7 Genius Online Hacks to Make Money with Minimal Effort

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Side hustles, online surveys or freelancing can all be great sources of additional income – but let’s face it, they can also take a lot of time and effort. Luckily, there are various online hacks to make money with little to no extra effort.

In this article, we’ll cover a list of seven online hacks to make money from things you’re already doing! Since you’re already doing it, why not get paid for it?

Online hacks to make money doing things you already do

1. Make money by changing your browser

We all use a web browser such as Chrome, Safari or Firefox daily to browse the internet. But what if you could get paid to do that? In fact, Brave browser allows you to monetise your daily browsing with zero extra effort.

When you download Brave and join Brave Rewards, your browser will automatically start tallying the attention you spend on sites you visit. Once a month, Brave will send you the corresponding amount of Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) based on the time you’ve spent using the browser. BAT is a type of cryptocurrency that you can then exchange for your local currency or another crypto. Or you can leave it in your digital wallet in the hope it will increase in value long term! Brave therefore also gives you the option to earn crypto with no extra effort or initial investment!

What’s more, all Chrome extensions work on Brave too. This means that in addition to getting rewards by using the Brave browser, you can make double earnings by using your favourite money-making browser extensions too!

If you’d like to learn more about Brave and how much you can earn with it, read my recent article How to earn free crypto with Brave browser.

2. Earn money to browse online

Now that you know about Brave browser, why not double your browsing gains by adding a browser extension that allows you to make money from your online searches?

Qmee is a web browser add-on and app that sits on your browser’s toolbar and works behind the scenes while you use the internet. It only pops up when it has relevant links worth cash available to click on. Qmee results will appear alongside results from searches made in Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo or Bing. If you like the look of the result, you just need to click on it to bank the money.

The payment is usually 7p to 15p per search but sometimes as much as £1, and the cash is then paid to you via PayPal.

Another online hack to make money while browsing and using search engines is Microsoft Rewards. As Bing search engine is owned by Microsoft, they will actually give you rewards just by using Bing instead of Google!

3. Get cashback from your online purchases

If you tend to do a lot of your shopping online, you can easily make some money just by doing that, thanks to online cashback sites and apps.

There are a number of cashback sites out there which pay you the commission they otherwise would have earned. Some good ones worth signing up with are TopCashBack, Quidco and Swagbucks. These are all free and offer the best selection of retailers, holiday providers and exclusive offers.

The cashback amount can vary depending on retailers and the amount of money you are spending but are typically between 1-20%. Therefore, for bigger purchases, you can potentially save hundreds just by using the cashback sites.

Make sure to also download the cashback sites’ browser extensions that will remind you of available cashback when you visit different retailer sites.

4. Use referrals to make money

If you are a regular user of an app, website or service, referral credits are a great way to earn some extra money online. With most referral programmes, when you refer a friend, both you and your friend typically get rewarded.

Most online businesses from energy providers to investing apps now offer some sort of referral rewards when you bring them new users. Here are a couple of examples by category with my own referral links that can offer you rewards when joining:

Ride-sharing: Bolt (£12 off from your first ride)
Investing:
- Binance (10% bonus on your first cryptocurrency trade)
- eToro
- Luno (£10 worth of Bitcoin when you sign up)
Other:
- Groupon offers
- Airbnb host referral (£7 bonus when you start hosting)
- Amazon Audible (30-day free trial)

5. Earn credit card rewards

Credit card providers often offer cashback as a reward for making purchases. What this means is, for every purchase you make, the credit card company will give you a small percentage of the money back.

The percentage differs between credit cards and categories. For example, one type of credit card might offer 1.5% cash back on all purchases. Another might offer 1% back on most purchases, but 5% back on petrol and travel purchases. In addition to cashback, some credit card providers offer air miles or hotel points.

You can compare credit cards with the best rewards programmes here.

6. Make money watching videos online

Another online hack to make money is to use sites that reward you for watching videos. If watching YouTube and other online videos is already your favourite pastime entertainment, might as well earn some extra cash by doing it.

There are many different websites and programs that can pay you for watching videos. While some of them pay with gift cards, others pay cash directly to your Paypal account.

Swagbucks offers cashback rewards but also pays you to watch different videos on the site. The types of videos you’ll be shown on Swagbucks will vary, but you can expect plenty of short clips like viral videos and news content.

iRazoo is another rewards app that lets you earn points for watching interesting videos. The videos include short films, cooking tutorials, movie trailers, app adverts and more. Once you’ve earned over 3,000 points, you can claim your first reward or cash paid through PayPal.

Watching videos might not make big money but the sites that pay for it typically also provide rewards for other tasks too. This might include answering surveys or playing games. The more tasks you do alongside watching videos, the more money you can make.

7. Play video games and stream it to earn money

There’s an enormous audience for people who want to see other people play video games on the internet. Therefore, if you’re an avid gamer, why not stream online when playing and make money from it?

The best way to do this is by setting up an account on the Amazon-owned video game live-streaming service called Twitch. The site allows you to set up donations and join the affiliate programme to make money. For additional income, you can also turn those videos into a YouTube channel, where you can guide other gamers through difficult games.

Getting started with hacks to make money online

You’re probably not interested in spending hours to make extra cash online, especially if you already have a full-time job. Fortunately, you don’t have to work full-time hours online to benefit from all of the possible income streams out there. Instead, you can get paid for doing things you already do online, meaning you can earn passive income with no extra effort.

Although some of these online hacks to make money might not pay you much individually, you might be surprised at how much money you can make by doing the things you already do combined. Now you just need to sign up to the sites, download the required browsers and add-ons, and start earning!

And if you have some spare time on your hands, learn some easy skills that will help you make more money online.

Let me know your favourite hacks to make money online with minimal effort in the comment section!