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50 Easy Ways To Make Money From Home

50 Easy Ways To Make Money From Home

Whether you’re between jobs, a stay-at-home parent or just want to make some extra money without leaving the house, these work-from-home jobs and tasks can boost your income, helping you make ends meet, pay down debt or reach savings goals.

Legitimate work-from-home jobs do exist but beware of scams that require you to pay upfront for the chance to earn extra money. Instead, check out these ways you can easily make extra money from home.

Last updated: Sept. 30, 2020

1. Sell Stock Photographs

If you have a knack for capturing the perfect shot, you could turn those pictures into extra money. Sites like Shutterstock, Fotolia and Adobe Stock enable users to upload images and get paid when people purchase them.

You’ll receive a fraction of the sales price — and a good picture can earn you thousands of dollars if it’s downloaded a lot. You must have the exclusive rights to the photos, and you must include signed releases for any recognizable people or private property in the images.

2. Use the Right Account for Your Money

You shouldn’t settle for any old checking account when you’re looking for somewhere to keep your money. Instead, you should find one that pays you back.

PenFed’s Access America Checking account does just that thanks to its annual percentage yield of 0.20% or 0.40%1 — depending on the daily balance — with a monthly direct deposit of $500 or more. By using an account that pays a higher APY, your money will grow more quickly while it sits until you need it. And if you’re able to avoid monthly fees, there’s no reason not to take advantage of a perk like this.

1APY (annual percentage yield) is accurate as of Sept. 18, 2020, and is subject to change at any time. Federally insured by NCUA.

3. Pet Sit

If you love animals, getting paid to watch other people’s pets is a dream job.

Sites like Rover connect pet sitters with pet owners. You’ll need to set up a profile explaining why you’d be a great pet sitter, but once you’re approved, you can set your own rates and hours. You could earn up to $1,000 per month, according to Rover.

4. Transcribe Audio Clips

If you can type quickly and accurately, you can earn money by transcribing audio clips in your free time and turn it into a sweet side hustle. Companies like TranscribeMe! pay about $20 per hour, and top earners can earn $2,200 a month from these work-from-home jobs. If you have a specialized background like medical or legal training, you can earn higher rates.

5. Sell Unused Stuff

If you’re looking for quick cash, consider selling items around your house, including your CDs, DVDs, games or books on the site Decluttr. Just enter the barcode, and Decluttr will tell you how much it’ll pay you for it.

6. Take Paid Surveys Online

Various online websites will pay you for sharing your opinions on a range of topics. For example, e-Rewards is open to anyone older than 13. You’ll earn e-Rewards currency for each survey you complete, which you can redeem for gift cards.

Other options include GlobalTestMarket and Harris Poll Online. The amount you make depends on how many paid surveys you’re eligible for and how quickly you complete them.

7. Become a Remote Sales Agent

If you have a smooth voice and like talking to customers, sign up as a sales agent. You’ll take calls like you would in a physical call center, but some sales agent positions are remote jobs.

For example, you can sign up with the company LiveOps to take calls for 30-minute blocks. First, you must apply, be accepted and complete a company training course, which takes about two weeks. Depending on the job, you could be paid an average of 25 cents per minute and/or commission and receive incentives for selling certain products.

8. Make an Online Business Out of Creating Online Courses

If you have specialized knowledge, use it to create an online course. If you partner with a site like Udemy, you can set your price — between $20 and $200 per course — and keep a portion of the earnings based on whether you drive the traffic to the site or Udemy’s advertising attracts the students.

9. Surf the Internet

There are dozens of ways to win money online. For example, companies want to know what you’re doing online, so they pay data aggregators like Nielsen to collect that information.

To do this, Nielsen incentivizes people to share details about their computer and mobile phone usage by installing an app. You can earn rewards for each mobile device, plus sweepstakes entries. Nielsen gives away $10,000 each month to its Computer and Mobile Panel participants.

10. Serve as an E-Juror

You can make extra cash by serving as a mock juror so attorneys can practice their arguments and judge the value of their cases. Sites like eJury recruit U.S. citizens over 18 who haven’t been convicted of a felony.

You can’t be an attorney, paralegal or legal assistant — or closely related to an attorney or employed by a law firm. Expect to make between $5 and $10 for each verdict.

11. Rent Out Your Car

Renting out your car is one of the many ways you can make money off of tourists in your city. When you’re sitting at home, you’re not using your car, so consider making money from home by renting it to someone else. Companies like Getaround enable you to offer your car to someone who wants to rent it when you’re not using it.

Getaround offers car owners top-rated insurance and 24/7 roadside assistance — so you’re fully protected. Active car owners can earn about $10,000 per year, according to Getaround.

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12. Get Cash Back When You Shop

Sign up with Ebates to get cash back when you shop online. Ebates has negotiated deals with more than 2,500 companies.

Each time you click through the Ebates site to partner sites, the company pays a referral fee to Ebates, and Ebates shares it with you. You can also earn $25 for each friend you refer to Ebates.

13. Become an English Proficiency Test Grader

To test for English proficiency, foreign students take tests that include writing paragraphs, which need to be scored. Companies like EditFast need people to grade the tests, and you can earn between $18 and $25 per hour.

You must be a native or native-like English speaker, have a four-year college degree, pass proficiency exams and complete the training.

Then, after making this extra money, you can grow it even more by putting it in a checking account like the one from PenFed. With an APY that can pay up to 10 times1 more than the average checking account, it can do more for your money. If you’re looking for an easy way to improve your financial situation, don’t overlook something as simple as your checking account.

1Sourced directly from: www.fdic.gov/regulations/resources/rates as of Sept. 18, 2020.

14. Host Dinner for Guests

If you like to cook — and others like to eat your food — you could make money by hosting dinners at your home. Companies like Eatwith coordinate guests for your dinner parties.

You must apply and host a demo event so the company can verify your culinary and hosting abilities. If you’re accepted, you’ll be on your way to making up to $1,100 per dinner.

15. Recycle for Cash

Recycling helps the Earth by reducing pollution, but it can also put some cash in your pocket. Some states implement a bottle deposit you can get back when you turn in the used bottles at a collection center. For example, in California, you can earn 5 cents for most glass and aluminum cans and 10 cents for 24-ounce or larger bottles.

16. Watch Promotional Videos

Some companies put together videos they want consumers to watch — and sites like InboxDollars find and reward consumers willing to do it. You’ll earn a little cash for each video you watch. If there aren’t any videos available to watch, InboxDollars also pays members to take surveys and online shop.

17. Turn Your Home Into a Bed and Breakfast

If you don’t mind sharing your home with people, you can sign up to rent it to vacationers. On sites like Airbnb, you can list your space, set your rate and wait for guests to sign up. You have the flexibility to rent when you want and close up shop when you want your house to yourself.

18. Share Your Spending History

Companies want to know what you’re spending money on. Snap pictures of your receipts, and upload them to the ReceiptPal app to earn entries into sweepstakes and points you can redeem for gift cards.

19. Test Websites

If you like surfing the internet, consider becoming a website tester for UserTesting. Companies that are launching new sites will pay you to provide feedback about them and perform tasks to make sure they’re functioning properly. You can expect to make $10 for each website you review.

20. Sell Coupons Online

If you have any coupons around you know you won’t use, someone else might be willing to pay for them. For example, if someone is planning to buy a new laptop, a 10-percent-off coupon could save them a substantial amount, which might motivate them to pay you a portion of what they’d save to get the coupon.

EBay does have some restrictions on coupon sales, however. You can never sell coupons for free items, and you can sell only 25 coupons — or up to $100 worth — each month.

21. Trade Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are currencies electronically created and controlled in a decentralized manner instead of by a government. Types of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Trading cryptocurrencies can be lucrative — Bitcoin went up considerably between January 2017 and December 2017. Trading cryptocurrencies has its risks. If the price plummets — as Bitcoin’s price has in the past — you could lose your investment.

22. Create Slogans for Companies

Companies love catchy slogans because they help sell products. If you have a knack for coming up with creative sayings, enter slogan contests.

At Slogan Slingers, companies offer a reward of between $200 and $999 for slogans. If a company selects your slogan as the winner, you keep the prize, minus a small administration fee.

23. Lend Money to People

If you have extra money, you can earn an average of 4% to 6% per year in profit by investing in peer-to-peer lending.

Sites like LendingClub allow you to invest in small portions of loans — as little as $25 per loan — to other people. If the borrower defaults, however, you lose your investment.

You must make a minimum opening deposit of $1,000 and meet the suitability requirements set by your state. For many states, that means you must have an annual income of at least $70,000 or a net worth of at least $250,000.

24. Tutor Students Online

If you have a knack for explaining difficult subjects and helping students get better grades, consider tutoring online. You can find your own students and set your own rates to create an online business, or you can sign up to tutor with an existing company like Tutor.com.

Tutor.com requires you to be at least a college sophomore, and you must be a subject matter expert in the areas you want to tutor. You must work at least five hours per week at Tutor.com. The site does not list the pay for tutors on its website, but with Chegg you can make $20 or more per hour of tutoring.

25. Host Direct-Sales Parties

Direct sales companies like Mary Kay pay representatives to host parties and sell their products. You host events and invite friends, family and neighbors over to see and buy a company’s products — and you keep a portion of the sales. If you work for a single-level, direct-sales company, you can expect to earn an average commission of 20% to 25% of what you sell.

26. Rent Out Office Space in Your Home

If you have home office space you don’t need to use, it could be worth money to someone who wants an office outside of their home but doesn’t want the associated cost or inflexibility of a traditional office space lease. You can set your own prices and decide when and for how long you want to rent your space.

27. Provide Tech Support Online

If you get excited about fixing computer problems, sign up to get rewarded for being tech-savvy. Through companies like Upwork, you can complete lucrative freelance gigs online to earn cash and rewards by helping people fix their technology products.

28. Search the Web With Bing

Switching your search engine is an easy way to make money from home. Microsoft, for example, will reward you for using Bing to search the internet. You earn points for activities like searches, which you can redeem for movies, games and gift cards.

29. Become a Virtual Fitness Instructor

If you like helping people get in shape but don’t like traveling to the gym or other people’s homes, consider marketing yourself as a virtual fitness instructor. You might need to get certifications to gain credibility with clients so you can oversee their workouts via webcam or other technology.

Alternatively, you can have short, online meetings with clients and provide them with workouts to do on their own. Either way, you can work from home.

30. Sell Your Hair

If your friends tell you they wish they had your hair, you might have a source of income growing right on your head.

Sites like HairSellon provide an easy way to make money from home: You can list your hair for sale, and the site even has a calculator to help you set a reasonable price depending on its length, thickness and color.

31. Be a Virtual Assistant

People will pay you to assist them with a range of tasks from canceling cable to scheduling appointments.

“Virtual business assistance is an opportunity with so much variety and need that many people are able to find a place here,” said Angie Nelson of The Work At Home Wife. “In-demand skills can run the gamut from customer service and email management to optimizing eBay listings and setting up email funnels.”

At Fancy Hands, the pay ranges from $3 to $7 per task — the faster you complete tasks, the higher your earning potential.

32. Sign Up for Credit Cards

Credit card companies want to get their cards in your hands, and they often offer substantial bonuses to sign up. Many sign-up bonuses for credit cards are in excess of $1,000 — but you might have to spend a certain amount in a short period of time to qualify. Check that the card’s annual fee doesn’t offset the sign-up bonus.

33. Perform Tasks on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk Website

Amazon has created a huge marketplace for tasks that require human intelligence for completion: Amazon Mechanical Turk. Businesses post tasks and how much the pay is for completing them.

Tasks include identifying pictures or videos, transcribing audio recordings and conducting research. Depending on the task, you might have to prove your qualifications before you can claim it. The faster you complete tasks, the more you can make.

34. Adjust Your Home’s Temperature

You can increase your bottom line by reducing your heating and cooling costs. Even if you’re always home, you can save up to 14% on your electricity bill if you set your thermostat 2 degrees higher and use a ceiling fan, according to Energy Star. You can also save money by dialing back the heat or air conditioning while you’re asleep.

35. Make and Sell Crafts

If you’re a crafty person, selling some of your online handiwork might top your list of ways to make money at home. Sites like Etsy make it easy: You pay no monthly fee, just a 20-cent listing fee.

Once your item sells, Etsy takes a 5% transaction fee, making selling you handmade creations and vintage goods in your Etsy shop, mostly painless.

36. Sell Video Footage to News Shows

If you often find yourself in the right place at the right time to capture big events, let your video camera roll. News shows will pay you to use the footage for their broadcasts. You can use a site like ScoopBroker to sell your footage to a media outlet for exclusive or nonexclusive rights to it.

37. Write a Book

Thanks to the advent of online publishing, you don’t need to have a connection with a big publishing house to deliver your story to the public. In fact, you can publish an e-book digitally through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. You can set your own price and earn up to 70% of it in royalty payments.

38. Pay Your Car Insurance in Full

Instead of relying on monthly payments, save up to $120 a year by paying your annual car insurance premium in full, according to Lifehacker. As long as your insurance company has a website, you can boost your bottom line from the comfort of your favorite chair.

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39. Empty Your Closet

If you have a closet full of clothes that you rarely wear, resell those clothes and put some cash in your pocket.

Sites like Tradesy allow you to list items that are in great condition as well as authentic. You won’t pay a listing fee, but you will pay a 19.8% commission on sold items totaling $50 or more and a flat fee of $7.50 on sold items totaling less than $50.

40. Assist With Political Action Campaigns

If you’re a good communicator, consider putting your skills to work as a writer or organizer for political change as a way to make money from home. Sites like NextWave Advocacy recruit qualified applicants — often those with a background in writing who are interested in politics — and train them to work for clients on a range of political issues.

41. Negotiate Your Interest Rates

If you have credit card balances, calling your credit card company to try to lower your interest rate works 80% of the time, according to CNBC. Even a small decrease in your rate can save you money.

For example, say you carry a $10,000 balance: A 3% rate reduction would save you $300. Leverage how long you’ve been a customer and how you pay on time to increase your chances of success.

42. Use an App To Find Price Rebates

Many stores have price guarantees, but it’s a hassle to track them all down and potentially even more of a hassle to file the paperwork. Now, you can get price rebates from the comfort of your own home. For example, sign up for Paribus via email, and the service will track the rebates you’re owed by scanning the receipts sent to your email address. It will seek out the lower price and request a rebate on your behalf if you qualify.

43. Review Computer Software

Nobody wants to buy software only to find out it doesn’t work well. To help people avoid that disaster, you can write software reviews and get paid for them. SoftwareJudge will pay you up to $50 per review.

44. Watch TV

You can make money from home watching TV: Download the Viggle app and earn one point for every minute you watch shows on subscription services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, plus bonuses for certain shows. You can redeem points for cash or gift cards.

Although it might not be the most profitable activity, if you’re going to watch TV anyway, you might as well get rewarded with this easy way to make money from home.

45. Answer Questions via Text

If you’re good at finding answers quickly, consider becoming a member at 1Q, a site that enables customers to ask questions and get answers quickly.

After you’ve signed up, you’ll receive 50 cents per answer. The number of questions you receive depends on your demographics and location, so keep your profile updated so you don’t miss out on questions.

46. Create an Online Business Translating Foreign Documents

If you speak more than one language, you can make money working from home translating documents. ProZ.com acts as a marketplace for translators to connect with people and companies who need translation services. On ProZ.com, clients request applications for translations and select the translator they want to conduct at-home jobs.

47. Take Stock of Your Memberships

Cutting unnecessary memberships is as valuable to your budget as generating extra income. Go through all of your current memberships and subscriptions to make sure they’re worth what you’re paying. To help find lurking expenses, consider an app like Trim, which shows your recurring costs and can even cancel subscriptions for you.

48. Share Your Knowledge

If you have specialized knowledge, you can monetize it by signing up as an expert to help others online. For example, JustAnswer will pay you to share your expertise.

You must apply for each category you feel you’re qualified to provide answers for, and you need to have a degree or certification in that area. The amount you earn depends on how in-demand your area of expertise is.

49. Bet On Your Ability To Get In Shape

Did you know you can get paid to sweat? Getting healthy can help you win money by competing in health challenges. Sites like DietBet allow you to compete with others in weight loss challenges.

You must upload pictures to verify your starting and finishing weight. You’ll pay an entry fee, but the fees go into a pot that everyone who meets the goal splits. You’ll never lose money as long as you meet your goal.

50. Accept Packages for Neighbors

If you’ve ever missed a package, you know how difficult it can be to reschedule your delivery. That’s why people use eNeighbr to get packages accepted for them.

If you’re going to be home anyway, consider signing up to receive packages for your neighbors. Packages will be sent directly to you, and the customer will pick them up. You can expect to make $3.50 per package.

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Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 50 Easy Ways To Make Money From Home