With so many internet get-rich-quick schemes, it’s hard to believe you can make money online, let alone without investing anything. In the past three years, I’ve tried a variety of things to make money online, and to be honest, the majority of them were a waste of time. For this reason, I’d like to share with you 19 legit ways to earn money online without investment.
Are you wondering if I’ll really show you how to earn money without investment? That’s right! But let me be clear: these are not get-rich-quick schemes. You must put in some effort to succeed in any of the methods I will share with you. Yes, there are easy ways that require almost zero work, but you should expect to make very little money with them. I’ll also be sharing ways that can yield huge returns if you’re willing to work hard.
Let me not bore you with a long introduction; instead, let’s start right away.
19 Ways to earn money without investment
This list has something for everyone who wants to learn how to earn money from home without investment. Whether you are a student, teenager, stay-at-home spouse, or laterally anyone looking for means to make money online, you’re in the right place. Find something that interests you and get to work.
1. Take paid surveys
Income potential: $20-60 per month
Difficult level: Low
There are several websites that pay people to share their opinions. It’s simple and straightforward; simply sign up to a survey site and fill out your profile; then you will be able to take part in surveys that match your profile information.
Taking online surveys allow people to earn money without investment; all you have to do is spend a few minutes answering surveys to get paid. Surveys are usually about topics that you are already familiar with, so you do not need to do any research before taking one. Another significant benefit is that you can take surveys almost anywhere and at any time. You can take surveys while waiting in line or on the bus.
The main disadvantage of taking surveys is that the earning potential is significantly low, and it can be hard to qualify for surveys at times.
There are several survey sites that pay people to take online surveys, but not all of them are trustworthy. Here are a few survey sites that I’ve tried and found to be legitimate: InboxDollars, Survey Junkie, and Swagbucks. Check out the reviews of Survey Junkie and ClearVoice Surveys to see if surveys are worthwhile.
2. Complete micro jobs
Income potential: $60-150 per month
Difficult level: Medium
Do you know you can make money online by doing simple tasks such as downloading an app, leaving a comment on a video/blog post, categorizing information, filling out a form, taking a poll, tagging objects, and so on? There are many websites that pay people to do such simple tasks. This is an easy way to earn money online because you do not need to apply or be interviewed to do micro jobs.
Here are legitimate sites that pay people to do micro jobs:
The majority of the tasks on these sites are simple to complete and typically take less than five minutes. The only disadvantage is that the work is tedious, and you must complete several tasks to make money because the pay per task is usually very low.
3. Watch videos
Income potential: $10- 40 per month
Difficult level: Low
You might think it’s too good to be true, but it’s true: you can make money online by watching videos. In fact, Yahoo Finance lists 10 legitimate ways to earn money online by watching videos. To be honest, while it is true that you can make money by watching videos online, you will not make much.
This is an easy way to earn money without investment, all you need is to spend a few minutes watching videos or ads and then you get paid. There are a number of GPT sites that pay people to watch videos. Here are a few; InboxDollars, Adwallet, iRazoo, and Viggle.
4. Solve captchas
Income potential: $5- 15 per month
Difficult level: medium
You can earn money without investment by simply solving captchas. It’s a simple process, but it’s exhausting because you’ll have to answer at least a thousand captchas to make a dollar.
Captchas are simple to solve; it just takes time to make a dollar. The withdrawal limits on captcha-solving websites are as low as 50 cents, which is the main advantage; you can withdraw your money as soon as your balance reaches 50 cents.
There are several sites that pay people to solve captchas, but I’ve only used one, and it works very well. I worked on 2Captcha for about 3 months, solving captchas and getting paid for each one. You can try it out by clicking the banner below.
5. Get paid to receive SMS
Income potential: $1- 5 per month
Difficult level: No work
I couldn’t believe it when I first heard that people make money online by simply receiving SMS messages on their phones. So I decided to give it a shot; I downloaded about five mobile apps that promise to pay people to receive SMS’. After two months, I made about $22 from three of the five mobile apps.
Here are the two apps that made the most money:
MCMoney is a mobile app that allows users to earn money by simply receiving texts on their phones. All you have to do is install the mobile app. Then register and verify your phone number. That’s it; you’ll get paid each time you get a text message. I’ve received payments from MCMoney on multiple occasions, and my current balance is shown below. Earn more money when you join MCMoney using this referral code: 4XRUQRAT
SMS Profit is probably the best app to help you earn money without investment. All you have to do is download the app and sign up with our phone number. SMS profit pays well; you can earn up to $5 per month using the app, but it only works while you are connected to the internet.
So, if you’ve been wondering whether you can make money by receiving SMS messages? Yes, you can. You will make very little money, but that’s fine because you don’t have to do anything; all you have to do is download and install the mobile app on your phone.
6. Earn money without investment via cashback
Income potential: $0- $100’s per year
Difficult level: No work
Let me ask you a question: how many times do you go shopping in a year? Is it 20, 30, or 50 times? Wouldn’t it be great if you could save money every time you bought something?
This is not necessarily a way of making money online because all your earnings are tied to your spending. However, if you enjoy shopping, this will help you save some money.
How to earn cashback
There are numerous ways to earn cashback, some of which can earn you up to 40%.
First, see if your debit/credit/prepaid card provider offers cashback. Earning cashback from your card provider is simple; all you need to do is make payments with your card. If your card company does not provide cashback, consider switching to one that does.
Consider joining shopping portals. You can earn cashback by simply shopping through a shopping portal. You can join a variety of shopping portals; most airlines and hotels have their own shopping portals.
Sign up to cashback websites and use them every time you want to buy something online. Here are the top three cashback websites: TopCashback, Befrugal, and Rakuten.
Check out this Business Insider article to learn more about cashback and shopping portals.
7. Teach English online
Income potential: $150- $3000 per month
Difficult level: Medium
Teaching languages like English to others online is a great way to supplement your income. There are numerous opportunities for English native speakers to make money online teaching English. There are even apps that pay you just to interact with people in English. If you want to teach English online, check out VIPKid, Preply, Qkids, and Cambly.
8. Offer consultation services
Income potential: $100- $1000’s per month
Difficult level: High
Do you have any specific skills or knowledge? Whatever skill or knowledge you possess, there are people willing to pay to learn from you or help solve their problems. You can provide consultation services on almost any topic; here are a few examples:
- Legal consultation
- IT/Tech consultation
- Financial consultation
- Construction consultation
- Marketing consultation
- Business consultation
- Internet and social medial consultation
- Writing consultation
- Photography consultation
Finding clients is the most difficult aspect of starting a consulting business. To find clients, you must first make people aware of what you do, only then will it be possible to get clients. Creating content for the internet is the best way to make yourself known to potential clients. You will come across people who want to dive deep but require guidance, those are your potential clients. Start by offering your service at a lower price; once you’ve received some reviews, you can raise your prices.
9. Become a virtual assistant
Income potential: $10-25 per hour
Difficult level: Medium
Are you good at organizing things? Consider becoming a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants can manage their clients’ work from almost anywhere. As a virtual assistant, you will be responsible for a wide range of tasks, almost anything that helps your employer’s operations run smoothly. As a virtual assistant, you should expect to:
- Organize documents
- Prepare reports
- Manage social media profiles
- Manage appointments
- Provide customer support
- Conduct research
- Make travel arrangements
How to become a virtual assistant
To become a virtual assistant, you must first choose an area of focus and then learn what it takes to manage work in that field. You can find jobs by reaching out to potential clients on social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn. You can also find jobs by searching for them online. Websites like indeed can help you find open positions for virtual assistants.
10. Earn money without investment by testing websites
Income potential: $100-300 per month
Difficult level: Medium
You can start earning money online without spending a single penny by testing websites and mobile applications. How does this work? You may be wondering. Many businesses and website owners want to improve the performance of their sites. This is significant because a good user experience means more leads for businesses.
The tests take about 20 minutes to complete on average. The tests involve recording your screen while using a website or mobile app and then providing feedback on what needs to be improved on the site. You must express clearly what you like and dislike about the website.
To begin testing websites as a side hustle, sign up as a user tester on one of the usability testing platforms. Here are some websites that hire user testers; Usertesting, Userlytics, TryMyUI and Userfeel.
11. Design & sell T-shirts; Earn money without investment
Income potential: $4-15 per T-shirt
Difficult level: Medium
Teespring and Spreadshirt allow you to design and sell t-shirts without having to handle the actual t-shirt. These websites allow you to create designs that can be printed on t-shirts, hoodies, mag cups, and other items. You can then use these sites to set up an online store where you can sell all of your designs. You earn money when someone buys one of your designs. When one of your designs is sold, you can expect to earn between $4 and $20 on average.
The only challenge is that you must promote your designs and store in order to make sales. If your designs are good enough and people like them, you can make a lot of money without doing a lot of marketing.
12. Create & sell e-books
Income potential: $500+ monthly
Difficult level: High
An ebook is simply a written collection of information and resources on a particular topic. The great thing about ebooks is that anyone can create one. You can write an ebook on almost any topic, but make sure there is a demand for the topic you want to write about.
Ebooks are digital products that can be sold repeatedly, so if you write an ebook on a less competitive and in-demand topic, you can be making money for years to come.
Marketing is another important aspect of making money with ebooks. You can write the best ebook in the world, but unless you promote it, you will not make any money. Here is a comprehensive guide to creating and selling ebooks.
13. Create & sell digital products
Income potential: $100-1000’s per month
Difficult level: Medium
Having a digital product is more like owning a house that you can sell over and over. Unlike physical products, digital products are created once and then sold repeatedly. There is no limit to how many times you can sell a digital product.
Digital products are typically made up of downloadable or streamable content. There are many different types of digital products, but the most common are ebooks, online courses, and templates. Here is the ultimate guide to creating and selling digital products.
14. Sell your unused items; Earn money without investment
Income potential: Depends on you
Difficult level: low
Today, thanks to the advancement of the internet, we can sell almost anything online. So, if you’re thinking about getting rid of things you don’t use, why not make a few extra dollars by selling them online? There are numerous online marketplaces where you can sell your unwanted items for free. If you have items lying around and want to make some money, here are some websites where you can sell them:
- Amazon
- eBay
- Craiglist
- Facebook Marketplace
- Swappa
15. Do Affiliate marketing
Income potential: $100-1000’s per month
Difficult level: Medium
Affiliate marketing is simply promoting other people’s products or services in order to earn money in the form of commission. You can begin by promoting products you already use to others; you earn money when they purchase the product using your affiliate link. You can also promote products you have never used before and still make money, but make sure you are not promoting fraudulent products.
Affiliate marketing has the potential to make you life-changing money, but the only problem is that it’s hard to generate traffic to affiliate links. So, if you have an online audience, affiliate marketing will benefit you greatly. If you don’t have a following, you can still do affiliate marketing, but you’ll have to put in some effort in marketing the products. The video below will walk you through how to promote affiliate links without an audience.
16. Start a YouTube channel
Income potential: $100-1000’s per month
Difficult level: High
I’m sure you’ve heard of famous YouTubers like MrBeast and Paul Logan, and you may believe that they’re the only people who make money on YouTube, but that’s not the case. Even small YouTubers with less than 1000 subscribers can make money from YouTube. For example, this small content creator with less than 10,000 subscribers earns close to $1000 per month.
If you want to find out how much any content creator makes on YouTube, search for their name on Social Blade.
YouTube presents several opportunities for content creators to make money online.
Firstly, you can earn money by joining the YouTube partner program. To be eligible for the partner program, you must have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time in the past 12 months. When you join the YouTube partner program, you will be able to earn money from the advertisements that YouTube places on your videos. You can expect to earn between $4 and $7 per 1000 views.
Another great way to make money on YouTube is through affiliate marketing. YouTube can generate affiliate revenue even if you have no subscribers. You must first build trust with your audience to make affiliate revenue on YouTube.
Making sponsored videos is another great way to earn money on YouTube. Simply put, this is where companies approach you, or you reach out to them to mention their products in your videos or review their products and then get paid.
You can certainly earn money without investment on YouTube; if you’re interested, watch the video below to learn how to get started.
17. Make money from social media
Income potential: $100-1000’s per month
Difficult level: Medium
On average, everyone spends about 2 and a half hours a day on social media. With so many people spending so much time on social, there is definitely money to be made on social media.
If you have a following on any of the social media platforms, there are plenty of opportunities for you to make money. You can make money by posting sponsored content. On average, you can charge around $10 per post for 1000, $100 for 10,000 and $1000 for 100k followers. You can also make money through affiliate marketing or even sell your own products to your audience. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook are some of the social media platforms that are great for making money online. Check out this Shopify guide on making money via social media.
18. Transcription jobs
Income potential: $100-1500 per month
Difficult level: Medium
Transcription is simply the process of converting spoken words into written text. Because there are so many content creators creating audio and video content on the internet, there is a high demand for transcribers.
Transcribers are typically compensated per audio minute converted to text. They typically earn between 25 cents and $1.75 per minute transcribed. As a result, the amount of money you will earn from transcribing will be determined by the number of minutes you transcribe. The pay varies from one transcription company to the other. Here are some transcription companies to consider:
- Rev
- TranscribeMe
- Scribie
- GMR Transcription
Interested in transcription jobs? Check out our guide on how to become a transcriptionist.
19. Offer your services on Fiver
Income potential: $100-1000’s per month
Difficult level: Varies
Fiverr, as well as other freelancing platforms such as Upwork, PeoplePerHour, and Freelancer enable people to earn money without investment by offering their services on these platforms. On these platforms, you can offer almost any service and make money.
To get started, consider what you are good at and what someone will pay you for, it can be anything. For example, if you’re good at video editing, start offering video editing services on Fiverr and other freelancing websites.
Depending on your skill level, you can charge anywhere from $5 to $1,000 for your services. Here are some Fiverr services you can offer to make money online:
- Graphic & Design
- Digital Marketing
- Writing and translation
- Web development
- Virtual assistance
- Video editing
- Voice over
- Photoshop
- Business/Financial consulting
Once you’ve decided on a service to offer, sign up to Fiverr and start creating gigs that showcase your abilities. Though you can provide services on almost any topic, you will find success faster if you offer services on a less competitive and in-demand topic.
How to earn money without investment: Final Thoughts
Nothing is more appealing than being able to cover all of your expenses without difficulty. It’s hard to achieve this level of financial freedom while working a 9-to-5 job. However, the internet allows anyone to earn money from the comfort of their own homes. This is the ultimate guide on how to earn money without investing anything.
The list above includes things you can do quickly that require almost no work and things that can generate a lot of money but require hard work and commitment. Choose one or two based on your skill level and start implementing. Check out our article on how to make online for students; it’s also jam-packed with useful information.
