A recent survey by the Research Department of Statista.com revealed that 34% of Americans had less than $1,000 in their savings accounts.
This might sound disturbing, but this was actually far better than a survey CNBC reported on a few years ago that nearly 70% of Americans had $1,000 or less in savings.
Personally, I don’t think it matters which statistical bucket you fall in to claim the following: making an extra $1,000 per month would dramatically improve your life.
I know this because I’ve personally witnessed how making an extra $100, $500, or $1,000 per month has positively impacted hundreds of families.
It’s why I’ve shifted a lot of my work to helping people make extra money as a side hustle and eventually creating multiple passive income sources. The best part is there are hundreds, if not, thousands of different ways to make extra money.
I’ve purposely made this list to include strategies that can work for people with all kinds of skills and talents. You may not be able to do every one of them, but you’ll probably be able to do a few.
You’re also going to see some strategies that probably won’t fetch $1,000 per month, or at least won’t do it right away. But I included them because it’s possible to combine two or three strategies to reach the target.
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How to Make $1,000 Fast Online
1. Selling E-books
If you have an idea for an e-book, this might be one of the very best ways to create a regular income. Maybe best of all, once you get your book published and marketed, the income is totally passive! And if you can find success with one e-book, you can just rinse and repeat.
You may already be familiar with e-books, but what you may not know is how many are being published each year, and how much money people are making publishing them.
According to Amazon, thousands of independent authors have self-published e-books and earning more than $50,000. More than 1,000 have earned over $100,000 in royalties.
It’s best to make the topic on a subject you’re experienced with. But it’s also important to make sure there’s a proven market for that topic. There are ways you can research a topic idea to make sure it’s a popular one.
Once you create your e-book, you’ll need to create a sustained marketing program. That’s not easy, so check out our post How to Make Your First $1,000 Selling Ebooks to get a primer on how you can create and market your first e-book.
Skills needed: Basic technical knowledge, formatting, Google docs (or Microsoft Suite), specific knowledge about a topic, and social media knowledge.
Earning potential: Depending on the market and how you brand yourself and your product, e-Books can sell anywhere between $0.99 and $15.00 for more advanced pieces.
2. Freelance Writing
Do you see all that content out on the web? Somebody had to write each and every one of those articles and posts. And most likely, they got paid to do it.
You could be one of them, and it’s one of the best and most lucrative side hustles there is. You can easily make $1,000 or more each month writing just a few articles.
And like so many other income opportunities in this guide, this is one side hustle that can easily be turned into a lucrative full-time career.
Don’t worry if you have never written professionally before. Creating content on the web is different from book writing or print media. It’s much more casual and based more on personal experience than technical knowledge.
“I started freelance writing on the web with no previous writing experience whatsoever. But within a few years it became a full-time career, complete with a six-figure income.
More than anything, it takes a commitment to try and willingness to learn as you go along. Once you find your niche, you’ll find clients all over the web.”
– Kevin Mercadante, Freelance Writer since 2010
If there’s a topic area where you’re knowledgeable, and you have a desire to write on a regular basis, this could be the side hustle for you. And once you get up and running, you can expand to writing all kinds of content.
“I write online content for a living, earning an average of $20,000 to $30,000 per month writing articles, book chapters, and slideshows for a variety of websites and individuals.
With more money at our disposal, we maxed out our retirement accounts and invest in real estate, while we travel 12 weeks annually.” – Holly Johnson, Freelance Writer and Blogger at ClubThrifty.com
Holly has become so successful as a freelance writer that she now offers a course helping others succeed on the same path. You can read all about it in her article, How to Become a Freelance Writer (from 0 to $30,000+ per month).
Skills needed: Strong writing skills, time management, some marketing and SEO knowledge, ability to accept constructive criticism, researching
Earning potential: Once you’re well-established within an industry, there’s virtually no limit on your income potential if you manage to find the right clients. The average freelance writer can make around $150 per article.
3. Blogging
As you might’ve guessed, I’m really partial to this one! That’s because it’s been my primary bread-and-butter now for close to 14 years and it’s enabled me to provide a good living for my family. I know dozens of other people with the same experience, enough to believe that so many more could do the same thing.
The great thing about blogging is that it’s really an extension of you. That is your interests, skills, and experiences. If you feel you have a compelling story to share with others, one that will enable you to produce content on a regular basis, it’s a perfect way to help others while creating a whole new income stream for yourself.
One of the things I’ve always liked about blogging is flexibility. Like a lot of bloggers, I started out because I had my own story to tell. In my case, it was my experience as a financial planner. Think about what you’re doing now, or even what you would like to do, and work on turning that into your own blog.
But once you start one, think of it as a business. It’s another one that can start out part-time, and eventually, become your main career. And because it is a business, it’s a way of building a major asset.
Another blogger who I’ve become friends with over the years, Larry Ludwig, recently sold his blog for—get this—$6 million. Larry’s hardly the only one who’s done that. But it does give you an idea of the business potential blogging can create.
I think for most people, the hard part is getting started. You may have an idea about starting a blog, but you’re not sure exactly how to start or what topics you’ll take on. But like everything else, you can learn how to blog. It didn’t happen overnight for me, but then few blogging resources were available when I started out in 2008.
If you’re interested in starting your own blog, take advantage of my guide, How to Start a Blog From Scratch and Make it Work. It’s free, and right here on this website. In it, you’ll find all the resources you need to start a successful blog.
If you want a more specific instruction guide, sign up for my
Make $1k Challenge. Order the program, and you’ll get the exact blueprint for how I took my blog from a hobby to a $1,000 per month venture.
Skills needed: Technical knowledge (WordPress, SEO, web marketing), writing ability (doesn’t need to be perfect when you start), social media, topical expertise (although being passionate about something might prove just as effective).
Earning potential: Unlimited. Once your blog becomes well-known as frequented by users across the world, there’s practically nothing to prevent you from earning top dollar for your content.
4. Facebook Ads for Small Businesses
Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world, with nearly 3 billion users globally. That creates plenty of ways to make money on Facebook.
One popular way to do that is to run Facebook ads for local businesses. You don’t need to be an advertising professional to do this, only someone who knows their way around Facebook and is willing to put in the effort. After all, small businesses don’t have advertising departments.
One gentleman who has found success in providing Facebook ads for small businesses is Bobby Hoyt from Laptop Empires.
“When I first started working online back in 2015, I started in the digital marketing world, helping small business owners reach more customers,” Bobby reports. “Many of them who wanted to run Facebook ads for their business didn’t know how to themselves, so I provided the service for them.”
This is another one of those skills where you don’t necessarily have to be an expert, you just have to know more than the average person. And like everything else, you’ll get better at it with time and experience.
Skills needed: General knowledge of Facebook, Facebook Ads, campaigns, and digital marketing.
Earning potential: Depending on how quickly you’re able to find new clients and develop a working portfolio, your potential earnings could easily top the $1,000 mark designated on this post.
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5. Crypto Bot Trading
This is one for the cryptocurrency investors in the crowd. I’ve been increasingly earning income from various activities in the crypto space. Turns out there are more ways to make money there than just buying one or two cryptos and waiting for the prices to skyrocket.
One way I do this is through crypto bot trading. It’s a way you can engage in actively trading cryptocurrencies without having to sit in front of your computer and monitor the crypto universe all day. Instead, you use a software program that does the trading for you, which is why it’s referred to as a bot.
Crypto bots trading
One way to do this is through what’s known as grid trading. That’s where you place buy and sell orders at predefined intervals based on a fixed price. You can set a specific buy price, as well as a sell price. As the price rises within that range, you’ll make a profit. Once you set the price points, the whole process will be completely automated.
The strategy works best on a crypto with consistent price fluctuations, which is really most of them. The more they fluctuate, the more profit opportunities you’ll have.
It’s not a strategy for everyone, but if you’re into crypto and looking to capitalize on short-term trades, this is definitely a way to go.
Skills needed: General crypto knowledge, investing knowledge, financial literacy, technical savvy.
Earning potential: Dependent on investible sources and market returns, volatility, etc.
6. Dividend Income
Admittedly, this isn’t a strategy for many readers. But if you have a couple hundred thousand dollars in investible funds, or you’re on a path to get there, this is a workable strategy. It’s also a way to earn a relatively safe return without resorting to the 0.0-something percent being paid on savings accounts, or >1% being paid on 12-month certificates of deposit.
I cover the nuts and bolts of dividend income in How to Make $1,000 Per Month in Dividends, but let me give you the summary version here.
To generate dividend income successfully and consistently, you’ll not only need to invest in high dividend-paying stocks but also those that have a proven track record of paying them. Just because the stock pays a high dividend doesn’t mean you should invest in it. After all, companies can cut dividends.
Skills needed: Intermediate investing knowledge, investible funds,
Earning potential: Depends on funds you have to invest and the average dividend yield on stocks held in your portfolio.
BONUS: Where to Find High Dividend Stocks
A better idea is to choose among a list of stocks known as the Dividend Aristocrats. These are companies that are included in the S&P 500 and have provided at least 25 consecutive years of dividend increases.
A website called Sure Dividend puts out a list of Dividend Aristocrats that’s updated daily. (You’ll need to enter your email address to get the full list.)
There are currently 66 companies on the list, and many of them are household names. The dividend payouts have a wide range, but there are a handful of stocks that pay above-average yields. That means this is a situation where you may be better off buying individual stocks rather than a fund tied to the whole index.
Examples include:
Chevron (CVX), 4.3%
AbbVie (ABBV), 3.9%
Franklin Resources (BEN), 3.8%
Leggett & Platt (LEG), 4.4%
3M (MMM), 4.0%
Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), 4.1%
IBM (IBM), 5.3%
Amcor (AMCR), 4.0%
Realty Income Corp (0), 4.4%
Exxon Mobil (XOM), 4.6%
Those are the 10 highest dividend-paying stocks on the list. If you are to divide your portfolio with equal allocations to each of the 10 companies, you have an average annual dividend yield of 4.3%.
A quick calculation shows you need about $279,000 to earn $1000 per month, or $12,000 per year, with a 4.3% yield.
But even if you don’t have that much money, you can use whatever capital you have to generate a high and relatively safe return.
You can invest in individual dividend stocks through online brokers, like Robinhood, M1 Finance, Ally Invest or SoFi. Best of all, none of those brokers charge commissions for buying and selling individual stocks.
“I don’t own a single asset, anywhere, that doesn’t pay a dividend.”
Kevin O’Leary
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7. Crypto Savings Accounts
This can be an even better way to earn high interest on your money than dividend stocks. And higher returns mean you’ll need less capital to get the income you want.
One of the best sources of high interest are crypto savings accounts. These are available on crypto exchanges. Those exchanges, which naturally specialize in trading cryptos, have expanded to offer other services, like interest-bearing savings accounts.
As an example, BlockFi—which is a crypto exchange I invest in – was paying as much as 9.25% interest on certain cryptocurrencies.
Celsius crypto savings account
Another platform, Celsius, is currently offering an unbelievable 17% rate.
Note: On July 13, 2022, Celsius Network and certain of its affiliates filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Now I have to caution that this is not the same as having money in the bank. None of these accounts are protected by FDIC. But if you’ve got money to spare, and you want higher returns than you can get at a bank or even on dividend stocks, this is an income source to consider.
Skills needed: Basic understanding of the crypto market, the right crypto exchanges, and which currencies pay the highest interest (most pay none at all).
Earning potential: Depends on funds you have to invest and the average interest paid on the cryptos you hold.
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8. Real Estate Income
This is one of the most time-honored ways to earn consistent, long-term income. Probably the most popular way to do it is with rental income property you purchase at a good price, perform any renovations, and rent it out to tenants.
As time goes by, and rents rise, your income from the property grows. With just a couple of properties, you could be earning a net profit of $1,000 or more per month in just a few years.
And since you’ll be using mortgage financing for most of the purchase price, your upfront investment will be relatively low.
To get more information on how to invest in real estate successfully, read
Joseph Hogue’s post on this site, 7 Rules I Learned After Going Broke in Real Estate Investing. The rules he lists will help you avoid the pitfalls that can turn real estate investing into a complete disaster.
Skills needed: Communication, management, market analysis, negotiation, and vision.
Earning potential: Dependent on your ability to manage multiple projects, keep them occupied, increase monthly income streams.
9. Personal Coaching
If you’re fairly accomplished in your field, meaning you have more experience and success than the average person doing the same job, personal coaching may be a way to earn some extra money.
Let’s say you’re a career professional, occupying a middle-level management position. You may be able to use your combination of experience and skills to coach those who are either new to the field or less experienced.
You may not think you have much to offer, but to a person lower on the career ladder, you may have more than you think.
Being a personal coach isn’t limited to career development, either. You can also branch out to become a personal life coach. That can include helping people better manage their finances.
There are plenty of online resources to help you become a personal coach. For example, if you want to become a financial coach, you can sign up for Dave Ramsey’s Financial Coach Master Training.
Skills needed: Listening skills, empathy, vision, honesty, and good communication skills.
Earning potential: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics places life coaching in the $33K to $95K salary range.
10. Online Communities (Membership Sites)
This is one of the more advanced moneymaking strategies on this list. Basically, it involves creating a website that will require a paid membership to access.
That can be a tough sell given that there are so many free websites across the World Wide Web. But visitors will pay to join a site that provides highly specialized information. And charging a monthly membership fee is a way to generate a steady cash flow. Meanwhile, you can add other revenue streams from the site, like display ads and product promotions.
If you have highly specialized information or access to sources of it, there’s plenty of potential here. The website SmartBlogger offers 7 Membership Sites that Make $100K+ Per Year. Examples include sites dedicated to growing orchards, business coaching, blogging, weight loss, and other topics.
One popular strategy is to create a free website providing valuable information but setting up a paywall for those who want the really good stuff.
Skills needed: Networking, social media marketing, web development, marketing, topical expertise.
Earning potential: Depending on the industry, your income potential can be anywhere from $1,000 to virtually unlimited income.
11. Podcasting
You can probably think of podcasting as the audio equivalent of blogging. It’s becoming increasingly popular since people will listen to podcasts while driving, working out, and doing other routine tasks.
Podcasts can appear on blogs and even be placed on YouTube. But two of the most popular destinations are Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Much like blogging, you can make money promoting specific products or services through affiliate marketing, sponsorships, selling online courses, and even coaching and consulting.
Skills needed: Speaking and communication skills, audio production, organization, marketing, personal brands, and passion.
Earning potential: Top-earning podcasters can make anywhere between $500 and a couple thousand dollars per episode.
12. YouTube
This is another moneymaking venture I participate in. I started my YouTube channel, Wealth Hacker – Jeff Rose, a few years ago, and already have nearly 400,000 subscribers.
If you’re committed to creating quality content, YouTube can be a steady moneymaker. For some, it’s even turned into a virtual gold mine.
Part of what makes YouTube so interesting is that you can create video topics you’re interested in and where you have at least above-average knowledge. But it also offers multiple ways to generate revenue.
You can use your YouTube channel to promote your business, product, or service you’re selling. That can include online courses, personal coaching, or even promoting your blog or website.
But you can also monetize your channel through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, or Google Adsense. The cool thing about these income sources is that they’re completely passive. Once you have your videos up and running, revenue is coming in 24 hours a day, seven days per week. If you get a bunch of videos up and running, you can really make bank.
If you don’t think you can find success on YouTube, please read my interview with Emily Dihle (formerly Eddington),
Beauty Broadcast’s Emily Eddington: How a Small Town Girl Got 17 Million YouTube Views and 100,000 Raving Subscribers. Emily has been able to build a big-time YouTube channel centered around makeup.
Now, beauty may not be the subject that appeals to you, but Emily’s story gives you an idea of what can be done with YouTube. People are turning all kinds of topics—diet and exercise, finance and investing, beauty, travel, politics, and many more—into successful YouTube channels.
If YouTube is something that interests you, check out my guide, How to Make Money on YouTube.
Skills needed: Excellent voice and communicational skills, video editing skills, networking skills.
Earning potential: High-value YouTube channels make around $3 to $5 per 1,000 views on the platform.
13. Flea Market Flipping
This is an activity I’ve only dabbled in. But I have enough experience to know that there’s some serious money to be made with flea market flipping. Thousands of people are doing it, and you can too.
It’s all about buying salable items for a fraction of what you can sell them for. I even put together an article, Best Items for Garage Sale Flipping for Fun and Profit, listing some of the best items for profitable sales.
A couple I discussed in the article above, Rob and Melissa Stephenson, have become full-time flea market flippers.
They even host their own website, Flea Market Flipper, to help others find success in the venture. If you’re interested in turning this into a serious side hustle—or even a full-time business—they offer several courses to help you get there.
You can make a few hundred dollars a month, a few thousand dollars a month, or—like the Stephenson’s—turn it into a full-time business earning six figures.
Skills needed: An eye for valuable items, networking, some social media knowledge, photography.
Earning potential: Anywhere between a couple hundred dollars to a couple thousand if you’re good at finding invaluable items.
14. Selling Sneakers
Flea market flipping is just one way to play the flipping game. You can even specialize in very specific items to sell. To give you a personal example, and seasoned investors.
And with the recent volatile activity in the stock market, options may be more valuable than ever.
Options give investors two important advantages:
The ability to minimize losses on current stock positions, and
The ability to profit from the purchase or sale of securities you don’t actually own.
Either scenario is possible because while an option gives you the right to buy or sell a security, there is no obligation to do either. You’ll pay a relatively small fee for the option.
If the stock the option applies to performs as you expect, you can exercise the option to either buy or sell the security and realize a nice profit without ever owning the stock.
And if the stock doesn’t perform as hoped, you can simply let the option expire. Your only loss will be the cost of the option itself. That small investment will give you the ability to speculate on different stocks with only a fraction of the investment capital you would need to buy the stocks outright.
You can get a good overview of options trading in my guide, Trading in Options: A Guide for Beginning Investors.
Skills needed: Research, investing knowledge, discipline, patience.
Earning potential: 10% – 50% per trade, depending on your investible assets.
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17. Credit Card Rewards
This is another strategy that may be unlikely to generate $1,000 per month consistently, but it can definitely help you reach that goal in combination with other strategies.
You’ll want to start by choosing among the best cash-back credit cards available. Many of these cards also pay sign-up bonuses, which will pay several hundred dollars if you meet minimum spending requirements within the first three months of having the card.
If you like to travel, you can also choose travel-related credit cards. They’ll enable you to accumulate points toward travel, and even get you free travel deals.
I was able to take my family on a $15,164 all-inclusive resort vacation to the Dominican Republic. If you can do that just once each year, that would be the equivalent of well over $1,000 per month!
Now admittedly, that’s an exceptional deal. But the point is, there are very lucrative travel deals out there to be had with the right credit cards.
Meanwhile, you can earn cashback on everyday purchases using your credit cards. You’re going to spend the money anyway, so why not use your credit card to build up cash rewards and points?
But if you do use this strategy, be sure to pay off your credit card balance in full each month. The purpose here is to get the benefit of the rewards, not to spend yourself into a debt hole you can’t get out.
Skills needed: Buying power – the more you use your credit cards, the more successful you’ll be; willingness to track the credit card rewards market to find the most lucrative offers.
Earning potential: Capped, dependent on how much money you spend and the rewards level provided by your credit card(s).
18. Pay Off Your Student Loans
The statistics on student loans are downright scary. 43.4 million people owe $1.75 trillion, with an average balance of $40,904. The monthly payment on that debt approaches $400.
Debt numbers like that can keep a lot of young people from ever getting out of the starting gate. That’s why it’s so important to pay it off.
But paying off your student loans will also improve your cash flow. If you fit the “average” category, paying off your debt will free up about $400 per month.
What’s more, that will represent a source of income that isn’t taxable. If it were, monthly income would likely be something higher than $500.
There is no magic formula for paying off a big student loan debt. But in How To Payoff Student Loans Faster Than Ever, I spell out nine strategies to get the job done in a lot less time. That’s important because student loan balances don’t seem to drop the longer they are outstanding.
One pay-down strategy is to dedicate income from a side hustle – like the ones I’m presenting in this guide – to paying off your student loan debt. That can erase the debt from your life in a lot less time, without disturbing your regular paycheck.
Skills Needed: Commitment to live beneath your means, and target extra funds into debt reduction. Also requires healthy doses of discipline and patience.
Earning Potential: Determined by the size of your monthly payment (s). The nationwide average is $460 per month.
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19. Amazon FBA
If you’ve been looking for ways to earn additional income, you’ve probably at least heard of Amazon FBA. It’s a way to earn money by piggybacking on the world’s largest home delivery service. Though many use it as a side hustle, more than a few have turned it into a full-time occupation.
You can read our guide, $0 to $1000 a Month with Amazon FBA, written by John Elder. In it, John covers everything you need to know to launch an Amazon FBA channel.
One of the biggest hurdles for would-be Amazon sellers is product selection, and that is a major issue. But John covers that all-important topic in the guide.
“This is where most people go south,” writes John. “The harsh reality is that most fail on Amazon due to improper upfront product research. Most go with their gut or chase seasonal-type items.
The worst is chasing trending items like face masks. Thanks, Covid! Instead of chasing trends, chase evergreen products.
Evergreen products are sold year-round, 365 days a year with no end in sight. Examples of evergreen products include things like Phone chargers, kids’ toys, and office supplies. Those are just a few. The vast majority of what is sold on Amazon is considered ‘evergreen.’”
Skills Needed: The ability to identify the most profitable items to sell, as well as marketing skills, organization, and the ability to manage a network. Having a passion for a specific product or product line is a major advantage.
Earning Potential: Varies, but at least $1,000 per month, according to our guide listed above.
20. Become a Virtual Assistant
There are millions of small businesses, including blogs and websites, that need specific services performed. Since they’re small businesses they may not have the workload or the budget for full-time employees.
That’s why many of these businesses are hiring virtual assistants to handle these tasks.
Virtual assistants are needed for all kinds of jobs, like data entry, proofreading and editing, customer service, bookkeeping, research, and so many more. The work is done entirely online, which means you can work from home and typically on your own schedule.
You can think of being a virtual assistant as having a part-time job, except that it’s done from home. You may be paid either on an hourly basis or by the job.
I share more ideas on becoming a virtual assistant in my post, How to Become a Virtual Assistant.
Skills Needed: Training and experience and commonly needed skills, including administration, accounting and bookkeeping, marketing, communications, customer service, and many other capacities.
Earning Potential: The average hourly pay for virtual assistants nationwide is $21.34. You can earn over $1,000 per month five working roughly 50 hours, or about 12 hours per week.
21. Create an Online Course
I’ve covered various moneymaking strategies in this guide, including YouTube, blogging, and podcasts. If you do any of these, creating an online course is an excellent way to earn extra money using those strategies.
But you can even sell your online course through other people’s blogs, YouTube channels, and podcasts, by paying an affiliate fee for each sale.
I’ve done this myself by creating an online course geared toward financial advisors, to help them build their online presence, so I know this strategy works. The course has earned more than $200,000 since I launched it a few years ago.
That was my online course niche, but the field is wide open. You can create a course based on whatever your expertise is. Usually, the best choices will be those where there’s plenty of competition.
For example, there are a lot of successful online courses for investing, cooking and baking, photography, and even how to create online courses.
There’s a lot more to this strategy than just creating a course and putting it up for sale. If you’d like to learn how to launch an online course, check out my guide, How to Create an Online Course: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Skills Needed: Expertise in the topic area your online courses will focus on; organizational skills, the ability to incorporate outside resources, good presentation skills, and marketing skills. You’ll also need the ability to develop an affiliate market to expand sales. It may also require an investment of several hundred or several thousand dollars to create the course.
Earning Potential: With the average price of $137 for an online course, you can make over $1,000 per month by selling just eight each month. After that, the sky’s the limit!
22. Create a Digital Product
This strategy covers a lot of ground, including some already listed in this guide, like online courses and e-books. But those are just two of the potential products to consider.
A digital product is any product you can create that is both marketed and sold online. That includes how-to guides, music, videos, audiobooks, art, photography, video games, and—if you have the skill—computer software.
This is another income source that has strong potential to become passive income. Once you create and market your digital product, sales—and money—will come in with not much more effort on your part.
There’s a big advantage if you already have a blog or YouTube channel to market your digital products. But even if you don’t, you can market through other people’s blogs and YouTube channels through an affiliate arrangement.
And if you find success with one product, you can create others. As you expand your marketing reach to many different blogs and YouTube channels, this is one strategy with serious potential to scale up.
Skills Needed: Expertise in the topic area that will be the subject of your digital product. Presentation skills, marketing, search engine optimization, and networking.
Earning Potential: Potentially unlimited, especially if you can develop a successful affiliate marketing campaign.
23. Become a Freelancer in Your Area of Expertise
I spent a good bit of time covering freelance writing in #2 above, but the freelance concept could really be applied to just about any skill you have.
Other skills include:
web design
social media manager
data analyst
graphic designer
photographer
video editor
SEO consultant
interior designer
digital marketer
You can take a skill you are using in your job and sell your services as a freelancer. But it may also be possible to provide an unrelated service where you have expertise.
One of the benefits of freelancing with anything is flexibility. Though it can start out as a side hustle, it has real potential to turn into your primary occupation. It all depends on how far you want to take it.
The website Upwork has an excellent article on how to market your freelance service, 6 Effective Ways to Market Your Freelance Business. And, not coincidentally, Upwork is also a well-recognized platform where you can market your services to potential clients.
Skills Needed: Training, experience, and certifications in any common trade or skill. Ability to market your services, meet deadlines, and troubleshoot problems are essential. Must also be willing to advance your skills settling and successfully adjust to changes within the field.
Earning Potential: Easily over $1,000 per month if you have the needed skills, available time, and a willingness to put in the effort. More highly skilled individuals can earn much more.
24. Tutoring
Of course, this is a perfect site helpful for teachers. But don’t rule it out if you aren’t a teacher. Nearly anyone with a specific skill can be a tutor, either for students or for adults looking to up their career skills.
If you want to provide tutoring to students, you can market your services through local schools and colleges. Depending on the subject, tutors can earn between $25 and $50 per hour.
You can choose to tutor in-person, one-on-one, or provide virtual lessons. In-person tutoring will be limited to your geographic location. But if you go the virtual route, your market can be national, or even global.
As is the case with just about anything you want to do these days, there are web platforms to help tutors. Two examples are Wyzant and TutorMe. Each is an online platform that matches students with tutors in specific subjects.
While academic subjects, like math, science, history, and test preparation, are always in demand, you can also offer tutoring in professional skills, like computer science, engineering, professional disciplines, and, if you have the skill, a foreign language.
Skills Needed: A degree and certification in teaching is helpful. But a major in any common subject, particularly math or science, combined with above-average command of the subject matter are more important. Other skills include patience, positivity, empathy, ability to listen and communicate, and good time management skills.
Earning Potential: Varies by hourly rate and number of hours worked per month. $500 to $1000 working 20 hours per month.
25. Teach English as a Second Language
Speaking of foreign languages, it’s also possible to make extra money teaching English as a second language. Not only are there a large number of recent immigrants to the U.S. who are looking to learn the language, but it may also be possible to teach English to students in foreign countries.
English, after all, is practically the global language of both business and the Internet. Millions of people in other countries are looking to master the language as a way of improving their business skills.
Like tutoring, you can market your skills locally through area school districts. But if you want to tutor international students, there’s a website called SayABC that can make it happen.
You’ll need to be certified in teaching English as a second language, but they have a ready market for potential students. They currently pay $17 per 40-minute tutoring session.
The big advantage with SayABC is that the lessons are provided virtually. That means you can work from home and decide exactly how much time you want to commit.
Skills needed: Overall grammar, linguistics, and written English language education, communication skills, presentation skills, classroom management.
Earning potential: Salaries may range from $14 to $25 an hour, depending on location and other factors.
26. Sign Up to Be an Amateur Sports Referee
If you’ve ever been to a sporting event for school-age kids, you’re aware there are always referees. In many cases, those referees are being paid for those games.
That takes in both school-related sports and local recreation leagues, like Little League baseball. Referees can earn between $25 and $50 per hour and there are often no certifications required.
You can usually qualify if you are knowledgeable about a sport, especially if you currently play or have played in that sport in the past.
This is a real thing. I knew a high school-age girl who was making about $40 per hour refereeing recreation soccer for kids under 14. Her only qualification was that she played soccer when she was under 14 herself.
Another guy I met a few years ago was making over $1,000 a week refereeing high school football and baseball games during a time of extended unemployment.
I have a feeling his unemployment lasted quite a bit longer because he was enjoying the work and the lack of stress that comes with a “real job”!
Skills needed: Teamwork, stamina, decision-making, reflexes, sports rules knowledge, communication, conflict resolution.
Earning potential: Anywhere between $25 to $500 per game, depending on the specific sport and participant age level (recreation league, high school sports, college sports).
27. Become a Handyman
Do you have a knack for being able to fix things around the house? If you do, you can turn that into a steady second income. Don’t underestimate what the potential is here.
As millions of people have moved into professional, managerial, and technical positions, they no longer have the time or expertise to perform routine home repairs. And contractors can be expensive!
There was a guy in my former neighborhood, an IT professional by trade, who started doing home repairs around the neighborhood. Roland was mostly doing odd jobs for people he knew. But as word got around about his skills, he was soon getting calls from people he didn’t know.
In time, he became the neighborhood handyman. And from there, he expanded his services into three or four neighborhoods. He earned enough from his handyman work that he was able to quit his IT job, which he didn’t much care for.
Just from the endless supply of word-of-mouth referrals he got from that handful of neighborhoods, he didn’t even need to advertise. In fact, he turned away calls from people who didn’t live in those neighborhoods.
You don’t have to become a full-time, self-employed handyman as Roland did. But if you know how to perform routine repairs, you may be able to generate a nice second income just helping people in your neighborhood.
Skills needed: Plumbing, carpentry, electrical work; fixtures, maintenance, masonry, concrete, repair work
Earning potential: Part-time and full-time handymen make between $24K to $60K a year, respectively.
28. Rent Out Storage Space in Your Home
In #8 I covered real estate income. This one’s a variation on the same theme. If you’re already a homeowner, but you have no interest in buying a rental property, you may be able to generate income from unused space in your home.
Let’s say you have extra space in your garage, an empty shed on your property, or even attic space. You may be able to earn several thousand dollars per year renting out the space to someone who is looking for storage.
If you do have garage space, you may be able to collect the rental for the storage of an additional vehicle.
There’s even a web platform called Neighbor that will help with the process. You can list your available space on the platform, entertain requests from potential renters, then schedule prices and terms.
It can be the perfect way to generate a passive income from your home, effectively monetizing space you aren’t using anyway.
Skills needed: Networking, time management, resource management, real estate property.
Earning potential: Dependent on how much rentable space you own and have available.
29. Offer Your Artistic Talent on GigSalad
Do you have an artistic talent you’ve been looking to put to good use? There’s a website called GigSalad where you can list your services for hire. The platform provides everything you need to book gigs, including getting leads, sending quotes, and even collecting payments for your services.
Don’t underestimate your potential here. Many thousands of businesses and individuals are looking for specific talent for one-time or short-term gigs. They have a long list of artistic skills on the platform.
Examples include singers, solo musicians, bands and groups, actors, speakers, characters for children’s parties, acrobats, and comedians. But there’s also a need for hairstylists and makeup artists, bartenders, caterers and wait staff for special occasions, entertainment for outdoor parties, and of course, photographers and videographers.
Skills needed: Photography, music, handcrafting, home repair, home improvement, etc.
Earning potential: Dependent on your marketable skills and ability to perform multiple gigs. Some gigs pay more than others.
30. Flipping Websites
You’re probably familiar with house flipping, or even business flipping, where people buy houses or businesses, improve them, then sell them for big profits. Well, the flipping concept is extended to just about everything, including websites.
The market here is huge. There are literally millions of websites, and some of them are up for sale. That can include websites that are no longer active, and the owner wants to sell. Each represents an opportunity to buy a live website that you can build up and sell for a nice profit.
And much like trading stocks, this is the kind of business you can do as a side hustle, and on a regular basis. There are plenty of websites available to keep you going. It could be the perfect side hustle if you have a specific topic niche you can blog about, then upgrade the site, its traffic, and revenue.
I wrote about how Larry Ludwig sold his site for $6 million in #3. This is a similar principle except you’re doing it on a much lower level. It’s possible to buy active websites for just a few thousand dollars, or even a few hundred. With an additional investment of just a few hundred dollars, you may be able to build up the site and sell it for several thousand dollars.
Where can you find websites to buy—and later sell?
It turns out website flipping is now a well-developed industry. Web platforms like Flippa and Empire Flippers can be used to both find and purchase new websites, and to sell sites when you’re ready.
Skills needed: Web development, design, content marketing/creation, social media marketing, networking.
Earning potential: Unlimited.
31. Buying Websites to Generate Passive Income
There’s one other way to play website flipping, and that’s to buy sites that generate passive income. I have a website, Life Insurance By Jeff, where I earn several thousand dollars per month with only a few hours of work each week.
Now I didn’t buy that site; I built it from the ground up. The revenue model is a little bit different from most websites because the income is generated by selling leads from the site to insurance agents.
But you can use the same principle in buying existing websites in your favorite niches, building them up, then getting the benefit of the almost passive income they generate.
For example, you can typically buy a website for about twice the annual revenue it generates. With an investment of $6,000, you can purchase a website that produces $3,000 per year in annual income. That works out to be $250 per month. Buy four sites, and you’ll be looking at $1,000 per month.
You may have to do some work to upgrade the sites when you buy them, and then periodically add content to keep them fresh and active. But if you can get up and running, it can create additional revenue streams using web topics that interest you.
Skills needed: Resourcefulness, buying power, web development, content marketing, eye for detail.
Earning potential: Unlimited.
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32. Create and Sell Crafts on Etsy
Etsy is practically a cliché when it comes to making extra money, and it’s a legitimate one at that.
If you have skills in creating crafts, it can be the perfect way to sell them to a global audience, rather than limiting yourself to local craft shops or flea markets.
Emma Healy has an excellent guide on what to sell on Etsy, 30 Things to Sell on Etsy To Make Money (2022 Guide), over at Mums Money. There are plenty of online resources to help you start and grow your own sales channel on Etsy.
If you have a talent for creating items, this is a good way to monetize that skill by doing something you enjoy.
Skills needed: Photography, social media marketing, textiles, woodcraft, papercraft, jewelry, pottery, and more.
Earning potential: Dependent on your ability to manage time effectively, market your products, and establish a following.
33. Get a Part-time Job – The Rates Have Gone Up!
This may sound too obvious—and conventional. But the pay for part-time work has increased dramatically in just the last couple of years with the Great Resignation.
With the current labor shortage, it’s hard to find an operation anywhere that doesn’t have a “help wanted” sign. Restaurants, grocery stores, retailers—you name it, they all need people.
Even though the federal minimum wage still sits at a ridiculously low $7.25 per hour, most employers are paying a lot more. It isn’t hard to find a part-time job paying $15 an hour or more, especially if you bring specific skills and experience to the job. And on top of the higher pay, some employers are even paying sign-on bonuses.
It’s true enough that at $7.25 per hour you’d have to work about 138 hours per month (or 31.75 hours per week) to earn $1,000. That’s practically a second full-time job!
But at $15 per hour, you only need to work 67 hours per month—or a little over 15 hours per week—to clear $1,000. Actually, you don’t even need to do that.
By working just 10 hours per week, which may be just a couple of shifts, you can make about $650 per month, and earn the additional $350 using one of the other strategies above.
Think of it as a hybrid strategy to make an extra $1,000 per month.
Skills needed: Soft skills, spare time, adaptability, honesty, resourcefulness, punctuality.
Earning potential: $350 – $1,000 per month.
Bottom Line on Making $1,000 Monthly Fast
For every person that claims that making an extra $1,000 per month is not possible, there is someone else out there willing to experiment and test out new ideas.
My hope in publishing this article is to demonstrate several ideas that I, or someone else, have personally achieved success with generating extra monthly income.
The key is reprogramming your mindset to believe you have the skills and capabilities to generate an extra 1,000 dollars on the side. Chances are the $1,000 idea won’t work – and that’s okay!
Chalk it up to a learning lesson and move on to the next idea until you find one that works. Repeat this process and I’m confident you’ll be making MUCH more than $12,000 per year.
In fact, I believe you’ll be on the fast track to achieving financial freedom. It’s time to get to work!
About the Author
Jeff Rose, CFP® is a Certified Financial Planner™, founder of Good Financial Cents, and author of the personal finance book Soldier of Finance. Jeff is an Iraqi combat veteran and served 9 years in the Army National Guard. His work is regularly featured in Forbes, Business Insider, Inc.com and Entrepreneur.
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