Fighting Inflation Through Alternative Income From Online Sources
Right now is the best time to start an online business. You can explore many types of businesses, from providing professional services to selling retail online, creating informational products, blogging, and more. Whether you have a stable career, have extra time on your hands, or need to make some extra side money, there are plenty of side hustles you can explore to help you through tough times. There are plenty of reasons to start your own business. Inflation is real and impacts everything from the price of food to gas and heating. Everything is costing more these days.
Inflationary Woes
Inflation is the rise of prices for goods and services. There are a variety of factors that cause inflation, but controlling it is a whole story. Corporations are making historic profits by raising their prices under the guise of supply and demand issues. A tight monetary policy means it’s harder to get more loans to purchase things cheaply, slowing consumption.
Everything just costs more. It’s ridiculous, and it’s the truth. Inflation drives up the price of essential items as well as luxury goods. So, whether you need to buy baby formula and diapers, drive to work, or get groceries, you will pay more than ever before.
In fact, the annual inflation rate is over 8%, meaning that a year ago, items were 8% cheaper than in 2022. For the average family, that cost of inflation adds up. So how do they make up the sizable hole in their budgets? Often by supplementing their income with secondary jobs or side hustles.
Side Hustle Insights
When picking a side hustle, you want to be able to find one that offers a great return on your time and investment, allows you flexibility in your scheduling, and provides you with some level of enjoyment. In other words, you want an interesting way to make some money.
Some side hustle options:
- Drive for Uber, Lyft, or other rideshares
- Act as a delivery partner for Amazon, or retailers
- Grubhub, Uber Eats, or other food delivery apps
- Be a personal shopper
- A blog for websites and online retailers
- Create your own online retail shop
- Selling websites and online shops
For some of these ideas, startup costs, such as building a website, may be expensive. Additionally, having a car and paying for gas may eat into your profits. Instead, for flexibility and lower startup costs, consider an online side hustle.
One of the benefits of starting an online side hustle is that startup costs are often much less than traditional business startups. You can sell your stuff on sites like eBay, Offerup, Facebook marketplace, and more, but the best option for people looking to supplement their income quickly is through Amazon.
Your Options
At Amazon, you can list your options, ship your goods to their warehouses, and sell them on their platform. Sometimes, you may be on the lookout to optimize your e-commerce strategy. If that’s the case, then an Amazon Marketplace Management Agency, for example, can provide crucial support in navigating the platform’s complexities. Or, you can take an easier path and sell through the Amazon FBA or Fulfillment By Amazon, a service that allows sellers to create online stores, and Amazon handles the logistics.
What’s more, as you build your FBA on their site, some businesses buy up other Amazon retailers. In other words, you build up your online retail at Amazon, find an Amazon forum seller to make an offer, and you can sell your online store in little time.
Here’s how it works. Select items you want to sell on Amazon. You could start an online sporting goods shop, cosmetics, jewelry, or silverware and set up through Amazon FBA to get started quickly. Amazon’s algorithm will drive traffic to your specific goods and items, helping increase your traffic if you optimize your page correctly.
What’s more, you can set an advertising budget and get even more potential customers. It’s simple. Amazon runs an “auction” for their keywords, with the highest bidder getting the keyword.
However, Amazon sets the price to the next highest bid. That means that if the keyword you are trying to get traffic for a word and you bid $4.50, but the second-highest was $1.75, you’ll only pay one cent more than their bid. In other words, you’ll pay $1.76 for the keyword.
And since Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer, getting keywords that drive traffic to your FBA shop on their page is like money in the bank. It’s cheap and relatively easy to set up an FBA with Amazon. And with the rising concerns over the cost of living, everyone may need some sort of side gig to get by in the short term.
Keeping up with inflation and creating more income opportunities is becoming increasingly necessary. Online retail is a great way to develop flexible earning potential to help the family’s bottom line without breaking the bank.