Smart tips to make extra cash online

Using the digital world to boost your income.

We now live in an age where having a job isn’t a case of a simple 9 to 5 with weekends off. Flexible working, agile industries, the gig economy and the very wide range of online businesses have created a vast spectrum of opportunities for supplementing your main income. So, if you’re looking to pay for a holiday, buy a new car or just for a new wardrobe without taking out a secured loan to get extra cash then here are some smart tips to make extra cash online, whatever your skill set.

Get paid to fall down a Google black hole

If you’ve ever found yourself wasting hours online just going from one online search to the next then you’ve experienced the ‘Google black hole.’ It’s all too easy to get sucked into spending time on search engines when we should be doing other, more productive things. However, now that time may not be wasted after all as you can get paid for doing it. Businesses such as Qmee will pay you for ‘search engine evaluation,’ which basically means doing lots of searching and getting a fee in return. It works by giving you an ad on to download to your browser and pays around 9 – 19 cents for clicks.

Entertain yourself and earn at the same time

Does it sound like easy money to get paid to watch videos, enter competitions and give your opinions via polls? If so, then there are numerous sites out there that will help you earn extra cash without tasks feeling onerous. Gifthulk, for example, will pay you to watch videos and take polls while the Qustodian app pays you to read adverts.

Sell skills that you didn’t even know you had

‘Micro jobs’ are the new buzzword in online moneymaking and are growing increasingly popular. A micro job is basically a short task or assignment that can be completed quickly. So, for example, you might take a micro job proofreading a CV for someone or helping to find images online for a blog or website. You might get involved in customer research for a big brand or you could find yourself offering an hour of virtual PA work. Some micro job sites will take you offline where you’re getting paid for tasks such as cleaning out someone’s garage or putting up shelves. From basic DIY, to wordsmith skills just about anything can be monetised as a micro job – see sites like Fiverr for inspiration. A micro-job is the perfect way to avoid having to borrow money on a loan or credit card and also perfect if you would otherwise need loans for people with bad credit scores.  

If you’re going to start making money online then it’s important to do it properly:

• Use the skills and abilities you already have so you can start making money right now with no further investment
• Establish up front whether payment is cash or a cash substitute, such as vouchers
• Sign up for a couple of websites but don’t go over the top or you’ll never see the bottom of your inbox again
• Allocate a time to make extra cash online each day – don’t get sucked in to doing it permanently and jeopardise other jobs
• Be responsive – many of the surveys, polls and tasks are first come first served so you need to get in there first to be able to take part