How to Make Money Online, Offline & at Home
Participate in the Gig Economy
Delivery Driver
You can sign up with delivery services like GrubHub or DoorDash and accept delivery requests in your area, earning money for each completed delivery.
- Earning potential – $10 to $25 per hour, depending on location and demand.
- How easy to start – requires a vehicle, a valid driver’s license, and passing a background check.
Rideshare Driver
Rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft connect you with passengers who need a ride, and you earn money for each trip you complete.
- Earning potential – $15 to $30 per hour, depending on location and time of day.
- How easy to start – requires a vehicle, a valid driver’s license, and passing a background check.
Personal Shopper
Platforms like Instacart and Shipt allow you to accept shopping orders, purchase the items, and deliver them to the customer’s doorstep.
- Earning potential – $10 to $20 per hour, depending on location and service.
- How easy to start – requires a vehicle and passing a background check.
Secret Shopper
Secret shopping companies hire you to visit specific stores, restaurants, or other establishments, make a purchase or ask questions, and then provide feedback on your experience.
- Earning potential – $10 to $50 per assignment, plus purchase reimbursement.
Provide Local Services
Local services provide a great way to earn money by leveraging your skills and interests. Here are various services you can offer within your community:
- Home Services: Engage in furniture assembly, home cleaning, gardening, home organizing, or carpet cleaning to help people enhance their living spaces.
- Personal Services: Work as a personal chef, caterer, personal trainer, party planner, or personal stylist to assist others in personal and event needs.
- Maintenance Services: Offer car wash/detailing, appliance repair, window washing, gutter cleaning, snow removal, or bicycle repair services.
- Specialty Services: Become a tour guide, DJ, home stager, makeup artist, dog trainer, or music teacher, providing unique skills to those in need.
- Pet Care: Provide pet sitting, walking, grooming, or even training services for pet owners.
- Housesitter/Babysitter: You can find babysitting or housesitting gigs through local connections, online platforms, or by offering your services to friends and family.
- Cleaning Services: Specialize in more niche areas like boat/pool cleaning or junk removal.
- Mover: Help individuals or businesses move their belongings to a new location. This could involve assisting with packing, loading, and unloading items and transporting a moving truck.
Provide Feedback
Complete Online Surveys
After signing up and creating a profile with online survey platforms, you’ll get matched with surveys that fit your background and interests. Completing these surveys earns you rewards like cash, points, or gift cards. These surveys cover anything from product feedback to political opinions or shopping habits.
Here are some sites we tested:
- MyPoints: We completed 5 hours of online surveys and earned $12.48 (around $2.50 per hour). We also received a $5 signup bonus, totaling $17.48.
- Branded Surveys: Earnings for 5 hours of surveys ranged from $1.57 to $3.29 per hour. We earned $12.54 in total.
Test Apps and Websites
Be a usability tester and help improve apps and websites. You’ll find bugs, share your thoughts on design and ease of use, and ultimately improve the user experience. This might involve completing specific tasks and navigating through the app or website.
- The job: Find bugs and improve the usability of apps and websites.
- The pay: $10 to $100 per test.
Earn Money with Side Hustles
Rent Out Belongings
Earn income by renting out personal items like your car, tools, or space.
- Earning potential – varies; can range from a few dollars to hundreds per month, depending on the item.
- How easy to start – requires owning items that others may want to rent and listing them on rental platforms.
Sell Used Stuff
You can sell unwanted items from your home, such as clothing, electronics, or furniture, or source items from thrift stores or garage sales to resell for a profit.
- Earning potential – varies based on the item’s value and demand.
- How easy to start – requires gathering items to sell and creating listings on online marketplaces or organizing local sales.
Earn Cashback
Earn cash back on everyday purchases and turn your shopping into savings with cashback apps and websites like MyPoints and InboxDollars. These platforms connect you with a vast network of retailers, from grocery stores to clothing brands and online giants. They offer various ways to make money on everyday purchases, from groceries to that new tech you’ve wanted.
With MyPoints, you might earn 5% back at Ulta Beauty, while InboxDollars could give you 2% cash back on your Safeway groceries. By strategically using these services and activating deals, you can stretch your budget further and put extra cash back in your pocket.
Make Money with the Money Making Apps
The internet offers various ways to make extra money with simple tasks. Here’s are some surprising options:
- Data Collection Apps: 25 Apps That Pay You For Data Collection
- Play Games for Money: 27 Best Websites to Play Games for Money
- Weight Loss Apps: 23 Best Apps That Pay You to Lose Weight
- Refer Friends: 23 Best Sites Get Paid to Refer Friends
Find Job Opportunities on Reddit
While Reddit’s original focus is not on being a job-seeking platform, it has quite a few subreddits that can help you connect with professionals like you who are looking for work.
Some of the subreddits where you can find job include:
E-Commerce
Start Dropshipping
What is it? You can sell products online without holding any inventory. You partner with a supplier who stores and ships products directly to your customers. This means less upfront cost and hassle for you!
The benefits: Low startup costs, easy to manage, wide variety of products to sell.
How to get started:
- Pick a product niche: Find a category you’re passionate about or one with high demand.
- Create an online store: Platforms like Shopify or Wix offer user-friendly options.
- Find a reliable supplier: Use platforms like Spocket to connect with dropshipping suppliers.
- Market your store: Attract customers through social media, advertising, or SEO.
Sell on Amazon FBA
Source products, send them to Amazon’s warehouses, and create listings on their vast marketplace. Once a customer clicks “buy,” Amazon takes care of everything: packaging, shipping, and even customer service. This frees you up to focus on product selection, marketing, and growing your business.
- Earning potential – dependent on sales volume and product margins; potential to earn thousands per month.
- How easy to start – requires creating an Amazon seller account and sourcing products.
Sell Homemade Arts & Crafts
Do you love creating jewelry, pottery, clothing, or home décor? Sell your crafts online to share your unique talents with the world.
- Sell on established marketplaces: Platforms like Etsy or Amazon Handmade connect you with millions of potential customers looking for handcrafted goods.
- Build your own brand: Create your own website to showcase your work and connect directly with customers.
Sell Digital Products
Turn your knowledge and creativity into cash! Create ebooks, online courses, graphic designs, music, printables, templates, stock photos, or anything else downloadable. The beauty? You make them once and sell them over and over, without worrying about inventory or shipping!
- Examples of digital products:
- Ebooks on your area of expertise (cooking, fitness, writing)
- Online courses teaching valuable skills (photography, coding, yoga)
- Graphic design elements like logos, social media templates, or icons
- Music tracks or sound effects for creators
- Printable planners, worksheets, or checklists
- Earning potential: This can vary a lot, but you could earn anywhere from $10 for a simple printable to thousands for a comprehensive video course.
Sell Physical Products via Own Website or Marketplaces
Sell your products on popular marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, or Etsy. These platforms boast millions of potential customers. All you need to do is create listings, set your prices, and watch your audience grow! They handle most of the customer discovery, so you can focus on fulfilling orders and growing your brand.
- Massive reach, minimal effort: Get in front of millions with these established platforms.
- Focus on what matters: You handle shipping, but the legwork of finding customers is done!
- Earning potential: Income can vary greatly, but sellers can make anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a month.
Buy a Product and Sell it Under Your Own Brand (White Label)
You can partner with a manufacturer to create products based on your designs or specifications with white labeling. You’ll then sell those products under your brand name! This lets you focus on the fun parts – marketing, branding, and growing your customer base – while the manufacturer handles the production.
Think of it like this: Imagine you design a line of eco-friendly yoga wear. You find a manufacturer who can create the leggings and sports bras you designed, and then you sell them under your brand, “Yogasana Green.” You control your brand’s look, feel, and message, while the manufacturer takes care of the stitching and sewing.
- Earning potential: This depends on your chosen product, pricing strategy, and marketing efforts. Profit margins can range from modest to significant.
- Getting started: Find reliable manufacturers (many can be found online) and develop a strong brand identity.
Create Content
YouTube
YouTube can be a great way to monetize your hobby and build a community around your interests.
How much can you earn? It depends on several factors, but here’s a breakdown:
- Per subscriber: The exact amount varies, but some estimates suggest YouTubers can earn $0.30 to $3.00 per 1,000 views, with higher engagement leading to more income. This translates to a potential of a few cents to a few dollars per subscriber each month, depending on how often they watch your videos.
- Per view: While subscriber count is important, consistent views are key. You could earn around $0.01 to $0.03 per view, again depending on factors like ad format, viewer location, and content type.
Blog
Blogging lets you express your expertise, experiences, or passion within a specific niche, helping you cultivate a dedicated community. As you attract more visitors, you can monetize your blog through various channels such as advertisements, affiliate marketing, or by selling your products and courses.
Examples:
- Personal Finance Blog: A blogger focusing on personal finance shares tips on saving money, investing, and managing debt. They earn through affiliate links to financial tools and sponsored posts from financial institutions.
- Fitness Blog: A fitness enthusiast blogs about workout routines, healthy eating, and wellness. They monetize their site by selling personalized fitness programs and partnering with sports brands for affiliate marketing.
- Travel Blog: A travel blogger shares their adventures and tips for budget traveling. They generate income through travel gear affiliate links, sponsored accommodation reviews, and selling travel ebooks.
Earning potential: Monthly earnings can range from $100 to over $10,000, largely depending on your blog’s traffic and how effectively you implement monetization strategies.
Podcast
Record podcast episodes, interview guests, or share stories and insights. As your podcast gains listeners, attract sponsors, sell ads, or create branded merchandise.
While podcasting fame doesn’t always translate to fortune (earnings can range from zero to millions!), there are many ways to turn your passion into profit.
Monetization Magic:
- Ad Revenue: This is a common strategy. Advertisers pay a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) based on your download numbers. A podcast with a $25 CPM and 10,000 downloads could earn $250 per ad.
- Sponsorships: Land dream deals like “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which reportedly earns millions per episode through sponsorships.
- Go Beyond Ads: Explore other income streams, such as affiliate marketing, Patreon subscriptions for exclusive content, or selling your own merchandise.
The Key to Unlocking Revenue:
The good news? You don’t need millions of listeners to start earning. Typically, 5,000 downloads per episode can attract advertisers.
Social Media Influencer
Creating engaging content and using relevant hashtags can attract followers interested in your niche or style. As your follower count grows, you can collaborate with brands, promote products, or sell your products and services. This path to monetization is known as influencer marketing.
Earning Potential:
The amount you can earn per sponsored post depends on two key factors:
- Follower Count: Here’s a breakdown of typical earnings based on follower tiers:
- Nano-Influencers (1,000 – 10,000 followers): $10 – $100 per post
- Micro-Influencers (10,000 – 50,000 followers): $100 – $500 per post
- Mid-Tier Influencers (50,000 – 500,000 followers): $500 – $5,000 per post
- Macro-Influencers (500,000 – 1 million followers): $5,000 – $10,000 per post
- Mega-Influencers (1 million+ followers): $10,000 – $1 million+ per post
- Engagement Rate: This metric measures how well your content resonates with your audience. It’s calculated by dividing your follower count by the total number of likes, comments, and shares. Brands value influencers with high engagement rates because it indicates a more targeted and receptive audience.
Become Freelancer
Freelancing offers opportunities to earn money remotely across various fields. Leveraging AI tools can boost productivity and quality, enabling you to handle more projects and increase earnings. AI enhances writing and design tasks but doesn’t replace human creativity.
Success in freelancing with AI involves integrating it with your skills, staying current with technology, and maintaining the human touch in your work. This will help you build strong client relationships and stand out.
Virtual Assistant
As a virtual assistant, you may handle email management, scheduling, data entry, or social media management tasks for businesses or entrepreneurs.
- Earning potential – $10 to $50 per hour, depending on skills and experience.
Graphic Designer
You may work on projects such as designing a company’s logo, creating marketing materials, or illustrating a children’s book.
- Earning potential – $25 to $200+ per hour, based on experience and project complexity.
Web Developer
This may involve creating a simple landing page, building a complex e-commerce site, or developing a custom web application based on the client’s requirements.
- Earning potential – $15 to $150+ per hour, depending on the complexity of the work and expertise.
Data Entry Specialist
This may include tasks such as transcribing audio files, updating databases, or categorizing spreadsheet information.
- Earning potential – $5 to $20 per hour, depending on the complexity and volume of work.
Social Media Manager
Craft engaging content, schedule posts strategically, and analyze results to help brands flourish. You’ll manage follower interactions, build relationships, and develop winning social media strategies to supercharge brand awareness and engagement.
- Earning potential – $15 to $100+ per hour, depending on experience and the scale of operations.
Online Tutor
Tutor students in various subjects – math, science, languages, test prep, and more – using online tools like video conferencing and learning platforms. This lets you share your knowledge and make a difference, all from the comfort of your own space.
- Earning potential – $10 to $25 per hour, depending on the subject and level of expertise.
Writer
Craft various written content for clients, adapting your skills to their needs. This could include articles, press releases, product descriptions, or captivating marketing copy – whatever helps their brand shine.
- Earning potential – $0.05 to $1 per word, depending on the niche and experience.
Consultant
As a consultant, you may help clients with business strategy, financial planning, marketing, or personal development, depending on your expertise.
- Earning potential – $20 to $300+ per hour, depending on expertise and demand.
Create Software
No Code
No-code tools are revolutionizing the industry, allowing anyone with a great idea to build and launch a software product!
What is no-code? Platforms like Bubble.io offer intuitive interfaces that make building websites, apps, and even automation workflows possible without writing a single line of code. Simply drag, drop, and configure pre-built elements to bring your vision to life.
Earning Potential:
The beauty of no-code development is the flexibility in monetization. You can choose a project-based approach, building software for clients, or create products with a recurring revenue model, like subscriptions or in-app purchases.
How Easy to Start?
No-code offers a lower barrier to entry than traditional coding, but there’s still a learning curve. You’ll need to invest time in understanding the no-code platform’s functionalities and potentially finding clients or building a marketable product.
Mobile Apps
The booming mobile app market is your playground! Here’s how you can turn your concept into a profitable venture:
What Apps Can You Create?
- Utility Apps: Design apps like “Evernote” for note-taking, “Mint” for budgeting, or “MyFitnessPal” for health tracking.
- Games: Develop engaging games like “Angry Birds” for casual gamers or “Clash of Clans” for strategy enthusiasts.
- Niche Apps: Create specialized apps tailored to specific needs, like “Duolingo” for language learners or “Rover” for pet owners looking for dog walking services.
Ways to Monetize:
- Ad-Supported: Consider how apps like “Spotify” offer free music streaming with ads, earning revenue each time an ad is played.
- Freemium: Provide a free basic app with options to buy premium features, similar to how “Dropbox” offers free storage with paid upgrades for more space.
- Paid Downloads: Charge users to download your app, suitable for apps that deliver substantial value upfront, such as “Procreate,” a popular drawing app.
SAAS
SAAS (Software as a Service) products are centrally hosted and accessed by users through the internet, typically on a subscription basis. You can develop SAAS solutions for various industries, such as project management, customer relationship management, or e-commerce.
- Earning potential – varies; can range from a recurring monthly fee per user to large-scale enterprise contracts.
- How easy to start – requires developing a software product and setting up a payment system.
Start Small Business
Food Based Business
The food industry offers many business opportunities, allowing you to turn your culinary passion into profit. Here are some ideas to get you started, catering to different scales and skillsets:
- Small-Scale Gems:
- Market Marvels: Sell homemade jams, pickles, artisan breads, or decadent desserts at local farmers markets. This allows you to test the waters, receive direct customer feedback, and build a loyal following.
- Mobile Munchies: Hit the streets with a food truck! Specialize in a unique cuisine or offer creative twists on classic dishes. Food trucks provide flexibility and cater to on-the-go customers.
- Party Pleasers: Become a home-based caterer, whipping up delicious meals for birthday parties, office gatherings, or small weddings. This option requires planning skills and a focus on presentation and taste.
- Established Enterprises
- Restaurants: This classic business model offers many possibilities, from casual cafes to fine-dining establishments. Before diving in, consider your target audience, theme, and level of service (full-service vs. fast-food).
Beyond these, the food industry offers diverse options like:
- Grocery stores: Cater to a wider audience by providing various food and household products.
- Coffee shops: Become a local hangout, serving hot beverages, pastries, and light meals.
- Bakeries: Specialize in breads, cakes, cookies, or focus on gluten-free or allergen-friendly options.
- Food manufacturers: Produce large quantities of food products for supermarkets and retailers. (Requires significant investment and resources)
- Wineries, Breweries & Distilleries: Craft and sell unique alcoholic beverages, following licensing and production regulations.
Start Service Based Business
In a service-based business, you leverage your skills and expertise to directly help clients directly, providing solutions and completing tasks for them in exchange for a fee. This allows you to be your own boss and build a fulfilling career based on your passions and talents.
- Home Services: This category offers many options, from the handy to the helpful. Think general handyman services, plumbing or electrical repairs, furniture assembly, appliance installation, or even home organization solutions.
- Lawn & Garden Care: Got a green thumb? Put it to work! Offer lawn mowing, edging, trimming, seasonal clean-up, or even specialize in services like garden bed maintenance or tree trimming.
- Pet Care: The pet care industry is booming for animal lovers! Consider mobile pet grooming, dog walking services, pet sitting, or pet training sessions.
- Cleaning Services: There’s always a demand for a sparkling clean home or office. Offer residential or commercial cleaning services, with options like deep cleaning, carpet cleaning, or move-in/move-out cleaning.
- Personal Services: Do you have a talent for making people look or feel their best? Explore options like personal styling consultations, makeup artistry, hair braiding services, or mobile massage therapy.
- Event Services: Help people celebrate life’s special occasions! Offer event planning services, party entertainment (think DJs, magicians, or face painters), catering services, or event photography.
- Technology Services: Are you a tech whiz? Offer computer repair services, data recovery solutions, website maintenance or social media management for businesses.
- Creative Services: Turn your creative talents into a business! Offer graphic design services, photography sessions, writing or editing services, or even social media content creation.
Open Small Retail Store
Open a physical store that sells products directly to customers. This could involve selling clothing, accessories, home goods, or specialty items in a brick-and-mortar shop.
- How easy to start – requires finding a suitable location, obtaining necessary permits and licenses, purchasing inventory, and setting up the store. The time it takes to start earning money depends on the complexity of the business and the time needed to set up, which can range from a few months to a year or more.
