Best Websites to Make Money Online

If you want to launch a side gig to generate regular part-time income or if you're looking for some quick extra cash, some websites can help.

Sometimes earning fast cash still means putting in time. That’s why our list of ways to make money online is in order from approximately the longest time investment to the shortest. Because time is, after all, money.

1. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing

How it works: You write a book and Amazon will help you get it published on Kindle.

Highlights: You’ll be a self-published author, and if everything goes right, may be able to make some good money. You’ll probably need people to already be following you on social media and be interested in what you have to say. You'll earn royalties, either 50% or 60%, depending on the price you’re asking for the book.

If you want to sell the book for $9.98 or less, you’ll get a 50% royalty; $9.99 or more, you’ll get 60%.

Drawbacks: Writing a book is hard, and if you want to do it right, you may need to consider hiring an editor or even a ghostwriter, both of which could cut into your profit.

Time investment: Probably a fair amount of work, assuming you’re writing it yourself and not relying on an AI program to do it for you. If you’re a fast writer, you may be able to crank out something readable in a few days, but let’s assume that if you’re going to do this right, it will take at least a few weeks, possibly months or even years.

2. Fine Art America

How it works: You can set up an account, upload your images and start selling your artwork to buyers around the world.

Highlights: You’ll keep whatever you charge. It’s the customer who pays any additional commissions, generally 30% but sometimes nothing. And there are several types of art or products with art on them sold here. You could sell paintings, T-shirt designs, greeting cards and more.

Drawbacks: What if you made a painting, and nobody bought it? That could definitely happen, and there are a lot of artists for people to choose from.

Time investment: It can be a significant amount of work if you’re an artist and a perfectionist. It could take less time if you’re a skilled artist who really knows what you’re doing, or a not-so-skilled artist who just likes to slop stuff down. No matter what happens, you will have artwork that you can either keep, give away or eventually sell on the website or somewhere else.