How To Make Legit Money Online (Fast, Free, & Fun)

So you want to make money online? Good for you!  There are many ways to make it happen, and some are even fast, free, and fun.
But before we get into all that, we need to talk about an ugly truth that may seem obvious.  It is easy to overlook this seemingly apparent factoid when we are looking for ways to earn some income online.   Many choose to glaze over this truth, or ignore it altogether, and do so at their own peril.
It is simply this:
Making money in anything takes work. The Interwebz is no exception.
Do you work hard at your job?  I hope so.   Because to succeed in working from home, you’ll need to work just as hard for yourself as you have for any employer, and maybe even harder at the beginning.  The rewards are more than worth it, but it does take sweat equity…especially if you’re doing it on the cheap.
I’m going to give you some of the best ways to get started in making money online.  One thing that I want you to keep in mind is that making money online from home is not a fallacy or a myth.  Real people do it every day.  I’ve been making a killing online for a long time.   It’s a TON of fun, it’s interesting, and it doesn’t take technical genius to figure it out.  It does take some perseverance, a positive attitude, and some focus.
Also, keep in mind that this post is to help someone get started making money online.  Not everyone is going to make seven figures online, or even wants to.  I do, and it takes a helluva lotta work to do it.  It doesn’t take near as much to make an extra $500 – $1k per week consistently, and the ideas I’m going to give you are designed to help you get up to that level.
Let me first clarify the options you have to make money online.  There are only three:
1. Sell your stuff
2. Sell other people’s stuff
3. Sell the traffic for advertising
That’s it. There are several different specific strategies that you can use to make money, but those strategies will always boil down to using one of these three core methods.   As you review the following ideas, keep in mind that they all fall under one of these three headings – selling your stuff, other people’s stuff, or advertising.  (The MOST profitable peeps online use all three, but I suggest you start with one to get some profit coming in).
Overview
Amazon Mechanical Turk (or “MTurk”) is a place where you can get employment for carrying out a variety of online tasks.   It could be as easy as making comments on a blog post – we do that on this blog ;) ) Or it could be creating image tags on a website.  Employers will publish “HITS”, which are just job tasks, and how much they are willing to pay, and you select the tasks that you want to complete.  Typically, the pay is lowish.  You will not get rich on MTurk.  But it takes minutes to set up an account, it’s easy, easy work, and you get paid quickly.
Pros:
  • Free
  • Easy
  • Fast
Cons:
  • Can be monotonous
  • Lowish pay
Links: www.mturk.com
Overview
Google AdSense is a way for you to receive advertising revenue on a website.  You get paid when people visit  our website, and click on the Google ads on the site.  Ever see these when you visit a website?
adsense example
Those little “Ads by Google” are Adsense ads.  Basically, you insert a snippet of code on your web page, and Google will deliver “relevant” (term used very loosely) advertising on your website.  When someone clicks on an ad, you split the money with Google.
Setting up a Google AdSense account is free.  If you’re doing this on a shoestring budget, you can get a free website with Weebly.  You can also set up a free blog with Blogger.  Either way, you get a site, you stick AdSense code on it, and you’re ready to make money.
Pros:
  • Easy to start
  • Free to start
  • Pay is only dependent on how much traffic you buy
Cons:
  • You must drive traffic to your site if you want anyone to click, and that may take some time if you’re using free traffic strategies.
  • You must place the ads on your site to get the maximum number of clicks.  Read this for more on Adsense placement.
Hint: DO NOT CLICK ON YOUR OWN ADS…EVER.  If you do, you will lose your account.  Not that I would know personally…but you know, I’ve had friends that it’s happened to.
Links:  Google AdSense
3. Create Websites For People
Overview
Seriously, it’s not that hard.  If you use Weebly, you don’t even really have to know anything about HTML.  You just have to know how to drag stuff into a box, and write words in it.  Easy.
If you wanna get fancy be charging several thousand of dollars for custom graphics, custom copy, etc, then you need to have some skillz working with code.  But if you’re just throwing together a site for your friend for $100, you don’t even need to know anything about websites…you just need to know how to mess with Weebly, and even then you can mostly suck and still pull off a decent job.
Pros:
  • Starts out easy (if you want) – can get as complex as you want
  • Huge profit potential (some pro’s charge $10,000 per website)
  • Fast (how long does it take to throw a Weebly site together?…)
Cons:
  • Can be complicated work (ranges from mildly technical to “OMG, someone get Steve on the horn!)
  • Can encounter complicated clients (read this to see how a web design goes bad).
But once you run out of friends, who can you sell websites to?  Gr8 question!  Check out the next way to make moola online.
Links:  Weebly.com
4. Become A Freelancer
Overview
Everybody has expertise in SOMETHING.  Can your expertise, knowledge, or skills be delivered by the phone or the Internet?   Then there are probably people out there looking to outsource those skills.  Want them to outsource it to you?  Check out Elance.com and Odesk.com.  These places are the mecca for all things outsourcing.  You can do work all sorts of work there (like designing websites!)  Or writing articles.  Or a cacophony of other tasks.  It works kinda like Ebay, but in reverse.   Someone needs a job done, workers bid on it, and the work provider selects the worker they want to complete the task.  Pretty simple.
Pros:
  • Access zillions of work providers
  • Get paid fast (after the job is done)
  • Difficult to get scammed, as Elance/Odesk play referee
Cons:
  • You may find a loony for a work provider (it can happen)
  • Will have to build up your reputation to get credibility on the websites…similar to Ebay user feedback
Links:  Elance.com, Odesk.com
5. Blogging
Overview
Blogging in of itself is not usually a profitable venture.  But if you write about interesting stuff, you will get traffic, and if you have traffic, there is always opportunity to make money.  Remember the three profit strategies that we talked about at the beginning of this post?  Well, there are three ways to make money with a blog:
1. Sell advertising space on your blog
2. Sell your own products that relate to your blog
3. Sell other people’s products that relate to your blog
There are other ways to make money with a blog, and I’ll talk about those in a minute.  Let’s lay some groundwork first:
A blog is simply a place where you can write about stuff (whatever you want), and other people can comment.  That’s it.
You can get a free blog at WordPress, Blogger, or Weebly.   The process works like this:
  1. Choose a market (or a niche, or a vertical…whatever you wanna call it, they’re all synonyms).
  2. Create a blog
  3. Start writing stuff people want to read in that market!
  4. Repeat step 3 over and over
But how do you know what people want to read about?  Answer: with keywords!
Keywords are simply search terms.  (For a full list of vocab definitions on Intro-net stuff, click here).
So you find out the keywords people are searching for, then write stuff based on that.  It’s really that simple.
You can see what people are searching for using a keyword tool like Wordtracker or the SEO Book (both have paid options…but we like the freebie version just find).
The way WordTracker or SEO Book works is like this:
1. You type in a keyword search phrase
2. They will guesstimate how many people are looking that phrase up each day.
And by guesstimate, I mean they will make up a number out of thin air (kinda like Fractional Reserve Banking).  The point in using the tool is not to get an accurate count of real search volume, but rather getting keyword combo ideas that you wouldn’t normally cook up yourself.
Additionally, I play the “Alphabet game” with Google.   The video quality is less than awesome, but you can watch the tutorial of me demonstrating this here.
So…now you know how to see what people are searching for, and you know how to set up a blog…but HOW DO WE MAKE THE MONEY?
You can just throw up some Google Adsense ads for starters.  Or you can get fancier and sign up for one of the zillions of other advertising networks out there.  THIS is the most comprehensive list I’ve found out there (if you find one better, let me know).
Pros:
  • Fast
  • Easy to start
  • Freeish to start (if you want a self-hosted blog, or a blog that is customized it costs money, otherwise it’s free)
Cons:
  • Must write coherent sentences
  • Must be at least moderately interesting
  • Need a monetization strategy
Then there is affiliate marketing.  Let’s talk about that.
6. Affiliate Marketing
Overview
Affiliate marketing is simply selling other people’s stuff in exchange for commission.  Simple concept, but execution can be more difficult.
The benefits of affiliate marketing are many, but the biggest advantage is that you don’t have create your own product to start making money.  You can sling someone else’s product, and make money with it.
Downside to affiliate marketing is that it can be all kinds of shady.  Merchants (the people that have products to sell) can skim sales, rip clients, or go bust and not pay you.  The other side is that it can be ridiculously profitable, and easy to do.
As an affiliate, you can either sign up directly from a merchant, or you can use a network to act as an intermediary.  We do both.  If you start looking at affiliate marketing, you will most likely find tons of ebooks for sale offering the “secrets” to affiliate marketing.  Before you start spending your hard-earned cash, I suggest you read NickyCakes’sAffiliate Newbie Guide.  It’s the best resource I’ve found thus far for laying the foundation to get started as an affiliate.
Pros:
  • Huge profit potential (full-time affiliates can bank five figures a day)
  • Low barrier of entry (just about anyone can get started quickly)
  • Little-to-zero customer service (although if you are building a list, you’ll want to provide some level of customer service to ensure your people stay happy)
Cons:
  • You can get screwed if you promote a shady offer (this, this, this, and this are all examples)
Bottom line - affiliate marketing can be fantastico if you do it properly.  If you pull stewpid stuff (like sending in false order, making false claims, etc) then you’ll fail.
7. Writing For Others
Overview
We talked about blogging earlier.  Thing is, there are a lot of lazy people that want the benefits of writing content online, but they just don’t want to write.  That means you have a huge opportunity to write stuff for others.
There are several strategies for making that happen.  One is simply publishing articles for others.  You can bank $3 – $10 per article by publishing aritlces for other people on EzineArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com, GoArticles.com, and others.  You can find plenty of people willing to pay for this content on Elance.com or Odesk.com.
You can also write content directly for websites as well.  Associated Content and Helium are two places you can get started writing for websites on specific topics of interest, and they pay on performance – meaning, you are paid for as much and as hard as you’re willing to work.
Then, if you have a blog and you’ve built up a bit of traffic, you can provide reviews for other people’s products or websites on your blog.  Places like ReviewMe, Sponsored Reviews, and LinkWorth will pay you to write these reviews.  All you gotta do is provide relevant content.
You can also write newsletters, reports, and blog content for other people directly.  These types of jobs are all over Elance and ODesk.  Check it out.
Pros:
  • Easy
  • Free
  • Can be lucrative (depends on your writing, scope, etc)
Cons:
  • Can be tedious/boring (depends on what you’re writing about)
  • Must write well (otherwise you’ll be paid peanuts)
Links:  There’s a lot of ‘em above in the article ;)
8. Create Authority Hubs
Overview
An authority hub is just a definitive resource page about a particular topic.  The topic itself doesn’t matter as much as the desire for the information.  But…how do you know what people want?  Check out item # 5 above.  HubPages andSquidoo are two places that allow you to create an authority hub, and use Adsense and affiliate marketing to monetize the hub.  People click on the pretty ads, you get paid.
You can create authority hubs on just about anything you can imagine.  Subjects like:
There all sorts of stuff that people want to know.  I bet you have some weird, random knowledge that others are looking for right now.  Make money with it by putting it on an authority hub.
Pros:
  • Free
  • Easy
  • Payment depends on your efforts (create more hubs = get paid more)
Cons:
  • Can be slow (depends on what your hub is about and how much search volume relates to it)
  • Can be competitive (lotta people are looking to make money free and easy :)
Links:  HubPages, Squidoo
9. Help Unemployed People Find Jobs
Overview
Know anyone who is unemployed?  If not, go knock on some doors – stats show at least 1 out of 10 people are out of work right now.  It’s even higher in Michigan.  Where there is need, there is opportunity.  People need jobs?  Hook ‘em up and help ‘em out!
There are companies that will pay you to refer people seeking jobs to them.  It’s a great way to get into the headhunting…I mean “recruiting”…industry.  Some places that will do this include:
Pros:
  • Fast
  • Free
  • Easy
  • Can be {very} lucrative
Cons:
  • Uh…it’s money for referring your unemployed friends.  I’m not seeing any cons on this one.
Links:  see above.
10.  Submit Stock Photos
Overview
Are you good at taking pictures?  Well, don’t feel bad, neither am I.  But if you want to get good, you can make bank selling your photography to online stock photography websites.
Here’s how it works:
  1. You take a picture, and submit it to a stock photo directory.
  2. They either take it, or tell you to go fish.
  3. If they take it, you get paid every time someone else downloads and uses the picture.
The Rolls Royce of stock photography is (currently) IStockPhoto.  There are others, like Fotolia and Shutterstock.  It’s not a bad way to create some good residual income for yourself.  You take the picture once, and you make money again and again – as many times as people download it.
You may ask yourself “who downloads this stuff?”  People like me.  We use stock photography all the time.  And I can tell you there are NOT enough good pics out there for what we use in our operations.  We need more…so get to work!
Pros:
  • Residual income
  • Can make money doing something you love (if you love photography)
  • Free (unless you don’t have a camera)
  • Easy (if you’re good at taking pictures)
Cons:
  • Can be challenging (if you suck at taking pictures)
  • Takes time (you don’t get much for each picture, so it takes some time to build up a portfolio and build up your income)
  • Can be ego-bruising (if you think you’re a great photographer, you will probably get humbled at some point.  No directory takes all pictures from all photographers all the time)
11.  Start A Forum
Overview
A forum is like a water-cooler for a workplace.  It’s just an area to shoot the breeze, share thoughts on whatever.  Forums are usually themed on a specific subject – green energy, addiction, and landscape architecture are all themes for forums.  Just like we saw with Authority Hubs, the sky is the limit in terms of subjects, and it’s limited only by your creativity.
But how do you make money with a forum?  Remember – you can sell YOUR stuff, you can sell someone else’s stuff, or you can sell advertising.  You can do all three with a forum.  Setup can be free to start if you use Lefora.
Pros:
  • Easy
  • Free
  • Potentially lucrative long-term (a forum can be long-term asset…i.e., it can be sold)
Cons:
  • Can take time to build up membership
  • Can take a lot of work on the front end getting it all sorted
Links:  Lefora
12.  Set Up An Amazon Store
Overview
Rather than ‘splanin it all out, you can check out the blow-by-blow here.
Pros:
  • You partner with a huge name…Amazon.com
  • Can have high profit-potential
Cons:
  • Somewhat technical
  • Regulation danger (some our brain-dead lawmakers are busy passing laws that are getting affiliate accounts shut down.  If you have any interest in making money with Amazon, or affiliate marketing in general, you can read about the dangers of what is happening here, here and here.  If you’d like to write your representative and let them know how much they suck for supporting these anti-constitutional economy-killing laws, it takes less than 30 seconds to do it here – https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
13. Etsy
You might be saying “forget all this computer shtuff!  I wanna work with my HANDS!”
If handmade stuff does it for ya, then you can use Etsy to sell.  It’s the place for all things handmade.  It takes zero HTML knowledge to put a store together quick and easy.
Etsy isn’t a freebie – it costs you $0.20 USD to list an item for sale, they are gonna shave a 3.5% sales fee off the total price.
Pros:
  • Easy
  • Fast
  • Unique (you make stuff with your hands and sell it – things like crafts and physical goods)
Cons:
  • Not totally free
Links:  Etsy.com
14. WAHM
Stands for “Work At Home Mothers”.  Guys, don’t be intimidated, they have job openings and business opportunities for dudes as well :)   They are a clearing-house for work at home jobs and various business opportunities.  Everything from telemarketing to consulting work, programming, proofreading, virtual assistant positions, customer service jobs, claims adjusting, public relations, ap development, blogging, speechwriting…if it can be done remotely, chances are they have a job opening here.
What I like about WAHM is the quality – they don’t allow scammer fake-work-at-home  jobs to get listed.  They are human, and I’m sure a slippery punk could get through their screening process, but they take quality control seriously, and do a pretty good job with it.
Pros:
  • Free
  • Fast
  • Easy Or Difficult (Depends on the type of work you want)
  • Potentially lucrative (again – depends on the type of work you want.  Don’t expect to get rich proofreading.  Sales jobs will most likely pay the best)
Cons:
  • Potential risk of getting hosed if you run across a scammer (the flag is if they ask YOU to pay THEM to work.  Legit employers will never ask you to send them money to get set up – they may hold back earnings, or ask you to have a headset or equipment to start the job, but will never ask for cold hard cash).
So you can make money with any or all of these strategies. There are many more that are a combination of the above, so don’t limit yourself here.  Creativity rules, and the sky is the limit.
I also wanted to include a quick note about about some very easy ways to lose money trying to make money online.  These all suck big-time.  I can’t cover all of the various creative ways people have invented to lose money trying to make money, but here are a few to keep in mind.
Easy Ways To Lose Money:  Fast, Not-Free, And Definitely NOT Fun
1. Stuffing Envelopes
I’m not going to say that every envelope-stuffing job is a joke…but…well…ok, every envelope stuffing job is a joke. I have NO idea why there is so much desire for this type of work, as it appears to be the most boring job on the planet, comparable to getting paid to lick salt cubes for a living.  I mean, who says they want to grow up and stuff envelopes?  Regardless, there is a lot of demand for this type of work {just check the keyword search volume}, and several scamsters have cashed in by promising to provide “work at home jobs” stuffing envelopes and offering exactly nothing in return.
There are some BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES for stuffing envelopes that may work (emphasis on the word “may“).  But they are NOT JOBS.  These are direct-mail businesses, and they can provide legitimate services.  But if you think you can sit on your couch chomping potato chips in your underoos, making “$2, $5, even $1,000,000  for every envelope you stuff!”...then let me pour an ice cold bucket of reality over your head and be the first to tell you that it ain’t gonna happen.
2. Data Entry From Home
Again, I’m not going to say that every data-entry gig is a joke…ah damn, well actually they are all a joke. You may be able to find a company where you work some of the time on premises and some of the time at home, but most (like 99.9%) of all the data-entry “jobs” are bogus. Again, I have no idea why people seek out this type of work, aswatching paint dry would be more exciting than entering data into some random database while getting a monitor tan all day.
Plus, it begs the question – if you’re willing to enter data for someone else, how about just writing articles for other people, or writing blog-posts for yourself?  It’s 5% more effort for 1,000,000% more pay, and it’s 1,000,000,000,000% more interesting.
Project Payday has become a prolific online ripoff.  It basically teaches you to sign up for risk-free trials from companies, and then cancel them after banking a commission through an affiliate link.  It’s a rip on the merchants that provide offers on CPA affiliate networks.  It’s not direct-fraud, but it’s implicitly fraudulent, as the technique is the equivalent to throwing a financial Chinese finger trap on a legitimate company offering.  The motivation to get the product offered on the free trial rests solely in getting the commission money from an affiliate for the free product, not to actually TRY the product itself.  There are many terms used to describe this process, but I think the most accurate two are “lying” and “theft”.
This kind of crappola perpetuates fraud in the industry, and encourages an adversarial relationship between merchants and affiliates.  Affiliates can forget that without merchants, there’s not much to sell.  Similar strategy to eating your own hand if you get hungry.
I think it’s a great way to create even more  problems in an industry that is already plagued with fraud.  You may be able to score a couple hundred bucks ripping off companies with not-real orders, as there’s always a way to scam the system.  But it takes ten times more effort to scam people and companies out of their money than it does to simply provide something of real value and sell it.
What goes around comes around.  You hose people, you’re gonna get hosed sooner or later.  ‘Nuther way to say it isyou reap what you sow, so keep that in mind when you’re makin’ your monies.
That’s all I gots. Go make some monies!!!
>>>EDITORS UPDATE<<<
Found a killer list of revenue sharing websites.  Basically allows you to monetize your content in whatever form you have it – text, audio, video, picture, whatevs.  All you basically have to do is create good, targeted content, and the website doing the rev-shares takes care of the rest.
You can get the full list here.  Now go make them monies!

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