Online Money Making

Send emails to random addressees telling them that you have a million dollars for them and to claim it to send you a check for $5000?

Surveys are fine and paid to read emails.

Trading on margin

Quote from Liquidsilver : Trading on margin

Buying a mortgage REIT like AGNC, NLY, CIM, etc. on margin?

Blogging... but very few actually pull in good money. I think a lot hope to have their site get popular and be bought out. I know there are a few on youtube making pretty good dough. This is all from ad revenue (google adsense).

Move to Nigeria and send some e-mails. /sarcasm

Gamble online?

Surveys are a good start although some may end up stiffing you in the end.

Surprised that nobody's mentioned this yet, but if you're female and have a webcam... shouldn't be too hard to figure this one out

I am fond of MyPoints. Everyday you get an email or two. You click on a link and then close it. Every week or two you get a survey or two. I don't do most, but these are the only survey I've found where you get something even if you are refused (I'm refused a lot).

By the end of the year, I have $80 -90 in gift cards. It's not much, but the time & effort spent on them is minimal.

I've tried other survey sites, but mostly I answer 30 questions & am then told I am not accepted so I've wasted my time

Quote from jmcunnin : If you don't mind me asking, what kind of things do you buy/resell from ebay/craigslist?

Primarily laptops & camera equipment. If you're interested in doing this you need to know the used market INTIMATELY. You should be able to know off the top of your head the general price range in the used market for whatever you're interested in selling, and how that price fluctuates over time.

There are items that sell low on ebay and high on CL, and vice versa - you need to watch both for a while until you see some patterns. For example, as new models of machines are released, there's a period of increased buying and selling of the older models while people are upgrading. I know that's a rather simplistic example - you need to watch the market yourself for a while to see how it works.

I also buy broken machines, fix them & resell them - this is where I get the bigger payoffs.

If you're interested in doing something like this, I'd recommend that you pick something you're already familiar with - for example, I know a guy who does this with snowmobiles; you can do it with bicycles, cars, PCs, whatever. Just as long as you're comfortable enough to know if someone is selling below market value, but not so far below that it's clearly a scam. Also keep in mind that shipping & ebay charges will take away from profits.

Hope that helps...

Quote from Jeffbx : Primarily laptops & camera equipment. If you're interested in doing this you need to know the used market INTIMATELY. You should be able to know off the top of your head the general price range in the used market for whatever you're interested in selling, and how that price fluctuates over time. There are items that sell low on ebay and high on CL, and vice versa - you need to watch both for a while until you see some patterns. For example, as new models of machines are released, there's a period of increased buying and selling of the older models while people are upgrading. I know that's a rather simplistic example - you need to watch the market yourself for a while to see how it works. I also buy broken machines, fix them & resell them - this is where I get the bigger payoffs. If you're interested in doing something like this, I'd recommend that you pick something you're already familiar with - for example, I know a guy who does this with snowmobiles; you can do it with bicycles, cars, PCs, whatever. Just as long as you're comfortable enough to know if someone is selling below market value, but not so far below that it's clearly a scam. Also keep in mind that shipping & ebay charges will take away from profits. Hope that helps...

I dabbed into fixing and reselling computers in my area. However, it was a headache. When you sell someone a computer they automatically believe that you will be their lifetime tech support. Lot of people would not want to pay for a legit copy of Windows and insisted I install a pirated copy for them (haha... no).

Late 90's to early 2000's wasn't so bad because there were a lot of interest in gaming rigs. Computer gaming was exploding and brought in a lot of people who had no idea how to build a machine. That all started to die off when PS3 and Xbox 360 started to take over. Now, people who actually want a gaming rig know what they are doing. Those who want to play computer games 99% want to play WoW and that runs on everything

I tried doing the whole repair thing but lot of times when someone needed their computer formated and have a Windows reinstalled due the WTF amount of spyware and programs they had installed on their machine including every trojan and virus known to man, I'd find out they were using a pirated copy of Windows and they would insist I do tech support for it. So, I said screw that and told everyone to go buy a Mac, buy a Dell, or install Linux

The area I live in is too small and you got giant mega stores everywhere. Being Alaska, nothing else to do but go to these giant mega stores. All the local computer shops have basically either went under or turned into support and repair shops. Can't blame them when Worst Buy and China Mart sell computers for next to nothing. Would have been awesome if I could just have done it through ebay but shipping to and from Alaska kills EVERYTHING.

Anyhow, could you PM me these magical surveys?

D'oh sorry folks - apparently I'm 'soliciting referrals' for the surveys. No more on that! Sorry mods.

Specialmoose, I know what you mean on 'tech support for life' - I never do anything except re-sell a machine & then cut off all contact. For friends & family I never charge anyone anything, so they're less likely to come back to me over & over. Once you accept money from someone for computer services you're suddenly their indentured servant.

Sadly, with the new fee structure ebay is really making it difficult to make a profit - 10% of my total now goes to them, which can be 25% of my profit. Idiots.

Any other ideas that is 1) legal, 2)not time consuming and 3)not tedious? I'm looking to make a few hundred in maybe 2-3 months.. possible?

Quote from platinumtlc : Any other ideas that is 1) legal, 2)not time consuming and 3)not tedious? I'm looking to make a few hundred in maybe 2-3 months.. possible?

maybe you can write articles online? I used to write for demand studios. they pay $15 an article havent written for them in a while though so don't know if things have changes but give it a shot. if you can write a hs essay you can write an article.