Solid But Easy Ways to Make Extra Money at Home

R.L. Adams– Contributor

A side income feels like being rich if you already have a day job that covers the bills.

byEntrepreneurcontributors are their own.

Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of ways we can make extra money from home. In fact, making money online from the comfort of your home, no matter where you live,is far easier than most assume. You do have to navigate the so-called guru gauntlet. Sure. That is if you’re looking to scoop up an offer from today’s vast pallette of never-endingwebinars, trial programs, andsales funnelsthat seem to pop up everywhere we turn.

But that tends to complicate things. Making some extraside hustlecash doesn’t actually have to be that complicated. As someone who’s been immersed in the field of online income generation for nearly twodecades now, I can tell you that it takes some work. However, there are several clear paths forward. At the end of the day, it all boils down to what yourgoalsare and just how much you’re looking to automate your income.

Could you make an extra $200 per month? Sure. How about an extra $1000 per month? How would that change your life? To most, it would make a monumental difference. But what if we were talking thousands more per month or even tens of thousands more? How would that alter the trajectory of your life? Clearly, you canmake money on the internet. You just have to decide how much of your time it’s worth.

While we all have some extratime, it often doesn’t feel like it, does it? We’re usually so busy and enthralled in whatever it is that we’re doing that we forget to spend the time on navigating the murky online waters ofmoney making. That’s understandable. But it also doesn’t take too much effort to make some extra dough on the side. We’re not talking about millions upon millionshere (well maybe for some). We’re mostlytalking about doing small, bite-sized projects togenerate some fast cash.

Depending on yourskill set, you could easily make a few hundred dollars or even a few extra thousand per month. And if you have some money to invest, you could easily launch into a variety ofday tradingactivities. Those present some risks of your original capital. But if you know what you’re doing and you work to hedge your bets by placing stops and limits, you could create sizable upside with lower-than-usual risks.

1. Become avirtual assistant.

One simple way to make money from home is to help others complete tasks as avirtual assistant.If you’re highly organized and can properly manage your time, then becoming a virtual assistant presents a low-friction entry point into the digital services industry. You can easily perform these functions as a remote worker no matter where you live or are from.

Finding work as a virtual assistant can be easily done through sites likeUpwork,Indeed.comandRemote.co. Search the existing posted jobs and create bids. You’ll need effective communication skills and fluency in English and popular web and business software applications.

2. Sell stuff on eBay or Craigslist.

A large subset of our society is earning a full-time income by selling items onCraigslistand Ebay. You can do this by selling your own items, or you can help sell items for other people and take a small commission. Selling on Ebay offers more friction than Craigslist and you’ll need to establish solid reviews before you can begin tomove high-ticket items.

However, eBay does provideresources for sellersto help you get acclimated to selling on the platform. Take the time to do your due diligence and research the platform. If you have some solidonline marketing skills, you’ll find this much easier than if you’re a complete newbie to the world of digital marketing.

3. Trade cryptocurrency.

As the digital world evolves, so does our currency. What seemed like a novelty yesterday will ultimately become the preferred medium for money. In fact,studies showthat non-cash payments have gone up 5.3 percentper year between 2012 through 2015 and a Gallop poll found that 10 percentof people claimed to use cash as their preferred payment method in 2016 (down from 19 percentin 2011).

While cryptocurrency is still relatively new, it will ultimately become the standard.BitcoinandEtheriummight be the primary cryptocurrency platforms today, but the US Dollar will eventually become the Digital Dollar by leveraging the blockchain. You can take advantage of the current boom in cryptocurrency by trading it through platforms likeeToroandKraken, amongst many others.

4. Online tutoring

Websites likeSkooli,Tutor MeandTutor.comprovide resources for entering into the online tutoring space. While you don’t need to use a platform like these, they provide a lower friction entry point into the market. You could also search for online tutoring gigs on a variety of other sites like Upwork,Freelancerand many more.

What types of things can you tutor online? You could easily tutor a subject like math or science, while also teaching a language if you’re bilingual. You could also tutor musical instruments like the guitar or piano, along with a slew of other subject matters.

5. Sell services on Fiverr

Fiverrhas grown significantly since its inception. Today, it’s a vast marketplace where you can sell just about any service under the sun. This is great if you’re looking tomake money onlineas adigital nomador even while sitting at home on your laptop while in your pajamas.

What, specifically, can you sell on Fiverr? Anything from graphics and design services, to digital marketing, writing and translation services, video and animation services, music and audio, programming and application development, business services and lifestyle servicesthat includes anything from celebrity impressions, to gaming and even astrology readings.

6. Build sales funnels.

Every successful business has an automatedsales funnel. Yet, so many businesses are completely unaware of the power of an effective funnel. Sales funnels provide automation in the sales process. They help you build a relationship with your audience and develop a bond with the consumer. There are plenty of tools you can use to build a sales funnel, but the world’s most successful businesses often create custom-coded funnels.

Expert sales funnels often start with a free offer, also called the lead magnet. By delivering value in the lead magnet, you’re creating trust with the consumer. In the next step, you’d usually find what’s called a self-liquidating offer or a trip wire. These are insatiable deals that are hard to pass up, often for $7 to $47. The front-end offer is usually found beyond that along with one-time offers to help boost the lifetime value of the customer and the average cart value.

While there are considerable technique details when it comes to sales funnels, understanding them today, right now, could set you up for a higher degree of online marketing prowess. It’ll also help you scale your business by optimizing a conversion rate, then simply expanding your ad spend.

7. Rent out your home.

Another way you can make money at home is to actually rent out your home.AirBnBhas carved a sizable industry out of vacation rentals. While the market did exist prior to AirBnB’s arrival, it’s certainly grown by leaps and bounds since its arrival on the scene.

In fact, AirBnB recently swallowed up luxury vacation rental provider,Luxury Retreats, and other consolidations in the marketplace have happened with leading sites likeInvitedHome’sacquisition of PPG rentals and Seasoned Dreams’ platforms,andExpedia’s$3.9 billionacquisition of another vacation rental giant,HomeAway. The market is booming and the time is ripe for entry, no matter how big or small your home or condo might be.

8. Launch an ecommerce site.

Ecommerceis booming. While Amazon takes the lion’s share, consumers are buying by the droves when they can scoop up great offers. In fact, some of the leading online marketers likeNeil Patel,Frank Kern,Dean Graziosi,David Sharpe,John Reeseand many others, are using free-plus-shipping ecommerce and book funnels to make small fortunes.

This comes back to the implementation of sales funnels within an ecommerce environment. In fact, much of what people think about traditional ecommerce stores taking months or even years to build and costing a small fortune simply isn’t true. DaveWoodward, co-founder of ClickFunnels, says that over one-third of their two-comma club (members who have a sales funnel making a million or more per year)are ecommerce entrepreneurs.

9. Start a blog.

Blogsare quite possibly one of the best ways to earn apassive income, even while traveling the world. Whilestarting a blogmight be simple, and making money from home is definitely possible, you will need to put in the work and the effort in order to reap the benefits. Plant the seeds now to enjoy the harvest later.

However, once that blog gets going,generating an incomeandscaling out your businessis straightforward. Simply produce more content and line up more offers. As your blog grows in popularity, you’ll also be able to attract top talent willing to write for you simply in exchange for one very powerful link back to their own websites.

10.Build a side hustle business.

There are plenty of ideas for lucrativeside hustlebusinesses that you could easily start from the comfort of your own home. While starting them is easy, actually putting in the work to market and grow those businesses is a bit more challenging. The hard part is seeing them through.

What types of businesses work best? Find one in any of the following highly-profitablethree industries: make money online, diet and fitness or relationship and dating. Any business targeted to one of these industries can reap the benefits of massive consumer spending occurring every single day. While you can certainly sell products for other companies as an affiliate, creating your own, also presents significant upside.

While you could launch a regular business selling someone else’s products, you could also invent your own product, like billionaire fitness pioneer,Howard Paneswho teamed up with Ab Roller creator, Don Brown to create theStealth, a fitness system that gamifies core workouts. While businesses based on inventions might seem more complex to create, they do present attractive investment opportunities as depicted on popular shows like billionaire, Mark Cuban, and Daymond John’s,Shark Tank.

11. Create webinars

I’ve become obsessed with thewebinarmedium for selling. Building out automated webinars is one of the most useful skills you could possibly have. People likeJason Fladlien, the world’s most successfulwebinar guru who’s done of $100 million in sales through webinars by only selling other people’s products and not his own.

Webinars follow a specific template and format. They’re formulaic. If you can master that formula, you can quite literally dominate in this space. Find a greatbusiness ideaor opportunity that you can sell that delivers massive amounts of value.

12. Social media management.

Social media management is a great way to generate an income from home. Considering the expansion of social media, businesses are clamoring to find their way in front of prospects. However, most businesses haven’t got a clue about how they can increase their exposure. That’s where you come in.

Building a social media management business might take some effort and time, but it’s well worth it. You could charge a sizable monthly fee for each business to help manage their social media, allowing you to earn a full-time income doing this gig.

Liz Benny, the founder of Jinga Social, not only built one of the largest and most well-known social media management businesses out there, but also created multiple seven-figure webinars teaching people, you guessed it, how to launch your own social media management company.

13. Trade options.

Trading options might seem risky if you have very little capital to spare. But it’s also a great way to enter into a market that would otherwise cost you an arm and a leg if you were to buy the stocks at full price. With options, you can participate in the movement of a stock without having to put up all the money to actually buy that stock. For example, if Amazon costs $1000 a share, buying a 1,000 shares will cost $1 million. But, 10 call options at $10 each (with each option representing 100 shares of stock) costs $10,000.

There are many platforms you could use to trade options such asEtrade,ScottTrade, amongst countless more. However, only a select few like John Carter’sSimplerTrading, willactually will provide you with the right data set to trigger your trades at the right time by sending you push alerts.

According to Carter, who’s company provides coaching trading guidance to over 350,000 customers around the world, one of the best ways you can actually make money in options is to buy at the money calls 15 days before earnings are released and them the day before earnings are released. The excitement and anticipation around earnings typically drives up the price providing consistent winners, while holding through earnings is pretty much a crapshoot.

14. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketingpresents a very low friction entry into selling products online. While you do need some type of audience to sell these products or services to, you could make a significant amount of money from home while doing it. Some products or services have very high earnings per click. That means, if you play your cards right, you could easily make a large profit on conversions by driving traffic to specific offers as long as you target the right interests.

You can find affiliate marketing offers on sites likeClickBank,CJ.comandRakuten LinkShare, amongst many others. Search for the right offer and ensure that you present it to the right audience and don’t spam people about it. Do your marketing ethically. If you’re looking for more information on effective affiliate marketing, check out Pat Flynn’sSmart Passive Incomewebsite.

15. Create online courses.

One of my absolute favorite ways to make extra money from home is to create online courses. Now, this does take an upfront investment of time. But, as any other passive income generating activity, you do the work once and get paid repeatedly for it.

Take whatever skill you have and find a way to build a course around it. Use sites likeUdemy, Ankur Nagpal’s,Teachableor Jonathan Cronstedt’sKajabito build those courses then begin marketing. You could also use ClickFunnels to create the entire membership course with all its functionality in one place.

Solid But Easy Ways to Make Extra Money at Home - Ace Cash Flow (2024)