Overview
Over the years there has been an influx of things you can do, many of them from home, to earn a little (or a lot) of extra cash to help you pay down your debt, to accelerate reaching your FI number, or to help cover the basics due to a job loss or being impacted by a global pandemic like COVID. The following is a list of ideas to possibly help you think of ways that you can jump in and get started. With time, I’ll be adding a summary for most of these that should provide additional information such as web links, instructions, ideas, or my take based on my own experiences.
If you are doing something to earn extra cash for yourself or your family and it isn’t on the list, I would love for you to share with me and the community so I can expand on the ideas.
Ideas To Earn Extra Income
Become a Freelance Contractor with Fiverr – Additional Information – Use your skills and expertise and register as a freelance contractor on Fiverr. Fiverr has a number of skill categories and subcategories for customers to seek and purchase one of your packaged offerings.
Become a Commercial FAA 107 sUAS Drone Operator – Additional Information – If you have a passion for innovative technology, turn your hobby into a commercial drone operator. By getting your certification, you can then be legally allowed to fly your drone and accept payment for your services. Scenarios could include Real Estate, Weddings, and events among others.
Design and cut Wood for various Online Craft Sales and Community Events – Summary Coming Soon – 3D laser cutting has become more mainstream and with a little start-up capital, you will be on your way to making signs, ornaments, and various gifts to sell at a craft fair or online through an eCommerce site or Marketplace.
Establish a Print-on-Demand Business – Summary Coming Soon – Today, it is exceptionally easy to establish a Print-on-Demand (POD) service with little to no money (outside of standing up a website or creating a Shopify subscription). For as little as $40 – $50 per month, you could be on your way to build a thriving online store that will be 100% automated and passive income (after the time and energy spent on the design creation). You could sell t-shirts, hats, towels, blankets and so much more. And even if you aren’t a designer, you could hire those services out to someone on Fiverr or find a supplier that you are just passing product through your storefront.
Online Course Content – Summary Coming Soon – Take your experiences, your hobbies, or your passions and put it into a consumable format that can then be purchased. This could be one of the more profitable side businesses as you own the content and are building a direction relationship with your customers. Teach someone how to design in Photoshop, or how to play the guitar, how to bartend and make cocktails. Your imagination is your only limitation
Blogger – Summary Coming Soon – Although it may appear to be over saturated, become a blogger. You have information and you should share it. Plus, it could be the engine that ties several side hustles together.
Podcaster – Summary Coming Soon – With a few dollars to buy some equipment, you could sound just as professional as any other person on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. If you have a passion to use your voice and/or video, this could potentially be a great avenue for you. Just like blogging, it will be slow start as you try to build your audience around your niche.
Skillshare – Summary Coming Soon – Very similar to creating your online course content; however, Skillshare has an audience. Take your online course to Skillshare and then you are paid monthly based on the number of minutes your content is consumed. You will also receive $10 for every Premium Referral. Think of Skillshare as the Netflix of online learning
Affiliate Links – Summary Coming Soon – This is a great opportunity to work within your niche and cross-sell products and solutions using links to another persons created content. Check to see if they offer an affiliate link that you can register for to include in your articles and blog posts. There are also services that can help map you to businesses that offer affiliate links.
Create a Discord Community – Discord started as a social gaming platform for Voice-over-IP communications and Instant Messaging. Today, the platform has expanded and is designed for creating communities. With a growing user base, it is a great opportunity for you to create a community on any topic, create a following, and generate income through ad revenue.
Ride Sharing – Use your car and be a driver on one of the popular ride sharing services such as Uber, Lyft, and/or Grab.
Food Service Delivery – If you don’t really want to tote people around from destination to destination, join one of the popular food service delivery services and deliver food orders to customers.
Grocery Shopping – You could also look into picking up and delivering groceries to customers.
Transcriber – If you are good at listening and picking up on people’s conversations, there are possibilities for you to transcribe audio and/or video recordings for companies.
Online Tutor – Become an online tutor.
Translation Services – Summary Coming Soon – Are you fluent in a foreign language? If so, there are a number of opportunities to use your skills and expertise to translate documents.
Teach English – Summary Coming Soon – How about teaching English to international students?
TaskRabbit – Do you have a passion or interest in helping with everyday tasks such as cleaning, moving, and handyman work? If so, TaskRabbit can match you with local demand.
ECommerce or Marketplace Online Store – Summary Coming Soon – Build an online store presence to sell your products or services.
Virtual Assistant – if you are a skilled professional but prefer to be a remote worker, there are opportunities to leverage your trained administrative and professional skills to help people and organizations with their various needs and to do items.
Virtual Bookkeeper – If you have organizational skills and have a passion for bookkeeping with expertise in accounting and accounting software, there are opportunities for you to be a remote bookkeeper.
Build and Sell Websites – There are still thousands of sites from small businesses and mom & pop shops that still aren’t online. If you enjoy creating an online presence and websites for others, this is a great opportunity to that can make you some quick cash.
Prepare Your House for House Hacking – How about renting out a room or a basement in your house?
Dog Walking – People love their dogs which has created a need for dog walkers in your community.
Snow Removal and Lawn Care – Maybe you don’t want to own a full blown lawncare business; however, you enjoy getting outdoors from time-to-time and put your back into the work you do. Here is a great opportunity to match up with local needs and demands.
House Sitting – Yes, people will actually pay you to house sit while they are gone.
3D Printing – 3D printing services have gown in demand over the last several years and it has never been easier to get into the business of 3D printing.
Product Testing – Companies are always looking to get feedback on their products — from design, quality, layout, functionality, etc. and are willing to pay to get your honest review of their product.
Content Writing – If you enjoy writing content on any number of subjects, people are willing to pay you to write content for their websites and blogs.
Rent Out Your Belongings – There are opportunities for you to rent out your belongings.
Video Game Testing – There are opportunities for you to test upcoming video games before they hit the marketplace and provide feedback to the developers.
Rent Your Vehicles – You can rent out your personal vehicles.
Be the Voice and Make Audio Books – Do you have the voice only a mother loves? Or, do you have a voice that someone is willing to pay for to help them turn their book into an audio book? You will have to audition but there is the possibility to be the next voice on an audio book.
Share Your Opinion – Answer quick surveys and earn rewards or money.
Power Washing – For a few hundred dollars in start-up costs, or doing a quick rental from your hardware store, you could be out there earning money through power washing.
Home Inspector – You will have to get certified, but once certified you could make a few hundred bucks for each home inspection. Check your local county requirements on how to become a certified home inspector.
Create Content Clips for YouTube – You can actually create play lists to create a subscription audience to earn ad revenue by leverage already existing content. There is a way to do this and it is legal. It just takes time to curate and repurpose the content before publishing and trying to create a following through a subscriber base.
Amazon Mechanical Turk – Is this you? “Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is a crowdsourcing marketplace that makes it easier for individuals and businesses to outsource their processes and jobs to a distributed workforce who can perform these tasks virtually.”