How to Make Money During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines?
Lost your job or looking to make some extra income to survive the COVID-19 pandemic?
Unfortunately, many people are in the same shoes.
While an economic recession is imminent, you can still choose from plenty of options to make money during the crisis.
And we are here to help you with that!
In this article, we will show you the 8 best ways you can make money in the Philippines during the crisis.
And the best?
Neither of them requires you to leave your home office!
1. Start an Ecommerce Business
As consumer behavior is shifting from offline to online due to COVID-19's effects, it's a great time to start an ecommerce business.
According to Statista, 40% of the surveyed Filipinos have stated that they purchased more online during the pandemic, while only 20% specified the opposite.
Fortunately, it hasn't been easier to start an ecommerce store than now.
Platforms, such as WooCommerce and Shopify, allow you to build a professional ecommerce website from scratch quickly and conveniently.
To get started with an ecommerce business, you can choose between two business models:
- Design and create your own products and use your ecommerce site to sell them to the public
- Order unbranded items from cheap, foreign vendors and manufacturers, repackage them and offer them for sale in your store at a higher price
While the first is a rather money- and time-intensive option, many successful brands have used this strategy to kickstart their business' growth.
On the other hand, the second option (dropshipping) allows you to get started fast, with minimal upfront costs.
Due to its benefits, the dropshipping market is very saturated. However, this doesn't mean that you can't succeed with this business model anymore.
Instead of offering a wide range of product categories to the general public, set up a specialized store that targets a smaller audience with niche products.
By doing so, you will be present in a market with limited competition. Later on, you will be able to target additional markets as your business grows.
2. Get Started With Blogging
People love great stories.
And with blogging, you can provide them exactly that in the form of excellent written content.
There are multiple success stories on the web from people who have started personal blogs as hobbies, which later became fast-growing businesses.
Mashable, for example, started out as a simple WordPress blog in 2005 by founder Pete Cashmore.
And now, 15 years later, Mashable is a global entertainment media outlet that earns hundreds of thousands of dollars every month.
It's even easier to get started with a blog than with an ecommerce website. WordPress, the world's largest CMS platform, allows you to set up your blogging business in a few hours.
But before you set up your website, we recommend doing the following steps first:
- Define your industry (e.g., business) and some sub-topics (e.g., stock news, personal finance and lifehacks) you will blog about.
- It's essential to know the topics you are blogging about to provide quality content to your readers. If you don't have this knowledge, be prepared to do extensive research to support your writing.
- Choose a way to earn revenue with your blog. For example, you can start out with running ads on your site, but later on, you could also use your blog to sell your products and services.
- Decide on what channels you will use for marketing your blog. The most popular ones include social media, SEO, PPC advertising, as well as email and influencer marketing.
Keen to learn more?
Check out Z.com’s articles to find out how to start a successful blog!
3. Create an Affiliate Website
Throughout the years, affiliate marketing proved itself as a decent way to earn revenue for website owners.
In this business model, advertisers pay a commission to affiliates for product sales earned through their websites.
There are plenty of prominent affiliate networks out there, and you, as the marketer, have numerous methods to choose from to generate sales for advertiser products.
For example, you can market their products and services by:
- Creating a website where you review different products and services within a niche (e.g., web hosting solutions)
- Publishing the banner ads of affiliate advertisers on your website
- Creating infographics, ebooks, blog posts, podcasts and other interesting content around affiliate products
- Publishing social media content about affiliate products
- Including affiliate items in your newsletters
- Running PPC ads for affiliate landing pages
Pro tip: No matter which strategy you choose for your affiliate business, it's essential to provide quality content with a no-to-minimal bias for the products you advertise.
4. Become a Web Hosting Reseller
If you know how web hosting works (or you are willing to learn the ropes), becoming a reseller can provide a lucrative income for you.
When you resell web hosting, you rent a dedicated service space from a hosting provider at a competitive price and use that to offer your own solutions to your customers.
By doing so, you can build a web hosting brand from scratch without running your own servers and worrying about operating or maintaining them.
At Z.com, you can become a web hosting reseller in the Philippines without any upfront investments while having access to a comprehensive list of products, such as:
- Domains
- Web hosting products
- Web development and design packages
- SSL certificates
- Cloud VPS solutions
Furthermore, you are the one who decides on the profit margins, achieving attractive payouts without any caps on commissions.
Also, Z.com’s web hosting solutions activate instantly while featuring a dedicated support team to answer reseller questions.
Sounds great, huh?
Sign up as a web hosting reseller at Z.com now!>
5. Offer Web Design Services (Without a Website)
Have you ever built a sleek website? Or do you have the time to spend on learning how?
If your answer is “yes” for any of the above questions, then becoming a web designer might be worth looking into.
According to Siteefy, nearly 550,000 websites are created daily, and approximately 380 new sites are being built every minute.
Whether there is a crisis or the economy is booming, a presence on the web is crucial for most businesses. And they will need someone to build their sites for them.
Get started with becoming a web designer by creating a portfolio where you include the websites you have previously built.
Ironically, you don’t need to create a website to have a portfolio as a web designer.
Sites such as Behance or Dribbble allow you to showcase your best work for free (or at a very low cost) and use your portfolio to pitch and acquire new clients.
Alternatively, you can also attend local events where startups and entrepreneurs from your area are gathering. Connect with businesses there to find (potential) future clients for your web design business.
6. Start a Video Channel
In the past, we have seen many people earn a full-time living on creating videos about what they love.
With YouTube, Twitch, and other popular video-sharing platforms, it's super easy to set up your channel and start creating video content.
However, it takes some time to attract a decent number of subscribers to your channel and make money with your business.
Also, to stand out from the crowd, you not only need to consistently publish high quality entertaining or educational videos, but you also have to possess a good camera for recording and some skills to edit the content to make it attractive to your (future) subscribers.
But if you manage to attract a few thousand active subscribers to your channel, you will soon find yourself with opportunities – such as affiliate product promotions and advertising earnings – that could earn you a good income from making videos.
7. Create an Online Course
If you are well-versed in an area (either in your personal life or professional career) and you know how to pass on your knowledge to others, creating an online course is a trending way to make money nowadays.
The digital education market is growing rapidly, with the industry expected to surge from 2020’s $8.4 billion to $33.2 billion by 2025.
The great benefit of creating a digital course is that once you are ready with crafting its content, you only have to spend on marketing your business.
Also, you can choose to use an external platform, such as Udemy or Skillshare, or create your own website to publish your courses.
While building your own website is a more resource-intensive process, you can achieve a higher profit margin this way as you don’t need to pay a commission after your course sales to service providers.
After selecting the platform, the next step is to choose a format for your course. This can range from something as simple as PDF downloads and podcasts to comprehensive video courses.
Creating a good video course takes time and requires at least basic technical skills. However, as 72% of consumers prefer video to text, it might give you the best results.
8. Join a Remote-Friendly Company
While becoming a freelancer or running your own business is fascinating for some, others prefer to work in full-time positions.
However, as the virus is spreading at a fast rate, many businesses have closed entirely or made remote working as the standard for their employees.
Therefore, if you are looking for a full-time job, it's best to search for open positions at companies that allow you to work remotely to stay safe amid these uncertain times.
Remote working also has some other benefits.
First, you can work from any location you want (as long as you have internet access). This can be your home, a coffee shop on the corner, or a co-working office nearby.
If you work from a close location, you save the time you have otherwise spent traveling to your company's office.
Also, many businesses offer remote jobs to workers from abroad countries, which means that you have a wider selection of opportunities to choose from as you are not limited to finding local positions exclusively.
Use the resources below to find remote-friendly companies:
Financial Survival Amid COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our lives.
Millions of people have lost their jobs, thousands of businesses have closed, while people are increasingly working remotely to avoid getting infected by the virus.
However, even in these uncertain times, you can make money by experimenting with the methods we have listed in this article.
You can start your own business, ecommerce store, or become a web designer, and you can create an online course to provide valuable information to students while making money.
Finding a remote-friendly job is also a good option for people who prefer to work in full-time positions.
