How to make money online

Millennials own less than 5% of all US wealth, despite the fact that we make up the largest portion of the workforce. That isn’t too concerning though, if you think about the fact that most of the more affluent generations are older, so they’ve probably had more time to acquire their wealth. After all, millennials are all just young professionals, trying to get their foot in the door while every entry level job somehow requires +3 work experience and 4 rounds of interviews to even be added to a candidate pool.

Things were different back in the day. Boomers today control over 53% of America’s wealth. However in 1989, when there were around the same ages millennials are now, they controlled 21% of the wealth in the country. So something definitely changed.

The standard of living is increasing drastically and minimum wage just isn’t cutting it for many people anymore. With new issues, you need new solutions. You can’t simply expect to have a 9-5 minimum wage job like your grandpa did in 1976 and expect to get by. With the added pressure of reduced hours due to co-vid, it seems almost impossible for the average joe can survive in today’s economy.

So in 2021 we’re all taking up side hustles (at least until poor people get paid better).

This past year I’ve obviously been stuck at home, like I’m assuming most of you reading this have been too. I’ve also been out of work and hoping to take up any new source of income available, meaning I’ve scoured the internet looking for and testing different ways to make cash online. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned with you, so if you’re searching for a new stream of income read on to find out which options work and which are just flat out scams.

Online Gambling or Betting

Don’t do this. We’re trying to increase our income, not develop a gambling addiction that will follow us for the rest of our lives. I’ve wasted too many pennies, thinking I could ‘win big’ with one more good drop down the coin machine, to think online gambling would end in anything but tears and an empty bank. Also, the best way to stop addiction is to never start in the first place, so there we go.

Blogging and writing

This is a pretty good way of making money too. Website like Vocal pay you based on the number of views your posts has. This happens on a rolling bases, so from the time you post something you could potentially begin making money. However, this is all down to the amount of work you put in and you will get as much or as little as you up in. I’ve received a total of almost $50 while having 5 posts up for a couple of months and I think that’s pretty good! The magic is getting an audience and consistent views. You’re also given the chance to win way more by competing in contests.

Surveys

You can make like $27 a month doing this. The websites say you can make at least $12 a day, but that’s really optimistic. You’re more likely to spend hours going through surveys that frequently decide you’re not the right candidate after 20 minutes of answering questions, and send you back to the homepage unpaid. After a dedicated 3 hours on a reputable survey website I’d come up with a whopping $0.96 - and this was one of the good sites. Many of these sites pay literally pennies for hours of work - don’t get roped in!

Online Book Publishers

This kind of works. Since signing up to a popular website that allows you to make and distribute your own books I’ve actually sold 10 books in 2 months. That’s not really huge, but for something I spent $0, that’s pretty good. They can handle printing and shipping and everythnig for you, just make sure your price is more than the base cost, and the profit is yours. I’ve made an overall profit of $20 so far in 2 months from one book. If you were dedicated, and put time into writing a novel or creating multiple journals, I believe you could make much more as it would add it. This could be a solid course of passive income.

User Testing

This is a great choice. You can make up to $10 to speaking and writing about your opinion on different app or website prototypes for 30 minutes . You get paid by PayPal and everything is really easy and fast to do. Some sites are really transparent and they want to help you make money. One disadvantage is a lot of the tests have really specific entry requirements so I spend a lot of time getting rejected from jobs! This could potentially be a high earner if you’re lucky and are part of many target audiences - otherwise you can just sit around for ages waiting for a job to pop up. I’ve made about $90 from this through very very casual usage over the past year.

Between User Testing, Blogging and Book publishing, you can make a steady income. Most of these just require dedication and a little elbow grease. Good luck!