Making extra money has changed my life. So much so that I wrote an entire book about it.
In my book Hustle Away Debt I talk about how you can pay off your debt faster through side hustles. Side hustles are essentially ways to make extra money outside of your 9-5 job.
While the book is focused on all sorts of side hustles, not just ways to make extra money from home, I have a soft spot for making money from home. There is nothing quite like making money without leaving the comfort of your home.
This post shares 50+ legitimate ways to make extra money from home. A large majority of these are ways to make money online from your laptop (my ideal way to make money!).
The upside of some of these side hustles is huge. For example, if you start an Etsy store you just might end up with a business that brings in a full-time income on a part-time schedule, as described in one of the case studies in Hustle Away Debt. I know there are many parents reading this who would love to work from home 20 hours a week running their own business!
Making extra money changed my life by offsetting my $1,000/month student loan payment, and then surpassing that as my monthly online income increased over time. It’s allowed me to write a book (through a publisher) and has greatly helped my financial situation.
Making extra money through a side hustle just might change your life, too.
1) Start a Blog
I’ve been blogging for over eight years and today blogging is my primary way I make extra money. If you are unsure what sort of side hustle you should start, I almost always recommend blogging. I have a whole post explaining exactly how to start a blog.
Blogging is a great side hustle because you can blog wherever you want and whenever you want. Are you an early morning person? You could fit in an hour of blog work before work. A night owl? Crank out a couple hours of blog work each night.
Blogging also has potential to become a full-time income. Many people I know have started a blog from nothing and are now full-time bloggers. But blogging doesn’t have to be a full-time gig. You can do it on the side, like me, and use the money to pay off debt, invest, travel, or whatever you want to use your side income for. Did I mention you can do this all from home?
Actually, forget about working from home: blogging can be done from anywhere in the world!
If you’re interested in blogging as a side hustle I would recommend you check out my post about how to start a blog. If you go to that post and use my unique Bluehost referral code you will get an excellent deal on hosting. Bluehost makes it very easy to set up a WordPress blog.
2) Freelance Write
Many people think that freelance writers don’t get paid much because “everyone can write.” I can assure you this is not the case. I have friends who are making so much freelance writing that they quit their full-time jobs. Some make six figures off of freelance writing alone.
As someone who hires freelance writers I can tell you that freelance writers vary greatly in their skills and experience. I can also tell you that I will typically not even consider hiring a writer who doesn’t have a blog of their own. A blog acts as your portfolio for prospective customers.
No one wants to take a risk on someone with no portfolio, so to get those first couple freelance writing jobs you will want to have something out there for potential clients to see. Every single client I’ve written for has found me through my blog.
Besides starting a blog, how do you break into freelance writing? Read our post on How to Get Started in Freelance Writing.
3) Write a Book
I’ve talked to many people who have ideas for books. 99%+ of people who have book ideas will never actually write one. There’s a few reasons why.
Soon after I got a book deal for Hustle Away Debt I wrote a post on how I was able to get a book deal.
In this post I talked about how having a blog – and in turn, an audience – helped make me an attractive writer for the publisher. You don’t have to own a blog to write a book, but if you don’t have some sort of audience to sell to publishers will see you as a huge risk and be less likely to work with you.
You could self-publish, but if you go that route you will absolutely want a blog or some sort of audience to sell the book to. It’s not enough to simply have a book idea or even to write a book – you need people to sell the book to!
Writing a book is a great side hustle because it has additional upside in the form of passive income. While a lot goes into actually creating a book, you could make money off of it for years to come.
4) Become an Editor
In the same way websites need freelance writers, websites also need editors. After all, someone needs to review posts for errors, add things like affiliate links, and plan and schedule posts.
Many blog owners act as editors, but many blog owners would also be open to having someone else edit and schedule content. I myself recently looked into this option and not having to edit all the posts would be a huge relief.
How do you get started in editing? The easiest path is to first be a writer. If you own a blog that has freelance writers contribute posts then you will get a lot of experience editing posts, whether you want to or not!
5) Create an Online Course
There are online courses today for everything. Whether you are looking to learn about how to program in Java, speak a different language, or learn how to coupon, there are online courses for you.
One of my former contributors, Cat Alford, put together a course to help others get started in freelance writing. She turned freelance writing into a very lucrative career and has been able to stay at home with her twins because of it.
If creating an online course sounds like something you’d enjoy, first you’ll want to check out courses that others have made. You can find courses at Lynda.com to test out and see what has worked for others.
6) Freelance Programming
I have a number of friends who are programmers for their 9-5 job. Most of them have done some type of freelance programming to make extra money at home.
One of them took a website that had initially been outsourced to programmers in India and cleaned up the code and did some of the more advanced coding that the site needed. Another programmer coded a website for a huge corporation. Both did this from the comfort of their home on nights and weekends.
How do you find these jobs? Similar to freelance writing it’s always easier to get noticed and to come off as a legitimate freelancer if you have a websitehighlighting your work. This could be a blog or something similar that highlights what programming languages you know, projects you’ve worked on, and other things that you want potential clients to know.
Word of mouth and social networks like LinkedIn also work wonders for those looking for freelance opportunities. There is huge demand for programmers so if you have programming skills you can absolutely make extra money at home doing freelance work.
7) Spreadsheet Consulting
One side hustle I’ve done in the past that I’ve really enjoyed is spreadsheet consulting. I was hired by a friend who owns a business to improve some of their financial reporting. I improved some of their existing reporting and created new reporting as well.
This was a great side hustle for me because I was able to work on and improve skills that were used in my 9-5 job as an accountant. Usually you have to pay to improve your skills at your 9-5, but this side hustle allowed me to flip the script and get paid to develop my technical skills.
A majority of people either have no spreadsheet skills, hate working in spreadsheets, or both. The problem is virtually every single business will have to deal with spreadsheets at some point. If you are skilled in spreadsheets this could be a lucrative way to make money from the comfort of your own home.
8) Create and Sell Excel spreadsheet Templates
We’ve already established that many people do not enjoy spreadsheets or are not good at using spreadsheets. This not only poses an opportunity for people to provide spreadsheet consulting services, but also spreadsheet products.
If you create good Excel spreadsheets for your own use there is a good chance that others would benefit from using it as well. While I give away my coupon database spreadsheet for free, there is a big opportunity to sell Excel spreadsheet templates for money.
If creating and selling spreadsheets sounds appealing to you – or if the idea of buying pre-existing spreadsheets sounds appealing to you – I encourage you to check out Savvy Spreadsheets. Janet has created some great templates that range from budgeting spreadsheets, wedding budget spreadsheets, calendar spreadsheets, and more.
9) Database Consulting
Everyone loves spreadsheets, but there is arguably even more demand for people who can create, maintain, and upgrade databases. There are entire new fields and careers centered around databases and data management.
If you are skilled in data management you could offer your services to small businesses and freelancers to start. The more data the business deals with the better. Typically smaller businesses are unable to hire someone to manage their data full-time and it can quickly become expensive to outsource to a company that specializes in data management.
This creates an opportunity for someone who works a 9-5 job but would like to make more money. You could spend as little as 5-10 hours working on databases and managing data for a small business. It works out well for the small business, too, as they don’t have to pay a full-time employee to manage their data.
10) Pinterest Management
I’ve been on Twitter for years and feel like I have a good handle on it. The problem for me as the owner of a growing blog is this: a lot of traffic can be gained by having a strong Pinterest presence. But I don’t know anything about Pinterest and don’t have time to devote to managing a Pinterest account.
I’m not the only entrepreneur with this dilemma. This creates an opportunity for anyone who has a good understanding of how to run a businesses’ Pinterest account. I outsourced mine to Kristin from the blog Believe in a Budget and she does a wonderful job. I pay her to run the account, she shows me that her efforts are resulting in traffic to my site, and we both win.
Any skill that can provide value to a person or a company is an opportunity to make extra money. Pinterest is no different and is obviously a wonderful option if you are looking specifically for opportunities to work at home.
11) Social Media Management
Pinterest isn’t the only social media site out there today. There’s Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube…the list goes on. Brands and businesses need people to run these accounts.
This presents social media savvy individuals with an opportunity. You may have to start by providing pro-bono work to build up a portfolio and references, but once you’ve gained experience running social media you can take on more and more clients, eventually making a nice side income out of it.
12) Run a Twitter Chat
Have you built a strong presence on Twitter? Do you focus on a specific topic or niche like music, books, or sports?
Twitter chats may be a lucrative side hustle for you.
Twitter chats are essentially scheduled chats that happen on a weekly basis. For example Chelsea Krost hosts her weekly chat, #MILLENNIALTALK, each Tuesday evening.
Brands potentially will sponsor Twitter Chats if you gain enough traction. They aren’t easy to get going, but once you have some momentum they can provide you with some nice extra income.
13) Create Graphics for Blogs and Websites
Some may be surprised to know – or perhaps not surprised in the least – that I outsource all the graphics work on my site. I used to create graphics for my posts but I realized that it’s best to outsource it to someone who is more skilled in that area.
Many websites outsource their graphics work. Considering the fact that there are likely millions of blogs this presents a golden opportunity for anyone with graphic design experience. Even landing a handful of clients could keep you busy all month long.
My advice to anyone looking to do this is to first have examples of their work readily available for clients to view. Besides having examples it also make sense to have a good handle of where free stock photos and images are available. If you don’t have a good handle on that you won’t know where to look for photos, which is the whole point of being hired in the first place.
14) Create Logos for Websites
Every brand needs a logo, and there are new brands created every single day. Whether it’s a large corporation that is re-branding one of its products or a new blog that has come online, there is a ton of opportunity for side hustle income for anyone who has graphic design skills.
Most website owners have little graphic design experience. Even if they have some experience, they likely aren’t good enough at graphic design to create logos. Logos take specialized skill and creativity that most people simply do not possess.
Like with most side hustles, having a website or blog highlighting your work is a key first step.
15) Design Websites
As someone who spent over two years looking for a qualified designer to create my new website I can say that it’s very difficult to find a qualified designer to create your website. In fact, it seems nearly impossible! I spent hours searching and even emailing with potential designers. Most simply did not have the portfolio or experience I was looking for.
I eventually did find a good designer to create my website and I am forever grateful (contact me if you need a referral).
If you are reliable and good at designing websites there will always be a market for you. Even people with really small blogs are going to eventually want a facelift, and most will realize they are in over their heads if they try to go the DIY route.
16) Code Websites
Some people design and code websites as either a full-time gig or a side hustle. But what I’ve seen more established freelancers do is specialize in either the design side or the coding side.
As I said I paid someone to design my website and they did a great job. They stick to designing and do not do any coding. I also hired a coder (again, contact me if you need a referral). They did a great job and now that I’ve gone through the process I’m so glad that I had someone else do the coding.
Similar to the design aspect of websites, there will always be a need for someone to code websites. In fact this may be even more lucrative as people are constantly changing their websites or looking for upgrades and enhancements.
17) Sell Tweets to Advertisers
I’m an investor in a company called IZEA, but until last year I was simply a user of their service. Basically IZEA brokers deals between social media users and advertisers. This could mean a paid tweet, blog post, or instagram post.
If you have a social media account I would highly recommend signing up for their free service. It certainly can’t hurt to throw your accounts out there for advertisers to see, and you can even bid on campaigns.
Obviously the more followers and engagement you have the more you can charge per post/tweet/etc. They have virtually every social network integrated onto their platform so the potential for working out deals with advertisers is huge.
18) Use Your Credit Card Rewards
You may have a credit card, but do you actually take advantage of the rewards that come with them?
If you’ve had the same credit card for years and haven’t looked at what else is available, you may be missing out on a more lucrative rewards program. Not to mention many cards today come with a bonus. These bonuses can be worth hundreds of dollars and make travel more affordable. Here’s our picks for some of the best travel rewards credit cards.
19) Buy and Sell Tickets to Popular Concerts
A few years back I bought tickets to an Incubus concert in Chicago. This was a show that sold out quickly and people who didn’t get tickets right away were out of luck.
At least if they were looking to pay face value for tickets. Closer to the date tickets were being sold on sites like StubHub for hundreds of dollars.
While there are still old-school ticket scalpers out there who buy and sell tickets the day of games and concerts, it is much more popular today to buy and sell tickets online. There is obviously risk in this, especially with such high fees charged by sites that broker the resale of tickets. You aren’t guaranteed to profit doing this, and you may even lose money.
20) Open Bank Accounts
Banks are starting to realize that it’s difficult to differentiate themselves. It’s also difficult to get new customers because it’s so easy to keep your checking account instead of switching everything to over to a new account.
But if you’re willing to spend a little bit of time and effort you can get some decent bank account signup bonuses without much effort. I signed up for a Discover checking account and received $50 when I deposited $100 and kept it in the account for a certain number of days.
21) Tutor
The internet has opened up so many opportunities to make extra money working at home, and tutoring is one of them. There are a ton of online tutoring websites out there where people are getting paid to tutor on a wide variety of topics from IT, to music, to language.
If you’re an expert in a given skill or area there’s a good chance that you can make money tutoring. Gone are the days where you have to be physically present to tutor. While on-site tutoring still happens, there is a lot more opportunity today tutor remotely.
A few sites that you can take a look at are Chegg, TutorVista, and Tutor.com.
22) Produce Music
I have a friend who produces music for businesses full-time. He is an employee of a larger company that does this sort of work. Even though there may be some bigger companies out there in this space, there is no reason you can’t produce music as a side hustle.
This is a particularly good way for people to make side income because it focuses on something they enjoy: creating music. Who doesn’t want to get paid to do something they love?
There’s a lot of upside with producing music as a way to make extra money because of the ever-increasing demand for video content. Video content is great, but videos need music.
23) Work as a Virtual Assistant
When you hear the words “virtual assistant” you likely pick up on the fact that the job is assisting others virtually. But what do they really do?
Virtual assistants do almost anything that can be done remotely to help a website owner, professional, executive, or any other number of people. This may include sending and replying to emails, working on social media, or doing some of the behind-the-scenes work on a website.
I do not currently have a virtual assistant, but I can easily think of a list of things I could potentially hand off to one. There is so much that goes into running a blog or any other business, and all that work creates demand for virtual assistants or “VA’s” as most refer to them as.
24) Create a Product to Sell on Amazon
I’m in the process of creating, manufacturing, and selling my first physical product on Amazon. It’s an audio product and I’m so excited to see how it does.
There have been literally millions of products created and sold on Amazon over the past decade. It’s essentially what Timothy Ferriss recommends in his book The 4-Hour Workweek.
Creating a product and automating the production and shipping process has never been easier. You can utilize Fulfillment by Amazon to have your products shipped as part of their 2-day Prime Shipping. And you can track inventories so that another batch of your product can be ordered at just the right time.
Overall I think there is huge upside to creating a product and selling it on Amazon. I’d highly recommend looking into this if you are willing to take a little risk in exchange for the chance of a potentially bigger payday.
25) Open a Niche Store
Opening a niche store that features products that are a little more specialized and targeted is another way to make extra money working at home. Just thinking off the top of my head, you could have an online store that sells specific types of beauty products, or sells supplies/clothes/etc. for people who have horses. Really anything goes here.
I should caution you that simply setting up a store typically isn’t going to do it these days. You need some sort of content to rope in potential buyers. Not surprisingly starting a niche store works best when it is done in tandem with starting a blog on the same topic.
One tip on this – Amazon has some good functionality if you want to set up an “Amazon Store” on your site. This can be a great option because who doesn’t use Amazon these days?
26) Enter Giveaways
Every single week there are hundreds of giveaways starting and ending. The number is probably closer to the thousands or tens of thousands, but most people never hear of 99%+ of them.
For a couple years my wife and I used to enter anywhere from 50-300 giveaways a week. We’d exclusively enter online giveaways and we even published a weekly giveaway roundup on our site.
We stopped because she started grad school and the blog took up more and more of my time. But in those couple years we won some incredible things including two trips (one to Hawaii).
Entering giveaways can be an easy and stress-free side hustle. If you win something you don’t want, you can sell it! We’ve won all sorts of things that we’ve sold including a $400 lawn mower, a kid’s book shelf, an expensive kitchen faucet…the list goes on.
Check out our post explaining how to make money entering giveaways.
27) Start an Etsy Store
One of my favorite stories in my book Hustle Away Debt is one where I talk about starting an Etsy store as a side hustle.
In the book I talk about a friend of mine who started an Etsy store with her college roommate. The Etsy store continued to grow and it now is the full-time income for both of them. They have a warehouse and a few employees who work for them, leaving them more time to spend with their children.
There’s no promise that your Etsy store will grow into your full-time income, but clearly it’s possible to make extra money by selling things on Etsy. If you are creative and have an idea for a product or, even better a product line, consider giving Etsy a try.
28) Create and Format Newsletters
Pretty much every blog and content site has a newsletter. Heck, most businesses have some sort of newsletter they send out. And that means somebody has to format and update the newsletter.
For the first few years my site existed I spent little to no time on my newsletter. Now that it’s a focus of mine, I’m realizing just how much work it can be. Creating and formatting newsletters may fall under the greater virtual assistant” umbrella, but it could also work as a specialized side hustle.
A few months ago I was nearly begging other bloggers to recommend someone who is skilled in creating and formatting newsletters in MailChimp. I received no recommendations. There’s a need here that you could fill – all while working at home.
29) Translate
Are you bilingual? There’s an opportunity to translate.
There are a ton of websites out there that will pay you to translate from the comfort of your home. A few of them are:
- Unbabel – Translate anytime anywhere starting at $8 an hour. You can work your way up to $18 an hour.
- Gengo – Another website that allows you to work translation jobs whenever and wherever you want.
- One Hour Translation – Yet another website that pays you for project-based work. Work on whatever projects you want, whenever you want.
Making extra money at home is all about identifying what skills you can leverage. If you speak multiple languages translating can be a great option.
30) Transcribe
Many companies need audio transcribed for many different reasons. Whether it’s company earnings calls or the need for audio transcribed for the hearing impaired, this demand creates a great opportunity for making some extra money working at home. It’s possible to make $15-$25 an hour transcribing audio online.
A few sites that will pay you to transcribe are TranscribeMe, Quicktate, and Rev. Keep in mind that some of these companies will require you to use special transcription software.
31) Write and Edit Resumes
A few months ago I helped my brother completely overhaul his resume. This may sound odd but I actually really enjoyed the process. I am a detail-oriented person so critiquing everything and selectively adding, deleting, and rewording things to give him the best possible presentation was a lot of fun for me. Seeing his reaction at the end of the process didn’t hurt, either, as he was really pleased with how it ended up.
After reading about my experience some of you are probably thinking of your own experience or experiences helping others with their resumes. You can probably relate to the enjoyment of helping someone put their best face forward on their resume.
If you have free time and want to make money from home consider helping people write their resumes and/or edit resumes that are pre-existing. There is a ton of demand for this and many people haven’t updated their resumes for years and are overwhelmed at the idea of updating or creating one.
32) Become a Career Coach
Career coaches do a lot more than overhaul someone’s resume. They help people in all aspects of moving forward in their career or landing a interviews and, hopefully, a job in their field.
When I think of a career coach I think of someone who helps someone with all sorts of career-related things, such as:
- Resume updating
- Interview practice and coaching
- Networking skills and coaching
- Helping with job applications
- Skills inventory and analysis
- Creating an action plan for career advancement
- Creating a plan for acquiring and improving skills
If you’ve had some success with your career or simply have a great knowledge and understanding of what people need to do to advance in their careers, consider becoming a career coach. You could make a huge difference in someone’s life and make some extra money in the process.
33) Do User Testing
With so much time and attention given to websites these days, many companies simply can’t afford to have anything but the best user experience. But how can they know if there is some aspect of the site that users do not like or that is not functioning as expected?
UserTesting is a site that companies like Zillow, CapitalOne, and Flipboard have used to gather information about how consumers view the user experience of their website. And not surprisingly, they compensate people to test their websites.
If you like to test out websites and give your opinion, UserTesting may be a good option for you to make some extra money at home.
34) Give Your Opinion (Surveys)
Businesses need to know consumer problems and preferences, and they’re willing to pay a lot of money to get that information. And that’s why surveys exist.
Companies are absolutely willing to compensate consumers who are willing to take time out of their day to give their opinion. While I didn’t pay people to take it, I had a survey on the site in the past to gather information and it was extremely helpful.
Here are some of the survey websites out there:
I know many people who have had a ton of success with Swagbucks in particular. One of my friends has literally made thousands on the site. I’m not joking – thousands! He’s very committed to going on the site each day and filling out surveys, using it as his search engine, and doing everything he can to gain points. There’s no reason you can’t do the same if you’re motivated enough to make extra money from home.
If focus groups sound like your thing, consider checking out my friend Kristin’s e-book The Ultimate Resource Guide: Everything You Need to Know About Mystery Shopping and Other Side Hustles, which focuses on mystery shopping, panels, and focus groups.
35) Pet Sitting
When I was doing research for my book Hustle Away Debt I spent some time looking into pet sitting as a side hustle. You’d be surprised just how many people are making a side income – or even a full-time income – watching people’s pets.
Some people just walk dogs or pet sit when people are out of town. Others run “daycares” where people can drop off their dogs for the day (or night). In fact a friend at work does this on days where both he and his wife’s schedule overlap and they both work long hours.
If you like pets you might want to consider getting into pet sitting. Not only do you get to spend a lot of time with pets, you also get to make some extra money while you are at it.
36) Play Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS)
Now before you accuse me of encouraging people to gamble for side income, I do want to say that I personally know people who make money playing Daily Fantasy Sports, or DFS. DFS, in case you aren’t familiar with it, is essentially a way to play fantasy sports in one day or over the course of a few days instead of a full season.
It’s become a big industry and has had it’s fair share of controversy. I wrote a blog post a little over a year ago about whether DFS was a good way to make money or not.
An even better way to make money on DFS? Start a blog about it. I have a friend who did this and he now has a team of writers and even appeared on an ESPN segment discussing DFS. I think I forgot to mention – he did all of this in his spare time. From home.
37) Create PowerPoints for Businesses
In the same way that businesses need people to create and improve spreadsheets and databases, they also need people to create and improve PowerPoints.
Creating good-looking and well-designed PowerPoints may seem easy, but it’s actually pretty difficult unless you are used to working in PowerPoint regularly. Many people who work in offices spend hours and hours creating and improving PowerPoints. I know I spend a lot of time in my corporate job working in it, and it’s taken some time to learn the ropes and create good-looking designs.
Not every business has the luxury of a large workforce, though. If you are skilled at creating attractive PowerPoints and you are able to find even a few clients who would be willing to pay you to create and improve PowerPoint decks, this could be a great work at home side hustle for you.
38) Create an App
Okay, I know what you’re thinking: am I seriously suggesting you create an app as a side hustle?
Creating an app obviously won’t be something a majority of people reading this will be able to do, but there will likely be a number of people who come across this post who have programming skills or who want to learn or improve their programming skills. App development is in huge demand both as a full-time job and as a freelance job.
I have a friend who programmed apps as part of his full-time job a couple years ago and once he had the skills to create apps he went ahead and created a few in his free time. He’s been able to make some residual income from his apps as they are subscription-based so users pay a monthly fee to use it.
Creating even a simple app would take a lot of time and effort, but there is a lot of upside to it. You may create a passive/residual income, as my friend has been able to, or you may be able to sell your app to a third party company.
Remember you can also outsource your skills to other businesses as part of a freelance/contract arrangement. You don’t have to create an app yourself if you prefer to work on someone else’s app and charge them hourly or a project fee instead.
39) Surf the Internet (Use Swagbucks, Bing Rewards)
I already mentioned earlier what a great website Swagbucks is for making extra money online, but it’s worth separately pointing out their search engine. If you use their search engine instead of Google you will receive Swagbucks that can be converted into cash or gift cards.
Another site that offers you rewards for surfing the internet is Bing Rewards. Bing essentially rewards you for choosing to use their search engine instead of Google.
While it technically isn’t a search engine in and of itself, if you install the Qmee browser add-on to Chrome you can get paid for clicking on their results instead. Basically how it works is Qmee will sometimes show up on the side of Google or Amazon searches. Next to their results are how much you will get paid for clicking on the results. It’s an easy way to make a few extra bucks each month and is non-intrusive to your regular browsing activities.
40) Play Online Games (InboxDollars)
I thought playing online games was worth mentioning separate from the other opportunities because it’s such a unique way to make extra money.
InboxDollars.com is a website that pays you for your online activities, including playing online games. It may sound hard to believe but there really are games you can play on there for money.
This isn’t the only thing InboxDollars.com has to offer. Like Bing Rewards they also will pay you for taking surveys. They have a shopping portal as well that will give you rewards if you make purchases through their portal instead of going directly to the business’ website.
41) Use Ebates
Ebates is essentially an online shopping portal where you get cash back for shopping at a wide variety of retailers. I just went to the site and saw offers for 8% cash back at Macy’s, 7% cash back at Amazon, and 6% cash back at Kohls.
While you do have to spend money to “make” money, Ebates has a ton of retailers that people shop at anyway. Over time you can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars by simply going through their portal before making a purchase you would have made anyway.
42) Coupon
My wife and I have saved thousands and thousands of dollars over the past three years through couponing. When we were dating in college we never used coupons, but since getting married and dealing with our huge amount of student loans, we now coupon every single week when we get groceries.
If you are new to couponing or have never started, consider reading our post 12 tips for beginner and new couponers. We’ve taken couponing pretty seriously in the past and I’ve even created a system for organizing coupons in an Excel database.
You don’t have to be an extreme couponer to save money couponing. Using coupons for groceries and going out to eat is a great way to save a lot of money over time because you will consistently buy groceries or go out to eat. If you can save $100 a month by using coupons, you’ve just freed up over $1,000 of cash flow each year.
43) Flip Things on eBay
You’d be shocked at how much some people make buying and selling things on eBay. There are a few bloggers who do this who sometimes make hundreds of dollars a month.
One blogger in particular stands out with this side hustle: Jason Butler of the The Butler Journal. I’ve followed Jason’s posts about flipping things on eBay for over a year now and it’s always impressive to hear of his success stories.
This side hustle is best done if you go to thrift stores and purchase things to sell on eBay. It’s not a “pure” work at home side hustle, but you still can do most of the work from the comfort of your home. If you enjoy shopping and looking for things at thrift shops or garage sales, this could be a perfect fit for you.
44) Flip Things on Craigslist
There are people on Craigslist who are making hundreds or thousands a month simply buying and selling things on Craigslist. One of the neighbor’s in my parent’s neighborhood makes a full-time living flipping furniture on Craigslist. A lot of people are looking to get rid of old furniture and she has become very good at fixing it up and selling it for a profit.
You can sell virtually anything on Craigslist – nothing is too big or too small. One strategy you could consider using is buying things at garage sales or thrift shops and turning around and selling it on Craigslist for more money (or vice versa). The secondhand goods market is a great place to exploit the fact that people just want to get rid of stuff, regardless of how much they get in return.
There is also a lot of free stuff available on Craigslist. While a lot of it is random stuff like dirt, firewood, or landscaping rock, there is some stuff on there that can be flipped for a profit. Remember to always stay safe when buying and selling on Craigslist.
45) Flip Websites
We’ve talked about eBay and Craigslist, but what if you want to take flipping to the next level? No I’m not talking about house flipping, but flipping websites.
Flipping websites essentially involves purchasing a website, improving it, and selling it for a profit. This happens all the time as people want to sell their websites because they are difficult to maintain, people lose interest, or any other number of reasons.
Some people have made and continue to make a significant amount of money doing this. I wouldn’t recommend attempting this, though, until you have the started a blog of your own and proven to yourself that you have the patience and knowledge to build and improve a website. Not surprisingly most people who flip websites first started by creating their first website from scratch.
46) Start a YouTube Channel
I’ve said many times that I’m jealous of people who are good at making videos. It’s not one of my strong suites (my brother got those genes and produces videos professionally).
While there is a ton of opportunity with written content and I only see more and more written content being demanded by companies, if you can create video content you are going to be more in-demand than those of us (like myself) who focus on written content. More and more companies are focusing on video content these days.
So what does this have to do with YouTube? Besides the obvious revenue you can make on YouTube through advertising and selling products to your viewers, companies like Facebook are trying to get YouTubers to put content on their social networks. This is creating a bidding war where video producers are being offered better and better deals to publish their videos on various networks. Not a bad situation to be in.
47) Become a Customer Service Rep
Customer Service Reps work on the phone. This makes it one of the easiest jobs to offer to people who want to work from home. There really is no reason to have employees come into the office when they will just be working on the phone all day.
Many major corporations – and even smaller companies – will outsource their customer service activities to third-party companies. These third-party companies typically allow flexible hours including part-time arrangements.
A couple of the companies that hire employees to work at home are Arise and LiveOps.com.
48) Sell Your Photos
Every day it seems like there is more and more content online, on TV, and on apps. All these media sources need photographs.
If you enjoy taking photographs this is good news for you. There are many photos available online in the public domain, but even small blogs run out of new ones to use for their posts. At some point most websites are willing to pay money to have access to more photographs.
Companies that accept photos and pay photographers are Shutterstock, Fotolia, and iStock Photo.
49) Moderate Forums
Forums can be great resources for like-minded people or people who work in a specific niche or area. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the “Mr. Excel forums” and learned a lot from other Excel power users. There also is a poker forum that I used to frequent quite a bit when I played online poker a few years back.
The problem with forums is that they need rules and structures. They also are big targets of spammers. That presents an opportunity for people looking to make extra money at home because forums need moderators.
Virtually every forum I’ve visited has at least one moderator, if not many moderators. If you want to be a moderator the best way to get started is by participating in forums. Moderators typically end up being chosen from the group of people who use the forum the most.
50) Invest in Stocks
Sure, investing in stocks requires money in the first place but the potential that stocks have for passive income is huge and I think it’s definitely worth mentioning in this list. If you have extra money in a savings account it might make sense to put it to work in an investment account.
You can also use a strategy that I’ve implemented. While my side hustle income has mainly gone towards paying down my wife and my student loans or funding house projects, I’ve also been able to use some of it to invest in stocks. This is a great use of side hustle money because it’s “extra” money to start with but investing it in stocks sets you up for even more money through stock appreciation or dividends.
Here’s our post on how to get started investing in the stock market.
51) Scan Your Receipts for Cash Using Ibotta
Ibotta is an app that gives you cash back when you scan your receipts. If you’ve used Target’s Cartwheel app, Ibotta is similar.
Ibotta has a bunch of products listed on it’s app. If you find a product you plan on buying or recently bought, you can “unlock” the offer and get cash back after scanning your receipt.
This can be a great app for anyone looking to make a little extra money without putting in a ton of hours or extra effort. Plus, if you sign up using my link you will get $10 when you redeem your first offer. Not a bad way to get started!
52) Rent a Room on Airbnb
Do you have an extra bedroom, or even an entire separate space that you could rent out? Do you like hosting people? You might want to consider renting out space on Airbnb
Airbnb is a website that brokers the rental of all sorts of accommodations all over the world. Accommodations can range from an air mattress on the floor of a living room all the way up to a mansion overlooking the ocean.
Want to test out Airbnb as a traveller? You can get $20 for free when you sign up using my link.
53) Be on an Online Jury (http://www.ejury.com/)
Lawyers can make a lot of money, but they also take on a ton of risk because each case is so important. They will do whatever they need to do to win a case, so it’s not surprising that lawyers like to test out their case on mock juries.
Lawyers are willing to pay you to be a part of a mock jury, and it can be done completely from home. If this sounds like something you are interested in consider checking out eJury.com. They pay $5-$10 depending on the length of the case.
The Benefit of Side Hustles
As you can see there are a ton of things you can do to make extra money working at home in your spare time. Side hustles, especially starting a blog, have had a huge impact on my life.
While this list might give you some good ideas for side hustles to start, it’s important to think about the things you should do before you start a side hustle and consider what side hustle will work best for you and your lifestyle.
I wrote my book Hustle Away Debt to give you the information you need to successfully start a side hustle. The upside with side hustles is huge and you could even end up starting a new career or business because of it. At the very least you should see your income increase.
What is your side hustle? What have you done to make money at home? What on this list sounds like something you’d consider doing to make extra money at home?
The post 50+ Legitimate Ways to Make Extra Money At Home first appeared on Young Adult Money.
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