Whether you’re just looking to pick up some extra cash to pad your vacation fund, or seeking to earn your whole paycheck via online work, here are 25 ways to make money online from home (or from anywhere, really).
What’s Ahead:
1. Take surveys online
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While taking online surveys won’t make you rich by any means, a few minutes of your time can earn you a few extra dollars.
For example, Swagbucks allows you to earn points and then redeem them for gift cards or cash back. And the cash back option is available for over 1,500 retailers including Amazon, Starbucks, and Target.
You simply earn points by shopping through their portal, filling out surveys, watching videos, etc.
2. Test games, websites, and apps
Developers always need people to test their games, websites, and apps. Basically, you use the game, site, or app just as though you were a regular user/customer, then provide feedback on how it functions — its appearance, usability, and any bugs you find.
Some good websites for finding work as a website tester are:
3. Pick up gig work tasks
You can tap into the gig economy by looking for temporary or short-term tasks that can be done from your phone or laptop. While most people probably think of things like Uber and food delivery as gig work, there’s also plenty of online gig work — from random data entry tasks to more specific work based on your skillset and availability.
You can search for a variety of tasks on any of these platforms:
4. Become a virtual assistant
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Long gone are the days when assistants had to sit outside their manager’s office door. Now, virtual assistants do everything from website management to admin support to customer service all from home. And depending the client, you can often set your own hours.
Some places to find virtual assistant jobs are:
5. Tutor online
One of the more common ways to make money online over the past few years has been virtual teaching tutoring.
There are many platforms that allow you to make money as a tutor from home, such as:
6. Sell your stuff online
One of the best ways to make some quick money online is to sell stuff you no longer need.
You can sell your things on popular platforms like Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace. Just take some pictures of the items you want to sell, then list them.
If you’re a student or recent grad, you could also sell your textbooks. Textbooks are expensive, and if you have old ones you’re never going to look at again — or never looked at in the first place — selling them can make you back some of the money you had to spend.
And if you buy your books from Barnes and Noble, they make it easy to sell them back at the end of the year.
7. Become a freelance writer
One of the best ways to make money online is to write. After all, there is always a demand for more written content online. And the type of writing out there varies wildly, so depending on your tastes and talents, you may find one particular niche that appeals to you most. You could:
- Write articles for blogs and websites.
- Copywrite for businesses and entrepreneurs.
- Ghostwrite for public figures.
- Write social media posts for businesses.
To find freelance writing gigs, check out any of these sources:
You can also consider pitching publications or reaching out to bloggers on social media to see if they’re looking for guest contributors.
8. Create a blog
If you can create a niche audience for your blog, you might even be able to quit your day job one day.
But it’s not enough to publish a few blog posts and wait for the money to roll in. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work like that. To start earning money by blogging, you’ll need to make use of affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, rather than getting paid per 1,000 page views or per click, an advertiser will pay an affiliate publisher (i.e., your blog) when you refer a paying customer.
9. Sell your own photos
If your hobby is photography, or you’re looking to become a professional photographer, there are a couple ways you can get started and make some money online.
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First, you can sell your photos to stock photo companies such as:
Or, if the only camera you have access to is your smartphone, you can specifically sell pictures you take with your phone. Apps and companies you can sell to include:
10. Start an Etsy shop
With your own Etsy shop, you can sell anything from handmade crafts to digital printables.
In addition to creating whatever it is you sell, you’ll also need to do a bit of marketing — write compelling descriptions, list the items, and promote them beyond Etsy.
Before you get going, it’s a good idea to browse some other Etsy shops that are sellling similar products, so you know what the market and competition is like.
11. Dropship
The popularity of dropshipping has risen in recent years and it’s now one of the more common ways to make money online.
The basic premise is that you’re the middleperson between a supplier and the customer. You sell the product to the customer through an online e-commerce platform, but the supplier handles the storing, packaging, and shipping aspects of it.
You can sell products on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay to get started.
12. Become a social media consultant or moderator
You can also make money from managing or moderating social media. You can organize content for clients, conduct research into current trends, respond to comments on a client’s behalf, or develop social media strategies for brands and businesses.
UpWork and Indeed frequently post jobs for social media managers.
13. Stream on Twitch
If you’re into gaming, DJing, or even playing chess, you can get paid to stream yourself doing these things on Twitch.
Once you’ve picked your niche, you’ll need to work on growing your audience with a bit of marketing. Once you’ve got a decent following, you can earn money by:
- Adding a donate button to your channel
- Scoring brand partnerships
- Selling merchandise
- Becoming a Twitch affiliate
- Becoming a Twitch partner
14. Provide transcription services
If you’re a speedy typer with a good ear, you can get paid for transcribing audio recordings. While most transcription services are at least partially done by AI these days, there is still the need for human freelancers to work alongside the AI.
Here are some websites to check out if you’d like to make money online as a transcriber:
15. Narrate audiobooks or record voice-overs
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If you have a professional microphone and a unique sounding voice, you could make money online by reading audiobooks or doing voice-over work.
There are websites like ACX and Voices where you can find voice-over gigs for podcasts, commercials, audiobooks, and any other project that requires a voice.
16. Find remote jobs
In the post-Covid era, many jobs have gone fully remote and have technically become online jobs. You can even find remote jobs that provide competitive pay and full-time hours, with complete flexibility.
Some good websites for finding remote work are:
17. Do your online shopping with cashback apps
If you already shop online, there are plenty of cashback and rewards apps out there that will score you discounts in the form of cash back.
MyPoints is one of my favorites. You can earn up to 40% back on all your purchases at 2,000 retailers, like Walmart, Home Depot, Best Buy, and Amazon. They also offer promo codes at tons of online stores. You can redeem your points whenever you want, in the form of gift cards or cash straight into your PayPal account.
Deal sites like Groupon, Slickdeals, and Hip2Save can also save you money on things you’d already spend on.
Summary
As the world continues to move more online, it’s becoming easier to make money online. And post-Covid, with so many jobs turning remote, there’s more options than ever for remote work.
As long as you have some technological know-how, you can make a little extra cash on the side. We have just 25 ideas above, but there are an endless amount of things you can do to make money if you get creative.
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