Whether you have a permanent job or not, extra income easily earned is always welcome. So here are the top 16 ways to make money online in Malaysia…

If you don’t know about these diverse ways of making money online, you’re in for a big loss. Making money online has not only become a popular trend online. But it’s a legitimate way of making a few extra bucks per month.
And if you do it right, it can take the place of your day job in Malaysia. Do you know what this means? That you are in charge and you can make money only from anywhere. All you need is a bank account and a laptop with you.
This article talks about the best ways to make money online in Malaysia. And not just some money, once you make full use of these practices. You’ll be well on your way to complete financial freedom.
Without further ado, let’s look at the 16 ways to make money online in Malaysia.
16 Ways to Make Money Online in Malaysia
1. Become A Freelance Writer

The one online job that’s still in the mainstream, now more than ever, is writing. If you love reading and have a knack of writing too, why not this? You can combine your love for writing and make more money out of it.
Writers appreciate their comfort zone, so it doesn’t get any more comfortable than this.
Marketing companies and brands are looking for freelance writers. This is because content marketing budgets are over the roof with every passing year. Writing powerful and engaging content is essential.
In Malaysia itself, content marketing is a boom. A full-time, freelance writer earns from RM0.100 to RM0.400 per 100 words. Once you gather more experience, a proficient wordsmith can earn RM50 per 100 words.
The amount you get paid also depends upon your writing skills and experience level. And there’s no limit to how much work you can take on each day.
An average 2000-words article takes about 2-3 hours to write. So according to the ideal 6-8-hours workday, you can write as much as 4000 to 6000 words daily. That’s not bad income if you ask me – even for a newbie.
But wait – there’s more.
If you’re looking for scam-proof and bonafide websites for freelancing. Websites like Upwork, ProBlogger’s Job are perfect for you. You can start with part-time work and see how the flexible timings fit you. If you think you can power through full-time, you can take on plenty more work online!
2. Take Online Surveys
This is where your opinions come in. Lots of companies online want you to give your opinion for a charge. This means that lots of advertising or reward-based companies are willing to give you money for it.
This is how most companies get their research done – with surveys. Websites like Vase will offer you cash rewards if you participate in their online surveys on a regular basis. All you have to do is sign up and you get a welcome bonus – which is like getting free money.
You may not need to maintain a minimum balance in your account. All you’ll need to do is verify that you have a Malaysian phone number during sign up. Once that’s done, you’ll get a list of surveys to choose from.
Having said that, all these surveys are demographic-specific. So what you get is personalized and varies based on the intensity level. This also dictates how much money you make per survey. Somewhere around RM1 to RM100 or more.
3. Monetize Your Blog

It’s quite common to have your own personal blog or website. It’s the perfect platform to share what you are most passionate about. If you’re a writer, you can look for profitable ways of making money through your blog.
You can learn more about Google Adsense which is an advertising tool for blogs. Even though getting approved for a Google Adsense account is not easy nor is it quick. If you have a legitimate blog, then you have nothing to worry about.
Google Adsense displays various types of ads on your website. If you have plenty of visitors, some will click on the ad. And that’s how you get a commission for every ad click that happens on your website.
Next is PropellerAds. It pays when based on page impressions and not ad clicks. Page impressions is the number of times an ad pops up on your website. The more the merrier, the higher is your pay.
There are many such tools that you can sign up for. Such as PopAds, Chitika, Bidvertiser, and Infolinks. You get paid based on page impressions, clicks, and views.
4. Start Online Tutoring

If you are an expert at something, say writing, editing, etc., share the knowledge. Even if it’s a basic skill, you will find many others willing to learn what you already know. This can also be a new language or coding.
If you do not have a teacher’s degree, you can look for online tutoring platforms. You can take a simple certification source online. And then provide your credentials on various tutoring platforms. Such as Bibo Global, Tutoring, or Educators Overseas.
The advantages of becoming an online tutor is flexibility. You can take on as many students as you want. You can even host an entire classroom. It’s more convenient and you don’t have to run all over the place to do so.
Another alternative is to create online courses. This could be for a thing as primitive as gardening. But if you’re proficient at it and have all the proper documentation. Then go for it.
Udemy is a great website to create your own course. Choose a topic you specialize in and take the necessary steps to start in less than a week!
Udemy helps you define your audience, objectives, and an outline for your course. You can even take videos and publish them along with the course syllabus for extra credits. In fact, there’s a Udemy course on how to create a Udemy course in 5 days!
That’s how profitable and rewarding it is to create your own course online. You won’t run out of people wanting to learn something new every day.
5. Start Your Own Online Shop
In the business world, this is known as Affiliate Marketing. It’s a chance for you to open up your store without actually having goods to sell. Affiliate Marketing is when you prompt your visitors to buy some other company’s product for a commission.
This is an interesting job because you get to learn how to influence other people. So now would be a good time to pick up Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People!
There are many online websites that offer Affiliate Marketing. And it’s not just Amazon that does this. You have popular websites like ACCESSTRADE. This website has the whole package. It’s one of the biggest and most reputable affiliate markets in Malaysia.
This brings me to another, interesting way to make money online in Malaysia.
6. Start a Referral Program
This is slightly different from an affiliate program. In a referral program, you’re “referring” people to buy a new product or a new service. For example, a website like Payoneer in Malaysia will offer cash incentives. This is if you meet certain transactions or criteria as referred by them to you.
Another interesting referral program is the Shopback Referral Program. A good way to explain what they do is with an example. Say you buy something by clicking through their link. You not only earn something for doing so. You can earn more, per referral, if you bring in new buyers.
So each time someone makes a purchase through the same link, you get paid. You could establish yourself as a social media influencer and tell people to use your personalized code during purchase. Or you can tell some of your friends to buy something to earn a few extra bucks.
It’s that simple!
7. Write An eBook

The world of fiction and non-fiction is expansive. Anybody who is either bored at home or traveling outdoors has a book to read. And considering the current events, staying indoors is necessary. That’s why more and more people are looking for new books to read.
That’s where your skills as a storyteller come in. You can sell your ebooks online. You can either use an established platform like Amazon Publishing to team up with. You can see your book for free and gain more via advertisements.
If people like reading your books, this is a great opportunity to write more. This can be the perfect side income that’s creative and fun too!
8. Become A Proofreader
If you’re passionate about reading as a past-time, this means you’re a good reader! And this means you can proofreader all kinds of documents for companies. This includes reviews, studies, research papers, etc.
You’d be surprised how popular this way to make money is in Malaysia. A proofreading business is foolproof, flexible, and productive. And if you’re good, you can make time to learn a new language to be able to proofread in multiple languages. This also opens up new doors in that you can translate books and articles too.
9. Learn Graphic Designing

Art is never boring. You may find your day job boring but imagine what graphic designing would feel like. You can learn right away! Or if you’re already proficient at Adobe illustrations or even InDesign, take up new jobs. There’s always scope to learn more on the job, as you go.
Look for upcoming vacancies of legitimate websites. Such as Indeed, Upwork, Career Jet. You can also publish your proposal on social media websites like Facebook and LinkedIn. There are plenty of graphic designing jobs opening up every week.
The average income for a graphic designer is somewhere between RM200 (for beginners). And RM5,000 (for experienced designers) per project. Once you get the hang of it, clients will always recommend you to other clients for more similar jobs.
10. Become A Virtual Assistant
As you already know, there are plenty of online businesses. Now the people who are in charge of keeping the online business going need assistants. As with traditional jobs, a boss needs an assistant.
The difference here is that you can be somebody’s virtual assistant. This means you have to do administrative work, answer emails, and take client calls or meetings. You can set up how many hours you’d like to work in the day.
Most businesses negotiate between part-time and full-time VA work. If you go part-time, you can do this. And finally, take up something more productive later in the day. It’s one of the most versatile ways to make money online as a side income.
The average earning potential for virtual assistants is RM500 to RM2,000 per month. This also depends on the number of hours you work per day. You get to decide how you’d like to get paid.
11. Assess and Use Mobile Games Online

You can make money using mobile games. This is a popular genre no matter where you look: games. And if you’re good at it, might as well earn some bucks over it. Some companies offer you cash rewards for testing new mobile games.
It helps if you have some game design skills or you’re a developer. You can provide honest, detailed feedback and also work on improving the user experience of the game.
For those of you who do not know how to code, you can use simple games. Like your run-of-the-mill drag-and-drop button games. The pay might be a little less but it’s definitely worth a shot.
The earning potential for such a job is somewhere between RM1,000 to RM, 100,000 per month. The maximum you can earn also depends on your skills as a gamer and a tester.
The best place to get started is from Buildbox. It allows competitive gaming in a casual and profitable manner. However, Buildbox has an initial setup cost which is $20 per month. This is a fee that if you take seriously, you can make up for it by using the app regularly.
12. Sell SEO Services
Are you good at SEO? Search Engine Optimization is one of the best ways to make money online. The thing is, you search online for everything. Be it a recipe, a new book, a news item, etc. etc.
And where do you go to search for stuff online – the mighty Google search engine. You can also use other search engines like Bing. They, too, have SEO ranking for most of their articles.
If you run an online business, for example, you’d want your articles or product page to rank high. To be able to do so, you need SEO services. That’s where your skills as a proficient and credible writer come in.
You can offer such companies your SEO services. This means writing content that targets the business’s potential audience. SEO not only generates more traffic, but it also increases sales and conversions.
This can be one of the most prominent ways of making money online. It can get you from RM1,000 to RM300,000 per month. But only if you learn the basics and advanced knowledge of SEO. If you show results, clients will follow!
13. Start Making YouTube Videos

This is a long process but it’s a fruitful one. YouTube provides influencers a great way to make money. This is via sponsored videos or advertisements. But that’s not all.
As a creator, you can open new opportunities for making more money. Especially in Malaysia, when the largest working population has a smartphone in their hands. So you can not only market yourself on YouTube but you can sell your ideal shop.
This means you can endorse new products or services. Create a platform where people interact with you about your shared interests. This improves credibility because then your audience knows you’re human. And not a merchandise robot.
You can endorse upcoming local brands, teach a new skill on YouTube, talk about various topics. The skills you need to get started as a YouTuber is video editing. The rest you can learn and improvise along the way.
Yes, you might have to buy a good video camera. But chances are you already have a smartphone with a high-quality microphone built-in.
For beginners, YouTube is not the ideal money-making platform. Once your viewing audience and followers grow, you can bank on it exponentially. For some people, YouTube-ing is a full-time business. Averaging a monthly income anywhere from RM1,000 to RM20,000.
14. Become A Transcriber
Some might consider this a menial job. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a profitable one. Transcribing audio files, videos, podcasts into text is useful. Even for those with basic grammar skills, you only have to type down what you hear.
You can also earn a few extra bucks if you’re good at editing. This means proofreading what you’ve transcribed and making it engaging and conversational to read. The salary for transcribers is less than translators. Because transcribing is a time-consuming job.
For every 60 minutes of audio, you take 6 hours to type it all down. This means you spend most of your time writing the conversation down in the day. The remaining 2 hours of your 8-hour workweek goes into editing or refining it.
You can find legitimate work on sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour.
15. Buy & Sell Domain Names
This may not be the most immediate source of income. But if you’re smart (or lucky) enough, it can make you thousands in the near future. In the business world, this is also known as “domain flipping.” And here’s how you do it.
Look for a verifiable domain buying website, like GoDaddy. You can buy as many domain names as you want. These are website names that you can purchase for $10 each. You can buy a .com website or a .org, .co, .in, .us, etc.
But the most popular and predominant of them all is .com websites.
Here’s where you have to be very smart about picking domains. Choose words that have the most potential. These can be short names from 2 to 6 letters. There have been instances that people have sold such domain names for millions.
If, by luck, a famous company happens to have that name. They buy the domain name from you for a high sum.
16. Sell Your Creative Pictures

I’m sure you’ve heard of Instagram? This visually-appealing and mood-setting app you can browse endlessly. What if I told you that you can sell your creative Instagram pictures to brands?
A website like SnapWire lets you create and sell beautiful pictures. You can build your own portfolio and allow buyers to buy your creative work. These may be stock images, videos, graphics, etc.
Becoming a creator of this kind is fulfilling and rewarding. You can take pictures of people, food, landscapes, events, and traveling. On a SnapWire, you can create authentic images based on what a client or brand needs.
This puts you in touch with potential advertising companies, famous brands, and other potential clients. So you get hired through the platform and the pay is both legitimate and prosperous.
Final Thoughts
You can do any of these things anywhere. As a stay-at-home parent or a student. If you’re looking to make some extra money in these uncertain times, don’t shy away. These flexible ways of making money online in Malaysia are incredible.
All you need is a fast laptop, a bank account, and an internet connection. You can become a full-time writer, translator, business owner, YouTuber, or even a teacher! The online world is generous and uninhibited.
The best part about making money online is that you can interact with people from all over the world. So even if you’re in Malaysia, the options are endless and universal.
These job opportunities require you to take matters into your hands. You don’t have to answer to a nagging boss or go to an office to work. Imagine how much money you’d save, on average, were you to work from home.
If you have other responsibilities, making money online is a good and steady income. So don’t limit yourself about what you can do to make more money. And do whatever suits your skills right away!