Ways to Make Money Online with Fibromyalgia

Last Updated on September 10, 2023 by melissanreynolds

When you are fighting a chronic illness, especially one which limits your energy levels, it makes working in an office or physical job difficult. We still need ways to make money with fibromyalgia. These are not “make a quick buck” ideas, these are “build a micro-business, it takes time and effort” ideas.

Affiliate notice: Some of these links are affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links, I will make a commission at no extra cost to you. It all helps me to keep making these resources. For more information see here.

Ways to Make Money with Fibromyalgia

Printables/Templates/Worksheets

I created an Etsy store to share the templates I had created and used for myself in my own journey – things like My Wellness Planner Kit. It took a lot of time – I created and fine tuned the templates, created the copy for the listing, researched keywords, created the images and then had to promote them on social media. This has created a small but constant stream of income. If you were focusing solely on it, dedicated to researching best practices and good keywords etc. then you could likely make much more.

It is always best to have your own place rather than live on someone else’s property if you can. So I recently switched my printables to my Payhip store. I highly recommend this for you if you want to sell printables, e-Books or anything else of that nature. Check out mine here.

Here is an article with a run down for creating and selling printables.

Online VA

One thing I haven’t done but had in the back of my mind for a long time was to be an online virtual assistant. You can choose your hours, work in the comfort of your own home and take on the type of work that interests you. It is time consuming to actually find the work and then do the work and take care of the background administration for your own company. It is the easiest way to make a full income if you can work enough hours. Here is an introductory video about it:

You could specialise in:

• Working with small business owners
• Helping bloggers
• Pinterest VA
• Social media manager
• Bookkeeping
• Website support
• Transcription services
• Ghostwriting
• and more!

Blogging

This blog has been around for several years now, when I started, I never imagined that I could make any income from it. As it has grown and people have told me how much they love it, I have had to look for ways to make some of my income from it to enable me to keep dedicating time to it. I did everything one thing at a time. Even creating blog posts is done step by step. So it is definitely a long-term plan.

I dabbled with a free site for a long time, but now I am finally settled with a host I like I am playing massive catch up. Starting with a host from the beginning and setting it up right is actually a time and energy saver. I recommend GreenGeeks (affiliate link)- I chose a three year subscription and got a very good price. In this blog post I share how I create posts step by step and some resources for getting started blogging.

As part of the blog I have the opportunity to do affiliate marketing. This means I can promote products and services I like and receive a portion of the cost. Like when I told you about MSM supplement for pain in this post. If you decide to try it and use my link, I make a tiny commission. Eventually it all adds up. The important thing here is that I would have written the post anyway, the potential to make a little bit of income is secondary.

Some people have made very successful blogs and make a good living from them, but that takes investment and a lot of energy. It is also usually in other niches (subject areas) because nobody goes into the chronic illness niche to make lots of money.

I spent a lot of time on trial and error, I created the Paced Guide to Starting a Blog for those of us who need to pace it out. It goes through setting your why, the right foundations, and then considers monetization angles.

Online courses

Do you have a good understanding of something? Perhaps your previous profession gave you some tools you can teach other people. I have lived, researched and actively worked to fight fibromyalgia – so I have created courses to help you do that too. My courses and books are shortcuts for you so it doesn’t take as long for you to figure it out. Do you have a subject like this?

I use Payhip for my courses and worksheets. I did a lot of research around the key players in online course software and chose this one after careful deliberation and a play with a couple of the other options. It has been easy to set up and use.

The 10 Minute Toolkit is an example:

Teaching /Live Services

Do you have something to teach or a service to perform in real life? Or live, virtually? You could do it with:

• English lessons (can be done virtually or in person)
• Reiki
• Massage therapy
• Nail technician
• Personal training (exercise)
• the list is endless!

The idea is for using your skills (or honing new ones) in a way that provides flexibility around your needs. Do you need to work early in the day? Have long breaks between clients/sessions? Do you come alive later in the day? Can you do a few hours over six days, or a couple of fuller days?

Write Books

One or two books doesn’t make that much money, but I didn’t write my books for that. It was a life dream to write a book. I had no idea I could achieve it while living with fibromyalgia and with two small children. With the help of my brother, I did it. My Pregnancy and Fibromyalgia book is still one of the only books written on the subject so it was necessary. I wrote my books very slowly as at the time of writing them I couldn’t sit at the computer for very long at all. They do bring in a small amount of income every month.

If you were able to write multiple books and focus on really marketing them – telling people they exist, then you could make much more.

Bonus: Create Journals or Other Physical Products

I learnt that I LOVE creating pretty but functional journals for people with chronic illness. You can create journals using print on demand services. This means that they won’t get printed until they have been purchased. This way you don’t have to outlay costs for printing large batches or worry about postage.

I use Lulu and Amazon.

I’ve created the Get On Top of Your Life Journal (Paced Planning & Symptom Tracking), My Foggy Brain To Dos, My Gratitude Journal, My Daily Health Log and much more.

This would be a wonderful micro business if it was the only thing I did and could therefore focus on it.

Also see: 19 ways to make working easier with chronic pain and fatigue post

Coaching

Are you an expert in something? Or do you have a passion for helping others to achieve their goals?

Research around coaching for fibromyalgia is in its infancy but the initial findings are that it is enormously beneficial.

Freelance Writing

Freelance writer and teacher Elna Cain is a great resource for getting started in this field. She has a free introductory course. Writing articles for online businesses in a great way to make super flexible income. You do have to watch out for places that will pay appropriately for your content or you will end up writing yourself into the ground just to make a decent income. I have only written a few because I haven’t had the time to focus on finding the places to pitch to that pay well.

You Tube

I have been making videos for years, mostly as a way to add to the blog posts (because some people find it easier to listen or watch than read). In all this time I have not hit the metrics required to monetize the content, so I don’t personally make money this way. If you are prepared to focus and work at it, you can make some money this way. Gillian Perkins is a great resource for learning about using YouTube to generate income:

E commerce store

This is kind of like an Etsy store except that you host it on your own website and then drive all of your own traffic there. If you create your own products, this is a great way to do it. You can also host affiliate products in your store. It is just another way to present affiliate products to your audience. If you genuinely like the products you are recommending it is a great way to make income while serving your audience (reducing the time it takes to find a good product for a particular solution).

Membership site

Have you been providing something to people for free, like a blog, YouTube channel, supportive group etc.? Perhaps people have been telling you they love your work, think it’s valuable and would like a way to support you?

You can include bonus content in the form of videos, blog posts, downloads and more. You can simply provide more access to you. Or create a private group where you help people more in depth.

Yoga for the Chronic Life virtual yoga studio is a blend of a service, course and membership site – it is a library of yoga created specifically for people with chronic pain and fatigue. You can check out how that works here.

I hope that something here has peaked your interest for some ways to make money with fibromyalgia. Is there something you do that isn’t listed here?