One of the foundations of This Online World is discovering new and effective ways to make real money online.

We’re living in an age where the power of the internet enables us to accomplish so many amazing things. It’s never been more possible to make an online living, run a business from the comfort of your own home, or to just make some quick cash on the internet.

If you’re looking for real ways to make money online, this is the ultimate list for you. Find something on the list that plays to your strengths and run with it!

Let’s get right to it.

Business Ideas To Make Money Online:

I’m going to start out this mega-post with online businesses you can start to diversify your income and earn online.

Granted, these ideas are generally much harder than turning to quick cash ideas like surveys or signup bonuses, but with greater risk comes greater reward. Besides, starting your own business is something that can fundamentally change the course of your life aside from allowing you to earn some extra income.

1. Start A Blog

Every list of ways to earn an online income covers blogging, and while this topic has been covered extensively, it’s still a viable option in 2020.

Many people will not make a dime from blogging, whereas others (myself included, currently) may only make a few hundred dollars a month from their blogs.

However, the opportunities that you can unlock from blogging are quite immense if you are willing to put in the work.

It took me 6 months to consistently earn $100 from my blog, but I’ve managed to scale to over $1,000 per month thanks to Mediavine ads and other affiliate programs:

If you can learn some basic SEO skills for blogging, put in the time to write 20-30 high value articles, and engage in basic social media marketing, you can drive traffic to a money making website.

Plus, blog hosting is fairly cheap, so this a relatively low-risk and fun way to start a new project with the potential to boost your income!

Just note: value is the key component to success. You’ll never make money with a blog if you simply direct people to garbage.

Additionally, everyone finds success at a different pace. Some bloggers might strike it big in just a couple of months, whereas others have to grind for years to generate significant revenue.

Regardless of your speed, the only way to get there is to be consistent and to work smart, not just hard.

How Kristin from Believe In A Budget went from earning $61 in her first month of blogging to full-time in under a year.

How Monica from Lucky Mojito earned $501 blogging part-time in January 2019.

How Finsavvy Panda earned over $6,500 in January of 2019.

How Breaking The One Percent generated almost $350,000 between two sites.

If you want some additional inspiration and proof that blogging is still an effective online money making option, check out these blogging income reports:

You get the idea: blogging can enable you to earn all sorts of income if you put in the time and effort.

Extra Reading – How I Made $7,000+ From Blogging In 2019.

2. Open An eBay Store

When it comes to side hustle ideas that are as old as time, flipping, or buying something to turnaround for a profit, is one of the oldest ideas in the book.

However, I bet you didn’t expect that flipping on eBay is also an incredibly lucrative online money maker; provided you know what you’re doing, of course.

The process of flipping items on eBay is simple in theory. Just find under-priced items at flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales and post them on your store to flip for a profit online.

In reality, flipping on eBay takes a considerable amount of effort and some trial and error. You need to learn how to properly source products from cheap and local vendors (no point driving three hours out of your way to flip something for $20). Additionally, you need to become familiar with the eBay marketplace in your niche and how competitive the pricing landscape is.

However, if you have persistence and know what you are doing, it is possible to successfully flip on eBay.

My friend Nathan from MillionaireDojo regularly earns several hundred dollars in profit every month from selling on eBay:

I highly recommend checking out Nathan’s ‘what sells on eBay series’ to see a monthly breakdown of his store results.

Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to dig around for valuable items at your local flea market or thrift shop to try and make a quick flip online.

Extra reading – Checkout my Young Money interview with Nathan covering how he makes money online with eBay!

3. Sell On Etsy

It doesn’t matter if you want to sell crafts, art, or meme apparel, Etsy is one of the most popular marketplaces for handmade and vintage gifts there is.

Opening your own Etsy shop is free, and you only have to pay a $0.20 listing fee for adding items to your shop and a transaction fee upon making a sale. This inexpensive model means you can test out proof of concept for an idea without spending significant money.

There are plenty of sellers making a killing on Etsy as well. Just check out this ad that’s running on the front page of Etsy right now:

If you checkout the Memeskins store, you’ll see this seller has more than 62,000 sales! All of that, from selling meme-printed merchandise.

See, the beautiful thing about selling on Etsy is that you’re operating in your own ecosystem.

Etsy has an internal search engine, seller rankings, and an ads manager. As a seller, this empowers you to actually influence your rankings and generate sales instead of being buried by the competition.

I ran a brief Etsy print on demand experiment where I sold meme-mugs, and I managed to make 2 sales by advertising my store on Instagram (for free, I just commented on photos).

It didn’t really work out, but hey, it’s at least some proof of concept for this money making idea.

Extra Reading – 8 Awesome Etsy Alternatives To Power Your Online Store.

4. Amazon FBA & Ecommerce

There are plenty of ways to make money on Amazon. However, one of the most commonly recommended methods and ‘hot topics’ over the last year has definitely been Amazon’s FBA program.

FBA stands for ‘fulfillment by Amazon,’ and refers to a model in which the items you sell are stored in Amazon fulfillment centers and shipped by Amazon. No need for you to handle logistics or deal with customer service…Amazon has you covered.

Now, selling on Amazon in 2020 and growing your store is different than in the past. You can’t just order cheap products from AliBaba and spam Amazon with them and expect to get results.

However, if you’re willing to put in the work to find local suppliers/manufacturers and to build your brand, you have a shot.

Now, there are plenty of arguments for not putting your eggs in a single basket and to sell on your own website while simply using Amazon FBA as an extra sales channel. After all, there are a fair share of Amazon FBA horror stories, so this sort of make sense.

In my opinion, running your own ecommerce store alongside selling with Amazon FBA is probably a smarter play in 2020 and a decent way to mitigate risk while tapping into the largest online marketplace in the world.

Extra reading: How this seller reached one million dollars in Amazon FBA revenue with zero employees.

5. Create A Subscription Service

It doesn’t matter if it’s a subscription box, a paid-to-read newsletter, or a Patreon play, subscription-based businesses are a viable option for smaller entrepreneurs looking to make money online.

In fact, I’d say the subscription model is more viable for smaller entrepreneurs than massive organizations these days. After all, the largest food delivery subscription companies are barely profitable or bleeding cash every year.

However, if you can successfully build an online audience and then convert even 1% of them over to a paid subscription model, you can begin growing a new revenue stream.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a newsletter, premium content, or your entire platform; a properly executed paywall can pay dividends.

Want an example?

Checkout any musician on YouTube who sells sheet music. I’ve been following a number of guitar players on YouTube for a while, and that’s the path they’ve all taken…produce great content, grow a following, and then lock premium content behind a paywall.

And guess what, it works. If you produce amazing content, people will pay for it. You just need to capture an audience first and then market even more valuable content to them.

6. Start Affiliate Marketing

I’m breaking affiliate marketing into a unique method to make money online as it can truly be done in a variety of ways.

For example, I earn affiliate commission every month from running This Online World. I accomplish this by promoting products and services I use through affiliate networks like the Amazon Affiliate network, FlexOffers, and a variety of other platforms.

If you run your own website, YouTube channel, email list, or other platform, affiliate marketing is a fast way to earn extra money online each month. As long as you only promote products/services you actually use and remember to value your audience, there’s really nothing wrong with affiliate marketing.

If you don’t currently have a blog or website, that’s totally fine. You can actually still make money with affiliate marketing by using channels like Pinterest or Instagram with certain affiliate networks that allow it.

Just search for #sponsored on Pinterest and you’ll find plenty of examples of what I’m talking about:

This guy in particular is using Skimlinks to promote Halloween costumes on Pinterest right now. Not a bad call, given that it’s currently October.

Clicking through brings you to a shop, and you can tell by the URL parameter that he would indeed be credited for any sales generated from his pins, earning him a percentage in affiliate revenue.

I doubt this breaks the bank, but if done correctly and en masse with multiple accounts, you could probably earn a significant online income.

Extra Reading – How To Make Money With Pinterest.

7. Start A Podcast

While a podcast might not seem like a business at first, it really is just another form of digital publishing.

Podcasts have been growing quite rapidly in popularity over the past few years. While it is a crowded market, it’s also possible to make money with a podcast through sponsorships, affiliate deals, or funneling your audience back to another money making platform (like a blog or online store).

Is starting a podcast immensely competitive? Absolutely.

However, the same is true for blogging or running any type of online business that’s worth the time. The only way to get there is to hustle!

I recently interviewed my friend Ben on how he started a top business podcast, and he also has some great YouTube content that breaks down the basics of podcasting for beginners. I highly recommend checking out his channel if you want to learn how he grew his business podcast.

8. Start A YouTube Channel

Speaking of YouTube, here’s another great online money making idea you can turn to if you’re still looking for inspiration!

Like other online business ideas I mentioned, YouTube is definitely a competitive market.

Between preexisting channels that have established followings and the fact that approximately 300 hours of YouTube videos are uploaded every minute, you’re going to need to work to stand out from the crowd.

However, let’s consider my friend Ben’s YouTube channel once again and some stats from Social Blade.

Ben produces valuable, honest content. He managed to have his podcasting for beginners guide go semi-viral because of this fact and it cracked 100K views.

Because of this break, Ben now gets anywhere from 10-50 subscribes a day, and his channel is quickly closing on 5K subs.

This all happened in 2019. It’s clearly possible to grow a YouTube channel if you know what you’re doing.

Yes, YouTube is competitive. However, if you put in the time and work to produce content that is better than the competition, you can catch a break and start to ramp up your channel.

Extra Reading – How To Make Money On YouTube In 2020.

9. Stream On Twitch

While we’re talking about YouTube as a way to make money online, we might as well take a stab at streaming on Twitch.

Twitch.tv is one of the most popular streaming platforms out there. It allows people to broadcast their gameplay or daily life to viewers around the world.

Streamers on Twitch can make money through subscriptions, ad revenue, sponsorship opportunities, and affiliate sales.

Like YouTube, streaming on Twitch is a pretty competitive endeavor. After all, Twitch has between 2.2 and 3.2 million monthly broadcasters.

However, like YouTube, if you treat this side hustle like a business and invest into growth (i.e. through additional content production, better equipment, and creating a consistent schedule), you can find success over time.

Besides, streaming on Twitch isn’t just for professional gamers anymore. There are tonnes of niches out there, like this one called ‘just chatting:”

Yup, there are currently Twitch streamers making money on the internet by tricking scammers, rating the attractiveness of other people, and dancing in front of people.

The internet is truly bizarre, but hey, if you have a creative money making idea or avenue to approach Twitch, why not go for it?

Extra reading – How to make money playing video games.

10. Start A Medium Publication

Medium.com is a free blogging platform with over 60 million monthly readers.

On Medium, writers and publications can earn money when paid Medium members clap (essentially an upvote) their content. Each clap takes a portion of a paid Medium member’s monthly fee of $5 and awards it to the content creator, so more claps = more money!

To date, I’ve earned just over $675 from writing on Medium, but many authors and publications on the platform earn thousands of dollars every month.

If you have an existing blog or publication, you can actually syndicate your content over to Medium without incurring a SEO penalty. At the very least, this can turn into a decent source of monthly passive income.

11. Flip Websites & Domains

I’m putting this money making idea under the online business category because you really need to know what you’re doing if you’re going to make any money with website flipping.

Additionally, you’ll also need some capital to invest.

Flipping websites or domains is like flipping a house…only much more complicated and risky, I’d argue.

Flippers essentially buy websites or domain names they think have potential and hold them until the right buyer comes along. Alternatively, some flippers purchase websites that are already profitable and improve them while making their money back, only to then sell them down the line for even more cash.

The two most popular marketplaces for buying and selling websites are:

However, I strongly advise doing more research before getting into this because flipping domains or websites is not an easy way to make money online.

Offering Online Services For Money:

Alright, if you want to make money online without starting your own business, there are still plenty of other options!

Offering your services to existing business owners or clients can still be a very lucrative way to make a living on the internet without necessarily having to get a business license.

12. Run Paid Advertising Campaigns For Businesses

Alright, I’m going to preface this money making idea with a warning: do not get into ad management unless you have previous experience.

There are a bunch of bullshit courses going around right now promoting the idea of ‘running Facebook ads for local businesses’ in order to charge them a monthly retainer fee of thousands of dollars.

While this is indeed the same model many ad agencies use to bill their clients, do not pitch a client on paid advertising services if you have zero experience.

Advertising is complicated. I think it is morally repulsive to believe that you can risk the advertising budget of a small business just because some online guru taught you how to add a stock photo to a Facebook ad.

If you want to make money by running ads for businesses, here’s how I’d suggest going about it:

Find someone in your network who works in paid advertising.

Ask to job shadow them for a day or two.

Ask them for additional training and insight when they have spare time.

Launch a Facebook campaign selling an affiliate product with your own money to learn the process.

money to learn the process. Approach a small business with the help of the trained professional in your network and sign them for a not-for-profit 2 month contract to run their ads.

If you can get through that and successfully help a local small business with their marketing efforts, then you are ready to pitch businesses for a paid monthly contract.

Paid advertising is definitely lucrative, and running ads for small businesses was a way I made money in college with my friend. We each had a few years of Facebook and Google ads experience under our belt from internships and contract work, so it was something we felt qualified to do.

However, you need to earn your stripes like any other industry…you’d never let someone build your house just because they bought a course on how to do it.

13. Offer SEO Consulting

Like paid advertising, offering local businesses SEO consulting services to help improve their online presence can be a pretty lucrative online money maker.

Granted, everyone and their grandmother seems to offer SEO services these days. Plus, people are offering it for cheap rates as well:

Yup, for just $104, Lisa will explode your ranking…sounds legit.

Here’s the thing about the service industry though: word of mouth is critical.

It really doesn’t matter how competitive websites like Fiverr are, or how cheaply SEO freelancers are operating. If you can deliver great results for one business, you will get business from their network. Trust me.

My friend and I also did a fair bit of SEO work during college. Providing free SEO audits and free advice was how we could get our foot in the door, and that’s a tactic I recommend others use for their SEO pitches as well when starting out.

Extra reading – How much does SEO cost?

14. Rank & Rent

Alright, if you’re a bit of a SEO geek like me, this money maker is going to absolutely make you giddy.

Rank and rent refers to building a niche website, having it rank very highly in search results, and then renting out space on the website to business owners in the same niche who want to receive highly interested leads.

An example of this would be to construct an informative website on landscaping essentials in Houston and to then rank out advertising space on the site to Houston landscaping companies. Sounds simple, right?

In reality, ranking and renting takes an immense amount of SEO knowledge, investment into content and backlinks, and some luck. However, if you’re willing to take on a fun SEO project/challenge, it could be worth looking into!

Extra reading – Check out this definitive rank and rent guide from Diggity Marketing

15. Offer Social Media Management

If you love social media and know how to effectively engage an audience, you might be able to make money online with social media management.

Both small businesses and larger brands are often willing to outsource social media duties rather than hire someone in-house. Cultivating a loyal online following can help business grow after all, and businesses are generally afraid of missing out on the action.

If you are skilled at growing a following on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, you might be able to pitch your services to businesses and charge them a monthly retainer fee.

I’ve been working with a freelance Pinterest marketer from Upwork for the past few months, and let me tell you, I am willing to pay to keep up the results:

Results speak for themselves. Make business owners happy, and you can stay on their payroll for a very long time.

You can pitch local businesses with your services or turn to marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr to create a social media management listing.

16. Offer Coaching

If you’re an expert at something, chances are, you can make money online by selling coaching.

And no, I’m not talking about gurus again…I mean a real expert who can show proof of results, client testimonials, and isn’t offering a ‘get X results quick’ scheme.

It doesn’t matter if you’re an online entrepreneur, a life coach, a fitness expert, or even a full-time blogger; plenty of industries and niches have people making a killing from online coaching.

One online coach I really respect and have been following for a while is Rob Lipsett, a Irish fitness influencer, best-selling entrepreneur, and YouTuber.

Rob has built an impressive following on Instagram and YouTube consisting of hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers, and he uses these platforms to promote brands, his own book/products, and his coaching services.

What I like the most about Rob’s coaching strategy is that he doesn’t ram it down your throat.

Rather, Rob creates immensely valuable content across a variety of platforms, sometimes mentions his coaching, and let’s his results/lifestyle inspire people to make the jump themselves.

Ultimately I believe coaching is one of the highest margin ways to make money online, provided you do it right. Be like Rob, not the Facebook guru dude.

17. Create E-Books & Courses

If one on one coaching isn’t for you, you can still provide a valuable service to other people via courses or informational e-books.

The internet allows people to learn pretty much anything, and while there is plenty of free content out there, sometimes a paid course or book is well worth the money.

If you know a valuable skill that people have to pay to learn or go to school for, you can probably make money by packaging the information into an easily digestible form and selling it.

Websites like Udemy or Skillshare are just two ways you can get started with selling your own courses.

And just remember, the best way to sell a course is to teach something you have experienced first hand. Just check out this course I found on Udemy with over 36 ratings…what a simple idea!

18. Tutor Others

Tutoring other people online is another reliable online money making idea, and there are plenty of options out there!

One of the most popular tutoring industries in the world is English secondary language tutoring. There are plenty of companies hiring online English tutors to help people across the world learn English, and the pay can range as high as $25/hour.

Other subjects like mathematics or science also have plenty of demand for skilled online tutors, and you can also work for companies like Tutor.com or Chegg to help struggling students with their homework problems.

Extra Reading – Qkids ESL Teaching Review.

Online Freelancing Options:

Alright, you don’t want to run a business and you don’t want to get involved with complicated service contracts or any serious commitment. Totally okay!

Thankfully, when it comes to finding ways to make money online, the internet is full of opportunity. Finding freelance work across almost any industry has never been easier, provided you know where to look.

19. Become A Freelance Writer

Want to know a crazy stat about content marketing?

Well, according to OptinMonster, 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing in their marketing mix.

Point is, content isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the demand for highly skilled content writers and freelancers.

I’ve been ghost writing or freelance writing intermittently for a couple of years now, and I’ve always turned to writing as a way to make extra money when bills are coming in.

If you have a talent for writing, you can probably find work writing content for clients on freelance marketplaces such as:

Textbroker

Freelancer

Upwork

People Per Hour

Additionally, you can also reach out to your own network or build a professional freelancer portfolio and pitch clients directly. I recommend doing this once you have some experience as it will enable you to find higher paying jobs and to specialize within a niche.

Extra reading – Checkout my guide on how to get into freelance writing as a beginner.

20. Code For Cash

As with freelance writing, the demand for skilled programmers is at an all-time high.

If you have experience with a popular programming language, back-end/front-end development, UI design, or are just a generally unreal coder, you can definitely make money by programming.

Again, turning to your own network and creating a robust portfolio is probably the route that will lead to the highest paying contracts, but you can also turn to remote job sites to find work.

Some popular marketplaces for hiring programmers include:

Competition may be fierce, but remember, word of mouth is everything (even in online marketplaces.) Get one job, and more will follow if you perform.

Extra reading – 32 remote job websites to kickstart your freelancing career.

21. Find Graphic Design Jobs

Graphic design often goes hand in hand with web development work, so I thought it was a worthy addition to this list of ways to make money online.

If you’re a skilled artist, there are many ways you can make money. From designing logos to creating effective ad copy, the opportunity is there if you can find it.

Some popular marketplaces for selling graphic design services include:

99Designs

Fiverr

Upwork

Reddit r/forhire

Design Crowd

Just note, unlike freelance writing where you can kinda get away without a professional portfolio (at least I have…so far) you really need a portfolio for any sort of graphic design client to take you seriously.

22. Become A Freelance Photographer

When it comes to making money with photography, there are tonnes of options out there.

However, if you’re strictly looking for online opportunities, there are 2 main ideas that come to mind.

The first is licensing photos to stock photography websites.

The world of stock photography is immensely saturated, but if you’re doing photography as a hobby or semi-professionally already, why not try and make some extra money on the side?

The most popular sites for licensing your stock photography include:

Selling stock photos isn’t easy, and honestly, this option won’t work out for the majority of photographers, but if you have some great photos you might as well try!

The second option to make money online through photography would be to start a photography-based blog.

My friend Marc from Vital Dollar sold three photography websites for more than a million dollars, which is, ahem, a pretty ridiculous return on investment if you ask me!

23. Work As A Virtual Assistant

As a blogger, I’ve probably hired about 5-6 freelancers at this point to help me with tasks like SEO, web design, and marketing.

I’m not at a point yet where I need to hire a part-time or full-time assistant, but many bloggers and business owners are. This is why there is plenty of opportunity to make money as a virtual assistant.

VA’s generally work with bloggers, business owners, or busy professionals to make their life easier and to keep things on track.

Common VA tasks might include:

Scheduling appointments.

Sending out emails/reminders.

Managing social media correspondence.

Planning travel arrangements.

Pay range, hours, and benefits vary greatly depending on the organization you work for and who your clients are.

One popular website for finding VA clients is Fancy Hands, which pays $3 – $7 per task and offers room for growth.

Alternatively, you could also try joining several blogging Facebook groups and pitching your VA services to bloggers in need!

24. Do Voice Over Work

If you’ve ever been told ‘you have a voice for radio’ or something similar, you might be able to make money through online voice over work!

Plenty of websites and marketplaces offer a chance for voice over artists to make some extra cash, and some people are making a killing. Just check out this Fiverr result page:

Some of these Fiverr gigs have over 1K reviews, so these artists are definitely making some substantial income every month.

25. Become An Online Travel Agent

While I’m absolutely convinced travel agencies are going to go the way of the dodo and we’ll just let Google decide our travel plans moving forwards, apparently the rest of the world disagrees with me.

In any case, if you want a more niche form of virtual assistant work and love making travel plans, working as an online travel agent may be an option.

As a work from home travel agent, you can either work for larger agencies on a commission basis (or a modest salary, perhaps) or form your own business and find clients yourself.

Travel & Leisure breaks down how to become an online travel agent better than I can, so be sure to give it a read if this online money making idea intrigues you!

26. Become An At-Home Bookkeeper

If you’re a qualified accountant and sick of working an in-office 9-5 job, you may be able to make an online living by working as an at-home bookkeeper!

Bookkeepers are in charge of managing financial operations for a business. Any money that comes in or out of the business should be something a bookkeeper is aware of and monitoring.

Some common bookkeeping tasks include:

Paying bills and invoicing customers.

Auditing business financial records to ensure accuracy.

Providing financial reports to business owners or relevant parties so they can understand the state of the business.

Bookkeeping work also pays decently, and in 2020, the high end for a bookkeeper salary was almost $50,000. However, freelance bookkeepers working for multiple clients can generally charge a higher rate and earn more annually, provided they have enough clients.

If you want to learn more about how to be become a bookkeeper, my friend Andrew from Wealthy Nickle has some stellar content on the subject!

Quick Ways To Make Money Online:

If you’re in the need for some fast money and don’t have time for lengthy job applications or starting your own business, the following websites and apps are a decent way to make money quickly.

Just note, these jobs are generally lower paying gig jobs and not meant for earning a full-time income. I don’t recommend these as a long term solution, but rather as a decent option to make beermoney every month.

27. Save Money & Earn Gift Cards With Wikibuy

If you’re an avid online shopper, another simple way to save money and even earn gift cards is to add the Wikibuy browser extension (affiliate link, Wikibuy compensates us for using the provided links).

Wikibuy automatically applies coupon codes at checkout, making it easier to find online savings.

Plus, like the Honey browser extension, you can also add items to your price watchlist. If an item drops in price, Wikibuy will alert you and help you buy at an ideal time.

Wikibuy is free and works in the United States. Again, if you do a lot of online shopping, there’s no harm in seeing if the coupon codes help save money.

Plus, Wikibuy lets you earn loyalty credits for shopping at their partners, which can be exchanged for a variety of free gift cards.

If you want to cut down on expenses and possibly earn gift cards at the same time, Wikibuy is worth a try!

28. Play Mobile Games On Mistplay

If you like playing mobile games and have an Android, Mistplay is a great way to quickly make money online.

Mistplay works in four simple steps:

Download the Mistplay mobile app.

Choose sponsored games to play from your Mistplay Mixlist.

Level up in-game and on your overall Mistplay account to earn units.

Redeem units for free gift card rewards.

It is that straightforward.

Now, in my Mistplay review I break down the fact that this app isn’t a massive money-maker. It’s nice for scoring some free gift cards, but it won’t make you rich.

However, if you already play a lot of mobile games, you might as well make the most of your time and get paid to play video games!

29. Answer Surveys For Money

Alright, let me clear up one thing: I hate answering surveys.

I did it back in college for a while, on and off, but I don’t recommend this money making idea for anyone unless you need some pocket change or want to do this while watching TV.

Making money with surveys is easy. Simply create an account on a GPT (get paid to) website, answer surveys, and earn points that can be redeemed for rewards like PayPal cash or gift cards.

Some popular GPT websites where you can make money with surveys include:

Note, these websites generally work best in North America.

However, I really can’t recommend this option unless you have absolutely nothing else to turn to. The pay is GARBAGE!

Extra reading – 21 micro task websites to make beermoney every month.

30. Get Paid To Watch Videos

One other way to make money with GPT websites is to watch videos to earn points.

I used to be into phone farming when I was in college, and I had a modest operation of devices that would sit and watch videos all day long to earn reward points.

This side hustle used to be a much better source of passive income than it currently is, but hey, back in college I could earn about $50 a month with this setup!

Nowadays, GPT websites pay much less for video watching, and it’s no wonder considering the amount of ad fraud that this model invites.

Most of the survey companies I mentioned have a video portal, although Grindabuck is currently my favorite one. I’ve earned a little over $150 from that site at this point from videos, some surveys, and a few referrals.

31. Evaluate Search Engines

Contrary to what many people might think, search engines like Google break all the time. That’s how you end up with search results like this:

Companies like Google and Bing are therefore quite interested in improving the quality of their search engines. To help accomplish this, they contract out search engine evaluation work which requires humans to monitor search results for errors.

Two of the most popular companies for finding search engine evaluation work are Appen and Lionbridge.

Hourly pay ranges up to $15 per hour, although work is not steady. That’s why this is more of a quick cash idea than a full-time opportunity to earn an online income.

32. Test Apps & Websites

If you don’t mind QA work, you can make some easy online money by testing out apps and websites that are in development.

I’ve written a pretty comprehensive post on how to make money with user testing, but here’s the gist of it:

Users signup as testers with one of several UI testing companies.

Users screen record themselves using an app or website for a 10 minute testing session and provide some live feedback during the process.

The testing company pays users around $10 for their time.

It’s that simple.

Some popular QA testing websites include:

Signing up for a few companies is a good idea if you want a higher volume of work since it can be hard to get regular testing sessions.

33. Find A Remote Transcription Job

Transcription work involves listening to audio recordings and transcribing (writing) them out.

Companies need transcriptionists all the time. AI isn’t quite perfect at transcribing audio yet, and fields like law or medicine often need 100% accurate reports of events that transpired.

Online transcription jobs are a dime a dozen these days, and this is honestly because most people burnout and hate them. However, if you’re looking for a low barrier to entry online job, this is an option.

Transcription work is tedious, audio files are usually low quality, and the pay is mediocre. Additionally, it takes a lot of practice to become a quick transcriber.

If you’re willing to put in the hours of practice, it can be a decent side hustle, but this definitely isn’t for everyone.

Some popular remote transcription companies to consider include:

34. Review Things For Cash

The world of ecommerce has made online reviews more important than ever before, and this means there is now plenty of opportunity to get paid to write reviews.

Some methods are a bit more sketchy than others, and there are certainly ways to get paid to provide fake reviews. A quick look at the Fiverr marketplace for Amazon reviews is all the proof you need.

However, there are some legitimate ways to review products for cash, including:

Reviewing software on websites like Gartner or Capterra.

Writing book reviews for cash.

Receiving free products from merchants in order to review them.

This money maker won’t break the bank, but hey, you might as well review any software you’ve used to get some free Amazon gift cards.

35. Sell Internet Bandwidth

Speaking of somewhat sketchy money making ideas, did you know you can sell unused internet bandwidth for passive income?

Companies like FluidStack are willing to pay users up to $50/month for their unused internet. Essentially, users can opt-in to have their computers function as a node in a VPN or CDN network.

Keep in mind, even if you’re just acting as a node for a CDN, you are letting other people access the internet through your IP address. This is what makes this source of online passive income kinda odd.

Personally, it’s not my cup of tea, but I’d definitely do something like this if I was still in college!

36. Rent Out Your Assets

While this isn’t a purely online way to make money, renting out your assets does harness the power of the internet to connect buyers and renters, so I’ll take it.

I’ve written a pretty comprehensive post on assets you can rent out for passive income, but in general, here are some of the most popular assets to rent out:

Rent your home – platforms like AirBnB or HomeAway are perfect for this.

platforms like AirBnB or HomeAway are perfect for this. Rent your car – Turo or GetAround can be quite lucrative if you have a nice car and live in a major city.

Turo or GetAround can be quite lucrative if you have a nice car and live in a major city. Rent out photography gear – Fat Llama is one of the most popular rental marketplaces for gear and anything else, really.

Fat Llama is one of the most popular rental marketplaces for gear and anything else, really. Rent out instruments – Fretish is the best website to turn to.

Renting out your assets can also be quite lucrative. Just checkout the 30 day leaderboard on Fat Llama:

37. Enter Naming Contests

Alright, while this side hustle idea is a complete shot in the dark, maybe you have a knack for marketing and can come up with the perfect name for a business or product.

Online naming competitions are a way to possible earn a couple of hundred bucks by picking winning names for businesses.

The process is simple: business owners offer a prize pool on a crowdsource naming website for whoever can come up with the perfect name, and the winner takes all.

Some popular naming competition websites include:

Online Signup Bonuses & Cash Back

Okay, if the aforementioned 35 ways to make money online are not for you, don’t fret. There are still plenty of ways to make extra income, snag some freebies, and earn passive income.

The following apps, websites, and companies are currently paying users to signup and use their platform.

38. S`mores Lockscreen App

If you have an Android phone and don’t mind getting paid to see an advertisement before you unlock your phone, the S`mores lockscreen app might be for you.

S`mores pays users in the United States $0.10/day to unlock their phone. You don’t have to interact with any of the ads on your screen, so there’s really no inconvenience.

Points can be redeemed for gift cards to popular merchants like Amazon, so if you want a free $36.50 a year, try out S`mores!

39. Use Passive Income Apps To Earn

I’ve always been a fan of developing passive income streams on This Online World, and apps are some of easiest way to accomplish this.

Passive income apps all sort of work the same. Apps pay users bits of income every day to run an application in the background of the phone and then sell amalgamated data sets to marketing companies.

If you’re comfortable with selling your data, you can probably earn some decent money each year with the following apps:

To date, I’ve earned over $100 in PayPal cash and free gift cards from using the 3 apps listed above. If you’re looking for absolutely brain-dead free money, it doesn’t get better than this.

Extra reading – 17 apps & websites paying signup bonuses and passive income.

40. Use Cash Back Apps (And Get Signup Bonuses)

While this isn’t the purest way to make money online (since you can’t spend your way into wealth), there are still plenty of cash back apps that offer signup bonuses to new users, so I think this is fair game.

I’ve been using cash back apps for a while, and they were a surprising way to save money during college, especially around the holidays.

Some cash back apps offering signup bonuses to new users include:

Rakuten -$10. Checkout my Rakuten review to learn more.

Drop -$5. Checkout my Drop app review to get all the details.

MyPoints

Ibotta – Download Ibotta for Android or IOS and earn rewards for shopping!

Rakuten and MyPoints require users to make a $25 purchase from partnered merchants in order to claim your $10 bonus, but you can just shop through Amazon or Walmart and buy home essentials you needed to buy anyway.

Extra reading – 17 awesome cash back apps to save money every month.

41. Banking & Credit Card Bonuses

While I wouldn’t go around opening new bank accounts or signing up for credit cards every week, taking advantage of banking bonuses isn’t a bad way to get some quick cash once a year or so.

Online banks always have signup offers going on. Something as simple as opening a savings account and depositing $100 is usually enough to get a reward.

I suggest taking a look at Nerd Wallet for a list of current bank signup bonuses.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to making money online, you really just need to do some research, pick an idea that matches your skill set, and hit the gas.

It’s all too easy to read post after post about the different ways to make money online. Don’t suffer paralysis by analysis…take action!

Anything worth dong is going to take time and hard work, which is why I listed a bunch of online business ideas and freelancing options.

However, I also understand that people sometimes need quick cash. If that’s the case, hopefully some of the micro jobs, signup bonuses, or passive income apps are able to help you out.

Thanks so much for reading, and best of luck in your online money making adventures!

Did I miss an idea? Let me know in the comments!