Sometimes, you just need an easy, reliable way to make a little extra money. Perhaps the holidays are approaching and you need some extra cash for presents. Maybe you have something big you want to save up for. Or maybe you just need help paying the bills at the end of the month. Whatever your reason, coming up with an extra $50 is completely doable — especially in the age of the internet. To help you on your quest, we’ve put together a list of 10 of the best ways to make some easy extra cash.
1) Take Online Surveys
Did you know you can get paid just for filling out surveys online? Most surveys don’t pay much — generally between 5 cents and 10 dollars — but sometimes you can get lucky and qualify for higher paying ones. Even the lower paying surveys add up, however. Depending on how much time you are willing to sink into answering questions, it’s possible to make a decent amount taking them. You won’t become rich, but you might earn enough to pay a few bills — or fund your weekly coffee addiction.
You won’t become rich, but you might earn enough to pay a few bills — or fund your weekly coffee addiction. #SideHustle #OnlineSurveys Click To TweetTwo of the best sites for finding and taking surveys are Survey Monkey and Vindale Research. SwagBucks is another popular site that frequently offers paid surveys. Make sure to be careful when you are applying to survey sites. There are a lot of scams out there. In general, if a site asks you to pay money to sign up (or asks for too much personal information), it is best to steer clear.
2) Sell Stuff Online
This one might take a little bit of time before it pays off (pun intended), but selling items online is a great way to come up with that extra 50. The options are endless! If you are creative, you could try opening an Etsy store, or sell products on a site like Red Bubble or CafePress. If creativity isn’t your strong suit, buying items that you found at a garage sale or thrift store and reselling them for a higher price on Craigslist or eBay can be very profitable. You can even sell all that extra crap lying around in your garage! And who said spring cleaning was a waste of time?
3) Become a Ride Share Driver or Make Deliveries
Signing up for Uber or Lyft is a great way to come up with an extra $50 — especially if you need something more reliable. Or, if you don’t want to deal with all the small talk, sign up for Uber Eats or Post Mates instead. A few jobs per day should be enough to get you to your goal. Uber drivers tend to make an average of $25 per hour, while Lyft drivers can make as much as $35 per hour.
4) Donate Plasma
You won’t make an extra $50 every day donating plasma — because let’s be honest, you wouldn’t want to donate that often, even if they let you — but if needles don’t freak you out, it can certainly be part of your plan. Most plasma donation centers pay between $20 and $50 per donation, and allow you to donate twice per week. That’s an extra $40 to $100 in your wallet! Many donation centers offer monthly or quarterly bonuses as well.
Most plasma donation centers pay between $20 and $50 per donation, and allow you to donate twice per week. That’s an extra $40 to $100 in your wallet! #SideHustle #PlasmaDonations Click To Tweet5) Task Rabbit
If you live in a participating city, Task Rabbit can be an easy and reliable way to make some extra money. Task Rabbit is a platform that allows “Taskers” to accept requests for various services — like acting as a personal assistant, assembling furniture, helping with a move, etc. — and get paid. You choose your own rates, which means if you charge $50 per task … well, we’ll let you do the math.
6) Microtasking
We’ll be honest, microtasking can be very dull use of your time. But if you have the gumption needed to stick with working through tedious tasks for an hour or two, it has the potential to pay off. With microtasking, you get paid to perform small tasks — things like transcribing short audio clips, identifying pictures, etc. Amazon Mechanical Turk is probably the most popular microtasking site. Diligent microtaskers tend to make between $6 and $10 per hour. Certainly enough to add a little extra to the pot.
7) Mow Lawns/Shovel Snow
An oldie, but a goodie. Need that extra $50 today? Go ask your neighbor if you can mow their lawn for them (or shovel snow if it’s winter). You probably have a least a couple neighbors who will say yes. The best part? Grass just keeps on growing.
8) Start a Blog
This one is a slow simmer, but if you can build a blog that brings in enough viewers, the potential is definitely there. In fact, you could probably make more than $50 a day blogging.
Bloggers make money either through selling services and products, or by promoting other brands — or through some combination of the two. Though it has great potential, blogging is hard work and building an audience takes time, so don’t expect to be rolling in those fifties by tomorrow.
9) Become a Sitter
Once you start landing clients, working as a sitter has real potential. You can sit anything (seriously). Babysitters? Psh. How passé. Try being a house sitter instead. Or a pet sitter. Or heck, you can even sit someone’s plants. Just try not to crush them.
One of the best places to find sitter jobs is on Care. You might not be able to get daily work, but you can certainly fill up your calendar.
10) Test Websites or Apps
The work is inconsistent, but working for testing sites (like UserTesting or TesterWork) pays pretty well when gigs are available. Most testing sites pay around $10 per test (and tests take around 20 minutes), so it’s a relatively quick way to make some extra change. Sign up for as many sites as you can (more sites means more opportunities to land gigs), but be wary of scams. Remember: If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. UserTesting, TesterWork, Userlytics, TryMyUI, and Userfeel are a few good sites to get you started.
Conclusion
Clearly, some of these jobs aren’t things you can do every day — but there’s no rule that says you have to make that extra $50 the same way every time! If you are having trouble finding a gig that pays daily, mixing and matching is a perfectly valid way to reach your goal.
Whether you just need to make an extra $50 today, or need to make an extra $50 everyday for a month (or longer), your options are almost endless. All you need is a bit of hard work and determination, and you will find yourself where you need to be.
Did you enjoy this list?
Check out our Master Side Hustle list for more inspiration: