Despite the improvements made in technology over the years, money transfer remains a real pain point for many users. This is especially true when you consider international money transfers. Some countries don’t support popular payment services such as PayPal, leaving people to go for conventional services like Western Union. That’s where Stripe comes in. To put it simply, Stripe is a global credit card processor that nearly anyone can use to receive payments from across the globe. Using Stripe payments can also keep the pace with the speed of services you might provide.
Stripe can be used in many ways to earn money online. Of course, you won’t be using Stripe itself to make money, but rather using it as a payment facility. Stripe does charge a small fee – 2.9% + $0.6 per transaction. This can be a meaningful amount of money but for the convenience Stripe offers it’s certainly worth it.
Let’s look at some of the ways that you can use Stripe to facilitate your online payments:
3 Ways to Make Money Online Using Stripe
1. Subscription-based Services
For people who offer monthly subscription-based services, Stripe allows its users to setup custom monthly recurring payments. So for example you’ve got a software that people use and you’d like to bill them monthly for it, you can do it through the Stripe API. It’s not a completely easy thing to do – you’ll need to write code using the Stripe API to accomplish this.
The good thing is that Stripe allows its users to use the recurring-payments method even at the Basic plan level, which has no cost. A basic tutorial on how to setup subscription-based payments can be found here.
2. Selling Products
With the increasing popularity of drop-shipping, it has become incredibly easy to setup your own e-commerce store. Services such as Shopify and WooCommerce allow for a pretty hassle-free way of creating a complete online store. But processing payments for an international customer base remains a pain point that is prevalent in these small e-commerce sites.
Using the global reach of Stripe’s credit card processing systems, online store owners can setup a payment gateway that will accept any credit card. Using a combination of drop-shipping and Stripe for payment processing, you can earn start a good income stream from the convenience of your home. Just don’t forget to market the products you sell!
3. Freelancing
The gig economy has given rise to freelancers – people who work on a per-project basis to maximize their earnings and time available for leisure. Really, freelancing is all about the flexibility and scalability it offers to individuals who want to escape the 9-5 jive. But freelancing has its fair share of complications. Freelancers usually work with clients from across the globe, and payments can become a real nuisance if services like PayPal don’t work.
Stripe can be used in a very creative way by freelancers. All you need to do is setup a website and add a Stripe payment gateway to it. Using the gateway, clients no matter where they are will be able to complete payments simply by using their credit cards. Now that is real convenience.