11 Ways To Make Money Beyond Your 9-5

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Maybe your job doesn’t pay you enough to meet your monthly expenses, or maybe you just want to make more to be able to splurge a little, or start a savings account. Whatever your reasons, here are some things you can do beyond your 9-5 job to bring in a little extra money. The best thing is, they take less time than a second job, and you can dabble with different ones from the comfort of your couch.

1. Write.

Start a blog and monetize it, which means you’ll show ads on your posts and sidebars. You can build and launch your website easily for just $1.99 a month with iPage. Open yourself up to accept products for reviews. Once you get a good following, more companies will approach you for reviews, which often include payment along with the free trial product. You might also find that other bloggers will pay you to spotlight their content, or pay you a monthly fee to feature their links on your page. You can also write articles for various online sites. Check out contributors’ information on your favorite news sites and see what’s required and how much they pay.

2. Copyedit.

If you’re gifted with good grammar, advertise yourself as a copyeditor. Many sites and businesses need another pair of eyes to look over their press releases, articles, and ads before they put them out there.

3. Tutor.

Are you really good at a certain subject? Sign up at Tutor.com and get paid to help people online. Your computer has to meet certain specifications, and you have to take a placement test, but after that, you can keep your mind sharp and help others while you’re in your pjs.

4. Sell stock photos.

You don’t have to be an amazing photographer to sell your photos online — though of course it helps. The better and broader your portfolio, the more money you’ll make. But businesses need stock photos, and those snaps you have on your phone and hard drive might bring you in a bit extra each month. Check out sites like Shutterstock, Getty Images, and SmugMug.

5. Manage social media.

Let’s face it, everyone’s on social media these days: your friends, your families, and businesses ranging from local to worldwide. Sometimes these businesses don’t have enough staff to have a specific social media manager, so they freelance out those duties. If you’re great at writing catchy Facebook posts and have a large Twitter following, check out helping businesses with their social media — it’s fun and easy.

6. Get paid to tweet.

You don’t have to be a social media manager to make money on Twitter. Sponsored Tweets pays good money for you to promote a company or product to your large following.

7. Complete surveys.

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service lets you log in to complete surveys and write short product descriptions for companies. The more work you complete, the more you can get paid. Sites like Swagbucks and MyPoints give you gift cards to take surveys.

8. Register for Fiverr.

Depending on what you offer to do, you might not make a ton of cash, but Fiverr is a fun site where you can offer to do silly things like make prank phone calls, create a theme song for someone, or even pretend to be someone’s significant other on Facebook! There are some serious gigs on there too, but every once in a while it’s refreshing to do something fun for money.

9. Sell your old clothes.

List clothes you don’t want anymore on eBay. Items sell best if you offer free shipping and leave them up for 30 days or offer a Buy It Now option, as opposed to the traditional auction-style bidding. If your clothes are in excellent condition, you can sell them via thredUP. The company pays for the cost of shipping so you just send your clothes in and they sell them for you. If you have pricey items, you get paid once they sell, but if your stuff is under $60, you get paid immediately.

10. Get money back for shopping.

When you shop online, use Drop and earn money for what you’d be buying normally. You also get a welcome bonus when you sign up. Use Shopkick for all the shopping trips you leave your house for, like grocery stores, drug stores, and mall shops. The app will scan the barcodes of your purchases and reward you with kicks, you’ll be able to redeem these kicks for free gift cards.

11. Participate in medical studies.

Ok, you have to leave the couch for this one, but it’s great if you have a flexible schedule, or find a study that can accommodate you outside of your work hours. Some studies look for specific genders, race, or health conditions, but overall if you’re healthy, you’ll find something you can do. You might even find a study that will help you out, like one focusing on antidepressants you need, but your insurance doesn’t cover. You can also donate blood to help out local hospitals. Check out your state requirements and see what condition you need to be in to donate — some states have policies about recent tattoos and piercings.