It’s never been easier to make extra money on your own time and on your own terms.
Whether you’re looking for a side hustle to replace your day job income, or just for a way to make a few extra bucks, I’ve got you covered.
The ideas on how to make extra money were selected based on:
- 15+ years of side hustle experience
- interviews with over 500 side hustlers entrepreneurs
- feedback from the 50,000-member Side Hustle Nation community
Just a few of the ideas have helped me earn hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last decade.
Ready? Let’s do it!
Too Many Choices?
Join the Free 5-Day $500 Challenge. I'll show you step-by-step how to add $500 to your bottom line.
1. Online and In-Person Research Studies: Up to $140 an Hour
This is an easy way to make some extra money (even while working full-time!)
Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.
Earn an average of $75 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.
Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.
There are a couple online research companies everyone should sign up for.
User Interviews is a great resource for connecting with remote consumer research studies. I’ve made $105 in about an hour and a half so far — here’s my full User Interviews review.
Respondent is one of the best paying online survey companies I’ve found. Usually the surveys are one-on-one interviews either in-person or over the phone / video chat, and they pay an average of $140 an hour.
Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers $120 an hour to assist with medical research.
You can browse a full list of available studies on their site—nearly all of which are phone or webcam interviews.
If you suffer from any sort of medical condition (even if it’s not super rare), this one is worth a look.
The site is open to residents of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
2. Online Surveys: $1 a Day
No list of money-making ideas would be complete without an old favorite: online surveys. Power users of these apps earn $30 a month or more.
Here are some of Side Hustle Nation’s favorite options:
- Swagbucks – Earn up to $35 a survey with this mega-popular app, and get a $10 bonus just for signing up!
- Product Report Card – Get notified about higher-paying product tests, clinical trials, and online focus groups.
- KashKick – Get paid to answer surveys, test games, and try new products.
- Survey Junkie – Take 3 surveys a day and earn up to $100 a month.
- InboxDollars – Get a $5 bonus just for signing up!
- American Consumer Opinion – Join millions of free members and earn up to $50 per survey.
Don’t expect to earn an amazing hourly rate with these options, but you can earn gift cards, cash, and other rewards by answering surveys, watching videos, playing games, and shopping online.
3. Find a Virtual Job
The best place to find legit work from home jobs. Established in 2007, FlexJobs has 1000s of listings including part-time, full-time, and freelance options in tons of industries.
FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site. With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.
There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.
Want to learn more about Flexjobs? Check out our Review.
4. Make Extra Money Playing Online Games
KashKick
KashKick is a newer app that pays you to test new mobile games (up to $150 each!), answer surveys, and redeem money-saving offers.
With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.
Related: Are you introverted? If so, here are some perfect ways to make extra money.
5. Rental Properties
How to make extra income while working full-time?
Rental real estate is one of the oldest side hustles in the books.
It is still viable today, and a perfect option for full-timers.
My friend Dustin Heiner built up his rental portfolio and was able to retire before 40 on the cash flow.
If your local market is too expensive, take a look at Arrived, a cool online marketplace built for busy investors. For as little as $100, you can buy shares of cash-flowing rental properties.
- Earn quarterly dividends
- Completely hands-off
- Low minimum investment ($100)
- Limited liquidity
- Not super diversified
- Listings can sell out quickly
6. Commercial Real Estate
Fundrise allows you to invest in a portfolio of commercial properties all around the country. I’ve been a Fundrise investor for years and they’ve consistently paid quarterly dividends in the 5-10% yield range.
Fundrise is one of the best and largest crowdfunded real estate investment platforms, with $7B under management. The company makes institutional quality investments available to everyone, starting at just $10.
- Start with just $10
- Quarterly cash flow
- Instant diversification
- Healthy historical performance
- Lower volatility
- Liquidity
- Not as diversified as public REITs
- Limited operational track record
- Weaker upside
(Disclosure: when you sign up, I earn a commission. All opinions are my own.)
Plus, you can get started with as little as $10.
7. Start an Online Business
This probably isn’t the right path if you need to make extra money quickly, but can build into a full-time income stream over time.
My primary revenue stream is affiliate marketing, but website creators can make money in lots of different ways, including:
- selling your own products and services
- advertising
- live events
- reader donations
- and more
Click here to check out my free video course on how to start a website.
Pros:
Low startup costs
Great long-term earning power
Can sell the business down the road
Cons:
Slow to see results
Lots of skills to learn
8. Virtual Bookkeeping: Up to $70/hr
Remote bookkeepers can earn $20-70 an hour and up for their work. This is a great option for people with accounting experience from school or your day job.
Here’s a free training on how to get started.
9. Resell Furniture Returns
As a part-time Sharetown rep, you’ll pick up gently-used furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.
Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with report earning $150-250 per item.
And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.
Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more.
Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.
- Low startup costs
- Great earning power
- No hunting for inventory
- Requires a truck or SUV
- Bulky items to store
- Not available in all areas
Want to learn more about this money making idea? Watch our interview below.
10. Caregiving
Babysitting and child care was my original income stream as a teenager, and is still a viable way to make extra money.
Sites like Care.com and Sittercity can help match you up with families.
11. Pet Sitting
Rover.com is “Airbnb for dogs,” and I’ve heard from several dog sitting hosts earning thousands of dollars a year through this site.
Make money walking dogs and pet sitting.
- Strong income potential
- Reputable platform and protection
- Flexible schedule
- Potentially difficult pets (and owners)
- Limited to local demand
(Meowtel is the leading platform for cat-sitting.)
12. Resell Flea Market Finds: Up to $5,000 per Flip
My buddy Rob Stephenson is “the Flea Market Flipper” and makes a great living finding odd items to resell.
For example, he found a prosthetic leg for $40 and sold it on eBay the next day for $1000.
There are still 130+ million potential buyers active on eBay, and there are profitable deals everywhere!
Rob and his wife Melissa consistently earn thousands of dollars a month doing this part-time. They put together a free training on how you can get started and make your first sales as fast as 2 weeks.
- Low startup costs
- Simple business model
- Can multiply money quickly
- Can be time-consuming to source inventory
- Difficult to store and ship bulky items
Suggested Playlist: Flipping Profits
Buying low and selling high is the fastest way to multiply money. Here's how to get it done.
13. Self-Publish on Amazon
Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle platform, you can publish your work and tap into a massive audience of book buyers.
Self-publishing is one of my favorite and longest-running side hustles. I remember my first royalty payment from Amazon — it was something like $42 — and being thrilled, thinking “I did it! I’m a professional author!”
Since then I’ve earned over $80,000 in author royalties. Books are a pretty awesome way to build authority in your niche and earn passive income along the way.
Related: My Amazon author profile and book listings
14. Become a Mystery Shopper
Field Agent presents a list of tasks you can do based on your location. If you happen to be running errands nearby, just accept the task and start earning money.
Most of these gigs involve evaluating product displays or checking on inventory. They typically pay $3-10 apiece, depending on complexity and the time involved.
For more info, please see my full Field Agent review.
15. Knife Sharpening
Matt Rowell taught himself how to sharpen knives on YouTube, and turned it into a $250-1500 a month side business.
16. Online Tutoring: Up to $60/hr
Tutoring and test prep is a billion dollar a year industry. You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!
Wyzant is a popular online and in-person tutoring platform that connects you with students in a wide variety of subjects and grade levels.
As a tutor, you set your own schedule and rates. When I searched Wyzant for math tutors nearby, I found several tutors charging $40-60 an hour.
17. Create an Outschool Class
Outschool is a marketplace for online small group classes for kids. Jade Weatherington reported earning over $10,000 a month from her virtual writing classes.
Another example is Devyn, who makes $4k a month by showing young folks how to play video games.
Check out our interview below.
18. Sell Lesson Plans and Material
Teachers Pay Teachers is a popular marketplace for lesson plans and other educational materials. For example, Jodi Carlson began putting some of her content on the site and now earns $5,000 a month part-time.
19. Sign Up for Free Rewards Apps: $150+ Per Year
Saving money is making money! And it’s actually even more effective since it goes straight to your bottom line — meaning you don’t have to pay taxes on it like you would with extra income.
For example, the Fetch Rewards app gives you cash back just for snapping a picture of your receipts.
You can then redeem points for gift cards to retailers like Best Buy, Sephora, Staples, Gap, and more. (I’ve been cashing in for Amazon gift cards.)
Rakuten has been giving online shoppers cash back for 25 years. My last laptop purchase from Dell netted me over $200 cash back! (They were running a special offer.)
They’ll even give you a free $30 bonus when you create your account! Check out our full Rakuten review to learn more.
20. Sell Used Books
Use the free BookScouter app to find out what books are worth—either the ones you have collecting dust on your shelves or the ones you come across at garage sales or library bookstores.
One Side Hustle Show guest reported earning up to $4000 a month flipping used books! (He recommended the faster ScoutIQ app.)
21. Sell Printables on Etsy
Selling printables on Etsy is a great way to make extra money if you have an eye for design and love researching new niches.
For example, Rachel Jones reported earning up to $10,000 a month without any inventory.
Here’s a free guide to the best-selling digital products month-by-month to get your creative juices flowing.
22. Amazon Arbitrage
Amazon FBA is “Fulfillment by Amazon.” This is Amazon’s unique way of crowdsourcing inventory from individual sellers like you and me. As a seller, you can take advantage of Amazon’s world class logistics network—and tap into their huge audience of buyers.
The easiest way to get started is to source good deals locally and then selling them via Amazon.
You can even do this all online — sourcing products from other e-commerce retailers!
23. Software Consulting
Is there a software that you’re a relative expert in?
One of my favorite angles is to piggyback on the popularity of a particular software tool, like Brad Rice did with Salesforce (earning over $200k a year part time!). As adoption of the software grows, so too does the demand for qualified support.
Check out the free Salesforce challenge to see if a similar career shift might make sense:
Alternatively, you can create a listing on sites Clarity.fm, and earn $60/hour and up.
24. Flipping Furniture
Flipping furniture is a popular side hustle for people who like to work with their hands. Per Ryan Cron, solid wood dressers are the easiest pieces to start with.
And if you’re going for the “rustic farmhouse” look, your painting doesn’t need to be perfect!
Aim to buy used furniture for $50 or less, and resell it for $150-300 on Facebook Marketplace.
25. Become a Virtual Assistant: Up to $40/hr
Virtual assistants provide administrative support to clients from their home office.
To learn more about starting your own virtual assistant company, check out the free video training from my friend Abbey Ashley. She started her VA business on the side and shares:
- Where to find thousands of potential clients.
- How to make a full-time living working from home.
- What clients are really looking for in a VA. (hint: it’s not prior VA experience)
Click here to learn more about becoming a virtual assistant.
26. Parking Lot Cleanup
Brian Winch started his parking lot clean-up business as a side hustle in 1981, and has since built it into a multi-six-figure business.
He says you can still earn $30-50 an hour part-time targeting local property management companies.
27. House Cleaning
Anthony and Jhanilka Hartzog grew their Dallas-area residential cleaning service to $25k a month in revenue. And the best part? They hire other cleaners to do the work!
More and more homeowners outsource this chore, and the industry remains highly fragmented. Those factors spell an opportunity for you to win clients.
28. Pet Waste Removal
It’s not the most glamorous gig, but it can earn $50 an hour or more. In just a few months, Erica Krupin had landed 80 recurring weekly clients at around $15 apiece.
29. Pressure Washing
Pressure washers cost around $300, but you could clear more than that on a single busy spring weekend cleaning driveways, decks, and patios in your neighborhood. Here’s more on how to start a pressure washing business.
30. Sell Your Mobile Data: $20-60 Per Year
We give so much of our data away every day for free to companies like Facebook, but did you know you can actually get paid for your data?
For example, Nielsen rewards you for sharing internet usage behaviors. Simply download the non-intrusive app to your devices.
As they track your usage, you earn points to redeem for prizes and sweepstakes entries.
Mobilexpression is a market research panel that pays you for data from your mobile phone.
Download their app and allow it to work in the background recording your browsing habits while on your phone. In exchange, you’ll earn gift cards to popular retailers.
Realistically, this is probably worth around $20 a year in passive income. And you’ll earn a free $5 gift card after your first week.
Caden is one of my newest finds, and is earning me over $10 a month on autopilot
The app itself is a little slow and buggy, but may be worth those small headaches for some relatively easy passive income.
At press time, it was iOS only. Check out our full Caden app review to learn more.
You’ve heard of “driving for dollars” with services like Uber and Lyft, and it doesn’t get much simpler than this. One Lyft driver of mine on a recent trip put it this way: “When I want to make money, I turn on the app.”
In fact, these “gig economy” apps have helped create a multi-hundred billion dollar a year industry. Here are some options to get your piece of the pie:
- Instacart – Enjoy weekly payouts and a flexible schedule. Check out our full Instacart Shopper review here, with insights from a side hustler earning an extra $450-500 a week.
- HopSkipDrive — Specializes in safe and transparent school transportation for kids. Their rigorously vetted CareDrivers are “caregivers on wheels” who set their own schedule and get to support the community.
- DoorDash – Earn up to $25 an hour as a food delivery driver for. For more, here’s our full DoorDash review.
- Uber Eats – Make local takeout deliveries in your town and earn up to $25 an hour doing so.
- Shipt – Drivers can earn up to $22 an hour shopping for and delivering fresh food and household essentials.
Pros:
Easy to get started
No marketing or sales required
Can earn money quickly
Cons:
Limited earning power
Wear and tear on your vehicle
Income may be inconsistent
If you choose any of these driving-related side hustles, it might make sense to tack on an app like Hurdlr to automatically track your mileage, expenses, income streams, and tax deductions in real-time. On average, Hurdlr helps users find $5600 in deductions!
32. Earn $200 From a Bank
You’ve got to promise to use this strategy responsibly, but it’s earned my wife and I thousands of dollars.
Credit cards like the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card offer a $200 sign-up bonus after you spend $500 in your first 3 months — with no annual fee. That's up to 40% cash back!
If you know you’re gonna spend $500 in the next 3 months, that’s #freemoney. This card also gives you one of the highest cash back rates, with unlimited 1.5% back on every dollar you spend.
Related: Credit Card Rewards 101: How to Earn Free Cash and Travel by Spending Smarter
33. Sell Dirt
Mark “The Land Geek” Podolsky calls this “the best passive income model,” and broke down how it works on The Side Hustle Show. Later, I caught up with a student of his who was earning $10k a month.
Mark’s Land Investing Launch Kit is free for Side Hustle Nation readers.
34. Drop Shipping
With drop shipping, you can sell physical products online without having to buy any inventory upfront. Instead, you work out deals with the manufacturers or distributors to ship the items directly to customers on your behalf.
On a popular episode of The Side Hustle Show, Ben Knegendorf shared his method of “high ticket dropshipping” that allowed him to quit his job as a forklift driver.
35. Loan Signing Agent: $100 per Appointment
Notary publics can make up to $100 an hour for completing loan signings for new home buyers on their own schedule.
Check out the resources at Loan Signing System to learn more.
36. Print on Demand Products
Merch by Amazon is a fun way to make extra money. Upload your t-shirt (and other product) designs, set your price, and then let Amazon do all the work of printing and shipping your orders.
Elaine Heney made over $50,000 doing this part-time and shared some of her tips on The Side Hustle Show. (My wife made over $2k in her first year doing this in her spare time too!)
37. Create a Local Experience
If you have a passion for your city and love meeting new people, a unique local tour could be a hit.
My friend Alex hosts hundreds of “urban hiking” tours a year on the side from her day job — at $49 apiece!
What unique experience can you offer travelers? It doesn’t even have to be a tour.
For example, Michele Mattix makes money hosting guided meditations through Airbnb Experiences. You can create your own experience, set your price, and Airbnb markets it to travelers.
38. Create a Fiverr Gig
For me, Fiverr has been a fun and eye-opening side hustle experiment. Since I started on the site, I’ve earned over $13,000, met some awesome people, and found an interesting “Buy Buttons” platform.
How it works is you come up with a base “gig” — and then add relevant upsells or packages to increase your order value. One of my most popular podcast episodes was with a Fiverr seller who used the platform to launch a 6-figure freelancing business.
Too Many Choices?
Join the Free 5-Day $500 Challenge. I'll show you step-by-step how to add $500 to your bottom line.
39. Start a YouTube Channel
Creating content on YouTube is a fast-track side hustle, especially compared with blogging. It’s easier to “rank” videos for your target keywords, and once your channel reaches certain metrics, you can monetize with ads.
(You can also use YouTube in other creative ways, like to sell a digital product or service.)
40. Build an Email Newsletter
The newsletter business model is low overhead, simple to manage, and can scale to a significant income stream.
For example, the popular daily business newsletter Morning Brew sold for a reported $75 million!
41. TaskRabbit Gigs
TaskRabbit is one of the largest gig economy platforms. You can create a profile specializing in running local errands, assembling furniture, local temp help, and even virtual support jobs.
Rates vary widely based on what service you’re providing, but I’ve seen tasks anywhere from $15 an hour all the way up to $100+ for specialized skills.
42. Go Look at Stuff
Earn $18 to $200 to go look at stuff like eBay purchases, cars, rental properties, or even vacant lots with WeGoLook. Take pictures, verify information, and report back what you find.
43. Rent Out Your Car, RV, or Boat
If you have an underutilized car, Turo will help you rent it out.
Listing your car is free, and Turo owners report earning an average of $875 a month. The company does background checks on all their renters and also handles the insurance.
What else could you rent out?
- For RVs, check out RVShare.com
- Boats; GetMyBoat.com
- Pools? Swimply.com
- Baby Gear? BabyQuip.com
44. Donate Plasma
As long as needles don’t bother you, you can earn $20-60 per plasma donation.
45. Clinical Trials
The National Library of Medicine runs a nationwide database of studies you may qualify for.
46. Craigslist Gigs
There’s a section in the lower right side of Craigslist where companies and individuals post jobs and gigs.
47. Freelance Writing
Even with the rise of AI writing tools — or perhaps because of it — expert freelance writers are in-demand. Experienced writers can earn anywhere from $100-$500+ per article.
Here’s a great free resource to get started: Your 9-Step Blueprint to Making Money as a Writer
48. Narrate Audiobooks
I think we can all agree that getting paid to talk is a pretty sweet gig, and Voices.com is the #1 marketplace for voice over talent.
Otherwise, ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange, is an interesting platform to connect authors with professional narrators to — like the name suggests — create an audiobook version of their book.
49. Help Companies Name Their Products
Companies post naming and branding contests on SquadHelp and you can win cash for coming up with the best name or slogan. On Namestation, a similar service, top contributors earn up to $300 a month part-time.
50. Cut Your Ongoing Expenses
If it’s been more than 2 years since you last shopped for car insurance, you’re paying too much.
Here’s the dirty secret of the car insurance industry: your cars are worth less every year due to depreciation, but you keep paying the same amount.
Check out Insurify for a quick and painless quote process to find the best rates for car and home insurance. It’ll take just a few minutes (you can even do it on your phone) and users save an average of $489 per year!
Similarly, I recently switched to Mint Mobile for my cell phone service. It runs on the T-Mobile network and costs just $15 a month (when you pre-pay)!
I was able to keep my current phone and phone number. Making the switch from Verizon saved my wife and I over $800 a year.
51. Build an Online Course
With Udemy, you can create a video course in your area of expertise, and put it up for sale on their platform of more than 50 million students.
Since late 2014, I’ve earned over $27,000 on Udemy from a course I created about self-publishing.
What could you teach?
Related: The 101 Best Udemy Courses for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, and Side Hustlers
52. Thrift for Profit
Apps like Poshmark can help you clear out your closet or make money from your latest thrift store finds.
53. Equipment Rentals
I love a good rental business: buy something once and get paid for it over and over again.
For example, Lenny Tim started renting out mobility scooters, and now earns an extra $3,000 a month in his spare time.
54. Yard Care Service
GreenPal is “the Uber for yardwork” and offers a cool new way for landscaping businesses to connect with customers.
The average GreenPal vendor makes around $55 per hour mowing lawns on its system.
55. Get Cooking
The United States Professional Chef Association put together this directory of personal chefs available for hire.
56. Photography Service
This is my wife’s side hustle of choice, which started as a hobby. She and her partner started out pricing low to build a portfolio, but now command around $4,000 per wedding.
57. Moving Service
If you have a truck or van — and a strong back — you can earn money with Dolly’s peer-to-peer moving platform. Help your neighbors pack and move across town. Similarly, GoShare will help you put your truck or cargo van to work and up to $61 an hour.
58. Sports Coaching
Channel your athletic glory days and help young athletes level up their game. You can set your own rate and CoachUp private coaches report earning an average of $45 an hour.
59. Personal Training
Connect with clients through your gym, NextDoor, or through a marketplace like FindYourTrainer.
60. Get Paid to Lose Weight: $500+
Bet on yourself to hit your weight loss goal, and win an average of $1300 when you achieve it.
- Get paid to build healthy habits
- Set your own goals and timeline
- You'll lose money if you don't hit your goal
- Prize may not be motivating enough
Before you start your next diet, you might want to check out HealthyWage. This cool service that lets you put a friendly wager on your weight loss.
If you meet your goal, you can cash in — to the tune of $500 or more! (Here’s our full HealthyWage review.)
Click here to see how much your prize might be.
61. One-on-One Language Lessons
With Verbling, you can set your own hourly rate for online language lessons. Most tutors appear to be in the $10-25 an hour range, and Verbling says some are earning a full-time living on the platform.
62. Storage Unit Auctions
The hype over Storage Wars has largely died down, which means profitable storage unit auctions may be easier to win today. You have to bid based on what you can see from the outside, and hope to find some treasures to flip for a profit.
63. Help Friends Get a Job
When your referral gets a new job through Hired.com, the site will pay you $1000.
And that sum pales in comparison to what you can make starting your own recruiting business. A typical placement fee is 20% of your candidate’s first year salary — meaning a single recruit could earn you $10-20k or more!
64. Mechanical Turk
Earn a small fee ($0.01 to $3) for each micro task you complete on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
It can be tedious work, but over the last few years, Mike Naab earned over $50,000 in his spare time completing surveys and other small jobs.
65. Make Product Review Videos
My newest way of making extra money is from the Amazon Influencer Program.
If you have a bit of social media following, you can apply. After that, you’ll upload simple product review videos and Amazon will credit you sales commission if your video helps convince someone to buy.
I made over $1,000 doing this in my first year with very little effort, and connected with other “influencers” earning $2,000+ per month.
66. Proofreading and Editing
Editing for self-published authors was a side hustle for me a few years ago. ProofreadingServices.com is an online proofreading and tutoring service that pays $19 to 46 per hour.
67. Solve Interesting Problems
MindSumo is a lesser-known website that asks for your input on certain questions on behalf of its corporate clients. The best and most creative answers earn rewards of $550-1600.
When I was browsing, I saw questions like “How would you improve the car buying experience?” and “How can we make laundry less of a hassle?”
Definitely an interesting way to get paid for your opinions and ideas.
68. Be a Movie Extra
Are there movie extra jobs near you? Background actors normally earn minimum wage, but you may get a meal out of the deal — and perhaps a brush with celebrity.
69. A Friend in Need
According to Rent a Friend, you can earn up to $50 an hour on this strictly platonic match-making site. You might get hired to accompany new “friends” to the movies, dinner, the gym, or whatever you include in your free profile.
70. Rent Out Your Extra Space
You’ve heard of people renting their spare rooms on Airbnb, but what if you don’t want strangers in your house?
The Neighbor self-storage platform connects people with storage needs to those with extra space. If you’ve got some excess storage capacity in your garage, driveway, or elsewhere, list your space here to fill it and get paid.
Top hosts earn up to $10,000 a year running their mini self-storage operations.
Here’s our full Neighbor review for more on how it works and how to get started.
Too Many Choices?
Join the Free 5-Day $500 Challenge. I'll show you step-by-step how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Your Turn
I’m confident you can use at least ONE of these platforms to earn some job-free dollars!
Let me know which ones look the most compelling by leaving a comment below. Also feel free to chime in if I missed your favorite way to make extra money — I strive to keep this resource as up-to-date as possible.
Serious About Making Extra Money?
- Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
- Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
- Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.
Pin it for later:
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I make extra money?
There have never been more ways to make extra money! For example, you can start freelancing, begin re-selling products, or even start your own blog or YouTube channel. Be sure to check the full list at Side Hustle Nation for the latest options.
How can I make money online?
The most common ways to make money online are freelancing, selling advertising on content you create, or by selling physical or digital products. You can sell these through existing marketplaces like Amazon or set up your own store.
How can I make $200 fast?
If you need to make $200 fast, you have a couple options. The first is to provide some sort of freelance service, which could be anything from mowing lawns to babysitting to painting houses to dog walking to designing websites or managing Facebook ads. The second option is to sell something you already own. OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace are popular options to unload this unwanted inventory.
This is incredible! Thank you for taking the time to compile this. I wish I’d known about Scribendi 12 years ago when I was struggling to get clients for my freelance editing business. Now that I do know about it…
Seriously, this is an amazing resource. Thanks, Nick.
An awesome list. A couple of these I just started with. But there are others that I now have on my radar.
Thanks!
As Nick notes, you can share pictures, music, and more on Pond 5. There’s also a decent market for real life sounds you record. I’ve sold things like the ambiance at an airport departure lounge and a subway train leaving! Your smart phone can probably capture the recordings!
Love this article! Have read numerous posts from sidehustle nation and constantly share them with friends. One tip that hasn’t been added is UserTest. You can earn £8 for every website you review. You can check it out at: https://usertest.io/
Keep up the great work! Always on the look out for posts like these! :D
This is hands down one of the bests posts I’ve ever seen on starting a side income. Most people say they don’t have any ideas. Your list is the best way to breakdown that barrier. Awesome post!
Great list! I’ve had my car wrapped with Wrapify for the past few months and have been earning about $400 per month — just for driving where I’d normally be driving!
Whoa that’s awesome Janet!
Hi
I know there are legit car wraps but there are also scams going on as well so be careful about what info you give out and some issue cheques which later bounce.
I totally agree Cathy, we have to do our due diligence for things like this. I’m very happy with Wrapify, they pay by direct deposit every two weeks and their customer service is great. Everytime I’ve had a question they’ve responded very quickly.
Great article, here is another way to make money In your spare time is being a Sports Official. I have a fulltime job and my sports officiating starts after 5pm during the season. An example football referee make around $55.00 per game, normally there are 2 games per evening, on the weekend a person can work 4 games, 1 hour each and make $200.00. Our state chapter in https://taso.org. Thanks just wanted to share this
Careful with Carvertise. Shady business practices for their drivers. Their wrap wrecked our paint job on our car and they are being extremely difficult working with us to get it fixed. I gave them a 1 Star rating on their Facebook page and they literally sent my husband an email saying if I didn’t change the rating he wouldn’t be reimbursed for the damages to the car. Shady business practices.
Besides Verbling, there are other language sites where you can earn money for teaching languages. Some examples are italki or Langademy. In the first one you can apply as a teacher or tutor, and at Langademy you just need to have some reputation in the community to start earning money. Hope this helps someone.
Thanks for this exhaustive list. I have two teenagers that found several different jobs that want to do for spare money this summer.
Awesome list! I have been driving for Amazon Flex for about a year now and can comfortably say it’s a pretty decent gig in terms of pay. There’s a lot of confusion out there because Amazon gives a broad range of “18 to 25 dollars” per hour, and it ultimately depends on your driving costs (gas, depreciation) and how well you get tipped. I’ve been averaging about 20 dollars per hour, which is not bad for just driving packages around.
This article does a good job explaining the details behind how your pay would be calculated: https://www.azflexinfo.com/how-much-can-you-get-paid-with-amazon-flex
Thanks for sharing Steve!
WOW ! Needless to say, i’m really impressed by your listing. It’s an awesome list.
I am using https://www.samboat.com for my vacation (leading peer-to-peer boat rentals). It can be a good addition to your list.
Excellent article, Nick!
I’ve been heavily focused on the Print on Demand side of things for the past 8 months with Merch by Amazon being the #1 focus. It’s a great opportunity for everyone, and it’s cool to see it mentioned on your list. :)
You rock Nick,
I really do like what you’re doing here, giving people so many ways they can make a living from the internet, that is totally princess man, please do keep it up.
Now, if there’s one good thing picked from this post, and most of your other previous posts, it is the fact that there are a countless number of ways anyone, from anywhere can make a living from the internet.
It has never been easier than now to make money online, and I’ll encourage everyone who cares to listen to get involved with this right now as it is getting more interesting everyday.
I guess that most people that started online business started with Online Surveys. Myself for example, that was also how I started years back. And if I could remember vividly, I started with CashCrate and Survey Monkey which you mentioned here too. Honestly, I never knew that those guys are still in business, it’s been years man.
Although, I didn’t really made anything significant from online surveys, but it was indeed a great experience. When it wasn’t favoring me as I thought it would, that was when I now ventured into blogging and affiliate marketing which I’m still doing today.
One more to add:
AcaDemon – depending on how you feel about this ethically, you can upload college term papers. Students buy them for “research” (I mean, maybe they are?) and you get 50% of the sale. I made a few hundred dollars from it the first few years after college.
I was also able to make like $200 a week with Rev doing transcriptions when I hit an unemployed patch.
Nice! Thanks for sharing Mel :)
Awesome list – I’ll definitely have to come back to this. I currently do Mturk and Merch by Amazon, along with a few other t-shirt platforms. I don’t do nearly was well on the other t-shirt platforms as I do with Merch by Amazon. I’ve made almost $1000 via Merch this year, whereas I think I’ve barely broken $10 on the others combined.
Whoa nice work Joe!
Great Article with thorough research! Please add http://www.homeworknest.com It is a marketplace for those with research gift to make extra cash while enriching others with knowledge. It just work like homework market
Great ideas to earn money. You could add Justlearn to your list.
Teach your language online – https://www.justlearn.com
– set your own tutoring prices and work hours.
– earn between $3-50 hr
– fast internet connection
– access to computer
Thanks for sharing! I have worked with Homework Market and it has its perks. I am currently working with Genius Writings (https://www.geniuswritings.com) – the new kid on the block. I would definitely recommend it for people seeking to make money helping with assignments
I am a Survey Taker and earn a passive income for over five years. It is great though looking for more
extra income. Can you suggest a bit more steady income online? I am a Home maker as well and do singing gigs. Thank you for you suggestions.
I just started buying and selling clothes, accessories and shorts. I really want to have a sideline income and I use apps like Olx and Yoox to sell.
Nick, I love your Podcast and this list comes at just the right time. Thank you for all you do!
Your number 2 on the list, Survey sites is definitely the easiest and fastest way to make money and that on your own terms and time. It takes some hard work at the beginning but one you become an expert doing them you get to finish them pretty fast and the good thing is that in no time you have your earned money once you cash out. I prefer Survey Junkie since they are pretty responsible and timely with payments.
As Nick notes, you can share pictures, music, and more on Pond 5. There’s also a decent market for real life sounds you record. I’ve sold things like the ambiance at an airport departure lounge and a subway train leaving! Your smart phone can probably capture the recordings!
I donated plasma at OctaPharma. I made $200 my first week. I’m working towards paying off my debts. It felt awesome to do something that will save lives and get paid as well. I highly recommend it.
Your number 2 on the list, Survey sites is definitely the easiest and fastest way to make money and that on your own terms and time.
Thanks Nick, for sharing this valuable article. I am a Photographer I promote my work on Instagram and Facebook and easily generate 1000$ with gigs. I have observed that when I used paid ads I was able to reach my target audience better & I was also able generate a good amount of revenue. Even I sell Photos on stock image website and I am happy that i generate good amount from stock website.
Pro Tips if you want for earn 1000$ in a month
1- Create Content ( Images, Videos, Blog )
2- Use Paid Advertisement to Sell your product or service
3- Create Website or a YouTube Channel and start sharing valuable content
4- Be consistent
5- Have patience
Thank you so much, Nick. This blog is really remarkable. Thanks for sharing this great stuff. Keep sharing more useful and conspicuous stuff like this. You’ve written an excellent article, and you’ve shared it with me. So I will find some platform on apkdownload, then share this post to more people
Hi,
These are great ideas. I had cancer during the pandemic and hesitate to go back into an office environment just yet due to a compromised immune system. Do you know if the pay is taxable and do any the companies offer benefits of any kind?
Thanks!
This is very helpful. You can also add Homework Owls – https://homeworkowls.com/ to the list. It is a freelance homework help website.
Hi, I completely agree with you on the importance of finding ways to make extra money on the side. In fact, that’s why I found this post so interesting and informative! I particularly liked the ideas of freelancing, online tutoring, and starting a blog.
Thank you for this list, it took me a while just to read it, must have taken quite some time to put this together, and it’s appreciated.
A couple things that weren’t on the list are
1. Selling recorded sounds
2. Selling photos
3. Freelance graphic designing.
4. Walking (Cash Walk) (Please use referral code if you choose to sign up)
Great article! I’m a consultant & nascent writer/researcher/editor, struggling to get back on my feet after lengthy disability. I’d never considered Fiverr because I thought it was too cheap. I looked at offerings for what I do, and gigs are $150+/hr up with sustainable models… and I have the core of similar or better models.
I hadn’t considered voiceover work – intriguing! If I can master voice editing, it’d be a fun way to use my online teaching & presentation skills.
One side gig to add is online university teaching. Adjunct instructors are paid anywhere from $2,200-$10,000 per class; median about $3-4,000. It can be hard to get into a school but once you’re in, you can (usually) increase your teaching load if you get good student ratings. Community colleges pay much less but are easier to get into; sometimes they’ll accept a bachelor’s degree. It’s a long play – most semesters are 12 weeks; some are 5 or 8.
If you design your classes well, you can leverage 1-2 courses into 6-8 offerings a year, tweak a class into a graduate offering (higher pay) and possibly corporate training (MUCH higher pay, less work). Course design is a big upfront time investment. Training is available, but I had one school require an 8 week training course with no teaching guarantee. At my peak, I made $38,000/yr teaching 7 courses for 3 schools, and it was a full-time job. That said, I have my courses ready to go if I returned; with a few tweaks I could be up & ready in 2 weeks.
CONS:
* Requires comfort with course management systems (e.g. Blackboard) and sometimes publisher supplemental sites.
* Flex hours but 6-7 days/week. Responses expected within 24 hrs, grades within 3-4 days.
* Some schools monitor annoying online metrics (e.g. post frequency, quantity, and length)