Many people, especially college students and young professionals, want to save money in their everyday lives. What better way to do that than by earning some extra income from home? It makes no difference if you already have a full-time income and are open to working just a few hours a week, or if you can commit to more work and are completely up to your own schedule.
What are the only two things you really need for making money online? Internet access and, of course, a device that allows you to go online.
In this guide, we’ll introduce you to 30 fun, yet absolutely realistic ways to make money from home – suitable for any level of prior experience in the field you pick. Whether it’s freelance writing, online tutoring, uploading images to stock photo sites, building a passive income, or even starting your own eCommerce store:
Get inspired and choose exactly what’s right for you!
Can you make money online?
The Internet offers countless opportunities, and if you invest a little time and effort, you can earn money from home in a variety of ways.
- For example, you can build up extra income to improve your financial situation next to your full-time job.
- Perhaps, over time, your online earnings will even develop into a larger source of income that you can make a living from.
After all, as the Internet becomes more and more important, you can definitely earn money from online activities.
What are realistic ways to make extra money from home?
There are often more or less serious ads on the Internet about how fast and easy it is to make money from home. However, if a promise like “Earn $1000 a day” sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You should be aware that making money from home also involves work and effort.
Only with ambition, motivation and patience you can build something online and earn money with it.
Some ideas to get you started:
- ✍️ Publish your own blog and monetize it.
- 👗 Rent out your clothes online.
- 📚 Teach online lessons.
- 🧑💻 Earn cash with data entry.
- 📦 Launch a dropshipping business.
- 🧑💼 Become a virtual assistant.
- 📱 Manage social media accounts.
- 👕 Open an online store.
- 🤓 Take part in online surveys.
- 👩🏫 Offer online tutoring.
- 👩🎨 Create online courses.
- 💲 Construct sales funnels.
- 👨💼 Work for online retailers.
- 💵 Get paid for doing online tasks.
What are the benefits of making money from home?
The Internet is filled with possibilities! This means that there is guaranteed to be an option for everyone.
You don’t have to be a programming geek or a computer scientist to do this. If you’re somewhat interested and willing to invest the necessary time, there’s bound to be a suitable option. Even if you currently prefer to grow crops on your balcony and have no idea how to take this online.
More advantages:
- Determine the amount of work yourself.
Whether you work two, five or twenty hours a week on your online business is entirely up to you. This means you can adapt the work very well to your personal situation.
- Flexibility of time and place.
You are not bound to a fixed location and usually not to strict hours. It doesn’t matter where you work from: All you need is a laptop and stable Internet access.
- Combine different ways to make money from home.
You definitely don’t have to limit yourself to just one job! If you have enough time and the necessary skills, there is no reason why you can’t combine different alternatives.
List of ways to make money from your own home
These are some of the top ways to make money from home:
1. Answer questions for online surveys
Paid surveys allow you to earn more money from home without much effort. Simply register on various portals, receive the surveys by e-mail, and then you can already start earning extra money with just a few clicks.
What are the requirements?
You don’t need any special qualifications to participate in online surveys. However, you may not be eligible for some surveys, as companies usually tailor their products to a specific target group.
How much can you earn?
How much money you make from surveys depends largely on how much time you invest. Depending on how much time you put in, surveys pay varying amounts. For some you will receive $1, for others $20.
2. Manage local businesses’ social media accounts
So many businesses, especially small business owners, need help with managing their social media profiles. Many prefer to hire someone to do this for a few hours a week rather than a full-time employee.
Tip: Many of these business owners rely on word-of-mouth referrals. So it may be wise to look for referrals from businesses you’ve already done some work for.
What are the prerequisites?
Ideally, you are already very familiar with social media sites.
Tip: Pick one or two that you want to specialize in and decide on specific industries. Then approach different businesses in your area that you think you can help the most.
How much can you earn?
Start out by charging about $25 to $35 per hour.
3. Open an online store
Would you like to become a business owner and sell, for example, T-shirts of your own brand online? Many people nowadays prefer shopping online and spending money from the comfort of their homes. That is why eCommerce is very popular at the moment and therefore it is actually quite easy to sell clothes online.
What are the requirements?
In an online store, you can sell just about anything from your own home. Not sure what to put up for sale? Assessing market demand is a good starting point for finding popular things you can make and sell online. The next steps are to choose a sales platform, name your online store, and design your website.
How much can you earn?
There is no exact answer to that. You might make less than $50 per month from your products, but you may also be able to make money on a large scale and earn more than $1000 – in as little as a week!
4. Create online courses
Do you have a particularly high level of expertise in a specific field? Maybe you’re exceptionally good at cooking, using Excel, or speaking French. Then make your own online course and sell access to it. You can then teach the participants everything via video – live or recorded.
What are the prerequisites?
You should be an outright expert in your field. This means that you should be knowledgeable enough that others can learn something from you. Once you find that area, it’s important that you also know how best to convey the knowledge.
Tip: Especially with recorded online courses, your explanations should be particularly comprehensible.
How much can you earn?
Your earnings depend on how many participants you can win for your online course and at what price you offer it. The topic also plays an important role. You can charge more for particularly popular or complex subjects. Thus, a lesson can cost $10, but it can also amount to $150.
5. Provide online tutoring
Would you like to teach online? Tutoring is one of the most popular part-time jobs, especially for students. There are several video chat programs that allow you to easily tutor online. You can also make good use of materials by sharing your screen, for example. Sending assignments is not a problem either.
Tip: Use real-life examples, hands-on exercises, and engaging graphics whenever possible.
What are the requirements?
To be able to tutor, you should have a very good command of one or more subjects. It is also important that you are good at passing on your knowledge to others. For online tutoring, you need a laptop and stable internet access. The same goes for your student.
How much can you earn?
In principle, you can decide for yourself how much you want to earn per hour. Are you still studying or do you already have a permanent job? Then an hourly rate of $20 or more is reasonable.
6. Become a virtual assistant
A great way to earn money full-time from home is to work as a virtual assistant. As the name suggests, virtual assistants support companies (e.g., online businesses) or private individuals with specific tasks, like making phone calls. Communication takes place entirely online. There are many areas where a virtual assistant is needed, from appointment coordination to accounting.
What qualifications should you have?
You need a laptop and stable internet access. Then you can basically start working straight away. For some jobs, however, you should already have prior knowledge, for example in accounting.
Tip: Always make sure you meet the requirements for the job.
How much can you earn?
You may set your own hourly rate. It mostly depends on the exact job. For jobs where you are a professional and can score with your experience, you can definitely charge $20 or more per hour for your work.
7. Start a dropshipping business
In dropshipping, you are the “middleman” (or woman) between a manufacturer and the customer. The big advantage is that you don’t have to take care of the actual physical products or their shipping. You simply put together the online offer and the manufacturer takes care of the rest. The customer purchases the product through your website, and once the payment is made, the company delivers it directly to their doorstep.
What are the requirements?
The easiest way to get started with dropshipping is to create your own website. You can then import your product listings into various eCommerce websites and work with a variety of sellers.
Tip: There are some providers on the Internet that have built-in tools specifically for online stores, e.g., for payment collection.
How much can you earn?
How to make money from this? By selling the products to your customers at a higher price than the shipping company charges you. Dropshippers make up to 30% profit from each sale and can earn between $200 and $3000 per month.
8. Sell your images on stock photo sites
Do you love shooting pictures? Then you can turn your hobby into cash. Stock photo platforms allow you to make this possible. You can upload your own photos there and others can download them for a fee.
What are the requirements?
You don’t need professional equipment for your photos. In most cases, a cell phone with a good camera is sufficient for high-quality images. However, you should have an eye for good motifs and creative ideas. After all, you want customers to choose your photos from all the other pictures on offer.
How much can you earn?
When your photos are downloaded, you usually only get a dime. To earn more money here, you should offer as many photos as possible with different themes.
9. Do freelance writing
As a writer, you can easily make money from home. Many freelance writers work for companies or website owners and write texts for their products.
What qualifications do you need?
In order to make money from writing, your texts should meet the requirements of your clients. In any case, you should have a good knowledge of punctuation and spelling. If you are writing for a specific client, you should also be able to adapt your writing style to the product in question and find original descriptions.
Tip: If you already have an online portfolio, this can help you a lot with your job search.
How much can you earn?
Many freelance writers are paid per word written. The price per word can vary depending on the client and the quality of your text. Most of the time, the hourly rate is between $35 and $50.
10. Launch a blog
Do you have a great passion for a certain topic and want to share this with others? Then you can launch your own blog, write posts and build an audience to start earning a passive income. A blog can be monetized in many ways through advertising or paid posts. However, you should be aware that a successful blog involves a lot of work – and it will take some time before you can generate significant revenue. Don’t let this scare you from starting your own business. If you persevere and maintain your blog, it can be a lucrative way to make money from home.
What are the requirements?
You should be able to write well and captivatingly, and of course you should be very knowledgeable about your topic. Also, it makes sense to cover a niche subject.
How much can you earn?
Established bloggers who use strong monetization strategies often earn more than $3,500 a month and can make a full-time income. However, in the beginning, you should aim for $100 to $500 per month.
11. Make data entry your side gig
Can you type quickly and are you able to enter data accurately? There are actually many companies looking for data entry professionals who work from home. For example, your tasks could include logging data into spreadsheets or processing invoices.
What are the requirements?
For this job, you should have an excellent attention to detail and the ability to perform repetitive tasks with a high degree of accuracy at all times. Data entry also requires you to work independently with minimal supervision. You should therefore have good time management skills and be very conscientious as well.
How much can you earn?
Hourly wages for data entry jobs range from $14 to $30.
12. Advertise your room on a vacation rental website
If you offer your room or apartment on a vacation rental website, you can earn an easy income from home. Make sure that the room is always very clean, and do not forget to include the cost of utilities in the rental price.
What are the requirements?
There are no special requirements, and services like Airbnb also provide you with all the tools you need to get bookings.
How much can you earn?
Your income will depend a lot on where you live. If you live in a bigger city near many tourist spots, you can earn more money.
13. Run a virtual bookkeeping business
Do you have an affinity for spreadsheets and prefer working from home without direct client contact? Then virtual accounting could be just what you need to earn a steady income without leaving home.
What qualifications do you need?
Accounting is a very competitive profession. Therefore, the surest way to enter this industry is to invest in a very good qualification course if you are not already trained in this field.
How much can you earn?
As a virtual bookkeeper with little experience, you can charge around $60 per hour and increase your hourly rate up to $100 per hour over time. The more clients, experience and skills you gain, the more you can earn.
14. Test websites
A website should not only look appealing, but also be easy and intuitive to use. Before a site goes online, it is therefore tested in advance, not only by the developers, but often also by independent testers who are supposed to represent normal users with no prior knowledge. Their task is to use the website, try out various functions and report what they liked, where there were difficulties and what may not have worked at all.
What requirements do you have to meet?
Most companies have no special requirements for website testers! Of course, you should have a computer and a stable internet connection.
How much can you earn?
Often you will be paid around $10 per test, occasionally there is an opportunity to earn more. The good thing is that a website testing session usually only takes up to 20 minutes, and you can test as many sites as you want every day.
15. Become a pet sitter
If you have your own house or plenty of space, it can be a fun and rewarding idea to run a dog daycare business. This way you can easily make money from home. If you have a backyard, all the better! Then you don’t even have to walk the dogs.
What requirements are there?
If you want to succeed as a pet sitter and build a real business, it’s best to invest in some marketing, commercial insurance, proper record keeping, and maybe even legal services to reduce liability.
How much can you earn?
Earnings depend entirely on how many clients you have and how much time you invest in pet sitting, so they can range from $100 to $1000 per month.
16. Sell services
Browse a little on the Internet or explore our job search portal, and you will see: There are countless websites where you can offer your services on a contract or project basis. Services in demand include graphic design, website design or even video creation. Translation services are also in high demand. So if you speak a foreign language very well, you can offer that as well.
What requirements are there?
Since there are plenty of ways to make money from home this way, we can’t list specific requirements here. However, ideally you should already be an expert in your craft and be able to sell your service confidently.
How much can you earn?
For example, as a professional translator you can earn several thousand dollars per month and make a full-time income by providing this service. However, there may be other services where you earn much less or even more!
17. Offer consulting services
Have you ever thought about becoming a consultant? This is something you absolutely can do from the comfort of your own home! If you’re particularly knowledgeable in a certain area (like how to build a successful business or in social media management), you’re guaranteed to find people or companies online who will pay you to give them advice.
What requirements do you have to meet?
Of course, you have to have a certain level of expertise before others will pay you for your counsel. One way to show people online how much knowledge you have to offer is to start your own blog. You can also use social media to spread your content. Once you’ve gained a few customers, you can quickly grow your business through word of mouth.
How much can you earn?
Entry-level consultants often charge $30 to $80 per hour. Professional business consultants take between $100 and $350 per hour.
Have you ever thought about becoming a consultant? This is something you absolutely can do from the comfort of your own home! If you’re particularly knowledgeable in a certain area (like how to build a successful business or in social media management), you’re guaranteed to find people or companies online who will pay you to give them advice.
What requirements do you have to meet?
Of course, you have to have a certain level of expertise before others will pay you for your counsel. One way to show people online how much knowledge you have to offer is to start your own blog. You can also use social media to spread your content. Once you’ve gained a few customers, you can quickly grow your business through word of mouth.
How much can you earn?
Entry-level consultants often charge $30 to $80 per hour. Professional business consultants take between $100 and $350 per hour.
Have you ever thought about becoming a consultant? This is something you absolutely can do from the comfort of your own home! If you’re particularly knowledgeable in a certain area (like how to build a successful business or in social media management), you’re guaranteed to find people or companies online who will pay you to give them advice.
What requirements do you have to meet?
Of course, you have to have a certain level of expertise before others will pay you for your counsel. One way to show people online how much knowledge you have to offer is to start your own blog. You can also use social media to spread your content. Once you’ve gained a few customers, you can quickly grow your business through word of mouth.
How much can you earn?
Entry-level consultants often charge $30 to $80 per hour. Professional business consultants take between $100 and $350 per hour.
18. Turn into a pro gamer
With a passion for computer games, you can also earn really good money from home as a professional gamer. This is because e-sports are becoming increasingly popular and there are currently many competitions that offer attractive prize money.
What requirements do you have to meet?
You should be really good at at least one computer game. And preferably better than everyone else. And just like real sports, e-sports is all about practice. It’s also about constantly improving yourself. You should try to draw attention to yourself online, for example, by regularly streaming live and showing off your skills. That way, you have a chance of agencies taking notice and signing you.
How much can you earn?
As a beginner in the field of professional gamers, you can initially participate in smaller tournaments, for example. If you are good enough to make it to an official team, you can expect to earn around $1,000 to $5,000 per month.
19. Build an online community and make money with it
Platforms like YouTube can still earn you good money with some skill and creativity. The good thing is that you don’t have to become a star in the scene with your YouTube videos. With just a few subscribers and clicks, you can already add to your bank account.
What qualifications should you have?
To make money in an online community, you need extremely good content. So think about what topics you want to cover on your channel in advance, what you’re good at, and what your audience wants. You should also make sure that you stand out from the competition and offer something special. It’s important to get as many people as possible to share your videos. The bigger your community is, the more money you can make.
How much can you earn?
The number of clicks is crucial for the amount of income you can earn in an online community. To make the job really worthwhile, you need to produce a lot of videos that are viewed very often. That’s why many YouTubers also use another way to earn money: Product placements. They present new products in their videos and are paid for it by the manufacturer.
20. Become an influencer
It’s not only on platforms like YouTube that you can earn money with. You can use practically any social media site. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Facebook, Instagram or TikTok. As an influencer, you inspire a large community with your content. Companies also seek to take advantage of this and therefore spend a lot of money on marketing via influencers. The whole thing works not only via the company’s products, as with product placements on YouTube, but goes far beyond that. For example, companies sometimes launch entire campaigns with influencers and incorporate them into their advertising.
What requirements should you bring along?
Similar to YouTube, your content as an influencer must be compelling. You are turning yourself into a brand. Therefore, you should think about what you want to stand for in advance.
How much can you earn?
Again, it depends on your community. The more followers you have, the more money you can earn. Finally, as your popularity increases, so do your chances of being booked by companies for their influencer marketing. If you are successful as an influencer, you can earn several thousand dollars per month.
21. Begin a reselling business
Do you want to earn cash quickly? Then you should gather unused items in your home (clothes or even furniture and electronics) and sell them. If you enjoy this, you can also open your own resale business. Unlike a dropshipping business, you will have to build and maintain an inventory of goods, but in principle you can also make higher profits.
What requirements are there?
There are no special requirements, but we have a few tips for you: you can first try out different platforms to find the most suitable one for yourself. Also, always make sure to take high-quality photos and describe the items accurately so that buyers know exactly what they are getting and don’t return the items because they don’t match the description.
How much can you earn?
You want to do the job part-time? Typically, you can earn between $500 and $1,500 per month as an experienced reseller and thus make money from home easily.
22. Launch an Amazon FBA Business
Another way to make money from home is to simply clean out your closet! With a photo and a description, you can easily upload your old things to various online marketplaces and offer them for sale. If you want to save yourself the logistics, Amazon offers the possibility to store, pack and also ship the products. The service is called Amazon FBA. Once you upload your sale ads to Amazon, you can select this option and send them to Amazon.
What requirements are there?
Negotiation skills are often an advantage in this case. You should be confident in your approach to selling and be convinced of your products. This way, you can negotiate the best price for everything.
How much can you earn?
How much money you end up making depends on how many and what kind of items you put up for sale. In general, there are no limits. With high-quality clothes, furniture or game sales, you can earn a few hundred dollars, even if it’s at a discounted price.
23. Try affiliate marketing
You can use your social media channels or your blog to make money from home. All you have to do is promote different products. This is called affiliate marketing. You link products or stores that match your content. You can do this on Instagram, Facebook or on your own blog. With the help of a tracking code, the company can see how many users have clicked on the link. You then get paid for each click.
What requirements do you have to meet?
A large community is a huge advantage here. The more people subscribed to your channel or read your blog, the more likely companies are to offer you these money-making opportunities. You’ll also earn more if your link is clicked on frequently.
How much can you earn?
How much money you get per click varies from company to company. Therefore, it is difficult to give a flat amount. However, one thing is for sure: The more people you can get to click on the link and buy the product or book a deal, the more you will earn.
24. Offer programming or web design
The workplace of programmers and web designers is mainly the Internet. In this profession you create websites, know programming languages and are an expert when it comes to software. You can offer your skills (similar to virtual assistants) on various websites and thus be found by organizations or individuals.
What qualifications should you have?
As a programmer or web designer, you need expertise. You should either have a degree or at least a lot of experience in programming and building websites.
How much can you earn?
Experienced programmers usually charge an hourly wage of $80 to $200.
25. Become a product tester
Why not try to be a product tester? You can simply register on online platforms and accept orders for product tests. There are many categories to choose from, as numerous large companies (from drugstores to delivery services) are always looking for new testers for their products.
Plus: Your reviews will not only benefit your wallet, but also help companies improve their products.
What qualifications do you need?
You don’t need any special qualifications to work as a product tester. What is important is that you work reliably and really test the products for the prescribed criteria. This is the only way that companies can utilize your test.
How much can you earn?
Usually, you will be paid individually for each product test. The exact amount can vary greatly, because there are tests that are very time-consuming and others for which you do not have to invest so much time. If you’re lucky, some platforms offer up to $200 per job. Often there is even some free stuff on top!
26. Sell your handicraft
How about turning your creativity into cash by selling your own creations online? The good thing is that nowadays you don’t have to offer your goods at flea markets every weekend to be successful as a do-it-yourselfer.
What are the requirements?
Are you still thinking about what you could make and sell? First, figure out what you can craft well. After that, research the market for such items and find out what is best suited. Other than that, all you need is a stable internet connection, a good camera, and some initial capital.
How much can you earn?
Although it may be hard to make a living from a craft business, it could be a nice extra income and earn you up to $1000 a month.
27. Cultivate and sell your own produce
If you have a vegetable garden, you may be able to grow and sell your own produce. Perhaps you even own a large piece of land with fruit trees. You can either sell the produce yourself or pay a company to harvest it for you.
What are the requirements?
You should be very dedicated and able to take on hard work like picking fruit and packing it all up.
How much can you earn?
Selling fruits and vegetables may not be the easiest or most profitable way to make money from home. Unless you have a particular specialty that allows you to charge a larger amount for a particular product that people would only pay a fraction of the price for in the supermarket.
28. Test computer games
Did you know that you can earn money from computer games by testing them? However, being a game tester is not just about gaming around a bit. Your job is to look for bugs. Are there any mistakes in the game? Are the instructions unclear? Job postings for this kind of side gig are usually available online directly from the game manufacturers.
What requirements should you bring with you?
You should be familiar with computer games. It’s not so much about knowing a lot about a particular game. Rather, testing computer games requires a certain affinity in this field. You should play games frequently and know what matters. It is also important that you are very careful in your analysis and can concentrate well.
How much can you earn?
The pay varies depending on the game manufacturer. Most of the time you get paid per hour, between $14 and $30. Sometimes you get extra money if you find bugs in the game.
29. Invest in stocks and funds
If you want to build a long-term passive income from home, you should look into stocks and index funds. Passive income is money you earn without working for it. The good thing is that you can start with as little as $50 per month, which you invest with a provider of your choice.
What are the requirements?
To invest in stocks and index funds, you usually need a securities account. For beginners, opening an account through a robo-advisor is often a viable option.
How much can you earn?
The average return of the stock market is up to 10% per year, which is much more profitable than a basic bank account or even bonds.
30. Try bitcoin trading
There are quite a few ways to invest your money from home. In addition to the stock business, there is also the option of trading with cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin in particular has gained popularity in recent years.
What are the requirements?
Before you start trading with Bitcoin, you should research it thoroughly. So first of all, inform yourself about how Bitcoin has developed in the past few months or weeks, what options are available when investing and how exactly the currency actually works.
How much can you earn?
When it comes to making money with Bitcoins, pretty much anything is possible. Investors who made investments at the very beginning may have seen their value increase a thousandfold by now. It’s definitely a great way to get your money working for you. However, you can also lose all your money in cryptocurrencies. So you should be aware of the risk.
Conclusion
If you want to make money from home, you should consider how much time you can invest and how you envision making money. Do you want to work in an active way, for example as a copywriter, or do you prefer to generate profit in a passive way, e.g., with Bitcoins?
You should choose the methods that best fit your life and personal aspirations.
Always remember that “fast” money rarely works. With most things, you need some lead time first or have to do extensive research. Especially when it comes to part-time jobs, you won’t get the big bucks straight away.
Tip: If you need cash as soon as possible, online surveys might be well suited for you.
Hopefully, in our guide on how to make money from home, you’ve found the perfect options for you personally to earn extra money or even make a full-time income out of it.
If you want to learn more about this topic, you should read our articles about the best remote jobs, the best part-time jobs or the best remote part-time jobs for students!
FAQ: Make money from home
Simple ways to make money: Babysitting, data entry, taking care of pets, freelancing (e.g., as a content writer), or simply participating in online surveys to make money from home.
Do you want to earn a lot of money from your own home? In that case, sell online. Starting your own eCommerce business is one of the best ways to make money on a larger scale.
Making a few hundred dollars a day sounds perfect for you? Your best chance to do that is as a content writer or social media manager. You can also sell a digital product, such as an online course, to earn $100 a day from home.
Online tutoring sounds too boring for you? As a teenager, you can make money from home as a vlogger or Instagram influencer. You could also participate in online surveys to earn some quick cash.
No, as a course creator, for example, you don’t need your own site, and even if you want to start an online store, there are platforms that offer pretty much everything you need without having to create your own website from scratch.
