12 Effortless Ways to Earn Money
If like me, you’re always looking for more ways to add to your income you will know that this can often take a significant amount of effort. From lengthy application processes to figuring out if that get-rich-scheme is too good to be true (it usually is).
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Wouldn’t it be convenient if someone put a list together of effortless ways to make money? We did just that! Here’s my guide to simple ways you can make money for nothing.
12 Effortless Ways to Earn Money
Automate your savings
While savings accounts don’t offer much interest, it is still money for nothing. And you can make putting your spare cash into savings effortless with automation. There are tons of applications that can do this for you, but the most simple way is to set up a weekly/monthly direct debit of a chosen amount (that you know you can afford) from your current account to a savings account.
Maximise your earnings by shopping around for the best interest rates. If you’d like an app to calculate how much you can afford to save based on your monthly spending, I recommend Chip! My Plum app works out if I’m under or over budget, moving money into my savings account accordingly.
Shop Through a Cashback Website
If you regularly shop online you can earn money every time you shop with cashback! I make sure to shop through TopCashback every time I buy something and have now earned over £500 with very little effort.
Earning cashback with TopCashback (TCB) is simple. Visit the retailer you want to shop at through the TCB website and do your shopping as normal. TopCashback earn a commission for referring you to the retailer and give this commission back to you! You can earn £60 when you take out a new phone contract, £5 for doing an online grocery shop and £100 for taking out home insurance.
There are other cashback websites but TCB is my chosen one (they have better promotions in my opinion). You can also automate this process by downloading the browser extension on your computer and downloading their app for your phone.
Automatic Cashback apps
I use a variety of apps to effortlessly earn cashback. In most cases you simply download the app, link your bank account so that the app can see your transactions and reward you for shopping with their selected partners. Here are some of the best automatic cashback apps
- Airtime Rewards (promo code: D4E3EPAA) – for automated cashback on your everyday purchases. Sign up, link a card, and start earning cashback at Wilko’s, Argos, Boots and more!
- Cheddar – link your bank account and earn cashback automatically when you spend at selected retailers.
Credit Cards with Rewards
Doing a bit of research to find out which credit cards have the best rewards programs can open up opportunities to make money when you spend money. My credit cards offers me cashback, and gift cards, but there is a whole range of other incentives that credit card companies offer. The trick here is to not let these rewards encourage you to spend!
- Curve Card allows you to pay with your credit card through the Curve app – but not before they offer you cashback at selected retailers (you can combine Curve with the credit card incentives you already have).
- Zilch is a credit company that offers 2% cashback when you pay in full. They have a variety of seasonal offers and competitions too!
- American Express is a credit card that offers 5% cashback on your purchases (up to £100) for the first three months of Card membership.
Share your online data
Gener8 is a google chrome (or firefox) extension that, once downloaded, will run in the background while you browse the internet. You are then credited tokens for every ad that you see (you do not need to click on them). These tokens can then be exchanged for gadgets, gift cards and charity donations.
Gener8 predicts that the average user could generate around £20-£40 a month. I’ve already cashed out several amazon gift-cards, gadgets, and charity donations. I’ve had a great experience with Gener8 Ads. I won £100 from one of their daily competitions last year and have been a big fan ever since.
Similarly YouGov will pay you for your online data through their YouGov Safe browser extension. You’ll be paid an initial £5 to share your Netflix, Spotify, internet history, and Amazon Prime Data (and 50p a week after that).
Get Paid to Search the Web
This is by no means going to make you rich, but it is a pretty effortless way to get paid for doing something that you’re already doing. Instead of searching through Google use Swagbucks to surf the web and you’ll start making money for your searches!
Swagbucks will also reward you points to watch videos, play games and take part in monthly challenges! These points can then be exchanged for gift cards, charity donations and cash straight to your PayPal. Qmee will also reward you for simply searching the web when you have their browser extension installed.
If Bing is your preferred search engine then you can earn money through Microsoft rewards. Microsoft rewards also allow you to earn daily points for taking part in quizzes.
Invest your Money
If you’re looking for cash flowing assets without much work then investing is an option worth considering. If this is something you would like to find out more about you can look at these 5 investment opportunities. Most banks also provide a variety of investment products if you’d feel more comfortable doing this through a brand you trust.
A word of warning when it comes to investing: there is always an element of risk involved. I would only invest an amount of money that I can afford to lose. Here are some free investments that allow you to dip your toe in the water:
- Robinhood – When you open a Robinhood Invest account, you’ll get a free share worth £5-£100 when you deposit £1. Earn up to $1500 from referrals every year.
- WeBull – claim 3 fractional shares worth between $9-$900 by signing up (and leaving £1 in your account for 180 days).
Make Money from a Blog
I am by no means saying that creating and maintaining a website is effortless. It takes months to create the content, design and promote a great blog. But if you already have a blog that currently isn’t earning you much money there are several ways you can start to effortlessly create an income from it. Here are some of the most effortless ways to earn money from your blog:
- Accept guest posts. This is where someone else writes the content and pay you to publish it on your blog.
- Apply to an advertising network. These services will pay in a variety of ways including pay-per-click (a sum each time someone clicks on the ad) and pay-per-sale (a sum each time someone makes a purchase from the ad).
- Offer link inserts. Given that your blog has a desirable DA, many brands will pay you to include a link to their website within one of your blog posts.
Sell Advertising Space on your Car
If you have your own car, you could make easy money by selling advertising space! Car Quids pays you to stick adverts on your car. you could earn up to £100 a month with very little effort. Don’t worry the ads peel off easily and don’t leave marks, and you have the option to accept or decline the ad depending on its content.
Watch Videos on your Phone
WeAre8 reward you for watching short videos on your phone. You can earn anything between 10-50p per video. The advertisers also donates some of their advertising budget to charity – win-win!
Become a Life Drawing Model
Are you confident with your naked body? Then this may be an effortless way to make a little extra cash. Life artists are always looking for models, particularly those with unique features, such as lined faces, curved bodies, even tattoos or scars.
Most life models will make at least £15 per hour. If you’re serious about becoming a life model most vacancies will be advertised on the usual job sites (Indeed, Gumtree, Job Search, etc.). Please note: life models must be over the age of 18 for legal reasons.
Install Slidejoy on your Phone
If you’re an android user Slidejoy lets you earn money from your phones lock screen. Install the app for free form the google play store, and they will pay you to use your phone’s lock screen as ad space (you don’t need to click on these ads to earn). You can expect to make between $6-10 a month and can redeem your credits for vouchers from Amazon, Uber, Spotify, and Tesco to name a few.
Complete Online Surveys
Completing surveys in your spare time is a great way to earn a little extra cash. There are lots of different survey websites and apps but here are my top 5 for surveys you can complete on the go.
- Swagbucks (website and app) – earn money completing various tasks as well as surveys, download the app and install the web browser to increase your earnings. Earn more by completing the daily goals.
- Voxpopme (app) – this is a video survey app. Get paid to answer questions in video format. Cash out via PayPal when your earnings are above £10.
- Attapoll (app) – complete quick surveys on your phone. Cash out via PayPal when your earnings are above £3.
- Curious Cat (app) – Offers lots of quick surveys for you to complete on your phone. Cash out via PayPal once you’ve earned £1.
I regularly use all 5 of these survey apps/websites. I make between £25-£50 a month taking part in surveys during my commute, dinner break or during the adverts of my favourite TV shows.
Share your Referral Links
Lots of companies offer referral programmes where you can earn a reward for inviting someone to sign up for a particular service. I’ve earned £100’s by inviting my friends to sign up to services that offer these referral programmes. Here are some example referral programmes that you can regularly earn money from:
- Chase £50 bonus – for a limited time, new users can earn £50 by signing up to Chase.
- Custard £10 bonus – Custard is a task website that will may you to complete various free offers, trials and sign-up promotions. Claim your earnings after completing 15 tasks.
- Monzo £10 free – Monzo is an online banking app. Get £10 free when you open an account and make a card payment within 30 days.
Updated list of the latest free money offers and referral programmes
MORE WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR INCOME
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How I Earned £1000 From Home In 1 Month
Appen: Work From Home And Earn Money Online
I truly believe that you get out what you put in. However, sometimes it’s about working smarter rather than working harder. These money-making hacks, websites, and apps don’t require hours of work. But they do have the potential to help improve your financial position if you stick to them. If you’ve found an effortless way to increase your income I would love to hear about it! Leave me some love in the comments below!