Internet is really full of surprises. You will be shocked at how many ways of online earning are available. I have listed down all the opportunities below as a reminder. In addition, I hope this guide will be useful to anyone who is interested.
Ask yourself these questions~
Will I successfully earn from the site?
Is it worth my time?
Clicking
PTC - Paid To Click ✔
Even babies can do this!!! As long as you know how to use a mouse, you will be able to earn from PTCs just by clicking ads. By combining many different paying PTCs, you can earn a decent amount.
PTR - Paid To Read ✔
PTR sites pay you to read emails & sometimes, click ads. They are essentially similar to PTC but, are less common nowadays. Just for your information, PTR started earlier than PTC and is somewhat dying out. There are only a few legit sites left surviving all these years.
Sending Traffic
PTP - Paid To Promote ✔
PTP sites pay you to send traffic to your Ref Links (Personal links you get when signed up ). Earnings will be based on quality of traffic sent / number of views.
URL Shortener
Instead of sending traffic to REF links, you send traffic to many shortened links (you can shorten any sites you like) in order to earn.
Paid To Upload Images
Earning is based on pay per view of your images. The more images you upload and send traffic to the image links, the more you earn.
CPM Ad Network
This is perhaps the simplest type of advertising network to earn from. You get paid just for inserting the Ads into your site. Unlike CPC or CPA, you do not need people to click on the Ads to earn money. You will earn simple by impression. Meaning, for every traffic sent to your site, you will earn money based on the CPM rate.
Paid To Paste
Like any PTP sub-group, you earn just by sending traffic. in this case, the traffic receiving end is the pasted content owned by you.
Files Upload
PPD - PayPerDownload (Survey)Earnings are extremely high for PPD, up to dollars per download. The requirement is simply getting people to download the file you uploaded. They will need to complete a survey to download a file and when they do, you earn!
PPD - PayPerDownload (CPM)
PPD (CPM) is the polar opposite of the above. Unlike PPD (Survey), people do not have to complete surveys to download. Instead, it acts like normal file hosting sites where people can download your files with ease. The rate of earning is extremely low, up to cents per download.
Traffic Promotion
TE - Traffic Exchange
There are 2 types of TE & both requires members to visit sites posted by other members.
Manual surf means you have to manually click captchas to visit next site. On the other hand, Autourf only needs you to start the web software called surfbar and it will automatically visit sites.
Usually, manual surf TE rewards members with cash or prizes whereas most Autosurf does not offer it (with some exceptions).
Social Exchange
Its a new innovation which pays you for Facebook likes/shares/comments, Google +1/shares, Twitter tweets/retweet/favorite and many others social sharing. You earn credits which can be either used for boosting your social influence or exchanging for cash.
SurfBarre
Originated from France, this type of advertising method has become more common. It requires zero work in order to earn, you only need to download their software-surfbarre and open it when you are using computer. Then the surfbarre (which is just a small bar) will rotate banners and you will earn Euros for every interval set by the surfbarre. Occasionally, you will need to type in captcha for the surfbarre to continue.
Typing
Paid To Post Forums
Many forums are starting to use this reward system to attract members for activity promotion. Different forums have different reward system but, most forums give cash for replies & thread posting.
Paid To Chat ✘
Similar to the above, you earn by interacting with people. The difference is that intead of chatting in forums, you get paid to do it in online chatting sites. Currently, its not very common with only a few existing sites.
Paid To Write
There are a few variety to such jobs. Some sites are buying your articles so you will get a 1 time payment up front for approved articles, up to dollars. Once they bought the articles, the copyright belongs to them. Other sites are only renting your articles and paying you on pay per view (CPM) basis. During the rental period, all copyrights belong to them too. However, you can delete your articles whenever you want and the copyrights will be returned to you.
Paid To Type Captcha ✘
You like typing but not chatting? Then this is for you! Basically, you earn by typing nonsensical captcha. Earnings are dependent on the rate per 1000 captcha typed, which is set by the site.
Fun & Entertainment
Paid To Play ✘✔
Playing games has never been so beneficial before! Now, you can find some sites which offer this. There are browser based games, MMORPG, and even flash games online. Usually, you will earn in-game tokens/coins/points which can be used to trade for real cash.
Paid To Watch Videos
So far, i have only found a handful of sites dedicated to this scheme. You earn by watching videos added by advertisers.Paid To Listen ✔
Amazing right? Now you can even earn money just by listening to music. The requirements may include rating/reviewing the music or simply only listening & nothing else!
Paid To Search ✘
Using Google constantly? Why not get paid for your time using search engines! You get points the more you search. Some search engines gives you points per time spent on them, whereas others rewards active users with randomly awarded prizes.
Investments (18+)
HYIP - High Yield Investment Program ✘
This is one of the biggest online earning type in the Internet. You will need capital to invest in it, and in return, the sites promised to pay you profit after a certain period. Because it is so popular, i have included it here. However, my advice is DO NOT JOIN SUCH PROGRAMS.High-yield investment program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. They are simply Ponzi scheme
Flipping ✘
Flipping means purchasing a revenue-generating asset and quickly reselling (or "flipping") it for profit. In virtual world, it commonly means buying domain/site and sellling it for higher price. Of course, it can also refers to other less common things that you think is sell-able.
Forex Trading
Like how people in real life buy and sell currency to earn profits, now its even faster to do so online! The concept behind it is simple, you buy a currency when its low and sell it when its high. Of couorse its not that simple in practical terms, you need experience to know when the time is right and make use of opportunities.
Financial Betting ✘
The name sounds nice but in essence, its just gambling. There are many varieties of gambling like casino gambling, sports gambling etc. (Quite) Similar to investments, you can make a loss or profit easily when your money is in.
Online Stocks
This is similar to real life stocks whereby you buy a company shares as investment. If the company earn profit, it will share dividends to all its investors. On the other hand, if it is making losses, investors will also lose their money depending on how much the company shares drop.The difference between online stocks and real life stocks is the capital required. Usually, you will be able to participate in online stocks with low capital. (less than $100)
Miscellaneous
GPT - Get Paid To
GPT sites combine different types of online earning, and pay you to do them. You can earn by clicking ads (PTC), completing surveys (Paid Survey), signing up(PTSU) or even doing offers! Earnings are usually high, with exception to some countries.
PTSU - Paid To SignUp ✔
It is usually sufficient to get paid from PTSU by doing simple registration. However, Advertiser may set additional criteria to be completed before paying.
Paid Surveys ✔
These sites which offer paid surveys are mostly registered companies. Therefore, do not join any sites that are not owned by company as it may not be trusted. For every survey completed, you earn dollars. Some sites compensate you with small cash bonus even if you screened out/unable to complete survey.
Online 'Gigs' ✘
Gigs are performed by people in online marketplaces and it means selling services for cash. Basically, people who have specific skills and can work tasks, list it in the marketplaces and wait for buyer to surface.
Paid To Be Online ✘
Anything simpler than this? You get paid just for being online. Well, at least thats what is commonly stated by the sites. In full detail, you need to download their software, which will then do some automated calculations/work with your computer power. Some examples are Bitcoin mining, Gomez, etc.