What's a semi-easy way to earn money online?
August 19, 2010 5:52 PM

What's a semi-easy way to earn money online?

I want to make about $250 online just to see if I can do it, and how quickly I can achieve it - it's simply a test. If I can make this by doing online "work", it'll be great. The thing is that I'm not sure what sites are my best bet for earning a profit.

Any recommendations?

I don't have many special skills, but I'm a semi-decent writer. I'm also an advanced Photoshop user who's good with computers. However, I don't know code. I'm mostly good at troubleshooting both hardware and software-related problems.

I was thinking of starting up a photo restoration/enhancement service, but I'm no longer sure if it will suffice; time will tell. I may eventually have the courage to start up a service to see how things go, but I'm not quite as hopeful as I was initially. It sounds like I may need to acquire a license before being able to do such a thing.

Anyway, thanks. I await your responses.

P.S. - I used "semi-easy" in the title of this question since there's no such thing as a get-rich-fast online job.
posted by GlassHeart to Work & Money (12 answers total) 55 users marked this as a favorite
Mechanical Turk
posted by phrontist at 5:52 PM on August 19, 2010


This reddit thread has a whole lot of recommendations.
posted by twirlypen at 5:57 PM on August 19, 2010


You have photshop skills?

People upload a photo of their choice to a site- you touch up based on instructions - within reason - and chargeable

Email photo to an artist in China, you get a canvass back

Google paint my photo

I have a friend doing this, and it's making money. He uses his photoshop skills as a differentiator
posted by the noob at 6:23 PM on August 19, 2010


This question is as generic as "what's a semi easy way to make money offline". Anything you can do in the real world you can do online. Think of a business. Now do it online.

There is no "easy way" to make money anywhere. That's how the system works.
posted by lakerk at 6:35 PM on August 19, 2010


This question is as generic as "what's a semi easy way to make money offline". Anything you can do in the real world you can do online. Think of a business. Now do it online.

I was mostly looking for website recommendations. Sure, I could use Google for hours upon hours trying to compile a list of sites to try to generate an income from, but very few sites aren't gimmicky.
posted by GlassHeart at 6:42 PM on August 19, 2010


This reddit thread has a whole lot of recommendations.

Thanks for posting this. Great list!
posted by GlassHeart at 6:43 PM on August 19, 2010


The reddit list includes GlobalTestMarket which conducts online surveys. They're easy - all that is required is some time and your opinion. It takes a while but when you accumulate enough points, they send you a cheque for $50. I think I've probably had 3 or 4 cheques so they are legit.
posted by nelvana at 6:59 PM on August 19, 2010


Many reviews here don't seem to be too happy with Global Test Market. Here's a list of other survey places.
posted by barnone at 7:29 PM on August 19, 2010


Sell something for $250+fees on eBay. Done and done.

In all seriousness, I've been trying to make a living online for a couple years now. I have one affiliate site that makes me around $200-$300/mo now (used to make close to a grand/mo at its peak) and I'm working on some other affiliate things, but its not easy.

I'm fortunate in that I get to do manage online advertising with multimillion dollar budgets for my day job so I get to see what works and what doesn't, but its a lot harder than you'd think to apply that knowledge to your own thing online.

Best thing I can recommend if you want to make a living online? Make something to sell or source something to sell and start doing that. You think you're creative? Prove it. And then sell that creativity.
posted by Elminster24 at 8:25 PM on August 19, 2010


Start up a website where you promise people that they can make money on the internet by doing nothing, and just by asking them to send you money.

It will work. Not kidding. Perhaps not quickly. Promotion is important.
posted by ovvl at 9:24 PM on August 19, 2010


If you're semidecent at writing, textbroker.com should work.
posted by kylej at 9:34 PM on August 19, 2010


Buy things, sell them on eBay, and be willing to take a loss now and again.

Otherwise, it's really difficult to start with "I want to make money online" and be successful, instead of running into scams. Mechanical Turk is very legitimate... but you're looking at between one and two dollars per hour in pay, so you're going to spend over a month working full time to make that $250.
posted by talldean at 2:04 PM on August 23, 2010


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