75 Legitimate Ways to Earn Money at Home (Updated for 2017)

Last Updated March 2, 2017

We can’t all get a second or part-time job to make more money.
For those who can, it’s great!
But what about the rest of us?
Pregnant women, stay at home moms/dads, short/long term disabled folks, new and nursing moms, and of course, the millions who can’t find a job much less a second one?
The good news is, we have options, too!
Thanks to the internet and technology, you can earn a little side money anytime from almost anywhere – at home on your couch, doctor’s waiting room, airport, while waiting in line…
Before the days of the Internet, making more money meant doing one of these things:

• getting a second or a part-time job
• cutting grass
• babysitting
• waiting tables
• washing cars
• cleaning houses
• etc

Thankfully, today there are a wide variety of ways to make more money.
You know what’s the best part?
The best part is that you already have the skill and knowledge that’s required for most of these opportunities.
Sure, you won’t get rich, but you will make enough money to make it worth your while.
Now, for those who don’t mind going the extra mile, some of these options can lead to earnings that can actually surpass what a teenager may earn working at a traditional fast food job.
Let’s get started…

1. Make money online with Swagbucks

Since you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume you’re internet savvy and know your way around.
You probably read your emails a few times a day, watch a few videos, visit a few interesting sites, shop…

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get paid for doing these things that you already do anyway?
Well, there is a company that does pay people for doing exactly the things you do every day online.
It’s called Swagbucks, and millions of people (probably some of your friends and family, too) are already using it to earn some extra cash.
Swagbucks is an online reward site, one of the very few sites in that category that gets an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
They have paid their members $94,247,401 in free online gift cards, to date.
You can make money doing almost anything you do online, including:

• Searching the web
• Playing games
• Shopping (you earn cash back)
• Taking surveys
• Doing easy tasks like website testing
• Answering polls

I’ve been using SB for over 6 years now and I have earned more gift cards that I can count.
It’s an easy and fun way to earn a little money without doing much but the usual stuff you do online already.
By the way, if you join Swagbucks now, you’ll get a $5 sign up bonus.

2. Help Nielsen make the internet smarter

Nielsen (yes, the same company that tracks TV ratings), will actually pay you to install their app on your cell phone or PC. And they’ll pay you for as long as you keep the apps installed.
Why would they pay you for that?
These apps gather data that helps companies better understand how people like you and I use the web both on traditional PCs and Mobile devices. These are things like how long people browse a website, what kind of search term they use to find the site, what time of the day they use the site, etc.
As an active member, you can win up to $1,000 each month! Plus, you can earn more by participating in their surveys.

3. Ditch Google for Bing

Google is the giant when it comes to the search and that means millions of dollars for the company.
That’s why Microsoft is trying to increase the usage of their own search engine, Bing.
And to get more users to search using Bing, Microsoft is now willing to pay you every time you do a search on Bing.
All you have to do is sign up with BingRewards, then simply use Bing to do your daily searches. Each search earns you rewards that can be cashed out for gift cards (including Amazon).
You can sign up with BingRewards here.

4. Watch videos via Inbox Dollars

If you’re one of the millions who watch online videos almost every day, this is for you.
InboxDollars pays you for watching videos on their site.
The catch?

The catch is that these videos have ads!
Advertisers pay InboxDollars to put ads in the videos and that’s how ID is able to pay people for watching these videos.
I’m sure you see ads when you watch videos on YouTube, but you don’t get paid, but here you do.
It doesn’t end there, there are tons of other ways to make cash on InboxDollars – taking surveys, playing games, shopping, doing offers, and much more.
The best part is that they’ll actually give you $5 free just for signing up.
Sign up here to get your $5 bonus.

5. Write an article or two for these sites

Writing articles for money is one of the simplest and fastest ways to start making money online.
You don’t need to be an accomplished writer either. As long as you can write decently, you can get paid to write.
Here are a few good sites that’ll pay you to write for ’em:

1. TopTenz
   They publish “Top 10” style articles–Top 10 Ways to Save Money, Top 10 Cities to Live in, etc. They’ll pay you a minimum of $50 for every article you submit that gets published.
2. The Dollar Stretcher
   They’ll pay you $50 for a 500-word article. They like articles related to personal finance.
3. WOW! Women On Writing
   This is a global magazine that is centered around women’s issues. They pay between $50 to $150 for each article you write.
4. Matador
   Matador is an independent travel publisher, and as you might have imagined, they accept articles related to travel. Their standard pay for a single article is $40, however, longer and more interesting articles are paid way more than $40.
5. Scary Mommy
   This is a parenting website with tips and guides for parents. You can make up to $100 per article.

6. Earn cash buying & selling used books via BookScouter

We all have books we know we are done with. Now you can have your books collect cash for you instead of dust!
BookScouter searches over 40 book buy-back sites to find you the one that pays the most for any given book.
Simply visit the site, enter the ISBN number of the book, and the System will automatically tell you how much your book is worth and which site pays the most.
If you like the number, you’ll send the book to that site via a prepaid envelope, and receive your money a few days later.
You can actually scale this up by finding cheap or even free books from family and friends, garage sales, thrift stores, etc, and selling them for high prices with the help of BookScouter. I know one person who has built a reliable small side business doing exactly that.

7. Sell your closet

Well, not literally your closet, but the content of it!
Ok, not ALL the content, just the ones you don’t need or want anymore.
If you’re even remotely like my girlfriend, then you have a closet (in her case, a room designated as one) full of clothes that you no longer wear.
Good thing you can sell them on a site called ThredUp.
They’ll pay you $2-$30 for items from major brands such as Banana Republic, Gap, J.Crew, and many others.
Simply put your clothes in a box, ship the box, and get your cash.
For a faster alternative, you can try local consignment stores such as Plato’s Closet where they’ll pay you cash for your brand name clothes right there on the spot.

8. Take online surveys via SurveySavvy

This is arguably one of the most popular ways to make money online.
Online surveys are one of the tools that the multi-billion dollar market research industry uses to gather feedback from consumers that will help businesses and manufacturers improve or develop new products.
Here is how it works:
You sign up with a survey site and fill out your profile.
Then whenever there is a study that matches your profile and demographic, you get invited to participate.
At that point, it is up to you whether you want to actually answer the survey questions or not. If you do decide to participate, you answer a few dozen questions about the product/service/topic of the survey.
Once you are done with it, your account gets credited with the promised amount.
Some survey sites pay cash (PayPal or Check). But most give you points for each survey which you can then redeem for cash or gift cards.
Surveys usually take between 10 to 40 minutes. And you can earn anywhere from $0.50 to $50, with the average pay being around $3.
Getting paid to take surveys is a fun way to earn a little side cash and free gift cards, while at the same time impacting the development and/or improvement of the products and services that you use in your daily life.

A few trusted survey sites you can try are:

1. MySurvey
2. Ipsos
3. Valued Opinions
4. PineCone Research

9. Get paid to find coupons

If you’re anything like me, before you buy anything online you open another tab and search for coupons.
That’s great. You save a little money.
But what if I told you not only can you save money, but you can also make money for finding those coupons?
I’m serious!
There is a company called CouponChief that will actually pay you for sharing your best coupon with other members of the community.
Here is how to get started:

1. Visit Couponchief.com/pays2share.
2. Fill out the registration form to become a member (it’s free)
3. Then, click the “Submit A Coupon” tab on the right side of your dashboard to submit your coupon(s).
4. For every member that uses your coupon, you earn cash.
5. Once you have enough cash in your account, ask for a payment.
6. Receive your cash in your PayPal account.

10. Get paid to shop via eBates

If you shop online, you’d be crazy not to use a site that gives you cash back for shopping through them.
I mean, if you’re going to buy something anyway, you might as well go through a channel that gets you some of that money back.
And eBates is by far one of the best cash back reward sites out there.
You can earn cashback on almost anything you purchase, from food and clothes to electronics, tools, and everything in between.
Signup with eBates here to get a free $10 gift card.

11. Fatten your wallet by slimming down

We all know that every single year, the top new year resolution is losing weight/getting in shape.
We also know that a few weeks into the new year, most of us have already forgotten about that resolution.
Maybe what we all just need is a little more motivation than just looking awesomely sexy–perhaps some of that green may do.
Well, you’d be happy to know that there are a few companies that’ll actually pay you for being healthy.
HealthyWage and DietBet are two companies that’ll let you place bets and earn cash if you actually do lose weight.
You can sign up for free. Then install their apps and start placing bets. Reach your goal and you earn money (money comes from all of those who didn’t reach their goals).

10. Answer some trivia questions

We all watch TV, but wouldn’t it be great if you could actually make some money from your favorite shows?
It would be great, and what’s’ even greater is that there actually is a site that pays you for answering trivia questions about the TV shows you watch.
It’s called RewardTV.
You earn rewards by answering trivia questions about all kinds of TV shows–Game of Thrones, Mad Man, SNL, Vikings, and so on.
If you’re looking for an extra $10-$20 a month while having fun, signup with RewardTV and start earning.

11. Scan your groceries

There is a new app from one of the market research industry’s giants, Nielsen, that pays you to scan stuff you buy at the supermarket.
Join the site and install the app. Then you can either request a free scanner that they’ll send you, or you can use your smartphone to scan the barcode off of the grocery items you purchase.
You earn rewards every time you scan. You can then redeem your earnings for all kinds of stuff–electronics, household merchandise, toys, and even jewelry.
Long time participants also earn entries to sweepstakes with prizes that include cash, brand new cars, vacations, and more.
If you like to try it, visit the site first, register for free, then install their app and start scanning and earning.

12. Review movies

This would the best job for anyone who loves movies. Unfortunately, finding one that can get you consistent gigs is very hard to do.
The closest you can get to being paid for watching movies is through market research companies that conduct studies about movies and TV shows, where you watch a show or a movie (normally just some parts of it), and then answer a few questions about it.
I haven’t been able to find a market research company that is only dedicated to those studies. However, from my experience, SurveySpot is one of the survey panels that conducts the most movie related surveys.

13. Take pictures on your phone

There is an app called Foap that pays you for the pictures you take using your smartphone.
Simply install the app and register yourself with Foap (which is free by the way). Then upload pictures you snap on your phone to Foap’s marketplace.
Every time someone buys one of your pictures, you make $5.
So, a single picture can earn you an unlimited amount of cash, and that’s all passive income. Once you take the picture and upload it to the site, you don’t have to do anything else, but collect your money.
Keep in mind, though, your pictures have to be quality and they must get approved by the Foap team before it gets added to the marketplace.

14. Be an at-home politician

If you care about social and political issues, you are going to love this.
There are a few sites that offer work at home opportunities that are right up your alley. Two of the most well-known sites are the DDC Advocacy and the Next Wave Advocacy, LLC.
They organize political campaigns related to the day’s issues to raise awareness and push for new laws. They then pay people like you and me to call constituents or advocates who may also be interested in the issues at hand.
You’ll call these people from home and basically help them call or write to Members of Congress.
You’ll be working somewhere between 20 to 25 hours each week and earning between $12 to $15 an hour or so.

15. Listen to & rate music

If you are a music lover (who isn’t?), you’ll also love this opportunity.
There are a few sites out there that’ll actually reward you for listening to all kinds of songs and music in a variety of genres, and rating them.
That’s all there is to it!
Needless to say, you won’t much, but it’s a great way to earn a few dollars enjoying music, and best of all, discovering new artists you may have never listened to before.
MusicXRay is one site that you can earn potentially $1 for every song you rate for them.

16. Give advice

If you are the one in your circle of family and friends who people turn to when they need advice and help with everyday stuff, you could make some extra money by becoming a paid advice giver.
Ammas is a site that pays experts and everyday people with a wide variety of knowledge to share their knowledge and know-how with other people.

17. Get paid to tweet

If you’re active on Twitter and have a lot of followers, this the gig for you.
PaidPerTweet is the site that you can sign up with for free and earn money by tweeting messages from their advertisers to your followers.
The pay varies from a few dollars to upwards of thousands of dollars per tweet.
Obviously, the more well-known you are and the more reach you have, the more are paid for each tweet.

18. Get paid to click

This is one of the oldest and most famous ways of earning pennies online.
I don’t really recommend this since the amount of money you earn for spending so much time clicking on links is just too little to make this worthy of your time. But since this post is about available money making options, I am including it here.
Basically, you are paid pennies for clicking on ad links. The page opens up and you keep it open for a few seconds and you earn your cash. Not much work, but not much earning potential either.
If you’re interested, check out Clixsense.

19. Let your computer pay your internet bill

Gomez PEER is a research company that pays users for installing their app. This app gathers information as you browse the web. It doesn’t collect any sensitive or personally identifiable information. It mostly collects data related to the usage of different websites.
This information is then used by those websites to improve their site and make it more user-friendly.
All you have to do is install the app and go on about your normal day.
For every month you keep the app installed, you earn cash.

20. Become a (mock) juror

Online mock trials are used by lawyers and representatives to get a feel for their case and how an actual jury may react to their case.
And in order to get people to participate as jurors in these fake online trials, they’ll pay you.
Interested in becoming a mock online juror?
Try eJury.com.

21. Help students with their homework

If you can help students with their homework, they can help you with your bank account!
There are many homework help and tutoring websites out there. One of the biggest ones being Student of Fortune.
Students post their questions, and experts (you) earn a certain amount of cash for helping them with answers.
There is also a cash incentive for the best available help or advice. If you are still pretty much in touch with schoolwork, this can be a great avenue to earn some money.
Answers posters have claimed that they could make a decent living out of this platform, with the top performer reportedly to have made $127,000 a year.

22. Text to make money

More and more people are using their smartphones for everything, including finding answers to questions they come across in their daily lives.
A site like ChaCha makes it quick and easy for those looking for quick answers to get them within seconds via text.
As an expert, you earn money for answering every question.

23. Work from home as a nurse

This company, Fonemed, will only accept professionally registered nurses. Members are expected to provide triage and medical information over the phone.
It will be helpful if you also happen to be a Canada or U.S. resident as their clients are largely doctors and especially pediatricians based in North America.
Your job is to attend to the phones after office hours (so expect to work in the evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays).
Fonemed says a typical nurse can make $27 per hour.

24. Become a professional mystery shopper

Mystery shopping has been around for the longest time. It is a common practice for businesses to send out anonymous individuals to check out restaurants and outlets.
After all, the feedback gathered will serve the useful purpose of products and services improvement.
While there are many different takes on this practice, what is beyond doubt is that the ubiquitous nature of the Internet has further expanded this industry.
Typically, mystery shoppers will be dispatched to do their shopping or dining out, and they are to report back their experience.
Subject to the sort of task assigned to you, the reward varies greatly in the range from $40 to $300.
Naturally, the company involved will pick up the bill (only after you send to them) resulted from the corresponding assignment.
One nice thing is that you may be able to take ownership of the stuff that you are asked you to buy.
You can use MysteryShop.org to find companies to work for.

You can also try these companies:

1. Best Mark
2. Market Force
3. IntelliShop

25. Turn your pictures into cash

If photography happens to be your thing and you are good in capturing that special moment, you can trade your skills and expertise with a number of stock photography sites. Basically what you do there is to upload the shots that you have taken.
Every time a user takes a fancy about your picture and download it, you will earn a commission on that image.
This moneymaking option is a slight departure from most of the stuff I mentioned here. It is special because it represents one of the few passive income options online.
Remember you just need to do the upload once, and your picture may just bring in the cash repeatedly.
Of course, you’ll need to be good with your camera, and have that peculiar instinct to spot images that are going to appeal to the masses.

Want to give it a try? Try these sites:

1. Getty Images
2. Shutterstock
3. 123RF
4. Dreamstime

26. Turn the latest trends into cool t-shirts

You know how when something major happens, suddenly there are all kinds of merchandise related to that issue that come out? Well, instead of buying those items, you can be on the other side of it and make money by turning the latest trends and happening into cool t-shirts.
And you don’t even have to spend a dime to get started. Here is how you can use a site called TeeSpring to make money designing and selling t-shirt without actually dealing with printing, shipping, and handling, payments, etc.
Visit TeeSpring and create an account for free.
Then use their easy to use online tool to design a T-shirt. You can use images or text with your design.
Once you have created your T-shirt, set a price for it and set a goal for the number of Ts you want to sell within a certain period of time.
Let’s say your goal is to sell 100 Ts in 2 weeks.
You can promote your product anywhere you like (on your Facebook page, school, at work, etc).
If 100 T-shirts are ordered within the 2 weeks time frame you set, they’ll be printed by the company and shipped to the buyers. The company then will pay you your share.
If, however, you don’t reach the goal, nothing happens. None of the buyers get charged anything and no T-shirt will be printed. You don’t lose anything either.
Best of all, you can create another campaign and either try to sell the same T-shirt again, or you can design new ones.
You can do all of this without spending a single penny. The company does all the work. All you have to do is design the T-shirt and send people to your T-shirt sale page to buy it.

27. Flip free stuff for cash on Craigslist

No one in his or her right mind would argue against the popularity of Craigslist. And it is this immense popularity that we are targeting to find paid work opportunity.
Of course, you have to be proactive here, as no venture, no gain!
The most glaring opportunity is presented in the CL “free” section. You just have to go there and pick up the free items, which you will, in turn, sell them back for a neat profit.
To further illustrate my point: there will always be used items waiting to be discarded; they can be some old furniture like tables and chairs. The previous owners will be simply too happy that you are going to take them away without giving them a bill.
So, what will you do?…
Collect them, restore them and perhaps give them a new look. Now you have a collection of merchandise that can be sold for some real cash.

28. Drive your car

Cars are like moving billboards, and advertisers know this. So they pay people to wrap their car in ads.
You can actually make up to $1000 a month or more (depending on your vehicle) simply driving your car as you’d normally.
Call or visit a company like Adz in Motion and apply. Once accepted, they’ll come out and wrap your car with the ad.
Then you drive as you normally would and collect your paycheck once a week, which can be anywhere from $50 to $500 or more.

Try these car advertising agencies:

1. Free Car Media
2. Driven Media

29. Take part in Focus Groups

There is not much difference between paid surveys and focus groups. So, if you can handle surveys, you can handle focus groups.
One basic distinction between them is that focus group often calls for your physical presence. It is commonly held in major cities where participants congregate in some room or office.
You will join your fellow participants at the focus group, and the focus will be revolving around some issues related to some products or services.
The payout for focus groups is relatively generous. Participants stand to make between $60 and $250, depending on whether it is an hourly engagement or whole day exercise.
2020Research is one of the best companies out there that conducts online focus groups you can participate in.
You can also find local focus groups that are held in physical locations, by contacting your local universities and market research companies.
For a list of 200+ legitimate focus group companies, check out our list of legit focus groups.

30. Review software

If you have a critical mind that is slanted toward software development, SoftwareJudge will pay you for reviewing their collection of software.
The expectation is that you do your review diligently and be honest to report back on your observations and opinions.
The upside is that once trust is developed, you will get more opportunities to review software, thus progressively making more money.

31. Answer questions

Answer sites work on the premise that knowledge is not proprietary and they encourage their members to actively share their expert knowledge and understanding of subjects that they are familiar with.
Your job here is to explore which subject area can be interesting and, which you have intimate knowledge on.
By structuring your expertise into some form of answers or advises to people who would like to learn more about the subject, you will get paid.
If interested, try a site like Just Answer.

32. Do customer service at home

Outsourcing is all the rage among national retailers nowadays. The business function that they normally contract out is their customer service operation.
There are some great outsourcing companies that specialize in this field, with Alpine Access and Working Solutions being the two most prominent service providers in the industry.
These companies are not dependent on an army of staff on their payroll to fulfill their obligations. Instead, they often turn to part-timers or home-based workers to carry out the work.
These outside representatives, usually have to commit to 20 to 40 hours work week, and the responsibility includes taking calls for large and small companies.
The compensation goes by the hour and the average rate is about $9. However, it is not uncommon for agents to make as much as $13 in an hour when you factor in the bonuses and incentives.
For project-based jobs, it can be up to $30 for an hour.

33. Translate your bilingual ability to cash

It is always helpful that you are comfortable in more than one language. If you are effectively bilingual (or even more), use this privilege to make some decent money.
There will always be a healthy demand from businesses and individuals to translate documents, files, conversations, and anything else that calls for a translator.
Proz.com is one of the best places you can use to get paid for translating documents, files, conversations and more.

34. Test mobile apps

You may have decided early that application development for smartphones may not be for you. But there is still a part to play in this related field — mobile app testing — while getting paid to do the job.
The better paid testing jobs are often associated with iPhone apps, so you may want to pay more attention in this area.
For your willingness and effort to spend time testing and discovering bugs on iPhone apps, you can be rewarded with some nice cash.
uTest is one such company that contract part-time testers for this purpose. It is not exactly a dead-end job; as testers who excelled in this particular field have gone on to build a solid career in this industry.

35. Try trial offers via Vindale Research

There are a lot of companies out there that will actually pay you to try their products by opting for their trial offers.
Why would any company pay you to do trial offer?
Because they know once you try their product/service, you are likely to become their long-time customer. So while they may lose a little money up front by paying you, they make more in the long run.
Now, finding these companies one by one is hard, not to mention most of them don’t deal directly with consumers.
They go through sites like Vindale.
Think of Vindale as a middle-man site where companies pay Vindale to get their products/services tested by real consumers like you and me.
You earn money–anywhere from $1 to $100– for every trial offer you do.
Trial offers include things like Free Netflix trial, iTunes, eMusic, GameFly, and much more.
The secret to actually making money with trial offers is organization.
Use a calendar for every trial offer you sign up for, so you can cancel the trial before the free period ends and they charge you. That’s assuming you actually don’t want to keep using the product or service.
But if you are going to for example sign up with Netflix, then this is a great way to make a little cash for buying something you were going to buy anyway.
Signup for Vindale here (Yes it’s free).

36. Sell your arts & crafts on Etsy

Have you reached retirement age but still aching for some action?
Are you always attracted to stunning works of art and think of being the creator rather than the admirer?
If the answer to both questions above is a resounding YES, then train yourself with the many online tutorials on how to create artworks and sell them online.
Sites like Etsy make it extremely easy and quick to open up an online storefront for free and start selling your handmade items.
There are tons of people who are actually making a living on Etsy.

37. Sell your talent

Fiverr.com is an up and coming micro freelancing site.
It got the entire industry watching as its growth gained from strength to strength, partly due to the fact that it is the site that allows clients dishing out $5 per task assignments.
The public seems to endorse the idea, and it has many average folks willing to take up such part-time assignments to supplement their living.
Registration is free for contractors. Spell out the kind of gigs you are offering to your potential clients, be it making breakfast delivery, singing a song to the wedding anniversary, dress up as a Spider-man, or anything else you can imagine.
The $5 fee may look pittance, but if you are imaginative, you can think of some weird ideas that you can recycle over and over again. It could mean that you could be turning in five dollars repeatedly throughout the day, week and month.
Now that is something!

38. Self publish with Kindle

Amazon’s Kindle publishing platform has made it extremely easy to create and sell your own eBooks without the hassles of traditional publishing. Not to mention, in most cases, it won’t cost you a dime to create the book.
I actually have a few books on Kindle as well.
The beauty of Kindle books is that they can be any length. There are best sellers on Kindle that have only 30-40 pages of content.
Another benefit is that you can turn almost any topic into a kindle book–recipes, fictions, guides, and even quotes.
If you’re looking for help, here is a great guide that will help you write and publish your first book on Kindle.

39. Make money blogging

Blogging occupies a prominent place in the online world, and it looks to continue in the foreseeable future. With tools and utilities abound, setting up a blog has never been easier.
If you are new to the blogging space, there are many sites that provide free platforms (setting up takes less than an hour), and off you go!
After you have this sense that blogging is the thing for you, you may want to consider arranging your exclusive hosting and domain name (paid service).
The good thing about blogging is that you are completely free to talk about anything that fancies or irritates you.
You may have a strong opinion about politics or that you have something to say about AIDS prevention in South Africa. You may believe there is a serious conspiracy going on with the NSA surveillance program, or there is a serious lack of compassion in our society nowadays. You would like to talk about the great sex you had last night, or you just want to let go of your frustration after a tough day in the office.
The point is that there is nobody going to draw the line on what topics your blog should adhere to. You just want to make some noise and hope there is an audience outside somewhere!
Blogs can be a formidable revenue generator. People have taken advantage of their blogs by placing AdSense ads, selling their own stuff, selling affiliate products, hawking advertising space, and many more.
Because blogging represents a multitude of money-making opportunities, people sometimes have this misconception that they could simply turn into bloggers and straight away make tons of money overnight.
The truth is that it is possible to get rich through blogging, but it will take tremendous discipline and effort so that all your energy channeled into your blog can come into fruition.
Here is a great course titled 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, from one of the most successful bloggers out there, Darren Rowse.

40. Turn your home into a cash generating machine

This is the age of sharing economy.
You can now rent your house to travelers using sites like AirBNB.
You set the price and list it on the site for rent. You can set the price for a night, week, or even a month.
AirBNB offers a $1,0,0,000 guarantee that will protect you from any damage that may occur.
You can use their rating system to pick and choose who you want to rent your house to.
VRBO is another site you can use.

41. Win cash playing online games with Cash Dazzle

I am sure you’ve heard of people making a fortune from playing online games. The most famous person being Ansche Chung, who become the first person ever to make a million dollar playing the Second Life game.
Now, you aren’t going to make millions on CashDazzle, but if you do play a lot of online games, this site allows you to earn a little side money doing what you enjoy.
There are tons of different games you can play on this site, including Spin & Win.
Sign up and start getting paid for playing games here.

42. Rent your car for $10+ an hour

RelayRides is another company created because of the sharing economy. It lets you rent your car to other people in your area for $10 an hour or more.
They, of course, provide insurance on every car rental, up to $1 million.
You can also try GetAround.

43. Do odd jobs

Ever do random little things for friends and family?
Well, now you can get paid to do those little random things for local people, thanks to a site/app named Zaarly.
These little random gigs can be anything–dog walking, baby sitting, picking up kids from school, being a personal shopper for a day, etc.

44. Let your phone pay its bill

There are tons of apps that will let you earn cash for doing a variety of stuff-taking surveys on the go, shopping, playing games, doing tasks, etc.

Here are a few you can try:

1. WeReward
2. Gigwalk
3. CheckPoints
4. Juno Wallet: iPhone – Android

45. Be a research subject

Universities and clinics are always on the lookout for participants for their studies, and they actually pay good money for it as well.
You are paid based on the potential risks and the amount of time it takes to finish the study.
There are some studies that have no risk and are very easy, such as sleep studies where you simply sleep at a local facility (instead of at home) so the researchers then monitor your sleep to gain insight on many different things–what our brains do, how active our brains are when we are asleep, how deep we sleep, etc.
On the other hand, there are also riskier studies that involve taking new medications, so the researchers can test the effects of them.
Such studies usually pay upwards of a few thousand dollars and can last a few days and up to a few weeks or months.
Find out more details from the National Institutes of Health, or browse ClinicalTrials.gov to find studies to partake in.
You can also contact local universities for psychology experiments.

46. Get inked!

Yes, companies are now using our bodies as advertising billboards.
But fear not, you don’t have to get a permanent tattoo.
LeaseYourBody is a website where you can set up a profile for free and offer any part of your body to be used as an advertising billboard.
You set up the price and if an advertiser likes it they’ll pay you to put a temporary tattoo on your body for a certain amount of time.

47. Make money with YouTube

More and more people are finally realizing that YouTube can be an excellent source of making money.
There are tons of people who are making a living on YouTube by creating videos.
You can either focus on one main topic – make up, work outs, video games, food, etc – or you can have a channel where you talk about everything.
Either way, having an interesting personality will go a long way in helping you develop a loyal fan base.

48. Be a game tester for Nintendo

If you enjoy games, this opportunity to become a paid game tester can be both exciting and rewarding. But for this exact same reason, a lot of crooks have entered this industry to take advantage of the excitement in the market.
Indeed, the number of scams is ridiculous. You have to be discriminating enough to be sure that the company you are eying for is a full legit company; otherwise, you could have been easily taken on for a ride.
I don’t mean to scare you on my experience, but so far the only legit opportunity I was able to spot was on the Nintendo’s official site. So, be careful if you go with any other site.

49. Become a virtual assistant

One interesting outcome of the proliferation of the Internet is the emergence of many online businesses. The trend is set to continue for the foreseeable future, and naturally, these emerging online businesses will need virtual help.
There are many online gigs available. You can help to conduct research, finding things, taking phone calls, or simply doing some mundane stuff that this new breed of online business owners just can’t be bothered with.
Alternatively, you can focus on the forums meant for webmasters, or online business owners, so as to sniff out any decent opportunity.
Perhaps the simplest option is to announce your availability through a classified ad. The way I see it, the need for virtual assistants is not going to die down anytime soon. So, we are talking about a mid-to-long-term job proposition (even though you may change or have many employers throughout this period).
You can also use sites like Elance to find companies and business looking for VAs.

50. Make money with Amazon Turk

Certainly, no one can claim to be bigger than Amazon Mechanical Turk, as far as micro freelancing sites are concerned.
Mind you, its business model is not really earth shattering as it involves facilitating millions of part-time workers to some casual jobs available, jobs that cannot be performed by computers or machines.
This category of jobs may include quirky stuff like becoming a fan of somebody’s Facebook account or following people on Twitter. Just the same, there are also some conventional jobs such as rework a text, separate out text from pictures, transcribe an audio interview, differentiate between two seemingly identical pictures and many more.
However, the nature of these jobs tends to be short term and can get completed real quickly, so don’t expect a consistent stream of income.
In other words, these are designed to supplement your day job, not replace it. But if you do have some time in your hand, it can be an interesting way to make some extra pocket money (do take note that payment is made to PayPal accounts strictly).

51. Sell your stuff

We all hear about eBay being one heck of a successful enterprise and there are frequent stories about eBay sellers pull in an enormous amount of money years after year.
So, whatever misgiving you have on eBay or its corresponding business model, it is time to put them aside and start to seriously explore the business opportunity represented by eBay.
Most eBay members will tell you that they are motivated by the prospect of setting up stores at eBay because of zero (or relatively low) investment.
Indeed, some of the most successful sellers there got started by gathering those old and unwanted stuff inside the household or around the neighborhood, and giving them a new look, or restoring them. They then moved these items online on eBay.
This is surely a good way of getting rid of things that are no longer in use while making some pocket money out of them.
And if you are the ambitious type, eBay is just the right place to support your goal. They make it easy for you to find out what items are selling like hotcakes.
As an idea, you might want to follow up on that fact-finding and go on to find your own wholesaler for similar products. Place your order in bulk to ensure price competitiveness, but sell them loose on eBay so as to maximize your profitability.

52. Flip websites & domains

There is an element of the proven strategy in the equity market: identify/acquire undervalued, but good, domains and resell later with a neat profit. It may not necessarily have to be that buy low sell high tactic.
You may choose to create your own website or blog, and spend some time working on it until market valuation suggests it is time to let go for some loose change.
People need to see the website is at some steady state (ideally it should be working optimally) before they want to think of parting money acquiring the said website. This is a huge business, as there are hundreds of such sales reported each day at sites like Flippa.com.

53. Do graphic design

If you know Photoshop like the back of your palm, then 99Designs would represent a tremendous money making opportunity!
There are loads of design competitions to win prizes, from logo to t-shirt, icon to website and more.

54. Become a drop shipper

You can go to Zazzle and set up a free online storefront.
Your role as a drop shipper means that Zazzle will handle almost all the business ends of things.
Your sole responsibility is to attract customers to your online storefront.

55. Get paid for testing websites

A successful website is a user-friendly website. That’s why companies are willing to people to test the different functionalities of their website.
Usertesting.com is a site that connects companies with testers. You can sign up for free and start testing websites.
You can make $10-$15 for every test that may take around 15-20 minutes or so.

56. Become an affiliate marketer

This is probably one web-based business that presents a low entry barrier, which also explains partly the huge popularity associated with affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, you are not involved in the creative part of the work, like conceiving products or services. As an affiliate, your main responsibility is to move products made by others in order to earn a commission.
Some of these digital products include e-books and short reports.
If you have trouble sourcing products for sales, then you might want to check out websites such as ClickBank and PayDotCom, which represent two of the biggest affiliate networks out there.

57. Design logos

I still continue to be amazed by the phenomenon made possible with the Internet. It seems like there are hundreds and hundreds of new businesses coming online on a daily basis.
While this intensifies as competition, it also creates business opportunities for others – for example, people who are well-versed in designing logos (the conventional thinking is that every business needs a logo).
So, if you are good at the creative stuff, it is an excellent time to start a new business catering to this need.
This is one business that truly cuts across industries, so naturally, the upside is tremendous.
A great place to find log design projects is DesignCrowd.

58. Earn money freelancing

For most people, online freelancing seems like a natural idea when it comes to making money over the Internet.
The beauty of freelancing lies in its simplicity and cost effectiveness. There is no initial capital outlay for your new venture, it is not a prerequisite to set up a website (though admittedly a personal website can and do go a long way to help you professionally), and there are always immediate options that allow you to make some decent money.
Unless you end up in a fairly long cycle project, chances are you will be paid on the same day the project ends. The Internet is flushed with marketplaces that offer loads of freelancing opportunity, it is entirely up to you how you want to promote and market your skills and expertise.

59. Clean homes

HomeJoy is a service that connects homeowners with cleaners.
Use it to find home owners in your neighborhood who are looking for people to clean their homes.

60. Domain drop shipping

What this is about is actually the resale of domain registration for big domain registration sites (TuCows for example).
The resale term would allow you to set up your own brand, so there is a chance that you can make it big with the support of the big names in the industry.
The nice thing about this is that you not only just get a commission for every new purchase.
Additionally, you will be entitled to a cut whenever the customers renew their yearly subscription.

61. CPA marketing

If you find affiliate marketing tough to handle, then CPA or Cost Per Action may be a more suitable option.
If the person who heads to the merchant’s site through your links commits to a specified action, like agreeing to receive newsletters, opting for email updates, taking a poll or whatsoever the merchant can think of, you will be entitled to a commission.
In that sense, the commission scheme is not solely dependent on sales, so this CPA marketing idea surely has an upside about it.
You no longer have to wait for your prospects to come to a buying decision before you are assured of your commission.
At the same time, the challenge to entice people for their purchase is far greater than getting people to think about whether opting for free things or not!
Sign up with a few good CPA networks (these are sites that connect advertisers with marketers), find a few good offers to promote and start your journey.

62. Build your own forum

Some people attribute the popularity of online forums to the rationale that we humans are simply social animals. It has been built into our genes to engage, share and corroborate.
Those business owners have seen through our characteristics and there is no escaping even when we are online. They have built popular forums, and they have made big bucks!
Assuming you always had a passion for politics, and you are ever eager to discuss at length on policy matters, then why not set up a forum that focuses on politics.
Granted, the early movers have left the scene, but there is still money to be made. After all, it is better late than never.
Moreover, the proliferation of the Internet is set to continue, which means that you can have a common over an ever expanding audience.
Get people excited about your forum by talking about it openly as you visit other forums.
Another way to promote your new forum is to make completely bizarre comments while deliberating the issues of the day if only to get people to pay attention to you, and your new forum by extension.
Continue to work on it as you start to accept progressively more traffic until it comes to a point when you want to incorporate online ads to monetize your forum.
Another tactic could be highly rewarding, though it can backfire. You have seen some of the most successful forums charge a fee for members who wish to participate in a specialized section of the forum.
You may want to include this practice into your overall business strategy, as this means recurring revenues for you. If you wish, do a research to find out how the WarRoom section of the famous WarriorForum is able to pull that off!
Forumotion is a great free forum making tool that you can use to quickly create a forum in minutes.

63. Upload files

Online sharing is not just restricted to photography. You can do the same thing with documents and files, as you do with images.
There are some sites that specialize in file sharing and it is entirely up to you as to what files you are willing to share. If your files are deemed useful enough and get downloaded, you will make some commission.
These sites do not specify the kind of format required to be associated with your files. But in order to broaden the appeal of your files, you may want to output your files in the most popular formats, like Microsoft Word or Acrobat PDF, for example.
Try DocStoc if you are interested.

64. Sell old electronics

What good does a pile of old and unused electronics do for you?
Instead of hoarding your old cell phones, sell them for some quick cash on sites like Gazelle, Next Worth, and USell.

65. Sell your hair

Yes, people will pay for your hair as well.
Check out HairSellon to learn about their requirements and what you need to do to get cash for your hair.

66. Sell old jewelry

Of course, we’re not talking about your wedding ring.
But how about that gold necklace you used to wear in the 80’s?
Find out how much the gold or silver you want to sell, weigh. Then determine its purity (i.e., 12K), and use a site like Dendritics.com to get an estimate of how much you could get for it.
Then search for a trusted, local vendor at Jewelers Vigilance Committee. Get offers from a few sources and sell to the ones that pay the most.

67. Give tours of your city

If you know your town like the back of your hand, you could earn a decent salary with your knowledge.
Vayable is a site that makes it easy for anyone to guide tours in their town and make money. Check them out.

68. Get back in the kitchen

If you’re always complimented about your cooking, you can use your skill and passion as a way to earn money, by cooking for people in their homes.
And you don’t have to worry about finding clients. Try KitchenSurfing, a service that lets you get paid for cooking meals for families in your local area.

69. Do micro jobs

Micro jobs are on the rise as companies realize the power of crowdsourcing small, but time-consuming tasks.
These tasks can be anything from transcribing an audio file or rewriting a sentence, to proofreading an article, making a few phone calls, and everything in between.
Try Microworkers.

70. Provide tech support

Are you great with computer related stuff? If you’re a hard-core techie, why not register with Experts Exchange.
Here, you make money by resolving people’s issues on computer hardware, software, programming and whatever related.

71. Re-write poorly written ads on eBay

Online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay are full of ads listing all sorts of merchandise. Pick on those big-ticket items like cars and study their ads.
If you are confident of improving their ads, write to them and propose that you will rewrite these ads at a fee.
The acceptable going rate now is 1% commission on sales.

72. Join a revenue sharing forum

If it is just your nature to want to participate in online forums or you have been a member anyway in any forum, you can use this to great effect.
Watch out for “Ad Share” symbol in your user CP. This refers to a sharing program where forum owners would not mind sharing with their members the revenue they earn from ads that pop up in their forums.
In fact, increasingly more online forums, such as Webmasters.org, are in two these “Ad Share” programs. You have so far chosen to be busy at the forum, why not trade your time with some real money that you can spend.

73. Post on forums

The reason online forums are mushrooming is because they are a great money-spinner. But it is during the early stage that new forum builders will have to struggle, as they find means and ways to attract new members. But they are well
aware of the Golden rule that governs all great online forum sites; the need to appear busy.
The fact is, it is hard to get people to join a new forum. This is the reason why some people in this business pay you money to join their forums.
Your participation in any new thread and post will be rewarded. Based on industry average, I think $0.25 is just about a fair price for every posting you make.
Try TheCashChat if you are interested.

74. Sell ready-made websites

If you would rather sit aside and quietly built quality websites, why not turn your passion into a vocation.
It is certainly a decent financial proposition as hundreds of new businesses coming online every day.
With fantastic and user-friendly software like Kompozer available free, it certainly takes the cost and pain out of website design.
Or, you could take advantage of open source CMS like WordPress to quickly and easily build professional looking websites.

75. Turn your unused space into an office

Much like AirBNB that lets you host travelers in your house, Desktime lets you rent a room to local entrepreneurs who mare looking for low-cost office space.
Create a free profile on DeskTime, list your space with some detail about it, and how much you want to charge–daily, weekly, or monthly.
DeskTime will arrange everything with the interested parties and will transfer the money to your bank account, minus a 2.5% service fee.

Why so many money making ideas?

This post is just a list.
A list of possibilities. A list of opportunities. A list of what’s out there.
I wanted to include different options so anyone could find a few that fit their skills, interest, and lifestyle.
In making this list, I am in no way suggesting that every single method is suitable for every single person who reads this post, or that every person who reads this post is going to earn cash no matter which of these money making ideas they try.
The main reason for this post is to create a resource for everyone.
Share this post with your friends and family.
Share on Facebook, Pinterest and other social media sites you use.
Bookmark it!
Then start using the sites and methods mentioned to give your bottom line a (however small) boost.

The bottom line

I truly hope you find this post useful.
Please keep in mind that until you take action and do some work, you won’t make any money, no matter how many posts like this one you read.
Don’t be one of those people who keep asking “how can I make more money?” or “how can I earn money online?” despite reading hundreds of posts like this one.
They never make any money, so they conclude “it’s all a big scam!”
The truth is they are looking for a button they can push to print cash on demand.
Well, I got bad news!
There is no button you can push to generate money (unless of course, you are the treasury department!)
The good news is most of these options are free.
Again, we’re not talking about get-rich-quick schemes here. We’re talking about quick and easy way you can make a little cash whenever you have a few minutes free. Enough to pay for your daily cup of joe, or get you a few Amazon gift cards here and there.
And the good thing is you can use ’em to make extra money without investment (financially at least, you still have to invest some time and effort.)
Remember, the online world may be a virtual one, but there is nothing virtual about the money you can make from it!