With so much focus on side income these days, I thought it would be fun to think back to all the ways I’ve made side income over the past decade.
What I realized is that as time passes it’s easy to forget the ways that we’ve earned side income.
It’s hard to believe, but I legitimately have made side income at least 10 ways.
The side income that I pursue changes from year-to-year, just as my “life” situation changes from year-to-year.
While I hesitate to say there has ever been a time the past 10 years that I haven’t been busy, there are times when my schedule was more flexible.
One of my biggest takeaways from reflecting on the various ways I made side income is this: stay open to new ideas.
You never know what opportunity will come up in the future and it’s important to be open to walking away from one side income source for a new, more promising one.
In the same way you may have more or less capacity for side income depending on your job or life situation (children, anyone?).
Having side income can greatly help your finances. Beyond that you inevitably learn and improve skills, as well as meet and network with new people. You can use mental accounting to motivate you to continue to earn side income, as any side income can be “extra” money that covers a car payment, mortgage payment, or even travel you otherwise couldn’t otherwise afford.
Here are 10 ways I’ve made side income:
1) Working a Part-Time Job
My freshman year of college I worked at my University’s IT department. In fact, I held that IT job the entire time I was in school. It was a great job. But this brings up one of the first ways I ever made side income: a part-time job.
While some may argue this part-time job wasn’t truly side income because my IT job was only part-time, I viewed it as a side job because it forced me to sacrifice what otherwise would be free time. I worked as a furniture/equipment/cubicle mover for a company that specializes in office interiors.
This job was Friday night and/or Saturday mornings/afternoons. It was flexible as you could decide if you wanted to work or not, as long as you told the scheduler by Wednesday. It was good money considering it was essentially just ‘muscle’ work. Then again, I’ll never forget the Saturday that I helped unload four full-size semis on 3 hours of sleep…
2) Working for a Blog
Another way I’ve made side income was working for a blog. During my college days I randomly met a personal finance blog owner through a political blog I ran for fun. We ended up chatting and emailing and I eventually ended up doing blog work for him on a regular basis.
This was an awesome way to make money in college because it seemed more difficult than it should have been to find jobs that helped develop skills that would be applicable to my future career. It’s a side income source that I still have listed on my LinkedIn.
Having this early exposure to the personal finance blogosphere gave me a head start when I finally started my own personal finance blog approximately three years ago. I knew how to get traffic, connect with other bloggers, and had a bunch of topic ideas planned that helped me get off to a great start.
3) Taking Surveys
Throughout college I took surveys for money. I had a few other friends who did this consistently as well, and we enjoyed the small side income we were able to gain from it. Swagbucks is one of the sites that I’ve used to make money on surveys.
Over the past few years as I’ve run this blog full-time and worked in corporate America I’ve realized just how valuable feedback is on products, services, brands, and more. Companies are willing to pay a lot of money to get this data (sometimes millions), so I really don’t expect surveys to ever go away.
4) Blogging
I first started blogging eight years ago. At that time I was a political blogger and I wrote on my own political site as well as a group blog called United Liberty. I didn’t make much money on political blogging, but I was also a new blogger learning the ropes.
Young Adult Money has been a different story. Last month I shared a lengthy post title 8 Ways to Make Money Blogging. I won’t lie and say I make six figures a year blogging, but it has been a great source of side income for my wife and me over the past three years.
As more and more people spend time searching for and reading content online, I think there is a great opportunity for people to both make side income blogging as well as turn it into a full-time job. My only regret with blogging is not starting sooner. There is an initial time frame that can span 6 months or longer where you won’t make a dime. If you stick with it, though, it can be a great way to make a location-independent income.
Have a blog idea but haven’t started a site yet? Here’s How to Start a Blog in 5 Easy Steps.
5) Poker
I made a side income playing poker in college. I would play poker both online as well as in-person at card rooms throughout Minnesota. I never had a big payday like a couple others who I graduated high school with (one scored over $300k from winning a tournament and another won more than $200k…) but I did make a small amount of side income through playing.
Poker has changed a lot the past few years. First, the U.S. government shut down the online poker sites that were operating in the United States. This came as a shock to many who had quit college and jobs to play full-time. We’ve also seen the overall skill level of players reach a level where it is much more difficult to win. There simply isn’t that “easy money” out there.
With that being said, I do know some poker players who are very dedicated to the “sport” of poker and play nearly every week in live cash games and tournaments. I myself would still like to play in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event, but poker as a side income is not something I’m currently pursuing.
6) Spreadsheet Consulting
Ever since starting my career in finance I’ve used Microsoft Excel on a daily basis. Some days I’m on it the entire day. Excel is a great tool and it’s pretty incredible what you can do in Excel when you integrate formulas, pivot tables, charts, and automation through VBA.
One way I’ve made side income in the past is through spreadsheet consulting. The work was done for a small business one of my friend’s owns (around 10-15 employees). He was looking to better track financial metrics and the status of accounts they own.
I did work for six to twelve months for them and it was a great experience. I was able to improve skills that were directly applicable to my career while getting paid. It also gave me a taste of freelance work and made me learn many of the difficulties that full-time freelancers and contract workers face.
7) Freelance Writing
The past year I worked as a freelance writer for the FeeX blog. I wrote a post once a week and for a short time was writing two posts a week. Freelance writing is a great job for anyone who wants to make money remotely and is looking for a more flexible schedule. It didn’t matter whether I wrote the post at noon or midnight. All that mattered was that I got my post submitted by the deadline.
Freelance writing is something that naturally comes out of blogging, and starting a blog in the niche you are trying to freelance write in is a great way to break into freelance writing. Not sure what niche to choose? Here’s how to pick one.
I haven’t done any freelance writing this year. The reason I’ve chosen not to pursue it is because I would rather build up my own blog and spend some time going through the prep phase of launching my second website. This is just another one of those situations where you need to weigh taking on work that brings in money immediately versus work that won’t make you anything short-term but could pay off long-term.
8) Credit Card Rewards
Over the past couple years I’ve become increasingly interested in credit card rewards. I’ve used credit card rewards for free travel as well as lump sum cash bonuses.
My wife and I will go to Vegas for free this year thanks to credit card rewards and we are in the process of gaining and utilizing credit card rewards to take a trip to either Europe or South America next year. It’s pretty incredible how much more affordable international travel is when you can get two round-trip flights for free instead of paying $3,000.
9) Renting out part of our house
When my wife and I were looking for our first home we were looking for one that specifically had rental income potential. We have been happily renting out a basement rental unit for nearly three years now. Our long-term plan (years down the road) is to turn the entire house into a rental home so that we can use the rental income to pay off the mortgage. Even further down the road I would love to have anywhere from 1-4 rental houses providing me with income in retirement.
Renting out an extra bedroom or basement isn’t a decision that should be made quickly. There is a lot of work and responsibility that comes with being a landlord. I shared some of these in 9 Things to Consider Before Renting a Basement or Bedroom. The income may be nice, but you certainly end up sacrificing something in return for that income.
10) Entering Giveaways
The final way I’ve made side income is through entering giveaways. If you are a long-term reader you will remember our weekly Friday giveaway roundups that included anywhere from 100-300 giveaways. We kept that going for nearly two years until my wife started grad school and simply did not have time to put together the list each week.
As you can probably imagine, during that time we entered and won quite a few giveaways. We won tablets, a $400 lawn mower (that was promptly converted to Home Depot store credit), hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars worth of gift cards, and a ton of other random things such as a kitchen sink, child seat, and copper cauldron.
Some people have asked us why we enter giveaways for things we don’t want or need. The reason is simple: it’s easy to convert things into cash. And that’s exactly how we made a side income through giveaway.
The biggest giveaway I won? A trip to Hawaii. We took the trip in January and had an amazing time.
Make Money with Side Hustles
If you are interested in side hustles be sure to check out my new book Hustle Away Debt where I go in-depth about how side hustles can help you eliminate debt and fast-track your finances.
Related: 50+ Online and At-Home Side Hustles
What have you done – or what do you currently do – for side income? What do you hope or plan on doing for side income in the future?
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I’m always so irritated by the screener surveys, that I just never follow through on the survey hustles. I’m going to have to give your recommendation a try. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve made a good bit of extra money selling old stuff on e-bay over the years. Before I throw something out I ask myself does it have any value, if I thing it does I’ll list it on e-bay.
I don’t do a whole lot for side income these days as it basically turned into our business. That might change in the future, but the majority of our time is being spent in growing out the business. That being said, we do churn quite a bit and thankful for all the traveling it’s allowing/going to allow us to do – you can’t beat traveling for free or pennies on the dollar.
I love that one of your side incomes was playing poker! So funny! For most of my career, I couldn’t have a side hustle because I worked in a regulated industry but over the past two years since I have had my own company, I have tried a number of side hustles. The most lucrative and enjoyable for me has been freelance writing.
Love this! My friend currently tests products as a consumer and makes money doing it. It sounds like a side gig I hadn’t heard of before and a really interesting one at that. I really have only babysat, blogged, and wrote – but I’ve done all three a lot! I like how many you’ve explored (I’m sure liking some more than others) haha.
Great post! I’ve worked part time jobs before to earn extra money but it’s never been for me. I’m at the point in life where I want to earn money by doing something I enjoy and not have to drag myself to a job each day. I love to write, so freelance writing has been going well for me lately and I’d love to pick up some VA work for other bloggers. That’s awesome that you and your wife are going to Vegas for free this year! I would love to travel more and I’m really interested in credit card hacking to score free or cheap trips.
I’ve made money spreadsheet consulting too! People like pretty spreadsheets and VBA. Unfortunately, this also is on my list of things that I don’t ever want to turn into a full time business because the rate I could charge wasn’t high enough.
I think my mindset about side income is a little weird. If side work falls into my lap, I’ll do it, but if it doesn’t, I don’t seek out any work where I can earn a modest amount. I would rather work for free on something that might have a huge payoff, than work consistently on something that has a moderate guaranteed payoff.
I’m currently renting my couch for the month and man can I say that it’s just NOT for me! lol! There goes my Air BnB dreams. :)
Side income is awesome…I wish I pursued it more when I had more time. Luckily some on that list are relatively easy like credit card churning/travel hacking. It’s so wonderful when you can travel in style for pennies on the dollar.
I’ve done about half of these things! I’ve been giving giveaways a chance more recently…still haven’t won anything yet, but someday!
It is nice
to earn money by ghost writing. I use this one http://www.privatewriting.com/
service. I use it in two cases: when I don’t have enough time or skills to do one
of my written assignments I pick up an order there and give my own work to a
write. So I earn money, pay for my order (which is done by a professional) and
have some more money for my need. It is very easy.
Great list and informative links. Which endeavors have been most worth your time, in your opinion?
Renting out part of your home is a great (and easy!) way to make side income. I’ve done that by renting out a room to a roommate long term and by renting out my entire condo for a short term stay while I’m out of town.
indebtedmom Yes, the screener surveys are terrible on some websites like surveyspot. I think any survey company that makes the screening easier is going to succeed big-time.
DebtDiscipline It’s great that you got in the habit of selling things on eBay and not just tossing it into the trash or donating it. I think sometimes you can get significantly more selling on eBay. One of my shirts went for about $20 on eBay and if I had donated it I really could only write-off a couple bucks on my taxes.
FrugalRules I think churning is one of those side hustles that are relatively easy to integrate into your life. People already spend a lot of time planning and looking into travel, so it doesn’t feel like “work” to churn credit cards for reduced travel expenses.
blonde_finance I don’t currently have a freelance writing gig but I really enjoyed it when I did. I’m not sure I will have time to freelance write while I’m getting my MBA, but it’s a great side hustle for anyone who has even a couple of hours a week they are willing to commit towards side hustling.
Financegirl Haha yes some side hustles are better than others, that’s for sure. I like the product testing gig. If you can get into that and consistently get products sent your way it would be really “easy” money.
Chonce I have a similar perspective as you when it comes tot side hustle money. I want to do something I enjoy, not “just another job.” With that being said I think it can be a good setup for some people who have short-term goals for their side money (i.e. funding a trip, paying off debt, getting x dollars in a retirement account ASAP, etc.).
Hannah UnplannedFinance That’s awesome! You are the only other person I know who has done spreadsheet consulting (except those I’ve met/know through Excel blogs and whatnot).
Your perspective is one that is common (imo) of people who are somewhat financially secure. If you are living paycheck to paycheck or don’t feel secure you are more likely to pursue those side hustles that essentially guarantee money, even if that amount is capped. I am somewhere in between right now but within a few years I hope to be in a spot where I’m willing to invest more time and energy into things that may not pay off short-term.
Beachbudget Haha! Yeah I would not enjoy that side hustle. I’m too much of an introvert and too possessive of my space and things.
Andrew LivingRichCheaply Hindsight is always 20/20. I know I sometimes think back to when I was in college and wish I had sunk a significant amount of time into side hustles that had potential to become full-time incomes. Thinking about the present and what you can do in your current situation is important, though, and there is always SOMETHING you can do on the side to move you forward in a side hustle.
SimplySave I used to enter hundreds of giveaways a week but now I just enter large ones hoping to hit it big. I’m happy with this approach but for people who don’t mind entering a ton of them you are definitely bound to win something sooner or later.
Pretend to Be Poor Blogging for sure. It’s netted me more than any other side hustle and I’m so glad I started my blog when I did. It also has given me some consistent side income that allows me to invest into business ideas that may not bring in revenue for a long period of time.
Ali_AnythingYouWant Awesome success story. We’ve enjoyed having a renter and what we have to give up in return for the income is small. We would barely ever use the space if it wasn’t rented out so it’s a great setup.
I’ve always tried to diversify my income streams as much as possible. Unfortunately, it’s always been through part time jobs or consulting gigs (which are location dependent and difficult with two kiddos). I’ve been teaching an accounting class two nights a week at a local community college and try to do some freelance accounting and finance consulting. My new blog is my first attempt online. Right now it’s more of a creative outlet for me, but who knows, maybe it will one day become a source of side hustle income.
I’m definitely lacking on the side hustle part of the FI equation. It’s easy to make excuses when work, gym, social, and blog time take up 99% of my time. But I’ll figure out a nice balance eventually.
There are so many opportunities to learn a little extra (and sometimes more than a little) income on the side. People overlook it and it’s not always a huge time-consuming endeavor either. I think there is a perception that if you need to work outside your 9-5 than you are in bad shape financially, which isn’t true.
Great list. I’ve made income doing a few of those things as well. I wish I would have started blogging when I was college. I would probably be a blog guru by now. I have yet to win any major giveaways yet, but I won’t stop applying.
You won a trip to Hawaii?! You lucky dog, you! Haha that’s so awesome. I actually made a pretty good amount of money babysitting from 11 years old until about a year after I graduated from college. It was a sweet gig for me. I love kids and I would usually clean/organize after the kids went to bed and the parents would be so happy when they came home that they would tip me too on top of my hourly rate. I would have babysit for free so it was great!!
Financial Tour Guide Woah that’s really cool that you are teaching at a community college. I wouldn’t mind doing that some day, despite my fear of public speaking ;)
ferventfinance I’m honestly in the same boat as you. Between my 9-5 and making it to the gym a few times a week there isn’t much time left over. With side hustles you definitely have to sacrifice a little to make them a reality.
ShannonRyan I really hope that perception becomes less prevalent over the next couple decades. There really is nothing wrong with going after entrepreneurial pursuits in your spare time regardless of your financial situation.
Jason @ The Butler Journal Haha I always say to people “if only I had taken blogging seriously in college…” I honestly am not sure what my life would look like if I had started a blog my freshman or sophomore year and had made good money at it after a while. It would be hard not to pursue it full-time if you have a base of $ coming in consistently each month.
Christina@EmbracingSimple Hawaii was honestly more of a competition, but yes I did “win” the trip and it was pretty incredible. Once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. My wife has done a lot of kid-related gigs and worked at the Y’s kid’s stuff for about a decade before moving on. I think those sorts of part-time jobs are great for people who like kids – like you said you would potentially do it for free so why not get paid to do it?
Nice list, DC.
I still do many of these as well, including Surveys and of course- blogging.
I gave up the contests a bit, because I just didn’t win enough to make it worth the time commitment.
seedebtrun For contests I’ve moved on to just the big wins. I simply don’t have the time to enter any beyond that. I think a lot of people DO have time to enter them, though, and should enter them if they don’t have any other side hustles going on and want a side hustle that doesn’t require much thinking.
Hey DC cool ways here, particularly like #6 there, see you on the WPT ;)?
Not sure there’s too many ways here you could earn income there you’ve covered most of them!
The poker one is neat to me. I had never heard of that whole culture until I had a roommate for awhile that was into it. He was backed by other people to play and stuff, it was all so new to me. He made a decent amount off of it. Nothing massive, but as a student, several hundred dollars a month goes a LONG way to improving your standard of living!
I really should start entering more giveaways. I started writing for local magazines and newspapers when I was in college, but I kind of wish I had spent that time blogging instead. I feel like having an online presence is more beneficial to me. Thanks for another great list!
Awesome stuff, David! I think people are really good with the ins and outs of spreadsheets don’t realize how many people struggle with getting the functions to work. -Ricky
What an awesome list DC, and amazing that you’ve actually done all of these things, rather than just a list of potential ideas (although it definitely does give me some more ideas!)
I’m seriously lacking on the side-income equation, but am definitely hoping to change that this year.
mycareercrusade Yes, WPT for sure! Would love to meet up with you at one of the bigger tourneys. Would you consider going to the WSOP next Summer? I’m considering playing in a $1,500 buy-in tournament.
moneypropeller Oh yes, it’s a whole sub-culture for sure. A few hundred dollars playing a game definitely goes a long way to any college student. It’s not as big as it used to be, but hopefully when online poker gets legalized again in the US we’ll see more people playing.
Anum Yes, hindsight is always 20/20. I wish I had started a couple different blogs/websites in college. I imagine I would have been able to build a nice little side income and I had a lot more time then to invest in things like blogging.
debthelpercom I think you’re right about spreadsheets, Ricky. I think once you’ve reached a certain level of expertise it’s difficult to view things from a beginner’s POV. I think teaching is an even more lucrative field than consulting.
Jason@Islands of Investing Thanks Jason! This was a really fun post to put together precisely because of the reason you pointed out: I’ve actually done all of these! It made writing the post easy, too, because a lot of this was just me recounting my experiences giving each side hustle idea a shot.
Impressive winnings with the giveaways!!
I always worked during college and grad school and it seemed like I was in the minority. The worst was my job in the kitchen of the dining hall, scrubbing pots and pans. I always smelled disgusting when I got back to my dorm room. There was a definite sacrifice of free time, but I like to think that my student loans are lower as a result.
Harmony@CreatingMyKaleidoscope Thanks! Giveaways were a great side hustle for a while before I started to concentrate my time and energy on other side hustles.
The dining room would be a tough place to work. Like you I sacrificed quite a bit during undergrad but I’m glad that I did. In fact my biggest regret was not pursuing a side hustle, like blogging, that had potential to be an ongoing revenue stream.
I want to get a rental house once we’re done paying off our current one. (Since I’m the only earner, we have to be conservative about taking on new debt.) I want to make sure we have relatively steady money coming in in our old age.
AbigailP Great idea! I don’t think we are patient enough to wait until our current house is paid off, but it’s honestly a good conservative approach. In that situation you literally will start getting income from the property as soon as you rent it out.
Spreadsheet consulting! That one intrigues me. My company recently switched over to google. We still mainly use excel for the numbers, but I just learned you can do pivot tables in google spreadsheets. Who knew!?
Mark@BareBudgetGuy I actually did a lot of my spreadsheet consulting work in Google and I have to say I absolutely hate it for anything other than simple tools or personal use. I would never recommend using it in place of Excel for business purposes and honestly wouldn’t be surprised if your company switched back. I have many reasons why it’s a bad tool for businesses (other than very basic purposes) but I won’t bore you in this comment ;)
We have a rental property, but it is more of a drain than income source right now. Spreadsheet consulting is a great idea! I spend all day working in Excel.
houseoftre Ah sorry to hear the rental property isn’t so profitable right now. Hopefully over time? Yes, spreadsheet consulting is a great way to make extra money. I also spend nearly the entire day working in Excel.
Great info, again, DC!
Side income is awesome. It’s helped us through a number of stretches in life. In fact, side income paid for my pilot training in the ’90’s.
I’ve done a number of these, but not some, and some are going to be new to me, but hey! That’s the neat thing about life, new adventures!!
Now that I’m retired I need new things to keep me busy and to make some $$$$.
Thanks for the ideas!
Keep the good stuff coming!!!!!