Is It Really Possible?
Every single day South African people are making a living online. However, the forex gurus and get-rich scheme scammers are tainting the idea of making money online. There are real ways of making money online but do not be fooled it is not much easier than the real world. You will still need to be motivated and dedicated to your work. There are no easy options as it is so often advertised. Thousands of South Africans search Make money online in South Africa, how to make money online in South Africa, and similar other questions according to Google Trends which proves people are definitely trying to learn.
With the pandemic affecting many of those working in the professional sectors that required you to work in the office. Many surely were sorely reminded that having one source of income is not a viable option. That’s where the beauty of the genuine ways you can make money will come in handy as they are good ways to make some passive income if done correctly.
The focus will be on two viable options you are able to make money online with some mention to freelancing.
Dropshipping South Africa
Many of you may have heard of this term but before you rush out to buy someone’s course please be aware that what they are doing is a form of making money online that will be broken down later called drop servicing. Dropshipping is a business model that does not keep products in stock, making it relatively risk-free as it requires no capital investment in stock, but rather focuses more on marketing than anything else. If you are a dropshipping retailer, you buy a product directly from a third party (a manufacturer, wholesaler, or another retailer) like Aliexpress or Wish, who ships the product directly to the customer at a fraction of what you will charge your customers. The only thing you need now is a winning product and a shopfront to get started!
Drop servicing
Tying in how that ad you just saw on YouTube (while we are on the topic, starting a YouTube channel is another excellent way of making a little passive income as long as it does not adversely affect your time.) trying to sell you their course. This is a form of making money online in which you are selling a service but now let’s say you have no skills to teach. That would be a massive issue as without skills what can you teach? Fortunately, the skill of teaching itself was what was being sold by the man or woman on youtube urging you to buy their course to end up just like them. For those who haven’t got the skill to teach there are many services, you can still provide. Now at face value, it sounds like freelancing (another fantastic way to market yourself and skills via platforms such as Fivver or UpWork.) but drop servicing can be taken a step further when you apply market arbitrage techniques. You will not have to complete any of the services you offer. You will find yourself a team of freelancers that are reliable and capable of helping you create a satisfied customer. The way you ultimately make money is by being the middle man. Connecting your freelancers with clients while taking a share of the money for the process of finding and completing the task for the client. Here is a small example a client needs a logo to be designed and you tell them it’ll cost $100. Your freelancers ask for $50 dollars to complete the logo. You pay your freelancer and deliver the logo back to the client keeping the other $50. Your main focus here is to keep clients satisfied to have a returning customer base and finding a service that is not oversaturated yet still in demand.
Freelancing
Freelancing like mentioned above can be an excellent way to make some passive income online as certain skills like graphic design, copywriting and website building are always in demand and if you are perhaps not in the position to start your side hustle right now freelancing can be an excellent way to make some money to start something bigger as you will not have to take on much risk because ultimately all you are doing is selling the skill you can provide without having to make a storefront or find someone to complete the tasks for you.
YouTube can be an avenue if you have enough time to make some videos you can definitely generate a small passive income. You might think you need a personality for YouTube but realistically the amount of AI-voiced top ten countdown channels are alarming and with the usability of AI voices evolving you can easily put together professional-looking videos without ever having to actually be in them.
Please do not be fooled into thinking the online space is a gold mine with nuggets lying around for everyone. Hard work and dedication are essential to success.