With unemployment on the rise and nine-to-five jobs no longer being our only option, it’s only natural to be curious about the different ways you can make money. While some options are faster (and easier) than others, there are a growing number of jobs or side hustles you can do from the comfort of your bed.
There are also a growing number of ways to make passive income from wherever you want to be. Passive income is money made while you are not working. Some popular examples include side hustles or businesses that run themselves. So when a sale comes in, you literally could be making money while you’re sleeping with these kinds of jobs.
When you’re out there perusing the internet, be careful. Right now, there are a lot of people out there claiming they know how to make money fast. They say they can make you a millionaire if you pay them thousands of dollars and let them mentor you. While some of them can, this whole concept is often not always what it seems.
To help you avoid spending thousands of dollars for potentially little or even no payoff, we have come up with a list of the fastest ways to make money.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a pretty new and relatively popular way to make passive income. If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is, or haven’t heard the term before, here’s a quick explanation.
Affiliate marketing is when you make a deal with a brand to promote their product, and in return, you receive a portion of every sale that comes from customers using your affiliate link.
For example, let’s say you follow me on Instagram. I am an affiliate for a toaster oven sold on Amazon. You see my Instagram story where I am talking about how much I love this toaster and click my affiliate link. You check out the product and decide you want to purchase it. When you do, Amazon collects your payment and distributes a percentage to me.
Sounds super simple, right? There is a little bit of a catch with affiliate marketing. The customer has to purchase the product using your affiliate link (or sometimes there is a discount code instead that they have to use) for you to get your cut of the sale.
Many sites use cookies, which help track how long a customer is on the product page. Some companies have limits of how long a customer can take to purchase the product for you to be eligible to get a portion of the sale.
Overall, affiliate marketing is a really great and pretty easy way to make money fast. With just a little bit of promotion and a decent following, you can rack in some pretty good commissions. You can even become an affiliate for your favorite products, so it’s easy to talk about how much you love them.
Offer Up Your Skills
If you have a certain skill set, maybe you’re an excellent writer, or you do graphic design, maybe you even know Facebook ads, you can offer your skills on different freelance sites. Some popular ones include UpWork and Fiverr.
Professionals go on these sites all of the time to find talented people to help with one-time gigs or even months-long projects. It’s perhaps one of the fastest ways to make money fast while also building up your skillset and clientele. If you perform well for them, you’re more likely to continue getting new clients.
Most of these sites are free, and you can use them for marketing yourself too. Many of them even offer options to show your work in example pieces, so your customers see your performance before hiring you. You can only accept jobs that fit with the rate you want, and some of these apps allow you to set your rates for your services.
Self-Publishing Audiobooks
It’s no secret that Amazon is taking over, and their app Audible has become pretty successful too. If you want to know how to make money fast using Audible and self-publishing, the answer to your question is Audible.
Audiobooks are becoming the new way to read, and anyone can publish a book on Audible. The process is more simple than you could imagine. If you haven’t heard of them, I encourage you to Google the Mikkelsen twins. They made the Audible self-publishing process blow up.
You can purchase their mentorship program, but instead, I would urge you to watch their YouTube videos and do your research.
Essentially, to publish an Audiobook, you just have to take some simple steps, and you will be on your way to earning a passive income.
You can use the content you write to create an Audiobook. (it is advised you write a book about something that ranks as popular in the algorithm). You can do some light research to figure out what topics are selling well. After that, you can cheaply hire someone to create an audiobook recording for you. Then hire someone to create a cover for your book, and that’s it!
It’s always an option to do these things yourself if you know how to or are willing to learn. For those who don’t have the time to learn or who have some start-up funds available, you can hire someone to write, record, and design your book cover for you. All you have to do is research to ensure you provide adequate instruction to create a book that will sell well.
Creating Your Own Product/ Brand
Another great idea of how to make money fast is by creating a product or branding a product and selling it.
There are a couple of ways you can go about doing this. You can go the route of creating the product yourself. You can purchase the supplies and create your store, like on Etsy, for example. If you go this route, you will be making the products and marketing them yourself on social media. It may be a lot of work, but it is an excellent way to make money fast.
However, not everyone has the time or the initial start-up cost for that.
Another way to sell your products without having to make them is by creating an eCommerce store. Here is how eCommerce works: you outsource products from another company, brand them as your own, and sell them for customers.
The key to making money with eCommerce is making sure that you are ricing your products appropriately. Make sure that when you calculate the price that you consider the price you pay for the product, any shipping costs (if you don’t have the customer pay shipping) and any packaging costs, etc.
The start-up time may take a little more time than some of the other suggestions on the list, but once you get your business rolling, you will be making a passive income.
Care Services
Another way you can make money fast is by offering care services for animals or kids (your choice). There are a lot of really amazing sites where parents go to find babysitters or where pet parents go in search of care for their animals while they are away at work or away on vacation.
A noteworthy site to look for childcare jobs is Care.com. On Care.com, there are tons of one-time gigs and long-term positions working for families with children of all different ages. You can apply for jobs in your off-time from work or find positions that work with your schedule and are recurring.
The best part is the payment for these kinds of positions is fast. Some families will pay you the day you render services, while others will pay you through Care.com’s payment service, Homepay.
Homepay is already taxed. If you get paid through another app such as Paypal or Cashapp, you will be responsible for reporting your income and paying your taxes at the end of the year.
For pet-related services, you can find work on apps such as Rover or Wag. These apps allow you to find anything from one-time jobs to part-time to even full-time positions. The scheduling is flexible, so it works with your existing job.
You can even set your pay-rates and only offer certain services. For example, you can say you only want to provide walking services or only provide in-home care at your client’s home.
The payment for Rover comes in weekly, and they do take a percentage of the payment for the advertising they provide you with and the booking/ Rover support services.
Closing Thoughts
There you have it, some of the fastest ways to make money. There are so many fast and easy ways to make money. Some require a little bit of work in the beginning, but after you do the initial work to set up your side income, it will feel a lot easier.
All of these positions are flexible, so you can decide what works best for you and your schedule, and you’ll be on your way to making money fast.
