9 Websites That Actually Make You Money Online (27 Methods Explained)

Most “make money online” lists are written by people who have never actually used the tools they recommend. This one is different. These are 9 websites Alston has personally made money with, and the key insight is that each one offers at least three ways to earn, not just one. That multiplies your options without multiplying your workload.

The other thing that makes this list powerful is pairing. When you combine SmartMockups with Canva and list the finished product on Etsy, you have a complete digital product business that costs almost nothing to start. When you pair ClickFunnels with YouTube, you have a traffic source and a conversion tool working together. Read through all nine before you decide what to try first, because the combination you pick matters as much as the individual websites.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The exact 9 websites Alston has used to make money online
At least 3 different income methods for each website
How to pair websites together so they work as a system instead of standalone tools
Which websites are completely free to start with
Real examples from each platform, including specific numbers and niches
The Facebook Reels opportunity that most creators were still ignoring when this video came out
A clear starting point based on your skills and situation: find yours at finder.platformproof.com

Website 1: SmartMockups.com

SmartMockups is a tool for creating product mockups. When someone shops online, they are trying to picture a product in real life. A good mockup makes that picture clear, and that directly affects whether someone buys or bounces.

The site has templates for physical products like mugs, shirts, and framed prints, as well as digital products like ebooks and courses, and multi-device screenshots for apps and websites. Both free and premium mockups are available. The free ones are enough to start earning.

Here are three ways to turn SmartMockups into income. First, create mockup gigs on Fiverr, Upwork, or People Per Hour. Businesses that sell products online need product images constantly and many of them do not want to deal with photo shoots. You can charge for that service and deliver the finished mockup image digitally. Second, use mockups to sell your own digital products more convincingly. A plain PDF attachment does not sell as well as the same PDF shown inside a clean laptop or tablet mockup. Third, combine SmartMockups with Canva in a workflow: design your item in Canva, export the image, import it into a SmartMockups template, download the finished product photo, and list it for sale.

Once you know the workflow, you can produce a finished product image in about 20 minutes. That is fast enough to build a real catalog over a few weekends.

Website 2: ClickFunnels and Web Page Builders

ClickFunnels is the specific tool Alston covers here, but the same logic applies to Aweber, GetResponse, BuildRaw, and ConvertKit. The category is “web page builders and sales funnel tools,” and the income methods stack on top of each other.

Five ways to make money in this category: Create and sell digital products (courses, templates, guides) through a funnel you build yourself. Collect email leads and run email marketing to an audience you own. Become a ClickFunnels affiliate and earn up to 40% recurring commission. Build funnels for local businesses and charge them for the service. Give away free sales funnels to influencers and earn affiliate commissions when they sign up through your link.

That last method is worth pausing on. You build a solid sales funnel for an Instagram influencer for free. They use it. They sign up for ClickFunnels through your affiliate link. You earn recurring commission every month they stay subscribed. You did the work once and it keeps paying. Alston mentions you can build a funnel in 15 to 20 minutes once you have some practice, so the upfront time investment is not as high as it sounds.

You can also use these tools to build funnels for local service businesses: landscapers, plumbers, bakers. They need leads. You build a page to capture those leads. You charge $300 to $1,000 for that setup. The client pays for a tool that brings them new customers. You get paid for the build. If they need ongoing help, you keep charging.

Website 3: Canva

Canva might be the most versatile website on this entire list. The free version lets you design PowerPoint presentations, TikTok videos, Instagram posts, LinkedIn graphics, YouTube channel art, thumbnails, ebook covers, digital planners, sticker sheets, and SVG files. That is not a small toolbox.

Alston created a full course using Canva and sells it. That course is one income stream. But Canva is really a product factory if you treat it that way.

Four ways to make money with Canva. Sell digital products created in Canva: planners, social media templates, resume templates, presentation decks, party invitations. Offer design services on Fiverr using Canva as your production tool. Sell Canva templates on Etsy, where there is a large and consistent market for wedding, business, and social media templates. Use Canva to create content for your own YouTube or TikTok channel and monetize that channel through ads, sponsorships, or your own products.

The Etsy angle pairs especially well with SmartMockups. You design the template in Canva, create a professional mockup in SmartMockups to use as your Etsy listing photo, and the finished product looks polished without costing you anything except time.

Website 4: ThemeForest

ThemeForest is a marketplace for WordPress themes, plugins, and templates. Every business that wants a professional website is a potential client, and ThemeForest gives you the raw materials to serve them cheaply and quickly.

Three income angles on ThemeForest. The affiliate angle: if you make content about building websites or running an online business, you can link to ThemeForest products and earn commissions when people buy through your link. The client services angle: find a local business that needs a WordPress site, go to ThemeForest, buy a theme in their niche (plumber, restaurant, bakery), customize it, and charge the client $300 to $2,500 for the finished website. The theme costs you maybe $50. The client gets a professional site. You keep the rest. The creation angle: build and sell your own WordPress themes or plugins. This takes more technical skill but creates passive income once the product is listed.

The client services angle is the fastest to start because you do not need deep technical skills. You need to know how to install a WordPress theme and customize basic settings, find a client who needs a website, and deliver the result. You can learn the technical side in a weekend. Finding the client is the harder part, but local networking, LinkedIn, and simple cold outreach to small businesses are all workable approaches.

Website 5: YouTube

YouTube gets its own section because the income ceiling is higher here than on any other website on this list. The tradeoff is that it takes longer to build.

Five ways to earn on YouTube. The YouTube Partner Program pays you based on ad views once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Affiliate marketing lets you link to products in your video descriptions and earn commissions when viewers buy. Selling your own digital or physical products to your audience cuts out the middleman entirely. A Patreon or subscription community lets your most loyal viewers pay you monthly for exclusive content. Coaching or consulting turns your expertise into sessions you sell directly.

The niche question is the one most people get stuck on. Alston points to three examples from real channels: Kit Boga has over 2 million subscribers from calling phone scammers back and recording the conversations. ArthurTV covers TLC reality shows. Ryan Hildreth teaches YouTube Shorts strategy. All different topics. All building real audiences.

The common thread is consistency and patience. You pick a topic you can talk about without running out of things to say, create on a schedule, improve your production quality over time, and the algorithm starts distributing your content once it has proof that people watch it. The timeline is usually 6 to 18 months before you see significant traction, but the channels that commit to that timeline are the ones that compound.

Website 6: Your Own Blog or Website

A blog is one of the few online assets where multiple income streams can run simultaneously on the same platform. Alston runs his at AstinGodbolt.com and uses it to earn through display ads via Ezoic and Google AdSense, build an email list for marketing, offer a free affiliate marketing course as a lead magnet, and sell one-on-one coaching.

You do not need all of those at once. You can start a blog in one niche, write 20 to 30 posts, apply for an ad network, and start earning from the traffic. As the readership grows, you add more layers. Email marketing goes on top. A lead magnet goes on top of that. Eventually a product or coaching offering fits naturally because your readers already trust your perspective.

Alston recommends using Ahrefs to validate your blog topic before you start writing. It shows you search volume data so you can confirm that people are actually looking for what you plan to write about. Writing excellent posts in a niche nobody searches is a real mistake that costs months of time. A quick keyword check before you start can prevent it.

Not sure which of these 9 websites fits your situation?

Answer a few questions and get a specific starting point at finder.platformproof.com.

Website 7: Fiverr

Fiverr works for three different types of participants. As a seller, you create gigs that buyers can purchase directly. Voice acting, graphic design, video editing, writing, data entry, social media management, website building, NFT creation, virtual assistant work. The platform covers hundreds of categories and the barrier to entry is low because you can list a gig for free.

As a buyer turned reseller, you hire a Fiverr seller to complete a service, then deliver that service to your own clients at a higher price. This is how a lot of small agencies work. They find the clients, manage the relationship, and outsource the actual work. The margin is the business.

As an affiliate, you include your Fiverr affiliate link in your content. If you already create videos, blog posts, or social media content that mentions any topic where Fiverr services are relevant, you can reference it naturally. When someone clicks your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Alston mentions he hired a Spanish voiceover artist on Fiverr for his own YouTube channel, which is a natural mention he could have included an affiliate link in.

The seller path is the most direct. Your first gig will likely start at $5 to $15. You need reviews before you can raise your prices meaningfully. Getting those first few reviews usually means offering a fast turnaround and overdelivering on quality. Once you have 10 or 20 positive reviews, you can raise rates and the work starts coming to you instead of you chasing it.

Website 8: Etsy

Etsy functions as a search engine for products. Buyers arrive on Etsy with money in hand and a specific thing they want to find. That is a very different kind of traffic than social media traffic, where people are browsing without a purchase in mind.

The digital download model is particularly attractive because you create the file once and sell it indefinitely. One example from the transcript: digital wedding table numbers. A seller creates a set of table numbers from 1 to 100, lists it as a download for $3.50, and collects that $3.50 every time someone buys. Wedding season brings a wave of buyers every year. The file never changes. The income repeats.

How to find your first Etsy product idea. Go to Etsy. Type a broad topic you are interested in or know something about. After the topic word, try each letter of the alphabet and look at the autocomplete suggestions. Alston does this with “wedding” in the video: wedding stamp, wedding welcome sign, wedding wine labels. Each autocomplete result is a real thing people are searching for. That search means demand. Demand means a market exists. Your job is to create a product for that market and list it.

Canva and Etsy pair naturally here. Design your digital product in Canva. List it on Etsy. Use a SmartMockups image as your listing photo. Three websites working together as one system.

Website 9: Facebook Reels

Facebook Reels was still relatively new when Alston recorded this video, and the newness was the point. Very little original content existed on the platform at the time. Most of what appeared in the Facebook Reels feed was actually reposted from Instagram, not content created specifically for Facebook. That gap was an opportunity.

Alston shared his own results from uploading directly to Facebook Reels: one video reached 43,000 views, others landed between 1,500 and 2,000 views. These were TikTok videos he repurposed. He created them once for TikTok and uploaded the same files to Facebook Reels. Zero additional production time. A completely separate audience reached.

The income mechanism on Facebook Reels is direct response. When viewers watch your reel and want to learn more, they message you through Facebook Messenger. If your content speaks to a specific problem your audience has, those messages turn into conversations, and those conversations turn into clients, customers, or leads. That is a different model from YouTube ad revenue. You are building relationships through short video content instead of waiting for an algorithm to pay you per view.

If you are already making content for TikTok or Instagram Reels, cross-posting to Facebook Reels is a small habit that extends your reach without extra work. The window for early-mover advantage is smaller than it was in 2022, but the platform still reaches a large and different demographic than TikTok, which matters if your target audience skews older than 35.

Honest Drawbacks

None of these 9 websites is a shortcut to quick money. Here is what you should realistically expect from each one before you start.

SmartMockups: Getting your first Fiverr gig noticed takes time. You need reviews before buyers trust you enough to order.
ClickFunnels: The tool has a learning curve. The affiliate commissions are strong, but you need traffic first to earn them.
Canva: The free tools are excellent, but the Etsy and Fiverr markets in popular categories are competitive. A specific niche matters.
ThemeForest: Finding your first website client is the hardest part. The technical work is learnable. The sales side takes persistence.
YouTube: Consistent content for 6 to 18 months before the algorithm distributes your videos at meaningful scale.
Your blog: Search rankings take time to build. Expect 6 to 18 months before organic traffic turns into real ad or affiliate revenue.
Fiverr: Early gig prices are low. You need reviews before you can charge what your time is worth.
Etsy: Listing fees apply and popular categories have strong competition. Niche selection and good listing photos make a real difference.
Facebook Reels: The early-mover advantage from 2022 is smaller now. Still worth doing if you create short-form video for other platforms, but expect more competition than when this video was recorded.

The way through all of these is the same: pick one or two, pair them intentionally, and commit long enough to see results. The people who fail with every platform on this list are the ones who try each one for two weeks and move on. The people who succeed pick one combination and stay with it for six months or more.

How to Pick Your Starting Point

With 9 websites and 27 income methods across them, the most common mistake is trying to do too many at once. The better move is to ask yourself two questions. What skills do you already have? And how much time can you realistically put in each week?

If you can design, Canva plus Etsy is a fast-entry combination. If you can build websites, ThemeForest client work starts earning faster than almost anything else on this list. If you can create video content, YouTube plus Facebook Reels is a content multiplier. If you already have an audience anywhere, affiliate marketing through any of these platforms turns existing attention into income.

The worst starting point is no starting point. Pick one combination, start this week, and adjust after 90 days of real data.

Find Your X

Not sure which of these 9 websites fits your actual skills, schedule, and goals? The Platform Proof Finder asks you a few specific questions and gives you a concrete starting point based on your answers. It takes about two minutes and tells you exactly where to begin. Go to finder.platformproof.com to find your match.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need money to start with any of these websites?

SmartMockups, Canva, Fiverr, Etsy (basic listings), YouTube, and your blog can all be started with zero upfront cost or very low cost. ClickFunnels has a monthly subscription. ThemeForest themes cost $30 to $60. You can start with the free options and add paid tools once you have a first dollar in.

Which combination of websites works best for a complete beginner?

Canva plus Etsy is frequently recommended for beginners because both have low barriers to entry, the tools are free or cheap, and the market on Etsy is already built in. You are not creating demand from scratch. You are listing products in front of buyers who are already searching.

How long does it take to make a first sale on Etsy?

It depends heavily on niche selection and listing quality. Some sellers make their first sale within a few days of opening a shop in a well-searched niche with good listing photos. Others wait weeks. The autocomplete research method Alston describes in the video helps you find niches with real search volume so you are not guessing.

Is ClickFunnels worth the monthly cost for someone starting out?

Not necessarily for a true beginner. GetResponse and Aweber have lower monthly costs and similar core features. ClickFunnels is worth the cost once you have a product to sell and traffic to send to it. If you are still figuring out what to sell, a cheaper email tool gets you started without the overhead.

Can I do this while working a full-time job?

Yes, and most people who build these income streams do exactly that. The businesses on this list that take the least time to maintain once set up are digital downloads on Etsy, affiliate income through blog posts or YouTube videos, and Fiverr gigs in categories where you can deliver work in under two hours. Start with whichever one fits into the time you actually have.

Do I need to be on camera for YouTube to work?

No. Many successful YouTube channels use screen recordings, voiceover with slides, animation, or stock footage. The Kit Boga channel Alston mentions does use on-camera content, but it is one format among many. You can build a legitimate YouTube channel without ever showing your face if the content is genuinely useful or entertaining.

How do I find my first client for building WordPress websites?

Start with local businesses. Look for restaurants, service contractors, or retail shops in your area that have no website or a very outdated one. Cold email or walk in and ask if they are open to talking about updating their online presence. LinkedIn outreach to small business owners also works. Your first client probably will not come from your website or YouTube channel. It will come from a direct conversation.

Is Facebook Reels still worth trying in 2024 and beyond?

If you are already creating short-form video for TikTok or Instagram, cross-posting to Facebook Reels adds almost no extra time and reaches a different audience. Facebook’s user base skews older than TikTok’s, which matters if your target customer is over 35. The early-mover advantage is smaller than it was in 2022, but the platform is still active and worth including in a multi-platform content strategy.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “Use These 9 Websites To Make Money Online In 2022! (27 Ways To Make Money Online),” YouTube, 2022
SmartMockups.com product mockup tool
ClickFunnels affiliate program terms (up to 40% commission, referenced in video)
Canva free design platform
ThemeForest by Envato marketplace
Fiverr affiliate and seller programs
Etsy digital download marketplace
Facebook Reels platform documentation