How to make a lot of money online

About a year back I spent 2 months reading different articles and books (there are a lot) about how to make money online. At that point I was looking for a way to make a passive income doing something that didn’t involve being fixed in one place for too long. I found a lot of different ways to earn online such as blogging, affiliate products, questionnaires and adsense. However, I was soon to discover that some of these ways are a lot better than others. For example after experimenting I discovered that answering surveys or questionnaires online is a complete scam and waste of time whereas writing online can help you reap some rewards. After the initial two months I thought I had exhausted all the make money online reading material and most of what I read seemed to be the same repeated or maybe even copy and pasted stuff. Since then I have been working hard trying to put what I learned into action and have had moderate success. However, today I discovered a new and what could prove to be an even more lucrative way of making money online. This is something that would suit entrepreneurs and those of you who have a lot of great ideas. It’s about solving the problems that a lot of organisations are facing today and it comes from a term known as open innovation otherwise known as crowdsourcing.

In recent years numerous large corporations have begun to use something known as “open innovation” to solve their problems. These problems maybe what their next product is going to be, a good guerrilla marketing campaign to raise their profile or even how to solve the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Academics and business people now agree that rather than an organisation hiring research and development teams for each new products and new marketing ideas that often the best way to innovate is to outsource. It is felt that the ordinary people who are outside the industry and come from varied backgrounds often have the best solutions. Therefore “open innovation” is the opening up of a problem to the thousands of people outside of the organisations. This is where you and you earning money come in.

There are two websites that I use that act as intermediaries between the companies that want new ideas “the seekers” and you the “solver”. Both are simple and straightforward to use. You have to sign up in much the same way you sign up to hubpages. You fill in some information about yourself and a little about your background and then you are presented with a list of problems or “challenges” all of which have a substantial amount of money associated with them. Some of these challenges are related to science or engineering and require training in these fields. However there are also challenges that are related to business, entrepreneurship or even just simple common sense. Examples of some recent problems and there prize money include $7500 for an odor inhibition challenge. Another challenge involved “seducing” consumers into using ultra concentrated dishwashing liquids and fabric conditioners; this had a reward of $75,000.  There was also a $50,000 prize for someone who could help a large beer company go green.

Putting an entry into a challenge isn’t as complicated as you might think. The companies are looking for an idea not a thesis. Therefore your idea need only be a few pages or a few slides clearly outlining the idea put forward.

Once your idea is submitted it is examined by the organisation in question. They also examine the entries from other members before deciding on a winner. The competition is managed by the website in question and it ensures that no cheating or foul play takes place. The prizes vary; I have seen prizes worth over $1million and for as little as $5,000. Both are substantial amounts of money for something that may take only an hour or two to write up and send off.

The two websites I found that organise these challenges are innocentive and innovative exchange. Both sites are very similar in their look and feel with simple graphics and uncomplicated layouts. Innovative exchange puts more emphasis on building a teams and adds a social network feel to the site. Innocentive is a little more focused on the non profit aspect. It signed an agreement with the Rockefeller foundation back in 2006 to work on the problems in the developing world.

I have seen a number of other similar sites listed on various places on the internet but thus far these are the two which I have used.

If you have used any similar sites to the two mentioned above please comment below.