Interesting ways to make money from home

April 21, 2022

By Kim Komando

The pandemic has generated a rise in remote work. As people return to the office, there are plenty of ways to earn extra money on the side.

Do you have older devices collecting dust? Check your drawers and closets and make a list because your old gadgets could earn you Amazon credit or a discount on future purchases. Tap or click here for Kim’s tips on making money with your old tech.

There are countless ways to make money from home. The following list will help you get started.

Mystery shopper

A mystery shopper is paid to shop and collect information. As a second source of income, an individual can make an extra $5,000 to $10,000 per year working as a part-time secret shopper. There’s usually a flat fee and reimbursement for your purchases.

BestMark is one of the largest mystery shopping companies, with 600,000 shoppers. Go to bestmark.com for more information.

Pet sit at your home

Pet sitters can earn an average of $25 to $30 per day. Rover.com offers opportunities for pet sitting, boarding, dog walking and more. You can set your schedule and prices for pet sitting with Rover.

Dog Walker

A recent story in The Hustle highlighted an NYC dog walker named Ryan Stewart, who makes $100,000 a year. According to Indeed, the average earnings for dog walkers in the U.S. are $16.48 per hour.

Wag! offers walking services in addition to sitting, boarding and more. Set your schedule and easily connect with clients through the app. Check out more at wagwalking.com.

Online jury member

You may try to avoid jury duty, but you can earn $20 to $60 per case as an online juror. Each court case reviewed will typically take 20-60 minutes to complete, and you’ll get paid more depending on how complex and lengthy the case is.

Online Verdict is one site you can check out. Fill in some basic demographic information, then wait for an email regarding an eligible case. There are no right or wrong answers. Learn more at onlineverdict.com.

Doing easy tasks

Amazon Mechanical Turk (or MTurk) is a freelance gig service owned and operated by Amazon. Here, you can get paid to do simple tasks that a robot can’t do, such as taking surveys or labeling data. You can set your hours and pick whichever jobs you want.

Warning: pay can be as low as $1 per hour, but you can be in the $15 per hour range if you do it right. Find out more at mturk.com.

Tap or click here to see how one of Kim’s guests made $10,000 in a year with his MTurk side gig.

Transcribe audio

Hourly rates for audio transcription vary depending on the hours you work and how much you transcribe per hour. The average earning is $10 to $36 per hour. One site that seems to pay better rates is Rev, with $18 to $66 per hour.

Rev.com requires higher-quality submissions, and you can try again if you aren’t approved.

Testing Products

UserTesting lets you earn money by testing products and sites. You can make $10 for each 20-minute video and up to $120 for an interview. You’ll have to pass a screening based on your profile and demographics for each available test and interview. If your answers match the requirements, you’ll become a tester.

Find out more at usertesting.com.

Wrap your car

Companies are willing to pay drivers to advertise their services on their vehicles. Think of it as transforming your car into a rolling billboard. You can expect to earn roughly $100 to $450 per month, depending on how much you drive and how big an ad you put on your vehicle.

Check out carvertise.com and wrapify.com for more information.

Sell your friendship

You can make money by being an excellent companion to singles looking for potential dates, families, businesses, travelers, the elderly, the disabled and more.

RentAFriend claims that some friends make over $2,000 a week working full time, though presumably, they live in a large city to sell that much friendship.

The company says others make $300 to $500 working only on weekends. A sample rate chart at rentafriend.com/beafriend shows what you could earn by charging between $20 and $50 per hour.

Rent out your pool

You can rent out your pool when you’re not using it and earn extra cash. This works best in areas offering longer warm-weather seasons.

Swimply lets you list your pool for rental. Just provide a few photos and a short description and set your price. Renting out your pool in Phoenix, for example, can earn you $15 to $100 per hour. Learn more at swimply.com.

Sell your hair

Human hair is a hot commodity for nice wigs. If you have thick, healthy, virgin hair (not dyed or permed) 10 inches or longer, you can make some good money. Red hair is usually worth more due to its rarity.

Beauty Mag has a calculator that can give you an idea of how much you can get for your hair. Check it out at beautymag.com/hair-price-calculator.

Not worth it: Sending in your receipts

You can scan your receipts and earn points, which you can spend or cash in for money. Your scanned receipts must contain the following four pieces of information:

• Store name.
• List of items purchased, along with their individual prices.
• Transaction total.
• Transaction date.

Receipt Hog, Ibotta and Fetch Rewards are among the popular apps. You earn points or coins in exchange for cash, credits or rewards.

Let’s use Receipt Hog’s coin system as an example. Say you spend $200 per week and earn only coin receipts. You would make 40 coins per week, assuming you spend $100 twice in a given week. This means it would take you 25 weeks (half a year) to reach the 1,000 coin minimum, which will net you a whopping $5.

Not worth it: Online surveys

Swagbucks is one of the most popular sites to earn money by completing online surveys. The company says that it pays users between 5 cents and $2.50 per survey and sometimes as much as $25 to $35, though those are rare opportunities.

With Inbox Dollars, most surveys range from 50 cents to $5 and take up to 25 minutes to complete. Some online surveys pay $10, $20 or more if you match the demographic profile they are looking for.

Are you an aspiring shutterbug? Tap or click here to learn how to make money selling photos.