50 Ways to Make Extra Money This Monthby
The Penny Hoarder StaffUPDATED MAY 2, 2019
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder
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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:
1. Search Your Wallet and Cash in on Your Dollar Bills
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!
2. Invest in Real Estate With Only $500
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder
Want to get into real-estate investing without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars or playing landlord? We found a company that helps you do just that.
Oh, and you don’t have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars, either. You can get started with a minimum investment of just $500. A company called Fundrise does all the heavy lifting for you.
With a minimum investment of just $500,
Fundrise will invest in its Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that offer expected returns of 8% to 11% per year.
This isn’t an obscure investment. You can see exactly which properties are included in your portfolio — like a set of townhomes in Snoqualmie, Washington, or an apartment building in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Fundrise does the heavy lifting of buying million dollar properties and pays you dividends quarterly plus extra periodic distributions if properties are sold.
You’ll pay a 0.85% annual asset management fee and a 0.15% annual investment advisory fee.
Remember investments come with risk. While Fundrise has paid distributions every quarter since at least Q2 2016, your payment is never guaranteed.
3. Earn up to $60/Hour as a Part-Time Bookkeeper
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Can you open an excel spreadsheet? Does earning $60 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 certified public accountant and business owner who teaches others to become virtual bookkeepers.
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.
Median pay is around $19 per hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics— and you have no commute. It’s a great opportunity for parents who want a part time job, recent college grads and 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 Bookkeeper Business Launch.
4. Watch Movie Previews
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder
Most of you already know about
InboxDollars, but did you know that it will pay you to watch movie previews, celebrity videos, the latest news and dozens of other videos? Plus, you'll get a bonus
$5 just for signing up.
You need to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist to earn your bucks, so be prepared. InboxDollars lets you know how long the playlist runs before you start watching, and playlists range from a few minutes to about a half hour.
The availability is subject to change, but it's possible to earn up to $225 a month
watching these videos!
5. Become a Mermaid
Sharon Steinmann/The Penny Hoarder
Do you want to be part of their world?
We went for a swim with the real-life mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida to find out how they get paid to slip into fins and perform for kids (and kids at heart).
From mastering underwater routines to learning how to use buoyancy to your advantage, this job isn't exactly a day at the beach. But if you can keep up, it's every bit as magical as you'd imagine.
To qualify, you must be at least 18 years old and be able to swim 400 yards in less than 15 minutes. Mermaids’ pay starts around $10 an hour.
6. Get Free Lottery Tickets
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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 $10,000. 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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PRIVACY POLICY 7. Earn up to $20/Hour Delivering Groceries This Weekend
Thanks to apps and online marketplaces, side gigs aren’t difficult to find. But you’ll likely face fees. Sure, you think you just earned $30 an hour — but nope. You’ve got service fees, booking fees, transaction fees — all the fees.
Postmates is different: You’ll take home 100% of your earnings when you deliver groceries, takeout and even retail purchases through the app.
It’s just like other side-gig apps — you’ll pick and choose how much or how little you want to work — but you won’t get hit with fees.
You can deliver through Postmates delivery by car, bicycle or foot. Just
create an account, then you’ll receive a welcome kit in the mail within a week (a free delivery bag and a prepaid card to make your purchases). Link the card up to the Postmates Fleet app, and you’re off to earning extra money.
8. Find Hidden Money in Your Inbox
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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.
Aimee B., juggles a corporate 9-to-5 career and manages a blog while raising her son. She does about 90% of her shopping online.
Paribus was able to find her $1,315.41 in savings over the last two years.
“It really is as simple as giving your email address,” she says. “It’s kind of a no-brainer.”
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.
9. Earn More Than 20x the Average Interest Rate When You Save
Heather Comparetto/The Penny Hoarder
To put it simply, online banking services are easier to use than the traditional banks. They’re cheaper, more accessible and often have better perks.
One of our favorites is
Aspiration — you’ll pay no monthly fees, and you’ll earn up to 2.00% APY on your savings.
You’ll get access to an online-only account for spending and for saving. The spending account comes with a debit card that earns 0.5% cash back on all your purchases, plus free ATMs, so you can easily access your money when you need it.
Now, you have an account dedicated to saving and putting your money to work.
10. Fill This out While You Watch a Movie
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Online surveys won't make you rich, but if you're just vegging out on the couch, why not click a couple buttons and earn a few bucks?
Swagbucks is definitely a reader favorite, probably because of the wide variety of ways to make money beyond taking surveys.
It’s also famous for handing out free rewards points (they’re called SBs) at random just for being a member.
Pro tip: Earn a 500 SB (or $5) bonus when you
sign up and earn 2,500 SB within your first 60 days.
You’ll get SBs for each survey you qualify for and complete that you can redeem for cash via Paypal or gift cards to a number of popular retailers, including Amazon.
11. Earn up to $1,000/Month Hanging out With Dogs
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder
If you’re looking for a flexible, independent way to earn money — and you love hanging out with dogs — pet sitting through
Rover might be your perfect gig.
The online network connects dog walkers and sitters to local dog owners through its 4.9-star-rated app, so you don’t have to staple flyers on every utility pole across town.
Rover says sitters can earn as much as $1,000 a month.
Rover dog-sitter requirements vary by location. In general, you must:
Be 18 years or older.
Pass a background check.
Have access to the
Rover app (iOS or Android).
Here’s how it works: You’ll create an online sitter profile where you’ll answer questions about your experience with puppers and your schedule availability.
You can choose to offer a variety of services, including dog walking, overnight boarding at your home or theirs, and daycare. Boarding is the app’s most popular service, so offering it can get you more gigs. You set your own rates. (Rover keeps a small percentage as a service fee.)
Dog owners will reach out to you. Accept which gigs you want, then start snugglin’ pups. As soon as you complete a service, you’ll be paid within two days.
12. Sell Your Trash
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder
Americans throw away approximately 266 million tons of trash every year, and it turns out we might as well be throwing away cash.
There’s a reason dumpster diving has become so popular in recent years, and it’s because things you think are worth nothing often do have value.
Anything from your empty wine bottles to old magazines can be sold online.
13. Effortlessly Invest in the Stock Market With as Little as $5
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Investing doesn’t require a stock broker or a huge sum of money.
All you need is your phone, an app called
Stash and $5 to start.
This app offers all the tools you need to turn investing into a totally passive activity.
You can opt to round-up your purchases and invest the spare change, set Stash to withdraw money on a set schedule or rely on its Smart-Stash feature, which will analyze your income and expenses to determine how much you can afford to invest.
Stash your money into more than 150 ETFs and individual stocks. Because these are micro-investments, you don’t have to invest a ton of money to get started. Stash costs $1 a month for accounts with balances under $5,000. Balances of $5,000 or more cost 0.25% a year.*
Bonus: The Penny Hoarder has teamed up with Stash to give you a
$5 sign-up bonus after you make your first investment.
*Clients may incur ancillary fees, charged by Stash, its custodian or both, that are not included in the monthly Wrap-Fee.
14. 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, a 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.
15. List Your Bedroom (or Backyard) for Rent
piovesempre/Getty Images
Have a spare room? Might as well try to earn some money by
listing it on Airbnb.
If you’re a good host with a desirable space, you could add hundreds -- even thousands -- of dollars to your savings account with Airbnb.
And there's no reason you can't be creative. We found a guy who earns $1,380 a month listing a backyard tent on Airbnb!
A few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one.
Here are some tips:
Make your space available during high-demand times in your area. Think: concerts, conventions and sporting events.
Be a good host, and stock your place with the toiletries you’d expect at a hotel — toilet paper, soap and towels.
Be personable. A lot of travelers turn to Airbnb for the personal touch they won’t find at commercial properties.
Here’s the link to sign up as an Airbnb host.
(Hosting laws vary from city to city. Please understand the rules and regulations applicable to your city and listing.)
16. Get $5 to Start Saving More Money
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.
17. Earn $10 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 $10 sign-up bonus after uploading your first receipt.
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 cash back!
18. Snag a Free $10 Walmart Gift Card
Tina Russell/The Penny Hoarder
One of our favorite ways to bank a little extra money is with
Ebates, a cash-back site that rewards you nearly every time you buy something. For example, Ebates gives you 10% cash-back on purchases at Walmart.
Plus you’ll get a free $10 gift card to Walmart for giving the site a try.
To earn your gift card:
Sign up for Ebates with your email or Facebook account.
Use the Ebates portal the next time you need to buy something. It’s connected to thousands of stores, including Walmart, Amazon and Target. You’ll need to make your first purchase through the site within 90 days and spend at least $25.
Your account will be credited with rewards points you can cash in for your $10 Walmart gift card.
19. Be a Mock Juror
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A mock or surrogate juror reviews 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.
20. Write About TV Shows
PeopleImages/Getty Images
Do you like to stay up-to-date on the latest popular — and not-so-popular — TV shows? Get paid for the TV you’re watching in your spare time by writing reviews!
Writing about TV comes in a lot of forms,
according to NPR television reporter Linda Holmes. Lots of sites pay writers to review or recap shows, but they come with different tones.
You could do a straightforward review of the craft of the show, search for symbolism in the story or start a conversation with readers about the lives of the characters.
If you prefer a bit of snark, you might write for a site that prefers to riff off TV shows. These turn your review into an opportunity for biting punchlines.
A few places to get you started:
Pitch Previously.TV editors
your ideas here.
If superheros are more your speed, check out this
recapper job with HollywoodLife.
Get your foot in the door at
Mic writing TV show recaps.
21. Get Paid to Share What’s in Your Fridge
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Remember the Nielsen company? The one that’s always tracked TV ratings? Well, now it wants to know what’s in your fridge.
Once you sign up to participate in market research through
Nielsen Consumer Panel, you can either use your smartphone, or the company will send you a free barcode scanner. Every time you go shopping, you simply scan the UPC codes on the back of each product and send your data to Nielsen.
Nielsen will reward you with gift points, which you can redeem for free electronics, jewelry, household items or even toys for the kids.
The longer you stay on the panel, the more opportunity you have to earn points toward prizes. You’ll also receive entries for the panel’s many sweepstakes. Prizes include vacations and brand new vehicles.
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.
23. Get Paid to Download This App (That's Literally It)
Carmen Mandato/ The Penny Hoarder
A number of companies will actually pay you for downloading apps on your smartphone or computer — this is a great way to boost your passive income.
One we love is called MobileXpression. After you’ve installed this app on your smartphone for one week, you get to play an instant rewards game for a prize (everyone wins something). We've seen users win a $25 Amazon gift card, but some of the other prizes include iPads and Samsung TVs.
The app collects data and helps companies better understand web and mobile usage — such as what times of day people browse, how long they stay on websites and use apps, and what types of sites and apps are popular (or not).
Try it out for
iPhone or
Android.
24. Make Your Own Schedule as a Data-Entry Clerk
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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.
25. Clean up Search Engine Mistakes
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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.
26. 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.
27. Create a Blog and (Potentially) Earn Millions
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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.
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. Rent out the Clothes That Make Your Friends Jealous
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Are your friends always complimenting your great sense of style? Try making money off that killer taste!
You can rent out your clothing online through a site like
Style Lend.
There are a ton of others on the market, but take sure to read the fine print on rental sites. Some don’t charge any fees to the buyers and sellers, but some charge a rental commission per order. You’ll need to price your wears accordingly to account for any commission handed over to the company.
31. Rent out Your Ping-Pong Table
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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.
32. Sell Your Friendship
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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.
33. Let NASA Pay You to Stay in Bed All Day
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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.
34. 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.
35. Answer the Phone
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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.
36. Create and Sell Courses
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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.
37. 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.
38. Publish a Kindle Book
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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.
39. 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.
40. 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!”
41. 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.
42. 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.
43. Earn up to $30/Day Watching Movies
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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.
44. 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.
45. Get the Props You Deserve for Being Active
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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..’”
46. Do Odd Jobs
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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 weekthrough the app.
47. 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.
48. 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?
49. 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.
50. 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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Kyle Phoenix is a teacher, certified adult educator, sexologist, sex coach and sexuality educator with over two decades of intensive experience. He studied at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, New York University, and Columbia University. He has worked, consulted and taught individuals and focused professional developments for the CDC, Department of Education, Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York City Department of Health, non-profits, Fortune 500 companies and unions. He began his career facilitating on-campus workshops addressing a wide range of sexuality and sexual health issues and then moved on to teaching at universities, non-profits, private groups and clients, hosting The Kyle Phoenix Show on television and multiple online webinars, including YouTube and Sclipo and writing extensively through his blog, Special Reports, articles and other print and E books in the Kyle Phoenix Series on relationships, finance, education, spirituality and culture. He lives in New York with his family.
www.kylephoenix.com
#KylePhoenix
#TheKylePhoenixShow
