how to make free money online 

1 Put up some gigs on fiverr

Fiverr is a freelancing marketplace that used to advertise the majority of tasks for 5-20 for anything from marketing tasks through to relationship advice. You can browse the categories to see what’s on offer before deciding on what you want to advertise. Most of the work is bespoke, but if you want to scale your earnings it’s a good idea to advertise work that you’ve already done, such as creating a guide or ebook that people can buy as a pdf. 

2 Get paid for your music opinions

If you’d like to listen to some new music while you make money, Slice the Pie is a good place to start. You get paid to listen to at least 90 seconds of a track and review it. The pay rates depend on your star rating (which increases with the number of reviews you submit) and the number of words in your review. Unfortunately, your 2 cents aren’t paid much more than that, so it takes a long time to build up enough money to withdraw but it may be one of the more enjoyable activities on this list. 

3 Become a dog walker

Animal lovers can make friends with some new dogs and earn money too. If you’re available during day times, this could be a great option for you. Plenty of people ask dog walkers to come and look after their pooch during the week, which means it’s likely that you could still keep your weekends free. Or you could branch out into pet or even house-sitting for more income options. 

4 Sell your story

If you’ve lived through some unusual experiences, you may be able to make money from your story. Magazines and websites will pay for everything from extreme weight loss through to family drama and first-person accounts of dramatic incidents. 

Options like Real People Mag focus on more extreme events and pay up to £2,000 for featured stories. There are also groups like FeatureMe! on Facebook which feature journalists offering slightly less (typically £100-£500) for smaller features and less shocking stories. 

5 Get paid to solve problems for businesses

Businesses often need outside help solving problems or improving their products, which is where corporate problem solvers come in. Problem solvers need detailed knowledge of their subject and an innovative approach, but can earn 100,000 for their solutions, as well as professional acclaim. You can register with websites like InnoCentive to review current challenges and submit your solutions – the subjects range from medicine through to tech and product design.  

6 Take part in psychological experiments

When you hear ‘psychological experiment’ you may think of things like the Stanford Prison Experiment but tests taking place today are very different to those in the 1970s; you can get paid for anything from taking online questionnaires through to having your eye movements tracked when looking at paintings. Universities typically recruit students but they’re open to non-students as well. You can see Bristol University’s current experiments here – a lot of universities run experiments if they have a psychology faculty, so just check at your local college or university to see if it’s an option. 

If you’re interested in just learning a little more about psychology before diving into an experiment, you can take a range of free psychology courses (including intros aimed at beginners) with FutureLearn. 

7 Change careers 

If you don’t feel the same sort of passion for your work that you used to, or perhaps the industry is not as healthy as it once was, it may be a good idea to consider a career change. 

While changing careers often comes with a drop in pay, you may be able to move to a more lucrative field and regain lost earnings quickly. This may not help to make money immediately, but it could be a long-term investment in your future. 

We have a variety of free courses for people who want to change career. They can help you test out whether that career move is really for you, and get started on your new CV. You can also explore our interactive career mapper, to help set you on the right path.

how to make free money online 

1 Put up some gigs on fiverr

Fiverr is a freelancing marketplace that used to advertise the majority of tasks for 5-20 for anything from marketing tasks through to relationship advice. You can browse the categories to see what’s on offer before deciding on what you want to advertise. Most of the work is bespoke, but if you want to scale your earnings it’s a good idea to advertise work that you’ve already done, such as creating a guide or ebook that people can buy as a pdf. 

2 Get paid for your music opinions

If you’d like to listen to some new music while you make money, Slice the Pie is a good place to start. You get paid to listen to at least 90 seconds of a track and review it. The pay rates depend on your star rating (which increases with the number of reviews you submit) and the number of words in your review. Unfortunately, your 2 cents aren’t paid much more than that, so it takes a long time to build up enough money to withdraw but it may be one of the more enjoyable activities on this list. 

3 Become a dog walker

Animal lovers can make friends with some new dogs and earn money too. If you’re available during day times, this could be a great option for you. Plenty of people ask dog walkers to come and look after their pooch during the week, which means it’s likely that you could still keep your weekends free. Or you could branch out into pet or even house-sitting for more income options. 

4 Sell your story

If you’ve lived through some unusual experiences, you may be able to make money from your story. Magazines and websites will pay for everything from extreme weight loss through to family drama and first-person accounts of dramatic incidents. 

Options like Real People Mag focus on more extreme events and pay up to £2,000 for featured stories. There are also groups like FeatureMe! on Facebook which feature journalists offering slightly less (typically £100-£500) for smaller features and less shocking stories. 

5 Get paid to solve problems for businesses

Businesses often need outside help solving problems or improving their products, which is where corporate problem solvers come in. Problem solvers need detailed knowledge of their subject and an innovative approach, but can earn 100,000 for their solutions, as well as professional acclaim. You can register with websites like InnoCentive to review current challenges and submit your solutions – the subjects range from medicine through to tech and product design.  

6 Take part in psychological experiments

When you hear ‘psychological experiment’ you may think of things like the Stanford Prison Experiment but tests taking place today are very different to those in the 1970s; you can get paid for anything from taking online questionnaires through to having your eye movements tracked when looking at paintings. Universities typically recruit students but they’re open to non-students as well. You can see Bristol University’s current experiments here – a lot of universities run experiments if they have a psychology faculty, so just check at your local college or university to see if it’s an option. 

If you’re interested in just learning a little more about psychology before diving into an experiment, you can take a range of free psychology courses (including intros aimed at beginners) with FutureLearn. 

7 Change careers 

If you don’t feel the same sort of passion for your work that you used to, or perhaps the industry is not as healthy as it once was, it may be a good idea to consider a career change. 

While changing careers often comes with a drop in pay, you may be able to move to a more lucrative field and regain lost earnings quickly. This may not help to make money immediately, but it could be a long-term investment in your future. 

We have a variety of free courses for people who want to change career. They can help you test out whether that career move is really for you, and get started on your new CV. You can also explore our interactive career mapper, to help set you on the right path.

1. No-risk matched betting

1

Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law). Lots of students have genuinely made £100s from this technique. It's completely legal, risk free, tax free, and anyone over 18 in the UK can do it (Not in UK? Skip to no. 2).

It works by taking advantage of free bets regularly offered by betting sites through 'matching' them at a betting exchange. Matched betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both for and against a certain outcome).

This leaves you being able to squeeze out the free bet, which can be as much as £100. Multiply this by how many betting sites there are and you can quite easily come away with a profit of a few hundred pounds.

Owen walks you through how to make your first £13 profit (using a real life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £40/hr sitting at home, please let us know!

2 Online surveys

2

An increasingly popular way for students to make money is to fill out online surveys in their spare time. Research companies are always recruiting new members worldwide to answer surveys and test new products.

For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a couple of quid which is paid as cash or rewards. You can bag up to £3 ($5) for some surveys!

A few good ones to try are: Toluna, Branded Surveys, LifePoints, InboxPounds, Onepoll, i-Say, Opinion Outpost, Populus Live, YouGov, Pinecone, Valued Opinions, The Opinion Panel, Prizerebel, Marketagent, Mingle, Opinion Bureau, SurveyBods, Panel Base, Survey Junkie.

Also sign up for Swagbucks which rewards you for surveys as well as simply surfing the web, watching videos and playing games.

Update: See our new full guide to the best paid online surveys!

3. Paid for searching the web

Interested in earning cash for doing what you already do online? This has to be one of the easiest methods of making money online without really any effort or change in your behaviour.

This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you for searching in Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. You just install a simple add-on to your browser and when you conduct a search there may be a few sponsored results alongside your normal search.

qmee paid search

Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached - if you are interested in it simply click on it and collect your reward.

The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout - our first one was just 72p wired to our Paypal account. You also have the option to donate it to charity.

Sign up now for free and start earning from your own searches! Click here to start.

4. Online market trading

Whilst this isn't necessarily an easy way to make money, investing in stock markets can be lucrative if you learn to do it properly and safely. By the same token, you may suffer significant losses if you don't take it seriously.

Today there is no need to fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.

Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I've been experimenting with the popular platform eToro.com.

eToro has over 12 millions users worldwide and offers free practice accounts. It has been featured in the BBC 2 documentary "Traders: Millions by the Minute" and sponsors several Premier League football clubs.

etoro trading

One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.

Follow George's complete guide to trading on eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the learning curve by trying out a few different markets. If nothing else you'll learn a great deal about various investments and industries.

Please be aware that all trading involves risk. eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers real asset ownership and high risk leveraged 'CFD' products. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. This content is not financial or investment advice.

5. Start your own website

5

Interested in generating passive income? You need a website. It's THE way to make money while you sleep.

Starting a website with Bluehost takes less than 20 minutes, costs hardly anything and can be done by an 82 year-old. It only takes a bit of plugging on social media to get your first visitors, and there are plenty of ways to monetise your site.

Save the Student is just one example of a successful website, started at university by Owen Burek in his first year, which has since grown into a full-time and sizable enterprise.

Read Owen's step-by-step guide on how to start a website in 20 minutes. It's really one of the best assets you can have.

1. No-risk matched betting

1

Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law). Lots of students have genuinely made £100s from this technique. It's completely legal, risk free, tax free, and anyone over 18 in the UK can do it (Not in UK? Skip to no. 2).

It works by taking advantage of free bets regularly offered by betting sites through 'matching' them at a betting exchange. Matched betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both for and against a certain outcome).

This leaves you being able to squeeze out the free bet, which can be as much as £100. Multiply this by how many betting sites there are and you can quite easily come away with a profit of a few hundred pounds.

Owen walks you through how to make your first £13 profit (using a real life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £40/hr sitting at home, please let us know!

2 Online surveys

2

An increasingly popular way for students to make money is to fill out online surveys in their spare time. Research companies are always recruiting new members worldwide to answer surveys and test new products.

For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a couple of quid which is paid as cash or rewards. You can bag up to £3 ($5) for some surveys!

A few good ones to try are: Toluna, Branded Surveys, LifePoints, InboxPounds, Onepoll, i-Say, Opinion Outpost, Populus Live, YouGov, Pinecone, Valued Opinions, The Opinion Panel, Prizerebel, Marketagent, Mingle, Opinion Bureau, SurveyBods, Panel Base, Survey Junkie.

Also sign up for Swagbucks which rewards you for surveys as well as simply surfing the web, watching videos and playing games.

Update: See our new full guide to the best paid online surveys!

3. Paid for searching the web

Interested in earning cash for doing what you already do online? This has to be one of the easiest methods of making money online without really any effort or change in your behaviour.

This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you for searching in Google, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay. You just install a simple add-on to your browser and when you conduct a search there may be a few sponsored results alongside your normal search.

qmee paid search

Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached - if you are interested in it simply click on it and collect your reward.

The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout - our first one was just 72p wired to our Paypal account. You also have the option to donate it to charity.

Sign up now for free and start earning from your own searches! Click here to start.

4. Online market trading

Whilst this isn't necessarily an easy way to make money, investing in stock markets can be lucrative if you learn to do it properly and safely. By the same token, you may suffer significant losses if you don't take it seriously.

Today there is no need to fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.

Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I've been experimenting with the popular platform eToro.com.

eToro has over 12 millions users worldwide and offers free practice accounts. It has been featured in the BBC 2 documentary "Traders: Millions by the Minute" and sponsors several Premier League football clubs.

etoro trading

One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.

Follow George's complete guide to trading on eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the learning curve by trying out a few different markets. If nothing else you'll learn a great deal about various investments and industries.

Please be aware that all trading involves risk. eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers real asset ownership and high risk leveraged 'CFD' products. 67% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. This content is not financial or investment advice.

5. Start your own website

5

Interested in generating passive income? You need a website. It's THE way to make money while you sleep.

Starting a website with Bluehost takes less than 20 minutes, costs hardly anything and can be done by an 82 year-old. It only takes a bit of plugging on social media to get your first visitors, and there are plenty of ways to monetise your site.

Save the Student is just one example of a successful website, started at university by Owen Burek in his first year, which has since grown into a full-time and sizable enterprise.

Read Owen's step-by-step guide on how to start a website in 20 minutes. It's really one of the best assets you can have.