Additional Ways to Earn Online for Filipinos in 2021-2022 (Since YouTube Earnings are Going Down) Part 1

I used to think that my Google Adsense earnings from my YouTube channel, though still small compared to those of big YouTubers, are enough for the family's basic needs. Besides, I can hardly spare extra time to work on other ways to earn online since creating content for YouTube already takes up a huge amount of time.

Why my YouTube Earnings Seem to be Decreasing

Well, these past several months, something strange has been happening on YouTube. It's either the algorithm has drastically changed or there's just too much competition now that more people are trying to earn from YouTube, or both.

Last year, as the pandemic started to unfold and most countries have put themselves on lockdown, people realized they could not afford to wait till their governments announce that they could already go back to their regular jobs. They started to feel the dreadful effects of this new health crisis, not only physically, but also financially. So, many, particularly Filipinos, were forced to find alternative ways to earn on the safest place on earth where they cannot get infected with CoViD-19 — the internet— that is, assuming that they do not have to go to the internet cafe to go online.

Information on the web would later reveal that both the number of views and the number of videos being uploaded to YouTube have "skyrocketed" as people stayed at home during the outbreak.

In other words, when there was relatively less competition before the pandemic happened, I can now feel there are more of us struggling to get viewers' attention to watch our videos. This, I presume, partly explains the drop in views and consequently, in revenues as well. There may also be other factors which were explained here..  

As for the algorithm, Creator Insider has been discussing about it extensively here, so if you're also a YouTube Partner (a YouTube creator who is able to monetize their content) or planning to be one, then, better check that link out.

Note: My apologies for not wanting to disclose my YouTube Channel and Facebook Page here.

Technically, I don't know what's happening. All I know is that I am uploading more often now, my subscribers have attested to the big improvement in the quality of my audio and video since I started the channel two years ago, and I get a lot more positive feedback now than before. Yet, views were a lot better up to the third quarter of 2020! Then, things started to change during the last quarter.

After giving it my all for about eight months, doing my best to get the numbers back to where they were, reality hits me. I cannot rely solely on this YouTube channel to provide for the family (I've mentioned here that I am the family's  breadwinner). I really need to make time to check out other ways to earn online.

Additional Ways to Earn Online (aside from YouTube)

Here is a list of options that I'll be trying out or give more focus on to augment the family's income. I will be updating this list as I continue to research and test new ways to earn online. I will only include legit options — those that I have tested and I'm sure will really pay. As you can see from the title, this is only Part 1 of a series of blog posts. In succeeding parts, I will discuss in detail my personal experience and a review of each of the following options.

1. Earn online through blogging. 

Although mamagoals.com is already monetized, I have yet to earn a decent amount from it because I am more focused on my YouTube channel. Now, I will be giving it more time and effort. Hence, you will see me posting more frequently from now on😉 to maximize earnings on this blog.

2. Earn online by creating video content on your Facebook page through In-Stream Ads.

I already have a monetized Facebook page which was approved in May last year. So far, I have received two payouts from it — one in September 2020 and one in April 2021. Like Google Adsense, Facebook has a threshold of 100 dollars before a content creator can receive payment. This means I am not yet earning regularly (monthly) from this income stream. Now, this is another option that I need to focus on. The fact that I have received payouts means that it is another sure way to earn online. But it was not that easy. There were a lot of challenges and hurdles that I had to go through, which I will be writing about in another part of this series.

3. Earn online by doing microtasks.

Wikipedia defines microtasking as the process of splitting a large job into small tasks that can be distributed, over the Internet, to many people. What I like about microtasking is that you are not bound by time unlike other freelance jobs. You can work only for an hour or you can choose to work for 10 hours. It's all up to you. Also, you do not have to work for a certain boss who can always demand a certain schedule. The following are examples of companies offering microtasking. You may visit their websites while I have not yet written a more detailed post for each of them.

• Appen
• Remotasks 
• Clickworker (Disclosure: This is my referral link)
• Yandex Toloka
• Amazon MTurk

Just yesterday, I registered on Clickworker and was able to earn 1 Euro for passing an assessment test and $1.77 for doing a task referred to as a HitApp. All in all, I spent approximately 3 hours on the site, including registration, reading guidelines, learning the basics, taking the assessment test, training and qualifying for the HitApp and doing the task itself. Computing the earnings in pesos, it would be about P143.00. Not bad for a first timer who worked for less than two hours. My plan is to allot a few hours each day doing this. I'll also try to check out the other sites.

4. Earn online through affiliate marketing. 

This is a very broad topic and I really need a separate post for this. For now, let me just say that I am trying out Involve Asia where I am able to promote products from big online shopping sites like Shopee, Lazada, Aliexpress and many more. 

Basically, to be able to earn through affiliate marketing, you generate a referral link of a product from the site where you signed up with (like Involve Asia) and post it on an approved social media account, website or blog that you own. When someone clicks on that referral link, they will be redirected to the merchant's website (such as Shopee or Lazada).  When they purchase a product using your referral link, you get a small commission from that sale.

I tried posting links on some of my Facebook pages for a few days. My stats say I have sales amounting to USD 10.08 and my estimated earnings would be USD 0.21.  Well, it's certainly quite small! But then, I really haven't given this so much effort yet. 

Oh, there are actually many ways to earn online for us, Filipinos. We just need to choose the ones that we need to give more time on. Experiment and see which one will be the most profitable. If we can only multiply ourselves, then, we can possibly do them all. As the saying goes, "so many ways, so little time."