But alas, nothing in this world is free. You need to make money! Fortunately, remote work is easier than ever in 2025. Whether you’re a seasoned software engineer, a new parent that needs a flexible schedule, or a fledgling college student, you’ll find there’s a litany of opportunities to make money online.
Do you want to make working online your sole income, a side income, or are you just looking for an excuse not to put pants on in the morning - yes to all three? This list is for you. Here are some of the best ways we know of to make money online in 2025!
DataAnnotation
I may be biased, but DataAnnotation is the best platform for online work! Whether you’re a copywriter, poet, marketer, scientist, or even a software engineer, you can make bank at DataAnnotation.
What you’ll do: You’ll train some of the most advanced AI tools by interacting with them, and get paid to do so. (Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as it sounds.)
Here’s an example: You ask the AI to write a short story about a whale that can fly. The story must be exactly three paragraphs long, include the whale’s backstory, explain the whale’s superpowers, and end with a cliffhanger.
After the AI responds, you grade how well it answered the prompt. Let’s say the AI’s story is four paragraphs long. In that case, you would give the AI a lower performance score. Of course, this is a simple example, but you get the idea.
DataAnnotation pays out daily, and fairly - pay starts at around $20 an hour for less complicated tasks and can go as high as $50+ an hour for tasks that involve higher-level expertise, like programming. And there’s more than enough work to go around!
If you want to join DataAnnotation, you’ll need to pass an assessment. Take your time on it, it’s worth it if you pass!
Join Online Surveys and Focus Groups
Have you just been giving away your opinions for free? Stop that! Don’t you know that there are companies that will pay good money for them? You can get paid to take surveys, answer questions about yourself, and provide your opinions about different products and services.
Even better, you could join an online focus group where you’ll have discussions with other participants about various topics. Some focus groups can pay considerably higher rates - this kind of data is really important to businesses!
Generally, taking surveys and joining focus groups works better as a side hustle than a main income. Surveys don’t always pay the highest rates, and online focus groups aren’t always available. But it’s easy work, and why not get paid for the opinions you’re already sharing?
Here are some of the best sites for taking surveys online or joining focus groups.
Surveys:
Online Focus Groups:
Try Freelancing
If you’ve got skills, don’t let them go to waste. There are plenty of platforms out there that will help you share your talents with the general public. There’s a huge, global market of people looking for professionals to design their next website, build their next digital marketing campaign, or write their next ebook.
So if you’re an expert or a talented amateur, in editing, writing, programming, graphic design, administration, or really any other field, you should give freelancing platforms a shot. They can hook you up with the people who need, and are willing to pay for, your services. Just keep in mind that many of these platforms will take a percentage of your earnings for their services.
Here are some of the top Freelancing Platforms online:
Be a Virtual Assistant
Why not be an office rockstar from the comfort of your own home? Companies all over are waking up to the fact that they can hire remote talent to keep their appointments, do their bookkeeping, enter data, maintain their social media pages, and perform all sorts of administrative tasks.
The best part? As a remote virtual assistant, you don’t have to work for just one company, you can take on as much remote administrative work as you can handle. Some of these jobs can pay pretty well. However, the downside is that as a virtual assistant, your schedule may not be as flexible as some of the other remote jobs on this list.
Here are some resources that can help you be a Remote Virtual Assistant:
Design and Sell Your Own Course
If you’ve got expertise, chances are there’s a market for it. Creating and selling your own courses online can be a great way to earn passive income. You might know how to create an online Shopify store from scratch, or you might know how to do a kickflip on your grandson’s tech deck. Either way, there’s probably someone dying to learn what you know.
The downside here however is that you’ll likely have to spend a good deal of time designing and marketing your course, and there’s no guarantee that your course will sell. Still, sharing your knowledge can be a rewarding and fun way to earn money online.
Here are a few platforms where you can create and share your own Online Course:
Don’t Give Up on Your Work From Home Dream
Don’t let the dream die! If your cubicle feels like a jail cell, or if you just need extra cash to take the kids on a vacation this summer, earning money online might be for you. The Internet isn’t just for funny cat videos and TikTok, it’s a worldwide marketplace where the most creative and the most enduring thrive.
