Many ads pop up on ‘ways to get rich and make millions online fast.’ While many of these ads are scams, there are some legitimate ways to make money online. Through researching, it is apparent that the more effort you put in, the more opportunity to make a lot of money online.
The pandemic and massive job loss has shown that if your only source of income is from your job, you are one step away from poverty. If you have a job or are searching for a job it is nice to have other sources of funds.
Let’s dive into seven legitimate ways to make money online.
1. Online surveys
There’re some genuine sites out there that are popular, especially for students, job seekers or others to fill surveys from home. Companies are always looking to find new customers to answer surveys and test new products.
Some surveys can take you 5 minutes, and others up to an hour. The good news is the longer surveys tend to pay more. From research, the money you can make for an average survey could be up to $20.
A few sites that pay for surveys are:
Toluna
Toluna is a reliable, safe and popular online survey site. The market research organization Toluna Group launched Toluna in 2000. Create a free account on Toluna, start taking surveys and start earning reward points for the surveys. You can participate in Toluna, no matter where you live in the world. However, you may not qualify to take every survey because some surveys are looking for particular demographics. It’s free to start, so sign up and start making money online today. Toluna has a TrustPilot rating of 3.8
Lifepoints
Lifepoints is managed by market research powerhouse Lightspeed. Lifepoints has paid over $22 million to its members. Like Toluna, it is free to sign up and get a bonus of 10 LifePoints to start. As you earn LifePoints, you can redeem your points by purchasing gift cards, getting cash through PayPal or donating to a charity. Lifepoints has a TrustPilot rating of 4.5.
Branded surveys. Branded Surveys has a TrustPilot rating of 4.3. It is one of the world’s leading market research communities. You complete a profile, and then you are matched to a variety of their surveys. You can convert the points redeemed from completing surveys into cash via PayPal, gift cards or Branded Pay.
2. Review websites and apps
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a well-known site that pays you to write online reviews through surveys and product tests. You earn Swagbuck points (SB) with the reviews you write. Swagbucks sends you daily surveys, and you also vote in a daily poll. You redeem your SB for gift cards from over 200 brands. According to Swagbucks, their members have earned over five hundred million in rewards. Swagbucks has a high Trustpilot score of 4.3 from over 10,000 reviews.
User Testing
There is a platform called UserTesting.com, where you can subscribe and review websites and apps. You can get paid $10 for every 20-minute test. Each review takes you approximately 20 minutes, then $10 is deposited in your PayPal account. It is free to sign up, and you can receive more than $10 when you give interviews. To top it off, every time you do one review, you increase your rating. If you are consistent and write valuable reviews, you can earn a nice sum of money. It has a Trustpilot rating of 2.8.
3. Sell your services on freelance sites.
Online freelancing has never been easier than it is today. It is also one of the most reliable ways to make money online. The great thing about these freelance sites is they are open to talent from all over the world. Freelance sites such as Upwork, Fiverr, Toptal and Simply Hired are growing in popularity.
Upwork
Upwork usually tops the list of best freelance websites because of the many features of the site. You can be hired as a freelancer for short-term tasks, recurring projects as well as full-time contract work. If you are consistent with the quality of work get high reviews, you will earn several badges such as ‘100% success’ or ‘Top Rated.’ If you are a developer, writer, graphic designer, animator, you can list various jobs on Upwork. It’s free to set up your account, create a profile and set up your payment options. The great
Fiverr
Fiverr as the name suggests, is a place to find low-cost freelancers. However, once you can establish yourself, build consistent reviews, you can continually increase your prices. There are also the Fiverrpro profiles where you achieve a higher level of freelance gigs. Fiverr has an advantage over many of these other freelancer sites because of its low barrier to entry. I have set up a few Fiverr gigs, and I have made quite a decent sum of money, which I primarily use to fund freelance jobs.
To find out which skills are in high demand, check out our blog post on the fastest-growing jobs.
4. Write and publish a Kindle eBook.
If you have the knowledge and passion for a topic, you can write a book and publish it on the Amazon Kindle Store.
List your book between $2 to $10 and offer a sale price. Remember that people go to amazon expecting to buy. So with a good topic, you will immediately start making great sales. Amazon’s self-publishing gives you a large international audience. Publishing on Amazon takes less than five minutes, plus you can earn up to 70% royalty on sales to customers all over the world. You also have the right to your book and the power to set your prices.
5. Make money from web search
Do you spend a lot of time on Google? Well, you can keep searching and earn some money in the process.
Qmee
One way to make money is to install a browser extension called Qmee. Qmee offers cash rewards for their customers to engage with brands, share reviews and answer surveys. You can sign up for free and start earning from your daily online searches. You can also save money by getting coupons and offers. Increase your chance to earn more by inviting your friends. Qmee works on google, eBay, Amazon, bing, Walmart and target. Qmee has a Trustpilot rating of 4.4 from over 1000 reviews.
Smart App
Smart App invites tech users to transform their data into useful insights. This site has specific user persona that they are looking for. Sign up by completing a survey to see if you qualify then install Smart App on your devices. You can earn cash, and will be automatically entered in monthly giveaways. For their regular rewards, you earn $5 for every 30 days that your device is connected with the upside of earning loyalty bonuses.
6. Develop content online
You can either start your blog, YouTube, Instagram or Pinterest channel and create content online to make money. Becoming an online content creator takes dedication, hard work and requires a large time commitment. It could take several months or years to make a significant amount of money online. You earn money online from social media by promoting affiliate products, creating and promoting your products and services as well as joining the YouTube Partner Program.
According to businessinsider, the influencer marketing industry is heading to be a $15 billion market by 2022. So if you start making content today, you could be discoverable and earn money next year. There are also new accounts to make money more reliably and sustainably. Patreon is a membership platform that makes it easier to make a consistent, steady stream of income.
7. Affiliate Marketing
One of the fastest and most straightforward way to earn money online, in my opinion, is through affiliate marketing. With affiliate marketing, you earn money from recommending products to other people. Affiliate Marketing can be as simple as sharing a referral link to a program that you signed up for and getting discounts for yourself. These referral links do not directly put money in your pocket. However, it saves you money. For example, I share my referral links with my friends and family for my skillshare and hellofresh accounts.
To get in the big leagues of popular affiliate market programs such as amazon affiliates, HubSpot Affiliate and Fiverr affiliates, you will need to demonstrate your ability to drive traffic to your website or channel. Each affiliate program has its requirements that you have to meet. You will often send an application with your website and social media channel links, which will be reviewed and then you will receive a decision.
The third way to make money online from affiliate marketing is to develop an affiliate site where you review and recommend many products and earn a commission from the sales. Some of the best affiliate websites you can study are Nerdwallet , The Wirecutter, PcPartPicker and The PointGuy Starting and maintaining one of these affiliate sites is no easy feat and usually have a massive budget and team.
Bonus: Start an ecommerce store
Selling products online is the most popular way to make money online. However it could involve managing inventory, using drop shopping, reselling items and more. I will delve into making money with ecommerce in its own dedicated post.
If there are any sites that I missed or you have comments on this post? Please share in the comments below.
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