How to Make Money Online

Yes, it’s possible to make money online. We sift out the scams and offer some of the best ways to make cash on the Web.

So you’re unemployed. Or just looking for a little extra scratch. Who isn’t these days? The economy has made things tough for everyone, whether you’re out of a job after a decade of work, settling for a job well below what you’re used to because of the job climate, or a recent college grad hitting the real world at about the worst time possible.

Fortunately, for those of you looking at endless days of free time and a dwindling pile of cash, there actually are real answers on the Internet to tide you over until that dream gig opens up. Past all the scams that offer too-good-too-be-true methods for making money at home, those with more modest aspirations (sorry, no condos in Florida) can actually tuck a bit of money away with a little legwork and some hours in front of the PC, all without actually getting a full-time job. Yes, you’ll have to give up your afternoon Full House marathons, and hours spent taking our your frustration on noobs in Call of Duty 4, but if you’re looking to sack away a little extra money this month, here are a few ways you can do it online.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon’s innovative labor-for-hire marketplace derives its name from an 18th century device that appeared to play chess by mechanical workings alone, but in fact was operated by a human hidden within. The concept here: You’re the human, and companies will pay you to perform simple tasks that are simply impossible to automate. For instance, you could be called upon for anything from taking photos of the Under Armour displays at Dick’s Sporting Goods to testing a new iPhone app (both of which are real, we can’t make this stuff up). Some tasks pay a few dollars while some pay a few cents, but in general you can expect a lot of repetitive work that the parties doling it out don’t have the labor or patience to perform themselves. Throw on some music, do it from your porch on a sunny day with a laptop, and you might not even mind as you rack up the rewards.

eBay

Markets may be in a slump, but don’t tell that to the hordes of people buying and selling on eBay. This old standby for at-home moneymaking can be as simple as making some money as you clean up the attic, or as complex as a business run out of your house, if you treat it that way. Just keep in mind that the easy money to be made from buying at yard sales and selling on eBay isn’t quite as easy as it used to be, now that eBay has become a household name. We won’t bother to go through the specifics of selling eBay since the site has done a pretty good job of its own, but we would encourage new sellers to start by peddling old things of their own, then move onto buying to sell, it if strikes their fancy.

Take Surveys

Getting paid to give your opinion certainly sounds like it’s too good to be true, but believe it or not, companies do actually want to hear what you have to say. (You just won’t make a mint doing it.) You’ll have to spend anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours filling out survey, usually of the fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice variety. While many sites directly translated the amount of surveys taken to dollars, many now offer reward points that can be redeemed for items, sweepstakes entries, and cash. Since this particular form of at-home moneymaking has attracted quite a bit of attention for its relative ease, you’ll have to sift through some sleazy unprofessional companies to find the ones that actually pay, but they’re out there. Some of the most frequently recommended sites include Survey Spot, American Consumer Opinion, and Lightspeed Consumer Panel. WikiAnswers also maintains a list of legitimate survey research companies along with some helpful pointers on how to go tell the losers from the winners.

Freelance

If the rather mindless nature of the tasks on Mechanical Turk has you down, consider exploiting your own unique talents more fully by simply farming your skills out through the Web. Whether you can readily translate documents between Spanish and English, transcribe audio recordings, or even have a mastery of Photoshop, someone out there is probably willing you to work on projects for them. Craigslist makes a fine starting point if you’re looking to work with local companies, but the digital nature of most freelance work means you can safely work with companies thousands of miles away, too. Sites like iFreelance, freelance.com and GetAFreelancer all make it possible to peruse jobs companies need done, find something you can do, and get to work. Like all things online, pay attention to who you’re dealing with, though, because you don’t want to sweat whether there’s actually a paycheck in the mail when all is said and done. The best sites offer feedback for both freelancers and the companies they work for, so you can be assured you’re dealing with someone reputable.

Write

Technically, writing belongs as a subsection of freelancing, but there are so many different ways to actually make money by writing online, we gave it its own section. First off: You can freelance as a writer the same way you can in any other profession, and use the same sites. But you can also pursue several other avenues to parlay your thoughts into dollars. For instance, consider blogging. Most aspiring writers do it for fun, or as an outlet, but the most successful, well-read bloggers can actually turn a profit doing it by adding advertisements. Google AdSense or CPM Outlet, for instance, will display targeted text ads relevant to what you write about, and cut you in on the profit. Of course, only a small percentage of writers can generate enough traffic to make that a useful tactic, but several other sites offer writers the chance to turn a buck without going the traditional freelance route or blogging 24 hours a day. For instance, sites like Suite101 and Helium offers writers the chance to quite literally write about whatever they want, then collect a paycheck based on the popularity of the finished, published work. Your languishing degree in anthropology may not be the best ticket to a hot article, but knowing how to pen a guide to managing your Facebook account just might net you some dollars.