It’s the era of the side gig. Hustle culture, #RiseandGrind, and part-time gigs are more common than ever as people feel the pinch of rising living costs. Yet, taking a second job is not feasible for everybody. That’s where work from home side hustles come to the rescue.
Maybe you have limited mobility or commitments inside the home, so leaving it for more extended periods isn’t possible. Or perhaps you want a way to make some extra money without leaving the comfort of your living room. It might sound like a pipe dream, but it’s never been easier to make some secondary income from home in the modern age.
You won’t be alone. Some 40% of American households have at least one person with a side hustle, and more than one in 10 makes over $1,000 a month [1]. But it can be hard to know where to start — so here are 10 of the most lucrative and practical side hustles to make extra income without leaving your own home.
Try Freelance Work
Freelance work is one of the most lucrative side hustles, according to a survey by CreditLoan [2]. The beauty of freelance work is its potential to become a significant source of primary income, provided enough time and energy are put into it.
There are many ways to freelance, from creating art by commission to writing requested articles and blog posts to completing data entry for other businesses. If there’s a demand for it, you can probably fulfill that demand on a freelance basis.
Freelance work gives back what you put into it. If you only have a few hours a week to devote to it, your income will likely be less than those with upwards of 10 hours to spend on it — but if you’re willing to put the time in, the sky truly is the limit.
With a wide variety of sites to offer your services, freelancing is relatively easy to break into and has no upfront costs threatening to set you back before you begin earning. This makes freelancing an attractive option for the hopeful home earner.
So why isn’t everybody freelancing, then? Freelancing comes with plenty of perks, but there are some downsides too. Establishing yourself on freelancing sites is often steep and requires patience and persistence. It’s doubtful you’ll be earning $1,000 a month at the start. However, if you’re willing to go the distance, freelance work has the potential to become a reliable source of income.
Create and Sell Crafts
From crochet and knitting to card-making and creating your own jewelry, selling your own crafts is a fun way to monetize your craft skills.
Sites like Etsy make it easy for crafts sellers to create their own storefront and sell their work internationally, so if you’re good at needlework, ceramics, metal crafts, or any other type of artistic hobby, this is a great way to make some extra money in your spare time.
With any craft, upfront costs will be involved, whether it’s yarn, paper, wood, or glass, so it’s best to start small and work your way up. Once you’ve made some sales and feel confident there’s a demand for your crafts, you can invest in more materials — but beware that they cost space and money. If you live in a small house or apartment, consider where you will store your crafts materials — particularly if you plan to buy in bulk to cut costs.
The type of crafts you choose to sell will also affect how much you can make. Glass and metal crafts see the highest sales but come with some of the highest upfront costs [3]. Meanwhile, paper and organic crafts see the lowest sales but are some of the easiest and cheapest crafts to start with. Choosing your niche will require careful consideration of the time, effort, and money you are prepared to put into this venture.
Take Paid Surveys
Being paid to take online surveys sounds too good to be true. Being given money to share your opinion? That can’t be real, can it?
Paid surveys exist, and it is possible to make money this way, but it is rarely the get-rich-scheme it is sometimes portrayed as. Nevertheless, with the right survey sites, you can make your fair share of money this way.
Anyone can take surveys, but your demographics matter. Frustratingly, many surveys are only open to particular groups — and you may not always discover this fact until after you have gotten halfway through the survey. Individual surveys also generally do not pay very much on their own. So patience will be your best friend if you intend to make money by taking surveys.
The average survey site pays below $2 per hour [4]. So while it is unlikely you will be able to earn enough to pay your rent or your next utility bill using paid surveys, you might be able to make some extra money for a rainy day if you’re willing to put in the hours.
Become a Virtual Assistant
There are some very busy people out there, and turning to a virtual assistant is the only way they can focus on the critical parts of their job. Virtual assistants check and answer emails, organize task lists, update calendars and perform general admin work to make the lives of busy professionals easier. Moreover, it’s a job that can easily be done from home, providing you have a reliable internet connection.
The average virtual assistant earns $16.17 per hour, with the top earners making as much as $26 per hour [5]. As with many other jobs, your experience level will determine how much you can charge for your services.
Freelancing sites allow you to advertise your services as a virtual assistant for free, but beware that you will be competing with others to be chosen, so make sure you stand out by listing your experience and relevant skills. Stand out by putting yourself into the shoes of an ultra-busy professional and asking yourself what you would be looking for in a virtual assistant.
Monetize Your Online Presence
Do you own a blog, a YouTube channel, or a TikTok account? You’ve been sitting on a powerful opportunity to create some side income without even knowing it.
Influencers are the new darlings of the marketing world. YouTube ads have a staggering potential reach of 32% of the total population [6], while 63% of people have clicked on a Google ad before [7]. But people don’t typically look for ads — instead, they find them while browsing for other content. Your goal is to become that content.
Some 34% of brands say they pay influencers for marketing in actual money, as opposed to product samples or discounts [8]. So whether you monetize your online presence through ads, such as Google Adsense, or through partnering with brands directly, getting involved in influencer marketing can be very lucrative.
It’s easy to think that this is an opportunity only available to the top 1% of online content creators. However, micro-influencers (influencers with a smaller following) boast more engaged audiences [9]. In addition, micro-influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers can charge up to $100 per post [10] — so depending on how fast you can type, monetizing your online presence can become a real source of income.
Become a Reseller
You can sell almost anything online, and the only time you will ever need to leave your house is to ship your item once it’s sold.
The resale market is more significant than ever [11], and as retailers raise their prices to keep up with the rise in costs, reselling shows no signs of losing its popularity with consumers.
Getting started on sites like eBay or Facebook Marketplace is easy and costs nothing — signing up and creating a listing is free, though you can pay to promote your listings to a broader audience if sales are low.
What could you sell from home? That depends on your storage capacity. If you have a spare room or an empty garage, your ability to store items for reselling will be much greater, giving you more freedom of choice.
Clothing and accessories are top the best-selling list [12], with books, beauty products, and gadgets also popular. Other popular items include baby items, pet supplies, and furniture [13].
The beauty of reselling is that so long as somebody wants it, you can make a sale — and selling online means you can sell to anyone in the world.
Hold Garage Sales
Are you a people person? Do you prefer to do business in person rather than over the Internet? You may think this would make earning extra income from home impossible, but garage sales offer the best of both worlds.
Garage sales generate $4.2 million in weekly revenue across the country [14] and continue to be popular even in a post-pandemic world. While a garage sale will limit your customers to people in your local area, you also have the real-world appeal of seeing an item in person on your side.
Garage sales are best held on weekends, when people are most likely free, and require advertising to draw in customers. Depending on your local community and location, you might be able to make do with word-of-mouth and an ad in the local newspaper — but you may also need to turn to social media to get the word out.
Garage sales cannot be held regularly without a steady supply of things to sell, but they can be a great way to make some extra income when you have a spare weekend.
Become an Online Tutor
Are you good at math or English literature? Do you enjoy passing on your skills or knowledge? Personal tutoring via Zoom allows you to set your hours and rates, has no upfront costs to set you back, and can be very rewarding.
Online tutoring pays between $10 to $40 per hour, depending on your level of experience and subject [15]. Anyone can become an online tutor, but a teaching qualification will put you at the top of the list and increase your earning potential.
You can sign up for one of the many tutoring agencies online or cut out the middleman and place an ad online or in your local newspaper. As some agencies will take a cut of your tutoring fees, managing things yourself can be more lucrative, but will also require more legwork to ensure your potential clients find you.
Become a Translator
Do you speak a second or third language? Translators are always in demand, and online translation work is a great way to use your skills in exchange for extra income. The most spoken languages in the world are English, Chinese, and Spanish, but there is a translation niche for every language. And post-pandemic, translation services are more lucrative than ever: the translation service market grew by 40% during the Covid-19 pandemic [16].
While fluency in your chosen language is essential, a lack of qualifications is not necessarily a barrier to entry. In fact, 52% of translators do not have formal certifications in their native language [17].
Final Thoughts
Earning income from home can empower you to be your own boss and unlock new freedom to live your life the way you want. While some earning opportunities are more lucrative than others, each has the potential to be a genuine side hustle.
It boils down to you: what are your goals? How much money are you looking to earn? How much time do you have to spare, and can you afford to invest some upfront costs? Once you know how much time, effort, and income you can inject into your side gig, you can begin making plans — and hopefully, making money too.
1. Dixon, Amanda: “Survey: Nearly 1 in 3 side hustlers needs the income to stay afloat”, June 5 2019, bankrate.com/personal-finance/side-hustles-survey-june-2019/
2. “Do You Hustle? How to Earn Extra Money”, February 27 2019, creditloan.com/blog/do-you-hustle/
3. “Best Selling Crafts vs. Most Profitable Crafts”, accessed June 2022, craftprofessional.com/best-selling-crafts.html
4. McMullen, Laura: “Surveys for Money: Here’s What We Earned”, August 2 2021, nerdwallet.com/article/finance/surveys-for-money-site-reviews
5. “Average Virtual Assistant Hourly Pay”, accessed June 2022, payscale.com/research/US/Job=Virtual_Assistant/Hourly_Rate
6. McLachlan, Stacey: “23 YouTube Stats That Matter to Marketers in 2022”, February 14 2022, blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/
7. “The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2022”, 2022, hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
8. Santora, Jacinda: “Key Influencer Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2022”, March 29 2022, influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/
9. Santora, Jacinda: “Key Influencer Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2022”, March 29 2022, influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/
10. Santora, Jacinda: “Key Influencer Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2022”, March 29 2022, influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/
11. Doniger, Alicia: “Shoppers are buying from resale retailers more than ever. Here’s why”, November 28 2012, cnbc.com/2021/11/28/shoppers-are-buying-from-resale-retailers-more-than-ever-heres-why.html
12. Blanckenberg, Nicole: “70+ Best-Selling Products to Sell Online in 2022”, April 17 2022, blog.storeya.com/2021/01/best-selling-products-to-sell-online-in-2021/
13. LaPonsie, Maryalene: “13 Items That Sell on eBay, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace”, August 16 2021, money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/items-that-sell-on-ebay-craigslist-and-facebook-marketplace
14. “7 Ways to Make the Most Money From Garage Sales”, June 2 2016, finance.yahoo.com/news/7-ways-most-money-garage-195142592.html
15. “Make Money Online Tutoring: The Guide to Earning Your Financial Independence”, September 30 2021, moneydoneright.com/fast-money/online-work/jobs/online-tutoring-jobs/
16. “Translation Service Market”, February 2021, marketresearchfuture.com/reports/translation-service-market-1400
17. Lim, Shu Ni: “2022 Translation Industry Trends and Stats”, accessed June 2022, redokun.com/blog/translation-statistics