Moneyfilter: How can i earn a little money on the internet?

October 30, 2007 3:27 AM

I'm a student looking to earn a bit of money on the internet. I feel that i have enough spare time and that i could use it productively.

I'm thinking of things like for example doing surveys for 5 dollars an hour and the sort.
Something i can do as a 16 year old without qualifications (one year till i graduate in germany)

posted by freddymetz to work & money (19 comments total)

Why not look into working as an intern at firm that specializes in something in which you might major? It'll look great on your college applications and resume, and it will give you real-world experience in your career.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:31 AM on October 30, 2007

*at a firm or a company that specializes*
posted by fandango_matt at 3:32 AM on October 30, 2007

i have my major subjects (english and music) but i have no idea if i'm going to pursue them after i finish school..
also there arent many companies involving music.
posted by freddymetz at 3:45 AM on October 30, 2007

When I was your age, I apprenticed to an architect who let me help him with basic drafting and rendering, making blueprints, and model building. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had, and I look back on that experience fondly.

Surely there's a orchestra or a recording studio in your city that might have some sort of internship program, or might need someone just to help out. Ask your teachers--they'll know of something interesting. At your age, there's no reason to waste your time and talent doing something mindlessly boring when you can do something you love and get real-world experience at the same time.
posted by fandango_matt at 4:10 AM on October 30, 2007

I doubt you'll find a good answer to this, since if anyone does give you a good answer, about 100,000 people are going to try to sign up for it immediately and then the answer won't be good anymore. I personally know dozens of unemployed Germans with masters' degrees who have exactly your question. One friend of mine is correcting PISA tests, another is categorizing questions for some question forum, and both got the work through random personal connections.
posted by creasy boy at 4:11 AM on October 30, 2007

Buy things from thrift stores and sell them on eBay for a profit - you'll soon know what makes money and what doesn't.
posted by fire&wings at 4:30 AM on October 30, 2007

seconding fire&wings. Set up your own small ebay venture - you'll earn much more than $5 per hour if you are savvy enough
posted by twistedonion at 4:35 AM on October 30, 2007

1. Make a niché blog about something you love.
2. Post original and interesting posts everyday.
3. Wait 1 or 2 years.
4. ???????? Be lucky.
5. Profit!
posted by Memo at 5:52 AM on October 30, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

PayPerPost.com is decent. Your blog has to be around for sometime (a month?) before they will work with you.
posted by JPowers at 6:28 AM on October 30, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Similar to Memo's plan, but a little quicker to make money.

Find something you can become an expert in. Maybe it's cell phones or ipods or Honda Accord's, or whatever.

Find something related to your "expert" field to sell. Maybe it's cell phone unlocking, ipod accessories, Honda Accord key blanks?

Start posting free help on forums for people using your expertise and be sure to always post the link to your website where you are selling stuff.

My experience with this is not exactly "above the board"... this was back in the days when you could hack Directv easily to get all the channels (and Directv wasn't busting people...yet). Anyway, I learned as much as I could and started selling parts people used to hack Directv. I posted on usenet mostly and some forums, and very quickly I was selling 10-20 units a month at a $30+ profit per unit. I shut it down later for the obvious reasons but my business was growing very quickly.

Basically I used a paypal store site and answered questions on the forums and the orders came in.

Recently I bought some Audi remote key things for $65 each on ebay. Could you go to junkyards or wherever and buy something like that? Then do the research calling dealers and google-ing for how to program them? Figure out how to clean them, which model car they work with, put in new batteries and profit? Post on car forums by searching for people who needs keys, remotes or need to know how to program them.

There are a lot of things like that you could make a killing on in my opinion.
posted by thilmony at 6:40 AM on October 30, 2007

There's MTurk.com.
posted by schroedinger at 7:08 AM on October 30, 2007

Shoot, just noticed you're 16--MTurk is for 18 and older.
posted by schroedinger at 7:19 AM on October 30, 2007

Also, MTurk consumes tremendous amounts of time for very little profit (unless you happen to live somewhere where a few USD is a substantial amount of money). It's a clever idea, but not a great way to earn money.
posted by musicinmybrain at 8:35 AM on October 30, 2007

Associatedcontent.com - basically, slap together some 500 word Reader's Digest / USA Today / Cracked.com crappy "content" to in 15 minutes, get paid a few bucks + a residual per page view. It's mind-numbingly idiotic, but I put up a few things out of curiousity and actually got like $15.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:10 AM on October 30, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Keep an eye on the 'writing/editing' jobs/gigs on Craigslist. If you can write (error-free) with reasonable speed, you can make a very respectable per-hour wage churning out "content."
posted by kmennie at 9:34 AM on October 30, 2007

http://www.google.com/local/referral

Google Local Business Referral program pays you $10 for walking into a shop, talking with the owner, taking a picture of the storefront and posting the details online. Don't know if you have to be 18. The catch is that you get $2.00 when the listing is approved by Google and the other $8.00 when it's verified by the business owner.

If you could do 4-5 an hour, that's a pretty decent salary!
posted by cdmwebs at 11:01 AM on October 30, 2007

Google local business referral is only available in the united states ):
posted by freddymetz at 11:23 AM on October 30, 2007

PayPerPost is deceptive and awful. Don't do it. Start a blog about subjects you enjoy and write honestly about the subject. Throw some google ads on there and have fun with it, eventually a few bucks will start trickling in.
posted by mathowie at 11:32 AM on October 30, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Check out the forums on anything4free.com - I recommend doing some referrals for cash, and if you get into it, you can complete some sites of your own. Voila!
posted by streetdreams at 12:30 PM on October 31, 2007