In today’s “gig economy,” you no longer have to work at a “9-5” to earn money. In fact, there are many legit ways to earn money without a job right from home.
Are you a retired person who is looking to earn a little “blow-off” money each month? Or maybe you’re someone who wants to find a full-time work-from-home-job. If so, we’ve got ideas that may be perfect for you.
Do you love to drive, shop, write, draw or watch TV? Then you could make money doing all these things and more. Our list even includes a way to earn money for talking! Read on to see ten legit ways to earn money without a job.
Table of Contents
1. Earn Money Driving People Around
Driving for rideshare companies like Uber or Lyft has become a popular way for people to make money on the side.
One of the best things about driving for a rideshare service is that you don’t have to have a set schedule. Simply turn on the app whenever you want to take trips and turn it off when you’re done.
You can reasonably expect to make $8-11 an hour driving for Uber or Lyft. But you could make quite a bit more depending on where you live.
2. Earn Money Delivering Stuff
If you’re not keen on the idea of giving rides to total strangers, you could still make money driving. Why not consider delivering food, groceries or packages to people’s homes?
Deliver Food
As food delivery apps continue to grow in popularity, there’s great opportunity to make money as a delivery driver. Here are a few of the apps that will pay you to deliver food for them:
One of the nice things about food delivery apps is that they don’t care as much about how new or nice your car is. And even if you have a car that’s too old to qualify for Uber, there’s a good chance you could qualify for Uber Eats.
Deliver Groceries
Do you enjoy the process of grocery shopping? Well, many people don’t, or they can’t go. And they will happily pay you to do their grocery shopping and deliver the groceries to their home.
Shipt and InstaCart are two apps that connect would-be shoppers with customers. With both services, you can choose to work part-time or full-time. You also get to set your own hours.
Deliver Packages
There are many services that pay drivers to deliver packages that people have bought from online stores. The most well-known service would probably be Amazon’s Flex program.
Driving for Amazon Flex is a great deal because they guarantee pay of at least $18 an hour.
The downside to Amazon Flex is that it can be hard to find available positions. If there are no Flex positions currently available in your area, here are some other companies that will pay you to deliver packages:
3. Earn Money Writing
There are a number of ways that you could use your keyboard and grammar skills to make some extra cash.
Become a Freelance Writer
If you are passionate and knowledgeable about any subject, there’s a chance that you could get make money writing about it. Here a few sites that connect writers with publishers who need content:
Become a Proofreader
If you love grammar, but you’re not really the creative type, then proofreading could be a better fit for you.
If you want to get paid to proofread, you can use the same websites listed above to find potential clients. But you may be able to make a lot more by proofreading for court reporters.
Proofreading court transcripts require a bit of training, but it could also pay much better and provide more steady work.
Become a Transcriptionist
If you’re a fast typist, transcription could be a great way for you to make a little money on the side. Rev hires freelancers to provide transcription, translation, and foreign subtitle services to their clients.
On their website, Rev says they $.45-$.75 per minute for video captioning. According to Rev, captioners earn an average of $240 a month and their top monthly earnings are $1,570. They payout weekly via PayPal.
4. Earn Money Taking Pictures
Do you have a knack for photography? If so, why not try to turn that skill into some cash? Here are a couple of ways you could do that.
Event Photography
Event photography can be a lucrative side gig that could even evolve into a full-time job.
Consider offering your services for free for the upcoming events of a few friends or family members. Then create a website where you can display the pictures from these events. Be sure to include a few testimonials about your work.
Do a good job on your first few gigs, and word of mouth advertising could start bringing clients your way fast!
Stock Photos
If you’re more into nature or architectural photos, you could try to sell your work on stock photo sites. Here are a few popular sites that you may want to try:
Stock photography doesn’t usually pay quite as well as event photography, and the competition is more intense.
But at the very least, your photos could create a little bit of passive income for you over time. And at best, you may end up becoming a highly sought after photographer.
Either way, taking photos doesn’t cost you anything but your time so it can’t hurt to try!
5. Earn Money Selling Your Stuff Online
Have stuff sitting around your house that you don’t want or don’t need? Why not sell them online? Here are a couple of websites that could connect you with buyers.
Craigslist
The easiest and fastest way to get rid of stuff online would probably be to list them on Craigslist.
If you’re not a fan of the anonymity of Craigslist or the fact that it tends to attract scam artists, we have a full list of sites like Craigslist that you may want to check out.
Amazon Fulfillment
If you have a bigger stock of a certain type of item, you may consider selling through Amazon Fulfillment.
As long as you have the goods, Amazon will provide everything else — from storage to boxing, labeling and shipping. It’s one of the simplest ways to get an online business off the ground.
6. Earn Money Shopping
Love to shop, but hate what your shopping obsession does to your budget? Did you know that there are legit ways that you can actually make money shopping?
Get Paid to Mystery Shop
Market Force is a company that helps brands make sure that they are living up to the standards that they’ve set. One of the ways they do that is by employing over 300,000 mystery shoppers.
Mystery shoppers visit store or restaurant locations and act as if they are regular customers. After their shopping trip, they report on their experience. Things that mystery shoppers look for include: customer service, product placement and store cleanliness.
Get Paid for Scanning Your Grocery Receipts
There are a number of apps that will give you cash back for scanning your grocery receipts.
Here a few of the most popular ones:
With most of these apps, you’ll need to “add offers” to your account before heading out for your shopping trip. Then just buy the items that you’ve added offers for and scan your receipt afterward to earn your cash back.
Get Paid for Shopping Online and in Stores
If you do a lot of shopping online, you need to be using one of the many apps that give cash back for starting your shopping session from their portal. Check out one of these apps to get you started:
But shopping online isn’t the only way to earn cash back. Many of the apps listed above offer ways for you to earn cash back for your in-store shopping as well.
And Shopkick will give you cash back just for walking in and out of stores!
7. Earn Money Sharing Your Opinion
As brands try to improve their products continually, it’s vital for them to hear what real people think about them. That’s why so many companies are willing to pay you for taking surveys that will help them make future product decisions.
Unfortunately, surveys have gotten a bad rap because there are so many fake sites out there that don’t really pay any money at all.
But several legit survey sites will pay you real money to share your opinion.
Here are a few of the most popular survey sites:
8. Earn Money Watching TV And Movies
Yes, believe it or not, you can make money watching TV and movies. Here are a couple of ways that you can pull that off.
Get Paid To Visit Theaters
Remember Market Force? They’re the company that will pay you to be a mystery shopper. Well, they also hire “theater checkers” and pay them for the work that they do.
And what kind of work would that be? Theater checkers do things like make sure that all the trailers before the movie are playing properly. They also count the number of people in the theater and conduct post-show surveys.
Market Force will not only pay you for your time but will reimburse your movie ticket too. Apply to be a Market Force theater checker today.
Get Paid for Watching Hulu or Netflix
Viggle is an app that will pay you for watching live TV, Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video.
Merely open the Viggle app and select the show that you are getting ready to watch. Next, you’ll be asked to hold your phone up to your TV so Viggle can listen to and confirm the program that you’re watching. That’s it!
Once you’ve completed your “check-in,” you earn 1 point per minute of each show that you watch. Once you’ve accumulated enough points, you can redeem them for a free gift card!
9. Earn Money Creating Art
Since I can’t even draw attractive stick figures, I know that nobody is ever going to pay me for my artwork. But if you are someone who has a lot of artistic talent (or at least more than me), there are ways that you could earn some cash.
Sell Your Art On Etsy
Etsy is like the Amazon of handmade or vintage items. If you are able to create beautiful pieces of art or crafts, perhaps you should consider opening an Etsy store.
Many people have turned Etsy stores into full-time thriving businesses. If you’re interested in giving Etsy a go, check out their primer, 7 Steps to a Successful Etsy Business.
Sell T-shirts That Bear Your Unique Designs
If your artistic bent manifests itself better through Photoshop than a pencil or paintbrush, then T-shirt design may be a perfect fit for you.
With many T-shirt selling sites all you have to do is provide the artwork, and they take care of everything else. With many of them, they’ll even ship your orders out straight from their warehouse.
Here are a few T-shirt companies worth looking into:
10. Earn Money Talking
Do people always tell you that you have a voice made for radio?
If so, you could get paid well for your talents even without the daily radio show gig. One of the best ways to get paid to talk is to narrate audiobooks.
Book authors will pay hefty sums to talented voice actors for narrating their books. And with audiobook exchanges like Amazon’s ACX, anyone can compete for projects by simply submitting samples of their work.
ACX is by far the most popular place for audiobook narrators to find work. But it may be worth your time to check out VoiceBunny, Brilliance Audio, and Voices as well.
Summary
You no longer have to be a cubicle-dweller to make some cash. Now you know there are legit ways to earn money without a job.
Is your day career dead? Great, long live the side hustle!
Connect with us on social media to let us know which of the work-from-home jobs that we covered in this guide was your favorite!
