One of the traits of average people is that they wonder how to get rich quickly.
They want to skip the hard work and the trial and error period, and get straight to the making money part. But that simply doesn’t work.
Instead, the right question is: How to become a millionaire online and what business should I start today for that to happen in my 20s or 30s?
Yes, it’s absolutely possible to be a millionaire in 3 or 5 years.
With all the information and technology at our fingertips today, you don’t even need special training or initial capital. Anyone has what it takes to start an Internet business and you’re no different.
In this guide, you’ll learn the actual ways (some look easy while others are niches that will take you a lot of time to enter) in which you can be a millionaire online.
But first, let’s make a few things clear before you see the list of millionaire business ideas.
You won’t become a millionaire overnight.
In fact, even wanting it says a lot about the type of person you are.
We’re talking about becoming a self-made millionaire here, through focused work for years, but which will create the foundation of an abundant lifestyle for decades ahead.
That’s definitely worth hustling and making sacrifices for.
If you aren’t ready to do that, to have it hard for at least 1 year, then you also won’t be ready to handle the responsibility that comes with a million dollars.
You’ll need some sort of Internet business.
To become a millionaire online, you’ll need to be doing something related to the digital economy.
Even if you’re not tech-savvy, even if you think you lack the skills, even if you have no idea where to start, don’t worry. It’s all doable.
Today you can build websites without coding and design knowledge.
You can be a blogger, vlogger and podcaster without actually knowing how to edit all types of content. There are platforms made for each of these and you don’t even have to build your own.
You can directly post content where people who like it already are spending time online. You can even manage most of your business from your phone.
The guides and tutorials for each of the ways we’re going to cover on how to become a millionaire online are out there waiting for you to read/listen/watch to them and put the advice into practice as soon as possible.
The moment you do this, you’re already a step ahead of the complainers who don’t really feel like putting in the work.
The ultimate goal here is creating passive income streams. And what better way than to make money online through blogging.
I’m a big believer in having your own online platform. I startedLet’s Reach Successalmost 5 years ago when I knew nothing about blogging and making money online, while in university and looking for a way to do something different.
Now, 1700 articles later, it’s the sole reason why I’m able to earn $5,000/month and work just a few hours every other day (although I like to spend a lot of the rest of my time working on other things related to my online business).
Blogging will change your life and I created a free course to show you exactly how to start a blog.
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, check out my free course The Passive Income Blog Boss:
You’ll need to make big lifestyle changes.
You can’t become a self-made Internet millionaire without making many sacrifices. Why? Because your time and attention are limited. You’ll have to stop investing them in the wrong things, ditch distractions, toxic people and bad habits.
Instead, dedicate your days to learning, experimenting, reading, contemplating, networking, and building stuff online.
This will require changes in your lifestyle too and developing some millionaire habits.
Every business you build to become a millionaire will require you to:
- be energetic;
- wake up early and get to work;
- stop drinking and start exercising;
- cut the crap and just do the work;
- stop overthinking;
- remove fear of failure and other barriers;
- use your free time to learn all you can about your field;
- use social media mindfully (for interactions with potential customers, reaching out to influencers, sharing your story across the Web, staying up to date with your field, etc.)
- check out millionaire stories to get motivated;
- stop hanging with the wrong people;
- find a mentor;
- stop spending money on things you don’t need;
- get better at time management;
- track everything you do;
- protect your most productive time;
And more.
If you keep reading besides all these harsh truths about the journey to becoming a self-made millionaire, congrats. You really might become one pretty soon. Now, here’s what business to start to become a millionaire:
How to Become a Millionaire Online This Year
It’s time to find out how to become a millionaire online. Keep in mind that the following business ideas are in no particular order.
Depending on your previous experience, personal interests, passions, connections, outer factors in your life, level of motivation, some might be easier for you to start working on than others.
1. Freelance your way to a million dollars.
If you’re a complete newbie to online business, you might want to start with freelancing.
That’s how I began too, with no experience. Through focused work and improving my skills together with building new ones, I started earning more than $4,000 per month blogging and freelancing.
Here’s how the beginning looks like:
One way is to do your current job online and on your own, finding clients through platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, Guru, etc.
If you’re ready to start it on the side and soon ditch your 9 to 5, then choose a skill you’re willing to build.
Ghostwriting or copywriting, Internet marketing, coding, web design, video editing, translating, etc. All these are and probably always will be in high demand.
Then go and take an online course, or simply start reading about it and practicing it. With enough desire, you’ll be ready to do it for clients in a few weeks.
During that time, though, you will be building your portfolio. As you’re no one yet and the competition is huge, you will be working on your own creative projects or doing work for free or for friends. Then, you’ll build a website and showcase it. Now you’re someone.
Then, you’ll start with a fixed hourly rate, but it will be low. While you do it, however, you’ll get an idea of how to communicate with clients, make sure you get paid on time, more confident in your work, negotiate, give them a great overall experience and ask for referrals, etc.
All these are powerful life lessons that you’ll be using from day one up till after the day you become a millionaire online.
Climbing the ladder can happen in 2 ways:
- Keep raising your prices;
- Work more hours daily.
The disadvantage of freelance work is that it requires you to be behind a screen and get paid by the hour. And while it’s not too ambitious to be charging $200-$300 per hour in a year or two, it still won’t be enough.
Truth is, billable hours won’t really make you rich. But the opportunities that come out of building a name for yourself and being known in that niche are tremendous.
Once you understand how this works, you can leave the sites you’re using and land your own clients independently.
If it goes well, you can hire 1-3 people and set some time aside to train them.
They don’t need to be experts, just to be good enough freelancers for that exact field.
The Web is full of hard-working individuals who are already freelancing to make a living. But who’d like to be working for someone who provides security in their career that there will be clients every next month.
So you can start an agency and focus on finding clients and growing the business, while the freelancers will be doing what you once did yourself.
Read also: How This Guy Built a Million-Dollar Side Hustle
2. Find untapped niches.
You might be wondering how to become a millionaire when the competition seems to be fierce in every possible niche. But that’s not necessarily the case.
As technology evolves, people’s desires change, and creative people transform all fields online, it will always be possible to find untapped niches.
Monetizing them once you find one that you’re interested and see potential in can happen in a few ways.
These are called unsaturated markets and there’s little to no competition there, but the demand is present.
For instance, when Instagram came out, it led to the creation of many other software products that offered services related to it. There are plenty of other ways to make money on Instagram too.
Now, some of these companies that came up with more filters, or ways to unfollow people fast, or to automate comments and likes, are businesses for millions of dollars. The same goes for a new physical product like each new iPhone, for instance. That then creates the need for a new case. You see the point.
Entrepreneurship is for the creative individuals willing to take risks, be the first to enter a field, and test new products when they see people might be interested in them.
If you’re willing to be an Internet millionaire, you need to start doing an extensive research to find untapped markets.
Use free tools such as Google Keyword Planner and look for keywords that get searches every month but for which there’s no good content written.
That means people’s needs are basically unmet. While further marketing research is necessary to see whether these people also have buyer’s intention and are not just looking to read about it, it’s still something to consider.
You can also dig deeper into already existing and profitable niches and find sub-niches.
Read also: How This Family Guy Earned Over $1 Million from 3 Blogs
3. Have a SaaS business.
In this list of digital products to choose from for the first time you build something online, I also mention having a software product.
That’s one of the slow and difficult career paths for aspiring millionaires, but there are also thousands of examples of people who got rich from one of their products.
While you will need to be a software engineer yourself or hire people for that, then find investors for your startup and pitch them well, you can also validate your idea online and get your first users on board long before you invest time in creating the actual product.
And more.
The main benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS) include scalability, ease of use, integration with other systems, different pricing models allowing for subscription or yearly plan that saves money, constant upgrades, and more.
You’re already using the products and services of software companies like that:
Google Apps
Zoom
Vimeo
Stripe
WPX Hosting
Calendly
Taboola
ConvertKit
Slack
Weekly
Duolingo
RescueTime
Github
Teachable
Squarespace
SEMrush
Grammarly
If you look at any list of millionaires across the globe, you’ll notice that most of them are in the Tech sector. Here are the 400 wealthiest men in America for 2017, for instance, as shared by Forbes.
With a quick Google search, you’ll find hundreds of articles mentioning the stories of people like that.
That’s not just luck, but a quality product. We live in the best possible times to learn how to become a millionaire online through a software product as investors are constantly looking for new tech enthusiasts.
If you think the software world is for you, then start thinking of your million dollar idea for a tech product and begin validating it as soon as possible.
4. Leverage Amazon Associates.
While affiliate marketing itself is and always has been a lucrative opportunity for those looking to make cash online, one network, in particular, is sure to give you results if you get the hang of it. That’s Amazon Associates.
To be an affiliate means to earn a commission every time someone clicks on your special link forwarding them to another platform.
While it’s not a must to have your own site for that but can rely on other sites, a newsletter and/or social media, it works best. There are different networks you can join.
But you can’t go wrong with Amazon Associates simply because it’s the affiliate program of the biggest online retailer ever. No wonder its founder, Jeff Bezos, is the richest person in the world.
Join the program today and start reading about how other affiliates are making money with it. The usual scenario which requires a lot of work and strategizing in advance but can then turn into a passive income stream is to create an Amazon Affiliate site.
Choose a niche you can easily produce a lot of content around and make sure there are products directly related to it that people are already buying.
Now, the point is to give potential buyers enough information about the product and let them find value in your posts and stay on your site. After which they will click on the links that will take them to the product page (this link will have your affiliate ID in its URL).
There are many tricks of the trade you’ll need to learn to let an Amazon business turn you into an Internet entrepreneur.
Some products convert better than others. There are strict rules to follow to be part of the program. And you will have sleepless nights creating long buyer’s guides and writing reviews about boring products.
But that’s what can help you earn hundreds of thousands of dollars on a monthly basis.
Once you figure out the best way for you after creating a few small niche sites and fill them with great content and links, and after you start making your first money online as an Amazon associate, you can then scale by creating 100 more sites like that, or entering new niches.
Getting Started as an Affiliate
If you’re new to affiliate marketing or have started making a little money from it but want to see more results, I recommend taking the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I’m currently completing it as I want to add affiliate marketing as my 3rd income stream (after freelance writing and sponsored posts).
Michelle (the creator of the course) earns over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing, and she shares all of my best tips in this course.
In this course, there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, over 20 worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful exclusive Facebook group, and more, and she goes through everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, such as:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- Why affiliate marketing is great
- The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post
- How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
- How to increase conversions
- How to build trust and not lose followers
- Required disclosures that you need to know about
- The one major tool you need for affiliate marketing
- Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
- How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing
Check out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
5. Become a social media influencer.
This might sound like a sweet option on how to become a millionaire online, but it’s not something everyone can do.
What might seem unfair is that teenagers on Instagram, crazy kids or bored adults on YouTube and people with no actual skills on other platforms became millionaires overnight.
That’s because they appealed to a certain audience who subscribed to their channel or started following their profile and are engaged with their content.
Once you have the attention, you can then monetize it.
But before you even realize that, you’ll already be a brand and sponsors will be emailing you every day.
These people often don’t even think of turning this into a business, but can soon end up being self-made millionaires thanks to their travel vlog, beauty tutorials or Instagram feed with quotes or gym pics.
That definitely wasn’t an option 10 years ago. But it’s another proof that we live in the era of opportunities. Because by following this path, many other smart and hard-working people became millionaires online themselves and with the goal of doing it.
6. Investing to become a millionaire.
Another way to become a millionaire online is to start investing.
Don’t start big, though. There are many things you can do with your first $1000, for instance.
From trading cryptocurrencies, starting side hustles and investing in the stock market to flipping websites or buying existing businesses.
This can be a fun game for the risk-takers and strategists out there. But it can be a nightmare for those who aren’t okay with uncertainty and who won’t sleep peacefully with so many numbers in their head.
The learning curve here could be bigger.
For example, if you want to understand how cryptocurrencies work but have never read a single article about it, you’ll need to invest at least 100 hours to be a beginner and feel comfortable taking financial decisions in such a fast-changing market.
7. Make money from home by selling your knowledge.
Digital education is becoming the norm now. The e-learning industry is booming and is expected to reach $275 billion by 2022, as shared by Reuters.
How can you get some of that money by providing value in return? Here’s how to become a millionaire online in the education sector:
- Create an online course and sell it on Teachable (people make millions from courses on these platforms);
- Teach English online through your website;
- Create an authoritative blog with articles on the topics you know more about and build traffic. Then, write an eBook and sell it;
- Build a membership site and share premium content and other types of products with members;
- Start consulting in your area of expertise;
- Write guides for beginners and sell them on Amazon KDP.
If you’re wondering where to sell your online courses, I’d recommend Teachable. It’s super easy for anyone new to this to create a course from scratch and start getting students on board and making money.
8. Get into eCommerce.
One of the oldest ways to make money is by selling stuff.
What, how and to whom might be different for everyone, but the basic principles behind this business model are the same. You should know how to promote a product and you need to know what the customer wants so you can use their language when making an offer.
In the online world, anything involves selling.
Whether it’s ad space on your site, brand mentions on social media, a digital product, a video course, an hour of your time to write something, or your skills to help somebody grow their business.
You’re always selling. But the original idea is to make people buy actual physical products.
E-commerce will never die.
But with the technological advancement, you don’t even need to see or touch that product in order to make a sale.
With drop shipping, you can buy products and get them delivered to a client. While there’s a lot of responsibility that goes with shipment, the quality of such products and your reputation, it often turns into a business for million dollars simply because the model is tested and works.
So that’s how you become a millionaire online. Easier said than done, though. Before you go do your research on the point of the list you liked the most, here’s something more.
Last but not least, hereare some resources to help you along the way:
Blog to Biz System – My Ultimate Course for Bloggers Looking to Start, Grow and Monetize a Blog and Become Their Own Bosses
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing (The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners, Created by Michelle from Making Sense of Cents Who Earns $100K/Month Blogging)
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche: A Solution for Beginner Bloggers to Drive 10,000 – 100,000+ FREE Monthly Visitors to Your Blog – on Autopilot!
Posts:
- How to Start a Profitable Blog and Make Money: A 6-Step Guide for Serious Blogger’s Only
- How to Make Money Blogging
- How I Earned $250 from 1 Sponsored Post on My Blog
- How I Made $47,479 Blogging in 1 Year
- How to Earn over $100K/Month Blogging and Travel The World: Interview with Six-Figure Blogger Alex from Create and Go
- How This Stay at Home Mom Earns $30K/Month Blogging and Retired Her Husband at 30
Tools:
WPX Hosting – my recommended hosting provider
Teachable – best place to create and sell your online courses.
Reviews:
The Only Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Review You’ll Ever Need to Read
WPX Hosting Review: The Many Positives of Using WPX Hosting for Your WordPress Site
Bonus Ways to Become an Internet Millionaire
Work for a millionaire.
Sometimes all we need to become a millionaire online is to first build the mindset necessary for that. But if you’re surrounded by average people, get distracted by all that’s going on in daily life easily, and can’t seem to find focus and stay consistent with your goals, then we have a problem.
What’s best is to have a mentor. And something many successful entrepreneurs suggest is to just go and work for a millionaire for a few years, learn how his mind and the business work.
Then gather that experience and discipline and develop a millionaire mindset to create something on your own.
Create multiple income streams.
In order to not just be a millionaire but also live like one, you’ll need to have some free time to do things you enjoy, instead of always worrying about managing your money (that’s a problem too).
For that to happen, you’ll need to be making money online in more than one way.
Combining any two or more of the items in the list above is ideal. Of course, that requires even more work.
Relying on one income stream is not something an entrepreneur would do.
Any platform you rely on can go bankrupt. Any niche can be replaced with another one. Your freelance business might not make enough.
But you can easily combine that with creating guides for beginners who want to do what you’re doing and thus enter the e-learning market too. The more things you’re offering and more places you appear on, the bigger the success you see.
Financial expert, entrepreneur and one of my favorite people to follow online, Pat Flynn, has understood this a long time ago.
That’s why he made more than $2 million last year. Thanks to his detailed monthly income reports, we’re able to see exactly where that money is coming from. And it’s definitely not from one place.
We can see more than $60,000 from affiliate marketing, close to $300 from book sales, $120,000 from selling his 3 courses, $4000 from his niche sites, more than $11,000 from podcast sponsorships, and $12,000 from his software products (a podcast player license and a pro website time).
You can do the same and it doesn’t need to take that much of your energy. There’s a concept called repurposing your content that allows you to do it in a creative way.
Once you’ve published a book, for instance, you can turn it into a video course, a set of blog posts, or even start teaching others how to publish one themselves. Play with content in different ways to grab the attention of people on different platforms.
Are you ready to become a millionaire?
This guide turned out to be longer than expected. But I believe it’s valuable information you can use to not just understand how to become a millionaire online, but also take action no later than today.
