Making some extra money is always nice. No, actually, making extra money, is great! As everyone knows, right now the economy is struggling big time and people are hurting from all kinds of financial pressures. Unemployment, rising prices, wage cuts, tax hikes, and benefit cuts are all hitting people's wallets right now. Thinking about ways to make extra money and then executing on your ideas, can help people stay afloat during some rough times. Even if you haven't been hurt by the recession, making extra money can help you to meat financial goals and maybe get ahead a little quicker than you would have.
27 Great Ideas To Make Extra Money!
1. Shovel Driveways - This is a no brainer right now with all of the snow some places are getting. Put up some flyers around town or put a classified ad on Craigslist or the local newspaper to get the word out. If you own or have access to a good snow blower you may even be able to turn this idea into a seasonal business to make extra money every winter.
2. Mow Lawns - Similar to idea #1, but still worth mentioning as a way to earn extra money in the summer. Also could be another seasonal business idea too.
3. Do Topical Research for People Who Don't Have The Time - Those who are fast and diligent at doing high quality, accurate research could benefit from this money making idea. It Could be a valuable service to students, small business owners, bloggers, writers, and others. Just put an ad out on Craigslist or other classifieds, specifying the topics you will research and how much you charge, to see if there is any interest.
4. Sell Your Plasma - Look for places around your area that offer extra money for your plasma if you aren't too squeamish.
5. Tutor High School or College Students - If you have expertise or higher education in areas like science, math, history, or economics you could offer to tutor students for extra money.
6. Iron People's Clothes - Many people are too busy to keep up with daily chores like ironing their dress shirts. You could offer to come pick up, iron, and bring back people's clothes to make some extra money. Also don't forget, that you should be able to deduct any mileage and gas expenses on your taxes, but consult with a qualified tax advisor first.
7. Clean Houses - If you don't mind rolling up your sleeves and doing dirty work, cleaning houses in your spare time can be a lucrative way to make extra money.
8. Teach A Second Language - Even if you only know English there is still an opportunity to make extra money teaching those who don't speak it. If you do know a foreign language like Chinese or Spanish, then you probably have even greater odds to bring in some extra cash.
9. Cut Hair In Your Home - If you know how to cut hair well enough to not make people scream when you're done then you might think about out pricing your local salons and barbers by providing cheaper cuts in your basement or living room. Of course most states require a license to cut hair, but the probability of getting caught is likely to be low enough to risk any fines in order to make some extra money.
10. Write Cover Letters and Resumes For Jobseekers - With the horrendous job market there is sure to be demand for this service as jobseekers need to get their names out to as many prospective employers as possible. Plus if the economy bounces back there will always be people looking to change jobs.
11. Do Ghost Writing Assignments - This may be perfect for some of the really strong writers on Hubpages. Ghost writing can be done for blogs, magazine columns, or school assignments. Craigslist or both on and offline networking could help you to get ghost writing gigs, but sites like guru.com and elance.com can also help you to start taking on projects.
12. Do People's Grocery Shopping - You could charge a fee to go out and get peoples grocery's for them. It could even be possible to make even more money by proposing to save your customers as much money as you can when you do their shopping through coupons and shopping sales, if you get a cut of the savings.
13. Sell Your Hair - I have read that human hair can sell for hundreds of dollars or even thousands if long and nice enough. Though that type of pricing would most likely be at the high end. . It also has to be virgin (never colored or permed) and more than 10 inches long. You can sell it at Ebay or there is a site called hairwork.com that you can place $20.00 add on for 3 months to try and sell your hair. The Online Hair Affair also looks like a viable option for selling hair.
14. Sign Up For A Paid Clinical Trial - Companies like Quintiles frequently run studies testing different drugs and pharmaceutical products out before they go to market. Here is their clinical research information page. There is also a site called CenterWatch.com that can direct you towards a clinical trial.
15. Run Errands For People - Busy people may have all kinds of daily errands that they would love to pay someone to take care of for them. If your flexible enough and have enough room in your schedule this may be the way for you to make some extra money.
16. Enter A Viral Video Contest And Win! - Bloggers, websites, corporations, and other types of sponsors offer up viral video contests every so often. For example James Altucher recently held this one on his blog ending Feb. 1, 2011 were $1,000 was up for grabs.
17. Set Up A Car Wash - You could place a classified ad locally and have people schedule appointments at your house or you could also try to pitch a local business in your area to use their parking lot space to hold an all day car wash.
18. Contract to Clean Office Buildings - Network with local business owners to find possible side work tidying up and cleaning office buildings. This could probably bring in as much as $100-$200 extra per month just from fairly easy weekend work.
19. Make Meals For Specific Diet Plans - If you are good at preparing and cooking foods and are able to do so, while meeting certain ingredient and health criteria for those that require a specific diet, this could be a great way to make extra money. You could make and prepare the meals at your own home or show up at your customer's home and cook them.
20. Watch And Care For Pets (Pet Sitting) - Animal lovers can make money on the side by checking in on pets while their owners are away. All they have to do is show up every day and fill up their food and water bowls, clean up after them, and probably take them outside. Those not comfortable with big animals could specify a size limit or only care for small animals like rodents, reptiles, fish, or maybe snakes if they don't find them to scary.
21. Dress Up Like It's Halloween When What is UpViral? It's Not - Standing outside of some retail store UpViral Bonus with an obnoxious outfit may not be the most glamorous thing you could do, but If you can make some extra money why not. Plus no one will actually know it's you!
22. Make A Fool Of Yourself In Public - In my hub about getting free books and free cable TV I mentioned how billionaire, Alki David reportedly paid a man $ 1 million to streak in front of President Obama with the name of his website plastered on his chest. My father had a friend who streaked through a wedding for a lot less. For those who won't allow public embarrassment to stand in the way of making some extra money, there are all kinds of humiliating dares that your friends and enemy's alike would surely pay to see. Of course if you do something that could get you arrested, like streaking, be sure the financial reward is great enough to more than cover fines and court costs.
23. Rent Out A Room - Renting out a room in your house can bring in an extra $200-$600 or even more a month, depending on how nice the house is and what area you live in. Of course you would want to put all of the living arrangements in paper and review the landlord laws that apply to your state.
24. Rent Out Storage Space - Do you have extra storage space that's not being used for anything? Maybe your home has lots of room in the attic or basement that could be monetized. Or maybe the business you own has parking lot space and visibility that people trying to sell boats or cars would be willing to pay to utilize. Again you would want to document everything and do some research on how to protect yourself legally, but this could be a nice way to make some extra money.
25. Make Bets That You Already Know The Answer To - This one is kind of a mean way to make some extra cash, but I bring it up mainly because of a personal anecdote that I remembered while starting to write this hub. One of my parent's friends used to make bets like this with his daughter. She was a know it all teenager at the time and thought she had all the answers. Her and her dad would get into arguments about trivia and she would be so convinced that she was right that she would put money on it. He of course would make sure to check the facts out and then bet. He ended up winning his daughter's allowance back more times than I can remember. So If you have a lot of no it all acquaintances who are willing to put their money where their mouth is, you can make extra cash and teach them a lesson.
26. Fiverr.com: Make $5 Per Task - Basically Fiverr is a site that allows people to propose simple tasks that they will do for $5. Or people can make requests that they are willing to pay $5 for. Tasks can include making short 2 or 3 minute videos, writing a birthday card to someone's loved one, building a basic website, etc. It's not a lot, but if you can find something quick & easy that you are good at and can do over and over again, then you can make some easy extra money.
27. Maybe Just Ask? - Of course everyone is familiar with panhandling, so yes people can get money just by asking. What about using the internet? Say for example, could a site like Youtube be used as a way to simply ask and receive money? Well it was recently reported that a Brooklyn comedian named Craig Rowin had successfully become a millionaire by simply asking through You Tube. Check out his video below.
