How To Make Money Online For Free (26 Realistic Ideas)

How To Make Money Online For Free (Realistic Ideas)

Are you looking for how to make money online for free? Read on to explore our top picks.

From offering freelance service to tutoring, there are several ways you can make money online for free.

However, the real question is, will this money-making idea help you become wealthy?

Do they really work?

Are they legal?

Yes, they are legal, and yes, they do really work, but not all of them will turn your financial life around into that of wealth, but you’d make some money.

You probably will make more money than from your 9–5 jobs.

The internet is another universe in itself with tons of opportunities, including money-making opportunities.

This article uncovers some of the ways to make money online without spending a cent.

How to Make Money Online for Free

1. Affiliate marketing

Do you have a strong presence on social media or own a blog or website?

If the answer is affirmative, then you can make money online through this means for free by affiliate marketing.

You advertise companies’ products and services through affiliate links on your page or website.

Anyone who purchases products or services through your link would earn you a nice commission.

Some of the best affiliate programs right now include Affiliaxe, Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and ClickBank.

2. Sell Your Photos

If you’re great at taking pictures, there lies a money-making opportunity in your skills. 

There are countless stock photography websites where you can upload your images and make some money.

Graphics designers, magazine editors, or even media organizations will buy them.

The fantastic thing is that a single picture can be sold countless times, thus earning money endlessly.

This is a sure way to make money with a one-time effort.

A few photography websites where you can upload your pictures and make money include Getty Images, Photoshelter, and Shutterstock.

3. Turn Your Interests Into a Podcast That Pays

Running a podcast is another effective way to make money online for free.

All you simply need is a working laptop with free recording software, a microphone, and begin discussions on interests that matter.

However, you have to monetize it to start earning from your podcast. The most common way is through commercial sponsorship.

Please take note, you don’t need to run your podcast every day, and they don’t have to be long.

4. Become a Translator

If you have a deep understanding of the English language and speak another language, you can offer your service as a translator online.

Several websites are willing to pay you for your translation services.

Some of such websites include Smartling, OneHourTranslation.com, TextMaster, ProZ, and, TranslatorsCafe.

5. Become a Freelance Proofreader

Offering your service as a proofreader online is another way to make money on the internet without any financial resources.

According to International Living, a lot of agencies pay about 25% of the price of a translated documents for proofreading.

This means that as agencies do charge an average of $75 for five-page standard documents, you as a proofreader will earn 25% of the price charged for translation ($75 in this instance).

Therefore, for proofreading a standard document which takes about an hour, you’ll earn between $18 to $20.

This field of endeavor doesn’t have a fixed time to work; instead, you work according to your own schedule.

A few websites to work as a freelance proofreader include ProofreadingPal, Wordvice, Sibia, and Wordy.

6. Type for Cash

If you’re very fast at typing, you can offer the service of transcribing. How does it work? You listen to audio files and type them out.

Usually, in transcribing, the pay rate is based on the length of the audio rather than an hourly payment.

How fast you are is also a factor that determines your pay.

If you can type between 75 words to 100 words in a minute, you’re likely to finish an hour of audio transcription in under four hours.

Rev.com is one website where you can offer your service as a transcriber and get paid without any prior spending.

7. Make Money Online as a Tutor

Being a tutor online is a lucrative business to earn a decent amount without having to spend much.

You get to teach what you are knowledgeable about. 

It could be teaching the English language to clients wanting to learn the language or teaching arithmetic online.

In being a tutor, you can set it up for yourself or work with tutoring websites that are willing to pay you for your service.

While running your own tutoring business will likely earn you more than working with tutoring websites, it is advisable to work with a tutoring website first so as to get acquainted with the ropes of the job.

At Tutors.com, you’ll find a list of the best online tutoring jobs you can apply to.

Related: 30 Easy Ways To Make Money Online Without Investment

8. Internet Research and Surveys

Do you know you can earn money by just surfing the internet in your free time and by participating in online surveys?

Using the Qmee site to browse the internet will earn you money, and when you take on Qmee surveys, thereby giving your opinion on brands, you’ll also get paid.

However, Qmee isn’t the only survey site that will pay you for taking on surveys.

Survey Junkie, Valued Opinions, and SurveyBods are other survey sites that also pay for participating in surveys on their site.

This is one of the easiest ways to earn money online for free.

9. Set up an Online Course

Writing an ebook can earn you extra cash for free.

However, you take it a notch ahead by creating a whole online course that includes tutorials, visual aids, and PDF downloads.

This is an effective way to draw in some cash without spending much than your time in the creation of the course.

Your targeted audience will pay for the course. 

This is a surefire way to make money online and a great way to draw in passive income continuously for a long while, depending on your course’s sales.

LearnWorlds provides an avenue to create an online course and profit from it.

10. Become an Audiobook Narrator

Audiobooks are becoming one of many forms of entertainment, and thus, the demand for freelance narrators to bring to life written script to speech is in high demand. 

Upwork is a site with jobs for freelance narrators.

You could earn as much as a little over $100, offering your service as a freelance narrator for a single voiceover.

Should this endeavor interest you, then learn how to become an audiobook narrator.

11. Sell your skills on Fiverr

Fiverr is home to various freelance jobs online. 

You can offer almost any kind of service, from content writing, social media manager, to making dance videos and get paid for it. 

It costs nothing to get on it and thus is yet another way to make money online for free without any investment.

Many have quit their daytime jobs to become freelancers on Fiverr.

To get started, sign up on the Fiverr site, connect with a client and start earning.

12. Earn Referral Bonuses

Earning referral bonuses is one easy and almost effortless way to make money online without spending a cent.

You create a personalized link and have friends and family or anyone sign up for apps through your link and earn a bonus.

A few sites that offer referral bonuses and are totally free to sign up include Swagbucks, which offers $3 for every referral and 10% of whatever your friends earn on the site forever. 

Also, Rakuten offers $25 for each referral, InboxDollars offers $1 for every referral in addition to 30% of their lifetime earnings and Ibotta offers $5 for every referral.

The fantastic thing is that you could sign up and start earning a referral bonus on all of the sites. There are no restrictions.

13. Test Websites

Testing websites is another great way to earn money online for free.

Some companies are interested in getting feedback on the user experience of their website before their site goes live, and thus, are willing to pay website testers for this task.

In here lies a money-making opportunity. 

Reputable sites such as Yahoo and Airbnb often employ the service of website testers. 

A few websites where you can test websites and get paid are UserTesting, Enroll, UserFeel, TestingTime, and TryMyUI, among many others.

14. Be A Freelance Designer

Are you artistically skilled?

If you are, you can offer service as a freelance designer and make some money.

It could be graphics, logos, or even book covers.

99designs is a website that connects clients to designers.

It is free to sign up, and payment for designed work isn’t fixed but varies; however, you are sure to receive your payment within three days.

15. Write Reviews

Giving honest feedback on various software products is another way to draw in some money.

SoftwareJudge provides the avenue for just that.

You sign up and give a thorough and accurate review of software products you must have tested and get paid.

For a very impressive review, you can make up to $50. 

Products you may review range from books to appliances and small gadgets. This is a very effective and fast way to make money.

Related: How To Make $100 A Day (28 Legit & Realistic Ideas)

16. Start A Blog

Blogging is one of the fun ways to make money online for free.

You get to create or write content on whatever is your passion and attract readers to your page with the intent of establishing a massive following on your blog.

Upon achieving a considerable following, you can then monetize your blog by integrating affiliate marketing or posting advertisements.

Here are a few websites to aid you in setting up a blog.

17. Data Entry Gigs

If you can put up with the discipline of sitting long hours and filling out data entry assignments, then you could make some money working data entry jobs.

Many websites will pay you a decent fee for this kind of job. However, the job may require some educational qualifications.

There’s a lot of potentials to earn much in this field, and you could take it up as a full-time job.

Clickworker, Hubstaff Talent, and Fiverr are some of the sites that offer data entry jobs.

18. WiseGeek

WiseGeek is an online platform where writers can take on writing tasks and get paid.

It is another avenue to make money online for free. You pick a topic, write, and receive payment.

However, you are not guaranteed to make that much, and payments are made through PayPal only.

You could make between $20 to $100 monthly.

19. Playing Video Games

It may be hard to believe, but it’s very much a reality.

You can make money playing video games online for free.

There are mobile apps that organize video games tournament online and offers cash prizes to winners in accordance to your game scores.

If you do have the necessary skills to play video games, you could participate. It costs nothing to join these tournaments.

PUBG and Fortnite are a few popular games that host official tournaments.

If you’re very skilled in playing video games and possess the qualities of a pro player, you should definitely participate in these tournaments.

20. Start a Youtube Channel

Amongst the most visited website in the world, YouTube ranks second.

The website offers a variety of video content and thus poses an opportunity to make money online from the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the site.

You can tap on this money-making opportunity too by starting a YouTube Channel of your own and begin uploading engaging video content.

To achieve success on YouTube is relatively easy.

Once your channel has a huge following, you can monetize it by placing AdSense ads on your videos and begin earning.

21. Become a Consultant to Make Money Online

Yes, you can make money online for free by offering your service as a consultant to clients online.

However, this form of making money online will require you to be knowledgeable in whatever field of consulting service you wish to offer.

It could be a financial consultant giving financial advice to clients, or educational consultant providing educational guidance to students, or a consultant for content writing.

All you need to do to get started is create a website and start attracting clients online.

Related: How To Make $1000 A Day Legally (30 Fast & Legit Ways)

22. Sell Print-On-Demand Designs

Put your creative mind to use in the Print-On-Demand (POD) business. Starting a POD business requires no investment.

All that is needed on your part is time, creativity, and focus.

To get started, sign up for a POD service online, make use of their online tools to create designs on t-shirts and merchandise, and puts it up for sale on your website.

When you get an order of your product, the POD company will print your design, deliver it to the customer and give you a percentage share of the profits made on the product’s sale.

There’s a potential to earn up to $50,000 annually doing this.

Merch by Amazon is one reputable POD company you can work with.

23. Sell Your Creative Artwork Online

Are you good at handwoven art or painting? You can convert your creative artworks into money. 

Etsy is an online platform for you to put your works of art on display and make money. 

The Etsy site offers thousands of art products, ranging from paintings to handmade crafts, with millions of potential active buyers.

However, listing a product on the Etsy site will cost you 20 cents; hopefully, that’s not much considering the amount you’re likely to earn.

24. Become a Captcha Solver

Working as a Captcha Solver is another way to increase your income without spending a cent in your free time.

However, the pay you might earn doing this isn’t exactly much.

You would be paid $2 for every 1,000 captchas solved.

You would read captcha images and type the exact characters.

Kolotibablo, CaptchaTypers, ProTypers, and PixProfit are a few Captcha-solving sites you can get started on.

25. Sell Your Books

Your old books aren’t as less valuable as you may think them to be. They’re worth a couple of dollars.

There are stores that buy back old books for half the price. This is the same for your current books as well.

Selling your old books will save you some space on your shelf and add some money to your pocket.

However, if you want the most cash value for your old books, you get rid of them with BookScouter.

All you need to do is download the BookScouter app or visit their website, enter the ISBN of your books.

BookScouter will, in return, run a database search for the highest pay rate being offered for your book from buyback companies.

Upon finding the company offering the highest rate for your books, you fill in some information, ship the books, and receive your payment.

Many of these buyback companies will provide you pre-paid shipping labels, so you don’t have to go down to the post office or print shipping labels, and they cover shipping expenses.

It is that easy.

26. Airbnb

Airbnb is yet another online platform where you can earn some money with your home without spending a cent.

Do you have any extra space?

If you do, you can convert that space into a means of earning by listing it out on the Airbnb site.

It is as simple as that.

And take note, Airbnb provides insurance coverage for your extra space.

So be at peace and feel free to put out your extra space on the Airbnb platform.

The better looking your home is, the higher you earn.

Wrap Up

Hopefully, with this article on how to make money online for free, it is more than clear and proven to you that you can earn without paying anything.

It isn’t impossible but very much possible.

Millions of internet users are taking advantage of this method to earn.

So, what are you waiting for?

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