How to Earn Money Online Without Paying Anything (2023)

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You must have seen or heard success stories of people making huge sums of cash using the Internet. The next thing that comes to mind is how you can set yourself up for the same success. You might have tried some way to earn money online but failed. Even worse than that, you got scammed.

Do you know why?

The reason why you failed is that you didn’t equip yourself with sufficient knowledge and maybe gave up without changing your tactics. As for being scammed, you were probably looking for shortcuts to make big cash without putting in a lot of effort. Still, you can make a killing online only if you’re open to doing some work.

11 Legit Ways to Make Money Online Without Spending A Dime

Online investment is a viable option when it comes to increasing your streams of income. You may need to deal with huge initial costs to get decent amounts of profits. Investing money isn’t the only way to build wealth using the Internet.

If you are broke or don’t want to spend money to make more, investing your time in doing some work online can help you achieve your financial goals. Many people have done it. Some gave up their studies or jobs and ventured into making money online without any backup plan.

Let’s go on and explore some real ways of making money online for free.

1. Grab gigs on freelancing sites.

Freelancers make money by offering their skills to clients without being employed. As an online freelancer, you can complete tasks wherever you are and get cash for your services. Freelancing is one of the best ways to earn income while following your passion freely.

You don’t have to be an expert in any field to become a freelancer. Also, no college degree is needed when it comes to getting paid for your skills. All you need is a portfolio showing what you can do and explaining why a particular client should choose you for a task.

Digital skills such as blogging, graphic design, and web development sell a lot on various freelancing platforms. You can sell your skills on sites like Fiverr, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour. After signing up, select the category of your service and browse the available jobs.

Before applying for any job, complete your profile so that you appear as a professional to potential clients. Include samples of your work by uploading them directly or adding links. Once you land any task, do your best to please the client so that they can help you boost your ratings and positive reviews.

2. Become an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketing gives you a chance to get profit off someone else’s products. You don’t need to create a product to be able to sell one. Although most commissions occur within 10-20 percent, they can go as high as 100 percent of the total product cost.

This type of marketing is profitable because many sellers use affiliate programs to boost their sales. Using sites like Clickbank, Amazon Associates, and ShareASale, you can find thousands of products to sell. Promote one product at a time and stick with the one that earns you the most commissions.

You can send traffic to your affiliate links using social media and emails. Be sure that whoever you are recommending the product or service to has a known interest in that niche. For instance, you can post an affiliate link of a customized mug to coffee drinkers in your friend or email list.

If you are promoting a product, be sure to give potential customers a reason to buy it. Provide its specifications and reasons someone should try it. Adding a few testimonials or being the testimonial yourself increases the chances of someone clicking your links.

3. Sell photos.

You don’t need to be a professional photographer to earn money selling photos. If you also thought that you needed a 2,500-dollar DSLR camera to take photos for sale, you are wrong. The smartphone in your hand is what you need to get started.

Shutterstock, 500PX, and iStock are some of the largest photography marketplaces. Pricing varies by photo, but you can rake in up to $120 per sale. The more photos you upload, the easier it becomes to get buyers.

With a phone that takes pictures of 4 Megapixels and above, you can get in on selling photos. Yes, 4 MP is way below the camera quality of an average smartphone. Uploading photos of the highest resolution improves your chances of making sales.

It’s okay if you don’t live near some breathtaking landscape or a city full of carnivals. You can create illustrations and put up their pictures for sale. Keep in mind that you must be the owner of whatever you want to sell to avoid legal issues.

4. Create a YouTube channel.

It’s not too late to start attracting thousands of views using your YouTube videos. Viewers need new content and if you’re unique enough, they’ll click on your videos. There are dozens of niches to choose from if you want to become a YouTuber.

You can use your passion as motivation for choosing a YouTube niche. If you love making money, launch a channel related to that topic. Here, you share your stories about how you did ‘this’ to make ‘that’ amount of cash.

Although high-quality YouTube videos require a professional camera and a few other pieces of equipment, your phone can do the magic. Use natural light to your advantage when shooting your videos. Editing is also possible using your mobile device.

You can apply for YouTube monetization when your channel hits 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. It takes a lot of patience to finally create a video that goes viral. While starting on YouTube, use the description section to share your affiliate links and earn commissions.

5. Start a blog for money.

Blogging makes it easy to make money by sharing your thoughts, stories, and tips with an audience. You should only select a niche that you can write about without having a hard time. Ensure that your chosen blogging niche is profitable and has low competition.

There are several free website builders like WordPress, Weebly, and Wix that can help you launch your blog without spending any cash on web developers. These web services include a free sub-domain containing the company’s URL eg. yournamehere.wordpress.com. But since domains are pretty cheap, picking one for your blog makes you look professional.

Google Adsense is one of the most common web monetization tools. Here, Google pays you for showing images, videos, or interactive media on your website. Your website’s visitors must click on an Adsense ad for you to earn a certain amount of money.

Companies in your niche can pay you to promote their products to your blog audience. Affiliate programs that align with your niche can also earn you huge commissions if you have a significant amount of monthly readers. Some bloggers use their products and services to boost their profits.

6. Write guest posts for blogs.

The Internet has millions of websites that are willing to pay for a well-crafted blog post. Guest posts are useful for putting your writing skills to work without owning a blog. You also gain exposure by showcasing your pieces of writing on various blogs.

You should be niche-specific when looking for sites that need new writers. A simple trick to find guest-blogging opportunities is typing “Write for us + niche” into the Google search bar. Send pitches to the sites that have indicated to pay for approved articles and filter out the rest.

If the site owners allow, include an affiliate link to a product in your blog post to maximize your earning potential. Make sure the link comes off naturally to prevent it from looking irrelevant. You can also enjoy the benefit of new followers by including your social links.

7. Sell your designs on products.

How would you like to make money by selling your designs online? With print on demand, customers can buy apparel and accessories containing your designs. A company does the printing for you after someone orders an item from your store.

The printable designs are either textual or some kind of digital art. If you aren’t good at graphic design, go for texts as your primary style. You can also hire a freelance graphic designer for as low as $5 to create an original design for you.

Teespring, TeeChip, and TeePublic are some of the print-on-demand sites where you can upload your designs on items. Your profits depend on how you price each item in your store. Check the pricing of sellers in your niche to be safe.

This online business works well if you have tens of designs to your name. Placing your designs on multiple products is also necessary for exposing your work to customers. Put more effort into promoting your most-selling design.

8. Manage social media accounts.

If you are a social media junkie who spends the better part of their day online, you can make money from that! The majority of prominent figures don’t have the time to update their social media pages because of busy schedules. The same applies to brands that have a considerable amount of consumers.

Social media management roles require a full-time worker. Before striking such deals, make sure that you can set aside time for doing the tasks. Some positions allow for teammates and hence the division of the tasks.

High-level social media management roles may require a bachelor’s degree in communications, media, journalism, or marketing. You can take a short course in related fields to enhance your qualifications. Choosing a niche that you are passionate about motivates you to perform great work and hence more opportunities.

You should also be knowledgeable about social media trends to manage a well-known brand account efficiently. Consume all the information you can get about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and link-building. Use keyword research and analytics tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Analytics, and BuzzSumo to stay ahead in the game.

9. Sell used items online.

Everyone has an item that they don’t use anymore, or they will in the future. It’s human nature to get hyped up at the thought of owning something and then lose interest after having it for some time. Because you don’t need it anymore, why don’t you hand it over to the next person eager to pay for it?

Amazon allows you to sell old books, movies, gadgets, and other items on its platform. You only need to select the condition of the product, print a shipping label, and send it out to them for free. eBay and Craigslist are the other sites where you can sell such items.

Ensure that any product you put on sale is in good condition. For instance, a book must have all the pages. If part of an item is missing and a customer buys it, you’ll get negative reviews.

Another thing to keep in mind is that certain products can’t be sold when used. You aren’t allowed to sell old wearable, baby, and health and beauty products on e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Be sure to read a particular website’s guidelines before becoming a seller.

10. Answer questions.

The Internet is full of people seeking answers to their problems. The majority of these individuals love to have a real human being on the receiving end of problem-solving communication. If you have knowledge or experience in a particular field, you can make money from it.

If you are a doctor, lawyer, or engineer, you can join JustAnswer to trade your expertise for some cash. You should verify your profession to boost your reputation on the platform. Qualities like profile photo, expert bio, and responsiveness are crucial for being successful in such question-and-answer websites.

The amount of money you earn depends on the time spent giving advice. Don’t rely on answering questions to become rich. It works best for people who need extra cash quickly.

11. Take paid surveys.

Taking surveys is another way to monetize your leisure time. Regular Internet users do this to earn extra money online. The earnings you get come from companies that pay for market research-based data.

Not all survey websites pay their users. Checking a particular site’s reviews is necessary if you don’t want to waste your precious time giving out free information. Some legitimate survey sites are Swagbucks, InboxDollars, and OneOpinion.

Surveys for money can be strict when it comes to choosing who is eligible. Requirements like age, location, and occupation can lock you out of some lucrative surveys. You should be truthful and consistent with your answers to increase your chances of getting more surveys.

Everyone is eligible

Making money online isn’t some type of rocket science or voodoo. You can experience enormous success by focusing on a few options only in one go. Keep trying out new ideas until you find out what works best for you. Once you get some cash out of an online business, scale it up and grow your wealth!