Wondering how to make money without a real job and need money now? Well, by “real” job, I'm talking about your classic snooze fest 9 to 5 desk job. I dread boring desk jobs so I wanted to learn how to earn an income without a real job. You can really replace your day-to-day with more flexible side gigs and these side hustle ideas.
Ways to Make Money Without a Job
Whether you just want to make $20 an hour or find a job that allows you to work from home, here are real ways people are making money without a typical job.
1. Let Nielsen learn about your internet usage.
Have you heard of Nielsen before? They track TV ratings (Nielsen Ratings) and they now want to track how popular apps and online videos are.
They do this by measuring normal activity on user's cell phones and collecting it anonymously.
This company has been around since 1923 and has created a unique app that pays $50 per year just for installing it.
It's simple, non-invasive, and doesn't slow down your device or lower your battery life. So, if you want to install the app and collect $50, you can learn more here.
2. Start a podcast.
Go get a microphone and you're ready to give it a go.
If you can build an audience for your podcast, then you can make some money through sponsorships, affiliate advertising, and other offerings.
Companies regularly pay $250 to $500 for a 30-second advertisement on podcasts. Pssst… We also have a guide for guide to starting your podcast and how to profit.
There is money to be made with this side hustle idea.
3. Start a YouTube channel.
Let's face it, YouTubing is in. If you have ever considered creating a YouTube Channel in order to make money then listen up. A YouTuber will earn commissions based on ad impressions coming from their videos.
Imagine if your video gets 1,000 views and out of these views, 150 viewers completed watching the ad. That means you have 150 paid views. 150 multiplied to $.18 equal $27 which will be charged to the advertiser. And, since you’ll get a commission of 68%, you’ll get $18 for every 1,000 views.
Overall, how much you’ll actually earn will depend on various factors including the location and demographics of your traffic source, niche of your video, type of ads displayed on your video, audience retention or whether or not the viewers have watched your videos till the end and the number of your channel subscribers among others.
It's worth creating a channel if you think you can build an audience and the risk is low… only sacrificing your time.
Another way to earn money with no job is through Airbnb. This company is fast revolutionizing the holiday and travel accommodation industry, and you’re set to profit from it!
It is an online marketplace for people with space, rooms, or even entire houses to spare, Airbnb lets you list your place for rent just like a hotel or motel.
Maybe you’re traveling overseas yourself and want to make the most of your empty place while you’re away? Perhaps you have a spare room that currently houses nothing more than empty boxes?
With Airbnb, you can turn to fill that empty space in your home, and fill that empty spot in your wallet with more than a little spare change. If you wanted to learn more you can see everything you need to know in this Airbnb hosting guide.
5. Take online paid surveys.
Taking online surveys to make extra money is a no-brainer!
You definitely won’t get rich or make hundreds of dollars per day with survey alone, but you won’t waste much time, and you can make some money the easy way. Here is my favorite (and highest paying) survey site:
Survey Junkie is a free survey app for your phone that pays you to take online surveys, participate in focus groups, and try new products.
And, I really mean free all around – free to join and they don’t charge anything to be a member (they will actually pay you in cash via PayPal).
You can get a free registration bonus for free when you join through this link.
6. Get paid with a top rewards site.
Swagbucks is another great survey site to make some extra money in your free time.
As a new member, you can earn up to $35 per survey.
They are known for giving out fun, top-paying surveys. And you can also get paid to play games and watch TV!
It’s similar to Survey Junkie, but there are also a few other ways you can earn money as a member (including a $10 bonus just for signing up).
Other ways you can make money with Swagbucks outside of surveys:
- Cash back program for online shopping (Includes $10 bonus).
- Get paid for searching the web (Includes $10 bonus)
- Watching videos (Includes $10 bonus)
Swagbucks is conveniently offering a $10 bonus just for signing up through this link, so act fast.
7. Make money investing in real estate.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could invest in commercial real estate and apartments without dealing with all the hassle of buying, improving, and re-selling real estate?
You don’t have to be a millionaire to invest in these types of properties. You can now invest in large-scale real estate for as little as $10 with Fundrise.
Through their real estate investment products, investors earned an average of 8 – 11 percent on their money last year, and all without painting a wall or dealing with unruly tenants.
There is a reason why they currently have over 200,000+ users, this app really pays you!
If you’re interested, I recommend you sign up for more information from Fundrise by clicking here.
8. Make money selling your used items.
Have an old laptop, used textbooks, old clothes, or even used DVDs lying around?
It's not much of a secret that you can easily get money for those items you have stored in the closet, attic or basement that are just collecting dust.
List those items on selling apps or Facebook selling groups and get rid of your junk for cold hard cash near you.
9. Start a blog to make money while you sleep.
If you are looking for ways to make extra money online then you probably already know about blogging. But do you have one yet?
And do you really know how much potential there is to make money with blogging?
The best part? Starting a blog is easy. You can get the initial setup done in under 20 minutes with this blogging guide.
10. Get paid to play games
We all heard the old saying “time is money” right?
Instead of playing games on your phone like everyone else and feeling bad for wasting your time — now you can get paid for it.
Getting paid for playing games sounds like a dream. But if you download a free new app, and then download games from it and play, you earn money.
As you level up you can earn more money for cash rewards or gift cards.
This is a great opportunity for those looking to get paid for something they enjoy, like winning free gift cards and cash for playing games. I use it and it is legit and has over 35,404 positive reviews in the Google Play store.
If you’re interested, I recommend you download the app from the Google Play store for free by clicking here.
Discover games you'll love, and earn rewards for playing. Over $15 million given away to date to gamers who love to earn free gift cards.
11. Import and resell overseas products.
Oberlo allows you to easily import products from AliExpress directly into your Shopify store and ship directly to your customers – in only a few clicks.
It's very simple to open a shop on Shopify and drop ship items in order to create a business without too much risk.
You can literally start and set up a dropshipping business without any type of product in one afternoon with minimal risk as Shopify has a 14-day free trial and Oberlo is completely free.
12. Get free money from this company.
Looking for how to make extra money on the side with short task sites?
Then you should learn about Branded Surveys. Branded Surveys is a secure, reliable and free survey site for anyone who wants to earn money online. Branded asks for information about you so that they can match you with fitting surveys.
At up to $50 a pop for some surveys and a free $2 just for signing up, it pays to check in daily to see which ones are available to you.
They've already paid out $6,955,991+ to members. You can get access to hundreds of paid surveys at Branded. Cashouts are through PayPal.
13. Earn residual income leaving shows playing on your phone.
All you need to do is watch videos. Given how easy it is to lose yourself in a never-ending cycle of YouTube videos, this one couldn’t be easier. The catch here?
The videos include ads. While they may annoy you while browsing YouTube, you also don’t get paid to watch them. At InboxDollars, you do.
Who wouldn’t watch an ad or two if they were getting paid? You can just leave this playing on your phone and collect money, this is referred to as phone farming.
14. Join sites that give you free money to invest in stocks.
Yup, it’s true! There are several companies out there that will give you free money to invest in stocks.
Robinhood is a free investing app for your phone. I really mean free all around – free to join and they don’t charge any fees to buy or sell the stock.
You can get a share of stock like Apple, Ford, or Sprint for free when you join through this link.
The value of the free share may be anywhere between $2.50 and $500 and fluctuates based on market movements. You’ve got nothing to lose.
15. Earn cash for scanning receipts with your phone.
This is one of the easiest side hustles there is (this list has a lot of them). The app you should know about is Ibotta.
This cell phone app is available for iOS or Android phones, helps you make money off your grocery receipts.
You use it after you go grocery shopping and use your receipt. It’s basically a rebate app, so you can earn anywhere from 50 cents to $5 off everything you buy.
It's not brand specific either, you can scan any brand of cheese for 50 cents off, for example. If you do regularly coupon, you can still use the app and get a rebate.
You can essentially get grocery items for free if you're really into couponing. It's free and all you have to do is scan your receipt and you'll get free money back.
The best part, sign up here and you will receive a $10 cash bonus.
16. Teach English online from your computer.
Still wondering, how to make extra money from home? Well, have you considered teaching English online (pick your own hours too)?
All that is required is that you are fluent in English, have a bachelor's degree, and have some tutoring experience.
You can see some more detailed VIPKID requirements here.
This a great way to earn money from home and already 30,000+ use VIPKID to teach English from home.
You'll make $12-$22 an hour, and Forbes ranked this company #1 on it's 2017 “Top 100 Places Work From Home Companies” Since this is a legitimate way to make extra money, the application process pretty detailed.
With an opportunity to make $650 a month, just from one hour out of your day, may be worth looking it. You can learn more about teaching English online on VIPKID's website.
17. Rent out your car to strangers and earn passive income.
Did you know that you can make money advertising on your car or even rent out your car when you're not using it? And that you can bring in a lot of extra cash in your wallet by doing so?
Do you plan on heading on a vacation soon while your car sits unused at your home? Do you sometimes not use your car on the weekends?
If so, renting out your car while you're not using it could be an easy way to make passive income. A well-known company, Turo, which has signed up nearly 5 million users to its website, according to Bloomberg, lets you do just that.
It's also really simple to do (and free). Listing your car is quick and easy and takes less than 10 minutes to set up.
According to a recent Turo review, somebody listed their car for 5 days every month and made $3,496 in a year.
Sounds pretty good to me. Oh, and they also protect your car against physical damage, so you're fully covered.
18. Proofread documents from home to make money.
You can make some extra money this weekend by becoming a proofreader. The need for proofreading is growing exponentially.
And how much does a proofreader make? A proofreader named, Caitlin Pyle, does it on the side and made $43,000 last year.
She’s great and started her own proofreading online course for beginners. The only requirement is that you’re pretty skilled with grammar.
If you are, then you can really make some big bucks.
Have no idea how to get started? All you need are your grammar skills, a computer, and an Internet connection.
19. Teaching courses online.
If you can market or identify yourself as a developer, designer, or online marketer, then chances are you can teach a course to others and get paid.
You can test this side hustle by heading on to Udemy or Skillshare, where you can market your skills.
As you build your brand and become more successful, I would recommend teaching for higher-visibility online platforms like CreativeLive.
22. Sell your old phone online.
Do you have an old phone lying around? I know most of my friends and family do. They don't really care to try and sell them or are too busy.
Not me, I usually upgrade my phone once every two years and sell my old one online. I try not to wait too long after upgrading to sell the old phone because as each year passes, the fair market value of the phone, are losing value.
They lose value and can be sold for less as the technology becomes obsolete. Your best bet is to sell it immediately. You can try listing them on eBay or Craigslist, but this can prove to be quite a hassle. Y
You can easily sell it on Decluttr for cash. This is the easiest way to sell it quickly.
Another option is to bring your old phone to Best Buy, Walmart, or your wireless provider, to see what kind of trade-in value they will give you toward a new phone.
20. Earn money with Bitcoin.
Bitcoin is now trading within 30k and 40k. If you wanted to try something this volatile, it’s at your own risk but only put up money you are willing to lose. TheTopCoins offers a positive outlook where BTC could end at more than $100,000 next year.
The risk is high, but the reward is high too. If you wanted to get in on the action, you can do it with the Coinbase app, which is one of the best places to buy Bitcoin. If you sign up through this link and invest $100 then Coinbase will deposit $10 in your account – that’s 10% right there!
Only invest what you can afford to lose.
21. Become a freelancer and sell your services.
Fiverr is one of the best sites in the world. The basic premise is “what would you do for $5?” You’ll find everything from hilariously weird and useless gags to legitimate and genuinely helpful micro-business tasks.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting as a seller on Fiverr, and have found it a pretty successful avenue for selling website optimization services, article writing, and proofreading services.
Fiverr can work for you as both a seller and a buyer. It is a great way to make money and also you can find millions of services. The best $5 I've ever spent was using a Resume Revision service and now I receive way more employer callbacks now after the revisions. If you want to know which service I used, leave a comment below. If you want to try Fiverr, sign up through here for 20% off your first order at Fiverr.
22. Publish an eBook and earn residual income.
Are you a good writer? You could write an eBook on your topic of choice and sell it on Amazon, Payhip, Lulu, Smashwords, Kobo Writing Life, PubIt! and many other websites that start you out in your side hustle as a published eBook author.
23. Become a driver for a ride-sharing app.
If you’re free nights and weekends, you can earn extra cash driving your fellow citizens around. You can earn money by driving with Uber – if you have a car, it’s a perfect way to make a good amount of extra cash whenever it’s convenient for you.
A lot of people do this full time, so you can imagine that’s it definitely possible to do this on the side and make extra money and be able to save it. Once you’re a driver you can choose to turn the app on or off and drive whenever you have some time to spare.
They also have a feature that allows you to select your destination, so if you are leaving work (or any other long commute), you could pick up a ride that was going in the same direction. You can do this 2-4 times a week on your commute and can easily make $400 fast each month and save it all.
Another ride-sharing option that’s available to you is Lyft. Uber seems to be more globally known, however, if you’re in the United States you probably have heard about Lyft. It’s basically the same as Uber, but some argue that you make more as a Lyft driver.
24. Sell your old electronics online.
Do you have old textbooks from college lying around? You should consider selling them on Amazon. In addition to textbooks, you can probably sell old books, DVDs, cell phones, or other electronics you may have lying around. You would be surprised how much you can get for your unwanted items.
That’s right, you can sell products on the Amazon platform and gain access to the millions of Amazon customers that shop the site each day.
Amazon allows anyone with a Seller Central account to list and sell products – in fact, approximately half of all products selling on Amazon are from third-party sellers, not from Amazon itself.
In 2018 alone, third-party sellers accounted for $42.75 billion (yes a B) in revenue. Want your piece of that pie?
28. Submit claims for open class action lawsuits.
If you use a product that’s involved in a class-action lawsuit, a little online legwork could get you a cash payout.
The rules of each settlement are different, but in most cases, you’ll have to provide proof of purchase or product use, like a serial number or a receipt.
Once you fill out your online claim form, you may have to wait a few weeks or months before receiving your payment. You can easily make $800 every year doing this.
25. Flip items on eBay to rake in the dough.
Sell your unwanted items around your household on eBay is a good way to declutter and earn side income.
I've been using eBay for about 7 years now, and it is very straighforward to sell things around your home that you no longer use or find items that you can purchase for cheap and then flip them on eBay for a profit.
26. Join a delivery and errand service.
With all of the on-demand apps out there today this one is an easy one. All you need to have is a car or bike, in most cases.
Apps like DoorDash, Instacart, and Postmates are easy to sign up for and start making money. There are always people that are looking for a ride or looking to get something delivered.
27. Become a coach or consultant.
Becoming an online coach or consultant for others is becoming more valuable as are in the information age.
If you are very savvy at social media or are a fitness expert then selling your time and hopping on a Skype call or Google hangouts is a great hustle.
You don't even have to start your own website at first, you can list your services on Fiverr.
28. Start a resume writing company online.
What is one thing that every college student will need towards the end of their college career? A kick-ass resume. Resumes are difficult for many people to write. They are, however, very easy once you know how to write a great one.
Spend some time learning how to write a great resume.
There are a ton of great resources online from very reputable sites. I went from having no clue how to write a resume to be awesome at it. How do I know I was awesome at it?
Every human resource or hiring manager that saw my resume commented on it. They asked how a college student with no experience could have such a great resume.
Learning to write a resume is not difficult, it just takes a little bit of time to learn. Once you learn it then you can repeat the same process for each individual resume your write. Then you can start charging for your Resume & Cover Letter writing services on Fiverr.
29. Advertise on your car and earn passive money.
This is some seriously passive income. Companies such as Carvertise will pay to put a wrap on your car, and then pay you to simply drive you regular routes with the advertisements on your car.
You can get the right to say “no” to a particular ad you're uncomfortable with the content of the ad. Most companies pay you between $100-$400 a month to advertise on your car.
Not too bad.
30. Become an affiliate marketer and earn passively.
If you already have a blog or website you probably have heard about affiliate marketing. You can make money by referring website your visitors and readers to buy products online and earn a small commission on each sale.
This can make you rich, as some bloggers make over $5,000 monthly just through affiliate marketing.
31. Download passive income apps that really pay.
You’re not going to get rich by downloading mobile apps that pay you, but you can use these to earn a passive income every month. Money making apps can be a simple way to pad your bank account in your free time.
You probably know these apps aren’t my favorite way to make extra money, but I make an exception for it when you’re just hanging out — e.g. watching T.V., riding the metro, during your break at work, or in the back of an Uber.
Might as well click a few buttons and make some money while you’re at it.
Here is our list of the best money making apps if you wanted to give them a shot.
Final Words
This wraps up our list of ways to make money without a job. As you can see there a lot of different ideas for you to start earning money as soon as today. To scale it up, just keep adding new money making opportunities to your side hustle arsenal.
Obviously, gig economy apps will pay the most but only enough to help you pay the rent. If you really want to make a living by working from home you'll need to consider legitimate work from home jobs. Or you can take up a bunch of side hustle ideas and treat your gigs as a business.
Working for yourself brings a lot of responsibility, and you'll need to stay self-directed, passionate, and hustle hard. But it's possible.
Self-employed can mean anything from running your own brick-and-mortar business to picking up contract gigs as a side hustle. No matter where you fall on that spectrum, it’s wise to keep your business finances separate from your personal affairs using one of the best banks for freelancers.
