Over the past couple of years I’ve become a big proponent of creating secondary sources of income for your family – finding things that you can do in your spare time to make money to pad your bottom line.
If you’re trying to get out of debt, or trying to fully fund your retirement, it makes it a lot easier if you have more than just your day job income.
Since I think that making extra money is such a great idea, I decided to take a whole week to talk about ways to create extra income.
I’ve asked the staff writers on the site to write posts this week talking about ways that they would suggest to make extra money. Some of the ideas may overlap, but by the end of the week I hope that we’ll have given you an extra 25-30 ideas of ways to make a bit extra for your family every month.
So, without further ado, here are 11 ways that I have used, or plan on using to make extra money for my family.
11 Ways To Make Extra Money
1. Start A Money Making Blog: Of course this first idea is the one that I’ve used most successfully, creating almost $40,000 in extra income for my family last year through this blog. I was able to find a high paying niche (personal finance), write about topics that convert well into paying Adsense ad clicks, and over two years I was able to produce enough content to consistently bring in decent traffic. You can do the same thing, I’ve detailed how I did it in my e-book that I launched last week called “Blueprint For How To Make Money With A Blog“.
2. Turn A Hobby Into Extra Income: My logo design website was another large source of income for our family last year. I started doing design work through my day job, enjoyed it, and started doing it as a hobby at home as well. Then I started doing a few logos here and there for friends. Only then did I realize that I could charge others to create the graphics for their sites. It snowballed from there to where it is now – creating almost enough money to pay my mortgage every month. Take a hobby that you’re good at, and turn it into an income producing asset!
3. Buy Things Cheap, Resell Online: A lot of times you can find items at your local thrift store, or at garage sales at a bargain price. Things like vintage dishware, brand name clothing, antiques and more can be found for a steal and resold via ebay, craigslist or other online classifieds. While you’re at it you can also sell things around your house that you no longer need!
4. Tutoring: If you’re a born teacher you can make some money on the side by teaching at a local tutoring center, or tutoring kids for families that you know.
5. Do Stock Photography: This isn’t for everyone, but for the artistic minded who already have a nice camera, you can make extra money by selling stock photography. Making money this way isn’t easy, and you’ll need to be taking some pictures specifically to be used as stock photos. Once you’ve built up a large enough portfolio it can be turned into a nice income stream. Check out sites like “Improve Photography” to read stories of others who are doing the same.
6. Participate On “Get Paid To” Sites: Use offers sites and apps like Drop, Rakuten and Swag Bucks to make a little bit extra in your free time. Purchase things you were going to buy anyway through GPT sites, and refer other users to the services. I make about $100 extra every month through these services.
7. Write An E-book On A Topic You’re Familiar With: If you’re extremely versed on a certain topic try writing an e-book for others who want to learn about that topic. Last week I launched my first e-book talking about how I make money with my blog. My good friend Craig Ford over at MoneyHelpForChristians.com just released an e-book today that gives all the nitty gritty details you need to know for people who hope to go on a short term missions trip. Find a topic you know a lot about, and write an e-book about it!
8. Get A Part Time Job: If you’re trying to pay of your debts or fund a particular savings goal, you might think about getting a part time job for a while. Work at a local coffee shop, at your local retail store or delivering pizza! You don’t have to do it forever, but do it for a while!
9. Start A Side Business To Fill A Need: I’ve had several friends who have seen a need in their area, and started side businesses to fill that need and make a bit of extra cash. One friend is a teacher and he started a lawn mowing business in the summer since he had the summers off. Another friend realized that a lot of homes in his neighborhood had dog waste in their yards, so he started a business picking up dog doo and charging a fee. You’re only limited by your creativity!
10. Sell Your Blood Or Other Specimens: Selling your body fluids can result in a bit of extra cash every month. Depending on what you’re selling it can result in $20-30 to hundreds of dollars.
11. Be A Freelance Writer: You can write for your own blog, but often people will pay you to write for their blogs as well. Get freelance writing gigs and make some extra cash. How much you earn will depend on your experience, how well you write, and how much you write. In addition to writing for other sites, write content for sites like Associated Content, Quora or Hubpages.
The Extra Money Series Continues
Stay tuned – for the rest of the week we’ll be posting on ways to make extra income for your family. Tomorrow we continue the “Ways To Make Extra Money” series with a post from Craig Ford.
Do you have ways that you make extra money for your family? Tell us about it in the comments!
Great article Pete! Part of being a good steward over your finances is not just managing and trying to get by but it’s increasing what we’ve been given. Your tips a great ways to build up cash for savings and reinvesting into bigger ventures!
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Part of being successful online is not just having the formula its also has alot to do with a plan…allot of people fall short because they don’t create a plan that will work to achieve their goals online.
On the tutoring idea–English as second language is huge right now with the migrations from various parts of the world. There are certificate programs you can take or you can do it informally.
That’s a niche you can enter for no other reason than being able to speak the native tongue!
Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last post ..How Much Money Can You Save by NOT Eating Out?
I didn’t include the ESL classes as it’s going to be included in one our our upcoming posts this week. But great idea! :)
OOPS!
Kevin@OutOfYourRut´s last post ..How Much Money Can You Save by NOT Eating Out?
My wife has begun keeping kids in our home. I am starting part-time census work this month.
These are all great ideas and I think you nailed it when you said, “You’re only limited by your creativity!”
Another great low cost idea I thought of is washing cars, similar to the grass cutting idea. You can prospect in your neighborhood, pick up their car, detail it and then return it to them. If you do a great job, I don’t see anyone who wouldn’t have their neighbor do it for them over a random business. This would also be an opportunity to build trust among your neighbors as well as get to know them better. You can also include in your pitch that this will help you stay in your house thus doing your part to help support the housing prices in the neighborhood :)
I’m big on the “passive” ones where you don’t get paid by the hour, but rather you set up the income stream and then just keep them going with periodic attention.
Blogs can work, but it takes a long time to get enough readership to be profitable. I’m working on mine now, and am planning on writing an eBook soon.
Great post. Don’t quite agree with point 10 though, selling blood for money. I believe giving blood should be a labor of love, not a commercial enterprise. Again there is only so much you can spare – a pint or two, unless you want to end up in the emergency room, needing some of your blood back! Nice article