60 Awesome Ways to Make Money without a Job
Last Updated January 22, 2018 (This post
may contain affiliate links.)
Unique and practical ways YOU can make
money while unemployed...Do you think you need a “job” to make money?
What if you can’t find a job?
The fact is, the job market we rely on to
make that money is not looking that great.
A struggling economy has lead to a severe
lack of jobs.
Although the job market as a whole is doing
much better – we went from an unemployment rate of 9.5% in 2007 to just under
5% in 2017 – there are still tens of thousands of us who can’t get a job.
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People who enjoyed relative security
throughout their lives now find themselves in a tough spot where they can’t
even afford to pay their monthly bills.
It doesn’t look much better for the people
who are just getting into the workforce (students, high school drop outs,
college grads, etc) either.
But somehow, many of the same people manage
to stay afloat without a traditional job.
Sure, some are digging into their savings.
Some have friends and family to support
them.
But there are also many who are actually
making a living without a 9 to 5 job.
Most of the opportunities these folks are
using to make a living from wouldn’t even exist without the internet and what
it has made possible – like the sharing economy.
There is money to be made, even if you
don’t have a job.
For some, it won’t quite match their old
salary and what they used to make, or are still making at their day job.
For others, the money they make could be
way more than what they could have ever dreamed of.
But the question is…
Can YOU make enough money to pay your bills
without a job?
The answer depends on many factors.
But if we are asking whether it’s actually
possible or not, the answer is a definite YES.
There are hundreds of thousands of people
who are making a comfortable living online – eCommerce site owners, Bloggers,
Freelancers, Affiliate Marketers, Entrepreneurs….
Obviously, not everyone is going to be able
to make a living, nor is everyone trying to.
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For a lot of people, the goal is to make a
little extra money.
The good news is that no matter which group
you belong to, there are many opportunities for you to try.
Now the amount of money you can make on the
internet (or with opportunities that are available as a direct result of the
internet) is only limited by what you can do, how familiar you are with doing
it, and whether or not you’re comfortable promoting yourself and what you do.
For example, there are bloggers who are
making 7 figures, so you can imagine that the bar is set quite high in terms of
what is possible.
On the flip side, there are people working
on the internet who are making a few dollars a day.
There are also tons of people in between,
making a few hundred dollars a month.
Disparities in income are the same on the
internet as they are in real life – it’s a matter of supply and demand.
A quick reminder
Before we begin, please remember that we
made this list with a wide variety of people in mind.
It is incredibly unlikely that every option
on this list will be a good fit for you.
That’s why we compiled a very large list so
everyone can find a few options that may interest them.
Feel free to try as many of these
opportunities as you like.
But don’t spread yourself too thin.
Pick a few and put all your efforts behind
them so you can get results.
Don’t get bugged down with the shiny object
syndrome. That is one reason why so many people fail to make money online. They
keep jumping from one thing to another without ever giving one 100%. They then
conclude that this is all a myth and that making money online nothing but scam.
Earning money without a job on the internet
We are going to list over 60 ways that you
can make money without a traditional job.
We are going to start with online
opportunities, then we’ll cover options for making money without a job,
offline.
1- Take online surveys
Taking surveys for money is bay far the
best way for most people to make a little side income in their free time.
It doesn’t require any experience or
investment.
It’s totally free to join any legit survey
site.
These sites conduct online surveys on
behalf of companies and manufacturers who use the feedback you provide to
improve or develop new products.
In return for your time and input, you are
rewarded with cash, gift cards, and other prizes.
It’s not unheard of to make a few hundred
dollars a month with surveys.
The way to do that is by joining a few
dozen legit panels so you can have access to a lot of paid survey
opportunities.
If you only want cash, there are survey
sites that pay cash (via PayPal.)
Sites to use:
OpinionOutpost
SurveySavvy
SurveySpot
Valued Opinions
2- Get cash from Class Action Lawsuits
Yes, you can get free money from the
hundreds and thousands of class action lawsuits that are brought on companies
every year.
But how do you find these lawsuits, and
what if you don’t even have a proof that you have used the said company’s
product or service which qualifies you for the settlement?
Good news is that there are sites out there
dedicated to listing all the class action lawsuits that are still open.
And the better news is that many of these
cases don’t require a proof of purchase. For example, if you have ever drank
RedBull, you get up to $15 through a class action lawsuit brought on the
company because of their slogan “RedBull Gives You Wings”.
Sites to use:
ClassActionRebates.com
EnergyDrinkSettlement.com
3- Sell old books
I have personally done this many times.
The beauty of this method is that most of
us already have lots of books that we no longer need or use. Selling them can
be a great sources of extra income.
And if you want to take a step further, you
could hit your local thrift shops, buy used books for pennies, then sell them
for $5, $10, and even up to $100 or more depending on the book.
What makes this process even easier is the
existence of sites and apps like BookScouter.
Simply install their app, then scan any
book’s ISBN with it, you will instantly be given the highest prices you can
sell that book for online. BookScouter searches over 40 buy-back-book sites to
find you the highest price.
Sites to use:
BookScouter
Cash4Books
4- Get paid to test websites
User testing is a real thing!
In order to test the functionality and
user-friendliness of their website, many businesses pay people to simply visit
their site and test the various functionalities of it.
Of course finding clients on your own is
almost impossible, which is why sites like Usertesting are there.
You can sign up for free, then whenever
they have a new site to be tested, you will be notified.
You visit the said site, then report back
with your experience.
The pay differs from site to site, but
Usertesting pays $10 flat for every site review you complete.
Sites to use:
Usertesting.com
StartUpLift
TryMYUI
5- Participate in mock trials
There are websites that conduct mock trials
on behalf of their clients, which are mostly lawyers.
These lawyers want to know how their case
might go when they are in the actual courtroom facing the judge and the jury.
So, to get a sense for it, and adjust their
strategy accordingly, they use mock trial sites to present their case in front
of an online jury.
You can get paid to become a jury in such
trials.
Sites to use:
eJury
OnlineVerdict.com
Trial Juries
6- Start a blog
For those of you who don’t know, blogging
is when you write for your own website, usually posting articles, recipes,
reviews, or commentary (with the website itself being the “blog.”)
Think of it like writing articles for a
newspaper that you’re the sole proprietor of.
Believe it or not, blogging is actually a
very strong opportunity for making money, as we mentioned up above regarding
the top bloggers.
In the past, the primary obstacle for
hosting a blog would have been obtaining a domain to host the blog, but now
there are platforms dedicated solely to blogging, like WordPress, which make it
easier than ever to get into the game and start a money-making blog in no time.
Blogging is a great investment in terms of
time and money because an article you wrote for 4 hours will be up and available
for viewing for as long as your site lives.
Furthermore, it requires essentially no
money to keep going but has the potential to make you plenty of money.
There is too much to say about blogging to
fit into this article, but if you like the sound of it, definitely do some
searches and read up on it.
Even if you’re not comfortable with the
idea of running a blog, you can still get paid to write for someone else’s.
Sites to use:
WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Tumblr
Note: These are free blagging platforms
that allow you to build a site quickly and for free. Start with these, get a
feel for how this whole blogging thing works, then you can move on and buy your
own domain name and hosting. At that point, I would suggest you build your blog
using WordPress (this is the .org version of it which is for self-hosted
sites).
7- Be an affiliate marketer
If you’re not familiar with affiliate
marketing, it means that you’ll advertise something in return for a commission
on the sales. This is essentially a sales job that can be done by the
introverted and the extroverted alike, since it doesn’t require that you
actually interface with people on a personal basis.
Affiliate marketing is usually a way that
people prefer to advertise their product because it feels more organic, and
people are more likely to purchase something that they don’t feel has been
explicitly advertised to them.
Affiliate marketing is usually tied to
blogging, as a blog is an ideal place to do something like write a review of a
product and provide a link to the product at the end.
Some affiliate marketers are paid simply to
drive traffic and don’t need to make sales, but as a rule of thumb, you should
be trying to drive sales in the least “advertisey” way possible.
Sites to use:
ClickBank
CommissionJunction
MaxBounty
8- Work as a VA (Virtual Assistant)
Working as a virtual assistant, explained
simply, is like being a secretary from your house.
A variety of people will be wanting
assistance for whatever they do, whether they write research articles or run an
online business, and that’s where you come in as a virtual assistant.
You should expect to be doing
administrative work as a virtual assistant, so be prepared to employ skills
like email response, data entry, examination of facts and organization of
information.
It’s as simple as being, well, of
assistance to your employer, but you’ll almost definitely need some customer
service skills. Keep that in mind if you’d prefer a more “back of the house”
position.
Sites to use:
Zirtual
VirtualAssistantJobs.com
VirtualAssistants.com
9- Telecommute
Despite the fancy name, telecommuting is as
simple as it comes. A telecommuter is simply someone who does what would be
done in a normal office job, but they do it from home.
It can be in a variety of industries,
advertising or administration or anything else.
What jobs can be done via telecommuting are
more about what companies are offering telecommuting jobs than about what can
be done at a distance.
In the internet age, virtually every job
can be done from home.
Whether you’re coding software, coming up
with advertising, if you’re an artist or a writer or a manager, it can likely
be done from home. Even board meetings can be done via communications software
like Skype.
Do a quick Google search for Telecommuting
jobs and you’re sure to find some websites that will help you get going.
Sites to use:
FlexJobs
VirtualVocations
Forbes list of 100 companies offering telecommuting jobs
10- Design and sell shirts
Personally, I still can’t believe how easy
this option is.
There are a wealth of websites that are
dedicated to t-shirt design, which is an emerging internet industry.
Here’s how it works…
First, you sign up for the site (which is always
free.)
Then you can use their design interface to
design a T-shirt.
It’ll have a variety of options, like
choosing the cut of the shirt (crew, women’s, v-neck, etc,) choosing a font,
font size, font color, shirt color.
You can usually take images from your
computer and put them on the shirt, and you can usually design a front and a
back for the shirt.
Different companies have different
limitations for what you can and can’t do.
Either way, when you’re finished designing
the shirt you’ll set a sales goal and a sales price, both of which will affect
how much the company will pay you per shirt sold.
Then you go out, and advertise the shirt
and try to get people to buy it. If you reach your sales goal, the shirts will
be printed, distributed, and you will be paid for your work.
It costs NOTHING to design the shirts; the
companies make enough money from the sales to pay you for the work and still
keep a tidy profit.
The only obstacle is the actual advertising
and sales.
Past that, it’s all profit for little work.
So, if you’ve got the skills to drive
purchases and advertise in an unobtrusive way, you should seriously check this
out.
Sites to use:
Threadless
DesignByHumans
TeeFury
TeeSpring
11- Sell your talent (even the bizarre and
crazy ones!)
Fiverr is a service where you offer your
skill for a flat rate of $5.
Something like, “I’ll do a 30-second
recording in an Australian accent.”
The person contacts you, you do the work,
and you get paid ($4 per job, actually, because the site keeps $1.)
This is a good option, but only if you have
a skill that you are capable of doing in mass.
You might want to consider doing this if
you’re trying to build a portfolio for something so that you can move up
eventually and charge more for your services.
For those in western countries, the income
from Fiverr might not be quite enough. But if you live somewhere with a lower
cost of living, and you can do a high volume of business, then the money from
this site can add up to something pretty significant.
Sites to use:
Fiverr
SEOClerks
GigBucks
Fourerr
12- Get paid for expert advice
Are you someone with a high level of
knowledge about a certain topic?
There are a variety of websites that are
willing to pay you for your expertise.
The general format is that a question will
be posed to an expert, and you’ll provide your answer. If the asker approves
your answer, they’ll pay out, and the site will give you your cut after
intermediary fees.
You could be looking at making $10-$20 per
accepted answer, so the money can definitely add up.
However, they’re pretty serious about the
idea of an “expert.” So you’re going to need to go through an application
process to join their ranks, and they might require details like thorough work
history, college degrees, etc. But if you’re capable of providing proof of
expertise, this is a great way to make some side money.
Sites to use:
AllExperts (Update: they are no longer paying their experts. You can,
however, answer questions as a volunteer.)
JustAnswer
Ether
13- Write for cash
As you might imagine, being a writer is a
dream job for many people.
The internet provides a lot of
opportunities to be a paid writer, and a portion of those people are able to
rise to prominence and make a solid living from the profession. But even if
not, you can almost definitely make good side-money for being a writer.
This is related to blogging, but not
strictly limited to it.
Writers can get paid for any type of
writing, but sites like WritersDomain will often offer you a topic and a price
and ask you to write an article with a certain word limit.
Sites like that are a good way to get
started, but if you’re looking to get more serious about writing, you should
pursue a more long-term situation by finding clients through a site like oDesk
or eLance.
It is recommended for anyone looking to be
a full-time writer to manage multiple types of writing, like writing for
clients, writing for a blog, and potentially using their writing skills to pursue
affiliate marketing.
Sites to use:
WritersDomain
About.com
Demand Studios
iWriter.com
14- Write an e-Book
Lots of people have begun putting out
e-books for supplemental income (or in cases of great success, primary income!)
An “e-book” just refers to the idea that it
is published through an electronic book vendor, like Amazon’s Kindle and Nook
services.
Many e-books are rushed out in absolutely
terrible condition; they might contain factual errors, spelling errors,
formatting errors, syntactical errors- the list goes on. You can set yourself
above the rest by putting more work into the presentation of the book.
A good cover will help you out a lot, as
will producing a work of quality rather than quantity. You can find plenty of
bad e-books that are making a little bit of money, but if you want the big
bucks, you should really buckle down, and maybe even consider hiring an editor.
Conversely, you may be able to find work on
the freelancing sites where you can get paid to write people’s e-books for
them!
Sites to Use (to publish your e-books on):
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
NookPress
Payhip
Smashwords
PubIt!
15- Do Micro Freelancing
Although micro freelancing is a form of
freelancing, I wanted to give it its own section since it has been growing
tremendously in the last few years.
The main difference here is that tasks are
normally very small and easy to complete. Accordingly, the pay, of course, is
lower as well.
Sites to use:
Amazon Mechanical Turk
RapidWorkers
MicroWorkers
SamaSource
16- Get paid to post on forums
This one is nice and simple.
People who are starting new forums online
often need a way to build the notoriety of their website, and one way of doing
this is to hire people to make quality posts on their forums to draw attention
to them.
A good hub for this type of work is the
aptly-named paidforumposting.com, who employ a select number of writers who are
contracted out to websites to do the posting.
It is definitely a sort of side-income, but
multiple types of side-income add up to primary income, so it’s still worth
looking into.
Sites to use:
PaidForumPosting.com
17- Get paid to search
This is a very, very minor way to get
rewards, but we’ll still give it a mention.
There are sites, like Bing Rewards, that
have rewards programs that will track points towards rewards for every search
you make (there is a daily limit to the points to prevent spamming.)
The rewards are given in the form of gift
cards and the like. So this won’t be making you direct money, but it will
offset some of the costs you may already have.
That’s a roundabout way of getting money.
And even a roundabout way will help!
You can read my Swagbucks review here for
more details.
Sites to use:
BingRewards
SwagBucks
18- Get paid to surf the web
Using this method will be another VERY
small-earner.
To me its waste of time, nonetheless, it’s
a legit opportunity.
The PTS (paid to surf) business model was
more popular around the turn of the century than it is now, but there are still
ways to get paid for it today.
A website like paymentsurf.com will gladly
pay you for surfing the web, or more specifically, by visiting their sponsor’s
websites.
The business model is mostly a circular way
for businesses to drive traffic to their site.
You can make around $10 in a day (that’s
the cap limit,) usually for around an hour of work.
The websites may ask you to buy into them
to increase your earnings, but I would recommend that you simply make the money
for surfing and leave it at that.
Sites to use:
PaymentSurf
19- Make videos
Virtually everyone everywhere is using
YouTube on a regular basis.
Especially over the last few years, being a
“YouTuber” has become a legitimate profession and one that earns money far and
above a regular job if you can rise to prominence.
The top 10 channels on YouTube make at
least $20,000 a month, and that’s not even considering how much they are
capable of making in merch sales, or under-the-table endorsement type deals.
The phenomenon of “Let’s Play,” or videos
of people playing video games while talking, has become massive and there are
hundreds of thousands of people trying to break through on it.
The website TwitchTV is also an example of
the rising prevalence of Let’s Plays. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing video
games, or music, or talking, as long as what you’re doing is interesting and
people want to watch it.
Let’s be clear, though: becoming a
successful YouTuber requires work, luck, and diligence, so the idea of being a
full-time video maker is more of an exception than a rule. However, if you can
make a few videos and get some subscribers, it can be a great secondary source
of income.
You may also consider uploading to a site
like Break, which offers a higher split of the advertising money (but has a
much smaller audience.)
Sites to use:
YouTube
Break.com
TwitchTV
20- Become a beta tester
There are websites looking for people to
give feedback on products, usually before they are finalized.
A site like SoftwareJudge will pay you to
test software and then respond with a survey or written feedback about what you
experienced.
If you’re looking for something more in the
way of beta testing, you can check out Erli Bird for beta testing jobs.
Erli Bird is a website that asks you to
record your session with software and then submit a written request.
These beta tests can be for video games,
apps, software, and other kinds of products.
These things will usually offer something
like $10 per opportunity, which isn’t bad considering it’s only 30 minutes or
an hour of work.
Sites to use:
SoftwareJudge
Erli Bird
Utest
21- Complete offers for cash
Well, this one is more of a method of
mitigating loss than of making money, but it makes sense to take advantage of,
as you’ll see.
There are such things as GPT (get paid to)
sites that will offer you money in return for taking advantage of opportunities
that their sponsors offer.
Surely, there are some GPT tasks that don’t
require any purchase, you might be asked to subscribe to a newsletter or
provide your traffic to a website. But you also might be asked to do something
like try a trial of a service or purchase a month of something, and in that
case, you’ll need to put money towards the task. The GPT site will reimburse
you in whatever form they compensate through.
This is a good method for something like
getting a Netflix account. If you’re going to get one, and don’t have one, you
might as well find a GPT site that gives you cash back for it, and recoup a
little bit of the cost by taking advantage of it.
Sites to use:
CashCrate
InboxDollars
SendEarnings
QuickRewards
22- Install software
Now, there are two ways to get money for
installing software and they’re totally different.
The one you’re most likely to find
opportunities for is a form of affiliate marketing, where you post the download
link to the software on your website and get paid per person who installs it.
That’s option one.
Option two is helping people who don’t
understand computers very well to install software. That one is obviously the
preferable option, but it’s a market that has been mostly cornered by services
like the Geek Squad (and they’re charging a fortune to do it!)
If you happen to come across anybody who
needs this service, just charge less than the Geek Squad, and you’ll still be
able to make good money for very little work.
Sites to use:
InstallMonetizer
PerInstallCash
23- Sell virtual property
Are you a gamer, perchance?
If you are, there is a way to make money,
and good money at that, that is exclusive to just you!
There is a fortune to be made selling
virtual properties.
If you’ve ever heard of the online game
Second Life, it’s something that people get incredibly invested in and treat
as, well, a second life.
Ansche Chung is probably the most famous
person to have ever benefited from this method, who became a millionaire by
repeatedly selling land and houses on Second Life!
Yes, a millionaire from playing games, and
that’s no joke.
People have also been known to do this for
characters on World of Warcraft and can make upwards of a few hundred thousand
a year.
It’s important to note these people created
their own whole system for maximizing their ability to produce high-level
characters/worthwhile properties.
There is a market for it, though, and if
you’re good with systems and repetitive tasks, this is something you can
accomplish.
Sites to use:
Planet Calypso
Entropia Universe
Second Life
24- Run a virtual storefront
Lots of people have become online
entrepreneurs by hosting their sales business on a hub website, like Etsy.
If you have the ability to produce some
type of tangible good, like clothes, accessories, art, then you can run a
virtual storefront, too.
This is just a way to organize a business
without having to start your own website, essentially.
After setting up the storefront and
producing the products you’re going to sell, all you have to do is drive
traffic on over to it and make sure you keep a good relationship with your
customers.
This is just classic business in virtual
form.
Sites to use:
Etsy
Cafe Press
Zazzle
ArtFire
25- Share files
Now, this is admittedly a bit of a
tight-lipped service, so I can’t tell you the exact ins and outs of it all. But
there does exist a whole market out there where you can get paid to upload
files to file sharing services, and you’ll get paid either per upload or per
download.
The payout is usually $1 per down/upload,
but some sites advertise the possibility of $5-$20 per.
It’s hard to talk too much about it,
because there is the possibility that the files that are uploaded and shared
might be breaching some sort of copyright, and that’s some dicey stuff to get
into.
But if you’re willing to look into it, you
can find plenty of resources to read about it online.
Sites to use:
DocStoc
ShareCash
DepositFiles
26- Work as a translator
In our rising global culture, there is more
need than ever to have documents translated from one language to another. This
isn’t just limited to documents, of course; people are going to want audio,
video, and even images to be translated.
If you are bilingual (the more languages
you speak, the better) there is a wealth of work available for you online.
Freelancing sites like oDesk regularly see
this type of work advertised, but Gengo is a website that specializes in
employing translators.
Your abilities of translation are valuable,
so don’t be afraid to look around!
Once you build up some skills and
experience, you can charge a pretty fair wage for this service.
Sites to use:
Gengo
Proz
Traduguide
Making money offline without work
So there’s the list of opportunities that
can be done mostly or exclusively online. But if you’re not into that form of
work, rejoice!
We’ve got plenty more options for you
listed below on ways that can help you earn money around town.
27- Become a ghost shopper
There’s a pretty fair chance you’ve never
heard of ghost shopping.
Ghost shopping is a service that people
seek out when they’re low on time but have cash to spare. It means that someone
will send you out to do their shopping for them, and then you will deliver it
to them in return for a small fee.
Now, a Google search for this term offers
some confusion because it mostly lists “mystery shopping,” which is a different
service we will discuss below.
It’s safe to assume that this is mostly a
person-to-person activity, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use it to build up
your client base so you can expand it to a nice little side business
And if you run it as a business, the
legitimacy will make people more comfortable sending you out into the world
with their money.
Helpful resources:
Starting a Business as a Personal Shopper – Entrepreneur
28- Street perform (Busking)
If you have any kind of “entertainer’s”
skill, you can definitely make some money doing it on the street.
In fact, guitar players who play in heavily
foot-trafficked sections of the city during peak hours have been known to make
up to 2 or 3 thousand in a day!
Of course, that’s not what you should be
expecting to make, but it gives you an idea of how the money can add up.
On the other hand, you need to be careful
of your local ordinance and the laws about street performance, in a lot of
places you’ll need to buy a permit from city hall.
If you aren’t having any luck with it, try
the next town over. The truth of the matter is just that some towns have a
different reception to it than others.
Helpful resources:
10 Busking Tips for Musicians – DIY Musician Blog
29- Be a dog walker
Amazingly, walking dogs for people can
actually be a full-time job.
Obviously, it helps if you are an animal
lover.
, If you charge a fair rate per dog, $10 or
so, and you stack up 7 or so customers in a day, then now you’re looking at
some actual job wages.
Seasoned dog walkers stack up multiple sets
of dogs a day, and walk multiple batches.
It’ll require a little bit of handling
skill on your part, but it’s a real way to get money out of such a simple task.
Consider asking your customers if they are
alright with their dogs being walked alongside other dogs, just in case they
have any strong feelings on the matter.
Helpful resources:
Start a Professional Dog Walking Business – DogWalker.com
10 Ways to Become a Successful Dog Walker – Care.com
30- Take and sell stock photos
You may have never looked for stock photos
online, but if you have, you certainly noticed that the prices are quite steep.
There is a serious cost involved with using
stock photos for commercial purposes, but if you’re doing business, there’s no
way around it.
You can be the person who’s taking and
selling those stock photos, and you’ll get a commission each time one of them
is downloaded.
Other sites will pay you a flat fee for the
photo itself.
There is one rule of thumb: the rates for
either option aren’t great, so you’ll be wanting to take a lot of pictures.
Stock photos are of a studio-quality almost
by definition, so this is mostly an option for people who are already
photographers or know a photographer.
Sites to use:
ShutterStock.com
DreamsTime.com
iStock Photo
Flickr Collection on Getty Images
31- Sell some of your stuff
Yes, this one is as straightforward as they
come!
If you need money, the simplest way to get
it is to sell something.
There are lots of ways to do it, classified
ads, Craigslist, eBay, etc.
Notice that we consider this a distinct
option from pawni because pawning implies that you may come back for it when
money is less tight. We’ll discuss that below.
When you sell something, you should always
look around for prices that people charge for similar items.
You’re going to have a hard time selling
that DVD player for $50 bucks if there is a $10 one online.
Always price according to demand.
If you are selling something you consider
really rare or valuable, do the research and consider selling it through a
specialty site.
Antiques, for example, should be sold to
antique-lovers specifically. Anyone else won’t value it as highly.
Sites to use:
Craigslist
eBay
Amazon
32- Pawn
There is something of a stigma against
pawning in today’s world.
And it’s true that nobody wants to part
with the things they hold dear, but pawning certainly isn’t all bad.
In its basic form, pawning is just
receiving a loan where you provide your possessions for liability.
There is interest on the loan, of course,
but it is also a loan that you can get on-demand without any messing about with
credit history or things of that nature.
In my singular experience with pawning, the
clerks were sincere, honest, and very clear about what the terms were. It
doesn’t have to be as bad as it seems, and if you’re in need of the money it’s
really a decent and civil option.
If your financial woes are temporary, you
can always come back for it, after all.
Helpful resources:
Pawn Shop 101: What to Know Before You Pawn – Fox Business
33- Donate Eggs/Sperm
At the risk of sounding callous, being paid
to donate sperm seems like something you’d get people lining up around the
block for!
That’s true in a sense, because sperm
donors have a very stringent selection process, and only 7% of applicants or so
are selected.
They’ll be examining your family’s medical
history, your medical history, your lifestyle, and anything else you could
think of that might affect the quality of your sperm.
The donation is on their terms, and your
viability to donate is at all times tentative.
You can make around $40 per donation.
For the ladies, you have a much more
difficult but much more rewarding option – donating your eggs.
Donating eggs is not nearly as pleasant of
a process as donating sperm, and will require a harsh drug regimen and testing
for 3 to 5 weeks.
It will be a significant undertaking.
However, it has the higher reward – An egg
donor can easily expect to make $3000 or so from a donation.
There have been stories of people who were
searching for the “perfect” egg donor and were prepared to make audacious
demands, like that the donor be a valedictorian!
However, in these cases, the donors have
been reported to make $50,000-$200,000.
Nobody’s going to pay that much for sperm,
that’s for sure!
Sites to Use (to find local centers for
paid donation):
SpermBankDirectory.com
TheWorldEggBank.com
34- Apply to be on a game show
OK, I know what you’re thinking. That
sounds crazy, right? I might as well tell you to win the lottery.
Well, getting onto a game show isn’t as
crazy as it seems. Only certain people will apply to be on a game show.
You’ll have to be comfortable being on
camera, for one, and be willing to get to a studio and be there for 12 or more
hours, maybe even staking out overnight if the applicants are decided by who
arrives when.
If you’re the brainy type, apply to be on
Jeopardy and see if you can pass the applications.
If you’re better at guessing, consider the
Price Is Right, or maybe Family Feud.
It’ll depend on where you are and where it
is filmed, but if you can spare the money to catch a plane, you can apply to
any of them.
This option is far more grounded and
realistic if you give it an honest try and are diligent about it.
Game Shows to Apply for:
Jeopardy
Wheel of Fortune
Who Want to Be a Millionaire
The Price is Right
Wipeout
35- Try your hand at pet sitting
Much like the dog walking option, this is
best is you are good with animals (some might say it is necessary.)
The difference in this and walking dogs is
that walking the dogs is an active task which requires more energy but is over
more quickly. Pet sitting is a more passive sort of task, but it is also
something that requires more time, often occurring overnight or across a series
of days.
If you’re interested in this option,
DogVacay.com will allow you to make a profile, set a rate, and advertise to
people in the area.
It’s best to pitch yourself as someone who
is familiar with and fond of animals because these people obviously care a lot
about their pets.
Most people will prefer to have someone
watch their pet who has a yard of their own.
Sites to use:
DogVacay
36- Hold a garage sale
A garage sale is technically the same as
selling your stuff, like listed above, but has a strictly lower price point.
The thing about a garage sale is that items
are priced to move. You’re not trying to recoup a solid 50%-75% of your
original cost, think more like 15% or less.
It’s more important to sell something for a
low cost than not at all, as far as a garage sale.
If you have something you’re trying to
catch a high price for, sell it online instead.
Helpful resources:
How to make more money at a garage sale – TODAY
Having a Successful Yard Sale – Yard Sale Queen
37- Mow lawns
Another classic, but equally valid as all
the options here.
Western nations are very fond of their
yards and lawns, so you have a high rate of potential customers concerning
this.
Of course, many areas will have been
accounted for by now, as gardening is a pretty big business (and an easy one to
grow at that.)
You can get your foot in the door by
figuring out the local rates and undercutting them. After all, the gardening
companies in your area are also trying to pay the owner and the administrative
costs in addition to the employees.
If you come in offering the service for
half of that, then you can easily score some business and keep a tidy profit.
Offer pruning and trimming services for the
other foliage around the house if you want to make a little extra, but make
sure you’re capable of doing it well!
Helpful resources:
Guide to Earning Money Lawn-Mowing – Mother Earth News
38- Be a mystery shopper
Remember up above when we talked about
ghost shopping?
Well, here’s the form of paid shopping that
people are more familiar with.
A mystery shopper is hired by a customer to
go to an establishment and interact like a normal customer, except when you
leave you’ll be giving a report on the state of the establishment, the behavior
of the employees, and the quality of the service that you received.
You will often be paid a rate in return,
and some businesses will cover the cost of the shopping you had to do while
there.
A quick Google search will direct you to a
few companies that hire mystery shoppers. There is a high demand for people who
can attend theaters, and your demographic information will be important.
Sites to use:
Best Mark
Experience Exchange
Market Force
Sinclair Customer Metrics
IntelliShop
39- Shoveling snow – Raking leaves
This is a seasonal, regionally dependent version
of the lawn care option up above.
If you live in a part of the country where
it snows, you already know that having snow on your sidewalks, driveways, and
lawns can be a huge pain.
Most people don’t want to wake up early to
clear it all out of the way, and that’s where you come in.
Depending on how quickly you can work,
charging $10-$20 a yard can be a great boon to you. A larger yard will justify
a higher rate.
If you get really into it, you can invest
in a snow blower and greatly increase the rate at which you can work, which
will allow you to take more customers and, in turn, make more money.
These same rules apply to raking leaves.
If you’re raking leaves, you can also bring
a ladder and offer an extra gutter cleaning service. Just be careful while
you’re up there, self-employment has no workman’s comp!
Helpful resources:
How to Make Money Shoveling Snow – MoneyPantry
40- Do sign twirling
Not technically limited to “twirling,”
you’ve definitely seen someone around town standing with an arrow-shaped sign,
indicating a nearby business.
It’s a favored profession of the youth and
the elderly alike and can pay you minimum wage or maybe even a little above.
Some people make it extra easy on
themselves by having stands that hold the sign, and they just wobble them
about, and others get very into it and learn to do dances and tricks.
Either way, you’ll be making the $10 an
hour, though you may have to wear a silly costume.
It is said that the more enthusiastic
twirlers will receive bonuses, though!
Helpful resources:
How to Hold Up Signs on the Street & Get Paid – Chron.com
41- Participate in clinical trials
Clinics of dental and medical varieties are
constantly looking for people to participate in their studies and tests, and
you can be compensated for being one of those people.
Generally, you’ll have to sign a release
form accepting the consequences of the trial itself, so this is a task for
those who are not afraid of that possibility.
Hospitals and universities are also a good
place to seek out this type of money-making opportunity.
For a detailed article on this topic that
includes a list of places you can go to participate, read making money as a
human guinea pig.
Sites to use:
ClinicalTrials.gov
Guinea Pigs Get Paid
42- Cook
Yes, another basic sort of option.
The thing is about these basic tasks is
that they’re timeless; people have needed these services since the beginning of
civilization, and they’ll need it in the future, too.
Nothing is more basic than the need to eat,
so you can easily find a way to get paid for the simple task of cooking good
meals.
It’s a given that this is really only an
option if you can cook well, of course.
Securing this type of arrangement is mostly
a matter of branding. More people would be willing to hire a personal chef than
you think, so long as you sell it to them properly.
Advertise that you are capable of cooking
fresh, healthy meals and that you will purchase the necessary ingredients right
before you come over to cook.
Ask your potential customer to compare the
cost of your services to the cost of eating out, per night. They might find
that you are capable of producing a higher quality of meal for a similar price.
Furthermore, you could advertise different
types of deals, like say a “leftover package” where you cook a large amount of
an easily stored food so that they don’t have to have you come over every day.
Helpful resources:
How to Make Money Cooking from Your Home – WAHM.com
Making Money Cooking At Home – Entrepreneur
43- Sell your art
We’ve talked before about the possibility
of running a virtual storefront. This is the grassroots version of that same
option, really.
If you make clothes, accessories, or even
visual art, people can and will buy it if you get yourself out there.
Find a way to get your name out there.
A good option for this is to make some
stuff for free for your friends and give it out.
That could help you get the word out.
Artists can be very insecure about exposing
their work to the world, but if you want to make money, it’s best to just throw
it out there and get some feedback.
Sites to use:
ArtFire.com
MadeItMyself.com
Bonanza.com
ShopHandmade.com
44- Be a window washer
And no, we’re not talking about the people
who hang off the side of skyscrapers!
A storefront is important for any business,
especially those that are on a single floor (readers with vertigo rejoice!)
You can offer a window cleaning service for
a low rate, and secure your business on a weekly or a monthly rate.
The business might just tell their
low-level employees to do the washing, but you can offer your services and free
up their staff to do other things. After all, the windows are the customer’s
view into the store itself, so we can’t scoff about the importance of a window
washer.
Helpful resources:
The window cleaner: Glass action | Money – The Guardian
45- Drive
Lately, the services of Uber and Lyft have
become very noteworthy.
These services are revolutionizing the taxi
industry, which was before a competitive sort of business that left workers and
customers alike dissatisfied.
All you do is install the ride sharing
company’s app so you can get notified of people in your local area who need a
ride.
Rates will often be quite high since this
is technically a personal ride service.
There are drivers who are making a living
with ride sharing, treating it as a full time job, and then there are those who
use it as a way to make some extra cash on the weekend and whenever they have
some free time.
Either way, it’s an awesome way to make
some money with something you already have, a car!
Sites to use:
Uber
Lyft
46- Dumpster dive
Now I’m sure a majority of you are
recoiling at the mere idea of it.
“Me, get into a dumpster? That dirty
container full of trash?”
Well, I completely understand your
hesitation, dear reader, but I’m happy to inform you that dumpster diving isn’t
all the negative that it seems like.
There is a whole community of people who
dumpster dive, and it plays in the “freegan” lifestyle.
Don’t believe me?
Google “Dumpster Diving Reddit” to be
directed to a popular forum for people who participate in it.
You’ll find that if you are willing to
tolerate the unsavory idea of activity, there is really a lot of unnecessary
waste in the world that the brave can benefit from.
This includes food, furniture, and
appliances.
Too grossed out to even consider the idea?
Well, just wait for when a retail store is
closing and ask if you can have the stuff that is due to be thrown out. Retail
laws mandate that they throw out food by a certain date, even if it’s perfectly
good.
A lot of people will be glad to give it to
you, just knowing that the food isn’t going to be wasted.
Helpful resources:
Dumpster Diving – Reddit
47- Recycle scrap metal and tires
I’m putting both of these under the same
heading since they’re the same basic concept.
If you have a large storage space available
to you, you can stockpile old tires and metal and eventually take them down to
a recycling plant/scrap yard to pick up a little bit of cash.
This is a very “industrial” option,
recommended only to those who are comfortable with these types of items, and
who have the capability to participate in it (you won’t be hauling 100 old tires
to the plant in your old sedan, for example.)
Helpful resources:
Selling Scrap Metal: The Ultimate Guide – MoneyPantry
48- Donate blood plasma
Hopefully, you’re not against donating
blood just for the good of it, because blood saves lives!
But if you’re afraid of needles or blood,
maybe you could be swayed by knowing that there is some money to be made.
Donating plasma could net you $50 easy,
though you’ll be woozy afterward, so don’t drive yourself there!
If you don’t know what plasma is, it’s the
clear stuff that appears when you get a cut, and it’s very important for making
many types of medicines.
Sites to use:
Biolife
49- Enter contests
Contests can be daunting. The rewards seem
so good! But the chance of winning is so low.
Most people only enter a single contest
every so often, and so they don’t view them as distinctly “winnable.”
I recommend a different approach. Enter
EVERY contest you care even remotely about.
A contest has low odds of being won, so why
not increase your odds by entering them all?
If you don’t want the prize, you can always
sell it later.
I once knew someone who kept several
cellphones on them for those “10th caller” contests on the radio– they’d pull
out all the phones and start calling all at once. That person, as you might
imagine, made it to a lot of free concerts.
Sites to use:
Online Sweepstakes and Contests – Contest Girl
Sweepstakes & Contests to Enter – About.com
50- Enter competitions
If you’re willing to put yourself out
there, and you have some time to kill, why not enter a few competitions?
At worst, you participate and fail, and at
best you win and get some prizes.
It’s a win-win in my book, because
participating in anything will give you more confidence to get out there and do
it again.
Do it five times, and now you’re looking at
an increasingly healthy chance of success!
Helpful resources:
How to earn money by entering competitions – Save the Student
51- Give massages
Now on this one, I’m going to have to
strongly recommend that you go in with some idea of what you’re doing.
You can fudge some of the options on this
list, admittedly, but a massage is a pretty intimate behavior.
The whole goal is to relax your customer,
and everybody’s different, so if you go in there and start karate-chopping a
frail, gentle person, you’re looking at a good opportunity for losing some
business.
Now it doesn’t mean you have to have
completed school for being a massage technician, but at least read up on it and
maybe watch some videos and stuff.
Definitely find a few people close to you
and convince them to let you practice on them. If you aren’t good at it yet,
don’t try to make money yet.
Massaging is a life skill as much as it is
a business skill, and you’ll find plenty of situations in your life where
you’ll be glad you took the time to learn.
If you do manage to get some customers,
mood is important too. Soothing music, good scents (candles or incense if the
customer is alright with it,) and comfortable furniture are all ideal.
I’ve had massages at people’s home-run
businesses, and I can attest that an amateur masseuse/masseur can be worth the
money.
Note: Please keep in mind that in most
places, you need to have a license to operate a business like that. So make
sure to do your research and abide by the law.
Helpful resources:
How to make $100000 Per Year – Massage and Bodywork
12 Simple Ways to Generate Income in Your Massage Practice – Massage
Today
52- Rent out some of your stuff
This is a particularly good option if you
have some kind of workman’s tools.
A site like Rentything can help hook you up
with people who are looking to rent the tools on a daily, weekly, or monthly
basis.
Furthermore, there are places that will
allow you to rent your car out, if you’ve got the guts to try it out.
You don’t have to stress completely,
though: a peer-to-peer car rental service, like RelayRides, will have an
insurance policy in place, in case of any unfortunate accidents involving your
car.
Sites to use:
Rentything
Loanables
RelayRides
53- Wash cars
This seems as basic as some of the other
staple options on this list, but it’s a service you see done less often.
Most people don’t want to drive a dirty
car, but between work and a personal life, it is one of those kinds of
maintenance that just falls through the cracks.
That’s where you come in. Offer to wash
someone’s car for a fair rate.
What’s a fair rate for this service?
Well, first let’s ask how you wash a car.
If you think a quick spray with the hose with
maybe some dish soap scrubbed on is a car wash, you’d better think again. There
are a lot of do’s and don’t of car washing.
To name a few, to use soap specifically for
washing cars, to rinse with water before washing, to avoid washing in the sun,
and to dry by hand.
Those are just a few, because the art of
washing a car could really fill an article all on its own.
If you’d like to pursue this possibility,
consumerreports.org has a fantastic article about how to do the job right.
Helpful resources:
Do’s and Dont’s of Washing Cars – Consumer Reports
54- Flip stuff
Flipping is another one of those things
that seems simple, but I could really write about it for a long time.
Let’s just give the brief overview: you get
things for cheap and sell them for more.
It might be because you fixed them up
(which is the usual way of doing things,) or it might just be that you’ve got a
better idea about what it’s worth than the original owner did.
A simple, but good way to get into flipping
is to check the free section of your local Craigslist. If you’re lucky, you can
grab some good stuff that people just don’t have room for anymore. Pick it up,
and turn right around to sell it on the “for sale” section of that same
Craigslist.
It might sound a little immoral, but it
really isn’t: the person who is giving it away for free actively made the
decision, and chances are that they wanted it gone immediately and didn’t have
the luxury of waiting.
As the seller, you have the luxury of
waiting, and that’s really the big difference.
Flipping is a perfectly legitimate way of
making money, and some people do it full time.
Helpful resources:
A
Realistic & Simple Way to Make $500 a Week from Home – MoneyPantry.com
55- Tutor
If you have any skill in an academic
subject, you can easily make some money tutoring.
There are plenty of ways to go about it: if
you’re a degree-holding graduate (or a qualifying undergraduate,) there are
websites online that will accept your verification and attempt to match you up
with students who need your services.
There are tutoring places in most mid-sized
towns, as well, and you may even be able to find a job there (though if you
find a job, that might invalidate the theme of this article!)
Of course, there is also the basic form of
tutoring: simply helping someone in your life with their academic work.
It might be your cousin, or your best
friend’s little sibling, but there are lots of people who need help with their
studies, and if you’re there offering your services, they might be inclined to
give up a little bit of money in return for their academic security.
You might consider offering a free first
session, to allow them to test and see if they would like to continue with the
service (and they’re more inclined to feel good about it if they feel like
they’re getting a deal!)
Sites to use:
TutorVista.com
Tutor.com
56- Recycle
A few of the options above have touched on
this possibility, but this is the recycling that’s as simple as it comes.
Recycling facilities are a huge thing
around most towns, nowadays.
It incentivizes people to bring in
recycling when it may have otherwise been tossed out or disregarded. And in
turn, the recycling facility can take the materials and sell them, or reprocess
them into something new.
They’ll pay you for the recycling you bring
in by weight, so you’re looking to get as much of one type of container as you
can (where I live, plastic pays the most, but you can also recycle aluminum and
glass.)
Sites to use:
Recyclebank (earn rewards for recycling anything)
Gazelle – General Electronics
BoxCycle – Cardboard Boxes
Usell– Cell Phones
57- Do odd tasks
Using apps like TaskRabbit you can pick up
a few dollars here and there while you are out and about.
People who need small tasks done, post them
on TaskRabbit and how much they are willing to pay for it. You can accept the
task, do it and get paid. It’s as simple a that!
Tasks include anything from picking up
groceries and returning a book to the library, to visiting a nearby restaurant
and taking a picture of its menu, to whatever else that needs to be done.
Sites to use:
TaskRabbit
Zaarly
Field Agent
Gigwalk for iOS
Gigwalk for Android
58- Clean houses
Maid services are as old a service as it comes
(though probably newer than the cooking position we talked about up above!)
There’s no doubt that maid services are
prevalent in your town, thanks to companies like Molly Maid, who have a
national grip on the house cleaning service.
But the upside for you is that these
services are not cheap by any means. I’ve hired maids to help me clean my house
before, and I can tell you that you’ll be sinking a few hundred easy in
whenever you hire one.
The advice for this is the same as the
others on the list, as far as preexisting businesses go: undercut their prices!
The problem with national services like
this is that they have to raise their prices the larger they get to cover their
new costs of business.
If you can convince a customer that you’re
just as worthwhile and offer a better rate, then you’re going to have a good
opportunity to secure a long-term customer.
Consider offer an extra service, like
organizing. Professional organizers do exist, but breaking into the field is no
piece of cake.
This could be a good way to get your foot
in the door towards that path if you want it, but otherwise, it’s still not a
bad gig to get paid for cleaning.
Helpful resources:
Side Hustle Series: I’m a House Cleaner – Budgets Are Sexy
59- Babysit
You might consider this one the logical
consequence of our previous option!
Babysitting is an ages-old way to make
money, favored by teenagers across the world.
It’s easy money if you’re good with kids,
but not so much if you don’t like them.
The biggest barrier to entry with
babysitting is simply that the market is saturated, and people are most likely
to trust a teenage girl to babysit their kid than a grown man. However, if you
want to get your foot in the door, you should always start with friends and
family.
There is also care.com, which is a
babysitting hub where you can make a profile and set your rate.
Sites to use:
Care.com
Sitters.com
60- Rent out an extra room in your house
If you have an extra room in your house,
you could be making good money by renting it to travelers.
It’s as simple as using a site like AirBnB
which makes it very safe and easy to rent a room to people.
Sites to use:
AirBnB
VRBO
In closing
Now, how’s that for a list of ways to make
money without having a traditional job?
No matter who you are, there’s almost
certainly something here for you.
Unless you’re intentionally trying not to
get an official job, there’s a good chance that some of these might lead to
more long term employment.
There’s also the added benefit of any type
of entrepreneurial endeavor: your wages aren’t fixed. That can be good or bad,
but when it’s good, it’s really good.
Some people would rather make a guaranteed
$100 in a day, but some people would rather take the gamble on making $50 or
$150 in a day.
Regardless of which type you are, the
options on this list could lead to either.
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