Creative Ways to Make Money Online

Most people associate making money online with getting paid to write as a freelance writer through direct purchase, upfront payments, affiliate or referral payments, and/or passive income. Other common options are opening your own online store or business, selling on auction sites, or being paid to blog. However, if you dislike freelance writing, don't have time to run an online business, or run a blog these are frustrating options.

Chances are if you are a creative person, you already have a product or skill to sell without even realizing it. Friends and family members may have even told you that you should sell items that show off your creativity, but you may have no idea where to start.

Shutterstock.com
If you love photography, you may want to look into selling your photographs on Shutterstock.com as a way to make money online. In addition to accepting photography, illustrations, and 3D renditions (vector images) are other images acceptable for submission. After signing up (which is free for sellers) you can submit your photographs, illustrations, and images for review. Acceptable images are high in quality, unique, and marketable to a variety of visitors to their site. Once your image is accepted it is posted on the site, and made available for download. Each download pays 25 cents and increases to 30 cents once you have made $500 on the site. This may not seem like much, but can add up quickly if you have multiple submissions accepted to their database.

DeviantART
If the submission and approval process makes you nervous because you do not want to risk rejection DeviantART may be the solution you need to make money online. This website is truly unique in a number of ways, because it accepts all types of art media - not just photography. However, in order to sell your work you do have to purchase a membership to the site which can run from $5 per month to a prepaid year for $30. It is a great alternative for those who do not have the time or skill to set up a personal website where their artwork is available for sale. And if you are truly serious about making money online with your art, you will make your membership money back in a few sales.

Tattoo Flash Art
For those who enjoy creating tattoos but are not sure where they can sell their designs, Tattoo-flash-art.com can be an excellent place to start. All you have to do is submit samples of your tattoo flash, and they will respond with either an acceptance or rejection email. Keep in mind competition on this site can be a bit stiff - the site notes only 1 in 20 submissions will be accepted for sale on their site.

Etsy
The eBay of the arts and crafts world, Etsy.com is a unique marketplace where handmade craft goods and supplies are sold. When you open an account you create a username, which is also the name of your store. For each craft item you post for sale, a 20 cent fee is charged - but the item is listed for 4 months or whenever the item is sold. You are permitted to post 5 photographs per item for sale, allowing you to show off your craft goods from all angles. After a sale is made, an additional 3.5% selling fee is charged on the final sale price. Even with the few included fees, it is an easy way to make money online since all sale auctions are "equal" and you are given your own store with no additional fees.

Sell-Arts
If Etsy and/or DeviantART appeals too you, but you do not want to pay the fees, Sell-arts.com is the next best option. Here you can list artwork and crafting items for 100% free and the money you make online is yours to keep. There are no membership fees, listing fees, sale fees - nothing. The only fee you may incur is if you have to use them for payment processing (which you can avoid if you sign up for a Paypal or Alertpay business account) that costs 10% of the payment price.