We know the internet is full of ways to make money at home… but they’re not all legitimate.
So we’ve weeded out the scams to share some of the best opportunities with you.
These are all ideas we’ve tried before, so we know they’re legit and that you’ll get paid. And we bet there are some in here you’ve never heard of!
Here are 13 ways you can make money from home if you live in Canada:
1. Fill This Out While You Watch TV
Surveys aren’t our favorite way to make extra money, but if you’re just hanging out watching TV, why not click a few buttons on your phone to put your time to use? Vip Voice & Ipsos Panel are some of the best paid survey companies around.Some of their top-end surveys can pay up to CA$123 (US$95), but those are rare and can take awhile to complete. Most surveys pay a buck or two and only take 10-15 minutes, making it pretty easy to earn CA$100 or more per month.
2. Scan Your Groceries
Did you know that the Nielsen company will pay you to scan your groceries each week? Crazy, right?
Once you sign up to become a Nielsen Consumer Panel family, you’ll be asked to simply scan the barcodes on your groceries and send your data off to Nielsen each week. Pretty easy, huh?
If you want to give it a try, you can fill out an application here:
Sign up to be a Nielsen Consumer Panel family here. As an active participant, you earn gift points which you can redeem for different types of merchandise. You can choose electronics, jewelry, household items and even toys for the kids. The longer you stay on the panel, the more opportunity you have to earn points towards prizes.You also receive entries for the panel’s many sweepstakes. Prizes include money, vacations, and brand new vehicles. This is a great way to make your consumer voice count and be rewarded handsomely for recording your purchases. You’re already going to the grocery store anyway, right?
3. Sell Your iPhone Photos
Yulia Mayorova/Shutterstock.com
With top-notch technology always in our pockets, all we need is a good scene to earn a little money as amateur photographers.
Download the free app called Foap to sell your iPhone photos for cash.
Here’s how it works: You take a quality photo, upload it to Foap’s marketplace, someone buys the license to your photo for CA$13 (US$10) and you make CA$7 (US$5).
If your photo sells 20 times, you make CA$7 (US$5) each time. That’s more than CA$100 in your pocket for just a few minutes of work.
4. Make Your Own Schedule as a Data Entry Clerk
Data entry isn’t the best-paying online job, but it is one you can do with few skills or previous experience.Typically, all you need is a computer and an internet connection. Fire up a pot of coffee, and find online data entry jobs through these freelancing sites:
•Smart Crowd
•Clickworker
•DionData Solutions
5. Get a Free $5 from Ebates
Have you heard of Ebates? They are a cash-back site that lets you earn rewards by shopping online. We use them all the time at our house, because it’s instant way to save on everything you buy (for example, they give you up to 5% cash-back on every purchase you make at Amazon).But, enough about that, here’s how to get a free $5 from Ebates:
1.Sign up for Ebates here using your email or Facebook account (it’s free).
2.Use the Ebates portal the next time you need to shop online (it’s connected to thousands of stores including Ebay, Amazon, and Home Depot).
3.As long as you spend $25 at any of those stores, Ebates will reward you a free five bucks (on top of the cashback rewards you earn normally).
6. Help This Research Company Study Internet Trends
MobileXpression is a research company that studies internet trends and reports to their clients about the popularity of different mobile phone websites. They are currently looking for a few thousand of us smartphone users to share some of the websites we are browsing on our mobile devices. All of the sharing is done with special software that is installed on your phone and it doesn’t require any real work from you. You can also uninstall the software at any time if you decide you no longer want to participate.After you’ve installed it for one week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something). I won a $25 gift card to Amazon, but some of the other prizes include iPads and Samsung TVs.
How it works…
1. Sign up at MobileXpressions – You’ll need to share a little bit of information about your demographic which is similar to signing up as a Nielsen household.
2. Download their software – It seems to be pretty easy and it runs in the background of your phone just like any other cell phone app. The site says it will have no affect on your mobile phone performance.
3. Send your data – This step doesn’t really require any work from you as the software automatically send the relevant data to MobileXpression. They don’t monitor your phone calls or personal information but they do check out the web pages you view, the links you access, and the usage times for certain device activities (e.g., text messaging, call lengths and web browsing).
4. Collect your rewards – After it’s been installed for seven days, you can play their instant rewards game where you are guaranteed to win something.
7. Get Paid to Get in Shape
Image from University of North Texas/Facebook
A lot of people want to get in better shape, and you’ll have a little extra motivation if you’re getting paid for it!We’re fans of both HealthyWage and DietBet, two sites that will allow you to place a wager on yourself and earn cash when you successfully lose weight.
8. Clean Up Search Engine Mistakes
Search engines use complicated algorithms to determine the results you see. But they don’t always get it right…They’re actually full of errors, so they need real humans to look at the results and judge them for quality, relevancy and usefulness. That’s where you come in.
You can find search engine evaluator jobs through Lionbridge. You’ll take a qualifying test, and some companies also conduct a phone interview. Once you’re accepted, you can set your own schedule and work as much or little as you want.
9. Help a Business Professional Organize Their Day
If you have a knack for organization and communication, there are people who will pay you to help organize their day!You don’t have to be the busy corporate assistant you see in old movies or TV — now you can be a virtual assistant right from your couch. VA gigs vary in pay, hours and workload. You might help people and businesses with data entry, social media management, website maintenance, research and customer service.
Find virtual assistant jobs through these sites:
•People Per Hour
•VA Networking
10. Work From Home as a Transcriptionist
Transcribing requires little to no prior experience, and offers flexible hours and workloads.
The work sounds easy: Listen to audio and type what you hear. But it can be repetitive and requires a lot of attention to detail.But the work is flexible and you can do it from home. Plus, the pay is a pretty good selling point: Earn around CA$20-$32 (US$15-$25) per hour for general transcription, and more if you learn to specialize in the legal or medical fields.
11. Stock up on Collectible Coins
Did you know Canada recently minted coins donning Star Trek characters? They’re exactly as cool as they sound. Some — like a pure gold $200 coin shaped like the Starfleet insignia — come at a pretty high price. But you can pick up the $10 or $20 coins with Captain Kirk and crew on them for near face value and resell to collectors on eBay once the Mint supply runs out.
12. Help Others Land the Right Job
Do you have contacts who are about to graduate and enter the job market? Or friends looking to make a career change? Offer to help polish their resume to take it job-search-ready. If you run out of clients in your network, you can also find online resume writing jobs through ResumeEdge and WriterBay. You can earn between $15-$25 per hour.
13. Look for Whale Vomit
Have you ever heard the word “ambergris”?
If so, you might know it’s a coveted ingredient in most high-end perfumes — and that it’s also known as whale vomit! Gross, I know. But, get this — if you find some, it’s worth $5,000 per pound! Ambergris is usually secreted by the whale via fecal matter. However, in the rare event that the mass is too large to pass through the digestive tract, it’s vomited up (and out) by the whale. These lumps usually float around the ocean — but sometimes come ashore. In fact, we recently shared a story about a guy who found $60,000 worth while walking his dog on the beach one day! If you’re anxious to start combing the beaches in your area, read more about identification techniques and storied discoveries by visiting Ambergris Expertise & Buying Worldwide.
Contributor:
www.thepennyhoarder.com