How to Make Money Online for Beginners In 2024

Whether it’s freelancing or tasks, online business is gaining traction. Check out our ultimate guide on how to make money online for beginners.

  • Set clear goals for making money online to find the best fit for you.
  • Beginners can make money online through freelancing, selling items, or simple tasks.
  • Popular apps for earning include Uber, Poshmark, DoorDash, Ibotta, and Swagbucks.
  • Utilize platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and TaskRabbit for freelance and gig work opportunities.
Brett Helling
Founder, Gigworker.com

Brett Helling is a gig economy expert who has been running his own small business for over 10 years.

Navigating the online money-making realm may feel overwhelming due to the myriad choices available.

From freelancing and ridesharing to survey taking and task completion, making money online offers several choices.

Multiple people feel the same way.

They may be looking for a quick buck, a way to earn passive income, or a legit full-time position with a steady stream salary.

For this reason, you need to define your goals.

Are you looking to earn money long-term or short-term? How much time are you willing to spend on this project?

By answering these questions, you shape the position most ideal for your situation.

After setting your initial goal and finding your calling, you’ll be a step closer to knowing how to make money online for beginners.

Can Beginners Make Money Online?

There are multiple legit online jobs well-suited for beginners.

One of the many ways you can create an online cash flow is by renting or selling your items online.

You can dig deeper and provide affiliate marketing services for brands you love.

Other ways involve simple tasks like completing surveys and transcription.

These work-from-home jobs require minimal skills, making them an ideal opportunity for beginners.

As you become familiar with the online money-making business, you can advance your career.

For instance, you can turn to freelance jobs like being a blogger or virtual assistant.

Freelance work is expanding in the U.S., with total earnings reaching a jaw-dropping $1.3 trillion.

Before beginning your online venture, you’ll need to understand your goals.

Are you seeking a quick buck?

Or are you willing to move up to a stable remote career with an eventual six-figure salary?

You can stick to a transcription service or expand your e-commerce business.

Either way, it’ll offer more relief than a classic 9 to 5 grind.

Which App is Best for Earning Money?

Using an app for money-making offers a seamless transaction.

You can find gigs and side hustles that’ll suit your time.

Uber

Driving for Uber is at the top of the list thanks to the gig work’s versatility and superior cash flow.

You can work full-time or part-time for the ridesharing app and find weekly and daily payment options.

While driving, you’ll want to avoid jam-packed regions since they’ll decrease your payment-per-hour ratio.

Don’t drive around when waiting for a ride.

It’ll come.

Finding it will only waste gas and your profit margin.

Besides that, you need a clean ride, a phone charger, safe driving skills, and a friendly attitude.

Uber is a popular app in most regions, which will garner a large customer base.

Despite that, you wouldn’t want to wait around high-demand areas like airports since they tend to waste potential paid time.

With Uber, you can earn approximately $10 to $38.95 per hour, depending on your position.

Conductors usually gross the prior, while owners get the latter.

Poshmark

With Poshmark, your income comes from selling your clothes online.

You can list unwanted clothes, accessories, and home decor items on the app.

All you have to do is sign up, upload an image of your item, add an informational description, price it, and list it to over 80 million community members.

We also suggest checking out the app’s Posh Parties feature, where you can sell items of a specific theme.

For example, the party may center around a Harry Potter theme, and you have an old Slytherin T-shirt of yours lying around.

Poshmark takes a commission percentage of your sale.

It withdraws $2.95 from sales below $15 and 20% from ones above $15. Besides that, the selling process is easy.

You only need to deliver the package through USPS.

The app covers the rest of the transaction.

DoorDash

If driving strangers or selling stuff online doesn’t sound appealing, you can opt for a delivery option powered by DoorDash.

The application allows you to deliver food from restaurants to a customer’s home. It best operates in a metro area.

Your earnings depend on the miles driven, order sizes, and delivery speed.

Aside from that, you can also earn from referring a friend to become a Dasher.

After they complete their minimum mileage and deliveries, you can win your referral bonus.

You can expect to earn an average of $2 to $10 per delivery.

The longer you drive, the more you’ll get.

Ibotta

Ibotta works similarly to old-school coupons but in a digitized format.

It gives you cash back when grocery shopping in-store or online.

It supports over 2,000 retailers and branches out to shop for clothes, pet supplies, entertainment, and other categories.

It hosts over 35 million users and has paid back over $1 billion to users in the previous seven years.

You’ll usually need to watch a video or complete a poll to earn the cash back on your purchase.

In other cases, offers are automatically linked and applied to your transactions.

To demonstrate how it works, here’s an example.

George goes grocery shopping and wants to earn his cash-back.

He snaps a picture of the receipt and sends it through the app.

Ibotta credits back his cash-back offers within 24 hours.

George can go another route by shopping online with the Ibotta browser extension.

Swagbucks

Similar to Ibotta, Swagbucks is a cash-back and reward online platform.

It works differently by offering users app tokens called SB.

You earn SB by completing tasks like surveys, playing games, or shopping online. Each 100 SB equates to one dollar.

You can then redeem the amount through gift cards offered by retailers like Amazon.

Otherwise, transfer your SB earnings and cash them out to your PayPal account.

Another option is to redeem them as Bitcoin through their Cryptovoucher Gift Card service. In terms of points, each task varies.

Survey completion can give you between 40 to 200 SB or $0.4 to $2.

The downside to this app is that it can take a long time before you earn a lot of cash.

Some users complained that they got kicked out when completing their surveys.

Swagbucks does so because of inconsistent answers, poor open-ended responses, or speeding too fast through questions.

Online Money-Making Sites

Whether you want to generate passive income from a side hustle or earn a full-time salary, online sites are a viable option.

Upwork

Upwork acts as a middleman between businesses and independent contractors or freelancers.

Companies use the site to connect to various industries, such as freelance writing, graphic designing, editing, translating, and video creation.

As a worker, you get flexible work hours.

You’re your boss, which means you set your rates and control the work you receive.

You can do it all from the comfort of your sofa.

The best part is that you can build your skill set by accepting more work, whether content writing or financial consultancy.

Client feedback offers constructive criticism.

The job also provides diverse projects from various industries, increasing your exposure.

You also elevate your negotiation and interpersonal skills on the job.

Freelancers on the site can earn up to $28 per hour from the marketing, accounting, and web development industries.

The money-making site charges a 20% service fee on $0 to $500 earnings, 10% for $500.01 to $10,000, and 5% for $10,000.01 and more.

Fiverr

Like Upwork, Fiverr also hosts a plethora of freelance workers ready to undertake projects.

The prime difference is that Fiverr is better suited to small businesses and freelancers looking for smaller tasks or projects.

For this reason, beginners will benefit most from the online site.

Getting more gigs involves several factors, from perfecting your title to creating a stand-out display of your skill.

Despite its popularity, the site doesn’t offer as much income for sellers as Upwork. 96.3% of sellers earn $500 or less per month.

70% make less than $100.

Fiverr charges 20% for sellers or service providers for every transaction they make.

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit connects users with contractors to help them with home cleaning, repairs, moving, and furniture assembly.

As a Tasker, you can apply by building your profile, verifying your eligibility, paying the initial $25 registration fee, and setting up your schedule.

You don’t have to pay anything other than that since the remaining fees are customer paid.

Salaries primarily depend on your title and frequency of projects.

For example, if you charge $18 per hour and work ten hours per week, you can earn $720 monthly.

Overall, you can make good money from this online money-making gig.

Etsy

Another way to earn money online is through Etsy.

You can promote any craft, vintage, or other hand-made products.

The site charges around $0.20 for listing fees and takes 6.5% for every sales transaction.

As for other payments like shipment, the customer covers them.

In terms of pricing your items, you can use a clear strategy by accounting for labor hours, resources, and fixed costs.

After adding all that up, you have a baseline price that needs a markup for a decent profit.

You can market your product on other platforms, such as Facebook Ads or your social media account.

UserInterviews

UserInterviews is a platform used for researchers or companies undertaking a UX study.

They allow you to engage in a 30 to 60-minute moderated live interview to ask about your experience using a product or service.

Moderators can also delve into general topics to gain market research.

The companies completing these interviews generate qualitative data, transcripts, and videos.

You can earn around $10 to $50 per interview.

To start, you can sign up, create your profile, apply for studies, and wait for a response to see if you qualify.

If qualified, you confirm a timeslot.

CardSell

If your gift cards are piling up and you’re not planning to put them to good use, sell them with CardSell.

The process involves downloading the app, choosing a merchant, entering the gift card number and pin, and accepting the offer.

You should receive your payment within 48 hours to your PayPal account.

How to Make Money Online for Beginners

Making online money for beginners usually involves selling some sort of service.

It can be online tutoring, getting into market research, or taking a hand at becoming an affiliate marketer.

Otherwise, you can choose the easier route and sell items.

How to Make $100 a Day Online

Making $100 a day online is possible.

You can achieve this goal by implementing two or more of the options below.

Take Surveys

To begin your $100-day venture, spend your spare time taking surveys.

You can offer the service through multiple platforms like Swagbucks, Branded Surveys, and InboxDollars Survey.

On average, every hour can get you $0.50 to $1.

You can earn about $5 to $10 per day. It’s not the most efficient method of getting to $100 daily, so we suggest applying other money-making methods to reach your goal.

Freelance

With an average hourly rate of $20 to $24 per hour and taking up to 5 hours for a project, you can gain your $100-day goal.

You can apply to multiple freelance platforms to earn money online.

Freelancing is one of the best ways to get passive income or a full-time position.

You can learn a skill through online courses, create an enticing profile on sites like Upwork or Fiverr and begin accepting project offers for your set hourly rate.

Sell Items

You can sell an item on places like Facebook marketplace or Etsy to earn $100.

You need to prepare your product, sign up for a selling platform, upload a picture of the product, add a description, price it, list it, and wait for potential buyers.

Ensure that your product pricing falls within a profit margin to make a reasonable earning.

For shipping, you can rely on third-party options like Amazon FBA services.

Be an Affiliate Marketer

Getting into the affiliate marketing business is ideal for beginners, thanks to the low barrier of entry.

The digital marketing side hustle allows you to take a percentage of a product’s sale that you promote.

The commission can range from as low as 1% to as high as 50% per sale.

To start, you need to decide which industry you’re tackling.

Then, choose a network like a social media account to promote the affiliate product.

You’ll want to create a website and domain name to host all your affiliate links and promotional content.

Find and join an affiliate program and begin the marketing by driving traffic to your website through email marketing, Google Adsense, and other methods.

How to Make Money Online for Beginners Without Paying Anything

Starting an online role doesn’t mean you always have to pay a registration fee.

Remote jobs like YouTubing and freelancing are exceptional examples.

Become a Freelancer

When starting your freelancing career, you need to set your business goals.

Identify which market or niche you’re targeting.

To illustrate, Kelly wants to start a content writing service.

She has to set up a professional portfolio or website for all her published work to establish a standing among the competition.

Her prices should align with market standards.

It can be $15 to $40 per hour, depending on her experience.

Kelly can then expand her network by joining similar communities on social media and attending events.

Become a Virtual Assistant

You can put your administrative skills to good use in a virtual assistant role.

With an average earning of $17 to $20 per hour, your tasks involve email communication, creating PowerPoints, or scheduling appointments.

Becoming a virtual assistant starts by listing your services on Fiverr and Upwork.

Start with a low hourly rate and gather positive customer testimonials to boost your credibility.

Increase your rate steadily.

Start a Blog or YouTube Channel

Blogging and creating a YouTube channel provide a legit income source.

You can earn money by incorporating ads, affiliate marketing, subscriptions, and consultancy services.

At the start, bloggers can earn between $200 to $2,500, depending on their money-making strategy. As for YouTube, 1,000 views equates to about $18.

Start a Patreon

Patreon is a way to gather loyal fans and showcase your exclusive content.

Patreon creators can make approximately $315 to 1,575 per month.

Marketing your Patreon on social media is critical to gather more exposure and an audience.

How to Make Money as a Teenager Online

As a teenager, you may need extra cash for a school trip, clothes, games, or car insurance.

That said, finding online jobs for teens depends on the time you have and the skills you can offer.

Start a YouTube Channel

You can earn money from a YouTube channel through advertising revenue, channel memberships, or Super Thanks.

The platform has another money-making potential through YouTube Premium revenue and merch selling.

Offer a Freelance Service

Apply your graphic designing, writing, or web development skills in a freelancing gig.

You can start by landing a few roles and steadily building your status on online platforms like Fiverr or Upwork.

Be a Social Media Manager

Finding a Social Media Manager gig as a teenager will be challenging since it’s often a dedicated full-time position.

It also requires digital marketing experience.

If you think you can live up to that standard, you can list your service through freelancing sites.

Try Online Surveys

Completing online surveys is an easy method to earn money.

You can take surveys through platforms like Survey Junkie.

You can get around $1 to $3 for each entry.

Tutor

You don’t have to limit your tutoring services to your high school.

Online tutoring gigs can fetch $11 to $20 per hour, depending on your experience and education level.

You can apply to several tutoring platforms like Chegg Tutors, VIPKid, and Brainfuse.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Gig Platform Pays the Most?

The most high-paying gig platforms are apps like Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart.

They allow users the flexibility to work as many hours as possible and keep their tips.

Other apps, like the dog-walking Rover option, can offer high-paying side income, reaching about $800 monthly.

The pay usually depends on your service’s frequency and the market.

Is it Possible to Make $100 Per Day?

While not easy, it’s possible to make $100 per day.

You can earn the amount by providing delivery, dog walking, pet sitting, ridesharing, and renting services.

Selling and renting products can also allow you to reach $100.

Wrapping Up

Making money online is becoming more accessible.

You can earn money online from freelancing, content creating, task completion, virtual assistance, survey taking, and several other roles.

Let us know if you have any questions about making money online for beginners in the comments below.

Besides that, start now and build your online presence.

Your online career development is calling, no matter your age or experience level.