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I went from working a corporate finance job in New York City to making money for myself online, and I’ve traveled to over 65 countries while doing so. In 2026, the online income landscape looks very different from what worked even a few years ago. So today, I’m breaking down 11 ways to make money online in 2026 that actually work. No pyramid schemes, no overnight promises, and nothing I wouldn’t personally do myself or recommend to my clients. Make sure you stay until the end because I’ll share which option is best if you’re starting from absolute zero.
If you’re new here, hi, I’m Danielle. I am a travel influencer, online business coach, and new mama. I’ve built multiple income streams online, including digital products, brand partnerships, and coaching, all while living around the world. I’ve been in this space for so many years, so this video truly isn’t theory. Everything I’m sharing is based on what I’ve done, what my clients are doing, and what I see working right now.
Digital Products
Digital products are still one of the best ways to make money online in 2026 because you create them once and sell them over and over again. There are so many tools online now that you can use to help create your digital product and so many tools and platforms that you can use to sell them over and over again. This goes from selling ebooks on your website to selling things like templates on Etsy.
The biggest shift now is that people no longer want vague information. They want specific outcomes and things that they can absorb and see results right away. If you can get people to take action and get people a transformation from point A to point B with your digital products, it is an immediate buy. So instead of something like how to start a business, what works now is how to land your first $1,000 client in 30 days. Being specific sells.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing still works, but lazy affiliate marketing does not. With all of the algorithm changes in Google and on social media platforms, you really need to have a strategy with your affiliate marketing content. Affiliate marketing is when a brand you work with gives you a unique link to share. So think you can be an Amazon affiliate and recommend to your viewers and your audience things that you personally use and recommend on Amazon, and then if anyone makes a purchase using your unique link, you get a percentage of the sale known as a commission.
In 2026, the people making money with affiliate links are actually using the products, showing how they fit into their real life, and recommending fewer things, but better ones. You don’t need a massive audience for this, you need trust. And all of the platforms that you can build trust on, think a blog or Instagram or TikTok. It is going to be slow in the beginning, but it compounds, and I love, personally, I just love having affiliate income come in from a blog post that I wrote years and years ago.
Online Coaching or Consulting
If you have a skill, experience, or a transformation you’ve already gone through, you can sell that through coaching or consulting. This could be business coaching, travel consulting, social media strategy, fitness, or wellness. I recommend to all of my clients, if they are starting from scratch, try to tackle something within the health, wealth, or relationships niches.
This is one of the fastest ways to make money online because you are selling your experience, your expertise, and essentially your brain, not building a massive system upfront. And this is something that you can literally package together and start selling this week. Usually it’s a higher ticket item, as in you would charge more for your time than something like an ebook, but it requires you to be there with your client. So it’s not as passive. There are obviously tradeoffs, but if you are an expert and you want to be seen as an expert, I highly recommend packaging your offer with online coaching or consulting.
Content Creation With a Monetization Plan
Content creation by itself doesn’t pay on many platforms. So if you want to get started with getting paid as a content creator, I would choose a platform like YouTube or TikTok that actually pays you, or use content on Instagram to drive people toward your monetization streams, such as affiliate links, brand partnerships, your own offers or paid communities.
Content creation is also so powerful because even if you don’t use it as direct monetization, you get the traffic and you can repurpose one piece of content on many, many channels. Of course, as your channel grows, you will have opportunities to monetize with ads or affiliate links, so you really do need a long-term monetization strategy.
5. Selling High-Value Services Online
As the creator and expert ecosystems are growing rapidly, selling high-value services online is booming. Things like video editing, podcast production, funnel building, and email marketing are in such high demand. Businesses will always pay for things that save them time or make them money, and that’s why services will never disappear. I also recommend high-value online services to many of my clients because these are usually things that you can learn, you can take a course in, and you can get better and better at it. Online services are so necessary, and if you just invest some of your time, you can become an expert and really help out with other people’s businesses.
Online Courses
Online courses still work, but only when they solve a very clear problem. In 2026, shorter and more focused courses perform better than massive 12 module programs. People want speed, clarity, and a direct path to results. Check out my previous blog post on how to create an online course here. One thing that I’ve really seen over the years is some people get on this hamster wheel of buying more and more courses, and so of course the demand is there, but the implementation is not. And if your course is structured in a way that motivates and incentivizes your students to take action, it is a successful course. So not only are you selling the information, you are really trying to implement an action plan so that your students see results.
And with courses, you create it once and you can sell it over and over again. One thing to know is online courses usually takes longer to create, to record all the videos and to package all of the information. So you do want to make sure you have the demand. You want to beta test it first and make sure that there are people who want to buy before creating the whole thing and then realizing that there is no demand for it.
UGC Creation
UGC or user generated content is one of the most underrated ways to make money online right now. You do not need a huge following. Brands are now paying creators to film short-form videos, demonstrate products, and create content that they can use as ads on their own platforms. This is a huge opportunity in 2026 because you do not need your own audience. You just need to have something to record with and the ability to create content that sells.
Previously, brands wouldn’t even consider working with creators if they didn’t have their own numbers and following, but now if you get really good at content creation and you love content creation, as you’re building your own channel, you can start offering UGC services so that brands can ship you their product and you can create videos from the get-go.
Memberships and Paid Communities
If people keep asking you the same questions over and over, that’s usually a sign that a membership or a paid community could work for you. These do best when they offer access, accountability, and ongoing support. And yes, people are absolutely willing to pay monthly for this if you deliver consistent value. This usually works really well if you are offering another product or service and people need accountability and they need continued support. And so with my clients, what works really well is packaging a course with a community so that members can learn together and grow together, and they know that they’re not alone on this journey. Again, it’s all about getting your customers and clients that transformation.
Freelancing With a Personal Brand
Freelancing isn’t dead, but anonymous freelancing is. The freelancers making the most money show their face, share their results, and build a personal brand alongside their service. This builds trust and allows you to charge more because instead of just being a generic freelancer, people want to work with you. You have more pulling power because you’ve established yourself as an expert, as credible, and someone that people trust and gets results with.
Licensing Your Content or Intellectual Property
This could look like selling templates to companies, licensing educational content, or white labeling something you’ve already created. So if you are a photographer, if you’ve built something or created something valuable once, there’s often a way to license it instead of constantly creating from scratch.
Stacking Income Streams
Now, here is the real secret. Most people making serious money online are not just doing one thing. They’re stacking two or three or four income streams on top of each other (check out mine here!) And so this might look like content plus affiliate links, plus digital products, plus courses, plus coaching, or services, plus passive income. This is what creates stability and freedom, and personally, I recommend doing this because when you create your own business with multiple income streams, you can adjust as needed depending on the season of life that you are going through.
So for example, last year I was on maternity leave and did not want to be in front of the camera, and so a lot of my other income streams were able to sustain my maternity leave. But now that I am one year postpartum and I am ready to get back in front of the camera, I am able to now pursue content creation and it is so rewarding when your business is able to adjust based on what works for you in your different chapters of life.
If You’re Starting From Scratch
So if you are starting from scratch in 2026, my recommendation is simple. We are just going to focus on the rule of ones.
One income-producing skill, one platform, and one offer.
You do not need to do everything, just focus on building one at a time because when you try to chase two rabbits, you won’t catch either one. You need to do one thing well and next year we can focus on the next strategy and expand from there. If this video helps you, make sure to like, subscribe, and comment which income stream you are building this year. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you in the next episode!
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