5 Real Ways to Actually Make Money Online

There are legitimate ways to make money online. The problem is that the real ways to make money aren’t “get rich quick” schemes.

I’m going to tell you about all kinds of legitimate ways to make money online.  Since we are talking about legitimate jobs, you’ve got to be…well, legitimate. Many of these options are real jobs that require you to put in hours if you want to get paid. They also require real work. Here are some tips for actually getting the job:

• Take it seriously. Yes, you’re applying for an online job. Yes, you can do the work in your underwear, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a “real job”. You must treat it as such or they aren’t going to treat you as a serious candidate. You aren’t the only one who wants to work in their underwear. In fact, the competition online is likely higher than it is in your local area.
• Be professional. When you submit a résumé, don’t type it in ALL CAPS and please don’t avoid the caps lock like the plague. Know how to use it without looking incompetent. Write in complete sentences with proper grammar. Of course, there will be exceptions, but even with the exceptions, you must keep it professional. You’re building their view of you.
• Give some, but not all.  Whether you’re providing writing samples, a photography portfolio or links to your work, give them enough examples to get the idea, but not so many that they don’t even know where to start. And while we’re on the topic, give them some of your background information, but don’t tell them your life story.

1. Websites That Pay

Here are some legitimate websites that pay:

1. Swagbucks – Swagbucks is great for earning some extra cash. You can do a variety of things to make money, from taking surveys to using their search engine. You won’t get rich, but you will earn a few bucks. If you have the time to kill, you can spend it earning some extra cash, instead of surfing the web.
2. InboxDollars – InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks, since you’re going to be taking surveys, shopping, etc., so if you want to maximize your return, sign up with both websites. They also offer a search engine that pays you (like Swagbucks) and you get $5 just for signing up.  I won’t continue to list survey sites one after another down the list, but if you want to get paid to take surveys, also check out GlobalTestMarket, E-Poll Surveys and Survey Club.
3. Project Payday – Project Payday is one of those sites that has testimonials of people who have earned thousands of dollars by getting paid to get trial offers. I’m not saying you’ll earn thousands, but it is legit and you can earn some extra cash. They assume that by paying you to do a free trial, you’ll either like the product and purchase it, or forget to cancel the trial and get charged for it. If you can keep track and cancel before you get charged (if you don’t want the product), then this is a great site for making some money.
4. User Testing – User Testing pays $10 a pop for testing websites. A test usually takes about 15-20 minutes. The purpose is for a website owner to watch someone, who is new to their site, try to navigate it. The value that the site owner gets by watching an actual user experience is worth a ton, but $10 isn’t a bad pay-out.
5. Fiverr – Fiverr is a great place to make a few bucks or spend a few bucks if you need some of the services people offer. Basically, everything is $5. You either pay $5 or charge $5. They call them “gigs.” You can offer your services however you choose. If you sell art and you’re fine selling pieces for $5 each, that’s a gig. If you’re a graphic designer and you want to offer your services for $10/hour, simply offer a 30 minute gig. If they need two hours of graphic design, they pay you $20, or $10/hour by buying four gigs.
6. IZEA – IZEA works in addition to a blog or on its own. You get paid to blog, tweet, take photos and take videos. The pay is mostly based on your following, so if you want to make money with your tweets, you’ll need to grow you Twitter following.  Likewise, if you want to make money with blogs, you’ll need substantial blog traffic (more on blogging below).

2. Freelance Writing

Now for what you’ve all been waiting for; once you’re ready to actually start making money, here are 10 websites you can start with:

1. Listverse – Listverse pays $100 for each accepted post. The article must be a list, it must be at least 1,500 words and you must include at least 10 things. Other than that, you can get pretty creative with it.
2. TopTenz – TopTenz pays $50 for each accepted post. Again, the article has to be in a list format and it must be at least 1,500 words, with few exceptions. They post often so your chances of getting accepted are fairly high.
3. A List Apart – A List Apart pays $200 for each accepted post. They’re not first on the list, because they tend to publish less articles, which means you have a smaller chance of getting accepted. Same guidelines as above, 1,500 word minimum.
4. International Living – International Living pays $75 for each accepted post. They are mostly looking for travel experiences from countries you have visited. For this site, it’s more about your experience than your writing ability.
5. FundsforWriters – FundsforWriters pays $50 for each accepted post. They are looking for articles about writing and making money with it. They only accept articles between 500-600 words, but they want you to make each word count.
6. Uxbooth – Uxbooth pays $100 for each accepted post. They do tend to take four to eight weeks to accept and post articles, so don’t count on this being a quick money maker. They take so long, because they pair with editors to only publish amazing content.
7. iWriter – iWriter pays up to $15 for each accepted post. That may seem small, but they aren’t as strict as many of the others above and they also allow you to pick exactly what you write. You can write as many or as few articles as you want.
8. Textbroker – Textbroker pays up to five cents per word, if you’re a 5-star writer. You’ll start by submitting a short sample article and you will most likely start as a 3-star writer, but you can work your way up by writing more and writing great content.
9. Matador Network – Matador Network pays up to $60 for each accepted post, but standard pay is around $20-$25. They don’t really focus on a minimum word count, but they have a maximum count of 1,500 words.
10. The Penny Hoarder – The Penny Hoarder pays up to $800 (rarely), depending upon the number of page views you receive. The pay starts at $100 for 50,000 page views, so this isn’t a guaranteed paid article, but it can potentially be highly rewarding.

3. Sell Your Stuff

• Get a PayPal account. If you don’t have a PayPal account, you’ll want to get one if you’re doing business online. It’s the standard in online business for receiving payment and paying others.
• Take good pictures. Some of the options below don’t require you to actually take the picture and sell the product, but for the ones that do, make sure you take a clear picture that makes your product stand out from the others.  If you’re going to be taking a lot of pictures, set up a small “studio-like” area in your home with a backdrop and proper lighting to really make your pictures come across as professional. And of course, you’ll want a good camera too.
• Be honest.  If you’re selling used items, be honest about every dent, scratch, blemish, etc.. This will reduce many issues you could run into and keep your reviews positive.
• Do good business. Plain and simple. Whether you’re selling on a small site or opening an online store, your customer service matters. You’ll want to get those positive reviews and make a good name for yourself. Respond to questions, concerns and complaints. Offer a guarantee if available.

Follow those guidelines and you will do well in online sales. When you’re ready to start selling, here’s where you go:

1. Amazon – Have you heard of FBA? It stands for “Fulfilled by Amazon” and it’s getting pretty popular. Basically, you buy products (in bulk is best) and ship them to Amazon for them to store. When your products sell, Amazon packs them up, ships them out and sends you the money (after taking their cut). There are people making a full-time living from FBA, while others just do it for some extra money.
2. CraigsList – Some things don’t ship very well. Other things may make you feel uncomfortable to sell to someone across the country. Anytime you’re selling a large item or something you just don’t want to ship, Craigslist is a great place to go. It’s simple to list your item (again, take good pictures!). If you don’t like the idea of putting your phone number out there, the interested individual can send you a message to your inbox without even getting your email address.
3. eBay – Of course you can’t read an article about making money online that doesn’t mention eBay. You can start an eBay store and get serious about it or you can just sell some stuff to declutter your home. Either way, I’ve made my fair share from selling on eBay and it’s still a popular way to earn money. If you decide to start an actual eBay store, you’ll want to find a drop-ship business like Doba that will store and ship items straight to your customers so you don’t have to deal with an inventory.
4. Etsy – If you like to create arts and crafts, you can sell them onEtsy.It’s completely free to open an Etsy store. You simply sign up, post pictures of your creations and starting selling. You can choose your payment option, but PayPal is generally the easiest. Etsy makes it easy to sell and keep track of your inventory. There is a small listing fee and they take 3.5% of every sale you make.
5. Facebook – Facebook swap shops are great for selling things locally. It’s like CraigsList, but a little easier. You simply search for swap shops in your area and ask to join the group. Once you’re in, take a picture of the item, write a quick description with the price and post it. It doesn’t get much easier than that. You can generally expect to get about what you would get at a yard sale, maybe a little more.

4. Blogging

Blogging is something that requires patience, persistence and discipline. It may mean writing everyday for over a year before you really start to see any money from it. There are exceptions to the rule, but from my dealings with other bloggers, it seems to be pretty common to spend one or even two years building your blog, your brand and your authority, before making any serious amount of money.

Some people argue that you can make money without a lot of traffic and while that is true in some circumstances, you will generally need a lot of website traffic to start earning from a blog and that takes a while. Once you’ve reached that point, here are the primary ways to monetize your blog and start earning:

1. Advertising – This is definitely the most old-school way of earning money with a blog. It’s also starting to become the least common way. You can sell advertising spots directly on your site or you can sign up with a company like Google AdSense or Media.net. Either way, you won’t see a whole lot of money from ads until your views are well into the thousands each day.
2. Affiliates – There are many affiliate networks, such as FlexOffersand CJ Affiliate that allow you to promote other people’s products and services. You simply put a link or a banner on your page and then you get a percentage if someone clicks through and buys the product/service. You’ll want to select products that are specifically within your blog’s category.This is an effective way to earn money once you have the traffic coming to your blog.
3. Membership – Many people have created a paid membership area on their blog. This is typically for exclusive content that you can only access in the “member’s area.” If you have a really great idea on what to include, this can be a great idea.  You’ll have to create something that can’t easily be accessed around the web.
4. Products – You can create your own product, such as an ebook or computer software. You would then use your blog as a promotion tool to get people to buy your product. As long as you create a legitimate product with a whole lot of value, you should be able to get some buyers, but like everything else with a blog, you’ll need the traffic to get the sells.
5. Services – You can offer a paid service, such as life coaching, blog coaching, goal setting or financial planning. Just be sure to investigate all the legal implications and make sure you’re not claiming to be a professional if you’re not one. With a service like this, you’re basically using your blog to sell yourself. You’ll need to convince people that you’re worth buying and then be able to back up your claims once they purchase your service.
6. Sponsored/paid posts – Many blogs publish sponsored and paid posts. Sponsored posts are basically just posts about a specific brand, product or service. A company will pay you to publish an article about it. It’s similar with other paid posts as well. Your basically selling the spot for the article on your site. If you decide to take this route, you’ll want to build your traffic before you will get many offers.
7. Subscription – If you think of something valuable (newsletter, online magazine, etc.) that you can consistently offer on a certain basis (weekly, monthly, etc.), you may want to offer a subscription service. This could be a fee charged each time your product is sent out or on a monthly basis. Either way, this has to be something that your customers can only get by subscribing to your website.
8. Videos – This could be an entire section on it’s own. Many people have made money by creating YouTube videos. Evan of EvanTube is a kid and he has made millions by creating reviews of products that other kids his age would use. It’s not easy to get views into the millions, but once you do, you’ll start seeing some cash come in. Many bloggers have completely turned to videos to get their point across by starting a video blog.

5. Work-at-Home Companies

Finally, there are some companies that will hire you to work from the comfort of your own home. If you’re interested in working for someone else, while still making your own schedule and deciding where to work from, here are a few companies that will let you do just that:

1. CrowdSource – CrowdSource offers many types of jobs from “microtask” jobs to larger writing and editing jobs. You decide how much you work and you can do most of it right at your computer.
2. Demand Studios – Demand Studios is hiring all kinds of creative professionals, from writer to filmmakers. The pay isn’t amazing, but it’s competitive for a work-at-home job.
3. Fast Chart – Fast Chart allows you to work from home as a medical transcriptionist. There are some requirments and qualifications listed on the page, but if you meet them, you’ll make competitive pay for the industry. You’ll also be able to set your own schedule since you’ll be working from home.
4. Leap Force – Leap Force is one way that Google rates websites for search engine ranking. If you’re hired, you make decent money (usually over $11/hour), you set your own schedule and it can be pretty fun to view and rank websites.
5. Liveops – Liveops is a call center that allows you to work from home. Once your set up to take the calls, you can begin making a weekly schedule and working from home. The pay is generally close to $10/hour, but you can earn more with commissions.
6. SpeakWrite – SpeakWrite will pay you up to $15/hour to transcribe information. You set your own schedule and work from home.

Now you’ve got many different options to start earning online. If you saw something that really interests you, try it out and learn more about it. If you’re really wanting to make a full-time income online, you need to be dedicated to learning how to do what you want to do. There are tons of free resources out there. You just have to search for them!

How To Make Money Fast

How To Make Money Fast
        
 Need a little extra cash in a hurry? You can feel pressure when you need to make money fast, but you do have options for getting it done. These include selling items, doing odd jobs, and finding money in overlooked ways. These methods may or may not be reliable long-term, but when you need to make some money in a few hours or days, they are your best shot.

Selling Items You Own
Sell things you no longer need. A quick and easy way to make some money is to sell valuable, high-demand items.
Look around your house for commonly-sold items you no longer need, such as:

• CDs
• DVDs
• Books
• Musical instruments
• Collectible toys
• Electronic equipment (computers, tablets, televisions, speakers, etc.)
• Smartphones
• Video games
• Jewelry
• Crafts
• Unused gift cards (these can be sold on various websites, or redeemed instantly at Coinstar kiosks) 
• Look for ways to sell your items. You can concentrate on selling your items to people you know, in-person to customers, or online. Depending on where you live, any of these methods might be a way of making a sale quickly.
• Yard sales
• Flea markets]
• Online sites such as eBay
• “For Sale” postings (on a bulletin board, in a newspaper, or on an online classifieds board like Craigslist)
• Pawn shops
• Online retail sites like Amazon or AbeBooks.com will sometimes pay quickly for popular items like books, DVDs, electronics, and smartphones. These sites may charge a small fee or percentage of your profit.
• Trade-in at stores; some will buy items like used designer clothing, CDs and Records, or books on the spot.
• Set a competitive price for your items. Deciding how much to sell your stuff for can be difficult. However, if you price items at half of what somebody would be able to buy them for anywhere else, you are more likely to make a quick sale. When you are trying to make money in a hurry, this might be your priority.
• Don’t sell items for a deeply discounted price unless you really need money in a hurry,
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• Making other Sales
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• Sell things to pedestrians. Entrepreneurial sorts sell things like cold drinks on hot days or hot nuts in winter. This method can be especially lucrative if you set up a spot near a sporting event, park, etc. You’ll need to have a small amount of money to invest in the product, but then you can sell it at a much higher return and make some quick cash.For instance, say you buy a multi-pack of 20 water bottles for $5.
•  If you then sell water to pedestrians for $1 a bottle, then you can make $20, leaving you with an overall profit of $15.Check laws in your area and make sure that it is legal to sell items in this way.Be cautious if you are trying to sell things in high traffic zones.

• • Sell scavenged valuables. If you have a metal detector, or even just a good eye, go to public places where people are likely to drop something unnoticed (such as parks, beaches, and shopping areas), and look for money, jewelry and other valuable goods. This method isn’t very reliable, but you just might get lucky and be able to find something you can sell quickly for cash.
  Sell your hair. If your hair is healthy, untreated, and long enough, you can sell it for up to hundreds of dollars.^[8] There are now online marketplaces to help you sell your hair, in addition to salons or other centers in your area that may be interested in buying hair.
• Hair up to 10 inches often sells for less than $100 dollars. As the length of the hair increases, so does the value. Hair over 30 inches long may sell for $960 or more.
• Sell blood or donate plasma. Plasma is a component of blood, and the process of extracting it is similar to donating blood: your blood is drawn, the plasma is separated, and the red blood cells are returned to your body. Laws may not technically permit you to sell your plasma, but you can be compensated for your time spent donating. In the United States, you can make about $200 a month by registering with a plasma center near you.
• Typically, you must be between 18 and 65 and in good health to donate plasma.
• Many plasma donation centers will compensate you with a pre-loaded gift card.
• Sell sperm. Sperm donors can make potentially make several hundred dollars a month, and the payment is usually quick. However, you must ordinarily be tall, educated, and healthy to become a donor. You can find a donation center near you, sign up, and start as soon as possible.
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• Recycling

Return bottles and cans for a refund. In some states, you can get 5 or 10 cents per can or bottle by returning them to a deposit center.^[14] There are a number of ways to take advantage of this opportunity:

• Scrounge up all of the cans and bottles you can find around your home.
• Look for cans and bottles in trash cans, along busy roads, and anywhere that people hang out (parks, stadiums, etc.).
• Host a bring-your-own-beverage party. When the party’s over, gather all the bottles and cans and turn them in for cash.
• Scrap a junk pile. Metals such as scrap steel, copper, or aluminum can fetch good prices.If you've got a big pile of scrap in your backyard, own a junked camper or other vehicle, or know of an illegal dump site, you can sort and sell it to a scrap yard or recycling center in your area.
• If your state doesn’t have a can/bottle refund system, you can still sell aluminum cans to a scrap yard.

Scrap a worthless computer. Computers are full of valuable metals such as steel, aluminum, and gold.If you dismantle old computers, you can sort these metals and sell them to a salvage yard.

• If possible, amass a large number of computers to scrap, to make it worth your while. For instance, offer to take outdated computers off the hands of a building or school doing considerable upgrades or find junked computers in the classifieds.
• Don’t scrap good, working computers; what you get for the scrap probably won’t be as much as you could get by selling the components or the entire device.
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• Making Money Online
• Find small paid tasks via apps. There are several money-making apps that will either pay you for doing marketing tasks (such as scanning products at a grocery store) or connect you with someone who wants a more extensive task (such as completing a survey).
• You may not be able to make much money per task this way. However, you can start right away and make some money quickly.
• Stay away from apps that ask you to do something like pay a fee or supply credit card information to sign up to complete surveys. Those are almost always scams.

Fill out online surveys. Many merchants use survey responses to find ways of improving their marketing. There are many websites devoted that connect users to free online surveys.

These usually only pay at most a few dollars apiece, but they require very little effort and may provide fast payment.

• Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program is another way to make money online by answering questions or completing simple tasks. However, the pay is usually very low, often only a few cents per task.
• Find focus groups in your area.Focus groups are comprised of people that can provide a company, organization, or individual with feedback on a product, design, idea, etc. Monitor local postings or search a site like FindFocusGroups.com to find some in your area that you are eligible to participate in. Some of these sites promote online-only tasks, such as serving as an “e-juror” for lawyers working on a case. The pay for these tasks can be relatively good, and can be disbursed quickly.
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• Doing Odd Jobs
• Consider day labor. You can post an ad online or on a bulletin board offering to do odd jobs. In addition, there are employment agencies that specialize in temporary work. An alternative way to find day labor is to go where other day laborers meet, if you know of any, and wait for employers (building contractors, landscapers, home owners and small business owners). Common odd jobs people need day laborers for include:
• Construction
• Basic office tasks
• Yardwork (raking leaves, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, cleaning gutters, etc.)
• Picking up groceries or running other errands for the elderly
• Doing chores (cleaning houses, clearing out an attic or shed, etc.)
• Washing cars
• Moving and/or packing
• Try pet sitting Find friends who are going out of town and offer to take care of their pets while they’re gone. Professional boarding places tend to be very expensive (not to mention impersonal and intimidating for a pet), so your cozy little house or apartment may seem like a very nice alternative. Around the holidays, pet-boarders fill up quickly, meaning you can probably charge more.
• Consider taking up dog walking. People who own dogs but who are too busy to walk them will appreciate the chance to have their dogs walked. Make a flyer or post an advertisement on online classifieds boards. Use your cell phone for contact; that way you can get the calls no matter where you are trying to raise money!

Become a babysitter. Babysitting is a common way to make some extra money on the side. There are now professional services you can sign up for that will connect you with people who need a babysitter. For these services, it will help to pass a CPR class or other certification, or to have a talent or expertise for entertaining children. However, you might be able to make money more quickly just by babysitting for people you know, or by having friends refer you to others who need a babysitter.

Be a private cab driver. Companies such as Uber and Lyft have set up services that connect drivers with people who need a ride and are willing to pay for it.^[28][29] In order to take advantage of this opportunity quickly, you must own a car, have a valid driver’s license, and meet other qualifications. It might take a little bit of time to get registered as a driver with the service, but once you are, there are opportunities to make money fast because these services are in high demand.

Become a street performer. If you can dance, play music, mime, sing, or tell jokes, you can probably get some cash by performing in public. Put together a good act and find a place to perform. Give people a dose of live entertainment, and hopefully they'll reward you with tips.

• Make sure to have a hat, cup, instrument case, or something else ready for people to drop money into.
• Always check local laws before performing in a public space, since some areas have bans or restrictions on this kind of work.

Become a life model. Art students learn to draw the human figure by studying live models. Those that are willing to pose nude in front of others for up to 30 minutes can make money this way (usually at a per-hour rate).

• Models of all shapes, sizes, and genders are needed.
• You can contact local art schools, colleges, and museums about opportunities to be a live model for quick cash. The website Art Model Tips maintains lists of opportunities in each state.
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• Trying Alternative Methods
• Borrow money. If you’re in serious need of money, you can always ask to borrow some from family or friends. Let them know why you need to borrow money, and offer to pay it back within a certain (feasible) timeframe.
  • Beware of loan sharks or other extortionists. Look for people that can loan you money because they want to help you, not because they want to make a profit.
  Use your bank’s overdraft protection. If you have a checking or other account with overdraft protection, you might be able to intentionally overdraw on the account and take advantage of the temporary payment, when you are in need of quick cash. The bank will initially cover the cost, but you will have to pay it (and probable fees) back.
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  Use a credit card’s cash advance feature. Some credit cards will allow you to withdraw a certain amount of cash by using it at an ATM. This can help you come up with cash in a hurry. However, the interest rates on cash advances are usually much higher than the credit card’s usual interest rate, meaning that you will eventually have to pay more.
  • Some credit cards also allow you to use cash advances by writing checks. The interest rates for these are sometimes lower; check with your bank or credit card issuer for details.
  • Seek a payday loan or title loan as a last resort. Companies that offer payday and title loan services are commonly available, and can be a way of making quick cash. However, these typically offer extremely high interest rates (sometimes with percentages in the hundreds). If you cannot pay the loan and any interest back within the stated timeline, you risk even higher interest costs or, in the case of a title loan, the loss of your car. Avoid these types of loans in all but the most dire circumstances, unless you are certain you will be able to pay the loan back.
    • As an alternative, you might be able to ask your employer for a payday advance.