40 Legit & Real Ways to Make Money from Home (Without any Investment!)

That’s thanks to the increasing popularity of working from home with not just entrepreneurs and self-employed people, but also companies – big and small – who give their employees the freedom to do their work at home.

According to a 2015 survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24 percent of employed people did some or all of their work at home. That number grew from 19% in 2013 to 24% in 2015. And according to BLS, the numbers have been growing even more in the last 2-3 years.

Working from home has many benefits:

• You save time on your commute.
• You save money on Gas.
• You get to spend more time with your family.
• Work at home jobs for moms (new and expecting,) gives them more freedom to tend to their kid’s and their own needs.
• And the best part is that in many cases you can work whenever you want and from wherever you want as long as you have access to the internet.
• …

But there is one big problem…

It’s hard to find legitimate work at home opportunities among the sea of “make money at home” and “work from home” scams.

But fear not!

We’ve done our research and found a whole host of trusted companies that allow you to earn money right from the comfort of your own home.

If you already have a job, then you can use these flexible opportunities to create additional income.

How to Make Money from Home Without Spending a Dime

Here are the best ways to earn money working from the comfort of your own home.

1. Earn $300 writing greeting card poems

Blue Mountain Arts is a family-friendly greeting card company that would like to hear from you if you have some writing skills.

They will pay you $300 for worldwide rights to your poem, which they will use in greeting cards and other products, or $50 if they just use your poem in a book.

• Link: Blue Mountain Arts

2. Get paid $10/hour to work for Amazon

This is a genuine job where you work as an Amazon employee.

A CSA is a Customer Service Associate, and you will be answering questions on the phone and chat windows.

You can apply online at Amazon.com, where you will find further details of the requirements and work.

• Link: Amazon CSA

3. Earn rewards for reporting empty store shelves!

Shelfie is a new app that literally rewards you for showing what’s not on the shelves in your local store.

When you are at the store and the product you’re looking for is not on the shelf, snap a picture of the shelf and let Shelfie know the store and its location.

You earn rewards that you can redeem for coupons and gift cards.

• Link: Take a shelfie

4. Get $5 to make a phone call

You make a phone call as a mystery shopper, which should take you 5 to 10 minutes, and then you report back on an online form.

This company pays you $5 for each completed call with feedback.

• Link: CallCenterQA

5. Get $10-$20 to test a new app/software

The company, BetaTesting, offers a review service to product developers, and you can help them do this.

You simply have to try out the app or software. You will usually record the screen for 10 to 15 minutes, as you use the software, and provide a commentary about how you find it.

This gig pays $10 upwards per review.

• Link: https://betatesting.com/beta-testers

6. Get paid $100 to write jokes

If you think you’re funny, why not share your humor with the world?

Cracked.com is a website that is always looking for more stories and articles that come up to their standard.

Unlike other websites, such as the Huffington Post, they are happy to use outsiders to provide more content.

Visit the site, and see if it’s the sort of thing that you can write.

• Link: Cracked

7. Get paid for telling companies what you think of them

We’ve all seen the little pop-up surveys online, usually to tempt us to click through to further advertising.

Well, Pinecone Research is not one of those companies.

It’s a genuine market research company that wants to find out your opinions about services and products.

It’s not easy to be accepted as a panelist, but if you are and can take surveys, then you get paid for each survey you complete.

• Link: Pinecone Research

8. Make $150 for helping google

Update: Google has ended this program!

This opportunity gives you a side income which you really don’t have to work for – you just have to accept that Google will know more about your lifestyle.

Google provides you with an app that runs in the background on your computer and keeps an eye on what you’re doing.

It’s important to Google to find out how you use Facebook and other websites, as it allows them to improve their advertising and marketing.

Here’s how much you can earn:

• You can earn up to $6 right off the bat by simply signing up (which is free) and activating all the software meters.
• You can also earn up to $12.00 every single month by participating in the program.

You can then redeem your earnings for gift certificates (Target, Amazon, Starbucks, etc.)

The program started as Media Insiders Panel but is now known as Google Cross Media Panel.

• Link: Google Cross Media Panel

9. Sell your junk mail

Why would you ever think your junk mail is just junk?

It’s valuable to someone, in this case, the market research company SBK Center.

They accept junk mail and junk email and turn the trash into Visa prepaid cards for you.

• Link: SBK Center

10. Earn $24/hour transcribing audio files

Now a genuine working opportunity, if you have good typing skills.

The agency SpeechPad will give you transcription work, and you will be paid for producing a text version.

The work may be either video or audio based, and it can pay up to $.40 for each audio minute. That’s $24 per hour if you can type as fast as the talker!

You get paid every fortnight through PayPal.

• Link: SpeechPad

11. Earn $15/hour evaluating search engines

Another genuine online job, the company Appen Butler Hill employs search engine evaluators, paying them $15 per hour.

As a search engine evaluator, you would be entering keywords and other queries into search engines and then reporting how valid the results were.

They pay you through PayPal or direct to your bank account every month.

• Link: Appen Butler Hill

12. Get paid to share your coupons

You know when you get to the checkout when you’re buying online, and you see a little box for a coupon code?

I don’t know about you, but I always open another tab and search to see if I can find one, before paying.

But have you ever wondered where the coupon sharing sites get their coupons from?

Here’s one way–The CouponChief site will pay you to tell them about any coupons you use.

It’s a program called Pay2Share. So now you can, not only save money with your coupons but also make money!

• Link: CouponChief

13. Get paid to do research

If you are accepted as a Wonder researcher, you are charged with providing detailed answers to questions that Wonder’s clients pose.

This will involve online research and finding the best and most appropriate answers.

It’s a job that you can do anytime, and they pay you through PayPal twice a month.

They claim that their best researchers make more than $2000 per month.

• Link: Wonder

14. Provide material for patent research studies

This is similar to the Wonder opportunity described above though they require you to go into greater depth. And you don’t necessarily get paid because others may also be doing the same research.

Article One pays rewards to the “study winner or MVR”.

• Link: Article One Partners

15. Write slogans for companies

Through registering with this company, you get to compete on writing slogans for other companies.

It’s free to register, and the company claims that you can win “up to $999 per contest”, less a small fee for Slogan Slingers.

• Link: Slogan Slingers

16. Work for Apple from home

If you’re a techie, this could be the opportunity for you.

You can work at home, yet be an official Apple employee, giving virtual support to Apple users.

As you work from home, you don’t have to relocate to take this job, but you do have to be prepared to be trained in Apple products such as iPhones, iPads, and whatever else Apple invents.

As you are representing Apple, you must work to the highest standards of customer care.

• Link: Apple at Home

17. Do simple tasks

You may have heard of Amazon Mechanical Turk already. It lists many micro-tasks that are more suited to human intervention than to computerization, and you simply work on one after another.

Each task only pays pennies, so the key is to keep going and do a bunch of them.

The task might be as simple as following people on Twitter or extracting text from pictures, and usually, won’t take more than a minute.

Though it won’t replace your job, if you keep focused you can earn some decent money.

• Link: Amazon Mechanical Turk

18. Sell your talent

Fiverr has become known as the job site to go to for small but meaningful tasks – taking a picture holding up a sign, writing a short article, or doing a voiceover. You can even get a Kindle e-book cover designed.

Its name comes from the fact that the basic gig pays just $5, which, while much more than Amazon Mechanical Turk above, still doesn’t sound like much.

But before you dismiss it as not worth your time, take a look at the site and see how others are using it. For instance, you can offer extras to a basic gig which will pay you more money, and it can lead to further work.

Browse around and see what tasks you might be able to do.

• Link: Fiverr

19. Get paid to organize Dropbox folders (& more)

The trend is to work virtually, and Zirtual allows you to become a virtual personal assistant to business people who do not want to take on more staff.

As a Personal Assistant, you might be charged with making travel arrangements for a business trip, or coordinating a meeting with many attendees.

As the title suggests, working remotely you could even sort and categorize a Dropbox folder of information for the client.

• Link: Zirtual (part of Startups.co network)

20. Earn $10/month for unlocking your phone

This is not a major earner, but another way to make some money without doing anything different.

Fronto lets you earn money in four ways: reading news articles, downloading apps, getting involved in promotions, or simply unlocking your phone.

It puts advertisements on the lock screen of your phone and pays you every time you unlock it, the theory being that you see the advertisement and may go on to buy the product. Whatever the theory, it’s a little more cash in your pocket.

• Link: Fronto

21. Listen and rate songs

This is a fun gig for a little extra money.

With SlicethePie, you listen to 90-second music clips and then write a review. It gives feedback to the artists and their agents.

You’ll only make about two cents per review to start with, but if you build your reputation you may get as much as $.20.

You get paid through PayPal as soon as you have earned $10.

• Link: Slice The Pie

22. Get paid to search the web

Another small earner for minimal disruption of your activities.

Once you register with Qmee and install the Chrome browser extension, you can search using Google, Yahoo, or Bing as normal.

You will see some additional results come up, and if you click on them your account will be credited. These ads are in addition to the sponsored ads which usually come up.

The amount you get is noted on each advert before you click.

Note that if you have an ad blocker, such as Adblock Plus, installed, this will prevent the ads showing. You have to disable it for your search screen.

• Link: Qmee

23. Earn $100 for writing a list

A job for the writers amongst you.

Make a list, with a minimum of 10 items and 1500 words, and submit it for their acceptance.

If they publish it – and their standards are high – then you will be paid $100.

Try and find an unusual topic or a different twist on a common theme for the best chance of being published.

• Link: Listverse

24. Answer questions

Here is an easy way to turn your knowledge into cash!

There is a site called JustAnswer that pays you to answer random questions asked by their users.

It’s basically a Q & A site where anyone can ask any questions and experts (that would be you) will answer these questions.

This is perfect for you if you are an expert on any topic, which you are. Each one of us is an expert on at least a topic or two.

It doesn’t matter what you know about – movies and TV shows, games, carpentry, cooking, cars – whatever it is, there are thousands of people out there who lack that knowledge.

You can sign up for free and once your application is approved you can start answering and earning.

The top Experts on JustAnswer earn $1000s every month. This has the potential to replace your day job!

Read my review to see if Just Answer is worth it for you.

• Link: JustAnswer

25. Get $5 a pop for your smartphone pictures

You install this app on your smartphone, and simply take pictures, which you then upload.

They need to be good pictures, or pictures of unusual events, as you will earn money if someone else wants to buy and use them.

Foap will offer your pictures for sale on their marketplace for $10 each, and you get five dollars for every one sold.

The great thing is that your picture may be sold, again and again, so you can continue earning income without doing any more work.

• Link: Foap

26. Get $100 to share your parenting tip

ScaryMommy is a website is for parents and is full of tips and guides about parenting. They are always looking for more articles and are prepared to pay $100 for each article they accept.

So if you have some good parenting tips, they may be worth cash to you.

• Link: Scary Mommy

27. Earn $12-$15/hour to push for new laws

If you’re interested in politics and social issues, what a great way to earn some extra money.

This company organizes campaigns to press for change on social issues, and they need people like us to contact constituents and others who could be interested in helping change.

The main task is to contact people from your home phone and urge them to call or write to their members of Congress about the issue.

They ask for you to work 20 to 25 hours a week, and you should earn between $12 and $15 an hour.

• Link: NextWave Advocacy, LLC

28. Make $27 per hour as a home nurse

This is a specialized task, so it’s not available to many people. But if you are a registered nurse, then maybe it’s for you.

Fonemed provides a service to doctors and pediatricians in North America.

They want nurses who can man the (virtual) phones outside office hours, and provide detailed medical assistance.

You are expected to be able to provide triage and medical information, and of course, it involves working unsocial hours.

In return, Fonemed says, a typical nurse will earn $27 per hour.

• Link: Fonemed

29. Sell old books

If you have a lot of old books around the place, and particularly if you have textbooks, you may be interested in an app called BookScouter.

You can use it on your smartphone, and simply scan the ISBN code of any book (found on the back cover). The app goes to work, searching a whole bunch of book buying websites to find who is paying the most for your book.

The app is free, and many of the book buyers will prepay the postage for you – be sure to check.

• Link: Book Scouter

30. Sell your photographs for $1-$7

There are many stock photo sites online, and the demand is high for stock photos that can be used in blogs and websites.

If you have or can take quality pictures, then you can sell them through a website such as Crestock.

You will get 20% commission on the pictures that you sell, and they are usually priced from $5 – $15.

You are paid every time they sell, so you can continue to get income for good pictures.

Once you sell more than 100, then the commission rate goes up to 30%.

• Link: Crestock

31. Sell online courses

Think of a topic that you know a lot about and make videos covering it. Then upload and sell it through Udemy.

That’s the basic concept.

Browsing through the topics available, you will find such diverse things as learning to use software, and how to make a perfect cup of tea.

Udemy asks that your videos are of a good standard, and provide lots of help to show you how to do that.

• Link: Udemy

32. Get paid to subtitle movies & TV shows

Once again, this is not for everyone, as you need to be fluent in more than one language.

If you are, then you can make money by watching foreign TV shows and movies and providing a written translation for subtitling.

Generally, the subtitles will be in American English or Mexican Spanish, and it helps if one of these is your native language so that you do not provide a literal translation, but know the colloquialisms so that it sounds fluent.

• Link: Crowdsurf

33. Earn $0.7 per word to translate

Again a job for a linguist, this website will pay you $.05-$.07 per word for translating documents and captions into another language. They also have openings for people to transcribe audio into text and will pay you weekly through PayPal.

• Link: Rev

34. Make $10/hour Testing Websites

People who code and design websites generally have their own ideas about what is easy and how the navigation should work.

This doesn’t always equate to how the general public uses a website.

This company provides a service to other companies, reporting and advising on how user-friendly their websites appear to consumers, and whether they work okay. And they use people like you and me to visit these sites and give feedback.

It cost nothing to sign up, and you make $10-$15 for each website you report on.

• Link: UserTesting.com

35. Help Dell’s customers with their PC issues

Unleash the geek in you, and get a job working for Dell in remote tech support.

If you know what you’re doing on a computer, Dell could hire you to work from home.

• Link: Dell

36. Listen to phone calls from home

For a bit of extra cash, with this company, you simply listen to a recorded phone call and answer a simple question.

For doing this you will get paid via PayPal.

• Link: Humanatic

37. Listen to internet radio

Update: RadioLoyalty is no longer in business.

RadioLoyalty is an Internet radio site that provides rewards for both listeners and broadcasters, funded by advertising.

The easiest plan is to listen to the radio online to earn rewards points.

• Link: RadioLoyalty

38. Do data entry from home

If you’re good at data entry, then you might join DionData Solutions as a home contracted vendor.

They require that you type at least 60 words per minute accurately, and have other computer skills, with a cable or DSL Internet connection.

They are deadline oriented, but as long as you can meet their requirements then this is a good opportunity to earn some cash.

• Link: DionData Solutions

39. Translate mobile apps

If you are a fan of mobile apps, you can now get paid for translating them.

Sign up with Tethras for free and receive notifications for available jobs. Then view and accept any available job you like anytime anywhere, and get paid via PayPal

• Link: Tethras

40. Get $1 for a news tip

Unlike websites such as CNN, Newslines is a crowdsourced news website. That means it relies on outside people sending in news posts.

It’s split up into topics, and these are updated on timelines as each new post comes in.

They accept posts of 50 – 100 words and will pay $1 for each post used.

• Link: Newslines

Bonus: 41. InstaGC

If you like fast payouts (as in instant gift card redemptions), InstaGC is the site you want to join.

It’s a site where you can earn rewards for taking surveys, as well as doing offers, shopping, installing apps and even watching videos.

You earn points for every activity which you can then redeem for PayPal cash and gift cards fro hundreds of stores including Amazon and Walmart. The best part about this site is that as soon as you redeem for a gift card, the gift card is displayed on the screen instantly. So there is no waiting to receive it.

• Link: InstaGC

Final Words

With so many opportunities online, something is bound to suit your interests and talents.

Hopefully, the above options have inspired you to look into what you can and would like to do to start making money from home.