When the market dips and the net worth stalls, I instinctively go into wealth creation mode and seek out weird ways to make money online. Try as I might, I loathe filling out surveys and would rather do anything else with my time, so I will exclude from this list what most people would consider the easiest way to earn online income. That leaves some more unique options that I’ve had varying degrees of sucess with. Here are five weird ways I’ve actually made money online.

1. Piling into class action lawsuits

Do you ever feel like there’s a little more air in your bag of chips than usual? Or second-guess a company’s eco-friendly process and ingredients? Then boy do I have a website you for! I like to peruse the Top Class Actions website now and again to see if I can help a corporation right some perceived wrong by putting money back into my pocket. For those with ambiguous morals, there are class action suits that don’t require proof of purchase, usually up to $20 bucks or so.

These types of lawsuits often take months–or even years–to pay out, so this isn’t exactly a get rich quick scheme. And I do wonder about how frequently my name appears in legal documents I’ve long since forgotten I volunteered to be a part of. But these are small quibbles when presented with the chance to stick it to the man!

Lifetime earnings estimate: $100

2. Playing free daily fantasy sports contests

With the obvious caveat about gambling, daily fantasy sports apps like DraftKings and FanDuel can provide some low-stakes fun and a way to participate in whatever sporting event is the subject of virtual watercooler conversation. But apart from the traditional contests, most of these apps offer sponsored contests that equate to free lottery tickets for some of the more noteworthy events (Sunday Night football, major golf tournaments, etc.). That’s right–risk-free gambling!

FanDuel has offered a fun and free straightforward baseball contest: pick three players to hit at total of three home runs on any given day and split a share of a $2,000 pot (usually in the $5-10 range but on occasion only a few people will win, meaning a much larger share each). DraftKings in particular does a great job offering a steady stream of free pools, which are separate from the usual contest format and even more of a crapshoot.

Lifetime earnings estimate: $150

3. Using secret shopping sites and cash back reward apps

I’ve cooled on my usage of the Field Agent app I once raved about, but have tried my hand at Fetch (great for any receipt) and Ibotta (decent payouts on select items). These apps are more about saving money than making additional income, but as the old adage goes, a penny saved on some sketchy third-party app is a penny earned. I continue to receive decent offers from Coyle for various restaurant experiences (paid and reimbursed for the meal), but haven’t carved out the time to start taking advantage of these lately.

This one is a little harder to calculate, since I usually apply these rewards to a Starbucks or Amazon gift card like the corporation-supporting sheep that I am (don’t worry, I’ll help sue the pants off of them when the frivolous class action suits roll in). But make no mistake, the Splavings are real!

Lifetime earnings estimate: $175

4. Flipping NFTs and seeking out arbitrage opportunities

The early NFT days were filled with NFT drops that carried a higher expected value than the price of purchase, allowing for immediate profits. It is with great reluctance and FOMO, however, that I announce my days as an NFT flipper are likely over. These days, the arbitrage opportunities require a prospector like myself to fall further and further down a rabbit hole of cartoon animals in various states of apathy and aggravation.

But arbitrage in general has been made easier with the advent of the internet, whether it’s flipping items from Goodwill to Amazon and Ebay, or grabbing discounted college textbooks from your local bookstore at semester’s end and finding a buyer in a different zip code.

Lifetime earnings estimate: $300

5. Blogging, including this site!

While I would guestimate my hourly rate as a career blogger as somewhere in the 2-3 penny range, it has by far been my most lucrative online pursuit. There are elements of blogging that I thoroughly enjoy, so I like to categorize it more as a hobby than a hustle. Through that lens, I’ve made some decent beer money doing something I mostly enjoy. I’m a strong believer in the benefits of continued reading and writing to keep those vital skills sharp, so at worst blogging provides me with some good brain practice, even when I’m writing dumb posts like this one.

In another life post-college, I spent a decent chunk of time hustling for advertisements on an infrequently viewed site I started with a buddy. This blog met its demise when my pseudo business partner broke the cardinal rule of clicking on our own site’s Adsense ads, but not before we cobbled together side deals from various cash-flush online casinos and nefarious penny stock pushers. None of them seemed to know or care how much traffic we generated, and we were able to generate thousands of dollars on these annual contracts, which were often nonsensically renewed. Now, doing things the “right way” on a slightly more grown-up website (by default), the blog revenue is slower to come. Even still, it puts brain food on the table.

Lifetime earnings estimate: $8,500 ($500 on Impersonal Finances)

Always looking for more weird ways to make money online

I said I’ve made money–I never said it was A LOT of money. And these weird ways in which I’ve cobbled together a few online dollars by no means qualify as passive income. But I’m always open to the next not-very-big thing. What are some of the weird ways you’ve made money online?