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Writer's pictureLiam Thompson

5 Ways I Have Actually Made Money Online

Updated: Oct 14, 2021


In this day and age, there seems to be an obsession with making money from home and online. I get it though, I mean, it's easy right? You can go and get food whenever you want, you can take a break to pet your dog, you can work ridiculously late or early - the opportunities are endless. The reality and problem is though, there's no 'get rich quick' way to make money online (believe me I've looked). There are, however, a lot of actually legit ways to make money that in total have raked me in a few thousand dollars over the past little while without really trying, and that is exactly what I intend on sharing with you all today...

 

eBay Flipping


Potential Profit: High

Effort: High


The premise of eBay flipping is that you buy something on eBay (or anyone other trading website) for cheap, and then sell it to make a profit. I've probably only done this a dozen times or so, but if you take it seriously there is an insane amount of profit to be made. Places like TradeMe (in New Zealand), garage sales, and op shops can all be super profitable - so have a look around! Flipping is also a very useful skill to have, as even things like houses can be flipped.


The best way that I have found to flip items is to browse the recent listings in your area with a 'buy now' option, as there are always hundreds of people with pretty decent items that would rather get rid of them quickly for less money than wait out an auction for a whole lot more. The key is to make sure that you're patient when it comes to reselling the items yourself - always let your item run as an auction for a week or so. Remember also that eBay or most other trading websites will take a cut of your winnings (9% for eBay up to $50), so your profit needs to be quite significant - set your reserve accordingly. Another thing which I've found is that you want to look for the terribly pictured listings out there, as a lot of people don't really know what they're doing and will list their item with a bad picture, which most people will skip over even if it's a great item.


Personally, recently I've managed to buy a $650 watch at an op shop for $2 (although it was old I was still pretty stoked), and I also managed to resell AirPods which I had used for a few months for more than I paid for them. I've seen heaps of videos online though of people making ridiculous amounts of money every week by flipping just about anything. There really aren't any limits with flipping, and if you're knowledgeable in a certain area or you just love a good bargain then this method is all yours.

 

Fiverr


Potential Profit: Medium

Effort: High


On Fiverr as a seller, you can offer pretty much any service you want to online buyers starting at a minimum of $5.


This was one of the first methods of making money online which I pursued, because it's super quick and easy to set up, and has a lot of potential if you have literally any skill set. For me, I decided I was pretty good at English-based stuff, so I offered up an in-depth website review for $5 - mobile and desktop testing, a detailed written summary, speed tests - the works. Within a couple of days of waiting I was surprised to find I had a customer. It all went to plan so I came out with a sweet $5 for about two hours of work (which I got payed for on PayPal). Was it worth it? Not at all. My plan was to grind out the real cheap work to get some good reviews and publicity on my gig, then I would be able to put the price up to say $50 and it would all be worth it. I'd be living in the hills in no time.


About two months and only four customers later I gave up. It seemed that there were just too many people with far better qualifications and skills doing stuff similar to me. I saw one guy that was offering a ten minute website review and that was it for $20 and he had well over a couple dozen people in queue! That was the dream, but it seemed it would take a serious grind to get there. What I'm saying is, Fiverr can definitely make you money and it's a great website, but if you don't have some serious skills or a serious CV (this dude had reviewed Disney's website or something) you might find it difficult to get up and running.

Fiverr managed to raise my net worth by $12 in the end...

Note: Fiverr takes a 20% commission on all sales, so a $5 gig only really makes you $4

 

Investing


Potential Profit: Medium

Effort: Low


I'm sorry guys, I couldn't make a list like this without at least mentioning investing once. Check out this article I wrote for everything you need to know, and just keep in mind that while investing can be slow, you'll thank yourself a whole lot in the future (I'm only 18 but that's what I've heard lol).


What I would do, is to invest the profit that you make from all of these awesome methods! Investing in 2019 really is the easiest and smartest way to passively make income in the long run, so I can't recommend it highly enough. Remember that although you might 'lose' money in the short term, if you have faith in the last few centuries of the economy then you'll flourish in the future - whether that be in a year or ten years, it'll come round sooner or later. 

 

Surveys


Potential Profit: Medium

Effort: Low


I was perhaps the most skeptical of any online money maker when it came to surveys. Perhaps because there are so many sites which are just a straight up scam. There are, however, a bunch of websites which will actually make you pretty decent money for not a whole lot of effort. For anyone who is unaware, these websites simply offer a small amount in money in exchange for your time doing a survey, and will usually pay you via gift cards to certain retailers.


Earnings from a few surveys I did a while back

Personally I use Valued Opinions and I've had no issues at all, but a quick Google search will reveal whether or not your chosen website is legit. Most of the time I've earned between $1.00 and $3.50, usually spending ten or fifteen minutes in the process. For the most part, if you're young or looking for a little extra money I would say it's worth it. It doesn't take long to go beast mode through a survey, and if you just log on once every few weeks, there are usually enough surveys to make $15-$20. If you got just $15 every fortnight, that ends up being almost $400 a year for not a lot of effort. Remember that a little bit of money often really adds up over time.

 

UserTesting


Potential Profit: Medium

Effort: Medium


UserTesting is a company that allows you to get paid for recording yourself testing a website. It takes a few days and a bit of effort to get approved as a tester, but if you have a screen recording software (I would highly recommend OBS Studio) and a decent microphone (here is the one I use) this is actually pretty lucrative for the effort.


Every few days, I get an email from UserTesting to tell me a new review has arrived on my account. From there, you simply log into your UserTesting account and take the screener. As someone living in New Zealand, I don't qualify for a whole of tests that someone in the United States or Europe would, but I still get the odd test coming through which I can take. Once you qualify, you simply press start and the UserTesting software will do the rest for you. Once you're done you wait for a week and then you get paid via PayPal. Easy as that.


A look at the UserTesting dashboard

For anyone over 18 who is comfortable talking in front of the camera I would highly recommend giving UserTesting a go. It's definitely legit and although you won't make a whole lot of money, it's quick and occasional money which you really can't complain about.

 

So there you go, that's pretty much every way I've made money online - some were failures and others still make me good money to this day. With that in mind, here is a list of recommendation in order of most highly to least highly recommend:


  1. Investing

  2. UserTesting

  3. eBay flipping

  4. Surveys

  5. Fiverr


Will any of these make you a baller? No, not really, but they will all make you actual money - and in some cases a pretty decent amount, so get going!

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