51 Ways to Make Money / Earn Money Online in 2017

Everyone wants to make money online! Some people hit it off well and make shit load of it whereas some keep trying and end with very less or no money at all. Money making is an art, not everyone can make money in the same manner. You can be inspired from some people who earn lot of money online but this does not guarantee you too will make money like them.

Different people have different natural skill sets and hence today I present to you 51 Ways to Make or Earn Money Online. I have curated this list from the depths of internet and some from my experience as well, if there are more ways please do let me know via comments so I can update this list.

The methods listed are all online money making techniques, offline methods to make money is not included.

1) Betting – There are lot of good betting websites where one can place bets on your favorite sports teams / poker etc. and make money by winning the bets. Do your research well and place the bets, you can make loads of money with betting.

Pro-Tip: You can bet on sports which always have a set output (Win or Loss) instead of playing Casino / Poker etc.

Some notable betting sites – BetWay.com, Bet365.com

2) Surveys – This is a very old way of earning money online, sign-up with a provider who will send you some surveys to take. Share your opinion on the survey and you get paid per survey. There are tons of sites offering these surveys and to be honest lot of them are scam!

Some legitimate Survey Sites paying money – Inbox Dollars.com, SwagBucks.com

3) Paid Web Search – Did you know you can make money just by doing Google Web Search!? Sounds interesting, isn’t it?

Sites like Qmee.com, Google Screenwise, and Bing Rewards etc. pay you to install either their desktop apps / mobile apps or browser plugins and continue with your day to day searches. You can easily make around 5-10 USD a month

4) Online Share Trading – Create your trading account with a share broker who offers services for online trading and start off! Of course, you will need to do a lot of research into companies you are investing on. If done properly, this is a gold mine! If not, it can lead you to bankruptcy!

5) Online Forex Trading – Instead of shares you will be trading on Foreign Exchange here! Forex Trading is very similar to share trading. Here, you will need to trade foreign currencies instead – Example: Buy USD for 10 bucks and sell it when it raises to 15 bucks

6) Blogging / Niche Sites – Very popular way of making money these days, very crowded one too! Create a blog on your favorite or trending topics and get as much traffic as you can. Retain your visitors and make money off AdSense, Bing Ads, CPA etc. or you could even some products online using the website / blog you made. Efforts would go into creating good and meaningful content for your visitors, making the site look good and placing ads at the right spots

7) Review / Test Websites or Apps – There are lot of sites which pay users to test new websites and apps. All you need to do is Sign Up with such sites and start testing the sites / apps assigned to you for testing. You are basically required to test usability, navigation, site errors, broken links etc. on these apps / sites. Depending on the job, you can easily make around 10 USD per assignment

Some websites in this niche – UserTesting, WhatUsersDo, UserTest, Enroll, UTest, Amazon M-Turk etc.

8) Sites which pay you to take actions like clicking ads, watching videos etc. – There are tons of websites that pay registered users few cents every time they watch an advertisement, click an advertisement, visit a website, fill out a form etc. Lot of these sites are actually scam! So be careful when you sign up with such sites, as you will end up wasting your time

Active users can easily make around 20-50 USD a month (depending on your country and lot of other factors like age, income etc.)

Some legit sites in this niche – Inbox Dollars, SuperPayMe, CashCrate etc.

9) Publish eBooks on Kindle – If you have a flair for storytelling and can attract a lot of curiosity with the way you tell stories, why not write some? You can publish lot short stories on Kindle Store and make money with the sales you make. The more popular you are, the better your sales!

10) Affiliate Marketing / Re-Selling / Drop Shipping – This is as simple as it gets, only when it comes to the description! You will basically pick up someone’s product and market it; you will make sales for the manufacturer / seller and earn commission over it. Shipping etc. is all taken care by the seller. Sounds good right? This is an overcrowded niche, but, you can still make tons of money in this. Find creative products, zero in on your audience, make your pitch and get the sale

There are lot of scripts / plugins which you can use to even handle orders / payments etc. which are auto-forwarded to the seller for shipping. You can just work on bringing traffic to your site

11) Sell your old books / unused stuff – This might surprise you but selling your books / unused stuff online on Amazon (Books Only) or any other local classifieds can actually make you some good money. Search your home / office for things that you don’t use anymore and can be of use to others. Set a decent price basis product condition and market value to make a quick sale

12) Domain Sales – Lot of webmasters these days have given up on Domaineering (Buying / Selling of Domains) due to so many TLDs being introduced by ICANN. The other reason is rare availability of huge profit making domains on the Top TLDs like .com, .net etc.

But, this should not deter you from jumping into this stuff. Lot of new TLDs or gTLDs have some great potential as the main ones are becoming difficult to acquire. Do your research or become creative and buy awesome domains and sell them off online on sites like WJunction, Flippa etc. to make cool money

You can also try buying old expired domains and expect to make a profit off them

13) Online Tutoring – There are lot of training websites out there who have vast user base and are always looking out for people who can effectively teach stuff to their visitors. Sites like Udemy claim that average instructor earnings are around 8000 USD per month which is really cool for a passive income

Sites – Udemy, SkillShare etc.

14) Sell your photos – Are you a shutterbug and have always loved being behind the lens than being in the front and taking those stupid faced selfies? This is for you then! There are lakhs of photographers out there who easily make anywhere between 50 USD to 5000 USD per photo! Yes, sites like ShutterStock only pay photographers 25 cents per photo download, however, there are lot of sites like Alamy where you can make a real good money if the quality and uniqueness of your photography is liked by everyone

Where to sell photos online – Alamy, Fotolia, SmugMug, 500px, Etsy etc.

15) Peer to Peer Lending – P2P Lending is gaining a lot of traction these days. If you have some extra cash and want to make some interest money off it instead of just keeping it in your bank – P2P Lending / Financing is for you!

Lot of sites like FairCent allows Financers to sign up and start lending money to borrower basis a mutually agreed interest rate and re-payment schedule. A contract is executed between them with the assistance of websites like FairCent who would also charge a commission since the transaction took place on their platform

Before you start lending money, do verify that the platform you choose has solid mechanism to verify the borrowers. The contract document, must be thoroughly verified with a Lawyer before signing it. Better safe than sorry!

16) Writing – Content writing has always been in great demand due to the nature of internet. As they say – Content is King! To get good SERP rankings you need good content, to convince your visitors for a sale you need good content, to pitch your idea to a potential investor you need good content. Hence, Content Writers can never go out of demand

Good content writers make anywhere between 10 USD to 500 USD per article. It all depends on your style of writing, audience, research on subject, and command over language etc.

If you are a good writer, start with finding content writing jobs on Fiverr, FreeLancer, UpWork, and ContentMart etc.

17) Graphics Designer – A well written content is useless unless it is presented in a pleasing graphical format. Hire excellent writers for good content but ignore your site’s appearance – you are bound to loose traffic. That’s why Graphics Designers too, never go out of demand!

Good designers can easily make 2500 USD plus for a single design they make! Brush up your Photoshop skills and start marketing your work!

18) Web Development – You may argue that with WordPress taking over the internet (It powers around 30% of all websites on the internet today) the demand for web developers has reduced, nope! Even though WordPress is very easy to run and sometimes does not require the skills of a developer; there are lot of things for which a developer is required

Few instances where developers are required – Heavily modified websites, coding websites from scratch since not everyone prefers WordPress, develop scripts for websites, fix code issues, develop bots for automation etc. are all the normal day to day work for web developers

How much can they make a month? Depends on the nature of work, time required to complete, popularity of coder, experience of coder etc.

19) Flipping Websites – Create websites related to viral content / content in demand, grow its earnings & traffic and finally sell the website off for a good profit. There are thousands of webmasters who earn very good money by flipping websites. How much can you make – this can be a very handsome stream of income; all depends on the profits you make

20) Mobile App Developer – Know coding of mobile applications? Well, this is one of the best ways to make money these days! Offer your services to code applications for business or develop them for your own consumption (flipping). I have seen applications selling for 50,000 USD plus prices. So, start getting creative with ideas and code your applications

PS: Apple app Eco-system makes you more money than Android as iPhone users are considered premium (read creepy)

21) SEO Consultant / Advisor – Somebody like me! This one’s not easy; you need to learn the basics of SEO, know how to apply stuff you read on SEO blogs, keep yourself updated with all the latest SEO trends and much more. As an SEO Consultant, you would be responsible to audit websites from the way they are designed, coded, optimized, ranked etc. This job pays handsomely, however, finding a regular stream of income is difficult until you are a well-known SEO Consultant in your circle

There are a lot of factors which make a website success – you as a consultant must be able to advice on all of the factors applicable to your client’s industry (website category)

22) Virtual Assistant – There are many business which require people to perform small tasks like responding to customer e-mails, handle live chat, manage accounting, track orders / deliveries, write small content, make forum posts etc. Such people usually post their requirements on Forums like WJunction, WebHostingTalk, Warrior Forum etc.

Scale up your skills and start offering your services on Webmaster Forums with marketplaces, I am sure you will find someone who would hire you for what you can do. Another way is to post on Micro Job sites

Virtual Assistants usually charge on an hourly basis, however, I would suggest to start off with a fixed price like – 50 USD per week depending on the nature of work involved

23) YouTube Video Channels – Have good presentation skills? Have good knowledge about some topic? YouTube is the right place to make money! If you search DuckDuckGo with – ‘How to Make Money with YouTube’ or ‘People who have stuck gold with YouTube’ I am sure you will find tons of posts about it. Earning on YT has a huge potential; key is to make simple and informative videos on your chosen topics

Videos on Latest Technologies, Recipes, Conspiracy Theories, Viral Stuff, Tutorials, and Movie Reviews etc. have huge viewership. The more unique your style is the better will be your audience connect – the better the audience connect more the moolah!

24) Create and Sell Audio books – If you have a good voice and some excellent narrative skills, try this method! Audio books – stories and tutorials are in demand these days since people don’t have time to read – a survey has shown that people prefer listening than reading. There are loads of sites where you can sell your Audio Books – Audible.com, Feiyr.com, Amazon.com etc.

25) Social Media Marketing – Do you know the best tricks of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus etc. to drive traffic to your websites? Does engaging with customers / potential customers on official pages sound exciting to you? Social Media Marketing / Digital Marketing is the right choice for you. Marketers these days earn huge money by driving traffic to their customer websites using various tricks / methods

26) Adult Chatrooms / Camrooms / Modelling – This one’s not for the shy feeling soul! If you are ready to showcase your skills and tools to an audience online – be it a private chatroom or a public cam this one’s for you! Confidence and naughtiness is the key here. There are plenty of websites hiring both male and female models and the pay is handsome

27) Gig Websites – Fiverr.com has changed the way people make quick money! The best thing about Fiverr.com and other gig websites – they are not just some passing trend. Started in 2009 – Fiverr has come a long way now. Offer to perform small tasks on these sites and make easy & quick money. Hope you know there are lots of sites like Fiverr.com

28) Freelancing Websites – Similar to gig websites, these are for bigger projects – Website Coding, App Coding, Theme Creating, E-Book Writing, Digital Marketing etc. Whatever your skill is – most freelancing sites would be happy to allow you sell your skills. Ensure your profile is always up-to date and professional. Initially, it is tough to gain trust of buyers since most of them prefer experienced users (number of years on site count) but with good work you should easily be able to stand out from the rest

29) Gaming related – Gamers can make money too – did you know this!? From testing to-be released games, writing reviews of newly released games, selling keys, making videos etc. there are a lot of ways gamers make money. There are also gaming competitions where you can win loads of money. If you are a hardcore gamer – go for this!

30) Uploading – Of course, how can this not be on this list? Borderline grey area – lots of people still make decent money using this method. I will not list how, why, where and when here. You are all Professional in this!

31) Crypto-Currency Mining / Trading – There are mainly two ways to make money from Crypto-Currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etc.) – Mining them or trading them.

Mining crypto-currencies require you to have powerful hardware and most cases expensive GPUs (Graphics Card) since mining becomes more difficult by each passing day. However, there are still lot of coins which are competitively easy to mine and the rewards are worth it. One such coin is Monero – if you can mine with a hashrate of 30 KH/seconds then you can earn around 1 Monero (XMR) coin a day. Current value of Monero (XMR) is around 45 USD a coin – decent enough right?

Trading is another aspect of crypto-currencies – if you don’t want to mine or don’t have the hardware to mine you can still trade in crypto-currencies. It is as simple and buying and selling coins of your choice. When trading ensure that all your coins are stored on a Desktop Wallet as a minimum precautionary measure – storing on Web Wallets or Exchanges is very very risky. Buy coins which you feel have future potential or you know price will increase and then trade as you feel right – short term profit booking or long term investments

32) Money Exchange Services – Accept it, there are way too many ways of paying online – PayPal, Payza, Crypto-Currencies (1000+), WebMoney, Skrill, PerfectMoney etc. In such a scenario not every website accepts all of these payments. Here arises a need for you to exchange Currency in X system to Currency in Z system to buy goods / services from Website AB. How do you exchange currency – this is where you can earn money – exchanging money from one form to another – PayPal to Bitcoin, Litecoin to Payze, Webmoney to Skrill etc. By doing so, you can earn decent commissions and help people out too. Having so many currency accounts is risky and sometimes lengthy process – once you start earning decent money it will all be worth it.

Word of caution – Security of accounts you store money will become more important due to the nature of your business. You cannot afford to lose money to a stupid hack

33) Part-time Book Keeping – Are you good with accounting / book-keeping? You can earn money by maintaining books for firms (online or offline). The amount of money you can earn depends on nature of client business, number of clients you work with etc. You can search for such jobs on most job portals or even freelancing websites

34) Facebook / Instagram Pages – No, this is not Social Media Marketing. This is like website flipping – create popular pages and make money out of them. Key here is to gain as many followers as possible. Do not go for fake followers – people want high engagement rates – fake followers have the worst engagement rates. You can create a page, make it popular and sell it for decent price. Another way is to create popular pages and sell ad posts (Sponsored) on the page for a price – Example: 25$ for one post with Product Link, Video and Description for a 100000 follower page

35) Search Engine Evaluator – Do you know even Search Engines show the wrong results at times? Do you know people can make money by evaluating results of search engines? Well, that’s possible. A decent computer with internet connection and some knowledge of how Web works can get you a job of Search Engine Evaluator

Sites: Leapforceathome.com, Thesmartcrowd.com, Appen.com etc.

36) Private Investigator – Love Sherlock Holmes? Love solving mysterious cases? This one’s for you! Private Investigators are in demand these days since the world is becoming cruel by the minute – you never know who is plotting what against you! Become a private investigator and help your client in finding out whatever they want – love affairs, financials, corporate espionage etc.

37) Name Companies – Being unique is the key these days, businesses unique names & domains these days. You can make money by becoming Name Advisor – websites like Namingforce.com, Squadhelp.com, Pickydomains.com, Crowddoodle.com have regular contests where companies / users request for unique names for their business, products, services etc. If you are the one to select the best & unique name you might win anything from 50 USD to 50000 USD!

38) Rent out unused space – Websites like AirBnB etc. allow anyone to rent out their unused space at homes online. Make your space attractive, offer perks and be friendly with your guests – your unused space can make you more money than your regular salary!

39) Write Slogans – Similar to Name Companies – this one is for slogans or taglines – Unique and catchy taglines can make decent money too

40) Sell / Re-Sell Web Hosting & related Services – Anyone wanting to create an online business has to buy Web Hosting and / or related services. As long as there is internet, hosting business will remain in vogue! Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, RDP, Dedicated Servers etc. can all be offered / re-sold to make very good money. Be sure to market well and offer solid customer support to your customers

41) Cartoon Strips – Are you good at drawing cartoons / making stories out of cartoons? Lot of online publications actively look out to hire cartoon artistes who have the right skills. Make creative cartoons with unique stories, you are bound to make nice money off them

42) Adult Cartoons / Stories – Adult cartoon strips, stories & magazines are a rage too. Make your own website and offer content to premium customers (some free preview to convert) or offer your skills to a website already doing this. Income is very good in this field

43) Sell Creative Products – Selling creative products on websites like Etsy, EBay, Pinterest, Amazon etc. can be a handsome money maker if your products are creative, have good quality and are marketed well. What is a creative product you may ask - A handbag made in such a design so as to make it appear out-of normal norm designs is creative. Basically, any normal products designed in a manner which is unique is creative

44) White-hat Hacker – Hacking does not always have to be on the illegal side; most big companies hire white-hat hackers in order to regularly audit their security online. Government agencies too hire white-hat hackers for threat monitoring, cyber-security, tracking, anti-terrorism etc. activities. You can either become a full-time employee or a part-time consultant – the money to be made here is superb – right skill-set and experience will give you loads of money

45) Bug Bounty Programs – Do you know lot of big websites have programs where anyone can report bugs / flaws / security issues etc. to them? They in-turn pay bug reporters nicely (depends on company policies) post testing / fixing the reported issues. Lots of people have made this their full-time online job and have made real good money off it. If you are one of those people who can find flaws, reverse engineer codes then this is for you

46) Create and sell scripts, software etc. – How many premium plugins / scripts have you seen? Most likely, it will be thousands. There is a lot of money to be made by making / selling scripts, softwares etc. online. Be sure to solve problems, automate stuff etc. for your product sales to be good. Just copying some existing script / software won’t help much

47) Online Account Sales (Netflix etc.) – Toss away your unused subscription accounts – there are lot of sites where you can sell your subscription accounts for a price. The more you have, the more money you can make. It has been found in lots of surveys that people buying subscription services do not use them much, I don’t too – have 10 such accounts which I am planning to sell off soon

48) Video Creation / Editing – With YouTube becoming a hugely popular medium, creation / editing of videos has become one of the most sought after jobs. There is huge demand for content creators in this space – if you have the right skill-sets, start looking for jobs on freelancing / webmaster websites – it pays handsomely

49) Server Administration – If you love playing around with servers, ensuring their security is flawless, monitor users etc. then server administration is the best job for you. Loads of web hosts hire server administrators – full-time and part-time; most of them allow you to work from the comfort of your homes. The pay is decent, go for it if you love the challenges

50) Ad-spots on Websites – Do you have a popular website with good traffic? You can create spots in your website where you can allow advertisers to post their ads for a price – depends on your website, niche, traffic, engagement etc. There are websites which make huge money by doing just this

51) Counseling – Be it online of offline, counseling is a big money maker these days – no, we are not talk about medical counselling – you need to be a qualified medical practitioner for that. If you know a particular subject really well – let’s say CPA for example – you can create a website offering to guide other users for a charge – help them make money by charging either a portion of what they make or a fixed price per session / user. Same can be applied for coding, designing, SEO etc. 

Ensure you are an expert in your field even before you start looking for customers – you do not want your customers to have a bad outcome out of your advise.