Underfunded and overdrawn? Well, being broke is no barrier to making money online. So fire up your Internet connection and get ready to hustle ‘cause we’re going to show you exactly how to make money online for free. Seriously, you won’t have to invest a single cent.
Let’s start with some of the easiest, most straight-forward free ways to make money online.
Make Money at Home by Selling Your Stuff on eBay
You’ve got stuff. Probably lots of stuff. And how much of it do you use, really?
Whether it’s an ice cream maker that’s gathering dust, an exercise bike you’re using as a clothes hanger, or a pair of crazy heels you still haven’t learned to walk in – if you haven’t used it in over a year, chances are you simply don’t need it.
So why not sell all your extra stuff on eBay? It’s a brilliant twofer – you get extra cash and more space around the house.
Ebay’s also one of the best ways for teens to make money online since your youth lets you get away with things like hitting up your family and family friends for items they’re not using and might want to donate toward your cause.
Make Money Online Fast and Free by Offering Services on Fiverr
If you haven’t checked out this site yet, it’s worth a good, long browse-through. And prepare to be amazed at how many people are willing to pay total strangers to do very strange things. Like dancing to a song while donning a hot dog costume.
That’s the beauty of Fiverr – you can offer pretty much any service you can think up…and there will be people who’re willing to pay you at least $5 for it.
Don’t want to dress up as food? You can try your hand in anything from graphic design to teaching someone how to do something. You can even make use of more specialized skills, like flirting or breaking up with a random person’s boyfriend (or girlfriend).
And for those of you who really, truly have no talent at all to offer – Fiverr also allows you to pimp out your household pets. Just hang a sign on Rover or have Tigger pop through a birthcard card and watch the dollars roll in.
Image courtesy of Fiverr
Whatever you decide to do on Fiverr, though – just make sure that it’ll only take a few minutes of your time to complete. There’s just no point in offering a gig that’ll take you several hours to collect $5.
So, ask yourself…what are you willing to do for $5?
Make Money Writing Online
Hop on over to the most popular freelancer job sites like oDesk and Elance and you’ll quickly notice that articles of every stripe and variety are in high demand, thanks to more and more people turning to the Internet as their main source of information.
There are thousands of websites that you can peruse to find writing jobs, but keep in mind that the pay differs significantly from site-to-site as well as niche.
If you are into humor writing, Cracked is perpetually looking for talented writers and $100 per accepted article. If you have travel stories to share, sites like Matador and The Expeditionermay pay you up to $30 for them. And there are many more writing jobs in pretty much every niche and topic you can think of – you can find many of them on freelance sites such as oDeskand eLance as well as sites that cater to the huge demand for original content from website owners like Constant Content, Textbroker and Articlesale.
Earn Money Online for Free by Becoming a Tutor
Online tutoring is becoming an increasingly in-demand service and tutor companies that will help you find clients are sprouting up everywhere.
Make Money at Home by Becoming an Online Juror
There are sites that give would-be lawyers the opportunity to practice their skills with mock trials. By signing up as a juror, you can make $5 to $60 per case, depending on the complexity. Of course, the juror selection process does not guarantee you’ll be selected for a case, but it is definitely worth a try – both for the money and the novelty. Best part is, you don’t have to leave your room to decide on someone’s imaginary fate.
Try eJury and TrialJuries.com to get started.
Make Real Money Online with Affiliate Marketing
Do you know how much it costs to sign up for an account with the top affiliate marketing platforms like Clickbank or Commission Junction?
Nothing. It’s totally free.
Combine this with web 2.0 blogs like Blogger and WordPress and you’ve just found a way to earn money online for free.
So how does this work? Affiliate marketing is basically when you refer people to products and services and then get paid a commission when a purchase is made. The best part is that there are affiliate programs for pretty much every variety of goods and services so you’ll have an endless array of options to choose from.
The downside is that this option will take a little more work and self-initiative than the above ways to make money online for free since you’ll have to learn to set up a blog, find keywords to target and products to promote, and then drive traffic to your blog. But the upside is that this is also one of the only ways to make money at home on a passive basis since your blog will continue getting visitors and making sales while you eat, sleep and play.
Note: One thing you should know about affiliate marketing, though, is that it’s really best to invest in your own domain and hosting since free blogging platforms such as WordPress.com have specific rules about affiliate marketing and the host can suspend or remove your blog if you’re found to violate its terms of use. The upfront costs of setting up your own site are not free, but they are cheap – you can get a domain for around $10 a year and cheap hosting for $1 a month. Plus, you get the peace of mind that comes from knowing you have control over your site.
Earn Residual Income Online with Revenue Sharing Sites
Speaking of passive income, one way you can get your hands on some without spending a dime is by writing articles for profit-sharing websites. There’s a sizable number of Web 2.0 platforms that let you create content and then earn a share of the revenue that’s generated by Google AdSense clicks, Amazon and eBay product sales or even affiliate commissions from Clickbank!
Here are a few to get you started:
- Hubpages.com
- AllVoices.com
- InfoBarrel.com
- HowHub.com
- WriterTown.com
These revenue sharing sites really range in terms of how much you’ll earn and from what. For example, Hubpages offers 60% ad revenue while HowHub starts you off at 50% but gives you the opportunity to earn 100% of the revenue once you’ve referred 10 friends who have each submitted at least 1 approved article. So do your research on their terms and percentages before you start drafting up content!
Make (More) Residual Income Online by Selling Your Photos
Okay, we can’t seem to get off this topic of passive income so here’s another way to make money online by doing the work once and getting paid for it again and again.
You sell your photos.
Sites like ShutterStock.com or fotolia.com cost nothing to sign up for. And once you’ve uploaded your images, you can start earning. Again, how much you’ll earn varies from site to site bust most pay somewhere between to 30% to 70% for images that are sold.
What About Surveys for Cash?
There’s been a lot of hoopla around taking online surveys for money, but this is actually our least favorite method to make money online for free.
Why? Well, there’s a plethora of scammy websites that charge you for the opportunity to gain access to opportunities to take surveys for cash. So simply swimming through all the paid online surveys offers to separate the legitimate wheat from the crap chaff is challenging to begin with.
But even when you get to the genuine paid online surveys – which shouldn’t cost you a dime to sign up for – you’re left with a slim range of surveys that just don’t pay that much and often don’t even pay in cash, offering gift cards or entry into a sweepstakes instead.
And even when you do get money for surveys, don’t expect to make enough to live off of. At best, it’ll be a little extra cash in the range of $5 to $20 per paid online survey.
