Is your mom nagging you to get out of the house and get a job, but you don’t want to go deliver pizza or wash dishes? Well, luckily, in 2021, you don’t have to! There are a million ways to make money online these days, and you’re never too young to get started. All you’ve got to do is bust out that laptop and get going!
And to make it easier, we here at Ideal are going to tell you 6 different ways that you could start earning money online today! These are 6 ways to make money online as a teen in 2021! Let’s go!
Become a Social Media Manager

This first job is a perfect way to turn your Instagram addiction into next year’s tuition. So, all you teens out there watching this are definitely well-versed in the world of social media. I know you are, because when I see the social media account of a young person, it’s like a beautiful shining light that was built by the Twitter-fingers of gods. And when I look at my own social media, it kind of looks like a steaming heap of trash in comparison.
But, that right there is why there’s a great opportunity to make money online by being a social media manager. Plenty of people don’t know how to run their own social media or simply don’t have time to, and you can leverage your skills with Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to start making some cold hard cash.
First, you’re probably going to have to build your own follower base. No one’s going to hire you to run their social media if you can’t manage your own effectively. Next, you can start sending emails or DMs to influencers or people who are trying to become influencers. It’s also worth reaching out to online brands, e-commerce stores, or even local brick-and-mortar businesses. In today’s world, every type of business needs a social media presence, and if you can prove that you’ll be able to get them a solid base of followers, there will be plenty of people looking to hire you.
Websites like Fiverr and Upwork are also great places to promote your services, so make a profile on one of those sites and watch the business start coming in! You spend all day on social media anyway, might as well get paid for it!
But, maybe you don’t want to manage social media from an e-commerce site, but actually run your own e-commerce site. No warehouse? No problem!
Start a Dropshipping Business

You’ve probably heard about dropshipping here or there, but do you really know how it works? A lot of people assume that if you want to start an e-commerce business, you have to have a warehouse or some sort of storage space. However, dropshipping gives people the opportunity to get started in e-commerce without ever actually handling their products!
And get this: you never even have to purchase the inventory yourself! That’s right, you’re never going to have a situation where you have 100 t-shirts, or mugs, or whatever you’re selling in your inventory waiting to be sold.
Here’s how it works: let’s say you sell fidget spinners and you create a website called “fidgetspinners.com” that sells fidget spinners for $20. Then, some customer goes on fidgetspinners.com and buys up one of your fidget spinners. When the order comes in, you send an order to a manufacturer who makes your fidget spinners for $5, and that manufacturer sends the fidget spinner directly to the customer. You just paid $5 for the fidget spinner and sold it for a $15 profit without having to ship it or handle it whatsoever! Easy money, baby!
Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. You’re going to have to find a reliable manufacturer, set up a functional and attractive e-commerce website, and drive traffic to your e-commerce site with things like marketing and SEO. But, once you have everything set up, you could be seeing some serious income from dropshipping. There are plenty of people making $100,000 a year or more doing this, so why shouldn’t that be you?
Maybe dropshipping sounds too boring for you, and you want a job where you’re going to be in the limelight. Don’t move to Hollywood just yet, because all you need is a webcam for this next job.
Start a YouTube Channel

Oh, you already have a webcam? Have any particular interests? Video games? Cooking? Sports? Whatever it is, you can fire up that webcam right now and start making videos about your hobby or interest, and who knows? Maybe you’ll go totally viral and end up as the next Youtube millionaire before you graduate high school! Lots of people these days are making a living as YouTubers, and if you’ve got something interesting to say, there’s no reason you shouldn’t too!
There are plenty of ways to make money with a successful YouTube channel: ad money, selling merchandise, and even getting your fans to contribute to a crowdfunding campaign! Sometimes people will even donate to your channel with the new YouTube “Applaud” button!
Get creative. There are endless topics out there to start a YouTube channel about. Some people do video essays about history or science, some people have cooking channels, some people drive crazy cars, and some people just act weird!
People are literally making millions of dollars with their YouTube channels, and while that might be hard to achieve at first, you can definitely start making some solid money pretty quickly. Plus, I bet all your friends at school will think it’s pretty cool that you’re internet-famous!
What’s that? You get camera-shy and don’t want your face all over the internet, but you still have something to say?
Write Content

You know all those articles out there about the “10 Best Toys for Your Dog in 2021” or whatever? Who do you think is writing those? I’ll let you in on a little secret, it’s not the people who have an English master’s from Harvard or Yale, it’s probably someone just like you!
Finding a job writing content is pretty easy! All you have to do to get started is… well, start writing! Write up some sample articles, or even start your own blog! Once you have a solid body of work to show people, you can post ads on websites like Fiverr, UpWork, or even Reddit. There’s a great subreddit called r/HireaWriter where people are constantly looking to hire content writers.
And if writing top ten lists all the time sounds boring to you, there are plenty of other types of writing you can do. Some writers write recipes, children’s stories, YouTube scripts, video game dialogues, investigative pieces, and much, much more. You don’t have to be the next Ernest Hemingway to get started as a content writer, you just have to like to write! So, find a subject you’re passionate about and start producing content!
The next job has to do with writing as well. However, you won’t be writing English, you’ll be writing code!
Learn to Code

As the overall scope of the internet grows, the demand for coders is increasing rapidly! Not only is coding a great skill to have that will make you more employable in the future, but you can also start making money as a coder fast. New websites are popping up every day, and someone has to build them, as well as the computer software and mobile apps that we use every day. Pretty much everything you can imagine uses code these days.
So, if you already know how to code, get online and start marketing your services through Fiverr, UpWork, Reddit, or just go build your own app or website, and start making money that way! If you don’t know how to code, you can learn for free with resources like codeacademy.com, or the countless tutorials on YouTube! With the right amount of determination, anyone can become a proficient coder and start making big bucks!
A lot of these jobs I’ve mentioned, particularly coding, require a lot of time sitting at a computer screen. Well, if you’d rather be outdoors in nature, frolicking around and taking photos, this next job is for you.
Sell Stock Photos

Are you that kid who’s always got the camera around their neck, looking for that perfect angle, no matter what setting you’re in? Well, I have some great news for you, you could go from amateur photography enthusiast to making some solid money off your beautiful photos.
That’s right, there are plenty of stock photo websites that let you upload your pictures and sell them yourself. Go check out Pexels, Pixabay, iStock, and Getty Images. These sites all make it super easy to upload your photos, and every time someone downloads your photo, that’s money in your pocket!
If you really love photography, you’re going to be taking pictures anyway, so why not make some money off them while you’re at it?
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