The internet gives you endless opportunities to raise a little extra cash, but which ones really work? If you’re in a bind and need some capital fast or you want to supplement your monthly income, try these quickfire ways to make money online…
- Sell old games, books and knick-knacks
Having a clear-out gives you the chance to declutter your home and make some money in the process. With numerous online auction sites to choose from, you can list your items in seconds and wait for bids to start rolling in. To speed up the process, offer a ‘Buy it Now’ option and avoid an auction altogether.
Before you get started, make sure you know how much things are really worth. First edition books, vintage games and rare ornaments can be extremely valuable, so do a little research before you list your items and you could make a pretty penny.
- Advertise your arts and crafts
If you’re creative or good with your hands, start making custom items to sell online. Whether you’re handy with a sewing needle, a talented artist or a great seamstress, there’s a market for bespoke goods. Take a look at sites like Cafepress and Etsy to see how much you could make.
When you’re pricing your goods, don’t forget to factor in the cost of materials and any commission you’ll need to pay to your chosen retail platform. Once you’ve covered these, anything else should be pure profit.
- Provide a service
If you can offer a professional service, you should find it easy to make money online. If you want to formalize your talents or develop your skills, certificate 3 courses are a great way of gaining new knowledge. With the right training, you can launch straight into providing professional services online.
With scope to offer accounting, bookkeeping, personal assistant services, proofreading, copywriting, social media consulting and even calendar management, there are plenty of ways to turn your organizational skills into a viable income stream.
- Generate income from photos
Businesses and website owners are in constant need of photographs for commercial use. If you have a decent camera or a smartphone with a built-in app, you can make money from your photos online. Browse through sites like Shutterstock, Fotomoto and Adobe Stock to see where you can generate the most revenue from.
With plenty of free tools available, you can enhance your images before uploading them and maximize your income.
- Tutor students
With the right academic experience, you could make a considerable amount of cash from tutoring students. Parents are always looking for cost-effective options when it comes to accessing extra support for their children, and tutoring agencies regularly hire new recruits.
Unlike traditional forms of tutoring, you can offer tutoring sessions solely online, so you won’t even have to leave your home to make money from educating students.
- Rent out a spare room
If you own your property, you could gain a regular income from renting out a room. If you don’t want to enter into a formal, long-term agreement with a tenant, try sites like AirBnB instead. With the option to choose when you make your room available, you can offer short-term stays and still boost your income significantly.
- Take part in market research
Plenty of companies need consumers to try out products, answer questions and fill in surveys. In most cases, they’re willing to pay too. With a reputable agency, you can make money from trying out new services or products and sharing your experiences with the company. Writing a review or completing a questionnaire doesn’t take long, and the more you do, the more money you could make.
- Take up micro gigs
When tasks can’t be automated, companies require humans to carry them out instead. Micro gigs are typically things like clicking a link, giving an opinion or searching for something on Google, so they don’t take long to complete.
Whilst micro gigs only usually pay a few cents or a few dollars per task, this can quickly add up when you’re completing many of them each day.
- Share your knowledge
If you have expertise in a particular area, sharing your knowledge can be worthwhile. Hosting a webinar, releasing an eBook or producing video content can enable you to sell your content or make money from advertisers.
- Answer questions
Depending on your profession or work experience, you may be able to make money by answering questions from other internet users. Plenty of sites provide a platform to ask engineers, lawyers or healthcare experts for information, for example, and you could make money simply by answering them.