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

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 and updated in 2022, 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Pro Opinion, and Savitz Research Solutions are not available; Card Pool to sell gift cards and The Performance Edge (outdated and replaced by E Feedback Plus) to be a mystery shopper.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 no anymore available (Notes included) as it closed in 2020.

Even extremely low rewarding options have been removed like SliceThePie which pays 1 cent per review of 90 seconds of 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 into categories to easily 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 into 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

3 Customer service representative

4 Plan trips for frequent travelers

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

Get the skills for your present (and your future) and teach on Udemy
Skillshare You Think. You can

6 Test and review products

7 Tutoring/Coaching

Get the skills for your present (and your future) and teach on Udemy

8 Proofreading

Get the skills for your present (and your future) and teach on Udemy

9 Transcribe

10 Affiliate marketing

  • The 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

  • The time needed: high
  • Potential earnings: $30 to $44 per hour or from $55k to $80k per year [15]
  • Income type:
    • Active in 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

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

13 Dropshipping

  • The 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

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

15 Start investing

  • The 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

  • The 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 earn over $200,000 per year writing articles for other websites)
      • Eatingwell (up to $1 per word written)
      • Sierraclub.org ($250 per review and $350 for full online stories
      • Resume writing (scripting software and illustrator)
    • Design
      • Competitions with 99designs
      • Mouse pad designs in DevianArt
        • The designer gets up to 20% of the 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 to 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

  • The 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:
    • Gaming electronics, supplies, and a smartphone needed to play
    • Twitch (up to $500 per month)
    • LongGame ($50 per month in US)
    • InboxDollars

18 Blogging (ads and sponsored posts)

  • The 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 in creating the blog
    • Passive for ads
    • Can be scalable when content writers are hired
  • Tools:
    • Illustration software, domain, website template
    • To become eligible:
      • The website should be active for 6 months or
      • The YouTube channel should have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watched.
    • After eligibility criteria are 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 to the blog increase, potential earnings could go up to $20,000 per sponsored post
    • Ads (could be convenient for compilations of viral videos on 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 own stories (book/eBook/audiobook)

  • The time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: A few thousand 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’s 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 on Amazon

20 Watch/create videos

  • The 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 the YouTube referrals program) [27]
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Content creation
  • Tools:

21 Create and sell your printables

  • The time needed: low to high
  • Potential earnings: Top sellers make from $500 per month to $10,000 per year [28, 29]
  • Income type:
    • Active in 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

  • The 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

  • The 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

  • The 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 the 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

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

26 Name businesses

  • The 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

  • The 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 a 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 this kind of task done)

2 Rent car and drive sharing

  • The 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 renting 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

  • The 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

  • The 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 on social media like Facebook

5 Sell online hand-made crafts

  • The 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 a 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

  • The time needed: low
  • Estimated earnings: Up to $4 per photo/video/audio [43]
  • Income type: Active. But the same photos can be sold on many non-exclusive platforms
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – E-Commerce
  • Tools:
    • Websites
      • 123RF
      • Adobe Stock (formerly Fotolia)
      • Bigstock
      • DepositPhotos
      • Dreamstime (sell photos, videos, and audio; images earnings range from $2.34 to $4. Subscription possible to earn from customers that buy your content frequently)
      • Fine Art America
      • FreeDigitalPhotos.net
      • Getty Images (and IStock)
      • PhotoShelter
      • Shutterstock
      • SmugMug
    • Not necessary a professional camera, a smartphone with a good camera could be enough

8 Rent gadgets/clothes/sports gear by the hour

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

9 Baby/house/pet sitting

  • The 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

10 Delivery of sold items and food

  • The time needed: medium
  • Potential earnings: average $13 per hour [46]
  • Income type: Active
  • Category – Interest: Small Gig – Specific action
  • Tools:
    • AmazonFlex
    • Deliveroo (In 12 countries, including the UK)
    • Doordash (US, Canada, Australia)
    • Instacart (US, Canada)
    • Uber Eats (More than 20 countries)

11 Prepare meals for others

  • The 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. The 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. Get the skills for your present (and your future) and teach on 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.

Tools summary

Either to look for a job or to hire, you can use ZipRecruiter.

What is the next step?

Take a look at our article dedicated to 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).

[8] Respondent, Get paid to help cutting-edge projects come to life; at https://www.respondent.io/respondents (visited June 28, 2021).

[9] Forbes, How Much Do YouTubers Really Make?; at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jrose/2019/03/21/how-much-do-youtubers-really-make/?sh=2083871a7d2b (visited June 28, 2021).

[10] PayScale, Average Tutor Hourly Pay; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Tutor/Hourly_Rate (visited June 28, 2021).

[11] Salary.com, Hourly Wage for Proofreader Salary in the United States;at https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/proofreader-hourly-wages (visited June 28, 2021).

[12] Indeed, How much does a Transcriptionist make in the United States?;at https://www.indeed.com/career/transcriptionist/salaries (visited June 28, 2021).

[13] Glassdoor, Transcriptionist salaries;at https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/transcriptionist-salary-SRCH_KO0,16.htm (visited June 28, 2021).

[14] PayScale, Salary for Skill: Affiliate Marketing; at https://www.payscale.com/research/US/Skill=Affiliate_Marketing/Salary (visited June 28, 2021).

[15] WNYC Studios, Werk-it Survey: what podcasting pays now; at https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/werkit/what-podcasting-pays-now (visited June 28, 2021).

[16] Teespring, Profit Calculator; at https://community.teespring.com/profit-calculator/ (visited June 28, 2021).

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[31] Etsy, Invitations wedding; at https://www.etsy.com/market/invitations_wedding visited June 28, 2021).

[32] GoDaddy, Auctions; at https://auctions.godaddy.com/ (visited June 28, 2021).

[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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[36] University of Pennsylvania, A Data-Driven Analysis of Workers’ Earnings on

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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).

[40] World Population Review, Average Rent By State 2021; at https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/average-rent-by-state (visited July 01, 2021).

[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).

[45] Salary.com, Hourly Wage for House Sitter Salary in the United States; at https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/house-sitter-hourly-wages (visited July 01, 2021).

[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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