Learning how to make money from home has literally changed my life. I was a high school band director that hated my job. Now, I wake up every morning pumped to work because I genuinely love writing about things that help other people.

And yes, I’ll admit that I sometimes do work in my underwear… another perk of working from home.

Why Should You Make Money From Home?

For me and everyone I know who works from home – it’s all about flexibility. I’m going to guess you’d like a little more of that in your life too.

Working from home on the side of your 9-5 can help you earn income to pay off debt. It can give you more money to stash towards retirement. It’s also a great option if you’re staying home with kids.

And to add something beyond a flexible schedule, the ideas on this list are financially flexible. That means some of these side hustles can bring in full-time incomes, while others will just add a little extra cash.

What Are The Best Ways to Make Money From Home in 2024?

1. Start a Blog

Blogging is always one of my top picks when someone asks how to make money from home, and here’s why:

  • You can blog about anything you want
  • The start-up costs are insanely low, even free
  • Blogging opens the door to even more money-making opportunities

But, and this is a big one, blogging is not a get-rich-quick scheme. I put in an insane amount of hours and worked my butt off before I ever earned a dime from this site. You have to be willing to put in the work if you want to be successful.

You can do all of this on your own schedule. I know pro bloggers who built multi-million dollar blogs while they were working full-time jobs. There are bloggers who do it all while staying at home and raising kids.

And when you do the work and reach something big, there is literally nothing like it out there.

If this sounds like something you’re interested in trying, don’t let the work scare you off. The first thing you’ll have to do is start your blog, and I can help you with that. From there, you’ll build your audience, work on your voice, and then start earning money through:

  • Display ads
  • Sponsored posts
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Digital products like courses, ebooks, printables, etc.

I have a free blogging course that teaches you how to do all of that, and you can sign up below:

2. Start a Freelance Business

Freelancing is a great way to make money from home because there are a ton of different types of services you can offer. There are also more and more companies outsourcing to freelancers, so this field is only going to grow.

You can freelance from home as a:

  • Web developer
  • Writer
  • Editor
  • Graphic designer
  • Copywriter
  • App developer
  • Data entry
  • Transcription
  • Sound design

Many of the freelancers I know start their businesses on the side of their 9-5 job. They grow their client list, freelance skills, and the services they offer. Many expand to the point that they’re able to leave their day jobs and go full-time with their freelancing business.

If you’re looking for work, many freelancers start on sites like Upwork and Freelancer.

3. Work as a Virtual Assistant

Speaking from experience, virtual assistants are the glue that holds online businesses together. That’s because they are highly organized workers who perform a number of online tasks, like:

  • Setting up email lists
  • Scheduling meetings
  • Managing social media accounts
  • Emailing clients
  • And any other business-related task that doesn’t have to be done by the business owner

Learn more about becoming a virtual assistant from Gina Horkey of the HorkeyHandbook.

4. Run Facebook Ads for Local Businesses

As far as learning how to make money from home, running Facebook ads for small businesses is probably the best one for quickly starting and earning a decent amount of money. The only bummer is that you’ll occasionally have to put on pants and leave the house to find clients.

Shortly after I quit my teaching job to run this blog, I started running ads for the jeweler who sold me my wife’s engagement ring. I quickly managed to make more per month from my mini digital ad agency than I did when I was teaching.

That was a few years ago, and Facebook continues to be one of the best ways for small business owners to find new customers. The problem is that most of them lack the skills and energy it takes to run an effective ad strategy that sees real results.

To help you help them, I took everything I learned from running Facebook ads and put it into the Facebook Side Hustle Course. To create the course, I teamed up with my old high school friend Mike Yanda (a Facebook ads guru earning $30,000 month from his FB ads agency).

In the Facebook Side Hustle Course, we teach you:

  • How to set up and run a Facebook ad system
  • How to find clients who want to pay you for this service
  • How to get those clients to say “yes”

If you want to learn more about how to make money from home with Facebook ads and hear from a few of our successful students, click over to the Facebook Side Hustle Course.

Make $1,000-$2,000/month from home

The Facebook Side Hustle Course teaches you how to run ads for local and small busineses.

5. Work in Technology

This may or may not be surprising to you, but work from home freelancers in the tech industry earn some of the highest per hour pay – up to $100+/hour. According to FitSmallBusiness.com, the top-paying tech jobs are:

  • AI/Deep Learning
  • Blockchain architecture
  • Robotics
  • Ethical hacking
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Amazon Web Services Lambda coding
  • Virtual reality jobs
  • js developers

These aren’t jobs that anyone can jump into because you’ll need specific skills for each, like being fluent in programming languages or able to use specialized software.

6. Flip Furniture

We’ve all seen furniture just sitting on the curb around our neighborhoods. Honestly, it’s usually in pretty good shape and really just needs a fresh coat of paint or some new hardware. I think most people who put this stuff out just don’t want to take the time to donate or sell it. Other places to source your inventory include Goodwill, thrift stores, Craigslist, and garage sales.

The point is to keep your inventory costs as low as possible so you can maximize your earnings. Facebook Marketplace and local buy/sell groups are good places to sell your flips.

7. Teach English Online

Online English teachers are in high demand to teach one-on-one lessons to Chinese and Korean students. There are a number of companies out there, but VIPKid is one I’ve personally checked out and have heard from a number of their teachers.

While working for VIPKid, you:

  • Earn $14-$22/hour
  • Set your own hours
  • Don’t need to do any of your own lesson planning

You will need at least a bachelor’s degree, but it doesn’t have to be in English or teaching. They also require that you have experience working with children, but that can be your own kids, babysitting, working as a camp counselor, etc.

8. Make Money From Home as a Proofreader

Not everyone has mad grammar or punctuation skills, some people can’t articulate a cohesive thought, and some people just need help polishing their writing. A lot of the time these people are online business owners and bloggers.

Oh hi, that’s me.

If you have a natural ability for spotting misspellings and grammatical errors, learning how to make money from home as a freelance proofreader could be a great option for you. To help you get started, we’ve put together an A-Z course that teachers you how to become a proofreader, step-by-step.

9. Sell Your Stuff Online

If you want to make some quick cash from home, take a quick look around your house and see what you can sell. I know there’s gotta be something, from clothes, furniture, collectibles, old electronics, etc.

Technology has made selling stuff online even easier and safer with apps like:

Find even more places to sell your stuff online at 21 Apps To Sell Your Stuff Online (and How To Avoid Getting Ripped Off).

10. Play on Pinterest

Pinterest is where home chefs, crafters, DIYers, and more find tutorials and websites that help them hone their skills and become inspired. But, it’s also a huge source of traffic for bloggers and online business owners like myself.

The problem many online business owners have is that we don’t have the time to learn and master a new platform… I know I don’t, which is why I’ve paid a virtual assistant to manage my Pinterest account for me.

My Pinterest VA helps me grow my business by:

  • Creating pins
  • Doing keyword research
  • Create a pinning schedule

I’m not the only online business owner needing this type of help, which is why Kristin Larsen created their Pinterest VA course. The course teaches you how to help business owners strategize and increase their traffic with Pinterest, plus they can even help you find your first client.

Pinterest VAs work a flexible schedule and can earn around $500 a month per client.

Learn more at How to Make Money On Pinterest In 2024 (Earn $1,000 Extra Per Month!).

11. Sell on Etsy

If you’re a crafty person, making and selling things on Etsy would be a sweet gig if you want to make money from home.

Things like printables can actually turn into pretty passive sales. This is why Etsy seller, and finance enthusiast Julie Berninger created an Etsy printables course that teaches you how to sell printables on Etsy.

12. Work as a Transcriptionist

Transcriptionists take audio files and type out what they hear. You don’t need the training to start with a company like Rev, but you will need to pass a skills test before finding jobs. Transcriptionists can earn anywhere from $15-$45 per hour depending on their level of experience.

13. Sell on Amazon FBA

Amazon FBA stands for Fulfillment By Amazon, and it’s when you source items to sell on Amazon, ship them to Amazon, and let them take care of selling and shipping out to customers. Basically, you’re responsible for finding the items, shipping them to Amazon, and getting paid.

On Amazon FBA, you can sell things like books, real arbitrage, wholesale items, and more. To get an idea of how profitable this work from home job is, check out The Selling Family.

14. Rent Space in Your House

If you’re up for sharing your space, renting out a room in your house on Airbnb can be a good way to bring in some cash. People living in touristy areas or big cities can earn the largest amount for their space.

You’ll need to create an honest listing and keep your house spotless, but renting out space in your house can provide what feels like fairly passive income.

15. Take Surveys

Companies use online survey websites to get valuable market research. These companies need people fitting into a wide range of demographics to give them that information. So, you take their surveys and get paid for your insights.

Sound simple? Good, it is.

But, if I’m being completely honest with you, it’s not the most profitable way to make money from home. The reason I’m telling you about it is because it’s such mindless work that you can do whenever you have a little extra time.

Depending on the site, you might earn points that you redeem for cash or actual cash. Most survey takers average around $1-$2/hour (I said the earning potential was low), but this side hustle is too easy not to mention.

Popular survey websites include:

16. Earn Money While You Shop Online

Platforms like Rakuten (was Ebates) and Swagbucks are online companies that reward you for shopping like you normally would online. You either download an app or shop at your favorite stores through these websites. Because they earn a commission when you shop through them, they give you a little kickback as a thank you.

This is easy cash, but like taking online surveys, you’re not going to get rich with this one.

17. Earn Money Back on Your Purchases

Paribus is an app that helps you find refunds for purchases you’ve already made. Here’s how Paribus works:

  • It tracks your purchases
  • Sees if you’ve missed any coupons or if a price drops
  • Negotiates on your behalf if there is an opportunity to save money

Besides giving them access to your data, Paribus is 100% free to use – they make money from advertisers.

Learn how to make money from home with Paribus at Paribus Review: Legit, Safe, and Easy App to Save More Money.

18. Test Websites

Shortly after I went through my most recent website design, I would occasionally receive emails from readers telling me about quirks and kinks that needed to be worked out.

That kind of feedback is incredibly valuable, and one-way companies do this is by hiring people to test both the desktop and mobile versions of new sites. UserTesting is a popular platform for finding jobs, and while the pay isn’t super lucrative, it’s incredibly flexible.

19. Perform HITs For Amazon

Through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing site (MTurk for short) you perform human intelligence tasks (HITs). HITs are basically simple tasks that can only be done by a human, like filling out surveys, commenting on blogs, transcribing audio, etc.

Bummer though, MTurk only pays an average of $0.24 per task.

My Final Word on How to Make Money From Home in 2024

Whether you’re looking for extra income from a side hustle or a complete change of careers, working from home gives you the flexibility to make those things happen.

If you work from home, I’d love to hear why and what you do!