Paid Surveys, Cashback Sites, and Other Things That Won’t Make You Rich (But Might Buy Coffee)

📌 TL;DR:

You won’t retire early with paid surveys and cashback sites, but if your current goal is “make enough to not feel totally useless today,” these options are a solid start. No skills needed. No need to change out of pajamas either.

make money online without skills

Not everyone wants to become a content creator, an affiliate marketing wizard, or someone who “just closed a $30k brand deal from a beach in Mexico.” Some of us just want to stay horizontal, scroll through memes, and maybe make enough to justify a second latte.

If you’re Googling “make money online without skills”, I see you. You’re not lazy — you’re efficient. You’re just not in the mood to learn coding or build a business empire this week. You want something brainless. Maybe even passive. Or at the very least, tolerable.

So here’s your low-effort, no-skill-required starter pack to making money online — minus the hustle culture and plus a healthy dose of reality.

1. Paid Surveys: The Digital Equivalent of Loose Change in Couch Cushions

You’ve seen them. “Make $500 a week from home taking surveys!”
Nope. You won’t. But here’s what you will make: a couple of dollars, a few gift cards, and possibly a strong opinion about shampoo bottle labels.

How it works:
You sign up, answer questions, and get paid pennies per survey. Sometimes dollars, if you’re lucky or fit a “high demand” demographic (read: parents with money or very specific health conditions).

Where to try:

Real talk:
Best done while watching TV or pretending to be busy on Zoom. Don’t expect miracles, but it’s not nothing.

2. Cashback Sites: Because You Were Going to Shop Anyway

If you have to spend money, you might as well get some back.
Cashback apps and browser extensions reward you with a few percent of your spending — which adds up if you online shop like it’s your cardio.

Where to try:

Pro tip:
Stack cashback with coupon codes and card rewards. That’s not just smart — that’s budget sorcery.

3. Microtasks: Get Paid to Click Around Like a Trained Monkey

Welcome to the land of digital crumbs. Sites like Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and Clickworker pay you to do tiny online tasks: categorize images, transcribe short audio clips, or verify data. No skill, no passion, just repetitive clicking.

Where to try:

Reality check:
The work is boring and often underpaid. But if you’re already scrolling mindlessly, might as well scroll with purpose.

4. Get-Paid-To (GPT) Sites: A Little Bit of Everything, All for Very Little

Swagbucks, again, is basically the buffet of low-effort tasks. Watch videos, take surveys, play games, click ads. It’s the gig economy for people who don’t want actual gigs.

Earning potential:
Think coins in a mobile game, not rent money. Still, it’s one way to feel semi-productive while you’re in bed with one eye open.

5. Sell Your Internet (Yes, Really)

Some platforms will pay you — or rather, compensate you slightly — to use your unused internet bandwidth (securely) for data aggregation and market research. It sounds sketchy, but it’s legal.

This is the closest you’ll get to getting paid for doing absolutely nothing.

Install the app, let it run in the background, and watch passive income drip in like a very lazy faucet.

Where to try:

  • Honeygain
  • PacketStream
  • Peer2Profit – The app is no longer available on Google Play (no official iOS version) but you can download it using an APK (at your own risk) or apply for an account via their telegram channel.

Is it passive?
Big yes. As long as you’re okay with sharing a chunk of your Wi-Fi like a digital Airbnb for bandwidth.

6. Apps That Pay You to Walk or Sleep (You Were Already Doing That)

Okay, technically this is more about health tracking than money, but if you’re looking for no-effort wins…

Examples:

  • Sweatcoin: Pays in points for walking (can be exchanged for products or PayPal cash)
  • Evidation: Earns points for sleep, steps, food logs
  • StepBet: Bet on yourself to walk a certain amount — win money if you succeed

Disclaimer:
The payouts are small, but if your step count is already decent, why not monetize your movement?

The Bottom Line: You’re Not Going to Get Rich — But You Might Be Able To Fund Your Daily Coffee

These aren’t money-making strategies. They’re money-dripping ones. Think of them as digital pocket change. If you collect enough coins and points across different platforms, you can probably afford:

  • A fancy drink
  • A new notebook
  • A moment of feeling slightly more productive than yesterday

And that’s enough for now.

When you’re ready to do more — like freelancing, digital products, or creating a legit online hustle — I’ve got ideas for that too. But for today? Go take that survey about cereal preferences and collect your 70 cents like the no-skill legend you are.

Related Reads from This Blog:

Let the coffee fund begin.

Up Next: Get Paid to Read, Click Stuff, and Search with Your Phone

This post is part of the “Make Money Online” series — your no-fluff guide to finding real online income streams. Check out the rest here.