Free Ways to Make Money Online
Everyday the news and media reports how bad our economy is doing and how many people are losing their jobs. But even if people are losing jobs, if they have just basic knowledge of how to use a computer and the internet, they should have no problem at all generating a very nice supplemental income or at least one large enough to cover all their bills and expenses if any unplanned financial disaster were to occur.
Today I’m going to share with you a whole list of sites and programs that are FREE to join and give you the opportunity to earn a consistent, dependable additional income stream.
Sell Your Stuff
The first way you can add an additional income stream is to sell the stuff you already have but no longer want or need.
eBay – Here, sell anything from art, books, electronics and collectibles to apparel, music, or even real estate. A great place to sell and find great deals. An account is fast, free and easy to setup and there are dozens of tips and tutorials for how to increase your sales and become successful.
Half – An affiliate of eBay, this site is actually a little better because it allows you to list your items until they sell, and they don’t charge you a fee, unlike eBay. They even make the buyer reimburse you for the price of shipping. However, half.com is limited to only music, games, game systems, movies and books.
Etsy – This a great place to sell crafty products that you create. If you love to make quilts, jewelry, apparel, etc. this is a wonderful outlet and exposure tool if you’re seeking to create a following of a unique and crafty creation you produce.
Answer Surveys
Probably, at least in my experience, the least lucrative opportunity to make money online. Mainly because you have no control over when you’ll get your next survey, how much you will be paid for it, or if you will even qualify to take the whole thing. But they usually are legit sites and here are two I’ve used over the years.
Globaltestmarket – This is the one I’ve made the most with – usually around $100 a year. It’s not much, but enough to go out and see a movie with my girlfriend a few times. The good thing about the surveys with this site is that even if you don’t qualify to take them you still get paid.
Inboxdollars – With this program there are many ways to earn money. You can read emails, answer surveys, fill out trial offers, and even play games to win cash. Again though, not very lucrative. I would only recommend this site to teenagers who had no other source of income – then, after a year, they could cash out and have enough to purchase their own domain name.
Open a Custom Store
Creative, but don’t have the capital to open your own physical business and cover overhead? Just let one of these sites handle all the complicated stuff while you just focus on what you love – your ideas and designs.
Spreadshirt – Create your own shop with custom apparel and accessories on high quality products. You have the freedom to customize the look and feel of your storefront and control the amount you receive on the commission of each sale.
Cafepress – Probably the most well-known place online to host your own online shop for free. Not only can you put your designs on apparel, but you can also sell your own custom music, books, and more. The only reason I have them second is because I wasn’t impressed with the brands, styles and limited colors of the products you could customize.
Start a Blog
A few years ago I thought blogging was just a passing phase in web culture. They had given the opportunity of making a blog to everyone, even those who were who were computer illiterate. This opened the door to all those who were completely uncreative and had no design skills whatsoever. I was afraid that most of the web might end up looking like many people’s Myspace pages – flashy colors, backgrounds that moved, and random loud music playing in the background that you couldn’t find where to shut off. But, even though this became partly true, there emerged a lot of great blogs out there, many of which were hosted on free sites like the ones below.
Blogger – Purchased by Google, Blogger offers a simple and flexible solution that makes it easy to translate your thoughts or whatever you want to share with the world into a successful and valuable source of content.
Squidoo – If you just want to share a few of your own polished articles or share something every day, Squidoo is a fun, simple site that makes adding content easy. You get to pick a name for each page or lens you create, for example: http://www.squidoo.com/whatever, and also have a variety of ways to go about making money with your post once it’s created.
* Now, for those of you completely NOT web savvy, you won’t make money by JUST having a blog. You use your blog as a tool to advertise and promote other products – that’s how the money is made. Below are a list of programs and sites that you can use to do just that.
Affiliate Programs
Below are a list of affiliate programs – programs in which you refer people to a product or service, and in turn, the company pays you for that referral. This is a very lucrative way to earn money, and there have been many millionaires made over the years using these programs.
Adsense – Probably the most well-known ads online, you can signup for Adsense free and set it to list only ads targeted to the type of users who frequent your site.
Bidvertiser – If you get kicked out of the Adsense program like many because of their strict guidelines and policies, Bidvertiser is essentially the same program and a great alternative.
Buysellads – Again, similar to both Adsense and Bidvertiser, this is an advertisement plugin which many designers implement into their blogs.
Amazon Associate – Earn up to 15% in commission by advertising and referring people to Amazon products. You can choose to refer people many different ways from links and banners to widgets and even your own custom Amazon store.
Clickbank – A very reputable site, in which you refer people to purchase informational products like e-books, in return for a handsome commission. This market is ridiculously huge and usually the commissions you earn are 50% or more of the product the user purchases.
Commission Junction – An alternative to Clickbank, they have many great informational products to advertise and promote, but they like to keep their users active and fresh, so if you don’t login or update your account every so often, they’ll remove it.
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