If you want to earn a little extra money, one of the best ways is to find an online job that can pay you by the task or hourly basis.
The internet, however, is full of “opportunities” that aren’t really opportunities. Some are scams. Some are a waste of time.
We sort through them to find the online jobs where you can potentially make $2500 or more if you put in the work.
These are not get-rich-quick opportunities. You will need to work but the potential is there. As an example, the second one on our list is freelance writing. If you’re a good writer, you can hit the ground running and earn hundreds of dollars to write once you find the right clients. If you’re not a good writer, you may get paid less as you get better and find more clients. The potential is there but so is the work.
Listen, while many people are using the web for shopping, surfing and chatting with friends, others are using it to make money!
Here are just a few ways you can take advantage:
Table of Contents
- 1. Taking Online Surveys
- 2. Answer Questions
- 3. Flexible Remote Jobs
- 4. Freelance Writing
- 5. Freelance Proofreader
- 6. Freelance on Fiverr
- 7. Online Jobs with Amazon
- 8. Graphic Designer
- 9. Evaluate Websites
- 10. Become a Virtual Assistant
- 11. Working on YouTube
- 12. Online Data Entry
- 13. Become an Online Translator
- 14. Sell Your Computer Skills
- 15. Read Books
- 16. Buy and Sell Websites
- 17. Affiliate Marketing on Your Blog
⭐ KashKick is a rewards and loyalty platform where you can earn money doing various tasks, including playing games. Companies partner with KashKick to gain exposure to their massive userbase and some of these companies include games. You can earn money playing various games (many of which are not on the list below), all for free.
KashKick is free to join and an easy way to earn extra money (some can make $200+ within their first week doing a lot of activities) while playing games.
Our KashKick review explains more, or click below to sign up:
1. Taking Online Surveys
Talk of earning money taking online surveys has become a staple of web-based income discussions.
Unfortunately, there are more than a few scams out there. Some services will compensate you with reward points, but there are some that pay cash.
Here are some of the best survey sites:
- SurveyJunkie [MOST POPULAR]
- Swagbucks (read our Swagbucks review)
- InboxDollars (read our Inbox Dollars review)
- MyPoints
- Pinecone Research
The surveys are usually fast and good for when you have some downtime, but you won’t be able to earn a living with them. They’re purely supplemental.
2. Answer Questions
Do you have expertise in a few professional areas? If so, you could earn a little extra money by answering questions online on platforms like JustAnswer.
If you’ve ever been working on a home repair job and ran into a specific problem, you’ve probably tried Googling it and reached a site like JustAnswer. You post your question, a professional responds, and you get your answer without having to search a million pages.
Well, in this case, you can be the expert. If you have expertise, and especially if you have the credentials to back it up, you can make quite a bit answering questions from home. For verified experts, like a car mechanic with an ASE Mechanic Certification or VoTech Certification and at least two years of relevant work experience, you can answer questions and get paid without having to go to a garage!
There are a lot of different areas of expertise, including things like parenting, etiquette, legal, wedding, and even help with homework. Check out our review of JustAnswer to learn more.
3. Flexible Remote Jobs
FlexJobs is a remote, part-time to full-time, and freelance job board that has flexible work in 50 different career categories, from Account Management and Accounting to Writing and Web Design. These are not “gigs” in the sense that you’re working a few hours and then have to find another gig.
(if you want to learn web design, Udemy has a rich set of courses in web design)
This is a job board specifically for remote jobs similar to how sites like Indeed are for full-time employment. It’s a subscription service, so there is a cost if you sign up (but free to search) but you don’t get bombarded with advertisements.
All opportunities are hand-screened so you don’t have to worry about scams. This is huge because it can save you a ton of time because it weeds out all the commission-only, MLM, and other red herring jobs that you don’t want. It just makes your search easier.
As an added bonus, they also offer career coaching as well. It’s a 30-minute chat with an expert for just $64, half the normal price. Their coaches specialize in helping people navigate the unique job market for remote work, which can give you an advantage.
Use promocode FLEXLIFE for 30% off your subscription and you can read more about it in our full FlexJobs review.
4. Freelance Writing
If you enjoy writing, you could earn six figures from the comfort of your home as a freelance writer. Freelance writing is like any other type of client-based creative work business. You need to develop your skills, build up a portfolio of your work, and find writing gigs. It can be lucrative but you won’t be making a full-time income immediately – that takes time but it’s certainly available.
We interviewed Holly, a freelance writer who is a mother of two and makes $200,000 a year. She recently took everything she knew about freelance writing and built a course, Earn More Writing, that will teach you so you don’t have to waste time discovering it yourself. It’s so worth the price of admission.
When it comes to online typing jobs, this one requires the most expertise.
5. Freelance Proofreader
Proofreading is a skill that anyone can develop. It’s also a job that can be done anywhere you have a computer, like the one you’re using now. That makes it ideal for a remote online job.
The challenge with proofreading, like with freelance writing, is that it’s not clear how to operate as a business, get new clients, develop systems, and become efficient so you’re spending more time earning and less time doing all the other things.
My friend Bobby at Millennial Money Man has a free 25-page eBook that explains how you can become a freelance proofreader. It’s completely free and will save you a ton of time “figuring things out” because he gives you the exact playbook.
👉 Get the free eBook for Proofreading Clarity
6. Freelance on Fiverr
Fiverr is a huge freelance services marketplace where you can offer practically any online service. It started with folks doing gigs for just $5, hence the name, but you are no longer restricted to charging just $5 per job. You start by listing your Gigs, which you fit into one of their many categories, and immediately can start selling. The categories include everything from Graphics & Design to Writing to Video to Music to Programming. It really spans the spectrum.
It’s hard to explain what types of services are available or what you should offer, but visit the site and do a search in areas you feel competent working in. Study what others are offering, see what you could offer, and build your freelancing services from there.
7. Online Jobs with Amazon
The place to start here is with Amazon Mechanical Turk. They have an incredible number of opportunities, so it’s very likely they’ll have work for you. You might be rating the search results for certain keywords, reworking an article, or translating something from one language to another.
You’ll be paid a few dollars for each assignment. The more you can do, the more you can earn. If you have the time and the motivation, you could easily make $100 a day, working on your own schedule.
8. Graphic Designer
Graphic design is an important skill, especially online, and you can learn a lot by taking a few classes on sites like Skillshare or Coursera. Then, use tools like PicMonkey and Canva to produce brilliant graphics for websites who may need them for blog posts, product pages, landing pages, etc.
9. Evaluate Websites
User Testing typically pays $10 for each video that you review. Since it takes about 20 minutes to review a video, you can do three in an hour and make $30. If you spend three hours per day, you can earn $2,700 per month.
10. Become a Virtual Assistant
One of the prime strategies in business today is to outsource work wherever possible. Many employers, particularly small ones, don’t have enough work to warrant a full-time job. But they may parcel that work out to virtual assistants. You can become a VA with just about any type of skill. Administrative skills are most in-demand, and usually involving working on very specific projects. Many times, those projects will be assigned because the business owner either lacks the time or the skills to perform them.
Sites like Upwork or Zirtual can keep you pretty busy. Compensation runs between $10 per hour to as much is $100, depending on the skill. More typical skills will be at the lower end of the pay scale, while specific marketing or web related skills will pay on the higher end.
11. Working on YouTube
Lots of people are creating videos on YouTube as a fun hobby. But some are earning money, and some are earning a lot of money. You can create videos yourself, promote them, and then monetize them through Google Adsense. You’ll get paid every time someone clicks on an ad on your video. The more clicks, the more you’ll make. If you get several videos going, you’ll be earning ad revenue from various sources.
There are different ways you can do this. Perhaps the most popular way is by promoting music videos. The revenue can be heavy with videos using popular music. But getting the licensing agreements from the artists is extremely difficult. A better route might be to promote local talent. These can be small artists who are looking to be promoted. If they have good music, and you can create compelling videos around their songs, you can earn a steady income.
Yet another way is to create educational videos. Pick a subject or skill you’re knowledgeable in, and create a “how to” video. You can also use this kind of video to promote a specific product or service that you offer.
All around, this is probably the most flexible and creative way to earn money online. YouTube even provides support to help you get started.
12. Online Data Entry
This actually is a real thing. Many large companies, particularly insurance companies and travel-related businesses, hire at-home workers to handle both customer service and online data entry. You can find these jobs on company websites by entering “work-at-home” in the search box of their employment pages.
You can also go through dedicated websites, such as Upwork. And sometimes online data entry jobs are available through Craigslist, or popular job boards like Monster.
13. Become an Online Translator
A website called Proz.com can help you get paid to translate documents and even conversations. You can choose a language you’re comfortable with. Some include Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and Arabic. If you have the ability to translate technical documents, like legal and medical documents, you’ll command the highest pay.
14. Sell Your Computer Skills
Everybody’s looking for computer skills, but not every business can afford regular employees. If you have above-average computer and Internet skills, this can be an opportunity for you.
Experts Exchange has more than 500,000 experts who participate on the site. They offer assistance with web design and development, SEO and marketing, graphic design, and other technical skills. You could be one of them.
15. Read Books
Did you know there are sites that will pay you to read books and write reviews? The pay varies from site to site as well as the length of the review, but if you enjoy reading then you can turn that “hobby” into a little side hustle to earn a few bucks.
You have a little freedom in what you read, in that you can often select from a list, but you are still restricted in what you do ultimately read.
16. Buy and Sell Websites
You may have to release your inner entrepreneur to make this one happen, but it can be lucrative if you have an eye for an online bargain. Sites like Flippa.com list websites and domains for sale. You might be able to pick up a domain for $10 and sell it for $1,000. Or you might be able to buy an inactive website for $1,000, reactivate it, and sell it for $10,000.
17. Affiliate Marketing on Your Blog
Blogging is not your typical online job because you don’t work for someone else when you’re a blogger. You get the flexibility of working for yourself but you don’t get paid immediately. As you grow your traffic and your audience, you can earn money as an affiliate for other companies or advertising revenue.
If you’re interested, you can learn how to start your blog with our free guide. Eventually, you can even quit your job to blog full-time!
If you have a working blog or website, you can use affiliate marketing to increase your revenue. You can have ads or articles promoting various products and services. If you really want to learn the ins and outs of this, I recommend Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Michelle routinely makes six figures each month from her blog.
Each time a visitor to your site signs up with one, you’ll be paid for providing the lead. With enough affiliate links, you can dramatically increase the income on your site. Naturally, it’s always best to have affiliate arrangements that are closely related to the basic subject and content of your website or blog.
Any of these arrangements can enable you to earn upwards of $2,500, and some have the potential to go much, much higher.
Which one will you try today?
Linda Terrill says
These are some great earning gigs. I can definitely vouch for making significant amount through regular blogging.
Peggy McDaniel says
How does this work? Can you explain?
Peg
Jim Wang says
I can explain how I’ve had success – you can earn advertising income if you build up a large enough following.
Sonia says
Thank you, Roshni, for providing such great content on alternative work options. I’ve subscribed to Flexjobs in the past and can verify that they are an awesome resource of remote work. I definitely will review the different avenues you’ve provided for freelance writers.