Back in the days, the only way you could earn money, was to put on your clothes and go to work. However, with the internet, it’s now possible to earn money from home in your pajamas. There are million ways to earn legit money, but some require a bit of expertise, but in this article we’ll focus on ways to earn money online with no skills nor experience.
Earn money by playing games
Whoever said gaming is a waste of time, couldn’t be more wrong. Nowadays you can actually be a pro-gamer, earning money on gaming. I know it sounds like some adolescent dream growing up – being paid for gaming is like a dream loads of kids have fantasized about, and now it’s actually possible. It might be for the only few, but there are other ways of making money on spending hours and hours on gaming. Every time a new game is released, it has gone through lots of user-test, and you can be one of those testers. For any big game company, it’s crucial that the game is user-friendly and any kind of bug, errors and crashes have to be found before launching the game. Of course companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, EA etc. have their own game testers in-house, but they also hire people outside as testers. You need to be a skilled gamer with experience in console and PC gaming software and hardware. Furthermore, you need some writing skills to complete the game test. Take a look on sites such as GameCloud.com and game-tester-jobs.com, but also sites like GameShastra.com and GarageGames.com are often looking for new testers.
Domain flipping
Buying and reselling a domain with great profit might seem like going for an adventure and find hidden treasure in the sea, or winning the big price at roulette in the casino. But you’ll find people who’s been buying domains for a couple of bucks and selling them again for millions of dollars. With a little preparation you can be one of them. Of course it’s not every day a domain is sold for millions but you sure can make some cash on reselling a domain. First you need to narrow your focus. It’s an advantage to take a starting point in businesses you are a bit familiar with. Maybe you have worked with education, or knows a lot about car sales. Always start with something you’re a bit familiar with. This will make it a lot of easier. Try to think of something you could imagine would be a great domain name for a business selling a special product or service. On sites like Sedo.com and SnapNames.com you can auction domain names and be lucky to sell them with great profit. On these sites you’re certain you’ll get your money, and the sites only use secure methods of payment. Of course you’ll pay some percentage to the site for your sale, but it can still be profitable. These sites have millions of customers from all over the world, so by using these site you’ll have an easy global marketplace right in front of you.
Cash-back sites
Imagine you could get paid for shopping? Now you can with the great amount of cash-back sites online. There are loads of apps and sites, where all you have to do is to create an account, and every time you spend money on a website or in a store, you’ll get a certain percentage of your spending back. So basically you’ll earn money on spending money on things you would buy anyway. I suppose that’s the dream of any credit card junkie. Imagine you really want those new pants you’ve seen online – just make a purchase and within a few weeks or so, you’ll get up to 10% of the amount back. Now imagine you’ve gone grocery shopping, and are buying all kinds of food and beverage. Wait a few weeks or so, and you’ll get up to 5 % of the amount back into your account. The percentage differs from site to site and from store to store.
You’ll find cash-back websites and browser extensions, that will alert you whenever you are shopping on a site, that are a part of the cash-back programme, or you can get smartphone apps that are easy to use. Some of the more popular cash back sites include TopCashback.com, which is great, if you’re a regular user of for instance Amazon, where you’ll get up to 10% back. Another site is SwagBucks.com where you’ll get up to 11% back from Expedia, where you can book flights and hotels. Some cashback sites take an annual fee from your earnings, so always make sure to read the terms of condition.
Sell your own photos
If you have the slightest talent for photographing, you can earn a decent amount of money on selling your images as stock photography. There’s are great demand for high quality and affordable stock photos being used on websites and blogs all over the world. Some types of images are always popular such as great business images, food images, nature, and so on. Start by taking a look on sites like iStockPhoto.com, Shutterstock.com, or Getty Images via Flickr and see what’s the most downloaded images. Then you’ll have an idea about what kind of pictures people are demanding. Now take some great photos. You might need to use a bit time on Photoshop afterwards, but great images can be quite lucrative. The easiest way is to sell your images on the sites mentioned above. All you have to do is upload your images and wait for the money to roll in. However, most sites offer only 20-60% royalty to the photographer per sale, so it might take a while to make some big cash this way. But be sure to read the terms of condition, because the percentage of royalties differs from site to site. Another option is to sell your own stock photos on your own website. With WordPress you have to opportunity to install the plugin Sell media and you’ll be able to start selling your images right away. There a great amount of competition on the market, so you might need to keep the prices quite low to be competitive with the large Stock photography sites. However, you’ll be getting 100% of each sale.
Start an Etsy Shop
If you’re already spending time on being crafty or likes working with Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, you can earn a hell of lot of money on starting an Etsy Shop. On Etsy people all over the world sells homemade furniture or clothes, illustrations like invitations or customized things for weddings or parties. People also sell vintage clothing and homemade cosmetics. Etsy is a great way to make money, if you like to be creative and use some time on opening an Etsy Shop. At Etsy you sign in to open a shop. You need to come up with a name and take some photos of your products. It’s also important to make sure to get the description just right. It can be difficult to price your products in the beginning. How much does it cost to make the product, how much time do you spend on making it, and how much will it cost to ship to the customer?! Try to compare your product with similar products on Etsy and base your price on their prices. After a while you can regulate the prices. Also try stalking your competitors to see how they describe their products. Of course you should never copy/paste their description, but it will give you an idea about, what might be important to include in your description. Now sit back and wait for your very first sale. Etsy will take 3.5% in transaction fee, and for every product you’ll list they take a very small listing fee. Despite that people are actually making a quite nice living on selling their homemade things on Etsy.com.
Sell your old stuff
As the phrase says: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” and with the internet you can sell your unwanted crap, and things you never use and earn a great amount of money. We all have way too much stuff and with a little time spending on organizing, you’ll probably find loads of things and clothing you haven’t used for a long time, and probably plans on never using again. There’re different online marketplaces where you can sell used items. Just think about EBay and Etsy which are world known marketplaces perfect for selling your old goods. But did you also know, that social media are great places for selling your old things? On Facebook you can join one of the million groups, where you can sell your things, and on Instagram you can make an account just for selling your old stuff.
Find all the things you want to sell and take some pictures of the products. Sometimes it’s a good idea to take photos of smaller details or minor damages to make sure, the buyer knows the exact condition of the product. When pricing your things, you can choose to have a fixed price or give the buyer an opportunity to make a bid. Know the retail price and try finding other selling similar used product, when pricing your things. That way, you won’t sell your things too cheap nor will you risk not selling your things, because your price is way too high compared to the market. Used electronics, musical instruments, designer clothes, and antiques can often be sold for a great amount of money, and they are often easily sold. Sites like EBay, Etsy and Amazon will of course take some percentage of your transactions, but it’s also sites that secure you’ll get the money for your sold things. On social media you’ll get 100% of your sales, but you can risk problems with buyer and the exchange of money.
Freelance writing
Are you in any way talented with words, freelance writing is a great way of earning some extra bucks. Online you find lots of article marketplaces for serious freelance writes. On sites such as TextBroker.com, FreelanceWritingGigs.com, ProBlogger.com you start by creating an account and complete a competency test. After that you’ll be rated, and soon you’ll be ready to start looking for writing assignments. The better you are writing; the more money you can make. To get some assignments you need some samples to show your writing style. Show those samples on your account at TextBroker.com etc. Writing styles differs from person to person, and being able to showcase some of your work, is a necessity to get some freelance writing jobs. When proposing for an assignment, attach a very short writing sample similar to what they are looking for. It’ll give them an idea about, how you would be able to solve their writing assignment.
Another option is to pitch your writing idea directly to companies you think could use your writing skills. It might sound daunting, and you need to be confident about your talents, but having 2-3 companies where you get freelance writing assignments, will give you some great cash. When having some permanent companies, you can risk periods of time where there won’t be much work. At site such as TextBroker.com, Problogger.com, and FreelanceWritingGigs.com there will always be writing assignments. Everyday new assignments are ordered, and you’ll always be able to find an assignment to apply for.
Website tester
When companies launch new websites or even when a blogger opens a new blog, it’s crucial that they are user-friendly, because they risk users leaving their site due to difficult navigation and bad content and design. As a website tester, you’ll get money for testing different kinds of websites. You’ll have the opportunity to give your opinion about any random site. A bit of equipment is required, such as an updated laptop, high speed internet and some sites require a webcam, a microphone, and a tablet or smartphone. Moreover, you need to speak English and being able to write a small report after each completed test. Most tests take from 10-25 min, and you’ll be paid an average of $10 per test. To use most sites, like for instance UserTesting.com, TestingTime.com, TryMyUI.com you need to complete a few sample test or pass a qualification test before receiving any assignments. Most sites are open to any global residents – you just need and active PayPal account. To make some great money you need to sign up for as many testing companies as possible. Every time you’ve finished an assignment companies rate their testers, and testers with the highest scores tend to get the better paying assignments, so make sure to do your very best every time.
Paid surveys
Paid surveys are by far the easiest way to make money online. It doesn’t require any skills what so ever. All you have to do is answering some questions and share your thoughts on a survey. You can do it at home from your laptop, your smartphone, or from your tablet and each survey won’t take much longer than 15 minutes to complete – some even less. Companies wants to know, what you as a consumer think about their products or services, and they want to pay you for knowing your opinion. These informations are very valuable and can be used for their future developments, and to improve their products or services. There are lots of sites offering online surveys, but most sites have a limited number of surveys each month for each person. By that saying, you need to sign up to as many of those sites as possible, if you want to make some serious cash. Sites such as MySurvey.com, OnePoll.com, and SwagBucks.com are all well-known survey sites, that all have positive reviews from users, but there are loads of survey sites online, so take some time and find as many sites as possible and sign up. However, if the paying sound too good to be true, it probably is. There are a great number of fake sites, so before signing up, check reviews online. Never pay for subscription to any online survey site. There’re so many free online survey sites, which has great reviews, so don’t spend money to make money.
Make money searching the web
You’re probably already spending time searching the internet. With Qmee.com you can make money by doing, what you already are doing. It doesn’t require any special skill or changes in your behaviour. Qmee.com is an add-on to your browser you install, and when searching on Google, Bing or Yahoo there may be a few sponsored results alongside your search. Also when shopping online on Amazon and Google will get rewarded in cash, saving coupons and special deals. On the left side of your browser window, you’ll find the sponsored links, and when any of these sponsored links interest you, you simply click on the links and earn money. One of the best things about Qmee.com is that there is no limit to, how much you can earn nor any minimum cash out amount either. Just link your user to your PayPal account, and you can cash instantly.
Another way on making money searching the web is by installing Google ScreenWise. It’s an add-on to your browser, and whenever you’re use Google it gathers demographic informations on you and your searches. After that the data is sold to market research companies. This might sound a bit daunting, but hey, Google is already using your informations and search-history, and by installing ScreenWise, at least, you’re paid for it.