The 5 Best Money Making Tips

Do you want to make extra money but not sure where to start? There are so many easy ways to make money. Last year, I made over $4500 from side income!

There are different ways to make money, but some of these can be done from home. These are great money-making tips for stay at home moms, college students, professionals – basically everyone who wants to side hustle!

5 Best Money Making Tips
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When I read The Penny Hoarder’s in depth article on 29 Smart Ways to Make Money on the Side in 2015, I realized there were so many more ways to make money!

While I have done a few items on their list, it really got me thinking how I need to expand my money making.

The article went into detail about all the various side hustles and I plan on implementing several of them!

My best money making tips

The best lesson I have learned from making extra money is the importance of diversifying my income.

I don’t like to be dependent on just one source of income. I never know when something will happen to that source and it will disappear!

In the month of March, I had several different sources for earning extra money. This included:

  • multiple mystery shopping companies
  • pet sitting
  • multiple phone apps

Some of my payments last month ranged from $2.50 to my largest check to date, which was for over $200!

Here are just a few of the payments I received last month:

Mystery Shopping March

Here are 5 ways I make extra money

Mystery shopping and Panel Studies

Mystery shopping and completing panel studies are a great way to make money! I even wrote a book about it, as this can be extremely lucrative source of income. I made over $7,000 in the past two years doing some side hustling.

I made it work into my schedule and never did anything too difficult. I could do a lot from home and then I made money going out to dinner, shopping at places like Bed, Bath and Beyond, going to the movies, etc. The best part was I could bring a friend with me for most of these and their purchase was reimbursed too!

Pet sitting

If you love animals, this is one of my favorite money making tips. I made thousands of dollars last year walking dogs on my lunch breaks and dog sitting.

I also got paid to visit and play with cats while owners were out of town. Each gig lasted around 20 minutes and I was paid between $17 – $20 a pop.

If you are interested in becoming a pet sitter, do a google search for pet sitters in your area. This industry is booming and most companies can’t keep up with the demand.

Cell Phone Survey Apps

Ibotta is a super easy way to earn rebates and cashback from the grocery store and drugstore. After I finished a shopping trip, I would scan this app to see if any of the products I bought offered a rebate. The best part about Ibotta is that the rebates aren’t always brand specific. This means you can scan a rebate for something generic, like “50 cents of any brand of eggs” or something.

You even get $10 after you scan your first rebate, and all the money is put into your PayPal account! Sign up here to get started.

If you like taking surveys and have a few minutes to spare each day, try survey apps like My Soap Box and Survey Junkie. Both are super easy to work with and can pay out quite a bit if you take them seriously. Even $50-$100 is extra money each month!

Online Shopping

I do all my shopping online via Rakuten. Basically you use their website first, and then you earn a percentage back off every purchase you make at pretty much every store. So for example, when I shop at Macy’s, sometimes I’ll earn 8% cash back. This money goes into a PayPal account!

You also get a $10 gift card to Target or a few other stores of your choice when you sign up and make a purchase. Hello, free money! 

Start a blog

This blog has changed my life! I’ve been fortunate to have so many new, lucrative opportunities thanks to blogging for the past year. I am able to earn income from ads, affiliates, sponsored posts, partnerships and more.

In less than a year, I made over $13,000 from blogging. That’s a lot of money to make in my spare time! If you have been thinking about starting a blog, you should go for it! I never though in a million years I could make money from this.

If you are thinking about starting a blog, this tutorial will help you start a blog today. You’ll also get a FREE domain name for a year! I was able to quit my job and blog full time, all within my first year of blogging. I am really glad I took a chance and started a blog! I invested a small amount of money to start my blog using Bluehost, and I made $13,000 in 6 months of blogging. That’s the best return of investment ever! 

Along with getting hosting for your blog, you’ll also need a theme. While you can get them for free through WordPress, I prefer these:

Related: Create digital products to sell on your blog and marketplaces like Etsy

Related: Side hustle and earn $1,000-$2,000 a month with Facebook Ads

Related: 10 Ways Your Blog and Business Can Benefit from Pinterest

Create A Course

Have a unique skill or hobby that you would love to share with others? Create and sell a course! Teachable is the perfect platform that will teach you how to create a course and make passive income from it.

Start saving, even if it’s only a few dollars a week

Whether you want to start an emergency fund or a vacation fund, you have to start setting some money aside. If you’re like most people and struggle with saving, you should consider using Digit. 

I’ve just started using this free program and love it. Digit lets you save money each week from your checking account. What I really like about Digit is that it analyzes my bank account and determines how much I can really save per week. Some weeks it might be $5 and other times it might be $20. You don’t have to worry about overdraft and can contribute less or more if you need to. As of now, I don’t know an easier way to save money! You can learn more about Digit here. 

You can also use an app like Acorns. The app rounds up your purchases and invests the change. You can withdraw your money at any time, or watch it grow. It’s a great way to start investing, even when you don’t have a lot of money.

What are you favorite money making tips? Do you have any side hustles?

Kristin, is the creator behind Believe In A Budget. She teaches others how to start a blog and how to side hustle. Her course, Pinterest Presence, helps bloggers + businesses drive traffic to increase their website’s profitability. Click here to learn more

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20 Comments

  1. Hi everyone. I am new to everything that has been discussed here and find it a little overwhelming at the get go. What do you suggest a newbie to do first to get started on side husseling?

    1. Hey Annette! Def sign up for the free side hustle to success course. It’s a .pdf that gets emailed to you and it’s probably the best way to get started right away making money and all totally free!

  2. I mystery shop a lot too and it’s awesome! I regularly make a fee hundred a month from it so it’s nice to have that to work on that debt snowball.

    1. It’s so nice to hear someone else mystery shops! I think it’s great and it really helps me cut down on my spending, especially when going out to eat!

      1. How do I get sign up for mystery shopping???

  3. These are awesome tips! I’ve also been using apps like ibotta, Snap by Groupon, and Checkout 51 to get cash back on purchases. My favorite app is Shopkick which gives you points for just walking into stores (no purchase necessary) which you can cash out for gift cards. I’ve already gotten Target & Starbucks gift cards! This app is also really well made and easy to use in my opinion.
    http://get.shopkick.com/hydrogen48025

    1. Stacy, these are great tips! I just started using Shopkick and it seems so easy to use. If you have any referral links for these apps, feel free to share!

  4. All of your side hustle jobs really inspire me to look for something I can do quickly and easily around my crazy work schedule. I might have to try the mystery shopping since I do go to the grocery store a lot.

    1. The mystery shopping at the grocery store is so easy to do! Literally takes 5 – 10 minutes tops!

  5. I’m big on referrals. Swagbucks is great, and Mr. Rebate offers a steady 20% of your referrals’ rebates for the life of the account. When I’m actively working Swagbucks, I can make around $600 a year. I’ve been lax lately, but it still comes in handy.

    1. I have never used Swagbucks, but keep hearing people mention it. Wow, I had no idea about Mr. Rebates! Great tip 🙂

  6. I realized recently just how much I love referring people to products I love. I don’t think I would do well full-time in sales, but I am focusing on side hustles where I have a product or service that I can get paid to refer others to. I am working on a new niche website where ultimately my goal is to refer people to a specific product I love! Hopefully that won’t be too obvious from the site (it’s a content site/blog so not too salesy) but I think it’ll be a great long-term side hustle.

    1. I’m with you – I like talking about and referring people to products I use and really like, especially in blog form, because it can eventually turn into passive income. I hope you share more about your niche website, even if you don’t reveal the name. I’m currently working on my niche site still and am trying to decide if it will be either strictly a niche site or if I will make it a little more bloggy.

  7. I’m working on building out a solid portfolio, so I haven’t been able to make any extra income through my freelancing (yet). But I absolutely adore the pet sitting idea. I’m going to try this during the summer!

    1. The pet sitting is a lot of fun if you like animals! It definitely didn’t feel like work!

  8. Great tips! I’ve just been freelancing for money lately as you probably know, but I’d like to take up a side hustle that lets me get outside more and do something active now that the weather is getting warmer. Pet sitting and dog walking sound really fun and easy. I’ll definitely have to check those sites out.

    1. You are doing awesome with the freelancing! It’s an area I am interested in, but it makes me so nervous to put myself out there!

    1. I am so excited for you! I hope you write more about freelancing tips on your blog 🙂

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