Need to make extra money right away?
Whether you’re trying to pay off debt, saving for vacation, upgrading your life or just want to pad your bank account, there are tons of opportunities to get that extra cash in your pocket.
If you’re like me, you just want an easy way to make money without having to get dressed, put on makeup or brush your hair.
The good news is that there are SO many ways you to make extra money (online or otherwise) without speaking to a soul! Or at least not being on camera constantly.
If you’re looking for ways to make extra money online on top of your current job, start a business to replace your income, or add services to your existing business, I’ve got 35 ideas to get you started!
35 Ways to make money online right now:
- Become a seller on Etsy
- Handmade goods, printables, original artwork, vintage items. Etsy is becoming the biggest online marketplace for handmade items in the world.
- Create a digital product and sell to your subscribers on your website
- This could be a recently recorded video paired with a workbook, all your best material grouped together into an ebook, or something you create from scratch. A digital product is a great way to earn passive income! Don’t forget to promote the hell out of it on social media and to your email list!
- Start a blog
- Is there a topic that really interests you that you can’t stop talking about? Quit boring your friends and family and write it down! There’s a niche for everyone and it’s super easy to start a blog. Stick to writing consistently and sharing on social (particularly Pinterest) and you’ll have a following in no time! Then you can start partnering with companies to sell their products, sell your own products, or get into affiliate sales (more about that below).
- Sell your stuff
- Have a yard sale or sell your unused items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace
- Become a voice over talent
- From TV promotions to video games, businesses are always looking for a fresh voice to market their products. You’ll need a quality mic, some editing software and a quiet place to record, but startup is generally low cost. Plus there are plenty of ways to find voice over work. Try searching on places like Upwork or creating an account on voices.com
- Video editing
- Maybe not the easiest thing to break into without experience, but if you have a knack for putting together clips of video, it won’t take you too long to learn video editing. For free training, hit up Youtube. There are many editing tools available and you can decide what kind of videos you want to specialize in.
- Virtual assistant or Online Business Manager
- Love the operations side of running a business? You would be great as a VA or OBM! These business angels offer services ranging from organizing your files to creating social media graphics and everything in between.
- Sell your pictures
- Do you love taking pictures? Did you know that the newest iPhone cameras produce high quality images? You can sell your pictures online at places like Shutterstock.
- Dropshipping
- Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method where a business doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, the seller purchases inventory as needed from a third party—usually a wholesaler or manufacturer—to fulfill orders. ← a direct quote from Shopify. Read more about dropshipping here: https://www.shopify.com/blog/what-is-dropshipping
- Freelance writing
- Companies are always looking for ways to outsource things that they either don’t have capacity for or don’t have expertise in. In fact, I work for a large insurance company who hires freelance writers consistently. You can find work on sites like Indeed or Upwork.
- Editor
- Pretty good with grammar? You might enjoy editing! From news articles to books, everyone needs an editor.
- Rewriter
- A lot of small business owners prefer to write their own content, but don’t have the confidence that it’s written well. Enter you! You can take what they’ve written and work your magic to make it more appealing to their target audience.
- Affiliate marketing
- Becoming an affiliate marketer is as easy as finding a product you love and partnering with the producer to promote it and earn a commission. As mentioned above, affiliate marketing is a great way to make money on your blog, but you can also do this through social media, Youtube, Podcasts, or wherever you already have content and a decent following.
- Graphic design
- You might think you need years of school to become a great graphic designer, but the truth is, I’m a graphic designer and I’m 100% self taught. I found online courses and Youtube tutorials to hone my skills. And you don’t need to be well versed in Adobe products. Plenty of small businesses are perfectly happy with Canva and are leaning into it more than ever before.
- Sell handmade goods on Amazon
- Amazon isn’t just for big name brands (and lesser known brands from China). Similar to Etsy, you can sell your handmade products on Amazon alongside those big brands.
- Sell your Ebook on Amazon
- Did you write an ebook and try to sell it on your own website without much success? Try selling it on Amazon. There’s a little formatting work to do, but there are plenty of tutorials for that.
- Turn existing content into an evergreen course
- Pool together the content you’ve already created and sell it as a self guided course. Promote it on social media and send it to your email list.
- Start a podcast
- You might think the podcast world is overly saturated (and you’re kind of right), but it’s not slowing down anytime soon. Break into this medium with your niche, gain some followers, start getting sponsors and watch the dollars roll in.
- Website design
- Another one that seems like it needs a lot of training. Once again, I taught web design to myself back in 2007. The trick is keeping up with the changes! If you have any interest in this, watch a couple of Youtube tutorials and start practicing writing code. If you can learn how to design WordPress sites, you’re as good as gold!
- Translator
- Are you bilingual (or multilingual)? I can guarantee there’s someone looking for your help! You can find work on sites like ProZ and Translatorscafe
- Transcriptionist
- If you can listen to someone and type what they’re saying, you could easily be a transcriptionist. Find these jobs on sites like indeed. Some fields (like medical and legal) require a certification.
- Proofreader
- Become a proofreader of documents, articles, or any other written content. People on Upwork are always looking for proofreaders.
- Resume writing
- Having a great resume is key for landing the job of your dreams. Which makes resume writers highly valued and in high demand.
- Facebook or Google Ad specialist
- If you have interest in becoming a social media or digital ad specialist, it only takes a little bit of training (that you can find online for free) to break into this highly coveted trade.
- Copywriting
- Are you a pro with the one liners? Help businesses promote their services with your talent for copy. Find work on Upwork or Fiverr and reach out to your fellow business owners to let them know you’ll be offering this service.
- Resell items on Ebay
- You know what Ebay is. It’s super simple to post items and sell them for a fixed price or at auction. There’s a lot of money to be made here. I have a friend who spends his days going to thrift stores and antique stores to find unique items and then resells them on ebay. He makes a killing! In fact, his entire income comes from this and let’s just say, he’s not poor!
- Market researcher
- This one right here is in high demand! Most business owners hate doing market research. I actually enjoy it, but even I have hired this out in the past. There are so many ways to start. You could offer: retrospectives with a business’s past clients to get their feedback on products or services, ongoing interviews with current clients to build a case study, research and discovery of competitors, create surveys/questionnaires to send out to prospective clients… the list goes on!
- Bookkeeper or Finance Manager
- Small business owners are notoriously ignoring their own bookkeeping, which leads them to losing profit over time. If you love tracking data in spreadsheets, becoming a bookkeeper or finance manager can be a great (and lucrative) career. You’ll need a little training, but there are plenty of free and paid trainings available online.
- Social media manager
- A hot “newish” field to get into! Any business owner who is even slightly busy could use a good social media manager. You could offer broad services for all social platforms or become an expert in just one.
- Data entry
- This may sound boring, but that’s kind of the point. Data entry can be a very low stress way to make a few extra bucks. Look for clients on sites like Indeed, Upwork, Linkedin and Ziprecruiter.
- Usability tester
- Do you often find yourself using a digital product or website and commenting on how easy (or hard) it is to figure out what to do? You might be perfect for usability testing. I work in UX and our research team is constantly doing usability testing. We partner with other user testing businesses to provide us with testers. Check out sites like UserLytics to start making money as a user experience tester right away.
- Internet researcher
- Do you love doing research? Many companies and business owners don’t have time to do their own research so they often outsource this to an internet researcher (sometimes called a web researcher).
- You must be highly skilled with computers and have a strong understanding of how to use a search engine to access scholarly research, industry publications, and think tank documents to find information for whatever project on which you may be working. And if you have experience with data analytics, even better! Being able to read and interpret what you find makes it easier for your client to understand what aspects are important to them.
- Sell baked goods
- If you often hear, “Girl, these cupcakes are like heaven!”, it might be time to start selling them. You can sell on sites like Etsy or reach out to local restaurants and coffee shops to offer your baked goods in their stores. I belong to a local women’s group on FB and I see posts all the time from women looking for cakes or cookies, etc for special events. Join some local groups and start answering their calls!
- Refinish old furniture and sell on FB marketplace
- Personally, this is one I might even get into! I have an old dresser that I’ve been meaning to refinish for years, but now it just sits in the guest bedroom not even being used. I could totally paint it, add new hardware and sell it on marketplace for a nice profit. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist and see what others are selling. Not a fan of meeting up with strangers? Rent a booth at an antique shop! These booths are usually a low monthly cost and you can sell other handmade or vintage items there as well.
- Create and self-publish a cookbook
- Or whatever book you have waiting to be written! Self-publishing on Amazon has never been easier. There are TONS of tutorials out there showing you exactly what needs to be done. And if a free tutorial isn’t enough, you can hire a coach/consultant to guide you or hire someone who offers done-for-you Amazon publishing services. You’ll definitely need to invest time in marketing your book and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to hire an editor, as well (please don’t release a book with typos and grammatical errors!)
Now that you’ve picked a new way to earn extra cash, you might be wondering how you’re going to balance this with your current life. Check out my post My Top 10 All Time Favorite Productivity Tips to help you be more productive and – more importantly – save your sanity!
