What if I told you there are people right now making hundreds or even thousands a month from their laptops doing things so mind-numbingly simple you’d probably roll your eyes? Now, I’m not talking about dropshipping, crypto, or any of those overhyped or dirty ways to make money schemes that you’ve heard of a thousand times. I’m talking about boring but real ways to make money that actually work. The kind of stuff that most online gurus won’t talk about because it’s not flashy enough.
In this blog, I’m going to show you ways that real people are quietly building income streams. We’re talking about renting out something you didn’t know had value, helping busy professionals with tasks that take five minutes, and getting paid to organize information that’s already out there, and even making money from other people’s special occasions. No startup costs, no special skills, no products to create, just you, your laptop, and legit ways to make money that work while everyone else is chasing the next shiny object.
Important Disclaimer: Reality Check
First of all, disclaimer: making money online can be simple, but it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme or anything like that. I know a lot of people online make it seem like that, but it’s just not true. I’m here to give you some boring but realistic ways to make money with your laptop. Do your own due diligence in researching these ways to earn money.
Data Annotation – Train AI and Get Paid
This one is especially effective if you live in a first-world English-speaking country and you want to explore easy ways to make money from AI, not get replaced by AI. Data annotation is the process of labelling data – images, text, audio, video, etc. – to teach artificial intelligence systems how to recognise patterns and make predictions.
Tori, for instance, makes $20 to $30 per hour doing this work part-time through data annotation tech. She uses the income to pay for trips and fun activities, and she says there’s unlimited work available. Basically, she can work anytime that she wants.
Why This Work Stays Local
You might be thinking, what’s stopping someone from India or the Philippines from doing this and doing it for a lot cheaper than Americans? Well, companies keep some data annotation work in America because you can’t outsource cultural nuance and legal compliance. For instance, the ability to understand that the word “sick” actually means “cool” and not that you’re ill.
There’s honestly a massive amount of work out there for stuff like this where you’re essentially training AI. There’s a bunch of different companies right now that are in an absolute arms race to have the best possible AI that they can have, and they need tons of people to give their AI feedback and train it. Not to mention the fact that companies that are not AI companies are now using AI to streamline their workflows, and they also need people to train these systems.
Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
This is what’s called a platform business where you essentially partner with a platform and they take care of a lot of the steps that normally you would have to take care of if you were actually starting a business. Amazon KDP stands for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, and it’s basically where you create books that people can buy on Kindle, and you can also even turn those books into hardcover and softcover as well, making it one of the lesser-known ways to make money online.
Just to be clear here, it used to be incredibly difficult to get a book published, and Amazon KDP made it super easy. It’s not just normal books like fiction or even self-help books. You can also make coloring books, journals, or any other number of different types of books out there.
Real Success Story
My client Sean Dolit is an absolute beast at Amazon KDP. He actually became a millionaire by 26 years old by doing this, and he told me that the new meta for Amazon KDP is actually promoting your books with user-generated content on TikTok.
You can heavily utilize AI to help you write your books because what’s valuable is the actual end information. As long as that information is good, no platform cares if it’s AI generated, but you do have to make sure that the information is good, and then AI can do the heavy lifting for you.
The Teaching Multiplier Effect
Sean started off on Amazon KDP and then he started talking about how he was having success on Amazon KDP on YouTube. He was basically sharing tips and tricks and educating people on how they can do it as well. This is a common theme with a lot of different ways of making money: you basically learn how to do it yourself and then you can make like ten times more teaching other people how to do it.
This actually incentivizes people to share their secrets. It used to be that if you found a way of making money fifty years ago, you’re not going to tell anybody about that. But because of the fact that you can make significantly more actually teaching other people how to do it, it incentivizes people to share their secrets and let other people have in on the wealth.
Appointment Setting
This is one of those that is definitely not going to be going away with AI. Essentially what you do here is basically just respond to inbound messages that influencers or business owners are getting. This could be via email, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. People are getting others asking them questions inbound, and they just don’t have enough time to respond to them. These are people who could potentially become clients, making this one of the easiest ways to make money without needing advanced skills.
Real Income Examples
Just as an example, Olivia works as an appointment setter and she connects business owners and influencers with potential clients interested in their products or services. She says her appointment setting side hustle makes her over $5,000 a month, and you can make your own hours and never have to leave your room.
She gives an example of selling a $5,000 course with a 5% commission on sales, which is $250. But of course, you only get the money if the sale is closed. The key here is that busy entrepreneurs and influencers are constantly getting inquiries but don’t have time to respond to them all properly. You become their organized system for qualifying and scheduling potential clients.
Flipping – The Oldest Business Model
This might be the oldest way of making money in all of human existence – well, maybe the second oldest. But that is basically flipping: you buy low and you sell high.
There’s a lot of different things that you can do this with. I’ve flipped things ever since I was a teenager – phones, shoes, bikes, laptops, all kinds of different stuff. But there’s actually very niche things you can flip, such as boat engine parts, making flipping one of the timeless ways to make money that will always exist.
Niche Flipping Examples
There’s a YouTube channel called Boat Busters who flips boats using Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. This is a super interesting channel because sometimes they’ll just buy a boat, kind of fix it up a little bit, and then sell it. Sometimes they’ll buy a boat and sell the parts individually.
Not only does he do this himself and make a really good amount of money doing it, but he also has a YouTube channel where he teaches other people how to do it as well. Again, this goes back to what I said before: figure out how to make money and then teach other people how to make money and make even ten times more than what you were making with the thing in the first place.
I knew a guy who was making a ton of money by buying keyboards and then he would sell the individual buttons on the keyboard. It’s a super good way of making money that I’ve done my entire life – an absolute no-brainer.
Digital Flipping: Domain Names
You might be thinking, “I don’t want to deal with any physical products, but I still want to flip stuff. How do I do that?” Well, you can do domain flipping. This is where you buy a domain online that you think is going to be worth a lot of money. This might be around something that’s happening culturally that you think is getting a lot of attention and therefore is going to be worth a lot when it comes to the traffic it’s getting.
Just as a random example, imagine if you bought the domain “Facebook” in 2001. The company Facebook started off as “The Facebook,” but then later they rebranded to Facebook and they probably had to buy that domain from someone else who owned it, and they would have had to pay that person a lot of money because they had a lot of leverage.
There are a ton of people out there making money doing this. For instance, one person made $15,000 from $100 – she literally turned $100 into $15,000 by domain flipping. It’s as simple as: search and find an available domain name, register the domain name, find a buyer, and then sell it to them for a higher price.
Yard Rental for Dogs
If you have a backyard and especially if you live in an urban area where there’s not a lot of parks and not a lot of places that people can walk their dogs, this might be a phenomenal way to make money. It’s literally where you just rent your yard for people to walk their dogs in, which makes it one of the more creative ways to make money without much effort.
Real Success Story
Just as an example, this guy named Rick and his wife rent out their five-acre backyard as a private dog park. It’s kind of like an Airbnb but for dogs. He makes $3,000 a month doing this, and he says he only spends about ten minutes a day on this easy side hustle, and it cost him basically nothing to set up. Yes, the dog owner is 100% responsible for cleanup – they aren’t cleaning up the poop.
Alternative: Self Storage
If you don’t want people to walk their dogs on your property, you could also consider doing self-storage with an app like Neighbor. This is basically where people just store their stuff at your house, and it’s kind of like Airbnb but for self-storage.
Virtual Assistant Services
While not explicitly detailed in the original content, this represents one of the most accessible entry points for laptop-based income. Virtual assistants help busy professionals with tasks like email management, calendar scheduling, social media posting, and basic administrative work. The beauty of this approach is that you’re solving real problems for real people who are willing to pay for time-saving solutions, making virtual assistance one of the most practical ways to make money online.
Many successful VAs start by offering simple services and gradually expand into specialized niches as they gain experience and understand client needs better.
Educational YouTube Channel
Finally, what I call the ultimate business – and this is the one that I did myself, so of course I have to talk about this one – is starting a YouTube channel. There are a ton of different ways to make money on YouTube: faceless content, YouTube automation, entertainment content.
What I personally recommend when it comes to making money, and I think this is one of the easiest ways because you don’t have to get millions of views to make a full-time income, is educational content and specifically with a personal brand.
Real Success Example
Just as an example, one of my clients, Bill, has a channel called The Financial Controller. On this channel, he teaches accountants how to become financial controllers, which is a very high-level accounting position. It’s super niche and boring, honestly. But he sells his course and one-on-one coaching and is able to make a ton of money doing this.
He’s helped a ton of people go from being a normal accountant probably making about $50,000 to $70,000 a year to a financial controller making $100,000 to $200,000 a year.
The Common Thread: Solving Real Problems
What ties all these methods together is that they solve real problems for real people:
- Data annotation solves the problem of training AI systems
- Amazon KDP solves the problem of people wanting specific information in book format
- Appointment setting solves the problem of busy entrepreneurs missing potential clients
- Flipping solves the problem of people wanting items at fair prices
- Yard rental solves the problem of urban pet owners needing safe spaces
- Educational content solves the problem of people wanting to learn new skills
Key Takeaways for Success
- Start simple – These methods don’t require advanced skills or large investments
- Focus on problems – Look for what people need and are willing to pay for
- Use the teaching multiplier – Once you learn something, teaching it can be 10x more profitable
- Leverage technology – Use AI and platforms to handle the heavy lifting
- Stay consistent – These aren’t get-rich-quick schemes but steady income builders
The beauty of these approaches is that they’re accessible to anyone with a laptop and internet connection. While they may seem “boring” compared to flashy online business models, that’s exactly why they work – there’s less competition and more sustainable demand. These simple yet effective ways to make money are proof that you don’t always need a groundbreaking idea to start earning online.
Remember, the goal isn’t to become an overnight millionaire. It’s to build reliable income streams that can grow over time. Pick one method that resonates with your situation, commit to learning it properly, and execute consistently. The people making real money online aren’t chasing the latest trends – they’re solving everyday problems in systematic ways to make money that last.