More and more people want to make money online these days. They want the financial independence and freedom that comes out of having a steady digital income, but they aren’t sure how to get started. Well, one of the best ways options is to learn one of the many ways to make money online with Google.
And why not? Now that everyone has had a taste of working from home, working from a depressing cubicle is no longer required.
In many cases, you can earn just as much money, if not more, by starting a side hustle or learning to freelance with one of Google’s many tools. With all of the options on this list, you can get started with nothing more than a laptop and good wifi.
Why Google?
Because Google is where the action is!
Google is the world’s biggest search engine and #1 most visited website. It’s so dominant that it’s even a verb now; whenever people want information, they “Google” it online.
So here’s the thing with Google. Most of us think of it primarily as a tech company — a juggernaut, if you will.
But at its core, it’s really a conglomerate of many products and services. There are marketplaces, advertising networks, analytics platforms, and more.
There are ways to make money both in front of the camera or behind the scenes — whatever you feel most comfortable with.
So if you’re looking for a side income, or plan to start an online business, leveraging Google’s platform is a solid idea.
With that being said, here are thirteen ways to make money online with Google.
13 Ways To Make Money Online With Google
1. Start a Blog
Blogs are websites that assemble written content, typically focused around a niche. When the internet was still a baby, it used to be that blogging was a personal online hobby. But now, businesses have realized that it’s also a very good tool for marketing products and services online.
Blogs are versatile business ideas that are relatively easy to monetize. You can use a blog to make money online with Google by leveraging SEO (search engine optimization) to push traffic to your site. Once you have traffic, you can monetize with an ad network like Google Adsense or Mediavine, affiliate marketing, or you can sell digital products.
Ad networks will pay you a rate for every 1000 people that see the ad (known as RPM – revenue per mil), which can vary depending on your niche. Affiliate links are links that direct to websites selling products or services, with a tracking code that allows you to get a cut of everything that your clickers purchase.
Most blogs are built on WordPress, and use SEO tools like AHrefs for SEO research. Starting a blog can be a liberating way to make money online with Google since you’re creating an asset that you own, and you can even sell it for a profit. But, it’s often easier to make money with niche sites than a pure blog. Check out our guide for more information.
2. Start a YouTube Channel
If you’re saying you’ve never heard of Youtube — I don’t believe you.
YouTube is an online video-sharing service where anyone can watch, like, share, comment, and upload their videos. As of 2022, Youtube is the 2nd most visited website in the USA, second only to Google. However, you might not know that Google actually owns Youtube, and has since 2006. Therefore, making money on Youtube is the same as making money on Google.
There are many ways to make money online with Google by creating a Youtube channel. The way you choose to monetize will depend on what type of channel you decide to create. To give you some inspiration, here are some of the different types of niches you can focus your Travel on.
A Hosted Youtube Channel
A hosted Youtube channel is where you’re talking directly to the camera, usually about a certain subject. These are typically the talking head videos, where you can be talking about whatever you want. Monetization is completely flexible, and usually entails a mix of Youtube ads, affiliate links (in the video description), digital products, or online courses.
A Product Review Channel
A product review channel is a channel where you review a certain product (ex. the new iPhone or GoPro model) and explore the features it offers. People watch these videos when they’re thinking about buying the product but are still doing research. You’ll typically monetize through affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and companies sending you free products to review.
A Reaction Channel
Reaction channels are channels where you’re reacting to other people’s content, and giving your take on it. You’re allowed to post copyrighted content on Youtube as long as you’re reviewing it, so this allows you to capitalize on current events or viral videos. You’ll typically monetize through Youtube ads or sponsorships.
3. Create A Google Play App
Google Play is Google’s platform for third-party Android apps. Android is, of course, Google’s mobile phone operating system that currently powers about 71% of all smartphones (as of October 2022). Third-party developers are allowed to create applications and make them available for download through Google Play.
These mobile applications (aka apps) are tools that allow users to access information, products, or services directly through their devices. If you’ve ever used a smartphone, there’s a very high probability that you’ve used a third-party app. And, not all of them are from giant companies like Facebook or TikTok — many of them are built by independent developers or small studios.
You can monetize your app with a variety of methods. Some of the most popular options are to use a Freemium pricing model (free basic features, upgrade to premium for full access), charge subscription fees, or display in-app ads.
4. Create a Google Chrome Extension
Chrome Extensions are programs that you install in your Google Chrome web browser to add features that the normal browser does not have. There are thousands of Chrome extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store, and, collectively, they can help you with thousands of tasks.
To give you an idea of what these extensions can do, here are some that I use on a daily basis:
- Grammarly — Gives me real-time feedback on my grammar, tone, spelling, and more.
- SimpleWeb — This helps me estimate how much traffic a website gets on a monthly basis.
- 1Password — Helps me generate, save, and easily access my passwords.
- AdBlock — Automatically scans my webpages for ads and blocks them.
There are a lot of options for how to make money with Google Chrome extensions. The most common are usually to use a Freemium pricing model (the base version is free and there are premium versions with more features), include ads, or charge a monthly subscription.
Some extensions, like Adblock, even choose to rely on donations from their users in order to make their revenue.
5. Create A Mobile Game For Google Play
As we covered above, Google Play is Google’s platform for third-party Android apps and games. Similar to how you can release your own mobile phone app on it, you can also release your own mobile phone game as well. This can be one of the most fun ways to make money online with Google, especially if you like gaming.
Creating mobile phone games can be huge and complex, requiring big teams and thousands of man-hours. Or, they can be created by independent developers over the course of a week or two. It depends on what kind of results you’re looking for.
One simple game, called Flappy Bird, serves as the perfect example of what is possible. Flappy Bird was developed by a single developer and managed to get 50 million downloads back in 2014. At it’s height, the game generated ~$50,000 per day in advertising revenue.
When it comes to mobile games, your monetization options are similar to those of mobile apps. You can monetize through third-party ads, Freemium features, paid subscriptions, or microtransactions.
6. Become A Local SEO Consultant
For local businesses with physical locations, Google can be a major source of foot traffic. This applies to restaurants, retail stores, boutiques, local services (electricians, plumbers, etc), and more. Having a strong, positive presence on Google can easily be the difference between having a struggling business and a thriving one.
In order to get a business to show up in Google search results, you need to optimize the website for SEO. SEO involves a certain set of practices and principles that can be a bit confusing for brick-and-mortar business owners who aren’t familiar with digital marketing and computers. You can make your living by solving that problem.
A Local SEO consultant works with local businesses to make them more visible on geographically-related searches. You’ll typically optimize your client’s website for SEO keywords, set them up with a Google Business Profile, and optimize their Google Maps listing. It can also be beneficial to set up a system to solicit positive reviews from customers since that can be a major influence on them visiting your client’s business over a competitor.
This helps generate more organic traffic to the business’s website, and more importantly, increases lead and sales from customers within the area.
You’ll usually charge per hour, per project, or collect a monthly retainer.
7. Become a Google Sheets Expert
Google Sheets is Google’s version of excel. It’s a free spreadsheet service that exists on the cloud (like Google Drive), rather than on your computer.
The advantages of this are that you can access your spreadsheets from anywhere with the internet, you can have multiple people editing the same document at the same time, and you can review your past changes without worrying about files being deleted or irreparably changed.
As far as the platform goes, it handles very similarly to Excel. There are less features, but as we mentioned, it’s completely free and accessible anywhere.
Many businesses are interested in using Sheets to organize their data, but they either need someone to help migrate their systems or set up new ones. This means you can get hired as a Google Sheets expert, and create custom spreadsheets that meet your clients’ needs.
I personally saw this in play during one of my early jobs. I was working for one of DoorDash’s competitors, and much of the platform’s live operations took place in complex Google Sheets documents that hundreds of people were using at the same time.
I asked about it one day, and my boss said that the company had found a Google Sheets developer and paid them ~$15,000 to build the custom spreadsheets over the course of a few weeks.
You can either build custom sheets or sell templates, but, either way, this can be an excellent way to make money online with Google.
8. Become a Google Analytics Expert
Google Analytics is a free service that provides data and analytical tools for for website owners. Basically, if you have a website, you can install a bit of Google Analytics code, and then you can see a ton of data about your website on the platform.
Being able to track your data is extremely important as a website owner. Google Analytics unlocks a plethora of tools that are completely free — you can view where your traffic is coming from, what pages your traffic is going to, the demographics of your audience, and so much more. Similar platforms can cost a lot of money, but Google Analytics has always been free.
With GA having so many features, a lot of people don’t know how to properly use it. Not everyone has the skillset needed to set it up, make sense of the data, and make important decisions based on it. That’s where you come in.
Want to know how to make money online with Google for free? Become a Google Analytics expert, and help small businesses take advantage of the platform. This is especially poignant right now since Google is phasing out Google Analytics 3 in favor of Google Analytics 4, and most businesses have no idea how to use GA4.
It’s a great way to make money online with Google risk-free.
9. Become a Google Ads Specialist
Google Ads is Google’s online advertising platform, and it allows you to place ads in search engine results, other websites, Youtube, and more. As with a lot of the other platforms on this list, many business owners don’t have the knowledge or time to take advantage of what Google Ads has to offer.
A Google Ads media buyer gets paid for planning, setting up, and managing a client’s Google Ads campaigns. This involves placing ads in a variety of locations that direct traffic to your client’s websites. Once done, you’ll want to optimize these ads to ensure you’re getting the best results for your money.
Google Ads typically have a higher ROAS than Facebook Ads, and are more intent-based than visual. These ads are usually placed in front of people that are searching for specific keywords, whereas Facebook Ads are put in front of the audiences you create on Facebook.
You can get paid by the hour if you’re freelancing, or you can charge a monthly retainer. It’s not uncommon to take a percentage of the monthly revenue you generate, either.
10. Become an SEO Consultant
SEO (search engine optimization) is the set of practices and principles that go into optimizing a website’s pages to be found in Google search results. You can have an amazing website and amazing content, but if it’s not optimized for SEO, you likely won’t show up in Google search results or get organic website traffic.
SEO is your way of telling Google where they should show your website’s content. Having your website show up at the top of Google results can be an incredible source of growth for your business. However, it’s not very easy to implement if you haven’t taken the time to learn how it works.
That’s where you come in. You can make money online with Google by becoming an SEO consultant, and helping businesses get their content ranked and optimized.
To do this you’ll help with a wide variety of areas, such as content writing, keyword planning, link building, reviewing analytics, and more.
You can charge by the hour, the month, or get paid on a project basis.
11. Become a YouTube Editor
As we covered above, Youtube is the world’s second-biggest website, and receives billions of visitors every month. There are tens of millions of channels, and the competition is getting stronger every year.
For channel owners, editing videos is often a pain. Shooting content can be tough enough without having to comb through the videos and edit them. Editing is a very time-consuming process, and not everybody has the skills or patience to create entertaining videos.
That’s why YouTube editing is a great opportunity for anyone looking for a steady side income. It can even be a great idea for how to earn money online with Google for students.
Whether you are a professional video editor or someone just starting, there are all kinds of editing jobs that require different levels of complexity. There’s room for everyone.
If you’re starting out, you can build a portfolio of your work, and then charge per video or per thumbnail. Or, you can charge a monthly retainer, and offer your clients a fixed number of videos per month.
12. Become a Google Cloud Developer
Google Cloud is a collection of cloud services that allow you to better manage data and quickly connect in the online landscape. It provides companies with a variety of services like computing, machine learning, storage, and scaling.
It’s a cost-effective way of maintaining a network because it distributes the computing to different computers simultaneously using the internet. It’s also the reason why a digital workspace is possible. You can have the flexibility and freedom to work anywhere while still being productive.
You can make money with Google cloud by developing applications that are built on Google’s platform. This generally requires technical expertise and experience since you will be dealing with programming languages. It could be an easy switch if you’re already a software developer.
It’s not one of the easiest ways to make money online with Google, but it can be one of the most profitable and scalable.
13. Buy Alphabet Stock
This might not have crossed your mind, but you can make money online with Google by buying the company’s stock and holding it. The way to make money here is by holding it with the intention of collecting capital gains, which is when you sell the stock for a profit down the road.
Although Alphabet’s stock (Google’s parent company) has taken a hit in 2022 like most public companies, it is still a pretty reliable investment. Google is a lot more consistent than Facebook, and is not likely to slow down any time soon.
More Ways to Make Money Online
By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how you can make money online with Google. But, that’s certainly not the only option.
The reality is that there are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to make money online. So many, that we’ve been working to index all of them and make it easier to find options that align with your specific skillset and interests.
Want some more ideas? Check out our Hustles directory. We’ve got nearly ways to make money online listed.
Happy hustling!
