Skills and expertise are what allow us to make a living. Whether you are a Lawyer, Doctor, Mechanic, Construction worker, or even a Blogger, you are using your skills and knowledge to perform your duties and earn a paycheck.
But what if you wanted to earn some side income without the use of any particular skill?
The good news is that there are some very easy and fun ways you can earn a little extra cash online by doing what you already do online and without any skill, all thanks to the opportunities made possible by the internet.
From searching,
watching videos, and playing games to taking surveys, there are tons of options. There are even sites that give you cash back at places you already shop. These sites allow anyone to earn extra cash while watching the kids, flipping through commercials, or doing homework.
Here’s a short list to help you get started:
1. UpromiseThis is perfect for new moms, or parents who are trying to save for their children’s college fund!
You
can earn cash back through over 850 popular online shopping partners,
and then the money generated is deposited into a college savings
service!
You can earn 5-10% cash back by shopping with
Sears,
Groupon,
Staples,
Macy’s, and more! Up to 8% can be earned at over 10,000 participating
restaurants. You can even earn 5% cash back when booking travel through
an approved sponsor!
They also offer the Upromise
MasterCard,
which gives you an extra 5% cash back at online shops, restaurants, and
approved travel agencies plus an extra 2% on department store purchases
and up to 1% on everything else!
College is expensive, but with
Upromise you can put money away for a college fund while shopping at all your favorite online retailers.
2. UserTestingWhat could be easier than visiting a website and then telling the site owner what you think of their site!
And
the amazing part is that the site owner will pay you for it! They do
this so they can test the functionality and user friendliness of their
website.
UserTesting.com
is a site where websites owners and everyday people, like you and I,
are brought together to help each other. The site owners get his/her
site tested by real people, and you get paid for doing what you already
do dozens of times every day.
How much money can you make, you ask?
Different user testing sites has varying rates, but
UserTesting.com pays a flat rate of $10 for every site you test.
The pay differs from site to site, but Usertesting pays $10 flat for every site review you.
3. Bing RewardsYou search online, don’t you? We all do. Perhaps even multiple times a day.
Well now, you can earn a free gift card once in a while just for doing that!
Sign
up with
BingRewards for free, then search as you normally would. For
every search you perform, you earn a certain number of points. Once you
have enough points, you can redeem for gift cards, meal discounts, and
even airline points.
I’d venture to say an average searcher could easily earn an extra $100 a year using BingRewards.
4. Book ScouterHere’s one perfect for students or avid readers.
Book Scouter is a website that allows you to sell your used books and textbooks to the highest paying site. Simply enter the ISBN number of any book and you’ll instantly be shown a list of different prices from about 40 book buyback sites. Choose the one that pays the most and sell your book to them.
Textbooks and school related books often cost a ton of money and you only use them a couple times in your entire life! Why not sell them to pad your pocket a little bit?
While there are tons of website available to sell used books, personally I think Book Scouter is the best. All you have to do is locate the ISBN number of the book, and the website will search over 40 different buyer sites to locate the ones that will pay the best price for your used book.
Minimal work with maximum results.
5. EbatesYou might have seen this one on a TV commercial. It is slowly becoming the biggest cash back site. Basically you earn a certain percentage cash back if you shop through them.
They have almost any online store you can think of. From
Amazon and
Walmart to
BestBuy,
Target, and much more.
So if you shop online, I think it’d be crazy not to use a cash back shopping site like
Ebates. It’s like getting free money for buying something you were going to buy anyway.
Don’t forget to check out their Double Store for double cashback on purchases made through qualifying stores.
6. FatWalletFatWallet is one of the oldest cashback sites offering some of the highest cashback percentages on some of thee store.
For example, you can earn up to 4% cash back for shopping through eBay, up to 6% through
Groupon, or even as much as 27% through Angie’s List.
7. Mr. RebatesAnother cashback site. This one gives you $5 just for signing up, which is free of course.
They have a low $10 minim threshold for cashing out. Thy send you a check every time you hit that $10 mark.
You can also refer your friends and family to the site and earn from their earnings as well. You get 20% of your referral’s earnings.
8. IbottaNot all purchases are made at department stores or auction sites. In fact the majority of our sopping is related to food and grocery items.
This is where Ibotta shines; it gives you cashback for your everyday shopping, like when you buy eggs or bread.
Not to mention it gives you $5 for every friend you refer to the site who redeems any rebate.
9. Gomez PEERThis one is as easy as it gets, although some of us may take issue with the privacy situation.
Here is how it works; you install their app on your computer, and you are done!
It basically leverages your system’s idle resources (such as unused processing power, RAM, and bandwidth) to test the performance of many of the world’s most popular websites.
What’s in it for you?
For every month you keep the app installed, you earn cash which is paid to you via
PayPal. And just how much you earn depends on how much idle resources were used from your PC.
It’s not much money, probably a few dollars a month or even less. But then again, you are not really doing anything. You are just letting them use your PC’s unused resources.
As you can see, it doesn’t take any special skill or know-how to make some side money with these sites. Sure, none of these are going to help you quit your day job, but they allow you to earn a few extra dollars mostly for things that you already do online.
And best of all, none of these money making options require any special skills!