Would you like to make money, but don’t know where to begin? You’re not alone. Aside from their regular jobs, 16% of adults performed side gigs to earn extra income.
Among them, 64% spent fewer than 20 hours doing those jobs during that period, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2021 report published in May 2022.
We’ve all been there. Maybe a few unexpected expenses hit you all at once – you need to repair your car and book a vacation. Suddenly, you need a few hundred dollars overnight.
It can be tempting to max out your credit card or take out a loan, especially if you’re in a panic. But what about making that money? Is that even possible? In one word, yes.
21 Ways To Make Some Fast Cash
1. Deliver Food
Not everyone has a car. But as long as you have a motorbike or even a regular bike, you can make some side money by delivering food with a company like Doordash.
The sign-up process is generally quite simple: just fill in an application, sign on, and start taking requests for deliveries from local establishments. DoorDash pays you daily, so you really can earn money instantly this way.
2. Refund your Credit Card and Bank Fees
Make no mistake about it. Financial management can be challenging. Thankfully, using Recoup, you can manage subscriptions, lower your bills, and get bank and credit card fees refunded.
Your bank fees will be found and recouped by Recoup safely. In addition to overdraft fees and ATM fees, you may also be entitled to a refund for monthly account maintenance fees. You can cancel anytime, and there are no membership fees.
3. Post Gigs on Fiverr
For first-time freelancers looking to build their experience and portfolios, Fiverr is a great place to start. Whether you are good at logo design, animation, editing, or voice-overs, you will find tasks to suit your skill set. Each project starts at $5.
Eventually, however, you can charge much more once you have accumulated enough feedback, referrals, and experience. According to Fiverr’s website, some people work full-time on their gigs and earn as much as $10,000 per project.
4. Become a Virtual Assistant (VA)
Are you passionate about writing or social media? Have you thought about blogging but don’t want to start your own site? As a virtual assistant, you will help other people manage their social media accounts and websites.
It may even be possible to turn this side hustle into a full-time job depending on your schedule. Check out sites like Upwork if you’re interested in becoming a VA.
5. Tutor Others
You don’t have to limit yourself to teaching English. Online tutoring is possible for pretty much any subject as long as you have a computer, an internet connection, and expertise in a particular subject area.
For example, over 300 subjects are available for tutoring at TutorMe, where tutors are paid $16 per hour. Meanwhile, with Preply, tutors are available in more than 100 subjects at the tutors’ own rates. It is usual for English tutors on Preply to charge between $15 and $25 per hour, prior to Preply’s commission.
6. Take Online Surveys
Online surveys can be filled out in your spare time — if you have it. The process is very easy. Although the pay is not much, you can be paid for doing it. Simply register, and these companies will contact you when a survey that matches your profile is available.
Most of the time, these are surveys conducted online for big brands for market research purposes. Some of the most well-known and legit online survey sites are Survey Junkies, Swagbucks, and Opinion Outpost.
7. Become a User Experience Tester
The goal of every company’s website is to provide customers with valuable information, meet their goals, and, of course, make money. However, if something doesn’t work, businesses need to know why. And, that’s where experienced testers come into play.
So, if you’re able to quickly decipher a website’s user-friendliness by scanning its webpage, you’re in luck. You can get paid for providing feedback through companies such as UserTesting or TryMyUI. In most cases, you’ll earn $10 per 20-minute test you take.
8. Grocery Shop
People are so short on time these days that they’re willing to pay for almost anything that will help them to save time. One of the more unusual forms is by paying somebody to do their grocery shopping for them and delivering them – this is exactly what Instacart set out to do.
You could be the one doing the shopping and delivering for others in your neighborhood if you sign up. Although the exact rate you can expect to be paid varies depending on factors such as order size and miles driven, you could be earning around $15 an hour.
9. App Bonuses
Acorns is a new investment app known for rounding up any purchases made using your card and investing your spare change and when you sign up you get a $10 bonus.
The idea of starting to invest might sound daunting to you, but with Acorns it’s simple – you just need to answer some basic questions about your demographics and risk tolerance, and there’s no minimum investment amount needed to get started.
There are other ways Acorn can make you money, too, such as the ‘FoundMoney’ cashback program. This means that you can continue to earn money even after you receive the $5 since your money will make more returns as it’s invested.
10. Watch Videos
This might sound too good to be true. But, it’s possible thanks to the survey site InboxDollars. Simply log in to InboxDollars.com to see the available videos. By watching them, you can earn free cash or gift cards for popular brands from InboxDollars.
It is important to watch all of the shows in a specific playlist. Playlists range from a few minutes to about a half-hour. But, you can see how long they run before watching.
11. Sell Your Photos
Do you love taking pictures? Is your camera roll full of sunset photos and perfectly staged group photos or dishes? It’s easy to make extra cash with your photos without being a pro. Photo sales on Foap can fetch $10 or more (special “missions” can fetch more) but they’ll take 50% of the sale.
Despite your best efforts, there’s no guarantee that people will purchase your photos. In any case, any money you get will be easy money since you have already done the work.
12. Write Resumes
Do you see a lot of resumes at your company right now? Are you hiring at your small business? Do you have experience working in HR?
If you are willing to charge a fee, you might be able to assist others with their resumes and cover letters. And, in many cases, this gig is done virtually.
13. Get Cashback
Rakuten is a major cashback site: you can make purchases through their shopping portal, and they’ll give you a percentage of the amount spent back in cash.
This is generally a very small percentage that varies slightly between retailers, but if you use it for every grocery shop, it really adds up over the course of a year.
It’s possible to earn up to 40% cashback with some retailers, but the most common percentage is 5-10% – which is still very respectable. You can also earn an extra $25 every time you make a referral.
You’ll get a respectable $10 for signing up for the service, but there’s one catch: you need to make $25 of qualifying purchases first. However, this shouldn’t be difficult since you can use Rakuten for everyday purchases such as in grocery stores.
14. Rent Out Your Car
There are other ways to make money from your car, too. You could rent it out to strangers using an app like Turo, which offers a cheaper alternative for those who want to hire a car. You don’t need to worry about your car getting damaged either, because you’ll be covered by a $1 million insurance policy.
Turo is a similar app that lets you rent your car out. It’s particularly lucrative in rural areas and for those with in-demand vehicles, such as minivans and convertibles.
15. Serve on a Mock Jury
In order to find out what is lacking in their case, lawyers frequently hire out a mock jury. For just a day’s work, you can earn up to $100, which is not bad considering how little work you have to do.
You may also be able to serve as a juror online using eJury. Participating in pre-trial jury cases from home will pay you a small amount of money. In most cases, gigs pay between $5 and $10. On the flip side, the trials are usually only a few minutes long.
16. List Your Spare Space
Another way to make extra money is by renting out your house or spare bedroom. It is likely that you will have to spend some money on cleaning, replacing home goods, and paying for service fees. Also, before you begin renting, make sure you read your rental agreement carefully.
However, if your listing is in a high-demand area, it’s possible to list and book your spare space on the same day. And, according to Airbnb, the typical US Airbnb Host’s income is over $13,800 a year. Other options are VRBO, Neighbor, or Vacasa.
17. Rent Out Your Belongings
We already discussed renting out your house, car, and even some of your old baby stuff. Other than that, what else can you rent out? Well, pretty much anything you own via Fat Llama.
Items such as camera equipment, projectors, lighting, and audio equipment are in high demand. As such, photographers, videographers, or tech gadget lovers might be able to make a pretty penny.
18. Dog Walking
All dog lovers have dreamed of making money by doing nothing more than spending time with furry friends. It might sound too good to be true, but this is now a legitimate job opportunity, thanks to an app called Rover, which brings pet owners together with people willing to care for them.
As well as taking dogs for a walk, this could include looking after pets for a night or an extended period while their owners are away. You might even find yourself making $20 an hour or more for walks or $49 for an overnight stay.
19. Complete Microtasks
Microtasks are simple, online-based tasks that can be completed very quickly for a small amount of money. A few websites are offering to give this type of work, but the most popular is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (otherwise known as M Turk).
The tasks available vary enormously. You could end up doing anything from taking surveys to tagging photos to editing transcriptions. Although the amount you can earn is generally quite low, once you get used to picking out the highest-earning jobs and completing them quickly, the pay can be decent.
20. Become a Friend
You can actually earn money by being someone’s friend. Seriously. But, it’s strictly platonic. Let’s say that someone has a spare ticket to a concert or doesn’t enjoy eating at restaurants by themselves. Through RentAFriend they can hire you to accompany them.
21. Sell Unused Gift Cards
Don’t let your unwanted gift cards sit in a drawer collecting dust. Though you may not get full face value, at least you won’t lose money. Also, keep in mind that you did not purchase them. As a result, you’re essentially getting free money.
Use Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or eBay to sell your unused gift cards. Alternatively, you can sell your gift card for as much as you want with CardCash.
How Will You Make Money Now?
It’s time to unleash your creativity and entrepreneurial side. You can make money quickly if you need to – it just requires a little effort and creative thinking.
As you’ve probably noticed, most ways to make easy money require a bit of planning and preparation, so it’s best not to wait until you’re desperate for money to start earning something extra.
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