This website is not financial advice. Posts may contain affiliate links from which I earn commissions at no additional cost to you.
GIANT List Of 44 Money-Making Ideas For Lockdowns And The Post-Corona World – Graphic © WealthPowerBoost. Photo © Shutterstock (under license)
We live in crazy times. Some have even called it The “Greatest Transfer Of Wealth In Human History”. Since 2020, livelihoods and enterprises have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers. Whole sectors of the economy have turned upside-down and may never be the same ever again.
I don’t think the world is ever going to “go back to normal”. The “good old days” are over.
However there are – paradoxically – massive opportunities right now and despite the chaos, some are thriving like never before. Great upheaval means great movement of money and whatever your views on the topic, this means huge opportunity as well as tragedy.
It’s vital to adapt and survive! Countless people are currently looking for new work and for new enterprises – and good folks everywhere are ready and willing to throw themselves at full power into new ventures that are going to feed their families. You can do this!
I worked really hard and came up with this ultimate list of money-making ideas – 44 ventures, services and sectors that are booming. This will get you thinking! Look to the future now – and gain skills in these areas. Please share with the people who need it!
Related Post: 80+ Ways To Make Extra Money
1. Freelance Online Work: The Fiverr Gig Directory
This is a fantastic place to start your online hustle: Fiverr Gig Directory lists all the categories and sub-categories of services that are provided through the agency. There are tons of ways of making money online just through this one website!!
Can you do any of these things well, or learn to do them well? Yes you can! You can look at the categories and see typical gig prices and how many reviews people have, to get a realistic idea of the demand. You can learn much from looking at the “gig offerings” and the profiles of successful providers to see what is involved and how a successful profile is structured.
Fiverr gives you a great opportunity for either a “side hustle” – or even a “main hustle”. You can also use it as a kind of “online day job”, filling in the down time with work-for-pay while developing your own brand or business.
2. Social Media Based Business (Income from Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest etc)
Social media use is at an all time high. Billons of people are spending time online and buying online like never before. This translates into huge opportunity that is very accessible and can be commenced by virtually anyone.
This is of course the business that I have been in for the last few years. I’ve written up several in depth free tutorials for some of the major social media platforms, look over there in the sidebar and you can see them all. 🙂
3. eBay Based Business
Ebay is booming. In 2020 I had to think on my feet big time due to loss of income – and the first thing I did was have a huge “cull” of items around the house that I either didn’t need or could fairly easily do without. I spent a couple of days photographing and listing a huge amount of stuff. I sold loads! Since then I have listed and sold many more items. Long story short, eBay “saved my butt” and I made over £4,000 in two months! It was a LIFESAVER.
So the first step to getting going with this would be to have a clearout and sell what you don’t need. Focus on smaller items that have higher value and are easy to ship. Then you could consider branching out into trading. Choosing the right product lines is vital – there are things that nobody is buying and things that everyone wants right now. Collectibles for example may be difficult to sell as people are looking to liquidate and less people are buying them. Tools, home essentials and computer supplies are holding strong. Look out for other trends: for example companies selling bicycle spares made record profits in 2020 after gyms were closed and people everywhere dug the old bike out of the shed!
4. Tech Sector Jobs (Working From Home)
Tech jobs are in high demand and those with an eye on “where the ball is going to be” in a few years time might do well to develop skills serving these specialized fields. In particular the following sectors are super hot: Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Blockchain, Coding (always in demand), Cybersecurity, Business Tools, Gaming, Publishing, Social Networks, Big Data, Open Source Apps, Medical Research, Graphic Design, Video Editing, Virtual Reality.
5. Communications Technology Services
With lockdowns affecting over 1 billion people, face-to-face meeting is currently off the table, therefore communications technology, computers, mobile phones, internet use in general are in high demand. It is likely that many businesses will opt to continue to have people work from home. Businesses that serve these needs are in demand – for example selling, maintenance and repair of equipment, training / tutorials, communications app development and so on. Electronic devices – phone, laptop etc. People will be using them more than ever. High speed internet services, related training and tutorials. will all experience higher demand than previously.
There is also significant demand meeting the needs of the unbanked and those currently without internet or phone service. There are still over 2 billion people in the world without an internet connection and these are getting connected, making their first online transactions and going through the exact same learning curves that we have already been through. So there is opportunity to help these people.
6. Online Tutoring
I know someone who just switched all their music students to online using video conferencing and is now doing outreach for new students. Learning and playing a musical instrument can be very therapeutic and is something that can be done from home so teaching music online has potential! There are many other things that can be taught through one on one video conferencing.
7. Contactless Technology Services
This one is to some extent just an idea intended to get you thinking about ways in which the world is changing and how to position yourself within a field that is highly relevant to that. “Contactless” technology of all kinds is in huge demand. Doors that open without having to touch them. Checkoutless shopping using QR codes. Contactless delivery.
The world’s previous infrastructure normally required that people touch things that other people have touched. Contagion fears now mean that services offering contactless payment, contactless delivery and so on are at an all time high. Many people, given the option, will now prefer goods that nobody has touched. It’s essentially a new field with very great potential. Can you promote, sell, service or develop technology in this area?
8. Virtual Reality Office Products & Services
Apps and hardware enabling board room and business meetings etc from home are experiencing a surge in demand. Virtual conferencing was already a hot sector enabling international business associates to connect and have “face time” – and the demand for these services has grown significantly.
9. Home Deliveries
Food distribution, plus other essentials that everyone needs. Delivery driving is an in-demand job and the current soaring demand for these services seems like it will practically guarantee ongoing work.
10. Technology Investment Funds
(Not investment advice). These would seem a realistic investment opportunity as online services and “everything tech sector” are surging.
11. Air Purification
No doubt HEPA and UV air filters that “remove 99+% of viruses from the air” are flying off the shelves. This has always been a lucrative online niche; now that ‘viral fears’ are rampant it’s inevitable that these products high profit potential. I anticipate the demand for these products will continue to be strong. I’m sure we will face more periods of contagion fears.
12. Mail Order Businesses
Retail may never go back to being the way it was – but I am still receiving catalogues in the mail. The catalogues feature ordering by internet or phone. Amazon may be the biggest ecommerce outlet – but whether in the form of printed or online catalogue (or both), there is still plenty of room for competition and plenty of opportunity to put products and services in front of people, especially with unusual or unique products and well chosen product collections that cater to niche interests. Amazon are good at meeting supply but they have also revealed where the demand is.
13. Home Gym Equipment and Online / Downloadable Fitness Tutorials
Gymnasium businesses have been pretty much wiped out. On the other hand, home “spin classes” and similar i.e. Peloton.com should be doing well. Huge opportunity for personal trainers online. Youtube coaching. Personal “virtual” fitness coaching. Home gym equipment, exercise equipment from bicycles to yoga mats.
14. Robotics
Robotics will survive and thrive. “No contagion issues” is an additional selling point in what was already one of the fastest growing sectors in the run up to 2020. Someone is going to become a billionaire creating a robot that can do home deliveries. Challenging, but we are approaching the era of driverless cars, which is arguably the hardest part. And the person who creates the housework droid that can clean the place perfectly after your “virtual living room rave” (or whatever) is going to make bank, possible richest person alive territory here. Henry Ford became the world’s richest person through bringing the car to the masses. Bill Gates did it with the computer. The person who develops the home robot will be next? Food for thought.
15. Survival Skills Tutorials (Written / audio / video)
Can you teach people how to take care of themselves and be self reliant? You probably can because you have learned a LOT in your life. Off Grid / Survival content has been booming. Here are some ideas:
Survival Foods – which inexpensive foods to choose that will last a long time and keep you healthy.
Ways to make extra money working from home.
Natural ways to boost the immune system.
How to survive if the power goes out.
Survival skills training and tutorials.
How to get started growing your own food. (can we even buy organic seeds right now?)
16. Businesses Under The “Amazon Umbrella”
Love ’em or hate ’em… the world has turned to Amazon to provide products of all kinds that they used to buy in the high street. Opportunities therefore abound for “Fulfilled by Amazon” sellers, but also for affiliates promoting products via the Amazon Associates Program, and for Kindle Publishers. There will also be retailers offloading stock they cannot sell, at low prices, which provides a real opportunity for online arbitrage traders to scoop bargains.
17. Apps, Games And Other Home Entertainments
China has seen a boom in downloading of apps and games as people look to occupy themselves from home.
18. Email Marketing
We are seeing a strong response to email at the moment – depending on the topic people are in great need of assistance of many kinds. Email is one sector of internet business that never seems to go away and will probably be strong for a long time to come. Learn More: 12 Steps Towards Making Mega Money With Email Marketing (FREE Email Marketing Tutorial)
19. Home Improvements
Lockdowns / stay at home orders mean that everyone is getting those home projects done. DIY stores such as Home Depot, B&Q are roaring along (if and when open)! And people are focusing on making their home nice and more comforting. Increased stress translates to an increased demand for creature comforts and people are focusing on making their home environment nice, safe, cosy and comforting. So there is demand for home products as well as services and tutorials.
20. Voice Over Work
This service is BOOMING! As so many people transition to online, Youtube is going off. Once again – how can you serve this industry? The demand for “voice overs” – someone reading a script and making a recording that will be used on a video – is at an all time high; and it is well paid work! I was astonished to search on fiverr.com for voice over and find 16,175 people offering voice over services. Many of these providers have several hundred reviews which shows that this is a niche that has high demand.
What caught my eye about this was that services start at approx $5 per 100 words, of which around 80% I think goes to the seller. However given that typical reading time for 100 words is less than one minute, one can see that the potential is there for good income.
So if you have a good clear speaking voice and strong reading out loud ability, plus some simple audio editing skills, this could be for you.
You will need a decent quality microphone, pop shield and audio recording setup.
21. DIY And Self Reliance
Huge potential here. Many people are shifting towards self reliance. Anything to do with skills people need when staying at home and being required to do much more themselves. Think laterally here. DIY craft tutorials of all kinds are in high demand. How To Make / Fix Your Own _________________ (tools, soap, hand sanitizer, bread, appliances, equipment, kitchen, bathroom).
22. Home And Personal Security
In troubled times, people are nervous. I can only see this increasing and I am a BIG advocate of beefing up home security. Economic instability translates to fear (real or imagined) of robberies, home invasions, looting etc – with the consequence that very many people are looking to “harden” their home security on all levels. Desperate times do lead to desperate people and therefore real danger – and scary new stories translate directly into increased sales of security products and services. There is opportunity here both in sale of security products and in tutorials.
23. Survival And Tactical Gear, Rations, “Bug Out” Kit
Some of the more imaginative people (no judgement) are literally prepping for zombie apocalypse right now – and that means in typical consumer fashion many will be seeking to “shop their way out of a problem”. This of course means buying survival supplies of all kinds in great quantities. This stuff is flying off the shelves! If this is your field, as with every other niche, think of it as a kind of “hub” of interest. There are numerous “spokes” to the wheel; not just in supplying in-demand products but also in tutorials, training and so on.
24. Self Help Tutorials Of All Kinds
As businesses and classrooms close, people are turning more and more to the internet to learn just about everything you can think of. My business is almost entirely focused around creating tutorials – like this one! Think about the kinds of things people are “Googling” right now. How will you cater to these? Ideas: How to store food, How to prep for survival. How to keep a business running. How to save money on bills. What to do if the power goes out. How to use computers. How to be more internet savvy. How to order things online. How to protect your credit cards online. How to create an email address. How to do online banking. How to transfer money online. How to use PayPal. Go to a search engine and type in “how to a”, “how to b” and note the “autocomplete” suggestions that come up – this shows what people are already looking for. You can mine into these search results to come up with almost unlimited ideas.
25. Youtube
People are now staying home for entertainment. Fact of life. Anything that cheers people up and entertains them safely from the comfort of their own home is going to be popular. All those concert goers, sports match goers etc are going to be turning to online entertainment to get their fix. Video sites recently had to lower the quality of their streaming because the demand was so big. See our full tutorial 18 Awesome Ways To Make Money With Youtube.
26. Home Schooling
This sector was already in demand as parents need to either homeschool kids or find personal tutors. But the latest news here is that schools are closed – so that means an inevitable surge in everything related to home schooling, personal tutoring, virtual classroom technology and related services.
27. Electronic Devices / Computer Hardware
Phones, laptops, peripherals etc. People will be using them more than ever. If nothing else, this is a great time to have a clear out and sell that old laptop and mobile phone you no longer use.
28. Online Tech Support
Fixing computers “remotely” and helping people with home tech. Computer training of all kinds.
29. Growing Your Own Food And Herbs
People are growing their own food in large numbers! Think of all the things that relate to this: Tutorials, selling seeds, bulbs, plants, growing produce, delivery, local food networks.
30. “Stay At Home Lifestyle”
This is a big thing; apps, technologies, products, services and systems that are centered around people literally creating a new lifestyle focused around staying at home / self-isolation and all things related.
31. How To Set Up A Home Office
Loads of people getting set up to do business from home. Tutorials, services and support.
32. Virtual Entertainment
Virtual reality pub, nightclub and all other social gathering type stuff. Virtual reality bingo. Online movies and entertainment – all concerts, sports, cinema etc are off.
33. High Speed Internet Services And Support
Just chatted with a satellite and 4G internet installer. They are maxed-out right now providing these essential services. Huge surge in people setting up home broadband. The UK just reported almost a doubling of internet traffic in the last couple of weeks – absolutely unprecendented demand.
34. DIY Tutorials
Making, repairing and doing things yourself.
35. Recipes
All of a sudden many people who ate at restaurants are all going to be switching to wanting recipes and eating at home. Traffic to our recipe website has almost doubled from the usual amount since the lockdowns began.
36. Untouched Goods
Hygienic / sterile certification. If you can certify that your products (all sectors, not just food) have been handled hygienically and without anyone touching, snotting on them etc etc, that will be VERY good for business right now. “Certified untouched”… Huge potential business model right there.
37. Sterilization / Medical / Sanitization / Cleanroom Equipment
Huge demand that I can’t see going down: Soap (solid and liquid), surgical-type sterile gloves, sanitizing supplies, N95 masks, toilet roll, face shields, spray bottles, isopropyl alcohol (the base ingredient for hand sanitizer), medical supplies and equipment, home viral testing kits, sterilizing chemicals, cleanroom supplies, decontamination, autoclaves / heat sterilizers, UV sterilizing wands, Home Viral Testing Kits, biological testing technology. These keywords all reveal potential businesses / niches that are in higher demand than ever before.
38. Outsource Services
Companies are turning to the global online marketplace for their Human Resources. It is even possible that the entire concept of an office premises and even “local employment” may be replaced by entirely cloud-based and virtual working environments. Opportunity here for hubs and networks that connect outsource workers with employers. Another huge opportunity is in creating, training and directing teams to provide bespoke services to other businesses.
39. Affiliate Marketing
You can sell practically anything you can think of as an affiliate and make commissions. As online sales and traffic in general have surged, this could truly be seen as the ‘golden age’ for the affiliate. Some have created successful businesses simply reviewing and giving tips on the products they know a lot about. Big opportunity here. Being able to make money online is a lifesaver right now. As countless people are currently out of work, many of them will be searching, perhaps for the first time, asking “How do I make money from my computer?” How can you serve these needs?
40. Online Counseling
In these troubled times very many people are stressed, traumatized or even in mourning. Services providing support to those who need it might be in higher demand than ever as the world comes to terms with these unprecedented circumstances.
41. Writer
Internet use is up, and the majority of internet content is written. It thus follows that the demand for writing services will be higher than before. Check out the Fiverr Writing And Translation gig category to see what’s hot. I’ve hired several writers from there for my blogs.
Companies looking to hold their position as ad spending tightens, may do so by increasing the volume of pages they have online, which translates to higher demand for writers for higher. Also: translation – higher demand for written content = higher demand for translators.
42. Real Estate
Demand for property has been surging – especially in rural areas as many people have been fleeing cities – either out of fear or simply because their reason to be there (office job) no longer exists. Many of these people have either being laid off, furloughed or are working remotely. So the thought process is perfectly logical – why even be stuck in the city when you could be somewhere else? This translates to booming property prices in certain areas, which translates into real estate profits!
43. Fixing Electronics
The famous old business saying “In a gold rush, sell shovels” still holds true. There is always opportunity in observing market trends and in providing products and services that are related.
What can we see at present? More people than ever before using the internet. People being required to use the internet when previously they were not.
How many spin-off businesses can you think of that relate to this trend? Coaching. Related products. Installation, equipment services and repairs. Shipping, delivery and other logistics.
A turnkey service where people ship their electronics and have them fixed, with fast turnaround – now that’s going to be a good business to be in. There’s another vertical in creating / providing custom packaging for electronic items. For example one laptop repair company sends you the box to put the laptop in, that it fits perfectly with no need for you to mess around with bubble wrap – together with the shipping label. The company gets to make sure the equipment has lower risk of damage in transit. They could also set up a deposit system to get the packaging returned again at the end! They can also re-use the inserts many times, minimizing their own shipping costs and further increasing their competitiveness.
44. Product-Focused Tutorial Blogs
This is a popular online business model that has unlimited potential. It takes much work to scale big enough to create a full time income but the payoff can be good if it is done well.
The “helicopter view” of this business is this:
a) To begin with, choose a niche or topic that you know a good amount about, have a strong interest in and are eager to study and increase your knowledge.
b) Use “autocomplete” and keyword tools to see questions people are using search engines for, then create blog posts with those headlines, answering their questions.
c) Choose questions that have a more product-oriented solution and then link to products as an affiliate.
d) At the outset, answer “long tail” questions that have lower search volume – this generally means lower competition and a greater possibility to “rank” in search results for the headline phrase. In-depth keyword analysis can be useful but this is a simplified tutorial and you can still do well without being overly technical.
e) SEO best practices and social media promotion are recommended traffic sources.
f) A further spin off could be the creation of an email list offering a free in-depth tutorial to subscribers as a means of lead capture.
g) Bigger blogs get a compounding effect and do better. This is not a 5-minute success model but a long game. As a general rule of thumb, 1000 posts in a blog is a good target. This may well be 1 to 3 years work, depending on how much time you invest and how much you outsource, but there is a potential long term payoff. I made most of my money online through tutorial blogs.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
SUMMARY: Make it happen! Times of great crisis are also times of opportunity. Numerous people have urgent or even desperate needs right now. How can you position yourself to serve these needs? “Action Takers Are Money Makers”! Those who are best able to adapt to the new set of needs that people have are going to be the winners in these testing times. Stay safe, stay motivated and get cracking!
