How to Make Money with No Skills

May 24, 2022

The post How to Make Money with No Skills appeared first on Millennial Money.

Traditionally, unskilled labor is work that requires little or no formal education or training to complete.

While this was limiting in the past for job seekers, the advent of the internet and the gig economy changed the game. Now, it’s not only possible to find opportunities to earn extra income with unskilled labor—it’s easy.

To be clear, when we talk about skills, we’re talking about diplomas, certifications, and experience. If you don’t have any of those things yet, it doesn’t mean you’re any less capable than someone who does. It just means you haven’t checked some boxes society often expects.

And let’s be honest: Just because a job doesn’t require a degree doesn’t mean that it’s easy. If you want to make extra money with an “unskilled” side hustle or a full-time gig, you need to be ready to learn and put in the effort.

No matter your skill set, there’s no reason you can’t find a high-demand lane to turn into real money, and I’m here to help you do it.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at 13 of the best ways to make money with no skills in 2022.

13 Ways to Make Money with No Skills

1. Become a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is a self-employed professional who provides digital assistance to a company or client. Virtual assistants can work from home or shared office spaces. Common responsibilities include data entry, managing schedules, and handling phone and email correspondence.

As a virtual assistant, you can choose your schedule, find your own clients, and make good money helping out with the day-to-day things that need to get done. It’s a great gig if you’re the type of person who is naturally organized and has a knack for making people’s lives easier.

To find virtual assistant opportunities, check out general freelance marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork or sign up for more specific platforms like VANetworking.com.

Fiverr

Fiverr is one of the top platforms for finding freelance gigs for around the world. Sign up now for free!

If you have a tough time sitting in one place during the workday, you can earn money moving around and getting your hands dirty as a Taskrabbit Tasker.

Once you sign up, you can choose the tasks you want to complete and folks in need can book you to give them a hand.

When you finish a task, invoice your customer for your rate plus any expenses, and payments come through Taskrabbit’s secure platform. Play your cards right, and you’ll probably even earn some tips, too.

Taskers earn extra cash across more than 50 different tasking categories to choose from. If you’re a beginner, you can take on simple side gigs like grocery shopping and lawn mowing, and you can work your way up to more involved opportunities.

Taskrabbit is an awesome option for a part-time supplement to your 9 to 5. And the more you build up the rating on your profile, the more likely you’ll be to get enough jobs to start covering your bills.

3. Use Paid Survey Sites

Arguably the easiest way to earn money online is to take online surveys. Anyone can do it, and you can easily earn extra money in your spare time—from the comfort of your own couch to boot.

That said, this gig also comes with some of the lowest earning potential. Surveys shouldn’t be viewed as a path to a full-time job. At best, they might be able to help you cover a bill or two each month.

But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t worth your time. With sites like Survey Junkie, you can find plenty of paid surveys to take while you’re watching TV or waiting in line. Other sites like Swagbucks offer surveys plus cash back for online shoppers and issue rewards through gift cards or PayPal cash.

Most survey sites also feature referral bonuses, so you can earn extra money just for bringing your friends along, too.

4. Start a YouTube Channel

If you want to monetize your creativity, one of the best ways to get yourself out there is to start your own YouTube channel. Whether you want to make comedy videos, workout tutorials, or walkthroughs for video games, YouTube is the place to do it.

Of course, YouTube isn’t the quickest way to start earning real money. To make your channel attractive to potential ad partners, you need to build up your subscribers to prove that you’re reaching an engaged audience.

This is where your own unique skill set comes into play. There are millions of channels to compete with, and you need to find a way to command attention.

Here are a few quick tips to keep in mind as you figure out how to do that:

Stick to what you know
Stay consistent
Find your niche
Try to improve your content with every upload
Understand your target market

Once you build up a following, you can start making money through your channel via ads and sponsorships.

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5. Become a Freelance Writer

If you love to write, you might not realize how many opportunities there are to make money doing it. Every website needs content, and good writers are always in high demand.

Plus, the beauty of writing online is that no one cares what you scored on the SAT or whether you got an MFA. All that matters is that you can churn out clean, engaging copy and do so quickly.

To get started, you might need to be willing to take whatever jobs you can get to build up a professional writing portfolio. Once you have some quality examples, you can create profiles on Fiverr and Upwork, set your own rate, and see what’s out there.

If you love grammar but prefer to work on the back end, you can also use the same platforms to seek out proofreading and editing jobs.

6. Sell Stuff on eBay or Craigslist

A quick way to make money from home is to sell the stuff you already have. For example, if you have a closet full of lightly used clothes or a basement full of old LPs, you can get them listed on popular platforms like eBay and Craigslist.

Of course, it isn’t exactly a sustainable model to sell your stuff. Eventually, you’ll run out of product—and this is where you can start to get a little savvy.

Once you have a bit of startup cash, you can browse the same platforms for undervalued items. Craigslist, in particular, is known for low-cost or free items, which you can claim, spruce up a bit, and flip for a profit. You can also check out local tag sales and book fairs and try to find some gems.

If you go this route, you need to think about your overhead. Selling items online comes with packaging and shipping costs, so be sure to keep your overall costs in mind to ensure that you’re turning a profit.

7. Start an Online Business

If you’ve always wanted to become a small business owner, you’ll be happy to know that the internet has made it easier than ever to get a business off the ground.

Online businesses benefit from the lack of overhead associated with a brick-and-mortar establishment, and you can get yours going from the comfort of your own home.

For example, you can open an online store with an eCommerce platform like Shopify and sell anything from T-shirts to custom candles to used books.

Another option is dropshipping, which is the process of outsourcing costs like production, inventory, and shipping for your online store. With dropshipping, there’s less risk of getting stuck with a product you can’t sell. But you’ll also earn less per item sold.

To be sure, a small business is never a sure thing. But starting one comes with limitless earning potential. You just need the right idea and the right execution.

8. Get Paid to Test Websites

If you like the idea of influencing the decisions of big-name brands, you can get paid to test out websites with UserTesting.

Companies enlist the platform to test out new technologies or design ideas, and UserTesting’s network of users tries them out and provides feedback.

To get started, all you need to do is head to the website and apply. The application process is simple, and you need to complete a practice test to qualify.

Once you’re in, you can browse through available opportunities and answer screening questions to see if you’re a fit for each one.

From there, it’s as simple as running through the test and giving your in-depth, honest feedback. Testers earn between $4 and $10 for tests lasting up to 20 minutes, and you might even get a chance to participate in live tests, which can pay over $100 each.

9. Teach English

It might come as a surprise, but if you’re a native English speaker, you’re already qualified to teach the English language online and can earn good money doing it.

VIPKid is an online portal for English lessons and houses more than a million eager students. Its instructors earn between $14 and $22 per hour teaching from home and can work on their own time with no minimum hours requirement.

Plus, VIPKid has you covered when it comes to lesson planning with a fully built curriculum for you to teach from.

Once you set up an account, you can fill out an application and run through a brief demo lesson for the VIPKid team to review. If you make the cut, you’ll get the chance to teach alongside an experienced teacher and then move on to your own online classroom.

10. Earn Passive Income with Investments

If you’re looking for a passive income stream to grow the money that you already have, the best way to do it is to learn how to invest.

The first step is to open a brokerage account with a platform like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or Robinhood. Most of these come with a ton of educational resources, so even if you’re completely new to investing, you can get your feet wet and learn the basics before you put any money on the line.

Of course, you can also use a robo-advisor to facilitate trades on your behalf.

The key to investing is to understand how the market works. For sustainable income, you want to develop a low-risk strategy that will help you grow your money over time.

It might not be the most exciting way to earn cash. But a properly diversified investment portfolio can pay off in a big way if you stick with it.

Robinhood

With Robinhood, you can start investing without any transaction fees.

11. Sell Stuff on Etsy

If you like to work with your hands, you can sell your homemade arts and craft items on Etsy. A natural hub for creators and quirky items, Etsy is the best place on the internet to show off and monetize your woodworking or jewelry-making skills.

Even if you don’t produce anything of your own, you can still use Etsy to sell vintage clothing or records. No matter what you’re selling, you’ll pay a fee for each listing and each transaction. But Etsy helps you out along the way with some helpful tips on becoming a successful seller.

To get your Etsy store going, don’t be shy about blasting your items on social media, which will lead more potential customers back to your homemade products.

12. Start a Blog

Blogging is one of the original online money-makers, and it’s still going strong. A carefully crafted blog that serves a particular niche is a valuable commodity and can allow you to contribute your unique voice to a subject that you’re passionate about.

Bloggers earn revenue through affiliate marketing, the process of partnering with brands for a cut of any purchases you’re able to facilitate with your content. Basically, once your blog has a proven following, you can sell ad space and earn each time someone clicks on an ad and buys something.

To get to that point, you need to drive traffic to your blog. While high-quality content is always the first step, it might not be enough.

Which brings us to my final selection: the magic of SEO.

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13. Learn and Master SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of affecting the search engine ranking of a website through targeted keywords. Simply put, it’s how websites get seen.

If you can thoroughly learn SEO, you’ll become an indispensable asset to anyone trying to make a killing online. And fortunately, learning SEO is not the hardest thing in the world. (Mastering it is quite another!)

A great place to start is with an online course, which you can find on platforms like Udemy. Once you have the basic principles down, making money with SEO is as simple as staying on top of ever-changing search engine algorithms.

Whether you want to use SEO for your own content or serve as a consultant for other sites, it’s an invaluable skill that will serve you well for a long time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How Can I Make Money Fast with No Experience?

It depends on how much money and how fast we’re talking. My suggestion would be to start with Taskrabbit, which has plenty of opportunities for people with little experience. You’ll have plenty of gigs to choose from, and they pay pretty well.

If you’re just looking for a few extra bucks, try taking online surveys. You can sign up in seconds, take surveys from anywhere, and earn a payout relatively quickly.

What Is the Easiest Thing to Do to Make Money?

The answer is different for everyone. The easiest thing to do to make money is the thing that comes easiest to you.

If you’re naturally good with words, try online writing. If you’re patient and like working with kids, you might make a good online English teacher. The list goes on.

Rather than asking what the easiest path is, think about your strengths and how you can turn them into money.

How Can I Make $100 without a Job?

This depends on whether or not you have some cash on hand to work with. You can easily make $100 without a job through investments or a sign-up bonus for a credit card—but not without money to spend ahead of time.

If you’re unable to work, it can be a little tricky to consistently make this kind of money. Always be wary of scams promising free money. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, you don’t need special skills to make money.

I constantly get questions about making money online, and my first answer is never to go out and get a degree.

A lot of people have ditched traditional education and gone on to make something special—just look at the roots of companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.

While those are obviously extreme examples, the point stands: There’s no single way to become successful. With the right attitude, strategy, and work ethic, anybody can turn whatever they’re working on into sustainable income.

Your money is out there. Now it’s up to you to put in the hard work to find it. And I’ll be cheering you on every step of the way.