There’s a ton of information on the web advising you on how to make money online, but most of the advice amounts to nothing.
I’m not going to lie to you and say it’s easy because it isn’t. There are many ways to make an income online, and I’m going to show you the ways that worked for me as well as the ways that didn’t.
This isn’t going to be a massive list of survey sites. There are only a few that I do use and they are definitely worth a mention.
Survey Sites that Pay through PayPal Instantly
The following survey sites are the ones I use regularly. They all pay instantly via PayPal when you request the money, once you have reached the minimum cash-out or points value.
There are only a few survey sites that I would recommend, and they are Pinecone Research, Swagbucks, and Prolific
Best Surveys To Make Money
Note that surveys will never earn you a full-time income but will bring in some extra cash.
Prolific
Prolific can earn you a decent amount of money over the year, but it won’t provide a full-time income. Use it to supplement your income.
Since 2018, I’ve averaged around £20+ a month with Prolific on a very part-time basis, more recently, in 2024, £70-£100. Higher earnings can be achieved if you’re prepared to sit at the computer most of the day waiting for surveys to come through.
If you install the Chrome extension, it will notify you when surveys appear. This is handy because you won’t receive email notifications for all surveys. Using the Chrome extension ensures you won’t miss any surveys and can maximise your profits.
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is worth mentioning because it’s great for shopping and gradually accumulating Swagbucks. You can then cash them in through PayPal. I use this site when I fancy a takeaway, earning points by clicking through the Just Eat link
Pinecone Research
If you can get accepted to Pinecone Research, they will pay you £3 per survey, and occasionally, you will get to try products. We’ve tried a fair few products over the years.
I’ve completed surveys for Pinecone for a long time now. The surveys are less frequent than Prolific, however they are enjoyable to do.
Branded Surveys
This survey site, previously known as Mintvine, is now called Branded Surveys. It will pay you either by cash or gift card. You only need 500 points to cash out, which equates to $5. Read about Branded surveys in my post here.
Not So Good: YouGov
With YouGov, you earn points, and when they reach 5,000, you can cash out £50. This can take quite a while, in my experience, hardly any surveys came through.
YouGov also has a refer-a-friend scheme where you earn an extra 200 points for each friend that completes six surveys. Anyone constantly promoting YouGov is probably making money from referrals. Doing their surveys works out to around £3 an hour, so it’s up to you to decide if you want to work a lot for little return.
Money does add up by completing surveys, and it’s money you didn’t have before. Therefore, when you have some spare time, it’s worth sitting down and completing surveys and studies that pay the best. On the whole, I’d recommend Prolific and Pinecone Research.
Blogging
You can make money blogging; however, it’s not easy. Anyone who tells you it is, is lying. I’ve worked many hours on my blogs.
You can earn money through your blog from affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and placing ads.
I own a few blogs, the hosts I use are Siteground & Ionos. If you fancy starting a blog, take a look at their WordPress hosting packages. I do recommend using either of these hosts.
No-Risk Matched Betting
No-risk Matched Betting is the quickest way to make money from the very first week you start doing it! However, you do need some money as a float.
When starting, you will need around £60+ to complete offers. I recommend using a company that knows what they’re talking about and will guide you in the right direction showing you how to take advantage of all the offers.
Making your own Digital Products
If you own a WordPress blog, you can create a shop and sell from it using a free e-commerce plugin called Woocommerce. Alternatively, you could sell on a platform like Etsy. I use both. (Get 40 free listings here!)
Creating digital products like printables, e-books, and digital art is an excellent way to earn extra cash. You only have to make the product once, then it can be sold repeatedly.
After completing a comprehensive course on making printables, I now sell digital products on Etsy. This is one of the most useful courses I’ve purchased. I also receive free templates every month that can be edited in Canva or Adobe Illustrator.
If you’re interested in selling printables on Etsy, this ebook will teach you how to capitalise on seasonal trends to make sales. It’s free for a limited time.
Becoming a Pinterest Virtual Assistant
Training to become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant could provide the opportunity to earn around £25 -£40 per hour or more with experience.
This job can be performed from home, and many businesses often need their Pinterest accounts managed.
There’s only one course I would recommend, you can read my post on becoming a Pinterest VA and what’s involved if this interests you.
Make and Sell Dog Treats
If you’re a dog lover, this home-based business would be perfect. You could start a dog bakery business, selling treats online or in person. My post on how to start a dog bakery business at home will fill you in on how to get started. You may like to look at this free training workshop to give you an idea of what’s involved.
Sell on Fiverr
If you provide a service, why not advertise on Fiverr? I’ve recently started selling on Fiverr and have had orders come through very quickly. I love it because the money side is sorted out for you, and can be withdrawn to PayPal when the payment has cleared.
Start Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a selling method where you advertise products from a dropship supplier at the RRP on your e-commerce store. When a customer orders, you purchase the item from your supplier at the wholesale price and pocket the difference. I used to apply this method by selling personalised gifts.
There’s no need to maintain stock, so it’s a great way to make money from home if you don’t have the cash to pay out for stock in advance and have limited space in your home.
Please read my post on how to start dropshipping, which will guide you on what to look for when searching for dropship suppliers.
Print-on-demand companies like Printful provide a dropshipping service. This allows you to create and sell custom products online. They will print your design onto the product and ship it directly to your customer.
Ekm has four dropshipping integrations. Syncee is for online shops that want to source goods like homewares, clothing, toys, and more.
Anyone looking to get started with dropshipping for the first time can take advantage of the integration at £0 for the first 25 items. Larger plans are available for businesses that would like to offer a wider range of dropshipped goods.
In addition, three print-on-demand integrations are available for online shops that want to sell merchandise with their design or logo printed onto textiles. These are Two Fifteen, Snuggle, and Printify. Visit EKM to find out more.
Publish No Content and Low Content Books
This is a great way to generate an income, I love creating notebooks sketchbooks and planners. Many publishers earn thousands per month by creating books and publishing them on Amazon KDP.
Look at my post on how to make money with low content books, or read all of my posts about KDP.
Write on Medium – Medium Partner Program
Writing on Medium offers a unique opportunity not only to share your stories and blog posts with a global audience but also to earn from them.
The more your content is read by Medium members, the more you earn. This means that if your articles engage Medium subscribers and keep them hooked, your earnings will increase.
However, remember that this applies only to paying members of Medium; your non-member readership won’t contribute to your earnings, even though they can access a limited number of free articles each month.
Some writers make good money, while others earn only pennies. You can read my post about why I decided to leave Medium.
What Doesn’t Work for the Majority – MLM
I tried extremely hard to make MLM work for me. The products were overpriced, and I hardly made any profit by selling them.
The company I joined allowed selling on eBay, which was the only place I could sell anything! With eBay fees and having to price products higher than the RRP, I hardly ever made a substantial profit.
With MLM, only a few people at the top earn significant money. However, they have to recruit, recruit, and keep recruiting to ensure they receive any money! They earn from their recruit’s sales.
Most people who join under them struggle to sell anything. Many representatives lie about their earnings, claiming they are living a fantastic lifestyle when they aren’t.
I was lied to and urged to purchase a product by the girl in my upline. She claimed it sold well. Years later, I still have this product, and she was promoted to the next level after I bought it. Essentially, she was using me for her gain!
Many people joining MLMs often pay out of their pockets to purchase products to qualify for the next level in their MLM. This is pointless and is essentially throwing money down the drain.
There are numerous horror stories surrounding MLMs, including bullying, silencing, and being accused of negativity if you dare to question or disagree. I suggest reading the Elle Beau Blog for more information if you want to read about what goes on behind the scenes in some of these companies.
On a positive note, I do like some companies such as Avon; their products have been around for years. Since I like Avon products, I became an affiliate rather than a representative.
So, there you have it: some of the things that work well and not so well. I’ll add extra content to this post in the future when I discover more methods of earning online.
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