14 Genuine ways to make money online in 2017 without spending a dime

Online jobs are becoming more and more prominent as the year goes by. Thanks to our commonly practiced corporate lifestyle which doesn't give us required work and life balance. This has indeed led many to look for work from home jobs/ online jobs to get the mentioned work life balance. Gone are the times where online jobs were used as a way to support their primary income. There are many around the world who make a full time living out of these online jobs and are enjoying the luxury of Financial freedom by working from home. It may not be easy but it's definitely attainable. It all depends on what kind of online work you choose, how much time you are ready to invest and how much perseverance you have.

Ten years back, when I first started to search for online jobs, the industry had a humungous number of fraudulent peoples who used to make false claims on making one rich in a very short span of time. Their only target was to steal your money, time and hard work. Even though these things still exist and will exist forever, it is to be noted that there is a rapid increase in genuine money making opportunities online.

So, in this post, from the unlimited opportunities available online, we will see some of those genuine online work you can consider trying. Even though, some of the below mentioned ways might be known to many, I think it will still be helpful for starters in the internet environment.

PTC

PTC or Pay to click sites is one of the simplest method available to earn money online. PTC sites work in a very simple way, click ad and get paid. Of course, the pay is VERY VERY LESS and one can just use it as an additional income. For beginners, this will be the best place to start off as they can get used to the online working environment.

Also, there are indeed a number of other ways in which one can increase their earning potential depending upon the PTC site you are working with. Clixsense and Neobux are the two top notch in PTC industry spanning over a decade.

Micro Jobs

Micro jobs is the concept of breaking a big task into smaller pieces of simpler jobs. When you complete these small jobs you will be paid between few cents to even few dollars.

There are plenty of websites like Mturk, Microworkers, Clickworker, Crowdflower etc which offers Micro Jobs. There are hundreds and hundreds of different micro jobs available in these sites. The Amount of money that you can earn completely depends on how much time and the quality of work you put into this.

Sell T-shirts online

Create a Tshirt design, upload the design, choose a type of Tshirt, sell and get paid.

Believe it or not, it is as simple as that. You need not invest a dime in stock, inventory or logistics. Teespring who dominate this business model, allows a user to do all this free of cost. Of course, they take a small percentage of commission whenever you sell an item through their platform. Several Teespring users have shared their success stories in their which you can check out in their websites for motivation and fresh ideas.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing has become one of the hottest online jobs right now. Established affiliates earn about 5 to 6 figure income per month through affiliate marketing. An affiliate program is nothing but promoting the products of popular shopping sites like Amazon, eBay, Clickbank etc. on your website/blog. Whenever someone buys that product through your promotion you will be paid a certain percentage as commission.

Most of the shopping sites today have an affiliate program in which you can enroll for free. Once you join the program, you will be provided with customized affiliate links through which you will be promoting products. Commission rate differs with each site and with products you chose to promote.

Search Engine Analyst

A Search Engine Analyst's role, to put into simple words, is to evaluate the relevancy of the search engine results for a given user query. Search engine giants like Google, Bing, take the help of these analysts to refine their results and improve the user experience. These search engine companies outsource the analyst role through 3rd party companies like Leapforce, Lionbridge, Appen, and ZeroChaos. The pay will vary depending on the country you live in. The qualification process might be bit lengthy and you have to study a lot.

In order to get yourself placed one has to pass qualification tests which will be lengthy and will need some preparation, but it's worth. The pay will vary depending on the country you live in.

Social media ads analyst

This again is one of the simplest online jobs available. If you are an avid Facebook user, you might have noticed that ads displayed on your feed are in line with your interests. As a Social media evaluator, you have to rate the relevancy of a particular ad based on your interests and other mentioned guidelines.

The guidelines and training will be provided to you by the vendor company. Similar to Search engine evaluator position, you will be required to pass a small qualification exam. The Companies like Leapforce, Lionbridge, and Appen as mentioned above have this role. Click here to know how to apply for this role.

Transcription and Captioning

Transcription, to put into simple words, is the process of converting an audio into readable text. Captioning, on the other hand, is the process of transcribing the audio of a video into synchronized text at the bottom of the video. You might have seen these captions in many YouTube videos. Practically, the captions will be extremely helpful for people who are Deaf or hearing impaired, as well as those who are viewing content in a noisy environment, for the purpose of teaching or training and who are learning English.

There are several companies who provide this kind of job (Complete list of which you can find here). Initially, you have to pass a test to qualify for the work. Many feel that the Pay for transcribing jobs are less compared to the amount of effort it takes to complete the work.

Website/blogging

To be honest, it might not be that easy to earn through blogging in 2017 as many say. It was reported that there are about a billion websites in the world till 2016. As you can see, due to the immense competition earning from a blog is bit difficult. But you can still make money out of it if you are ready to use some smart in building your site/blog.

The main focus of your website should be around niche selection, content quality and SEO. There are indeed several other things that should be given importance too, but basically, if you can provide quality and valuable content for your audience, you will build a following pretty soon. If everything is done right, this following will yield you money in the future provided you invest adequate time and effort to give your readers quality content.

Freelancing

If you are a person who has a specific set of skills then you can sell your services on Freelancing websites. These websites allow clients to choose freelancers based on their credentials. So make sure you update your profile completely and perfectly at the beginning. It might take some time get your first client, but if you do some smart self-promotion, you will soon land with your first project.

Most important part is making your client extremely satisfied so that he gives you a positive review and high rating. So, if you are good in Web developing, Data Entry, Video Editing, Graphic Content or whatever it might be, try registering on a freelancing website and put all your efforts in promoting yourself to get the first project and watch yourself grow. Freelancer and Upwork are the two top freelancing websites in the world.

Writing

One of the skills that will yield you big opportunities is Writing. Many might say video content has overtaken written content and in a decade or so, some even feel that there won't be any written content at all. Of course, there has been a massive increase in Video content consumption, thanks to YouTube. But I think it would be a false assumption to consider written content being dead as it has/ will have its prominence in the future. Even recently, Google has announced that they are funding a company for building AI writing software. Don't worry it will indeed take some time, till then writers will always be in demand.

YouTube

Recent stats show that there are over a 1 Billion active users each month on YouTube. People now search for anything and everything on YouTube. With over 4 Billion videos viewed each day, YouTube is now considered as the second largest search engine in the world after Google.

As it is extremely easy to open a channel and upload videos on YouTube, unsurprisingly the competition is pretty high in 2017. With that being said, if you are resilient and able to create videos that are original, innovative, entertaining and provides some value for the user, then through YouTube’s partner program you can good sum of money.

Selling Photos Online

Many companies/individuals are looking for unique stock photographs that are perfect to serve their purpose. Even after the advent of free photography download websites, people still are in need of Stock Photographs. If you are good in taking innovative and creative pics then try selling your best pics through various stock photography sites. There are a lot of stock photo websites like Fotolia, Shutterstock, Bigstock etc., where not only you can sell your photos but also learn from experienced photographers.

Data Entry

Data entry jobs considered as one of the most scammed areas in online/ work from home industry. So, always double check before getting into any data entry job. If one asks you to buy any kit or software for data entry work, it surely should be a scam. To be honest, data entry jobs don't pay much, any program which promises to pay you a hell lot of money through this is probably a scam.

There are indeed legitimate companies that offer various types of data entry jobs. Even though data entry can be related with transcription jobs, I have seen quite a number of data entry works in several freelancing websites.

Tutoring

Tutoring can be considered as one of the most lucrative online jobs in the current era. With powerful technologies available, students are now able to connect with teachers anywhere across the globe. If you believe that you have adequate knowledge and experience in a specific area then you can share that with students.

You will be paid for your service either through Paypal or Wire Transfer. and the fees chargeable depends on your experience and student satisfaction. Try registering with Palfish.

So, there it is. These are my pick in regard to Genuine ways to make money online based on my personal experience. These are not exhaustive, people are finding new ways to earn each and every day. Keep your eyes open and pound on the opportunities.