Whether you want to have a small side hustle or a full-time online business making thousands a month, this article will give you some incredible ideas so you can start making money online this month!
Benefits of making money online include
- Working from the comfort of your home
- Adding extra income to pay off debt
- Setting your own schedule
- Earning money while watching TV
- Opening up future opportunities
- Starting your own business
- Working on what you’re passionate about
- Spending more time with the family
The list goes on and on when you make money without a typical 9-5 job. Now that you’re determined to find easy ways to make money online, you need to take complete control of your life and master the way(s) you think you’re suited for!
If you’ve found yourself Googling “how to make money online for beginners”, “how can I make money online” or “how to make money online without paying anything”, this article is for you!
Table of Contents
How to Make Money Online: 26 Legitimate Ways to Start Earning Money Today
You can earn money online without any start-up costs. Here are some of our favorite ways.
1. Take Surveys
Did you know you can earn money online taking surveys? Taking online surveys won’t make you rich, but they will certainly help you earn some extra income. Instead of vegging out in front of the TV twiddling your thumbs during commercial breaks, why not do the best way to make money online?
Companies want to know your opinion to help them market their products or service more efficiently. Since you are providing them with market research, they are willing to pay you. It’s a win-win for both parties.
Some of the highest paying survey companies include
- Swagbuck Surveys ($5 sign-up bonus)
- Inbox Dollars ($5 sign-up bonus)
- MyPoints
- Pinecone Research
- American Consumer Opinion
2. Trade in Your Class Notes for Money
Are you a college student or recent graduate? If so, there’s a great way for you to earn money online.
StuDocu is a site that will buy your lecture notes from you. All you have to do is scan in your notes and you get paid via PayPal a few days later.
Pretty cool, right? It’s 100% legitimate, by the way. One of my friends did this after her term ended and she made easy money.
It won’t make you rich, but it’s a great way to make money in college.
3. Invest Your Extra Cash in the Stock Market
A lot of people have made their money off of the stock market. If you can invest in the right company, you can really strike it rich.
Just think of the people who bought Amazon shares when they had their initial public offering!
With an app like Acorns, you can round up the spare change from your purchases and invest it into diverse exchange-traded funds.
Choosing stocks that pay dividends can very passively earn you money online for years to come.
Money-making apps like Acorns make the process super simple to get started!
4. Sell Old Items Around the House
Believe it or not, you most likely have hundreds if not thousands of dollars laying around your house.
Take some time and take inventory of the things you are no longer using around the house. Things that are collecting dust and losing value.
This is one of the best ways to make money when you find yourself saying “I need money right now“.
Here are a few examples:
- Cameras
- Gaming Systems
- Clothing
- Tools
- Phones
- Kids Toys
You can make some serious cash by simply selling off the things you no longer need or want in your life. Platforms like eBay, Amazon, and Facebook Marketplace are a great place to start.
If you enjoy making selling items online you can learn how to do it full-time with a course like Flea Market Flipper.
5. Become a Proofreader
Proofreading is one of the final steps in the process of content creation. It’s the final check to make sure there are as few remaining spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors left as possible. This article that you are reading now had a proofreader work on it before it was published.
There are plenty of online proofreading job opportunities and they actually pay really well!
If you are serious about learning how to become a proofreader you should totally consider taking the General Proofreading: Theory and Practice course by Proofread Anywhere. With this course, you’ll learn how to proofread AND how to market your business to get clients.
It will give you all the education, experience, skills, and tools you need to make upwards of $20–$30 per hour. It’s one of our favorite easy online jobs from home to do.
6. Peer to Peer Lending
You know when you go to the bank to get a loan? Well, this is your way of being the ‘bank’, per se.
Peer to peer lending (or p2p lending) is as it sounds – you will be lending money to your peers. Say for example someone wants to borrow money for their business, they may get a p2p loan. You can be expected to get around 4-7% interest on this.
7. Teach English Online
VIPKid is incredible! I can’t say it enough. This is literally the perfect job for teachers over the summer.
Within the first month of becoming a teacher for VIPKid, I earned close to $1,000! What other side hustle can you have online work from home jobs and make that kind of money?
VIPKid is ranked #2 by Forbes for Best International Companies To Work For. It’s a company that enables Chinese children to learn English from teachers all over the world.
The best part of VIPKid is you can get hired without having actual in-class teaching experience. I got hired and have ZERO in-class teaching experience.
They require a total of 500 hours of experience, which can include coaching, boy scouts, babysitting, tutoring, mentoring, etc.
You can read our entire VIPKid review here.
Benefits of VIPKid
- Set your own schedule
- Get paid between $17—$22 per hour
- Work from anywhere you want
- Impact children by teaching them another language
- Learn Chinese culture
- ZERO lesson planning
If you are interested in becoming a teacher with VIPKid, sign up here.
8. Work as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Do you love browsing on Pinterest and pinning until your thumbs are numb? Have you ever thought about getting paid to be on Pinterest?
Yes, it’s true you can earn money online by becoming a Pinterest Virtual Assistant.
Our friends Gina and Kristin teach an incredible course that walks you through everything you need to know about how to earn money online by becoming a virtual assistant.
The Course Includes 5 Comprehensive Video Modules:
1. Understanding the Pinterest Virtual Assistant Role
2. Establishing Your Pinterest Virtual Assistant Practice
3. Finding Pinterest Virtual Assistant Clients
4. Working with Pinterest Virtual Assistant Clients
5. Expanding Your Pinterest Virtual Assistant Practice
They have had many students start making so much money online that they were able to quit their jobs and work online full-time from home. You can learn more about their course here.
9. Run Facebook Advertising for Local Businesses
Did you know there is a HUGE demand for small business owners needing help running Facebook ads? This is a big industry that seems to not be slowing down.
Our friend Bobby Hoyt over at Millennial Money Man created a Facebook Side Hustle course to show you exactly how you can start making $1K—$2K per month in your spare time.
There is no better feeling than getting your first client and delivering for them. This side hustle has HUGE potential!
10. Become a Freelance Writer
Ever wonder how big companies like The Wall Street Journal, Time Inc., and others keep up with their articles?
They have contributors!
And, guess what? You could become one of them.
Holly over at Club Thrifty made more than $250,000 as a freelance writer last year alone!
You don’t even have to start with major brands. Start with small businesses looking to add on one contributor. The secret to getting gigs is knowing what topics you should write about. Just like blogging, you need a niche!
The best part is that you don’t need any prior writing experience to get started.
Interested in becoming a freelance writer? Click here to learn more.
There are also a handful of other online typing jobs to consider.
11. Sell Photos to Stock Photography Sites
So, how to make money online fast for free? If you take great photos, you can make money off of selling them to stock photography websites, such as Adobe, Shutterstock, Bigstock, and more.
If your photos have people’s faces in them, make sure they sign a model release form so that they consent to being included in the photo.
You surrender the copyright in the process, but if you weren’t planning on selling them, to begin with, then you don’t have to worry about anything.
Plus, it can be pretty cool to see an image you took on one of your favorite sites or on an Instagrammer’s feed.
We’ve got a full list of stock photography websites you can check out to start selling your photos.
12. Start a Money-Making Blog
This is one of my favorite things to talk about because it has literally changed my entire life. Just a few months ago, I quit my 9—5 job to run our blog full-time. Within this short time period, I have been able to grow our blog into a full-time income.
It is such an incredible dream come true to work for myself from the comfort of my home! I get to set my own hours, earn my own income, and not have to answer to “the man.”
When we started our blog, it was just another hobby. We quickly learned that making money from blogging was a real thing!
If you’re interested in starting your own blog head over to our step-by-step tutorial to learn how. Using our exclusive Bluehost link, you can take advantage of discounted pricing today.
13. Launch a Shopify Store
Are you a creative individual?
Online businesses are booming with people who have a unique creative flair and can satisfy a client’s wants and desires. Whether it be Etsy, eBay, or Shopify, you can build a company and see how to make money fast online doing it.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to be successful you can take a course like E-Printables and learn everything you need to know about making money selling digital printables.
We personally make well over $10,000 per month with our Shopify store selling our digital printables.
14. Write a book or eBook
It has never been easier to write a book, especially since you are now able to self-publish using Kindle or Amazon.
Have a think about the different types of genres that you would like to write about, and set yourself a target for the amount of words that you’d like to write each day.
15. Twitch Streamer
This is another really cool way of making money that’s become a lot more popular recently.
If you are into gaming, then you can become a Twitch streamer and make a lot of money, if people like what you’re doing!
16. Coaching
Do you have a particular area of expertise that you like to help other people with? You could become a coach!
The more qualifications you have, the better. Being a coach is very popular right now due to it being so easy to do online with people all over the world. The pay is great too!
17. Drop-Shipping
Have you heard about drop shipping before? It’s one of the best ways to make money online from home, because it can end up being pretty passive.
Drop shipping has the potential to make a lot of money as well, if you do it right. It’s essentially where you will sell products, through a website most likely, and when you sell the product, it will be shipped out – but not by you.
The great thing about this is that you don’t have to keep lots of stock at your home (or work place) and you don’t have to scramble to post things out every time you make a sale.
18. Make Money Online Through Affiliate Marketing
Making money online is simple once you learn about affiliate marketing. This is actually how our blog makes most of its money.
We partner with companies we absolutely love and think our readers would find value from. We mention the company like we did below (Rakuten/Ibotta), and we get paid a small commission every time someone signs up. It’s a great way to help other people save money and give us a chance to make some money on our blog.
When we first started our blog, we had no idea what affiliate marketing was. After we took the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, we started to earn hundreds of dollars a month online.
19. Buy and Sell Websites
You may have heard of buying and selling things before, but have you heard of buying and selling websites?
Flipping websites is something that you can do if you have a website or have had one before, so you know what to look out for and what you can improve on.
There are sites that you can buy and sell websites on, such as Flippa, or hang out in Facebook groups in the niche that you’re interested in to see if anyone is selling.
20. Become an Influencer
Even though celebrities get a lot of exposure partnering with big-name brands, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it too!
Some influencers have literally built their businesses off of a social platform like Instagram or even on YouTube.
The concept is the same. Brands pay you to showcase their products. That’s it!
If you’re interested, start by reaching out to smaller brands first before approaching the wealthier ones. Sponsorships can be an entry-level introduction in learning how to earn money online, but some online personas snag sponsorships to the tune of a full-time income.
It helps if you already have a platform, such as a blog, so you can always get this set up as well.
21. Translation
If you ever look at job postings, you will see that there is high demand for people who are able to translate from one language to another.
This could be translating audio to written format, but it will typically be translating from written to written format. Have a look on sites such as Upwork or Fiverr.
22. Start a Consulting Business
Did you know that consulting can be extremely lucrative?
It’s quite a simple process really. Someone with a problem comes to you to solve it. And the best part is that they pay prettily for a solution that actually works.
Before you get this convoluted idea that every consultant is a top-notch expert in their field, understand that a consultant only has to be more knowledgeable than the client in a specific area.
A great benefit of working as a consultant is that you can usually snag a retainer, which means you will be paid for being a resource in case the client has any questions.
To really make money as a consultant, you need to niche down and have a clear understanding of who you can help. It will involve some sales calls, but once you get a few clients, word of mouth spreads quickly and you will have quite the business.
Sam Ovens has an elite program to get you started as a wildly profitable consultant. He’ll teach you how to earn money online while providing immense value to your clients.
23. Create an Online Course
This is something we’ve done ourselves with our new Bloggers’ Secrets course!
An online course is a fantastic way to educate others on a particular topic. It helps if you have a blog to sell it on, but you can start selling an online course strictly through partnering with other people who have loyal followings.
Some of our favorite courses are Stupid Simple SEO, Flourish With Facebook Ads, and Six-Figure Blogger.
Make sure to join The Savvy Couple Community and Blogging With Purpose on Facebook to learn more about our course and ask us anything!
24. Make Money Selling Others’ Junk Online
While it may sound strange, it’s totally possible to take items that other people don’t want and are looking to offload for a low price, and turn around and resell it for a profit – sometimes a big profit.
You can learn everything there is to know about buying valuable items for a low cost and flipping them for a profit with the course from Flea Market Flippers.
They make a 6-figure income from buying items from flea markets, thrift stores, and online, then selling those items on Amazon or ebay at a profitable price!
While this option for making money online obviously isn’t an entirely online-only option (although it could be if you just use eBay), it is still a good option if you enjoy wandering around at flea markets or thrift stores anyway. Plus that makes for a good excuse to leave your house once in a while!
25. Use Cash Back Companies
Do you do the majority of the shopping in your house? You need to start making money online through cash back programs. We have earned a few hundred dollars in just a few short months using companies like Rakuten and Ibotta.
The solution for how to earn money online has never been easier!
Rakuten is an online program that allows you to earn a percentage of your purchase back via check or PayPal. Rakuten has an incredible browser extension to make sure you always get the most cash back with your online purchases.
You can sign up for Rakuten today and earn a free $10 credit.
Ibotta is an app you can download on your phone and start earning cash back when you grocery shop. The process is very simple. You go shopping for your everyday items (food, toilet paper, diapers, medicine) and upload your receipt to Ibotta. Then Ibotta gives you cash back.
You can sign up for Ibotta and automatically earn a free $10 just for signing up!
26. Sign Up for a Cash Back Credit Card
If you’re already spending money, why not earn some of it back with a special cash back card?
Make sure you set a budget so that you don’t overspend and then have a lot of debt to pay off.
Getting cash back should be a feature of any credit card you sign up for, such as Chase or Capital One.
You should do your research before signing up for any credit card and make sure that the allowable ways to earn money online through cash back are feasible for you in your situation.
Final Thoughts on Earning Money Online
I hope you learned how to earn money online after reading all of these amazing ways, and found some potential jobs online from home.
To maximize your earning money online, focus on two or three tops to start off with to really master them.
Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, college student, or anyone else who needs some extra money, remember that you have what it takes to earn some extra cash!
We believe in you. Let us know in the comments how you started making money online.
Remember, we make extra money each month on our blog, so if we can do it, you can too. If you don’t believe me, then check out our income reports.
There are countless options right at your fingertips for you to explore and go after. What are you waiting for?
