24 Creative Ways To Make Money (2024)

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary in the United States is just over $59,000. But with the cost of living slowly creeping upward, you might be wondering, “How can I make my first $100 on the side?” People are always looking for creative ways to make money.

Rest assured, you’re not alone. A 2023 Bankrate survey found that 39% of Americans have a side hustle—including 45% of households whose incomes exceed $100,000. People with successful side projects may have been more likely to respond, but it still demonstrates that money can be made on the side of most full-time jobs.

The attraction of a side hustle isn’t just limited by the opportunity to pad your wallet. Sure, you can use the extra cash to grow your savings account, set your own schedule, and eventually quit your job if your venture becomes successful. But learning how to build and sell products and services on the side also offers several related benefits:

• Security. A day job can offer stability, but it also puts your earning potential all in one basket. If you lose your job, you lose your only source of income. Diversifying with a side hustle means you’ll still have cash if the worst happens.
• A new hobby. A hobby is something that you want to do but don’t have to do. Some creative people cross-pollinate their hobbies and day jobs. Hobbies are something fun to do, yet they sometimes have spillover benefits for your day-to-day work. They give you another place to learn and grow, even if your day job (or another important activity) has hit a wall.
• Building your money-making skill set. Making money is its own distinct skill—one you need to practice if you want to turn interests and talent into a sustainable business. Even if a specific side project doesn’t reach its full potential, you’ll still build valuable skills that can be applied to your next idea.

24 creative ways to make money

1. Sell your photos
2. Print on demand
3. Teach online classes
4. Recommend your favorite products
5. Rent your unused space
6. Sell your services
7. Create niche products
8. Host tours in your city
9. Test websites and apps
10. Sell your art
11. Housesitting and pet-sitting
12. Work as a mover, handyman, or errand-runner
13. Sell second-hand clothes
14. Become an online juror
15. Answer questions
16. Become a home chef
17. Tune pianos
18. Babysitting
19. Join clinical trials
20. Flip furniture
21. Become a fitness instructor
22. Organize other people’s things
23. Become a translator
24. Become a mystery shopper

We’ll break down each side hustle idea by:

• Effort: How much time, skill, or experience you’ll need to put into the idea.
• Leverage: How well positioned you are to turn the idea into a money-making one that increases in value without needing your direct attention. A low leverage idea is a 1:1 trade of time for money. A high leverage idea will have much more of a return for your efforts, often resulting in passive income.
• Startup costs: The upfront budget you’ll need to launch the idea.
• Potential earnings: How much profit you can expect to make from your side hustle per year.

1. Sell your photos

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs (out of 5 💸): 💸

Potential earnings: On average, 35¢ per image. Typically, you’re looking at 10¢ to $99.50 per (royalty-free) sale, or up to $500 for a photo sold under an extended license. The exact payout will depend on the platform you use to sell your work. Shutterstock, for instance, pays between 15% and 40% of its revenue to the photographers who submitted the images.

Photographs are like any other product, and in order to successfully sell your photography you need to target an audience of potential customers who want or have a need for them. Start by thinking about the photography style you’re most interested in, whether that’s landscapes, portraits, or pets.

Then, depending on how you plan to monetize (e.g., by selling prints or offering rights to stock photography sites), see if there’s a specific lane or niche you can identify. The Haute Stock library was born out of this concept. Its founder, Rachel Rouhana, was frustrated with the lack of stylish stock photography available for women business owners. So she created Haute Stock to fill that gap in the market.

Learn more: How to Sell Photos Online (For Both Amateur and Pro Photographers)

Once you’ve found your niche, start building a following on visual-heavy platforms like Instagram and Pinterest. Snap some niche-specific photos, use a free photo editor to polish them up, then sell them on sites like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Monitor which style works best through the platform’s analytics.

Use your social media accounts to tease your paid content—bloggers and business owners always need stock photos. You could pitch directly to your target business owner, asking whether they’d be willing to pay for your photos—and how much they’re willing to pay. For example: You might identify the audience for your pet-related photos as dog retailers who are willing to pay $25 per stock photo.

Bear in mind that you’ll need to price your stock photos based on three factors: the demand for photos in that industry, the price competitors are charging, and the fees you’re paying to take the photos themselves.

If you’re shooting people, you’ll need to pay them, and if you’re shooting locations you’ll usually need permission or to pay a fee. Build this into your pricing to make sure you’re not losing more money than you’re making.

2. Print on demand

Effort: Low

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: According to the Print On Demand Market Report, the global print-on-demand market was worth $7.7 billion in 2023, with apparel representing the largest market segment.

Print on demand is a low-risk way to make money that, unlike traditional dropshipping, lets you leverage your creative talents. Here’s how it works: You work with a supplier to customize (or white label) products such as books, t-shirts, phone cases, or other merchandise. You add your design to a plain item, then the supplier prints and delivers your products to customers on a per-order basis so you don’t have to hold inventory in order to start selling.

Since you can take the lion’s share of logistics and operations work off your plate thanks to Shopify apps like Printful, Lulu Direct, and Printify, you’ll have more time to focus on design, branding, and marketing your products. It’s a very accessible business model if you’re working a full-time job. You can get creative with your own talents or commission a freelance designer to help you with patterns or full-blown product designs.

Since your customized products will be manufactured once a customer places an order, you also won’t have to pay for the items until you’ve sold them.

Print on demand is a superb model for creatives who want to get involved with their products but don’t have time to commit to making or manufacturing them. It combines the ability to be expressive and to build a distinct brand with the ease of dropshipping, making it a nice sandbox to start your side hustle in.

3. Teach online classes

Effort: High

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Your earnings will depend on the subject you teach, your level of experience, and where your students are located. The International TEFL Academy reports that teachers of English as a foreign language can expect to earn between $10 and $40 per hour. More experienced or niche class teachers charge upward of $3,000 per course.

Turning your industry knowledge into an online course is a smart way to make extra money. For example, the creators behind Sugarlash PRO Academy found a unique niche they were knowledgeable about and created a series of profitable online courses around the topic. 

You can start making money by teaching classes in an area you’re interested in. What can you talk about for hours on end? What do your family and friends ask for your advice on? The answers might be a great class idea. But remember, a huge part of any online course’s success is the audience who purchases it.

Some niches might not be as profitable as others, so check whether there’s high demand for your course topic before investing time in creating it. Generally speaking, you want to look for audiences willing to pay money in order to make progress. Passionate hobbyists or professionals who are willing to invest in their craft are prime examples.

Next, plan the flow of your course. Think about the topics you want to cover and create content for each section. This could be a one-off lesson sold as a class or a curriculum of content on a similar theme offered as a course.

Sure, you’ll need to spend some time promoting your course. But once you’ve invested time in creating the content, your investment is basically done. The time and money you spend developing the course is upfront, meaning you’ll only need to fork out marginal costs if and when you update it

You can host and distribute your content on platforms like Shopify, Udemy, Teachable, Skillshare, or LinkedIn Learning, all of which allow creators to monetize their courses.

4. Recommend your favorite products

Effort: Low

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Successful affiliate marketers can expect to earn between $66,000 and $119,000 per year, according to Glassdoor. However, most people won’t earn that much. A survey by Influencer Marketing Hub reveals that fewer than half of all affiliate marketers will earn more than $10,000 in a year.

Perhaps you’ve got a list of products you couldn’t live without. You refer one of those products to your friend, and they soon feel the same. Affiliate marketing is a way to monetize your passion for helping people connect with the right product. 

The affiliate marketing model works by recommending products to your network and receiving a bonus—usually a percentage of the sale price in commission or gift cards—as a reward. Most companies, including Amazon and eBay, offer a refer-a-friend incentive.

You could take things a step further by recommending your favorite products to a bigger audience through blogging or posting on social media. Wirecutter has a team of staff writers who create product-centric content for its audience. The site monetizes through the commissions they receive for referrals.

Reviews on sites like Wirecutter aren’t spammy—there’s no pushy feeling that forces you into making a purchase just because the writers will receive a commission. Their reviews are in-depth, unbiased, and genuinely make it easier for you to find the right product. That’s the basic idea of great affiliate marketing: providing education and context that can be challenging for the official company to present in a genuine way.

It’s relatively easy to get started with affiliate marketing, but to see significant income, you need to have a large online following. To take your first steps toward affiliate marketing, search your favorite brands’ websites to see if they offer a refer-a-friend program. (If they don’t, you can always email to enquire.) Ask friends to use your link or code when they purchase from that brand and you’ll both typically get a reward.

5. Rent your unused space

Effort: Low

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $300 to $2,000 per month for a parking space, according to PeerStorage. $50 to hundreds per hour for indoor meeting space, according to Peerspace. Hundreds per night, according to Airbnb and VRBO.

If you have some extra space in your home, office, garage, or parking lot, you might be able to make some money renting it out.

One example is your backyard. You can treat it as a side-hustle opportunity by listing it on sites like Hipcamp and charging people to pitch their tent there. Create boundaries with the people you open your camping space to—such as whether they’re allowed to use your indoor toilet, access your home, or light barbecues on your grass.

Similarly, for a small monthly fee you could rent the parking space that comes with your home or apartment to family, friends, or one of the many drivers looking for a parking spot—a huge source of frustration for commuters. This is an especially great side-hustle idea if you use the car space at night but aren’t at home during the day.

You can use sites like Parkopedia or Craigslist to check out your competition. Find what people in your location are charging for their parking space, then price your spot competitively. Pop into local offices and ask whether any staff would be interested in renting your spot.

6. Sell your services

Effort: High

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: More than $20 per hour.

The gig economy is on the rise. An increasing number of people are working as independent contractors or freelancers who work for other organizations on a flexible or temporary basis to earn money online.

Freelancing or service-based online businesses are among the most popular side hustles. In fact, Upwork’s 2023 Freelance Forward survey reported that 64 million Americans performed freelance work in the previous year.

You can get involved by selling your services. Think about what you’re good at or want to learn. There’s probably a company looking to employ someone like you on a project basis, as opposed to a full-time contract.

Start getting experience on sites like Upwork, TaskRabbit, and Fiverr. Be wary that other freelancers, especially those who don’t know how to position their services, might charge pennies for similar work, and that there’s a risk of pricing way too low to beat them in the battle for clients. A great place to start is the average hourly rates in your country for a specific profession. The average hourly rate for a marketer in the US, for example, is $38.

Decide what services you could offer by looking at the skills you’ve nailed in your day job:

• Are you praised for the way you organize your email inbox? You could make a great virtual assistant.
• Do you communicate well with coworkers and summarize your meeting minutes for your team? The leap to writing isn’t too far.
• Can you listen to a client and deliver exactly what they want? You could offer party planning services for people in your area.

You could also take a look at the tasks you enjoy doing. Let’s say you’re working in a marketing agency as your full-time job. You enjoy social media posting but don’t enjoy advertising. You could reach out to clients who only want social media content and offer that as your standalone service. Just make sure there isn’t a non-compete clause in your full-time contract. (It’s worth chatting with your boss to double check.)

You’ll also need to decide on a schedule for your side gig. Some companies hire remote staff that don’t need to be present in the office. Look for that type of role if you’d prefer the flexibility that comes with remote-friendly work. Similarly, if you thrive being around other people or find remote work isolating (even on the side), offer to join other companies in their office when you’re free.

You might need to spend a while creating your portfolio—a collection of work that proves you’re good at the service you’re selling—before you can demand higher rates.

However, you can start with lower rates and potentially use your service offering as a springboard to starting your own business. First, see whether there’s a demand for your service, whether you can fit the work into your schedule, and how much clients are willing to pay you. You might find a hidden home business opportunity to make this income stream your main one.

Service-based side hustles are high margin, and can be very profitable and quick to pay off. But the downside is they’re usually a bit harder to scale into an asset that can run without you. You are your business—you’ll need to be on hand to do the work—or at least oversee it if you grow to the point where you’re able to subcontract work to another freelancer and maximize profit. 

7. Create niche products

Effort: High

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Up to six figures.

You’ve found a skill you’re good at and you’ve started monetizing it by offering a service to clients. But you spend so much time with your clients that you realize there’s a gap in the market for a product you could sell.

Tracey Hicks is a real estate agent and independent business owner who found herself creating small notebooks to keep track of her clients. It dawned on her that other agents would probably benefit from these notebooks too, so she started selling them on her Shopify store.

Another example is Dustin Lee. He noticed that graphic designers were always looking for add-ons to their standard tools, such as paintbrushes, design elements, Photoshop templates, and clip art. So he created RetroSupply, which sells those products directly to other designers.

This follow-on from selling your services will only work if you understand your clients and peers. You might need to land a few freelance gigs before spotting a gap in the market—but that’s a silver lining. Business ideas present themselves more noticeably when you’re in the weeds and living with the problems yourself.

8. Host tours in your city

Effort: High

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Tour guides typically earn about $22 per hour in the US—plus tips—according to Indeed. Of course, if you operate independently, you can set your own rates and earn significantly more per tour.

If you live in a tourist city, there’s an opportunity to host tours for visitors.

These can be niche (like a tour of little-known historical sites) or activity-specific (such as general walking, bike, or alcohol tours). Maybe you’re aware of a fantastic restaurant that only locals know. Think about what you’re knowledgeable about and start to plan the route of your tour. You might need to create a script or fact sheet to explain areas of your city to your attendees.

Then, start to think about how you can find people to join your tour. You could create your own website and optimize it for keywords your tourists are likely searching, such as:

• “Walking tours in (your city)” 
• “Bike tours in (your city)” 
• “Cheap (your city) tours” 

If you don’t fancy that upfront commitment, you can join platforms like Showaround, Get Your Guide, and The Tourpreneur. These platforms let you host tours in your city to make money—and friends—by entertaining tourists passing through. You’ll be making friends while also earning extra cash.

9. Test websites and apps

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $10 or more per test.

You form an impression of a website when you visit it, and companies are always looking for feedback on their sites. So you could get paid for sharing your thoughts, whether it’s on design, content, or usability.

This is a great side hustle for people who have spare time at an office—maybe on their lunch break. Sites like UserTesting pay $10 per 20-minute test, which might not sound like much, but if you do one every lunch break, every day, it adds up.

With so many people accessing the internet via smartphones and tablets, a good deal of testing now revolves around mobile apps as opposed to websites. Software Testing Help offers tips on how to get a mobile testing job, along with job portals linking you to such work.

Similarly, you can volunteer to take part in focus groups. Designers, copywriters, and marketers are always looking for feedback on their new campaign. You could email them and volunteer your time to help, asking for a small incentive—like a cash reward or gift card—in return for your time and opinion.

10. Sell your art

Effort: High

Leverage: High

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: A wide range, spanning from $20 to $20,000 per month.

If you’re a budding artist, selling your work is a great side hustle idea.

It’s a simple way to make money from your hobby—especially when you combine it with the print-on-demand model. Transfer your illustrations onto a physical product (like a t-shirt or coffee mug), and create an online store for your items. You’ll pay only the fee for the item once you sell the product.

Or you could create an online library of your artwork. Work on building a following, then offer quick, personalized art in return for a small fee. This is a great way for budding artists to work on their craft, making extra money on the side and building an audience as they grow. Sites like Buy Me a Coffee let people donate the cost of a coffee in return for your custom work.

Talented artists can also offer made-to-order illustrations. Both businesses and the general public often look for custom illustrations through sites like Etsy or Fiverr.

Alternatively, you can use Shopify to sell your art directly to customers. This means you can set your own pricing, manage your inventory, and have full control over your illustrations.

11. Housesitting and pet-sitting

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Roughly $16 per hour for housesitting, per the Economic Research Institute. Pet-sitters make a similar rate, according to SideHustles.com.

Housesitting and pet-sitting can be a fun and flexible way to make some extra money while also getting a change of scenery—and potentially enjoying the company of furry friends. Both options can be tailored to your lifestyle and preferences, allowing you to choose gigs that fit your schedule and comfort level. To find these opportunities, you can explore online platforms like TrustedHousesitters, HouseCarers, MindMyHouse, and Rover.

As a housesitter, you’ll be entrusted with caring for someone’s home while they’re away. This could involve tasks like collecting mail, watering plants, maintaining the pool (if applicable), and ensuring the overall security of the property.

Some housesitting gigs might even include basic chores like vacuuming or taking out the trash. The responsibilities and duration can vary greatly, so clearing communication with the homeowner beforehand is key. Popular online platforms like TrustedHousesitters connect housesitters with homeowners worldwide.

For pet-sitting enthusiasts, the focus shifts to caring for the homeowner’s furry companions. This could involve feeding, walking, playing with, and cleaning up after the pets. Depending on the animal’s needs, you might also administer medications or provide companionship during the day. Many pet-sitting opportunities can be done from the homeowner’s residence, allowing you to enjoy a homey environment with animal company. Websites like Rover and Care can connect you with pet owners in your area who need pet-sitting services.

12. Work as a mover, handyman, or errand-runner

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Average of $35 per hour, but depends on task and experience.

There are many apps where you can sign up to offer simple services like moving furniture and helping to mount a TV on a wall. If you have experience with practical, household tasks, this could be an opportunity to market your skills. You can keep this type of work as a side hustle or turn it into a full-blown online business.

Below is a list of several apps where you can sign up to be a handyman or random task contractor:

• TaskRabbit: a general app that offers everything from home deliveries to shelf mounting to gardening.
• Handy: similar to TaskRabbit, but also offers plumbing and electrical work.
• Fancy Hands: offers assistants of any type to its customers, whether it’s picking up dry cleaning or walking the dog.
• Thumbtack: a platform that rewards specialization, connecting customers with local pros from handymen to wedding DJs to photographers.
• Staffy: finds temps for employers in essentially any industry, often on short notice or same day.

13. Sell second-hand clothes

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: On average between 25% and 40% of the sticker price for clothes—and significantly more for rare or vintage items.

Look in your closet and your dresser. How many pieces of clothing are just sitting there that haven’t been worn for years? As long as they’re in pretty good condition, you may be able to get money for those pieces. The great thing about this side hustle is you can keep it as a part-time thing that you do every spring cleaning, or you can turn it into a small business. 

Once you’ve tried your hand at selling your own used clothes, you can consider buying and reselling your own curated collections of thrifted clothes. Consumers aligned with your taste will pay a premium for hard-to-find pieces you’ve picked up.

To get started, there are a number of websites and apps you can use to sell your clothes.

• ThredUp: for selling your everyday clothes that are still in good condition.
• Poshmark: for selling your clothes quickly, but you’ll have to accept the best offers.
• Depop: specializing in vintage and quirky fashion pieces, though it sells anything.
• Vinted: known for selling high-fashion street brands.
• Rebag: known for luxury handbags
• LePrix: for high-end designer items in good condition (requires authentication process).
• The Real Real: for designer and high-end fashion items.
• Facebook Marketplace: for selling clothes to your local community. 

Remember that these apps will take a percentage of your sales. They can also charge listing fees and extra shipping fees. If you think you could tackle that, you could start an ecommerce store of your own. Stores like Fashionably Yours, an online consignment shop that buys and sells pre-owned designer clothing, operates both online and in-store.

14. Become an online juror

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Usually $5 to $10 per case.

According to One Legal, there are more than 40 million lawsuits filed each year and more than one million registered lawyers. These lawyers sometimes need to practice presenting their cases to real people. That’s where you come in.

eJury offers to pay people to sit on a virtual jury. You log into eJury’s website, review the facts of the case, and then submit your verdict. The verdict isn’t legally binding, it simply shows how you would vote if you were on a jury for this case. This helps lawyers decide where their case is weak and how better to present their case when they actually go to court.

The great thing is you don’t need any specialized knowledge to do this. Just like in a real jury, eJury requires that you aren’t in the legal field at all. It only requires that you be an adult, can read and write, and not be under indictment for any felonies or have any felony convictions on your record.

You can do as many or as few cases as you want. If you find that a case is taking too long, you aren’t obligated to finish it.

eJury onlys pays about $5 to $10 per case, so you probably won’t get rich being an online juror. But you certainly can make some extra money to help with bills or get you some extra spending money.

15. Answer questions

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: 20% to 50% commission or $5 to $90 fee per question.

If you’re a professional or an expert, you can get paid to answer questions in your field of expertise. All you have to do is apply, and once your credentials are verified, you can start making money right away.

An expert is someone like a doctor, lawyer, veterinarian, plumber, mechanic, etc. Basically, someone with a set of knowledge that the everyday person wouldn’t have. 

The way it works is, users are charged a fee to post questions on sites like JustAnswer.com. They can either pay per question or pay a rate to ask an unlimited amount of questions. Then you, as an expert, will browse the questions that relate to your expertise and choose the ones you want to answer. If your answer is helpful, the user will give you a rating.

A consistently higher rating will give you a bigger percentage of the fee that the user is charged. Sites like Fiverr and Upwork also provide some version of this. This is a great way to get paid for simply sharing what you already know.

16. Become a home chef

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸

Potential earnings: $20 to $50 per meal.

You can turn your culinary skills into cash by working as a home chef. Home chefs can make money by preparing and selling meals in a few different ways. The estimated salary varies depending on the chosen method, location, and the level of service provided.

For casual cooks, online platforms like Mealawe, Shef, and Eatwith connect them with individuals who want home-cooked meals delivered or enjoyed in a communal setting. You’ll typically set your own prices per serving, and earnings can range from $20 to $50 per meal. In most cases, you’ll cook in your own kitchen, but some platforms offer the option of cooking in your client’s kitchen.

For more experienced home chefs, catering small events or offering private chef services can be lucrative. Chefs can set personalized menus, cook on-site or off-site, and potentially command premium rates, depending on the occasion and number of guests. Private chef services can range from $75 to $200 per person for a multicourse meal. Local regulations and licensing may apply, so be sure to research the requirements in your area.

Overall, being a home chef offers the flexibility to work on your own terms and share your passion for food. However, it requires planning, marketing, and ensuring compliance with local regulations.

17. Tune pianos

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Around $37,000 per year.

Pianos are unique in that they’re one of the few instruments that most players cannot tune themselves. That makes piano tuning a viable profession in a way that, for instance, a professional guitar tuner would not be.

Becoming a piano tuner requires training and equipment. The Piano Technicians Guild offers certifications that demonstrate your skills and knowledge, potentially increasing your earning potential and attracting a wider clientele.

The exact income can vary depending on factors like your experience, location, and clientele. On average, piano tuners in the United States earn around $37,160 per year, with a range stretching from $24,420 to $59,120. This translates to roughly $18 to $50 per hour.

There are a few routes you can take to find work as a piano tuner. One option is to build a client base through word-of-mouth recommendations and by partnering with piano stores, music schools, and concert venues. The rise of online platforms has also opened doors for tuners. Websites like Thumbtack and Handy can connect you with clients in your area who need piano-tuning services.

18. Babysitting

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $10 to $25 per hour.

There is an unmet need for babysitting in the United States. For generations, parents entrusted teenagers (often neighbors) to look after their young kids, but attitudes have changed, and contemporary parents show hesitancy to let children mind other children.

This means there’s an uptick in babysitting work for adults. In fact, recent studies by Zippia have found that the average age of babysitters is 37 years old.

So, depending on the area where you live and your experience, it’s not uncommon to charge anywhere from $10 to $25 per hour, per child. If you’re able to get Red Cross certifications in First Aid, CPR, and advanced child-care training, that will make you an even more attractive option to parents.

Now, you no longer have to be referred by word of mouth in your neighborhood. There are all kinds of apps and websites where you can sign up to be a babysitter. Here are five that can get you started:

19. Join clinical trials

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: $50 to $300 a day or visit.

A clinical trial is a study that asks volunteers to come forward to test a drug or hypothesis. That means people who fit specific parameters are asked to commit to a specific regimen or test period.

To participate in a study, you first need to apply. The more involved the study, the more complicated the application process. Once you’re accepted, the people conducting the study will outline the guidelines and how long the study will last. Usually, you’ll only get paid if you complete the trial by following all the guidelines to the end.

The most common type of trial is a new drug that helps treat a disorder or disease. But there are also other types of trials that are less invasive and could even be quite fun, like this trial from 2019 that tested how effective Wii Heart Fitness was in improving physical activity and health in people of all ages.

How much you get paid will depend on a few factors: how invasive the study is, how much time you must commit, and whether it may be dangerous to your health. You can find all the different kinds of clinical trials outlined by the FDA on its website.

20. Flip furniture

Effort: High

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: $50 to $500 per month.

According to the EPA, more than 12 million tons of furniture have been thrown out every year since 2015. Not only does that hurt our environment, it’s also a wasted opportunity. If you’ve got time, can transport furniture, and don’t mind a little bit of elbow grease, this is a great way to make money from home.

There are several ways to flip furniture. One is to find high-end pieces online or at flea markets and upsell them in your own store, like the way Flippers does. You can also buy worn-out furniture and spruce it up for resale.

You’re going to need a bit of money to start out. You’ll either need a bit of money to buy the high-end pieces you want to flip and a place to store them or tools, supplies, and a workspace to fix up pieces that need work. The upside is, in most areas you can find cheap furniture. And if you’re willing to give it a clean and a paint job, you can sell those pieces for hundreds of dollars.

21. Become a fitness instructor

Effort: Medium to high

Leverage: Medium

Startup costs: 💸💸💸

Potential earnings: Average $20 to $50 per hour.

The American fitness, health, and gym club industry is projected to be worth more than $147 billion in 2024. While a lot of that revenue goes to nationwide health club chains, plenty of it makes its way to individual trainers offering fitness classes.

These days, you can teach classes in person or online. And if you want to turn this into a full-fledged business, you can do both.

If you want to teach in-person fitness classes, the first thing you’ll need is the necessary certifications. Check with the gym or fitness center you want to apply to and see what certifications they require. Certification exams can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. So make sure you know which exams your employer requires.

Some gyms pay by the hour, others by the head (how many people sign up for your class). It’s important to create your own style of teaching. If you create a following of loyal students, the gym will be more likely to ask you to come back and maybe even add more classes to your roster.

A great way to build a following is also to take your workouts to the web, like @MrandMrsMuscle. They put short workout teasers on their Instagram page, have video workouts available, make extra income from YouTube, and have developed their own fitness app.

All of this has earned them more than 1.5 million followers and a steady stream of passive income as they add new workouts every week—they’re even adding meal plans to their services.

Learn More: Building a Multimillion-Dollar Fitness Brand Without Paid Marketing

If you’re someone who enjoys working out, this is a great side hustle to get paid while you sweat. And if you turn it into a full-fledged business, you can make some real money.

22. Organize other people’s things

Effort: Medium

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Professional organizers make an average of $72,000 per year.

If Marie Kondo taught us anything, it’s that sometimes all we need is a little help organizing the things in our lives. If you’re someone who has a knack for organization and likes to help people, this might be the side gig of your dreams.

On average, a professional organizer makes about $50 per hour in the US. This can involve more than just putting a bunch of stuff in boxes. It means understanding your clients and finding an organizational system that works for them and their lives.

Professional organizers are hired for more than organizing items in a house. You can also help with restructuring a business, digital information organization, time management, and even feng shui.

You can sign up on contractor sites like Thumbtack and Westtenth. From there, you can specify what your skills are and your rates. Then get to organizing!

23. Become a translator

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Professional translators make an average of roughly $4,700 per month.

The world is becoming more and more connected, so if you’re fluent in more than one language, you can use that to make some extra money.

With sites like Translate.com, Unbabel, and even Fiverr, it’s easy to find gigs asking for translation services. Some sites require you to take a test to show your fluency level and then base your pay rate off it.;

There are sites that specialize in blog posts and proofreading, and sites that only do mobile apps or web comics. If there are words involved, you’ll most likely find a translation gig as well.

Here’s a shortlist of five sites to get you started:

If you have specialized knowledge in another language, that’s a whole other avenue you can delve into. For example, under the Affordable Care Act Section 1557, all hospitals are required to offer competent translators for their patients. And because you’d be offering a specialized type of translation, you can charge more per hour for your services.

The great thing about this gig is you can make your own hours and set your own rates. You also can help people who otherwise would feel lost in legal or medical situations. On top of that, if learning languages is something you enjoy, you can get paid to continue your studies.

24. Become a mystery shopper

Effort: Low

Leverage: Low

Startup costs: 💸

Potential earnings: Mystery shopper salaries vary by region. Some Florida mystery shoppers report making around $17 per hour, while others in New York City made over $28 per hour.

If you like shopping, why not get paid to do it? Mystery shoppers are hired to report about their experiences in specific stores. They’re usually called in when a complaint or concern has been raised about that store.

Because of that, your duties can include anything from taking pictures of the storefront to buying a specific item and recording your shopping experience from start to finish. How much you get paid for each job depends on what it is you’re asked to do. 

While this gig won’t replace your day job, you can make some extra cash while you’re out and about. With sites like Bestmark and IntelliShop, it’s easy to find the mystery shopper gig right for you.

But be careful: there are mystery shopper scams out there. You should never have to pay to become a mystery shopper. Also, keep in mind, many times your travel costs are not included, so factor that into the jobs you accept.

How to make money in real life and online

Instead of following conventional advice, these offbeat money-making ideas make it more likely you’ll find a side hustle where passion and profit overlap—without too much competition.

Whether you’re selling your art, offering a niche skill, or simply renting something you own that people want, remember that a new income stream typically takes time to build momentum. It’s worth building for the long term—potentially with the plan to quit your day job and take on your new venture full time—when you find an idea that you enjoy.

These creative ways to make money are different from your typical money-making tasks, but they all need a creative person to do one thing: connect the dots between what people want and outside-the-box solutions you can use to give it to them.