It's never been easier to make money on your own time and on your own terms. In fact, this post has dozens of legit money-making ideas for you to try -- and get paid. Read on to find the...
It’s never been easier to make extra money on your own time and on your own terms.
Whether you’re looking for a side hustle to replace your day job income, or just for a way to make a few extra bucks, I’ve got you covered.
The ideas below were selected based on:
15+ years of side hustle experience interviews with over 500 side hustlers entrepreneurs feedback from the 50,000-member Side Hustle Nation communityJust a few of the ideas have helped me earn hundreds of thousands of dollars over the last decade.
Ready? Let’s do it!
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1. Online and In-Person Research Studies: Up to $140 an Hour
Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.
Earn an average of $75 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.
Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.
There are a couple online research companies everyone should sign up for.
User Interviews is a great resource for connecting with remote consumer research studies. I’ve made $105 in about an hour and a half so far — here’s my full User Interviews review.
Respondent is one of the best paying online survey companies I’ve found. Usually the surveys are one-on-one interviews either in-person or over the phone / video chat, and they pay an average of $140 an hour.
Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers $120 an hour to assist with medical research. You can browse a full list of available studies on their site—nearly all of which are phone or webcam interviews.
If you suffer from any sort of medical condition (even if it’s not super rare), this one is worth a look.
The site is open to residents of United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.
2. Online Surveys: $1 a Day
No list of money-making ideas would be complete without an old favorite: online surveys. Power users of these apps earn $30 a month or more.
Here are some of Side Hustle Nation’s favorite options:
Don’t expect to earn an amazing hourly rate with these options, but you can earn gift cards, cash, and other rewards by answering surveys, watching videos, playing games, and shopping online.
3. Find a Virtual Job
The best place to find legit work from home jobs. Established in 2007, FlexJobs has 1000s of listings including part-time, full-time, and freelance options in tons of industries.
FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site. With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.
There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.
4. Resell Flea Market Finds: Up to $5,000 per Flip
My buddy Rob Stephenson is “the Flea Market Flipper” and makes a great living finding odd items to resell. He told me the story of finding a prosthetic leg for $40 and turning around and selling it on eBay the next day for $1000.
The pioneering auction site is still going strong and can be a good place to get your products in front of 130+ million potential buyers.
There are profitable deals everywhere!
Rob and his wife Melissa consistently earn thousands of dollars a month doing this part-time. They put together a free training on how you can get started and make your first sales as fast as 2 weeks.
Pros:
Low startup costs
Simple business model
Can multiply money quickly
Cons:
Can be time-consuming to source inventory
Difficult to store and ship bulky items
Suggested Playlist: Flipping Profits
Buying low and selling high is the fastest way to multiply money. Here's how to get it done.
5. Make Extra Money Playing Online Games
KashKick
KashKick is a newer app that pays you to answer surveys, test new games (up to $150 each!), and redeem money-saving offers.
With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.
Get paid to test new games, complete offers, and answer short surveys.
Rewarded Play (Android)
With over 180,000 reviews and a 4.4-star rating in the Google Play store, Rewarded Play is another free, legit, and fun, “get paid to play” app.
Rewarded Play is your one-stop app for casual games like Solitaire, Mahjong, Wheel of Fortune, Yahtzee, and more. As you play, choose your rewards and get your gift cards within 48 hours.
6. Rental Properties
Rental real estate is one of the oldest side hustles in the books, and is still viable today.
My friend Dustin Heiner built up his rental portfolio and was able to retire before 40 on the cash flow.
If your local market is too expensive, take a look at Arrived, a cool online marketplace built for busy investors. For as little as $100, you can buy shares of cash-flowing rental properties.
7. Commercial Real Estate
Fundrise allows you to invest in a portfolio of commercial properties all around the country. I’ve been a Fundrise investor for years and they’ve consistently paid quarterly dividends in the 5-10% yield range.
(Disclosure: when you sign up, I earn a commission. All opinions are my own.)
Plus, you can get started with as little as $10.
8. Start an Online Business
This probably isn’t the right path if you need to make extra money quickly, but can build into a full-time income stream over time.
My primary revenue stream is affiliate marketing, but website creators can make money in lots of different ways, including:
selling your own products and services advertising live events reader donations and moreClick here to check out my free video course on how to start a blog.
Pros:
Low startup costs
Great long-term earning power
Can sell the business down the road
Cons:
Slow to see results
Lots of skills to learn
9. Virtual Bookkeeping: Up to $70/hr
Remote bookkeepers can earn $20-70 an hour and up for their work. This is a great option for people with accounting experience from school or your day job.
Here’s a free training on how to get started.
10. Resell Furniture Returns
As a part-time Sharetown rep, you’ll pick up gently-used furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.
Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with report earning $150-250 per item.
And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.
Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more.
Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.
11. Self-Publish on Amazon
Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle platform, you can publish your work and tap into a massive audience of book buyers.
Self-publishing is one of my favorite and longest-running side hustles. I remember my first royalty payment from Amazon — it was something like $42 — and being thrilled, thinking “I did it! I’m a professional author!”
Since then I’ve earned over $75,000 in author royalties. Books are a pretty awesome way to build authority in your niche and earn passive income along the way.
Related: My Amazon author profile and book listings
12. Become a Mystery Shopper
Field Agent presents a list of tasks you can do based on your location. If you happen to be running errands nearby, just accept the task and start earning money.
Most of these gigs involve evaluating product displays or checking on inventory. They typically pay $3-10 apiece, depending on complexity and the time involved.
For more info, please see my full Field Agent review.
13. Pet Sitting
Rover.com is “Airbnb for dogs,” and I’ve heard from several dog sitting hosts earning thousands of dollars a year through this site.
(Meowtel is leading platform for cat-sitting.)
14. Babysitting
Babysitting and child care was my original income stream as a teenager, and is still a viable way to make extra money.
Sites like Care.com and Sittercity can help match you up with families.
15. Knife Sharpening
Matt Rowell taught himself how to sharpen knives on YouTube, and turned it into a $250-1500 a month side business.
16. Online Tutoring: Up to $60/hr
Tutoring and test prep is a billion dollar a year industry. You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!
Wyzant is a popular online and in-person tutoring platform that connects you with students in a wide variety of subjects and grade levels.
As a tutor, you set your own schedule and rates. When I searched Wyzant for math tutors nearby, I found several tutors charging $40-60 an hour.
17. Create an Outschool Class
Outschool is a marketplace for online small group classes for kids. Jade Weatherington reported earning over $10,000 a month from her virtual writing classes.
18. Sell Lesson Plans and Material
Teachers Pay Teachers is a popular marketplace for lesson plans and other educational materials. For example, Jodi Carlson began putting some of her content on the site and now earns $5,000 a month part-time.
19. Sign Up for Free Rewards Apps: $150+ Per Year
Saving money is making money! And it’s actually even more effective since it goes straight to your bottom line — meaning you don’t have to pay taxes on it like you would with extra income.
For example, the View Entire Post
