If you’ve hit the Coinstar machine at your local grocery store and spend more time than you’d like to admit searching for loose change in your couch, we want to let you know that you are not alone. Many people are feeling the pinch right now, and it’s not always unemployed.
Plenty of people who are working are still having trouble making it from paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately, we also live in an entrepreneurial time and, more often than not, there’s an app for that. Start by organizing your life and your schedule to make room for these money-making gigs. Need some advice on how to make some extra cash? We can help.
Read on for seven tips for making money online.
- Drive for Lyft or Uber
If you’re a good driver and like small talk, this is almost a no-brainer. While there are some people trying to do this on a full-time basis, more often than not these drivers are trying to make ends meet or see the writing on the wall for their kids’ college tuition. As you can set your own schedule, it couldn’t be more convenient. If you like to drive but aren’t keen on the small talk, consider delivering food for an operation like Uber Eats or GrubHub. These companies often offer promotions or ways for you to make extra money during certain high-demand times. While there are plenty of people out there doing this, you can ensure you make great tips by going above and beyond. Offer them a way to hook up their music, provide water, and be friendly. Your rating will go sky high in no time.
- Get Paid For Your Opinion
You’ve surely got plenty of thoughts on the clothes you wear, the shoes you run in, and the food you eat. Why not get paid for that? Look into market research companies running online focus groups. You’re not going to get rich by any means but every little bit helps.
- Start a Blog or Website
This is no easy feat but if you’ve got an idea you’re passionate about and a good business plan to launch it, it could very well be worth your while. You’ll want to spend money up front on a good designer, as unprofessional looking websites and those without custom domains never fare well. Invest in yourself, too, by taking online classes in website creation and blogging. Once the website starts doing well and you’ve figured out how to target leads, you can monetize it, sell ad space, and/or begin selling products online. Plan your website with a visual site map generator like this free one from Venngage.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending
This is one option that takes capital to get capital but if you’re in a situation where this is possible, this is a somewhat new and promising niche. You can choose a reputable online peer-to-peer lending company to help out someone in need. You’ll benefit, too, as the rate of return is much higher than that of a bank. You can always go to a site like DollarDaddy for advice on ventures like this.
- Offer Your Services on Fiverr
If you’ve got professional experience in social media marketing, web development, SEO training, or graphic design, you can offer your services starting at $5 per job (hence the name Fiverr). As with all things, it takes time and good reviews to build up a business here and ultimately be able to charge more.
- Sell Your Stuff
With Marie Kondo helping the entire country if not the world in tidying up, you likely have some stuff to sell. You could go to a local resale shop but it’s more convenient and often more lucrative to use an app like eBay, Thredup, or Poshmark. In this day and age, there are plenty of ways to make money fast.
- Become an Online Tutor
Tutoring is an age-old way for people to use their knowledge to make extra money and, as with nearly everything these days, it can now be done online. You can teach new languages or other topics through webinars. As this Forbes article notes, “you could use a site like VerbalPlanet to teach a language, or try to source clients directly through social media or other avenues and process their payments through PayPal.”
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Struggling financially can be extremely stressful but we thankfully live in a time when side hustles abound. Try any or all of these ways to make money online and you’ll have a bit more breathing room soon.
More ways to make money online from our friends at CarefulCents.com