5 Ways to Make Money Online without Startup Money
You can make money online with little or no start-up cash, sell your products or handmade crafts, review products, write website content, post to social media, or provide online services.
Just because you don’t have the money to start a business, does not mean you cannot make money online without start-up money.
Don’t fall for those emails and videos with headlines such as, “Make Money Online” or “Just $50 Can Buy an Online Opportunity to Make Millions.” Some are legitimate, but seriously if you make millions online, why do you need my $50?
However, I am not here to make you smarter about not getting fleeced by online predators.
These are not in order of the best or worst opportunity because every opportunity is what you make of it. None of these are “get rich quick” schemes, and all these require hard work or a time commitment. The amount of effort you put into any legitimate initiative will determine your results.
#1 — Make Money Selling Your Crafts or Reselling Items
Some things just won’t sell, no matter how good you are at making those or how much effort you put into marketing it. However, if you have a product that sells without a website, imagine how well you can do with one.
The same goes for reselling things. Say you found hundreds of widgets at a yard sale or storage locker auction, and you are reselling those individually.
Look into one of these great sales platforms:
I like Shopify (not Spotify, that’s music). It gives you the ability to open a shop right from your Facebook page. It is a little expensive, though. It cost $29 per month. That’s money that must come back in profit before you ever make a dime. However, that could be about the same as a website after you pay for development, content, a domain, and hosting.
Shopify also gives you the ability to connect with your customers instantly with Messenger. Shopify gives you the potential to reach millions of potential customers. Sales on Shopify have already reached $55 billion.
What’s more, setting up dropshipping is easy when you read Tim Ferriss’s #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller, The 4-Hour Work Week. Who wouldn’t like that? (This is not an affiliate link.)
#2 — Make Money to Review Products
What I like about this opportunity is being able to keep the products I review afterward. Not all companies allow you to do that, and some you wouldn’t want to keep. However, many are, and if you don’t want to keep an item, you could always resell it.
You don’t need a lot of writing skills to make money online with this job because it’s usually just 100–200-word descriptions. The hardest part is coming up with another way to say this product is excellent time after time.
Here are five websites that allow you to make money writing reviews:
- Swagbucks — Gift cards for watching movies and taking surveys. Get $5 just for joining.
- User Testing — $10 per test — watch a 20-minute video and get $10 on PayPal.
- Review Me — This is good if you have a blog, they pay by check after $25, to your card after $20, or PayPal after every review.
- ReviewStream — Review movies, books, clothing, or restaurants for $2 plus a $.10 residual or pay-per-click (PPC).
- Amazon — Everybody knows Amazon is a good place to make money online, but not everyone knows how to get paid for reviewing products. Click to find out.
Other sites offer payment for reviews. Check Well Kept Wallet’s article, 45 Ways to Get Paid to Write Reviews.
#3 — Make Money Writing and Editing
I could write a book about this area because this is what I do. Although I have a degree in Journalism, it was so long ago I don’t remember much of that. So, don’t worry about a degree, just get started.
With all the online tools, for editing, it’s easy to make money online writing or editing without a degree, such as Grammarly, Ginger, or ProWritingAid.
Sit down at the keyboard, bang out an article, and use the tools to perfect it. Sure, you will still make some mistakes, but you must start somewhere.
Do you dream of becoming a writer? If so, perhaps you should stop dreaming, sit down at the keyboard, and write. Fill the white space if you will.
Writing for Content Mills
What you need to understand about online writing is it needs to be simple. Think grade 7 or 8 or the average 12 to 13-year-old reading level. There’s even an online readability index to check your writing.
With Textbroker.com and some other content mills, you can write articles that contain mistakes and still get paid.
You must provide a sample article, which they rate from 2–5, and that is your starting pay scale. The difference is how much you get paid per word.
In most cases, people who request articles there are looking for inexpensive keyword-focused content at $5 or $6 for a 500-word piece, which is mostly for search engine optimization (SEO).
The client gives you specific keywords and directs how many times it must appear in the article. You cannot turn it in until you have met the minimum number of keyword entries.
The better your grammar, spelling, and formatting, the higher you will get ranked, and the more you will get paid. Level 3 makes one cent per word and level 4, 1.4 cents.
Your completed assignments are evaluated generally after every three accepted submissions, and your rating could go up or down depending on your most recent five articles.
You will not get rich writing for content mills, but you could make $25 or $30 a day if you’re quick. A few new mill entries are Contently, ClearVoice, and eByline.
Contently is also an excellent FREE place to set up a portfolio for written articles, photography, and fashion. You can take a look at mine here.
#4 — Make Money as a Virtual Assistant
Everyone knows you can find a job on LinkedIn. Still, you can also make money online by posting articles, images, videos, and ads on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media sites.
Many companies and individuals will pay you to post ads and articles, promote products, services, and brands, and assist them in growing their business.
There are many opportunities for Social Media Managers, up until a year ago, I didn’t even know there was such a title. Some places to start are:
· ModSquad
· Belay
· Indeed
· FlexJobs
Keep your eyes open, join groups in your niche, share articles you find interesting, and comment on those articles (don’t just comment, “Great article, I enjoyed it.” put some thought into it.) Within the groups you belong to, you could become a person whose opinion people respect.
#5 — Make Money from Remote Jobs, Services, or Work from Home Opportunities
Another way to make money online from home is telecommuting or remote work, such as:
SpeakWrite Transcription Services is a service that pays people to transcribe audio or video to written documents from home. You can also bid for these types of jobs on Guru.com and Upwork.com.
LiveOps is a home-based business opportunity where you can earn around ten dollars an hour as a call-center representative.
Leapforce is another work from home adventure, evaluating websites for Google.
OneSpace, formerly CrowdSource, is another source of remote work.
Does That Help?
That’s a rhetorical question because I know if you want to make money online, these are some great places to start. Even if you are just looking for a side hustle to help pay the rent or buy more groceries, if you apply yourself, you can do it.
There are no affiliate links within this article.
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About Me
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. He is a freelance journalist currently living in the Philippines.
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]
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This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
