33 Ways to Earn Money Online Without Investment

Looking to make some money without putting your own cash on the line first? You’re not alone. Everyone loves a low-risk side gig.

earn money from home without investment

Students, retirees, and everyone in between are always on the lookout for ways to earn extra cash without upfront costs.

We’ve put together straightforward opportunities to help you start earning shelling out a dime. So let’s dive in!

Our Favorite Side Hustles

Download these apps to make extra cash in your spare time. Get paid to complete surveys or take photos around your city.

  • Survey Junkie
  • 20M+ members
  • Average survey payout is $.50 – $3.00
  • Make money in your spare time
  • Trustpilot rating of 4.5/5 from more than 30k+ reviews
  • Branded Surveys
  • Earn up to $5 per Survey
  • Share your opinion on products or services
  • Over 50,000 five-star ratings
  • Get PayPal cash or direct deposit

1. Online surveys

Yep, I’m well aware that most people hate when these annoying things pop up on a website.

However, certain survey websites will award you for your troubles, whether through cash or most likely, Amazon gift cards.

Doing surveys is a legitimate way to make money from home without any investment, especially for younger people with plenty of time to spare and no money to invest.

Check out these best survey apps that pay below so you can make some money right away:

Btw, you won’t make a fortune but still, this is one of the fastest ways to make money online.

Don’t miss: Swagbucks Vs. Survey Junkie: Which is Better?

2. Resell free stuff from Craigslist

Do you want to make money for free?

People give away all kinds of stuff on Craigslist and people pay ridiculously high prices for all kinds of stuff on eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

The easiest money of your life is waiting for you.

Go to Craigslist. In the “for sale” section, click on “free.” Go pick up all the stuff people are just giving away for free and post it on eBay and Facebook Marketplace for $10.

Check out these other ways to get free stuff online you can resell afterward: Free Shoes, Free Books, Free Clothes and Free Stuff for Kids.

3. Play video games

Mistplay is a free Android app that rewards users with free gift cards for playing a variety of mobile games.

The concept behind Mistplay is really simple: just download the app, select games from the Mixlist to play, and start earning points in the background.

Points can be redeemed for a wide variety of gift cards, and Mistplay constantly updates its list of games.

This won’t make you rich or revolutionize your finances, but if you love mobile gaming, there’s no reason not to earn some easy passive income.

Learn: Mistplay Vs. Swagbucks: Which is Better?

4. Cashback apps and free sign-up bonuses

Scan your receipt and let the app do its magic, or just sign up. It’s genuinely as simple as that, you get paid just to sign up.

Free money!

free sign up bonus

The best thing about it is the fact that you wouldn’t have to move a finger to earn money online, well, that is if you don’t count signing up or taking the photo. Still, that seems like a small price to pay, doesn’t it?

  • Sign up for Swagbucks now and get $5
  • Acorns gives you $5 when you sign up and invest $10.
  • Sign up for Ibotta and get up to a $20 bonus when you redeem your first offers. Ibotta is a free app that lets you earn money or gift cards by scanning your receipt when you buy certain items. They also put out an “any receipt” weekly and have many “any brand” items.
  • Sign up for Rakuten and get $10 after your first purchase
  • Sign up for Dosh and get $5 free when you link a card

To learn more visit: Best Cash Back Apps

5. Become a freelancer

In case you have a particular skill that others might need, or if you’re simply capable of sitting behind the computer screen doing data entry for a couple of hours every day, you might want to consider becoming a freelancer.

There are plenty of websites to find remote jobs, but my suggestion would be the Upwork platform, as it has the largest collection of online gigs available each and every day.

Still, don’t focus on strictly one platform, at least not in the beginning. Register on Fiverr, and test your luck there as well. Stick to it long enough, and you’ll find success sooner rather than later.

Don’t know where to start? Learn WordPress web design and make websites for people that aren’t tech-savvy.

Don’t have time? Here’s an easy gig to make $10 a day online. Remove backgrounds from people’s images. All you have to do is to upload an image to remove.bg and the site will remove the background for you. Fiverr sellers charge $5-10 for that quick job. Try with your own image, you can do it in 10 seconds or less.

Check out: Make Money on Fiverr

6. Stock photography

If you’ve been browsing the internet long enough, I can almost guarantee that you ran into one of the websites selling stock photography sometime in the past.

Have you ever considered making your contribution to their ever-growing collection?

If you have a decent camera, and some talent, you can climb the ladder quicker than you think. When that happens, you will start making some sweet profit off of royalties alone.

Check out Shutterstock and get started.

7. Sell your own videos

Don’t get me wrong, you should not buy an expensive camera and pretend to be the new Steven Spielberg.

Instead, capturing a couple of cute videos of your pets and children will be a fine place to start.

If one of your videos goes viral, you’ll be laughing at the doubters all the way to the bank.

Check out: How to Sell Videos Online (I made over $6,000)

8. Become a virtual assistant

More and more high-end executives are willing to hire remote workers.

They aren’t doing it for the kindness of their hearts, though, as this move saves a lot of dollars for companies. Still, this should not concern you in the slightest.

If anything, it gives you an opportunity to earn a lot of money with no investments necessary, provided you already have a computer and a steady internet connection.

Be careful though, this job is only for those responsible individuals. If you slack off, you won’t last too long in this business.

9. Get paid to watch videos, video ads and tv

Get paid to watch videos and browse away as much as you’d like, and get rewarded for doing so. It’s a perfect way to earn money online without investment?

All you have to do is use Swagbucks or InboxDollars search engine, which is not too bad, and watch some video ads while you’re there.

You’ll hardly become a millionaire from doing so, but something beats nothing any day of the week, as far as I’m concerned.

Check out: 7 Ways to Get Paid to Watch TV

10. Social media manager

The great thing about this job is that anyone can do it and make money from home.

However, the first thing you need to do is educate yourself on the topic.

Luckily, there are tons of free and quite useful content on the topic to be found online.

Most of it comes in the form of eBooks and publications which aren’t free, but there are also some pretty good YouTube channels out there, dealing with the topic.

After the first step is complete, offer your services to local businesses, even on a trial basis, and prove your worth. They’ll quickly realize just how useful a social media manager can be to their work.

11. Interpreter

If you are bi-lingual look into interpreting for the court system in your state. In time you can expand to all states. You can opt for remote interpreting only which is done via Zoom or telephone or you can go in person. Pays $50-$80 an hour depending on the language.

You accept or decline assignments according to your schedule. Most hearings will last under 30 minutes and you get paid a minimum of 2 hours.

12. YouTube

Ever wondered how some of your favorite content creators were able to make a living off of YouTube alone?

Stop wondering, and join that circle.

Everyone has to start somewhere, and even the biggest channels with millions of subscribers used to be stuck at ground zero, much like you at the moment.

Select a niche that you find fitting, and hone your craft. Subscribers will come sooner or later.

Check out:

13. Blogging

These days, it seems like everyone has a blog.

Why wouldn’t they?

Ultimately, it costs close to nothing to open it, and it can be a tremendous value for your pent up creativity.

In case you aren’t willing to invest even that tiny amount, you can always write as a ghostwriter for someone else, just to get your feet wet.

Even if it doesn’t gain much following, you will learn how to better express yourself, which will also help in your everyday life. Of course, if you make it big, you will be able to turn it into a career.

Check out: How to make a website

14. Micro jobs

As the name itself suggests, these gigs encompass a whole series of smaller tasks that need to be done.

For instance, some websites are willing to reward you for promoting their content in the form of likes and shares, or they might encourage you to leave comments on their social media or blog posts.

You might also be asked to rate certain apps or leave positive reviews that other users can see.

There are literally millions of micro jobs available every day, and most of them are legit ways to make money from home.

All you have to do is look for them.

15. User testing

You can design the greatest-looking website in the world, but if it’s not user-friendly, you’ll get nowhere fast.

The trouble is, when you design a website, you cannot really be objective about it.

That’s why companies hire users to test their pages and see whether or not improvements can be made.

Users are asked to leave a review or two whenever they stumble upon something that seems odd or out of place. Do you think you’d be able to do it?

RECOMMENDED: UserTesting Review: Is It a Legit Way To Make Money?

16. Teach English online

Teach English online from home with companies like VIPKID, Qkids, and Cambly.

If you work a regular schedule, you can make $1,500 a month working only 20 hours a week, or even over $2,000 if you work on weekends too.

17. Food delivery

First of all, let’s get one thing out of the way. I’m well aware that you need to own a car for this job to rank on the list, so I’m taking that as a given.

In case you enjoy just driving around and cruising all day long, you can implement a chore around it, and turn your hobby into a profit. Delivering food is a simple way to make money without a job.

When it comes down to it, all you have to do is go to the restaurant, pick up a package and deliver it to the given address.

For such a mindless task, the pay is rather nice, being that you can earn as much as $25 an hour this way. Not too shabby.

Check out: Instacart and DoorDash

18. Dog Walking

Is there a better job for you animal lovers?

Don’t be surprised that this odd job is in such high demand. It might seem weird that people aren’t willing to walk their dogs, but most business-minded individuals nowadays have no time left on their schedule for this fun activity.

Besides making some money without spending any, and meeting a couple of new furry friends, you will also get a chance to enjoy some physical activity outdoors.

Check out how to find Dog Walking Jobs and get started.

19. Airbnb

Let’s face the truth guys, most of us have a free room in our house that we use as storage space.

These things get so cluttered along the way that it becomes mission impossible to find the item you so desperately need anyway.

So, what can you do to turn this story into a success?

Just clean out all the junk, throw away or sell half of it which you never get a chance to use anyway, and list the room on Airbnb.

Chances are that you won’t have to invest a single dime in the process too!

Stop procrastinating and start maximizing your earning potential.

20. Make candles

Why buy new candles when you can make ones with just a tiny bit of effort? It doesn’t take long to hone this skill either.

With a couple of days of trial and error, you’ll master it in no time. Besides saving a few bucks yourself, you can then resell these homemade candles, and turn in some decent profit.

This is especially true if you educate yourself on design, thus branding your products even further.

Related: 5 Ways to Earn Money With Minimal Skills

21. Make soap

Similar to the skill mentioned above, you can also learn how to make soap quickly and easily with nothing more than a simple YouTube tutorial video.

Sell it to your friends and neighbors at discount prices, and expand your circle of customers as you gain experience.

22. Handyman services

It’s fair to say that society is more technologically advanced now than at any time in the past. From the looks of things, this trend will only continue in the future.

However, the truth is that in the process, most people have completely drifted away from any handyman work, and they leave that job to the professionals.

Still, there is a middle slot there to be filled. It can be occupied by someone who has the necessary skill but isn’t that expensive. Could that someone be you?

23. Provide neighborhood tech support

On the other side of the spectrum, there are tons of elderly people who just cannot seem to get used to the overwhelming technology consuming their lives.

Their computers and other gadgets never seem to work properly and are in constant need of fixing. Most of the time, it’s a simple fix, such as installing a driver or two.

Become a neighbor that can provide a solution to all their technical difficulties and chances are you’ll never run out of work.

24. Dog poop scooper

It’s most definitely a very dirty job, but someone has to do it!

Hey, guys like Mike Rowe from the Discovery Channel made a whole career out of it.

If you are in desperate need of cash, and you aren’t afraid to get down and dirty, perhaps this is an option worth considering to make some extra money without spending money.

25. House Sitting

What do rich people do when they leave on holiday?

Do they just leave their house empty and vulnerable to getting robbed?

Nope, they usually hire a trustworthy person to take care of their possessions while they are gone and that’s your chance to make some money on the side.

You get a chance to sleep in their luxury home, plus get rewarded a decent amount of cash for your efforts. What’s not to like?

IMO, this is a great way for college students to make money.

26. Pet sitting

In case you were wondering how to make money as a kid, the answer is pet sitting.

OK, this might not be as glamorous as the previously mentioned gig, but it’s still pretty damn awesome!

Cuddle with cute animals all day long, and take them on walks around the block.

Do not forget to feed them, and you should be alright. The only downside is that you will have to return the animals back to their owners eventually.

27. Tutoring

Do you have a lot of knowledge on any particular subject?

It would be rather selfish to keep it all to yourself. All joking aside, but tutoring is an excellent way to earn some money from home without investment while helping others in the process.

It can be a great tool for younger people to meet some new friends as well.

Check out: 11 Ways To Make Money As An Online Tutor

28. Decluttering

Do you constantly have to deal with a lack of space in your closet or living room?

You might need to get a bigger closet, but chances are that the solution can be found elsewhere. Why not simply get rid of the stuff you never get a chance to use anyway?

Not only that you’ll immediately notice the improvements in your organization skills, but if you put your stuff for sale on websites such as eBay, Poshmark, or Mercury, you can make some money online without any investment as well.

Oh yeah, and in case you were thinking of saving stuff for your grandchildren, don’t worry about it, they won’t be willing to use most of it anyway.

29. Uber/Lyft

Install one or both of these apps and use them from time to time. What do I mean by that?

Well, I don’t necessarily think that this would be a good career choice, but if you manage to combine it with your work, go ahead and do it.

For instance, if you need to travel long distances to work every day, pick up some people along the way, and cover your gas expenses at the very least.

30. Get paid to click and post links

Even people who aren’t at all computer savvy know how to click a mouse. If not, they will learn it in a second.

That’s all you need to know in order to earn some cash.

There are literally hundreds of websites in need of workers who will follow instructions and click on the promoted content and get paid for posting links.

With an average pay of $0.04 per single click, it seems like a decent option for teenagers to earn money.

Easy online job without investment!

31. Junk removal

This is another one of those not-so-glamorous gigs, but this one pays off big time.

All you have to do in order to get started is rent a truck from Home Depot, find a client or two, and start working!

It’s an honest way to make a living, but you have to be willing to put the time in, and sometimes work long and hard hours. Do you have what it takes?

32. Pursue your singing career

Has God gifted you with a great voice?

It would be a shame to waste such talents under a shower, or on karaoke nights. Instead, why not try to perform in a smaller pub in front of your close friends and family members, just to see if there’s something there?

With a few adult beverages, everyone is guaranteed to have a good time, and if it works out for the best, you might make a career or at least a side hustle out of it.

33. Review books for money

Yes, you can make money reading books. Thousands of new books are published every single year and authors would like to have them reviewed. Sites to find these jobs are Online Book Club, Goodreads, and many others.

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3 thoughts on “33 Ways to Earn Money Online Without Investment”

  1. I know many people who have done really quite well on iStock. They become exclusive on the site and then travel the world taking photographs, doing some minor editing and such and then uploading to the site to sell. Plenty of people I meet on my travels do this as a side gig, and some even do it exclusively as their sole source of income.

    Reply
  2. I saw a great post recently on MarketWatch about a dog walker who retired with $1 MM after working part-time most recently. She built a business around dog walking so it can be done: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/this-50-year-old-dogwalker-retired-after-making-over-1-million-working-just-three-days-a-week-2019-08-27
    I think it’s very important to emphasize that these side hustles may not require money investment but certainly require time, which is not cost-less b/c it’s limited and non-renewable.

    Reply

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