I guess you could say; I was born with the entrepreneurial bug. Since the age of six — I've been exploring different ways to make money. I've gone door-to-door selling arts and crafts to neighbors, hosted lemonade stands, collected salamanders, and sold them to the local pet shop, as well as participated in many garage and yard sales.
As I got older, this trend continued, I provided babysitting services to friends and family; I sold stuff to consignment stores; I even participated in pharmaceutical research studies. If there was a way to make money — I found it.
Well, not much has changed.
To this day, I still get excited when I find a new way to make money. So if you're looking to make some extra cash, here are 15 odd ways you can make extra money from home.
1. Product Tester
Become a product tester and reviewer, and you can earn free products, services, gift cards, and sometimes even cash for sharing your opinions.
Check out these companies to get started:
The Product Review Mom has more sites that offer free products for review and payment.
2. Smartphone Apps
Smartphone apps are a great way to supplement your income! Some reward you for taking surveys or watching videos, while others offer cashback on purchases. If you're not using these, you're leaving money on the table!
Here are some of my favorites:
- Dabbl – surveys
- Dosh – cashback app
- Drop – cashback app
- Gauge – surveys
- Shopkick – make money shopping
For more ways to make extra money with smartphone apps, read: Smartphone Apps That Pay Cash via PayPal
3. Sell Your Photos
If you know how to stage photos with proper composition and lighting, you can make extra money by selling stock photos online. Publishers, designers, bloggers, and small business owners purchase stock photos for a wide variety of projects like blog posts, brochures, and websites. Photographers generally earn a percentage (25% – 75%) of each photo sold on the stock photo site.
Here are some places to get started:
4. Sell Your Expertise Online
Do you have formal training as a nurse, doctor, teacher, or lawyer? Do you have expert knowledge in a particular area like math, a foreign language, or perhaps plumbing or electronics? If so, you can sell your knowledge and expertise to others who are looking for answers. These positions are independent contracting roles, where you can earn extra money by thoroughly answering a person's question online. You will need to prove your expertise in the subject matter by submitting the proper documentation and credentials.
Here are some platforms to check out:
For more ways to make money answering questions online, read: How to Make Money Answering Questions Online
5. Make Money With Your Vehicle
Rent out your car when you're not using it at GetAround.com. Here's how the program works, simply list your car for free and manage rentals via the GetAround.com website. You set your own rates, hours, and who you want to rent to. Rental earnings are paid on the 15th of the following month, and GetAround.com takes a 40% commission on rentals to cover insurance and customer support.
Do you have a motorhome, pop-up camper, travel trailer, or fifth wheel? Then put your recreational vehicle to work when you're not using it. RVshare is an on-demand platform that connects RV owners with renters. It's completely free to use, and according to their website, you can earn $120 – $365 a day! Booked rentals include 24/7 roadside assistance (so you know your RV is in good hands) and RV rental insurance.
For more ways to make extra money with your vehicle, read: 19 Flexible Ways to Make Money With Your Car
6. Submit Short-Form Content
Magazines and websites are continually looking for new content; that's why many publications are willing to pay for short stories, recipes, videos, reader tips, poems, and even jokes. Here are just a few publications that pay for submissions. As a side note, I haven't submitted short-form content to any of these sources, so I'm unable to comment on the validity of them.
- CRAFT
- Cuisine at Home
- Narrative
- Newsflare
- PANK Magazine
- FineScale Modeler
- The Saturday Evening Post
- The Story People
The Thrifty Couple has more tips for submitting tips and photos to magazines.
7. Test Websites and Apps for Cash
If you like testing out websites and apps for usability, you can earn a little extra money each month with this side gig. Most user tests take between 10-30 minutes to complete, and payment is usually $10 per test made via PayPal. Some platforms will require you to answer questions via audio or video, while others allow you to respond with written text. The ideal candidate for this type of side gig is someone who is tech-savvy and has excellent communication skills.
Sound interesting? Check out these companies:
For more ways to make money testing websites, read: 18 Sites That Will Pay You to Test Out Websites
8. Search Engine Evaluator
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing want to ensure that they're serving up the very best search results for their users. To ensure that they are, these companies hire search engine evaluators to evaluate search results to determine their relevancy to the keyword or phrase that was typed in. These positions are flexible, part-time, independent contracting roles that pay around $10-$15 per hour.
If this sounds like a good fit, apply with these companies:
9. Referral Links
It's likely that you already tell your friends and family about your favorite products and services, so why not earn some free swag or money for doing so?!
For instance, I love using the online cashback shopping site, Rakuten (formerly Ebates). When you're shopping online, and you want to make a purchase, login to Rakuten, and see if the retailer is a participant in their program. If so, click on the merchant's link from Rakuten, and you'll earn a certain percentage back on your purchase. It's literally free money for what you were going to do anyway. Now, here's the fun part, when you refer your friends to the platform, and they sign-up and make a purchase using the site, you'll both earn a cashback bonus (anywhere between $5 – $30)!
Looking for more ways to earn money with referral links, read: Refer Your Friends and Earn Money with Referral Links
10. Complete Short Tasks
Only have short periods to make extra money? No problem! With short tasks, you can complete microtasks that take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. Tasks may consist of doing internet research, data entry, scheduling appointments, making phone calls, running errands, or whatever else the individual needs help with. The pay varies greatly, as do the assignments, but it can be an easy and flexible way to add some extra moola to your bottom line.
Check out these platforms to get started:
For more ways to make money with short tasks, read: 18 Short Task Sites for Making Money From Home
11. Teach English as a Second Langauge
If you have a Bachelor's degree, and you enjoy working with children, you can work online by teaching ESL classes to children in China. These roles are part-time, independent contracting roles that pay between $16-$26 per hour. Because you're working with students based in China, you'll be working odd hours (2 am – 8 am depending on your time zone).
If this sounds appealing, check out:
12. Make Money Selling Print-on-Demand Products
If you have a great slogan for a t-shirt, or if you're talented at design, you can make money selling print-on-demand products. Each platform allows you to create or upload your custom designs to a wide variety of products like shirts, mugs, bags, jewelry, and more. Once your designs are completed, you write up your description, set your prices, and sell the wares online for a profit. The cool thing about print-on-demand is you're not responsible for inventory or shipping, it's all done for you — and you can get started for free!
Here are some platforms to get you started:
13. Take Surveys Online
You're not going to get rich taking surveys, but it is an easy way to put a little extra cash into your wallet. When you're browsing available surveys, don't waste your time with ones that only pay pennies for 45-minutes of your time. Hold out for the ones that offer a decent payment for the time invested. I like to take surveys on my phone when I'm watching TV at night. Since I'm multitasking, I don't mind only making an extra $1.00 for a 5-minute survey.
If you'd like to take surveys online, here are some to check out:
For more ways to make money with surveys, read: 19 Ways to Make Money from Home with Paid Surveys
14. Scan Your Receipts for Cash
Companies and brands want to know your purchasing habits, and that's why multiple companies will pay or reward you for your receipts. In fact, every time I come home from a shopping trip, I'll take a few minutes to scan all of my receipts into these four receipt apps. I don't earn a ton of money by doing this, but these apps help me pay for fun reads on Amazon and coffee at Starbucks.
- Ibotta – Cash via PayPal or gift cards
- FetchRewards – Gift cards or cash via Visa or MasterCard
- Receipt Hog – Redeem coins for Amazon gift cards or payment via PayPal or Visa
- ReceiptPal – Gift cards
15. Project-Based Work
If you've got writing, editing, proofreading, transcription, design, translation, or project management skills, you can work on a wide variety of freelance projects. Pay and time involved will vary on the scope of the project, but freelancing is an excellent way to earn extra money from home without having to take on a part-time job.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are lots of weird ways to make extra money from home. The key is to start thinking outside the traditional employment box and experiment with some of these unusual side gigs, to see which ones are best suited for your skills and personality type.
What interesting and odd ways have you earned money from home? Drop us a note; we'd love to hear from you! If you enjoyed this post — please share it on your favorite social media site.
Originally published April 2, 2014. Content updated on May 12, 2020.
This post includes referral and affiliate links. Please be aware that we only promote advertising from companies that we feel we can legitimately recommend to our readers. See our disclosure policy for further information.
Another way to make some extra cash is to rent out your RV. You can list it thru Go RV Rentals (https://www.gorvrentals.com). You could easily make several thousand dollars per year. Nice thing is you only rent to who you want, insurance coverage and you can black out dates and use it yourself whenever you like.
Who wouldn’t like to make money from their hobbies like taking photos or anyone interested in trying out new products and give their reviews? This article is a good read for them as it also provides the source and links for readers to visit them. We must appreciate @workathomehome for bringing out these cool ideas to make some extra cash.
Glad you enjoyed the ideas!
Holly, I hope you do not find my intrusion disrespectful in any way when I mention I’m a man. I know your focus group was for women but I’m semi retired and home caring for my wife in her twilight years. I truly think you would be surprised by the love and gratitude from both genders. I found you to be very articulate, charming, and informative. Being a crusty old geezer I tend to find the bloggers nation a place to avoid, down right enraging at times to strenuous at best. but you have been extremely captivating and I hope to see many more from you in the future.
PS. please do not disregard this comment as flattery, I mean every word.
I think you need to update this post. Some websites are defunct, ShareMagnet sounds cool, I’ll check out the Gig Walk, but some seem iffy-especially if they don’t recognize my zip code? I think you should double check. I do use Swagbucks. Gazelle does NOT accept devices after a certain age or a certain “level” so sometimes, unless you are selling your 6 month old computer, ain’t worth it.
Hi Gina,
I’ll have to check out all the links again and replace the old ones with new ones.
Good to know about Gazelle. I tend to keep my electronics for a looooong time — so I’m never able to trade them in or sell them. Boo!
Thanks for popping by!
Great information. I take Surveys, earn digitally through Swagbucks. They are resourceful. Been working these for a few years and the income is increasing. I just joined Workhoppers. Seeking freelance writing as my main earning and plan on starting a business. If any tips please share. I started a Website on WordPress. Thanks.
Have you chosen a writing niche yet?
I really love to read your blog as well as the examples that you’ve mention. Thank you so much for this helpful contents. I am looking forward to see more example contents like this.If you have time you can also visit this site that I managed to surf in business startups.Go Helper
Amazing tips. I never heard about product testing opportunities for making money. It seems to be promising.
Similarly you have shared several websites with various opportunities. I saved your post for later reference.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us.
With best wishes,
Glad you enjoyed the ideas! Good luck and let us know if any of them work out for you!
I’m always out with my dog exploring the city. Seems like GigWalk and Foap would be good for me to try out. Thanks for the suggestions!!
Glad you enjoyed the suggestions, Anna. Good luck and keep us posted on how they work out for you!
I’ve never heard of #8, I’ll have to check it out!
Glad you found something new, Miranda! Thanks for stopping by!
Amazing blog, i really love it. Very focused, without scams and full of great tips for all kind of backgrounds and amazing details. As the old Tina Turner said, YOU ARE SIMPLY THE BEST. :) Cheers from Portugal,
Aww, thanks for your kind words, Nea! What part of Portugal? I’ve traveled to Lisbon before – beautiful place!
Great ideas! Thanks! I have been doing an app called inbox dollars. You take surveys, check email, watch videos, ect to earn money. I have earned $35 in the past 6 months. It’s not a lot but anything helps! I have also recently joined Plexus. It’s a health and wellness company that offers natural plant based supplements. I have lost 8 pounds in 4 months and also earned extra income! It’s a win win situation! Better your health and earn money! Check here to see how you can join me! http://www.shopmyplexus.com/sheltonplexus
Thanks for sharing, Kristi.
I want to share my recipes. How will i get paid? And how can I know if they published them or not ? Thank u
Hi Liz,
Each magazine will have different protocols for submitting recipes, so you’ll need to read what their submission guidelines are.
This post also covers how to sell your recipes for money: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-money-selling-recipes/
Everything is very open with a precise explanation of the challenges.
It was really informative. Your website is very helpful.
Thank you for sharing!
I do not have a website yet? Would like to know if there is one you prefer that does not cost an arm and leg?
I use WordPress — it’s awesome! Here is a step-by-step guide: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/setup-blog/
How do I get started
Which opportunity are you interested in?
Great list! Another suggestion would be transcribing. Transcribing really requires very little skill or capital to get started. You can sign up with companies like Elance and Odesk to find jobs OR reach straight out to producers of audio content to see if they need help. With the huge trend in podcasting a great place to start would be by perusing iTunes for podcast shows that may need help turning their audio podcast episodes into text for their website or “show notes.”
I post a new idea for ways to generate legitimate income streams (like the list above) on Instagram at http://www.instragram.com/incometips
Yep, transcribing is a great way to make money from home. You can also look at sites like QuickTate and VerbalInk — they hire general transcribers.
Hi Holly,
Have you ever written about earning cash through ebates.com? I love to spread the word, especially around the holidays before people make their holiday purchases online. For joining ebates you get a gift card (after you make your first online purchase through one of their links – super easy). Then you can use their coupons and get to your shopping sites through their links to earn cash back. If you refer people to their site you also get referral fees. Right now, if you refer 3 people you get $75.00. Bloggers tend to be able to get lots of referrals, so you can really rack up your referral bonuses! :) Check it out through my website link!
I have written about ebates — love them! It’s a must if you shop online.
https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-money-shopping/
Great stuff here. There are also sites where you can fill out surveys or test websites. And I guess if you have something interesting to say you could always blog.
Glad you enjoyed the article, Adam! And yes, I’ve written on those topics too =)
https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/test-websites/
https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/paid-surveys/