How to Make Money – 17 Simple, Unconventional Ways to Earn Extra Income

If you’re interested in how to make money from home, online, and in your local area, below are some of the most common methods.

How to Make Money Locally 

How to Make Money

How to Make Money

  1. Split Costs With a New Roommate.  Whatever a new roommate pays in rent will be extra cash in your pocket.  If you are renting, be sure to contact the property manager so as not to violate the terms of the lease.
  2. Host a Yard Sale.   If you’re like most people, you have plenty of valuables that you don’t use very regularly.  Be sure to get a permit from your town hall, as many locations require one.
  3. Sell Your Stuff on Craigslist.  If you prefer to not host a yard sale, Craigslist has an enormous market for items like TVs and furniture.  Including high quality photos of the items will increase demand for the product.  To maintain an extra level of privacy, you can meet in a neutral location to make the sale.
  4. Offer Services on Craigslist.  If you have a marketable skill or the free time to do basic work, Craigslist has a booming market for these as well.  Some examples in the “services” section include: computer assistance, financial help, pet services, landscaping, and moving.  This list is not all inclusive, and you can advertise many other services as well.
  5. Sign up for Medical Experiments.  Some clinical trials will pay subjects to help test the safety and efficacy of medical treatments before they are approved for the general public.  Of course, there is the risk of detrimental health effects from these unproven treatments, but plenty are available if you are wiling.  For example, searching for open studies in Massachusetts on www.clinicaltrials.gov finds 2,742 open studies as of the date of this writing.  If you’re fortunate enough to find a local study for which you qualify and are willing to take the risk, many experiments require a series of well-paid visits, making this one of the lowest stress examples of how to make extra money.
  6. Donate Sperm or Eggs.  You can earn  consistent money donating sperm at a local sperm bank.   For example, the Seattle sperm bank will accept donations (after a screening process) from healthy men aged 18-39 two to three times per week and give $60 per donation, which would result in $180 per week.  For females, the market for egg donation is more lucrative per visit.  For example, the Reproductive Science Center of New England starts compensation at $6,000 for the first donation, and will allow six donations total, which would give donors over $36,000 if they were to choose to donate the maximum amount.  Of course, ethical considerations apply in both types of donations.
  7. Donate Plasma From Your Blood.  Patients with certain medical conditions and those undergoing certain procedures benefit from plasma donations.  If interested, the kind folks at www.donatingplasma.org have a directory to find the nearest donation center.  One such example is ADMA BioCenters in the Atlanta, GA area, which allows up to two donations per week, which can earn you up to $250 per month.
  8. Sell Your Hair.  The web has multiple hair auction websites where you can sell yours if in a bind.  One example is www.hairsellon.com, where sets of hair frequently sell for hundreds of dollars.
  9. Sell Your Scrap Metal.  Any metal item you throw away may have a market value.  For example, the folks at 1-800-GOT-SCRAP advertise that “anything made from metal is game.”  They offer a service to find the the scrap yard nearest to you, and even offer pickups for a fee as well.
  10. Rent Your Parking Space.  If you own spots in an area where parking spaces may be in short supply (such as in a city, near the beach, or near a stadium), you can put your space on the market via Craigslist or with a display during applicable events.

How to Make Money Online/From Home 

How to Make Money Online

How to Make Money Online

  1. Sell Your Stuff on eBay.  Instead of throwing away old items, you can make money online with eBay.  For example, at the time of this writing, we foundan example of a used, three year old 40 inch LED HDTV that sold for $258.89.  Even used clothing, items commonly thrown away, have a market on eBay.  Especially if you own expensive items you don’t want anymore, this is one of the best examples of how to make quick money.
  2. Amazon Mechanical Turk.  You can make money from amazon by working on human intelligence tasks (HITs), or items that computers cannot do by themselves.  For example, one job request after doing a simple search was to watch The Shawshank Redemption and write a review for $26.73.
  3. Participate in Surveys.  It can be dull, but websites such as www.cashcrate.com will pay you for your opinion on various topics–$0.80 for each daily survey you complete and more for surveys targeted to your demographic.
  4. Work as an Online Customer Service Rep.  If you’ve ever worked with a customer service rep who chatted with you via computer, you may be surprised to learn there’s a chance that person was working from home.  For example, www.talk2rep.com will help connect you with a company where you can work completely from home via chat as a customer service representative.
  5. Publish Articles.  If you are a talented writer, multiple websites will pay you to publish with them.  Some examples include Associated Content, Helium, and Demand Studios.  From site to site in this industry, the business models vary, but the more traffic your article gets, the more you will typically earn.
  6. Sell Your Designs on CafePress.  If you are a creative person, www.cafepress.com has a business that may appeal to you.  You create and upload a design, CafePress sells your design on products (clothes, drinking glasses, iPhone accessories, pillows, etc.), and you make a commission.  Really cool site!
  7. Sell Crafts.  If you have an artistic or crafty talent, Etsy.com is an expansive marketplace online for such a skill.  Etsy describes itself as “a marketplace where people around the world connect to buy and sell unique goods.”  You can list each item for $0.20 and Etsy will take a 3.5% commission of your sale.

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