How to Make Money Online Without Paying Anything
When I started learning about digital marketing, I didn’t have much money to spend on things such as hosting, educational platforms, or courses. I was always wondering how to make money online without paying anything.
And since I’m here – you can tell that I have found the ways!
It’s always good to remember where you’ve been and this post is for everyone who’s on a very tight budget and can’t invest a lot of money – and yet has the dedication and will to learn more about making money online.
Down below, I’ll show you some of the best free educational sources available on the internet, but also offer a couple of tips on how to get started right today!
Is it Possible to Make Money Online?
It’s very possible to make money online, especially today. We live in a modern age and almost everyone has access to the internet and owns at least a smartphone.
With the internet being access to such a big number of internet users – everything is possible online.
Most people don’t even know that the profiles you follow on Instagram, videos you watch on YouTube, and blogs you read – they all make money in some way.
Even if the content you consume is free – there is at least one monetization way in place. Otherwise, the internet wouldn’t be so populated with content.
If this is new to you – let it sink in and then start browsing through this website because I wrote many posts on how to make money online through various channels.
Different Ways of Making Money Online
There are many different ways of making money online. In the last section, I just told you a couple of examples.
However, the easiest and the simplest way to make money online is to trade a service (a skill) in return for money.
You don’t even have to worry about payments as there are many different payment gateways you can use to get paid and then cash it out whenever it’s convenient for you.
Therefore, I like to categorize these ways into two sections:
- Active income
- Passive income
Active Income
Active income is a way to start trading service, a skill, or doing any type of task that will get you paid as soon as you finish it.
This way, you can pick up a couple of tasks, keep yourself busy, and start supplementing yourself easily. I did this with freelance writing.
If you don’t have any other skill – I highly recommend you look into freelance writing. It has a very low entry barrier and yet the potential is huge.
Passive Income
Passive income is a way of starting your own online business, working on your own blog, starting your own YouTube channel or Instagram profile.
It requires a lot of up-front work and often requires very minimal up-front investment. Success doesn’t happen overnight and it takes a lot of time and work.
However, if you have patience and you’re consistent – this could turn into passive income.
For example, you will work on setting up your blog now, you will write content, and you will promote your blog – but organic exposure takes time and your blog might not even get any visitors at this moment.
However, a couple of months later, your blog will have visitors and this one post will get visited by new visitors every day.
If you monetize your post/blog well – one post can help you generate a steady amount of money in the long run, resulting in passive income.
Should You Invest in Educational Platforms & Courses?
Now that you know the potential of the internet and the ways of making money online – you’re still wondering how to make money online without paying anything, or even if you should only rely on free sources.
As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve started with all free sources I could find at the time. I didn’t have a lot of money, and I definitely didn’t have any extra money to spend on things I knew at the time I would need.
Therefore, even though I always recommend to invest in yourself, invest in a course that will help you learn a skill, invest in an educational platform that has the tools you need – it’s okay if you’re on a tight budget.
If you can – invest in yourself, but if you can’t – that’s totally okay and you can rest assured knowing that there are other ways to get educated and start making money online in no time.
Down below, I’ll show you some of the best free sources, even some of the sources I’ve used to get started – so keep on reading!
How to Make Money Online Without Paying Anything
If you’ve already been browsing for free sources – you might have come across a couple of good ones. However, there are high chances that you’ve come across many sources that only offer a trial version and wouldn’t get you far.
Down below, you can find some of the best yet free resources that will keep you pushing forward and learning things you’ve never even thought of before.
Wealthy Affiliate
Wealthy Affiliate is the first educational platform that I’ve started with and it’s a platform that teaches ways of starting an online business with the help of a website and affiliate marketing.
It’s free to join and you can be a Starter (free) member for as long as you wish. Within the first 7 days, you even get to experience all the features of the platform.
After the first 7 days, some of the features get limited for free users – but you still get plenty of value and you can learn a lot.
If you’re interested to learn about affiliate marketing, niche sites, and blogging – here’s what you can find at Wealthy Affiliate:
- Two different types of training
- Keyword research tool
- Website creator
- Affiliate programs
- A community full of affiliate marketers
I even wrote a full review on Wealthy Affiliate (with video) so give it a read to find out exactly what Wealthy Affiliate is!
But I still believe that it’s best to sign up and check it out for yourself, especially knowing that Wealthy Affiliate is free!
YouTube
YouTube is the second-best source of information that I have used when I was starting out. The great thing about YouTube is that content is free as long as you can deal with a couple of ads throughout the videos (which is nothing in comparison to the value you get).
All you have to do is find a quality source (channel) that is reliable, posts frequently, and is active – and you’ll be able to learn a lot.
Personally, I’ve come across Location Rebel which is actually a blog with a YouTube channel. Location Rebel helped me learn a lot about freelancing and even get my content business off the ground.
Free Courses
There are hundreds of websites that sell courses so it’s very possible to find websites with a couple of free courses.
You can also check out some official educational government websites such as Online Learning Harvard.
I was able to find 1-week to 3-week long courses that teach you anything from programming to cultural differences.
Also, course providers such as Udemy often have many discounted courses. I’m talking about heavy discounts (about 90%) which is definitely a great deal as long as you really know that the course will help you out.
Blogs
Almost everything I know today about digital marketing comes from blogs.
I’ve already told you about my favorite blog called Location Rebel where Sean Ogle teaches everything about freelancing, affiliate marketing, and a couple of other online business models.
However, I am also a huge fan of Niche Pursuits which teaches everything there is about niche sites (also involves affiliate marketing).
The thing I am trying to say is that there are thousands, if not millions of blogs, just like this one.
And if you know exactly what you’d like to learn about – you’ll be able to find at least a couple of highly-valuable blogs.
Some of the blogs will have its own membership part which can be accessed after making a one-time payment – but if you’re just starting out, I highly recommend you to stick with free resources.
Conclusion
Did you ever consider the possibilities of making money online? I wrote many posts on the benefits of working online or working remotely.
There are hundreds of legitimate business ideas that you can take action on from the comfort of your home.
It’s all about taking the action, learning something new, and taking advantage of the skill in order to create something or sell something.
When was the last time you learned a new skill?
If you’re still wondering how to make money online without paying anything and you still didn’t find an answer you’re looking for – leave a comment below and let me know how can I help you further!
