No doubt all of us have racked our brains at one time or another to come up with ways to make extra cash.
Yes, it’s tempting to gravitate towards those get-rich-quick and make-money-overnight offers, but unless you’re willing to risk becoming the victim of a scam, you’ll need to think of more creative ways to earn money.
With that in mind, here are 23 ideas to help you pad your wallet:
1. Become a Tutor
If you’re proficient in a certain subject then become a part-time tutor. You can tutor on a freelance basis, but most tutors work as independent contractors who are affiliated with a tutoring agency that finds the clients for them in exchange for splitting the tutoring fees evenly.
2. Sell Your Junk
This is a great task for pack rats. Garage sales, eBay, and CraigsList are all great venues for selling your stuff quickly. The downside is that eventually you’ll finish selling all of your stuff, which is why it’s important to replenish your inventory with new things to sell; one way is to sell things on consignment.
3. Start a Website
Website start-up costs are next to nothing — and you can be up and running in hours. All you really need to get started is $10 to purchase a domain name and another $20 or so per month for a hosting plan.
Tip: Start a website on a topic that you already know and understand. For example, Len started this site because he has a lot of financial knowledge and wanted to communicate a common sense approach to finding financial freedom.
4. Do Odd Jobs
Walking around your neighborhood and looking for odd jobs will not only put some quick cash in your pocket, but also get you acquainted with the neighbors. You’ll be surprised how well this strategy works if you look professional and speak in a very friendly and polite manner.
5. Hand Out Fliers
Many local businesses will pay $100 or more to anyone willing to deliver marketing fliers.
Tip: If you’re unsure of what businesses to contact first, then try contacting each of the businesses that are already marketing in the local “Coupon Clipper” fliers that you receive in the mail. Each of these area businesses are prime candidates for wanting to have their own fliers hand-delivered as they are already spending money on marketing in the area.
6. Scoop Dog Poop
Yup, you heard me right. Many people who have dogs pay someone else to scoop and cart away their dog’s poop on a weekly or daily basis. Get creative: For an extra charge, you could spray the lawn with a deodorizer afterward too!
Tip: You’ll definitely want to invest in a pooper-scooper stick so that you do not have to bend over.
7. Invest in Domain Names
Yes, it’s too late now to buy great domain names like Business.com and resell them for a profit — but there are certainly others still available that can be held for your own money-making website or resold for a profit.
8. Peruse CraigsList
The CraigsList.org “Gigs” and “Part Time Jobs” sections of the site are great places to find quick weekend money makers as well as the traditional 15-20 hour a week part-time jobs.
9. Write Articles
With so many people moving their businesses online and starting new websites there is increasing demand for talented writers. Demand Studios is one place where many writers can find an abundance of writing projects with pay ranging from $10 to $20 per article — or more.
10. Join Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a marketplace where you can sign up to complete online human intelligence tasks that are very easy for humans to do but are difficult for a computer to accomplish, such as categorizing different products, or matching up images with descriptions.
11. Start a Business
Sure, this is a very broad suggestion, but maybe at least one of these 999 business ideas will give you a flash of inspiration.
12. Pay Off Your Credit Card
OK, maybe this is not technically a way to make money per se, but if you’re carrying a balance on your credit card then the faster you can pay off your credit card the better off you’ll be because you will save yourself a boatload of money on interest charges. You can also put your credit cards to work for you by utilizing cash back credit cards that pay from 1% to 3% of everything that you spend. Just remember: If you carry a balance on your card then these cash-back benefits are negated.
13. Detail Cars
Washing, waxing, vacuuming, and cleaning cars will certainly require some sweat and some elbow grease from you to make it a successful venture, but the upside can be great — especially if you love cars as I do. Start-up costs are very low. In fact, you can purchase all of the supplies that you’ll need for under $100.
14. Deliver Food
Start a service that will deliver food from restaurants that do not offer delivery. The customer calls you with their order, then you drive down to the restaurant, pick up the food and bring it to the customer’s house. The customer then pays you for the food plus your fee.
15. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketers are similar to salespeople that market products or services online for a sales commission. Try the Amazon affiliate program or the Walmart.com affiliate program. You might even try signing up for a third-party affiliate network like Commission Junction that aggregates listings of many different companies affiliate programs.
16. Wait Tables
Waiting tables is certainly not a creative way to make some extra money but it is a tried-and-true money maker that almost anyone can do.
17. Become a Landscaper
Although definitely not a new concept, landscaping is a proven way to spend your weekends making some cold hard cash. If you spend your weekdays working in an office then a side benefit is that you get work outdoors and enjoy the fresh air.
18. Design Something
If you’re creative, then making crafts, or designing artwork, stationary — and even stuffed animals — could become a cash cow if people love your work.
19. Clean Houses
Call up a local cleaning company that does residential cleaning and ask them if they have any part-time work.
20. Throw a Party
Plan a gigantic party complete with refreshments, live music, snacks, and dancing, and then charge a cover charge to get in. If you plan ahead and pay strict attention to the budget then you can turn your party into a smashing success — not only for the party-goers, but also for your wallet.
21. Give Driving Lessons
Sure, there are plenty of professional driving schools that offer driving lessons, but if you’re patient and dependable, then many parents would likely jump at the chance to have you assist them in teaching their kids to be safe drivers — especially if you undercut professional driving school prices.
22. Coach or Referee
Call your local youth center to see if they have a need for any coaches or referees for any of their youth sports leagues.
23. Organize Houses
Perfectionists and neat freaks can help others organize their garages and closets into space-efficient areas. Offer a free five minute “space efficiency evaluation” and then, if you’re good enough at making a shocked face as soon as the potential client opens their garage door, you’ll probably win yourself a client.
Photo Credit: Nurse Carla
by the way, i loved this post! thanks! 🙂
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Great ideas. Re: point #23, a good way to start is to join the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) http://www.napo.net/ and also find and join a local NAPO chapter in your area.
This was a great article. I like the ideas you gave I am definitely going to try some of them. Thanks!!
@Susan: Great idea! 🙂
@Ragina: I think Joel wrote a terrific article. I was proud to feature it here.
@Susan: Man, I wish I would have added that link 🙂 Thanks for pointing it out as that could be a great credibility booster.
@Ragina, @Len: Thanks!
– Joel
Great post.
If you would like to start your own business, do some research, like Dr. Charles King on network Marketing on youtube.
Be open minded. Think outside the box.
If you had the opportunity to invest money in the beggining of Microsoft, without an open mind you’d have lost that greatest opportunity.
If you do what you always did, you’ll get what you always got.
Try something different, after you research.
Good luck!
Great ideas. I personally like paying off your credit card. You are in fact putting money in your pocket by avoiding future finance charges so I have no problem characterizing that as income.
I tried Amazon Turk but where I live, I cannot get my earnings in cash…only in gift certificates which I have to spend in Amazon.
Maybe you could purchase items with your gift certificates, and then turn around and sell them on eBay? They’d likely sell for less than retail value (as does pretty much everything on eBay), but at least it’d be a means of getting cash vs. simply getting items you don’t need.
I had times when I drive the Uber taxi to earn some extra money. Cool times these were!
This is a great list of ways to earn money….most people, like me, needs some new ideas and I found lots in this post. Thanks!
Hello All, I would like to thank Len for this bullseye targeted work. Really informative source to gain benefit. For me, as an ordinary person who spends some significant time with internet, I’m chasing for online additional income opportunities. Of course trying to stay away from scams. Personally I think that affiliate marketing is still valid way to gain some extra cash and already selling some internet goods.
Rent some space! Air BnB will help you rent a spare room in your house or flat. Rent the whole house or flat occasionally and stay with a friend, give some of the profit to friend and keep the rest of the money. Uber will help you earn money for driving people around. Have a garage? Run garage sale and sell off the unused contents and then rent the garage to someone else for storage of stuff he doesn’t need. I once had an empty hole in my yard next to the house. Spent about $1,200 over a year buying clean fill to level the lot to street height. Every time I scrimped and saved $35. I bought another load of dirt and hand leveled it. After one year one end of the lot was rented to the local moving company and they parked two trucks there for $100. per month. Every year that was a 100% return on investment before taxes. Then space for the local body shop to park four cars on the other side of the lot was rented for $100. per month, that meant a total of 200% per year return on the investment. Everyone needs space, if you have extra space, rent it! Had a house with a family room and living room. Put closet into the family room and then rented the place for more because of the “extra” bedroom. Be creative!
Great tip, Karen!
Sweet blog, Len! I just thought you wanted to know that I found it while searching on Yahoo News.
Thank you, Anh.
Fantastic, lots of excellent ways to gain bonus revenue.
First of all I would like to say great blog, Len! I had a quick question in which I’d like to ask but I’ll send it to you by email. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Mike. I got your message … I’ll reply soon.
My dad has a lot of vintage tackle that he has no use for. Maybe he should try selling that.
Good idea.