3 Legitimate Ways to Earn Money

When you break down the various ways to earn money to their basic form, there are really only 3 main ways to do it:

1. Sell a product or service – Create a product or service and sell it. Can be a physical product or service, or something online, such as an ebook or membership site. Or you can buy products wholesale and sell them individually.

2. Sell your time – You exchange your time and skills for an hourly wage, commissions, or get paid for completing a task.

3. Invest – You put your money into something with the hope that it will earn you more money.

Every legitimate way to earn money will fall into one of these categories or a combination of them, and when you are looking for a new way to make some extra money it is very useful to start out by thinking how you want to do it. Do you want the security of a job knowing exactly how much money you are going to make? Do you want to be a freelancer, selling your time and skills to anyone who wants to hire you, with less security but more freedom? Do you have ideas of products that you could create (or buy) and sell? Do you want to be your own boss and run your own online business?

If you want the freedom of making money online from home, it is helpful to know whether your business is going to involve selling product or your time. It is true that many businesses do both but they will usually have one or the other as their main focus.

If you are clear about exactly what you want your main business focus to be, it will help you to stay focused on doing the things that earn the most money for you. You can then add things on the side that are designed to complement your main business, without being pulled into other unrelated opportunities.

For example, a dog trainer is mainly providing a service (dog training), but he may also sell dog training products as an extra way to make money. The sideline produces extra income without taking up much of his time or conflicting with his main business. He simply has to do a little advertising and recommend products to his existing clients.

The quickest and easiest way to earn extra money is usually to add a complimentary income stream to your existing business. Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel. Do you have a business? What else do your customers want after they have purchased your main product or service? Or do you have a job? What can you do that relates to your current job that would earn more money for you?

One example is working overtime. Another is doing some business tasks over your lunch break. Another is to use the skills that you use at work for some freelancing on the side. For example if you work for a company as a web designer, you can very easily use your skills in your spare time to earn some extra money.

You can also find ways to make money from things that you are now simply because you enjoy doing them. If you love to play video games, could you sell them? Or could you write a manual for your favorite game? Or set up a website based around it and make money from advertising or selling affiliate products?

All of these could be legitimate ways to earn money that would be very easy for someone with a genuine interest and existing skills or knowledge about the subject. Just remember to start with one main focus that is something that you really want to do, and choose things to complement it that will add to your income.