We’ve scrolled through countless YouTube and TikTok videos promising a fast track to making money online. It’s easy to feel a surge of hope watching influencers share their secrets to success.
But it’s also natural to feel a bit skeptical and wonder if it’s all too good to be true. We wanted to find out if these methods are as simple and profitable as they seem for the average person.
So, our team did a deep dive, analyzing 354 of these videos to separate the hype from what’s real. Our goal was to see what business models they recommend and if their big income claims actually hold up.
In this report, we’ll share the key findings from our original research. You’ll get a clear, data-backed picture of online business trends and realistic income potential.
- The Trend of Online Work: An Overview
- Our Research Methodology
- Wide Range of Earning Potential
- Making Money with Online Publishing
- Making Money with a Service Business
- The Truth About Making Money Online: Balancing Expectations and Reality
- Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money Online
- Helpful Make Money Online Guides for Beginners
The Trend of Online Work: An Overview
During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people discovered the potential of working from home. As offices shut down, businesses shifted online, proving that remote work was not only possible but often effective.
We’ve seen this trend continue long after restrictions were lifted. Many employees still prefer flexible work arrangements.
In fact, research shows that a significant portion of the workforce would consider changing jobs if required to return to the office full-time.
Online work has also become a lifeline for those impacted by job losses during financial downturns.
Haiyi Zhu, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, noted that many turn to virtual work as a part-time option or additional income stream while seeking full-time employment.
Platforms like YouTube and TikTok have also made it easier than ever to find ideas for online work. With a simple search, users can find countless videos about online gigs, side hustles, and business ideas.
Our Research Methodology
At WPBeginner, we’ve studied hundreds of popular videos to analyze online income trends. Our goal is to separate helpful advice from overhyped claims and present a clearer picture for our readers.
Of course, while some videos showcase legitimate opportunities, many exaggerate income potential. It’s essential to approach these claims with a healthy dose of skepticism.
For this report, our team analyzed 354 videos, including 177 from YouTube and 177 from TikTok. The full dataset can be explored in our public repository here.
On YouTube, we reviewed videos ranking at the top for searches like “how to make money online.” On TikTok, we used hashtags such as #makemoneyonline and #entrepreneurship to gather insights.
The earning figures mentioned throughout this article were taken directly from the creators we analyzed. These numbers represent how online creators present earning potential, not necessarily real-world results.
Please note: The data shared reflects advertised earning potential and not actual income trends.
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Since 2009, WPBeginner has been the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners. Our primary goal has always been to provide helpful, easy-to-understand tutorials that empower small business owners to succeed online.
Our editorial team is made up of experienced WordPress experts who are passionate about sharing their knowledge. We don’t just write about theories; we actively use the tools and strategies we recommend on our own websites.
For research-heavy articles like this one, we dedicate time to analyzing data and consulting with subject matter experts. This ensures our content is not only accurate but also provides a realistic perspective, cutting through the hype you might find elsewhere.
Every article goes through a detailed review process to check for accuracy, clarity, and helpfulness. Our commitment is to you, our reader, and you can trust that our recommendations are based on real-world experience and thorough research.
For more details, take a look at our editorial process page.
Wide Range of Earning Potential
After analyzing all 354 videos, we found that the median advertised pay across all business models was about $50 per hour. However, the potential earnings varied dramatically.
Here’s a breakdown of the advertised earning potential we found in our research:
- Median Advertised Pay: $50 per hour
- Lowest Earning Potential: As low as $1 per hour for microwork tasks.
- Highest Earning Potential: Over $1,000 per hour for highly skilled work like running a popular blog (though this is extremely rare).
- The 90% Threshold: The vast majority of videos (90%) advertised earnings under $300 per hour.
At the lowest end, creators advertised microwork, which involves completing a series of small online tasks. This can include anything from answering survey questions and labeling images to transcribing short audio clips.
At the highest end, creators suggested entrepreneurs can earn over $1,000 per hour from ventures like a popular blog. In our expert opinion, this number is an exaggeration, as very few individual bloggers reach that income level.
Again, these statistics should be taken with a grain of salt because they don’t factor in true working hours. At that hourly rate, a 40-hour workweek is unlikely.
Zhu said income instability is one of the most common challenges that online gig workers face. Her team has a paper currently undergoing peer review that identifies key issues for both online gig workers and those who use online platforms to coordinate on-demand physical work, such as driving for Uber or DoorDash.
Other major challenges include a lack of employment benefits, health and safety (both physical and online), and a lack of power in the workplace, she said.
Some YouTube and TikTok creators advertise more lucrative career paths by talking about their own experiences getting rich, though their videos may be misleading.
For example, some popular creators claim to make hundreds of thousands per month through blogs and affiliate marketing. However, this is not a realistic income for new marketers.
Industry statistics show that the average earnings for professional freelance marketers are closer to $50 per hour, with top-tier experts earning $100,000 per year or more.
Making Money with Online Publishing
Online publishing was the most popular business model we saw advertised. This broad category includes activities like starting a blog, writing a newsletter, or creating a YouTube channel.
Key Findings from YouTube
Online publishing appeared in 45% of the YouTube videos we analyzed, making it the most frequently mentioned category.
Here are the median hourly rates that YouTube creators claimed were possible for different publishing methods:
| Method | Claimed Median Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| Writing a blog | $925 |
| Writing a newsletter | $312 |
| YouTube sponsorships | $230 |
| Affiliate marketing | $106 |
Affiliate marketing is one of the simpler options for making money as a new writer with less experience. In this model, companies pay you to send customers to their products.
Just Google a simple question like “best laptop for college,” and you’ll find hundreds of lists on sites ranging from independent blogs to the New York Times. These websites are taking advantage of the search engine to drive affiliate revenue.
Another option is to add Google AdSense to your blog. This allows you to display ads that are relevant to your content and target your audience. Each time a visitor clicks on an ad, you earn extra money for your bank account.
Key Findings from TikTok
Creators on TikTok also advertised blogs and marketing as high-earning strategies.
The videos we analyzed claimed that writing a blog could net a median of $1,500 per month. This figure is notably different from the hourly rates mentioned on YouTube, highlighting the inconsistencies in how income is presented on these platforms.
Here are the most lucrative skills advertised on TikTok, according to the creators we analyzed:
| Skill / Method | Claimed Median Hourly Rate |
|---|---|
| Marketing | $62.50 |
| Investing | $56 |
| Video editing | $50 |
As on YouTube, TikTok creators tend to provide fairly limited evidence for their earning estimates. Video creators also tend to advertise business ideas that are easier to sell to a broad audience as “easy money-making strategies”. In reality, getting extremely rich off a blog is harder than video creators make it sound.
Instead, experts suggested that freelance writing or selling another type of service as a freelancer might be more successful for online workers.
Making Money with a Service Business
A service business is a model where you earn money by providing a specific skill or task for clients. Unlike online publishing, where you create content for a broad audience, a service business involves selling your skills or products directly to customers.
On TikTok, we found that service businesses were the most popular type of online work advertised by creators.
These businesses include a range of skills and activities, such as:
- Starting your own virtual assistant agency to provide a service like tech support or digital marketing to other companies
- Selling physical goods like t-shirts through an online store
- Starting a dropshipping business
- Selling digital products like Canva templates
- Creating and selling handmade crafts on a site like Etsy
- Doing tasks such as graphic design for clients on freelance platforms like Upwork and Fiverr
- Performing microwork tasks like filling out surveys or tagging content
Microwork can be particularly appealing for people who are not currently employed full-time and are looking to make extra cash, said Melissa Keith. She is a psychology professor at Bowling Green State University whose research focuses on the platform Mechanical Turk.
Mechanical Turk, run by Amazon, allows remote workers to make money by doing small tasks that can’t be completed by computers.
“It’s pretty unrealistic to think you’re going to make a full-time salary on most of these platforms,” Keith said.
However, the all-remote, fully flexible nature of the platform allows workers to earn money on their own terms. While TikTok videos advertise that workers might be able to earn over $50 per hour, Keith found this number unrealistic compared to her research. “A good rate is closer to $10 an hour,” she said.
In recent years, workers on microwork platforms have pushed the companies posting jobs to improve their hourly rates, Keith noted. Tasks that might once have been paid under $1 an hour will now earn a worker the U.S. minimum wage if not more.
Due to the low rates of microwork platforms, we recommend offering your services on your own WordPress website. This allows you to be in complete control of how much you charge your clients.
You can easily accept credit card payments right from your site using a plugin like WPForms, which is what we use for our own contact forms and surveys. You don’t have to share your profits with a third-party platform. For more details, see our full WPForms review.
The Truth About Making Money Online: Balancing Expectations and Reality
Online videos often paint a very positive picture of entrepreneurship opportunities. This is especially true for financial and investment advice, as creators advertise buying into cryptocurrency and other risky assets.
For that reason, it’s important to be wary of scams. As CNET contributor Ana Staples points out, anyone can claim to be an expert on TikTok.
Short, punchy videos can make getting rich online look much easier than it really is. In reality, starting a successful business and being self-employed takes a lot of hard work.
It’s also important to consider the gap between those who make videos about earning money online and those who actually make up the online gig workforce.
Our analysis found that the creators of YouTube videos and TikTok videos skew towards men in their 20s. On the other hand, the user bases of platforms like Mechanical Turk tend to be pretty evenly split on gender.
Younger men might be “more willing to share their success stories,” said Zhu, the Carnegie Mellon researcher. Meanwhile, low-income immigrants who are doing more low-paid gig work might “not necessarily want to brag about their work, and also don’t have the time to create videos,” she added.
As online work remains popular, Zhu and Keith both anticipate that workers will continue to push for higher wages, job flexibility, and benefits. “If people move towards these more flexible work arrangements, we’re going to have to have systems in place to protect workers,” Keith said.
Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money Online
Here are answers to some of the most common questions about earning an income online.
What is the most realistic hourly wage for online work?
While influencers claim huge hourly rates, our data shows a median advertised pay of $50 per hour across all business models. However, experts we consulted suggest that for entry-level gig work like microworking, a rate of $10 per hour is more realistic.
What is the most common type of online business promoted on YouTube?
According to our analysis, online publishing was the most promoted business model on YouTube, appearing in 45% of the videos we studied. This includes starting a blog, affiliate marketing, and creating a YouTube channel.
How can I spot an online business scam?
Be wary of anyone promising extremely high returns with little to no effort. Short, flashy videos without specific details and evidence for their claims are often misleading. Legitimate online businesses require hard work and time to grow.
Rather than falling for “get-rich-quick” schemes, it’s smarter to build a real business on a solid foundation. The resources below can help you start with proven, sustainable methods.
Helpful Make Money Online Guides for Beginners
If you’re ready to start earning online, you may find the following guides helpful:
- Best website ideas to launch a side business
- Low-cost and easy online business ideas that make money
- How to create and sell online courses
- Popular types of websites you can make (+ examples)
- Ultimate guide on how to start a blog to make money online
- How to Make Money Using AI
- Easy Side Hustle Ideas to Make Money Online
Dennis Muthomi
WOW! This is an incredibly insightful analysis!
I particularly appreciate how you’ve broken down the statistics from YouTube and TikTok, providing a REALITY CHECK on the often inflated earnings claims. The comparison between advertised potential and actual median earnings is eye-opening.
One aspect I found particularly valuable was the discussion on microwork platforms like Mechanical Turk.
I have experimented with these platforms before, I can confirm that the $10/hour rate mentioned by Professor Keith is much more realistic than the inflated figures often touted on social media.
Thank you for this comprehensive and well-researched article.
Mrteesurez
Thank you for the insightful research in this post! It’s eye-opening to see the data behind the “make money online” content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. I’ve personally explored these videos, and while some offer valuable tips, many are just fluff or misleading. This research validates my experience and reinforces the importance of critically evaluating such content. It’s crucial to seek credible sources and proven strategies rather than relying on sensational claims. This post is a great resource for anyone navigating the confusion of online money-making advice.
Jiří Vaněk
Perfect summary. I make online content on Youtube and blog. I have now switched to Patreon. Because of this, I kind of know how very difficult and sometimes complicated it is to monetize content and get to some very good numbers. In addition, it is not so easy when a person has to pay taxes on their earnings, and on top of that, platforms like Patreon and others take part of the earnings for themselves. Great research and review. I enjoyed reading it.
Amir
The article concluded according to my expectations. I have been working in the online space since 2020. Those videos are rather exaggerating. They make earning online look so easy. But, that’s not the case. One has to pass sleepless nights. Thank you for this research. I want this post to reach everyone who are just srarting out.
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