It sounds too good to be true: Make Money Online the Easy Way! Sure, you need to be careful when you’re checking out ways to get extra cash on the internet, but there are plenty of genuine ways to bring in a few bucks.
We’ve rounded up eight ways to make money online. Some of these use your skills (photography or typing) and some are ways you may already be doing them (shopping and searching). These are not sketch-get-rich-quick schemes.
They are all legitimate businesses and opportunities that can help you pull in a little extra cash when you need it.
1. Stock Photography
You are the ace of the camera. You capture captivating images and you know how to set the scene. You can turn that skill into online income by listing your images on stock-photography sites like Shutterstock and Adobe Stock. You get royalties when customers buy the right to use your work. These sites are always on the lookout for different types of images, be it gorgeous food photography or alluring views of natural beauty.
2. Swagbucks
You already watch a lot of videos online, so why not make a little extra money doing it? Swagbucks is a site that rewards its users with gift cards for taking surveys, watching certain videos, or searching the web with its search engine. You earn points by participating in Swagbucks activities and then you can redeem those points for gift cards or cash back from PayPal. Swagbucks also offers a mobile app that lets you access the service on the go.
3. Ebates
You’re already an online shopping ninja, so it makes sense to get money back for everything you’re about to do. Ebates is one of the biggest names in cash-back sites that reward you for shopping with their retail partners. For Ebates, that includes big companies like Walmart and Amazon. Ebates lets you pay a portion of your spending via check or PayPal and it’s free to use.
4. Speak
Do you have fast typing fingers? Online transcription company SpeakWrite hires independent contractors and lets them set their own hours and work from home. SpeakWrite said its typists earn about $300 per month on average, while the top earners earn more than $3,000. You must first pass a typing test that assesses you for speed and accuracy and requires you to have some previous experience in transcription and word processing.
5. User Testing
UserTesting hires contractors to try out websites and offer their views and opinions via feedback videos. Companies use it to see how well their sites perform and to try out new redesigns. Workers typically get paid $10 per test. Some testers report that opportunities can be a bit sporadic and require you to jump on them when they become available, but it works well as a side gig when you’re already online. Can do.
6. Paribus
Many online retailers offer adjustments when the price of the item you purchased drops within a certain amount of time. Paribus is a free service that takes advantage of this fact.
Paribus tracks your purchases, looks for price adjustments or late deliveries, and requests a refund, if applicable. Those refunds go back to your pocket. You’ll need to allow the service to scan your email for receipts, but it works with a number of large retailers, including Target, Nordstrom, Walmart, and Costco.
7. Society6
Artists and designers upload their original work to Society6, which then prints the images on objects ranging from T-shirts to pillows to wall hangings and even duvet covers and iPhone cases. Society 6 handles all the fulfillment while artists simply provide the design and receive a commission on anything sold with their art on it. It’s a bit like Etsy, but you don’t have to physically create or shipping your work.
8. Mechanical Turk
Amazon describes its Mechanical Turk service as a “marketplace for work.” When you sign up as a worker, you can choose which tasks to complete.
Those tasks may include translating text from one language to another, rating search results, determining whether a website is suitable for an audience, improving spelling, or extracting useful information from images. In general, tasks don’t pay much, but they usually don’t take much time either. It’s an interesting system, although making a substantial amount of money from it can be challenging.