Photo: Anete Lusina

Can I make money just chatting online?

Yes, there are many platforms where you can get paid to be an online friend, and they have options to chat solely via text chat. Some of these platforms include Flirtbucks, Rent a Local Friend, and Rent a Cyber Friend.

projectuntethered.com - Get Paid to Chat Online: 20 Ways to Make Money Talking (2022)

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You might be thinking…

Get paid to chat online? Is that even a real thing??

Yes, my money-hungry friend, it is.

We live in a crazy world. And new weird online money-making strategies are popping up by the day.

So weird, in fact, that most people have never heard of them.

Let me show you what I mean.

How to make money chatting online

There are tons of ways to chat and earn money online these days.

You can get paid to talk to people by:

▶️ Lending a friendly ear to someone who needs to vent.

▶️ Working as a virtual customer service agent.

▶️ Chatting with students learning English.

▶️ Giving advice to people who are stuck.

▶️ Offering life coaching services.

▶️ Flirt chatting.

▶️ And more.

The options are almost endless.

And since there are so many different paths — each with its own dedicated job sites, platforms, and apps — I’ve organized everything into this mega-guide to earning money by chatting.

We’ll look at:

✔️ Each type of chat job

✔️ The best platforms for finding work

✔️ How each platform works

Let’s dive in.

How to get paid to chat in English

Teaching English is a great way to chat and get paid.

Some English-teaching platforms require a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification.

But many don’t.

In fact, some sites pay you to simply have casual conversations with students learning English around the world. All they need is someone to practice with and point out their mistakes. Here are three of the easiest sites to get started. For even more options, check out my full guide on how to get paid to chat in English. Cambly is an English-teaching platform, but don’t let the “teaching” part scare you away. You don’t need any education, certificates, or experience to become an English tutor.

Heck, you don’t even need to be a native English speaker.

All you need is language proficiency, and you’re in.

Cambly teachers use a conversational approach to tutoring. Just start talking. You’re free to talk about whatever you (or the student) would like to talk about. The more interesting your conversations, the more likely your students are to return for more lessons. Pay: $0.17 per minute ($10.20 per hour) for adults. $0.20 per minute (12.00 per hour) for kids.

Preply is another popular English-teaching app.

Just like Cambly, if you speak fluent English, you can become a teacher. With Preply, you can teach casual lessons with their “free talk” program — similar to the conversational method that Cambly uses. It’s also super flexible. You set your own schedule with no minimum hourly requirements.

Pay: Set your own rates. Preply takes a 33% commission.

iTalki is another great platform for teaching English without experience or education. Its Community Tutor option allows you to teach through casual chats. That said, if you do have credentials, you can also become a Professional Teacher for iTalki to earn higher rates. This requires either a TEFL certificate, a teaching license for the language you wish to teach, or work experience teaching the language. iTalki also offers many different languages. So if you’re multilingual, you can earn by chatting in other languages as well. To help decide which English-teaching platform is right for you, see our Cambly vs. italki comparison showdown.

Pay: Set your own rates. iTalki takes a 15% commission.

How to get paid to be an online friend

As you’ll see, there are loads of platforms that allow you to get paid to chat with someone. You can chat via phone (audio only), video chat, or even just text. That’s right — you can get paid to text people. You basically get paid to be a friend to a stranger, which can lead to some interesting conversations. Here are three popular places to earn money as a virtual pal. For even more options, check out my complete guide on how to get paid to be an online friend. With Rent a Local Friend, you can offer virtual or in-person friendship services. For example, that might mean showing up as a friend to a birthday party. But more often than not, it’s 100% online. Some of your clients might be travelers who want a better idea of what the culture is like where you live. Other times just hang out online with someone who desperately needs a friend. This is an especially valuable service in today’s day and age. With all the quarantining due to the pandemic, it can make a positive impact on peoples’ lives. Pay: Pay depends on the services you offer the prices you set. There is a $100 membership fee to join, but theoretically, you could recoup those costs after just a couple days of friendship work. Rent a Cyber Friend is another online-friend chatting platform where you can make money talking to strangers. This platform works very similarly to Rent a Local Friend (it’s hard to tell which company copied the other). One main difference is Rent a Cyber Friend focuses on connecting clients with like-minded friends. They allow people to find friends based on identity, interests, field of work, politics, or any number of other traits. This works out well for both you and your clients because you’ll have more in common. Your client may end up being someone you’d normally choose to be a friend. All calls are video chats, and you must be at least 18 years old to join.

Pay: Set your own rates.

Friend PC is another interesting platform that gives you multiple ways to earn money chatting as an online friend. The website explicitly states that they are not a dating site. That said, one of their services does include being a “virtual girlfriend”, where you essentially get paid to talk to lonely men. This service is intended to boost a client’s confidence or (and I quote) “make exes jealous.” This service would obviously require some fake flirting. But there’s more to Friend PC than just virtual girlfriends. You can also earn by being a normal virtual friend, a virtual gaming partner, or even a life coach (more on life coaching later). You get to choose which services to offer. You also set your schedule and communication preferences (ex. text, audio, video). In addition to their online services, you can even meet people locally. This is popular for those who need a partner to attend an event or want a city tour.

Pay: Set your own rates.

How to get paid to talk to lonely people

Nowadays, the world is full of lonely people. Some are just looking for advice or casual, platonic social interaction. Others are looking for *ahem* non-platonic conversations. Let’s look at a few options with both platonic and flirty service options. For a full list of these types of platforms, check out my complete guide on how to get paid to talk to lonely people. Phrendly is an online friend platform that offers chat services via text, call, and video.

You can get paid to talk to lonely women and men alike.

Phrendly differs from other online friend platforms because things can quickly escalate from friendly to…well, more than friendly.

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Phrendly clients look for casual chats as much as they look for explicit chats, so make sure you’re comfortable with that sort of thing. Pay: Phrendly has an interesting pay system. Clients buy a “virtual drink” for the online friend they want to talk to — usually equating to about $0.35 — and depending on how much they spend on that drink (or how many drinks they buy), you choose how long to chat. Kind of like a real-life bar scenario. WARNING: While Flirtbucks has several positive user reviews, use it at your own risk, as they also have some concerning Better Business Bureau reviews. Flirtbucks is a platform where the chatting is exclusively flirting with lonely men. This platform chats via video calls and requires you to show your face to your clients. So if that sounds uncomfortable to you, you might want to skip this one. That said, Flirtbucks isn’t as explicit as some other platforms out there, so most of your chats will just be fun conversations about interests, hobbies, or your client’s life. Pay: Ranges from $0.40 to $0.50 per minute (up to $30 per hour). Your exact pay per minute depends on how long you’ve been with the company and your experience as a chat operative. Lip Service offers many different services. You can chat online as a customer service agent, a chat operator, or as a telephone actor or actress. The chat operator and telephone actor/actress options are similar to Flirtbucks, where you are paid to chat with lonely men. The customer service option is much more formal, helping medium-sized businesses with customer inquiries. Lip Service prefers workers that can commit to at least 25 hours a week. This makes it less flexible than most other platforms on the list. Pay: There is no officially stated pay rate, but many report $18 per hour.

How to get paid to text chat

Want to get paid to chat, but don’t want to talk on the phone or a video call?

If so, you can focus on text chatting.

There are plenty of platforms that allow you to get paid to chat through texting alone. We’ve already mentioned a few platforms that allow you to choose texting as your communication option of choice. But here are a few more that are solely texting. The Chat Shop is a UK-based customer service chat company where you get paid to moderate live chats with customers. The company requires you to commit to 20 to 40 hours per week, and you must be able to type 80 words per minute. The Chat Shop works with a wide variety of companies, brands, and services, which keeps things interesting. One of their biggest values is making sure their chat operators have personality. They don’t want robotic chat operators. Something to keep in mind when applying.

Pay: $10 per hour

As a chat operator for SiteStaff, you work as an outsourced customer service agent for different businesses. Customers will reach out to you with inquiries, and you have to answer their questions while leaving a good impression for the business. SiteStaff works with many different companies, so youl have a lot of variety in the type of customers you chat with.

Pay: $10 per hour

If you’re an avid shopper or fashionista, Needle is a platform where you can chat with other shoppers who have questions about different products. Similarly to The Chat Shop and SiteStaff, Needle works with many different brands and companies, so you’ll be helping give shopping advice to many different kinds of customers.

Think of yourself as a 100% virtual shopping assistant.

Pay: $10 per hour

How to get paid to give advice

Are you the person that all your friends and family come to for advice? Wouldn’t it be nice to get paid for the hours of helping others through their daily challenges?

Let’s look at how you can. For a complete list of options, check out my complete guide on how to get paid to give advice.

13. Start an advice blog

At some point, I bet you’ve typed a problem you’re dealing with into Google in search of wisdom. If you’re like me, you’ve done it thousands of times, scouring through blog posts to find an answer.

Why not write those blog posts yourself?

With your own blog, you can choose which types of advice to give — from “how do I deal with a divorce” to “how do I get this stain out of my carpet?” Instead of getting paid to chat with people one-on-one, you create helpful articles that could be read by hundreds or thousands of people per day. If you have expertise in a certain area (interior design, cooking, etc.) or you’ve gone through a hardship and came out on the other side (relationship struggles, career challenges, international moves, etc.), then you are perfectly qualified to give advice. Starting an advice blog is a long-term play. It requires significant front-loaded effort, and you won’t start making money overnight. But if you’re in it for the long-game, it can eventually lead to ultimate freedom — a full-time passive income. lead to a full-time passive income Here is a free mini-course that teaches the fastest way to start a money-making blog. And if you’re serious about making a blogging income ASAP, check out my Fat Stacks review. Pay: From $0 to $100,000+ per month. Here are examples of real travel blogs that make good money (giving travel advice).

14. Become an online counselor or life coach

Do you like helping people with their life problems or coaching them to their goals?

Why not become a life coach?

This one requires a little more education. Most clients will want to see that you’re an accredited life coach. They’re planning to be emotionally vulnerable with you — to trust you — and knowing that you took the time to educate yourself in this craft helps build that trust. There are several life coaching niches you can specialize in, like relationship coaching, leadership coaching, or Christian life coaching. Life coaching is akin to starting your own business. In addition to a life coaching certification, you’ll also need to learn other business skills like marketing, bookkeeping, and technical know-how. Pay: Set your own rates. The more experience and results you can show, the more people will be willing to pay you.

15. Work for an advice-giving company

Don’t want to start your own business?

No problem.

There are plenty of companies that will hire you to give advice to their clients. One of the most popular advice platforms is Live Advice. These platforms work similarly to the English-teaching platforms where you sign up, set your schedule and rates, and start connecting with people. Clients choose you based on your profile, and you can chat via phone, chat, or email. Once you start poking around the internet, you’ll find that there are several similar advice-giving platforms out there. Pay: Many of these platforms let you set your own rates. Most advice givers charge between $1.50 and $6 per minute.

How to get paid to chat online as customer service

The conversations you have as a customer service rep will be far less interesting than some of the other options in this guide, but you’ll still be earning money for talking to someone. These positions include fielding complaints from customers, answering questions, and in some cases, helping handle returns and exchanges.

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Here are some of the best sites that are hiring chat operators for customer service.

16. Work for an e-Commerce company

You know that little chat bubble in the corner of online stores that always trys to start a conversation with you?

You can be that person. (Technically that chat bubble is usually a bot, but you can be the person the bot refers people to). These days, large companies are finding it easier to field customer inquiries through text chats, but you can also get paid to email or solve customer problems over the phone. There are millions of online stores around the world — many of which hire customer service agents, but one of the most obvious opportunities is Amazon. They literally have an army of customer service reps chatting with customers to solve issues.

Pay: Varies by location and position.

Are you good at research?

JustAnswer is a company that hires professionals (AKA “Experts”) from various fields to work as live chat operators, answering client questions about pretty much anything. As long as you do your research and can explain things well, this could be a great chat job for you. With JustAnswer, you set your own schedule and choose which questions to answer. You’re paid per answer, so the more you answer, the more you make. Pay: From $2000 to $7000 per month, depending on how much you work and how many questions you answer. Premium.Chat lets you earn money by sharing your expert knowledge. When someone has a question in your field, they can pay you per minute to help them through chat. This could be anything from a casual consultation to a life coaching session. You can even install their widget and charge for answering questions on your own website. If you are an influencer or you have a large social media following, you can use Premium.Chat to talk to your followers without the risk of giving out your phone number or any other personal information.

With Premium.Chat, you can chat via audio, video, or text chat.

Pay: Set your own rates either per minute or per session.

Flexjobs is not strictly a customer services or get-paid-to-chat site, per se. But it is a platform where you can find awesome remote positions, freelancer work, and other flexible online jobs — including virtual customer service positions. The cool part about Flexjobs is every job listing on their site is vetted. That means you don’t have to filter through spammy or outdated listings. This is a huge time saver compared to giant sites like Indeed, where anyone can post unlimited job posts for free, making it difficult to search. You can browse Flexjobs for free, but to start applying to jobs, you need a paid subscription. These start at as little as $9.95, and if you’re not satisfied after 30 days, they’ll send you a full refund. Really, there’s not much to lose. You either pay a small fee and find an awesome job, or you get your money back.

You can browse and sign up for Flexjobs here.

Pay: Pay rates vary by company and position.

Upwork is another freelancing platform where companies hire customer service and chat operators. The platform gets a lot of flack from freelancers complaining about low rates, but there are also many who make a good living on Upwork. Before signing up, read this article on whether Upwork is still worth it. If your goal is to get paid to be a chat operator, you probably won’t be using the platform that often anyway. These are typically ongoing positions, so once you find a good fit with a company, you won’t have to constantly compete for new gigs.

Pay: Pay rates vary by company and position.

Is it safe to earn by chatting?

As with pretty much anything on the internet, there are certain things you want to avoid when it comes to chatting online.

Check platform reviews before signing up

Most of the sites mentioned here have fairly good reviews. But there are many other platforms out there, and it’s always smart to read reviews before signing up. You can also check out the company’s official site and their policies regarding your safety. You can even contact them and ask what they do to help keep you safe.

Don’t give out any of your personal information to clients

If a client asks you for any personal information — such as your phone number, street address, banking information, etc. — this is a BIG red flag.

Keep your information private.

This also includes your real name. Make up a pseudonym to prevent clients from finding you on your personal social media pages. Better yet, don’t use your real name on social media either! This is especially when it comes to the more flirty platforms. By protecting your personal information, you can avoid dangerous situations, whether it be identity theft or otherwise.

Report clients if they make you uncomfortable

This goes for both the flirty sites and the non-flirty sites. If a client is making you uncomfortable, block them, report them, and if necessary, contact the company. These platforms are a great way to make money online, but not at the expense of your safety. If all this freaks out, there are certainly less risky ways to make money online. You can also get paid to read books out loud, and won’t ever have to deal with any creepers.

Frequently asked questions

Why would people pay you to chat? There are many reasons why people would pay you for a chat. One of them being loneliness, which has unfortunately surged in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other reasons include life coaching, customer service language learning, and even flirting. Can I get paid to just text people? Yes, there are many platforms where you can get paid to be an online friend, and they have options to chat solely via text chat. Some of these platforms include Flirtbucks, Rent a Local Friend, and Rent a Cyber Friend. Can I get paid to listen to people? Yes, while most options require you to do at least some talking, oftentimes clients just want to be heard. For example, if you’re chatting with a lonely person or someone who wants to practice speaking English, you’ll be doing a lot of listening. Mitch is your typical nomadic backpacker. Or at least, he was. But after stopping in Colombia to take “one week” of salsa lessons, his life took a sharp left turn. He met a cute Colombian girl in dance class, fell in love, and got married. Over half a decade has passed since he left his career to travel the world as a digital nomad, and he’s never looked back. Nowadays, he’s the blogger behind Project Untethered—where he runs an awesome email newsletter and Youtube channel teaching adventure-craved wanderlusters how to escape the rat race, earn money from anywhere, and build an “untethered life”. His advice has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, Yahoo, Reader’s Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, and more.

projectuntethered.com - Get Paid to Chat Online: 20 Ways to Make Money Talking (2022)

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