways that you can monetise a blog and now my blogs are run more like businesses. I run two blogs (asheycakes and eatswithash) and so far only asheycakes is monetised because eatswithash is really new. If you're interested in starting a blog, you can set up a blog through a blogging platform such as WordPress, Wix, SquareSpace OR Blogger (there are more but you get it). I would recommend waiting at least a few months for Google to index your blog before you apply to ad networks, but there are some other ways you can get monetised from the get-go. The way I monetise my blog is through ad networks, affiliate marketing, buy me a coffee, sponsorships, and selling digital prints. I will add in some ideas for ways you can monetise your blog below.
Ad Networks: There are a plethora of ad networks out there such as Google Adsense, Journey, and Mediavine. I recommend googling them and seeing which one works best for you as it will depend on your location, website traffic, and engagement rates (and make sure you check your eligibility criteria).
Affiliate Marketing: There are a bunch of courses out there about affiliate marketing but essentially you are sharing a link to a product you love on your blog and if someone buys that product through your link then you may earn a commission. It's a good one to start with before you dive into ad networks.
Selling your own products through your blog: It's super easy to set up a shop on your blog and you could sell digital products like ebooks or courses OR you might have a small business where you make something and a blog would give you a platform to sell that online (like handmade earrings or clothes).
Sponsored Content: This one is a bit harder because brands don't always come to you but if there's a specific brand you want to work with, I recommend pitching to them and keep networking baby.
Buy Me A Coffee: This one is more like a donation thing - if someone visits your blog and they like it and you have the buy me a coffee widget installed, they can donate $5 or however much they want to pay for your coffee for the day. It's similar to patreon and it's a great way to monetise a blog, especially if you're providing consistent high quality content and you may not meet the ad network requirements (or people are using ad blockers).
Build an email list that you can convert into leads/customers later on and build up a good reputation.
Write for other blogs OR write content on places like Medium and Substack (where people can pay for your subscription). Or if you're big enough, you could paywall some of your content on your blog (if that's your thing).
Offer services: Maybe you're a photographer, a dog-walker, a babysitter, or a home baker, leverage those skills for your blog by offering it as a paid service.
Make YouTube videos that go with your blogs and cross-promote (I'll talk more about this in the social media section).
Pro Tip: The most "profitable" blog niches for 2025 are: digital marketing, technology/AI, how to blog, health & fitness, personal finance, food, personal development & self-care, lifestyle, parenting, and gadgets/software.
Social Media: So you wanna be an influencer/content creator? And yep, it's saturated and yep, sometimes I struggle but I continue to put myself out there and create content. The ways that I use social media are my YouTube channel, my Instagram, Facebook Pages, and I have an IG and TikTok account for Benji. Here are some ways you may be able to monetise social media.
Sponsored posts (basically the same as blogging).
Become a brand ambassador - but watch out for pesky scams. If a brand wants to work with you, they will email you from the official account (none of this pesky 0 followers business in your hidden DMs).
Start a YouTube Channel: This is a great place to start if you're confident, bubbly, and have a lot to say. Talking in front of a camera is a lot harder than it seems and you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time to get monetised (+ you must comply with YouTube's policies). YouTube uses AdSense to pay its employees and you can get sponsored too. Plus, it might open up other opportunities for you later on.
Create a Podcast: If you like to talk about things, can edit recordings, and have a decent microphone then starting a podcast might just be for you. Fun fact about me is that one of my friends and I started a podcast together but they kinda drifted off so I gave up and started my own content creation. Maybe I'll come back to it another day. Ways to monetise a podcast can be through sponsored content, Patreon support, advertising, and affiliate marketing.
Increase your Instagram and TikTok following and monetise those platforms. You can also post Facebook reels and sometimes the users get paid for those.
Sell your own social media management/marketing skills - you can do this through freelance sites already mentioned or you can sell your own courses through a website.
Host Paid Events (i.e., lives, virtual events).
Sell courses, sell Canva templates, sell your own products, etc.
Freelancing: Don't really know what you want to do but you know you want the convenience of choosing when you work? Why not try out some of these freelancing sites?
Upwork: I love this one, there's so many things on here that you can do from beta reading to editing to random video testing, and you can tailor it to fit your current skills.
Fiver: On Fiver, you can find work such as AI art, logo design, help with blogging, voiceover and much much more.
Freelancer: This isn't the best freelance website as you have to filter out fake clients but it does have some good work such as web development, content translation, and social media marketing.
Flexjobs: This site has a filter where you can choose from "work anywhere in the world" or "work anywhere in the USA" so it's pretty cool. However, scrolling through the job list, it's a lot of engineering and software development but if you like that sorta stuff, check it out!
AirTasker: This is pretty cool but make sure you stay safe out there! If you need a task done, you can post about said task and get help from others AND if you wanna be a task helper you can search for tasks to do and earn money. It's often things like end-of-lease cleaning help, moving furniture, email filing, etc. all those mundane tasks that people don't want to do. It's also specific to Australia so I'm not sure if you can use it elsewhere, but if you're bored and don't mind helping out a stranger, it's a good place to start.
There are other freelance sites too such as Behance, Design Hill, and PeoplePerHour.
Become a virtual assistant - basically, be a assistant to someone but do it virtually (aka all online). You can check out any of the above websites to see what's on offer.
You could also do freelancing photography, freelancing food-related things, freelancing babysitting and so much more.
Pro Tip: There's a subreddit for all things freelancer related so I recommend checking that out "here".
Online Surveys: Online surveys have been something I've used since I was at university to make extra income on the side and honestly, some months you can make quite a lot and others you might not make as much but it's still something worth having. You need a PayPal account to be paid and the following sites work in Australia. Here are my favourites!
Qmee: This is one of my favourites as there's no minium requirements to cash out and you can do surveys, quizzes, and play games.
Opinion World: A points based system but it's easy to cash out!
Toluna: A place that's kinda like a social media app, but it's fun. You can use this in both Aus and NZ.
Prolific: Quite high paying and has really interesting surveys.
YouGov: This one is mostly vouchers but the surveys aren't boring like some other survey sites are.
Slice The Pie: You can review music or fashion, do surveys, and review concepts on here, it's pretty cool.
User Testing/Data Annotation: User Testing can be a great way to make a little bit of extra income if you have a decent amount of downtime, a good set of headphones, and a microphone. You will need to do what they call "tests/trials" to see if you are a good fit but basically you are testing some sort of product, website, app, or game and talk about your experience as you are on the site (this is used to get a great user experience). Data Annotation is where you categorise information in things such as images, videos, and graphics to help AI and machines learn what it is. Here are some of my faves:
Stock Photography/Videographer: Creating stock content is an ever-evolving business, especially with the rise of so many content creators out there. Basically stock photos/videos are where a photographer/videographer will take an image or a photo and then sell that on stock websites - you do lose the rights to the photo BUT it does mean that your work is in a lot of places (and you get paid). Here are some sites where you can sell stock images/videos:
Canva: You can also sell templates, graphic designs, cartoons, etc.
Other Ideas: Not a fan of any of the above? Well, here's some more ideas for you!!
Walking Apps: There are apps that actually pay you for walking - I currently use SweatCoin, WinWalk, and Macadam.
Website Flipping - Creating websites and then selling them and/or buying other websites, doing them up, then selling them again.
Remote Data Entry/Transcription - These can be found on a lot of freelancing sites but there are also websites like "Transcribe Me".
Online Gaming/Streaming - There is a big platform for online gamers right now and if you're a gamer, you could utilise it. Lots of gamers make YouTube videos of their game play and some people even make Pokémon Go vlogs which is pretty cool. I believe there are also some apps that will pay you for playing games too.
Become an online tutor.
Become a remote graphic designer.
Publish an e-book or just a normal book. You can self publish ebooks through Amazon for free.
Become a remote video editor.
Offer astrology/online tarot readings if you're good at that.
Create an Etsy account and sell handmade goods on there.
Review products (usually done through a survey site).
OR if you're really into the OF stuff, feet pics are legal to sell in Australia (and I hear Lily Allen makes a lot of money there).
If you are looking for even more ideas, there are subreddits for beermoneyAus and sidehustles so check those out too!
Let me know in the comments below what your side hustles are!
Thanks for reading,
Ash x
Great post! So many awesome ideas to try out! Thanks for writing this ☺️
What an impressive list! this is a post that needs to be studied. thanks
I like what I read and I will like to know more about that