Online, there are a lot of ways to make money.  I know so because I have been researching this very topic for years.  I started this website, as well as my YouTube channel, because I was fed up with so many bloggers and YouTubers promoting their garbage products for hundreds of dollars.  They only focused on what made them money.  I wanted to change that.  I wanted to inform you and that’s it, the main reason I started doing this.

While making money online often gets intertwined with scams, this isn’t always the case as there are opportunities out there.  You just need to know where to look.  That’s where this guide comes into the picture.

In today’s post, I wanted to strictly talk about how you can make money online without paying anything.  If you have zero dollars to your name, know that you can make money online.  As long as you have the motivation and discipline, then anything is possible.

Now, granted, not all of these options will make you rich.  In fact, you may only make $5 to $10 per day with some of the options I’m about to mention, but that’s okay because some of you may be looking for something like this.  You can make more, however.

If you’re looking to make money without paying anything, don’t worry, as the following options can be a great stepping stone to start making you money as soon as now.

How to Make Money Online Without Paying Anything

Surveys

Potential earnings:  $1-$10/day

Yes, surveys sometimes receive a very bad reputation online, and I get it.  The main reason it does, however, is that people expect to make a ton of cash in doing so.  This isn’t the case.

With surveys, you can make about $1 to $15 a day, depending on who you’re working with.  It’s as simple as answering questions and getting paid for doing so.  It’s as easy as it sounds.  As long as you know you won’t get rich, it will be that much easier to sign up and start earning.

If you’re interested in working with paid surveys, there are so many free reputable companies out there, including:

• Swagbucks
• Superpay.me
• Survey Junkie
• QuickThoughts
• Prolific

These are just a few of my favorite options, but there are many more, many of which you can see in my surveys that pay cash instantly and surveys that pay with PayPal posts.

Signing up for these survey companies won’t cost you a penny and you can start working with these companies ASAP.

Find Remote Work

Potential earnings:  $10-$25/hr

If you’re looking for a traditional job, but you want to work from home, then there are plenty of free options to find this type of work, no matter what kind of experience you have.

We Work Remotely and Remote.co, for example, upload hundreds of jobs, all of which allow you to work from home.  This is free to browse.  I highly recommend you check these sites out to see if there’s anything of interest.   I know this is a post talking about ways to make money without paying anything, but FlexJobs is another option that I like.  However, it does have a small monthly fee, but to me, it was worth it as they use these funds to hire a staff to weed out all of the garbage you find online.

Again, these are options if you want to work on a schedule, but it does offer the best income earning opportunities.

Freelance Writing

Potential earnings:  $5-$75/day

I often talk about freelance writing as I find it to be a great way to earn money online, no matter how great of a writer you are.  I started years ago as a very basic writer and I could earn $200 to $300 a week working with some entry-level platforms such as Textbroker.  The internet is filled with millions of articles and people continue to need content daily, the reason why content writing is so huge.

I know some of these sites, such as Textbroker, get a bad reputation, but it was a great stepping stone for my writing career.  I was able to connect with many clients who paid me much more than the entry-level rate on that site and it helped me become a better writer.  Not only that, but I was able to write articles in less than 15 minutes because the topics were so generic.  I liked that I could get paid weekly and I was able to log in and choose the topics that were of interest to me.  It was as flexible as it could be.

As long as you can turn your thoughts into words and your grammar/spelling is somewhat decent, you can do okay in this industry.  I have found writing to be one of the easier ways to start making money right now.

I recommend you check out my more than 40+ companies that are hiring writers right now.  And, if you’re new, you can check out the more than 17+ companies hiring entry-level workers.

General Freelancing

Potential earnings:  $50-$2,000+/month

Freelancing, in general, is a broad category, I know, but it’s an option to consider if you want to work online without much of an investment.  From web design to graphic design, the list goes on.

Upwork.com is a great place to start, as this is where you can post a profile, where people can hire you, as well as bid on active jobs.  Also, check out Fiverr.com, another massive freelancing platform.

With freelancing, it will take you quite some time to find your first client, but once you do, it could lead to more referrals and repeat work.  Just price yourself aggressively in the beginning as well as provide fantastic customer service to start seeing success.

Test Websites

Potential earnings:  $10-$75/month

Another flexible gig that requires no capital to get started is testing websites and apps.  Companies are looking for people like you to test their websites/apps and provide feedback.  Usually, before you start the gig, they will give you some questions and/or tasks they want you to perform while working on your job.

There are a ton of these sites, many of which I cover here, but a few of my favorites include the following:

• Userfeel
• User Testing
• Userlytics

Depending on the length of the test, be prepared to make anywhere from $5 to more than $50+ per test.  These tests do require that you record your voice while recording your screen and moving about.  As long as you’re comfortable with talking, then you shouldn’t have a problem with it.

You won’t make much testing websites, but I feel you can make about $50~ a month if you sign up with a few platforms.  How many jobs you receive will greatly depend on your demographics, as some companies are looking for particular demographics for their product, etc.

Sell Digital Products on Etsy

Potential earnings:  $1-$25/day

Selling digital products on Etsy seems to be the craze today, and it’s for a good reason.  The reason I focus on digital products is because you don’t need to invest in your inventory, unlike a physical, handmade product.  You can get started right away and could see a sale in as little as 24 to 48 hours.

Printables are a topic I covered in the past, and it’s a great opportunity if you’re the creative type that knows how to use a photo editing piece of software such as Canva.com or even Adobe Photoshop.

With these digital products, you can create digital planners, templates for budgets and much more.  What I recommend is that you head to Etsy and simply type in printables to see what pops up.  From there, browse the top sellers to see if there’s anything that you feel you can do better.  I’m not saying that you should copy the idea, but take what people are doing and make it much better.

Complete Small Tasks

Potential earnings:  $1-$15/day

There are a lot of what’s known as microtasking sites online that earn you money by completing small tasks.  This can include researching basic data, such as finding an email address or analyzing a photo.  There are a variety of jobs available to keep you busy.  Jobs pay about $0.01 to $0.25 each and take no longer than 30 to 60 seconds to complete and are usually very simple and quick.

Just like completing online surveys, the great thing about these jobs is that you can work whenever you want.  All you need to do is log into a dashboard and click on a job of interest.  Everything you need to know about the job will be given to you before you accept it.  If you like what the job entails, you can get started right away.  And, as long as you complete the job according to the job scope, you will get paid.

There are a few of these task sites online, but the leading websites include the following:

• Amazon Mechanical Turk
• Clickworker
• Microworker

All of these sites are 100% free to join and you can get started almost immediately.  Amazon Mechanical Turk is one I highly recommend you look into, as they always have thousands of jobs available.  Plus, it is possible to make $50 a day with some effort.

Write Ebooks to Sell on Amazon

Potential earnings:  $1-$15/day

The great thing about writing a book in today’s technological era is that you don’t need to network with a big-name publisher.  Instead, you can write your book in Microsoft Word, convert it into a Kindle format and then sell it via the Amazon platform, where millions are waiting to potentially buy your book.

Of course, you’re going to have to invest a lot of your time, but all you need is some creativity and a word processor.  There’s not much of an investment needed from you. As long as you have these tools (I’m sure you do), you could write a book on virtually any topic.

As a writer, you can write a non-fiction piece, fictional piece or even a lengthy how-to guide.  It’s endless.  What I recommend is that you write something that’s at least 40 to 60 pages at a minimum to draw interest.  It’s also best to mimic your ebook like a book in that you add graphics and make it look a bit better than just 12-point Times New Roman font.

To learn more about how this process works with Amazon, refer to the official direct publishing page.

Sell Photos Online

Potential earnings:  $1-$15/day

If you love photography, you can make money by listing your photos on very popular marketplaces such as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock, for example.

As long as your photos are unique and are of quality, then you shouldn’t have a problem seeing customers purchase them, either uniquely or the rights to them.

Be sure to check out my post on the many ways you can make money taking and selling photos online.

Sell Courses on Udemy

Potential earnings:  $10-$150/day

I have recommended Udemy so many times before, as I have found it to be a great place to learn almost any skill for a very low price.

If you have knowledge of something (I’m sure you do), consider turning it into a course and then selling it on the platform.  The company has more than 50 million students, which means there’s always an opportunity to start selling your courses.

The great thing about creating a course is that once it’s up, you can bring in cash in your sleep.

Check out the site for inspiration to see what kind of courses are domi

Start a YouTube Channel

Potential earnings:  ???

As a fair warning, this will take some time.  And, when I say time, I’m talking 12 to 18 months before you see your first paycheck, sometimes much longer.  The reason is that you will need at least 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours before you’re eligible to earn money through the YouTube Partner Program.  However, while you’re working on your channel, you can add affiliate links and work with sponsors, so it is possible make money outside the ads.

Now, just because it’s going to take a long time to earn some money, it doesn’t mean you should at least try.  This is one of the best ways to earn unlimited income.

You can start a YouTube channel on anything.  I recommend you start something that’s of interest to you, as having a passion will help.  You won’t need money to start making money on YouTube because I’m sure you have a smartphone or a camera that can record.  Mix this is in with free video editing software and you’re good to go.

YouTube is filled with hundreds of tutorials to help you succeed, so I recommend you start there.  All of the information you need to know you can for free online, I promise you that much.

Stream Video Games

This is kind of like the YouTube option, only that you will focus on playing video games while streaming on various platforms such as Twitch or even YouTube if you choose that route.

Just start streaming your favorite game and use your personality to gain an audience.  As long as you’re playing a popular game and people like what they are seeing, then you never know where it can take you.

More than 65% of American adults play video games, with that number much higher with children.  That stat alone should show you how many people would be willing to watch the games you’re playing.

Work as a Customer Service Rep

Potential earnings:  $12-$15/hr

Many companies that you have heard of often outsource their customer service jobs to third-party companies, in which you can provide support either over the phone or via chat.

As long as you don’t mind committing to a schedule and interacting with customers, then it’s something to consider.  I have written on this topic before if you want to learn more about the industry in depth.  You can also check out some of the bigger names in the industry, such as:

• The Chat Shop
• Liveops
• OutPlex
• Working Solutions

Check out those websites, as well as that link, to see which companies are hiring right now.  Most jobs pay $10 to $15 per hour and allow you to work remotely.

Become a Tutor

Potential earnings:  $15-$35/hr

Online tutoring is a fantastic side hustle, and in some cases, you can earn more than $40+ per hour tutoring students in a subject you love.  Not only that but you can work on a flexible schedule since most of these companies allow you to choose the hours you want to work.

Depending on which company you sign up for, you generally need a college degree and some sort of experience in the subject you want to teach.  Every company has its requirements, though.

This is a topic I have covered in depth before, so I recommend you check it out.  There are a lot of tutoring companies online that have thousands of students waiting to hire someone like you.

Design T-Shirts

Potential earnings:  $5-$25+/day

There are a lot of platforms that allow you to simply upload graphics and then have the company print them and ship them out.  The nice thing about this is that all you need to do is provide the graphics, that’s it.

Merch by Amazon, Creative Market and Printful are just a few of the “on demand” marketplaces that have an audience looking to buy t-shirts.

This is yet another competitive space, but I don’t want it to stop you from at least considering this option.  Again, you will want to find your niche and capitalize on it.  Just make sure you don’t violate any trademarks.

Become a Search Engine Evaluator

Potential earnings:  $12-$15/hr

Did you know that you can make money evaluating search engine results, such as that of Google?

Companies such as Appen and Lionbridge often hire what’s known as search engine evaluators and pay up to $15 per hour.

The best thing about this job is that it’s extremely flexible and you can work remotely from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection.  The jobs are limited, but if you’re able to snag one, people have said great things about it.

Final Thoughts

If you want to make money online and not pay anything, it’s easier than ever, as you can see.  Every single option I mentioned is 100% legit and will make you money.  If I didn’t mention something, then let me know in the comments so that I can add it to the list.

As for how much you can make, it will depend on how hard you work.  Money doesn’t come easy, after all. You’re not going to get rich with these methods, but I don’t see why you can’t earn a few hundred dollars in a month.

That’s going to wrap it up.

As always, feel free to comment in the comments section below.  Whether you want to recommend something or comment on what’s already written, I always like hearing from you.  Until next time.