10 Ways to Earn More Money

I’m a big promoter of frugal lifestyles. However, depending on your situation, saving more money may not be enough to dig out of your financial hell. Sometimes you save everywhere you can and you still have debts to pay and mouths to feed.

Or maybe you have big goals for your financial freedom and your day job just won’t get you there within the timeframe you desire. When you still need or want to bring in more money, here are some ideas.

1. Pick up a second or third job. I started this in high school (grocery store clerk and funeral home worker). I kept the habit going through college (factory janitor, shipping warehouse and dock worker, and retail clerk). I continued after college (day job plus video rental store clerk and tax preparer). I also married someone with the same work ethic I had. We both worked extra hours. I guess we still do. Our work is different now. Her job as wife, mom and homemaker is a 24/7 gig. And she takes it seriously. She is always studying how to do better. Reading magazines, Pinterest, books to make the house even more of a home, how to save more money, how to prepare new recipes, events for family time and kid time. My extra hours are spent more on studying and expanding my knowledge and skills. Writing and learning everything I can about finance, business and personal development.

2. Freelance your skills. Websites like 99Designs, Fiverr and Upwork make finding extra work online super simple. Seriously, check out fiverr.com just to see what kinds of things you can make a buck at. From graphic design to accounting you can find work from your bedroom while sitting in your jammies.

3. Mow lawns, babysit, clean houses and offices on Saturdays. If you think freelance jobs are only online these days, guess again. Think about going old school for your extra income. People gladly pay for reliable hands-on services like the ones I mentioned as well as mechanical or handyman services.

4. Sell things on Ebay, Amazon and Etsy. I know a single mom who raised her two kids by finding bargains at local auctions, yard sales and retail closeout sales then selling her finds on Ebay. My brother buys used books at thrift stores and yard sales then sells them on Amazon. My wife’s friend makes purses and sells them on Etsy. This type of business can grow into something a lot bigger if you find a product that you can keep selling. Once you have the listing prepared and have figured out the packaging and shipping process the hard part is done. For example my friend has expanded his insulation sales to Amazon. He packaged the insulation into different consumer uses like garage door kits. The listings stay the same and he just ships out the orders that come in each day. Tens of thousands of found money for his business.

5. Use your local consignment shop to recycle clothes, toys and household goods. Not only are you helping the environment by not throwing your used items into the landfill, you will make a few bucks. Actually, we consistently earn over $100 every three months from things we drop off at consignment shops. Those quarterly checks add up. We’ve recouped thousands of dollars over the years. Since Becky buys a lot of our stuff at yard sales to begin with, sometimes we actually make more money than we spent!

6. Make/create items to sell. Baked goods, canned foods, crafts and furniture are only a few examples. One of Becky’s close friends has a screenprinting machine in her basement. She makes super cool, unique designs and prints them on tshirts, cutting boards—almost anything. She also uses her machine to print tshirts for local sports teams and other groups. It’s an excellent source of income. My dad and brother make flyfishing rods. I know some people who make beautiful furniture in their spare time. Also, as 3D printers become higher quality and lower cost more and more possibilities are available for an imaginative person to make money with his/her creations.

7. Ask your employer if you can take on a couple sales accounts for a percentage of sales. I’ve done this before. I met some wonderful people. I also found that sales isn’t so scary. And I learned some new skills. Oh, and I made more money! Selling is a skill that you can use to enhance any of these suggestions. You’ll find it to be a valuable life skill. We use selling tactics consciously or unconsciously in our conversations every day. We are trying to persuade nonstop. Might as well get good at it and make extra money.

8. Information marketing—teach a skill. There are many, many online ways to do this. You can teach through blogs, books, videos and podcasts then sell a course on your own website, Udemy or even a live event. Don’t discount running some physical workshops in your hometown. Outline the lesson plans for teaching and for worksheets. Visualize or storyboard the teaching session then go for it. Record the workshop. If it goes well, sell the recording and workbook as a course online. If the session didn’t go well, learn from the recording, make improvements and run another workshop.

9. Upload videos to Youtube. If you’re an aspiring movie maker, you were born at the perfect time in history. Not only has there never been an easier time to record, edit and share videos, there are now more ways to monetize your craft. Youtube will actually pay per view on your videos. If you sign up, they’ll put an ad at the beginning of your videos and pay you every time someone sees the ad. You can also use your videos to send traffic to your website to build a list of people interested in your art or teaching. You can sell directly to your list if you have merchandise. My son watches a lot of gamers. They demonstrate playing various video games. Because they build a following to their Youtube channels they get paid nicely to sit at home and play video games all day. Some have even built enough relationship with their subscribers that they can sell merchandise. Check out stampylonghead on youtube. Other people demo products which they happen to sell on their websites. By providing entertaining or practical (ideally both) demonstrations for products, they get the sale instead of WalMart.

10. Book some gigs. I know a few people who play music gigs on the weekends. They love music. Whether they perform in a band or solo, they would be playing or singing anyway. Might as well get paid to entertain. This is one where you can combine several of the above. #6 create a product(cd, downloads, merchandise), #4 sell your music and merchandise on iTunes, Amazon, ebay, etc., #11 Youtube is a great place for musicians (see Justin Bieber).

I can keep going. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Depending on your skills and timeframe, maybe none of these possibilities work for you. By using this list as a prompt to come up with your own ideas, you will find dozens of options. We live in an amazing time. Many income sources don’t even require leaving the house.

What suggestions do you have to earn more money?