Question / Discussion Top 3 tips for someone starting out with earning money online

[Jon]

For those of you who have been earning online for quite a while now what are your top 3 tips for someone who is embarking on this journey?

Mine would be

1) Keep expectations low

2) Keep the long game in mind

3) You can't afford to be too choosy about opportunities at the start

 

[rninja]

1) know the difference between 'active' (trading your time for money) versus 'passive' (upfront effort for potential long term gain) income

2) Listen to opinions, but do what YOU want or enjoy to earn

3) Don't believe the hype of YouTubers and social media influencers pushing 'simple passive income' etc

 

[Jon]

1) know the difference between 'active' (trading your time for money) versus 'passive' (upfront effort for potential long term gain) income

2) Listen to opinions, but do what YOU want or enjoy to earn

3) Don't believe the hype of YouTubers and social media influencers pushing 'simple passive income' etc

Good point about the 3rd one

'Back in the day' there wasn't the amount of influence you see online today. Same with 'money making courses' and all that jazz so it's very easy for people to fall into those sort of traps

 

[mcp]

Advice given really good.

Will add some general advice.

1 - What might work in 2021 as a money-making side hustle may not work in 2022. Example - stock photography. Ten years ago you could make a lot of money from this. Five years ago youy'd make a good supplemental income. Now you will make 10% of 10 years ago. This is also true of matched-betting which seemed to peak 4/5 years ago in terms of sign-up offers. So don't put all of your eggs in one basket and be prepared to chop and change what you do.

2 - If you try survey companies there really are only a handful of good ones that don't rip you off with the 'screened out' message. These include Prolific, Populous and Testable Minds (TM doesn't pay as well as the rest). YouGov does not screen you out but they pay a pittance and they appear not to be paying out right now for a lot of people.

3 - At some stage you will get ripped off. I had this experience with Appen (now Telus) who refused to pay me the full amount for a piece of work done (even though my regular reviews on the project were excellent). Just bin any company the first time they do this too you. It's really not worth the headache.

 

[rninja]

@mcp, useful stuff.
Have you sold stock photographs? If so, how to start?

 

[Jon]

1 - What might work in 2021 as a money-making side hustle may not work in 2022. Example - stock photography. Ten years ago you could make a lot of money from this. Five years ago youy'd make a good supplemental income. Now you will make 10% of 10 years ago. This is also true of matched-betting which seemed to peak 4/5 years ago in terms of sign-up offers. So don't put all of your eggs in one basket and be prepared to chop and change what you do.

Good point here.

If I look back over the years a LOT of stuff I did back then isn't available so much now. Used to earn loads doing text Q&A work with 63336/Bongo - that's all gone the way of the dodo pretty much! Field Agent used to be rife with high paying work on that app (which I think was partly because companies were finding their feet with what to pay) but that app now seems dead and in the UK at least it seems to be the Roamler & Shepper show!

Mystery Shopping 2013-2017 used to be AMAZING. LOADS of high paying fees and great opportunities and then the smartphone apps came along, gutted the market and then pandemic seems to have finished off the rest!

On the flip side i've never seen so much high paying focus group work - especially on websites like Respondent that sort of work is more accessible than ever!!

 

[Sherliarty]

I agree with a lot of points already made.
1 -Take nothing for granted, a company can be thriving one minute and gone the next. So, take money out of your account as soon as you can rather than building it up.
2 - If you don't need to use the money for day-to-day expenses, use the extra money you earn to create a passive income stream - I invest in index funds within my ISA.
3 - Finally, never pay to take part in anything. It is seldom worth it and often is just a scam.

I don't know what others think, but I feel that online money-making is pretty hard at the moment. Lots of platforms that used to be quite lucrative are now quiet or have so many users that the work/surveys go as soon as they appear.

With regards to making money on youtube, it is anything but easy unless you are incredibly lucky. Based on my child's experience, there is a lot of hard work involved including regular interaction with your audience and you need a niche plus original content.

 

[Jute]

Advice given really good.

Will add some general advice.

1 - What might work in 2021 as a money-making side hustle may not work in 2022. Example - stock photography. Ten years ago you could make a lot of money from this. Five years ago youy'd make a good supplemental income. Now you will make 10% of 10 years ago. This is also true of matched-betting which seemed to peak 4/5 years ago in terms of sign-up offers. So don't put all of your eggs in one basket and be prepared to chop and change what you do.

2 - If you try survey companies there really are only a handful of good ones that don't rip you off with the 'screened out' message. These include Prolific, Populous and Testable Minds (TM doesn't pay as well as the rest). YouGov does not screen you out but they pay a pittance and they appear not to be paying out right now for a lot of people.

3 - At some stage you will get ripped off. I had this experience with Appen (now Telus) who refused to pay me the full amount for a piece of work done (even though my regular reviews on the project were excellent). Just bin any company the first time they do this too you. It's really not worth the headache.

I thought Lionbridge was Telus. Or have I got that wrong? (which is highly likely).

 

[Jon]

I agree with a lot of points already made.
1 -Take nothing for granted, a company can be thriving one minute and gone the next. So, take money out of your account as soon as you can rather than building it up.
2 - If you don't need to use the money for day-to-day expenses, use the extra money you earn to create a passive income stream - I invest in index funds within my ISA.
3 - Finally, never pay to take part in anything. It is seldom worth it and often is just a scam.

I don't know what others think, but I feel that online money-making is pretty hard at the moment. Lots of platforms that used to be quite lucrative are now quiet or have so many users that the work/surveys go as soon as they appear.

With regards to making money on youtube, it is anything but easy unless you are incredibly lucky. Based on my child's experience, there is a lot of hard work involved including regular interaction with your audience and you need a niche plus original content.

Number 1 has caught me out more times than I can count. I've either been sacked off or the company has closed on near enough any of the 'big high paying projects' so to speak. Always good to have as many things going as you can!

 

[fajita]

I've been earning money online for a few years now, but following this with interest!!

 

[NRS]

1) Matched betting
2) Matched betting
3) Matched betting!



Slightly tongue in cheek, but if you calculate your earnings on a £ per hour basis, there isn't anything that compares to it (well not that I've found). The only caveat is that if you're the kind of person who might drift into a gambling issues, then I'd avoid it. For anyone else, it's a money maker.

 

[mikecmr]

1. Don't rely on one source, have many eggs in many baskets but make sure those eggs are worth all the effort
2. Setup new details, email address, paypal email ,a new bank account and keep the earnings separate
3. Don't let it take over your life, its extra money but its still time out of your day, don't get OTT with it, don't stress if you don't hit a target

 

[Jon]

1) Matched betting
2) Matched betting
3) Matched betting!



Slightly tongue in cheek, but if you calculate your earnings on a £ per hour basis, there isn't anything that compares to it (well not that I've found). The only caveat is that if you're the kind of person who might drift into a gambling issues, then I'd avoid it. For anyone else, it's a money maker.

Have to agree nothing pays so much per hour as matched betting does

 

[Jon]

1. Don't rely on one source, have many eggs in many baskets but make sure those eggs are worth all the effort
2. Setup new details, email address, paypal email ,a new bank account and keep the earnings separate
3. Don't let it take over your life, its extra money but its still time out of your day, don't get OTT with it, don't stress if you don't hit a target

Good point about it taking over your life. I remember back in the start of doing all this I used to spend hours each day going through survey sites paying 50p a day! I dread to think what my rate of pay was per hour!

 

[Sherliarty]

Good point about it taking over your life. I remember back in the start of doing all this I used to spend hours each day going through survey sites paying 50p a day! I dread to think what my rate of pay was per hour!

Was the reason I knocked my Appen project on the head. It was taking up way too much time!

 

[The Reverend]

1, Understand your tax situation
2, Work out what you want
3, Build a plan to get to what you want

No-one talks about 1 but its quite important. You might not owe any tax, you might need to do a tax return. Either way, Start your journey understanding what your situation is and that way you wont be shocked when the tax man comes knocking.

 

[Jon]

Was the reason I knocked my Appen project on the head. It was taking up way too much time!

Yeah totally get how that sort of work can take over as it has no end point for the day. You just stay signed in all the time and if work comes in you do it in real time.

Reminds me of working for 63336/Bongo text services and you would just stay logged in all day long no matter if questions were coming in or not and so you would end up tied to your laptop!

 

[fraserbooks]

1. There is no such thing as a free lunch. If it looks too good to be true it probably is. It is very easy to fall for scams. Ask on here and try sites like trust pilot and google.
2. Make sure you know what you are being paid and when. Avoid any site that pays you in magic beans.
3. Be prepared to think outside the box. Don't be afraid to try something new. If you find you can't do it or hate it you have only wasted a bit of time and you might find something you enjoy.