Looking to Earn Extra Income? Learn How to Make Money from Home

Man online making dollars from home

You have options to make money from home, whether you’re a full-time stay-at-home parent looking to increase the household budget, a college student wanting to make money while in college for textbooks or nightlife, or you have a job and just want to make some extra cash by getting a side job. By learning how to earn extra money with a work-at-home job you can put in extra time and earn additional money, conveniently… And, you can do it all in your pajamas!

Why work from home?

Fuzzy bunny slippers while working from home

Sometimes, there aren’t a whole lot of options to make money from home by taking on additional working hours. If you have kids or a class schedule to work around, it can be hard to find a job that is willing to work with your busy schedule. Maybe you don’t have any childcare and you need to do something that will allow you to work while you’re at home with your kids. Perhaps you have a full-time job but looking for a side job to make some extra money on the weekend. Or, it may be that you’re on summer break and have a lot of extra time on your hands but only for those few months.

Whatever the case, working from home has a lot of benefits, including:

  • It actually saves you money. Think about it: no commuting costs, no parking fees, no uniforms or business attire. Plus, you won’t have the temptation to spend money going out for lunch or getting one or two fancy coffees a day.
  • You work on your own schedule. For a lot of these positions, you don’t have to work during normal business hours. If you don’t have time to work until your kids go to bed, you squeeze a few in hours at the end of the day or maybe you are have a full-time job, you can put in time after work or on the weekends. These jobs are great for students because you can easily work around your class and study schedule or a person just looking for a side job.
  • Working at home saves time in your day. We already know that no commuting saves you money. But it also saves you from having to sit in rush hour traffic or spend hours on public transportation. Plus, if you live in an area that experiences terrible winters, you never have to worry about driving in the snow.
  • You don’t have to worry about office politics. Many of these work at home positions, you work on your own. You’re basically your own boss.

Once you start to make money from home, you’ll come to appreciate all of these benefits and more. Now that you know why it is wise to be earning extra money from home, let’s look at a few great ways you can go about it.

5 Easy Ways to Make Money From Home

Here are some ideas for how you can make money from the comfort of your own home.

1) Get money back from things you already shop for.


There are a lot of websites and applications that will give you money back for things that you’re going to buy anyway! Here are some great sites and apps to check out:

Woman shopping with colorful bags and earning extra income with
  • Ibotta. This smartphone app makes it really easy to collect cash back. Just go through the offers and add the ones you want to your shopping list. After you’re done shopping, verify your purchases by scanning your receipt and the product barcodes. Some stores will even allow you to connect your loyalty card to the app and verify your purchases automatically. When you reach $20 in cash back, cash out and they’ll send your money to you via PayPal.
  • Checkout51. Checkout 51 is similar to Ibotta only you don’t have to add any offers to your account before you shop. Just open the app and scroll through the rebates, selecting the items you bought. Then, verify by scanning your receipt and the product barcodes. Once you reach $20, you can request a check that they’ll mail to you.
  • Rakuten (previously called Ebates). If you do a lot of shopping online, you have to check out Rakuten. Before you shop, make sure you’re logged into Rakuten to they can track the sale. Sometimes, there will be a link or a button that pops up or you can go to the Rakuten site. There is a wide range of stores where you can get cash back. After processing, the cash back is added to your Rakuten account. They send the money to your quarterly either through PayPal or a paper check in the mail.

2) Become a freelancer.

Man freelancing from home.


There are plenty of websites out there where you can start a freelancing career. You’ll find jobs for writers and virtual assistants but there are also a lot of jobs available for design, voiceover work and tech work, too. Most of these sites require a small fee to join or take a percentage of your earning. The major upside is that you don’t have to hunt down your own leads. A lot of the work is already done for you. Here are some of the best places to get started looking for freelancing work:

3) Share your opinions.

People taking an online survey

There are a lot of websites and apps that pay you for taking surveys or watching videos online. While they don’t pay a lot, most of them are really short and easy and the payments will add up quickly. Some pay you with a cash or check, others with gift cards. Check out these sites if this interests you:

4) Put your talent to work.

Woman filming a video for her blog


If you have a talent for crocheting or sketching or calligraphy, consider setting up an online shop. You will need to invest a little startup money for supplies and to get things up and running, but if you can turn a profit it will more than pay for itself. Here are some places to get started:

5) Sell your stuff.

Woman selling her denim shirt online


There are a lot of sites out there now where you can basically set up your own online boutique. Clothes are easy to sell and ship. Each site does things a little differently so make sure to check out the details of each.

Decluttr

Etsy

eBay

Thred Up

Poshmark

Kidizen

LetGo

OfferUp

There are many options to help you either get some extra income or help support your family while working from home. You can even kick start a new career from home. Many of these jobs take a little time to get started. Just be patient and work hard and you will be able to see some fruit from your labor.