What's Your View on the Best Way to Make Money Online?

I thought it might be interesting and fun to take a poll of blog readers' favorite way to make money online.

Of course, there are hundreds of ways to earn money out there so I can't list every option available, so I figured that I would include 5 of my current favorites and an "other" option.  If your favorite falls into the "other" category, please feel free to say what it is in the comments.

My current favorite ways to earn online and what I like and dislike about them are:

Amazon MTurk - This is the one that I started out with.  I like it because it is easy and free to use, plus there are always lots of choices and you can sometimes get paid within a few days.  I dislike the fact that the payment rates have got lower and lower over the years. 

Bubblews - The "new kid on the block", Bubblews is easy and fun.  I like it because there is a social element and the payments are reasonably generous for this type of site, plus the "bubbles" rank reasonably well in Google, all things consider.  I didn't like it when they raised the payment threshold from $25 to $50 however, and their website can be very glitchy, plus they occasionally don't pay you and there's no explanation.

HubPages - HP is free but demands more long term commitment than MTurk and Bubblews.  It is basically a writing platform where you share in the advertising revenue, which comes from sources such as Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates, and HubPages own advertising scheme.  I like the community at Hubpages, who can be very helpful if you want help or an opinion on something.  I dislike the fact that HubPages has been consistently hit by Google since 2011 and is nowhere near as lucrative as it used to be.

Squidoo - The main rival of HP and another open platform writing site, or "content farm" as these sites have been labeled by their detractors.  Like with HP, you write and post articles and share in the advertising income.   You could make quite a bit of money off Squidoo and HubPages at one time, but they are both suffering under the Google changes to their algorithm.

Creating My Own Hosted Blogs/Sites - I've been running my own earning sites the last few years, with some remarkable successes, as well as some dismal failures.  Hosting your own earning blog requires quite a bit of commitment, mainly time wise but also financial (buying the domain and hosting services) but pays off if you stick at it.  The technical side is actually pretty straightforward nowadays with hosting services like HostGator and Bluehost enabling you to easily download and install free blogging software from Wordpress for you to use with your domains.

Anyway, here's my poll, and an opportunity for you to give your vote (and comment?) on which online earning site is the best?

What is your favorite way of earning online?
	Amazon MTurk
	Bubblews
	HubPages
	Squidoo
	Creating and hosting my own blogs/websites
	Other
pollcode.com free polls

Time For a Revamp!

A new year has started and I am working on revamping this website to give it a new look and feel, hopefully making it even more useful and informative for those people who are earning online.

I started this blog back in 2011 when I was new to the world of earning online.  I thought it would be great to write about my experiences of working on sites like Amazon Mechanical Turk and share my knowledge and experiences with others. I have learnt a lot of things on the way, some of which I’ve shared, but there is lots more that I want to post.

Consequently, I am going to broaden the scope of the site and cover some of my experiences with earning methods such as affiliate advertising, as well as covering MTurk and alternatives such as Bubblews, which I’ve been playing around with a lot recently.

I have earned more than $40,000 online over the past couple of years, it’s not enough to live off full time, but it is a more than reasonable part-time income.  Part of that money came from sites like MTurk, but I’ve also done well  from websites like Hubpages and Squidoo, as well as through creating my own sites, mainly creating sites using the blogging site: Wordpress.org and then hosting them with my favorite website host: HostGator.

I have discovered and used a lot of resources over the past three years and I want to share my discoveries with others – posting some of my mistakes and bad experiences, as well as the good ones.

Despite me semi-neglecting this site, it still gets an awful lot of traffic, and I’m hoping that with a new look and feel and some fresh material, it will reclaim, or even exceed its previous glories!

I am looking forward to this new project!

Watch this space!

Disclosure:  Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links – that means that I earn a small commission if someone uses them to sign up or buy something. Using an affiliate link does not cost or cause detriment to you in any way, however.  Also note that I don’t recommend anything unless I have experience of it and have found it helpful in achieving earnings targets.  I greatly appreciate the support of everyone who uses my affiliate links.

HubPages: Make money writing online

Hubpages is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to make money writing online in my experience.  Unlike many other writing online opportunities, you are free to write about any topic you choose and there are minimal restrictions in terms of style, length, and tone.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Well, yes it is, but you will have to have good English language skills, write engaging material, cover topics that people are looking for online, and be prepared to promote yourself, if you want to do well on Hubpages.

The money doesn’t come to you quickly either.  It can take months before you really begin to see the fruits of your efforts on HubPages.  But the big earners on HubPages can make hundreds of dollars each month.  (I only make a fraction of that, but still find it worthwhile).

Friendly community and helpful staff

Of course, there will probably be some people who disagree with me, but my experiences have on the whole being very positive at HubPages.  The community there is generally friendly and there are people who will go out of their way to help you sometimes.  The staff are good at engaging with the HubPage users, known as ‘hubbers’ and the company has a good record when it comes to innovation and problem solving.

Where does the money you earn come from?

Revenue is raised through online advertising with HubPages taking a 40% cut and you getting 60% of the revenue generated by your hubs.  Originally, Google Adsense was the main advertising company used, but in recent times, HubPages have introduced their own advertising system, known as ‘Hub Ads’.  You can also make money by selling Amazon and Ebay products on HubPages.

Is it really that easy to make money with HubPages?

Well, yes and no.  Of course, you can sign up with HubPages and just write about the topics that interest you and you will make some money, but probably only 20 cents a day.  The people who make serious amounts of money with HubPages (dollars rather than cents) choose their topics and titles of their hubs very carefully, spend time researching and writing their hubs, and they do everything they can to promote their hubs and also to get them to appear high up in search engine results.  They do this using a collection of techniques known as SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO can influence every aspect of their writing, from picking the topic and title of your hub, to the keywords that they include in their work.

So what does SEO involve?

In short, the most important elements of SEO as far as hubs are concerned, are probably picking hubs that are likely to engage the online community, using keywords effectively in your titles and text, and getting backlinks for your hub.

So how do I sign up?

You can sign up to Hubpages here.  It is free to join.  (My advice is don't join if you want to earn money quickly!  Don't join if your English skills aren't very good!  Do join if you enjoy writing and want to make some extra money and don't mind if your earnings are low for the first few months!)

8 Websites that pay you

I thought it might be useful to write a list of websites that pay you, along with my assessment for how lucrative I have found them in terms of online earnings.  These are all websites that I use, or have used, to make money online.  I give a very brief explanation with a link to a much more detailed review, followed by my online earnings rating – the online earnings rating is subjective, of course, as it is quite possible that someone else might sign up to a site and have a completely different experience to my own.

Crowdsourcing Sites

In the crowdsourcing sites, you make money by performing simple tasks on your computer for online employers in return for small payments.  Tasks might include things such as copying text from scanned business cards, completing online surveys, writing short blog articles, tweeting adverts, writing descriptions of photos or videos.

Amazon MTurk (Mechanical Turk) – The site that this blog is named after and a great site if you want to make money online quickly.  There are times when I find it frustrating, however.  Despite the (occasional) problems, this site is probably one of the better websites that pay you.  Full review: Top 10 Amazon Mechanical Turk Tips and Tricks  Online earnings rating: 8/10

Microworkers – Similar to Amazon MTurk but a much smaller outfit, which gives it some advantages as well as disadvantages.  A lot of spammy jobs on there, so I tend to pick off one or two good ones each day and therefore find that making money money online is slower than with Amazon MTurk.  Still worth doing though.  Full review: The Pros and Cons of Making Money Online with Microworkers  Online earnings rating: 7/10

Social networking websites that pay you

These sites pay you for online social activity.  This might include things like: starting discussions, uploading photos, commenting on people’s profiles, bookmarking links to websites or posts.

myLot – I had a lot of hopes for myLot when I first started it, but overall I have been a little disappointed by it.  It seems difficult to make more than pennies each day, in my experience, although I must say that the ‘work’ that you do is hardly taxing.  Maybe I just don’t use it enough, as there are people on there who say they earn a dollar a day or more just for chatting.  Full review: How To Make Money Online With MyLot  Online earnings rating: 4/10

RedGage  - I have known about RedGage for a long time, but only started using it recently.  I personally prefer it to myLot, although both sites can irritate me a little at times (myLot because of the full page ads and RedGage because it can be a little glitchy at times).  The great thing about RedGage, however, is that you continue to make money online even when you do nothing after you have uploaded enough stuff.  It’s never going to make you a millionaire, but the community on there are friendly.  Full review: Can I earn money online with RedGage?  Online earnings rating: 6/10

Onine reward clubs

These sites pay you for doing things like completing online surveys, reading emails, watching videos, playing computer games, shopping online.

Swagbucks – A popular website with a strong following.  You collect a virtual currency called swagbucks, which you can then exchange for products online, PayPal money, or Amazon giftcards.  Full review: Swagbucks tips and tricks  Online earnings rating: 7/10

Inbox Dollars – Similar to Swagbucks in many ways, but a smaller outfit.  I actually prefer Inbox Dollars to Swagbucks, but make sure that you don’t give them your main email address as they send you lots of emails, which can be annoying.  Full review: Review of Inbox Dollars  Online earnings rating: 7/10

Writing sites

These sites are more involved than the others, as you have to write informative articles and have a good command of the English language.  This means investing a lot of time and energy, often doing research as well as writing.  Earnings are slow at first.  They gradually build, but it can take months before the dollars begin coming in.  HubPages and Squidoo make their money through Google adverts and companies like Amazon, and give the writers a share.

HubPages  You write informative articles on a topic you know.  Good community.  Has been through some tough times after getting hammered by Google, but now seems to be on the way back up, at least for may writers.  There are some big earners on there, although most writers earn well under $15 per month.  Use my referral link to.  Online earnings rating: 7/10  Sign up to HubPages with my referral link.

Squidoo  Similar to HubPages in essence, but the payout system is a little different.  I didn’t have much success with Squidoo and gave up on it, but others swear by it as an earner.  Online earnings rating: 5/10  Use my referral link to sign up to Squidoo.

UPDATE (February 2014)

I would avoid MyLot altogether as they are no longer and earning site.  Redgage is no longer much good either.

Bubblews is a good site, however, if you just want some (relatively) quick and easy money.

How much money can I make with HubPages?

What is HubPages?

HubPages is an online knowledge-sharing website, where members publish informative articles, known as “hubs”, and interact with other members, who are nicknamed, “hubbers”.  

As well offering membership of an online community and a source of knowledge and information, HubPages also promises, and in many cases delivers, much bigger earnings than the average online money-making site.  

Whereas most sites offer rewards in cents, Hubpages earnings are more often measured in dollars.  Making money with Hubpages is not instant, however, and most of the people who’s Hubpages earnings are large have achieved it through hard work over an extended period of time.

So how do I make money?

Money is made through advertising, principally through using Google Adsense and Amazon adverts.  

The Google Adsense money is split between you and HubPages, with you getting 60% and HubPages getting 40%, this is actually a pretty good rate when you compare it with other sites, such as MyLot or Squidoo, where the income rate tends to be lower in my experience (although I can only speculate as neither site publicly reveals the exact proportion of money that they pay out to their users).  

The Amazon rate works on a different principle, you get 4% cut of any money spent on Amazon products after a viewer has clicked on one of your adverts and HubPages don’t take anything from you.  This can work out as quite a decent payout if you strike it lucky and someone buys a computer or TV from Amazon.  (Ebay and Kontara can also be used to generate income, but are used much less by hubbers than Google Adsense and Amazon).

How much money do people actually make on HubPages?

Some HubPages users have done very well, with HubPages earnings of around $300 - $1000 per month.  Most of these people, however, have written hundreds of hubs to achieve this, something that may well have taken them months or years to achieve.  Recently, however, traffic and HubPages earnings were hit for most users by Google altering the way that its search engine works.  

Many Hubpages users have consequently lost between 5% and 50% of their earnings*.  HubPages are currently trying to resolve the situation with a subtle redesign of their site, improving the quality of hubs generally, and by introducing higher earning adverts that will work alongside the Google adverts.  I must say, however, that even for users who have lost out, their Hubpages earnings still seem considerably greater than those on most online earning sites.

*UPDATE: Since the time of writing this, HubPages have introduced changes to the way that their website is structured and early signs are that many hubbers have or are experiencing increases in internet traffic and earnings to their hubs.

You can find out more and/or join HubPages HERE.

See also:  

HubPages: Make money writing online

 
Google Blogger vs Hubpages: which is the best way to make money online?