The online age is one bursting with opportunity. It seems that we can do practically anything from our smartphones, from studying to shopping to watching movies and falling in love.
At the same time, Generation Z is embracing the freelancing, remote working lifestyle that places life ahead of work like no generation that has come before.
That all sounds highly idyllic, but one thing that hasn’t changed is that everyone has to start somewhere and that’s usually from the bottom.
For those Generation Z-ers who are slogging through a university degree with coursework piled up, the rent overdue and a student loan the size of Turkey’s trade deficit, this brave new world of freedom and flexibility might as well be a parallel dimension.
While being a student is as challenging as it has ever been, the online world can provide students with some innovative ways to improve their bank balance. And unlike those before them who spent time doing bar work or shelf stacking, these could be the start of a lucrative career.
Currency trading
There was a time when people thought Forex trading was reserved for those with seven-figure bank balances and nerves of steel. Today, however, it is becoming hugely popular with amateur investors and does not require a major investment.
The most important rule here is to look before you leap. There are numerous blogs and Forex trading books to read, so newcomers have no excuse for not doing their homework before committing any money.
The great thing about Forex is that once you’ve put in the time and effort upfront, all you have to do is programme your strategy online and your trading app can practically run itself.
Blogging
Most youngsters already have a blog. For any that haven?t the advice is to set one up right away. Blogging is not going to make money straight away, but with time, it can become highly lucrative. If people like what they read, opportunities quickly arise to create content for other people, and a career can appear out of nowhere.
It is also quite simple to monetise a successful blog with affiliate marketing and ads, but the golden rule is to do so selectively. The first priority of any blog must be to provide people with what they want to read. Getting greedy is the equivalent of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Influencer marketing
The social media platforms we use every day are a phenomenon the like of which we have never seen before in human history. That might sound grandiose, but think about it there are more than two billion people on Facebook alone that’s almost a third of the world’s population. What other platform has ever had anything approaching that sort of reach?
Big businesses have been a little slow to catch on to just how much money there is to be made, but they are making up for lost time now.
Generation Z-ers with a strong social media presence are in big demand. Influencer marketing is still in its relative infancy but is predicted to become one of the most powerful tools of the next decade. Those who are getting in on the ground floor could be the millionaires of tomorrow.
Written by Rik Snuiverink, a financial advisor, writer and journalist.
