3 Online Money Making Ideas that Don’t Work

Side jobs, errands and online methods sound like a great way to earn some extra cash every month. Frugal living and personal finance blogs usually make it sound as easy as learning to play online slots. But reality is cruel, and these methods often sound way easier than they are. I’ve tried quite a few of them, and let me tell you: sometimes they are hardly viable, and sometimes they are not at all.

Selling your unwanted stuff online

There are only so many unwanted stuff you own that can sell from your house. You get these items listed for sale on Craigslist, eBay and a few classifieds groups on Facebook. The result: they’re sold and most likely for half of what you paid for.  And that’s assuming your items do sell as some items might sit their for months with no taker. There is no guarantee you can sell your stuff online, even if the price is right.

So what’s next? Unless you’re planning on turning this into a full time gig fed with products sourced from flee markets, this is not a viable route for making money online.

Surveys and polls

I don’t refuse an occasional survey, especially if I am compensated to answer it. I’ve been a member of a surveys portal run by a major market research firm since 2006. Since then I’ve completed countless consumer surveys, and I’ve received my compensation, too: 25 bucks in 2015, and I’m halfway through gathering my next $25 already.

If you have the time, you can complete surveys for money, but don’t ever consider it a viable method of moneymaking. The rewards are small, and most of the times they are not even in money: they can be various items, coupons or promotional codes that you will either use or not.

Running your own blog

Starting a blog is easy and cheap – the barrier to entry is super low. All you need is a few bucks for hosting and a domain name then you’re off to the races. Pretty much anyone out there can start a blog. The challenge is turning it into a viable source of income as it takes patience, enthusiasm and dedication.

Quality content is perhaps the most important factor in building a successful blog, do you have the creativity and the time to produce content on a regular basis? For a starter, the subject should be something you enjoy writing about and in a profitable niche. Building relationships with other bloggers is also a must. It takes years of hard work to build up an audience and for you to make decent money you need to build that audience up to generate thousands of page views per month.

Blogging for money is definitely not a quick way to raise cash. Only a handful of blogs succeed in generating decent income over the long run. Not to mention that there’s no way of confirming if many of those that publish their online are honest or simply throwing numbers out there to make money by selling you their ebook on how to make money online!