If you are looking for ways to make money from home without paying anything, then we’re here to help. While we are always going to be massive fans of matched betting, we know that there are people who don’t want to pay anything upfront before they start to earn (although both Profit Accumulator and OddsMonkey offer free trials).
We have shared plenty of hints and tips about how to start earning money during coronavirus, this article is all about doing it without paying upfront. We’re going to be looking at the likes of online surveys, social media marketing, and how to make the most from Fiverr, as well as a host of other ways that can see you earn money online without paying anything. Let’s get started!
How to make the most from Fiverr
If you have yet to hear of Fiverr, this is a site where you can go and list jobs that are called gigs. You create yourself a profile highlighting the skills that you have and then publish. This is all free of charge. Fiverr makes its money by taking a cut of any sales that you make. This is a great way to start making money quickly and you can earn much much more than £5 from each gig. Some of the best gigs that will see you earning money online fast include:
Blog post writing
There are plenty of people on Fiverr who are looking for writers who can create their blog content. These kinds of freelance writing jobs may appear to be a lot of work with not much of a reward initially, but this soon changes.
When you start earning money in this way, you will find that you are probably charging a low amount. You may have to produce around 500 words for £5. As your reputation increases and as you are left 5-star reviews, you can soon start charging more. Writing on Fiverr goes beyond just beer money: there are many people who make a full time living this way.
Logo design
If you are looking at a great way to make extra money, and if you have a creative streak, then designing logos is something that you could explore. Now, these are all ways of making money without paying anything, so we’re assuming that you have some software here and that you are not needing to buy anything.
There are plenty of people using the likes of Photoshop to produce logos. Although this is a great piece of software, it is hardly cheap! There are alternatives such as Canva. The free version here is enough to get you going and as you start making money you can maybe look at upgrading to the pro version.
Writing CVs
This is a great way to make money online if you find that you are skilled in this area. There is an art to producing the best CV and there are plenty of people who aren’t quite capable of doing this form themselves.
Producing great CVs won’t see you stuck earning £5 a time for long. Within no time at all, you will find that you are making £100s providing that you are able to put the work in and produce a great profile.
Social media marketing
No doubt you are aware of the likes of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and more. No doubt you have seen the ads that sometimes appear in your feed as well as finding pages linked to some of your favourite local businesses. The chances are that these local businesses are not managing their own social media marketing. Many simply don’t have the time and lack the understanding.
If you are savvy when it comes to all things social media you can see yourself making some great money. It is not about being a social media influencer but is about pushing the presence of businesses through pages and ads – ads that your clients pay for!
Online paid surveys
One of the fastest ways to staring making money online without paying anything has to be online surveys. These are the bread and butter of many as they first start their journey into earning online. One of the great things about surveys is that you can get your hands on some money quickly. In some cases after just an hour or so. While there are paid online surveys, there are also others that reward you with gift cards. You can take your pick and just sign up with the ones that work best for you. Here’s a look at our favourites:
Qmee
Now, being honest here, you are hardly likely to get rich by doing online surveys with Qmee. There are some that pay a few pence whereas others will go up to £2 or so. You will find yourself answering a whole host of questions from market research companies who are looking at how to boost a brand. At times, you’ll even get a sneak peek and some up and coming products and get a free sample!
So, if the money is not the best, why do we include Qmee? Simply because it is probably the quickest way to earn your first money online. There is no minimum withdrawal amount so if you make 5p that’s yours and you can withdraw it straight away. Sometimes making money online snowballs once you’ve got your hands on those first earnings.
Prolific
This one is a little different to the others out there in that you are not answering questions for market research companies. Instead, you are helping with academic studies with the tasks coming from universities across the world, with a large proportion of them being UK based.
For me, Prolific is a little more interesting than some of the other paid online surveys and I have always found that the pay is much better. What you are paid will depend upon the length of the task and what is involved, but I have personally been paid as little as 25p for 1-minute of work and as much as £15 for around 45 minutes. You can withdraw as soon as your balance reaches £5.
YouGov
This is another online survey site that has some interesting surveys to get involved with. You can end up looking at political issues and giving your opinion on how you think the main parties are performing as well as saying how you feel about how coronavirus has been handled.
YouGov sees you being awarded points for each survey you take part in. You need to build up 5,000 points before you can withdraw. This equates to £50. It can sometimes seem to take a while to hit that mark but with plenty of surveys and polls to take part in, you will soon start to earn money online.
I-Say
When it comes to online surveys, this site has often been mentioned as being one of the very best. There are many people who are being rewarded with £10 gift cards every month. Building up to this amount takes a little time as some of the surveys will only see you being rewarded with a few pennies. However, there are others that come in at around the £2 mark.
It is worth persevering here and building up your balance. The gift cards that you are rewarded with can be used at well-known retailers such as John Lewis, Argos, and Boots. This makes them well worth the effort.
Earning a passive income
When wanting to start earning money online, many people are drawn to the opportunity to earn a passive income. A passive income is one that comes about without the need to keep working for it. It could be that it takes work at the start, but then that one piece of work goes on to pay you over and over again. It could also be a task that requires no effort and sits alongside something that you were already doing anyway. Let’s take a look at some passive income ideas that can see earn online without paying anything:
FluidStack
If you spend any time at all connected to the internet, then FluidStack is a great way to earn a passive income. To start making money you will need to install an app onto your computer. This works away in the background without impacting on what you are doing. It allows you to earn money online by paying you to resource other parts of the internet: it taps into your spare memory, processor, and network to do this.
You can expect to receive around £50 a month from FluidStack. If you are in an area where your internet speed is not the best you may struggle to hit this amount, but given that it takes no effort at all you have nothing to lose by trying.
Qmee (again!)
Not only is Qmee great for paid online surveys, but it also gives you the chance to earn money online passively. All you need to do to start making money is to go onto Google Chrome and install the Qmee extension. Once this is done then you’re good to go. What do you need to do? Nothing really!
As this is one of the passive income apps that are out there, all you need to do to make money is what you usually do – search the internet. Sometimes when you enter a search you’ll see that Qmee brings up its own results. Click on these and you get paid!
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Now, this is one of those types of passive income that takes some work at the start but there is still no need to pay anything. KDP is a great passive income stream for anyone, but feedback has shown that it has really suited work from home mums who are looking to balance making money online and childcare.
Making money from KDP sees you using free tools such as Canva and designing low content books. Typically these are journals or trackers of some description. You upload your designs to Amazon for free. When you make a sale, Amazon prints your book and posts it out while also paying you a cut of the money. There is a great deal of work here to create a great library of books, but once you have done this, the money just keeps coming in.
Office jobs from home
The wonders of the internet mean that it is possible to earn money online doing jobs that were once only office-based. You can start making money with just a laptop and a quiet space where you can work. Given that most people already own a laptop, this is another great way to earn money while not paying anything upfront. These types of jobs used to be all about data entry, and while there are still some great opportunities here, there is now so much more to consider too:
Transcribing
There has always been a need for transcribers. Sometimes there are business meetings where a transcript is needed, other times there may be a need to transcribe a speech that has been given. This was once an office-based job, but now with companies such as Rev, this is something that you can do from home.
Rev allows you to dip in and out as and when you want to. If you are busy one week and don’t have time to transcribe, then that is fine. This is an extremely flexible way to earn money online. There is a test before Rev will take you on, but once you are in there is a chance to earn some good money from home.
Become a VA
How do you fancy the role of a personal assistant, but doing this from the comfort of your own home? This is exactly what a VA does. Being a VA sees you assisting businesses with day to day tasks. It could be that you are organising someone’s diary, booking a taxi, or arranging for a gift to be sent. Whatever the task, being a VA is a great way to earn extra money.
You may be left wondering how to start making money from this method. The best way is to sign up with sites such as UpWork and People Per Hour. Here you can create a profile to advertise your services. You will get an idea of what you can earn by looking at what others are charging base on their levels of experience.
Market research companies
We have already looked at paid online surveys. These online surveys see you giving information to market research companies, but the pay is not always the best! There are other ways of sharing your opinion with market research companies that can see you accessing much better rates of pay. Here’s a look at two of the most popular:
Respondent
If you are looking at ways to start earning money from market research companies then Respondent is probably the best place to start. It is a marketplace that brings together companies and researchers who are looking for your opinion. When looking at the companies involved, we are looking at giants such as Microsoft, DropBox, and GoDaddy.
There is a simple sign up process and you will be asked to allow Respondent to access your social media accounts – this helps to better pair you with suitable tasks. How much can you earn by sharing your opinion here? Well, the average task takes around 30 minutes and pays $140! There are tasks that pay much more too.
Testing Time
Testing Time is another platform where you can earn money online without paying anything. You get paid here by helping market research companies. This could be by taking part in focus groups where you are in an online discussion or it could be that you are asked to evaluate an app.
Testing Time pays fairly well again and you will rarely find tasks that pay out less than £25. There are some more involved ones that can pay as much as £100 a time.
Money making apps
A great way to make money from home without paying anything is to take advantage of the money-making apps that exist. Strictly speaking, these won’t see you making money from home, but they will see you start making extra money whenever you are out and about. Here are some of the best apps to try out:
BeMyEye
BeMyEye sees you becoming a mystery shopper or even a spy of sorts! By downloading the app, you allow it to track your location and you’ll get pinged whenever there are jobs in your local area. Some of the jobs will see you going into a shop and engaging with a member of staff before reporting back about your experiences.
Other jobs will see you entering stores and taking photographs of certain displays or product ranges. You submit your photos and then complete a quick questionnaire on the app before you get paid. Tasks usually pay between £2.50 and £5 although there are some that pay around the £10 mark.
Shepper
When you download the Shepper app you become one of the many Shepherds across the UK. The app can see you performing tasks that are similar to those that are on BeMyEye in terms of retail assignments. What makes Shepper great is that every now and then they will take on huge assignments. You benefit from these as there is more work and you get paid bonuses for completing so many tasks.
As well as the retail side of things, Shepper also has tasks that can see you being paid for taking photos of empty properties. Landlords like to know that their properties are intact and you can start earning money simply by reporting back on their condition.
Micro tasks
Another way to make money from home without paying anything is to look into companies that offer microtasks. As the name suggests, these are tasks that are small! This means that often you will repeat the same task, or variations of them, numerous times. The more times that you do this, the more that you will get paid. Often, these tasks will see you training artificial intelligence by recording phrases or responding to instructions that are given. The best companies for this type of work include:
- Amazon Mechanical Turk
- Neevo
- Clickworker
Get paid to play video games
If you like to play video games then getting paid to play them is sure to appeal. When it comes to getting paid to play video games this is usually about trying new mobile games. You get to play them so that you can test the gameplay and report back with any issues that arise. Some of the best companies that offer this include:
Mistplay
This is an Android app that you’ll need to download from the Google Play Store. Once you have this you will get access to new mobile games to try. The longer that you play a game for the more that you will get paid. Rather than being rewarded with cash, you are given points which are then paid out as gift cards.
Swagbucks
This site is well known for offering online paid surveys as well as other ways to earn money online. One of the features that not everyone is aware of is that you can get paid to play video games. Playing video games here sees you being paid pennies, but it all adds up to other tasks that you complete and can give a boost to the number of Swagbucks that you have.
InBoxPounds
This is another site that is well known for offering online surveys but also allows you to play video games and get paid. With InBoxPounds you will find games that can be played on both a laptop and on a mobile device.
To be continued?
This only really scratches the surface when it comes to ways that you can make money from home without paying anything. There are other opportunities that can see you selling online without the need to pay anything upfront as well as numerous other apps that are well worth exploring. Why not dive in and try the methods that we have looked at here and check back to see when we have added to our list?
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