Laziest Ways to Make Money Online in 2023: An Honest Reaction

Every few months a video surfaces with a title like “The Laziest Ways to Make Money Online for Beginners” and it racks up hundreds of thousands of views because it tells people exactly what they want to hear. I sat down and reacted to one of those videos in real time, breaking down each so-called lazy method against what I actually know about running an online business. The result? None of those five methods are lazy. Some of them are harder than a nine-to-five job. And one of them I did every single day while working at a university, making a hundred phone calls before lunch.

I am not here to trash the creator who made that video. They understand their audience, and using the word “lazy” is a deliberate marketing decision that works. But I am one of the few people online who will look you in the eye and tell you the truth: if someone is calling an income method lazy, they either have not tried it themselves or they have already put in thousands of hours to make it look effortless. The good news is that all five methods have real potential if you go in with accurate expectations. Let me walk you through each one.

What You’ll Walk Out With

Why the word “lazy” in a make-money-online title is a marketing hook, not a promise
An honest look at what dropshipping on Amazon and eBay actually requires day to day
How cashback sites like Swagbucks fit into a dropshipping operation and why they fail without it
The real skill stack behind affiliate marketing, including keyword research, copywriting, and email marketing
What testing a ClickBank ad campaign on YouTube actually costs in time and money before you see a return
Why high-ticket phone sales is one of the most demanding income models for beginners
A framework for choosing the right online income model based on your current skill level
A free tool to match you to the right starting point at finder.platformproof.com

Why “Lazy” Is the Most Effective Lie in Online Marketing

Before I get into the individual methods, I want to address the framing. The creator behind the video I was reacting to is not unintelligent. Quite the opposite. He knows his target market wants to make money without suffering. He knows that if he puts the word “lazy” in the title, people who feel overworked and underpaid will click it immediately. That is smart marketing. But here is the problem: the marketing hook becomes the false promise, and once someone buys the course or clicks the affiliate link at the end of the video, they realize the method requires real work and they feel misled. That erodes trust and it wastes months of a beginner’s life while they chase something that was never actually passive to begin with.

The people calling these methods lazy are the same people going live for four hours a day as affiliates. They are the same people testing fifty different ad creatives before finding one that converts. They put in the hours years ago, and now it looks effortless from the outside. That is the stage you want to get to, but the path there is not lazy. It is consistent, strategic work that compounds over time. I would rather you know that going in so you do not quit at the first sign of difficulty.

Method 1: Dropshipping on Amazon and eBay

The first method in the video was dropshipping between Amazon and eBay. The idea is that you list products on eBay, and when someone buys, you purchase the item from Amazon and ship it directly to the customer. The creator said he was making a hundred dollars a day doing this. On the surface, that sounds appealing. But let me walk you through what it actually takes.

First, you have to find products that can be profitably arbitraged between the two platforms. When I was in college, broke and living off ramen noodles and Taco Bell while studying to become a dentist, I actually bought two massage guns because we lost the charger to one of them. Those kinds of high-demand consumer products are everywhere on Amazon, but the margins are brutal. You are competing on price against hundreds of other sellers, many of whom are sourcing directly from manufacturers. Figuring out which products to list, how to price them, and how to stay profitable as Amazon prices fluctuate is a real skill that takes time to develop.

Second, you have to drive traffic to your eBay listings. That either means learning social media marketing, creating content on YouTube, or running paid ads. None of those are lazy. If you go the free route, you are spending hours a day building an audience. If you go paid, you need money in the bank and you need to know how to run ads well enough not to burn through it. There is no version of this where you list a product and money falls from the sky.

Third, and this is the part nobody talks about, is customer service. When someone buys something from your eBay listing and then wants to return it, who eats the cost? When Amazon runs out of the product you listed or raises its price by ten dollars, what do you do with the eBay listing? When a customer files a chargeback, how do you handle that? Every one of those scenarios requires time, attention, and decision-making. That is not lazy. That is running a business.

Method 2: Cashback Sites and Rebate Apps Like Swagbucks

The second method was using cashback sites like Swagbucks to earn rebates on your Amazon purchases. The idea is that when you buy the item on Amazon to fulfill your eBay order, you run it through a cashback portal that gives you back a percentage. The creator in the video mentioned getting around four percent back on certain purchases.

Here is the thing: I had never thought about this approach before watching that video, and I found it genuinely interesting as a supplemental strategy. But it is completely dependent on Method 1 working. If you are not already selling high volumes on eBay, there is nothing to run through the cashback site. The creator’s example was selling five massage guns a day at around eighty-nine dollars each. At four percent, that is about eighteen dollars in cashback daily. That is meaningful money, but only if you have already built the dropshipping side of the operation to scale. For someone who is brand new and has not made a single eBay sale, this is a bonus tactic, not a standalone income stream.

There is also a practical limit to how far you can scale this. If you are placing sixty or seventy Amazon orders a day to fulfill eBay listings, that kind of purchasing pattern may eventually trigger flags with Amazon. And if the product you built your operation around suddenly goes out of stock or spikes in price, your margins collapse and your cashback benefit collapses along with it. The foundation has to be solid before the cashback layer adds any real value.

Method 3: Affiliate Marketing and Content Creation

I am going to be direct here: affiliate marketing is not lazy. Full stop. I enjoy affiliate marketing. I do affiliate marketing. It is one of the most accessible income models for people without a physical product to sell. But the people telling you it is lazy are working harder than most employees I know.

Affiliate marketing is simple to explain. You recommend products that solve problems your audience has, and when someone buys through your link, you earn a commission. That is the whole concept. But to execute it, you need to understand your target market deeply enough to create content they actually want to consume. You need to show up consistently, whether that means publishing YouTube videos, writing blog posts, building a Pinterest presence, or going live on social platforms. You have to learn email marketing so you can follow up with people who do not buy on the first visit. You have to learn copywriting so the words in your content and emails actually move people to take action. You have to learn how to get on camera comfortably, or if you are not doing video, how to create images and graphics that stop someone mid-scroll.

One specific skill the video introduced was keyword research. The creator showed how instead of targeting broad terms like “jump rope transformation,” you would go deeper into long-tail keywords like “jump rope transformation female” or “jump rope transformation three months.” The longer the keyword phrase, the fewer people are searching for it, but the less competition you are facing for those searches. For someone just starting out, long-tail keywords are the entry point. But finding those keywords, evaluating their competition, and building content around them is a deliberate, time-intensive process. Lazy people do not do this kind of research. People who are serious about building income do.

What all of this adds up to is a business that can eventually generate income while you sleep, but only after you have stayed awake building it for a long time. I am one of the few voices online willing to say plainly: if you walk into affiliate marketing thinking it requires minimal effort, you will quit inside of ninety days and blame the model instead of the expectation you were sold.

Method 4: YouTube Ads with ClickBank Products

The fourth method was using AI to generate YouTube ad scripts, then running those ads to promote ClickBank products and earning affiliate commissions on the sales. The creator described this as a lazy process. The video editing and scripting side has genuinely gotten more accessible with AI tools. That part I can agree with. But the advertising side? That is where the work lives.

To run a profitable YouTube ad campaign, you need to understand who your target customer is and which videos they are likely watching when your ad shows up. If I put a ClickBank ad about weight loss in front of an audience watching this video, ninety-nine percent of those viewers are going to skip it. The ad needs to appear in front of people who are already searching for or watching content related to the specific problem your product solves. Getting that targeting right requires research and testing.

Most people do not make money on their first YouTube ad. They lose money. Then they run it again with changes. Then they lose a little less money. They keep iterating until they find a combination of audience targeting, ad creative, and offer that converts profitably. That iterative process is the actual job. It takes hours of testing, budget for ad spend that may not return immediately, and the patience to keep going when the first five versions do not work. A lazy person will stop after the first failed ad. A person who is going to build something real will treat each failed ad as data and keep adjusting.

Method 5: Becoming a High-Ticket Sales Rep

This was the one that surprised me the most. High-ticket phone sales was presented as one of the laziest ways to make money online for beginners. I have personal experience here, and it is not lazy by any definition I know.

I worked at a for-profit university. One of my daily responsibilities was making a hundred phone calls. Every single day, I was dialing numbers, speaking to people who were not expecting my call, trying to get them interested in something they had not decided they wanted yet. Some of those people would cuss me out. Some would hang up without saying a word. Some would listen politely and then never pick up again. The emotional weight of making that many calls and facing that level of rejection is something that genuinely wears on you over time. It is not something a person who wants a lazy income stream is prepared to handle.

High-ticket sales can be a very lucrative path. Closing a five thousand or ten thousand dollar deal and earning twenty to thirty percent commission on it is significant money. But to get there, you have to be on the phone constantly, handling objections, building rapport quickly with strangers, and maintaining energy even when your close rate is low. For the right person with the right personality and a tolerance for rejection, this can be a great path. For someone who wants something truly low-effort, it is the wrong fit.

What About Survey Sites?

The creator in the original video did not cover survey sites, but I want to address them because they come up every time someone talks about easy online income. Survey sites are the definition of stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. You spend real time, sometimes thirty minutes or more per survey, to earn a few cents or maybe a dollar or two. The hourly rate is often below minimum wage. Worse, you are using up the time that you could spend building something that compounds over time.

Think about what you could build in the same hours you spend doing surveys for ten dollars. You could be posting on TikTok consistently and building an audience. You could be writing blog posts that rank in search and send you traffic for years. You could be on Pinterest driving visitors to an affiliate offer. None of those things pay immediately either, but they build equity. Survey payouts vanish the moment the survey is complete. There is no compounding, no lasting asset you have created. I genuinely want better for anyone reading this.

Not sure which online income model fits your current skills and schedule?

Answer a few quick questions and get a personalized recommendation at finder.platformproof.com.

Honest Drawbacks of Each Method

Here is a straightforward breakdown of what each method actually costs in time, money, and skill before you see a meaningful return. I am giving you this because no amount of optimistic framing in a video title changes the reality of what these paths require.

Dropshipping (Amazon to eBay): Requires product research, pricing strategy, paid traffic or social media marketing, and active customer service management. Returns, chargebacks, and price fluctuations all affect margins. Not passive at scale.
Cashback sites: Only generates meaningful income if dropshipping is already operating at volume. Cannot work as a standalone income stream. Best treated as a margin enhancement, not a primary source.
Affiliate marketing with content: Requires daily or near-daily content creation, keyword research, email list building, and skill development in copywriting and marketing. Takes three to twelve months before most people see consistent income.
YouTube ads with ClickBank: Requires ad budget for testing, deep understanding of audience targeting, and tolerance for losing money on early campaigns. Profitable campaigns typically come after multiple rounds of iteration.
High-ticket phone sales: Requires resilience through daily rejection, strong verbal communication skills, and the ability to build trust quickly with strangers. High earning potential but high emotional labor as well.

The pattern across all five is clear: the ones that pay the most require the most skill, and the skill has to be developed before the income flows. There is no shortcut around that. The legitimate question is not “which one is lazy?” It is “which one am I most willing to put real effort into?” That question will tell you where to start.

How to Choose the Right Path for You

When I am evaluating which online income model makes sense for someone, I look at three things: what skills you already have, how much time you can realistically invest per week, and whether you prefer working with people directly or creating assets like content and campaigns that work without you being present.

If you are highly motivated by competition and can handle pressure, high-ticket sales may be your path because the income ceiling is high once you develop the closing skill. If you are analytical and enjoy research, dropshipping or ad arbitrage might suit you because those methods reward people who love digging into data. If you love to teach, explain, or entertain, affiliate marketing through content creation is probably your best long-term path because the skills transfer across platforms and compound over years. If you have existing professional expertise, whether in finance, fitness, parenting, cooking, or anything else, there is almost certainly an affiliate program or digital product that lets you monetize what you already know.

The trap is trying to pick the method that sounds easiest rather than the one that fits your actual strengths. Easy for someone else becomes miserable for you if it does not match how you naturally operate. Pick the path you can sustain for twelve months, not the one that sounds most appealing in a YouTube title.

Find Your X

If you are still figuring out which of these paths makes sense for where you are right now, I built something specifically for that. Answer a few honest questions about your schedule, skills, and starting budget, and the finder will tell you which online income model fits you best. It is free, it takes about two minutes, and it will save you months of chasing the wrong thing. Start at finder.platformproof.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there really no lazy way to make money online?

There are low-effort tasks that pay small amounts, like filling out surveys or clicking ads, but the honest answer is that any method paying meaningful money requires either front-loaded work to build a system or ongoing active work to keep earning. The word “lazy” is a marketing tactic used by creators who understand their audience wants an easy answer. The income methods that eventually feel passive only feel that way because the person running them did the hard work years earlier.

Can dropshipping on Amazon and eBay actually work in 2024 and 2025?

It can work, but the space is more competitive than the “lazy ways” framing suggests. You need a way to find products with enough margin to profit after eBay fees, Amazon pricing, and shipping. You also need a traffic strategy to get buyers to your eBay listings rather than the hundreds of similar ones. Beginners who go in treating it like a real business with real research behind it have a much better shot than those who list a few products and wait.

What is the difference between dropshipping and private label?

Dropshipping means you sell a product that you never physically touch. When someone orders, you purchase it from a supplier who ships directly to the customer. Private label means you work with a manufacturer to produce a product under your own brand. Private label has higher upfront costs and more risk, but it also creates a more defensible business because customers are buying your brand, not just the cheapest version of a commodity product. Dropshipping has lower barriers to entry but thinner margins and more price competition.

Do cashback sites like Swagbucks actually pay out?

Yes, cashback sites do pay out and the payouts are real. The issue is the volume you need to generate meaningful income. Getting four percent back on a forty-dollar Amazon purchase means you earned about $1.60. Doing that a few times a week adds up to a few dollars, not a replacement income. These sites make the most sense when layered on top of a high-volume purchasing operation, like the Amazon-to-eBay dropshipping method discussed above. On their own, they are a convenience benefit, not an income strategy.

Is affiliate marketing really as difficult as Alston describes?

The concept of affiliate marketing is simple. The execution requires a genuine skill stack. You need to identify what your audience wants, create content that reaches them consistently, build enough trust that they follow your recommendations, and then connect the right products to the right problems. Each of those steps involves real skills. None of them are difficult in isolation, but developing all of them simultaneously while also being patient through the first several months of low income is where most people give up. The ones who push through that period do build meaningful income.

What are long-tail keywords and why do beginners need them?

A long-tail keyword is a more specific search phrase that has lower search volume but also far less competition. Instead of trying to rank for “jump rope workout,” which thousands of established channels are already targeting, a beginner might target “jump rope transformation results three months” and have a realistic shot at showing up in search results. The people who find you through that more specific phrase are also more likely to be ready to engage because they searched for exactly what you created. Long-tail keywords are how beginners get their first real traction without needing an established audience.

How much money do you need to start YouTube ads with ClickBank products?

There is no universally correct number, but you should expect to spend money on testing before you see profitable results. Some people find a winning combination quickly; many spend several hundred dollars learning what does not work before finding what does. If you cannot afford to lose a few hundred dollars in testing, this method is not the right starting point for you. Start with something that does not require upfront ad spend, build income from that, and then reinvest into paid advertising once you have a cushion.

What is the first step for someone who wants to make money online but has no skills yet?

Start by identifying which skills you are most willing to develop, not which income method sounds most appealing. If you are willing to learn video editing and you are comfortable speaking on camera, content creation with affiliate monetization is a strong path. If you prefer written communication, a blog or Pinterest strategy may fit better. If you are naturally competitive and motivated by direct results, phone sales or paid advertising might click for you. The first real step is honest self-assessment, not picking the shiniest method from a viral video. Use the finder at finder.platformproof.com to get a recommendation based on your specific situation.

Sources

Original reaction video: Laziest Ways to Make Money Online For Beginners 2023 | Reaction, Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof
Affiliate marketing overview and beginner guide: alstongodbolt.com
Platform Proof income model finder: finder.platformproof.com

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.