20 Genius Ways to Bring Your Side Hustle to the Next Level

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Every once in awhile you need some extra cash. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably signed up for survey sites at one point or another and need to make money more than a few pennies at a time. It’s frustrating to sit there taking survey after survey to get paid practically nothing! Maybe you’ve tried Uber, but find the hours aren’t that great and your area doesn’t rely on car services like urban areas do. Even if you are in an urban area, you may find it is oversaturated with rideshare drivers and you’re just not making enough money. If this sounds familiar, of if you are totally new to wanting a side hustle, this post is for you!

Here are 20 side hustle ideas to earn a buck (or two!) that you may not have considered- and most of them aren’t one time deals. Start one or try them all to earn a bundle to put towards something you need. You can pay off debt, save up for a vacation or a car, or squirrel the money away for a rainy day. This is “extra money” to do what you want with!

1. Ebates. I am totally late to this party. Actually, I signed up years ago when there weren’t many merchants and lost interest. Recently I have been noticing a lot of Ebates commercials so I thought I would check it out again. There are SO MANY MERCHANTS NOW! If you haven’t checked out Ebates you should. You’re probably wondering how this is a side hustle. Well, two ways: 1) Chances are you are shopping online anyway, so you may as well get some money back, and 2) once you sign up you can spread the word and start earning referral bonuses, too, by inviting your friends. 
2. Rover. I am currently typing this while sitting next to Dottie, my ward for the next 48 hours. She is our first doggie house guest and she is a sweetie! (My dogs are ticked that some new girl is on the sofa, but she’s a sofa sitter. What can you do?) You can screen your guests to see if their pet can be left alone, has any issues, etc. and only agree to the dogs you’d like to pet sit. You can also sign up to walk dogs and dog sit at the owners’ homes, too. I am only signed up for dogs who can come to my house. You set your own rates & accept the dogs you want. Pretty easy- and a great way to have a dog withouth having a dog! Again, this is a referral program so you can earn money by referring others to use this service, wither by having Rover sitters watch their pets, or by becoming a Rover sitter.
3. Blog. Start a blog! It’s fun. It is as time-consuming as you make it and the payoffs are worth the time you will put in. This blog is brand new and has not made much money yet, but we are confident that it will! Check out Blue Host for all of your domain needs! (Update: we made $500 in our 4th month blogging! Not bad at all!)
4. Helper. Do yard work or snow removal for your older neighbors. Be conscious of their budgets and it’s a great way to get some exercise and make some cash. 
5. Property management. If you live in an area with a lot of smaller apartment buildings (think the ones with 4-6 units that aren’t likely to use a large management company) you can contact the landlords/building owners to see if they would like to farm out some of the work involved in property management. Lots of building owners are older and while they may not want to sell their properties, they may be interested in a little help. Collecting rent, cleaning apartments after people move out, cleaning the common areas and handling yard work can earn a decent amount of money. You could make $500+ per month depending on the location and what you’re assisting with. Here is a great article on how to become a property manager. 
6. Food. If you are known for making a particular dish, put your expertise to work! My cousin sells amazing pies (to her Facebook followers) for Thanksgiving and makes enough money to cover her kids’ Christmas presents. My daughter bakes awesome cakes and cookies and sold them as her side income for years. If you bake bread, sell it! Holidays are a particularly great time to sell food to people who aren’t great at baking- or don’t have the time to bake! I used to order the best tamales from a lady who made, you guessed it, the BEST tamales, off of a neighborhood Facebook group. 
   
7. Babysit. Check out your town’s Facebook parents’ group page to see if anyone could use your services. Set your own rates and make some cash. As an adult you will be more reliable than a teenager and have your own transportation, both are appealing qualities in a babysitter!
8. Organize. If you love to organize, offer up your services! There is great money to be made. You can look on your town’s Facebook parents’ group page and Craigslist to get started. Since most clients would like to be home to direct or assist, this is a great weekend or evening side job. 
9. Shutterstock. If you have a passion for photography you can upload photos to Shutterstock and people will purchase your photos to use on their blogs, websites, marketing, etc.
10. Photography. If you’re really good at photography, you can offer your services to families, weddings, graduation parties, and more. With everything being digital these days you can email them photos and not even have anything developed.
11. Sports. Become a youth sports official. Believe it or not, referees and umpires make great money- on average $40 per game. If you love sports and have a general understanding of the rules of the sport you would like to officiate you should have no problems passing the certification course. Contact your local park district or little league program to see which company they contract with and start there. If you can umpire three games on a Sunday you can make over $100. Not bad!
12. Online Maker Sales. If you have a special talent, like painting or knitting or jewelry making, consider selling on Etsy.
13. Newspaper delivery. Contact your local papers to see if they need delivery drivers. It is daily, early hours work, but it is also a consistent income.
14. Task Rabbit. If you live in a large-ish city, there are probably lots of odd jobs to be found on Task Rabbit. From yard work to furniture assembly to picking up dry cleaning, you can set your own hours/rates and choose your own tasks.
15. Online Garage Sale. Have a virtual yard sale. Use Craigslist and the Buy-Sell-Trade Facebook page for your town to declutter your home and make some quick cash! If you’re not using something, it’s taking up valuable space. If you need money more than you need things you don’t use, you could make quite a lot. If you have elderly relatives you can offer to declutter their houses in exchange for getting to keep whatever you make from selling items they no longer need or want. (Do you really need all of those lawn flamingos?) If you live in or near a nicer/wealthier neighborhood you can garbage pick and repaint furniture. It’s not glamorous, but someone’s free vintage dresser that you paint a fun, updated color could pay off to the tune of $200-$500! 
    
16. Ebay. Sell on eBay. If you have clothing items that still have tags on them, new in box shoes or collectible items, sell them on eBay. You will make more money on these types of items selling on eBay than you would at a garage sale and the eBay selling platform is very easy to use. (When you are out at thrift stores you can check the sale price of recently closed auctions to see if it is worth buying an item at Goodwill to re-sell on eBay. I recently found four new Starbucks ice cream bowls at Goodwill for $6 and sold them on eBay for $40!)
17. Books. If you have a lot of books that you are willing to part with, see what they are going for on Amazon and eBay, or see if there is a Half Priced Books store in your area. Half Priced Books not only has great prices on books, they all buy books to sell in their stores!
18. AirBNB. If you have an extra room in your house or a vacation home, consider renting it out on AirBNB. You can choose your guests (to a degree, based on their ratings) and set your fee. If you have a walkout basement with a bathroom, you might appeal to homeowners looking for long-term or weekly renters. Before we took over running my grandmother’s apartment building, my husband (who works out of state all week) was renting an AirBNB basement apartment for $500 a month. He rarely saw the woman who owns the property and it worked out great for both of them as she is making $500 a month and it was cheaper than a hotel or renting an apartment for us. 
    
19. Turo. If you are a commuter who doesn’t use their car every day, or if you have an extra vehicle, you can rent it out on Turo, the AirBNB of cars. We’ve used Turo a handful of times – especially when we are traveling somewhere with the possibility of snow and want an AWD vehicle. They are very expensive to rent the traditional way, so Turo has been a money saver for us. If we had an extra car it would be on Turo!
20. Market Research. Last but not least, market research is a great way to earn money. Google “market research” for your area and see what companies you can sign up with. You have to meet the demographic need for whatever they are looking for, but this is a fun way to earn extra cash when you qualify for the research study. I once made $300 using a certain type of dishwasher detergent for a month and having the researchers to my house to see how I filled my dishwasher (???) with it. It was strange, but fun, and for $300 they could have watched me clean my whole condo.

These are all great side hustle ideas to keep you off the survey sites and out of the rideshare pool! I am going to work with my hubby (he’s a great photographer) to put some photos up on Shutterstock asap.

If you are intrigued by the idea of making money with a side hustle, check out the podcast Side Hustle School. This guy is AMAZING! His hustles allowed him to travel to every.single.country.in.the.world by the time he was 35. He knows his stuff! I love listening to this in the car.

Saving money is earning money, too! Want some more savings ideas? Check out these posts:

10 Sneaky Ways to Save Money Each Month (This post shows you how to use the money saving app Acorns to save your spare change electronically! It has an awesome savings calculator to show you just how much you can save from spare change over the years.)
5 Totally Awesome (and Totally FREE) Money Management Tools
The Amazon Hack You Need To Save Tons of Money on Amazon
10 Surefire Ways to Save Money Like a Genius
Money Matters: 7 Things Millenials Can Learn From Talking to Their Grandparents

For more money-saving tips and ideas, check out our Frugal Living and Money Matters Pinterest boards. They are loaded with hundreds of money-making and creative budgeting ideas from other top bloggers.

Happy earning!
Allison

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