Despite working your ass off on a 9-5 job, money always seems to run out before the next paycheck arrives. Most of the time, what you earn will never be enough.
Are you tired of living from paycheck to paycheck? Tired of not being able to make ends meet? Tired of living just to pay the bills and not being able to enjoy your hard-earned money? And of course, the most common – do you just want to have more money for other things like traveling?
If you answer YES to any of those questions, then you came to the right place. In this post I will share with you 10 ways you can earn extra income plus 3 more if you stick around until the end!
For research purposes and out of curiosity, I have read a lot of articles on how to earn extra money on the side. There are a lot of ways you can earn extra but everything I will be sharing with you are all based on my, and my friends’, experiences. Simply put, I have tried it all and will recommend which ones worked best for me.
1) Online jobs
Online jobs are those that you can do at home or wherever you are and, in most cases, do not have time structure. Online job employers are normally results-oriented, where they will just give a set deadline for the project assigned to you. The requirements needed are a functioning laptop, a stable and fast internet, and of course meeting the deadline. Also, a Paypal account is necessary because this is how you will get paid.
When I traveled long-term back in 2015, online jobs helped me sustain my travels. I was able to fund my travels and work wherever I am. All I needed at that time was a decent internet connection, which was available almost everywhere, and plan my travels ahead.
Currently, I am working from home as a Social Media Specialist for a startup company in the US. While the pay is not as good as compared to what I am getting when I was still employed in the corporate world, the flexibility and freedom that online jobs provide are good enough trade-offs.
Here are the sites that I normally visit when I’m actively looking for online jobs:
Just like in any job sites, make sure to complete your profile and highlight all your skills, work experiences and expertise. You have to sell your self and stand out.
There are a lot of online jobs that you can choose from. From virtual assistants, to web design and development, project management, bookkeeping, graphic design jobs, and more, a lot more! Lastly, you can choose whether to work part-time, full-time or project-based.
2) Blogging
Blogging is something I hold dear to me. Writing is one of the things I enjoyed doing not just to share my experiences but also to inspire and encourage people to create the life that they want. Not a lot of people know this but you can actually make money from blogging! Heck, you can even turn it into a full-time job! Do your research and you will see that full-time, and successful, bloggers actually earn thousands of dollars monthly.
But don’t be too excited just yet because before these successful bloggers got to where they are now, they worked really hard, they were patient and they never gave up despite having a lot of challenges along the way.
Blogging looks easy on the surface but don’t be deceived. It really takes a lot of time, dedication, and patience. Blogging can be considered as a blue chip stock investment as it will give you long-term gains. You invest your time and you invest on yourself because there are a lot of things you need to learn and apply before you can be successful at blogging.
Have I earned from it? Yes, when I was traveling but only a hundred dollars because my blog back then was just a hobby. Now is a different story.
Related post: How to Start a Blog worth Reading in 60 Days
3) Create and Sell your Own T-shirt Designs
If your skills involve graphic design, you can also earn extra income by creating and selling your own t-shirt designs.
How does this work? You simply signup to Printful and start creating your designs. Once all your designs are uploaded, you can now promote your shirt designs through Facebook or other social media networks. Printful will handle everything from order processing to delivery. And once sale has been made, you can collect your profits by withdrawing from your account to Paypal. It’s that easy! No financial investment on your part, just skills!
I recommend going with Printful because it’s very easy to use and loads quickly. Also, they don’t only offer t-shirt products but also mugs, caps, stickers, etc., which allows you to have your designs on different merchandise.
Don’t wait any longer, sign up now!
As for my experience, I currently have an online shop, One for Humanity, which I considered an eCommerce marketplace for handmade bags and accessories. I’m a business person, not an artisan, so I created a platform for artisans around the world to share their passion for the arts. I have several artists signed up and a few of them were earning $300 on the side monthly and because they were earning, I was also earning. Not bad, eh?
4) Become a Freelance writer
Perhaps you love to write and can’t be bothered to start a blog? Then freelance writing is for you! You can look for freelance writing gigs here. The pay will be per article submitted, complete with necessary revisions, and the rate will depend on your experience and writing style.
If you are only starting, you have little say about the rate but once you have a credible portfolio, with good recommendations from previous work assignments, then you can easily demand for the price that you want and even choose your target niche or industry.
This can turn out to be a long-term gig especially if your employer loves your writing style.
As for me, I have done a few freelance writing gigs but decided against it because I find it hard to write about topics that I don’t personally connect to. My writing style is very personal, so no tech writing for me.
5) Social Media Marketing and Management
If you spend x amount of hours a day browsing through several social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest), then this side hustle is for you!
How does this work? Think of any of your friends, or relatives, who has a small business and then offer to manage their social media business accounts with a fee of course. At the very least, you should have marketing knowledge and minimal graphic design skills to be able to pull it off.
You can start this way and once you’ve built your network, you can expand and set-up your own social media management company. But bear in mind that social media management can be tedious.
If you want to grow big, hire freelancers to do the creatives, copy writing, web design and SEO services. You also have to invest on automation tools to help you with the post scheduling on different platforms. Once you have these in place, you can now focus on account management and getting new leads.
To be successful in this field, you need to know how the algorithm works for each platform, the best and worst time to post, and the type of ads that will engage your target audience. It’s a hit and miss but once you hit it, you will reap profits by simply doing something you love.
Currently, the company I am working for has the same business model, which is why I know it works. The business is earning tens of thousands of dollars monthly just by managing clients’ social media accounts. The owner has a marketing agency in place doing all the legwork as well as sales, marketing and account managers and a project manager to oversee everything.
6) Teach English online
Teaching English saved my ass when I was traveling. I got paid in kind when I was doing volunteer work / work exchange, where I teach families English in exchange for a bed and food. And in cash, when I was teaching business professionals in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Now, if you want to earn money teaching English online, you must have the following requirements:
- TEFL certificate (You can easily get your TEFL certificate via TeachAway)
- One year teaching experience
- A stable and fast internet
- A functioning laptop with good speaker system
Online English teachers are in demand nowadays especially in countries like Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China, Brazil.
Pay varies depending on your experience; it can go from $10-$50 per hour. When I was teaching in Brazil, I was getting paid $20/hour. Not bad at all!
After that experience I had in Brazil, I realized that teaching English is not for me. Talking for hours is just not my thing.
7) Write an eBook
The concept behind this is similar with creating and selling your own t-shirt designs.
If you love story-telling, or if you are an expert in a certain field, then you can publish your own eBook with no financial investment. You will just have to upload your manuscript, choose or create your own book cover, determine the selling price and countries you want to sell it to.
Once your book is live in Amazon, you can now market it in several social media platforms. The best part? Because Amazon reaches hundreds of millions of customers, the reach and visibility of your eBook are limitless.
All of these are made possible by Amazon. You can read more about it here.
As for me, I once created an eBook for a client and it took me less than an hour. Amazon’s platform is very easy to use. And again, no financial investment so you’ve got nothing to lose but everything to gain.
8) Create an Online Course
Thousands of online courses, free and paid, on all sorts of things are available online. Check out Udemy and Coursera‘s listings and you will be overwhelmed.
Similar with writing an eBook, you can create your own online course and sell it to your target audience. The only requirements for this are your expertise on your chosen topic and skill on creating a really good and worth-my-time course presentation.
Try creating free courses initially and see how your audience are engaging. You need to practice before putting a price on a course, otherwise, your audience will demand for their money back.
One of the courses I’ve encountered recently, and with great reviews, is Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course. I haven’t taken that course yet, still contemplating whether or not to spend on online courses.
9) Sell your photographs online
Are you fond of photography? Do you have thousands of photos laying around in your hard drive? Guess what! You can earn money from those by selling online.
Have you seen thousands of stock photos available online? Those came from people who sold their photos online intended for people looking for photos to use mainly for marketing collateral. Here are a few sites where you can sell your photos:
I haven’t sold any photos online but I am a user of stock photos. So believe me when I say, the photos you sell will go a long way!
10) Sell your stuff online
When everything is said and done and you haven’t found anything yet that works for you, then selling your stuff online can be the solution. Just think of it as an online garage sale.
Where to sell your stuff? eBay of course!
All you have to do really is create an account with eBay, take good photos, upload your stuff, and determine your payment and delivery methods. If you want to know more, here are the selling basics from eBay.
The good thing about it is that as you are de-cluttering, you are also making money at the same time! Talk about hitting two birds with one stone!
I believe most of us have done this at one point in our lives. It’s practical and efficient!
You’ve reached the end but as promised, here are 3 more things that can help you earn extra income:
- Drive with Uber/Grab
Don’t take this one for granted because you can actually make serious money driving for Uber. I’ve interviewed a handful of Uber drivers before and they told me that a good week alone can give them up to $1000 income. To maximize your earnings, you must be smart with your approach. Here are a few tips:
- Drive during peak hours. Usually between 6am-8am on weekdays, and 6pm-2am on weekends.
- Go above and beyond to give your riders a great experience. Here are a few tricks you can do:
- Interior should be spotless clean.
- Make small talk with your passengers.
- Have water and/or mint candies on board.
- Bring a vomit bag (better to be safe than sorry)
- Keep music at a low volume.
- Drive safe always.
- Make sure to carry small bills for change.
- Airbnb
There are actually 2 ways to earn money from Airbnb:
- Have a spare room? You can rent it out on short-term basis. This can be marketed to travelers and tourist who prefer to stay with the locals. The best part about this is you get to interact with people with different race and background; a cultural experience indeed. A few friends of mine have done this and they are happy with the experience, not to mention, the money they are earning already covers the monthly rent.
- Sign up with Airbnb’s referral program and earn travel credits, which you can use when you book with Airbnb on your travels. How does this referral program works? Read more here.
- Wunderpool
Majority of working professionals drive themselves to work. Now if you are one of them and looking for ways to earn money, then you can consider signing up at Wunder.
What Wunder does is it allows you to carpool with people going in the same direction as you are. I know a few friends who have done this and they highly recommend it because the money they earn from carpooling can already pay for the gas and parking. Now, that’s huge savings!