What's the easiest way to make money online?

1.

No-risk matched betting

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 can do it.

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 £200! 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 £15 profit (using a real life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £30/hr sitting at home, please let us know!

2.

Online surveys

Credit: Julio Marquez – http://Flickr.com
 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 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, Vivatic, OnePoll, MySurvey, SurveyBods,Valued Opinions, The Opinion Panel, YouGov, PopulusLive, Global Test Market,Pinecone, IPSOS, Hiving, PanelBase, MintVine, Opinion Outpost, Mingle, Harris Poll, Mind Mover, New Vista, iPoll.

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 behavior.

This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you for searching in Google, Bing or Yahoo. 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.

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

The historically hard-to-break world of investing in stock markets and currencies has been cracked wide open. Today there is no need to be a fat cat or fund the yachts ofWolf 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 two biggest platforms: Plus500 and eToro - The Social Trading & Investment Network.

Both offer free practice accounts, and Plus500 also give you a free £20(without depositing, terms apply) for their CFD service which is worth taking up. Overall I prefer eToro with over 4.5 million users worldwide. It was recently featured in theBBC 2 documentary “Traders: Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.

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.

Disclaimer: CFD trading can be volatile and you can lose your entire capital, so don’t throw your life savings into it! Trading CFDs may not be suitable for you. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.

5.

Review websites & apps for cash

Well it seems like you’re pretty nifty with a web browser, so perhaps it’s time to turn pro and browse websites as a paid and fun job!

Introducing User Experience Research Platform – a new platform that pays everyday people to review all kinds of websites. Each review takes around 20 minutes and bags you $10 (£6.50) via Paypal.

Simply sign up here, complete a test review and look forward to receiving websites in your inbox.

6.

The ‘Disney Vault’ secret

To keep demand high across generations, Disney Studios carefully restrict the supply of some home release classics. They are locked away in the ‘vault’ for 8-10 years before being released for a short unspecified time.

Buy them in this window at normal retail price and you can turn a nice profit when they go off sale for another decade or so.

For example, in 2011 you could buy Beauty and the Beast on Blu-ray 3D for just £24.99. In just a couple of years it was on Amazon for a staggering £74.99!Importantly, not all Disney releases are subject to the vault and only the true classics will maintain such demand.

Right now there are just 2 titles out of the vault which I would recommend snapping up. They are Bambi Diamond Edition Blu-ray and The Lion King Diamond Edition Blu-ray.

7.

‘Get Paid To’ sites

Similar to making money from online surveys, GPT sites reward you in cash and vouchers for completing various offers or activities online.

The most popular sites today are Toluna, Swagbucks and InboxPounds.

Exciting update! We’ll soon be launching our own GPT service for our readers. Invites will be limited and UK only, please join our mailing list if you’re interested in hearing once it’s live:

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8.

Start your own website

If you’ve ever seen the film The Social Network then you’ve most likely had your brain spinning as to what website you can start-up to make you billions.

And of course there are lots of stories out there about successful students who have started a site while at university, or even bought a domain name and later sold it for £1000s.

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

Read Owen’s 4-step guide to setting up a website or this guide to making money as a blogger if you’re interested in finding out more. It’s really not that difficult to get started and there are plenty of opportunities to make money online.

9.

Become a delivery rider

Got a bicycle, motorbike or car? What about a Smartphone? That’s all you need to make some extra money working as a delivery driver whenever you’ve got some spare time.

Sign up to delivery specialist companies like Deliveroo who are always on the hunt for new riders. They allow you total flexibility to work when you want, delivering food from restaurants to the customers’ door. You can make up to £16 an hour.

Double-up your opportunities by directly contacting local takeaways and bigger chains like Dominos to see if they have any delivery jobs going.

10.

Write and publish a Kindle eBook

If students are good at anything, it’s researching and writing. With the Amazon Kindle store, anyone can publish an eBook and make money.

And the Kindle app is now available on almost any device (laptops, iPads, smartphones and yes, Kindles) so your global market is huge!

List your book for £1.49 – £6.99 and you earn 70% of the sale. Considering Amazon is the ultimate selling machine (and remember people are looking to spend), that is a fantastic deal.

The key to success with eBooks is to create value, and write non-fiction. Simply bundling information you have researched and complied on a common problem (eg. ‘secrets’ to finding a job) and then presenting it in an easy to digest format (an eBook) justifies someone spending a few quid on it.

Another big tip is to have a great cover designed so it stands out, and once your book is live on the Kindle store it’s really important to get some reviews so it shows up higher in results. Encourage readers to leave an honest review at the end of your book.

The best thing about this lucrative idea is that once you’ve invested the time (say 20 hours), you’ll earn a passive income for years to come! For a step-by-step guide to publishing and earning with eBooks, see “How to write a nonfiction eBook in 21 days“.

11.

Affiliate marketing

If you’ve got a good presence on social media or perhaps you even have a blog or website, you can start bringing in money immediately by promoting all sorts of companies, products, services and offers online.

Sign up to an affiliate network such as Affiliate Window, check their offers blog or browse the merchant listings to find something you think your friends would be interested in, grab your affiliate link and share it. If someone buys (can be within up to 90 days) using your link you’ll make a nice commission.

To take it a step further, set up a website (read our guide) or a topical Facebook page and invite all your friends to join it and post your affiliate offers on there.

12.

Mobile phone recycling

Credit: CannedTuna – http://Flickr.com

See how much you can get for your old mobile phone using our in-house mobile phone price comparison tool! Maybe ask your parents if they have any lying around too.

You can get some good money and help the environment by recycling mobile phones with certain companies listed on the comparison tool. But be aware: you won’t always get the quoted cash since it depends on ‘condition’. We recommend Mobile Cash Mate for the fairest and highest payouts in most cases (they sent us a £203 cheque for an iPhone 5).

13.

Become a ‘Clickworker’

The text creation, researches, tagging,... concept is based on ‘internet crowd-sourcing’ where businesses advertise specific, scalable tasks they need completing quickly. And for us, it’s an easy way to make fast cash from our couch.

There are a variety of tasks, but most commonly they involve mindless data entry, web research or form filling. You are rewarded and paid in cash (via Paypal) for the work you do, and you can choose for what and when you work. Give it a go. [If you’re US based, also try Amazon’s ‘Mechanical Turk‘].

14.

Claim tax back

Many students work part-time or during the summer months, and others will be on placements or paid internships. More often than not, if you are a student working during the year, you will be overpaying income tax.

Why? Simply because few students reach the personal tax-free income allowance each year but are put on an emergency basic tax-code by their employers meaning tax is being paid when it shouldn’t be.

Use our student tax-back service to help you reclaim any tax you should not have paid. Just enter your details in the calculator here to work out what you may be owed. Otherwise for more information read our guide on claiming tax back here.

15.

Get cashback when shopping

I earned this much in 2 years

This is not only a way to make money but also to save money as a student. If you look at it in a different way then you are making money with every purchase you would have made anyway, whether it be 10% or 0.5% cashback.

There are a number of cashback sites out there which pay you the commission they otherwise would have earned.

We recommend signing up with Top Cashback, The UK's #1 Cashback & Voucher Codes Site & Swagbucks which are free and offer the best selection of retailers and exclusives.

16.

A part-time job

A part-time job is the obvious first choice, opted for by most students looking to supplement their student loan. It provides a pretty steady flow of income and can enable you to gain valuable work experience.

However, depending on where you live, jobs are not always easy to find. Check local classifieds, our student job search, student job websites and your university careers service for vacancies.

It’s also worth signing up with the Graduate Recruitment Bureau, a free service which will match you with both part-time jobs or graduate opportunities.

Read our guide to finding a part-time job whilst studying for more tips.

17.

Gigs on Fiverr

Fiverr is now the world’s largest marketplace for people to make money selling small services (known as ‘gigs’).

What you offer could be absolutely anything, from writing and translating, social media posting, playing pranks and teaching to creating music, voiceovers and short video clips for people all around the world!

The default price is $5 (hence Fiverr..), but you can attach extra services to gigs for more money. Whilst it might not seem like much, it can quickly add up and there are plenty of examples of people making a really good living from the site. The key is to get a system in place which minimises the time spent on each gig.

But there is another way to profit even more from Fiverr for potentially far less work. How? By simply reselling gigs elsewhere. For example, find a decent logo designerthen reply to jobs on Upwork or even local classifieds. A $5 spend can easily become $50+, and it’s repeatable!

If you’re not interested in selling at all there’s SO much good stuff you can get done for yourself. Have a browse and get inspired!

18.

Review music for money

If you love music, make it your business by reviewing unsigned bands and artists online for cash with Slicethepie.

It can take a while to build up your reputation but some users of the site have said that they earn £40 a month. This may not sound like much, but if it’s something you enjoy then it shouldn’t be hard work and is another thing for your CV. Money you earn will be in $US but anyone can sign up and review.

To get started, head over to Slicethepie now or read our quick guide for more info.

19.

Sell your notes

If you don’t mind sharing your notes with other students it’s a great way to generate a little extra cash. There are sites out there that you can upload your notes to, along with your price, and then when another student downloads them you get paid.

Most of these sites like Stuvia & Notesale are free for you to list your notes but tend to take a cut of your profit in order to handle the marketing etc so that you don’t have to go out there and promote your notes yourself.

You will most likely have to upload PDFs but it’s worth it for the return and you can submit handwritten notes but you’re likely to make more money if they’re typed up.

20.

Sell second-hand course books

One great way to make money is to buy other students’ text books at the end of the year, and then sell them just after freshers’ week – when the new intake of students know that they need them!

You can either advertise on campus or list them online very easily on Low Prices in Electronics, Books, Sports Equipment & more Marketplace (just bear in mind they take a commission on books sold).

For more tips on selling items online click here.

21.

Competitions

Entering competitions of course comes with no guarantees, but there is a growing community of so-called ‘compers’ in the UK consistently making up to £50,000 a year through all sorts of competitions.

Types of competitions available to enter range from simple registration forms and Facebook page liking to answering questions correctly over the phone to being a TV game show contestant. Imagine you made it onto Deal or No Deal instead of just watching it!

Start by entering our very own monthly student competition (Like our Facebook page to see when our next one is)!

Then head to our active competitions page to enter other free competitions that we have found. Just note that some of these sites may send you spam so use an alias email address and opt-out of as many of the offers as possible.

For loads more tips on achieving success and making money from competitions, read our guide to entering competitions.

22.

Buy and sell domain names

A domain name is just a website address (eg. ‘Save the Student - The student money site’ or ‘http://mysite.co.uk’) and there are lots of extensions (.com, .net, .http://co.uk etc).

They cost as little as £1.99 to register with Domain name registration and web hosting services | 123 Reg or Domain Names | The World's Largest Domain Name Registrar - GoDaddyyet premium domain names can fetch £1,000s if not millions when sold on. In 2007 http://VacationRentals.com went for a cool $35m!

Now you’re probably not going to come across anything like that, but you can still turn a quick profit with a bit of searching. The trick is to find available domain names which have some commercial value, snap them up and then list them for sale on a site like The world's leading domain marketplace.

23.

Mystery shopping

Today becoming a mystery shopper is easier than you think and you can get rewarded handsomely.

We’ve recently come across a really fun smartphone app called Roamler that pays you in cash for completing various tasks in your local area. So definitely check that out first!

More traditionally, there are plenty of agencies that pay you to visit all sorts of shops to feedback on how they are performing. For more info on where to apply see ourguide to becoming a mystery shopper.

24.

Be an extra

Do you fancy yourself as a budding young actor or just that person that walks past in the background shot of an episode of Eastenders? It could be you if you apply to be an extra.

The pay isn’t bad either – £60-80 a day on average, and you hardly have to do anything!

You can apply at Be On Screen for a number of opportunities or 2020 casting is another agency (just know they take a cut from your earnings).

25.

Sell all your old CDs, games and movies

If you are looking to make a very quick buck, then selling your old bits and bobs that are cluttering up your room is a good idea.

The best thing about it is that you can rip all the songs and films onto your laptop or external hard drive before selling them. This means that you are only really selling the plastic and artwork!

You can earn anything from 10p to £20 per item, and the earnings can really add up if you have a large collection. Whilst you’re at it, see if your parents have any ‘clutter’ they’d be happy to see the back of.

You can also sell almost anything for free on Amazon Marketplace or Preloved and sites like MusicMagpie will pay you instantly for sending in unwanted items.

For more tips and places to sell check out our guide on selling DVDs, CDs and games.

26.

Sell on your education!

Become a tutor to local GCSE or A-level students (find out more about tutoring here). There are now a few online tutor sites too, so you can go also global without too much hassle.

You may feel as if you aren’t qualified to be a tutor, but seeing as you are at university you will most likely have the qualifications to tutor for GCSE or even A-Level. Some parents may feel that their child will react better to a younger tutor, and it can be great experience, so why not give it a go?

You can advertise on SchoolsTrader or sign up with UK Tutors. You can expect to earn around £10 an hour. However, make sure you don’t have to do too much tutoring around your exams!

27.

Sell your photos

If you think you’ve got a good shot and a little creativity, try uploading your photographs for free to stock websites. A good starting point is Fotolia oristockphoto.

Make more money selling photo subjects that people are demanding, and there’s a great resource to find this out here. It might be a good idea to test them out in print first yourself (get free photo prints here).

28.

Rent out your car parking space

Some student accommodation comes with a drive or garage. If you aren’t using your parking space and you live in a busy area then you might be in luck. There are plenty of people that may work in the city centre and are fed up of paying through the roof for daily parking.

Advertise your space on Gumtree, Parklet or Just Park.

Or, check out our full guide to renting out your parking space.

29.

Become your own bank

‘Peer-to-peer’ lending is the future of banking. It cuts out the middle-man, passing on higher interest rates to you and cheaper loans to borrowers. And it’s all managed online from the comfort of your sofa.

Founded in 2005, http://Zopa.com is the most established site lending around £1m every day. Right now you can expect to achieve up to 5% fixed return (before tax), depending on how long you choose to lend for.

As with any traditional bank, there is some risk attached with peer-to-peer lending. Zopa have gone a long way to mitigating this with their Safeguard feature, which effectively spreads your money across a wide range of borrowers (who are also credit checked).

30.

Work as a charity collector

Ok so this job takes a certain kind of person, as you’ll have to take a lot of rejection and be persistent.

But if you are bubbly, personable and reckon you could sell ice to an Eskimo then this could actually be a great student money making idea. You get paid commission on new sign ups (typically around £20).

Have a look at Wesser as well as charity websites like Oxfam.

31.

Babysitting

It’s a classic money-maker, and for good reason. You get paid (well) to watch TV and not very much else!

Be warned that you will need a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check to look after small children, even though some parents may not ask for one. If you are wondering what to charge, look at local Gumtree ads, but you can expect to be paid over £8ph even if you aren’t trained in child care.

Aside from advertising yourself, you might want to try creating a profile onChildcare, Babysitters, Nannies, Nanny Jobs. It really is easy money (unless you get stuck with the child from hell!).

32.

Dog walking & sitting

If babies ain’t your thing, then maybe canines are… looking after other people’s dogs is big business. Just think that as a student you’re likely to have free time during the day when others are out at work and worried about their pets at home.

You could bag around £7 per dog for an hour walk, and it’s also a great way to keep fit. Join Tailster who will match you up with dog owners. Alternatively advertise your services locally with fliers or on classified websites such as Gumtree.

33.

Rent out your house for filming

Directors for TV and film are always on the hunt for houses to film in. For instance, a scene for Coronation Street was recently filmed in the student house one of the Save the Studenteditors used to live in!

Not only can you make good money but it’s crazy seeing your own place on TV. Start out by looking at this site.

34.

Rent out your body

According to our recent survey, 7% of students use their body in some way to make a buck.

If you are comfortable taking off your kit then why not try life modelling. Sit there in the buff while budding artists capture your every curve (or pokey bits) in frightening detail! Try RAM, a website especially designed for these kind of jobs.

You could also get involved in clinical drug trials, but be sure you fully appreciate any risks attached.

Warning: Do not do anything you are not comfortable with, no matter how desperate you are for money! There has been an unhealthy rise in student prostitution in recent years – do not fall victim to it!

35.

Freelance work

Perhaps you enjoy writing, managing Facebook pages or doing a little bit of graphic design in your spare time. There are so many freelance jobs out there that require simple skills or just time that someone else might not have.

And the best thing about freelancing is that you can work for clients in the UK and around the world with just an internet connection from home, to your own hours whilst developing valuable skills.

A great place to start is with the leading freelance site Upwork, the world's largest online workplace. Or try using our student job search to find freelance jobs closer to home.

36.

Sell clothes on eBay

Everyone’s best friend when it comes to getting rid of junk is eBay. Online auctions are a sure-fire way to turn that sleeveless jacket (which came in and out of fashion in a week) into hard cash.

Some eBay sellers look at trends and try to predict what will be big ahead of the market. If you are good and don’t mind taking a risk then you can buy early in bulk and sell on when the craze hits.

For lots more tips on selling on eBay read this guide.

37.

Sell your stories and videos

If you have an interesting story then you could try selling it to the papers. It could be anything from sleeping with a professional footballer to getting caught in a clothes horse!

One of the Save the Student team was unfortunate enough to have a pigeon fly through and smash their window at university and sold the story to The Sun for a tidy £50.

You could also film your mates at all times and send it into You’ve Been Framed to net yourself £250 and a few seconds of fame.

38.

YouTube videos

According to recent stats we now watch more videos on YouTube than searches on Google. And with the recently introduced YouTube Partner Program you can now profit from making and uploading videos. You will receive a percentage of the advertising revenue collected per 1,000 views.

Depending on how successful you are (virality, subscriber base and topic) you can make a lot of money, and there are plenty of stories every week of more and more YouTubers making it their career.

For more tips read our guide to making money from YouTube.

39.

Network marketing

Also known as Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), this is a business model that allows you to generate ongoing income in two ways: by making a commission selling products and by recruiting other members who go on to sell. The later allows you to make money from the sales made by those you have recruited.

Importantly, this is not a pyramid scheme (they are illegal) because there is an end goal which involves a customer buying a product or service of value.

It’s also not a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. You will have to work I’m afraid! However with the growth of social media, network marketing is becoming easier and lots of people are now making a decent living from it.

This is a serious way of making good money on your own terms and it’s well worth reading up on it. I recommend getting “The Business of the 21st Century” by Robert Kiyosaki.

40.

Source property for wealthy investors

We all know how much money there is in property, but on the surface (with house prices as high as they are) you might be thinking this market is off-limits.

Truth is, lots of people make a great deal of cash simply sourcing suitable properties for wealthy investors who simply have no time.

The trick is to find properties below market value (BMV) by avoiding estate agents and instead flyering your area with your contact details offering to buy houses. Then approach investors with a no-brainer offer to pass on the details of cut-price property in exchange for a % of the sale value.

Most cities will have monthly networking events for landlords and property investors. Track these down, sign up, put on your best suit and go along with lots of business cards. Or you could start on LinkedIn or even Twitter to build some initial contacts.

As you might imagine, this isn’t necessarily a quick way to make money but once you’ve got a few investors in your phone book it can prove to be very lucrative in the long run.

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3. Watch Movie Previews

Most of you already know about Swagbucks, but did you know that they will pay you to watch movie previews, celebrity videos, the latest news, along with dozens of other videos? Plus, they give you $5 just for signing up.

You need to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist to earn your bucks, so be prepared. Swagbucks lets you know how long the playlist runs before you start watching, and playlists range from a few minutes to about a half hour.

And it’s possible to earn up to $225/month watching these videos (your potential earnings may vary, depending on the videos you are approved for)!

4. Become an Uber Partner Driver

If you find solace on the road and enjoy finding the best route across town, this is a great way to make money doing it!

As an Uber contractor, you’re responsible for setting your schedule and motivating yourself to work — no one is keeping tabs on you. You get 80% of everything you earn as a driver (Uber keeps 20%).

If you want to give it a try, there’s a few things to keep in mind. You must be at least 21 years old, have three years of driving experience, have an in-state driver’s license, a clean driving record and be able to pass a criminal background check.

Finally, your car must be a four-door, seat at least four passengers (excluding the driver), be registered in-state, and be covered by in-state insurance.

Here’s a link to apply with Uber.

5. Download These Apps

There are a number of companies, including Google, that will pay you to install their app on your cell phone. And they’ll pay you for every month you keep them installed.

The apps collect data from your cell phone and help companies better understand web and mobile usage better — such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular (or not).

Here are my favorites (install all of them and earn $400/year or more):

– ShopTracker – If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, you can earn money each month contributing to research to help companies understand what people are buying online. Download and connect this to your Amazon account. They’ll instantly send you a free $3 Visa gift card, plus another $3 for every month you keep it installed.

– MobileExpressions for Android – This one can only be downloaded on Android. After you’ve installed it for one week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something). I won a $25 Amazon gift card, but some of the other prizes include iPads & Samsung TVs.

– Smart Panel – This panel is open to everyone and once you’ve downloaded the app, they will give you $5. If you keep it installed for at least two weeks, you’ll earn another $10. And then for every month that you keep the Smart App installed, you’ll get another $5. All total, you can earn up to $75 for the 1st year!

– Nielsen Mobile for iPhone Users – if you have an iPhone, this Nielsen panel will give you points worth up to $50/year to keep this app on your cell phone.

6. Get a Free $10 Amazon Gift Card

Have you heard of MyPoints? They are a cash-back site that lets you earn rewards by shopping online and printing coupons. We use them all the time at our house, because it’s instant way to save on everything you buy (for example, it gives you up to 5% cash-back on purchases in some categories on Amazon).

But, enough about that, here’s how to get a free $10 Amazon gift card that you can use to buy groceries (or anything for that matter):

1.

Sign up for MyPoints here using your email or Facebook account (it’s free).

2.

Use the Mypoints portal the next time you need to shop online (it’s connected to thousands of stores including Walmart, Amazon, and Target).

3.

As long as you spend $10 at any of those stores, Mypoints will reward you with 1,750 bonus bonus which you can redeem for a free $10 Amazon gift card.

7. Earn $250 By Opening a Second Bank Account

hidesy/Shutterstock

We’ve put together a huge list of banks that will pay you just to open a bank account! Some of them will pay you up to $250 just for opening a savings account!

There’s no harm in having multiple bank accounts. In fact, I often find it’s helpful to have multiple places to save (I’m less likely to touch the money), so I have savings accounts for my Christmas fund and my vacation fund.

The top bank bonus is $250 right now — head over to this list to see all of the banks in your area that are offering free cash.

8. Get a Free $5 From Clink to Start Saving

Macro of Five American Dollar Bill.

I’m kind of obsessed with Clink (and not just because they give you $5).

Clink helps you save for a rainy day or retirement by taking small amounts of money out of your checking account each day (around $1).

To get the $5 bonus, download the Clink smartphone app and setup your account with the same email address. Be sure to use the promo code: PH2016

I already got my bonus and now I’m investing $5/week. I’m already up to $40! That might sound small, but for someone who resists saving money like the plague, it’s a pretty remarkable start!

9. Help Doctors Find a Cure

Could medical testing be a fun way to make money?

Jillian Shea thinks it is: She made $12,000 from participating in sleep studies. She answered a few questions online from her home in Florida before heading to Boston for the lucrative study.

And she’s not alone.

NASA’s sleep study at the Johnson Space Center in Houston paid participants $5,000 per month to stay in bed.

Want to give it a try? If you have one of these ailments, you might be able to earn a little extra cash…

– Psoriasis (M3 Global Research) – Psoriasis psucks! But, if you’ve got it you can earn $5-$100 taking online surveys and contribute to advancements in medical treatment — without even leaving your couch!

– Arthritis – If you’re suffering from osteoarthritis and qualify, you may earn up to $1,000 for participating in this study. (Learn more here.)

– Rheumatoid Arthritis – If you have rheumatoid arthritis in the knee and/or hip and are otherwise healthy, you could qualify for a study that offers up to $625 compensation for sharing your thoughts and opinions. (Learn more here.)

10. Get Paid to Go on Top-Secret Missions

Remember scavenger hunts when you were a kid? Ever pretend you were a private investigator on an important mission? Don’t let a few years get in the way of your fun.

QuickThoughts for Android turns your cell phone into private-eye technology, taking you on top-secret missions in your area.

Was that CVS you visited last month clean? How do the lines look at that McDonald’s you’ve stopped by for lunch? QuickThoughts Missions relies on your input — and sneakily-taken cellphone photography — to give businesses important feedback.

And like any respectable PI, you get paid for your investigative footwork. Pretending as an adult is looking better and better! Using your phone’s GPS technology, the app will prompt you for information from places you’ve visited in the past few weeks, as well as places it detects you’re visiting right now.

It even has missions you can accept and complete in the future. For instance, it might prompt you to go to your local Walgreens and snap a photo of the seasonal display.

Super fun, right? And you’ll earn valuable gift cards for Amazon and iTunes while you’re at it. Unfortunately for iOS users, this opportunity is just for Android right now.

Which is kind of fitting, when you think about it. What would make a better private eye than an actual android?

11. Earn Up to $60/Hour as a Part-Time Bookkeeper

Does earning $60 an hour sound appealing? How about the freedom to work remotely while helping others succeed?

Those are the perks of working as a bookkeeper, says Ben Robinson, a certified public accountant and business owner who teaches others to become virtual bookkeepers.

And no, you don’t have to have a CPA to be successful in this business. In fact, all you really need are decent computer skills and a passion for helping business owners tackle real-world problems.

It’s a great opportunity for moms who want to work part time, millennials who are just out of college and anyone who wants to bring in real money while working from home.

We talked to Robinson about what it takes to become a virtual bookkeeper, as well as tips and advice for making this career track work for you. You can read the full interview here, or check out his website for more information.

12. Get Paid to Drop a Few Pounds

Michele Westmorland / Getty Images

Picture this: You step on the scale and finally see your goal weight.

Congratulations! But it gets even better.

You’re about to receive a generous check to spend on a celebratory dress in your new size, stock up on household necessities or to wisely stick into savings — all just for losing weight!

It’s not a fantasy. If you wager on your own commitment with HealthyWage, this could very well happen for you… if you stick to your guns and lose the weight.

It’s simple. Sign up for HealthyWage, and then define a goal weight and the amount of time you’ll give yourself to achieve it. Place a monetary bet on yourself ranging from $20 to $500 a month.

Depending on how much you have to lose, how long you give yourself to do it and how much money you put on the table, you could win up to $10,000!

How many pounds you’d need to lose: This will vary based on your wager. Check out their calculator to find out!

13. Watch More Television

Alright, just hear me out on this one. It’s definitely possible to get paid to watch TV. There’s a new company called “RewardTV” that pays you to answer trivia questions about last night’s TV shows.

Do you know who they killed off on Game of Thrones last week? Tell them about it and they’ll pay you.

Did you know which contestant got kicked off “The Voice” this week? They’ll pay you.

You’re not going to get rich doing this, but it’s a fun way to make an extra $15-$20/month. Pretty cool, right?

14. Rate Your Local Pizza Place

Handsome young man eating a slice of pizza outside on the street

Awww…yeah! Who wouldn’t want $5 and a free large pizza?

As many of you know I was a professional mystery shopper for many years (I got my start conducting liquor audits all over the Southeast).

One of the most popular types of mystery shops is for pizza companies — both Papa Johns and Pizza Hut regularly conduct mystery shops at all of their locations. As part of the assignment you’re required to time their delivery service, quality of pizza, etc.

It’s pretty easy to do and you can do it several times a year. If you’re interested in giving it a try, here’s a list of my favorite mystery shopping companies.

15. Earn up to $700/Month Fixing Search Results

I’ll make about $700 this month for evaluating search engine results this month.

And the best part? Most of it is done while sitting at home in my pajamas. What am I doing? Let me explain…

Search engines use complicated algorithms to determine the results you see. For example, if you type the name of one of our writers, Steve Gillman, into a Google search box, a half-million possibly-relevant web pages will be narrowed down using various criteria until a second later you see his smiling face. You’ll also see links to his personal website, his blog on the Huffington Post, and LinkedIn profiles for a bunch of guys who share his name.

But the search engines don’t always get it right.

They are full of errors, so they need real humans to look at the results and judge them for quality, relevancy, and usefulness. If you’re interested in this type of work, head over to this article to get more info on how to apply.

16. Turn Your Grocery Receipts in For Rebate

You don’t have to cut back at the grocery store if you know the right tricks. Have you heard of rebate apps?

My favorite is the Ibotta app which works by giving you a cash rebate on your grocery store purchases if you take a picture of your receipt with your smartphone.

Many of the rebates are for things like steak, ground beef, bread and eggs. Plus, you can shop at your normal grocery store. There’s no need to run clear across town to save money. And right now, Ibotta is giving new users a $10 sign-up bonus, just for redeeming their first receipt.

Some other good ones are SavingStar and Checkout51. Download them all and sometimes you can get three rebates on the same item.

17. Test Websites

Tempura / Getty Images

Like most of us, you’ve probably commented on how some websites are confusing and others excellent. Rather than complaining to your spouse or friend, how would you like to make those comments to the owners of the sites and get paid for playing critic?

I do just that, and you can, too. In fact, you can make $30 per hour as a website tester.

The company is called User Testing. Here’s what the process looks like: you’ll download some software and then when tasks are available, look over a website while your mouse movements, clicks, keystrokes, and spoken comments are all recorded as a video. Afterward there might be a few questions to answer, but the whole process often takes 15 minutes or less. Cool, right?

18. Sell Your Old Books

We’ve all got way too much extra junk just sitting around. Get rid of some of it and use the extra money for your Christmas shopping.

Have any old college textbooks? You could, of course, have a garage sale or sell them on Craigslist, but one of my favorite ways to get rid of them is using Bookscouter.

You just type your book’s ISBN (International Standard Book Number — it’s near the book’s barcode and copyright info) into the search bar and let Bookscouter connect you with over 25 of the best-paying and most reputable buyback companies online. Cool, right?

Once you’ve found the buyback company offering the most cash, you just fill out a little information about where you want your payment sent (usually PayPal) and prepare the books to be shipped. Most of the buyback companies offer prepaid shipping labels too, so there aren’t any costs associated with this.

19. Make an Extra $50/Week Working for Amazon

Have you heard of Amazon Mechanical Turk? Unlike other online sites that look for contract help, the Amazon Mechanical Turk service offers easy to accomplish tasks that can be completed by almost anyone with a computer.

From the articles and advice I’ve read from others completing tasks, the key seems to be just to jump in and quickly accept the next task you are qualified for. Don’t spend time hunting for the perfect task, just do them next, next, next, etc.

While basic tasks may only pay $0.10, they are easy and quick to complete. It does not take long to complete a task in less than a minute, so in an hour, with little experience, you can make $6 to $10, depending on how fast you are.

Amazon Mechanical Turk is not a get-rich-quick scam or one of those “make massive income in your spare time” ripoffs. But, realistically you can make an extra $50 or so each month.

20. Sell Your CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, Video Games and Electronics

Have a bunch of movies or CDs collecting dust on a shelf? Decluttr will pay you for them!

Decluttr buys your old CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays and video games, plus hardware like cell phones, tablets, game consoles and iPods.

One user, Gil Flores, sold about 100 DVDs and 75 CDs and made $275 — an average of $1.57 each.

Just download the app and start scanning the barcodes on your media to get immediate quotes. It’s completely free to use, there are no listing or seller fees, payment is super fast and there is even free shipping.

21. Earn Up to $25/Hour Delivering Groceries

Young man checking product on smartphone in health food store

Are you 21 years older with reliable transportation? Sign up to be a delivery driver with Instacart!

This app and website lets people who don’t have the time or motivation to battle the crowds for a box of cereal skip the grocery store. As their personal shopper, you are in charge of picking up their groceries and delivering them within two hours.

If you’re interested in giving it a try, they are currently recruiting for drivers in these two cities:

San Francisco (Instacart application page)

Boston (Instacart application page)
 
 They ask potential shoppers to take a short online quiz about common grocery store items. The quiz asks you to identify grocery items, like a lemon or an 18-pack of eggs, but you only have two minutes to answer the 21 questions.

After that, your city’s manager will call you to set up a time for a 15-minute phone interview to learn about your background and experience. They tend to look for people with past customer service experience and candidates who have experience doing plenty of shopping for either their roommates, families or themselves.

22. Sell Your Smartphone Photos

If you have a smartphone and a photographic eye, making money may have just gotten a lot easier. Oh yeah – you’ll also need access to marketable scenery.

There’s a new app called Foap that allows you to turn your smartphone photos into cash.

Here’s how it works. You download the free app. You sign up for an account. You take a quality photo. You upload photo to Foap’s marketplace. Someone buys the license to your photo for $10. You make $5.

If your photo sells 20 times, you make $5 each time and end up with $100 in your pocket — all for about five minutes of work. Pretty cool, right?

23. Sign Up for Free Gift Card Promotions

Believe it or not, there are sites that will give you free gift cards just for signing up with them.

One of my favorites is Ebates, the cash-back shopping site. They’re giving away $10 gift cards if you sign up as a new member and earn your first cashback rebate. You can choose a $10 gift card from Target, Walmart, Macy’s or Kohl’s.

You do have to wait 30 days, but it’s free money so can you really complain?

24. Provide Customer Service — in Your PJs

Have you ever considered doing customer service from the comfort of your home? An increasing number of companies are hiring work-from-home customer service reps, instead of running call centers.

These jobs can be full– or part-time and offer a variety of schedules, including daytime, evening and weekend shifts with a range of pay depending on the position and location.

Your job is usually to answer customer questions over the phone or via online chat. You may find sales positions that include higher pay and performance incentives; or technical support positions, which are best if you’re tech-savvy and have an interest in helping people understand technology.

You should enjoy helping people, though! You know how a bad customer service call can totally ruin your day? You don’t want to be the bad rep on the other end of that call.

If you don’t like working with customers, keep an eye out for other work-from-home jobs at these job sites.

25. Sell Your Trash

Americans throw away approximately 266 million tons of trash every year, and it turns out we might as well be throwing away cash! There’s a reason dumpster diving has become so popular in recent years and that’s because things that you think are worth nothing often have value.

Anything from your empty wine bottles to old magazines can be sold online. Here’s afull list of the things in your trash that might be worth cash.

26. Sell Your Skills for $5 on Fiverr

Earning $5 at a time may not sound like much, but those little sales can add up to thousands of dollars.

That’s the idea behind Get Everything You Need Starting at $5 - Fiverr, an online platform where users sell their products and services for $5 each. Fiverr says users create 4,000 new listings, or “gigs,” every day.

Gigs range from the standard data entry and research tasks to the truly out-there. For example, as I write this, sellers in the “Fun and Bizarre” section are offering:

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A piece of rare metal that will melt in your hand

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A prank phone call to anyone you choose

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Three balloons released into the sky with your message in them

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Your name written on two grains of rice

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A photo of you on the cover of “Rolling Stone”

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A video of a woman pretending to be “crazy in love with you” — which has 253 buyers and a 98% positive rating so far

You can seriously sell almost anything on Fiverr. Here are some more ideas.

27. Earn $100 By Helping a Company Name Itself

Professional branders aren’t going anywhere, but for small businesses that can’t afford the million dollar price tag, crowdsourcing allows businesses to outsource the creative process to people like you and me through “naming contests.”

There are hundreds of naming contests on websites like Business Name Contestsand Company Naming Competitions, Business Name Ideas, advertising slogans, taglines, branding, logo design contest. The way it works is that nameless businesses list a little information about their company and a prize amount for the person who can come up with the best name. The rewards are anywhere from $50-$500, with the average amount around $100.

For example, one company on SquadHelp says they are a company that buys used video games and they will pay $80 to the person who can come up with the best name. A few of the submissions so far are “Cash 2 Gamers” and “Game Epix.” Think you can do better? Give it a try here.

28. Let Someone Borrow Your House/Apartment for the Night

I’ve used Airbnb to both rent out my apartment and stay in many others while traveling, and it’s a fantastic way to put your home to work for you. However, taking a few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one.

Whether you’re renting out a single room or your entire home, make the most of your Airbnb rental by following these tips. If you do it well, you could add hundreds or even thousands of dollars to your savings account.

29. Become an Online Tutor

Education is one of the world’s leading industries, and the private tutoring marketalone is expected to top $102 billion by 2018.

Have you ever considered becoming an online tutor to make extra money? Well, if you haven’t, you most certainly should. You can make some serious coin by answering student’s questions, explaining your notes and uploading tutorials.

That’s right, by sharing your knowledge, you can be rewarded handsomely.

Try marketing your services on a site like Online Tutoring, Homework Help and Test Prep in Math, Science, and English, where instructors earn $9-$13/hour, plus $5.50/hour just for being logged in waiting for students.

30. Become a Dog Masseuse

We’ve talked before about ways to get paid to spend time with cats and dogs, but this is a new one: pet massage.

That’s right — some people earn money for massaging animals. It might sound a little strange, but apparently many cats and dogs enjoy a good massage as much as humans do.

If you like petting your furry friends, why not explore this option? With a bit of training you can make $50 per hour as a pet massage therapist. Here’s how to get started.

31. Write Slogans for Major Companies

Can you sum up a product in a sentence? Think of something funny — and notanother joke about too many candles — to put on a birthday card? Make a point in few concise words?

If so, you might be able to make money writing slogans.

Companies sometimes need new corporate taglines, advertising slogans and jingles. Bumper sticker and greeting card makers want cute, endearing or funny thoughts to put on their products.

When these businesses need help, they sometimes collect submissions from freelance writers or run contests that anyone can enter — including you!

Try one or more of these platforms to get started:

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Slogan Slingers helps companies create slogan contests in which their registered writers compete. It’s free to sign up as a writer, and the company claims you can “make up to $999 per contest (minus our small admin fee).”

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Get a Slogan is a “crowd-sourcing platform that brings in custom, creative and catchy slogans from a variety of sloganeers.” Companies come to them for help, and writers submit their ideas. It’s free to sign up, but you initially have only “qualifying” status. Once you obtain “qualified” status, you’ll receive $50 for each of your winning slogans.

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Freelancer - Hire & Find Jobs has a section devoted to slogan-writing projects, which are sometimes run as contests. For example, at the moment a personal injury law firm is offering $150 for the best “unique and memorable tagline/slogan.”