Typical 9-to-5s aren’t cutting it anymore. And second or third jobs aren’t cutting it either.
The cost of living is skyrocketing, while wages remain largely stagnant for most Americans. We can’t just wait around for wages to catch up.
We have to get a little creative.
53 Creative Ways to Make Money
As you might suspect, many of these unique ways to make money involve the internet — but not all of them. Some are one-off ways to pocket some cash, while others are decent-paying jobs. A few ideas have the potential to generate huge profits.
If a job, business or investment requires you to toil away at a stuffy corporate office to make your dough, you won’t find it here. This list consists only of creative ways you can make money. Leaving your house is optional.
Online Jobs
Have an internet connection? You’re all set to try these jobs. (To apply to fresh gigs you can do from your computer, be sure to check out our work-from-home jobs portal.)
1. Work for a Call Center
Customer-service jobs are common with companies that hire at-home workers. You typically spend your days responding to customers over the phone, via email or through instant messages. Tracking trends in customer complaints and questions are a large part of these roles as well.
Since the employers vary dramatically, you may find yourself fielding questions about deliveries and shipments or giving details about products and services.
Companies that frequently hire these types of jobs include AAA, American Express and Apple — as well as several other companies that don’t start with the letter A.
2. Be a Transcriptionist
To make money as a transcriptionist, you need to listen well and type fast. You’ll listen to audio files of varying quality and type out what you hear perfectly.
Transcriptionists can make up to $25 per hour. To land a job, apply with these companies that frequently hire remote transcriptionists: Allegis Transcription, NetTranscripts, TransPerfect and Rev.com.
Basic requirements include:
- A computer and headset
- Native English fluency
- The ability to type with high accuracy at 80 or more words per minute
Some companies also require (or supply) transcribers with a foot pedal that controls audio speed, rewinding and fast forwarding.
To test your typing speed, several companies rely on TypingTest.com.
Not sure you want to do the typing yourself? Consider being a transcript proofreader, which is someone who reviews transcripts (usually courtroom and legal documents) for grammar and spelling errors.
These proofreading positions range from entry-level to post-graduate, depending on the material. U.S. Legal Support hires transcript proofreaders nationwide, as does ProofreadingPal.
To dip your feet into the field before committing to a professional project, check out Transcribe Anywhere and Proofread Anywhere for tips, ecourses and hands-on practice.
3. Be a Virtual Assistant
As a virtual assistant, you might answer calls, send email, prepare reports or do any number of other tasks for busy executives and business owners. It’s a lot like an online secretarial position.
You can list your services on freelance sites like CloudPeeps, Fiverr, Upwork, Guru or Freelancer, or you can get a job with a virtual assistant company like Zirtual.
Base requirements for jobs at Zirtual include:
- Some administrative or equivalent college experience
- Tech savviness, including proficiency with G Suite and other email software
- Typing skills (50 words per minute or more)
Online Businesses
If you’d rather run your own show, you’ve got a lot of options.
4. Design Websites
Web designers can expect to take home an average of $49,000 per year, according to Payscale. It’s tough to get to that point if you’re freelancing, but plenty of sites exist to help you to build up your clientele.
TopTal pays top dollar for design pros, but be warned: The company boasts that it only hires the top 3% of freelancers.
If you’re not yet ready for the big leagues, try sharpening your skills by signing up and accepting clients from these freelance websites:
- Freelancer: A freelance marketplace where both workers and employers can create listings and specify hourly rates.
- Upwork: The largest freelance platform in the world and another marketplace for freelancers in any industry.
- Gigster: An on-demand software development website that offers freelance work to designers, developers and product managers.
- Guru: A site where freelancers can bid on projects and jobs posted by employers. Employers can also reach out directly to freelancers.
5. Create Podcasts
When you create podcasts, you can sell them or use them as an advertising platform. Either way, try to provide an interesting and/or useful series of podcasts. This post outlines how to start a podcast to become the next Serial.
You can make money through several methods; advertising is the most common. Once you amass a decent amount of listeners, you can attract advertisers who will pay to be featured in your podcast, usually in the form of native ads — ads within the podcast, usually read directly by the host. (Nothing like listening to 99% Invisible’s Roman Mars rave about his Casper mattress.)
You may also charge a monthly subscription fee (usually between $5 and $15) or crowdsource funding directly from your listeners on websites like Patreon, Go Fund Me or Indiegogo.
It’s probably best to incorporate an all-of-the-above approach.
6. Create and Sell Courses
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.
Nick Loper made $4,000 in the first few months of his Udemy class for small-business owners. He wrote our guide on how to make an online course and sell it.
7. Freelance Online
Whether you’re good at math or marketing, you can sell your services online. Plenty of sites will pay you for just about anything, but you have to be wary of scams.
This post outlines some of the best freelance websites — including nDash for writers, Gigster for techies and PeoplePerHour for experts in just about any field.
You can sign up on the sites for free, and they can earn you a quick buck or a longtime client. And don’t worry, we vetted them, too.
Other Ways to Make Money Online
We’ve only scratched the surface of ways to make money online.
8. Be an Online Mock Juror
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.
9. Answer Questions
“Where do babies come from?”
Are you a linguist who can satisfy the curiosity of a 7-year-old? Or a board-certified gynecologist who can detail the complex inner workings of the reproductive system?
Each is an expert in their own way.
A number of websites will pay you to answer people’s questions. It’s as simple as that. Try JustAnswer.com to see if you qualify as an expert.
Creating an account on JustAnswer requires three steps.
- Selecting your expertise category (as many as you want).
- Uploading your resume, experience and education.
- Submitting credentials, if needed. (Not all fields require licenses or degrees.)
After you submit your application, you’ll have to wait five to 10 business days for be vetted and accepted. Experts can answer as many questions as they want.
While rates range depending on your qualifications and how many questions you answer, the site says top earners in each category make thousands of dollars per month.
And even if you don’t qualify as an expert, you could refer one for a $50 gift card to Amazon.
10. Flip Domain Names
When it comes to domain names, websites are a lot like real estate.
Brent Cumberford is an online entrepreneur who’s made hundreds of thousands of dollars buying and selling websites.
“Just like houses and apartment buildings, online real estate comes down to ‘location, location, location,’” Cumberford told The Penny Hoarder.
He recommended buying .com website names instead of .org or .net. Once you have a good domain name in mind, buying it is simple. Go to a website hosting company like Namecheap or GoDaddy to see if your desired domain name is available.
Once you purchase it, you can reach out to potential businesses directly or use Flippa, a business marketplace, to find a buyer.
11. Get Paid to Watch TV
Among all the fun ways to make money, this one really takes the cake. You can actually get paid to watch TV.
For example, HowToWatch hires people to watch 100 hours of TV for $2,000. It requires some intense focus and note-taking, but hey, it’s money. For watching TV.
To snag this dream job, apply during an open application period. If you’re accepted, you’ll have about a month to binge on 100 hours of TV and keep a scorecard that tracks buffer speeds, load times and picture quality.
If that sounds like too much for you, the app Swagbucks also pays you to watch videos and TV from your smartphone. For each task completed, you’ll earn points, aka Swagbucks, which you can cash out for gift cards between $5 and $25.
12. Take Surveys
You really can make money doing online surveys. There are several legitimate paid survey sites out there to earn you some quick cash.
When you sign up for Swagbucks, you’ll earn an extra $5 toward a gift card if you complete a certain amount of surveys or tasks within 60 days.
InboxDollars is another paid survey site that could net you up to $5 per survey (though it’s usually closer to 50 cents).
13. Work on Mechanical Turk
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform lets you complete small tasks online for a price.
According to Michael Naab, who wrote our guide (and a book) on making money with Mechanical Turk, you can expect to earn around $6 to $12 an hour doing Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) on the platform. HITs range anywhere from completing surveys to Excel spreadsheet tasks to audio transcription.
14. Test Websites
Websites should be very user-friendly — so easy to use that an intoxicated person should be able to navigate it.
User experience consultant Richard Littauer took that idea very seriously. He started “The User Is Drunk,” a business where he tested people’s websites after drinking too much beer. And his idea took off.
“I raised my price for reviews from $50 to $500 very quickly,” Littauer told The Penny Hoarder, “hoping that people would stop buying so that I didn’t have to be drunk permanently.”
To get a steady stream of jobs, you may have to be creative like Littauer and build up your client base. For a shot at getting more assignments, sign up with websites like UserTesting and TryMyUI.
15. Be a Search Engine Evaluator
It’s scary how good Google’s search algorithm is becoming, but it’s not perfect… yet. Neither are other search engines, such as Yahoo or Bing.
To fix those flaws and make search results more relevant, companies like Appen and Lionbridge frequently hire search engine evaluators as independent contractors. Positions are typically part time, with hourly rates up to $15.
No previous experience is required — just tech savviness and a laptop or Android smartphone. For open positions, check Appen and Lionbridge’s career portal.
Using Your Home to Make Money
Your home likely costs you a fair amount of money, so it’s time to enlist its help to earn that money back.
16. Rent Out a Room with Airbnb
Have a spare room? May 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.
A few simple steps can make the difference between a great experience and a less-than-satisfactory one. We talked to Terence Michael, an Airbnb superhost based in Los Angeles.
Here are some of his tips:
- Break out the labelmaker. “I have the entire house loaded with labels,” Michael says. “They look nice; they’re modern. This helps people feel less helpless.”
- Be a good host and stock your place with the toiletries you’d expect at a hotel — toilet paper, soap and towels. Here’s a little hack from Michael: “I order on Amazon and have it delivered when people are there.”
- Be kind to your neighbors. “I say, ‘I’m not going to put anyone here who I think won’t be good for you,’” Michael explains. “And I turn a lot of big groups away, especially in Nashville. I don’t want anyone going to the cops or the city.”
(Hosting laws vary from city to city. Please understand the rules and regulations applicable to your city and listing.)
17. Rent Your Yard for RV and Boat Storage
People need a place to put their boats and recreational vehicles during the off-season, which spells profit for you if you have the space. Your home insurance policy probably won’t cover damage, so you might have to add additional liability insurance (and check those local ordinances again).
Once your insurance is in shape, find a storage-space website and create a listing. While it’s possible to list your storage space on sites like Craigslist or on Facebook marketplaces, other alternatives are dedicated to RV or boat storage. One example is Neighbor.
Making a listing on Neighbor is free. You can set the rules and the price. Once you find a client, the agreed-upon amount will automatically be paid to you monthly (minus a 3% fee from the site). Regardless if the client misses a payment, Neighbor will pay out the full listing price.
It’s a win-win. You’ve got the space, and your neighbor won’t have to spend thousands of dollars on a storage facility.
18. Rent a Parking Spot
If you live in a large city or any town that occasionally hosts busy events, you can put out a sign and rent your driveway. Or you can rent out your parking space online using JustPark.
To register your parking space with JustPark, you must first create an account and answer questions about the spot. Is it a covered location? Can it fit only compact cars? Is it street parking or a driveway? Then you’re free to list your parking space as an “instant” spot (available right now) or take reservations whenever you’d like.
Writing Jobs
Are you a wordsmith? Put those writing skills to work to earn extra cash.
19. Get a Book Published
The publishing industry has changed. More than ever, a writer is expected to be the primary marketer of his or her books. That means the work isn’t over once you send the manuscript off to the presses (or inDesign). Now you have to promote it on social media and on book tours and earn solid book reviews.
That’s why most authors opt for ebooks and self-publishing through the Kindle Direct Publishing program, which is free. It’s possible to make money with your ebook even if you give it away.
Author Steve Gillman makes hundreds of dollars a month in passive income from his ebooks on Kindle Direct Publishing. In his guide to ebook publishing for The Penny Hoarder, he said it’s best to price your ebooks between $2.99 and $9.99.
Since Amazon gives you 70% royalties (which is good compared to publishing firms), it’s best to stick to a low price so most people can afford it.
20. Be a Copywriter or Editor
Content sites hire freelancers to write and edit articles. You have to work fast to make money on these sites, since you may earn less than 3 cents per word. Low pay aside, they are great for beginning freelancers to make some cash and get some experience.
In our list of the best freelance websites, which includes Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer and Guru, we included several writer-focused sites that pay between $30 and $200 per article.
21. Write for Blogs
Blogs typically pay more than content sites. Many blogs pay $100 per post, but many writers are also trying to get those assignments.
Usually, blogs aren’t big businesses, and bloggers can’t afford Indeed listings, so it takes a little digging to find paying gigs.
Fortunately, several websites specialize in these types of jobs. Try these aggregators:
- WriteJobs.info: a no-frills job listing site tailored for writers and editors. The free version is more than enough to snag a few clients, but a paid version is available if you donate $5 a month.
- ProBlogger.com: a one-stop-shop for budding bloggers. Beyond listing a steady stream of jobs for writers, photographers and editors, ProBlogger has a ton of free resources for new writers, podcasts, ebooks and courses.
- AllFreelanceWriting.com: a curated list of writing jobs that are paid directly from the client listed. Each job includes a pay rating from “LOW RATE” to “PRO RATE.”
As with all odd jobs, use your spidey sense when applying. Don’t do work for free or give sensitive information like your Social Security number up front.
22. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is simple in theory: Write emails, blog articles or comments that contain links to sponsored products, and when people use your coded link to visit and buy something, you make a commission.
Our sponsored posts at The Penny Hoarder are such examples of big-name affiliate marketing partnerships.
To get your feet wet, you can start making money as an affiliate partner at Amazon and earn up to 10% on e-commerce purchases that you linked to.
23. Write Slogans
Several websites will pay you to write slogans for companies. Some pay cash for each slogan (Freelancer and Fiverr, for example), while other sites host contests in which you can earn big bucks for the winning creation.
Slogan Slingers is one such site that’s completely free for copywriters to sign up and start writing slogans. Winning entries earn up to $999 (minus a 15% service fee) and are paid out via PayPal, which is required to register.
24. Get Paid to Write Greeting Cards
Some of the highest pay-per-word rates out there for writers aren’t in the New Yorker. They’re in the greeting-card industry.
Writing greeting cards could earn you hundreds of dollars for as little as five or ten words. But they have to be funny, clever or insightful, says Nicky Burton, founder of Calypso Cards.
“They really do have to be original,” Burton told The Penny Hoarder. “They have to have something fresh. We can’t keep going back to ‘gray hair’ and ‘over the hill.’”
To get started, you can pitch your ideas to Blue Mountain Arts or SNAFU designs. If they like your pitch, they’ll pay you $300 and $100 per idea, respectively.
So get writing, and be creative.
25. Enter Writing Contests
Many writing contests pay cash prizes. Some pay more than $1,000 for first place and also award a publishing contract. A few pay prizes of $5,000 to $10,000.
If you’re a poet, submit to Poetry Nook, which holds weekly contests that pay $50 for the winning poems. You can also submit to several magazines and publications for free if you want to get paid for creative writing.
26. Write Resumes (and Cover Letters)
Some people just hate writing, and they hate resume writing in particular. You can help them put their resumes together using free resume makers online. And after reading our guide on how to write a resume, you’ll be an expert.
Some people charge as little as $20 to do this, but others charge upwards of $800 a pop.
In 2014, Charmaine Pocek quit her day job to write resumes and cover letters on Fiverr. A couple years later, she became the first U.S. millionaire on the site.
When Pocek was starting out, she told The Penny Hoarder that she charged her clients as little as $5. Now she charges up to $800 for resume, cover-letter and LinkedIn profile services.
Since Pocek has the resume market on Fiverr cornered, you may want to give other resume-writing services a shot. Talent Inc. frequently hires resume writers. No professional experience is required to qualify, but you will need to be a master of Microsoft Word.
27. Write for Revenue-Sharing Sites
Among the websites that pay for articles, the revenue-sharing ones are the easiest to break into — sites like Dotdash, HubPages and ShoutMeLoud.
These sites don’t require you to be a well-renowned author per se. You can pen as many articles as you want, and if they generate revenue (aka clicks, views, sales or shares), you’ll get a part of it.
Some sites pay you 70% of what they make from your work, while others pay per view or comment. Either way, if nobody reads your article, you make nothing. But, hey, at least you still get a byline. If you’re a beginning freelance writer, those can really bolster your portfolio.
28. Write Reviews
If you have a website or blog, you could connect with companies willing to pay for product reviews. For example, at SocialSpark.com you can get paid to blog, tweet or post videos. To avoid selling false reviews, only accept assignments for products you actually love.
There are other ways to get paid for your opinions, too. Our guide to writing reviews on G2 Crowd could get you $50 or more to Amazon or Starbucks.
Selling Things
We all have a few items we could do without. Instead of letting them gather dust, turn them into cash.
29. Have a Garage Sale
Hosting a garage sale may sound like more work than is worth the effort, but if you do it right, you could rake in a ton of money.
Garage sale millionaire Aaron LaPedis shared his tips on holding a successful garage sale. His advice can help your next garage sale be a hit.
The takeaways?
- Timing is everything. When you plan your Saturday morning sale, you put yourself up against all the other garage sales in the area. Try a different day of the week. Thrifty Thursday, anyone?
- Advertise. Let everyone know well beforehand — on Facebook, Craigslist, Twitter and in person with signs. About 20 will do.
- Involve thy neighbor. If you get your neighbors involved, everyone wins. Less competition. More customers.
- Price it right. For larger items, think 10% to 15% of its original value. For anything under $15, don’t tag it at all. Haggle it out.
30. Sell Items on Craigslist
This might be a better bet than a garage sale since you don’t have to spend hours sitting outside hoping people will stop by.
If you don’t already know what Craigslist is, it’s basically an online version of a garage sale combined with a newspaper classified section — only you don’t pay for the ads.
You can buy and sell just about anything, and people give away tons of free things on Craigslist, too. You’ll be sure to make a few bucks, whether you want to flip some freebies or sell your own stuff.
31. Start a Used Books Business
There are a number of ways to sell used books online, and yes, you can do this at home.
Start by selling the books you aren’t going to read from around the house. Amazon, eBay and Etsy are all reasonable options to lighten your load.
If you have textbooks, those could really bring in some cash. Use BookFinder and enter your ISBN to compare buyback prices. When you’re ready, you can sell your books to vendors on BookScouter.
If you’re looking for a more consistent way to make money, use the above sites to appraise a book so you know its worth. Then, when you see a book selling low, you can purchase it and flip it on another site for profit.
32. Sell Your Used Clothes
You know that giant pile of clothes in your closet? You can turn that into cash, too. Stores like Plato’s Closet and Once Upon A Child will take your used clothes, accessories and even baby gear and give you cash on the spot.
If you really don’t want to leave your house, you can sell by mail at Buffalo Exchange. Follow our guide for tips on where to sell used clothes and how to get the best quote.
33. Sell Things Through Amazon
When you sell through Fulfillment by Amazon, you never ship anything directly to customers. Amazon handles that.
A lot of Amazon sellers are private-label businesses that buy generic products from abroad, brand and pack them, then send them off to Amazon, which does the rest for you.
34. Sell Coupons Online
A common way to make money selling coupons is on eBay.
While individual coupons won’t usually make you bank, when you sell them in multiples of 10 or so, you can charge much more. Besides eBay, there are marketplaces dedicated to coupon selling, such as the aptly-named The Happy Couponer Marketplace.
Becoming a Happy Couponer vendor takes only a couple minutes. It’s free to create an account and start listing your coupons, coupon books, coupon fliers and newspaper inserts. No digital coupons, links or other intangible items are allowed. Once your coupons start selling, the site charges a fee of 42 cents per $7 in sales (and no fees under that amount).
It should go without saying, but don’t list already-redeemed or counterfeit coupons.
35. Sell Your Photos
Whether you’re a beginner with an iPhone or a hobbyist with a DSLR camera, selling stock photography is easy now that several great sites help you list your photos.
Check through your cache of iPhone photos, select the best ones and list them on Foap, an app that works like a photo marketplace. When someone buys your photo, you get 50% of the price; Foap takes the other half.
If you have the photography chops and a solid camera, microstock websites will be a little more lucrative. These are sites that host and sell stock photography. Common companies include iStock, shutterstock and Getty Images.
Microstock photo sellers Rich Legg and Eliza Snow shared their stock photography tips with The Penny Hoarder. They include:
- Keep your photos as generic as possible.
- Don’t include any visible brands.
- Describe your photos with relevant keywords in the microstock listing.
36. Sell Your Used Video Games
There are plenty of ways to sell used video games: Decluttr, eBay and Facebook for-sale groups are all online options.
If you want to avoid the fees associated with selling video games online, you can can always take the games to the store. Follow this guide from The Penny Hoarder to learn about a technique that can get you up to 50% extra cash when you sell games and electronics at GameStop.
Helping People
Love sharing your knowledge with others? Here are a few ways to get paid for it.
37. Tutor People
You can tutor people on any subject you know well, from academics to writing a business plan. When you open an account with websites like Wyzant and SuperProf, you set your own rates, which can go as high as $50 per hour.
Tutoring websites typically take around 20% of your hourly rate in fees, but it’s free to sign up and create a listing. Be sure to include your professional experience and any relevant credentials to boost your rates and distinguish yourself from other tutors.
If you’re not a fan of academic tutoring, you can also get paid to play video games by tutoring beginners on Gamer Sensei. Senseis set their own schedules and hourly prices. Popular games include Dota, League of Legends and Fortnite.
38. Teach English Online
The international business world runs on English, and somebody’s got to teach all those people.
To fill the demand for English, several companies hire native English speakers to run classes online. In most cases, online teachers can set their own schedules and earn up to $25 an hour.
To meet baseline qualifications, all you need is English fluency, a high school diploma and a computer with a high-speed internet connection. Ready to get started? Here are seven legit sites that will pay you to teach English online.
39. Babysit
As a babysitter, you can make up to $18 an hour, and you don’t even have to leave your house. Let the babies come to you.
At Sittercity, you can create a babysitter profile for free and start searching for listings in your area. Care.com is another good choice for child care (and elder care). Even teens (14-17) can apply if they have permission from a parent or guardian.
Be sure to include previous sitting experience and credentials such as CPR or first-aid training to improve your profile and hourly rates.
If all else fails, try word of mouth. It’s likely that someone you know would enjoy a night without their little monster adorable angel.
Other Creative Ways to Make Money
Still looking for ideas? Here are a few more creative options.
40. Be a Pet Sitter
You can make good money as a pet sitter. Rates for an overnight stay go as high as $100, but if you watch pets only at your home, you may have to charge less.
One pet sitter, Diana Sanchez, is able to rake in $200 to $300 over the weekends watching the fur babies.
Check local regulations to see how many animals you can watch at once without needing to be licensed as a kennel. Our pet-sitting guide will walk you through the process.
41. Charge for Your Friendship
You may have heard of selling your friendship on websites like RentAFriend. Some people claim to make $2,000 per week being a strictly platonic “friend.” That can mean anything from playing tennis with someone to showing a new resident around your hometown. The going rate on RentAFriend ranges from $10 to $50 an hour.
To make this a stay-at-home gig, just list services like “phone advice” and “email friend” on your account page.
42. Find Lost Money
In 2017, a New Yorker got a call about $763,000 in unclaimed cash. Of course, he thought it was a scam, but it turned out to be true.
While that’s not going to be the case for the vast majority of us, pocketfuls of cash are still waiting to be collected. After you check under your couch cushions, there are several places you can look to find missing money online.
A good place to start is the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, most states and provinces in North America are members. It takes only seconds to conduct a free search, and you never know what you might find.
43. Scalp Tickets
You used to have to stand outside of concert and sports venues to resell tickets, and it was of questionable legality. Now you can legally scalp tickets online, right from home, using online platforms like Stubhub or Ticketmaster.
If you’re good at predicting what events will sell out, you can buy cheap early and sell tickets for big profits as the event date gets closer.
44. Sell Your Junk Mail
Yes, there really is at least one company that will buy your junk mail, the Small Business Knowledge Center, a market-research firm, is one such company. You won’t make much, but hey, what better use do you have for the stuff?
To get started, fill out an application to become a consumer panelist. Once approved, they’ll send you self-addressed envelopes for your to stuff full of your junk mail. You’ll start accruing points over time, which are redeemable for gift cards.
“I earn five to six gift cards per year on average,” Abby Hewes, an avid couponer, told The Penny Hoarder, “so it averages out to be $20 every two to three months. Not bad, in my opinion, for something that was just going to be shredded or thrown away.”
45. Cut Up Old Magazines
Odd money expert Steve Gillman regrets selling a stack of old National Geographic magazines for a few bucks at a garage sale.
After a bit of research, he found that old ‘40s and ‘50s magazines sell for more than $50 a piece on eBay. So he was determined to learn how to better make money with old magazines. In his guide for The Penny Hoarder, he explains how to cut out old advertisements and sell them online to nostalgic collectors.
If you aren’t already sitting on a stack of vintage magazines, a lucrative strategy is to purchase old magazines online, cut out several of their ads (especially ones for cars, trains, guns sports or furniture), put it in a nice frame or protective sleeve and resell each ad for $5 or $10.
46. Make Money (and Art) With Old Newspapers
The ads in old newspapers sometimes have nostalgic value similar to magazine ads, but since newspapers are more timely, they let you get more specific with dates. Just like with magazines, online stores such as eBay or Etsy are good places to sell ads.
Another more creative way to make money with old newspapers is with erasure poetry, said Jerrod Schwarz, managing poetry editor of Driftwood Press Literary Magazine and expert of erasure, aka blackout poetry.
“Erasure poetry is taking any text that already exists, like a newspaper, a book or a magazine, and using some method to erase parts of it — using Sharpie or Wite-Out — to make a new work of art,” Schwarz said. “It’s a fun sort of entry way into poetry.”
His biggest advice is to “find a original newspaper or text that interests you and let it be kind of a call and response. It’s your chance to respond to a big news event in a way you probably wouldn’t be able to normally.”
Several literary magazines will pay for poetry. Some magazines that accept (and pay for) erasure poetry include:
- Isacoustic is a small online publication that pays $15 per accepted poem.
- Geist holds annual contests that pay up to $600 for the winning erasure poem.
- Poetry Nook hosts weekly poetry contests that publish every Sunday. Winners earn $50, and honorable mentions get $20.
47. Rent Out Your Car
If you try to rent out your car on your own, you’ll probably invalidate your insurance. And you have to find customers.
But companies like GetAround and Turo will find the customers for you and provide the insurance. Even General Motors launched a car-sharing service called Maven for owners of a GM vehicle (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC) that’s a 2015 model or newer.
Creating an account with all three companies is free.
Listing your car on GetAround costs $20 a month, plus a one-time $99 installation fee for a remote receiver to unlock your car for customers. Maven and Turo don’t charge monthly fees but take a percentage of earnings from your listing.
According to Maven estimates, renting out your car for a day could earn you between $80 and $225 a day depending on the model.
Payout is in as little as five days (for Turo) or as much as a month (for Maven).
48. Rent Out Your Stuff
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 commision fee is $1. Fees range between 5% and 9% for all other price categories.
49. Sell Your Music
If you create music (perhaps in a home studio?), companies like TuneCore and Bandcamp make it easier than ever to sell.
With Bandcamp, it’s free for artists to upload their music directly on the site and charge whatever amount they want (usually nothing). The pay-what-you-want model is popular among musicians as well because it allows fans to feel like their money is more of a donation than a purchase.
TuneCore works a little differently. There, you pay a small fee ($9.99 per song and $29.99 per album), and the service will distribute your music through Amazon, iTunes, Spotify and other digital vendors. You get paid depending based on the amount of plays, and you keep 100% of the royalties.
50. Sell Your Gift Cards
Don’t you hate it when you get a gift card for someplace you never shop? Instead of letting it sit unused in your wallet, cash it in.
Depending on where you sell it, it’s possible to get more than 85% of the gift-card value in cash. In our guide, we sort through the best places to sell gift cards online.
We experimented with various $25 dollar gift cards to find the top sites.
| $25 Starbucks | $25 Banana Republic | $25 Target | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardpool | $20.01 Amazon gift card; $18.88 cash | $18.55 Amazon gift card; $17.50 cash | $21.46 Amazon gift card; $21 cash |
| CardCash | $19.73 | $17.52 | $20.54 |
| Card Kangaroo | $18.88 | $19.07 | $20.26 |
| ClipKard | $18.88 | $19 | $19.13 |
51. Become a Calligrapher
Do you have great handwriting? Sell that skill. Start a calligraphy business, and you can make up to $5 per envelope addressing wedding invitations.
“Calligraphing and designing wedding or baby-shower invitations is always special because I feel so honored to be part of such an important event in someone’s life,” calligrapher Lyndsay Wright told The Penny Hoarder. “While I usually find addressing envelopes to be less intellectually challenging, I find the work to be a very rewarding, Zen and centering activity.”
Start-up costs may set you back about $65 for supplies, but once you hone your craft, the Art Career Project, a website that supports arts education and careers, estimates you could earn more than $50,000 a year.
52. Treasure Hunt at Home
People have found treasures in their attics, valuables in their floorboards and cash in their walls. It’s amazing how many things people hide in and around their homes. Maybe it’s time to start looking for items your home’s previous owners left behind.
It’s more popular than you might think. There’s a whole section of Reddit dedicated to the topic called r/WhatsInThisThing, where people frequently post stories about finding treasures — usually old locked safes — in their houses.
53. Install Apps on Your Phone
Market research firms are always looking for ways to track consumer behavior. That’s why you can get paid to install apps such as Nielsen Consumer Panel and MobileXpression for iPhone or Android.
Once you sign up, you can rack up points by using either Nielsen’s barcode scanner or your smartphone to scan the barcodes of products you’ve purchased. Then you can redeem your points for products in Nielsen’s gift catalog.
Participating in the panel automatically enrolls you in cash sweepstakes and a curated list of surveys, which can be completed for cash.
MobileXpression works a little differently. For that program, you don’t have to do much but let the app track how you use your cell phone. Once you’ve had the app installed for at least a week, you’ll be eligible for gift cards and other compensation.
Adam Hardy is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. He specializes in unique ways to make money and legit work-from-home job opportunities. Read his full bio here or say hi on Twitter, @hardyjournalism.
Steve Gillman contributed to this article.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.