40 Ways to Make Money from Home – Follow your passion while earning

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More ways to make money from home are needed after Coronavirus appearance. Here you will find 40 activities to increase your income while staying at home. 29 of them are fully online and 11 are in person but enhanced online.

Table of Contents

This article is not sponsored by any website or enterprise. As it was created in 2021, it avoids the errors of many old non updated websites. Also, it lets you avoid the hassle of spending too much time searching for ways to make money from home. It took me 1 month to create and refine this content.

There are many online reviews about enterprises’ websites that have gone out of business. For instance, to make reviews, Pro Opinion, Savitz Research Solutions are not available; Card Pool to sell gift cards and The Performance Edge (outdated and replaced by E Feedback Plus) to be a mystery shopper. P2P lending club is not anymore available (Notes included) as it closed in 2020.

Even extremely low rewarding options have been removed like SliceThePie that pays 1 cent per review of 90 seconds music. Rare activities with no online reference on average earnings have also been removed, like drone piloting.

The Gist (“Too Long Didn’t Read” version of the article)

I have consolidated the many activities’ variants in categories to easy choose the best fit for you based on your interests and skills. Please check the spreadsheet for easier navigation per categories, interests, earnings, and other groupings. For the sake of simplification, in this article the activities are divided in 2 groups:

Here below you can find the overview for all activities deconstructed later.

Estimated hourly earnings
Estimated hourly earnings

Moreover, I have included the notion of active and passive in each activity. Active tasks require your time and your implication directly to earn money (e.g. a typical job). Passive tasks are those you can put resources in and then get rewards without constantly acting on them. You can also check our articles on how to create passive income and passive income ideas.

Fully digital (purely online effort)

Fully online
Fully online

1 Mystery shopper

2 Virtual Assistant

  • Time needed: medium
  • Earnings from $16 per hour [2]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Mid Job – specific action
  • Websites

3 Customer service representative

  • Time needed: low to high
    • Potential earnings: on average, $14 per hour [3]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Mid Job – specific skill
  • Tools:

4 Plan trips for frequent travelers

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $33,922 on average in the US [4]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Mid Job – specific skill
  • Tools:

5 Teach online (lessons, courses and how-to videos)

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings:
    • Skillshare ($200 first month’s teachers) [5]
    • Music instruments lessons ($28 per hour) [6]
    • Varied topic lessons (Between $14 and $25 per hour) [7]
  • Income type:
    • Active for direct teaching and make the video with the lesson
    • Passive, once video is available online and sold many times
  • Category – Interest: Mid Job – specific skill
  • Tools:
    • Phone/Camera and editing software for lessons recorded in videos
    • Music instruments for related lessons and courses
    • Skillshare for how-to videos
    • English lessons
    • Varied topics lessons and courses
    • Sell Notes
    • Specific courses can reach higher earnings like a SEO Consulting course potentially sold for $6,000 per month
    • Possible also on YouTube but rewards start from up to 1000 subscribers to a channel
    • Possibility to publicize courses through Facebook and social media.

6 Test and review products

7 Tutoring/Coaching

8 Proofreading

9 Transcribe

10 Affiliate marketing

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $62,750 on average per year [14]
  • Income type:
    • Active for platform creation (website or media account)
    • Passive on commissions received from affiliate networks
    • Can be scalable when content writers are hired
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Content Creation
  • Tools:

11 Podcasting

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $30 to $44 per hour or from $55k to $80k per year [15]
  • Income type:
    • Active for creating the podcasts episode
    • Passive for earning from the same episode downloaded and commercial recommendations in podcast
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Content Creation
  • Tools:

12 Add drawings to t-shirts / coronavirus masks and sell online

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: $13 per shirt sold [16]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Design
  • Tools:

13 Dropshipping

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: Relies on traffic and orders quantity [17]
  • Income type:
    • Active to establish the dropshipping process
    • Passive because you don’t do personally the sale or delivery
    • Scalable for continuous selling
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – E-Commerce
  • Tools:

14 Peer-to-peer (P2P) Lending and crowdfunding

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential earnings: 5% to 12% of amount lent (See tools section below for specific sources)
  • Income type:
    • Passive mainly as once money allocated, no constant intervention is needed
    • Scalable as more money could be allocated
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Invest/Rent
  • Tools:

15 Start investing

  • Time needed: low to medium
  • Potential earnings: 7% to 10% average annually in long term stocks (e.g. S&P500) [18]
    • Ideally a long term ETF with low fees like Fidelity or Vanguard
  • Income type:
    • Active for trading
    • Passive for long term investing
    • Scalable as more money can be allocated for bigger gains
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Invest/Rent
  • Tools:
    • Brokers exist for active trading like eToro
    • Investment accounts exist for long term investing like Fidelity/Vanguard or DeGiro in Europe

16 Freelance skills

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings:
    • Varies according to skills and outreach. Average of $21 per hour [19, 20]
  • Income type:
    • Active for direct skill delivery
    • Passive for subscription based skill delivery
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Specific skill
  • Tools:
    • For varied skills
    • For writing (High earners like blogger Holly Johnson earns over $200,000 per year writing articles for other websites)
      • Eatingwell (up to $1 per word written)
      • Sierraclub.org ($250 per reviews and $350 for full online stories
      • Resume writing (scripting software and illustrator)
    • Design
      • Competitions with 99designs
      • Mouse pad designs in DevianArt
        • Designer gets up to 20% of purchase price (around $500 per month)
    • Law related in the US only
    • Expertise in clarity.fm
    • Service broker
      • If you know many skilled people and enterprises willing to hire them, you can put them in contact. You can get a fee for finding the right skilled people do the required work
    • Website management (requires knowledge of WordPress, plugins and other related skills)
    • Social media management ($15 to $80 per hour)
    • Medical coding and billing (AviaCode hires remote professionals for up to $3,000 per month)
    • Finding programming bugs ($500 per month)

17 Play online games

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: Around $1,000 per month for 20,000 views [21]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Specific skill
  • Tools:

18 Blogging (ads and sponsored posts)

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings:
    • $8,000 for a monthly salary [22]
    • $14 to $71 in the US per thousand ad visitors [23, 24]
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Writing
  • Income type:
    • Active for creating the blog
    • Passive for ads
    • Can be scalable when content writers are hired
  • Tools:
    • Illustration software, domain, website template
    • To become eligible:
      • Website should be active for 6 months or
      • YouTube channel should have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watched.
    • After eligibility criteria matched, others could pay to insert links in your blog ($100 to $1000 per link). However it is a bad tactic for Google and can have a negative impact in your blog.
    • Sponsored posts need blogs with high traffic and can pay between $100 to $3,000. As visitors in blog increase, potential earnings could go up to $20,000 per sponsored post
    • Ads (could be convenient for compilations of viral videos in YouTube)
      • Ad.fly in the US pays $71 per thousand visitors in 24 hours
      • Shorting links with Shorte.st in the US offers $14 per thousand visitors

19 Craft your owns stories (book/eBook/audiobook)

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: A few thousands in December 2019 received more than $100,000 in royalties in Amazon. Most earn combined $50,000 per year [25].
  • Income type:
    • Active for text creation.
    • Passive for royalties on same text but many publications
    • Scalable because after every author’s bestseller, the author reputation increases. And with it the number of potential new book buyers.
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Writing
  • Tools:
    • Supplies for writing a book, eBook or microphone for an audiobook
    • Sell them in Amazon

20 Watch/create videos

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $350 (or 250GBP) [26]
  • Income type:
    • Active (watching videos or creating them)
    • Passive ($7 per thousand views on average in YouTube referrals program) [27]
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Content creation
  • Tools:

21 Create and sell your printables

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: Top sellers make from $500 per month to $10,000 per year [28, 29]
  • Income type:
    • Active for the printable creation
    • Passive and scalable for the sales in many websites for the same printable sold thanks to the printable digital nature
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Design
  • Tools:
    • Amazon
    • eBay
    • Etsy (5% fee on sale and 4% on Etsy Payments)
      • Calligraphy crafts are sold at an average of $28 [30]
      • Wedding invitations are sold at an average of $17 [31]
    • Facebook
    • Youtube

22 Buy and sell website domains

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: Varies based on the buy price and sell price difference [32]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – E-Commerce
  • Tools:
    • Coding and website building tools (optional)
    • GoDaddy for website names

23 Cashback in shopping

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential earnings: Up to 1% on qualifying purchases (See tools below for sources)
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Saving
  • Tools:

24 Reduce unnecessary spending

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential savings: 60% of the spending reduced [33]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Saving
  • Tools:
    • Hulu to cut cable
    • Truebill (charges 40% of amount saved) and Trim to negotiate bills (charges 33%)
    • Bank offers (e.g. for account opening could be $100 per month)

25 Sell unused gift cards

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential earnings: up to 92% of card’s value [34]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Saving
  • Tools:

26 Name businesses

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential earnings:
    • On average, up to $200 per month [35]
    • Up to $1,000 per day
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Specific action
  • Tools:

27 Online Surveys

28 Specific on-demand tasks

29 Use apps (even one that pays you for doing healthy activities)

In person but enhanced online

In person but enhanced online
In person but enhanced online

1 Receive clients in your house

  • Time needed: medium
  • Potential earnings: from $20,000 to $62,400 per year [38]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Mid Job – Specific skill
  • Tools:
    • Hair cut tools to earn around $27,000 per year in mini salon
    • Yoga classes to earn $62,400 per year
    • Labor work like being paid to snow shoveling (useful for older people who are eager to pay to get these kind of tasks done)

2 Rent car and drive sharing

  • Time needed: low to medium
  • Potential earnings: Average of $10,500 per year [39]
  • Income type:
    • Active for ride sharing as you drive
    • Passive for rent a car
    • Scalable as more and more cars are rented
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Invest/Rent
  • Tools:

3 Rent out your unused living spaces/driveways

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings:
    • Living spaces, from $700 to $1,600 per month in the US [40]
    • Driveway: Up to $320 per month (e.g., in London is £270 per month. [41]
  • Income type:
    • Passive once space is rented
    • Scalable as more property could be acquired and rented
  • Category – Interest: Potential Growth – Invest/Rent
  • Tools:

4 Sell garden produce

  • Time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $400 per month [42]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – E-Commerce
  • Tools:
    • Garden space and materials
    • Localharvest (in the US)
    • Produce could be publicized in social media like Facebook

5 Sell online hand-made crafts

  • Time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: Varies per item sold
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – E-Commerce
  • Tools:
    • Camera/phone to take photos of crafts
    • Art Supplies
    • Websites
      • Freecycle.org (+9 million members around the world giving and getting things for free)
        • For flipping products in flea market or Craiglist
      • Crafts to sell could be publicized through Facebook and social networks

6 Sell household items and electronics

7 Sell photos/videos/audio

8 Rent gadgets/clothes/sports gear by the hour

  • Time needed: low
  • Potential earnings: Around to $400 per month [44]
  • Income type: Passive
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Invest/Rent
  • Tools:

9 Baby/house/pet sitting

  • Time needed: medium to high
  • Potential earnings:
    • House: on average in the US, $13 per hour [45]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Specific action
  • Tools:
    • Camera or smartphone for pictures
    • A pet friendly living arrangement
    • Websites
      • Care (babysitting, nannies, child care housekeepers, and senior care)
      • Sittercity (baby sitting, nannies and special needs)
      • Pet
        • Rover (US, Canada, UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden)
        • Wag (US)
      • Can be publicized through social networks like Facebook

10 Delivery of sold items and food

  • Time needed: medium
  • Potential earnings: average $13 per hour [46]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Specific action
  • Tools:

11 Prepare meal for others

  • Time needed: medium to high
  • Potential earnings:
    • Regular meals, $11 per hour [47]
    • Cook and bake for special occasions, $12 per hour [48]
  • Income type: Active
  • Tools:
    • Kitchen and oven
    • Social media to publicize meal preparation offers

Mutually reinforcing activities

It is possible to complement/build-up many activities. For example:

  1. Create designs for t-shirts/coronavirus masks
  2. Same design could be sold on many non-exclusive websites (like Merch by Amazon, eBay and RedBubble)
  3. Sell a course that teaches the process learned in Udemy.
  4. Publicize the path followed in affiliate marketing and YouTube to generate more revenue streams

Many of the activities above can evolve into entrepreneurial ventures. They can become full time income generators and grow to unexpected levels. Pick the one more related to like more and start earning more.

What is the next step?

Take a look at our article dedicated to on how to create passive income and passive income ideas.

Sources

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[2] Pay Scale, Average Virtual Assistant Hourly Pay; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Virtual_Assistant/Hourly_Rate (visited June 28, 2021).

[3] Indeed, Amazon.com virtual assistant yearly salaries in US; at https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Amazon.com/salaries/virtual-assistant (visited June 28, 2021).

[4] Glassdoor, Travel Planner Salaries; at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/travel-planner-salary-SRCH_KO0,14.htm?countryRedirect=true (visited June 28, 2021).

[5] Skillshare, Earning Royalties; at https://help.skillshare.com/hc/en-us/articles/205222697-Earning-Royalties- (visited June 28, 2021).

[6] PayScale, Hourly Rate for Industry: Music Lessons; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Industry=Music_Lessons/Hourly_Rate (visited June 28, 2021).

[7] VipKid, Teacher Pay; at https://www.vipkid.com/teach/teacher-pay (visited June 28, 2021).

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[33] Truebill, We split the savings; at https://www.truebill.com/lower-bills (visited June 28, 2021).

[34] CardCash, Sell your unwanted gift cards; at https://www.cardcash.com/sell-gift-cards/ (visited July01, 2021).

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[37] Gigwalk, So you want to become a Gigwalker?; at https://www.gigwalk.com/gigwalkers/ (visited July 01, 2021).

[38] CNN Money, Best Jobs in America; at https://money.cnn.com/gallery/pf/2015/01/27/best-jobs-2015/10.html (visited July 01, 2021).

[39] Turo, Accelerate your entrepreneurship; at https://turo.com/us/en/list-your-car (visited July 01, 2021).

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[41] JustPark, Rent out your driveway & fund that dream; at https://www.justpark.com/how-it-works/rent-out-your-driveway (visited July 01, 2021).

[42] Investopedia, The True Cost Of Growing A Garden; at https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0312/the-true-cost-of-growing-a-garden.aspx (visited July 01, 2021).

[43] DreamsTime, How to Sell Photos, Images & Video with Dreamstime; at https://www.dreamstime.com/sell-stock-photos-images (visited July 01, 2021).

[44] Spinlister, List a Ride; at https://www.spinlister.com/list (visited July 01, 2021).

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[46] PayScale, Average Food Delivery Driver Hourly Pay; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Food_Delivery_Driver/Hourly_Rate visited July 01, 2021).

[47] PayScale, Average Food Preparation Worker Hourly Pay; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Food_Preparation_Worker/Hourly_Rate visited July 01, 2021).

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