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I say it time and time again: my favorite thing about working from home and for myself is that I get to decide how much money I’m going to make. When the new Freebird by Steven seasonal line comes out, I don’t have to beg for overtime, apply for a part-time job, or pray that the Boot Fairy will stop by my house. I turn to one of the many ways to make extra money without an extra long-term commitment.
In today’s post, we are focusing on opportunities that take only an hour or two to complete one job and allow for the utmost flexibility in scheduling. Pick up work when, if, and where you want. Oh. and most of these don’t require any special skills or education.
Also See: 9 Work-from-Home Side Jobs That Can Earn You $50,000 a Year
1. Become a Reseller
One of the easiest ways to make extra money is to sell stuff. While you will eventually run through unwanted items of your own, thousands of people make great money on the side by buying and selling stuff from others, aka flipping.
We have talked extensively about flipping recently. While many of our resellers are working their businesses full-time, you can certainly do it on a small scale as well.
2. Rent Your Stuff
So maybe you aren’t quite ready to part with your stuff quite yet. There is a big market for renting everything from tools to bikes to baby strollers. Check out our list of places to buy, sell, and rent for more ideas.
3. Mystery Shopping
`Even if you work from home, you have to leave the house eventually. While you are out and about, why not make a few extra bucks? Apps like FieldAgent or GigWalk will pay you for checking the price of a certain item in a local store or snapping a picture of a product display. This is so much easier than mystery shopping of years past.
Also See: How to Become a Mystery Shopper
4. Take a Few Paid Surveys
While there are tons of scams in this industry, there are also plenty of legit survey companies. Save up those rewards to finance your holiday shopping or buy yourself something special.
- Swagbucks – so many ways to make money with this one: watch videos, take surveys, shop online, and more. Sign up and get a $10 bonus!
- Inbox Dollars – get a $5 signup bonus
See: Best Opportunities To Take Surveys For Cash
5. Sign Up for Rewards
If you regularly use credit cards to make purchases, make sure it’s a card offering rewards. While Discover is always a popular option, Credit Karma recently informed me the Capital One No Hassle Rewards credit card would get me the biggest return according to my spending habits.
See: Best Apps That Let You Get Paid the Same Day
6. Lose Weight
HealthyWage allows you to earn up to $10,000 by placing “bets” on your weight loss. This is a great way to stay motivated and accountable.
7. Shop Online
I do a lot of my shopping online these days. I love getting cash back through programs like Rakuten. These programs pay you cold hard cash. You may also be able to make a little more by referring your friends.
8. Tutor
Not only is tutoring a great local gig, there are so many places that contract online tutors. Skype and online conference software make it easy to teach remotely. Sites such as Cambly have become increasingly popular with my readers over the past year. And, you can always market to parents and students directly if you would prefer to cut out the middleman.
This is one freelance gig that offers a lot of flexibility. Your students will likely be available nights and weekends. If you are going it on your own as opposed to working with a company like Kaplan, you can decide how many hours you want to put in each week. Studypool is another great option – simply answer student’s questions and get paid.
9. Write an eBook or Online Course
I love passive income opportunities that keep earning you money hands-off indefinitely. Write an eBook for Kindle or sell your educational goods on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you have extensive knowledge in a certain field, you can venture into offering online courses through platforms like Udemy.
10. Pet Sitting
Make yourself available for a few fun-filled afternoons on sites like Wag to make some quick cash!
11. Run Errands
There is no shortage of places to pick up local tasks in the on-demand economy. Sign up with sites like Instacart, TaskRabbit and more.
12. Make Deliveries
Sites like DoorDash offer a lot of flexibility in scheduling, and many provide a guaranteed hourly minimum.
13. Micro-Tasker
Crowd-sourcing sites are always popular among those looking to make money in one hour or less per week. Big projects are broken down into small tasks that can often be done in less than 15 minutes. A few of our favorite sites:
14. Focus Groups
These opportunities are typically one-off gatherings lasting just a few hours. Even though the availability is sporadic, you can make good money for providing your feedback. See this post by Real Ways to Earn for a list of companies to sign up with.
15. Provide Website Feedback
There are several “user testing” opportunities today that connect remote workers with website owners looking for feedback on their site. These gigs generally only take about 15-20 minutes and can pay $10 to $20 per “test.” You are often recording yourself via webcam as you visit and navigate a website and sharing your experience and what you like or don’t like about the site.
16. Refer Your Friends
While this gig doesn’t always equate to cash, it can get you some free stuff you need anyway. Earn free credit when referring your friends to sites like Zulily or Groupon. You can also earn some cold hard cash for sending your friends to Rakuten or Ibotta.
17. Become a Chauffeur
We recently talked to the Ride Share Guy about how he is making up to $30 per hour driving people around. You can also make money picking up and dropping off other people’s kids at their activities with a program like HopSkipDrive.
18. Clean
The awesome thing about the gig economy is that you don’t have to make something into a full-time business to profit from it. There are likely a few businesses in your area that could use someone on the weekends to clean their office space. Or, get one or two housecleaning clients through a site like those below. Five hours per week = $50 to $100
19. Flip Blogs
Flipping domains used to be a hot ticket. Today, it’s selling done-for-you, income-generating websites and blogs. This works perfectly for me. Every year or two I spot a trendy topic I’d love to delve into and I start a blog. After a year or two, I lose interest. Rather than letting the site die a slow death, you can sell it for a profit if it’s making money. This has netted me anywhere from $200 to $15,000 in the past depending on how much the site is earning at the time of sale. Made for AdSense and Made for Amazon sites tend to bring the best return. Flippa’s okay for selling, but if you are making five figures per year, go with a broker like Quiet Light or Empire Flippers.
20. Watch your spending
This awesome challenge from Brightpeak Financial will show you how to stash away $500 in just 7 days.
21. Get Part-Time Remote Work with a Startup
Angel List is a website where startups can find investors and gain interest. It’s also a site where they can connect with employees and independent contractors.
Angel List has a special section just for remote job listings. You can find both full-time and part-time opportunities here seeking everything from freelance writers, to virtual assistants, to CFOs. You will be able to see the pay being offered, a thorough company description, and how many people have applied for the listed job.
22. Become a Social Media Manager
This gig offers a lot of flexibility. You may be able to schedule social media updates in advance and check for comments or replies periodically throughout the day. You need to have a working knowledge of popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. You should also have good customer service and organization skills. FlexJobs is a great place to find legitimate remote job listings in this industry.
23. Evaluate Search Engines
Search engine evaluators are a popular remote position to make some fast cash. Though some find the work isn’t steady enough to provide a full-time income, that could make it perfect for you to make more money while growing your home business. Lionbridge, Leapforce, and iSoftStone are three big names in this industry.
See: Everything You Need To Know About Search Engine Evaluator Jobs
24. Become a Direct Sales Consultant
Direct sales is a perfect fit for many budding entrepreneurs because the business really starts booming on nights and weekends when ladies are off work and ready to host home parties. That leaves you all day to work on your business while earning a nice side income, holding a couple of parties per week.
25. Work On-Demand
Maybe your free time is sporadic. In that case, check out sites like TaskRabbit or NearJobs where you can pick up gigs like doing the laundry or picking up the groceries. These are often one-off jobs that require no ongoing commitment.
See: A to Z List of Work On Demand Opportunities
26. Monetize Your Free Time and Activity
There are a lot of legit places to pick up a few bucks here and there. Swagbucks, for example, will pay you for watching videos and completing surveys (they will also give you a $5 bonus when you sign up and earn 2500 SB in your first three months). Rakuten will give you cash back for shopping online; coincidentally, they offer a $10 gift card for creating a free account. And, everyone needs to grocery shop. Ibotta pays me for doing that. It’s not much, but every little bit helps when growing a business.
Regardless of the side gig, you decide to incorporate, make sure the hourly commitments are in-line with your own business growth goals. Trying to juggle too many things and too many hours can lead to a conflict in which no one wins.
Sam says
Love the idea to be a wedding officiant or driving people around (although I tend to get quite annoyed in the car). these are all great tips!
Clare Speer says
You have many, many wonderful ideas and you sure have done your homework! Thanks for the info!
Kate says
I used to have a garage sale last year. Aside that it helped me to clean my closet, I also earned money from it.
Melissa says
Thanks for this list. Mystery shopping is something I hope to get into when my kids are a bit older. Right now I make extra money by selling my stuff on Facebook or eBay.
We shared this post on 1099 Mom.
Angie Nelson says
Thanks, Melissa!
charan says
came through pinterest , after reading this post this post is helpful for those who are looking for extra cash online … infact am making some income through online which you have mentioned like selling the products online through ebay (womens clothing indian dresses) and through blogging am generating some income now want to start a full time freelance work from home and impressed you have pointed several ways which 70% i dont know but visiting the pro bloggers will always gain some good knowledge thanks for sharing your ideas on making money.. expecting more valuable post from you.. keep blogging
Talk Less, Say More says
Great tips! There’s definitely several that I have on my list and have been doing already but I’m working to add more and really supplement my income with tasks that I can do from home and at my flexibility. I’m totally going to be looking into the secret/mystery shopping stuff!
Angie Nelson says
Best of luck!
Clarissa says
Thank you for all of these ideas. I shop online a lot so maybe I should check out a site like ebates.
Angie Nelson says
I love Ebates, Clarissa. It’s such an easy way to make extra money.
Tess says
all great ideas, I’m definitely going to try to implement some of these in my life! thanks for sharing:)
Omar Saady says
Hello
Thanks so much for sharing the post
Generally, there are hundreds of ways to make extra money. One thing remains constant among all those things, however. You need to work hard. There is no magic pill to riches off/online. Just like any legal business, it takes effort and time to become rich. Sure, there are people out there making millions with only 5 hours of work a week, but you can bet that those millionaires have invested thousands of hours to get to that point.
Thanks again
Omar Saady