10 Amazon Mechanical Turk Tips to Make the Most Out of Money

In the past, I have talked about making money on Mturk. It provides a great way for anyone from almost anywhere in the world to earn some pocket money.

But the problem is that its just that, pocket money. Because of the low payment per task, it is very hard to make any decent amount of money as a worker on Mturk.

However, there are some things you can do in order to increase your earnings and make this a worthwhile money making job.

With that said, here are some tips and tricks that will help you make the most money on Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Participate in Mturk Related Forums

Mturk Forums are indeed very useful. These will allow give you real-time information on the going-on at the Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Joining or reading these forums will provide so much information including what other employees have experienced. Mechanical Turk workers are the ones who are setting-up , and running these forums.

They may not exactly be able to supply you with retorts against the rip-off requesters and scammers, but they can aid you duck the worst things that can happen to you at Mturk.

These forums can also lead you to the best requesters and practice.

Here are the 2 main forums:

• Turker Nation
• MTurk Forum

Take Advantage of the Turkopticon Toolbar

The Turkopticon toolbar lets you view how past Mechanical Turk workers have evaluated a specific requester.

You may want to browse through the reviews of other workers before deciding to take a hit or not as these reviews are absolutely helpful.

Some reviews answer the following questions about requester they have worked with:

• Have they rejected a hit without justifiable reason?
• Did they pay within a reasonable time frame?
• …

This tool is a must have if you plan on being a regular Mechanical Turk user since it really works.

Firefox and Google Chrome browsers also have an equivalent toolbar version. But I am not so sure about Internet Explorer since I was not able to find an Internet Explorer version in their website.

Find Good Paying Hits Faster with the “Sort By” Search Options

Use the search options for your benefit. For example, if you are searching for a new survey which pays more than 50 centavos, then you will need to type “survey” in the search box, then set the hit value to 50c.

You can then organize the results of the search according to the newest or freshest hits first.

This will definitely help save time which is important as there are more than a hundred thousand Mturk hits on offer at a single time. The last thing you want to happen is to go through each one of them.

Don’t Bother with 1 Cent Hits Unless…

It’s just not worth it. Sure, a 1 cent hit may take less time to complete, but it still takes time. And when you compare the amount of time you spend doing the hit and the amount of money you earn, it just doesn't look good.

The two cent hits are not that profitable either.

I personally only do low paying hits if the only requirements is clicking on something or copy and pasting a word or phrase.

Only Work on Hits with Worthwhile Payment

Evaluate first if a particular hit is really worth it before taking an Amazon Mechanical Turk hit. Take note that some hits would entail that you pass a qualification exam before you start working on the hit(s).

Others also have complicated set of instructions that will consume so much of your time. This in turn increases the likelihood that your hits will be rejected.

You may have a lot of hits to work on that pays well, but always make sure that you evaluate if these are really worth your time.

Understand the Requirements Before Accepting a Hit

Make sure that you do not often have hits returned to you due to the fact that you failed to or you do not want to finish a hit.

Remember that a series of failure to complete hits will affect your “hit return rate” negatively.

Also make sure not to complete and submit a lot of hits incorrectly, and have them rejected by requesters. This can be disappointing for the requester and actually wastes precious time.

Once or twice would be insignificant, but if done regularly, then you might end up seeing a limited range of hits that you can take.

Do as Many Survey Hits as Possible

Consider taking on the surveys you find on Mechanical Turk as these actually allow you to earn more compared to most hits.

Plus, the chances of being paid are higher too with these surveys since these are being solicited by schools colleges and universities, unlike other hits that are from virtually unknown people.

Some of the surveys you will find will let you get cash of $1 or even more for work that will only take five to ten minutes of your time. But also be vigilant, and watch out for those scam hits which pretends to be surveys.

For example, one scam survey will ask you to put your personal details by asking you to fill up a form in the guise of having you answer several question about their website.

Do Not Give Out Personal Information

Have you received any hits that requires you to give out personal information such as full name, email address, credit card details and the like?

Well, stay away from them. Otherwise, you might end up being spammed, or much worse, getting defrauded. Real Mturk requesters do not solicit for these information.

If it Looks Too Good to Be True

Have you seen those high paying Amazon Mechanical Turk hits?…

Well, beware as these are often placed by spammers. Come to think of it, no one will actually pay $20 in Mechanical Turk for you to test their website. Is it too good to be true? Then most probably, it is.

Those requester who are willing to pay $10 or $20 for a minute or two minute work such as asking you to check if their website is working, are in most cases not real.

Link Your Bank Account to Amazon

Amazon allows you to be updated on the amount of money you already earned as you keep using Mturk (Just take note that some requesters will not immediately pay you).

In your Amazon account, you can see the Mechanical Turk money inside the section referred to as Amazon Payment.

You have the option to change the money into a gift card money that you can use for purchases in Amazon. But if you prefer it in cash, then make sure to link a bank account to your Amazon account.

10 Best Ways to Make Money Online for Skilled Workers

1. Software Development

Despite the recent Great Recession there is still a massive under supply of programmers and software developers.

Programming itself is becoming outsourced to places like India. But a software developer sees the broader picture and is able to manage and apply different programming jobs into a larger cohesive project or application.

The big boom area at the moment is web development and mobile applications. There are thousands of businesses out there who are under-utilizing their web and mobile presence and have tons of money to throw at it. That’s where you would come in. As there aren't enough developers to meet the demand at the moment.

Pros: High demand and big pay days. There are a couple of software developers in my mastermind group and they’re regularly bantering about five-figure projects they’re working on. Also, software developers are integral to any start up, meaning that the skill-set will often net you an equity stake in many of the start ups you hop aboard.

Cons: Must be highly qualified to do it. It’s probably the only thing on this list that you HAVE to go to school for at some point, unless you’re just a prodigy or something. The other big problem with software development is that if you’re going to get out of the cubicle, you’re going to need some connections and big ticket clients to get you out the door. Almost everyone I’ve met who is making this work started out at a larger company, bailed and brought a few clients with them to get them going. Unlike some other skills, freelancing on Elance or oDesk will not be lucrative, as you’ll be battling all of the $12 and $15 an hour Indian developers.

2. Consulting and Coaching

The best thing about the internet is that any knowledgeable person can put themselves out there and teach others. The worst thing about the internet is that any knowledgeable person can put themselves out there and teach others. For every true expert out there, there seems to be at least a dozen wannabes or outright frauds trying to make a buck. As a consumer you have to be careful.

But I’m not just talking about the old, tired cheesy “life coach” types who claim they can change your life and make you a millionaire in only a few hours. There are a lot of legitimate consulting practices that can earn a lot of money. The business world seems to be the top of the pyramid (a friend of mine gets flown around the world for free AND banks mid-four-figures for a weekend of work consulting leaders at major corporations).

But below that there are booming industries in health/fitness, PR and marketing, tech and even therapy practices done online through Skype.

Pros: Flexible schedules, big-time corporate clients means big bucks, if not location independent then travel expenses are at least paid.

Cons: You need a legitimate expertise and a lot of credibility to get going two things that are not easily come by.

3. Web Design

I sometimes joke that if my primary business (this blog) went under, I’d become a web designer. Partly because I love doing web design. But also because that industry is such a racket right now. I can’t tell you how many people I've met while traveling who have asked me to take a look at their website and it’s been absolutely horrible. Ugly. Non-functional. Totally not user friendly.

Then they tell me how much they paid for it and my jaw drops. “I’m in the wrong business,” I usually say.

The fact is, most people hire people to build a website because they know them. There’s no centralized expert design firm or anything. There’s no industry standard. And the clients have no idea what makes a site good or bad, so they just make due with the lump of crap that’s handed to them.

I've done a number of site design gigs over the years. Most of them I did for fairly cheap because they were for friends or people I met. But others I made a pretty penny.

Pros: The bar is so low right now that anyone who teaches themselves CSS, HTML and how to install and customize WordPress is going to be halfway there. Web design can be fun too.

Cons: Screwed up market. People hire you because they know you, not because of your resume or track record, so you have to hunt down leads one by one. You can use the freelancing sites, but again, you have to compete with the Indians and Filipinos at a discount. But on the other hand, because of how many incompetent designers there are out there, you can get away with charging a lot more than you probably deserve. It’s the wild west out there.

4. Writing/Blogging

People start blogs with big dreams: easy money, internet celebrity, popping champagne bottles with P. Diddy. Unfortunately none of these things ever happen.

Let’s make this easy: Blogging is not a business plan. It’s a hobby. And if you’re lucky, it starts making you money one day.

People don’t realize that blogging has a ridiculous ramp-up time — it took me almost three years of writing every week to even reach 1,000 daily readers. That may sound a lot, but in the blog world, it’s not. If I didn't have my coaching work and my freelance web work in that period, I would have gone broke and given up. In fact, even WITH my coaching and web work, I still almost went broke and gave up.

Freelance writing gives a more immediate pay day, but it can be just as frustrating, just in other ways. Most major mainstream publications (Huffington Post, CNN.com, Salon, etc.) allow anyone to submit their story ideas and possibly get paid for them. The competition is thick though, and even if you do manage to break in, the pay is squat. Editors change your work and sometimes they don’t post it for months. It’s not a reliable or stable income.

Pros: If you love to write, it doesn't get any better.

Cons: No matter which way you go, there is VERY stiff competition. You have to be an excellent writer and you have to be able to do it at the drop of a hat. If you’re good and persistent, you’ll make it. If you’re not, then you’re just going to be frustrating yourself.

5. Poker

Many people don’t know this, but I spent much of my senior year of college playing poker seriously. I never turned pro, but I did turn $50 into about $5000 in less than a year.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), I've spent a fair amount of time around poker pros. My assistant is a former professional poker player. Many of my former dating coaching clients were professional poker players. Friends of mine have taken a stab at going pro and come close and failed.

Poker is easy to get good at but incredibly hard to be great at. Good will make you a little money, but being great is what makes you the big bucks. The earnings in poker scale exponentially. So the difference between being “pretty good” and “really good” can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a few years.

But getting to that “really good” level will require years of practice, analysis, studying, stress and discipline.

Pros: If you love it and are good at it, it can mean a lot of “easy” money after only a couple years of studying and playing. You have to take it seriously though, like you would a job. Also, if you start traveling, you get access to a lot of softer poker sites that aren’t available in the US due to restrictions, so it actually works in your favor to be abroad. Also, most foreign casino games are hilariously soft (I spent a couple weeks in Ukraine and paid for my entire time there with a few trips to the local casino).

Cons: As with any sort of gambling, there’s always the risk of going busto and losing everything. Poker can and likely will destroy your social life for stretches of time. Prepare for major emotional upswings and downswings depending on how well you did at the tables that day. It’s not an “easy” or “stress free” life like it would seem.

6. Stock/Options/FX Trading

People who trade for a living are rare. This is because anyone who’s not good at it quickly loses their money. But when you’re good, you can make a helluva lot.

The catch is that 1) you have to love it, 2) you have to spend an insane amount of time educating yourself about markets, and 3) you have to be willing to deal with the insane emotional stress of making $20,000 in an afternoon and then losing $30,000 that night after dinner. It’s like poker stress times five.

Periodically, I pick my friends’ brains about this stuff because I find it interesting and this is what I've gleaned: There is a lot of Shitty information out there. So much, that you’re better of just learning the fundamentals and then observing and developing your own principles and ideas based on your own experience and observations. You’re never going to learn more about a market than everybody else, and there are always going to be insiders who have more information than you. So the best you can do is learn to watch the trends among the other trades and react based on those.

7. ECommerce/Dropshipping

ECommerce sites are basically shopping sites. Think of Amazon as ultimate ECommerce site. It may be a store for sports supplements, wedding decorations, or cat furniture, but it’s a store set up online for shopping.

Drop shipping is when you outsource the actual manufacturing and inventory to a factory that you have no affiliation with.

For instance, let’s say I want to start a business that sells scarves. I can outsource the actual manufacturing of the scarves to a factory in China, and then connect them to my US-based online store. So when someone orders on my store, the factory automatically churns out the product and ships it over.

There’s a lot of logistical hassles involved in drop shipping businesses. There are also higher start up costs and more ways things can go wrong. One must be certain that there’s a strong market demand for whatever product they want to sell or you can lose money quickly.

But once drop shipping businesses are off the ground, they’re usually sustainable and consistently profitable. It’s how Tim Ferriss originally made his money. It’s also how Tropical MBA founder Dan Andrews makes his.

10 Simple Things That Everyone Can Do To Earn More Money Online

Earn Money by Cutting Back

1. Cancel any memberships or subscriptions you don’t use. For example, do you subscribe to a magazine or a service like Netflix or Hulu? If you don’t use the subscription on a regular basis it might not be worth paying for anymore. The same goes for memberships. What about cable television? Cable is expensive and for most people it’s not even worth paying for, since there is so much media available through other methods online and through Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and torrent websites.

2. Take a look at your variable expenses, like phone bill, car insurance, groceries and gas. Can you get cheaper car insurance or cut your phone bill in half? Eating out less and being smart with how much you spend on food and health items can help save money and put more money in your pocket.

3. Go through your belongings and sell things on Craigslist, eBay or Amazon. You most likely have a couple of things laying around that you don’t use anymore or don’t really need anymore. Think of old electronics, clothing and other items that you can part with and list them online for sale. You could also look at recycling centers in your area that may allow you to recycle electronics like TVs, cameras and computers.

4. Sell unwanted things to a pawn store or to friends. Pawn stores are a great option if you want to get rid of unwanted items and make some quick cash. Pawn stores sell a variety of items that people have sold to them, so there’s a good chance they might be interested in whatever you’re trying to sell. Also, post your items on social media for friends to see. Oftentimes a friend might like to purchase something you have for sale because they can get it at a discounted price and it’s something they want or need. This is especially true with items like baby clothing and other baby items, adult and children’s clothing, purses and electronics.

5. Host a clothing swap or yard sale at your house. Charge an entrance fee for others to join and sell their belongings too. You can sell your unwanted belongings and make money on both the entrance fee and items that sell. A clothing swap or yard sale is a good way to get some friends and family involved to sell their unwanted items, then everyone can make a little extra money this way.

Simple ways to earn money

6. Write an e-book and sell it on Amazon and Smashwords. Writing an e-book is easier than ever. All you have to do is write your book in Microsoft Word or any other similar word processing program, upload it to Amazon, use Amazon’s cover creator and then list it for sale through their Kindle Direct Publishing site. It’s also a very easy process to upload a book to Smashwords and sell e-books there. You can make anywhere from a couple of dollars a month to considerably more depending on how many copies you sell, what you choose to charge for the e-book and the royalty that is paid out to you. It’s an easy way to make some extra money continuously.

7. Write articles for websites. There are several reputable article websites out there that pay per article you write. With a little time and effort you can make a little or a lot of extra money, depending on how many articles you want to write.

8. Sell your photos online. You’ve probably got tons of original photos you’ve taken on your phone, with a camera or another device throughout your life. There are several websites where you can sell your photography. Here’s a list of photo websites where you can list photos for sale:

• I Stock Photo
• Shutter Shock
• Fotolia
• Photo Box Gallery
• Dreams Time
• Deposit Photos

9. Make something and sell it on Etsy. If you are crafty then Etsy is just the place for you. You can create one-of-a-kind products and sell them on Etsy. Make sure to advertise them on social media like Pinterest, which is great for specialty items, crafts, clothing and gifts.

10. Sell your plasma. Do a search to find the closest location to you that will allow you to sell your plasma. Oftentimes you can earn up to $130 for the first four times you donate plasma. Make an appointment, go in to have it done and walk out with cash in hand. You can repeatedly donate so this is something you can do occasionally to make a little extra if needed. Plasma donors should check with their local donor facility to find out how often they can donate. Donating plasma is a little more involved than donating blood and requires a little more time.

            24 Easy Ways To Make Money On The Internet

1. Website Building

If the internet is a country, then websites are like real estates. I’m hoping by now you have a general understanding that real estates are valuable in the physical world – digital real estates work the same way. By building a website, you’re creating your own plot of online “land.”

You can fill this land with whatever you want, but you have to promote it through social media (and anywhere else you can think of) for this to be successful. When you build traffic to your land, you can sell people whatever you have to offer. In order to build a website, you need a host (i.eGoDaddy), a template (i.e WordPress), and content.

The first two parts are easy to find, and content is only as difficult as you make it. You can post blogs, items for sale, pictures, videos, or whatever you want. Opening up your own website gives you the potential to make money from the avenues I’m going to mention.

2. B2B Marketing

An online business model I love is utilized by GetVoiP, an affiliate marketer based in New York. GetVoiP acts as an agent for business communication providers. They maintain updated listings of VoiP providers, including ratings, comparisons, consumer reviews, in-depth knowledge of market and end-user trends, and expert opinions from business professionals on a variety of topics related to business consumers. By not only keeping abreast of news, but providing detailed analysis of products being offered, GetVoiP is able to generate traffic to their site and increase their clout with businesses.

The more online clout you have as a business, the more money you’ll make. If you’re known for making lasting connections (as is the case with GetVoiP above), then you’ll have no issues building your online brand. You’ll be recognized in your community and begin to build a buzz in your industry. Tracking your numbers (how many people view your site, click each ad, and make a purchase from that click) gives you the leverage to expand this part of your business, enabling you to continue building your online rep.

3. Google Adsense

If that sounds like too much technical information for you, there is an easy button – Google’s advertising platform is as simple as signing up, enabling (on Blogger) or pasting a small code on your website, and allowing the advertisements to automatically roll in. The problem with this program is that you don’t get any commissions – and you don’t get to control the ad content. This is useful for some, but powerful users will want something a little more robust.

4. Amazon Associates

Amazon has an Associates program for site owners and bloggers. They offer a search tool to find the right products and services from their site and a variety of ad styles to display on your site, including text-based and banner images (digital billboards) like this:

Each item purchased through your Amazon links give you a commission. It doesn’t take high volume traffic to achieve results, either. I began making money with the program when I only had 1,000 hits per month on my site. They can apply your earnings to your Amazon account balance, issue you a check, or direct deposit into your bank account. If you love Amazon, you’ll love their associate’s program.

5. Rakuten Linkshare

Amazon and Google are far from your only options for online advertising. Rakuten Linkshare is a great place to search for other affiliates for your ads. Through their program, you can get customized ad links, email links, and banner ads for Starbucks, Walmart, iTunes, and a slew of other popular brands. With this program, you can also find smaller companies, regional or specialized brands, and more. I run a combination of Google, Amazon, and Rakuten’s programs, and my monthly income is approximately $150 from these programs. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s also not a lot of work for residual (it means recurring…since the ads are permanent…) income.

6. Company Referral Programs

Speaking of the benefits of permanent ads, banners and links aren’t the only ways to earn a little bit of dough off your online endeavors. By having a website, you gain the power of emailing companies to ask them for things. I have no shame in letting the yoga company whose mat I’m looking into purchasing know that I have a blog and write for yoga publications – it sometimes gets me discounts.

Other times, I gain a valuable business contact in PR, advertising, or other aspects of corporate sales. Sometimes I just get a free drink. Either way, money in and of itself is worthless. Ditch the middle man and use the internet to barter what you have and can do for what you need.

7. Klout

If you have a social media account, try out Klout. The company tracks your social media usage, determines how big and what type of audience you draw based on the subject matter of your updates and posts. Using this information, you’re qualified to receive free items, tickets, etc. Check their website often to find ways of earning free stuff by doing what you’re already doing online…boring the rest of us…

8. EBay

If you have anything you want to sell, then EBay is the place you need to seriously consider doing it first. Personally I’m not a fan of the site because of the work it takes to build up a reputation. If you’re willing to grind through that process, you’ll be rewarded with many privileges – people have gotten rich selling books about how they got rich selling everything on Ebay.

9. Amazon

If you start getting too big for EBay or decide you want to try a different flavor, Amazon has a marketplace as well. I prefer using Amazon because I can depend on their shipping, have a Prime account, and trust their reviews (overall, not usually singularly, although occasionally that as well).

The difference between Amazon and EBay is that EBay (though still filled with new items) is seen as a used marketplace between individual parties, whereas Amazon (which is filled with offers for new and used merchandise from the 3rd parties) is viewed as a Wal-Mart-type superstore. As a consumer, this difference leads me to use Amazon, so it only makes sense to target on my own demographic.

10. Etsy

If you’re crafty (and I mean that in more than one way, wink wink), you’ll enjoy Etsy. Handcrafted items are the bread and butter here. Plenty of people make decent side money on the site, which is basically an EBay for crafters and artists. Set up a sellers account with Etsy, and you’ll be asked to set up your virtual storefront and put up at least 5 goods for sale.

Once you have this down, you’ll be a budding Etsy entrepreneur. Provide great quality to your customers, and they’ll often return. Many people are willing to pay a premium for quality handmade designs. Etsy (like EBay and Amazon) takes a cut off the top for selling items through their site. PayPal takes another cut, and you have to be careful with taxes on all income, so be diligent while building your online business.

11. Craigslist

Craigslist is the modern equivalent of the classified ads that dominated the days of newspapers. These quick ads are easy to navigate and use, and they’re geographically linked. Whether you’re selling something or offering a service, this is a great place to start learning the intricacies of Craigslist.

Posting ads on Craigslist is technically easy, but people often have fears about posting their personal information on the site. I communicate mostly through email when doing business on Craigslist, and I’ve never run into any issues. I’ve never been ripped off, nor have I been murdered or raped for using the site. It takes common sense, so use your best judgment, but don’t assume someone is a thief just because of their preferred communication method. For an extra bonus, google “funny Craigslist ads” to see some delightful examples of guerilla and grassroots marketing.

12. Indeed

Maybe what you need is a job. It doesn’t matter which job search site you prefer using (even Craigslist) – Indeed tracks them all, and then some. You can find jobs posted on company websites, through temp agencies, and more at Indeed. If money is something you really need, Indeed is most definitely the place you want to visit to browse career opportunities.

13. Elance

Where Indeed excels at finding job postings across the web and acting as a search crawler for employment, maybe a full-fledged career is too big of a commitment at this point in your life. Elance is a site to find freelance work of all types. I’ve used it for quick writing, editing, copywriting, resume building, and other odd jobs and temp gigs. The experience has been great.

Elance offers a wide array of technical, data entry, accounting, and other freelance and temp gigs. If you’re just looking for something short and sweet, log in, input and showcase your marketable skills, and begin searching through their job database, using any parameters you desire. Once you submit a bid, you’ll receive an acceptance or denial – you may get a few rejections, but don’t sweat it. Negotiate the terms of your bid, and get to work. You have money to make.

14. Mturk

If you’ve heard of crowdsourcing (and even if you haven’t), Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program is a great place to get involved. Much like at Elance, you input your info and skills. You then are able to search for different menial tasks ranging from identifying inappropriate web content to transcribing audio recordings to basic data entry work.

Just like at any other job, the more work you do, and the better your quality, the more opportunities you’ll have to make money. The payouts are often small, and your payment is received in Amazon credit, but Mturk is a great place to make mindless money while veg’ing on the couch watching TV.

15. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media site for professionals. This isn’t a direct way to make money, but it’s a great way to connect to your current and potential peers, customers, clients, vendors, and more here. You’ll build a reputation and get in the loop on important developments in your chosen career path and/or industry. One day an old college buddy may hit you up for a dream job you never considered at the exact moment you are looking for a new vocation. Whether you like it or not, keeping your LinkedIn profile current is a great way to get surprised with new work opportunities out the blue.

16. Care.com

If you’re an experienced nanny or babysitter, Care.com is the place you want to make money. By listing yourself on the Craigslist of Childcare, you’ll broaden your reach and increase your odds of finding the right gig at the right time. You can be pickier with what kids you watch when you have the reputation and traffic to pull in more customers. Join Care.com and start making money by investing in the future of our youth.

17. ThePirateBay

I support bootlegging – I don’t see it as being immoral or unethical in any way. I used to bootleg quite a bit in my youth, and I still do on occasion today (although not yet today in particular, I more meant “in the present”). If you want to hustle for your money, do what you must, baby. Download some software, music, movies, or other assorted digital goodness here and start slangin. It’s not an easy life, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

18. iTunes

If you’re a musician, writer, artist, tech nerd, pundit, or can produce any type of audio, video, or text worth consuming, you may be able to sell some stuff in Apple’s flagship iTunes store. By selling your work here, you’re able to stand next to the marketing clout of big business. You can make a healthy living off the iTunes store, and there’s no better time than now.

19. Yelp!

If you have a business, you want to get listed on Yelp! You may not use the software, but some people do, and they use it religiously (and I don’t mean they’ll kill you over it). By listing your business on Yelp!, you’re putting yourself on the map. From here, you also need to start using Yelp! Write reviews of places you go. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

Soon, you’ll have a dozen or so reviews under your belt and can hire yourself out as a Yelp! reviewer. There are ethical and moral questions to doing this, but the title of this piece is “ways to make money,” not “ethical ways to make money,” and I am a former Bank of America/Countrywide employee, so what’d you expect?

20. Wikipedia

Another seemingly free site you can make money from is Wikipedia. People who say it’s easy to edit Wikipedia have clearly never tried editing Wikipedia – it’s a pain. Thankfully it’s a pain for companies as well, so many of them are willing to pay editors to assist them in the editing process. You’ll become a bounty hunter in a way, choosing your own lines to cross and keep. If editing is something you like to do, and you’re willing to put in the work it takes to learn Wikipedia’s dispute process, roll up your sleeves and try this one out.

21. Blogging

I make the bulk of my money from blogging. In addition to the advertising revenue streams mentioned above, I also receive flat rate payments for blogging from various blogs throughout the web. I’m paid to write as a whistleblower, financial analyst, reviewer, commentator, and more. Writing for other sites builds traffic to my personal blog. The traffic for this blog gives me clout to present to advertisers.

To create your own blog, you don’t even need a web domain. You can start a completely free blog on either WordPress or Blogger. Each of these sites has its ups and downs, but you can’t beat the price. You generally want to keep blog posts between 150-500 words until you have a few dozen under your belt. Links between your blog posts encourage people to stay on your blog once they find it, increasing traffic. Once your blog is up, promote it on social media for the greatest effect.

22. Kickstarter

If you have a passion project, Kickstarter may be exactly what you need to get it off the ground. Celebs like Zach Braff and Melissa Joan Hart have used this site in attempts to fund their movie projects. Some crack dealers in Canada inspired a “crackstarter” campaign from Gawker for pictures of the Toronto mayor smoking crack with them. All you need is a dream, a goal, a budget, and a great pitch to convince people to come to the site and donate to your Kickstarter campaign. Panhandling isn’t dead – it’s gone digital…

23. Extreme Couponing

If you’ve never heard of extreme couponing. Once you’re versed on the idea, what you have to do is a bit difficult at first, but it’s a great way to both save and make money: go to hip2save.com and get a feel for the types of deals that are out there (both online and in the physical world). Once you’re comfortable with the process, start searching for the best deals in grocery, retail, and online shopping. After a month or two of extreme couponing, you’ll have enough cleaning, hygiene, and food supplies stocked up to save a noticeable amount of money. Now maybe you don’t need to make as much…?

24. Social Media

No matter what you do to make money online, promote it on your social media accounts. You have a base of people who are already interested in you and have a vested interest in your brand – why would you not want to take advantage of that? By promoting yourself and your projects on your social media accounts, you’re greatly increasing the chances of people actually giving you money in exchange for your goods and services. Stop being shy and get out there.

Sell Your Unwanted Items

Sell your unwanted items, (on Ebay, Amazon, Play.com etc.)

This is a popular way of earning money online as it is simple, quick and gets results. When you sell your unwanted items on Ebay, Amazon etc it is very simple and you make cash quickly as long as those goods are selling. So it is worth doing research beforehand to see if the items you want to sell are selling. Ebay in particular are very good as selling is quick and you know that chances are it will sell because of the vast amount of people using this site worldwide. Remember the first thing you should do before selling is research on what is selling, then you must look at the cost and then whether you will make a profit. You will need to pay for packaging the product, mailing the product and insertion fees once the product is sold on Ebay. But do not let that put you off as I personally have sold goods on Ebay before and was shocked at how cheap the payouts were to ebay and how cheap the packaging and mailing was. If you are looking for some quick cash then sell your unwanted items, and remember your trash is someone else's gold.

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30 Websites That Make A Lot Of Money Online

30 Websites That Make A Lot Of Money Online

Rank	Website	Founders	Annual Revenue	Per Second
1	Google	Larry Page and Sergey Brin	$21,800,000,000	$691.27
2	Amazon	Jeff Bezos	$19,166,000,000	$607.75
3	Yahoo	Jerry Yang and David Filo	$7,200,000,000	$228.31
4	eBay	Pierre Omidyar	$6,290,000,000	$199.45
5	MSN/Live	Nathan Myhrvold.	$3,214,000,000	$101.92
6	PayPal	Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek	$2,250,000,000	$71.35
7	iTunes	Jeff Robbin	$1,900,000,000	$60.25
8	Reuters	Marshal Vace	$1,892,000,000	$59.99
9	Priceline	Jesse Fink	$1,884,000,000	$59.74
10	Expedia	Added Mark Schroeder	$1,447,000,000	$45.88
11	NetFlix	Reed Hastings	$1,200,000,000	$38.05
12	Travelocity	Terry Jones	$1,100,000,000	$38.05
13	Zappos	Nick Swinmurn	$1,000,000,000	$31.71
14	Hotels.com	David Litman	$1,000,000,000	$31.71
15	AOL	Erik Prince	$968,000,000	$30.70
16	Orbitz	Jeff Katz	$870,000,000	$27.59
17	Overstock	Robert Brazell	$834,000,000	$26.45
18	MySpace	Tom Anderson	$800,000,000	$25.37
19	Skype	Niklas Zennstrom	$550,841,000	$17.47
20	Sohu	Zhang Chaoyang	$429,000,000	$13.60
21	Buy.com	Robb Brock	$400,000,000	$12.68
22	StubHub	Eric Baker	$400,000,000	$12.68
23	Alibaba	Jack Ma	$316,000,000	$10.02
24	Facebook	Mark Zuckerberg	$300,000,000	$9.51
25	YouTube	Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim	$300,000,000	$9.51
26	Blue Nile	Mark Vadon	$295,000,000	$9.35
27	Tripadvisor	Stephen Kaufer	$260,000,000	$8.24
28	Getty Images	Mark Getty	$233,200,000	$7.39
29	Bidz	Garry Itkin	$207,000,000	$6.56
30	NYTimes	Henry Jarvis Raymond	$175,000,000	$5.55