Make Some Money: 35+ Easy Ways to Earn Extra Income

Ready to start making more easy money?   Here you go.

Whether you are looking to start your own business, or whether you just want some fast cash to pay down debt, or buy a little something extra, more income rarely hurts.

Earning more than you spend is about finding an active way to improve your financial situation.

You can do this with a little thought and creativity. Consider what assets you have, and consider your skills. Then, get to work selling them.

Easy Ways to Make Money Fast

The following is a list of the best ways you can make extra money pretty fast.

1. Score a Cash Bonus to Refinance Student Loans

Do you have student loans? You could consider refinancing your student loans in exchange for a cash bonus!

Refinancing means that a lender will pay off your existing loans and then creates a new, single loan to be paid back at (ideally) a lower interest rate.

Refinancing your student loans is a great choice because it consolidates your monthly loan payments and saves you money!

Check out our review of the best student loan refinance companies

2. Give Your Opinion

Did you know that there are survey sites that want to pay you for your opinion? One site that we recommend is Survey Junkie.

Survey Junkie has a long history and a consistent record of paying their users. You can earn up to $45 per survey!

3. Postmates

Do you have a car, bike, scooter or motorcycle? Do you have extra time to kill? A gig with Postmates may be a great fit for you!

According to their website, it’s free to sign up and fast to get started. There are no fees or time commitments, so you take home 100% of the tips you earn every time you complete a delivery.

In regards to payment, you can choose to get free weekly deposits or cash out instantly anytime you want.

If you enjoy biking or driving around town and are eager to earn a few extra dollars on the side, this might be the gig for you.

4. Instacart

Get paid to shop! Yes, you read that right!

With Instacart, you can shop and deliver groceries or be an in-store shopper. Both options are flexible and allow you to pick your own hours and start earning quickly!

To qualify, you must be 18-years-old, have consistent access to a vehicle and consistent access to a smartphone.

5. InboxDollars

What if I told you that you could earn money just by changing your search engine?  Yep, you can earn some cash by ditching Google.

InboxDollars makes it easy.  Plus, you can make money with them for doing other things too like taking online surveys, playing online games, redeeming coupons, and more!

As of today, members have earned over 35 million dollars in rewards.  That’s a lot of money people!  Go make some of it.

Signing up takes about one minute and it seriously couldn’t be easier. Click here to sign up and get a $5.00 signup bonus!

6. Lyft

If you have a decent car, a clear driving record, and a smartphone, chances are good you’ll get approved to drive for Lyft.

You must also be at least 21 years old, be able to pass a background check and have car insurance for the vehicle you want to drive with.

If you have all of those requirements, driving people around in your area can be a lucrative side gig!

To make this gig even sweeter, Lyft is currently offering a program called Earnings Guaranteed that guarantees you $1,000!

According to the Lyft website, the promotion says drivers will earn a guaranteed amount within a certain time frame. If the driver does not make the guaranteed amount within the time frame, Lyft will cover the difference.

Currently the guaranteed amount is $1,000! Easy money.

Earn $1,000 driving for Lyft >>

Sell Yourself: Make Money from Your Body

When it comes to making fast cash, few things are as effective as selling your body. And I’m not talking about the oldest profession. There are plenty of ways to legally make money from your body. You’ll get some fast cash, and, in some cases, your assets are renewable.

7.  Donate Plasma

One of the easiest ways to make some cash regularly from your body is to donate plasma. Use DonatingPlasma.org to find a reputable location near you.

You can receive anywhere between $20 and $35 a pint, and you can go twice in any seven day period, provided you wait at least two days in between. So, even if you only make the minimum, that’s $40 a week, or $160 a month. Not bad for a little fast cash.

8. Sell Your Hair

There is actually a market for human hair. It you have long hair — especially hair that is fairly healthy — you might be able to sell it.

You can expect your hair to sell for between $10 and $30 an ounce, depending on the color and quality of your hair. One of the easiest places to sell your hair is eBay, but you can also check with local wigmakers and doll makers.

9. Donate Bone Marrow

It’s a little harder to find a reputable place to make a bone marrow donation, but if you can find one you can make as much $450 for two days of your time. Be prepared, though: It can be painful.

10. Donate Sperm

Men can earn money through sperm donation. However, in many cases, you have to be willing to commit to six months of specific guidelines in how you can release your sperm, you can make up to $40 a donation.

$40/month for six months isn’t too bad. If you don’t mind making less, some centers will pay less for a sample of lower quality.

11. Donate Eggs

Women can earn money for providing their eggs. The process is more difficult than sperm donation is for men, but it can also mean more cash in your pocket.

If you are willing to give up some of your eggs, you could make a decent amount of money — especially if you can show that you have high intelligence and other desirable characteristics.

12. Paid Testing

Even if you don’t want to sell bits of yourself to make a quick buck, you can still use your body to earn a little money. Drug companies, cosmetic companies, and other companies pay humans to test their products.

You might be paid $10 to $20 for coming in for a day, or you might be able to participate in a study that pays more for your willingness to participate over time. Just make sure you are dealing with a reputable clinic before you agree.

13. Join a Focus group

In some cases, all you need is your warm body to show up for a focus group. You can earn anywhere from $10 to as much as $200 an hour to participate in a focus group.

I once participated in an hour-long interview session over the phone, and was paid $150 for my time. One place to look for paid testing and focus group studies is The Paid Focus Group Network.

Sell Your Skills: Make Money from What You Know

If you are a little more patient in your efforts to make more money, you can actually sell your skills. Many of us have things we are good at. You might as well make money doing something you enjoy, and do well.

The bonus, when you sell your skills, is that you can actually go from making money on the side to turning your skill into a full-time moneymaker. If you want to eventually quit your day job, and start your own business, a good place to start is with your skills.

14. Share your talents

At one time, I taught piano lessons to young kids. If you have a talent, you can teach it — and earn money. Give voice lessons, offer dance classes, or teach others to play an instrument. Teach art or tutor drama students.

You can also give other types of lessons. If you are good at fly fishing, you can give lessons, or even provide guided fishing tours of your local area. Think about a talent, skill or hobby that you have and offer to teach others for a price.

15. Tutor

You can tutor students in a number of ways. My husband tutors college students who want to pass a specific test to allow them to take an advanced statistics course.

Think about your best subject (it’s even better if you have a college degree), whether it’s English, Math, Science or History. If you are fluent in another language, consider that a possible skill.

Then, offer your services as a tutor. If you are knowledgeable at standardized tests, you can provide your expertise in preparing others for that test.

16. Teach

There are a number of ways you can teach — provided you have the requisite qualifications. Be an adjunct professor, teaching one or two classes a semester at the local community college or university.

Sign up to substitute-teach. I did this for a little while during college. In some states, you don’t even need a four-year degree to be a sub (although you are usually paid more if you have a degree).

Consider, too, teaching online. My husband teaches an online course for a four-year university, even though he isn’t on staff there. With the right qualifications, you could also teach for online charter high schools.

17. Freelance

Thanks to technology, there are a number of things you can do as a freelancer to make money. Writing, graphic design, ad copy, computing programming, and other activities are all possibilities.

Consider doing some of these things on the side, and even making it into a full-time job later.

One popular freelancing option is writing. Many sites in different niches that need people who can produce content. You don’t have to be an award-winning best author to be a freelance writer. As long as you can write and do so without too many mistakes, there are people that are willing to pay top dollar.

One of the writers that writers for Good Financial Cents, Holly Johnson, makes well above 6 figures just writing. You can learn more about Holly and her business here.

While it may seem daunting to find clients, you can start on Fiverr and Upwork to build your portfolio and client base.

18. Consult

If you know a great deal about a subject, it’s possible to serve as a consultant. Green business consultants are in high demand right now.

But you could also offer consulting services as a social media expert, image specialist, gardener, curriculum developer or decorator.

There are a number of people who hire consultants to help them find jobs, find employees and even help them communicate more effectively with others. If you can be considered an “expert” in your field, you might be able to consult.

19. Technology

If you know technology, you can hire yourself out to help others set it up. From setting up home theater systems to teaching others to use their smartphones effectively to removing malware from computers, you can sell your expertise.

Small businesses are shelling out some serious cash to people who can manage Facebook Ads to capture local customers. If you know how, this can turn into a prosperous side-gig.

You can even help others sell items online. Offer to manage eBay auctions or Craigslist sales for the technologically impaired, and you can earn a commission.

You can even help people update their media, digitizing images, or putting old VHS home videos on DVD.

20. Photography/Video

I know three different people who provide photography services as a side job. They do portraiture for children and families, and they take pictures of weddings. You don’t even have to rely on events to make money from your photos.

There are stock photography sites that will allow you to sell the right to use your images. If you are talented at video, you can earn money as a videographer, or earn more to put together presentations for parties and other milestone events.

21. Food

Baking, cooking and preserving food can be ways to earn some extra money — or even grow a business. Decorate cakes for weddings. Show others how to cook and freeze food for future meals (or cook it and freeze it for them).

You can even make jams, jellies and applesauce, and the sell the results. Just make sure you are following all regulations when you sell food.

22. Research

You can get paid to do Internet research in some cases. Various firms and companies may need help gathering information and citing resources.

Or, if you are good with family history, you can do others’ genealogical research, and compile the findings. There are a number of ways to provide research for those who need help, but don’t know where to start.

23. Memories

Provide scrapbooking and digital scrapbooking services for others. You can also put together photo albums, or create presentations for those who don’t have the time or ability.

24. Personal care

If it’s allowed in your state or city, you can actually provide some personal care services for others. A woman in my neighborhood earns money on the side cutting, coloring and styling others’ hair right in her kitchen.

You can help with makeup application for proms and other big events as well.

25. Care for others

If you are compassionate and good with people, it’s possible for you to care for others. You can help with adult daycare, or babysit others’ children. In my neighborhood, babysitting children is a very common income source (make sure you understand and comply with state laws).

You can even specialize in overnight care for those who work odd shifts. You don’t have to care for people, though. Pet-sitting can be a good way to earn some extra cash.

You can do as little as walk dogs or as much as providing boarding services for pets ranging from cats to lizards to hamsters.

Passive Income: Make Money with Little Active Effort

In reality, even passive income takes some time and effort to get going. However, once you have your system in place, all it takes is a little maintenance going forward.

To set up passive income streams, though, you do have to be willing to put in some consistent time and effort, although the amount of time and effort diminishes the longer you continue.

26. Income investing

Build an income portfolio using bonds, dividend stocks, and even P2P lending.

You will have to make efforts to choose solid investments, and it might take seven to 10 years to build up a portfolio.

The time involved on a weekly basis is generally small, and, in time, you will have a portfolio that provides you with a fairly stable income stream — with little effort on your part beyond maintenance.

27. Rental property

With the right property, and a good plan, you can actually keep up with a rental with a relatively small investment of time. You can even hire a property manager to take care of most of the tasks, assuming you have enough income to afford it.

A good rental property can be an excellent way to make money if you do it right.

28. Affiliate sales/marketing

Whether you do this online, or offline, affiliate sales and marketing can be a way to make income fairly simply. You receive a portion of sales made for products online or offline.

This can include scrapbooking supplies, candles, and other products, or it can include financial products, like credit card applications.

You can get involved with affiliate programs online, which will give you commissions while doing all the order fulfillment, or you can be in charge of order fulfillment (and likely make a bigger commission).

Michelle from Making Sense of Cents makes over six figures per month through affiliate marketing.

Jeff got the opportunity to sit down and hear Michelle’s journey from working a corporate job to being totally financially independent. To hear more about Michelle and affiliate marketing, check out this video.

29. Websites

It can take some time to build up a web site to the point where it has enough traffic to bring in significant advertising dollars.

However, once you get the site built up, you can usually maintain it in a few hours a week, providing you with a source of mostly passive income. Another option is to buy web sites from others.

In some cases, you might even be able to get a web site that has already been built up — and may even have a staff.

You’ll also want to access our Make 1k Challenge, which is a free email course that walks through the steps to start your first blog and make your first $1,000.

30. Royalties

Earn royalties from books, music or other creative endeavors. Yes, it takes effort to put together your work, and market it. However, once you are done, the money can roll in, without much more effort on your part.

Plus, in today’s world, many people self-publish ebooks and allow them to just keep making money, in PDF format or even selling them in Kindle format.

31. Create a product or course

Another option is to create a valuable product or course. You can create a course to help others learn how to build food storage, or put together a system that allows others to pay down debt.

It is also possible to create a premium product, such as an investing newsletter that people are willing to pay for. While the initial work will be difficult, once the course is put together, you will only have to maintain, and wait for others to pay for access to it.

32. Facebook Ads

Small businesses are shelling out some serious cash to people who can manage Facebook Ads to capture local customers.

Facebook likes to serve ads, that’s how they make money. Businesses want to be on Facebook, but many do not know how to do so. If you know how or want to learn how to manage Facebook ads, this can turn into a prosperous side-gig.

Mike and Bobby of Laptop Empires have had great success helping businesses run Facebook ads. Mike currently makes over $30,000 per month just running Facebook ads for businesses.

To learn more about Mike and his business, check out this video.

33. Flipping Shoes

You can buy new shoes through retailers and resell them on platforms like StockX.

Not all of the shoes you buy will make money, but if you like shoes this is a great gig!

34. Speaking

If you enjoy getting on stage and speaking in front of people, you can get paid good money for educational or motivational speaking engagements. Initially, you might not make much. You do need to gain some experience, but after that you can get paid $500-$5,000 per speaking engagement.

35. Blogging

Did you know that you can make money blogging? This takes some effort on the front end, but can continue to grow and become more passive.

You can make money blogging by using affiliate marketing, display ads, text ads and more.

There is not a lot of maintenance or upkeep once you build your blog. You can build a blog in any niche from Food to finance to entrepreneurship to dog training… There are so many spaces you can be in.

The Good Financial Cents blog brings in $200,000-300,000 per month through affiliate marketing and advertising.

36. Online store

Sell your products with a store on Shopify, Etsy or create your own store.

You could sell t-shirts, camping gear, custom golf club covers or anything you want. There are so many different options of things that you can create. If you don’t want to create these items yourself, you could also find a vendor to supply the products and then sell them.

Steve Chou made $100,000 his first year that he created his online store.

37. Self-Publishing

You can easily set up self-publishing through Amazon.

Many people make more than they would ever make going through traditional publishing. Do you have a topic you are an expert in? Consider writing an ebook and self-publishing!

To hear more about these extra ways to make money, check out this video.

More Ways to Make Extra Money?

Remember: these are only some of the ways to make extra money.   There are hundreds, if not thousands of other ways not listed here.

Have you figured out a creative way to generate extra income?  If so, please share in the comments below!