If you’ve had it with the toxic corporate culture and would like to finally start being your own boss while calling the shots and making money from the comfort of your home, we’ve got you covered.

Below, you’ll find what we consider to be legitimate and realistic ways to make money online with as little effort as possible. Note that none of them will be as simple as pressing a button and watching money start raining from the sky (hint: they don’t exist), but with a little bit of effort and a solid work ethic on your side, you, too, can make these work like a charm.

accountant counting money
Photo by Kuncheek on Pexels.com

1. Freelancing

Perhaps writing, coding, playing music, or drawing comes naturally to you, but other people may struggle with these creative crafts. As such, they have no other choice but outsource the work to talented individuals such as yourself. The best part about freelancing is that the scope of what type of gigs you could offer has virtually no limits. You could become a virtual assistant, a data entry specialist, a promoter, a consultant, work in tech, etc.

No matter how you want to go about presenting your skills, you’ll need to make sure your profile looks polished and up to date. See if you can show some samples of your work and check if the freelancing website allows you to include a video presentation of what you’re all about. Other than that, keep providing stellar service and perhaps you’ll be able to take your side gig full-time one day.

2. eBay

In case there’s stuff lying around your house that you no longer use or need, why not sell it on eBay? For example, a lot of people used to be trading and collecting Pokemon cards (or something similar) when they were kids. Did you know that some of these can be worth a small fortune? The reason is that cards that are now decades old are out of print, which can make them quite valuable to collectors who are often willing to pay a pretty penny for one of these rare finds, especially if they’re in good condition.

Alternatively, you can sell old furniture, other collectibles, paintings, toys, or other forgotten artifacts that are collecting dust in your cellar. As a general rule of thumb, branded items tend to perform better than non-branded ones. The reason being is – as you might have guessed it – collectors’ value. Think of branded toys, clothing, books, etc.

3. AirBNB

This one might be a bit specific to real estate owners, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless! In essence, the way it works is that you can use a room or a piece of property you own and rent it out to someone you’ve met through AirBNB.

If you know how to make a compelling listing and can take good photos, you should be able to score yourself a booking in no time, especially if the property is located in a touristy area.

4. Teach English online

Are you a native English speaker who has a knack for teaching? You’d be pleased to know that your services are quite in demand online, because a solid grasp of the English language can open many doors in business and present new opportunities in someone’s life.

To get started, you’ll need to find an employer willing to take on new teachers (there are always more than plenty of those, so do your due diligence). One thing they’ll likely ask for is either prior teaching experience, a TEFL certificate or equivalent, or, rarely, a university degree.

Please don’t let that scare you off because the latter is seen more as a plus rather than a hard requirement. The TEFL certificate is roughly a 100-hour online course that anyone can complete from the comfort of their home, and it won’t cost more than a few hundred bucks (that’s an insane per-dollar value).

If you know how to find your own clients, you could effectively even bypass all of the requirements listed above.

5. Crowd-sourced work

Compared to freelancing we’ve mentioned earlier, crowd-sourced work is a walk in the park. Most often, you’ll be asked to single out a shape that doesn’t fit, correct a simple sentence, locate a certain point in a video and describe what’s in it, open a random online account, transcribe video content, and tasks of such nature. A popular website offering these quick gigs is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

Granted, you won’t become rich overnight by doing this, but since the barrier of entry is low, you could easily earn yourself a decent side income. Bear in mind that employers will rate your work, so maintaining your accuracy is a priority.

6. Test apps and websites

Many web developers and coders are looking for an honest opinion on how others see their creations from a user experience point of view (and they’re willing to compensate you nicely for it).

To get started, all you need is to sign up for websites like UserTesting, and you could be in business the very same day. Be advised that you will often need to own a microphone and a camera and speak in real-time, simply describing what you see, how easy or hard it is to find something on a website and similar.

The good news is that most of them are looking for an honest review, so don’t be shy if English is not your first language.

Source: Pixabay.com

7. Start a blog or YouTube channel

Do you have vast knowledge about something or perhaps you’d like to voice your opinions on certain topics? Starting a blog or a YouTube channel could be a great way to cash in on that (although helpful knowledge-based posts tend to do better in general).

After you’ve produced the content, you can monetize it in all sorts of ways, including paid guest posts, affiliate marketing, and ads. Since this way to make money online is arguably the hardest to get going, we’ve left it for last, but on the flip side, it’s also one of the easiest to maintain because it yields passive income over time.

Source: Pixabay.com

The importance of having a Website

With most, if not all of these methods to make money online, you’d give yourself a massive boost at increasing your chances of success with a website. The reason being is that a website can be your most devoted salesman, pitching your products and services even while you sleep.

The best thing about it is that it doesn’t take an arm and a leg to get started. In most cases, a domain with web hosting is all you need, and you can even apply this Hostinger coupon code to bring down your startup costs even more. In all seriousness, if you have enough money to buy a Starbucks latte, you have enough of it to start your own website.

Conclusion

As you educate yourself about various opportunities and ways to make money online, it’s important to differentiate between legitimate methods and scams. Simply steer clear of MLM, PTC, and similar unreliable, dodgy, or plain ineffective strategies and stick to the ones we’ve shown you today. You’ll thank us later.