What Do You Need to Start Making Money Online 2025

Away from explaining or discussing how to earn money from a specific app or website on the internet, this article will focus on the essence of making money online, what matters to you, and what you need to begin your freelance journey as an online professional. We’ll also explore what you need or lack to become successful and work toward the goal of achieving financial freedom through online work.

Initially, this article will highlight what anyone who has started or is thinking of entering the world of making money online needs. We won’t focus on a specific app, website, or field. (In short, we’ll speak from a general perspective).

It’s worth noting that this article is suitable for all ages and genders for children, adults, (and even babies if they can understand what we’re saying 😁😢).

What do you need to start making money online and how to become successful?

Content

1. Talent and the Field You Choose

Let me be honest: it’s hard to believe that there’s anyone without a talent. Talent is simply the result of a person’s innate nature, the environment they live in, and the upbringing they receive. Eventually, everyone develops or discovers a skill at a certain stage in life.

This skill or talent is, in essence, the secret to success in life and later on the internet. The internet enables you to leverage your talent to work and earn money online.

When you choose a field that you love and aligns with your skills or interests, you can easily research it, learn about it, and work hard until you start earning a decent income from it, whether daily or monthly.

Example:

Let’s assume there’s someone who loves cars and everything related to them. This person could:

Start a YouTube channel to talk about cars.
If they don’t want to show their face, they could create a blog to share their thoughts.
They could also work as a seller of car parts and accessories on Amazon or similar platforms.

This simple example shows that this person could work in at least three different fields and earn from them, thanks to their passion and skill. As is often the case, they may succeed in one field and fail in another, even while doing what they love. This brings other factors into play, such as: Avoiding taking on too many directions at once, Developing interpersonal skills, Cultivating a love for reading about areas like marketing, e-commerce, and languages, along with other relevant knowledge.

In short, choose a field that suits you, one where you won’t give up easily, that you enjoy, and that you’re determined to pursue.

2. The Right Tools

Once you’ve identified your field and direction, you need to figure out the tools and resources required to get started. Generally, the most important items are a good computer and a reliable internet connection.

Other tools may be necessary depending on the field you’ve chosen, such as a smartphone, notebook, drawing tools, or a camera (if your field involves photography or related areas).

Example:

Someone who loves photography and enjoys capturing beautiful images—be it of nature, buildings, animals, or other subjects—could work in multiple fields like selling photos, print-on-demand services, or similar ventures.

The same logic applies to other supplies, depending on the field you’ve chosen.

For instance, a designer may need to learn Photoshop or Illustrator and might occasionally require sketch paper as part of their creative process.

3. Gains, Information, and Additional Skills

You must accumulate achievements and gather information about the field you’ve directed yourself toward. Understand what you lack and what you need to develop within yourself. It’s natural that you may also need to acquire additional skills or learn how to handle certain tools or concepts.

Example:

Let’s take the field of “e-commerce” as an example. Suppose you don’t know anything about it. In this case, you’ll start by researching its meaning and how to make money from it. During your research, you’ll learn about things like where to source products, the best communication methods, quality products, marketing, SEO, and you might even improve your language skills. (The same applies to other fields.)

Additionally, you may need educational courses or training—whether free or paid—on platforms like YouTube or elsewhere, either as visual or written content.

These additional skills could relate to marketing, SEO, Photoshop, and others.

4. Language

If you choose to continue working in Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, or other languages, you’ll need to enhance your language proficiency. Alternatively, your skills may improve gradually as you work. However, in most cases, English is the most suitable language, and it might require you to develop your skills or learn what’s necessary to carry out your work as a freelancer.

If your native language is English (American, British, or Australian), then you’re already at an advantage.

5. The Right Platform or Website

You’ll need to select the appropriate platform or website for your new professional activity. For example:

Udemy is the best for publishing educational courses.
Fiverr (alongside similar websites) is ideal for selling services.
Amazon is the giant of e-commerce and the most suitable for this field (alongside similar platforms).
For print on demand services, platforms like Merch by Amazon, Etsy, Redbubble, Zazzle, and TeePublic are great options. The same goes for fields such as trading, consulting, blogging, app creation, gaming, marketing, dropshipping, programming, design, and anything related to photography.

In short, choose the platform or website most suited to your work based on its: Strength, Popularity, Reliability, User base, Traffic, and Features it offers.

6. Knowing Everything About the Platform or Website

When choosing a specific platform or website, you need to familiarize yourself with everything about it or as much as necessary. Start with the terms of use and explore all the tabs and features you’ll use while working on the site. Doing so might help you discover methods and ideas that will aid your work or, at the very least, help you avoid issues like account suspension, closures, intellectual property disputes, commercial rights conflicts, or other legal problems. It will also make working on the platform much easier.

7. Learning from Mistakes and Errors

There’s nothing better than identifying the mistakes (or errors) you’ve made and, over time, reaching a more advanced stage in your work. Personally, I’ve made many mistakes (which I’ll mention below in the tips section). In my opinion, these mistakes are what help you build experience in the field you’re working in or have chosen to pursue.

These mistakes might hinder you from starting, progressing, continuing, or even profiting. Therefore, you are obliged to avoid and not repeat them, and why not also learn from others’ experiences?

8. Persistence and Patience

Sticking to the field you’ve chosen is essential to achieving the profits you aim for or increasing your earnings. For example:

A blogger needs to publish more articles to maintain their ranking and grow their income.
A YouTube content creator needs to upload more valuable content.
E-commerce sellers need to continue listing products and searching for trending items.
The same applies to other methods and strategies for generating income. Consistency is key.

9. Continuous Learning and Self-Development

On the internet, it’s illogical to remain at a fixed level and continue reaping satisfying profits. You must continuously develop yourself in the field you’ve chosen. This includes:

Gaining more knowledge and skills.
Learning all the techniques and methods necessary for your work.
Abandoning bad habits and focusing on what’s positive.
Avoiding anything that might block your path or hinder your progress.
Letting go of negative thoughts.
Practicing patience and self-discipline.
…

10. Time Management

Sooner or later, you’ll realize the importance of managing and organizing your time. You’ll need to create a schedule for all your daily activities and allocate as much time as possible to your online work (or a portion of it if you have a full-time job).

Typically, your day will be divided into work time, sleep, meals, exercise, and other activities.

How to Succeed in the World of Making Money Online

In most of the articles I publish, I emphasize the importance of choosing a field that you are passionate about and naturally drawn to. This is because you can compete and excel in it more effectively compared to others. Everyone has things they love.

Patience, perseverance, continuous learning, staying informed, consistent research, learning from mistakes, and overcoming them are all essential to achieving success in your field. The journey to the top is never free from challenges and obstacles.

Tips:

If you are determined to reach a goal and are confident in achieving it, you don’t need many tips. The most important thing you already possess is the determination to succeed. However, here are a few points to keep in mind:

Stay away from the illusion of quick wealth.
Choose what truly resonates with you.
Don’t scatter your focus across too many things.
Avoid working in multiple fields simultaneously.

From my experience, the most significant mistakes I made in my online work were:

Poor time management.
Not dedicating enough effort to the field I chose.
Being misled early on by websites offering earnings from surveys or tasks (easy work and “quick riches”).
Choosing three different fields and failing to concentrate on a single one.
Occasional laziness.
Abandoning the chosen field for a while before returning to it later.

Conclusion:

I still recommend choosing a field you love and turning it into online work while persevering and avoiding repeating the same mistakes. Among the fields worth considering are: