If you want to learn how to make money online, I have the mother of all posts for you!
It’s never been so easy to make money online. I started making money online in 2016 and I now make a full time income from my laptop 🙂
I have collected a LOT of different money making ideas during that time, and now I want to share them with you!
Maybe you just want to earn an extra £50 a month, to make a little extra room in your budget.
Want to make extra cash in the UK?
👉 See my #1 recommended money making website!
Or maybe you’re looking for an online business idea that will allow you to quit your job (like I did!).
Whatever your goal, I want to teach you how to make money online, and you’re bound to find an idea on this list to suit you.
Here are over 50 top ways to make money online. I’ll be adding to this list as I find new ideas, so bookmark or pin this page and check back later!
Please note that this site uses affiliate links. If you purchase something through a link on this page, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!
How to Make Money Online
Over 50 practical and easy ways to make money online! Start making more money today!
1. Test websites and apps
Testing websites is an easy way to get started making money online. You don’t need any qualifications or special experience. You simply spend a few minutes exploring a website, and provide feedback on any issues or bugs. It pays around $10 for a 20 minute test. Get started on a site like User Testing.
2. Sell services on Fiverr
Fiverr is an online marketplace where you can sell your services from $5 up. This is an obvious choice for freelancers such as designers, writers and programmers. But you don’t need any special skills – you can sell almost anything you can think of on Fiverr!
In fact, the most random gigs sometimes do very well.
For example, this guy records personalised messages dressed as Jesus (and has made almost 800 sales!). This one sings happy birthday – very badly.
Get creative and see what’s the weirdest thing you could get paid for!
3. Matched betting
Matched betting is THE best way to make extra money online in the UK in my opinion. I was able to make £300-£600 a month in just a few hours a week.
Matched betting is a way to make money from the free bet offers on bookie websites. You use special calculators to ‘match’ your bets (for and against an outcome) so you don’t lose money, and the free bet is all profit.
It sounds complicated but there are training videos to talk you through it and it all makes sense after your first couple of bets!
You can make up to £40 this weekend with a free trial of Profit Accumulator.
This is the matched betting training service I use and it’s amazing.
Matched betting is only suitable for residents of the UK and Ireland, over the age of 18 and with no history of gambling problems.
4. Design T shirts
This is a fun and easy side hustle I’m dabbling with at the moment.
I design T shirts to sell on Merch by Amazon. It’s a hands-free way to make money because all you have to do is upload your design file and write the description. Amazon does the rest (selling, printing, packing, customer service etc).
You don’t even have to be arty – my best selling designs are simple text.
There are also loads of other sites to list your designs on such as Redbubble and Teespring.
5. Get paid to review songs
Love music? You can get paid to review new tracks on Slice The Pie.
It doesn’t pay particularly well, but your fee per review can increase over time, and it can be a fun thing to do if you enjoy music and writing.
make money online listening to music
6. Internet research
If you can find new information online quickly, consider becoming an internet researcher.
There are several companies such as Wonder and 63336 that will pay you to do small research tasks from home. This is a flexible online job that will keep your brain engaged!
7. Transcription
Transcription is the art of turning audio content into written content.
Rev and Daily Transcription are two sites that hire beginners for transcription roles. These are great companies to start off with, to earn a little extra cash and get a feel for the work.
Here’s a list of more companies offering online transcription work.
Once you have more experience, it’s possible to earn a full time income as a freelance professional transcriptionist.
If this is something you’re interested in, I recommend taking the free 7 day mini course at Transcribe Anywhere to learn more about this profession.
8. Get paid to watch videos
It might sound too good to be true, but there are several sites that will pay you to watch videos online!
Emotion Miner pays you to watch video clips and make notes of all the emotions you see on screen.
Swagbucks also pays you to watch videos (alongside lots of other options, like paid surveys and cashback on shopping). It doesn’t pay as well as Emotion Miner, but you don’t need to pay such close attention, so a lot of people leave the videos running to earn money passively while you do something else!
9. Get paid to search
Perhaps the easiest way to make money online: get paid to search the web!
There are several sites that pay you to search via their own search engine or browser add on. Start with Swagbucks (again!) and Qmee.
The pay isn’t high, but it adds up over time for something you would be doing anyway.
10. Virtual Assistant
Virtual Assistants (also known as VAs) make money online by helping businesses and bloggers with various tasks. Typical tasks might include:
Replying to emails
Scheduling social media
Proofreading/editing blog posts
Creating graphics
Research tasks
Outreach
…and pretty much anything else you could think of!
You could offer general VA services, or specialize in one area. For example, one growing field is the Pinterest Virtual Assistant. Yes, you can get paid to pin by helping clients improve their Pinterest presence!
11. Search engine evaluator
Search engine evaluators help search engines improve their services by researching and reporting on the search results. This is a flexible online job which lets you pick your own hours and work around other commitments.
The two main companies hiring search engine evaluators are LionBridge and Appen.
12. Freelance writer
If you’re a good writer, freelance writing is a good way to get started earning money online.
Start with a site like Textbroker, which is low paid but easy to get work for beginners. As you get more experience, you can charge more.
Upwork, People Per Hour and the Pro Blogger job boards are all places to find freelance writing work.
Also check out this post on making money as a freelancer for more information.
make money online as a freelance writer
13. Write an ebook
Another way for writers to earn money online is by writing ebooks. The advantage of selling ebooks is that you write them once, and earn money forever – passive income!
You don’t have to write the next Harry Potter. Many top selling ebooks are short, practical guides on a specialist subject. Think about your own professional experience or hobbies and think of what you could teach.
You can sell your books on Amazon, Shopify, or even on your own website.
14. Start a blog
I make a full time income as a blogger, less than two years in!
Bloggers can earn money from a variety of channels, such as advertising, affiliate marketing (this is when you make a commission on sales referred from your site) and sponsored posts.
Blogging is an awesome work-from-home career because it’s so flexible. No two blogs are the same, and you can make money writing about almost any topic.
However, blogging is NOT a get rich quick scheme. Be prepared to work at your blog for several months before you start to see results.
See my step-by-step tutorial on starting a money making blog here.
15. Design printables
Printable products are having a moment right now. They are HUGE on Etsy – check out some of these for inspiration!
Popular printable ideas include chore rotas, planner inserts, colouring sheets, party games and budgeting pages.
You don’t have to be a professional designer. There are free programs like Canva that help you create gorgeous printables.
Like ebooks, printables can be a source of passive income because you design them once and enjoy profits every time one sells without doing any more work!
16. Ecommerce store
Ecommerce simply means selling online. You can sell anything online, from digital products such as downloads (or those printables!) to physical products such as essential oils.
The most popular ecommerce platform is Shopify. It has loads of tools to help you run a successful online store.
17. Online tutor
You can work as a tutor from anywhere in the world using Skype or similar video software!
Course Hero is currently recruiting tutors with degrees in subjects such as psychology, maths and business. You don’t need a teaching qualification.
If you don’t have specialist skills, the easiest way to become a tutor is by teaching English (or your own native language) on iTalki.
If you don’t have any teaching experience, you can simply offer conversation practise to students who want to learn your language.
Qualified teachers earn more. For example, the company EF (Education First) is currently recruiting British and American English teachers who hold a TEFL certificate to teach English to students in China.
18. Surveys
When you’re looking into how to make money online, surveys are probably one of the first things to come up.
I didn’t want to put them at the top of this list because everyone already knows about taking surveys for money, but the fact is they work and I didn’t want to leave them out altogether!
If you only sign up to ONE survey site, I recommend the top-paying site Prolific. For lots more ideas, check out this post on the best paid survey sites.
19. Proofreader
Are you the person who always spots the typos in your friends’ Facebook posts? Proofreading could be the online job for you!
Learn more about becoming a professional proofreader in this free workshop.
20. Sell stock photos
If you can take a decent photo, you could earn an extra stream of income by selling stock photos online. Here’s a guide to getting started.
Desktop flat lays are easy to make and sell well with bloggers on sites like Etsy and Creative Market.
21. Cashback
Cashback is a site that pays you to sign up for special offers. You can make around £150 doing this, and score some good freebies to boot!
Cashback was previously known as 20 Cogs. You can sign up with Cashback even if you’ve previously done 20 Cogs! There’s a £5 sign up bonus too.
22. Social media influencer
High profile social media influencers can earn hundreds or even thousands per post, but you might not need as many followers as you think to get started. Sponsorship opportunities can start at around £30-£50 for accounts of 1,000 followers.
You’ll need to pay attention to hashtags and location tags. And never pay for followers – engagement is key.
This article has some tips on finding paid Instagram opportunities.
23. YouTuber
Like bloggers, YouTubers can earn money in several different ways such as paid ads, sponsored content and affiliate links. Some YouTubers even produce their own merch.
It will take a while to build up your audience and find your niche, but could be very profitable.
24. Create an online course
Online courses are another way to make passive income online. It doesn’t have to be something technical – think of anything you have expertise in from your profession or hobby. Udemy is a popular platform to sell online courses.
25. Create an online community
One little-known way to make money online is to build up an online community (for example, a Facebook group) around a common interest.
People LOVE interacting on social media about their shared passion, and they can become really attached to a particular group.
You can then monetise your community by sharing affiliate links (where you get a commission for sales), selling your own products, or even charging membership (check the rules of the platform first though).
26. Get cashback on your shopping
An easy way to make money online is to sign up to a cashback site like Top Cashback and check it every time you want to make a purchase. You will get a percentage of the purchase paid back to you.
I have earned loads of money using Top Cashback for big purchases like car insurance and my internet contract.
27. Enter competitions
Comping is a HUGE way to make money online, and of course, win plenty of other goods while you’re at it!
Of course, you can’t earn a reliable income by entering competitions, but you could be surprised at how many competitions there are out there and what you could win.
Check out the comping blog Super Lucky for tips.
28. Spot bargains
If you’re a bit of a bargain hunter, you need to join the site JustLooking. You can make money by uploading details of any bargains or discounts you spot online.
The amount you earn depends on the upvotes you get from the community.
29. Translation
If you speak another language, you could work online as a freelance translator.
Gengo is one easy way to get started. Also check out popular freelancer sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
30. Web design
Every business needs a website these days.
If you know how to create a simple website, advertise your skills on a freelance site or even approach small local businesses and pitch them.
make money online building websites
31. Clickworker
Clickworker is a ‘microtask’ site. You can make money online for completing small jobs. The categories include data entry, proofreading, app testing and internet research. Simply log on and work as much or little as you like.
32. MTurk
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is another microtask site similar to Clickworker. It’s one of many ways to make money on Amazon.
33. Spare5
Spare5 is an app and website that pays you for small tasks that you can complete in a spare five minutes! I’ve been paid for tasks like captioning photos and stating whether sentences are grammatical or not.
34. Retail arbitrage
This is when you buy an item at a cheap price and resell elsewhere for a higher price. Many people make a full time income doing retail arbitrage on Amazon!
Interested? This free email course will teach you the basics of selling on Amazon for profit.
35. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is an easy way to get started with e-commerce. You don’t have to physically ship any products yourself. Instead, you find a supplier and get them to send their products directly to your client.
Many dropshippers use cheap Chinese suppliers on Ali Express.
36. Design an app
There is big money in smartphone apps! You could learn how to code yourself for free. Or, if you know you have a money making idea, you could outsource the development to a programmer on Fiverr.
37. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a site you’ve probably heard of if you’ve ever looked into how to make money online! And that’s because it’s the queen of money making sites – there are so many ways to earn!
Swagbucks pays you for completing surveys, watching videos, shopping, playing games, completing offers and even searching the web.
You can request payment in cash (via PayPal) or various gift cards.
38. Inbox Pounds
Inbox Pounds (or Inbox Dollars in the US) pays you to read email!
Well, not just for reading – you usually have to complete a simple offer or survey. But the offers come straight to your inbox, making this an easy way to make money online for beginners.
39. Freelance consulting
If you have any kind of specialist knowledge you could offer freelance consulting services. This is a great option if you want to leave your job but stay in the same field with more flexibility.
40. Pinterest affiliate marketing
Get paid to pin on Pinterest! With Pinterest affiliate marketing, you pin pretty images linked to your own affiliate links.
This means if somebody buys through your link, you make money.
This course will teach you how to make your first affiliate sale on Pinterest.
Note- The information provided on this page is for general purposes only and should not be taken as professional advice. All the content provided on this page is my own creativity.
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