When it comes to reaching financial goals, there is often a two-fold approach that people take. A lot of focus in the blogosphere is put on how to save more money or stretch your dollar. While I love to save money and cut out unnecessary expenses, I think many people would be better off if they focused some more energy on making more money.
While I work hard at my full-time job and spend the time and energy performing to the best of my abilities and developing the skills and expertise that will eventually help me move up the ladder and in turn maximize my earnings potential, I also spend my nights and weekends focusing on earning additional income. Below are five ways that I earn side income and a little bit about my experience in each.
1) Blogging
This is kind of a “duh” answer, since you are reading my website and probably can’t help but notice the ads on the side. As I mentioned earlier this week in 3 reasons you should blog, there are options for monetizing a blog or website. Besides the ads on the site, there are affiliation programs such as Amazon, where if you click on an affiliate link of mine and end up making a purchase, I receive a tiny percentage for my troubles. The options for making money blogging are essentially endless and I personally know a number of people who make a side or full-time income running a blog.
2) Rental Income
Rental income is probably my favorite source of side income and my wife and I have talked many times about how we would love to have at least one or two rental properties. While a stand-alone rental property may not be in the cards for years for us, we did convert part of the house we bought last year into a studio apartment that we rent out to a friend of ours. While we are only two months into renting, it has worked out well for us and it’s nice having that consistent rent check depositing in our bank account each month. I’d encourage young adults who are looking for homes to consider one that has rental possibilities.
3) Spreadsheet Consulting
As I started my career in finance a few years ago, I quickly realized there is a ton of manual labor that goes into running processes in Excel and other Microsoft software (Access, Outlook, etc.). I’ve spent the past nearly three years developing my Excel skills (check out my post here if you are interested in developing your Excel skills as well) and have been fortunate enough to get a little side cash helping a friend’s small business upgrade and maintain their spreadsheets.
There is a ton of demand for affordable spreadsheet and database help with small businesses, so if you are interested in making some side income working in Excel or Access, I would highly recommend making sure your friends and network are aware of your skills. You never know, one of them might ask you out of the blue for some help (that’s how it’s worked for me).
4) Selling on Ebay/Craigslist or Garage Sale
Selling things you own obviously requires you having the stuff in the first place, so some may say this isn’t exactly an “income source.” I count it as one, though, and have mentioned many times that I have a mountain – literally a floor to ceiling pile – of stuff that my wife and I need to sell on Ebay, Craigslist, or at the garage sale we are planning in the Spring.
One reason I count this as an income source is because we enter a ton of giveaways and inevitably end up winning every now and then (my wife won three or four this week alone). Of course, the stuff we win isn’t always something we want to keep and we end up selling it and keeping the cash. If you are interested in giveaways, consider subscribing to the blog via RSS so you can receive my Friday giveaway roundups each week. Or just bookmark the site and stop by every Friday ;)
5) Freelance/Staff Writing
Freelance writing can be a great source of income, especially if you enjoy the following:
- Writing
- Working by yourself as opposed to in teams
- Not being confined to a single physical work location
There are an endless number of websites that need content on a daily basis and are willing to pay talented writers to create that content. I haven’t pursued this too aggressively in recent times, mainly because I had just about zero free time, but now that we got our rental property ready and my current spreadsheet consulting job has all but ended, I will likely pursue a couple freelance writing jobs in the near future.
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These are just five ways I have made side income and continue to make side income. There are trade-offs with pursuing side income, the most obvious being loss of free time and feeling like you are always working. Overall, though, I think it would benefit many young adults to consider what they can do to make some money in addition to their full-time job.
Do you pursue side income? What side income sources have you considered pursuing?
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What, no selling plasma! ;) I do a few of these myself and can work out great. My favorite is #4 because that means we can get rid of more crap. :)
@FrugalRules I do have a few friends who sell plasma though I’ve never done it. Yes, clearing out clutter plus getting cash is always a win!
Great post! I do so many things for side income, and I LOVE it!
@SenseofCents It’s great!
where do/did you write? I write for a few travel blogs but have scaled back to keep the writing fresh, too much of the same isn’t good. You are right on the post about making money blogging that it makes you a better writer, my posts are definitely better now than when I started blogging. For side income I enjoyed tutoring, it was usually one hour after work, close to home and the hourly rate was $30-$70 so worth the time. Apparently there are online tutors now so you can even do it from home.
Great income streams here! I do a lot of side work to supplement my income and use odesk/fiverr to get side jobs constantly.
I do all of these except for spreadsheet consulting! Haha! Great job on your side income, DC!
I have done some spreadsheet work in my time, but I find that people expect you to create miracles. I do have blog income and I have thought about freelance writing, but just don’t have the time to jump in. Maybe one day.
I love the spreadsheet consulting idea! I’m an Excel/Access ninja so I’ll have to look into that! ;) Thanks for the ideas!
I do a number of different things as well. I do not think I could get into selling on eBay on a regular basis, although many people have been very successful with it. Last year at this time I sold about 7 household items of our own on eBay and by the end of the whole process I hated eBay and the post office LOL I remember thinking last year that I would do a post on the whole grueling process but I just didn’t want to relive the experience any more.
If only I was good enough to do spreadsheet counseling. I actually need a counselor! Side income is sweet because it’s all fairly unexpected. You hope to earn it, but in my case, it isn’t included in normal income, kind of like a little bonus. I don’t think I’ll ever stop trying to have a little side hustle coming it. It’s too addictive.
I make money on the side from a couple different sources. There are definitely a ton of ways to go about it and I think you’ve hit on most of the ones I take part in.
I love side projects! Editing has always been one I always fall back on (although proofreading is for people with a sharper I than mine.) Consulting of any kind can be a really quick and easy way to earn a little extra money as well. If you can DO something – odds are you can teach someone else how to – I’ve made little bits of money ding everything from teaching someone how to clean an oven to integrate their wordpress account with their Aweber account… It’s a nice way to meet cool people too. :-)
We just sold a whole bunch of stuff on e-bay and made about $500. Not only did we free up some space, we also made a little cash. win-win. I also do some babysitting dog walking and cat sitting on the side. It’s good money and something I enjoy doing.
I definitely want to fine tune my Excel skills – would be useful for enhancing the bookkeeping I do for our home based business. It would also be neat to be able to help others with this – what a great idea!
I have really come to love the idea of side income. I do mine mostly through rental real estate (and hopefully soon through blogging). The way I see it, anything I can generate aside from my full time job only helps speed up the debt reduction and wealth growing process. The drawback is the time involved on nights and weekends. That can eat into family time which creates a whole other set of issues.
David,nice post for side Income .I always want earn some extra income other than my salary but hard to find the way.After a long time i have taken agency of Insurance company and started with my friends to encouraging them to invest in it . That’s not full fill my requirements but still i was in search off some tips or idea and now got that one .
I Do surveys for extra cash…I work part time and the 100 or so I make on surveys a month helps
Nice post Dave, I would certainly concur with freelance writing as a great source of side-income, and many more people have the ability to do this than realize. I think people presume they have to be an astounding writer to achieve income from it but that’s not the case, I actually wrote a cover-piece on that fact recently myself.
If you’ve been doing it long enough and make some contacts around the web then you can easily come to some sort of arrangement with a blog or website owner to provide regular content at a certain rate..
Failing that though, Fiverr is a very easy way for anybody to get started and you can write anything from product reviews; blurbs, small articles or whatever other creative piece your mind can dream up, which people want.
To anybody reading and considering – it’s definitely worth your time!
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