15 Money Making Ideas That Actually Work

Earning money used to be associated with traditional 'offline' jobs, but with the internet taking over a large part of our lives, more and more people are looking for ways to earn online income to increase their financial inflow.

There are numerous ways that can help you earn money online but some of these could end up being scams. Hence one needs to be careful. Also, one should not expect to earn a huge amount quickly when using online avenues to earn money. Some people earn so well through online sites that they have given up their 9-5 jobs. But for most, it’s still a means of earning a few extra bucks. It all depends on your luck, determination and efforts. Success can be yours if you put your heart and soul into it.

Here are a few trusted and legit online platforms, websites and resources that can help you earn money online.

Launched in 2008, Swagbucks is one of the premier, most popular and trusted consumer loyalty programs with more than 40 million registered members worldwide. It is a rewards program that lets you to cash in on your online activity. While it doesn't promise to bring in big money, it's easy to earn points for watching videos, playing online games, shopping and signing up for websites. These points for gift cards to thousands of retailers including Walmart, Macy’s, JCPenney and Amazon or get cash back from PayPal. If you refer friends and family, you can earn a referral bonus too.

Selling books and textbooks you don’t need anymore is a great way to declutter and make some extra cash. BookScouter is a specialized search engine that compiles the current selling prices from various vendors. List your old and unused books on the site. Once you enter the ISBN for your book, you will get buying offers from book sites. All you have to do now is to select the highest paying offer and request a free prepaid shipping envelope. Ship your books and get the money in a few days.

Fiverr is a very popular online marketplace for freelance services.Sell your services for 5$ or more. The services can be professional ones from Financial Consulting to Logo Design or as simple as writing a love letter. Earnings depend on the number of orders you are able to get for your gigs.

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing marketplace that enables individuals or businesses to to post short tasks and hire workers to complete them. Here you can earn money by doing tasks. There are different tasks like writing product descriptions or choosing pictures for a product etc.Earnings are transferred to an Amazon Payments account or can be redeemed for an Amazon.com gift card.

TaskRabbit is an American online and mobile marketplace which will connect you with people willing to pay money to get different chores done within your locality. Taskers are paid an hourly rate or a per-task price, minus a service fee. This site is useful mainly for the people living in U.S.A.

Craigslist is an American classified advertisements website . Here you can sell almost anything. Any used items like furniture, household appliances, collectibles or anything else can be sold online to make some money. You can get in touch with the buyer, negotiate and sell your product for cash. In India, we have OLX which is quite similar to Craigslist.

A‌i‌r‌b‌n‌b‌ is an online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging, primarily homestays. You can use this site to rent your extra room or even your couch to travelers for a price.

Etsy is a very popular site among artists and crafters. The site is focused on handmade or vintage items and craft supplies. Here you can sell paintings, knitted caps/scarves etc.

DeviantArt is the world's largest online social community for artists and art enthusiasts. It provides a platform for emerging artists to exhibit, promote, and share their works with the community. It is also a good place to sell your digital works and photographs.

Care.com helps families find child care, senior care, special needs care, tutoring, pet care, housekeeping, etc. You can browse through the site to get care giving jobs.

Zazzle is another website where you can open an online store and make your creativity earn for you. You can design products and put up for sale on your store. If someone buys your customized designs then Zazzle gives you a commission.

HubPages is a popular writing site that lets you earn through adsense and amazon affiliate program. Even if you don’t have an adsense account, you can get one for HubPages by writing a few articles on it. If writing is your passion then this is a good place to be.

ArtFire is a perfect place to sell your art works & handmade products- from handmade jewelry and crafts, to vintage clothing and supplies.

Shutterstock is a global marketplace for images, videos, vectors and music. Sell your good quality photographs on shutterstock for a price. Another similar site is iStock.

eBay needs no introduction. Here you can auction anything of value. You can even open an online store on eBay and earn money selling books, coins, stamps, or apparel.