There are many ways to earn money on the internet. I have investigated more than a few, and have tried several myself. Here are three real ways to earn money online for (almost) free.
I have personally worked with all three sites, and I have actually tried two of the three methods for myself. (See if you can guess which method I have not tried). In fact, I just received a payment in my bank account about a week ago from the date of this writing for one of the sites I mention in this article. I did the work that I just got paid for over a year ago.
Coinbase – Earn While You Learn
“Try Coinbase Earn – Get Paid to Learn Crypto” is how the ad reads. When you get to the site it says “Earn crypto while learning about crypto. Discover how specific cryptocurrencies work — and get a bit of each crypto to try out for yourself.”
This unique program allows you to earn a small amount of cryptocurrency for simply following short lessons to learn about how each one works. Not all coins participate in Coinbase Earn. The ones that do want you to learn about the differences in how they work and what they are trying to achieve. I have not personally seen any other program online that will pay you to learn about the products in their portfolio, but Coinbase does.
As you engage in these trainings, you will be awarded a small amount of that coin for your trouble. For example, you might be able to earn $3 worth of crypto by going through three mini lessons about a certain coin. You would get $1 in that coin for each of the lessons. There is usually a quiz as well, but they are very easy if you have paid attention during the short video.
While I was writing this, I logged into my Coinbase account and earned $3 in FET, the token used for Fetch.ai, a protocol for automating tasks with artificial intelligence.
I have personally earned $89 this way. With my FET earnings, that number is now $92. I can still earn another three dollars by going through the lessons for one more coin that I have not completed yet.
As new coins get added to the coinbase platform, some of them will participate in this program and you will be able to earn money just by learning about them.
As the value of a coin you learned about goes up over time, your balance in Coinbase goes up as well. The same is true if the value goes down. You will see your balance go down. That is, of course, based on what the market is doing at any given moment. Cryptocurrencies can be very volatile. I have found generally that if you buy and hold, your portfolio will go up over time.
Another way to make money is by referring friends to the platform. Once a friend purchases $100 in crypto on Coinbase, you get a $10 bitcoin reward. Your friend also gets $10 in bitcoin. Once you create your account and attach your bank information to it, you are ready to go. It takes about 48 hours for this process to complete.
Digital Product Creation
Canva is a free graphic design program. It is a great program. You can make quality designs very quickly and easily. You can use Canva to create digital products that you can then sell on Etsy.
Your products might be as diverse as downloadable art, patterns (such as sewing patterns), party printables, templates (such as Canva templates or resume templates), invitations, planners, organizational printables, printable gift box templates, party decor and many more. You are only limited by your imagination.
Creating digital products solves some problems and creates others. For one, digital products eliminates headaches such as shipping. Anything purchased as a digital product is available for immediate download.
Creating digital products allows for creativity with low-maintenance. It allows you to be paid in the future for something you design once. It can become a truly passive income.
Creating a listing for a digital download is just like creating a listing for physical products except you upload the item your customer will download when they purchase.
Even though less time and effort go into shipping, digital products may take more customer service than your physical products will.
You may find yourself answering customer’s technical questions. You can’t assume everyone knows so called simple online tasks. Do they know how to download and print a pdf? Do they know how to change printer settings to landscape if that is what your download requires? You may have to walk your customers through printing out a 3d product and show them how to fold it or glue it, etc. to turn it into the final product.
Technically, Etsy is not 100% free. It is free to set up an account. Listing your products will cost about $.20 each. They take a small cut of the sale called a transaction fee at 5%. There is a payment processing fee of 3% + $.25 as well, so there is a minimal cost. But the software to create the products can be had for free.
Print on Demand (POD)
I love print on demand. It is actually a lot of fun to create designs and see others value your work to the point they will pay money for it.
There are many print on demand sites online. In fact, Amazon has its own print on demand store called Merch. Other print on demand sites include Printful, Zazzle, and RedBubble. My experience has been with Amazon Merch and RedBubble.
Print on demand is a kind of digital product creation. You are creating the artwork and the print on demand company licenses your work to print on its products.
You do not have to be an artist to create and get paid for your ideas. It can be as simple as coming up with a saying that you can put on a t-shirt. I use Canva for my designs, then upload it to my POD site. In fact, I uploaded a t-shirt design to RedBubble just today. It was simply text.
Create a free Canva account and use it to make a design for free and download it to your computer.
Create a RedBubble account for free. Upload your new work to RedBubble. Create a title, tags (at least 15) and a description for your work. Choose which products you want to place your work on. You can enable or disable the products you want your work to be printed on. I usually enable all of them.
Stickers and t-shirts sell well. I have not had sales in the other categories yet. I have had sales from all over the world though.
Some of the products you can have your artwork printed on include prints, T-shirts, hoodies, cushions, duvet covers, leggings, stickers, skirts, cell phone covers, throw pillows, stickers, pins, scarves, and many more.
When someone buys a product, they print your design on the item purchased and ship it out to the customer. You get a percentage of the sell for Redbubble using your work. It is actually very easy.
You can create a flow of passive income this way. I still get paid on work I did a year ago. I got a draft two weeks ago into my bank account for work I did last Christmas.
So, which of these three methods have I not personally used?
I have made money on all three platforms, Coinbase, Etsy, and RedBubble. Then which method have I not used? I have sold physical products on Etsy, but I have not used the digital products capabilities yet.
Conclusion
There are real ways to make money online for free. I have used these methods and they are still working for me.
Three websites that you can use to make money online are Coinbase, Etsy digital downloads, and RedBubble.
Thanks for hanging out with me for a few minutes. I hope you have learned something new that you can use today to increase your income or to start your own business.
Tell me in the comments below which of these three methods appeal to you most and why.