Make Extra Money From Home With
These 50 Ideas You Can Start Immediately

Fact: Anyone Can Make Money From Home

The world we live in is a fast-paced, technology-driven society. The days of it being necessary to leave your house to make a living are in the past. At the time of writing this, the minimum wage in the state of Pennsylvania is $7.25. That’s right, the government believes your time is only worth $7 and a quarter for every hour you give to a business. That’s an hour of your life you spent flipping burgers, folding jeans at Macy’s, or ringing customers up at the local grocery store.
Let me be the first to say: Your time is worth more than $7.25 an hour.
It’s worth more than $15 an hour.
Your time is something you can never get back. To waste it working for someone else at their business could be considered a waste of your life. I guarantee you’re making the owner of that business so much more money than $7.25 every hour. Especially when you could be making more every hour on your own time from the comfort of your home.
This article wasn’t written to make you feel bad about whatever working situation you’re in. It was written for every stay-at-home parent who wants to bring more money into their home. It was written for every teenager who searched “how to make money as a teenager” on YouTube and Google. It was written for underpaid high school and college graduates, people with full-time jobs, and anyone else who wants or needs a little more money in their pockets.
Who wasn’t this article written for?
This article wasn’t written for anyone that doesn’t have a hustler’s mindset. In this case, a hustler’s mindset might mean working a few extra hours a week to pad one’s own pockets.
But most importantly, this article wasn’t written for those who don’t like money.
There’s nothing wrong with liking money or wanting more of it. It won’t be the solution to all your problems, but it sure will help.
When I started my side hustle adventure, I fell under the category of having a job but wanting more. Not only did I want a little more money in my pockets, but I wanted to work on myself and develop more crafts that I could potentially master in my life.
Before trying my hand at making money from side hustles, I never once thought about owning my own business or the benefits that could come from it. I just assumed it wasn’t for me and that I was meant to work for someone else my entire life.
It took until after I was paid for the first time from a side hustle to realize how much sweeter it tastes to make money on your own. On top of that, I didn’t have to flip burgers to make that money. I didn’t even have to leave my own home. I made my first couple hundred dollars of side hustle money from the comfort of my couch and that’s where my journey began.
After that, I was hooked on side hustles. I tried several different gigs, some worked and others failed. But all of them were learning experiences.
With a few years of doing side hustles under my belt, I can comfortably say that anyone can do it. Anyone can make hundreds of dollars from the comfort of their couch. Let me be even more clear : Anyone can make way more money than just hundreds of dollars from the comfort of their couch if they’re pointed in the right direction. If I knew where to start from day one, I would’ve made so much more money initially with my side hustles. Instead, I had to go through a trial-and-error process to figure out which side hustles were worth my time and which weren’t a good fit for me.
This article handles the trial-and-error process for you. It saves you the time of researching different platforms to figure out how you can make money from each one. I’ve already done it for you. Out of the 50 side hustles in this article, not all of them will be suited for you. But some of them definitely will.

Side hustle requirements

The majority of the side hustles in this article require you to have an internet connection and at the very least, a smartphone. However, some don’t require a connection to the internet or a computer.
But if you don’t have access to the internet in your home, McDonald’s, Panera, Target, and probably the local coffee shop down the street from your home all offer free Wi-Fi.
If you don’t have a computer, most public libraries allow access to a computer for free. If you have access to a computer, Wi-Fi, and a smartphone, then each one of these 50 side hustles will apply to your situation.
I’ve tried the majority of these side hustles myself. But for the ones I haven’t, I’ve done extensive research on them and talked to many close colleagues who have given me information about them. If you see a star (★) next to the name of a side hustle in this article, it means I’ve personally attempted to make money from doing it.
I’ve also included a pros and cons section for every side hustle to help you quickly identify which ones might be worth your time and which ones are not for you. Remember, time is money and your time is worth a lot of money.
I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors no matter which side hustles you decide to pursue. All I ask is that you work hard at them and share this knowledge with other people you know who have the same kind of drive and hustle it takes to start making money from their home.

2

What Is A Side Hustle?

The era we’re living in as working people is different from our parents’ era. For our parents, the path they traveled to make money had arrows with crystal clear indicators. The only part that remained the same was after high school, they either went to college or went to work just like our generation. The jobs they worked without a college degree could range from working in a deli to working as a corporate executive of a major financial institution or company. Many high-paying corporate jobs didn’t require the generation before us to have a bachelor’s degree. Additionally, most families in our parents’ era only had one working parent. But those families were still able to take vacations, eat out at restaurants, and own homes and cars all on a single income. People were making more back then with less education and the cost of living wasn’t nearly as high as it is now.
Needless to say, things have changed drastically from that time. One working salary in today’s society, whether it be at the deli or as a corporate executive, will barely afford you a place to live. In average families these days, parents of the family work, the kids — and possibly the parents — aim to become social media influencers, and almost everyone in the family has a side hustle of some capacity, whether they refer to it as a side hustle or not.
When most people —especially folks from our parents’ era —think of the term side hustle, their minds automatically drift to the “gig economy” often talked about in the news and media. You know, temporary jobs worked by independent contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees. Jobs like blogging and driving for Uber come to mind. While both of those are side hustles, the term goes significantly deeper than that these days.
Side hustles go by many different names. Some people refer to them as gigs or freelancing opportunities. Others just simply call them what they are, a second job or part-time job.
But no matter what you refer to your side hustle as, every single one of them shares one common trait: a source of income.
From freelancing online to working part-time at your local Target, anything you do to create a stream of income can be considered a side hustle. A side hustle is whatever you, the side hustler, determines it to be.
No one can put limitations on what a side hustle is or isn’t. If you somehow found a way to make money by eating your favorite flavor of potato chips, then congratulations —it’s a side hustle.

Why side hustles from home?

Working from home is something most people don’t have the luxury to afford because they have to show up in person to earn money at their daily jobs. Even for popular side hustles in the gig economy like Uber and Lyft, they require you to leave your home to make money. While this is convenient for some, not all of us have that kind of time on our hands. Some of us can only afford to spend time on side hustles from our own homes. On top of that, working from the comfort of your home is, well, comfortable. Who would choose the option of driving around late at night, picking up random strangers and drunk bar-goers when you could easily just lounge on your couch doing a side hustle while listening to a podcast?
Plus, manual labor just isn’t for everyone. Life comes at you fast. Disaster strikes at the most inopportune times. Many people get caught flat-footed when faced with a problem that can only be fixed with money. These same people might not be able to stand for 8 hours a day or drive around at midnight picking people up.
If you’re not able to go to work but you need money quickly, stress can quickly make its way into your life. From this stress over money comes a classic scenario that looks something like this:

Life comes at you fast and shit hits the fan;

You turn to the internet to find more ways to make money;

In return, the internet offers you clickbait titles and YouTube videos that only provide general information;

You try one or two of the side hustles you just learned about

You give up because you weren’t properly briefed about the best way to make money from those gigs;

You stop trying to do side hustles prematurely;

You’re forced to turn to extra part-time jobs (nothing wrong with that) that require you to leave your home or labor to make money;

Life goes on and stress continues.

I know teenagers, working adults, stay-at-home-parents, college students, and grandparents who have all gone through this exact thought process in the past. For many of them, it resulted in a job as a cashier at a grocery store standing for 9 hours and making minimum wage. Instead, they could’ve been sitting on their couch for the same amount of time while making double the money they would’ve at the grocery store.

Where can you discover a side hustle?

Discovering new side hustles is the problem that arises for many people on their journey to side hustle success. It’s a hurdle that pops up early and often, especially when trying to find online side hustles.
Why?
Because successful side hustlers can be stingy with their information. They know that more competition on a platform they use to make money means more effort they’ll need to put in to continue making that same money.
It’s why doing research online will only get you so far when looking for new side jobs. Not many people are open to divulging their money-making secrets. And the ones who are open to it won’t just give away something for nothing. They want to be paid for their information, whether it’s payment in ‘Likes’ on YouTube, paying to join their online group/forum, signing up for their email newsletter, or buying a course or e-article *wink, wink* they created.
Very few things are free in the world we live in. But knowledge is power and investing in yourself by paying for information you need is an early step to success in any endeavor.
Just make sure you always remember that ANYTHING you do to make money can be considered a side hustle as long as you deem it so. I recently watched a YouTube video where the YouTuber talked about feeding, growing, and selling mealworms online. He grew them in his basement and shipped them out when online orders came in. As disgusted as I was by the thought of encouraging bugs to grow in one’s basement, I believed him when he said he made a lot of money from that side hustle because his start-up costs were insanely low.
I know a guy who resells couches. He finds couches that people in his area put up for sale on platforms like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and offers them a low price to take it off their hands. Then, he almost immediately resells that couch for a lot more money after he cleans it. He recently told me he earns between $1,000 and $2,000 a week in profit from doing this. I know another person who does something similar to couch flipping except with iPhones.
The reality is side hustles are all around us. We might not notice them all the time but they’re there. All we have to do is think outside of the box to turn our ideas or lifestyles into money.

What is a side hustle good for?

Now that we know that anything we do to earn money can be considered a side hustle, let’s dig into what that bit of extra income each month might come in handy for. Some people make enough money from their side hustles to live a comfortable life and not need a real job. For the rest of us, we might make anywhere between a couple hundred dollars each month to a couple thousand.
While these monthly payments from side hustles aren’t typically enough to afford rent, they might cover something like our grocery expenses.
This article wasn’t written to advise you about what to do with your money once you make it. It’s not a article about investing. But, I wanted to include some real-life situations where I’ve used my side hustle money to cover my expenses:

Creating an emergency fund

Paying student loans

Paying car insurance

Taking a vacation

Investing

Paying for gas

Buying clothes

Paying for haircuts

All of these were opportunities for the money from my side hustles to shine. Once again, I’m not here to tell you when and where to spend your money. But what I am saying is that the money this article will teach you to make can go a long way depending on how you use it.

How to approach the chapters in this article

By no means was this article written in any kind of chronological order. In fact, the majority of this article was written in a style so readers can skip around and see which side hustles might be right for them or are available for their skill sets. It’s broken down into different chapters with umbrella terms as the title of each section.
For example, if you’re a writer or have a passion for writing, then you might want to look at the writing section of this article first before you look at the other chapters. If you don’t have a specific skill set, the survey section might be a better place for you to start.
Don’t look at this article as a step-by-step guide about how to go about your side hustles (even though some sections are written that way). Look at it as a jumping block that can propel you in different directions for new money-making endeavors.

3

Make Money Writing From Home

Throughout my side hustle career, I’ve made the majority of my income from writing. Writing content for online publications, newsletters, and blogs has been popular for a while because of society’s fast-paced movement toward the future of the digital age. As long as people turn to search engines like Google for information, blog owners will continue to want high-ranking articles to appear on those search engines. These blog owners will pay top dollar for the services of writers that can create content that ranks high.
Writing blog posts, listicles, and other featured stories is something I’m genuinely passionate about and only took me a short time to fully grasp. Anyone can learn to write well. It’s a skill that can easily be learned and integrated into one’s style, regardless of what kind of degree you have—or don’t have.
You can full-heartedly trust me when I say a degree in writing is not necessary because I have a master’s degree in it and looking back, I could’ve made close to the same money writing online without one. Some of the best writers I know don’t have a degree in a field that’s anywhere close to writing.
If you want to make money writing online, it’s more important to learn the basics and develop your own writing voice than it is to have a degree in the subject.
Where you publish your stories is also important.

Some platforms will pay you more than others.

Some platforms have more work readily available for you.

You’ll see the term “content mill” tossed around quite a bit in this section. A content mill is a website that pays writers for their work and then delivers it to clients. The writers don’t receive any credit or byline for their writing, but they do get paid by the word. These content mills are excellent starting points for new writers to make their first few dollars and veteran writers to safely rack up hundreds of dollars every month.
This first section is dedicated to platforms where it’s possible to make money writing online. I’ve personally used almost all of them and so have my writer friends. The money you can make from some of these platforms will blow your minimum wage job out of the water.

Writing clients

(★) According to Glassdoor, the average freelance writer earns around $42,000 annually. On PayScale.com, an average freelance writer’s salary is somewhere between $24,000 – $115,000. Comparing information from both of these websites might seem like analyzing inaccurate data, but the truth is they’re both accurate in their own way for freelance writers. Depending on how good of a writer you are and how well you market your skills, you could potentially make an annual income somewhere between those ranges, or more. Quitting a day job to become a freelance writer for clients is something numerous people have done in the past and will continue to do in the future because of how profitable this side hustle has the potential to be.
Writing for clients is something I learned about before I started my freelance writing journey, but never got the opportunity to do it until I had been writing for a few years. There are a ton of great opportunities for writers when it comes to writing for clients.

Finding clients

Most bloggers will tell you that finding clients is the best way to start a profitable business writing from home, but won’t go into detail about how they found their clients.
I’m here to break that mold. Here are a few steps I used to find paying writing clients:
Build your online writing portfolio
An online writing portfolio is a website you use to house the majority of your writing in one place. It’s a necessity for any writer looking to find clients. It gives you a place to direct potential clients so they can see articles you’ve written in the past. It also puts your name out there for clients to discover by building your audience of readers. I suggest new writers who don’t already have a following to start building their online portfolios by writing on platforms like Medium, NewsBreak, and Vocal Media. You’ll read about all three of those in the coming pages and why they’re so great for new writers, but the main reason is that they provide you an audience of readers for your stories if you don’t already have one.
Build your writing network
Creating a LinkedIn or Twitter account for your writing profile is another way to find clients. It gives you a platform to reach out and connect with potential customers who need good writers. Even if you don’t know anyone to connect with, try connecting with writers of publications you already read and then move on from there. I’ve connected with clients through LinkedIn, my writing on Medium, and even my writing through content mills, which you’ll also read about later in the article.
Work your way up
Finding clients is a more advanced step of freelance writing. I worked my way up, starting with content mills and then moving onto online publications until I reached the point that I was comfortable enough to approach a client. I strongly suggest this approach for anyone who wants to start writing online.
Follow platforms that promote freelance positions
There are a few Twitter accounts and newsletters I know of that actively send out open client writing positions for freelancers. Join them, follow them, use them to find paying clients.

The Side Hustle Club (Newsletter)

Content Writing Jobs (Newsletter)

FreelanceWritingJobs (Twitter)

Writers of Color (Twitter)

Shoot your shot
If you want clients then you can’t be afraid to pitch yourself or your stories in emails or DMs. You’re going to get a lot of rejections but if you pitch to 100 different potential clients, you might at least get responses from a few of them.

Benefits of writing for clients

A major benefit of writing for clients is that you get to make your own schedule. You get to determine where and when you want to write. Freelance writers typically have a ton of time on their hands and make their own schedules. This is a huge bonus on top of working from home.
Additionally, clients tend to pay more than most other writing sources of revenue because it’s profitable for them to attract a lot of views to their websites.

Who can do it?

Writing for clients isn’t something that new writers can do. Clients know exactly what they want and are only willing to pay for just that.
Clients are at an advanced level of writing that almost anyone can get to if they’re willing to put in the work and climb the writing ladder from whatever position they’re at in the writing world. All it takes is a little skill, experience, and research.
Pros:

One of the best ways to make money as a writer;

The pay is amazing;

Work is always available;

You’ll have more time on your hands.

Cons:

Not for new writers;

Most of the time you don’t own any of your work.

Constant Content

(★) Constant Content is a wonderful platform for both veteran writers and newcomers. It’s a cross between a content mill and a writing platform. Instead of writing for a job board and getting paid soon after, writers create their own stories and put them on their catalog. Clients browse catalogs and buy full rights to the stories they need. While writers don’t get a byline, they do make an insane amount of money when their story sells, even if they’re a new writer.
Before a story can be placed into the catalog, it has to be reviewed by Constant Content’s team of editors. This sounds like a hurdle, but it benefits writers because if the story isn’t approved, the editors will leave you feedback about what you can do to make it better so it can be approved and clients will want to buy it.
Another great thing about Constant Content is that authors get to price their own stories. If you feel your stories are worth $100 then you can set them at that price. If you want your stories to sell quickly then you can lowball other writers and drop your price down.
When you make a sale on the platform, it looks like this.

screenshot from author’s Constant Content account

No matter how you cut it, Constant Content is a great platform for any writer to make great money on. The application is easy, they accept a ton of different topics for catalogs, and it’s free to use. Once you make a sale, you’ll notice that more sales will start to roll in. That’s why the best way to succeed on this platform is by uploading as many stories to your catalog as possible. You’ll look more authentic as a writer and you’ll also attract more eyes to your stories.
You also have the option of fulfilling writing orders if you don’t want to just wait around for a client to come and purchase your stories. Orders will keep you busy and making money until more of your uploaded stories sell.
Pros:

Can be utilized by new writers and veteran writers;

Writers have the option to set their own prices;

Stories go through a review process before publishing;

Accepts a variety of different story topics.

Cons:

Can be a waiting game before you get your first sale;

Might be challenging for some writers to be accepted, but generally isn’t.

Copify

(★) Starting out the content mills in this article is Copify. It’s a platform available for writers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Copify is similar to Textbroker and iWriter because it’s a platform that offers a great opportunity for new writers to make money fast. The catch is, you can’t be worried about getting a byline. Just like any other content mill in this article, you won’t receive credit for your work when it’s published by the client, but you will get paid.
With Copify, there are a few details that differentiate it from the other content mills in this article. One unique feature is the platform can be set to send notifications when new work becomes available. This feature makes it easier to be the first one to accept a job offer on the job board. On Textbroker, you can’t do this. You have to log on and find the work for yourself.
As far as the volume of work that comes through Copify, it’s enough to keep you busy for a few hours each day, but not as steady as Textbroker.
The starting pay for Copify is really what drew me in as a writer. For most jobs, the typical pay is 2 cents per word. Additionally, there are higher-paying assignments on the platform in general than I’ve found on Textbroker or iWriter. Most new writers only make a penny per word on other content mills.
The last time I was paid through Copify, the payment was sent via PayPal and required a 2.9% fee. I’m not sure if payments are still sent through PayPal, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Pros:

Great for new writers;

Typically pays better than other content mills;

Easy to sign up and be accepted as a writer.

Cons:

Pays through PayPal;

Finding work on the platform can sometimes be difficult.

E-article

I would put a star (★) by this e-article section except this is the first one I’ve ever written so thank you for being part of it. I figured the best example for explaining how you can make money by writing an e-article from your couch is by using the one you’re reading right now.
E-books can be used as a type of gateway to deeper writing. They serve as a great piece of work to put in your online writing portfolio for future clients and can also be the start of your own LLC writing business. You won’t have to lean on anyone else to make money from an e-article that you write, besides the platform you use to publish it on of course.
I did a lot of research on which platform to publish my e-article on. Everyone thinks of self-publishing on Amazon in today’s market because it controls more than 85% of all article sales, according to eMarketer.com. However, there are a few other platforms where you can self-publish a article for free that aren’t as well-known as Amazon. Some include:

Barnes & Noble Press

Apple eBook Store

Smashwords

Rakuten Kobo Writing Life

Another plus about writing an e-article is the passive income you can make over the years. For example, if this e-article is published in 2021 and remains relevant enough for the next decade (fingers crossed) it’ll continue to make money as long as people are still buying it.
How a writer’s e-article sells depends on a few variables. The biggest variable is getting reviews for publishing a article on a platform like Amazon. The more reviews your e-article gets, the more it gets suggested to more readers and rises in ranks on the bestseller list.
Promoting your article to your following and marketing it in general are a couple other variables. The better the marketing for an e-article is, the more sales you can expect. Even if it’s not the greatest e-article in the world, it will still sell copies with great marketing.

Here’s an example of an e-article marketing strategy

I chose to sell this article on Amazon and enroll it into Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). By doing this, the article is offered to millions of Kindle Unlimited subscribers, regular buyers, and comes with a variety of marketing features provided by Amazon. One of those marketing features is 5 free days for every 90 days that you can offer your article for free to anyone. So how do you take advantage of this?
You set your 5 free days and tell everyone in the world about it. Send it to your friends and family, send it to free emailing lists that specifically promote e-books, pay to have it advertised in article communities or communities that match your niche.
All this traffic you drive to your free article will result in more downloads of your article. As you drive that traffic in, make sure you mention that you need reviews of your article. Remember, the more reviews, the better it ranks on Amazon.
After your free 5 day period ends, this strategy’s goal is to ride that momentum into the time when your e-article is back to being a paid article and hope sales come in.
That is the power of books/e-books. They can attract a lot of views to your status as a writer. Writing an e-article is how a writer takes publishing power into their own hands and can count as an extra business or side gig for a writer to pursue.
Pros:

Passive income for years;

Published forever;

Start of a business.

Cons:

Takes a lot of long hours and work;

Can be costly to pay an editor, cover designer, and other resources.

Fiverr

(★) Writing on Fiverr can be challenging because it’s a very competitive platform that attracts a large number of different freelancers. Fiverr is a platform where all types of freelancers offer their services starting at $5. You can offer your skills as a writer on this platform, but it isn’t the only thing that you can do. If you’re good at graphic design, picking stocks, building websites, or even creating music, all of those skills and more can be marketed on Fiverr.
A recent report from Priceonomics concluded that more than 96% of sellers on Fiverr make less than $500 per month. It also estimated that only 1% of sellers are earning $2,000 or more per month. If you’re good at your craft and highly-reviewed on the site, you can make great money on this platform.
In my situation, I attempted to use Fiverr to market my skills as a writer and find work, just like anyone else would. However, I was unsuccessful because I never obtained any reviews for the work I did.
Don’t let my experiences discourage you. I know multiple writer colleagues who were able to start extremely profitable writing businesses on Fiverr and make a lot of money. One method of how someone I know got a good start on the platform was by getting a couple really strong reviews for their profile early. They did this by asking friends and family members to request writing stories from them and leave good reviews. That way, they would rank higher on Fiverr’s search engine and look more reliable to prospective customers. From doing that alone, they slowly started getting more orders and continued doing good work for their customers.
That’s just one way of doing it. I’m certain there are other strategies to help bring you more success on the platform quickly.
Nonetheless, Fiverr is competitive and their clients only want to pay for the best of the best. You have to try your hardest to stand out on the platform if you want to start seeing orders come in for your writing. As a writer, you have to produce well-written material so customers leave you strong reviews and come back for more business.
This platform might be more difficult for new writers to start.
Pros:

Allows you to start your own business;

Attracts hundreds of thousands of customers to the platform every day.

Cons:

Competition between freelancers on the platform is fierce;

You have to find a way to stand out;

Is not geared to favor new writers at all.

iWriter

(★) Another content mill writers can turn to for work is iWriter. I know I sound like a broken record here, but just like the other content mills, iWriter is a great platform for new writers to start on.

The application process is easy for writers to get accepted.

The site provides a job board with work for writers to accept and write.

The pay is similar to Textbroker and Copify, meaning you’ll probably be making around 1 cent per word to start.

Many people frown at being paid 1 cent per word, but there is a positive side to it. The goal is to get to a point with your writing where you can bang out thousands of words in an hour without really breaking a sweat. Think about it, if you can type 500 words in an hour then you’ll be making $5 an hour.
Typing two 500-word stories in an hour will land you at the level of making more than the minimum wage in many states because you’ll be earning $10 an hour.
I’m at the point where I can successfully type three 500-word stories in an hour. I’m able to do this without really tiring or slowing down and from it, I rake in $15 an hour from a content mill.
Takeaway: Getting to the point where you can type three 500-word stories every hour for 40 hours a week on a content mill would lead you to earn an annual salary of $31,000 without ever leaving your home.
Scaling up your writing business by using multiple content mills like iWriter will help you always find work and make more money.
Pros:

Similar content mill to Textbroker;

Work is consistent;

Application is needed to be accepted;

Great platform to start on for new writers.

Cons:

Pay isn’t great for experienced writers.

Medium

(★) Medium is one of the best platforms for new writers who want to earn money from their writing. Not only will you be able to make money by writing on Medium, but you’ll also be able to amass a following of like-minded readers. These readers can be directed to subscribe to a newsletter or read stories on your own blog later down the road.
If you’re a brand new writer, there is room for you to grow by joining Medium’s Partner Program, however, it might be more difficult for you if you’ve never written a blog-style story. Until you master the formatting of a blog post, you’ll see very little success on the platform as a writer. Once you do your research and practice publishing using Medium, that’s when you’ll start to see more readers noticing your stories and more money coming in.
As of recently, Medium updated its guidelines for Partner Program payments. Now, writers are required to have at least 100 followers before they can start getting paid from the Partner Program. There are also referral links available for new writers to be referred to the platform (here’s mine: https://marxd.medium.com/membership ).
I started writing on Medium by using the trial month, which Medium still offers for new members, and loved it immediately. I tried to create my own blog previously and failed to attract enough readers. The great thing about Medium is that it puts your stories in front of an already established audience of readers that wants to see them. The platform’s algorithm and curators distribute your stories to readers and pay you for the people that view your work.

How does it work?

The way making money works on Medium is that each member pays a monthly $5 membership fee. A piece of that fee is what pays other writers when members read their stories. In my first month on Medium, I made $2.73, but remember that was my free trial month. The next month I made $11.14, so it covered my $5 membership. To this day, I have never actually paid for my membership fee because my earnings have always covered it.
The platform has the potential for earning a lot of money. Popular writers earn thousands of dollars every month. My best month earned me nearly $1,100 so far.

screenshot from author’s Medium account

If you’d like to see an example of what I’m writing about or you just want to see the kind of stories I publish on Medium, you can find my page by copying this link and pasting it in your internet browser – https://marxd.medium.com/
Pros :

Great for learning how to blog;

Possibility of making a lot of money online;

Makes it easier to grow a solid following of readers.

Cons :

Costs $5 every month to be a member;

Can be challenging for brand new writers to learn;

Competition between writers can be challenging;

Can take months to build a solid audience and make good money.

Quora

Quora is a platform that combines both writing and answering questions. People submit their inquiries through the website and you can sign up to be someone who answers those questions. Not only can you get paid from doing this but you can also gain a lot of traction on search engines like Google.
The way writers make money from Quora is through their partner program. Quora itself reported that the most successful partners in the partner program earn over $1,000 every month. As of August 2021, Quora is allowing any of its creators/members to sign up for its partner program. To become a member of Quora, it will cost subscribers $5 a month. For creators (people who answer questions with their expertise), Quora will take 5% of the subscription fee, which the creator can choose at their discretion.
These recent changes make this side hustle even more doable for anyone who has the expertise and can answer questions online. In the past, you had to be invited to the Quora Partner Program by the company. You had to be active on the platform and the work you produced through asking questions and answering them has to hit these four points:

High-quality writing

Consistent posting of questions and answers

Experience in the field of work that you’re in

A large number of followers

Another bonus about writing on Quora is the high-ranking search engine optimization (SEO). Quora answers show up high on Google for search results. That means, for more experienced writers, even if you’re not making money from the Quora Partner Program, you can use it to make money from affiliate marketing or to attract people to your own site/newsletter.
Pros:

Great way to rank higher on Google;

Great platform to build a following;

As of August 2021, anyone can make money from the partner program.

Cons:

You need to have an area of expertise.

Substack

(★) Substack is a relatively new platform for writers who want to develop their email lists and make money at the same time. If you didn’t already know, email lists are valuable marketing tools as they can direct your audiences to products and services to buy, which in turn makes you more money.
Substack takes this same idea, but instead of just directing your audiences toward a product, you can also make money from just having them sign up to receive your email. The cost to sign up is usually paid monthly by your subscribers and can be as low as $5 a month. Having an email list of only 100 people will still result in a whopping $500 every month just by sending out a couple emails. You might only be sending out 1 email per month and making that kind of money.
Substack is great because it provides an easy way for writers to scale up their operations by giving them a platform to publish on and helping them build email lists. If you can slowly grow your subscribers and charge a low monthly fee of $5, you’ll quickly find yourself making hundreds of dollars every month by doing something you love: writing.

screenshot from author’s Substack account

Many writers with pre-existing email lists report earning hundreds of dollars a month in their first few months on the platform because they imported their old email lists. This is one great feature about Substack is that it lets you transfer any old emails or email lists onto the platform as new subscribers. You never have to worry about starting your old email list over again and starting from scratch.
You’ll also find more opportunities unfold in front of you because you’ll be able to direct your audience using affiliate marketing links (that pay you) and services you offer that they can purchase.
Substack is still relatively new and it’s looking like a platform that will continue to stay relevant for writers in the future. You don’t want to miss out on it if you’re a writer who wants to make money from your work.
Here’s an idea. You can head to a newsletter community that I’m in the works of growing. It’s all about making money from side hustles, so if you’re reading this article then I guarantee there’s something on that newsletter that will catch your eye. On top of that, it’s completely free to sign up and receive the weekly newsletter.
To sign up for the newsletter, copy and paste this link into your internet browser: https://sidehustlenation.substack.com/
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll start receiving weekly emails about side hustle openings, freelance opportunities, free stories about unique side hustles other people have tried, and so much more. It’s a community of people who like to make extra income and share their experiences with their peers.
Pros:

Has a double positive effect for writers because they can grow an email list and charge per monthly subscription;

Relatively new and leaves room for growth as a platform;

Makes it easier to grow an email list.

Cons:

A new platform that most readers aren’t aware of;

Substack takes a payment fee;

Isn’t user-friendly for new users to learn;

Can be restrictive in terms of design for your emails.

Textbroker

(★) Textbroker is the content mill that propelled my passion for side hustles from the very beginning. It’s designed for rookie writers to earn money by giving them a job board from clients who request articles on a variety of different topics. I left Textbroker after 3 years of writing on the site and it was a little overdue. The reason it took me so long to leave was that the money was so good to me. Right at the time of my departure from the platform, I was making a little over $250 every month writing blog posts. The even better part is that I was only typing for two hours a day to do it. If I can do it, so can you.

screenshot from Textbroker email

How to make money on Textbroker

When I first started on Textbroker, I didn’t understand it at all. All I saw was a job board with requests for different styles of writing, but most of them were for biographies and only paid $3 or $4 per post. This is what turns away many new writers. They think bios are all the site has to offer.
What happens is that requests for other content are released at certain times each day and you have to be there right as they’re released to grab them. I found that around 11 a.m. ET and 2:30 p.m. ET are great times to check in and see what’s new on the job board. You’ll usually find a ton of new requests for $5 or $10 a post. Another major factor is which days of the week you check the site. If you’re only checking on the weekend then you’ll find very little work because a ton of other writers are doing the same thing and requestors are rare on weekends. It’s best to check on weekdays for Textbroker. Fridays and Mondays are the best days to check for whatever reason.
The great thing I found about Textbroker was I could make a full-time job out of it if I wanted. Instead of getting paid minimum wage to flip burgers, I could type three $5 blog posts every hour for 8 hours a day and make $120 per day, five days a week. On a content mill like Textbroker, payment is determined by the writer and how fast they can write.
If you’re just getting started as a writer then I HIGHLY suggest giving Textbroker a chance. It’ll teach you how to write blog-style content, pay you for your writing, and motivate you to do more. I even found a client one time through a direct order on the platform.

Pros:

Designed for new writers to make money;

Great for practice purposes;

Can easily be scaled-up to make more money;

No payment processing fees, pays through Payoneer.

Cons:

Can be tough to find work at times;

Pay is low compared to other writing platforms.

NewsBreak

As a writer, I pride myself on trying a ton of different writing platforms and reporting back to the writing community about my experiences. Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience writing with NewsBreak. It just didn’t work out between me and the platform.
However, I have a few writer friends with a lot of experience on NewsBreak and from what they tell me, it’s a great opportunity for writers to make a lot of money.
It’s similar to Medium in the sense that writers receive a byline, get to build an online portfolio, and are paid from the number of views they receive. However, content on NewsBreak is directed toward local news stories. Many successful writers on this platform are local food bloggers, entertainment writers, or have a specific niche of story writing in their communities.
The platform pays much better than Medium and still has growth potential as it’s just starting to become more mainstream at the time of writing this.
In the past, a limited number of writers were under contract to write a certain number of stories every month and receive a set amount of money in return for doing so. But now, NewsBreak has opened its doors to anyone who wants to apply to their Creator Program. I’ve even thought about giving it another try.
In general, if you’re a new writer or a veteran, NewsBreak is an option for you.

Imagine this scenario

Let’s say you’re paid $500 every month between writing for two separate content mills. You’re also making a hundred dollars every month by writing on Medium at the same time. Then, you score one or two clients on top of that. By doing this, you’d rake in over a thousand dollars every month just by typing for a few hours from your laptop at home.
Pros:

Growing writing platform;

Pays well;

Has opened a creator program for anyone who wants to join.

Cons:

Platform is still extremely new.

Upwork

(★) Upwork is a great platform for freelancers of all kinds, including writers, to secure great contracts and make money. The problem I found with Upwork was that there’s a lot of competition on the site. It’s similar to Fiverr in terms of thousands of freelancers fighting each other for work.
There’s not so much competition on the site that you’ll never find work, but it’s enough competition that it can be difficult for newer writers to earn gigs.
For new writers, Upwork might not be the best place for you to make your first dollars writing. Other sites like Copify and Textbroker will provide you with instant success and money. However, if you’ve been writing for a while and have some published stories that you can show off to potential clients then you have a chance of making some decent money on Upwork. Notice, I said you have ‘a chance’ of making some decent money. Even for polished writers, it can be tough to make money on Upwork if you aren’t one of the platform’s preferred freelancers.
The reason why Upwork made it into this e-article is that if you’re able to become highly reviewed on the platform then you will make a ton of money.
Pros:

A freelancing business can be created from Upwork;

Preferred writers can always find work.

Cons:

Not a great platform for new writers to start making money.

Takeaways: Writing Online

In the beginning, I found a great way to make decent amounts of money—a couple hundred dollars a month—as a new writer just by cycling through three content mills ( Textbroker , iWriter , Copify ) every day.
During my time on each of those constant mills, when I was consistent with my writing and looked a couple times each hour, I was able to make between $10-$20 an hour. I was making more money an hour than most part-time jobs could’ve paid me just by writing for these content mills
From there, I used content mills as a place to practice my writing and make money. They served as a great launchpad for my confidence and skill. I escalated to more detailed platforms like Medium, NewsBreak, and even Vocal Media . Those are where I built my online writing portfolios, grew audiences, and made money. I found it was easier to go from an online blogging platform like those and then move onto clients. That way, when a client asks you the infamous question:

“Do you have any pre-existing writing online I can read to determine if you’re right for this position?”

You can simply reply with links to whichever online platform(s) you’ve been using. I like to call that a win-win scenario. You build up a solid online writing portfolio you can use to impress future clients while also building an audience and making money from it at the same time.
However, that’s not the only route to take as an aspiring writer who wants to make money from their craft. It’s just the one I can guarantee will lead to some success in the future because I can personally attest to it. It’s the exact route I took.
The reason why the list of writing side hustles in this article is so long compared to most of the other sections is that there are just so many different ways to make money through writing. The options out there are limitless. The internet era of instant gratification through search engine optimization is here and it’s thriving. More people than ever are turning toward the web for results for everything. And the questions they’re asking need a lot of random answers on the first page of those search results. From the latest way to bake an apple pie to how to grow an apple tree, people have questions and you can provide answers with your writing.
My goal of this section was to hopefully prove that just from writing alone, there’s no need to feel pressure to take a job at flipping burgers when you’re down on your luck or need some extra cash. Taking the minimum wage-paying, part-time or full-time position isn’t your only option to make a livable income if you have access to a computer and the internet. You can make it on your own time, with your work and ideas, and without any kind of manager.

4

Take Surveys From Home

Having special skills can be marketable if you want to start freelancing and making money online in today’s digital age.
No skills? No worries. Having the ability to write comes in handy, but it’s not the only way to make money from your couch. You can have no skills, education, or formal training and still make hundreds of dollars each month with your laptop and an internet connection.
How? By taking surveys online.
This section will teach you how to make more money in an hour from taking online surveys than an employee flipping burgers. It’ll teach you how to make more money taking surveys than the person managing that burger-flipping employee.

Imagine this scenario

You go to the bathroom while listening to your favorite podcast. While doing your business, you take a few surveys on your phone. The experience takes 15 minutes and you come out of the bathroom $3-$5 richer. If you have regular bowel movements then you might be able to repeat this process 3 times a day, which means $9-$15 a day. Multiply that by 30 days in a month and you’ve got $270-$450 right from your bathroom. No burger-flipping involved.

Profit on your opinions

There are a variety of reliable online survey sites that are begging people to apply because they need answers and results. From college students completing research for a class to companies collecting marketing data, they will pay you for your opinions.
In this section, you’ll learn about making money from online surveys and the most reliable platforms you can use to get paid. On many of these platforms, survey-takers can easily make a couple hundred dollars every month by just using their phones or laptops and clicking through questions. These survey-takers can do this at any time of the day. When they’re:

Waiting for their bus

Sitting on the toilet

Watching TV

It’s a mindless way to rack up a lot of money quickly, without any formal education or training.
Survey taking can also easily be scaled up. Maybe you’re a survey-taker on multiple sites and you spend your free time circulating between them. You’ll quickly find your monthly income increasing by hundreds of dollars. In my first month of doing surveys online, I made over $250 and didn’t know what I was doing. In the next month, I made over $300 and that’s when I knew how valuable and profitable online surveys were. From there, I took the time to gain more knowledge and do more research about how others were making money by taking surveys online. I learned about what other people were doing to make money from online surveys, the communities they were involved in, and which platforms they were using.
One resource I found to be abundant with first-hand, high-quality information from individuals who make THOUSANDS of dollars every month from surveys is the subreddit r/Beermoney . That subreddit doesn’t just provide detailed information and earning reports of people making money by taking surveys online, it provides information from thousands of people making money online in general. I just use it a lot to ask questions and get a basic understanding of where the side hustle market is heading and find emerging platforms to use before they become bogged down with too many other users.
Take advantage of it.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

(★) Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is the first survey platform in this article and coincidentally it’s also one of the best survey platforms. It’s a clear-cut winner for a variety of reasons.
The first reason why MTurk is better than most other survey platforms is that there is a ton of work that floats through the website every single day. Surveys on MTurk are called Human Intelligence Tasks (or HITs). And almost every time you log in to your account or refresh the page, more HITS become available. It’s because Amazon is such a well-known company that it attracts several college-level researchers and higher to advertise paid surveys there.
It’s also easy to sign up for. Most people already have an Amazon account. All you have to do is sign up using your Amazon account credentials and in most cases, you’ll be approved the next day to start taking surveys.
IMPORTANT: One note about MTurk is that there are a lot of surveys from college research programs available. The majority of the money I made from MTurk was from college research projects. There’s nothing wrong with that except most college research projects happen during the school year. So, between September and April will be your best bet to make the most money on MTurk. This is when most students are in class and being assigned to conduct research of all kinds. It’s useful to keep this in mind if you’re not seeing a lot of success on the platform at first.
The dates payments are sent out is another reason I’m a huge fan of MTurk. Users can choose between getting paid every 3 days, 7 seven days, 14 days, or 28 days. I chose every 3 days and it was nice to watch $10 to $15 be deposited in my bank account every few days.
From personal experience, I was able to earn over $200 in May 2020 just by casually taking surveys throughout the day. This was only my second month using the website.
After a while of successfully completing surveys on the platform, you’ll become qualified to do HITS that pay more. These HITS that require qualification also pay a lot more; we’re talking hourly rates for your time.

Strategy to make more money on MTurk

Once you’ve created your MTurk account and you’ve done a couple surveys, install the free Google Chrome extension called MTurk Suite. It was created to help Mturkers earn more money by automatically refreshing and suggesting new HITS, while also saving and “catching” older ones that other survey takers have accepted but haven’t finished yet. By using MTurk Suite, I was able to quickly increase my income on the survey-taking site. It takes a slight learning curve to get the hang of, but it’s more than worth your time.
Bottom line, if you’re looking to consistently bump up your monthly income by possibly a couple hundred dollars, MTurk would be a great option to turn to.
The pay and work are consistent and most HITS are easy because they’re just your opinions. It’s also really easy to scale up if you ever decide to start taking surveys seriously by doing them for more than a few hours each day. MTurk is a great side hustle for people of all ages who already have an Amazon account.
Pros:

Pay is great;

Work is consistent;

Trustable platform;

No experience or education is needed.

Cons:

More people are learning about this gem, which makes getting surveys more competitive.

Appen

(★) Doing surveys on Appen is straightforward and simple. I’ve been selected to participate in Appen surveys a handful of times and each time I was successfully paid. Please note that I wasn’t paid large amounts of money for doing these short surveys, but still, I was paid.
The way Appen contacts survey-takers is different from other survey sites because the company will email you when you have a new survey assigned to complete. You don’t have to worry about checking or signing up, they will communicate straight to your email inbox about it.
Appen is a passive way to make money rather than an active way. You don’t have to keep checking the site again and again. You register once and just sit back and wait until you get selected to take a survey.
I wouldn’t wait around for Appen to pay off any huge bills or anything like that. But it’s great for making money to be used as pocket change. The surveys I was selected to participate in were so few and far between that I made a little money here and there, but that’s about it. If you’re a teenager or college student looking for another way to make a little bit of money straight from your computer by taking surveys, Appen could be the one that’s right for you.
Pros:

Better communication than some sites;

More surveys than some sites:

Easy-to-use.

Cons:

Doesn’t pay great compared to other survey websites;

Surveys may be inconsistent

Branded Surveys

Branded Surveys was established in 2012 and reported that it paid users more than $20 million over the years since it’s been up and running. Surveys on this platform can be completed on your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Users complete surveys to earn points and then trade in those points for payment. Payments are sent in the form of real cash via PayPal or gift cards.
Some users praise them and swear by how amazing the platform is. Others consider it to be a waste and even somewhat scammy. I wouldn’t include any platform you could make money on in this article that I thought was a scam. I know users of Branded Surveys who have taken multiple surveys using the platform and have been paid numerous times with no problems.
However, I have not used the platform so I can’t vouch for them.
My suggestion: Test it out if you’re looking for another survey platform to make money on. See what you think. Don’t like it? Move on and leave it behind.
The worst thing you can do is not try a platform site like Branded Surveys but later find that it was exactly the kind of platform that wants to pay your specific demographic.
Also, do some research online about Branded Surveys and see what you think before actually committing to it. I did and that’s why I decided to suggest it in this article.
Pros:

Many users report a large number of available surveys to make money from.

Cons:

Mixed reviews about the site.

Clickworker

(★) I worked for Clickworker for about a month. In that month, I made $10. It’s not because the tasks for the surveys were difficult, it was because I didn’t have enough time to keep up with it. For example, one time I was asked to take pictures of cologne samples inside of a Macy’s at the mall. I promise you, I’m not lying. I also promise you that I would’ve done it if I had the time because Clickworker was offering $30 to get the job done.
The beautiful thing about Clickworker is that there’s an app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The app is smooth, you can find surveys and make money directly on it with no need to log in. That’s rare for a survey platform to have.
Clickworker is easy, the app makes it convenient, and as long as you avoid surveys that ask you to do personal tasks, like take pictures of yourself or your personal information.
The platform was established in 2005 and isn’t a scam, although once I had the opportunity to do a survey that wanted me to take a picture of my driver’s license. Take that how you want it, but I didn’t do the survey. In my honest opinion, there are more profitable survey platforms in this article to make money on, but test it out if you want more opportunities for extra income.
Pros:

Can make money quickly;

The app is convenient to use.

Cons:

Some survey tasks can be sketchy;

The payout times can take a month or longer.

Eureka Surveys

Eureka Surveys has seen a lot of praise from users who’ve taken surveys and gotten paid from them. Between reviews I’ve read about it and research I’ve done, it doesn’t pay as well as other survey sites, but it pays consistently.
Don’t be scared away if you’re a newbie on the website and only earn anywhere between $10 and $30 in their first month. Many users reported that. It’s the users who stick with Eureka Surveys for the long haul that make the most money. As you complete more surveys and continue using the platform, you should expect payment amounts to grow consistently as you get offered more work and complete more surveys. It works in a loyalty system kind of way. The more you work on the platform, the more work you’ll receive moving forward because the algorithm that assigns surveys trusts you more.
The problem with Eureka Surveys is that it’s not a guarantee that you can scale up your money from taking these surveys. Many people report only making $15 per month, every month from taking surveys. But I was unable to find how long those people used the platform. If it was only two months then that would make sense because they haven’t worked enough to be chosen for more surveys.
It’s all about perspective. If you could use another platform to make another $15-$30 a month, which would pay for all of my monthly TV/music subscription services, then add it to your survey list to consider doing.
Pros:

Another survey site to add to your list;

Can be combined with other survey sites for extra income;

Easy to use.

Cons:

Doesn’t offer the opportunity to make much money at first compared to other online survey sites.

Fetch

(★) Fetch is a really neat side hustle anyone with a smartphone can do. It’s relatively new and doesn’t require any special skills or much of your time. All you have to do is scan your receipts onto the application after you go grocery shopping or out to eat. You get rewards each time you do and those same rewards can be applied to a variety of different gift cards.
I racked up enough Fetch points in my first month of using the app that I was able to get a $20 Visa gift card. There are a variety of different gift cards available to Fetch users and the points you earn get added to your profile immediately after scanning. You can also decide to donate your points in the form of money or even convert it to a Visa gift card to spend as regular money on anything you like.
Another great feature about the Fetch application is that it offers certain rewards for scanning. If you scan the right items then you’ll receive more rewards points than other items. This can make your shopping seem more targeted because you’ll get some money back each time you buy something that gives these extra rewards.
My favorite feature about Fetch was its referral program. I received a large number of points by referring my friends and family to the application with a link that’s specific to my account. After friends are referred to the application, all they need to do is make an account and scan a single receipt for both of you to receive 4,000 points ($4).
I had five family members that I referred and received 4,000 points from each of them after asking them to sign up for free. I then converted it over into a $20 eBay gift card.
Pros:

Extremely easy to use;

The referral program is profitable;

The app is smooth;

Takes less than 1 minute to scan a receipt.

Cons:

Can be easy to forget about scanning receipts.

Life Points

If you are selective with the surveys you decide to take, Life Points might be the right survey platform for you. There are some higher-paid surveys on the platform that can lead you to make good money every month. When I say good money, I mean between $50 and $100 per survey.
However, many lower-paid surveys can lead you to make a couple cents per survey and almost no money each month.
My advice — as someone who has never used Life Points before— is to only aim for high-paying surveys if you want to add this platform to your repertoire. The reasoning behind this is that Life Points has an algorithm behind which surveys it offers you. If you’re always only clicking on high-paying surveys, not only will you make more money, but you’ll also only be offered higher-paying surveys after a couple weeks of just participating in those ones.
It will take time to get better at using Life Points because there’s a chance of not being selected for any surveys at first. However, the more you use it and do surveys, the more you’ll be offered work.
Pros:

Pays well for a survey platform;

Has an algorithm that can be trained to work in your favor.

Cons:

Has an algorithm that might not favor you when selecting who takes what surveys.

Microworkers

Microworkers has been around for a while now. It was established in 2009 and has tenure over many other survey platforms on this list.
Many people online have reported that Microworkers is a great platform to make money by taking surveys. Not only that, but a lot of people say it’s easy to effortlessly make $40 a week just by casually filling out surveys. Now, I’m not sure if that’s 100% true, but here’s what I found about it.
Just like most of the other survey platforms, clients post jobs with surveys, you take the surveys, and then you get paid. Some users have reported making up to $40 a week, yes a week, using Microworkers. It’s because of the large number of surveys that seem to frequently be available on the platform at all times. Additionally, most users get paid through PayPal or Transpay.
One downside I discovered during my research on the platform is many people say it can take a while to receive your first payout. And for some reason, it’s only the first payout that Microwokers constantly prolongs for its users. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it happens often enough that I figured I should mention it.
Pros:

Pays well;

Pays through PayPal or Transpay;

Surveys are consistently available.

Cons:

Users report sometimes waiting long times before receiving the first payout.

MyPoints

(★) MyPoints is a survey platform that was established in 1996, so yes it’s been around for a while now. It’s relatively similar to Fetch in the sense that it’s a daily online rewards points platform.
Yes, you can take surveys on MyPoints and make money from them. But I found the real money comes from scanning receipts, redeeming promo codes, and doing daily rewards points.
I’ve read other users report great things about the platform as well. I’ve used it in the past and can confirm it’s legit.
I wouldn’t turn to MyPoints to make a lot of money from surveys. That can be done using many other platforms in this section of the article. However, if you’re a high school or college student who wants the chance to earn some deals, discounts, and a bit of money, MyPoints can do that for you.
Pros:

Earn deals, scan receipts, and do surveys all on the same platform;

An established platform that’s been around for a while.

Cons:

Doesn’t pay extremely well.

Prolific

(★) Prolific is headquartered in the United Kingdom but that doesn’t mean you can’t make money from it in the United States. It’s a survey platform that’s similar to Appen and a few of the other previously mentioned platforms. It connects researchers to survey takers and it’s one of the best out there to do it.
In my opinion, it’s not better than Amazon’s Mechanical Turk because there’s not as much work available for every user. What I mean by this is that every user creates a profile on Prolific when they complete the sign-up process. It asks questions about your life and these questions are used to determine if you qualify for certain surveys. Amazon Mechanical Turk asks participants similar questions about their lives, but it’s typically done on each individual survey.
At first, I wasn’t offered any surveys on Prolific for 6 months after signing up. I’ve read about similar experiences with other Prolific users as well. Some people get a lot of surveys and can make hundreds of dollars every month from the platform. Others don’t get more than one survey to complete each year. Eventually, I was offered a couple surveys a month that I quickly completed and that’s where I’m at today.
Prolific is legit as it comes and it’s a great platform to complete surveys and make money from if you can qualify for them. I suggest signing up and checking every so often to see if any surveys are available.
Pros:

Some users make hundreds of dollars each month from the platform.

Cons:

Pays through PayPal, which takes out a 2.9% fee.

Qmee

(★) I’ve personally made great money using Qmee in the past and you can too. This platform allows users to make money in two different ways.
The first is by taking surveys. Just like any other platform in this section, Qmee can be used to take surveys and make money.
The second way of working for this platform is by using it as a Google Chrome extension. You download the extension and get offers from it that you can click on to earn quick cash. Some offers allow you to earn 10 cents by clicking on them and other offers allow for more. Between the surveys and the online offers in the Chrome extension, I average between $25 and $50 a month using Qmee.
Additionally, the surveys are more profitable than other platforms on this list like Branded Surveys.

Pros:

More than one way to make money from Qmee;

Surveys are available consistently;

Surveys pay more than other platforms in this survey section.

Cons:

Don’t expect to make too much money from Chrome extensions.

Swagbucks

(★) I’ve personally used Swagbucks many times with great success. Just wanted to put that out there.
It was established in 2008 and is an app you can download and use to complete surveys. Swagbucks is like the all-in-one survey moneymaker. You can take surveys on the app, scan receipts, do daily tasks, and more! I’ve made $100 in a month multiple times before using Swagbucks. In my opinion, besides MTurk, Swagbucks is the second-best survey-taking app in this article.
One thing I’d like to note about Swagbucks is new surveys are almost always available every day. They even have a daily survey you can do to earn money.
Here’s how it works. You earn Swagbucks (SB) from doing surveys. For every 100 SB you earn, you get $1. Most surveys on the site range between 25 SB up to surveys I’ve completed for as high as 400 SB.
In turn, once you earn your SB, you can turn them into gift cards at Walmart, eBay, or a bunch of other places. Or you could just do what I did and buy PayPal gift cards, which can then be turned into cash.
When you first log onto the Swagbucks app, which is extremely smooth, please don’t be intimidated by all of the options you have floating around and all of the surveys you can take. It’s both a blessing and a curse. You’ll always have surveys to take but at the same time, the display of those surveys can be all over the place. Take it one at a time and you’ll see that all of those surveys are just there to make you money. If you’re like me, then you’ll just focus on the higher-paying surveys (the ones that offer over $1 per survey) and you’ll be fine.
If you do any research online about Swagbucks, you’ll probably see that most people who seriously take surveys on Swagbucks earn more money than me. Much more than me.
Pros:

Pays well;

Surveys are always available;

The app makes it easy to find and take surveys.

Cons:

The layout of the app can be confusing at first.

UserTesting

(★) Rounding out the list of survey-taking online websites is UserTesting. UserTesting isn’t specifically used for surveys but there might come a point where you have to take a survey while testing out an online website. UserTesting fits the best in this section when compared to any other section in this article.
I’m a huge fan of UserTestng because not only is it a unique way to make money online, it’s also profitable for the number of hours of work you put in. I’ve made $200-$300 in a month for less than 15 hours of work from UserTesting. I understand that’s only roughly around $15 per hour but remember I did this all from my home, without any specific education necessary, and with very little training from UserTesting.

How to do it

To get paid from UserTesting, you need to register, download the software, and start completing assignments. What are the assignments? Different companies pay UserTesting to test their websites and make sure specific features work. These features you’re testing could range from finding a certain part of the website to playing a game on the website or anything in between. The software you download from UserTesting records your screen and sends the recording back to the company after you’re done.
You’re also required to get a microphone and speak while you complete the tasks that are assigned to you. I’ve found that as long as you’re speaking throughout the entire time you’re working on your assignment and explaining what you see and what you’re doing, your screen recording will be accepted for payment.
You also have to complete a few follow-up questions after you’re done recording but I’ve found that isn’t always necessary.
During my time using UserTesting, I received between 2 and 3 tests per week on average and sometimes received more.
There are also a lot of mobile tasks that pay $3 per task and I’ve found them to be less time-consuming than the regular tasks and more profitable than other survey platforms on this list.
Pros:

Pays well;

Tests are frequently available;

Fun and easy to do.

Cons:

Can’t multitask while doing this side hustle;

A lot of mobile surveys are frequently available.

Takeaways: Taking Surveys

Getting paid for taking online surveys sometimes gets a bad wrap because many people think they’ll only get paid pennies per survey. I admit some of the previously mentioned survey platforms might not pay extremely well. But it’s the combination of using a couple of them together that will earn you the real money.
Besides writing for content mills, I got my start doing online side hustles by taking surveys and made hundreds of dollars in my first few months while barely knowing what I was doing. I was shocked to find out how much my opinions were worth to marketers, companies, and students.
The major factor you need to focus on is which platform you’re taking your surveys on. Online surveys can be extremely profitable if you know the right platforms to take them on and figure out which ones work the best for you. Sticking to the platforms you know best will result in making more money, faster.
My suggestion is to try as many survey platforms as you can and find the right one that works best for you. Then, work it to death . Squeeze every cent out of it every chance you get. If you combine a couple platforms then you’ll find your payments start to multiply as they come in. The more money you see roll in, the more you’ll want to keep taking surveys. It gets addicting.
For me, these surveys I was paid for funded a lot of different monthly bills. The most money I ever made from one survey platform in a single month was a little over $300 from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The most money I made in a month from all of the survey sites I used combined was more than $500. I used that $500 to buy a new couch. If that doesn’t paint the picture of how powerful and profitable online surveys are then I don’t know what will. I bought a brand new, full-length couch just by sitting on the couch I already owned and clicking through surveys for a month, mostly while I watched TV. The irony right there is unprecedented.

5

Start Reselling From Home

Reselling is one of my favorite side hustles. It’s one of the few side hustles where I can see the path that leads it to become a full-time business. Many eBay and Amazon stores are full-time resellers who make their living by buying products at discount stores or online retailers and then reselling them on their online stores. These resellers have shelves, barrels, and rooms full of inventory they’ve sourced from different places. When someone makes a purchase, they simply locate the item in their home warehouse, or out-of-home storage unit, and then package it up and ship it out. It’s as simple as that.
Additionally, with the large variety of platforms available to sell items these days, it’s become significantly easier to sell products online.
One important note about reselling is that there is a small learning curve when it comes to selling products on platforms like eBay. The most difficult part about it is the shipping process for most people. One bad experience with shipping on a platform like eBay and you might be inclined to never try reselling again. However, don’t let that get you down or hold you back. Whether it’s a bad experience with shipping on eBay or the inability to get ungated and authorized to sell products on Amazon, take it in stride and know there is money waiting for you ahead of the learning curve.

Shipping tips for reselling

I have some quick tips in each section for getting better at shipping on eBay and even ungated on Amazon. Use them to conduct your research and move forward with your selling. For anyone who wants a quick guide to learn about shipping on eBay—because it’s one of the harder platforms to ship products on—Here’s a quick guide at a glance:

Always calculate shipping costs before listing your item, don’t guesstimate.

Always weigh the items you list for sale in the box you plan on selling them in.

Remember, you can always reshape Flat-rate Priority boxes to better fit your items.

Use this to determine which shipping service will work best for each item:

Items less than 1 lb: Choose First-class USPS shipping

Items between 1 lb and 5 lbs: Typically Priority shipping or Flat-rate Priority boxes works best

Items heavier than 5 lbs: Either Flat-rate boxes if you can fit the item in it or try UPS or FedEx.

Remember, there are items all around us to be resold for a profit. You see a used Kate Spade bag in the back of your closet and I see an easy $40 on eBay. Once you get used to looking at the world through the goggles of a reseller, items will quickly turn from price tags to profit margins.

eBay

(★) If you’ve never sold anything on eBay before, it can seem like a daunting platform because of the lack of online information available. You can research eBay forums for a lot of your answers but eBay itself doesn’t explain much.
Don’t be afraid of selling on eBay.
It’s a powerful platform that can bring success to both newcomers and experienced sellers. Many people have full-time businesses on eBay selling all kinds of stuff they thrift for. If you’re just starting then you can clear out your closet and list anything you don’t need anymore. Instead of donating your junk, get some more use out of it one last time by making a quick buck from it.
You’ll be astonished how much some of your random junk like old DVD players, LEGOs, video games, shoes, and so much more. All you have to do is list it at a certain price and let it sit there. Eventually, it will sell and that means money in your pocket.
One thing that deters many people is the shipping process of eBay, but you don’t have to worry about that either. It’s easy to learn and if you ever struggle with shipping something there are a plethora of YouTube videos that you can sort through and find exactly what you need. Remember, charging your customer for the shipping cost of your item is how you can save money after all your fees are taken out.
Here are my quick tips for shipping on eBay:

Books, DVDs, and other media can be sent for a small price via Media Mail

Any item under 1 lb should be sent via USPS First-class shipping.

Items over 1 lb should be sent via USPS Priority mail

Items over 6 lbs should be sent via USPS Flat-rate boxes or UPS/FedEx

Typically, eBay takes varying different fees depending on what type of item you’re selling.
Your first couple sales might be a learning curve, but don’t let them deter you from using the platform. It’s a great way to make money without spending much to get started. Additionally, the only time you’ll need to leave your couch when you’re selling on eBay is on your way to the Post Office to ship out your items. Don’t like the idea of leaving your couch at all? Call whatever shipping service you’re using and schedule an at-home parcel pickup.
Pros:

Make money from your junk;

Clear out your closet;

A well-known platform for selling.

Cons:

Can be difficult to fully understand at first;

The platform takes selling fees.

Fulfillment by Amazon

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) has quickly become one of the most popular platforms to sell on by many resellers in the last few years. It provides sellers a larger selection of buyers than eBay. This leads to selling items for larger amounts of money and more profit. Every seller needs to be aware that Amazon is a company that makes its sellers become ungated to sell products. To become ungated, sometimes sellers have to jump through hoops. For example, if you want to get ungated in toys on Amazon, which is a very profitable category to sell items in, then you have to provide invoices of at least 10 toy items bought from certain wholesalers. (Side note, one of the wholesale companies sellers that continues to get many resellers ungated to sell toys is EE Distribution. Look it up!)
That was why I avoided selling on Amazon. I didn’t like the idea of jumping through hoops to make money reselling, even though I’m certain more money is made reselling on Amazon than eBay. The benefit of listing on eBay is that you can list almost any item for sale.
Besides the pain of being ungated, selling on Amazon is another way to start a reselling business and scale it up to a major business. It is one of the world’s most powerful companies and they know exactly what they’re doing. It will more than likely increase in the coming years as one of the best-selling platforms available for resellers of all ages.
Pros:

More sales occur on Amazon than eBay;

Amazon is a more trusted platform by buyers than eBay;

Growth potential.

Cons:

Can be extremely tedious to get ungated;

Monthly fee of $39.99 to sell on the platform if you choose the professional plan.

Mercari

(★) Mercari is a newer platform that has exploded in popularity over the last few years. I’ve sold a few items on it and noticed that it’s much easier to organize the items you’re selling than on eBay or Amazon. Additionally, navigating through the app as a seller was a simpler process for me than it is on eBay and Amazon, which both seem extremely convoluted in comparison to Mercari.
One thing I didn’t like about selling on Mercari was that it’s still an up-and-coming platform. This isn’t Mercari’s fault, but it just doesn’t have the seniority that eBay does and so it can be looked at as a sketchy website by buyers. You might think that the newness of the website would mean fewer sales are happening on Mercari than on eBay. You’d be right, eBay has a much bigger customer base than Mercari mainly because it’s been around for so long and. The great thing about Mercari is that seller fees are consistently lower than other platforms like eBay. Seller fees on eBay vary, but are around 10%, but can be higher and cost money to list items. According to Mercari.com, it charges sellers a consistent rate of 10% and it’s free to list an item.
In my opinion, Mercari’s ease of use and reduced fees will continue to bring in new customers in the future. The way I think of it is Mercari has great growth potential and if you start selling on it now, you could become one of the platform’s top sellers as more customers start to shop on the app.
Pros:

One of the best new selling platforms;

Lower selling fees than most other platforms;

A lot of room for growth.

Cons:

Fewer customers than eBay or Amazon;

Fewer sales than eBay or Amazon.

OfferUp

(★) If you’re a fan of selling on eBay then there’s a strong chance you’ll also enjoy selling on OfferUp. At least I was. OfferUp reminds me of the halfway point between eBay and Craigslist. There aren’t as many rules as there are on eBay, but it’s not as sketchy as Craigslist. Most of the time on OfferUp, your transactions will be local meet-ups.
I like OfferUp a lot because it helped me build a local clientele of customers. It also helped me improve profit margins by avoiding selling and shipping fees when I made sales. You have the option to ship out items you sell on OfferUp but I found few sellers choose to take that route.
On top of all that, OfferUp’s app is extremely easy to use and helpful when you want to look at what is available for sale. It makes pricing your own items easier because you can quickly find listings of similar items.
My one bit of advice for selling on OfferUp would be this. Just like you would if you were selling an item locally on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, make sure you meet your buyer at a safe location. I highly suggest not meeting a buyer at their house or telling them where you live. I like to meet buyers at my local police station because they have a specific area that was created for exchanges of goods. Sometimes I meet at a local cafe or Panera if it works better for the buyer. But I’ll do anything to avoid a sketchy confrontation, especially when we’re handling hundreds of dollars in cash and an item that is worth hundreds of dollars.
Pros:

Helps reduce selling fees for more profit;

The app is extremely easy to use;

Helps build local clientele in your area.

Cons:

Local meet-ups need to be handled with caution;

Product authentication is not available.

Poshmark

I’ve personally never used Poshmark to sell anything, or buy anything, in the past. However, I have heard amazing reviews about how the platform has come up as one of the top-selling sites out there. Some even prefer selling items on Poshmark over selling on eBay.
From what I understand, it’s all about what kind of items you’re looking to sell when determining whether or not to start selling on Poshmark. Brands like Lululemon and Kate Spade are snatched up quickly by buyers on Poshmark. If you have a lot of these kinds of brands in your closet or you’re able to thrift them cheaply, you will more than likely find a lot of success selling on Poshmark.

Selling specifics

Unlike other platforms, it’s always free to list your items on Poshmark. According to the company, for all sales under $15, Poshmark takes a flat commission of $2.95. You keep the rest. For sales of $15 or more, you keep 80% of your sale and Poshmark’s commission is 20%.
With that in mind, Poshmark is more geared toward selling products under $15 because 20% is a hefty selling fee compared to a platform like eBay that only takes around 10% for most products.
Pros:

Reach a different buying demographic;

Easy-to-use app;

Quickly rising in popularity.

Cons:

Hefty selling fees.

Patreon

The reason I don’t have a Patreon account is that I don’t have a big enough online following to direct enough followers to a platform like that. But for YouTubers or well-known content creators, Patreon is a wonderful platform to set up an account on.
Your audience will sign up and pay for a Patreon package you offer to help support your work and motivate creators to continue publishing content. In some Patreon packages, the audience doesn’t receive anything back from their contributions except the hopes that their favorite content creators will continue creating. But some Patreon users send out merch, give advice, and even offer time with the creator to monthly subscribers.

Be successful on Patreon

Success on this platform is all about how you leverage your account and your subscribers. If you want to give back to contributors who are forking over their hard-earned money because they enjoy what you do, you might see it go a long way in terms of a connection with your audience. Of course, you could just use the Patreon contributions as motivation to keep doing what you’re already doing online and your audience will continue to enjoy it. But giving something for the contributions you receive is what will keep people coming back and paying you more.
Pros:

Receive contributions from your audience for doing what you were already doing.

Cons:

You need to already have a large enough following for Patreon to work.

Sneaker reselling

(★) Sneaker reselling isn’t a specific platform like eBay that you can use to make money. This section was included to encapsulate all methods of sneaker reselling because of how profitable it is. I’ve made thousands of dollars reselling sneakers over the years and the market for shoes isn’t going anywhere but up. Sneaker money comes in fast.

Here’s an example

In May of 2021, I was picked for the chance to buy a pair of sneakers from Nike’s SNKRS website for the retail price of $140. Here’s a screenshot of the order:

screenshot from author’s GOAT account

As you can see, the delivery date of the order was May 18. I put the sneakers up for sale the moment I purchased them online and they sold within 15 minutes. After the sneakers came in, I put a new shipping label on the box and sent it back out. A total of 5 whole days passed from the time I submitted my order to the time I received this notification:

screenshot from author’s GOAT account

You’re reading that correctly, it took me only 5 days to turn $140 into $285.
When you look at the entire process of this situation, it’s the ultimate side hustle. Especially because the only work I did was click “Purchase” on Nike’s SNKRS app, print out a shipping label, and drive the box to the post office.

Follow this process

If you’re interested in making a lot of money quickly, here’s the process you’ll need to follow. First off, you’re going to need to do your research on which types of sneakers are resellable. The goal is to buy sneakers for retail price and then resell them for more money on the aftermarket.
You’ll be able to resell some sneakers for double the amount you paid instantly. This is called a quick flip. Other shoes you’ll have to buy and hold onto them until they go up in value. This is similar to buying and holding onto a growth stock until it’s time to sell it and collect your profit.
After you’re able to secure a pair of sneakers you think will be profitable on the aftermarket, there are a variety of platforms to resell them on.
Some of the more notable platforms to resell your sneakers on are:

eBay

StockX

GOAT Marketplace

There are other platforms to resell sneakers on, but those are the big 3.
No matter how you shape it, buying a pair of sneakers and making an instant $100 from flipping them immediately can’t be beaten. Especially when sometimes you can make much more than $100 from instantly reselling a pair of sneakers. After you make your profit, you pay off the pair of sneakers you sold and then rinse and repeat. If you managed to buy multiple pairs of sneakers then you can automatically multiply the money you’re making.
The best part about all of this is that if you’re able to order sneakers online from Nike, Nike SNKRS, Foot Locker, or Finish Line then you’ll only have to leave your home when you ship them out after making a sale. Or you could request an at-home parcel pick-up by whatever shipping service you use.
Reselling sneakers can quickly turn into a full-time business where you invest all of your money into sneakers, resell all of them for a profit, and then continue the cycle.
Pros:

Extremely profitable and fast way to make money;

Very easy to learn.

Cons:

More competitive now than ever;

Sneaker bots have made it hard to buy sneakers that are in demand.

Stock images

Stock images are those generic photos you can find and purchase online to use for any endeavor. From platforms like Shutterstock to Getty Images and Pixabay, you can sell almost any photo you take as a stock image and make money from it.
The cool thing about this side hustle is that it’s developed significantly in the last decade. You used to need an expensive camera to take high-quality images and put them up for sale. Nowadays, all of us have high-quality cameras in our pockets included with our smartphones. All you need now is to start snapping pictures and putting them up for sale.
My favorite part about this side hustle is that stock photos can include anything in the picture. You don’t have to take pictures of the Grand Canyon to make money doing this. People need stock photos of tables, chairs, laptops, and just about everything else. As long as the photo is clear then you can make money from selling stock photos.
Don’t believe me? Here are some stock images to prove what I’m talking about.

Photo by Mike from Pexels

Photo by Dmitry Zvolskiy from Pexels

Photo by Cats Coming from Pexels

You see, none of these photos are hard-to-find setups. They just have high image quality and were posted for use. You can do the same thing.
The average pay for selling stock photos is approximately 25-45 cents per image, per month. However, if you have a lot of images for sale on a ton of websites and they get multiple downloads, you could be seeing a lot of extra income rolling in every month.
Pros:

Anyone with a smartphone can sell stock images;

Easy to get started

Cons:

You have to make sales to make money.

Takeaways: Reselling

Reselling is one of my favorite side hustles because anyone can start to see profit roll in instantly if they’re able to find and list the right items. I’ve flipped $50 into $300 in 15 minutes on multiple occasions in the past by reselling the right pair of sneakers or packs of cards.
There is still a learning curve when it comes to reselling but, for the most part, it’s trial-and-error. The more you do it, the better you’ll get at it and the more trained your eye will become for sourcing items.
Many people decide to scale up their selling operations because of how straightforward of a way it is to make money. They quickly build their side hustle up from nothing and turn it into a full-time job. Their homes turn into warehouses full of different kinds of inventory they plan on selling and they drive their partners crazy because it appears from the outside as if they are just always hoarding junk they believe to be valuable someday. In reality, they are sitting on products they’ve researched and are just waiting to sell those items for a certain price. Reselling can quickly turn from a couple extra thousand dollars a month to an annual $50,000-$100,000 business.
I find myself getting hooked on reselling a lot of the time. It takes away time from my writing because I thoroughly enjoy the idea of buying something for one price and selling it for more than what I just paid.
There are better resources than this manuscript that can help you out with reselling but use this as a guide to reassure yourself that if you’re dying to start your own business or side hustle, reselling might be an option for you.
Don’t knock it until you try it. That’s advice from someone who knocked it until he tried it.

6

Get Paid As A Social Media Influencer

To me, this is the side hustle that needs the least amount of explanation. We see it all the time plastered over Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, you name it. From fitness influencers to fashion brand ambassadors, anyone can make money as a social media influencer. Becoming an online influencer or a brand ambassador is the lifestyle more and more people desire these days.
However, what many people don’t realize is they don’t have to have thousands of followers, post videos of their workouts every day, or pose in a bikini to make money on social media and claim the title of an influencer.
I know it’s shocking, but you could be making more money with the number of followers you already have now compared to the guy at the gym who added “fit” to the end of his Instagram handle. He might be getting the views and likes from doing push-ups all day but by the time this section is over, you’ll be the one collecting the bigger paycheck from your social media account.
One important note to remember is social media is just a tool that can be leveraged for extra money if you want to take the route of an influencer or an ambassador. If you want to have a personal account to connect with friends, that’s more than fine. But if you’re aiming to make money, you have to always remember that the goal is to leverage your likeness to make money on social media platforms, not just to make friends or connect with family.

Affiliate Marketing

(★) This is the side gig that almost every YouTuber, blogger, or influencer swears by. There’s a high chance you’ve probably already bought a product using an affiliate link while online shopping. Affiliate links work by commission, so if you don’t like the idea of trying to sell something then this isn’t the side hustle for you.
You’ll create an account on an affiliate marketing website ( Amazon Associates Program , ClickBank , etc.) and you receive links that are specific to your account. These links lead to online products.
Then, you take those links and present them to an audience. This could be in the information section of your YouTube videos, in your newsletter, or on your social media account. When people use your link to buy products, you get a cut of the sale.
It’s an extremely popular way influencers of all kinds make money in today’s technology-driven online society. Most people don’t even know that they’re clicking on affiliate links unless they know exactly where to look in the URL.
As you’ve probably already pieced together, you need to have a following for affiliate marketing to be successful. The more people you can reach with your affiliate links will inevitably lead to more commission coming your way and more money in your pockets. This is where it’s important to build up an email list or a social media account. From there, you can start promoting your affiliate links to your followers and subscribers and see who bites.
Pros:

A very easy side hustle to make money;

Popular in today’s society and will continue to grow;

Can be profitable depending on how many sales you can get.

Cons:

You need a large online following for this to work.

Domain flipping

(★) Domain flipping technically isn’t a way to get paid as a social media influencer, but since it involves technology and the internet I figured it would fit well in this section more than the reselling section. You can make money from domain flipping by buying domain names from websites like GoDaddy and putting them up for sale or auction, which can also be done on websites like GoDaddy.
If you’re unaware of what a domain is, it’s the URL of any website on the internet. For example, “www.google.com” is a domain. You can buy domain names that already have a following behind them or have the potential to be popular and sell them for much more than you paid for them.
There are quite a few methods by which this can be done, but without going into too much detail, here are some of the easiest ways.

Build a website with consistent traffic

You can take a domain from no traffic to consistent traffic and build up its value in the process. Buying a domain and setting up a website that you can manage to direct consistent numbers of traffic to is the first step. The next step is maintaining a consistent level of traffic to that site for a few years. This domain is now well-recognized by Google and potential investors. Not only will you be able to sell the domain, but you’ll be able to sell the entire website because you’ve built value in it.

Create a brand with consistent traffic

Just like building a website with consistent traffic, if you’re able to build up a recognizable enough brand, the value of its domain name will skyrocket.

Get lucky by being creative

Many people who flip domains take a lot of time to research keywords and terms that aren’t already registered. They take a risk in guessing which domain names might sell because they are catchy or about a person or product society will be seeing more of in the future.
This method is more for advanced domain sellers.
Pros:

Domains are cheap to buy if they aren’t already owned, typically about $14;

GoDaddy promotes domain auctions.

Cons:

Costs $5 annually to sell domains on GoDaddy’s auction platform;

Researching domains can be extremely time-consuming.

Dropshipping

You know those ads you see for random products online like hair trimmers or fancy light bulbs? Some, if not most of those ads, are dropshipping ads. Dropshipping is when you create an online website and use it to sell a third-party product. The great thing about it is you don’t have to touch or handle any products. Once your customers place an order, it’s fulfilled and shipped by whatever third-party retailer you decide to dropship from.

How to get started

Choosing the right product to dropship is one of the key factors of whether or not your dropshipping business will be profitable. Some products have huge profit margins and sell better than others.
Advertising is another key factor in how well you’ll do with your dropshipping. Getting high-quality ads in front of the right targeted audiences could mean tons of sales for your dropshipping business.
There’s a lot more that goes into dropshipping than what I just mentioned with my brief overview here. If you want to dig into it then I suggest you do your research on it. Resellers are making it seem like it’s a new side hustle but it’s been around for decades. It just wasn’t spoken about as much before.
I’ve never tried dropshipping, but I’ve always wanted to.
Pros:

You never have to touch the product;

It’s cheap and easy to get started.

Cons:

Revenue depends on the ability to make sales;

Competition is high in today’s online market.

Instagram influencer

In today’s society, becoming an Instagram influencer is a sought-after job for many people. These influencers have large followings and publish pictures and videos of their lifestyle in a specific niche. They typically make money through affiliate marketing, brand deals, and advertisements.

How you can get started

If you have something you’re already passionate about then it’s best to follow that niche because you’ll enjoy it more if you do become an influencer. For example, if you like sneakers then focus on developing a following in that specific niche.
However, if you don’t have a specific passion that you want to follow as an Instagram influencer then you can follow one of the three major Fs. These are the most popular niches for Instagram influencers that attract the most followers:

Fitness

Fashion

Finance

It’s because all three of these sectors are visually appealing and so they mesh well with Instagram’s theme of images and visuals.

How to make money

Once you’ve started to accumulate a nice-sized following on Instagram, you might ask yourself how influencers make money from their status. Typically it’s through affiliate marketing. As an influencer, brands, and companies will reach out to you to promote their products. It’s because these brands and companies can see your large following in a specific niche and typically the products of brands who reach out will relate to your niche. They will either pay you just for promoting their products or give you a percentage for however many sales are made from your affiliate links.
However, there is another way to get paid if you have a large following as an influencer but you won’t have to wait until any company reaches out to you. You can reach out to them to become an affiliate member of their programs and get paid commission for every purchase someone uses with your link.
Companies you can do this on are:

Amazon affiliate links

ClickBank

On both of these platforms, you can apply to become an affiliate of their marketing programs and market their products with a link that’s specific to your account. From there, any purchases made from your followers with your link will turn into a commission paid to you. It’s a great way to make affiliate marketing money from any number of followers you have on your own.

Pros:

You can create income from your followers/audience by using links;

Cons:

You need to have a large enough audience and online presence

Rakuten

(★) Do you get cashback from using your credit cards? Look at Rakuten as an online program where you don’t have to use a credit card to get the cashback. You buy things online that fall under Rakuten’s ever-changing cashback umbrella and you receive money for spending money you would’ve spent already. You can also still receive cash back from the credit card you use to make the purchase.
As wild as Rakuten sounds, I’ve used it and it’s legit. It was founded in 1997 but only recently has it blossomed into the side hustle spotlight.
I consider this a side hustle, even though it could easily fall under the “passive income” category of making money. You’re not “hustling” to make money on Rakuten. All you’re doing is getting a kickback for buying things you would’ve normally bought.
I’ve used it for cashback at retailers like Nike, Target, Walmart, and so much more. Sign up, use it a couple times, and make back some of the money you would’ve already spent. It’s free to use and you’ll receive your cashback via PayPal or check. It’s just that simple.
Pros:

Earn cash back for buying the same items online that you normally would have;

Double down on cashback by still receiving cashback on your credit card;

Payouts come via PayPal or check.

Cons:

Can’t really think of many on this one, it’s like free money for buying anything online.

Teespring

(★) Do you have the ability to create designs, logos, or patterns? Have you always wanted to create your own T-shirts or clothing brand? Teespring can help you do just that.
Teespring allows you to put your artistic vision into reality and create designs for different T-shirts (and probably other kinds of clothing at this point). The great thing about putting your T-shirt designs on Teespring is that you don’t have to handle any of the other work that goes with being a clothing designer. All you do is create your designs, put them on T-shirts, and see how many sales you can get. It’s a great way to quickly rack up money if you are gifted in the arts and an even better way to make more money if you have connections in the art industry. Think about it, you could promote your T-shirts online to your art connections and even by using Google Ads or Facebook Ads.
As far as payment goes, you choose your own price and profit for each shirt. According to Teespring, sellers can request a payout within 24 – 48 hours of orders being dispatched to buyers. You can request a payout once a listing’s print cycle has ended and orders are dispatched (print cycles usually end every 3 days). Pending payouts worth less than $100 can be requested every 3 days. PayPal and Payoneer are its payment methods. I love Payoneer, it’s the same service I use to get payments from Textbroker.
I tried Teespring for a few months but I’m not the most creative when it comes to graphic design. When I compared my T-shirt designs to the others on the site that were making money, I realized that it wasn’t for me.
Pros:

Artists and creatives can make great money;

It’s a straightforward process;

No need to physically touch the T-shirts you sell or ship them out.

Cons:

You need to be advanced in graphic design and creative for this side hustle.

Twitch

Twitch can be looked at as YouTube’s baby brother. It hasn’t been around as long as YouTube has but it’s the same concept. Twitch streamers get paid through a combination of small payments (called Bits), donations from viewers, paid subscriptions, and influencer marketing. Popular Twitch streamers have been able to quit their jobs entirely and make a full-time income from streaming alone. These streamers sometimes hire full staff teams and are successful from the comfort of their own homes.

How you can make money on Twitch

If you have a solid background in video games, you too can do the same. Most Twitch streamers are good at the games they play and have a great personality that typically lures in more viewers.
According to Twitch, affiliates earn a 5% revenue share of the purchases that originate from their channel pages. However, to start making money consistently with Twitch, you will need to have at least 300-500 concurrent viewers. According to CreditDonkey, average streamers will make roughly $250 in ad revenue per 100 subscribers.
For all the gamers in the world whose parents told them they’d never make money sitting inside and playing video games all day, Twitch is your answer. You can make money by playing the same video games you were already playing.
Pros:

Make money by playing video games;

Good money can be made.

Cons

You need to own a gaming system and streaming other hardware to get started;

You need to build a following before you can get paid.

Twitter influencer

If you read the section on becoming an Instagram influencer then it’s very similar to this section about becoming a Twitter influencer. The main difference between being successful at both is that Instagram is more of a visual platform and Twitter is more text-based. Meaning, to become successful as a Twitter influencer you’ll have to use your words to sway people.
This can sound difficult but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to over-analyze every tweet to become successful on Twitter. Consistency is key. The more you tweet, retweet, like, and engage, the more your profile will start to take off.
Motivational accounts do well on this platform because of how short and sweet they can be. Remember, you only have a certain number of characters you can use on Twitter so it’s best to be direct and to the point with whatever you decide your message will be.
Another good point to remember is that you can direct your followers on Twitter to affiliate marketing links you might be involved with and other products you offer.
Pros:

Less visual-based than Instagram;

Straight to the point with your message.

Amazon affiliate programs and ClickBank still can be used.

Cons:

Twitter is typically more difficult to build a following on than Instagram.

YouTube

(★) MeetKevin, a YouTuber with millions of subscribers, once said, “if you have an internet connection and a phone with a camera, you can make money from YouTube.” While I’ve tried numerous times and failed at making money on YouTube, I still believe that it’s possible and all you need is a smartphone and internet connection.
With that said, you’re going to need to devise a niche for yourself. Either something that you like to do and don’t mind filming or something that you see a real opportunity for in the future. The hardest part for me has always been finding a niche on YouTube because I genuinely don’t know what I’d like to spend time making videos about.
After you have a niche, you’ll need to figure out what types of videos you want to shoot.

Will they be blog-style videos?

Will they be informative with graphs and no actual images of yourself?

These are questions you need to ask yourself when thinking about making money on YouTube.
After you’ve started to make videos, it’s important to note that you can’t monetize your channel until you reach a specific prerequisite. You need 1,000 or more subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours within the last 12 months to monetize videos on YouTube. Yes, that means at least a thousand people have to like your content enough to subscribe, and on top of that 4,000 hours of watch time from those people have to be clocked.
It sounds like a lot, but chances are you have more than 1,000 friends on Facebook. Create a channel, put the link on Facebook, and ask your friends to subscribe. Also, if you have a very alluring niche (like cooking, etc.) then you might find yourself naturally attracting viewers with your content alone.
It’s important to note that you shouldn’t give up on YouTube after your first few months if it doesn’t take off immediately. Yes, you might think that some of your videos are good enough to go viral but you have to work your way up to YouTube stardom. For most people, it takes several years on the platform before they start to see consistent views. YouTube videos could be a great source of extra income every month for very little startup costs and expenses. All you need are an internet connection and a smartphone.
Pros:

Can be fun to make YouTube videos;

Pays great once you get monetized;

Get paid for being creative.

Cons:

Can be difficult to get monetized;

Can be difficult to grow your following on YouTube.

Takeaways: Social Media Influencer

As much as this kills me to say because I tend to be biased against social media influencers, there is money to be made on social media as an ambassador, influencer, or in some other regard. It only pains me to say it because I’ve had little success in the attempts I’ve made to do it. But I’ve watched so many people make their way through the realm of social media and get paid greatly from it.
The cool thing about it is we see people of all ages and walks of life become online influencers. The elderly woman who lives next door and swims 10 laps a day can turn her lifestyle into a fitness niche on Instagram or Pinterest and a source of income just by recording what she does and posting it online. We live in a time where people do just that and get paid for it every single day.
What I’ve noticed about the influencers I follow on social media is after you built up their online following, it’s honestly difficult to lose. Unless they get canceled by society, which happens often enough, fans of these social media accounts will continue to follow their favorite ambassadors from platform to platform as they continue to grow their brand in their niche.
The same thing applies to the audience of a couple hundred or thousand people you’re able to build. They will remain loyal to you, follow you from platform to platform, and you get to choose your own way to profit from it.
From affiliate marketing to getting paid to promote ads from brands and other accounts, the world we’re living in is a technology-driven society and social media is at the center of that utopia. Capturing the minds of your peers and persuading them to follow you and your content is a powerful — and profitable — tool.

7

Become An Online Tutor

If you have a bachelor’s degree in any subject or experience tutoring in a classroom setting, becoming an online tutor could be a profitable way for you to make money and get good use out of your degree. The truth is, you don’t have to be a college professor or even a professional in your field to teach a lot of subjects. Some of the platforms you’re going to learn about allow you to teach English online to kids overseas and all you need to know is how to speak and write the language at a grade school level. As long as you know the basics and can pass a background test/get your clearances, you can make great money―around $20 an hour― just by teaching little kids how to speak English.
One thing you have to keep in mind is having a computer is a necessity if you want to be a tutor. Unlike some of the other side hustles on this list, just having a phone won’t get the job done. Not only will you need a computer and access to the internet, but you also will need a webcam and the ability to install any tutoring software the platform you’re using requires if you want to effectively be able to become a tutor online. Some platforms I’ve come across only allow teachers to use Windows computers while other platforms require your computer to have your own teaching supplies available on day one. But never rule out online tutoring as a great way to make money from the comfort of your couch.

Chegg Tutoring

(★) Chegg is primarily known as a website college students use to rent books at a discounted rate. However, it also serves as a double for a tutoring platform for different age groups.
I can only speak of my experience using Chegg Tutoring as a writing tutor. Honestly, it was an awesome experience. All I needed to apply was a bachelor’s degree and some experience in writing. Additionally, I had to pass a writing exam that took about an hour to complete.
After that, I was in. I had an interview and then did a mock lesson a week later. I made my own hours and settled on early mornings at 5 a.m. and late nights at 9 p.m. I was paid $20 an hour and every lesson I did was an hour long. I averaged 10 lessons a week at first but scaled back to 8 because I became overwhelmed. Indeed.com says that the rate I was paid ($20 an hour) is the average hourly rate for Chegg tutors in the United States.
I was making around $200 a week before tax by teaching writing lessons to different age levels with the majority of it being reviewing papers and providing feedback. The only reason why I’m still not doing Chegg Tutoring is that it wound up being a lot of work for an hour. It’s not like taking surveys or writing when you can put your laptop down and take a break. If you’re on a video chat with a 14-year-old who’s having trouble spelling spaghetti you don’t have the option to take a break. Especially when you’re reminded that this kid is paying to be here and participate. It’s a great side hustle but realistically it’s more like a part-time job that takes up a lot of your time. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I figured I’d put that information out there just so you’re aware of it.
Besides the nonstop work of Chegg Tutoring, I felt the $20 pay per hour was adequate for the amount of work I was doing. I had never tutored before so it was an experience that I learned a lot from.
Pros:

Pay is great;

Chegg is reliable;

Work is consistent.

Cons:

Each lesson is a lot of work;

Kids can be difficult to work with.

Tutor.com

(★) You need a bachelor’s degree at least to apply to Tutor.com. It took me a day to apply and the next day I took the Essay Writing Proficiency test and passed. After that, I had to download the teaching software and do an interview/test run with someone from Tutor.com. Then, I set my schedule and I was good to go from there.
It’s extremely similar to Chegg in terms of management and teaching style. You tutor kids in a virtual classroom either with or without a webcam, but most times with a webcam.
Sessions last for about an hour depending on the time that was scheduled.
I was paid $13/hour while tutoring using Tutor.com. Payments come straight from Tutor.com and you don’t have to wait for a private client or anything like that to pay you.
I know they have a ton of other subjects besides essay writing that you can teach for. I almost applied to tutor in English but figured I would go with essay writing instead because I knew I could provide the most value there.
Pros:

Good pay;

Can be easy to teach concepts you know well;

Flexible hours.

Cons:

It can be difficult working with youths.

TutorMe

According to online reviews, TutorMe has received far worse reviews than both Chegg or Tutor.com from the student perspective. However, from the tutoring perspective, it has a lot of stellar reviews. Take that how you want to. I just wanted to include it in case you wanted to scale up your tutoring and possibly find a different tutor platform to get paid on.
It was founded in 1998 and some full-time tutors on the platform report earning over $50,000/year from tutoring alone.
One difference I found between TutorMe and the two previously mentioned tutoring platforms is that you can’t schedule appointments with students. From the looks of it, you are assigned students by the platform’s moderators. I could see how this might reduce competition for new tutors.
Nonetheless, it can’t hurt to try and if it works for you then you can add it to your list of side hustles that you can do from the comfort of your couch.
Pros:

Flexible hours;

The potential to make good money seems to be there.

Cons:

Not many reviews.

VIPKid

After extensively researching the platform, VIPKid is different from the previous three tutoring sites because it’s mainly for English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. As long as you’re proficient in English and have a bachelor’s degree, you can teach English to students around the world.
According to VIPKid, the minimum class pay for VIPKid is $7-9 per 25-minute class. However, one attractive feature about the payment that is of interest for VIPKid is that there are cash incentives for teaching. The main one that caught my attention was the incentive of $1 per class for showing up on time and then another extra $1 per class for finishing more than 45 classes in a month. That means you can earn an extra $90 a month just for showing up to your ONLINE class on time to teach it and teaching 45 classes in a month. Remember, VIPKid has 25-minute classes so you can bang out two in an hour. Technically, 45 classes might only take around 20 hours of work (don’t check me on that math) but it’s a doable amount of time. That incentive alone makes VIPKid $100 more profitable as a side hustle every month.
However, the competition on VIPKid is high and it’s reported by numerous users that it can be difficult to find work on the platform unless you already have multiple years as an ESL teacher or a certificate in teaching ESL.
Pros:

Can be the most profitable out of all the tutoring side hustles;

Flexible schedule.

Cons:

High competition to teach on the platform.

Takeaways: Online Tutoring

When it comes to making money online, tutoring is overlooked and I just don’t understand why. It’s an easy way to make money if you have a degree under your belt. You don’t have to:

Meet anyone face-to-face

Go to any house calls

Find a location to meet at

You can just turn on your webcam and get to work teaching your students.
It’s a great side hustle that can feel rewarding to some people as well. I was nervous to try tutoring because I had little tutoring experience beforehand. But after looking up some reviews about the content that was taught and the style in which it was taught, I was confident I could handle it.
If you’re like me, then you might want to do a quick refresher to make sure you have a complete grasp of any kind of material or questions your students might dish your way. But after that, it’s more like just looking over the shoulder of your student’s computer and explaining to them where they made their mistakes and what they did right.
My biggest gripe with online tutoring was the competition for finding students to tutor. I was constantly competing with tutors who weren’t doing the job as a side hustle. They were doing it as a full-time career and even had certifications under their belt. It got rough after a while and it wasn’t worth my time anymore because I realized I could be making more money writing, reselling, or taking surveys.
However, I’ll never complain about any of the money I made from tutoring online and would consider opening my own private tutoring business if I had enough clients who would follow me to get the business off the ground.

8

Trade Currencies

You might have a parent, uncle, or even grandparent who has a collection of colorful, old bills that are foreign currencies from different parts of the world. They probably keep it locked away in a secure place and show it to friends and family when they come over to visit.
At one point in time, some people believed in the idea of investing in specific kinds of currencies and then holding onto them until they could cash them out at a higher value and make money from them. It’s called trading currencies and it’s been done for decades.
Unlike the generations before us, we live in the age of technology. I know I sound like a broken record but the internet has been a game-changer for all of us around the world. Instead of acquiring physical, paper versions of foreign currencies, we can trade them digitally using our phones in a variety of different ways.
From crypto to forex, you too can make money from the exchange of foreign currencies without leaving your home. Some currencies are more popular to trade than others but at this point, most individuals have already bought and sold currency digitally whether they know it or not. If you’ve ever purchased Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, or any other kind of cryptocurrency, you know what I’m talking about.
I’ve tried it and made money using a couple different methods and platforms that I will lay out for you in the coming pages so you too can give it a shot.
Please note: Just because you have a friend who “made thousands of dollars from Bitcoin” doesn’t mean that you will do the same. Sorry, I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble here but a lot of these currencies are extremely volatile in value and it can take some getting used to if you want to trade them. Do your research first before spending your money on any currency, whether it be digital or foreign.

Day trading

(★) Day trading isn’t trading currencies, it’s trading shares of companies. I included it in this section because I thought this was the best place for it.
A lot of people make full-time livings by day trading. It’s a skill you can learn, excel at, and profit from. Day trading is the process of buying shares of a company at a lower value and selling them at a higher value soon after. You can also trade options where you buy contracts for puts and calls and if the stock for those contracts goes up or down, you’ll make a profit.
I’ve personally tried day trading and decided that I enjoyed it but it was too much work for me to dig into.
It also costs money to get into day trading, that’s how you buy the shares of companies that you then will sell for a profit.

How to get started

Since I’m not a professional day trader, I can’t give you the secret to being profitable at it. What I can do is point you in the same direction I started with, and that’s by installing the Thinkorswim software from TD Ameritrade. This trading program operates using “paper money” so you can buy and trade without having to risk any of your actual cash. Practice using this, do your research, and join a group that helps newcomers with day trading. This side hustle can turn into a full-time profession where you never have to leave your home to make money.
Pros:

Make a living wage from the comfort of your home;

Learn a new skill.

Cons:

Risk your own money;

Extremely difficult;

Takes education, money, and experience to master.

Dividend investing

(★) Before you start saying “Dividend investing isn’t a side hustle,” I’ll give it to you, you’re right. Earlier in this article, I said anything the side hustler deems a “side hustle” is correct as long as it brings in income. There is no hustle involved in dividend investing but it’s still a source of extra income, passive or not.
I didn’t write this article to tell you about investing or where to put your money. I wrote it to discuss all sorts of income you can grab without leaving your home and dividends fall under that umbrella.
If you focus some of your income toward the right dividend-paying stocks then you can expect a stream of passive income to come your way every few months or so.
That’s it. That’s all I have for dividend investing because once again, I wrote this article to be about side hustles, not investing.
Pros :

Passive income without doing a second of work;

Easy to get started.

Cons:

You need money to start making money;

You need an investment portfolio/a brokerage account to start collecting dividend payments.

Forex trading

Foreign exchange (Forex) is the trading of one foreign currency for another currency. These transactions typically take place on the foreign exchange market, which is the most liquid market in the world, according to Investopedia.
So, how do you take advantage of the foreign exchange market?
Easy, you trade one currency for another to make a profit. It’s similar to day trading except instead of trading stocks, you’re trading currencies. The goal is to sell one currency while simultaneously buying another. You trade in pairs like that. By doing this, you’re buying one currency by selling the other. If the currency you’re selling has gone up and the one you’re buying has gone down, you make money on the transaction because you’re using a higher value currency to buy more of a lower value one.
I’ve never tried Forex but I plan on trying it soon. According to Vantage Point Trading, with a $5000 account, you can risk up to $50 per trade, and reasonably make an average profit of $100+ per day. If you convert $100 a day to an annual salary, it’s a little over $24,000 a year. Of course, that’s if you have $100 worth of successful trades every day, but still, you get the point.
Please watch out for scams or sketchy groups that promise to get you high returns from Forex trading. There seems to be a lot of it in the Forex community. Many people claim they make hundreds of thousands of dollars every year doing it but do your best to differentiate between scammers and people making money.
Pros:

Trade from your home;

Low entry cost;

Possibility to learn a new skill and make money.

Cons:

A significant amount of scammers in the industry of this side hustle;

Just as much education and experience are needed as day trading.

Mining cryptocurrencies

(★) When it comes to crypto, many people immediately think about investing in digital currencies like Bitcoin and trading them. Mining is in the back of the mind for most people because there seem to be a lot of caveats surrounding it. But really, you can mine cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, if you have a powerful enough computer or rig to do it.
However, there are a lot of considerations you need to make if you want to start mining crypto. It can be extremely taxing on your computer, so if you only have one then you might want to reconsider mining. The rigs and set-ups can also be pricey and so can your electric bill if you always have it running.
These are just a couple of considerations you need to make if you want to start mining Bitcoin. There are other coins you can mine without this level of preparedness. One coin starting to catch attention is Helium. Helium is mined by simply plugging a miner you buy online into your Wi-Fi. From there, you complete the setup and begin making money daily.
Whether you’re mining Bitcoin, Helium, or some other digital currency, make sure you do your research before you dive right into it. You want to know what you’re getting yourself and your equipment into before you fully commit to it as a side hustle. Once you have your mining rig set up, it’s almost as passive of a stream of income as dividend investing is.
Pros:

Close to passive income;

Different kinds of coins you can mine;

Cryptocurrency is rising in value year after year.

Cons:

Can be expensive to get started;

You need research to understand what you’re doing;

Might take months or years to make back your initial equipment investment.

Trading cryptocurrencies

(★) Rounding out the list of side hustles involving currencies is trading different cryptocurrencies as they go up and down in value. You could look at this as either day trading or long-term holding; but at the time of writing this article, coins like Bitcoin are so volatile that one day they might rise anywhere between 20% to 30% in value. If you were to have dropped in a large sum of money when the value of Bitcoin declined and then sold off your coins after the rise, you would’ve found yourself in a profitable situation. Doing this successfully over and over again is called a: side hustle from your home.
From staking to trading and holding, cryptocurrencies offer a wide range of different ways for you to find another stream of income that you don’t have to step outside of your home to collect.
Just make sure you do your research before putting your money in some random coin. Yes, we see insane success stories like Dogecoin more often than we should, but at the end of the day, we can expect assets like that to pay us as consistently as we’d like a side hustle to.
Pros:

Trade cryptocurrencies from your phone;

Day trade, hold long-term, or stake your crypto to make money;

Invest in a variety of different coins;

Learn a new skill.

Cons:

Risk your own money in an attempt to make money;

Leans toward passive income and not a side hustle.

Takeaways: Trading Currencies

Trading currencies is something people have been doing for years. Many people traded physical currency to make cash before doing it with Bitcoin or forex was possible.
When it comes to trading digital currencies, it’s best to remember that society is in its infancy with these assets. Bitcoin is still relatively new and even though we’ve seen the price of it spike quickly in short periods, we’ve also watched it fall just as fast. It’s hard to guess which direction an asset as volatile as that might go so it’s best to do your research when buying and selling it.
As far as a side hustle like day trading goes, there are mentors you can learn from if you want to start day trading. There are numerous success stories of day traders making a profitable livelihood if you want to get started. People have been doing it for decades and it shows no sign of stopping. All you need to do is start working at it.

9

Don’t Miss Out

The days of having to flip burgers for minimum wage are over. So are the days of needing to be 16 to find a part-time job and start making money. Even stay-at-home parents now have the potential to make more money than their counterparts that go into the office.
Technology has driven our society into the digital age. You no longer need to leave your home to buy groceries, connect with family members, or make money. All of that can be done just as successfully from the comfort of your couch.
The internet as we know it is nearing the point of an upgrade. Technically, it’s nearing the point of another upgrade. Some techy folks call it Web 3.0. But if you look it up, Web 3.0 started in 2006 and already exists. We’re living in it. We’re developing tech so rapidly that upgrades to the web are coming more quickly than ever before.
The first iteration of the internet was when Web 2.0 came to be. It happened around the time of Y2K and the Dot-com bubble during the late-90s in the United States. The internet was brand new at that time and few people knew what to think of it. Even fewer folks knew what the web could be used for.
Another advancement of the internet happened again between 2000 and 2010 when smartphones became more common. We saw the introduction of social media platforms while daily activities such as online banking became second nature.
Nowadays, it’s looking like digital currencies, NFTs, the gig economy, and so much more are leading the way for us as a digital society.
The best part about all of this is you can be at the forefront of this new wave of technology. It hasn’t already passed you up because it’s happening right now.
These days, it’s completely possible to make a full-time living by sitting on your couch. The only requirements to make money from your home in today’s society are:

An internet connection.

A computer or laptop.

Bonus: A smartphone.

It’s presumptuous to write this, but all three of those things are a dime a dozen in most homes these days. Instead of using those resources to make money, most people spend much of their time online using Facebook or binge-watching shows on Netflix. There’s nothing wrong with leisurely activities but cutting that leisurely time in half to spend it on a side hustle could wind up being a highly profitable move for yourself.
And if you don’t have access to an internet connection or a computer at home, chances are high that your local library is more than willing to provide you with access to both for free.

Give your side hustles time to grow

For any side hustle in this article that you decide to try, give yourself at least 6 months until you call it quits and move on. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your side hustle empire is no different.
You’ll quickly learn that some side hustles, like writing for content mills or reselling, can result in quicker cash than others, like becoming a social media influencer or flipping domains.
No matter what you decide to do, after about 6 months you’ll know whether or not you want to keep pursuing it.
But quitting too early might mean you’re walking out the door with potential opportunities still on the table. Whereas waiting too long for success to come could mean a waste of time that might be better allocated to other opportunities.

Try multiple side hustles

More side hustles mean more chances. Look at it this way, every side hustle you start is the equivalent of getting an extra life in a video game. You’re going to need to work at a side hustle the same way you’re going to need to work at a video game to be good at it. But if you get more lives in a video game, your chances of winning automatically start to multiply because you have more chances to win, even if you lose a couple times. You go from having one chance of winning to multiple chances.
Combining these multiple chances with a side hustle you’re passionate about and a little bit of worth ethic will result in a higher chance of achieving any level of success you’re chasing. You’ll be basically willing your way to the finish line by working hard, pursuing your passions, and more importantly — getting paid.

Do your research

This article wasn’t written to show you every detailed step it takes to get paid from a side hustle. That’s for you to figure out and learn. Yes, some of the explanations and details about a few of the side hustles in this article are written out in a step-by-step format.
But this article was written to show a variety of different paths an individual can take to make money without ever having to leave their home. It was written to share the experiences of someone who has personally taken many avenues on his quest for more money. Some experiences were positive, others not so much. But all of them were priceless learning experiences.
You won’t see success doing your side hustles if you’re not willing to put in the extra research to be good at them. If you want to master your side hustle craft, you need to:

Read books (like this one)

Watch YouTube videos

Listen to podcasts

Read blogs

Find a mentor

Take a course

Join a group of like-minded individuals

Try for yourself to see what works

All of these are actions you can take to improve your side hustles, scale them up, and ultimately make them more profitable for yourself.

Final notes

Remember, your time is valuable. Trading time for money at a massive company is what the majority of people do.
But that comes with a bigger price: Losing the time you actually have to enjoy your life.
The average full-time employee spends 8 hours a day at work and they go into the office at least 5 days a week. On top of that, time is spent getting ready for work, commuting to work, commuting home from work, and preparing mentally and physically for the next day of work. That’s way more than 40 hours a week dedicated to working.
What do most people have to show for it? A little bit of money to pay necessary bills so they can continue working.
Inversely, you could make the same money or more working for yourself, building a brand/business, and never having to put on pants because you work from the comfort of your own home during any hours of the day you choose.
Think about that next time you walk into your office and sit down at your desk or clock in on your timecard. You could be clocking in and out of your couch, snuggled up in a blanket, and making the same money through side hustles that you built on your own.

Quick List of Platforms Mentioned in this Article

There were many services and platforms mentioned in this article. You’ll have to create some opportunities on your own and others are just platforms you can sign up for to start making money. Those listed below are mentioned in the article and extensions of other platforms from the ones mentioned in the article that you can create an account for to start your journey.

The platforms listed below are free to use unless otherwise noted:

Constant Content ( https://www.constant-content.com/ )

Copify US ( https://us.copify.com/ )

Copify UK ( https://uk.copify.com/ )

Fiverr ( https://fiverr.com ) – fees deducted when sales are made

iWriter ( https://www.iwriter.com/ )

Medium ( https://medium.com ) – $5 monthly for membership

Quora ( https://quora.com ) – $5 monthly for membership

Substack ( https://substack.com ) – takes 10% of writers’ profits

Textbroker ( https://www.textbroker.com/ )

Vocal Media ( https://www.vocal.media )

Upwork ( https://www.upwork.com/ )

Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) ( https://www.mturk.com/ )

Amazon Seller Central ( https://sellercentral.amazon.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

Amazon Associates Program ( https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/ )

ClickBank ( https://www.clickbank.com/ )

Appen ( https://appen.com/ )

Branded Surveys ( https://surveys.gobranded.com/ )

Clickworker ( https://Clickworker.com/ )

Eureka Surveys ( https://EurekaSurveys.com/ )

Fetch ( https://fetchrewards.com/ )

Life Points ( https://www.lifepointspanel.com/en-us )

Microworkers ( https://Microworkers.com/ )

MyPoints ( https://MyPoints.com/ )

Thinkorswim from TD Ameritrade

Prolific ( https://prolific.co/ )

Qmee ( https://qmee.com/ )

Swagbucks ( https://Swagbucks.com/ )

UserTesting ( https://UserTesting.com/ )

eBay ( https://eBay.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

OfferUp ( https://OfferUp.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

Poshmark ( https://Poshmark.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

Patreon ( https://Patreon.com/ )- fees deducted when sales are made

StockX ( https://StockX.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

GOAT ( https://GOAT.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

Shutterstock ( https://Shutterstock.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made

GoDaddy ( https://GoDaddy.com/ ) – fees deducted when sales are made and to become a seller

Shopify ( https://Shopify.com/ ) – After the free trial, Shopify Basic costs $29 per month, with 2.9% + 30¢ per online transaction.

Instagram ( https://Instagram.com/ )

Twitter ( https://Twitter.com/ )

Rakuten ( https://Rakuten.com/ )

Teespring ( https://Teespring.com/ )

Twitch ( https://www.twitch.tv/ )

YouTube ( https://YouTube.com/ )

Chegg Tutoring ( https://www.chegg.com/study )

Tutor.com ( https://Tutor.com/ )

TutorMe ( https://TutorMe.com/ )

VIPKid ( https://VIPKid.com/ )

Forex ( https://Forex.com/ )