The Easiest Way to Make Money Online for Free (Realistically)

the easiest way to make money online for free featured

If you are interested in making money online, you have probably also found out that it is a jungle out there, and it is difficult to figure out what is legit and who is trying to scam money from you.

There are, however, ways to make money online that are legit and sites that are trying to help you through training, etc.

But if you are interested in making money without investing any money, there are really only very few options.

These options are often not mentioned in the articles you can find for several reasons, which I will get into later.

In this article, I will, therefore, tell you about the easiest way to make money online for free and in a way that will always be free. This is not only the easiest way but also one of the only way that is truly free.

What does free mean?

This might sound like a weird question. Usually, most of us would say that free means that we do not have to pay anything. In the online world, the word free is however used loosely.

There are many sites that will tell you they can help you make money online for free, but when you look deeper into what they are offering, it is more or less always just a free trial, and to actually start making money, you will have to start paying.

There is nothing wrong with having to pay for training or for tools that can truly help you, but I dislike when people claim it is for free just to get you to join, and not until after that, you will find out what the true cost is.

The worst cases are when people are using upselling techniques. That means that you join for free, but to get access to a little more, you have to pay. It is usually not very much you have to pay in the beginning, but then after getting hooked and having invested time and money already, you have to upgrade again to get access to for example more training.

This can continue through many upgrades. It is a way to get people to join and get them hooked, but you will never know what it will really cost, and in some cases, you can end up investing thousands of dollars.

So when you read you can earn money for free through for example training, be sure to check what the long term fee would be, and what the conditions are.

As mentioned, it can be great to for example join a training platform to learn more about building an online business, and I have also done this myself. But you need to know upfront if there will be a fee, and I dislike when people sell me an idea of something being free when it is actually not free.

I just wanted to clarify this at the beginning of the article. When I say there is a way that you can make money online for free, I mean that it is truly free, truly easy, and it will never cost you anything.

If it is for you or not, will depend on why you are interested in making money online and what your goals are because you need to go into it with the right expectations. But I will get into the earning possibilities later. Let's now look at how you can actually make money for free.

How can you make money online 100% for free?

There are a few ways you can make money online 100% for free. It is by joining what is called GPT sites (get-paid-to) or paid survey sites. If you join the best of these sites, you can make some nice extra money on the side.

The legit sites are all free to join, so there is no risk involved in joining. If you find a site that offers paid tasks and paid surveys that try to charge you a fee to join, do NOT join no matter what it promises.

There are unfortunately many scam sites that are trying to make money by getting you to pay to join, and one of the biggest indicators it is a scam is, if it charges you to join.

But on the legit survey and GPT sites there usually are several ways you can earn and I will explain these below:

Option 1 – Paid surveys:

take paid surveys

Paid surveys are one of my favorite ways to make a bit of extra money, and I prefer joining the portals that offer surveys as an earning method.

There are also many sites that only offer paid surveys and no other way to earn, and these can also be great to join. One of the great things about surveys is that you do not only make a little extra money.

It can also be a way to have your opinion heard and influence important decisions made by companies and governments, as they are paying to get this input and feedback and will also use it.

If you do it with the right expectations (more about this later), it can be a great option to use and no matter which country you live in, you will be able to find paid surveys you can take.

Option 2 – Watch videos:

watch videos

Some GPT and survey sites are offering you money for watching videos. It can be small entertaining clips or small video ads etc.

It is in general not something that pays very well compared to other options, so I only use this as an earning method, if it is a video I would enjoy watching anyway. Then why not get paid for it no matter how little it is:-)

However, on most sites, you do not actually have to watch them as such. You can let them run on a screen you are not watching and that way earn a bit passively. It will still not make a lot of money, but it does also not take much effort.

Option 3 – Get cashback on shopping:

cashback on shopping online

If you sometimes shop online, joining a site that gives cashback can be a great way to save big money.

It means that if you buy something online through the GPT site you signed up for, you will get a certain amount of money back into your account on that website.

Sometimes it can be really big savings and bonuses of up to 70% you will get. So if you like shopping online, it can be great to join a site where you will get some money back.

You can check out the best cashback sites here – if you ever shop online they are great to join.

Option 4 – Do online small online tasks:

do tasks

Some GPT sites offer small online tasks you can do through a platform called Figure Eight (previously CrowdFlower).

It gives you access to small online tasks like, for example, looking at some search results, evaluate a website, and similar small task and get paid a fee for this.

If you join the best sites to do Figure Eight tasks, you can also earn some really nice bonuses as they have regular contests for the top earners and sometimes even bonuses when you have done a certain amount of tasks.

Option 5 – Take offers:

online offers

Many GPT sites have what is called an offerwall, where you can find different offers. An offer can, for example, be a free trial of an online service, signing up for a newsletter, signing up for a free contest, downloading an app, etc.

Some offers have really good rewards. Just make sure to check the conditions as some of them might require you to say yes to receiving offers from a certain company in the future etc.

So better to read the conditions in advance so you know what to expect and only take the offers where you agree to the conditions. But if you take the time to find the right offers, it can be a great way to boost your earnings.

Option 6 – Watch ads:

pay to click ads

You can sometimes find sites that offer you to watch small ads and get paid for this. This is also called PTC (paid-to-click), and you get paid a small amount to click an ad and watch it a certain amount of seconds.

There are websites that have this as the main way to make money. Personally, I do not really like using these PTC ads.

They give very low rewards, and the ads are usually not very interesting, so I prefer using some other methods on this list. But it is easy to do and you will see them on many sites, so know you know what to expect from them.

Option 7 – Listen to radio:

listen to radio

I have seen a few sites that are offering this way of earning. It simply means that if you listen to the radio through the website, you will get paid a small amount, when you have listened to a certain amount of minutes, which varies from site to site.

This will however only pay very little, and it is not really worth doing for the purpose of earning money. But if you are listening to the radio anyway, you might as well get a few extra cents for it right?

There are, however, not many sites that offer this option but occasionally you will see sites that do.

Option 8 – Play games:

play online games

Quite a few GPT sites have the option to play small online games and earn by doing this. Usually, it is not one of the ways you can make very much money.

But online games can be fun and good entertainment, and if you like playing online games, it is worth checking out if any of the GPT sites are offering rewards to play your favorite games.

Just be aware that on some sites they do not actually pay you for playing the games but just have them as entertainment. So if you want to earn this way, make sure to read the conditions before starting the games.

Option 9 – Free contests:

free contests

Many GPT and survey sites are offering free contests. Some have contests on the website itself, where you automatically join if you are active.

Others have regular contests on their social media channels, and you can participate by for example liking or commenting on a post.

Some prizes are quite nice and can boost your earnings. So if you join any GPT or survey site, it can be worth checking, if they are running any contests.

The above is not a complete list of earning methods offered by GPT sites and survey sites, but the methods on the list are the most popular ones and the ones offered by most sites.

There are sites that have other extra small methods as well that makes their site unique. If you check the list of the top-paying sites through the link below, you will be able to see in the overview which of the sites are offering which opportunities.

How much money can you make on GPT and survey sites?

Before you sign up for any sites, you need to know what you can expect to earn so you go into it with the right expectations. How much you can make really depends on how much time you put in. But you should NOT expect to become rich or making a living from these sites.

They are fun and a great way to make some extra money, but if any site is telling you that it will make you rich, it is not true. But even though it cannot make you rich, I find it worth participating on these sites for several reasons – it is 100% free, you can start right away, you do not need any training, anyone can join, you can do it whenever it fits into your schedule, and there are no risks.

You can increase the earning opportunities by joining several sites. By joining several sites, you will also quickly be able to find out which ones suit you the best and just stick to those.

What are the risks of making money like this?

risks by doing surveys

As mentioned above, there are no risks involved in joining survey sites or GPT sites, if you join the legit sites.

Since all the legit sites are free to join and use, it will for sure make you a profit, and there is no risk to lose any money.

The only risk is to be disappointed, if you do it to become rich, or if you join the scam sites. Some people think you can make a living by taking surveys and joining GPT sites but that is not what they are meant for.

I sometimes see people being negative about survey sites because they are not able to make a living from them – but that is because they go into it with the right expectations and do not understand how survey and GPT sites work.

But many are also happy to just make some extra money on the side, and then these sites are great – and also the only way where you can be sure to make a profit and do it from day 1.

Final conclusion – Yes, you can make money online for free

As you can see, there is a way to make money online that is 100% free. It might not make you rich, but it will for sure make you a profit to join survey and GPT sites if you join the legit and good sites.

And remember that if a site says you can make money through it, and it is not a GPT or survey site, there are great chances that there will be a cost at some point. If you know of an option where this is not the case, I would love to hear about it in a comment below.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to drop a line below.

6 thoughts on “The Easiest Way to Make Money Online for Free (Realistically)”

  1. A good read and interesting too! What would you recommend is best for someone who wants to try this? And out of curiosity how much money do you personally make doing this? Are we talking like $5-$50 a week or is it more than that? Look forward to your reply 🙂

    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment Courtney. 

      What the best sites to start making money like this depends a lot on where you live. If you check the top 10 list I have a link to in the article, you will be able to get an overview of which platforms are available in which countries. 

      Personally, I am not doing all the surveys that are available to me at the moment. I prioritize to also spend a lot of time testing and finding new sites to keep exploring what the best options are. So the exact amount varies from month to month. 

      How much you can make depends on the country you live in. But if you live in a country that has many options and you are taking good use of them from the best sites, you can definitely make $50 a week. And you can also make more, if you are using several of the good sites. But for some it will also be a lot less, as they might live in a country where there are not so many options available, or if you only have time to do for example 1-2 surveys or tasks a day, it will of course be less. So it is very difficult to say exactly how much it is possible to make on these sites, and there are many aspects that plays a part. But it is important not to expect to be able to make a living from it. It should be done to make some extra money on the side and not to become rich. 

      All the best,
      Mikael

      Reply
  2. A huge list.
    Right, I m earning some extra money from survey sites.
    Creating youtube video and earning good money is one of the best way for passive income.
    Great work.
    Have a nice day.

    Reply
  3. Mikael, I always thought that every site that offered ways to make money was a scam. I just don’t trust them. However, the information that you provide gives me a more positive view about it.

    I like your point that if you have to pay to make extra money then it is probably a scam.

    It seems that the Swagbucks site might work for me as I like to purchase things online. I will have to look into it to see if it has places on there that I like to shop.

    Thanks for the information! Do you know of any other sites that pay you to shop online?

    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment Donna.

      Just to clarify – I do not mean that all opportunities online that charges a fee are scams. There are legit training platforms, courses, and tools that are legit and charges a fee, which is of course fair. But when it comes to survey sites and GPT sites, it will only be the scams that try to charge you for joining.

      If you live in a country where SwagBucks is available, it is definitely worth joining. CashCrate is another of the good sites that offers cashback for online shopping.

      All the best,
      Mikael

      Reply

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