Before you do anything I suggest you set up a separate e-mail address. This is because some of the methods I use involve putting an e-mail address in a website and you don't want junk filling up your regular inbox. I suggest a free hotmail account or another free account of your choice.
Method 1 - Surveys
My first journey into the world of internet money making was through paid surveys. I joined many of these sites promising frequent surveys paying x pounds a time and thought it sounded good.
I was right and I was wrong.
On the one hand, I don't tend to spend too long on it, and not too often either. Every time I recieve a survey via e-mail, I gladly fill it in and that's that.
There are, however, a couple of downsides to this.
Nearly all of these sites will not pay out until you have reached a certain level. E.g. some might not pay you until you have up to 50 pounds in your account and this can take a while.
Some will not pay you in money terms whatsoever, but instead will reward you with points that you can then exchange for vouchers at stores like Tesco, Amazon, etc.
I have persisted with these surveys and they are finally starting to pay off. The ones I consider to be worthwhile are listed below, the rest are, in my opinion, a waste of time.
I have now received around 100 pounds worth of Amazon vouchers, a cheque for over 25 pounds and 10 pounds in Paypal payments, just to mention a few of my rewards.
Method 4 - Online Betting
You may dismiss this straight away if the word 'bet' puts you off, but I am not talking large scale gambling here, I am talking small scale recreational betting.
For example, every weekend I have a quick look at the forthcoming football fixtures and decide which of these I think I could predict. Just choosing the winner of 6 or 7 mathces each week and putting them in an accumulator can get some pretty good odds.
You can bet on loads of different sports or even TV events if you think you can correctly predict them.
I recommend taking a look at my sports betting page to see my opinions on various sportsbook websites you may wish to use.
I have done quite well over the year I have been betting, but more than that I really enjoy doing it. It's more of a challenge than a money-maker.
Basically, you receive points for doing certain things.
Signing up for newsletter on other sites, normally pays between 5 and 10 ipoints.
Spending money on a website like Amazon will earn you a few points for a certain amoutn spent.
Joining betting sites can earn you a big number of points.
Earn a point for mini polls on the site.
I would really recommend this site, I haven't had to put too much effort in to get to my current points total of 649. This already entitles me to 40 pounds on choices direct or 30 pounds on Amazon.
In fact, just signing up to all the free ipoints can be enough to get you two free cinema tickets.
Method 3 - Competitions
This isn't exactly a way of making money, but can be quite benficial to you.
I have been entering competitions for just a month. It takes up between 2 and 30 mintues each day depending on how many competitions I choose to enter.
The website www.theprizefinder.com gives you a comprehensive list of UK competitions. The best way of using this website is to go to the 'closing soon' section and just enter competitions ending that day. This helps you keep track on what you have enetered already and lets you know if you've won in a short period of time (normally next day). I suggest registering with them aswell as this will mean even easier tracking of entered competitions.
Also, I would recommend joining MyOffers as they provide lots of the competitions on the website above and you will need to register to enter them.
Now this is a method where you really will need that extra email address since all competitions will ask you to enter you email so they can contact you. Some will ask you for address and phone number but I have rarely been called or sent junk mail since I started.
My success so far is limited. I have won just two prizes; a PC game, worth 30 pounds and a valentines box of chocolates which I was very happy to receive. But the potential is there and I for one will keep entering competitions for a long time.
Take a look at the links page for some more interesting competition information that din't make it onto this page.
Method 5 - Earn Money While SharingYour Views
If you have a little more time on your hands, here is one for you.
At www.ciao.co.uk you can write reviews on just about anything and, for qualifying products, you could earn every time someone else reads and rates your review.
This site has a nice community feeling with it being very easy to make friends and have fun.
Example:
Say I find a product that I want to review. If it has a little pound sign (or more) next to the title (only visible to members) whenever another member reads my review and rates it as helpful or better I get say 0.5p. This may not sound like much, but some of the regular members can receive hundreds of ratings for each review they submit.
Also, if your review is worthy, you could receive a special Diamond prize which is generally worth around 10 pounds or so.
The site itself has an excellent layout and is very easy to use, and very easy to join. In general they do not send any junk emails either.
This is not a site allowing you to get rich quick, in fact in my 5 months with them I have only managed to withdraw 17 pounds into my bank account. Although I am well on my way to the 5 pound payout limit once again.
Method 7 - Freebies
If you are just after something for nothing there are a few good sites that can help you do this. Many of these sites will all have the same offers on them so just looking at one or two will make sure you get everything you want. I have listed 3 of the best that I have found.
You can get free samples, ringtones, vouchers, webspace, cinema tickets among other things.
You can also get free daily scratch cards at Scratch and Win
Method 9 - SFI Marketing
I have only just started on this program but it seems very popular and very successful for some. Basically, you sign up, they setup a website for you selling their products and you get a commission for every sale you get. You can also 'sposnor' people and every time you do, you get a proportion of their sales aswell.
This is NOT a pyramid scheme, however, and with a little bit of effort I can see it being very good.
The only drawback at the moment is that, although they ship most of their products worldwide, all the prices are in US dollars so trying to persuade other people in the UK using your site may prove tricky.
Anyway, if you are interested you can click on the link below to find out more.
If you want to sell things via the internet (or any other way) but don't want to handle any stock this is ideal.
Basically, once you have found a company operating dropshipping, you advertise the product yourself, get paid the money by the customer and then pay the company to send the product direct to your customer. You are given discounted prices by the dropshipping company and pocket the profit (less any relevant advertising costs).
If you have some expertise in some field or product range (maybe you know a lot about computers) and would like to dropship something you are confident to advertise, then why not search for a company using a search engine. You really would be surprised how many companies offer this service. Do not be fooled into paying large amounts to join such programs though.
To sell your items you could either put free ads online, sell through your own site or Ebay.
I am currently experimenting with this idea and will post and update when I get some results.
Update:
I have been looking into this for a while now and am sorry to say that at this moment in time it is very hard indeed to find a system that both works and that is not already over subscribed. For instance I managed to get an account with a company who dropshipped Playstation 2 games but then found that nearly all of the games I went to sell on Ebay were already available and at very similar prices.
Method 8 - Financial Spread Betting
This is a new one for me and one which I am extremely interested in. I have always thought I would like to invest in the stock market but have always considered it to complicated and too expensive to set up.
Not any more.
It has its similarities to the actual purchasing of stocks but has many advantages also:
Firstly it can be started on a much lower budget; think in the region of 500 pounds.
You can bet on stocks going down as well as up in price.
You can limit your losses.
This is how it works:
Say that you think Stock A is going to increase in price. You place your bet for this to happen. Say you bet 10 pounds, this means that for every point the price goes up you make 10 pounds.
So the Buy price is 100 for instance and the share increases in value. The Sell price that you use to close the trade is now 105, then you mkae 5 x 10 pounds = 50 pounds on that trade.
The same principles apply if you think the price will go down.
You can try your hand at this for free for an unlimited tiem at www.tradindex.com where you can also request a free book to explain things in much greater detail.
