Best ways to make extra money – Meeting your financial goals can sometimes be tough. This is why more and more people are deciding to start up a side hustle to bring in some extra cash.
Making some extra side hustle cash doesn’t actually have to be that complicated. As someone who’s been immersed in the field of online income generation for nearly two decades now, I can tell you that it takes some work. However, there are several clear paths forward. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what your goals are and just how much you’re looking to automate your income.
If you choose the right one, you can easily be on your way to some extra money in your pocket and a fun way to spend your free time. So, are you ready to find some new and best ways to make extra money? Let’s dive in!
Why are Side Hustles so Great?
Adding a side hustle, or an additional job on the side, to your life can be incredibly beneficial to you. To Make Extra Money is fantastic way to grow as an individual, boost your finances, and so much more. Some of my favorite benefits of side hustles include:
- Creating your own opportunity to make extra money and meet your financial goals
- Push you outside your comfort zone and allow you to grow as an individual
- Give you space and time to chase your dreams (perhaps of becoming a business owner or get paid to travel)
- Allow you an opportunity to leave your day job for a different career
- Help you better understand and manage your money
- Network with new and different professionals
- And so much more!
So, you think starting a side hustle is a great idea now, right? Awesome! However, there are countless side hustle ideas out there. How do you know which ones are actually legit? Don’t worry. Here are the favorite and best ways to make extra money.
Best Ways to Make Extra Money
- Monetize Your Hobby/Start a Business
- Start a Blog
- Teach English Online
- Start an Etsy Shop
- Work as a Virtual Assistant
- Write an eBook
- Day Trading and Investing
- Become an Online Tutor
- Babysitting
- Become a Driver
- Housekeeping
- Pick up a Seasonal Job
- Local Part-Time Jobs
1. Monetize Your Hobby/Start a Business
Do you happen to have a hobby you think you could make money from? That is exactly how I started my blog! My hobby was traveling and making vintage journals. I created my blog to monetize the travel aspect, then my Etsy shop to sell my journals. It just blew up from there!
2. Start a Blog
My top and FAVORITE way to make extra money is blogging. I started my blog back in 2017 and never looked back. It has been an amazing experience and a fantastic income. In fact, if I wasn’t so passionate about civil engineering, my blog could easily be my only job and support me financially. I started out as a travel blogger (yep, I actually got paid to travel!) and loved it. Over time, my blog has evolved with me, which is such a great benefit!
So, once you have a website up and running, how exactly do you make money blogging? Great question, let’s break it down…
There are several ways to monetize your blog including:
- Sponsored Blog Posts: Companies pay you to write a blog post
- Affiliate Linking: Companies pay you a percentage of a sale when someone buys through your link
- Social Media Ads: If you have a decent amount of followers on one or more of your social media accounts, companies will pay you to create a specific post (and pay really well I might add!)
- Product Creation: Many people use their blog to promote and sell their own products (like I do with my Student Printable Planner )
- Website Ad Placement: Placing an ad on your website and getting paid when someone sees and/or clicks on it
This all might sound a bit overwhelming at first, but don’t worry. Starting a money making blog is actually incredibly straight forward and, with a bit of work, you can truly create a serious income stream into your life.
3. Teach English Online
In addition to becoming a tutor, you can also help teach English (or another language for that matter) online. Again, Chegg is a great, legit company to start your job search, but there are also a number of great TEFL Courses at The TEFL Academy USA.”
4. Start an Etsy Shop
Alright, alright! Enough about blogging, let’s move on to number 2… starting an Etsy shop! Etsy is an online marketplace where you can sell a ton of different items including crafts, printables, furniture, toys, jewelry… anything you can build or create really! The great thing about Etsy is that they help you with all the boring, legal stuff. In fact, in many states, they even take care of sales tax for you! They also help you with marketing, give you amazing tips along the way, and so much more.
5. Work as a Virtual Assistant
Next, working as a virtual assistant can help you bring in some great money. In fact, I know quite a few people who have used this to leave their boring day job (so they can work from home)!
There is a wide range of tasks and hours virtual assistants complete, it definitely depends on your employer. Some might include: proofreading documents, managing social media accounts, acting as a personal assistant, scheduling meetings, managing the books, and researching.
6. Write an eBook
Next, writing an EBook is a fantastic way to make money! The great thing about this is, once it is finished, you can put it on the market and you are done! From then on, you’re making a passive income!
You can sell an EBook in numerous ways. First, you can create your own website to sell it (creating a blog to promote your EBook would be a great way to get your name out there). Next, you could sell it on Etsy, Amazon, or a similar website… or you could work with a company to publish and distribute it. Finally, you could get fancy and actually write a paperback book and submit it to different publishers!
7. Day Trading and Investing
As our technology advances, it has become more and more easy to day trade and invest your money into meaningful causes. The key here is to start small, do your research, and track the market. You can even do this with your phone! If you’re seriously interested in day trading, Andrew Aziz’s book How to Day Trade for a Living is a fantastic place to start. Gives you all the best tips and tricks to really get going!
8. Become an Online Tutor
Next, there are several companies out there looking for tutors to help students in various fields. Utilize your own field of expertise and help out someone in need (and get paid while you’re at it!). The most legit company I can think of is Chegg but I am sure there are a ton of other great companies you can look into as well.
9. Babysitting
Babysitting is a classic side hustle many of us are incredibly familiar with. However, I would like to point out there are a TON of nanny jobs out there that get SALARY PAY PER CHILD. I’m not joking. You can make so much money watching kids, it’s ridiculous. So, if you love kids, definitely check this side hustle out!
10. Become a Driver
Next, this list would not be complete without mentioning becoming an Uber or Lyft Driver. If you’re not comfortable driving people around, you could also become an Uber Eats driver. I’ve never done any of these jobs, and don’t know anyone who has (I know… shocking! Everyone seems to be doing it these days!) but I’ve heard you can make some serious cash with it.
11. Housekeeping
Housekeeping is a side hustle not a lot of people talk about. However, it can bring in some great money (especially if you work in nicer neighborhoods). The larger companies I’ve heard of (but have no experience with, so do your research)
12. Pick up a Seasonal Job
There are a handful of incredibly fun seasonal jobs you might find to help boost your income during certain times of the year. These are usually local jobs that post listings in the paper or on local job search sites. Here are some of my favorite seasonal job ideas that either I have done, or someone I know has done:
- Become a mover for a furniture or moving company (summer)
- Weekend or evening lifeguarding (could be year round, summer if outdoor)
- Help farmers harvest different crops (spring, summer, fall)
- Gardening for local botanical gardens (spring, summer)
- Assist in taxes (spring)
- Seasonal park ranger (usually summer)
- Snow removal from roads or sidewalks (winter)
- Various holiday related jobs, such as sorting mail, organizing toy donations, help run holiday events, Christmas tree farms, etc (November, December)
13. Local Part-Time Jobs
You could also pick up a local part-time job to work year-round. This has a lot of potential (and can have added benefits) but you will need to look at local listings to see if there is anything that would work best for you. Some ideas to get you started include:
- Cleaning work at your own gym (get paid and a free membership)
- Setting routes at your local rock gym (again, get paid and a free membership! I know a ton of people who do this.)
- Grocery store work (get paid and a discount)
- Work for your landlord (get paid and reduced rent)
- Assisting at a non-profit or organization with a good cause (get paid and feel good about it
