Legitimate ways to make money, are there any really?

[superteacher]

I can't agree more and I totally understand what you meant here. I don't like filling out at all but FC provides great opportunities to make extra dollars without filling out surveys.

[cjobey99]

FusionCash is one of the more straight-forward sites.  As long as you read the rules, and respect your neighbors it's got it all

[dkanofsky]

My absolute favorite way to earn or make money online is by clicking on ads.  Simple and easy.  You just have to find the legit sites and have a plan on how to reinvest the earnings. The key word is to reinvest and never use any out of pocket cash to do so.

[cowgirlx]

Those are some really good ideas.  I am going to try some of them out.  I wish I some to add, but you guys seem to have covered all of the ones that I know about and then some.

[belleg1]

I haven't found anything yet and I've been researching for months. That's how they make their money - charging us for materials or shipping, any excuse to get your credit card number.

[lvstephanie]

There seems like there's 3 different categories of making money on-line:

1) Scams. These include ponzi schemes, matricies, cash gifting, or even the $40 e-book that tells you how you can turn $100 into millions. Although they may be considered scams, you could feasibly make money, as long as you know it is a scam. Think of them more like a gambling game... You know the odds are stacked against you, but as long as you just play with money you are willing to lose, do a little research, and don't put all of you eggs in one basket, you can make money. I had tried a High Yield Investment fund investing $5 that I had earned from some other sites. I would've gotten that money back had I not been trying to use the money to reinvest in the account. But then they claimed they were scammed by a bunch of people using AlertPay and closed their AP accounts and zeroed everyone's accounts to pay off what they owed to people awaiting payouts via AP.  

2) Tasks / Jobs. These include legit surveys, GPT sites like FC, PTC sites, reading e-mails, article ratings, and "Mechanical Turks" type of tasks (MTurks is through Amazon). These are very simple tasks / jobs that take only a few minutes to perform and where you can earn fractions of a cent up to a few dollars per task. These are things that anyone can do (although in the case of surveys, not everyone can do all available, only those you qualify for). If you were to just do these tasks on your own, you won't be able to make a living off of it. But many will offer some type of bonuses for ref's, and they usually are so quick and easy that you can pick up a few cents during your free time (like doing surveys during the ads while watching TV). This is how I get most of my money on-line. I'm involved with several survey sites, FC and some other GPT sites, and a few PTC sites (although I've lost more money with these because I tried going too fast all at once and used my own money for investment instead of learning how to reinvest like dkanofsky said).

3) Work / Careers. These are for the heavy hitters that are willing to put in the effort and treat it more like a true "brick and morter" type of career. These include product marketing (including affiliate marketing as well as marketing your own products), blogging, medical transcriptionists, programming, article editting, etc. Most of these jobs require more training and/or education in order to be successful (although experience can also work, but it just means a more difficult line to tow). And they also require dedication, esp. in the beginning when you are first trying to set yourself up. Me thinks OldBuddy is working more at this level, and someday I hope to do so as well. I'm thinking of having two different blog sites: one would strictly be for making money on-line in order to get more ref's for the sites I like, and the second is more of my own personal blog sharing my own ideas / feelings, where I'd use affiliate marketing and AdSense, etc. in order to make money.

[lvstephanie]

I haven't found anything yet and I've been researching for months. That's how they make their money - charging us for materials or shipping, any excuse to get your credit card number.

Most of the time if you are asked to fork over some money in order to get a job, it is usually a scam. Like a one-paged e-book that you got for $5 that tells you how to make a free one-page e-book and sell it to dupes for $5. There are a few legit areas where you may want to pay some money for education, which in turn can be used to make more money in the future. There are a few affiliate marketing sites that ask for a fee for accessing their collection of e-marketing articles, tools, contacts, etc. Similarly, I've spent a few hundred dollars for online courses to enhance my programming skills. You just need to do your research in order to ensure that what you are paying for is worth that investment. That's what is so nice about some of the easier task type of jobs... You can make some extra pocket-change which you then can invest in something that will gain you even more money, be it investing in advertising, on-line courses, or even that $5 e-book in case you can gleam a little more out of it...

[oonamas]

One of my favorite sites is ebates.com. You have to spend money to get the rebates, but if you're buying something on-line and can do it through one of their partner stores, then you might as well get a rebate back! They have tons of stores that I frequent like Nordstrom, Macy's, Crate & Barrel, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and travel sites. Anyime I plan on buying anything on-line I check to se if I can go through ebates. They pay out quarterly. I've only gotten 3 checks so far, and have already made a little over $100.

[oonamas]

Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that ebates also has a referral program - $5 for all referral's who make a purchase of $20 or more. I wish I could post a referral link here!

[jcribb16]

  I have also done MyPoints for a few years - those gift cards are great!

[Mistydawn79]

i do slimstick and get $15 a month. its not much, but it adds up. i wish i could find paying blogs

[monnee]

FC, So far so good.  Can't wait to cash out.

[mrsbluesmith]

Fusion Cash is one of the best I've found so far. Search Google for "How to start a blog."  You'll get lots of good advice on writing  and marketing.  Set one up and just start selling yourself!

[monnee]

So far so good with FC.   

[oldbuddy]

I have also done MyPoints for a few years - those gift cards are great!

I have been in MyPoints for over 10 years and had more dinners on them than I can count. It's not high pay, but it's simple once you figure it out. I have a system going for me.