To think it's not possible to make a living through online work

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

I am referring to the possibility of making a living in the following ways:

• Completing surveys
  
• Entering online competitions
  
• Online gambling for example matched betting
  
• Being an online study participant
  
• Online transcription work
  

I keep hearing stories about people who spend all day online doing the above things and making thousands of pounds a month. It's not something I'm considering at all, but I have to say I'm really intrigued by the concept of earning so much money from doing this kind of stuff.

Despite researching it and really looking in to it, I'm still incredibly skeptical about whether people really do make money doing this. If it was that easy, wouldn't everyone do it?

[specialsubject]

Correct. The 'I make a fortune online' brigade are the same as the ' I sell smelly tat through a pyramid scheme and make a fortune' people. Liars, fools, deluded.

[EustaceClarenceScrubb]

What do the 'I quit my job and now make {insert ridiculous sum}' brigade actually do? I always assumed it was sex cam work or something. I don't believe you can make any sort of money from the things on your list, except maybe transcribing but I don't think you could get regular work doing that.

[FlouncingInAWinterWonderland]

Some online surveys pay as much as £1 in a high street store voucher but you have to have earned £20 to take money out. They only take 20-30 minutes to fill in, plus registration time and finding them. I recon if you worked really hard you could earn going on £2/ hour.

Invest it in a half price Lidl mumsnet chicken and an hours work could feed a family of four for a week.

[jay55]

I've done the surveys and clicks and shopping receipt stuff to get extra pennies when work has been scarce. But as a way to get a free coffee or cinema trip, not to feed a family or pay rent.
Never been brave enough for matched betting or secret shopping.

[expatinscotland]

In those ways, probably. I know some people who do sex work and they certainly make a living online.

[ShuttyTown]

My good friends DH is a 'professional' gambler. Horse racing only. She works two shifts a week in a care home and they have a 4 bed detached house, brand new 4x4, 3DC all in brand new clothes and shoes, always able to buy appliances and sofas etc outright. He makes an excellent living doing it, I wish I knew how to do it!

[user1484082284]

I have chronic fatigue and looked into various online things a while back. Could never get anywhere with surveys - too time-consuming, too little return. I did find work as a moderator/customer service person though, for 30 hours a week over 7 days. It's just not quite enough to live on but it's certainly useful.

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

I went on the Money Shed forum and there were all these people saying they make hundreds a month, sometimes thousands. I'm just mystified by it. I looked at the amounts some people make and I'm like

[DoctorStrange]

Look up SEO companies - Appen Butler Hill, Leapforce, and Lionbridge are the main employers. You are expected to pass an extended qualification.
Rates of pay are ~£10ph. On a good month I was earning an extra £800-£1.2k, an average month was £500-£700. The work is mind-numbingly boring though - which was my main reason for quitting.

[Owlzes]

One of my best friends makes a living working online - she does transcription, and writes copy for websites and clickbait etc. She is signed up to a couple of websites.

She reckons that for the first two years she earned about as much doing that as she would have got from the dole and still had to claim housing benefit, and that was from working basically full time hours. It worked out as slightly less than minimum wage, I think, but it meant she didn't have to sign on and get hassled by the job centre so was worth it for that.

Then she got a bit of a name and a bit of a reputation and some better clients and moved up a step in the freelance writing world and now she thinks she earns about £10k-£12k annually, which is just about enough to get by on, and gives her some freedom. It works for her because she has various health issues which make office work hard, and she really likes the freedom of being able to say "I feel bad today, so I'm not working now, but I can catch up at the weekend" without having to get in trouble with a boss etc. But it's certainly not great money.

[wifeyhun]

I was also working for Appen for six months last year, I was also earning £800-£1000 a month, however the contract just ended so you can't rely on it.

I matched bet mostly now, I make anywhere from between £300-£1000 a month. I have been doing this since 2015. Takes dedication though as there isnt as many offers around as there used to be. Plus you run the risk of being banned from the offers.

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

Good for you if you can do it. It must take an extraordinary amount of time and dedication

[Camomila]

Transcription is a proper job/skill though, so you can make a living out of that. Lots of my MA friends would pay a transcriber (probably not a real word!) to transcribe interviews at £20 per hour.
You have to be a very good audio typist and ideally have special software.
I transcribed all mine by myself and it took about 3h plus per 30 minute interview.

[ShowMePotatoSalad]

Sorry I should have said transcribing using these companies like transcribe me where you get paid via them, not freelance transcribing directly with clients.

[NerrSnerr]

I know a few bloggers who are SAHMs and make enough from it to make a bit of extra money, they also get a fair amount of things to review. I think it's much harder than it used to be though and the ones doing well are ones who have been around for years. I don't believe there's loads of money in it so companies now pay professional writers to blog but a couple of hundred a month for most.

[TimetohittheroadJack]

Initially you can make a fair amount from matched betting (not gambling, you need to read and understand what you are doing), but once you have signed up for all the bookies and used all their introductory offers its much slimmer pickings. And you need to have a slush fund to get started.

[dorothymichaels]

I have a friend who does matched betting. He made a lot of money from working in the city and has no mortgage so I suppose can bet large amounts. He says he makes 'pocket money' of about £1000 a month. I was as that's an annual salary for a lot of people. He's on all the forums and knows what is going on at what time.

[TimetohittheroadJack]

dorothymichaels that is the problem, you have to 'lay' and place quite large bets, when I did it I was sometimes out of pocket a few hundred pounds to get back a free £20. Although (if you do it right) the risk is minimal, you could make a mistake and be out a lot of money. Which is fine if you can spare it, and have got the money in the first place. Moneysavingexpert had a forum that I used to use. If anyone is thinking of trying it please make sure you understand what to do else you are just gambling!

[FeralFanjoFauna]

It's possible. It's rare though.

[PaintingOwls]

Learn to trade. You can trade on races and sports events, not just stocks. Learn how to do it and scrape off £1-£5 a go. Build up your deposits, increase your profits. Accept that you may sometimes lose £200 in one go. Think of it as the long game.

[HarleyQuinzel]

I did matched betting while I was on mat leave. Made around £1000 in about a month. Most of the money is in the initial '£20 free when you first sign up' etc. A couple of websites even matched your bet up to £100. I stopped at the initial free offers though as it gets a bit more complicated after that.

Things like surveys are literally for pennies though and take a lot longer. I have heard people claim to make £1000+ in a year in their 'spare time' but that wasn't my experience at all.

[barinatxe]

Usually it's best to assume that if it were possible to make money in those ways then lots of people would already be doing it.

There are lots of schemes scams out there, usually they follow this criteria:

a) Quote some large but specific regular profit - £5,031.27 per week is much more "believable" (to idiots) than £5,000 would be
b) Offer a money back guarantee (good luck)
c) Give the purchaser an ebook (that's been knocked up in ten minutes) of what they need to do

Remember that if it really were possible to easily make money online, people would be doing it - not selling the idea to others. Why would someone make £30 a time selling an idea to someone if they could really make £5000 (sorry, £5,031.27) per week?

Online gambling might work for a few, but I think the point at which betting exchanges were really a genuine option for making money was ten or more years ago. People are too clued up now, and it's those people you have to beat in order to make money. Remember too that if you are betting/laying on an exchange (or betting generally) your turnover needs to be huge. Professional gamblers are lucky to make 5% profit on turnover - you'd need to be turning over £40k+ per month to "make a living" out of it, and that's for the more skilled person.

[hipopotam]

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Guide to Lionbridge Jobs

[taraRoo]

Professional poker is a money spinner. I know two people who do this full time.

[girlicorne]

I work for Appen it pays my daughters school fees, £1100 a month. I work full time as well but my business crashed, I went from making 7k a month to scraping about 1k. I found the £10 a day threads on here last summer and it went from there. I do 20 hours a week extra. It is boring but a means to an end. However my business has bizarrely and unexpectedly picked up during lockdown and I m hoping I can make the money there again as that is my career and my passion. I don’t do surveys and I don’t do anything less than £10 an hour as my free time is more important than that. So I agree I don’t think it’s possible through the survey sites but certainly through someone like Appen, Lionbridge or Crisp Thinking! You just need to apply for everything and something will come up. The £10 a day threads on the money matters board are awesome, a lovely supportive group of people!