51 Ways to Make Money Online: Part 2, Ways 11-20 (Selling Products Online)

This is part 2 of 5 of our guide to 51 ways to make money online, and it covers ways 11 through 20. The theme here is selling products online, both physical goods you make, source or resell and digital files you create once and sell many times. Each way below explains who it suits, what it realistically pays, what it costs to start and which real platforms handle the payments, shipping or downloads for you.

Selling products works differently from selling your hours. A freelancer stops earning the day they stop working, while a good listing can keep selling while you are at your day job. The catch is that products demand patience, some upfront money or time, and a willingness to test ideas that flop. Most new shops make few sales in their first months. The sellers who last treat it like a small business, track every fee and double down on what customers actually buy.

11. Sell Handmade Goods on Etsy

Etsy is still the biggest marketplace for handmade jewelry, candles, ceramics, knitwear and personalized gifts, and it suits makers who already enjoy a craft and can produce it consistently. Fees include a 20-cent listing fee, a transaction fee and payment processing, so price for profit, not just materials. Many hobby shops earn a few hundred dollars a year, while some focused sellers with a strong niche reach $1,000 to $3,000 a month after a year or more of steady work.

Start with ten to twenty listings in one tight niche, such as dog-themed ceramics, rather than a random mix of everything you can make. Shoot photos in daylight, write titles the way buyers actually search, and price using materials plus your hourly rate plus fees. Once Etsy sales are steady, Amazon Handmade and wholesale orders through Faire can add volume. A common pitfall is underpricing, which leaves you busy but barely paid.

12. Print-on-Demand Merch

Print-on-demand lets you upload designs that a partner prints on T-shirts, mugs, posters or phone cases only after a customer orders, so there is no inventory to buy or store. It suits people who can design, or who understand a niche and its humor well, from nurses to fishing fans. Margins are thin, often $3 to $8 per shirt, so most sellers earn small amounts until a handful of designs start selling on their own.

Connect Printful or Printify to an Etsy or Shopify store, or upload designs to marketplaces like Redbubble and Amazon Merch on Demand, which bring their own traffic in exchange for a lower royalty. Order samples of your best designs so you know the print quality customers receive. Avoid trademarked phrases, brand logos and famous characters, because takedowns and suspensions are the fastest way to lose a shop you spent months building.

13. Dropshipping

Dropshipping means you run an online store while a supplier stores and ships products directly to your customers. It needs no warehouse, but it is not free. Expect a store subscription, a few apps and a real ad budget, often a few hundred dollars just to test products. It suits people who enjoy marketing, spreadsheets and customer service. Margins after ads and refunds are often 10 to 20 percent, and many first stores lose money before one product works.

Most beginners build on Shopify and source products through apps such as DSers, Spocket or CJdropshipping. Order samples first, because you are responsible for quality and delivery even though you never touch the box. Since the US ended duty-free treatment for most low-value imports in 2025, cheap overseas items can carry duties and delays, so many sellers now prefer suppliers with US warehouses and honest shipping times.

14. Flip Thrift-Store Finds on eBay, Poshmark and Mercari

Flipping means buying underpriced items at thrift stores, garage sales and clearance racks, then reselling them online for more. Brand-name clothing, vintage kitchenware, power tools and collectibles are common winners. It suits people who enjoy the hunt and can spare a corner of their home for inventory. Part-timers often clear $200 to $1,000 a month, though platform fees, usually about 10 to 20 percent of the sale, and shipping costs eat into every sale.

Start with categories you know, such as sneakers or kids' clothing, and check sold listings on eBay before buying anything, not active asking prices. List on eBay for broad reach, Poshmark for fashion and Mercari for quick casual sales. Profit from reselling is taxable even if you never receive a Form 1099-K, so keep receipts showing what you paid for each item and what you spent on shipping supplies.

15. Sell Digital Products and Templates

Digital products are files you make once and sell repeatedly, such as budget spreadsheets, resume templates, Canva social media kits, pitch deck templates, icon packs and short how-to guides. They suit people with a practical skill in accounting, design or hiring who can package it neatly. There is no shipping and almost no cost per sale. Most new sellers earn under $100 a month at first, while a few well-marketed products bring in $500 to $2,000.

Pick a problem you have already solved for yourself or clients and build one polished product before making ten. Sell through Gumroad or Payhip for a simple checkout, Creative Market for design assets, or Etsy for built-in search traffic. Only use fonts, photos and graphics with a commercial license. The biggest pitfall is launching to silence, so share free samples on Pinterest, LinkedIn or a newsletter to find your first buyers.

16. Self-Publish Ebooks on Amazon KDP

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing lets you publish ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks for free and earn royalties of up to 70 percent on eligible ebook prices. It suits writers of genre fiction, such as romance, fantasy and thrillers, and authors of practical nonfiction. Earnings vary enormously. Many titles sell only a few copies a month, while authors with a series and a mailing list can build a meaningful income over several years of releases.

Write in a genre you read, study the bestseller lists in that category, and invest in a professional cover, often $100 to $400, because readers judge books by their thumbnails. Upload through KDP, then choose between Kindle Unlimited exclusivity or going wide with Draft2Digital, Kobo Writing Life and Apple Books. KDP asks you to disclose AI-generated content, and low-effort AI books tend to sink without reviews.

17. Sell Stock Photos and Footage

Stock agencies license your photos and video clips to businesses, publishers and marketers, and pay you a royalty each time someone downloads one. It suits hobby photographers who already shoot regularly, including with a recent phone or a drone. Pay per download is small, often well under a dollar to a few dollars for photos and more for video clips. Most portfolios earn little until they hold hundreds or thousands of useful files.

Open contributor accounts on Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and Alamy, and add Pond5 if you shoot video. Study what actually sells, such as real people at work, diverse families, local landmarks and seasonal scenes, rather than generic sunsets and flowers. Keyword every file carefully, since search is how buyers find you. Get a signed model release for any recognizable person and a property release where needed, or reviewers will reject the upload.

18. Sell Used Electronics, Books and Games

Most homes hold a few hundred dollars in old phones, tablets, game consoles, textbooks and video games sitting in drawers. Selling them is one of the fastest ways on this list to raise cash, and it requires no special skill. Buyback sites pay quickly but less, while peer-to-peer marketplaces pay more for more effort. A recent unlocked phone in good shape can fetch $150 to $500, while most paperbacks bring a dollar or two.

Compare quotes before shipping anything. Swappa is a strong choice for phones, Back Market and Decluttr give fixed buyback offers, and BookScouter compares what many buyers pay for a textbook's ISBN. Back up and wipe every device, then remove it from your Apple or Google account so activation lock does not block the sale. Sell textbooks as soon as you finish a course, before a new edition cuts their value.

19. Create and Sell an Online Course

If you can teach a skill people pay to learn, such as Excel, watercolor, guitar, coding or passing a certification exam, an online course turns that knowledge into a product. It suits teachers, experienced professionals and hobbyists who already have a following. Recording takes weeks, but the tools are cheap. Most first courses sell a handful of copies, while creators with an engaged audience can earn thousands per launch at $50 to $300 a seat.

Validate the idea first by teaching a live workshop or pre-selling to a small group. Host on Teachable or Thinkific to keep most of the revenue and your customer list, or on Udemy, which brings traffic but keeps a large share of organic sales and runs frequent discounts. Kajabi costs more but bundles email and a website. Short courses that solve one problem tend to sell better than sprawling ones.

20. Design and Sell Printables and Notion Templates

Printables are PDFs buyers print at home, such as planners, wall art, kids' worksheets and wedding signs, while Notion templates are ready-made workspaces for habits, budgets, studying or running a small business. Both suit organized people with an eye for clean design. Startup cost is close to zero using free Canva and Notion plans. Competition is fierce, so most shops earn pocket money, though standout templates can earn a few hundred dollars a month.

Choose a specific audience, such as nurses tracking shifts or teachers planning lessons, instead of generic planners. Sell printables on Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers, and list Notion templates on the Notion Marketplace and Gumroad. Read Canva's license terms before selling designs built from its elements, and add plenty of original work. Short video walkthroughs on TikTok or YouTube Shorts show buyers how a template works and often drive first sales.

Selling products rewards patience more than almost any other group on this list, so pick one or two ideas, give them six months and track your real profit after fees. The next ten ways cover content creation and building an audience, from YouTube and faceless Shorts channels to podcasts, blogs, affiliate marketing, UGC videos, live streaming and paid newsletters. An audience also happens to be the best engine for selling the products in this part.

More Ways to Earn

Sources

• Etsy Fees and Payments Policy
• Printful
• Shopify Pricing
• Poshmark
• Gumroad
• Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
• Adobe Stock Contributor
• Swappa
• Teachable
• IRS Gig Economy Tax Center

About this guide: written by the Thecadrion Editorial Team and last reviewed in November 2026. It is general information, not financial, tax or legal advice. Earnings vary widely by skill, effort and market; platform terms and pay rates change often, so confirm current details on each platform before you start.