The continued evolution of digital technology, the growing influence of the Internet and social media have made it possible to make money online in the Philippines.

If technology is pulling people to start an online business, worsening conditions in traffic, unpredictable weather, and a burgeoning population are factors that are pushing people to look for more productive ways to make money.

Traffic alone results in 2.4 Billion Pesos in business losses every day. That number is estimated to hit 6 Billion Pesos by 2030.

For the regular worker, these unforgiving conditions lead to a highly stressful work environment. It’s difficult enough that the Philippines pays one of the lowest wages in the world that they have to suffer through horrendous traffic in Metro Manila.

With an online business, you don’t have to leave your home. Or if you wish, you can conduct business in the venue of your choice. Your time is your own, and best of all; the opportunity could be quite lucrative!

Did you know a Filipino online entrepreneur from Cavite earned 7.5 Million Pesos in one year? Another one generated cumulative annual earnings of 2.6 Million Pesos!

More people are working from home and pursuing opportunities to make money online. And there are many legit ways to generate good, sustainable income with long-term prospects in the Philippines.

And no, trolling social media sites is not included in case you’re wondering. Even if the reported income for “professional trolls” is in the hundreds of thousands of pesos, choose a venture you can be proud of as an online entrepreneur.

Here are 12 legit ways you can make money online in the Philippines.

1. E-Commerce Retail

You may have noticed my continued preference of installing “E-Commerce” as the best legit way to make money online in the Philippines.

E-Commerce has been taking over the world of retail. More and more businesses are relying on online sales to boost profitability. E-Commerce sales are expected to hit $23 Trillion in 2017 and $27 Trillion in 2020.

Why should you start an e-Commerce business in the Philippines? Because the market for e-Commerce in the Philippines is still in its developing stages; there is plenty of room for growth!

The world is increasingly shifting toward mobile commerce because more consumers are becoming dependent on mobile technology. It is estimated that by 2020, there will be over 6 billion smartphones operating in the world.

Fashion apparel, electronic goods, and books remain popular online purchases.

If you’re serious about starting a retail e-commerce business, you should invest in a professional quality, e-commerce website. Don’t scrimp on your money and try to build a website yourself.

An e-commerce website must be:

  • Mobile Responsive
  • Optimized
  • Fast to Download
  • Accessible Via Multi-Browsers
  • Navigable

All of its features must be working, and the design should entice people to purchase.

2. Blogging

If you have the talent for writing and crafting great content, a career as an online blogger could be your new calling.

Blogging is in high demand because Content Marketing is fast becoming the preferred approach for Internet marketing. But most companies do not have in-house marketing groups. They prefer to outsource them to lower costs and risks.

Blogging is the centerpiece of the Content Marketing process. A well-written, highly engaging blog can dramatically improve search rankings. It can generate an excellent volume of inbound traffic and create organic leads for any business.

You can take your writing skills further by expanding your services to include:

  • Article Writing
  • E-Book Writing
  • Copywriting

You can earn good money as a blogger. You might start out charging only US$0.01 per word, but once you build a reputation and a steady portfolio of clients, you can increase your rate to US$0.02 in just a few months.

An effective blog should be 1,600 words. If you write one blog every day, you can earn US$960 in 1 month or almost 50,000 Pesos! A 1,600-word blog should only take 2 to 4 hours to complete.

You can find clients on reputable online job platforms such as:

Related: How I Earned 190,957 PHP (US$4,062.93) on a Single Blog

3. Social Media Marketing

Businesses acknowledge the power and influence of social media marketing. But they do not have the time for it. Similar to Content Marketing, most businesses prefer to outsource social media marketing because it is a lower cost option.

If you think you can become a social media marketer just because you post ten times on Facebook and send out 20 tweets on Twitter, think again.

Effective social media marketing requires knowledge, expertise, strategy and purpose. You don’t just post mindlessly in social media. You should first identify your target audience then figure out which social network works best to reach them.

Social media marketing requires a combination of research, creativity, and intuition. It is hard work. You have to adhere to a schedule and at the same time rely on analytics to help you assess the performance of the campaign.

Social media marketers can earn anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per month depending on the services included in the package.

If you want to be hired, you should first build credibility. Take up courses and get certified as a Digital Marketer and as a Social Media Marketer.

4. Website Design

Another online business that has a huge upside is website design. Put simply, if your business does not have a website, you are undermining your prospects for maximizing revenue opportunities.

In a world that is slowly being driven by mobile technology, it only makes perfect sense to put your business on the Internet. But only 25% of businesses have websites!

Entrepreneurs are still on the fence when it comes to owning a website. They mistakenly believe social media will be enough to enhance their online presence.

If you want to be a web designer, take up higher courses and get certified. Try to learn basic programming skills and SEO. These skills will add more value to your web design business.

Then create sample design of website and blog including publishing topics about the importance of having a website. Distribute your content to social media, via e-mail marketing avenues, and through community groups.

Website designers typically earn $500 to $800 for a basic design. You can also charge a monthly retention fee of $50 to maintain and manage your client’s website.

5. Virtual Assistance Services

They used to be called work-at-home secretaries and personal assistants until Stacy Brice coined the term “Virtual Assistant” in 1996.

Today they are called freelancers, telecommuters or home based workers but the roots are forever entrenched in virtual assistance.

This is an industry that has grown by leaps and bounds. The demand for virtual assistance services follows the same upward trajectory as global outsourcing.

More businesses are integrating virtual assistants in their workforce because it streamlines costs, improves productivity, enhances the quality of work, reduces risk, introduces flexible modeling and lowers attrition rate.

As a Virtual Assistant, you don’t get paid benefits because you are contracted, not hired. This means you can sign up as many clients as your schedule can handle.

Virtual assistants start out at $3.50 per hour, but this rate can escalate quickly if you have built a good reputation with clients.

If you want to become a Virtual Assistant, do an accounting of your skills and abilities and start out from there. If you are great in managing office tasks, offer administrative services.

Related: Making Money Online: Freelancing vs. Online Business

6. Product Reviews

Another in-demand job for content writers is doing product reviews. The amount of content is not much; most product reviews average 1,000 words.

But there is a great deal of research involved. A good product review has to be detailed and extensive.

For example, if a client asks you to make a product review on digital cameras, you should create categories for dimensions, software, lighting features, handling, touch screen features, resolution and pricing among others.

It can be a difficult project for those who have no background on the subject matter.

Sometimes, the client will ask you to do a comparative review of other similar products. This increases the degree of difficulty as you have to research on the competition as well.

Many companies are asking for product reviews to be made because it enhances their credibility. You can charge a higher rate for product reviews compared to blogging because of the amount of research involved.

And why stop at products? You can expand your suite of services by offering critical reviews on food, movies, music and technology.

7. Data Entry Services

For the past 15 years, the Philippines has been a hotbed for data entry services.

Data entry is an important function for many companies especially in this day and age of Big Data. Every industry needs data entry to organize, analyze and mine through bits of consumer information that are extracted every day.

Your earnings in data entry are contingent on the volume of work. Similar to transcription work, data encoders are either paid per line or word. In some cases, particularly for accounting services, data encoders are paid per hour.

Data entry is not an easy job. You need exceptional typing skills and attention to detail. One mistake could cost your client heavy losses or penalties.

8. Transcription

The transcription industry has grown from healthcare to include other industries. Today there is good demand for transcribers in the legal profession, close caption work, the academe and everyday business.

Filipino medical transcribers continue to enjoy popularity among US healthcare institutions. In fact, many of these companies package transcriptions need with medical coding and billing services.

Medical billing and coding services are more technical in nature. Having experience in insurance is a big plus. And it pays big!

As a medical transcriber, you can get paid US$0.09 per line. But in medical billing and coding, you can charge up to $25 per hour! That’s 1,225 Pesos per hour!

If you work 4 hours a day for 22 days, you can easily make over 100,000 Pesos a month! But the job is highly stressful and delicate. Mistakes can lead to large lawsuits for the healthcare company.

9. Buy and Sell Business

If you don’t feel like spending time managing an e-Commerce retail business, another form of retail is a simple buy and sell. It’s the classic way of making money. Buy products at a low price and sell them to the highest bidder.

Years ago I had a friend who bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle from eBay. I asked him if he was going to ride it as a formal entry to his mid-life crisis.

“No, I’m going to sell it.”

He was able to sell the Harley for nearly twice the amount that he paid for it. But he had to spend for repairs. All told he still made a good amount of money. He continued to buy and sell Harleys since then.

Related: 20 Best Buy and Sell Business Ideas in the Philippines

You don’t need to invest in something as expensive as a Harley to make money. If you have an eye for what would be in demand in the market, you can have a lucrative career buying and selling merchandise.

Start out with a few items and promote them through social media or a referral program. It may not yield a good profit at first but keep at it. Soon, you’ll be raking in the big bucks, and all you need to do is plow back some of the money you made to buy more items.

Related: How to Start a Buy-and-Sell Business in the Philippines

10. English Instructor

You may have noticed more ads for English instructors are popping up on various web pages. This is further proof of the demand for Filipino English instructors. Many of these English tutorial companies do not have enough teachers.

In one of the articles I wrote a few years ago, I mentioned how one of my friends was earning well as an English instructor. At the time he was earning around 35,000 Pesos working full-time for a tutorial company located in Muntinlupa.

Since then, he started his online English tutorial company. It is purely home-based. He hired 5 of his former fellow instructors to work part-time for him.

According to him, with five instructors, his company nets over 100,000 Pesos per month. The instructors are paid competitive rates. Although he still personally conducts classes, his main focus is marketing his services. His clients come from South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan.

If you want to become an English instructor, take the TOEFL exam and invest in a good computer.

11. Affiliate Marketing

If you have a blog, you can include Affiliate Marketing to supplement your earnings. All you need to do is promote products and services through your blog. You get paid whenever a product or service is sold because of your effort.

There are many affiliate marketing programs on the Internet that you can inquire about. These include:

Before you become involved in Affiliate Marketing, learn more about it and conduct research on the best companies to work with. Many scammers in the industry offer get-rich-quick schemes.

It may take awhile. But with persistent effort, you can see your earnings grow from the hundreds to the thousands.

12. Network Marketing

It’s gotten a bad rap over the last few decades, but network marketing continues to pull in more people.

The Internet and social media make it easier to reach out to a larger audience. You need to find a company that provides network marketing opportunities. Most of all, it has to be a reputable company.

We’ve all heard and read of stories where people were scammed of their entire savings and assets by unscrupulous network marketers offering returns that ultimately proved to be too good to be true. You can check with the SEC if the company is registered as a legal business entity.

Popular items for networking marketing include beauty products and supplements.

You can set up a website specifically for the products you are selling. Then, put in more time and effort in your Internet marketing process to get more people to follow your lead.

Keep in mind that in network marketing, you should not focus on selling the product. In network marketing what you are selling is the idea of owning a business. The product is just secondary.

I know of network marketers who rely heavily on social media to generate interest in their business.

Do people earn 700,000 Pesos per month with Network Marketing? While I won’t disparage the work effort of network marketers, generally, it’s best to moderate your expectations on earnings.

If you have a large network of contacts, you can try pushing your concept to them.

Start Making Money Online in the Philippines

There are other legit ways you can make money online. Your decision to select the online business should not just be based on the potential for making money. It should also depend on your experience and expertise, most of all, it should be your passion.

The word “work” is synonymous with effort and hardship. And to the extent that is true. You will have to make sacrifices and compromises to succeed. But passion makes everything easier.

Do not be complacent just because you can work in the remote location of your choosing. Your success will be contingent on how the market perceives the quality of product or service.

Assess your knowledge, expertise, and degree of competence in the proposed online business idea. If you are not confident of your ability at its current level, take some time to get better.

Take up courses, consult with proven experts, apprentice with a professional, do more research or conduct beta testing. Improving your knowledge of the business will help you see things more clearly. This will allow you to plan and strategize your approach with greater confidence.

You should also invest in the infrastructure to support your online business. Buy a new computer, have a website designed, fix up your place of work and make it more conducive for productivity. If your budget can accommodate a second ISP, sign up the service so you can assure continuity of operations.

Finally, be wary of who you deal with on the Internet. Before accepting invitations to connect or Skype meetings, conduct due diligence work on these parties. A simple Google search may yield surprising results. Make sure you are covered by contracts and signed agreements with suppliers and clients.

If you are not satisfied with what your current employer is paying you or if you’re not having much luck in the job market, look into the virtual world for opportunities. When you find them, capitalize and monetize the idea. If you can’t find them, create the opportunities for yourself.

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