How To Make $50,000 A Month – 9 Realistic Ideas To Try!
I've written a variety of posts that cover how to reach certain income milestones before.
For example, two popular posts on WebMonkey are my posts on jobs that pay 5K per month and jobs that pay 10K.
But recently, I was thinking about what sort of jobs or business ideas you could try to make a much higher amount of money per month. And, after a lot of reading and thinking, I found some pretty neat ones!
So, today I'm covering some ideas to make 50K a month.
I've managed to reach this income goal with different business models in this post. And all of the other ideas also have the potential to make this type of income.
Let's get to it!
How To Make 50K A Month
A lot of methods to earn $50,000 a month involve making money online or starting your own business.
This is because while gig apps like driving for DoorDash or Uber Eats are great side hustles to make quick cash, they can't make $50,000 per month or even come close.
Hopefully, one of the ideas in this list stands out to you as being something you can try!
1. Start An Ecommerce Business
From everything I've read and some of the people I've met over the years, I think the most realistic way to earn $50,000 a month is to start an ecommerce business.
I actually worked in digital advertising out of college and eventually found my way to an ecommerce startup based in California.
And, let me tell you: there is some crazy amount of money in ecommerce.
There's all kinds of ecommerce success stories of people who start selling a product or service online and eventually scale to making millions per month or year.
Some of my favorite online business ideas include:
- Starting a clothing brand or other D2C brand and selling on Shopify
- Starting an Etsy Printify print on demand business
- Selling meme merchandise on marketplaces like Redbubble
- Selling eBooks and courses on a Sellfy store (this is one new side hustle I've started)
- Starting a dropshipping business
- Starting an agency or online service-based business
My YouTube video covers even more ecommerce and online business ideas you can consider.
Again, it can take a long time to reach $50,000 a month with any online business model. But the ideas above have this income potential, and many are high-margin and are also low-cost side hustles you can try.
Launch your own ecommerce business with Sellfy!
2. Blogging
Making money with a blog isn't easy or fast. But in terms of income potential, I think blogging is one of my favorite online businesses out there.
Now, making $50,000 a month with a blog isn't something most blogs can ever achieve, but again, the potential is there.
And, what I like about blogging is that income is really just a function of traffic; the more traffic you have, the more money you typically make.
Plus, blogging has a lot of options to make money, including:
- Running display ads
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Selling your own products
- Branching into freelancing
Currently, WebMonkey earns over $20,000 a month, but it's had months of $50,000 or more when I convert all the $USD earnings to Canadian.
My YouTube video covers the exact steps I took to grow my blog to this point. But most of my blogging income comes from Mediavine ads and affiliate marketing. On average, WebMonkey makes $1,000 a day or even more if affiliate sales go well.
The process of scaling WebMonkey has proven to me that blogging is a way to get $50,000 a month or more. Really, the sky is the limit for a blog's income potential.
I also have plans of starting other blogs, and I could totally see a network of small blogs working up to $50,000 or after many years of hard work.
And, of course, some of the largest blogs in different blog niches make hundreds of millions of dollars, so again, the potential is there!
Extra Reading – How I Made $272,000 Blogging In 2022.
3. Affiliate Marketing
I mentioned affiliate marketing as one way my blog makes money. But as a business model, it's another viable way to make 50k a month or even more.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting products and services for other businesses. If you deliver customers, you get paid a percentage of the sale.
I make a large chunk of my income these days from affiliate marketing on my blog and YouTube channel. In fact, I now make $10k a month from affiliate marketing alone.
But blogging is just one way you can make money with affiliate marketing. Building an audience on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or even starting a newsletter all lend themselves well to affiliate marketing.
I also like affiliate marketing since the profit margin is often very high. After all, you don't have to design and manufacture any of the products you're promoting!
4. YouTube
Another way to make $50,000 in a month is to make money on YouTube.
Now, this is another digital side hustle I've been trying for the last year and a bit, and these days, my small channel makes about $600 per month in income.
This is, again, very far off from making $50,000 per month.
However, like blogging, YouTube has an incredibly high earning ceiling because of how much traffic and views you can generate.
The reality is that if you get millions of views a month on YouTube, you can make $50,000 per month or more between advertising revenue, sponsorships, and affiliate income.
I have a post on how much YouTubers make, and here's what some of the highest-earning YouTubers are earning:
- VanossGaming: $11.5 million.
- PewdiePie: $13 million.
- Preston: $14 million.
- Ryan Kaji: $26 million.
Clearly, this is a lot more than making $50k per month!
Granted, these are the top channels, but you can find plenty of YouTube income reports where people make tens of thousands of dollars each month.
I interviewed my friend Ryan who runs a successful finance YouTube channel, and Ryan earns nearly $20,000 per month in advertising revenue and probably makes even more from affiliate income!
And, even if YouTube alone can't make 50,000 a month, you can always combine business ideas like YouTube and blogging or some other side hustle idea and make your $50k with multiple income streams.
5. Retail Arbitrage
A while back, I interviewed an awesome couple who run a million dollar retail arbitrage business.
Retail arbitrage basically involves buying popular products you find at a discount and then reselling them online for a profit.
Commonly, retail arbitrage sellers buy clearance products from stores like Walmart or Kohls or even places like thrift stores or pawn shops.
Popular retail arbitrage products to sell include:
- Apparel
- Books
- Cosmetics
- Electronics
- Home goods
- Seasonal goods
- Shoes
- Toys
- Watches
- Video games
From there, sellers can choose a variety of online platforms to sell on.
Marketplaces like Amazon are popular with the Amazon FBA program, and some retail arbitrage sellers also use selling platforms like eBay or Mercari.
The point is, retail arbitrage works and you have a lot of options. So really, the challenge is sourcing enough popular inventory and selling that inventory quickly.
If you read my interview with the million dollar retail arbitrage business, it's clear that making $50,000 a month through retail arbitrage is possible.
However, I'd say this is unlikely for most sellers in fairness, and scaling your retail arbitrage income can be very slow because of the time requirement of sourcing products, so keep this in mind!
6. Real Estate
There's a lot of money in real estate, and this has pretty much always been the case throughout human history. And what's cool is that if you want to make $50,000 a month, real estate has a few options that could get you there.
For starters, some real estate agents can make hundreds or millions of dollars a year just from commission.
Of course, this is highly unlikely, and many real estate agents actually lose money when you factor in licensing fees and how most active agents aren't actually active.
But, I had to mention selling real estate as an option since it's technically a way to earn $50k a month.
Anyway, real estate has a lot of other options on the table as well, including:
- Flipping real estate
- Earning income from rental units
- Investing with real estate investment platforms
For real estate investing platforms, you can theoretically invest in real estate equity and debt to make $50k per month.
This is a better solution for passive income, and there are a few companies you can use to invest in real estate. For example, Fundrise lets you invest in income-generating real estate starting with just $10.
You can also check out similar real estate investing companies like:
- RealtyMogul: This platform lets you invest in real estate deals starting with $5,000.
- Arrived: Another way to invest in income-generating rentals starting with only $100.
- Tellus: Start earning passive income through real estate by depositing money in a Tellus account.
Finally, rental income is one of the most popular ways to make money renting things, and I know a few people who bought a duplex, live in one unit, and rent out the other.
Of course, you'd need several rental properties to make $50,000 a month, but hey, this is still an option!
The bottom line is that real estate is incredibly lucrative, so it's certainly possible to earn $50k a month if you have enough streams.
Extra Reading – How To Invest And Make Money Daily.
Disclaimer: This is an endorsement in partnership with Fundrise. We earn a commission from partner links. All opinions are my own.
7. Consulting
While this is a pretty niche method to earn $50,000 every month, consulting is an incredibly lucrative field that has this sort of income potential.
There's also a variety of industries that hire consultants, including:
- Finance
- SEO
- HR
- IT
- Digital marketing
- Legal
- Management
- Business Analysis
- Strategy
- Business Development
I've actually made over $10,000 with SEO and Facebook Ads consulting before, and I found consulting jobs on Upwork and from my own network.
I also know some people who offer consulting (a lot of them work in SEO or ecommerce,) and I've heard of monthly retainers ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 and up.
A lot of times, consultants also branch into a sort of “agency” business model and provide consulting services to clients but also outsource deliverables to a team of freelancers.
SEO is really the poster boy for this, and again, I've met a few agency owners who have a bunch of clients on monthly retainers but outsource the bulk of SEO work to their remote team.
Overall, I think making $50k every month with consulting would be a pretty rare feat to pull off, but it's still a possibility!
8. Software As A Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service, or SaaS, involves licensing software to customers in exchange for money.
Basically, with a SaaS product, you let customers or businesses use the software you've developed in exchange for monthly payments (or bi-weekly or annual payment, but some sort of cash!)
Some extremely profitable companies are SaaS companies, and examples include behemoths like Dropbox, Salesforce, and Google Workplace.
Now, the odds of you making $50,000 a month with a SaaS company or building the next Dropbox isn't too likely.
However, there are cool SaaS success stories of solopreneurs or small teams of programmers making SaaS products that scale revenue very quickly.
One cool case study comes from Canny, a customer feedback management SaaS company that shares how it reached over $1 million in annual recurring revenue.
The company had 7 people to reach this $1 million, and the whole journey took under 3.5 years to accomplish.
Overall, I think this is a pretty inspiring example of how to make $50,000 a month to $100k a month or even more through starting a company.
Of course, the world of SaaS is extremely competitive, but hey, if you have a software idea, you can always try to bootstrap it yourself or work with a small team!
Extra Reading – How To Make Money Programming.
9. Amazon FBA
I mentioned selling on Amazon to make money with retail arbitrage, but you can also sell your own products through Amazon FBA.
Amazon FBA, or Fulfillment by Amazon, is a program that 73% of Amazon sellers use to sell on the platform.
With Amazon FBA, you ship your inventory to Amazon warehouses for a fee. When you make a sale, Amazon handles shipping and logistics, not you, so you can focus on running your business.
Amazon FBA can also handle packaging for you if you pay extra, and there are two seller plans to choose from:
- Individual Plan: Costs $0.99 per unit you sell.
- Professional Plan: Costs $39.99 per month.
Amazon FBA products are also Prime-eligible and usually qualify for 2-day shipping, so your Amazon listings are more compelling for customers.
Overall, the Amazon FBA program is one of the most beginner-friendly ways to begin selling on Amazon.
Of course, Amazon is still immensely competitive, so scaling your business to $50,000 per month in income is easier said than done.
But between selling your own products, retail arbitrage, or even white-labeling products from other manufacturers, you have a lot of business opportunities to explore with Amazon.
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money On Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Make $50,000 A Month In Passive Income?
If you want to earn $50,000 a month in passive income, I think investing is the most realistic option for most people.
Investing in dividend paying stocks or in real estate with companies like Fundrise are examples of how you might get started here.
Granted, you would need quite a large portfolio to generate $50k per month just from dividend income and appreciation.
But once again, it's possible and the math checks out, so it's an option worth considering.
The only other idea I can think of would be to build an online business that can generate $50,000 a month and to outsource most of the work so it's basically semi-passive income.
Extra Reading – The Best Passive Income Side Hustles.
$50,000 A Month Is How Much Per Year?
If you make 50,000 dollars a month, that is equivalent to making $600,000 per year.
Here's how the exact math works out for each week, day, and your hourly rate:
- Monthly Salary: $50,000.
- Biweekly Salary: $23,076.
- Weekly Salary: $11,538.
- Daily Salary: $2,307.
- Hourly Salary: $288.
This is assuming you work 40 hours per week, and as you can see, this earning amount requires making $288 per hour!
Extra Reading – How To Make $800 Fast.
Final Thoughts
I hope this guide on how to make $50k a month inspires you to take on a new side hustle or to start a business.
Blogging is the strategy I'm using to chase this sort of income, as well as making money with YouTube and freelancing.
But whatever your case, I think daydreaming about this sort of income goal is nice. And if setting your sights high pushes you to grow, I think that's a great thing.
Best of luck on your quest to make $50,000 a month!
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