Corey wrote about five great ways anyone can make extra money. I wanted to share five more ideas that I have used or friends of mine have used to make some extra cash. Each one of us used the extra money for different things: I used it to help me pay down my debt faster, while one of my friends used the money to max out his Roth IRA contributions each year. My other friend used the extra cash to fund his summer vacation with his girlfriend. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have a plan for the money. While you can set some of it aside to splurge on things, the idea behind the extra money should be to help you meet a goal.
Sell Photos
My one friend is an avid photographer. He has turned this hobby into a way to earn extra money. He simply takes pictures and then posts them online for people to buy. You would be amazed at how much money you can make doing this. But, be warned, you have to take pictures that people want. If you enjoy taking pictures of lint balls, there might not be as big of a buying audience for that as compared to someone who takes photos of birds.
Play an Instrument
My other friend plays violin. He branches this skill out two ways. After school at night, he gives violin lessons to kids to earn some money. Then on the weekends, he plays at charity events, mixers, weddings, you name it. For playing a violin for two hours on a Saturday he makes a few hundred dollars! If you are good at playing an instrument, look into giving lessons or playing at events.
Cut Grass at a Church
I’m not sure if this is done all around the country, but it doesn’t hurt to ask! In my neck of the woods, you can work at a church and cut the grass around the tombstones. Usually, churches have a person that does all of the main mowing, but hire out for people to trim around the stones. I’ve made $20/hr to cut the grass. The money I earned varied depending on how much rain we receive, but you can make some decent money doing this.
Elance
If you have any sort of computer, writing, mobile development or other skills, the site Elance may be for you. You can place your services on the site and people will reach out to you with any freelance jobs they need filled. Pay varies per project, but if you have the skills, this could be a place for you to turn your skills into income.
Fiverr
The website fiverr lets you offer your skill or service for others to buy for $5. There are all kinds of things people will do for $5, so be sure to check out the site. A friend of mine offered to sing people ‘Happy Birthday’ in German for $5. Last year, he made close to $1,000 just for signing the song!
These are some creative ways to make extra money. I’m working on my photography and hopefully will one day be good enough to make a little money on the side.
There are a bunch of sites out there that let you upload your photos and sell them. What do you like photographing?
Hi Corey!
Great list of ideas.
My dad is an avoid grass cutter on his street. I think he does 5-6 homes a week @ $30 a cut.
Interesting, I’m definitely gonna check out the bottom two sites. I’ve never heard of them.
I’ve never heard of Guru. I’ll have to check that one out!
And for us blogging types, there are the job postings on ProBlogger.net. I just discovered these, and have been browsing for something I could jump in to.
I didn’t know about that site…I’ll have to check it out! Thanks for sharing!!
Another great way to make money is to sign up @ usertesting.com, pretty much you get paid to test out new features/products that companies need feedback from. As long as you have a microphone, you’re all set 🙂
That’s pretty cool. Have you been testing out things on the site? What has your experience been like?
Hey Don,
We’ve used usertesting.com to test out new features to solicit feedback from customers, but I haven’t been a direct ‘tester’ for them.
Great ideas! I wish I could play an instrument. I can sing! I wonder if anyone wants to pay to hear me sing…
If you can sing, go to Fiverr. People on their charge $5 to sing songs. I’d bet you could make some money doing that. Feel free to send some my way since it was my idea haha!!
I love that note on Fiverr. I’m going to use it in an upcoming post.
I used to be a pretty serious grass cutter back in my day. I had to retire to see what the younger generation had to offer.
Great ideas. I am actually going to try selling extra veggies from my garden this year. I usually freeze a ton for later but even with that I still think I am going to have extra. It has been a hot dry summer here and the plants love it.
Amazing tips. I would like to add one more that I have applied in my life. Invest In a Rental Properrty. Some of you might be worried about the stock market and what it’s going to do in the near future. I wouldn’t be worried, but luckily you can always invest in real estate. Now is a great time to buy a rental property or a fixer-upper to flip. Regardless of the way the media portrays the real estate market, it’s not bad everywhere in the country. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid from infomercials about buying a house with no money down. Do it the smart way by putting a huge down payment into the house, and do your research if you plan to rent it out. Check to see what the rent is going for in that area, and see if you can make a profit after paying the mortgage, taxes, and insurance. If you can, then you have potential for owning a sweet income property. Real estate can make you go bankrupt, so don’t get into it without a ton of research and someone helping you that knows the market such as a real estate agent or broker.