Frugal Finance

How to Make Money Online – 10 LEGIT Ways to Make Money Online

Learning how to make money online can allow you to make a little extra cash for something special you want or it can allow you to make a regular income depending on how much time you want to spend on it.

When it comes to figuring out how to make money online, one issue is that there are A LOT of scams out there. There are also a lot of “opportunities” toted as ways to make money online that take SO much effort for VERY little reward. And, I would not even consider some of them to be legit ways to make money online.

Despite the possible scams or massive time sinks, you will be happy to know that there are MULTIPLE, LEGIT ways to make money online.

REAL MONEY!

Of course, how much you make is going to be directly related to how much time you want to spend working. But the awesome thing about these realistic ways to make money online is that they are not the same as committing to a “regular” job with full-time, set hours. These legit ways to earn money online can be done on your own time and at the level of commitment you want to put in.

Here are 10 LEGIT ways to make money online:

1) Blogging

Blogging is one of the fantastic and realistic ways to make money online. Making money blogging does not happen overnight, so if you are looking to just make a few extra dollars for one month, this probably isn’t the best way to make money for you.

However, if you trying to figure out how to make money online regularly, then blogging is one of the top things you should consider.

It does take some time and effort to get started. But as long as you put in the work, you will make some money.

I HIGHLY recommend checking out Make Money Blogging at ANY Level if you want to get serious about making money blogging. Once I implemented all of the tips in this eBook, my blogging income increased ten-fold!

Blogging is one of the main ways to make money online that I personally use.

2) Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of the pretty cool ways to make money online. You aren’t going to pay all of your bills with Swagbucks, but you can realistically earn a little extra money each month without too much extra effort.

With Swagbucks you can earn SB’s for your normal online searches. You can also earn SB’s for tasks like taking surveys or watching videos.

Once you have enough SB’s earned, you can redeem them for gift cards to all kinds of different stores.

When I was a full-time student, I use to earn enough SB gift cards each month to pay for all of our regularly purchased Amazon items. It was a really nice way to cut a little out of the budget.

So, if you are looking for realistic ways to make money online for a little extra spending cash, Swagbucks is a good place to start.

3) Amazon

So, you have probably been to Amazon and seen all the items available for sale. Some are big name brands, but others are not. Many of those small brands are run by people just like YOU!

This is called selling on Amazon FBA and it is one of the legit ways to earn money online. Essentially, Amazon is like Google, a huge search site. So, if you get your products listed for sale there, you don’t have to do much marketing/advertising.

And, using Fulfillment by Amazon means that you aren’t having to manage your inventory and mail each package out yourself either!

So, essentially, selling on Amazon is a way to make money online in an almost entirely passive way!

To source your products, you can either resell – buy products at local stores etc at a cheaper price than they go for on Amazon. Or, you can dive in and do private-label products.

Which essentially means you source to a manufacturer and they make products with your private label/brand name on it! For more on Amazon FBA, check out this guide.

4) Surveys

If you’re trying to figure out how to make money online and just want a little extra cash coming in, you should check out the option of paid surveys.

This is another avenue that I used to use when I was a full-time student looking for a little break on the budget each month.

Two of the most popular paid survey sites to earn money online with are Opinion Outpost & Inbox Dollars. You definitely aren’t going to get rich quick filling out paid surveys. However, it is one of the realistic ways to make money online if you are looking for a little padding in your budget.

5) eBay

If you want to find out how to make money online that could range from extra cash to replacing your regular job, then think about selling on eBay.

Selling on eBay is similar to selling on Amazon, but it is not quite as automated as you will be managing your listing, inventory and shipping products. However, it is still one of the legit ways to make money online.

6) Online Store

Running your online store is one of the realistic ways to make money online. There are a lot of ways to set-up an online store.

You can run it on sites like Etsy or Shopify. You can set it up on your own hosted website and add a store through plug-ins like WooCommerce. Or you can simply use payment processing like PayPal buttons on your website pages.

I run an online store to sell the day old chicks that we hatch on our farm and we make about $500 profit per month selling the chicks! Not too shabby, right?

having adorable “products” is just a bonus

If you are going to have your online store on your own site, you need to make sure that you have reliable hosting. Because, if your site goes down you can’t make any sales! I love our host, Siteground as it is the MOST reliable host I have used!

If you are going to run your own store, all you need is a product really. This can be most anything you can think of: homemade items, reselling or repurposing items you buy/find. Really the sky (and your imagination are the limit!

Get your store set up and and start making money online!

7) T-shirts

I have to admit, I have tried figuring out how to make money online buy selling T-shirts and I am not a t-shirt selling master. However, I know some people who make WAY more than a decent monthly income just selling t-shirts.

There are many ways to sell t-shirts online. My favorite two sites are: Sunfrog & Merch by Amazon. I love Sunfrog because I don’t HAVE to design my own shirts.

You can make collections of already designed shirts and just use referral links to sell them. I’ve had some success with this, but have not mastered the sales funnel system yet.

I think that the people who do BEST selling t-shirts are those that actually do the designing. You can design your own shirts on both Sunfrog and Merch by Amazon.

With Merch by Amazon, if you get a good design and the right keywords, your shirts will pop up on Amazon when people search for products. This means YOU don’t have to market the shirts on your own which is gold!

So, if you are artistic, or even just good at marketing this is one of the realistic ways to make money online that you might want to try!

8) Fiverr

Fiverr is of of the great ways to make money online especially if you are a creative person. Basically, Fiverr is a site people go to “hire” people to perform tasks for them for $5. Although not everything is $5 there.

These things can range from making a drawing or logo/design, writing a song to performing some type of work – like researching contact information or performing social media tasks.

So, if you have any particular skill, you might want to make a listing on Fiverr as a way to drum up some business and cash!

9) Sell Textbooks/books/DVDs etc

If you are looking to figure out how to make money online and you have old or unwanted books, textbooks or DVDs around, you can sell them as a way to make money online. There are lots of sites like Decluttr where you can list your items for sale.

Obviously, this is one of the ways to make money online that is just a one-time deal. But is great for getting your house cleaned up AND making a little cash on the side!

10) Upwork

Upwork, formerly called oDesk is a really awesome site! On upwork you make a profile which will serve essentially as your resume. You can even take skills tests to show perspective employers that you have the right skills for them!

Fill out your profile and you can start looking at jobs. Jobs on upwork range from one time tasks with a set budget (ie: $20 to fill out a spreadsheet) to part time weekly hours to full time regular positions.

Upwork is one of the realistic ways to make money online that can provide you with a full time income if that is what you are looking for.

There are a TON of different jobs available from bookkeeping to project managers to creative writing to voiceover work.

One thing to be aware of on Upwork is that it is an international site. Therefore, some of the jobs may not pay enough to make it worth your time.

However, there are A LOT that do. I used upwork to find jobs that fit my schedule while I was in school. And of course, it is all making money ONLINE, so you don’t have to commute to work or anything.

Now that you know HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE, which ways will you try?

For More Frugal Finance, Check These Out!

Coupon Stockpile – What is it, Why & When You Should do it?

By MrAnimal Farm Leave a Comment

A coupon stockpile is, perhaps, one of the BEST things I have in my home. (With exception of my animals and husband, of course 😉 )

First, before we talk about all the goodness of a coupon stockpile, let’s talk about what a coupon stockpile actually is! Essentially, a coupon stockpile is when you buy a LOT of each item when they are on sale so that you have enough of each item to last a long time.

Need to REALLY learn how to coupon? The Couponing for Beginners Planner can take you from couponing newbie to experienced couponer with easy to follow steps, checklists and worksheets!

Why You Should Create A Coupon Stockpile

Creating a coupon stockpile allows you to buy items when they are at rock bottom prices. The goal is to buy enough of each item to last you until they go on another banging sale.

Of course, you want to be SURE you are getting the best price possible. If you stock-up on an item at just an OK price, while you still may be saving money, are you not maximizing your savings – which is the main purpose of having a couponing stockpile.

Another benefit to creating a couponing stockpile is that you aren’t likely to run out of things you need and use regularly. This is particularly awesome because it ends up not only saving money, but also saving time.

Not having to run to the store to buy toothpaste when you realize you are out, it really cuts down on the additional “quick trips” that can really add up.

Figuring out how to stockpile with coupons is relatively easy.

You will want to know what YOUR rock bottom price on an item is. Here are some general guidelines on stock-up prices. But keep in mind that if you have a favorite brand or if you like or need certain things that are pricier, you may have a different “stock-up” price.

Once you know what your rock bottom price for stocking-up is, then you will want to be on the lookout for a sale that meets that price.

There are some items that you can almost always have in your coupon stockpile such as: Toiletries (toothpaste, toilet paper etc), pasta, canned goods. These goods either do not expire or have a long shelf life – so you can buy A LOT when they are at your rock bottom price.

So, while we are calling this a coupon stockpile, if you garden you can also stockpile food for super cheap. Growing your own food is most times much cheaper than buying it in the store. Grow enough for a whole year and then you won’t have to buy that item at the store!

We like to freeze most things to preserve them and have worked on freezing peppers, freezing spaghetti squash, freezing sweet potatoes and much more!

Another thing to know when figuring out how to stockpile with coupons is how quickly you use an item.

For example, if you go through one tube of toothpaste every 3 months then you only want to buy enough toothpaste to last until the expiration date on the tubes. If you buy more than you will use before the item expires, you ultimately end up wasting money – this is NOT what we want to do!

cabinet with lots of pasta and peanut butter

We arrange our stockpile left to right, front to back, oldest to newest. That way we never end up with anything being forgotten.

If you know you will fly through an item and it has either no expiration date or one that is very far out, the best way to decide how much of the item to stock-up on is by seeing how much room you have in your monthly budget. Don’t go over your budget and get into a financial hole just to stock-up.

(If you don’t have control over your budget yet, check out these budget tracking spreadsheets for all the help you need to set a stable, manageable budget!)

Managing Your Coupon Stockpile

So, once you have 20 tubes of toothpaste in your closet, you want to make sure they don’t go to waste! We have a few systems in place to help us manage our coupon stockpile. And if you are making a stockpile you should think about using these (or making your own).

First, we have a master spreadsheet that shows everything in our stockpile. It includes how many of each item, how long it takes us to use them and then auto-calculates how long we have stocked up for. This way we know when we are starting to get low on an item, we can start shopping for sales on that item to get stocked back up.

Or, if we have plenty of an item, we know we don’t need to purchase anymore or it may go unused – which ultimately is like wasting money instead of saving it!

Our second system for managing our coupon stockpile is to store everything in an organized manner. Like items all go together and they go in order of expiration date. This does sometimes mean a little time and work when re-stocking the stockpile. You may have to pull items out and check expiration dates etc.

However, it also means that the toothpaste that you bought 6 months ago doesn’t end up at the back of the pile and always get new toothpaste piled in front of it. It is a real bummer when you end up with expired products in your coupon stockpile!

What will you be putting in your coupon stockpile?!

For more Frugal Finance, Check These Out:

Couponing Tips for Beginners – How to Get Started Couponing

By MrAnimal Farm 6 Comments

My first couponing excursion was a true mess. I was so excited to start couponing. I had done DAYS worth of research on all the “hot deals”. I thought I was all ready to jump right in and well, I DID jump right in – head first, without looking. I think we ALL know how those situations end up, right? In all my research I hadn’t looked at any couponing tips for beginners.

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The Complete List of Coupon Terminology – Learn Couponing Lingo

By MrAnimal Farm Leave a Comment

Couponing is a fantastic way to save money. However, learning how to start couponing can be a little overwhelming. I like to think I am a pretty quick learner most of the time, but I will readily admit, when I started couponing looking at all of the coupon terminology was WAY over my head.

Let’s be honest, it is kind of like reading and learning a foreign language.

I mean, c’mon – SS, RP, MQ, BOGO – coupon terminology reads like some secret code of abbreviations that you need a super secret decoder ring to understand….

Where to Find Coupons – 4 Main Coupon Sources

By MrAnimal Farm Leave a Comment

So, you have decided that you want to start couponing but, you aren’t sure where to find coupons. It may seem overwhelming, believe me, I understand!

When I first started couponing and had to learn all of the couponing terminology, all of the different store rules and everything else involved with couponing it seemed like I may never master it all!

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How to Start Saving Money – 5 Easy Tips!

By MrAnimal Farm Leave a Comment

I don’t think anyone would disagree that saving money is a GOOD idea. However, many people feel like the can NOT save money. Afterall, if you are in debt or living paycheck to paycheck where are you going to get even more money to put into savings? The fact is once you actually LEARN how to start saving money you will find that it is not as impossible as you may think it is.

When my husband and I first started dating, we were living paycheck to paycheck even though we were already living frugally. We desperately wanted to move to a different state, but moving is super expensive. …

Frugal Finance

How to Make Money Online – 10 LEGIT Ways to Make Money Online