So, you’re looking for a way to make money fast?
We’ve all been there.
Sometimes we get in a bind and need to generate some cash as quickly as possible.
Maybe you’ve just begun to consider working online and you want to see some results ASAP.
Whatever your reason may be, it’s totally understandable and actually quite possible.
It’s been said that money can’t buy happiness but it can surely help. Money is the great facilitator.
And in the words of the great contemporary philosopher, Kanye West:
“Having money ain’t everything, but not having it is.”
If this sounds like your situation, or if you’re interested in diving into the online economy headfirst, then I invite you to continue reading.
Normally at Location Rebel, we show you how to build long term wealth in the form of an online business.
But today it’s all about how to make money online quickly. So some of these might not be long-term business strategies, but they are ways you can start earning extra money online right now.
I’m going to cover a list of good side hustles that can help you to begin earning money online in no time.
With a couple of these options, you could even begin to make money today.
Likewise, just like anything that’s worth your time, many of these options will take a little bit of upfront energy but their financial return is still much faster than if you were to begin a traditional online business.
We’ve given each side hustle a 1-5 rating based on how much can be earned, the time that needs to be invested, and the level of competition that exists with the side hustle.
Let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
15 Easy Side Hustle Jobs to Start Making Money Online Right Now
If you’d rather learn about these side hustles in video format, no problem, we’ve got that covered as well. Check out this article on YouTube here:
1) Freelance Writing: Check Out Freelance Job Boards
Side Hustle Score: 5/5
Surprise!
Who could have imagined a Location Rebel article suggesting freelance writing as a great side hustle?
In all seriousness though, freelance writing is a very viable option for those looking to make money in a hurry, as long as you are willing to throw together an attractive portfolio and begin pitching clients.
In Location Rebel Academy, we go in-depth about the most effective way to create new freelance writing opportunities through cold email but there is also a wealth of online writing job boards that have countless money-making opportunities.
I’ll be linking the most popular site below.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Become a Freelance Writer in 2024 – This is our definitive post on freelance writing. It will take you to all the resources you need if you want to build this type of business.
- 100+ Freelance Jobs Online (This is the starting point to find jobs) – Our most comprehensive list of online writing job boards across the web.
- The Future of Freelance Writing in 2023 (Is It Dead?) – A motivating post explaining why freelance writing is not only still alive but thriving like never before.
2) Try Your Hand As A Hosting Affiliate – A Personal Favorite
Side Hustle Score: 5/5
This might be my favorite side hustle.
Why?
Because it is both easy and helpful.
Most people start affiliate marketing with Amazon, which will pay you a (very) small percentage of every sale.
Well, web hosting companies have notoriously high affiliate commissions. Often $100 or more per sale.
So do you have a friend or family member who wants to start a blog or any other type of website?
Great, here’s what you do.
Sign up for your hosting affiliate program with your preferred web host provider, and then give them your link.
They sign up, you help them set up WordPress and get their site going.
You’ll get paid, and they’ll have a shiny new website. Simple as that.
This is an extremely crowded niche, so I wouldn’t necessarily build a whole business around this unless you’re a skilled marketer. But if you just need to make some money fast? This is a great way to make some beer money.
Where to start:
- Bluehost Affiliate Program (best for making your first dollar fast)
- Dreamhost Affiliate Program (some of the highest affiliate commissions out there)
- Bluehost Review: Here are our thoughts on the service.
Recommended reading:
- How to Make Your First Dollar Online – Our article outlining exactly how to become a web hosting affiliate.
- How to Choose the Best Hosting Service – Our article will help you to choose which service is the best for you to promote.
3) Become An Affiliate Marketer – Join the Amazon Affiliate Program
Side Hustle Score: 4/5
What if I told you there was a way to get paid every time one of your friends or family members bought something off Amazon?
Well, guess what, you can.
If you have an online presence (it can be small), you can sign up for the Amazon Affiliate Program, which allows you to get a special link for any product sold on the site.
The beauty of Amazon is, not only can you earn a commission for the linked product, but you also earn a commission on anything that person purchases on Amazon for the next 24 hours using the link you’ve provided.
Meaning, if your mother is looking for a new dress, and then she decides to purchase a new TV, not only do you earn a commission on the dress, but you also earn a commission on the TV!
Anything purchased through your link, you get paid.
Now, it’s generally a small percentage of the overall purchase. The standard percentage is 3% right now. The good news is that Amazon has been running more and more incentives lately to provide bonuses or higher commissions for specific product categories.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Start Affiliate Marketing (As a Total Beginner) – Our introduction to affiliate marketing for those who are interested but new to the business.
- Everything You Need to Know About the Amazon Associates Program – Our definitive guide to Amazon affiliate marketing.
4) Write Instructional eBooks: Sell Them on Amazon Kindle
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
Despite any controversy surrounding Amazon’s capitalization on, well, just about every market, no one can deny the incredible opportunity it provides for those who are willing to use it to their advantage.
One of the many ways Amazon can be used to earn money is through creating E-Books and selling them in the Amazon Kindle store.
While this might not be the fastest way to produce some additional income, once your efforts gain traction it can be an incredible form of truly passive income. The market is saturated but that just means your content will have to be top-notch.
You can write any kind of eBook and sell it on Amazon but the reason we suggest an instructional eBook is that it does not require you to access your inner creative genius.
You could even write an eBook about writing an eBook.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Write and Publish an Amazon Kindle E-book – This post walks you through the entire process step by step.
- Kindle Publishing: How to Make $4,000 in 6 Months – A case study from how one Location Rebel member made a great side income with his first Kindle Book.
3) Fiverr Jobs – Offer Your Services on Fiverr
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
Never heard of Fiverr.com? Well, let me enlighten you.
It’s essentially a job board where people offer all kinds of services.
It started out solely as jobs for 5 bucks.
That has since evolved, but no matter what skills you have (ok, almost) you can post them up on Fiverr and get people to pay you money for them.
These can be as simple as logo design or some development work to more bizarre things like writing a Tinder profile for someone or editing a photo to make it look like Obama is holding a plaque with your business logo.
The sky’s the limit.
This may be a slow-moving side hustle, to begin with, but as you build your profile and reviews you can build a very credible freelance service business on this platform and others like it.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- Can You Build a Million-Dollar Business Starting With Just $100 on Fiverr? Here’s a Plan to Do Just That – Remember when I said the sky’s the limit? Check this one out.
- 8 Best Fiverr Alternatives – Fiverr can be a busy marketplace depending on the service you offer. Here’s a list of alternative sites and their comparisons.
6) Make Money Off Your Trash and the Trash of Others – Check Out Retail Arbitrage
Side Hustle Score: 5/5
Arbitrage is an intense word that describes the act of buying at a low price and selling at a higher price in order to make a profit.
One of the best places to start with arbitrage is in our own homes.
Let’s face it, we all have some stuff lying around that we have no need for. Most of it is probably junk, but some of it is going to be worth something.
I’ve made a few thousand bucks over the last few years selling stuff on eBay I didn’t need anymore. It was essentially free money.
And if you really dig it, you can start hitting garage and estate sales, thrift shops, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and other places to find hidden gems you can sell for more money.
At the moment, trading cards are making a huge comeback on eBay with amazing earning potential.
Think of it as an urban treasure hunt!
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Find Easy Products to Sell on eBay (Even if You Have No Money) – Gary Vaynerchuk is the CEO of a $150 million dollar marketing company that still goes to garage sales on the weekends.
- How to Make An Extra $1,000 in a Month – We cover a few more unique ideas for making some extra cash along these lines.
7) Dropshipping: Buy Low and Sell High Without Holding Inventory
Side Hustle Score: 4/5
If you’ve been apart of the online business scene for any period of time, it’s likely you’ve heard the term dropshipping before.
Dropshipping is a business where you sell products without ever holding inventory. You can go to sites such as Walmart, find products they are selling on clearance, then you can create ads on sites like Facebook Marketplace and sell the products for a profit.
It seems like there are more dropshipping courses on the internet than there are dropshipping entrepreneurs and often it is sold as some kind of “get rich quick” scheme.
Because of this, many people discount dropshipping as a side hustle worth pursuing.
The reality is, it can be a great business and one that can make you money quite quickly.
An entrepreneur I met while traveling had started a dropshipping business just two months previously. He told me that his initial goal was to earn $500 per month by the end of two months. To his surprise, he was making $500 per day 60 days into it and working more than he ever imagined.
But dropshipping can also be a “choose your own adventure” business.
Check it out if you’re interested.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Start Dropshipping (9 Steps!) – Considering the vast majority of drop shippers use Shopify as their website platform, it only makes sense to share their guide for starting this kind of business.
- What is Amazon Dropshipping? Another great guide for getting going with dropshipping.
8) Open An E-Commerce Store Using Sites Like Etsy and Shopify
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
This is a longer-term side hustle that can utilize strategies such as dropshipping and retail arbitrage.
Whether you have a product of your own or would like to use a website like TeeSpring who will create products of your own design, on-demand, creating an eCommerce store is a great side hustle option.
Our lower rating is only due to the fact that this side hustle takes a little more effort in the brand recognition department.
Just like any new product in any market, building brand recognition is a process that takes time.
But if you have a quality product and the drive to build your brand, this one might just be for you.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- Etsy and Shopify: How Three Makers Used Both to Grow Their Business – here’s a great guide written on Shopify with tons of useful information for starting an eCommerce store.
- How to Start a Successful Print-on-Demand T-Shirt Business – Whether it’s Teespring or something else, this strategy is very repeatable.
9) Rent Your Space To Travelers Through Airbnb and VRBO
Side Hustle Score: 5/5
DISCLAIMER: Before diving into this side hustle, please check your local regulations regarding Airbnb rentals. Over the years, different municipalities have taken unique approaches to ensure the legality of utilizing these platforms. The last thing we want to recommend on Location Rebel is any sort of illegal activity.
Ok, with that out of the way, let’s look at this option.
Although this isn’t a business that is purely online (hence the one missing point in its rating), it can be an incredible side hustle to generate some fast cash if you live in a desirable destination.
Whether you own a space that can be rented to visitors or you are open to managing the space of others, Airbnb and VRBO present some great side hustle opportunities.
A freelance writer we know posted his apartment on Airbnb and had over $2000 in reservations within twenty-four hours. By the end of the summer, he was making over $8,000 per month!
All it requires is a little setup and good customer service and you can be off and running.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How To Become an Airbnb Entrepreneur – Business dot com’s take on how to start your Airbnb business.
10) “Teach” English Online – Conversational English on iTalki
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
Maybe you aren’t interested in starting an actual business and just need to earn some extra cash each month.
Or maybe you’re about to travel for an extended period of time and have heard about teaching English as a good job while traveling.
While many companies require teaching degrees or teaching certifications, iTalki does not.
Not only can you qualify with any type of college degree, but this also isn’t exactly a structured teaching job.
Students on iTalki tend to be older and already have a more extensive English education. They just need someone to practice with and clarify different grammatical rules which can easily be searched on Google.
This side hustle won’t make you rich and you do need some specific equipment to begin teaching but if it sounds like it’s up your alley, it could be just the side hustle for you.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- What Is The Application Process? – an iTalki article explaining the application process for “teachers”
11) Become a Search Engine Evaluator to Improve Machine Learning
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
What is machine learning and what does a machine learning data collector do?
Every time you, or anyone else, search anything on Google, the words you type are the data that is being collected by Google which doing the learning.
The results of machine learning can be seen when Google predicts what you are searching for with striking accuracy.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen these technical advances explode AI technology.with the proliferation of
But not every machine is created equal. Most are not as privileged as Google and they don’t have the majority of the world contributing to their data collection.
So what the owners of these machines do is hire people to feed their machines data usually with monotonous, repetitive tasks.
This isn’t the most exciting side hustle in the world but it can definitely get the job done.
One of our associates was in desperate need of a side hustle. In two days he became an independent contractor as a data collector on Instagram and was able to earn $1,200.00 per month with, as little as, an hour of effort per day once he got good at the job.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- Non-Phone Work From Home Jobs – Real Ways To Earn Money Online (yes, that’s their name) is an incredible resource for all types of remote work. This link is a big list of potential jobs. Scroll down to, or search for(CTRL + F), “Search Engine Evaluation” to learn more about the different companies offering jobs.
12) Translate Audio Files to Written Transcriptions as a Transcriptionist
Side Hustle Score: 2/5
One of the fastest ways to begin earning money online, even within the next half hour, is working as a transcriptionist.
For those of you who don’t know, transcription is the act of turning audio or video into a written transcript.
Now, this definitely isn’t a side hustle that will provide you with financial abundance.
Nor is it particularly fun in my opinion.
But it is readily accessible work that almost anyone can do.
So if you need to begin earning money right now, or if would just like to prove to yourself that earning money online is even possible, check this one out.
It can even turn into a full-time job and the pay increases once you make your way into a specialized field such as law or medicine.
Just be ready to put in some effort before you get there and purchase some equipment that will make the job infinitely easier.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- 23 Best Places to Find Online Transcription Jobs – The best spots to look if you want to make money as a transcriptionist.
- How to Become a Transcriptionist – another article from Real Ways To Make Money Online (once again, yes, that’s actually their name) which is a comprehensive guide to becoming a transcriptionist.
13) Get Paid to Play Games and Browse Websites with User Testing
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
There are literally millions of apps out there. Some good, some not so good.
But the smart app developers do a lot of testing beforehand to make sure, you know, their app doesn’t suck.
But how do you go about getting real user feedback in a timely manner?
Well, some developers use a service called User Testing, amongst others, in order to have real people test out their apps.
And that’s where the opportunity is for you, to become one of those testers.
Once again, this is a side hustle to generate some extra cash, initially. It can also develop into a fulltime job and even a well paid career depending on your level of commitment.
To begin with, the tests generally pay around $10 each and take 10-20 minutes to do.
You sign up for the service, test out the app or website on your phone or laptop while recording your thoughts and experience with it, and then you get paid!
Simple as that.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- Get Paid To Test Websites – a good list of companies that will pay you to test their customer websites.
- TesterWork – a large community of game testers and testing opportunities.
14) Earn Money Answering Questions on SurveyJunkie
Side Hustle Score: 3/5
Wouldn’t it be great if there were someone out there that would pay you to sit around in your sweats at your computer, while you drank coffee, and listened to podcasts?
Great news!
That’s exactly what they’ll do at Survey Junkie.
If sitting on your ass at your computer and making money is your jam, then this is for you.
You’ll get paid a few bucks for every survey you complete. It isn’t sexy work, but you can do it during your free time, wherever you want, and get some beer money for the weekend.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- 20 Ways to Take Surveys For Money – if you’re into the idea of taking surveys, here’s an extensive list of sites that offer this type of work.
15) Save Money By Cutting Out Unnecessary Spending and Automating Savings
Side Hustle Score: 5/5
These last two are less about ways to make money, but rather a way for you to keep more of the money you already have.
One big one is to cancel subscriptions you’re no longer using.
A few months back I canceled a few things I hadn’t used in months, and it saved me close to $3,000 annually. That’s a HUGE chunk of money that I didn’t need to be spending and is just as good as making an extra $3k.
Another way to begin saving money is by automating your savings.
Oportun is a personal favorite of our LR Community Manager Liz.
It’s a really cool service, where it takes a small percentage out of your bank account every month and puts it in a separate account. You can set up how much it is, but it’s usually a nominal amount that you’d never notice.
Where to start:
Recommended reading:
- How to Track and Manage Your Paid Subscriptions – a PC Mag guide for cutting out any unnecessary subscriptions you may be unaware of.
- How to Use Automatic Savings Apps to Build Wealth With Less Stress – a MoneyCrashers guide to savings apps.
More Ways for Learning How to Make $100 Fast Online
These are just a handful of my favorite side hustle jobs to make money online right now, but if you’re looking for more help, then I suggest checking out the resources below.
- 14 Ways to Make Your First Dollar Online – A few more tips in addition to the ones found in this post, are great ways to get started making money online.
- Location Independent Businesses You Can Run from Anywhere – Still trying to figure out the best online business for you? These business ideas are a great starting point.
Ready to start building a lifestyle business, but want a little hand-holding?
Sign up for our free 6 day email course, and you’ll be on your way in no time.
Sean Ogle
Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.Join over 40,000 people who have taken our 6 part freelance writing course. Sign up below and let’s do this together.
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Speaking of selling shirts, Amazon Merch has been gaining a lot of traction in recent years…so i suggest people look into it.
As far as Fiverr goes, the market is so saturated that making money often requires a unique angle. Be sure to provide something highly valuable as a ‘gig extra’ when offering a service.
Thanks for the article, Sean!
Elvis
Thanks for the information. Really looking forward to implementing this soon!
all valid ideas man, super helpful!
Hey, Sean, great article as always. Going to be trying every one of these just to see if anything sticks. (Well, with the exception of Airbnb because #RVLife…) Just a thought – I would personally prefer it if your links automatically opened into a new tab, rather than having to go back and forth away from locationrebel. Just my 2 cents. Also, what is up with this weather? North of Sacramento right now and starting to get nervous about heading to Oregon at the end of the month!
– Jeremy
I’m going to be using anything that I put to this in order to afford Location Rebel Academy. Thanks for the post and the tips. Looking forward to using this to put some more money in my account.
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