6 Ways to Make Money Online
This piece was written by the Cracked Shop to tell you about products that are being sold there.
Especially with the onset of Web3, it feels like "innovation" these days loosely translates to "found another way to rip people off online." While you should obviously be wary of particular schemes and security risks online, there are plenty of ways to make a little money on the internet. We're here to point you in the right direction.
Work More
We know, we know -- duh. Nothing is more American than 45% of the population having jobs in addition to their jobs so they can make enough money to survive in this plutocratic hellscape, but at least it's relatively easy to find a side hustle these days. The gig economy is stronger than ever, in large part because so many individuals and companies are too cheap to hire people for real jobs, so it's a self-sustaining cycle of people prostrating themselves on the altar of low, low prices.
Don't Miss
Seriously, though, if you have any skills at all, you can probably find somebody willing to pay you to help them out. Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com help writers, programmers, designers, marketers, and just about anyone else find some extra work. If you know another language, you could use sites like Gengo or One Hour Translation to earn some extra freelance income, too.
Do Odd Jobs
Remember when you were a kid, shoveling the neighbor's driveway or chopping firewood for arcade money? The internet is sort of like a giant pile of uncut wood. For instance, sites like UserTesting.com will pay you to test websites and apps. You'll have to get approved by taking a short test, but then they'll pay you to test an app or site and record your opinions about the experience. Plus, they'll give you a pay bump if you participate in a video conversation with a customer after your test.
Alternatively, consider Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Amazon uses a ton of automation, but they still need a human touch for a lot of these systems. Working through the Mechanical Turk, you'll be enlisted to do more tedious tasks like tagging images, transcribing videos, or classifying receipts. They could take a few minutes, they could take a few hours — you should negotiate rates and expectations upfront.
Sell Your Stuff Online
Yes, you can treat the internet like a giant front yard, posting your old stuff on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, eBay, and the like, but you can also treat it like a giant outdoor market full of dirty tents in a mall parking lot. You can make a pretty great living selling your art, embroidery, pottery, jewelry, woodworking, etc., provided you’re actually good (or impressively bad) at it. Thanks to marketplaces like Etsy and Shopify, it's easier than ever to turn your creativity into an extra income. Even sites like Fine Art America could pay you for the photography you think is just okay.
Sell Your Talent Online
Just like you can sell physical goods, you can get people to pay to watch you do stuff online, and you don’t even necessarily have to get naked. For some reason, people enjoy watching other people play games, so Twitch has become an incredible resource for gamers to earn a great living by simply recording themselves while they do what they’d be doing anyway. YouTube channels are also pretty easy to monetize, even if the platform has become famous for ripping off creators. They’re better for building up a following so you can get those sweet, sweet Patreon bucks.
All The Passive Income
So what do you do if you don’t actually have any talent? First of all, stop being so hard on yourself. You’re probably good at something, even if it’s gross (hey, that could be even more lucrative). If you’re truly just a happy himbo, however, you can still make money. There are so many ways to generate passive income online that it'll make your empty head spin, but it’s not easy, so check out the Online Passive Income in 2022 Bundle. This 11-course bundle will teach you how to set up a dropshipping and private labeling empire so you can sell branded products online without ever having to hold any inventory. You’ll also learn how to earn passive income on social networks like Facebook and YouTube, explore Google AdSense arbitrage, and much more.
Fight the Capitalist System
We know we made fun of it, but Web3 is actually an intriguing money-making frontier. It’s a dangerous one riddled with scams, but you can buy, sell, and rent digital property, create virtual experiences, open a virtual store, make money by advertising other peoples' stores, and so much more. You can even join a metaverse project like Axie Infinity or The Sandbox to find projects, all of which are connected by that project's cryptocurrency. Crypto is volatile, no doubt, but there's little sign that the blockchain and the flurry of gold rushes it has set off are going anywhere soon.
Prices subject to change.