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Best Apps to Make Money Without Paying
Branded Surveys
$0.50 – $5 on average per survey with bonus points ($1 sign up bonus)
Average survey length is 10-20 minutes and minimum payout is $5
Collect rewards in PayPal, Direct Deposit or gift cards (100+ brands)
Swagbucks
$0.50 to $1.50 per survey – earn up to $100 each month using Swagbucks
18 unique ways to earn money and free gift cards, plus $5 sign up bonus
Redeem e-gift cards from $1 or withdraw $5 minimum payment from PayPal
How to Make Money Online Without Paying Anything? 15 Ways
Participate in Online Surveys via InboxDollars
(Get a $5 InboxDollars sign-up bonus)
InboxDollars Summary
- $5 sign up bonus
- Great referral program – 30% that referral makes
- Most of the surveys pay $0.50 to $1
- 13 extra ways to earn money
One of the surefire ways to earn money online without spending any extra dime is through participating in InboxDollars surveys.
Online survey platforms typically reward points on every completed survey. Then, you can redeem the points for cash or gift cards. This is certainly a new way to make money online without paying anything. All you need is your time to answer these surveys.
Considering this point system, you can earn around $0.50 to $3 per survey. For surveys that take around an hour to answer, you can get paid $10 each.
Play Games on Swagbucks
(Estimate earning potential: $2 – $3 per hour)
Swagbucks Summary
- 18 ways to earn money and e-gift cards
- $5 sign up bonus
- Up to 10% cashback when shopping online
- $1 minimum e-gift card withdrawal
There are some apps that pay you money by answering surveys or uploading your receipts. Others offer cash back for your purchases. Quite interestingly, you can also get paid by playing games on other apps and websites.
One of the most popular rewards sites that pays you for playing games is Swagbucks.
Upon signing up, Swagbucks will give you a $10-sign-up bonus. Once you’re in, you can scroll through a rich games hub Swagbucks offers and choose your preferred game to play.
Some games on Swagbucks offer direct cash while others offer cash-backs.
Once you reach a minimum withdrawal threshold of $5, you have two options:
- Either withdraw your money via PayPal
- Or redeem your earnings for gift cards
Share Your Browsing Habits (Nielsen)
(Earn $50 per year)
Nielsen Summary
- Earn $50 a year just by installing an app
- Earn up to $1000 from sweepstakes
- 15 different types of rewards, including TVs
- Win up to $500 by downloading PC app
Sharing your browsing habits or history is one of the easy ways to make money using your device. This helps research companies, like Nielsen, collect data on consumer behaviors while browsing the internet.
To join the Nielsen program, you can start by going to their website to confirm that you’re in one of their participating countries. Then, you can sign up and download their software.
Nielsen pays around $50 per year just by letting their app run on your computer as you browse the internet. Besides that, you automatically join their sweepstakes where you can win up to $500 monthly. There are also rewards you can redeem via gift cards.
Share Your Internet Data with Honeygain
(Earn $1 for every 10GB of data that you share)
Honeygain Summary
- Earn $1 for every 10GB of data shared
- Get $5 for each person you refer
- Maximize earnings with more IP addresses
- 2 payment options – PayPal and Bitcoin
Sharing your internet data is another way to earn a passive income, according to Honeygain. This platform buys your internet data for business research on improving digital presence.
To start using Honeygain, sign up on their website and download their app to your computer or smartphone. From there, make sure to launch the app every time you’re on the internet.
The app pays around $0.01 per 10 MB of data you provide. If you enable the Content Delivery feature, you can even earn around $10 per hour.
Test Websites with User Interviews
(Earn about $10 to $90 per test)
User Interviews Summary
- 4 types of studies you can join to earn
- Over 2000 new studies launched each month
- Get a $30 bonus when you refer a friend
- Earn up to $100 per hour for your opinion
Testing websites is another way to make money fast. Website are testers are quite necessary for developers as they provide feedback on the following:
- Website layout and design
- Overall user experience
- Bugs and glitches
One of the best platforms to get paid for testing websites is User Interviews as it’s known for being one of the highest-paying companies.
Here’s how much you can make with User Interviews:
- $50 to $100 per hour for sharing your feedback and opinions about specific products
- $125 per hour for sharing your feedback and user experience after using a specific travel app
- $100 for 90 minutes of sharing your feedback regarding online shopping
Earn Cashbacks with Shopkick
(Earn more than $1 from each store visit)
Shopkick Summary
- Sign up with promo code: DOLLARBREAK5
- Get a $5 bonus by earning 25 kicks
- Earn more than $1 from each store visit
- Low minimum cash out amount of $2
Whether you’re shopping in-store or online, you can earn cash back with Shopkick on qualifying purchases.
Here are the ways to earn cashbacks from Shopkick:
- Pay in-store with your Shopkick-linked card
- Submit receipts of your in-store purchases using the app
- Visit affiliated stores
- Scan product barcodes (check the app for qualifying products)
- Watch videos
- Referring your friends to the platform
What’s good, Shopkick works with many popular stores like Target and Walmart.
Once you reach the minimum withdrawal threshold of $2, you can redeem your earnings via PayPal or exchange them for gift cards. Shopkick offers gift cards from big retailers like Amazon, eBay, Best Buy, and more.
Become a Freelancer on Fiverr
(Sell your services – $5 and up each)
Fiverr Summary
- Set your own prices for your services
- Choose from over 500 service categories
- 3 different options for cashing out
- Protection from fradulent chargebacks
Another way to get paid online is by becoming a freelancer. As a freelancer, you’ll be offering your skills to do some work or deliver services. Normally, these are project-based, which means you need to complete specific work before getting paid.
One of the best freelancing platforms is Fiverr as you can publish your service packages for buyers to purchase them directly.
For example, you have some work experience as an assistant– managing emails and schedules, and working on some digital tasks. In that case, you can freelance as a virtual assistant for individual clients or businesses.
What you earn as a freelancer depends significantly on the services you offer. Virtual assistants earn up to $50 per hour, while graphic designers earn $35 on average.
Sell an Online Course via Skillshare
(Earn royalties on your online courses)
Skillshare Summary
- Earn over $100,000 per year as a teacher
- Large target audience of over 12 million
- Short class length of 30-40 minutes
- 2 ways to earn – royalties and referrals
Whether it’s a creative skill or a theoretical knowledge you own, sharing it can help you make money without paying anything. Skillshare is one of the best platforms out there where you can sell your online course regardless of its subject.
What’s best, by selling an online course, you can make money in your sleep. You can create it once and sell it unlimited times.
Remember, your online course doesn’t have to be a typical school subject, like Math or Literature. It can be for specific knowledge and skills, such as arts and crafts, content creation, or something about computers.
Sell Photos on Foap
(Earn about $5 per photo sold)
Foap Summary
- Earn $5 for every photo that you sell
- Earn up to $200 from Foap Missions
- No need to be a professional photographer
- Low minimum withdrawal threshold of $5
It’s no secret that if you want to become a photographer, you’ll need to invest real money in equipment. With the camera technology on smartphones these days, photography has become a much more accessible hobby for many.
Besides being an engaging form of art, photography can also help make money. You can sell your photos on stock image websites like Foap and earn $5 per photo sold.
Launch a Consultancy Business
(Earn as much as $200+ per hour)
Launching a consultancy business is another way to make money online with no investment. All you need is prior skills and expertise in a certain industry. Some of the popular industries for consultants are:
- Legal
- Business development
- IT
- Marketing and PR
- Accounting
Being a consultant means you get to work on your time. Since it’s technically your business, you’ll be mostly in charge of administrative tasks and looking for clients.
No worries, though, as running a consultancy business can be highly profitable in the long run. You can set the prices for consultation, and even increase your rate as your expertise accumulates and the business grows.
Do Microtasks with Amazon Mturk
(Earn on average $2 to $5 per hour)
The Amazon Mturk offers the option to make online money at no cost. In this platform, businesses and individuals outsource microtasks, such as content moderation, answering surveys, and data validation.
As part of the workforce, you’ll pick up those tasks and receive payment for your work. The good thing about working on such a platform is that you can work these tasks remotely. Moreover, you’ll have the option to work whenever you want.
Earnings depend on what kind of tasks you have to complete. Although, microtasks at Amazon Mturk pay an average of $2 to $5 per hour.
Sell Your eBook on Amazon
(Price your eBook yourself – $2.99 to $9.99 on average)
Selling an eBook is one of the best passive income ideas for when you don’t want to spend money in advance.
If you enjoy writing or sharing your experience, you can practically sit in front of a computer and start putting your thoughts into words.
Amazon Kindle offers a self-publishing tool, which allows you to publish your eBook in no time and put it in front of Amazon customers.
Teach English Online via Magic Ears
(Earn up to $26 per hour)
Magic Ears Summary
- Work from the comfort of your home
- Constant support and assistance available
- No cancellation penalty
- No doctor’s note is required for a sick leave
You can also make money online through the fulfilling job of teaching students. By online tutoring, you have the freedom to offer services on subjects you’re good at. It can be high school or college subjects. Hourly earnings go up to $50.
Even if you think there’s no particular subject you excel in, you can still work as a tutor online. English, for example, is pretty in-demand in some countries, like China and Japan. Applying as a tutor can easily get you qualified.
You’ll be handling online classes with one to four students per class. Some platforms, like Magic Ears, already provide learning materials you’ll use. However, you might need some quality sound equipment and a computer to work with them.
Start a Youtube Channel
(Unlimited earning potential)
YouTube is the most popular video-streaming website these days, with billions of videos on the platform watched every year. With its massive following, starting a YouTube channel makes an attractive way to earn money online.
The best thing about this platform is that you can literally start from scratch. With the most basic video editing skills, you can create content to attract some followers. This is how one of the top Youtube stars, Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, started.
The earning potential as a Youtube creator is quite unlimited, too. After all, you can monetize your channel through several ways, such as ads, affiliate marketing, and sponsored content. Some popular channels come up with their own merch to sell.
Become a Social Media Influencer
(Make $88 per post with up to $10,000 followers)
Becoming an influencer is another gig you try without having to spend a dime. You don’t need to be an already famous person to do this. However, you’ll be representing brands positively, so it helps to have a sizable network to do this.
Before you get on to that part, you need to build your network first. You can do so by choosing a niche and posting content people can engage with.
It’s also crucial to choose the platform you’ll want to build your following. Social media sites are definitely at the top of the list as these are the most accessible to many.
