How to Make Money Online in Your Spare Time

I knew there were legitimate ways to make money online. Since everyone wants to, there are a lot of scams out there. The problem was sifting through which ones were scams and which were for real. Luckily, I found one legitimate way to make some spare cash in my free time, which led to me finding several others. There are many ways you can make money at home. I haven't tried all of them because I don't have the time. But, I will share with you the ones I've tried that have worked. Personally, I make at least $500 a month in my spare time when I'm not working my "real job". This is great for anyone who needs or wants to make some spare cash without having to physically get another job. Stay at home moms, college students, retirees, etc. Anyone can do this. You won't get rich, but it's nice to have some extra money. In this economy, anything helps! I recommend you make a separate email for your online money making opportunities.

Mystery Shopping - I did this for two years. It does require you to leave your home and go to the store. But, most of the work is done online. You can also do it in your spare time and schedule your shops around your schedule. In addition to earning money, you can also get lots of free stuff like clothes, groceries and gas. I've even talked to people who have been on a free cruise. Check out The Mystery Shopping Guide on how to get started.

Amazon's Mechanical Turk (mTurk) - This is the first thing I did. I tried it because it was powered through Amazon, a well-known company that has been around a while and I trusted. There are a variety of tasks you can do on this site to get paid. You work on what's called a "HIT", which stands for Human Intelligence Task. Basically, there are some things that need to be done using a computer that a computer can't do. Companies need real people to complete the tasks. So, they put up their job and make it available for the turker community to complete. I wrote an entire article dedicated on how to make the most money out of this program. You can read it by clicking here.

Text - There are two companies I know of that will pay you to answer people's text messages. People can text anything and get an answer delivered back to their phone. The people that answer these questions are doing so from their computer at home. One of the companies is "Cha-Cha". Last I checked, they weren't currently hiring. The other company is "KGB". You've probably seen their commercials online. I work for this company. You don't make great money. But, you can make a few hundred a month depending on how much you work. I can't tell you the earning potential, because I spread out my time earning money online between a number of things. But, what I can tell you is I earn about $2 - $6 an hour depending on how busy it is and what kinds of questions I get.

Write - If you can write fairly well, you can make money by publishing articles online. You can write about anything. I currently write for two sites. But, I plan on writing for more companies once I meet my article goal on both. Associated Content, Helium, About, eHow, Demand Studios and Hub Pages are a few places to get started. Some will pay you up front for your articles and that's it. Others will pay you per page view and some will only pay you if somebody clicks on the ad on the page your article is on. Find what works for you and go with that company.

Transcribe - You can make money by taking audio and typing what was said. If you're a quick typist, this can be a great thing for you to do. Don't do a search for "make money typing". Pretend you need something transcribed and do your Google search that way. Then, apply for those companies. Some you need experience, others you don't. Sometimes you'll have to do a sample transcription for review before you get hired. I recommend looking at the companies "style guide" (every company has a different way of transcribing) and do the best you can on it. They will then send you audio for you to send back (most likely in a Word document). I recommend Express Scribe for anyone who wants to get into transcribing.

Blog - If you know a lot about a certain subject, or have something to offer that you can write about, you should consider blogging. Sign up as an affiliate to companies who's products or services are related to what you're blogging about and make money that way.

E-Lance - www.elance.com is a great place to find work. A basic account is free. It's hard to get work at first, as people shy away from hiring others that are new to the site. But, if you put in some low bids for jobs at first, people may bite. Then, once you get a few jobs you can up your price. There are transcription jobs, writing jobs as well as IT jobs. So, if you know how to build a website, write well, or can transcribe, you may have some luck on this site.

Surveys - I haven't really gotten into this. I've done a few. But, I didn't make much money because you have to "qualify" for the surveys. I also didn't dig deep enough into it to find out everything about it. But, I've heard people do decently taking surveys online. I just don't have the time to look into it with all the things I do.

The best way to figure out if something is legitimate or not is to visit forums. The company website is going to say great things. You want the opinions of people who have used them. This will help you make an informed decision if it's something you'd be interested in. Remember, what works for one person may not work for the next.