Exploring one of these fifty ways of making extra money will boost your income.
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If you needed extra money, like, yesterday, you’ve come to the right spot.Our team has compiled a list of creative ways you can fatten your bank account this month. Certainly, there’s something here that fits your needs. 50 Easy Ways to Make Money
Feeling pumped? Feeling ready? Feeling like a million bucks (or like you need a million bucks)?
This is a long list, so don’t get overwhelmed. Go ahead and start now, but be sure to bookmark this post so you can easily return later. We’ll keep it updated as offers change or expire.
Without further delay, here are 50 ways to make money:
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1. Watch Movie Previews
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder If we told you that you could get paid to watch videos on your computer, you’d probably laugh.
It’s too good to be true, right?
But we’re serious. A website called InboxDollars will pay you to watch short video clips online. One minute you might watch someone bake brownies and the next you might get the latest updates on Kardashian drama.
All you have to do is choose which videos you want to watch and answer a few quick questions about them afterward.
No, InboxDollars won’t replace your full-time job, but it’s something easy you can do while you’re already on the couch tonight wasting time on your phone.
Unlike other sites, InboxDollars pays you in cash — no points or gift cards. It’s already paid its users more than $56 million.
It takes about one minute to sign up, and you’ll immediately get a $5 bonus to get you started.
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2. See if You Can Get Free Money From This Company
Here’s the deal: If you’re not using Aspiration’s debit card, you’re missing out on extra cash. And who doesn’t want extra cash?
Yep. A debit card called Aspiration gives you up to a 5% back every time you swipe.
Need to buy groceries? Extra cash.
Need to fill up the tank? Bam. Even more extra cash.
You were going to buy these things anyway — why not get this extra money in the process?
Enter your email address here, and link your bank account to see how much extra cash you can get with your free Aspiration account. And don’t worry. Your money is FDIC insured and under a military-grade encryption. That’s nerd talk for “this is totally safe.”
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3. Earn up to $25/Hour Delivering Food
MStudioImages/Getty Images Cities around the country are filled with two things: incredible restaurants and busy people.
You can help connect them by delivering food through Doordash.
As a “Dasher,” you’ll work as an independent contractor, setting your own hours and working as much or little as you want, meaning how much you can make is up to you.
You’ll earn a $6 fee for each delivery, plus keep 100% of your tips. Depending on the day, you could earn up to $25 an hour. If you drive full time, that’s $1,000 a week!
For a real-life case, Jose Neri, a former Dasher in California, reports earning $500 to $600 a week working just lunches and dinners. They could take about two-and-a-half deliveries an hour, and users would tip between 10% and 15%.
All you need to get started is an insured vehicle or a bicycle and a smartphone. You should be at least 18 years old and have a minimum two years’ driving experience.
If you’re interested in becoming a Dasher, you can learn more here.
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4. Get up to $500 in Free Stock
If you feel like you don’t have enough money to start investing, you’re not alone. But guess what? You really don’t need that much — and you can even get free stocks (worth up to $500!) if you know where to look.
Whether you’re got $5, $100 or $800 to spare, you can start investing with Robinhood.
Yeah, you’ve probably heard of Robinhood. Both investing beginners and pros love it because it doesn’t charge commission fees, and you can buy and sell stocks for free — no limits. Plus, it’s super easy to use.
What’s best? When you download the app and fund your account (it takes no more than a few minutes), Robinhood drops a share of free stock into your account. It’s random, though, so that stock could be worth anywhere from $2.50 to $500 — a nice boost to help you build your investments.
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5. Spend $1 to Own a Piece of Amazon, Google or Other Companies
Take a look at the Forbes Richest People list, and you’ll notice almost all the billionaires have one thing in common — they own another company.
But if you work for a living and don’t happen to have millions of dollars lying around, that can sound totally out of reach.
That’s why a lot of people use the app Stash. It lets you be a part of something that’s normally exclusive to the richest of the rich — buying pieces of other companies for as little as $1.*
That’s right — you can invest in pieces of well-known companies, such as Amazon, Google or Apple, for as little as $1. The best part? When these companies profit, so can you. Some companies even send you a check every quarter for your share of the profits, called dividends.
It takes two minutes to sign up, plus Stash will give you a $5 sign-up bonus once you deposit $5 into your account. Subscription plans start at $1 a month.**
*For Securities priced over $1,000, purchase of fractional shares starts at $0.05.
**You’ll also bear the standard fees and expenses reflected in the pricing of the ETFs in your account, plus fees for various ancillary services charged by Stash and the custodian.
The Penny Hoarder is a Paid Affiliate/partner of Stash. Investment advisory services offered by Stash Investments LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. This material has been distributed for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended as investment, legal, accounting, or tax advice. Investing involves risk.
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6. Get Paid For Having Opinions on Current News Events
You could waste hours arguing in comments sections about politics with your mom’s twice-removed uncle. (How are you even connected on Facebook?). Or you could share your opinions with news outlets and get paid for them.
Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
A website called YouGov America will pay you for taking surveys and sharing your thoughts on the hottest topics, including politics, the economy and reality TV.
YouGov collects data from millions of people about news, brands and celebrities and shares it with news outlets and companies. For example, Yahoo! News recently published an article featuring results from a YouGov America survey revealing only 42% of Americans plan to get vaccinated against the coronavirus when the vaccine is available.
When you take a quick survey (some are less than three minutes), you’ll earn points you can exchange for cash or gift cards to places like Visa, Walmart or Amazon. Plus, The Penny Hoarder readers get a 3,000-point boost when they complete their first two surveys.
It takes just a few minutes to sign up and get your first survey (and points!) immediately.
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7. Stop Deleting Your Emails
Image Source/Getty Images It turns out deleting your emails could be costing you money. Intrigued?
One of our secret weapons is called Paribus — a tool that gets you money back for your online purchases. It’s free to sign up, and once you do, it will scan your email for any receipts. If it discovers you’ve purchased something from one of its monitored retailers, it will track the item’s price and help you get a refund when there’s a price drop.
Plus, if your guaranteed shipment shows up late, Paribus will help you get compensated.
Disclosure: Paribus compensates us when you sign up using the links we provide.
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8. Get Free Lottery Tickets
urbancow/Getty Images There’s something so satisfying about those gas station scratch-off tickets, but it’s better to avoid them because, well, that’s not Penny Hoarding.
Instead, try scratching for free using an app called Lucktastic (Lucktastic is called Lucktastic Match on iOS). Each day, it releases a new assortment of digital scratch-off tickets. Lucktastic says instant wins range from $1 to $2,500. You can also earn tokens that you can exchange for free gift cards to retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Kohl’s, Sephora and more.
The app is supported by advertising, which allows it to keep the payouts high and the games free.
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9. Earn up to $69/Hour as a Small Business Owner
Neustockimages/Getty Images Can you open an excel spreadsheet? Does earning $69 an hour sound appealing? How about the freedom to work remotely while helping others succeed?
Those are the perks of working as a bookkeeper, says Ben Robinson, a CPA and business owner who teaches others to become virtual bookkeepers through online courses called Bookkeepers.com.
You don’t have to be an accountant or even really good at math to be successful in this business. In fact, all you need are decent computer skills and a passion for helping business owners tackle real-world problems. The ability to stay moderately organized is helpful, too.
You can make up to $69 an hour, according to data from Intuit, the creator of QuickBooks, and you have no commute. It’s a great opportunity for parents who want a part-time job, recent college grads or anyone who wants to bring in real money working from home.
Robinson shares what it takes to be a virtual bookkeeper, plus tips for making this career work for you in his free class at Bookkeepers.com. If you stick with the classes, you could be running your own business in just a few months.
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10. Make up to $15/Hour to Pick up Milk for Your Neighbors
Not everyone can get to the grocery store these days, but that’s where you can help — and get paid.
With an app called Postmates, you could get paid to pick up a few extra groceries for them.
Even better than getting paid to grocery shop? If you need the money, like, now, you can cash out instantly after each delivery.
Holly Gaston, of San Francisco, California, has tried plenty of side gigs. With Postmates, she made an average of $15 an hour. Plus, she said it was much more enjoyable than any of her previous side gigs.
Signing up shouldn’t take you more than about three minutes.
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11. This Company Can Guarantee You a Job (Averaging $70K/Year in Salary)
A lot of us are looking for new jobs right now. But the fear of starting something new can be intimidating.
Luckily, an education company called Springboard can help you land a new job. In fact, they guarantee it. The best part? Springboard says students who take these classes go on to get jobs with an average base salary of more than $70,000 a year.
Three of its most popular classes include the data analytics bootcamp, the UI/UX design bootcamp and the data engineering bootcamp. No experience? Springboard’s online self-paced bootcamps will teach you everything you need to know to succeed in a new role in just six to nine months.
Springboard’s bootcamps cost less than a semester of college, but you can wait to make payments until after you complete your courses and get a new job. Even better, if you don’t get a job within six months of finishing an online course, you don’t pay.
Plus, Springboard is offering 20 scholarships worth $500 each when you enroll with the code SPRINGBOARDPENNY. It’s free to apply for the data analytics, UI/UX design or data engineering bootcamps, and it only takes 10 minutes.
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12. Search Your Wallet and Cash in on Your Dollar Bills
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder Specifically, dollar bills with strange serial numbers — ones that aren’t easy to come by. The collectors at CoolSerialNumbers.com will pay you big bucks if you have a bill with a rare sequence in your wallet.
Turns out antique coins aren’t the only currency worth cash to collectors.
Check out their website for a full list to see if you’ve got any of these rare bills, but here’s a rundown of the sort of serial numbers these collectors are looking for:
- 7 repeating digits in a row on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 09999999, 77777776)
- 7 of a kind on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 00010000, 99999099)
- Super repeaters on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 67676767)
- Double quads on $1 Federal Reserve Notes (i.e. 00009999)
- and more!
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13. See How Much You Can Get For Your Old Tech
You’ve probably spent a lot of money on phones, tablets and plenty of other gadgets over the years. But at the rate technology is changing, how many of them are gathering dust in a junk drawer? You’re throwing away money by letting them sit there.
If you need extra money this month, dig up all your old tech and see how much it’s worth on a website called Whistle. You could make 30% more and get paid faster than anywhere else if you sell to Whistle. Plus, Whistle stays in touch with you every step of the process.
We checked a few devices to see how much we could get: JBL Club ONE headphones in good condition could nab $130; A used iPhone 8 with 64G could be worth $90.
When you answer a few questions about your device, you’ll get a guaranteed offer immediately. If you accept it, Whistle will send you everything you need to ship your device to them — no printer or packaging required.
Once USPS drops your device at Whistle’s doorstep (bonus: it’s fully insured while in transit), you’ll see your payment within 24 hours. How you want to get paid is up to you — via PayPal, direct deposit, check or gift card.
Hundreds of people are selling their old tech to Whistle every single day and making money fast. No gimmicks, no hassles, no baits-and-switches. See how much you could get for your old tech now.
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14. Get Paid for Your Opinion (as Soon as Today)
Got opinions? Get paid for them!
Sure, there are a lot of online survey sites out there. The catch is that, with a lot of them, it takes forever before you can actually get paid. You find yourself taking tons of surveys before you ever see a single cent — if you even qualify for the survey at all.
That’s why we like a website called Survey Junkie. It rewards you no matter what — even if you don’t qualify. And it lets you cash out a lot faster than its competition — you could even get paid today.
You get points for every survey you take, and once you’ve earned 500 points, you can cash out and get your first $5. A lot of sites make you wait until you’ve earned $20 or $25 worth of points before you claim your earnings.
Most people cash out within seven days of signing up — but the pace is entirely up to you. Plenty of folks cash out the same day. And you can choose to get paid via PayPal, direct deposit or digital gift cards.
No, you won’t necessarily get rich taking surveys online, but it’s an easy way to make a little extra cash while you’re killing time. Signing up takes about one minute, and you’ll immediately earn points just for creating your account. You’ll be that much closer to cashing out.
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15. Get Paid to Drink Beer
Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder The craft beer industry is hoppin’, so take advantage of it by, well, getting paid to visit breweries.
When you sign up as a mystery shopper, it’s your job to go to a grocery store, gas station, restaurant or, in this case, breweries, and provide anonymous feedback.
Now, you can get paid to mystery shop — and drink — at breweries in your area through Secret Hopper. (Clever, right?)
The company is looking for detail-oriented beer-drinkers to hop around to different breweries and objectively rate and review their experiences. One Penny Hoarder gave the gig a try. He paid $16 on his visit to a local brewery. Secret Hopper paid him $20 via PayPal within a few days.
So, no, you’re not going to get rich, but you will get free beer, and that makes us hoppy.
All you have to do is sign up, then it’ll contact you when you’re needed.
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16. Get a $5 Bonus to Invest in the Stock Market
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder If you’re like most of us and wish your money would just take care of itself, consider starting an investment account through Acorns.
You can start small and stack up change over time with its “round-up” feature. That means if you spend $10.23 at the grocery store, 77 cents gets dropped into your Acorns account.
Then, the app does the whole investing thing for you.
The idea is you won’t miss the digital pocket change, and the automatic savings stack up faster than you’d think. For example, we reviewed how Penny Hoarder Dana Sitar was able to save at a rate of $420 a year!
At that rate, you could set aside $1,000 in about two and a half years — without trying.
The app is $1 a month for balances under $5,000, and you’ll get a $5 bonus when you sign up.
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17. Earn $20 the Next Time You Go to the Grocery Store
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder We know it sounds strange, but Ibotta will pay you cash for taking pictures of your receipts.
Here’s how it works:
Before heading to the store, search for items on your shopping list within the Ibotta app. When you get home, snap a photo of your receipt and scan the items’ barcodes.
Bam. Cash back.
Ibotta is free to download. Plus, you’ll get a $20 sign-up bonus after redeeming your first 10 offers within 14 days.
Some cash-back opportunities we’ve seen include:
- 25 cents back for any item.
- 25 cents back on strawberries.
- 50 cents back on frozen fruit snacks.
- $1 back on a box of tea.
- $5 back on a case of Shiner Bock beer.
Notice a lot of those aren’t tied to a brand — just shop for the staples on your list and earn cashback!
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18. Get Paid Every Time You Buy Toilet Paper
Grocery shopping was never exactly pleasant. But these days, it’s a downright struggle. Fighting crowds; keeping six feet of space — just buying toilet paper is a feat. Shouldn’t you have something to show for it?
A free app called Fetch Rewards will reward you with gift cards just for buying toilet paper and more than 250 other items at the grocery store.
Here’s how it works: After you’ve downloaded the app, just take a picture of your receipt showing you purchased an item from one of the brands listed in Fetch. For your efforts, you’ll earn gift cards to places like Amazon or Walmart.
You can download the free Fetch Rewards app here to start getting free gift cards. Over a million people already have, so they must be onto something…
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19. Be a Mock Juror
mediaphotos/Getty Images A mock or surrogate juror reviews the evidence and renders a decision to help lawyers prepare for real cases. Participation usually requires a full day cooped up in a hotel conference room.
Fortunately, there are online surrogate juror options, too: eJury and OnlineVerdict. Those opportunities pay $5 to $60, but they can take less than an hour.
To qualify as an online juror, applicants must be:
- A U.S. citizen
- 18 years or older
- Free of any past felony convictions
Creating an account for either site above is free but will require a questionnaire that will ask very personal questions about your age, marital status, criminal history, income, political opinions and more.
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20. Turn Your Junk Mail Into Cash
PamSchodt/Getty Images You know all those flyers and advertisements you get in the mail each day? The ones you never wanted but have no idea how to opt-out of?
Well, you can turn them into cash.
The Small Business Knowledge (SBK) Center is a market research company that wants to get a peep insight to your mailbox. Join its consumer panel, and start shovelling that junk mail into a postage-paid envelope and, at the end of each week, send it over to the SBK Center.
No, you won’t be rolling in extra cash, but you can earn up to $20 every six to 10 weeks.
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21. Get Free Stocks
iConsumer is a cash-back site that lets you earn shares of iConsumer stock. Think of it as a rewards platform like Ebates or Ibotta — with the added bonus of free stocks.
Shop at more than 2,000 retailers through the portal to earn cashback and 500 shares of iConsumer stock (trading at 17 cents per share, as of Oct. 17, 2019, that’s about $85 worth of stock).
To get your free stock, create a new account with iConsumer and start earning cash — and stocks — back on your online purchases. When you spend your first $25 through the platform, you’ll get a bonus of 500 iConsumer stock shares.
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22. Get Paid to Drop a Few Pounds
Heather Comparetto/The Penny Hoarder Bottom line: HealthyWage will literally pay you for losing weight.
Not only are you getting more healthy, you’re also making some money. How’s that for motivation?
Here’s how it works:
- Read more about HealthyWage, and sign up.
- Define a goal weight and the amount of time you’ll give yourself to achieve it.
- Place a bet on yourself ranging from $20 to $500 a month.
Depending on how much you have to lose, how long you give yourself to do it and how much money you put on the table, you could win up to $10,000!
Wondering if it can really work? We talked to one woman, Christina Castro, who lost 84 pounds — and made $1,191.
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23. Make Your Own Schedule as a Data-Entry Clerk
mixetto/Getty Images Data entry isn’t the best-paying online job, but it is one you can do with few skills or previous experience — all you need is a solid internet connection and a computer, and you must be at least 18 years old.
Pay ranges on a per-hour or per-project basis. Typically, you can pick up jobs as frequently as you’d like through freelance broker sites like Smart Crowd and Clickworker.
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24. Clean up Search Engine Mistakes
playb/Getty Images Search engines use complicated algorithms to determine the results you see — and they don’t always get it right.
They’re vulnerable to errors, so they need real humans to look at the results and judge them for quality, relevance and usefulness. And those humans can get paid around $12 an hour for the work.
If you want to get paid to clean up Google’s mess (or Bing’s or Yahoo!’s), look for a job as a search engine evaluator.
Tech company Lionbridge is typically hiring for these jobs, and it pays $12 to $15 an hour.
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25. Sell Thrift Store Finds on eBay
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder Selling your possessions on the auction site eBay is one way to pocket some cash quickly.
You can also make money by buying designer clothes for cheap, then selling them on the site to the highest bidder. If you have an eye for fashion — or at least the most popular labels — you can track down inventory at local thrift stores.
Create listings for your items, making sure to include well-written item descriptions and quality photographs to give your listings a professional polish (and get top dollar). Check out similar items to get a sense of where to set your starting bid, and be sure to incorporate the costs of shipping and eBay’s seller fees into your price.
Penny Hoarder Kat Tretina resold designer jeans by starting with a minimal investment — packaging tape and a scale to weigh packages for shipping — and ended up more than tripling her money.
How much money can you make? Your profitability depends upon what you’re selling, but for working 10 to 15 hours a month, Tretina made $500 to $800.
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26. Create a Blog and (Potentially) Earn Millions
iladendron/Getty Images Want to start your own website? Turn it into some money?
It’ll take quite a bit of dedication, but it can really pay off.
Take, for example, Helene Sula, a professional travel blogger who visited more than 85 cities last year and earned $200,000, in part through her blog, “Helene in Between.”
We recommend you start by building up your high-quality content. Then you can look into advertising platforms like Google AdSense, a tool that automatically serves your readers display ads. The price advertisers pay varies, so there’s no way to say how much you can make using Google AdSense, but you’ll get paid when a reader interacts with the ad.
If you want all the details, check out our guide to starting a blog, gaining page views and monetizing it.
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27. Mask Up This Weekend
Dmytro Aksonov/Getty Images Have you heard of a luchador?
It’s a masked Mexican wrestler, and San Diego resident Motros Jungle (whose real name remains a secret per the tradition of luchadores) makes extra money hopping into the ring each weekend.
“You go from being just a regular, average Joe to becoming a superhero as soon as you put the mask on,” he says.
Motros Jungle says he makes anywhere fro $200 to $500 for three matches during the weekend. That doesn’t include merch — T-shirts, stickers, buttons and masks.
Learn more about what it takes to become a luchador.
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28. Stream on Twitch
Chris Zuppa/The Penny Hoarder Your mom was wrong. Playing video games might not be a waste of your time after all.
Cory Michael started streaming his gaming sessions and over four years attracted 29 million people to watch him tackle Destiny and other multiplayer online games. As a result, Twitch accepted his partnership application and agreed to pay him to play.
How much money can you make? Michael explained to The Penny Hoarder that there are three ways to make money streaming on Twitch: tipping, ad revenue and subscriptions. Top Twitch streamers can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.
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29. Rent out Your Ping-Pong Table
BraunS/Getty Images Got a Ping-Pong table you don’t use? Someone might need it for a party, so why not rent it out? You can make money with almost anything in your home now thanks to websites like Zilok that make it easy to rent out your stuff.
Zilok is free for individual members to create listings, but rental businesses have to pay fees. To list your item on Zilok, you’ll have to create a post with a description, photos and a price per day. Once a renter finds your product, Zilok takes a commission depending on the listing price. For everything under $10, the commission fee is $1. Fees range between 5% and 9% for all other price categories.
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30. Sell Your Friendship
ljubaphoto/Getty Images Get paid to be someone’s buddy! We’re not kidding.
You can register to become a friend at RentAFriend.com, where paying users can contact you to attend concerts, sporting events, family functions, VIP events and more.
You can charge up to $50 an hour and set your own schedule.
Friends working full time (five days a week) earn up to $2,000 a week, plus free dinners and access to those events I mentioned.
What could you do as a friend for 40 hours a week?
First of all, the site clarifies that it is “solely a platonic friendship website” — beyond that, options are endless.
If you have a special skill, like cooking or speaking a foreign language, you could teach them. Some people traveling or new to an area hire a friend to show them the town.
Some people just want someone to talk to.
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31. Let NASA Pay You to Stay in Bed All Day
amenic181/Getty Images Unfortunately, we haven’t found a way to get paid as a professional napper, but this opportunity is pretty darn close: NASA will pay volunteers to take part in bed rest studies.
Yup — you turn yourself into a test subject and spend 60 days in bed, all in the name of science.
It might be tougher than you think, though. You’ve got to shower, dress, exercise and eat… all from your bed.
The good news is the gig pays. One of the more recent calls for volunteers offered $19,000 for 60 days.
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32. Do Online Transcription
Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder Those listening skills you honed by eavesdropping on your roommates’ conversations could finally pay off with a job in online transcription.
Transcription jobs usually require an assessment test to gauge your typing speed and accuracy. Depending on the service, you could be listening to a car commercial or court hearings, so find out what you’re getting into before you apply.
Cherry wishes she had known that tip before she signed up for her first transcription gig, which brought in $85.15 over six months for a job that required extensive testing and a lot of studying to follow a strict style guide.
“For that first transcription job, oh my gosh, I spent hours on that, and I got paid so little,” Cherry said. “I wish I would have just, in the beginning, told myself, ‘Hey, this just isn’t going to be worth it. Find something else.’”
Cherry had better luck after discovering the transcription service Rev, which offered a user-friendly platform and more lucrative projects.
How much money can you make? Making 40 cents to 75 cents per minute of transcription at Rev, Cherry earned $87.45 in one month for less than four hours of work.
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33. Answer the Phone
Vladimir Vladimirov/Getty Images Have you ever considered doing customer service from the comfort of your home? An increasing number of companies are hiring work-from-home customer service reps, instead of running call centers.
These jobs can be full– or part-time and offer a variety of schedules, including daytime, evening and weekend shifts with a range of pay depending on the position and location.
Your job is usually to answer customer questions over the phone or via online chat. You may find sales positions that include higher pay and performance incentives; or technical support positions, which are best if you’re tech-savvy and have an interest in helping people understand technology.
You should enjoy helping people, though! You know how a bad customer service call can totally ruin your day? You don’t want to be the bad rep on the other end of that call.
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34. Create and Sell Courses
JohnnyGreig/Getty Images Are you a self-taught coder with a knack for simplifying instructions? You could create an online course about it. Maybe you’re an expert at finger-picking techniques on acoustic guitar; you could make a course about that, too.
If you’re good at explaining whatever it is you specialize in, people out there are eager to learn, and with Udemy, you can create and host online courses — no master’s degree required.
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35. Get Crafty (But Not Too Crafty, If You Don’t Want)
Michael House for The Penny Hoarder If you’re a creative, consider selling your art on Etsy. Although there are some fees, including the 5% transaction charge, the marketplace connects with more than 33 million buyers globally.
Those are a lot of potential customers.
If you aren’t necessarily the artsy type, you could still make money on Etsy by selling craft supplies. For example, Penny Hoarder contributor Janet Berry-Johnson made about $200 a month selling needlecraft kits and patterns.
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36. Publish a Kindle Book
BraunS/Getty Images If you’re a subject-matter expert or have an intriguing life experience, you could write a book. But there’s no need to send it off to all the major publishing houses in New York City.
You can publish ebooks through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Penny Hoarder contributor Steve Gillman wrote a book in a week. Note: Ebooks don’t have be hundreds of pages long. Gillman found many books as short as 6,000 words.
After publishing on Amazon, he started making $350 a month. The best part? He continued to make money, even months and years later. He outlines exactly how he did it and the best tips and tricks for you.
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37. Swap Books for Amazon Gift Cards
Chris Zuppa/The Penny Hoarder Have old college textbooks taking up valuable shelf space? You could host a garage sale or sell them on Craigslist, but one of the easiest ways to get rid of them is through Amazon.
With Amazon Trade-In, you can trade in your used textbooks, plus other items, like electronics, in exchange for an Amazon gift card.
Enter the item’s information on Amazon’s Trade-In page to see how much you could pocket. Shipping is free.
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38. Teach English as a Second Language
Photo courtesy of Angela Brumbaugh If a classroom full of grimy squealing kids isn’t your scene… we get it. You can still work as a teacher. Better yet: You work as a teacher, set your own hours and work from home.
There are several online-learning platforms focused on teaching English as a second language to students in other countries.
Angela Brumbaugh is a QKids teacher. She teaches 36 half-hour sessions a week and makes up to $20 an hour.
“The curriculum is set for you before class, and your job is to simply guide the children through the lesson, offering guidance, smiles and tons of encouragement,” she says. That’s a big perk for many: No lesson planning.
“The students are hard-working, curious and light up the classroom with their smiles,” she says. “Class time actually goes by fast, and the only con I can see is sometimes I wish I had more time to spend with them!”
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39. Become a Life Coach
Drazen_/Getty Images According to a Forbes’ article on surprising six-figure jobs, about 20% of life and business coaches top $100,000 annually.
The article notes that “No special degree or training is required,” but if you want, you can get certified by the Universal Coach Institute. You can coach your clients by phone and email from the comfort of your home.
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40. Pretend to Be a Patient
Sam Edwards/Getty Images Fake patients, more formally known as “standardized patients,” are used to train new doctors. It’s essentially an acting job, as explained in NPR’s profile of Gabrielle Nuki. The 16-year-old is paid $15 to $20 per hour to play different roles while medical students examine her.
If you can act and don’t mind being poked and prodded by aspiring doctors, you can look for this work at a number of medical schools.
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41. Earn up to $30/Day Watching Movies
andresr/Getty Images When he was just getting started, The Penny Hoarder CEO Kyle Taylor used to get paid to attend movie premieres. He got $30 to see a Harry Potter premiere! (He would have totally gone for free.)
Theaters and movie studios want to collect data about the audience that attends their movie premieres. They want to know how many people buy tickets on opening day, which screening time is most popular and which previews are being shown. And they want independent data from third party evaluators — that’s where you come in.
These are known as “in-theater checks” and to apply, you’ll need to fill out an application with one of the largest mystery shopping companies, Certified Field Associates. The application is just a few questions long and nearly everyone in the United States and Canada is eligible to be hired.
In-theater checks don’t have huge paydays attached to them, but you can usually expect to make between $10 to $20 per hour.
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42. Monetize Your Doodles
Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder We talked to one guy who sells his art online and makes $2,000 a month.
His whole life, he always doodled in the corners of notebooks and napkins, but he never imagined he could make a living from it. Now he sells his imaginative drawings of pizza and sharks and dinosaurs.
Here are some tips to get started:
- Start small.
- Create marketable products.
- Push yourself. Look for opportunities to get better in your own work, even if it’s just watching YouTube tutorials.
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43. Get the Props You Deserve for Being Active
vgajic/Getty Images If you live an active lifestyle (or need an incentive to become more active), the Achievement app will reward you for making healthy moves, including upping your step count and logging your sleep.
Achievement connects to your phone’s health apps and runs in the background, so it works passively. Many users report being happily surprised when logging on and checking their progress.
Once you earn 10,000 points, you’ll score $10, which you can deposit directly into your bank account.
Pro tip: Achievement connects to more than 30 Android and iOS health-related apps, including MyFitnessPal and Garmin. The more apps you connect, the more earning opportunities..’”
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44. Do Odd Jobs
g-stockstudio/Getty Images TaskRabbit helps you connect with people in your area who need help getting things done — anything from picking up dry cleaning to calling customer service and tolerating the hold music.
Keep an eye out for virtual tasks, which are mostly centered around personal assistance, administrative work or research help. You can do those an earn money without even walking out your door.
Rest assured you won’t be getting paid pennies to solve someone’s Excel woes. Check out these tips from users who make more than $2,000 a week through the app.
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45. Get Paid to Tutor Kids Online
martinedoucet/Getty Images Love kids but don’t want to commit to the classroom?
You can get paid to tutor students online. Take notes from this former teacher, who makes up to $75 an hour.
If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve rounded up a list of companies hiring online tutors.
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46. Sell Your Smartphone Photos
Tim Snell under Creative Commons If you have a smartphone and a photographic eye, making money may have just gotten a lot easier. Oh – you’ll also need access to marketable scenery.
An app called Foap lets you turn your smartphone photos into cash.
Here’s how it works:
1. Download the free app and create an account.
2. Take a quality photo and upload it to Foap’s marketplace.
3. Someone buys the license to your photo for $10. You make $5.
If your photo sells 20 times, you make $5 each time and end up with $100 in your pocket — all for about five minutes of work. Pretty cool, right?
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47. Start Freelancing
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder Making a living as a freelance writer, editor or both is possible. Just take notes from Jamie Cattanach, who, in her first year as a full-time freelancer, made more than $50,000. That was several thousand more than she made while working full time on a salary.
Starting her freelance business wasn’t exactly a breeze, so she offered some advice to budding freelance writers.
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48. Rent out Your Old Baby Gear
Sharon Steinmann/The Penny Hoarder Are you a mom?
You’ve probably got a lot of baby gear. Think: a crib, a car seat, a playset. Don’t let them collect dust when your kid starts growing out of all that stuff. You can rent out those old baby necessities to traveling parents. Because it costs how much to check a stroller on a plane?!
Check out this peer-to-peer rental site called goBaby. There, parents who are traveling can hit you up for that stroller or car seat so they don’t have to travel with the cumbersome gear.
And you can make some money. Sounds like a win-win.
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49. Work from Someone Else’s House
Working from home is wonderful, but sometimes it’s nice just to experience a new space — perhaps in a new town or a new country.
Consider house sitting. People will pay you big bucks to look after their house (and maybe a pet or two) while they’re away.
If you’re not sure where to find these types of gigs, there are tons of websites out there that’ll help, including House Sitters America and Mind My House.
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50. Search for Unclaimed Money
State treasuries throughout the U.S. have more than $43 billion in unclaimed funds, according to The New York Times. Just sitting around! Waiting for you to come play lost and found.
To take matters into your own hands and see if you have any unclaimed money floating around, check with the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
Penny Hoarder reader Kelli Howell heeded our advice, performed a quick search and found unclaimed money in her husband’s name. He was entitled to $56 from a “matured insurance policy.”
Sure, it’s $56, but that’s not bad for an unexpected check, right? We’ll take it!
