eBay

The first thing I want you to do is determine how much free time you have each month. 5 hours? 10 hours? Write it down. Next, determine how many of those hours you could work, given the opportunity. At this point, you should have a pretty accurate number. What I’ve learned about doing this myself is that we have a lot more free time than we think. After all, Americans watch 5 hours of television per day.

You can now read this post to determine how to use those hours:

1. Secure a Part-Time Job

Find a part-time job you enjoy. This way, you’ll be more likely to work longer hours and make more money. After all, working a job you dislike would not be befitting of a post called, ‘7 easy ways to make money in your spare time’.

What do you like to do for fun? Go to bars? Go golfing? Go to car shows? For every passion, there is a job: bartender, sporting goods store associate, auto detailer… Look to your hobbies when looking for a part-time job. You probably already have connections in the industry, now just go ask for a job!

2. Flip Goods on Craigslist/eBay

The trick to this money maker is to buy low and sell high. This job is good for anyone who likes shopping and negotiating. First, items are usually picked from garage sales, estate sales, direct leads, or even from eBay or Craigslist. Next, the item usually gets repaired (if needed), cleaned, photographed, listed, sold, and usually shipped. Buy low, sell high.

You don’t have to limit yourself to selling Beanie Babies. This can even be done for large items. Fixing and flipping cars can even be a lucrative part-time job. Just remember, the more money you risk, the more money you stand to gain.

3. Take Online Surveys

If you’d like to work at home and start earning right away, consider taking online surveys. Online surveys are for people who enjoy sharing their thoughts and opinions with others. Some surveys are even fun. You may wonder why they’re paying you. Others can be monotonous. But that’s not always a bad thing for a part-time job.

Online data collection via surveys is a massive industry. Join a company like American Consumer Opinion to get started. Expect a wide array of payouts per survey.

4. Provide a Local Service

Forget going digital for a minute. There are still tons of offline business options to consider. Are you handy? Consider providing a local ‘handyman’ service. This way, you’re working for yourself and doing physical work you love. Sometimes doing physical work is a much needed break from the head work most people do during the day.

You can also consider jobs like dog walking, car detailing, lawn mowing, snow removal, babysitting, computer repair, auto repair, house cleaning, house sitting, and more. When starting your small company, advertise to the right people. Find people who are willing to pay for a service. These people live in nice neighborhoods and are often too busy with their full-time jobs to take care of everything at home.

5. Start a Website or Create an App

While cliche, starting a website or an app can be a massive lift in your monthly income. Plus, you can work from home and let your creativity soar. There are no limits what you can create with code.

But not all of us like coding or are even good at coding. But that’s okay. Consider hiring someone to see your vision to fruition. However, this does take some initial capital. That small investment may really pay off if your idea catches on with others.

There are even some instances where you don’t need to code or have anyone else code for your specific needs. As the internet evolves, there are more and more ‘drag and drop’ site builders. You can get access to many of these site designs for less than $100.

To make things even easier, you can just buy a pre-made website design. These are called themes. Simple ones can be found for free. Elegant themes can be found for around $100.

You can monetize your site/app in many ways. Most people use display advertising. It’s how Facebook makes its money.

6. Create Goods and Open an Etsy Shop

Would you rather sell goods you create? Consider making them and putting them for sale on Etsy.

Setting up an Etsy shop is easy. They even offer a Quick Start Checklist wherein you include payment information, product pictures, and item prices. From there, you choose a business name. Don’t worry if the name is already taken. Etsy suggests adding ‘shop’ or ‘botique’ at the end of the name and use that name instead. Don’t worry… if you think of a fantastic new name for your business, you can change it from the user dashboard.

7. Make Money Playing Video Games

You wanted easy, didn’t you? How about playing games for money? It’s possible. PewDiePie made $7.4 million last year sitting on his butt playing video games (his words, not mine). The most obvious way PewDiePie makes money is through YouTube’s Google AdSense display ads. Whenever you watch a PewDiePie video and click on an ad, you are giving him money. He also makes money with his brand. He does speaking engagements and sells merchandise, for instance.

There are other ways to make money with video games besides becoming a YouTuber. Here are a few other ways:

Farm Items and Gold

Video games often take hours to ‘level up’. Some people just want to get there in a hurry. As a result, you can sell your game profiles or digital gold or whatever other players value. If you’re skilled at the game, this can be very profitable to you.

Win Tournaments

Are you really good? If you are, try competing for cash. Someone even won $6.6 million playing video games – just for one tournament. Players can also make money with sponsorship, just like in professional athletic competitions. Companies want to have you wearing their gaming peripherals: headsets, keyboards, etc.

Test Games

Yes, you really can get paid for testing video games. However, you don’t always get to play games you enjoy. Sometimes you must perform repetitive tasks and write up any bugs you encounter. Knowledge about this side hustle is rare. But you can find more information about this world by reading about it in this article ‘The Tough Life of a Games Tester‘.

How will you proceed?

Yes, we have many hours in our day which we can dedicate to earning more money. And there’s money out there for us to earn. You can get a traditional part-time job or you can even take surveys online. Which method will you choose?