Imagine this: You wake up in the morning when you feel like it, not because an alarm clock went off, but because you’re ready to start your day. With online jobs, you simply roll out of bed and make a cup of coffee.
You lazily read a book or enjoy the view from your villa before finally, in your own time, you sit down on your computer to plug away for a few hours and make some serious money — while still wearing your pyjamas.
These are some of the many benefits of legit online jobs! We’ve been working remotely for more than 10 years and are here to share our experiences working online with you. I hope you find this information useful.
Check out our video which lists 5 high paying online jobs, or continue reading below:
For the best online entrepreneurs, money is deposited into their bank accounts while they’re sleeping through something like affiliate marketing.
For travelers, the opportunity to make good money from anywhere in the world, and get paid to travel, is the ultimate dream job.
Call it what you want — remote work, digital nomadism, nomad life, location independence, they all mean one thing: You learn how to make money online so that your job no longer ties you to a particular place.
You no longer have to wake up early, get overly dressed up, get stuck in traffic, work too many hours, and earn too little.
Legit online jobs (whether part-time or full-time) offer an incredible amount of flexibility, and while we love working abroad, you can do these online jobs from home if you choose.
The internet has opened a floodgate of opportunity that simply wasn’t there for the “pre .com” generations. These online jobs that pay are never “get rich quick”, despite what some internet marketers will tell you.
The truth is, you’ll have to work and put in the effort with any of the best paid online jobs.
At the very least, you’ll have to work hard to set something up in order to reap the benefits later, eventually living the 4-Hour Workweek type lifestyle. This is called a passive income strategy, or (more accurately) a deferred income strategy.
Online Jobs That Pay Well
In this post, I’m going to list the highest paying online jobs that we’ve found.
This online work is perfect for travelers, and remote workers, and many of the jobs can earn a lot of money. Not all of them are passive or differed income by nature, but if you’re wondering how to make $3,000 a month online, this list is for you.
The best jobs on this list can earn upwards of $500,000 per year with little or no prior experience. For remote workers, there’s also the opportunity to spend one or more years living abroad on a digital nomad visa.
Here are the top 12 easy online jobs that can earn you thousands each month.
1. Blogger (our top pick for high paying online jobs)
Okay, no surprise here. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that we are huge proponents of blogging. And, since we blog about travel and lifestyle, that’s the type of blog we’re going to discuss below, but we believe that everyone should have a blog.
Whether you’re writing about parenting, pets, construction, cooking, traveling, or driving UBER, you should have a blog and write about it. And, if you’re any sort of business owner, you should definitely have a website.
Blogging is one of the best travel jobs by far.
Why Start a Blog?
When created properly, blogs can earn a great living. We decided we wanted to learn how to start a travel blog after reading a blog post written by another travel blogger.
In that post, the blogger stated that he earned $2,500 per month from blogging. We were blown away!
That specific number completely inspired us to start our own blog which now earns us well over $10,000 every month working less than 20 hours per week.
We’re now always honest about our blogging business and its earnings because we were so inspired by that blog post, and in particular, how transparent that blogger was about his income.
Travel blogging is, in our opinion, the absolute best way to earn money for travel, and is the top online job out there. The best part is that it comes with incredible perks like fun FAM trips and press trips, free first-class flights, free hotels, all-expenses-paid trips & comped gear.
It’s not easy though. There are many things you need to know about travel blogging in order to turn it into a business.
There’s a huge difference between writing a blog for your friends and family, and creating an online resource that can one day earn you money in your sleep.
How do blogs earn money?
Blogs earn money in many different ways. The first money you’ll likely earn from your new blog could come in just a few months. Advertisers will find your website online and contact you via email asking you if they can advertise on your site.
Typically this comes in the form of an article or review of their product. These posts can pay new bloggers anywhere between $50 – $200 and established blogs $1,000+.
Another way blogs earn money is through content ads. These little ads that you see within the content of this blog currently pay around $4,000 / month.
US ad spends are expected to hit over $297.4 this year, and a nice-sized chunk of that will be travel-related. There’s enough to go around.
In our opinion, the best way to earn money from a blog is through affiliate marketing. Basically, you recommend a product or service on your blog that you use and love.
You link to said product/service with an affiliate tracking link which means if one of your readers clicks that link and makes a purchase (on Amazon for example), you’ll automatically get paid a commission.
Another bonus of travel blogging (or any sort of blogging), is the sponsorships and partnerships you can create. You’ll be asked to review products, hotels, tours, vehicles, brands, destinations, etc. on your website.
In exchange, you’ll receive the service for free, and once you become more established, you’ll also get paid.
Basically, you’ll have to diversify your blog income into 5 or 6 separate streams in order to turn it into a full-time, scalable business.
How long does it take?
Most blogs take at least 6 months to start earning income and around a year to earn enough to pay for travel entirely.
However, many fast-growing blogs have been able to get free hotel stays, flights and trips in as little as 3 months, while some others have started earning a full-time income after just 6 months.
Starting a blog isn’t difficult, but growing it into a travel-supporting, money-making machine takes time and effort. Growing a blog is like a formula and it can be repeated, but you need to know how to do it properly.
Get help with our Beginner Blogging Course
Similar to the Google Algorithms that govern how much traffic your blog will see, growth hacks and passive income strategies can be copied and pasted into any new blog plan in order to help them grow quickly.
That’s why we’ve created our Beginner Blogging Course, which is filled with video tutorials, modules and useful advice for beginners. We also have a 200-page ebook to help new bloggers navigate the initial steps of blogging and we have a VIP Facebook Group.
If you’re interested in starting a blog any time soon, simply click here and once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive our course, ebook and Facebook group access for free.
Not sure about a travel blog name? It doesn’t matter. You can still start a blog and come up with a name later on.
Of course, blogging isn’t for everyone.
While you don’t need any prior internet experience (we had never even heard of WordPress before starting our blog), if you don’t enjoy writing about topics you’re passionate about, taking photos, and social media, then this job obviously isn’t for you.
In that case, we’ve included many other online jobs that pay well in this post to help you earn money remotely.
2. Virtual Assistant
We know that this job earns enough to pay for travel because Goats On The Road has had numerous virtual assistants (VAs) over the years and we’ve paid them anywhere from $500 – $2000 / month for their services.
Some larger websites pay as much as double this amount for a good VA.
To become a Virtual Assistant, you’ll have to be skilled in some aspects of online work.
If you’re good at Facebook marketing, growing Twitter, web development, video editing, logo design, engaging with Instagram followers, editing blog posts, rocking Pinterest, or translating articles, you should be able to find work.
If you possess skills that could be useful to online businesses, I recommend first reaching out to them directly. Head to 10 of your favourite websites and find areas they could improve upon.
Maybe their Facebook page isn’t engaged, maybe they take horrible photos, or there are grammatical errors in their articles.
Once you’ve located a few points that need improvement, send the owner of the website an email. Be certain that you don’t come across as being condescending and tell them that you could help them improve these aspects of their business.
If this doesn’t work, you can also join websites such as FlexJobs, Upwork and Fiverr and add your profile to those databases and hope to find jobs there.
Another option is to search Facebook groups in the niche you want to work in. For travel, you might run a Google search that looks like this:
“Facebook group community travel bloggers business”
Some of the groups you find may be closed groups, which means you’ll have to request access. Once you’re in, if the admins allow you to “advertise” in the group, you could put a post in saying that you’re looking for virtual assistant jobs. List all of your skills and most likely you’ll get some interested parties.
Become a Virtual Assistant, learn new skills and work from anywhere — it’s one of the best online jobs that pay hourly.
☞ SEE ALSO: 10 Best Ways to Make Money Coding (no experience)
3. Watching Ads
Companies are willing to pay you to watch their ads and there are even services out there that group these opportunities together so that you can earn a real living from it.
How much? There are people online claiming to earn tens of thousands of dollars per year just from watching ads! What an amazing way to earn money from home.
So, how does it work?
You head to one of the higher paying PTC (Pay To Click) sites like NeoBux & PaidAdverts, sign up and then start earning money online by watching advertising videos, clicking on ads and sending user feedback.
Spending just a few hours per day, you can earn a couple of hundred dollars per month from these sites. If you do your research and find a reputable ad share company, watching ads can be a great way to earn money.
We’ve known a few people successfully using this as an income strategy. This is definitely one of the easier online jobs out there.
4. Completing Surveys
Similar to watching ads, many companies will pay internet users to complete their surveys. Internet surveys offer businesses and advertisers useful data to help them understand their potential clientele.
If you’re looking for online part-time jobs that you can easily do from home, this is a good one.
If you Google: “get paid to take surveys online”, you’ll probably get a thousand results. Unfortunately, many of these results are complete scams, so you do have to be careful when taking paid online surveys. Note: for many of the links to work below, you need to be in the country offering the survey (ie: USA, Canada and the UK).
Some of the best online survey websites for Americans include Inbox Dollars, Focus Group, YouGov, Branded Surveys, Toluna, My Soapbox, Springboard America,, Opinion Outpost, SwagBucks, and Survey Junkie.
For Canadians, check out YouGov, Maru Voice, or Branded Surveys. If you’re from the UK, have a look at Branded Surveys.
As surveys take a bit more time than watching ads, it’s not one of the best paid online jobs out there, and it’s more difficult to make a lot of money from this strategy. But there are reports of people earning over $1,000 per month by completing surveys.
I recommend signing up for many of the survey websites listed above to max out your earnings.
5. Dropshipping
Dropshipping started generating a huge buzz in 2016 and 2017.
People were all over the internet claiming to have made thousands of dollars overnight. For the most part, these were just clickbait titles and advertisements, but there are definitely ways to earn money from drop shipping, and it’s one of the more popular online jobs.
What is dropshipping?
Basically, dropshipping is a very low-risk way to start up a business selling products online.
Traditionally if you wanted to do this, you would have to create a product, market it, store it in a warehouse and ship it out yourself, while having to deal with refunds, returns, etc.
Dropshipping hands most of the responsibility off to someone else. This entity is known as a manufacturer, dropshipping supplier or warehouse outlet.
Your job as a dropshipping entrepreneur would be to find a wholesale manufacturer who would manufacture, store and ship your product, and you would then create an online store (website/blog) or an Amazon Storefront in order to promote and market the product.
How to Find a Dropshipping Manufacturer
Finding a manufacturer will be one of the hardest things to do.
Simply typing “drop shippers” into Google won’t give you very good results because only big dropshipping manufacturers that do business with big dropshippers will have the money to invest in SEO (search engine optimization), which allows their website to be seen first in Google.
You want the smaller drop shipping manufacturers that will be willing to deal with your new, small/medium-sized business. To get the best results, try expanding your Google search to include various drop shipping terms like: “distributor”, “wholesale”, “bulk”, “reseller”, “warehouse”, and “supplier”.
You can also combine those terms with the particular goods or types of goods you wish to sell.
For example: “Dropshipping distributor warehouse backpacks luggage” might be a good term if you’d like to start up a dropshipping business that sells backpacks and luggage.
A website called www.abetterlemonadestand.com has put together this great list of dropshipping suppliers that can help you get started.
Promoting Your Products
Next, you’ll need to promote your products. In a nutshell, without going into too much depth here, you could easily spend some money on Facebook ads to lead people to your Amazon Store or your website.
Preferably, your web page would have a lead magnet (a free product to give away in exchange for an email) so that you could then communicate with your would-be customers over email, even after they’ve left your site.
You would want to give them a lot of value and information about the niche of your product and then offer them a purchase option within the email.
If you don’t have money to bootstrap your dropshipping business to get it started, you’ll have to spend time. Building a dropshipping business with sweat equity will be a lot like building a blog.
You’ll need to market your products, create a website and learn SEO and social strategies to grow traffic to your sales pages. That’s why it’s good to have some advertising money to start with.
Like building a travel blog, dropshipping isn’t going to earn you 6-figures in 6 weeks, but over time it can be a great way to earn a lot of money online.
6. Creating an Online Course
No matter what your skill may be, there are people out there who would be happy to pay for you to teach them.
From passing exams and creating podcasts, to baking cakes and mastering photography, there are courses out there for pretty much every niche. If you’re knowledgeable in a particular subject, this is one of the best online jobs.
The fact is, knowledge is power. We all want to soak up as many skills as possible and the internet has created a breeding ground for this. There are people out there who are earning 6-figures per month (7 figures per year) from selling online courses.
You’ll have to ensure that your courses are useful, easy to follow, and actually lead to a beneficial result for your students, but it’s possible to thrive in this arena.
How to sell your online courses
Websites like Teachable, Skillshare and Udemy are great resources for those who want to sell courses online.
Once you’ve figured out what knowledge you’d like to sell to the world, you can visit one of these websites and go through the motions of turning your skills into a step-by-step course that others can purchase and follow.
The websites include curriculum, video, take-home notes and tasks to complete, making it easier for your students to get the results they want. They also have a marketplace where you can list and advertise your course to the world.
If you’re going to sell courses, I recommend also creating a website or blog where you can promote the courses.
Once you’ve done that, open up a Facebook Ads account and start paying for some traffic to your website and A/B test different landing pages to see where you get the best results.
If you think the market for online learning is too flooded, think again. People are drawn towards courses for the teacher. Your potential students may not like the people behind the courses currently available, but they might like you.
When thinking about which online jobs you can do, consider any skills you have and share your knowledge with the world in the form of a course.
We’ve personally created two online courses through Teachable. Check out our landing pages to see what they look like to get some ideas for your own marketing! Beginner Blogger Course and SEO Made Simple.)
7. Teaching English Online (best online jobs for citizens of English speaking countries)
Update 2023: Due to the recent laws in China, many of the English teaching companies there have shut their doors to foreign online teachers. However, companies outside of China such as BookNook, PrePly, Cambly, Outschool, Italki, EF Online and Profy are still hiring. Make sure you get your TEFL certificate to better your chances of getting hired.
An excellent option for online jobs if you’re a native English speaker from Canada, the USA, the UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia (and you have a Bachelor’s Degree in any subject and a TEFL Certificate) is to become an online English teacher. This is a high paying online job.
Recommended online English teaching companies
For Americans who are looking for online jobs that pay in dollars, BookNook is a great option as it pays $18/hour with the potential for bonuses, and you can work remotely.
After you’ve been through the interview and are hired, you’ll be given lesson plans and can start teaching eager students. You’ll earn $18 per hour and you pick your own hours. With BookNook, rather than teaching ESL, you’ll actually be teaching reading comprehension and literacy to young students in the USA.
This is one of the top online jobs since you have the option to work full-time or part-time. You choose how many hours you want to work. This is also a great way to supplement some other earnings you may have.
If you’re an American citizen or permanent resident, click here to learn more about BookNook and start tutoring from anywhere in the world.
Becoming an online teacher is one of the most rewarding jobs you can do on the internet. To learn about reputable teaching companies other than BookNook, check out Preply (you set the pay rate), Cambly (a very easy way to make money online), or Outschool (you must be a resident of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the UK), and EF Online. See also: Teach English Online: 12 Top Paying Companies
If you don’t have a degree, have a look at these 10 teaching companies that will hire you without a Bachelor’s Degree. Teaching is one of the best online jobs that pay hourly.
8. Managing Ad Accounts
Bloggers and website owners spend enough time growing their SEO, social media and brand, so few of us have time to really learn how to create successful ads.
Whether it be Google Ads or Facebook Ads, once you have a profit-positive campaign, you’re winning.
Many people these days are learning all about Facebook Ads and figuring out ways to create ads that sell. They then pitch their services to large brands with the idea that they’ll create an ad on Facebook that will increase revenue for that company.
Because the company knows they’ll be earning money, these online jobs typically pay pretty high and can be set up on monthly retainers anywhere from $500 – $5,000 per month, per client.
There are thousands of people earning tons of money online by managing ads for companies. Being an ads manager offers a high paying salary, it’s a growing fad and this online job isn’t going anywhere.
Again, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you’re new to Facebook Advertising and Google Ads, it could take you months to learn the ins and outs of the ad platforms.
There are some great free videos available online to teach you how to create successful ad campaigns and once you can get a client or two onboard, you could be making a lot of money.
9. Freelance Writing
For some reason, freelance writing comes with a stigma that it’s difficult to earn real money from it.
Traditionally yes, aspiring writers, authors and freelancers didn’t make that much money before the internet came along, and it wasn’t considered a top online job, but these days there are a lot more opportunities to get paid to write online.
We have made upwards of $3,500 USD / month from freelancing alone and we think it’s one of the best paying online jobs. The pay really depends on who you write for. Some jobs we’ve had only paid $35 per article to start, while others paid upwards of $450 for a 700-word post.
If you’re looking for freelance writing jobs for beginners, check out SolidGigs.com, a company that does just that — provides you with solid gigs!
They scour the internet for the top 1% of freelance jobs available across more than 100 job boards and sites. Then, they send you the best straight to your inbox on Tuesdays.
You’ll also receive access to numerous webinars, interviews, and expert videos. Plus, access to various templates, spreadsheets, and more to help you succeed. Click here to learn more about Solid Gigs, and receive a free 7-day trial.
Once you have a couple of client websites that are paying you to write an article, I recommend asking them if you can write a certain number per month. Offering them a discount for multiple articles will help you accomplish this.
After you have a few clients on monthly retainers, you can really start earning money from freelance writing. Plus you can use those posts to pitch other websites and get more gigs. Another option is to try out Upwork, which is a great platform for freelancers to connect with clients, and FlexJobs which has many remote jobs available.
Despite the fact that there is more opportunity online than in print, print publications still tend to pay more. Try contacting your local newspapers and magazine editors to see if you can get paid writing jobs there.
We were featured in our local newspaper The Vancouver Sun in Canada on a couple of occasions and not only was the pay good, but it was really cool to see our names in print!
Are you a freelancer looking for more online job opportunities? Have a look at our articles here:
10. Ebook Author
Thanks to Amazon, it’s never been easier to become a successful author. First, you’ll have to create an awesome book, then upload it to Amazon. Next, you’ll need to get people to review it so that it appears higher in search queries for your topic and in related shopping boxes on the website.
To create an ebook, first type it out on your computer’s word processor (typically anything over 10,000 words could qualify as a useful ebook).
The best ebooks help people to solve a problem. Try to help people to get from point A to point B and write step-by-step so that they can follow your recommendations toward the desired result.
Our Best Travel Blogging Tips Ebook is currently on sale on Amazon and here on our website for $9.99. Creating ebooks is a great way to provide your readers with a resource while earning some extra money.
Once you have the basic text for your ebook, head over to Canva. Here you can sign-up for a free account and use the free online software to choose an ebook template to start designing your book.
I use and recommend Canva Pro to find high-quality, royalty-free images (for free) and begin putting together your masterpiece one page at a time. Once you’re done, export it as a PDF and upload it to Amazon. If you’re not an Amazon seller yet, you’ll have to set up an account.
When you’re creating your listing for your new ebook, make sure to be very specific. Tell potential customers a few pain points, then explain to them how your book will help them to solve their problem(s).
Once your book is live, you can promote it on social media, on your blog, and using Facebook ads. Some of the top independent ebook sellers in the world have earned millions of dollars from their Amazon bookstores, not bad for online work.
This might not be one of the best paying online jobs and you might not make millions, but if you can create 10 great ebook resources and market them properly, you could earn enough to pay for travel.
The best part is that once your books are completed and on Amazon, you won’t have to do much work and you’ll likely see sales coming in while you’re sleeping.
11. Graphic Designer
You’ll need a particular skill set and be a creative type, but becoming a graphic designer is a legit online job that may be a good option for you.
These days, you don’t need a university degree in graphic design to get started, you can simply learn using programs such as Teachable, YouTube or Skillshare.
Create templates and stickers, become a consultant, design fonts on Etsy, make logo packages, sell printables and much more.
You can work for yourself as a freelance graphic designer, or for a company. Have a look at how to make money as a graphic designer, and the must-have tools for graphic design work.
12. Proofreading and Editing
This is one of the easiest, high paying online jobs around. You don’t need a degree or special qualifications to find proofreading jobs online.
However, you’ll need to have excellent time management skills and be well-versed in English grammar and spelling. To give yourself a leg up, I recommend taking either an editing course, a proofreading course online, or both.
Knowadays (formally, The Proofreading Academy) offers an informative, affordable course — and a free trial!
If you pass with 80% or higher, you’ll even be given guaranteed work with their partners. Invest in yourself and become a proofreader, it’s one of the best-paying online jobs. Use promo code GOATS10 for 10% off the proofreading and editing courses with Knowadays. Learn more here.
13: Bonus! Rent Out Your Space
Ok, this one isn’t exactly a way to make money on the computer…but it’s a great work-from-home job and an excellent way to make money on the side.
The premise of Neighbor is simple. If you have extra space in your garage, shed, attic, carport, basement, shipping container, closet, or driveway, you can earn money by storing people’s things on your property — it’s like Airbnb for items.
If you live in the USA and have unused space, this is an easy way to make money. Hosts earn between $50-$600 per month. Learn more and sign up with Neighbor here.
In Conclusion
People always ask us how we managed to save money for travel and how we earn money to stay on the road. When we tell them that we earn more from travel blogging than we ever did in the oil fields or in law firms in Canada, they are often blown away.
But, travel blogging may not be the online job for everyone (although it’s probably perfect for you if you’re reading this blog), which is why we’re constantly researching jobs and interviewing travelers who have worked at various legit online jobs all over the world.
Remote work is the ultimate goal and with so much opportunity on the web, it seems like a waste if you’re not finding online work now. These high paying online jobs are some of the best ones to get your foot in the door of location independence.
I hope you found this article useful. If you or someone you know is hoping to quit the 9-5, escape the office, and work from a laptop while traveling the world, please share this post! If you’re still looking for more, check out our Remote Work section and learn how to get paid to travel with this post.