Hina Javed Malik
Where ever I go, the 1st question I am typically asked is ‘What is the best way to make money? Be it a seminar, a public gathering, or even a Ted talk, this question never skips a beat. After successfully freelancing for over 2 decades on one of the world’s biggest freelance marketplaces called Guru.com, my answer typically revolves around the internet.
It is a very strong medium, almost everybody who is doing business or wants to make money is connected to the internet. People need to realize the huge potential of making money using the internet and I’ve been advocating it ever since my story was published on the internet about freelancing.
People spent countless hours on the internet and it is usually of no use, connecting with friends on social media, watching videos, and music on YouTube, or tweeting their thoughts on Twitter but they don’t put actually hours in a day to optimum use.
Allow me to build my story and contribute my 2 cents to this most important question of how to make money by throwing a little reality check. Money is useless if it is not utilized.
What? Spending money to make money? Why?
We all use our money to buy things we don’t actually need. We do not think about the compound effect of the money, saving it, and investing it in ourselves and our business. Money attracts money, it does not mean money has a physical magnet attached to it but yes it certainly means, money possesses a virtual magnet to attract more money if you know how to use it.
Investment on rising trends in the market is an essence of establishing a stepping stone towards prosperity.
One of the alternatives for money is ‘skill’. If you are an expert on something and have command over a particular skill, you can make money by offering that skill as a service. It means, you can replace money with your talent but you need to know how to do it right?
Freelance Money:
I am a freelance graphic designer, a self-claimed creative artist who took a lot of pride in drawing near-to-perfect sketches of my favorite female teachers. Being a backbencher who had no interest whatsoever in education and the education system. It did not offer the subjects I was interested in mostly focused on creativity. I used to present the final artwork to my teachers in a nice wooden frame. Most of my work ended up hanging on the drawing-room walls of my teachers’ house.
With the emergence of the internet in the late ’90s, I started offering my graphic designing skill on different freelance marketplaces. I did not have money to even buy a monthly package offered by different sites to upgrade my bids from a basic member to a paid member. Using all my free bids, I was lucky enough to land a job or two. After successfully finishing those freelance jobs, the money I got in my account was reinvested initially. It was used to upgrade my free account, to buy more bids so I can reach out to more clients and win more jobs and make more money.
By repeating this cycle for a few months initially, I was able to earn good and use the money not only to attract more jobs but also to withdraw money to my bank for my personal use.
If you know a computer-related skill, you can work as a freelancer and can make good money.
Following are the common skills you can learn and offer as a freelancer.
- Web Designer
- Web Developer
- Graphic Designer
- Content Writer
- Blogger
- Digital Marketing
- Quick Books
- AutoCAD
- Administrative Services
- Mobile App Developer
There are many other skills as well. You can find all the skills in demand by visiting any freelance marketplace website.
YouTube Money:
Another good and proven way of making money is by offering your content on YouTube. The trend has picked up the pace in the last few years and since advertisers pay well to the publishers for showing their content to a good audience, there is good money for the channel owners.
This 7 Years Old Made $22 Million From YouTube Videos in 2018. When I was 7, I did not even know what is money or the spellings of the word ‘investment’
The process is simple. You need to create a YouTube channel and upload good videos but make sure you own the content or have permission to upload someone else’s content. The best way of uploading a video is to record your own videos or a curated/edited video as Ryan does on his channel. If your content is good, people engage and you make money through the Google payment partner program. Many Vloggers are making a good living on YouTube. 10 minutes of daily video can help you earn well if you have a good number of subscribers on your channel.
Facebook Money:
Facebook initially started as a social networking website but it has exponentially grown to different horizons expanding its services to many areas. With over 2 billion users actively connected on Facebook, there is a huge opportunity to make money on Facebook.
By creating a Facebook page, you can sell a service as a tutor, or instructor by charging an hourly fee or you can sell a product. With the cash-on-delivery model picking up popularity worldwide, you can get orders on your page and collect cash on delivery. The best thing about a Facebook Page is, you do not need a brick-and-mortar shop, and you do not have to pay utility bills or even pay your employees. If you can do digital marketing or can get it done by an agency, your Facebook page can put your business on autopilot.
The reason why I have chosen the online medium for making money is because of a great return on an investment, it pays off well if done correctly.
Would love to know your thoughts in the comments box.
