Written by my4hrworkweek

I love list posts, especially ones that can be bookmarked and revisited as a resource.  I’ve always wanted to create something like that, which is what led me to this article.  I’ve been working on this article for a couple months now, adding to it little by little.  I’m proud to be able to finally share it with you today.

The contents of this article are not in any way revolutionary.  Given enough time (this actually took much longer than I expected), you could easily compile a similar list. The concept of making money online is so broad, however, that I wanted a resource that captures most aspects of it.  Take from it whatever you’d like, or simply bookmark it for future reference.

Here’s some food for thought: If you could find a way to make just $1 per day utilizing each of the following sources, you would earn over $52,000 per year!

Side note: I could have easily used affiliate links for the majority of the items listed below, however I have decided to only use affiliate links for services that I actually use, or ones that I’ve seen highly recommended.  The vast majority of these links are not affiliate links.  I want this article to be a valuable resource, not a source of income for me.

I’m leading with this category because I believe article writing is one of the best ways to get started making money online if you’re new to the game.  It costs nothing, and you can be up and running within a matter of minutes.  There is a learning curve (especially with respect to SEO and researching keywords) and you’ll need to be patient, but in time, this can be a significant source of passive income.  Not sure of what to write about?  I’ve discussed that before. Note: These are not listed in any particular order.

Social networking and social media is a great way to share your content, gain followers, and in general, increase your presence online.  There are, however, ways to make money by sharing someone else’s content with your followers via Twitter.  I generally don’t consider this to be a great way to make money online, but it can be lucrative for those who have a big following. (Side note: I tried to see if there was a way to sell Facebook “likes” or get paid to share content on Facebook, and couldn’t find anything.)

1. Sponsored Tweets - Just like it sounds, this site allows you to make money by tweeting for someone else.  I wrote about it here.
2. MyLikes - Very similar to SponsoredTweets, however I like Sponsored Tweets a bit more.
3. Magpie - Another Twitter advertising platform.

You’ll recognize many of the sites below.  However, when I usually write about them, I’m referring to them as means of outsourcing.  In this case, I’m listing them as ways to make money online by being a provider of services.

E-mail marketing is one of the oldest forms of making money online.  As the old cliche goes,“the money is in the list.” Within the MMO niche, e-mail marketing has become somewhat annoying, but there are some people who still do it well.  I like to think my newsletter subscribers get value out of my e-mail, as I very rarely promote anything.  I think e-mail marketing is critical, not just because it’s a way to drive traffic to things that make you money, but because it’s another way to stay in touch with people who follow your website, blog, or brand.  I only use Aweber, but I thought it would be helpful to include a list of alternatives.  I’ve noted the ones that are free.

There are some people who make a living with PPC ad campaigns, so it’s definitely a viable way to make money online, either as a publisher or advertiser.  Be careful though – you can easily lose a lot of money if you aren’t continually testing and optimizing ads.

Another way to drive traffic to your affiliate promotions and landing pages.  The benefit here is that they are usually less strict than PPC sites (i.e. you can usually directly link to an affiliate offer).  It’s a different beast though, from what I’ve been told, so it’s best to do a little bit of research before you spend money on PPV traffic.

These are great for monetizing your blog/website, or using in conjunction with PPC/PPV ads.  In general, CPA offers allow you to be paid for someone completing an action.  For example, there may be an offer that requires someone to input their e-mail address or zip code.  Upon that submission, you’re paid an amount, usually ranging between $1-10.  There are more lucrative offers that pay $20+, like filling out a short form for a free credit report.  It may require some creativity to use CPA offers to monetize your website or PPC ad campaign, but there are people who make a living doing this online.

Note: Many of these sites are selective about who they accept.  They want to make sure you’re going to send legitimate traffic to offers, and will often want to talk to you on the phone before they allow you to begin making money with them.  There’s a thread on Warrior Forumthat gives you some good tips.

I don’t see this talked about too much within the MMO niche, but there are several sites that allow you to make money by answering people’s questions online (usually related to very specific topics).  For some of these sites, you need to sign up and be approved before you can begin answering questions for money.

1. Just Answer - Great if you are an expert in a particular field.
2. kgb – Get paid for answering questions that people send via mobile text message.
3. Fun Advice - Earn points for answering questions, which get converted to dollars.
4. Ether – This is actually a pretty cool concept.  Essentially, you’re selling your advice via telephone (almost like a phone version of Just Answer). They give you a free Ether phone number (which forwards to an actual phone), you set your hourly (or by-the-minute) rate, and you can schedule times that you’re available for calls.  You can also sell digital content via Ether.

When we think of “making money online,” we often immediately think about affiliate marketing or selling digital products.  Sometimes, it’s easy to forget one of the oldest forms of making money online…selling products you own! Clear out your house, apartment, or bedroom.  Instead of throwing things away or letting them pile up and make a mess, get some money for them.

…Also known as affiliate marketing.  This is perhaps the most common or hottest way to make money online at the moment.  You recommend a product, using an affiliate link.  Someone clicks through that link , purchases the product, and you get a commission.  It’s a simple concept, but sometimes difficult to execute.

One common way to do it is to create a niche site – a site generally focused on one type of product or sub-market – and populate the site with relevant articles, with affiliate links embedded.  One of my current challenges is to add $20,000 per year to my passive income portfolio by creating niche sites that focus on Amazon products.  Here are some good sources for products to sell as an affiliate:

In some cases, you may want to design your own products (we’re talking simple things, like t-shirts, magnets, mugs, etc.), but you don’t want to take on the cost of having inventory that you can’t sell.  The below options are great for this situation – for the most part, it’s free to set up a virtual storefront, and you earn money when your products sell (and if nothing sells, it costs you nothing).  These are generally great if you already have an established brand and want to sell your branded gear.

1. Cafe Press – Easily design products like t-shirts, mugs, etc. and sell them from a virtual storefront through Cafe Press.
2. E-Shirt – Cheaper alternative to Cafe Press that focuses primarily on t-shirts.
3. Spreadshirt – Similar to E-Shirt.
4. Zazzle – Very similar to Cafe Press.
5. Shirt City – Another shirt design site/store.

This isn’t really my cup of tea, but there are several sites that will pay you to take surveys or give your opinions.  Important note: Don’t ever pay to sign up to a site that offers to pay you for surveys.  Here are ones that, based on my limited research, are legitimate.

There are some good sites out there that will pay you to write reviews on your blog for various products and services.  I haven’t done much of this, but I’m hoping to eventually incorporate it into my niche sites.  Some of them are picky about what blogs they accept/approve, so you may have to wait until your blog is older and more established.

Peer-to-peer lending is an interesting concept, because it allows individuals to secure relatively large loans without getting a bank involved.  On its face, it sounds like a risky proposition, but these P2P lending sites generally have good measures in place to mitigate your risk (not to mention, you’re compensated for this risk by earning very high interest rates).  In addition, you can usually invest in someone else’s loan for a small amount (e.g. $25), which reduces the risk you take for any given loan.

1. Lending Club (U.S. Residents Only) – I’ve been talking about this site ever since I started this blog, so there’s no reason to stop now.  Lending Club is an important part of my passive income strategy.  I discuss it in all of my income reports, so you can read those for more detail.
2. Community Lend - Like Lending Club, for Canada residents.  I have not done business with them, so do a bit of research first if you plan to invest here.
3. Zopa – Like Lending Club, for UK residents.  I have not done business with them, so do a bit of research first if you plan to invest here.

There were some things I couldn’t fit in any particular MMO category, so here they are:

1. SurfBounty – I’m generally not a big fan of this, but others have had success with it.  This site allows you to get paid for reading e-mail, surfing the internet, and participating in surveys.  Some of these types of sites are scammy, but I don’t believe this one is.
2. Flippa – Make money by reselling your websites and domains.
3. Cash Crate – Get paid for doing a variety of things online.
4. Quick Rewards – Similar to Cash Crate.

These are some of the blogs that I subscribe to in my RSS reader.  Not all of these blogs will consider themselves “make money online” blogs, which I completely understand and appreciate.  What I’m saying, by listing them here, is that they’re great resources that will no doubt help you make money online in one way or another.

I don’t frequent these forums too often (and there’s often a lot of garbage to sift through), but there are some gems of information here.  It’s usually a good place to check on reviews of various SEO software, see what people think about different changes in the MMO world (like when Google changes their ranking algorithm), and other miscellaneous MMO/affiliate marketing topics.

1. Warrior Forum – My favorite.  Be careful, you can get sucked into some of the threads here, and before you know it, you’ll find that you’ve just “wasted” 2 hours.
2. Digital Point – Not as good as Warrior Forum (in my opinion), but still worth visiting.
3. Black Hat World – I certainly don’t recommend or practice black hat SEO tactics, but occasionally there is some interesting information and discussion within this forum.

Hopefully something in this article will help you earn more online.  With that said, I’m sure there’s still a LOT out there that I’m missing.  Share it in the comments!  If I hear some interesting ones that I completely missed, I will probably come back and edit this article to include them.

Bonus: We’ve all been there