If you’re a fan of this blog then the chances are you’re pretty web savvy already. But are you using the internet to its full potential? Making an extra income online from your laptop is easier than it sounds, and there are lots of ways to do it. Here are some of them.

Freelancing

Take a look at freelancing sites like the aptly named Freelancer, Fiverr and Elance. These are great for people just starting out as they let you bid for jobs alongside established freelancers. If your proposals and your prices are good, you have a great chance of being “commissioned” to do the jobs listed. Over time, you can build up more and more experience and start to charge more for your services. Sounds good, right? The beauty is, you can freelance as anything from a writer to a designer, translator or a developer.

Ebooks

For the truly savvy, a passive income is probably the best way to make money online. Passive income is basically money you make with little or no effort. One great way to do this is to write your own ebook, which you can sell on Amazon. If it’s any good, you could be making money from it months or years later. For maximum success, pick a topic for your ebook that is in high demand and has low competition from other authors. If you do your research now, it could really pay off later on.

Ecommerce

You know that pipe dream you once had of running your own sustainable gift shop? Well thanks to the wonders of ecommerce that dream is no longer going to cost you the earth. If you want to sell your wares, whether it’s your own artwork, homemade beauty products or your own line of logo t-shirts, you can do it easily and efficiently online, without having to pay hefty rents for retail space or staff. Lots of sites like Etsy and EBay make it easy with ready-made platforms and templates. All you have to do is get the goods to your customers. And if you don’t want to do that, there are plenty of companies you can outsource storage and shipping to.

Website testing

Yup, you can actually get paid to be a couch potato and surf websites, testing them as you go. You won’t get paid a huge amount, but you will make a bit of extra pocket money. You can make about £7-£10 per website that you test, depending on which service you sign up to. These sites are great for people who only have an hour or two to spare per day.

Blogging

Believe it or not you can make money if you have a successful blog. All you need to do is sign up to be an affiliate partner and procure paid partnerships with brands. To do this you need to have a good quality website and a fair amount of traffic. It’s more of a slow-burning money maker, but one you’ll be glad of if it pays off!

Remote working

Guess what? You don’t have to scrabble about trying to make money online if you have one of the many skills that companies employ people to do remotely. There are lots of businesses out there who have telecommuting staff and recruit for remote working roles. Get out there and find out the ones that apply to your niche, then see which roles they have open. If you’re successful, you could be making a full-time salary on your laptop (with many of the security benefits that freelancers don’t have access to), from the comfort of your own home.

Virtual assistant

Lots of companies need ad-hoc administrative tasks done and they outsource people like you to do them. Whether it’s transcribing information or doing data entry tasks. You can go two ways with this: sign up to a site that provides these services or sell your services independently, through your own marketing efforts. Going freelance is probably going to earn you more money but will require considerably more effort – it’s your decision.

What to do with your extra cash

Now that you’ve made all that extra cash, it’s time to have fun spending it! Here are a few ideas for that, too:

Sports and gaming: From casino games to live sports, if you have some extra money you’d like to wager it’s as simple as logging on and choosing your game of choice. These days there’s a huge range of options – you can bet on greyhound racing, darts or even just try your hand at the humble game of bingo.

Buy a lottery ticket: Just a few pounds a week can up your chances of winning the lottery. You’ve got to be in it to win it!

Start a holiday fund: If you’ve always wanted to go on that Caribbean cruise or that trip to the Great Wall of China, now is the time to start putting money away, while you’re earning extra cash. If you can stick at it, you will be a lot closer to achieving your dreams than when you started out. Good luck!