£££ ideas.. dug up by your Secretfriendz

We've all seen them — people who promise to show you how to make thousands at home in your spare time.

Guess what?

Like any get-rich-quick scheme, it's only going to make money for the person running the scheme.

That doesn't mean there aren't reputable ways to earn a little bit of money online during your spare time.

There are many easy and legal ways to earn a few bucks on the internet. Here are nine to try: 

1. Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk is run by Amazon. Anyone can sign up and complete simple tasks — like choosing which of two pictures depicts a bridge — to earn a few cents per task. With some practice, you can earn a few dollars an hour while just sitting on your couch watching television. And with enough focus, you can earn an amount roughly equal to minimum wage.

2. YouTube

YouTube allows anyone to post nonexplicit videos on pretty much any topic they desire. Recording a video can be as simple as turning on the camera on your computer and hitting the record button. If you enable advertisements on your videos, you can earn money at a rate of about £1to £3 per 1,000 video views. The more videos you have, the more views you can accrue, so this option really pays off if you record a lot of videos and build a viewership.

3. eLance

eLance. 

eLance

eLance allows people in almost any profession to find freelance work at home in their spare time. While the projects on eLance aren't going to earn you a ton of money, they do provide a great way to build an independent portfolio to show off your skills while also building a network of clients.

4. Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing allows anyone who has written a book on their own to upload it to Amazon to be sold on Amazon Kindle devices. Let's say you write a novel and want to sell it. If you upload it here and then promote it online through social media or blogs, you can sell copies of your book and earn as much as a 70 percent return on each sale.

5. Fotolia

Fotolia allows you to sell photos you've taken for stock photography usage. For example, if a publisher is looking for a picture of a beach and you uploaded such a picture, the publisher can use Fotolia to purchase the rights to use that picture in its publication and you receive a cut of that money. For a photography hobbyist, this is a great way to earn a few dollars for some of your best photos.

6. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is perhaps the most popular — and most legitimate — of the online survey sites. Swagbucks pays you a small amount for participating in a consumer survey, which companies then use to figure out what kinds of products to make and sell. You can participate in several surveys a day, and Swagbucks earnings can be redeemed for gift cards from Amazon, Target, iTunes, and more. 

3 Current Deals

• 

  Earn £30 Amazon voucher doing quick online activities*

  Eg, surveys, searches, games. Newbies get £20 bonus after earning £10

  Earn within 30 days

  Swagbucks is a site that rewards you for online activity such as answering polls, completing surveys, or watching videos. It gives you points (called 'SB'), which you can then cash in for gift cards, PayPal credit or other rewards.

  Newbies who sign up via our MSE Blagged Swagbucks* link can get bonus points equivalent to £20 in Amazon (or other) gift cards once you've earned 1,000 SB (equivalent to £10) – giving you a total of £30. However, you'll need to earn your SB (points) within 30 days of signing up.

  This offer is ongoing for the time being, but we'll update here if that changes. See more on how to get your free £20 bonus below.

  Important: When registering via the link above, don't click the option to enter an additional sign-up code as this will invalidate our sign-up offer and you won't get your £20 boosted bonus.

  How do I earn £10 in points?

  Once you've signed up via the link above, start earning points by doing any of the activities you fancy. The number of SB you'll earn for each one depends on the activity – some are faster earners than others. These are a few that can give you a good start...

  • Surveys. These are a popular choice as they’re simple to do and there are plenty of them. A typical 15-minute survey gives about 120 SB.
  • Gaming. If you’re a gamer, you might already play one of the featured free games, such as the mobile app game Coin Master, in which case you can get paid to do something you do anyway. Although the SB offered for playing games is very high, bear in mind it will take at least five hours (and sometimes weeks) to earn them. For example, Coin Master gets you 1500 SB when you complete 'village level 10' which can take around 10 hours.
  • Checking your credit score. You can earn 300 SB in one pop by signing up to check your credit score with Experian, which only takes a couple of minutes. 
  • Chip savings app. Downloading the free savings app Chip and entering your card details gets you 250 SB. However, do watch that you don't sign up to one of their monthly paid-for plans, unless that's what you want.
  • Amazon Prime trial. Another popular way of earning includes starting a free trial of Amazon Prime, but be aware that it's a subscription so you’d have to remember to cancel within 30 days if you don’t want to be charged later on.

  Important: You won't bag the £20 bonus if you don't earn at least 1,000 SB within 30 days, so don't leave it to the last minute to start racking up points.

  See list for all the ways you can earn SB.

  How do I get my free £20 bonus?

  Once you've earned 1,000 SB within 30 days of registering, an extra 2,000 SB (equivalent to £20) will be added to the 'My Swagbucks cards' bit of your account within 10 days – that'll give you a total of 3,000 SB (equivalent to £30) to redeem any way you like.

  The £10 Amazon e-gift card is currently on sale for 1,000 SB, so you could opt to redeem against three of those, for example. The e-gift card will arrive by email within 10 working days, or you might like to convert your earnings into PayPal cash, though that will use up more points (1,000 SB = £10 PayPal).

  For more ways to turn online activities into cash, see our  Online Survey Sites and our Make Money spamfree
  

• Free 50 Swagbucks on your birthday

  Ongoing

  If you're a Swagbucks member, you can get a bonus 50SB points on your birthday, valid for 30 days, when you cash out a voucher. It's called a 'Rebate SwagUp' and is explained in more detail 

  What is Swagbucks?
  

  Swagbucks is a site that pays you points (called SB) to answer daily polls, watch videos, play games, search online and more. The points can then be cashed in for gift cards, PayPal credit or other rewards.

• on going There are lots of ways to earn 'SB' (the currency of swagbucks , so even if there's not a cracking sign-up deal out there that works for you, don't assume you can't earn extra points. It's worth checking Swagbucks regularly for new offers and ways to rack up SB.

• Ways to earn include:

  • Complete surveys – Complete surveys and polls ranging from 2-40 minutes, which Swagbucks says could net you 300-500 SB per hour of work.
     

  • Cashback for shopping online – Cashback in the form of SB is available at 2,000+ online stores, eg, Boots (2% cashback), Just Eat (1% cashback) and Asos (up to 3% cashback). Plus, spend over £25 and earn over 35 SB to get a 1,500 SB bonus the first time you shop. Remember, cashback is never guaranteed, and don't assume Swagbucks will have the best rates. See our Top cashback sites for more info.
     

  • Discover – Try out new companies and websites by taking free trials, downloading free apps, entering free competitions and more. Good offers we've seen include: check your credit score

7. Fiverr

Fiverr. 

Fiverr

Fiverr is a website where you can make £5 doing almost anything. On the site, people upload jobs that they're willing to do for £4, like writing Facebook posts for companies. Many of the jobs require creative skills such as graphic design or audio editing, but tasks are things you can easily do on the couch in your spare time.

8. Skillshare

Skillshare is a website where you can teach an online class and get paid for it. You record series of videos on a topic that you know about — popular subjects include crafts, film, fashion, and cooking — and then participate on the Skillshare forums related to your class. In exchange, you receive a cut of the money from the people who take your class. No teaching degree is necessary to get started, and the site says teachers can earn an average of £2.500 a year.  

9. Zirtual

Zirtual is perhaps the most time-consuming, but most rewarding, option. With Zirtual, you sign up to be a Zirtual Assistant to a busy person. The person will send you things to do such as write emails, research a topic and summarize the findings, or personal tasks such as order flowers, manage a personal calendar, or write handwritten notes. The starting base pay is £9an hour, and Zirtual Assistants work weekdays full time. 

All of these websites offer great opportunities for anyone to earn some extra money online. It all depends on what you want to bring to the table in terms of time, money, and effort.