Are you looking for how to make money online without paying anything? You can never be in a better place.
Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a student, with only your PC and internet connection, you can do many things online to make a living without any upfront investment.
Let me guess. This isn’t the first article you’ll read on ways to make money online for free.
You might have even tried some, only to get halfway, and there’s a fee to pay.
Don’t worry. In this article, we’ll show you 5 legitimate ways to make money online without spending a single dime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Make money online without paying anything?
Of course, you can make money online without paying anything. The only requirement is to have a skill people are willing to pay for.
You don’t need any specific educational qualification or a degree. With the right skill set and guidance, you can start working online from the comfort of your home.
What is the Best Website to Earn Money?
The best website to make money online depends on what service or skill you want to offer.
Fiverr, Upwork, Peopleperhour, and other freelancing platforms are great websites to earn money if you want to work as a freelancer.
If you are considering selling photos online, Shutterstock, Gettyimages, and Adobestock will be the best websites for making money.
What You’ll Need to Make Money Online Without Paying Anything
There are general and specific requirements to make money online.
The general requirements are what everyone who wants to make money online will need, while the specific ones will depend on the money-making path you choose.
We’ll list the general ones here. The specific ones will be listed under each skill in the coming sections.
Your Computer: Your PC is the number one tool you need to make money online.
Get yourself a PC with specifications that matches the type of online job you’ll be doing.
For instance, if you are going into writing, any system with a decent specification is okay.
But if you are looking at photography or video editing, you need a PC to play the big memory game.
A Stable Internet Connection: As the name implies, working online, your internet connection must be reliable, stable, and fast, as you’ll be working and interacting with clients or employers virtually.
An epileptic connection can cause you jobs and money.
A Valuable Skill: YES. You can make money online without a skill. But to be honest, venturing online to make money without a skill will earn you peanuts.
We are talking about life-sustaining money here.
Menial tasks like taking surveys and watching videos will only waste your time and earn you a few bucks.
If you are interested in making a living out of your online job, you’ll have to learn at least one on-demand valuable skill.
Become a virtual Assistant:
A virtual assistant is the online version of a business assistant, personal assistant, or office assistant.
Working as a virtual assistant is a great way to make money online without spending a dime.
As the business world becomes digital-first and the number of internet entrepreneurs increases, the demand for virtual assistants is on the rise.
Business owners can’t do it themselves.
They need someone to answer their calls, reply to their emails, manage their social accounts, do their data entry chores, and take care of their schedule.
There’s a seemingly unending need for virtual assistants.
If you pride yourself on being an organized and good time manager, becoming a virtual assistant can be your best opportunity to earn online.
There are two ways to go about becoming a virtual assistant.
You can work as a virtual assistant with a company and get paid per hour.
Or go the freelance way, where you can work with multiple clients at a time and set your rates.
What You’ll Need to Become a Virtual Assistant
If you have a knack for administrative tasks, becoming a virtual assistant will be a fun-filled career path for you as you’ll leverage the skills you already have.
Here are some skills you must possess to excel as a virtual assistant;
- Administrative skills
- Good written and oral communication skills
- Great Time Management
- Great research skills
Don’t fret if you lack in any of them. They are all learnable.
You can visit any of the best online learning platforms to hone your skill.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Virtual Assistant?
The amount of money you earn as a virtual assistant depends on 4 factors;
- The skills you possess,
- A job requirement,
- Your own experience and
- The path of virtual assistant you take.
If you decide to work as a freelance virtual assistant where you can set your rate, you’ll earn thousands of dollars per month, but you’ll be looking for clients on your own.
Working for a virtual assistant company will save you the stress of client-hunting. But the pay is low compared to being your own boss.
Virtual assistants earn between $15-50 per hour, depending on their skills. According to indeed.com, a VA makes an average of $19.36 per hour.
Become a Freelancer
Freelance writer, freelance videographer, freelance copywriter, freelance transcriptionist. freelance this, freelance that. You can start freelancing with any soft skill.
If you have a specific skill or are willing to learn one, you can become a freelancer and make money from it without paying anything.
Freelance writing is one of the best options to look at.
If you have your way with words and can adapt to different writing tones, niches, and voices, becoming a freelance writer will be your easiest path to making money online. You do what you love, and you get paid for it.
As tons of companies now consider hiring freelancers as a way of cutting operational costs.
They are always on these platforms looking for the best freelance talent to work with.
Becoming a freelancer is easy nowadays, regardless of the skills you want to sell.
There are many freelance platforms where you can set up your profile for free and attract potential clients.
The good thing about these platforms is that you can work with as many clients as possible.
Fiverr and Upwork are the two world-leading freelance platforms where companies go to hire talents.
What You’ll Need to Become a Freelancer
- A Skill to Freelance: Freelancing is all about skills. What skill do you want to freelance with, writing, video editing, WordPress, SEO, or social media management?
- A Freelance Platform: Setting up a profile on a freelancing platform is the easiest way to get started.
- Applying for Freelance Roles: If you want to be proactive with your freelance career, you can apply for freelance positions on job boards like Indeed and other remote job websites.
- Client Outreach: Social Media and email outreach are other great ways to get freelance clients. If you can show clients the value you can bring to their business, they’ll work with you.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Freelancer?
It all depends on the skill you are selling. According to Upwork, freelance writers and editors earn $30-40 per hour with an average annual salary of $42,000.
Freelance graphic designers’ hourly rate is between $40-45, while transcriptionists earn around 20-25 per hour. You can visit this page to learn more.
Start a Blog
Blogging is lucrative. If you are passionate about writing and sharing your thoughts, experience, and expertise with people, you should give blogging a go.
You don’t need to be a tech guru before making money as a blogger.
So long as you can write content your readers love and generate quality traffic to your site, you can employ several strategies to monetize a blog. We list some below.
There’s more to blogging than we can highlight here. Want to know more about starting a blog? Check out our comprehensive guide.
What You’ll Need to Start Blogging and Make Money from Your Blog
- A Blogging Platform: You might wonder if It’s possible to start a blog without paying a penny. Of course, it is. You only need a blogging platform; there are many you can start with for free. WordPress.com, blogspsot.com, and Silverstripe.com are 3 blogging platforms with a free forever plan.
- A Monetization Strategy: There are several monetization strategies to make money from your blog. Here are some of the most common ones.
- Affiliate and CPA Promotions: Promote affiliate products and services relevant to your blogging niche.
- Google Adsense: Apply for Google Adsense and earn money per click on ads shown on your blog.
- Sponsored Ads: Sell Ad space on your website to companies in your niche that have your blog readers as their ideal customers.
- Product Sales: If you have your own products, you can sell them to your blog audience. Ebooks, courses, etc.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Blogger?
Blogging is a game of numbers and consistency.
The amount of money you make depends on your blog’s traffic and the monetization strategy you employ. And don’t limit yourself. You can use all the monetization methods above.
As a new blogger, you can make around $1,000 -2000 per month from your blog.
But established blog owners earn between $45,000- $100,000 per year.
You need to be aware that blogging is a long play. You won’t start seeing results immediately.
But, with consistency, your blogging effort will pay off.
Start a YouTube Channel:
Starting a YouTube channel is another way to make money online without paying anything.
Once you can produce and present content in a captivating style with your smartphone or PC camera, you are ready to go.
As the internet grows audio-visual and over 80% of internet traffic now comes from video, there’s no better time to become a video content creator.
To accelerate the growth of your YouTube channel, you must invest time and effort in creating your content.
What matters the most is how much value you give your viewers.
You can follow this guide on selecting the best niche for YouTube. Down with that? Set up your YouTube and start shooting.
What You’ll Need to Start and Make Money on YouTube
- Your Content Plan: To become a successful YouTuber, you must ensure your content is well-planned. A knee-jerk approach can only last you a few weeks or months. But for the Longevity that YouTube success demands, only a solid video content plan can keep you in business.
- Video Content Creation Tools: Your phone or laptop’s built-in camera and microphones will get you started. But as you go, invest your first earnings from YouTube in a decent streaming camera and microphone. And when you make more money, consider setting up your own YouTube studio.
- Video Editing Software: Find free video-editing software to enhance your video’s quality. Use them.
- Monetize YouTube: Below are some YouTube monetization strategies;
- YouTube Partner Program: Once your channel reaches 1000 subscribers, you can earn YouTube Ad revenue.
- Affiliate Marketing: Promote other people’s products or services and share affiliate links in your video description.
- Sponsored Content: Brands pay you to recommend their product and services to your audience.
- Product Sales: Have a digital product you want to sell? Your YouTube subscribers are the best set of potential buyers.
How Much Money Can You Make as a YouTuber?
If you join the Youtube Partner program, you’ll make money per 1,000 views.
For every 1,000 ad views, you can make up to $18 per 1,000 views.
To make $1800 per month, you’ll need 10,000 views per month which is easy depending on the number of published videos you have.
The more video you have, the better your earning potential.
You can also earn from affiliate promotions. You earn a commission every time a viewer purchases via your referral link.
Sell Photos Online
With a steady hand and a decent phone camera, selling digital photos can pump your bank account.
If you consider yourself a creative photographer and have the talent to make scroll-stopping images, you can sell photos online and make money without paying anything.
You get paid every time someone downloads your photo.
While there are several ways to turn your great shot-taking skill into cash, selling your work as stock images on third-party platforms like Shutterstock, AdobeStock, and iStockphoto is the one way that doesn’t take a dime out of your purse.
What You’ll Need to Sell Photos Online and Make Money
- A Camera: Your phone camera can get you started. You may need to upgrade when you start making money.
- Photo Editing Software: Find a free decent photo editing software to fine-tune your shots before uploading them.
- A Stock Photography Platform: You’ll need to register on a stock photo website and get approval before uploading photos.
How Much Money Can You Make Selling Photos Online?
On average, stock photographers earn around 0.25 – 0.45 per image sale on stock websites. Royalty-free images make between $0.10 – $99.50.
The amount you make depends on the royalty rate of the platform you use. And as well the number of photos you can sell.
These platforms’ algorithm works best for consistent contributors.
Before you can earn dependable income from selling stock photography, you’ll need up to 200,000 uploaded images. So, keep Shooting.
More Helpful Make Money Online Tutorials:
- How to Make Money Blogging: Making money from a blog is not hard. You just haven’t found the right information and guidance. Check this out.
- How to Make Money With ClickBank: The beginner’s walkthrough to making money with ClickBank, from setting up a ClickBank account to finding the best affiliate partners.
- How to Buy Digital Real Estate: In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to acquire digital real estate for a low price and sell them at a high price.
Wrapping up
Now you have it! 5 ways to make money online without paying anything that you can start immediately.
While they all require no payment to start, none is a get-rich-quick scheme. You should be willing and ready to put in your time and effort. Are you?
Which of the options are you considering? Share your thought with us in the comment section below.