Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1

Oh extra income… Whenever I publish any of my extra income posts, I usually receive e-mails like crazy. I mean multiple e-mails every hour, and probably over 20 in one day. I love all of your questions and many of you have reasons for why you want extra income. Not all of you have a…

Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Last Updated: May 29, 2023

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning if you decide to make a purchase via my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. See my disclosure for more info.

Oh extra income…

Whenever I publish any of my extra income posts, I usually receive e-mails like crazy. I mean multiple e-mails every hour, and probably over 20 in one day.

I love all of your questions and many of you have reasons for why you want extra income. Not all of you have a blog but today I’ll be talking about the different ways I make extra money. In future posts, I will be talking about more of a variety as well.

Currently, before taxes and expenses, I am making around $5,000 in EXTRA income per month. I am on track to make around that this month as well. I’m using my extra income mainly to pay down my $38,000 student loan debt as quickly as I can, and after April of this year, I will probably throw most of it towards savings.

I can only dream of where that might go one day. Just last year I was making a couple hundred per month in extra income – and I was ECSTATIC at that time with that. Now my goals keep increasing.

I am big on diversifying how you make your money, whether it be your extra income or your main form of income. This way, if anything does happen, you are more prepared. Also, try not to use your extra income as a way to Keep up with the Joneses! Use it for what you truly what to do with it.

There are many things that you can do to earn extra income. However, there are also many factors to think about:

  1. How much time do you have? Do you have 1 hour each day or 5 hours each day? Maybe you’re only free on the weekends?
  2. How much are you trying to earn? Is your goal $50 a month or $5,000 a month?
  3. Can you do this and also work at the same time? Will your work be sacrificed and therefore you might lose your main source of income?
  4. Do you want to also have fun while making your extra income?

 

Ways to Earn Extra Income Part 1

Below are some possible ways for you to earn extra income. This will be a multiple series post as of course there are TONS of things that can be done to make extra income. I plan on making more in-depth posts on these individual methods soon, so watch out for those also 🙂 :

Having a Blog

Having a blog is always a great way to make extra money, as long as you have the time for it and put effort into it. They always say that the first year of blogging is the hardest, and if you can make it past that, then you will probably make it. Having a blog is good because it makes it easier for people to see your writing (such as if you want to be a freelance writer) and it makes it easier for people to get in contact with you.

If you are interested in signing up for a blog, you can read my free tutorial here. Anyone can start their own blog in just a matter of minutes. It’s easy to do!

If you do sign up for a blog, click my affiliate link to get your domain and hosting here (you will get a free domain and discounted pricing through my link). And once you have your domain and hosting, also make sure to start an e-mail list. AWeber is great and very easy to use. Not having an e-mail list for so long is something that I definitely regret, but I am glad that I’m finally starting with this so be on the lookout for the signup soon!

Direct advertising, Google Adsense and affiliate links are the main ways that bloggers make their income online.

Here are some posts written by me that relate to having a blog:

  1. How To Start A WordPress Blog On Bluehost
  2. Blogger or WordPress – Tips on How to Move
  3. Tips For Beginner Bloggers Part 1 – The Basics
  4. How To Make Money Blogging

 

Renting out an extra room

We have four bedrooms in our house and we only use one. So when my sister needed a place to live, we of course invited her to live with us. It’s been working out greatly. She’s been living with us since May of 2012 and pays around $325 per month. She is hardly home so we haven’t really noticed an increase in any of our bills also.

Now, I don’t think we’ll be adding any more roommates. My sister is great (and we all get along very well), but we have definitely had our share of roommate disasters. Someone also lived with us over the summer for a total of two days before we had to kick him out. That was a mistake that I don’t even want to think about again.

A couple of other bloggers rent out their spare bedrooms as well (it honestly isn’t that bad sharing space, I promise!), such as Crystal at Budgeting in The Fun Stuff. She talked about her roommate situation the other day, go check it out!

I do think that if you have room and don’t mind the extra money, then you might want to try renting out your spare rooms. The money for me is easy, so why not?

Related: Become an Uber driver – Spending your spare time by driving others around can be a great money maker. Read more about this in my post – How To Become An Uber Or Lyft Driver.

 

Mystery Shopping

Mystery shopping (click on the link to learn more about it in a post that I wrote) is something that I used to do a great deal of. I don’t do it a whole lot anymore mainly because of time constraints. I always loved doing the food and cosmetics shops though.

Getting free food and makeup? I’M IN! I use Bestmark for mystery shopping and I highly recommend them.

 

Selling on eBay

I know, I know. I told some of you that I would make a post on selling on eBay. I still need to do that. Anyways, over the summer I sold a lot of things that were in my closet on eBay. I made over $1,000 by selling stuff online.

It doesn’t need to be just eBay, it could be Craigslist (my friend does this and has a lot of success) or specialized websites such as Bag Borrow or Steal (I sold one of my purses to them).

 

Freelance Writing

In the Fall of 2012, I found myself staff writing for many websites and blogs. I have recently cut this down a bit and now only write for 3 blogs because it was a lot to handle. However, if you have time, go for it!

I now write for two personal finance blogs and for one hotel in the Caribbean. Read my post So You Want to Be a Freelance Writer?

 

Becoming a Virtual Assistant

This is something that I recently started doing. It doesn’t comprise a LARGE percentage of my extra income, but it is there. I like to be diversified just in case anything does happen to one of my other extra income streams (yes I realize that I am not fully diversified because a lot of my extra income is earned online – just in different ways).

There are many things that you can do as a virtual assistant. You can manage the social media of a business, website, etc. (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and everything else), handle the newsletter, work on the website, proofread and edit, do market research, handle emails, and so on. The list is really endless.

Read my posts What Does a Virtual Assistant Do and How To Become a Virtual Assistant.

If you are interested in learning about even more ways, please check out my post 75+ Ways To Make Extra Money.

Are you making extra income? How so? Please share!

Also, why are you wanting extra income?

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Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Author: Michelle Schroeder-Gardner

Hey! I’m Michelle Schroeder-Gardner and I am the founder of Making Sense of Cents. I’m passionate about all things personal finance, side hustles, making extra money, and online businesses. I have been featured in major publications such as Forbes, CNBC, Time, and Business Insider. Learn more here.

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  1. doordebt

    Wow, I just wrote a post about side hustles too! I make extra money as a brand ambassador, petsitter, sometimes writer and artist assistant. I would love to make more money blogging, but just got into it and want to focus on content, passion and readership first 🙂 Thanks for the awesome tips!

    Reply
  2. Betty C

    I'm just starting to look into some type of income other than my job. So far I haven't see much along the line of what you are doing. I think a lot depends on location. Maybe I'm just not living in the right city.

    Reply
  3. Cat

    I just wrote this really long comment and then it got deleted! 🙁 ANyway, What I was saying is that mystery shopping sounds cool but I’ve never tried it (I’ll have to read your post) and I would be more afraid of spending more money by accident.

    I have a blog and make some adsense revenue but not much. My blog started as a horse blog and then turned into an adventure and random thought blog. I’m trying to find my niche. As of right now it doesn’t matter because no one reads it anyway. The day I log in and there’s a real comment I’ll be a proud blogger!

    But really, online money making is hard. I sell things on ebay and do well. I’ll buy clothes and then wear them a few times and then resell but you’ll never make the original money back unless you’re actually really good at it, so I only buy things that I use and I only sell things that I’ve grown out of.

    Reply
  4. Cat

    This is great! I could see how you get a lot of repies for making extra money posts, because we all want to do it. I've never tried mystery shopping before but it seems like fun, I would be afraid I would spend more money than I made, but then again I should probably read your blog posts about the ins and outs of it all.
    My recent post My Trip To the Dominican Republic Is Official!!!!

    Reply
  5. Smart Money Junction

    While making extra income from some of the other sources you mentioned might not be as easy, freelance writing and blogging can certainly prove to be lucrative. Although being a virtual assistant is not too bad either, the payoff isn't really as much as I would like.

    Reply
  6. @HassleFreeSaver

    Great post, Michelle. I think it's incredible that you pull in $5K per month in extra income. Such an inspiration! I'd love to start freelance writing and your recommendations about mystery shopping and virtual assistance are intriguing, too! Can't wait for Part 2. 🙂

    Reply
  7. rajith

    Nice! I definitely think I need to look more into freelance writing, but I've been doing a bit of it for one website and it can definitely be time consuming that's for sure.

    Reply
  8. Brittany

    I just wanted to thank you so much for your entire blog! You are incredibly inspiring and very helpful on my journey to blogging and creating an income from home. I am a stay at home mom and trying to generate more income for our family. You have been a God send and I really thank you for being so open about how you do what you do! Keep at it and helping others as you’ve helped me!

    Reply
    1. Michelle

      Aww thank you so much Brittany! I really appreciate everything you said 🙂

      Reply
  9. Dale P

    Online surveys are also a legit way to make money. I initially thought that you could only make a few bucks here and there taking surveys, but a lot of people make thousands (per month) doing this.

    I’ve done a few mystery shops too and found that that stuff actually works. Getting paid $25 to get a tour of a gym is not a bad deal.

    I find it is good to sign up with several mystery shop websites and pick shops that coincide with what I need to get done. For example while I was moving from one apt to another I had a chance to do 6 mystery apt shops at $25 each. I did not get approved for the shops in time so I ended up visiting those same apts without getting paid.

    If I would have waited a day or two I could have made about $150 for doing something that I was going to do anyway.

    Same goes for oil changes and tanning etc.

    I once did a phone shop where I had to make three phone calls to new home communities. Each call was about 10 minutes and I got paid $6 per call. Very good way to make money.

    Reply
  10. juanita

    Thanks for all the information Michelle. Did try to rent a room to 2 different people so plan on blogging about that nightmare and what I would do differently if I decided to do it again. This is really all knew to me so I’m trying to get as much information as possible from it. I don’t intend to make money from blogging but just trying to get out medical information to the public.
    One thing I’ve learned as a case manager is the importance of not living in the moment but planning for the future if you are self-employed. An example: took care of a 60 y/o f caregiver and housekeeper, she did very well and always had a nice car, jewels and clothes she paid for in cash. Always got paid under the table. She became ill with cancer and had no insurance or had never paid into social security and when she died had no money for her burial. Her family benefited from her jewelry and clothes. It would be wise to pay into the govt for your social security and medicare.

    Reply
  11. Rachel R.

    Just these things you listed here are bringing in $5000/month? Or these plus other side gigs? I’m curious which single method brings you in the most side cash, on a regular basis.

    Reply
  12. Michael Belk

    These are some good options. I have tried Mystery shopping. It works just time consuming. I am thinking about freelance work in some capacity.

    You are right about keeping up with the Joneses because extra money will do you no good if you waste it.

    Reply
  13. Francisco Itum

    I just try, i hope this is true

    Reply
  14. DNN

    Earning extra income online is pretty much open to anyone who has a willing mind to change their way of thinking and do the transformation business work in hopes of being a future side hustle millionaire.

    Reply
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