Whether you are at home due to social distancing, self isolation, your workplace is no longer open or you have been made redundant, you might be wondering how to make money during lockdown, or looking for some real ways to make money from home. The good news is that all is not lost, and once you have made financial arrangements such as applying for Universal Credit and mortgage holidays, you can start looking for some ways to boost your income from home. You might also like these tips to not feel lonely during self isolation and these stay at home freebies.
Online focus groups
Focus groups are a great way to boost your income by giving feedback on a variety of topics, from your personal banking to testing out new apps. These studies pay anything from £20 – £100+ for your time and feedback, depending on the complexity and the length of the study.
My husband completed a video diary study that took him about 90 minutes over two weeks and he earned £60 for taking part, and I am in the middle of a £400 study right now.
A lot of these studies usually happen face to face, however with the COVID-19 pandemic studies are moving online to be completed by the participants remotely. There are still plenty of studies going ahead at the moment which have already been budgeted for, so it is a great time to get involved.
Sign up to Research Opinions, People4U and People For Research and complete your profile to be invited to studies.
Cashback
Cashback is a ‘get paid to’ website where you get paid to complete offers. The offers can include anything from completing tasks to signing up for free trials. There are 15 tasks to complete before you can get paid. However the average payout is £150, so it is worth signing up and completing the offers.
It takes about 30 days after completing an offer for it to validate, and once all of your offers have validated you can request your earnings to be paid to you via Paypal or directly into your bank account via BACS. This then takes just a few days to be paid to you.
The offers take a few hours to complete, and you can spread them out over the course of a week or so. You can then boost your earnings by referring your friends and family to the website, where you will earn 10% of whatever your referrals make. If you refer 5 friends who cash out the average £150 you will make £75.
Click here to get a £10 welcome bonus when you sign up.
Matched betting
You might have seen bookmakers offering free bets to new customers, and matched betting is a legal, tax-free way to utilise these bookmaker offers to turn a profit without gambling.
Not only do bookmakers offer new customers free bets and other offers, they also offer them to existing customers, meaning that matched betting can continue to be a long-term income source.
With sporting events cancelled or postponed you might be wondering if there is still a chance to make money from matched betting during this pandemic.
The good news is that there are still ways to make money from matched betting right now.
Make money from your smartphone
These days there are plenty of apps that allow you to make money from your smartphone.
Whether it is playing games, scanning your receipts or completing surveys, there are earning apps for everyone.
- Freecash will pay you for playing mobile phone games and answering surveys.
- Shoppix, Receipt Hog and ZipZero will pay you for snapping and uploading photos of your receipts.
- VYPR, iPoll, Momox, VOXPOPME, OnePulse, Enlightly and Streetbees will pay you to complete surveys, questionnaires and short video studies.
- Airtime Rewards will allow you to connect your bank and credit cards and then receive cashback at certain stores. This money is then paid towards your mobile phone bill.
- Sweatcoin will pay you for walking.
- Manifest and TRIBE will pay you for posting to your social media.
Be sure to download these apps and check them regularly – or turn your notifications on to be notified when there are new earning opportunities.
Online surveys
Completing online surveys won’t make you rich overnight, but you can expect to make £50 or more per month for completing them in your spare time.
Companies are looking for your opinions on everything from politics to new products they are launching, and in order to cover your time they are willing to pay you for your opinions.
There are plenty of online survey websites out there, and my favourite survey websites are listed here.
You can get paid in cash via BACS into your bank account or PayPal, or choose from a selection of gift cards including supermarket gift cards.
Many of these studies are agreed in advance and therefore there is already funding in place to pay participants, making it a great time to sign up and earn from online surveys.
Online tutoring
With school closures in place, many parents and guardians are looking for extra tutoring support for their children. If you have skills that you can teach then online tutoring could be a great way for you to make extra money.
It helps if you are already a teacher or if you have experience with the age group you are planning to tutor. It doesn’t always have to be teaching experience – volunteering at a youth club or a teaching assistant would help.
You also need to make sure that you are at least one educational level above the students you want to tutor. This means if you are planning to tutor English at a GCSE grade, you need to at least have an A Level in English.
You can find potential students through social media, setting up your own website or using a service such as TutorHunt, where potential students pay to see your details.
You can carry out sessions using video conferencing software and apps like Skype, Zoom, FaceTime and WhatsApp.
Between £20-£35 per hour is the going rate for online tutoring, making this a great way to boost your income.
Freelancing
If you have skills to sell then freelancing from home could tide you over during this pandemic.
Think about the skill set that you already have and how you can offer that to others, like small businesses. It could be anything from social media management to article writing.
You can get started by using a freelancing job board website like UpWork or PeoplePerHour to either advertise yourself or bid on existing jobs.
Whilst companies are making cut backs and redundancies they might be looking for freelancers to bridge the gap until their businesses bounce back.
The amount of money you can make depends on the services you are providing and how many hours you work for. You should expect to make at least £10 per hour from freelancing.
OhMyDosh
OhMyDosh is a ‘get paid to’ website where you can earn money for taking our trials, making purchases online, entering competitions and so many more.
OhMyDosh also have a ‘Lightning Offers’ section where you will be paid within 3 working days for completing offers, making it a great income stream for when you need a little cash injection.
They also have bundles where you can earn a bonus for completing every offer in a certain bundle – for example the new home bundle will normally earn you £90 for completing the offers, but if you complete all four offers you will get an extra £10.
There is a minimum payout of £10, and once you have reached it you can request your cash to be paid into your bank via BACS or paid to you via PayPal.
Watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ms0N2R6fvc
Declaring extra income
You are allowed to earn £1,000 per tax year from these side hustles (apart from matched betting which is tax-free) before you need to tell HMRC and complete a self-assessment.
Be sure to keep track of your earnings from extra income sources, and if you find yourself approaching the £1,000 limit then you will need to register for a self-assessment with HMRC. It is really simple to do. Once registered try to keep aside 20% of your extra earnings for paying your tax when it is due.
If you're been wondering how to make money during lockdown, then I hope this article helps. You need to believe you can do it; manifesting really helps!
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