How to Make Money at Home Online: Top 20 Ways

Last Updated on November 17, 2020 by Emma @ Making and Saving Money

 

There are an increasing number of people who are searching for the freedom and flexibility to work from home online. You can use the ideas in this article as an additional stream of income alongside a day job, or as a means to pay your bills in full each month if you do enough of them.

So how can you make money at home online? Here are my top recommendations.

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links to products that I use and believe in. By using these links, my blog may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, which helps to fund more articles to help others.

 

1. Risk-Free Matched Betting

My top side hustle is matched betting. Before you scroll down, no, this is not gambling. Matched betting is a way of legitimately making tax-free and risk-free profits by benefiting from the offers that bookies give out, such as free bets and extra places.

To make the most of matched betting I recommend finding a legitimate support service that will train you on how to match bet and will give you the details of all the latest offers, so you don’t have to waste time looking for them yourself.

 

 

I use a site called Profit Accumulator in the UK, through which I’ve earned nearly £5,000 risk-free through a combination of matched betting, and risk-free casino offers over the past six months, doing it for a couple of hours a week. The best thing about the earnings is that they are income-tax-free so there’s no need to fill in a tax return for this side hustle.

If you have experienced issues with gambling in the past, I would give this side hustle a miss as you may find it too tempting to default to risk-taking bets.

 

2. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing offers a very flexible way to make money at home online, which, after some initial start-up work, can become relatively passive over time.

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products and services from other businesses in return for a commission, which is simply a cut of their profits. For example, you may promote computer equipment that you enjoy using, or courses, books, etc. One of the benefits of this business model is that you are only generating leads and sales; you don’t need a warehouse to keep products in, or to deal with customer service matters.

To get started in this field, you’ll need to decide what products you are passionate about promoting and decide how you want to let people know about them. I love sharing product recommendations through blogs, also known as online articles, because I love writing. However, you could create a YouTube channel or an Instagram feed to promote them.

I learned about affiliate marketing and the steps to set up my own blog through a service called Wealthy Affiliate, which I have found to be an amazing source of training and support. You can sign up for a completely free trial with Wealthy Affiliate to check it out for yourself.

 

3. Work as a Freelancer

I am a big fan of freelancing. It’s a way to make money from a variety of skillsets without having to commit to a fulltime job. For me it brings variety and the ability to work from anywhere in the world that I fancy.

There are so many options for sites that you can earn money from by registering as a freelancer. Here are a few of my favourites:

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• PeoplePerHour (UK only)
• Bark

You can make money online freelancing with any number of skillsets, for example:

• Writing
• Project management
• Voiceovers
• Animation
• Photography
• Design
• Administration
• Customer service
• Coaching

4. Take Part in Research

One of the side hustles that I enjoy the most is taking part in research studies, It’s great to get paid while also contributing to something that makes a real difference. In my opinion, it’s an excellent and very flexible way to earn some cash.

The site that I use the most in the UK is called Take Part In Research, and as I type in October 2020, I am a part of a research study spanning several months that is focussed on the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on society. In return for this input, I’m earning £100 in Amazon vouchers per month. I have completed other studies and been paid cash as well.

There are a range of other sites that you can register for including:

• Take Part in Research
• Testing Time

You can participate in these programmes through online surveys, phone interviews or focus groups.

Drop a comment at the end of this article with any recommendations you have for other sites where you can take part in research in your spare time and earn some cash in the process.

 

5. Mystery Shopping

There are lots of ways to get paid for your views, and one of these is mystery shopping. I’ve found that one of the best sites to do this in the UK is called MarketForce. I’ve used it to get paid for eating out in a range of restaurants; they give you an allowance towards your drinks and meal, and they pay you a fee on top of that. For me, it’s been a great way to get paid for eating out!

There is also a range of mystery shopping opportunities that involve going into shops and giving feedback on displays, the customer service you receive and a range of other topics.

 

6. Get Paid for your Shopping

If you are disciplined with your credit cards and pay them off in full each month, then you can expect to earn points for your shopping as long as you apply for the right card. For example, I have a credit card with a major supermarket brand that gives me points that I can to buy food & drink in-store, or that I can use to save money on experiences like restaurants, the cinema and days out.

If you do not pay off your credit card balance in full each month, then any rewards you earn will be negated by the money you pay in interest. If you have a credit card that you are paying interest on, see if you can find a balance transfer deal that will save you some money.

 

7. Create a YouTube channel

If you want to make money over time and enjoy being on camera, then YouTube is a great option to consider. Many YouTube creators build up to earning a full-time income through the advertising revenue they earn from their channel (Google AdSense), through paid sponsorships and potentially through offering courses.

However, it can take a long time to get to this stage. You may be making videos for six to 12 months before you get to the stage that you qualify to run paid adverts on your channel. If you are persistent in making videos in your spare time, listen to feedback from your viewers, and stick with it, then YouTube can be a very lucrative option. You can also use it to complement and drive traffic to other businesses; for example, many bloggers have YouTube channels that help to publicise their blogs.

 

8. Start a Blog

Blogging is one of my favourite ways to earn money from home! For me, it’s the perfect way to earn money from my skillset without having to be on camera or tied to any specific routine. Once I have written the content, it’s available for people to read and interact with for years to come, and it allows me to earn extra money while I sleep.

If like me, you have no idea where to start when creating a blog, I highly recommend signing up for the free training offered by Wealthy Affiliate. Through a series of videos and step by step instructions, they teach exactly how to create a website to host your blog on, how to pick the topic you want to write about (your niche) and how to monetise it over time.

There are so many ways to earn money with a blog, for example:

• Affiliate marketing
• E-books
• Building a course to sell
• Using your blog to attract paid consultancy work
• Using your blog as a business card to get blogging work
• Advertising revenue
• Paid sponsorships
• Using your blog to get speaking gigs
• Offering coaching services about something you have skills and expertise in

9. Design a Course

If you have skills and passion for something that others can benefit from, you could consider building your own course to teach others how to do it. Your course could be fully digital, whereby you give video and written lessons that people follow in their own time. Alternatively, you could host live training calls each week, or a mixture of the two.

If you want to scale your business over time, one important thing is to avoid just charging per hour for your services, because you only have so many hours in the day. Instead, consider offering group programmes with some digital elements that reduce the demands on your time.

If you’d like some ideas for courses that you can create check out sites such as Skillshare and Udemy, where you can see some great examples of courses available.

If you’d like to host your own course, you can do so through a course hosting platform such as:

• Teachable
• Kajabi
• Thinkific
• Udemy
• Skillshare

10. Rent Out Your Free Space on Airbnb

If you have a spare room or two in your home, you could become a host on Airbnb. According to Airbnb, their typical host earns around £3,100 a year.

Airbnb takes care of the marketing for you, so all you have to do is tidy the areas of your home that the guests will have access to and potentially welcome them as they arrive.

 

11. Become a Virtual Assistant

If you are great at organising things and people, and you want a way of making money from home that gives you some time and location flexibility, then it’s worth considering becoming a virtual assistant.

There are lots of ways of finding clients, including signing up to platforms such as:

• Fiverr
• Upwork
• Bark

These sites take a percentage of your earnings in return for connecting you with clients and ensuring that you get paid for the work you do. Often the money is held in escrow as you complete a task, or they may offer protection for hours you track through the platform’s hours tracking software.

Alternatively, you can look at Facebook groups that are focussed on remote working jobs, or reach out to businesses directly to add value and see if they need a virtual assistant. Just be careful to do your due diligence to ensure the business is legitimate and that you will get paid fairly.

12. Sell Your Photos

If you are a budding photographer, then you will find a range of websites that will be willing to give you some extra cash in return for your photos. Check out Adobe Stock or Getty Images as a good place to start.

13. Start Online Tutoring

One of the methods I used to make money online from home during the Covid-19 lockdown was through online tutoring. I decided to try my hand at teaching English as a foreign language for a few months for extra cash while my copywriting income streams took a bit of a hit. I joined iTutorGroup following a bit of research online and averaged around £18 an hour working in UK lunchtimes and weekends, which amounted to around £1500 extra a month.

To qualify for the position, I completed a 120 hour TEFL qualification through the International Open Academy, which took me a couple of days and only cost $29 at the time.

A great way to get started with online tutoring to work for an established company such as:

• iTutorGroup
• VIPKid – US and Canada only
• Magic Ears (check which countries they are recruiting from at the time of your application)
• Whales English
• Outschool (you create your own class content and have uncapped earning potential)

If you teach English as a foreign language with a company like iTutorGroup, they provide the class materials for you to teach, which considerably reduces your prep time.

14. Offer Social Media Management Services

If you have successfully built an online following on one or more social media channels, you could pitch your services to other business owners who are looking to outsource their social media content.

You can find clients in many ways, including:

• Meeting people at networking events.
• Pitching your services to businesses you find online – just be sure to add value first.
• Upwork
• Bark
• Fiverr

15. Review Websites and Apps for Money

A super simple way to make $10 for 20 minutes of work is to join Usertesting.com. They’ll ask you to complete a short test before matching you with opportunities to review apps and websites.

16. Start Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a great way to get started in e-commerce because it has much lower set-up costs and risks than the traditional model of holding a lot of stock. With dropshipping, you only order from your supplier as a customer places an order with you, and you organise for the product to be sent directly to your client, so you avoid warehousing costs.

You can find out more in this detailed dropshipping guide from Shopify.

17. Join 20Cogs

20Cogs is a great way to earn a cash reward for completing tasks online in the UK. You’ll be paid to sign up to new offers and subscription services, which often means you can try new products for a month or so for free. Just remember to cancel them before you get charged!

I earned £145 on 20Cogs for just a few hours of work. What’s more, one of my sign-up offers was for a risk-free casino offer that I made an additional £336 on, so it turned out to be a very profitable one-time side hustle for me.

 

18. Type For Extra Cash

If you are looking for stress-free ways of making money and you can type quickly, you may be able to make some extra cash providing typing services for businesses. For example, you could be writing subtitles for YouTube videos, or typing classes, or even meeting minutes. Many transcription services websites will connect you with writing projects, such as websites like Rev.com.

19. Become a Coach

If you have a skillSet that is valuable to other people, then you could consider becoming a coach. Coaches help people in a variety of ways, including:

• Building businesses
• Dating
• Relationship issues
• Self-confidence
• Gaining promotions
• Improving sports performance

Depending on the type of coaching you offer you may want to consider gaining a qualification; for example, if you are coaching on relationships, it can assist your credibility and the service that you offer, if you understand psychology and techniques for dealing with conflict.

You’ll need a website to promote your services. You can set up one pretty simply on WordPress.com and then I’d recommend Bluehost.com for your website hosting services. If you are not that tech-savvy and would appreciate a step-by-step guide to setting up your web presence and driving organic traffic to it through a blog, then I am a big fan of Wealthy Affiliate, which is the training and web hosting service I have used to build makingandsavingmoney.com.

20. Sell Your Old Stuff

Selling your unwanted possessions on sites like eBay, Gumtree and Shpock (in the UK) and Craigslist (in the US) are great ways to make money online. Surveys have estimated that the average person could make earnings of £1000 just by listing and selling their unwanted junk.

 

 

If you have any unwanted designer or high-end high street clothing and accessories, you could check out a specialist site called Vestiare. I’ve personally used it to sell high-end work clothes that I no longer use and to save money by buying second-hand designer handbags. Use this link on Vestiare to save 15 Euros on your first purchase.

What are your favourite ways to make money online from home?

So there you have it! These are my favourite ways to make money online from home.

What is your favourite?

What ways have you tried to make money from home?

Do you make money from your mobile phone?