Who wouldn’t mind making some extra money outside of your usual 9-5?
Whether you love your job or plan to leave your job, knowing of other ways you can make money after work hours is a great tool to have in your back pocket.
In fact, more and more people are figuring out how to make a living without a job.
If you’re in a pinch, you can also make money fast with little online gigs (it’s a quick way to earn $20).
If you’re looking to make $1,000 in a week, or even make $2,000 in a week, then you’ll have to get a little creative – you might have to sell old items, or work a side hustle.
Don’t worry, in this guide, we’ll go into all the ways you can make extra money. Let’s dive in!
Side Hustles and Part-time Jobs
If you’re not getting enough hours at work, taking on a second job can instantly boost your income.
How quickly can you increase your income, you ask? Well we compiled a list of jobs that pay you weekly!
Part time jobs for Full Timers
For people working full-time jobs, or who only want to work part time, we’ve compiled a list of high-paying part-time jobs that you should check out first.
If you’re looking for a side hustle that rewards general skills and hard work (i.e. doesn’t require deep technical expertise), then we have three big suggestions:
1. Become a Virtual Assistant
As a virtual assistant, you perform administrative tasks assigned by your client or employer. Usually, you don’t need to have the experience to get started as a virtual assistant and you can earn up to $15 an hour while working from home.
2. Do Mystery Shopping
Do you love shopping? How about you get paid while doing it? When you become a mystery shopper, you go undercover to review a business’ customer service and their employees’ compliance with company standards. Each “mission” pays you around $10 to $20, which may only take as little as 3 minutes!
3. Transcription Jobs
If you have good listening and typing skills, this job will be right up your alley. You listen to an audio or video recording and type the words you hear on a document. Check our roundup of the best transcription jobs to try.
We also did a review on one of the most popular transcription platforms, Rev.com.
Jobs for Students
For college students, you might want a flexible job that fits around your class schedule or prepares you for your future career.
We’ve considered all these factors when putting together these jobs you can do while in college. Have a look!
Weekend Jobs and Gigs
You might be tired from regular work during the week and just want to make a couple of dollars doing something different and relaxing.
We’ve tried our best to choose the best ways to make extra money on the weekends and make money in your free time (like when you’re on the couch watching TV.)
Micro Tasks and Micro Gigs
Micro tasks are small, quick jobs that you can complete in a short amount of time. That’s why they’re the best kind of job to do in your free time.
Tasks include things like:
- data cleanup
- information gathering
- designing a logo
- setting appointments
And you can earn a few dollars every time you complete a task. Use our checklist of the best paying micro job sites to get started.
Odd Jobs
Sometimes, you might just want to do a variety of one-off jobs just for the fun of it. That’s where you might want to check out our list of odd jobs.
There are a couple of odd jobs that stand out to us as the most fun:
1. Getting paid to recycle.
There aren’t many better feelings than protecting the environment, and getting paid to do it! It’s also an ideal way to teach your loved ones about recycling.
2. Making money by “selling” your good credit score.
In selling tradelines, you will allow someone to piggyback on your good credit standing by adding them as an authorized user of your credit card for a fee (they won’t actually spend any of your money, don’t worry!)
3. Sell your breastmilk.
This one is only for mums with babies. But we wanted to share this here just because it’s so outrageous! Not only is selling your breastmilk legal in the US, you can make about a $1 an ounce – not quite liquid gold, but it’ll certainly help with the bills!
Now, if you’re a parent and would like to teach your children the values of working hard and money, then see our guide on side hustles kids can do to earn money. These are jobs that are perfect for little ones.
One of the allures of side hustles is that you can sometimes do them from home. There are multiple “work-from-home jobs with no startup fee” schemes. But they are often riddled with scams.
Stick to our recommendations here and you should be quite safe.
Make Money from Apps
If you’re mobile-savvy, making money from your phone will seem like a godsend! You can make money wherever you are. And there are many different ways to do it.
Our top recommended app for making money is Swagbucks. And we’ve created an in-depth guide to making as much money as you can quickly on Swagbucks.
You can find our complete list of money making apps here.
So how do you make money from apps exactly? Here are the most common ways:
1. Answer surveys
Sharing your opinion, taking part in polls, and answering a few questions from brands can help you earn money.
You should start by reading our review of Survey Junkie, one of the biggest apps that pay you for your opinions.
When you’re ready to expand to other apps, you can take a look at our list of the best survey apps to make money.
2. Write app reviews
If you like exploring new things, you can try out apps, listen to a song, read books, and more, and get paid by sharing your opinions. Learn how to get paid by writing reviews.
3. Watch ads
Many brands spend millions on advertising to put their name out there. Many of them pay you just to watch ads! You’ll usually be paid in points that can be converted for cash.
4. Some apps pay in gift cards
If you don’t need to be paid in hard cash, then you’ll be pleased to know that you can jump on many apps to earn gift cards. They’re just as good as cash if you shop on places like Amazon and the Apple Pay Store frequently.
Create an Online Business
The online space is full of opportunities to make money, and the best part is that you often won’t need any capital to start.
For example, many have made fortunes filming themselves and publishing their content on YouTube. With a camera in everyone’s pocket now, the only question left is how much YouTube will actually pay you for your videos.
A similar platform where you can make money is Pinterest. The image-focused search engine where you can share your crafting creations, and recipes.
Another big draw for online businesses is that you don’t even need to sell your own product, or even physical products for that matter.
For example, you can promote many info products from Clickbank, a method known as affiliate marketing. You won’t have to create anything or worry about handling shipping and customer service.
Build a Brick-and-Mortar Business
While the online world has its draws, there are still fortunes to be made offline. Brick and mortar businesses continue to serve our communities and provide their owners with stable incomes.
We’re still creating more guides in this space, but for now check out how to start a storage unit business.
If you’d like something more turn-key, you could explore a franchise such as Diary Queen.
Grow Your Investments
Side hustles and businesses both require some level of active involvement. If you’d prefer more passive ways of earning money, investing in income-generating assets is your surest bet.
You can start your search for passive investments by going through our list of the best passive income books.
The amount of money you have available to invest will influence where you invest too.
If you have a substantial amount of money stashed aside for investing, check out our guide outlining the best ways to invest $50,000.
Flipping
Flipping involves buying things and selling them in a short amount of time for a profit.
There are a few methods that make up flipping. For example, you can buy things from a shop and sell them online for more (known as retail arbitrage).
Another way is to sell used and old stuff at flea markets, where people are looking for rare and unique items.
Speaking of which, the more rare and valuable the items you sell, the better it is for flipping. When an object is rare, it’s difficult to value. This makes it a good target for people who are able to properly see its value and take advantage of it.
For example, antiques are a good item to sell if you know where to sell them.