While everything in the world has gone to shit, many people are struggling financially. I was unfortunately made redundant in February. As you can imagine, the uncertainty and lack of income was very stressful. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make money online.
Due to self isolating after my trip to Italy, I didn’t get chance to look for a new full time job before the lockdown. Instead, I have managed to get myself a temporary position at a supermarket. As I hadn’t been paid for two months since losing my job, I found ways to make a bit of extra income. Every penny counts right now, so I’m sharing them for anyone who may be in a similar situation.
How you can make money online from home
Many of these options will not get you the money quickly, however they do build up over time. Taking a few minutes out of your day to do any of these options will be worth it when you reach payment thresholds and get a pay out! They’re all really easy ways to make money online.
Airtime Rewards
Although this doesn’t put money back in your pocket, it can help you save money off your phone bill. Airtime Rewards is a cashback app – all you need to do is sign up and link your card. When you spend in certain shops you will get cashback which you then exchange for a voucher to go towards your phone bill. So far, I’ve made over £40 from shopping in Boots, Yo Sushi, Primark, New Look and more. It works with online shopping too! This has really helped me as I got £30 off my phone bill in April.
I have since earned enough to get another £10 off my bill. Now shops are open again and I’ve started shopping, my earnings on Airtime Rewards have been going up.
Quidco
Quidco is a traditional cashback website. Whenever I buy anything online, I ALWAYS check to see if it’s on Quidco first. Over the years I’ve made over £600. You can choose to have your cashback sent to your bank account, your Paypal or you can swap it for a voucher. If you’re going for a voucher, there’s usually a bonus. So, for example, if you are swapping it for an Argos voucher for example, you will get an extra 6%. Looking at some of my favourite stores, Costa is 10% and New Look is 10%.
I’m currently saving all of my cashback and will probably swap it for a voucher in the future. If I do get really stuck for cash though, I know I can get a payout to my paypal or bank account within a couple of days. It’s easy to sign up and if you use my referral link you will get an extra £10 as soon as you earn your first £5! This really is the easiest way to make money online.
Online surveys
Online surveys are a great way to make money. It can take a bit of time to reach the amount you need to payout, but it only takes a few minutes out of your day. I’ve tried a few different sites over the years with various degrees of success.
My favourite online survey site is YouGov. I’ve been a member now for over ten years and I’ve earned around £400 from them. You need to reach 5000 points (£50) before you can have the money transferred to you, but surveys come in pretty regularly. I usually get to the £50 threshold every six months or so. As long as you complete all of the surveys they send to you, the points will soon build up.
Another site that I’ve recently started using is PollPass. You basically give your opinions on certain subjects and they reward you with credits. When you reach 3,000 credits, you can exchange these for cash via Paypal or Amazon vouchers. I got over 100 credits just by signing up and within around 10 mins I’d earned over £2 worth. I answer a few questions a day and tend to earn around 3,000 a week.
Selling items you no longer need
If you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, you might have already had a clear out. While the charity shops and tips are closed, you might find that items you no longer want are piling up. If you want to make a bit of extra cash, then you can sell them on various online platforms.
eBay
I’ve been a member of eBay for around 15 years now. I used to sell quite a lot on there, but don’t use it as much these days. You can sometimes get people trying to scam you and you have to pay fees. However there are often free listing days so it’s worth listing an items you don’t have. If you sell something, make sure you always send it recorded delivery just to cover your own back.
Depop
I’ve been using Depop recently, although I’ve only sold a few items. The fees are 10% of the selling price, so they can be a bit steep. There can also be quite a few people who want something for nothing and will message with stupid offers. Despite this, I’ve found that I’ve had a great experience with the items that I have bought and sold so far. As with eBay, always make sure that you send all items recorded delivery.
WeBuyBooks
If you’re like me and have a lot of old books, DVDs or CDs lying around then this is a great app for you. It was recommended to me by my friend Kariss who has more books than Waterstones! You simply use your phone camera and app to scan any items you want to get rid of. The app will then give you a price for each individual item. I’ve found that some books will only be worth 15p, whereas others are a few quid. Once you’ve scanned all your items, you need to box them and they’ll send you a label to put on the box.
Affiliate links
If you’re a blogger/influencer you can start using affiliate links to make a few pennies. When I say pennies, it is literally pennies here and there unless someone uses your link to make a big purchase. It’s worth doing though as it all adds up. I currently use Shop Style Collective who pay out at £25. I don’t do a lot of fashion posts, but I have a widget in the sidebar of my blog with my wishlist items in it which I update often. Every time someone clicks on one of those images, I get around 4p and will inevitably get more if they make a purchase. They don’t need to buy the specific item you are linking to, if they browse the website and find something else to buy you will still make some commission from that.
If you’re struggling for cash and can’t afford to buy anything but want to help a fellow blogger out, click on any of their affiliate links. I’ve been going on other people’s blogs over the past few weesk and clicking on any affiliate links they have just to give them a bit more money.
Other affiliate link schemes you can join are: SkimLinks, AWIN, Amazon Affiliates and Reward Style.
Sponsored blog posts
If you already have a blog, you might be lucky enough to be making some income through it. Like I said, at the moment opportunities seem to be quite sparse. I’ve seen a lot of other people complaining about this on Twitter too. There are some companies who are continuing as normal, so if you’re lucky you make get a sponsored post land in your inbox.
If you want to seek out these posts yourself, you can sign up to Get Blogged. They offer posts for anyone with a DA above 5, all with varying rates. You can apply for the opportunities and then they will dish them out to whoever they think fits the brief best. I’ve done a few posts for Get Blogged and they always pay quickly. Opportunities range from £30 to £100 depending on your DA.
It’s also a good idea to keep an eye out on Twitter and Facebook groups for opportunities. Groups I use are UK Bloggers, UK Influencer Opportunities and Blogger Opportunities.
This post contains affiliate links. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
