The beauty of online business is that you can do it from anywhere, it suits different schedules, it can be done part-time or full time, it is an unparalleled opportunity during this digital time. Now the question is if you are not making money online what are you doing?
Fortunately or unfortunately most teens spent most of their time online so why not use the time productively.
In this article I will be presenting different ideas teenagers can explore to monetize their stay online
Online businesses like any other business or job require skills that are not hard to acquire because it is very easy these days to acquire any skill of interest online. During this COVID 19 pandemic, many institutions made acquiring skills free and easy.
Graphic Designer
Graphic design is about memorably presenting information. Your primary responsibility is to create images and illustrations i.e ( logos, brochures, presentations, t-shirts, magazines, letterheads, business cards, and more) as per client requests and specifications.
What Do You Need To Start
- Skill ( There are a lot of places to acquire this skill online. Microsoft recently opened its graphic designer course for free. check it out here).
- Laptop
- Internet
- Marketing ( The best way as a startup is to avail your services to at least ten people for free, this will help you build confidence and have testimonials under your belt). Many websites can help you build an amazing portfolio of evidence and expose your work to potential clients. Behance & Dribbble are the free ones I know.
Social media platforms are a way to go these days, you can reach thousands without a marketing, PR budget.
You can market your services on general freelancing platforms i.e Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, and on graphic designing freelancing platforms i.e design 99 and design hill.
How much can you expect to earn? – As s startup in 2020, you can expect to earn between $20 – $24. After offering your services to the first ten people for free, you can choose to offer your services to the next ten for $15 until you get comfortable and confident to charge $20 plus
Web designer
We all know what a web designer is, but let us not confuse web designing with a web development
Developers use their programming knowledge to build a website using coding languages. Designers focus on the creative visual ( look & feel) that the user will interact with
You need to commit to developing this skill by taking up courses on web development.
How Do I Get Started ?
- Develop the skill
- Research and choose a platform you will use to create websites for clients i.e WordPress. Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and more
- Build your website – which will be your first point of reference.
- Laptop
- Internet
- Marketing
How long does it take to develop the skill? This is directly linked to the amount of time you have available to invest. For some, it can be weeks and for some, it can be years, I will leave you to decide this one.
How much can you expect to earn? Just like other skills be willing to offer your services for free to few people/businesses that need a website After building confidence using freebies you can now expect $25 plus for an hour of designing.
Social Media Manager 
Social Media managers manage the online presence of their clients across different social media platforms. You will be expected to respond to comments, compile campaigns and create content
As a teenager, you can do this, especially for older small business owners who cannot afford to hire social media agencies and are also not tech-savvy. You must however approach this with caution because you will come across a lot of skepticism due to your age and experience.
Many business owners would love to hire someone matured withbusiness insight to carry out this role
So beyond being conversant with how social media tech works, you must also equip yourself with the core of who your client is, and what they do. Make sure you research their industry and ask them relevant questions so that you can represent them well online
What do I need to start?
As a young person doing this part-time, I would recommend that you start with one social media platform, perfect your skill on it before you move to the next. Managing social media can be time-consuming so start with few clients, ensuring that you still have time for your school work and other important things.
How much can you expect to earn – You can expect to earn between $10 – $50 per hour depending on experience.
Blogger or Vlogger
These two are about online content creation. The question is which one is the best channel for your content. Your choice will be determined by your target audience and your personality. Check Adam Erhart article on the differences between blogging and vlogging.
How Do I Get Started
To start a blog you need:
- Laptop
- Internet
- Choose a niche
- Setup a website
If you are just starting you can even start your blogging on Medium. Medium allows you to post your articles on their platforms without having to create your website. If you write quality articles that get curated, Medium will market your articles to their audience and pay you for the number of likes you get on the article. Overtime your earnings can accumulate into good income. I have seen people who are making over $3000 on medium monthly
Having said that it is recommended that you have your own website as a blogger, this gives you a sense of ownership and control of what happens to your content and how you monetize it.
The same requirement applies when you start a vlog except that with vlogging you need to record your content on video.
You can start a vlog with your phone but you don’t have to remain there, as you grow, invest in relevant quality equipment.
My number one recommendation for online business training for bloggers is Wealthy Affiliate, Sign up here to explore the training for free.
Photo & video editor
Videos and images are now a must-have for most businesses but unfortunately, most business owners do not have skills or time to edit their images and videos. These owners will appreciate your fresh creative mind and tech-savvy skills
What do I Need to Start
Skill
Laptop
Internet
Editing Software
There are plenty of editing courses online plus the editing software of your choice will come with information and guidelines on how to use the software. So this can be a good starting point, get a software use the provided information to acquaint yourself with the software, This will give you a good foundation, take the given information and practice consistently in no time you will have a good skill to monetize.
What is crucial here is the commitment to practicing and learning. Learn as much as you can , and over time explore different editing softwares and different online editing courses.
How much can you expect to earn? Video editors can expect to earn $20 per hour.
Check this article on 15 best video editing software and apps for any budget in 2020.
T-shirt Designer
Did you know that you can sell T-shirts online, without ever having an inventory, you never have to keep products or ship boxes, you can just design a kind of T-shirt you want and enjoy the business from the comfort of your home.
How It Works
- Create your online shop with platforms like Spreadshop
- Create designs for your Tshirt
- Promote your T-Shirts online
- Customers buy
- Spreadshop prints and ships the product
What do I Need to Start
- You need to have a designing skill or hire a graphic designer for this job, for your development I will recommend that you develop the skill yourself.
- Laptop & Internet
Write and publish a kindle book
Kindle has made publishing books easy, Anybody who has passion, ideas, or lessons he wants to share with the world can easily write and publish a kindle book. Publishing has been made very easy and attainable for new and upcoming authors.
There are systems already set that can make your book-writing journey pleasurable. With this kind of system, you can own an amazon kindle empire in no time.
My number one recommendation of such systems is Kindle Kings
Why?
- They teach you how to come up with the best book ideas.
- How to create covers using free tools
- How to do your keyword research
- How to publish the right way and bring more sales in
Added benefits
- You create a book once and you sell it forever ( aka Passive Income),
- Amazon advertise your book on their platform
- Amazon prints the book after an order has been made
- Amazon ships the book to the buyer
- Kindle Kings gives you a simplified and proven to work process of how to build your book empire on Amazon.
Final Thoughts
Many parents cry about the amount of time that their teens spent online. I believe it is time we teach our teens how to be productive online, its time we help them explore suitable opportunities online.
Both parents and teens should understand that the process is not only about making money, that there are a lot of life skills that teens will acquire as they run their businesses online.
This is an ideal opportunity to learn skills like consistency, commitment, resilience and more
Teens should also understand that the recommended online ideas does not have to be their main career but most can be a good side hustle as they develop in the career path of their choice.
Related Articles
Should Kids Have Social Media – The Pros And The Cons
Work From Home Ideas For Women – Income Streams For Moms
thank you for a brilliant article it is full of great content. I like your comments regarding young people. What you say is very true and we are making our children soo risk averse. They feel they cant achieve because they are taught not to start projects because of the risk of failure. We need our young people to be educated to step up and be prepared for all the challenges.
Thank you Castle
Failure is actually the best teacher , The sooner they fail the better . Failure will certainly speed up their maturity . And home is the best place to fail because they are still under parents care .
When the phrase teen entrepreneurs comes across most minds, most people think of simple lemonade stands or mowing lawns. currently the Internet has provided many opportunities for adults and now teenagers to start a home business, so teenagers can earn as well and the businesses listed in this content are one of the best i can recommend. Nice Job
Thank you Lucas for stopping by.
I personally prefer online businesses for teens and kids because of the safety factor. We have to think twice before sending kids to other people’s houses these days.
Starting an online business as a teen is very important as it helps make good use of all those wasted time. It would also help in getting you exposed to certain things. Thanks for sg=haring this awesome article I know it would be of great help to the public as it has been of help to me.
I’m glad you enjoyed it .
Thank you
Hello there!
The article there is quite brilliant and helpful. I had always wished i knew about online businesses from my teenage years because I would really have gone far and be doing better at this time. This article here will really be of great help to teenagers to start making cool living at their early life, that will surely be an amazing experience of their lives.
Thanks.
Hey
Thanks for stopping by
It has always been my wish too,The earlier we start the better. I believe that best times to fail is when we are young because that on its own speed up our maturity .
Thanks so much for sharing a beautiful, informative article with us. The principal element of this article is How To Start An Online Business. It’s really amazing that you covered this subject so well in your post. I have learned a lot from reading your post and gained a lot of knowledge about it. I like the web designer of the points mentioned in your article. Nowadays web design is a very popular medium to make money. So the new generation, if they start working on web design from now on, the future will be bright for them, which I am saying from my real experience.
I’ve read your article and enjoyed it and I’d like to share it with my friends by posting it in the Facebook community so that everyone knows about your article and gets to know it.
Thank you MD
Lets build the next generation of entrepreneurs .
Yes lets spread the good news
Bogadi,
I had to reply to this blog. I have recently started to get involved with web design for one reason. My youngest son is getting in to the digital designing field and I am hoping to support that interest. I like the idea of starting them in the right direction early because there are so many people out there that are already doing the same thing and if he does not have the skills at a young age it will be hard to be competitive once he is out in the real word.
Just wanted to give a shout out to you for promoting focused education at a young age! I think it is good to specialize in a skill but keep the options open!
Good fortune to you!
Thank you Groomy
I really cant over emphasize the importance of starting them early. I gave my son son entrepreneurship baby steps when he was five, he is ten today and most of the lessons sticked to this day. We need to reduce a number of people who startup in their 40’s.
Making money online does not have any age Barrier, you can do it regardless of how old you are and this is very good because it’ll help you do some good for yourself as a teen without having to bother your parents. it’s nice that you shared this, it’ll e very resourceful.
Hey Hanness
I like the words you used and I will echo them ‘Making money online has no barrier’ and there must never be a barrier.
I am glad you found it resourceful, lets keep raising a generation of entrepreneurs
I love your article. These boys must not sit around and play games all the time. It is a good idea to keep them busy with something productive. It will teach them to earn a living and have some skills they can have for life. We all need to take advantage of the internet. As your boys grow, get them some laptops and enrol them into one of these online courses. The good thing is its all done online. My boys must get busy for sure..
Hey
The good thing is its done all online. And there are also plenty of online courses to develop the needed skill. Lets encourage them and provide them with necessary resources.
There will be some tweens for whom these ideas would be child’s play and they would dive into it quickly. Others may take some convimcing, especially if they do not see themselves as business owners or are sensitive to what others think of them. The ideas are great ones though and the earlier that a person begins, the better. It may also help them channel their academic direction to harmonise with the chosen business field. Parental support is important here.
Hey Russel
Parental guidance and support is very crucial like you are saying .Let us do what it takes to encourage them and show that we believe in them
Thank you for stopping by
Hi Bogadi, Great article and a brilliant idea for teens. I like your list because it is explained very well. In my experience it is better to start learning a new skill while you are still young because you learn faster and better. I agree that there are valuable life skills to be learned by doing this. The internet is full of scams though and that is why this should be done under parental supervision and with the parents consent off course. What are your thoughts? This idea will be a great contribution to the next generation of entrepreneurs but, many online programs do not allow children under the age of 18 to join. What advice do you have on this?
Hey Rika
Yes this should be done under parental supervision to protect them from scams on the net.
The truth remains it is crucial that they start while they are young with very limited responsibilities. They can mainly focus on their academics and this side hustle.
Well so many parents may not understand the idea behind making money and to some extent they have somehow narrowed it down to them being the only person who can work in the house which is not always right. Having our teen kids take up some responsibility is a great step to making up pick up life challenges on time and be fit for it
Hey Justin
I fully agree, This will be a great preparation for most of upcoming life challenges. It is important that we make education this practical
Great Bogadi,
Totally agree with you, as a teen it’s a very good time to start a blog. Not only will he have time to grow it over the years, but it’s also a way to express one’s self by writing – it’s a very good form of therapy. I can write for the whole entire day when I’m by myself and would be completely content with my life. And writing, is definitely a productive way to spend online for children.
Good article, I’m going to share this post to my sister, she constantly complains that her son spends way too much time online ahha. Wait till she reads this 😀
Thank you Riaz, I appreciate the sharing. Hipe your sister;s son get help.
I can not imagine how far most of us would be if we started even on a smaller scale during those years.
Hello,
Thank you so much. You have given me ideas for what i can do with my son. I am always looking for ways to help him develop skills that can later be used to build his own business. We have been building websites for the last three months so he is already gaining the skill set he needs to become a webdesigner. This is something we hadn’t thought of so I like your suggestions.
I also like the idea of being a Vlogger. I’ll have to run that by him tomorrow.
These are great ideas. Thank you so much.
Cheers,
Candy Benn
Hey Candy
Thank you for stopping by The Incredible Boy
You are doing an amazing job mommy ,keep it up. teach the boy, influence him and build him up to be the Incredible Man.
Vlogging happen to come natural for most of our young stars . Give it a try, in anyway he has a lifetime ahead of him to explore. .
I got three nephews here that I wanna influence to try making money in an online business. All of them are computer savvy and I think one or two of the businesses you have mentioned here will fit their skills. One of my nephews is good at drawing and designing so maybe he will excel in photo editing business or in T-shirt printing.
There’s just one thing that I noticed among them…
They are not fond of talking to people or spending time around with people. So, probably, they would be better off just working with their technical skills. Maybe the first step to influence them is by sharing this article for them to read.
Hey Gommer
Thank you for stopping by The Incredible Boy
I just love the uncle you are. Your nephews will thank you later. Go ahead share the article, encourage them and support them , you will also be glad you did .
And yes it is better they stick to something they are comfortable with . All the best
Teenagers love being online, so it is better to channel that energy into something where they can learn a new skill and then possible as an added benefit, also earn from it. We are all so scared of failure, that we then do not even start something, so if teens can start something when they are young, and still have the guidance of their parents, they will benefit from it. The best way to learn is by trying it and learning from any mistakes that you make.
Hey Line
Thank you for stopping by The Incredible Boy. I fully agree it is best for them to start while they are still under parental guidance . Failure is inevitable, so they need to learn to rise from failure when they still have parents to support them.