Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online, but it is certainly not the only way. There are several other legitimate ways you can make money online without affiliate marketing.
You will find this article valuable if you don’t like the idea of making money only after promoting and selling other people’s products because we will be discussing other lucrative business options.
Today, we will go through all the best ways to make money online without promoting affiliate products. Let’s go.
15 Best Ways to Make Money Online Without Affiliate Marketing
1. Blogging
Blogging is one of the best ways to generate passive income online without doing affiliate marketing.
The key to successful blogging is producing top-notch content and successfully monetizing it. The best strategies to monetize a blog without affiliate marketing include selling ad space and information products.
You can even make money online without selling anything on your blog by receiving donations from readers. However, you need quality traffic from a targeted audience if you want to genuinely profit from your site.
You can generate quality traffic to your blog by optimizing your content for search engines. Utilizing social media and email marketing are some other cool traffic generation strategies. You can attain success from blogging even if you wish to blog anonymously.
A WordPress website with paid hosting is the best platform for blogging, but you can start blogging on a free blogging platform if you don’t have money for hosting.
2. Freelancing
You can completely avoid doing affiliate marketing and still make extra income online if you choose to use freelancing as your side hustle instead.
It’s cool if you decide to start your freelancing career on a website you own, but the quickest way to start making money from this business is by rendering services on popular freelance websites like Fiverr and Upwork.
There are different skills you can acquire and sell to make money as a freelancer. Some are high-paying skills that you can charge clients a lot of money for while some are low-paying. But you can make a lot of money from freelancing regardless of the type of skill you are selling.
You can even make money from it even if you don’t have skills. The type of services you will be selling without skills are often easy services anyone can do. You can check out some of the easy Fiverr gigs you can render if you decide to become a freelancer on Fiverr.
3. Create a YouTube Channel
YouTube is one of the few social media platforms where you may be compensated for just making and posting content. Additionally, you can make a YouTube channel and post anonymous videos on it.
Joining the YouTube partner program is the best way to monetize your YouTube channel without affiliate marketing. The website pays creators who sign up for the YouTube AdSense program based on how many people watch their videos. The amount paid varies depending on the country and the channel’s niche.
YouTube videos frequently have a longer lifespan compared to the majority of other social media platforms, where content disappears quickly. You can get passive income from YouTube videos years after you first publish them.
Another distinctive feature of YouTube is that you can succeed without having a sizable following. High-quality videos with effective SEO are frequently promoted by the YouTube algorithm to a target audience that isn’t a channel subscriber.
You can make money on YouTube even if you don’t wish to reveal your identity in your videos. Using explainer videos is one of the best ways to achieve this. Although it may seem complicated, if you have the correct tool, this task is actually very simple.
When making videos for my anonymous YouTube channels, I frequently employ the robust AI application SketchGenius. This application assists in turning simple texts into full videos with the appropriate animation and backdrop.
4. Publish books on Amazon
Independent authors can reach readers worldwide directly using Amazon’s Direct Kindle Publishing platform instead of using traditional media or social media.
Anyone can open a free KDP account, upload their book files, and immediately start selling their book on Amazon. It is the most user-friendly platform for authors who self-publish.
Because you can publish books using a pen name, this platform enables online income while remaining anonymous.
Even if you are not a writer, Amazon KDP is a great way to publish and sell eBooks online and earn passive income.
5. Take paid surveys
Taking surveys for cash is one of the easiest ways to make money online without affiliate marketing. You don’t need to create a product, build a website, or sell anything. All you need to do is sign up for legit survey websites and participate in paid surveys.
You can make a few dollars just by taking the time out of your day to take part in online surveys by signing up for these survey websites and answering questions about subjects ranging from neighborhood restaurants to the newest technological advances.
This way of making money comes with no risks if you join legit survey websites because you won’t be investing any money and your earnings will be paid as when due.
You can withdraw your earnings in several ways depending on the survey companies you partner with. You can receive your earnings as gift cards, cash, or crypto. Here are some of the best survey websites to earn free cryptocurrency. Bear in mind that you can choose to withdraw your earnings directly to your PayPal or as gift cards with these platforms.
6. Make money on GPT websites
GPT websites are platforms where you can get paid to do micro tasks. This way of earning without affiliate marketing is related to taking surveys for cash because surveys are part of the tasks you can do to make money on GPT sites.
Watching videos on YouTube or TV, playing games, and listening to music are some of the other tasks that can earn you money on these websites.
To make a decent amount of monthly income with this type of method, you should sign up for a few of these sites and take as many high-paying tasks as you can during your spare time.
You can receive your earnings from these websites in PayPal cash, crypto, or gift cards.
7. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an order fulfillment strategy where a business doesn’t hold inventory of the goods it sells. Instead, to fulfill orders, the seller buys inventory as required from a third party—typically a wholesaler or manufacturer.
Simply buying goods in bulk and reselling them on Amazon, eBay, or other sales channels eliminates the need for inventory management and dealing with return requests from customers.
You can purchase goods in a variety of locations, to begin with. Search for wholesale websites that have a condensed product offering. You might be able to purchase from them if they have a sizable inventory stored in a warehouse.
Consider purchasing items that are going on sale.
To get a competitive advantage, locate a source that carries products that are soon to be withdrawn from sale. You may be able to acquire huge amounts from some wholesalers.
8. Drop servicing
Drop servicing is comparable to dropshipping, but it’s a simpler, more lucrative, and less competitive version.
This business strategy is collecting payment for services, selling them to freelancers who specialize in providing them for a nominal charge, and keeping the remaining funds as profit.
With drop servicing, you will be making money without affiliate marketing by becoming a middleman between those in need of a service and skilled freelancers who will provide them. Fiverr is the finest marketplace to hire freelancers to provide these services.
To succeed in this business, you need to promote highly lucrative and in-demand services, outsource the work at a discounted rate to a freelancer on Fiverr after getting orders, and then provide your clients with the finished product.
This guide will show you all you need to know to succeed in this business.
9. Make money by giving advice
Another easy way to make money online without affiliate marketing is by getting paid to give advice. There are several ways you can do this but the easiest way to get started is by joining websites that pay for such services.
There are some things you are quite knowledgeable and experienced in which many do not and you can make a lot of money from such knowledge or experience by sharing it with others in the form of an advice-giving gig.
10. Create a membership program
Websites that offer members access to content or a collection of premium services are known as membership sites.
This can be anything from an in-depth course on things like learning how to code to an information-rich blog.
A monthly payment plan is used to acquire memberships on the majority of membership websites because these websites run on subscriptions.
You can earn a ton of recurring cash over time without having to sell anything or promote affiliate links if you build a special and useful membership site.
11. Flipping Instagram accounts
You can make a ton of money online without promoting affiliate products by buying and selling Instagram accounts.
If done properly, the Instagram account flipping business can be quite profitable. There is a lot of money to be made on Instagram, but many account owners are unaware of this and are willing to sell their accounts for less than what they are worth.
By purchasing these accounts and reselling them to business owners who understand their value for more money, you can turn a profit.
12. Flip websites for profit
Investing in already-profitable websites, improving them by either increasing website traffic, increasing website revenue with the same amount of traffic, or both, and then selling them for a profit is known as website flipping.
The best approach to make money from flipping websites is to resale them at a higher price on the website you originally purchased them from.
13. Crypto trading
Many crypto traders that I know don’t know a thing about affiliate marketing. This is a clear indication you can achieve success online without affiliate marketing by trading cryptocurrencies.
The majority of profitable crypto trading transactions take place on tried-and-true trading platforms. These are the ideal and safest locations to carry them out.
If you know how to trade using Crypto arbitrage, you can make a lot of money in the lucrative world of cryptocurrency trading.
Due to the volatility of cryptocurrencies, one can experience big losses. However, using the arbitrage technique will shield you from any potential losses caused by fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies.
14. Work remotely
You can offer your services as a software engineer, virtual assistant, and customer support remotely for businesses that need such services.
Emailing, setting up appointments, and making spreadsheets are just a few of the duties you’ll have as a virtual assistant.
Additionally, as a customer service representative, you will be giving the assistance that the clients of the business you work for require.
Crossover is a secret website to make money that pays mouth-watering salaries. You can sign up and search for jobs that match your expertise if you would like to work remotely.
15. Create and sell your product
By creating and selling your products, you can make money online without promoting other people’s products. This can be achieved without much stress by creating digital products which can be in the form of eBook, video, or audio files.
The creation of digital products like eBooks is quite easy and selling them is even easier on a platform like Gumroad.
What Is Better Than Affiliate Marketing?
Blogging is a better business model for those who don’t want to do affiliate marketing. With blogging, you can make thousands of dollars in passive income monthly without selling any product.
What Is The Hardest Part Of Affiliate Marketing?
The hardest part of affiliate marketing is getting quality traffic that can generate leads and sales to earn affiliate commissions. Lots of newbies don’t earn income from affiliate marketing because they have yet to master traffic and lead generation.
Conclusion
All the above-mentioned methods are legitimate ways you can earn a living online without doing affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a cool business model, but that doesn’t mean you must do it.
Some of the opportunities listed here can make you more money than any affiliate program will pay you.
