Need Extra Cash for the Holidays? How About Starting A ‘Side Hustle’

These days everyone could use a bit more money. Like many Americans, if you find yourself at home and looking for new ways to earn income, you might consider starting up a Side Hustle. If you are employed, underemployed or unemployed, many people find that their salary is not enough to afford the ideal lifestyle they seek.

If you fall under the category where you are left with little or no money to save, you should try a side hustle. You might have thought of it but the question you could have been asking yourself is what kind of a side hustle is most suitable? Below, we discuss various work from home opportunities. If you are there and you have never heard about a side hustle, we do not want to leave you behind. Let’s start by answering the question of what is a side hustle so that we can move on together.

A side hustle or part-time job is a way of making money outside your normal job. This kind of job gives you an opportunity to earn extra cash, with which you can freely buy items you want, follow your passion, and reduce your financial concerns. Generally, you begin a side hustle with an aim of earning a couple of extra thousand or hundred dollars per month. With such money, you will be able to do a lot and even make some savings that you can use to make investments. Without taking much time, let’s dive into some of the great ideas that can make you earn more money by working in the comfort of your home.

Money-Saving Browser Plug-ins

Although this is not direct work from home opportunity, you can use it to earn some money, which you can save or use to do other things. What you need to do is to install a money-saving browser plug-in of your choice. This kind of browser will help you to find reduced prices on the items you purchase online daily. This will add some breathing space to your budget. Right? It is related to earning some extra money.

Bank Account Promotions

These kinds of promotions are available in all sizes and shapes. What does this mean? You can find different bank promotions that offer bonus money for instance when you open an account. All you need to do is to get online and search a list of the most amazing bank account promotions for individuals with new accounts. You can find yourself earning some cash just by opening a bank account and completing all the activities that require you to qualify.

Selling Your Insights through Blogging

Could you be among the people that view blogs as venues where bored individuals share what they think about anything? Ok maybe you don’t view it this way but all the same, you may have never have thought that you can make extra money through blogging. But how? This is it. Your journey as a blogger starts with an idea. You need to have a unique idea. What if your idea is not unique? Let this one not worry you because you can take an existing idea. However, ensure that the idea is more compelling and sharper than those of your competitors.

After getting an idea, get to know it from formal training or personal experience such that you will not experience any difficulties as you write about it. You may find it quite challenging when starting but you just need to give it time and you will find that you have tightened your writing process and you are able to produce wonderful content within a very short time.

The next stage is selecting and purchasing a web domain, you then have to host and design your site after which you can plan your content. This seems to be a lot of work and you may think of taking shortcuts. As the saying goes short cuts are always the wrong ways, avoid them at all cost. By following this work to the letter, you will be laying a solid foundation that you will look and smile about in days to come. After creating a quality site and building a following, you will earn money in different ways and you will come to enjoy it.

Sell your opinions through focus groups and online surveys

Have you ever imagined that your opinions may earn you money? They are of more value than you might have ever imagined. Several companies pay a good amount of money to get to know more about the preferences and motivations of their target audience.

Online Surveys

You can undertake online surveys at your home any time you feel like be it over dinner or lunch hours, working hours, during your free time, or the wee hours of sleepless nights.

Although you are expected to give honest and sensible answers, you need not devote all your attention to these surveys. It is up to you. Just devote the time you are comfortable with the survey. An individual survey can take between a few minutes to twenty or thirty minutes to complete. You can handle the number of questions that you are comfortable with.

The amount of money you earn is based on the kind of surveys you complete. Note that you can earn like $10 per hour if you sign up with several survey companies and complete the tasks allotted to you diligently. Even with less than ten dollars per hour, the amount is better than none.

Online Focus Groups

These types of groups are almost similar to online surveys and in some instances, they are administered by the same firms. Note that online focus groups need more time and concentration as compared to other online surveys. Configurations also differ but you have to join a panel and engage on particular issues per month or week. Online focus groups are also more selective as compared to online surveys. You may not qualify if you fail to meet certain income or demographic criteria. If you make efforts you can earn more than 500 hundred dollars per month in-kind awards or cash.

Sell your expertise through Virtual tutoring

This is a more personalized manner of earning extra cash. All you need to do is to share whatever you have expertise in. Dissimilar to online classes or courses, which can be accessed by a large number of people who are paying for it a time, a tutoring session is normally a one-on-one affair. Nevertheless, you have the freedom to tutor as many students as can be allowed by your schedule.

Note that success in online tutoring does not just come. You have to earn it by doing the following things:

• Sticking to the subjects that you are very much familiar with and avoiding those you do not know much about.
• Using a highly visible and reputable venue.
• Structuring your sessions sensibly.
• Pricing your services in accordance with the market price.
• Following scheduling most appropriate practices
• Finally, you need to be enthusiastic when promoting yourself. You could not be good in promoting yourself because enthusiastic promotions are not for all people. You need not worry because you can select a platform that can do the promotion on your behalf. You can search for such a platform by searching for the best tutoring platforms online.

Online tutoring platforms pay tutors depending on the kind of subjects you have selected. For example, if you are a computer science tutor you can earn more money than the amount of money earned by an English tutor. Most platforms also pay tutors on an hourly basis. Are you a teacher? Don’t remain at home doing nothing, especially during the weekends or holidays. With tutoring, you can earn a good amount of extra cash.

However, prior to signing up, you need to ensure that your computer also has the requirements of your preferred platform. You will require a realistically fast processor as well as video-chatting capabilities that are real-time. Most platforms also require their employees to have a TEFL certification to be hired to work with them.

Sell Your Unwanted items

Have you ever thought that you can earn some extra cash by selling the items that you no longer want? This comes with more benefits because you will not only be getting some cash but you will also be clearing your space. Look at it this way; when you sell unwanted items you will not only be earning some cash but also downsizing and decluttering your life. Although this will not help you earn money throughout, you can use it when you want to clear out your space at least once in a while. Could be you have looked around and wondered what to sell. Here is a list of things that you can earn money from:

• Old kids’ outfit
• Sporting goods that you are not using anymore
• Toys
• Electronics
• Wardrobe accessories that are out of fashion
• Valuable but non-sentimental keepsakes like jewelry, watches, outdoor equipment, dusty tools and even a motorcycle or used vehicle.

You have looked and said yes I have some items that I can sell but where? There are several methods and places to sell your unwanted items.

Let’s start with digital options.

Here are some of the digital platforms you can consider depending on the sales model of your choice and the amount of effort you’re willing to give.

• Amazon: Note that you can become a professional seller in Amazon if you are planning to be selling at least forty items per month here. All you need to do is to pay a referral fee and a subscription fee and you will sell your items at the comfort of your home.
• EBay : this is among the most popular sites worldwide. This means that when you post the items you are selling here, most people will view them. All you need to do to beat your way through the other items is to list high quality images and clear description. You will pay a commission on the items you sell.
• Resale (Trade-in) Marketplaces: there are various places where you can sell your items, particularly, electronics online. Some sites include Gazelle, SellCell, MaxBack, Verizon, AT&T and BestBuy among other online market places.
  Craigslist: you can also try this. It is cheap but it has several disadvantages like high chances of non-payment and potential safety risks.

Sell Your Words through Freelance Writing

This is another way of earning by working from home. Most college students have embraced this as a part-time job. Freelance writing is a side hustle with which you can predict the amount of money to earn daily, weekly, or monthly. The amount of money you earn depends on the number of articles you write and their rating. There are various websites that offer Freelance writing jobs including Fiverr, Upwork, Craigslist, ProBlogger, and TextBroker among others.

Affiliate Marketing

This is also a kind of side hustle. However, you need to be a little bit careful with it since you can earn a lot of cash or nothing at all. Note that it is more than finding the appropriate item to sell. You also need to select the appropriate brand to partner with. The amount of money you earn through affiliate marketing depends on the product you are selling and the kind of network you are using.

Above are just a number of side hustles that you can try at the comfort of your home and earn some extra cash? The list of side hustles is just endless. Here are other side hustles that you can embrace:

• Starting a drop-shipping business
• Selling your grammatical skills through freelance editing
• Offering pet sitting services
• Remote Accounting
• Selling of E-books and Audiobooks
• Retail Arbitrage
• Selling your passion for issues through political advocacy
• Selling your search queries
• Selling your fashion skills
• Selling your cooking skills and becoming an Instagram influencer among others

With a side hustle, living the life you have always dream can be attainable. There is no time like the present, and it is never too late to start a new career path towards financial freedom. Good Luck! The opportunities are yours to take!