Make money online fast —
20 REAL ways people make money online.
Cathy is in need of a legitimate way to make money online fast. She writes in: “I was a nurse for almost 30 years when I became disabled from a car wreck. I am a very tough person (I’m a redhead!)
I went out last October and bought a new PC to try and make money
online, but all I have succeeded in doing is getting further in debt. I
know you know what I mean by all the scams that I fell into.
I
have been reading A LOT and trying to learn as much as I can. I have
run into conflicting stories, though. I just don’t know where to start. I
am not a computer tech, nor that knowledgeable about how to start. I am
NOT asking for a handout; just a helping hand in the right direction.
I’m
not expecting to make tons of money today, but ANYTHING to help me get
started in the right direction. I have saved thousands of lives and now I
can’t even get through the month without running out of food!”
Cathy has the right attitude — she’s not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, but instead a legitimate way to make some extra money online.
Having been sucked into some scams myself in the past, I know how difficult it can be to find realways
to make money online fast. Thus, I’ve compiled this list. Some ways
require knowledge of certain skills, but all these skills can be
learned. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest picking one of
these ways and learning more about it, then trying it out!
Note: None of the 20 ways
listed below contain affiliate links (that is, links that make me money
if you click on them.) This list is for your benefit, not mine. Enjoy!
1. Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
Mechanical
Turk is a great way to make some extra cash. You probably won’t make
much more than a few dollars an hour, but it’s also dead simple to
complete many of the tasks. Most tasks take less than a minute to
complete and pay a few pennies. If you do a lot of MTurk, it could add
up to at least some fun spending money. Sign up for free, then complete qualifications to earn access to higher-paying tasks.
2. Sell stock photos.
iStockPhoto is
just one site that allows you to sell stock photos; there are others.
Before you decide to go crazy and upload your whole album, take note of
what’s selling well and try your hand at doing something similar.
iStockPhoto also works for those who know how to render images; some of
their most popular images were created on a computer! Have three killer
stock photos ready for iStockPhoto’s inspection; they will want them
when you sign up.
3. Sell stuff on eBay.
Start
by selling your own extra stuff. Then, once you get a feel for selling
your extra stuff, go door-to-door in nicer neighborhoods in your town.
Develop an eye for what will sell and what won’t (old laptops, for
instance, could be a gold mine–if you know how to format them to get rid
of the previous owner’s personal data.) Sign a contract where you take
25-30% (or more) of the gross sale. Your customers will be happy to get
cash for their old junk, and you’ll make some good money selling other
people’s stuff. eBay
4. Become a freelance article writer.
It
may not pay well, but there is a growing demand for this. Write 200-300
word articles and submit them to article directories. Potential clients
include bloggers, marketers, and small businesses. You can write
articles in a niche in batches and sell them as a package to one or more
clients, or you can offer your services for hire per word or article
and let your client give you direction. A foundation ofkeyword research is important to succeed at this job (unless you’re just taking direction from a client), but keyword research is learnable.
5. Write articles for magazines or other publications.
If
you have a background in journalism, or just a passion for it, you can
try your hand at submitting articles to publications. Don’t just
randomly fire off articles, however; have a plan and, preferably, a
contact at the publication you wish to submit to. The good news is that
there are publications in pretty much any niche you can think of. To see
some publications that are hiring, visit Online Writing Jobs, PoeWar Freelance Jobs, and Writing.com.
6. Transcribe audio files.
An easy job; doesn’t pay well, but also a quick way to make some money. Sign up on eLance oroDesk to
start, and/or advertise your services in entrepreneur forums. Requires
good hearing and a good command of the English language. You may also
want to invest in a foot pedal if you plan to transcribe often. Make
sure you know how to transcribe interviews before you start your first job.
7. Become a virtual assistant (VA).
There
are entire books written on how to become a virtual assistant, so this
job is definitely worthy of more research. My advice: Focus on one niche
(I just hired Lisa Morosky of VA for Bloggers,
for instance.) Also, reach out to potential customers directly and let
them know what you can do for them instead of hitting up freelance web
sites. Finally, you may want to consider resources such asAssistU, which provides training for up-and-coming virtual assistants.
8. Write articles on eHow.com.
If
you understand the basics of keyword research, you can make a good
monthly income from eHow. eHow pays you a percentage of the ad revenue
they make from each “How to” article you create. You can crank out a few
articles a day with relative ease. Try this for a month; assuming your
article titles match up with what people are searching for in Google,
you can make a significant income. The great news is that you write your
articles once and get paid month after month. I’ve seen figures of
$100-$150/month for 30 articles. Make money writing for eHow.com.
9. Do some videos to promote affiliate products.
Enjoy
making silly videos? Even short, silly videos can sell products online.
Find an product worth promoting that has an affiliate program, then
target your video toward potential customers of that product. In your
video summary on YouTube, place your affiliate link for the product, and
after the video, do a 30-second still frame showing a short URL where
people can buy the product. If your video is funny, informative, or
useful, you may sell some products. Big tip: Try to promote a product
that makes you a fair amount of money for each sale, but doesn’t cost a
whole lot for the potential customer. You can find products on Commission Junction, for one.
10. Write an ebook targeted to people who need help.
Alexis
Dawes created a product called “Desperate Buyers Only”. I interview her
for an upcoming case study on Inspiring Innovators, where she mentions
that she is able to make up to $97 from ebooks as small as 12 pages. The
key? Finding people who are incredibly desperate for the information
you provide and then doing good research to find a real solution to
their problems. The result? Happy customers whose problem is solved, and
money for you — a win-win situation! Caveat: It may be tough to find a
real desperate buyer niche (Alexis reveals some in her case study). Here
are some hints: When were you last in a situation where information
would have either saved you a lot of money or a lot of pain? Has someone
else close to you been in a situation where they could have used
information to avert pain? Think legal, medical, and financial niches.
11. Build a small niche website.
Yes, you can make money online.I run a few small niche websites. For instance, How to Convert PDF is a tiny site that has free videos on how to convert other types of documents into PDF format. It sells a piece of software called PDF Creator, and I make a few dollars every time someone buys from that site. I promoted the site using pay-per-click ads and it was profitable. Don’t copy me directly, but do find the intersection of people needing help and a tool, ebook, or software program that will help them fix their problem. Then, create a website designed to get them to buy it!
12. Help local businesses develop an online presence.
Local
businesses are struggling. Many have websites, but aren’t getting any
results from them. Others don’t have websites at all. You can help by
learning search engine optimization, how to set up an email list, and
more, and then implementing these for local businesses. If you typically
hang around geeks, web marketers, or the Web 2.0 crowd, you may be
surprised how many business owners are 10 years (or more) behind you! If
you can deliver results, business owners will happily pay. Find
customers by going door-to-door.
13. Learn WordPress, then offer to install plugins and upgrade it.
I hired David from Web Geek 4 Hire to
upgrade my blogs and install new WordPress plugins. He charges $5 to
upgrade a plugin…great for him, since most plugins only take a few
minutes to upgrade, and great for me, since if anything breaks, David
gets to clean up the mess! You can make this a full time position;
there is a ton of demand for these services. Find customers by
contacting bloggers directly. Get references from bloggers who
understand the value of outsourcing these tasks.
14. Become the go-to person for installations of a particular piece of software.
Anything from Amember to Quickbooks is fair game here. In the hosting industry, iDevAffiliate andPlesk Billing were
the pieces of software we would have paid a lot of money to have
someone else deal with. The more niche and more
complex/annoying/frustrating the software, the better! Even if the
software company offers free installation, you can make hundreds or
thousands of dollars training business owners or their employees on its
usage. Focus on one piece of software and become the trusted expert.
Create videos and tutorials using screencast software like Camtasia to
increase your profitability; this may also lead into a niche product
that you can sell. (Amember offers “free installation”, but it took my
boyfriend and I over 10 hours to configure it properly. That’s
definitely something I would outsource next time!)
15. Interview other people and sell the interviews.
I
experimented with this in 2008 and made over $800 from one interview.
The key here is to understand a pain point that people are experiencing,
interview an expert, and ask the expert the questions that the people
experiencing the problem are having. Then create a small website and
sell the interview. There’s more to this, including having good
copywriting skills so your website sells the interview well, and knowing
where to advertise, so don’t expect to immediately pull in hundreds of
dollars. That said, it’s a neat way to quickly create a product. Get the
interviews transcribed, then string a few interviews in the same
industry together as a membership site or bundle that you can sell for
more money.
16. Become a freelance “web geek.”
From
configuring a shopping cart to installing and tweaking blog themes,
there are virtually unlimited projects out there for geeks who enjoy
working with small business owners to get them up and running online.
Find people looking for web geeks on the Warrior Forum or other places where entrepreneurs gather.
17. Enter logo and design contests.
Fancy yourself a good designer? Try your hand at creating a logo or other design that a company loves! 99 Designs is
the most popular marketplace. Beware, however; you won’t get paid
unless your logo wins against many others, which makes many designers
unhappy. In my opinion, this is a great way for a budding designer to
build a portfolio and learn quickly what clients love.
18. Create Twitter backgrounds and e-covers.
Competition is stiff, but if you are a savvy designer, this is a good way to pick up extra dollars. Even better, if you are an artist,
this is a good way to make your art skills pay off. Consider that every
design will need to have a reason why the customer should buy the book
or follow that person on Twitter to have a real impact. Twitter
backgrounds, in particular, are in hot demand right now. For
measurements and caveats of Twitter backgrounds, read “How to create your own Twitter background.”
19. Submit websites or blog posts to social media websites.
Not
very exciting work, but in high demand from bloggers and small
businesses. This involves setting up accounts on all of the social
bookmarking services and then bookmarking your clients’ websites or
latest blog posts to help them get more traffic. You may be competing
against software that does this, but in many folks’ opinions, it’s
better to have a real person do it. Even better is if you can goose your
accounts with plenty of friends and become a star on a few of the
services; then every site you bookmark has higher credibility and you
can charge more. To get an idea of the social media sites you will need
to sign up for, start at socialmarker.com.
20. Edit audio for others.
This is something that is fairly easy to learn and also in high demand. On Windows, one good program to edit audio is Sony Sound Forge. I
use Sound Forge Audio Studio, but if you are doing this professionally,
you might consider the upgrade to Sound Forge 9. Get the hang of
editing out “um”s and “ah”s from audio. Even better is understanding the
“flow” of an interview conversation and editing out portions that don’t
make sense. Finally, learning to find and add intro music really gives
podcasts that professional touch. Advertise your services on oDesk or eLance.
I pay people to do this for the podcasts I am setting up on Inspiring
Innovators, and it’s a job that can definitely be done from your house.
