- ‘Get Paid To’ Sites
Websites such as Swagbucks and Opinion Outpost are excellent ways to earn money with little more than internet connection and spare time. This method follows the same idea as points cards (as you spend money, you gain ‘points’ that give you discounts for next time) except rather than earning points for spending money, you’ll earn money as you perform tasks such as taking surveys, quizzes and playing games. The beauty of this method is that it can be done literally anywhere with a stable internet connection. This method can also be used as little or as often as you wish.
There are, unfortunately, a number of fake ‘get paid to’ sites that will use your time and not pay you. To avoid this, I have listed a few legitimate sites that I use.
Swagbucks: Swagbucks is undoubtedly the largest online reward site. When signed up, you can earn money for doing practically anything you already do on your computer (shopping, gaming etc.). A definite first choice for me.
QuickRewards: Quickrewards does exactly what it says on the tin – gives you incredibly quick payments for simple tasks like the ones mentioned before. Payments are often made and received within just 20 minutes!
Opinion Outpost: Opinion Outpost is a great survey-taking site that’s been around since 1987 and is ranked highly on the top ten online survey sites.
2. Selling Books
Often people have a ton of used books lying around, gathering dust and waiting to inevitably be thrown out. BookScouter is a great online tool to exchange these books for cash. Using the ISBN number of your books, BookScouter will search the web for the site that will pay the most for your book. Then all you have to do is post the book and receive your payment. Simple!
3. Freelancing
Commonly associated with spending whole days in pyjamas and working from a laptop in coffee shops, freelancing put simply is finding work as an individual and controlling your own income with the hours you choose to work. This work can be of any kind depending on your skills. Below are the top sites I use for freelancing as a creative writer – bear in mind you do not have to use creative writing, you could freelance as a graphic designer, programmer – just about anything!
Upwork: Formerly known as eLance, Upwork is one of the best sites around when it comes to freelancing. It requires no startup costs and makes finding freelance jobs as easy as it can get. Upwork also offer a desktop app which you can use to track your projects and earnings, making it incredibly user-friendly. Jobs can also be selected based on experience level, hours available and payment.
Freelancer: With a whopping 15 million registered users, Freelancer is one of the most widely serviced sites around. Freelancer is, on the whole, very similar to Upwork but with a wider user base and thus more work available. Freelancer also offers a live chat feature to speak with clients.
PeoplePerHour: Similar to Upwork and Freelancer, PeoplePerHour is an online freelancing site that requires no registry fee and quick payments.
There are many people out there searching for people to write for them. Whether it be writing blog posts or articles, the following sites can help you put your writing skills to good work.
Constant Content: Constant content is an easy way to find people online searching for writers. All you have to do is sign up, apply for jobs and away you go. Simple.
Cracked: Cracked is best suited to those with an unusual perspective or a clever wit. Each original presentation you create could rewarded you $100!
Seeking Alpha: An online article-writing site focused on the financial market.
5. Selling Your Designs
Thankfully, making money through being a designer does not require you to be incredibly famous and designing outfits for the Kardashians. With the following sites you can simply create a design, choose where you’d like it to appear (t-shirts, must etc.), and make money from it. It’s that simple. You won’t even need to see the product, they’ll do almost all of the work for you!
Etsy: Etsy is a great platform for selling handmade and vintage items and is probably the best out there.
SpreadShirt: As the title suggests, SpreadShirt focuses its marketing on clothing. You, the designer, simply design articles of clothing and publish them. You’ll receive a cut of any purchases made on your items, as well as being able to make money from other people’s designs.
Zazzle: Zazzle has 300+ products that you can put your design onto and make money from.
6. Paid Tweets
Many businesses will pay celebrities thousands of dollars to advertise their products because of their ginormous fan bases & marketing potential. Although everyday Twitter users do not have this potential, you can still make a decent amount of money for advertising.
SponsoredTweets: SponsoredTweets is used by a number of very famous celebrities to make money on social media. You simply browse, choose which options suit you best and get paid to tweet. It’s really that easy.
PaidPerTweet.com: This site allows any Twitter user to earn up to $6 for single posts.
Twivert: Twivert uses the same pay-per-tweet concept but with the addition of boosting income for referring friends.
7. Second-hand Selling
I’ve made upwards of $500 this year just from selling unused items online. Just think, you could transform all of that clutter sitting in your attic, cupboards and under the bed into cash, as well as freeing up some space in your home. The following sites are my favourite for online-selling.
eBay: Without a doubt the largest online-selling platform, eBay has over 150 million active users. Almost all items that I personally have posted have sold successfully and I have received full payments for them with very little effort.
Craigslist: A little different to eBay, Craigslist is the largest online classified ad site. You can post ads for virtually anything, including your used items.
Amazon: Although not widely known, Amazon have a feature that allows users to sell products back to Amazon in return for gift cards
And there you have it! A full comprehensive list of ways to diversify your income and make money online with ease. I would recommend you use a number of these methods alongside each other as many of these are passive and thus will pretty much run themselves. Good luck, and thank you for your time.
