40+ Ideas for How to Make Money in 2025

You know when you need some extra cash, but the hard part is knowing how to make extra money.

Fortunately, you have more options that ever before! There are driving gigs, online side hustles, apps that pay, ways to rent out your stuff, one-off jobs, flexible freelance work, and so much more.

So if you need to make an extra $500, $1,000, or even $2,000+, we’ve got over 40 legitimate ways to make extra money in 2025.

How To Make Money Working Online

This section includes some of the best ways to make money online. Many of these ideas are for freelance careers than can turn into your full-time job. And even if they don’t, these are flexible and scalable side hustles to grow your income.

1. Take Online Surveys

Large companies use market research companies, like Branded Surveys and Survey Junkie , to learn about the opinions and habits of their target customers.

Because companies pay for the research, you can make an average of $1-$3 per survey. You’re paid in points that convert to PayPal cash, gift certificates, or check. This isn’t the highest-paying option, but it has the lowest barrier to entry, and you can start making extra money today! 

For even more options, check out our list of Surveys That Pay Cash Instantly.

2. Work as a Freelance Proofreader

As a freelance editor, you are providing editing services for a variety of clients. You might work for bloggers, have regular contracts with larger companies, or work on small one-off type projects.

In addition to editing content for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, you may also improve a piece’s tone, structure, and flow. And, if you work for online clients, knowing a little about SEO goes a long way.

3. Start a Digital Marketing Agency

Companies of all sizes can leverage social media’s huge reach and really benefit by advertising on Facebook. Big companies use in-house marketing departments, but most small business owners lack the knowledge and resources to run an effective ad campaign.

Facebook digital marketers can earn $1,000-$2,000 extra a month per client. And while you’ll definitely put some time into finding clients and setting up a successful ad campaign, most ads run on autopilot after you find the right strategy.

If you want to learn how to make money as a Facebook marketer, the Facebook Side Hustle Course created by M$M’s Bobby Hoyt and ad-guru Mike Yanda teaches you:

• How to run effective ad campaigns for small businesses in your area
• How to find clients who need your services
• How to get those clients to say “yes” to hiring you

4. Become a Freelance Writer

Surprisingly, you don’t need a degree in creative writing or English to make money as a freelance writer – it’s more about having a natural writing ability. You can write for blogs, magazine, online journals, content mills, etc.

5. Bookkeeping

Freelance bookkeepers help business owners record and manage daily financial transactions. This can include paying bills, managing payroll, and collecting payments. Bookkeeping is not the same thing as accounting, and that difference is why you can start bookkeeping online without a degree or certification.

Bookkeepers need to be familiar with popular financial software like Quickbooks and know how to read and create balance sheets. Pay averages $20-$40/hour, and you can work online and get paid daily or weekly. It’s a great side hustle for home if you like to nerd out with numbers.

6. Start a Blog

Blogging is a long game – it can take months of work before you ever earn a dime. But it’s one of the most flexible and scalable ways to make extra money. The key is to treat it like a job, even in the beginning when you’re not earning anything. Ideally, you love what you’re blogging about and your niche’s community. But, it is hard work.

If you’re interested in starting a blog, but don’t know where to start or what the next steps are, check out:

• Our FREE How To Start a Blog Guide: This step-by-step guide walks you through the process of launching a professional-looking blog.

• Launch That Blog: This is a free service that helps you set up a WordPress blog hosted on 
• Bluehost You will need to pay for hosting services, but it’s as low as $2.95/month.

7. Work as a Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants take on a variety of tasks for their clients, including:

• Scheduling meetings
• Managing social media accounts
• Contacting clients
• Managing billing and payments

These are all tasks that don’t need to be done by the business owner themselves, and this field is growing because there are more and more online entrepreneurs, freelancers, and gig economy workers.

8. Teach English Online

Here’s another growing field – online English teachers for Chinese and Korean students. And, there are two things that might really surprise you if you want to learn how to make money with this side hustle:

• You don’t need a degree in teaching or English
• You don’t need to speak any other languages besides English

And, you can earn from $14-$22/hour working for a company like VIPKid.

You teach in 25-minute increments, set your own hours, and the lesson planning is all done for you in advance.

9. Start an Etsy Shop

If you’re a creative type, selling your goods on Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, can be an exciting way to make money online.

Personal finance enthusiast and maker Julie Berniger found immense success on Etsy by selling digital printables. She also found that they take considerably less effort than other goods to make, sell, and ship (you don’t have to ship a PDF). She teaches others how to make money online and passively by selling printables in her Etsy printables course.

10. Sell on Amazon FBA

Amazon FBA is selling items that you’ve personally sourced on the world’s largest marketplace, Amazon. The FBA part means Fulfillment By Amazon, and the idea is that you:

• Find wholesale items, retail arbitrage, or used and returned goods
• Ship items to Amazon
• List your items on Amazon
• Then, Amazon takes care of the selling and shipping aspects for you

11. Become a Life Coach

Some people might think this isn’t a real job, but trust me it is. Or, trust M$M’s good friend Natalie Bacon. She went from attorney, to blogger, to life coach. She now helps countless people online find success and happiness.

Being a life coach is a little like working as a therapist, while focusing more on future development. Plus, you don’t need extensive schooling.

To work and earn money as a life coach, you can have a website where you offer one-on-one coaching sessions, give advice in articles, etc. You can also do what Natalie has done and start a successful podcast.

12. Start a YouTube Channel

Like blogging, starting a YouTube channel is another way to offer your knowledge and opinions, and many use their channel to simply entertain their viewers. You earn income in similar ways, starting slow and building your earnings with paid sponsorships and affiliate marketing as you grow your audience.

To find out what it takes to start a YouTube channel, how to make money on YouTube, and the insane amount of money the top-grossing YouTubers make, read How Much Money Do YouTubers Make (2025 Guide).

13. Work Online as a Customer Service Rep

If you’ve ever called into a company for help, then you already know what a customer service representative does. More and more companies are outsourcing to remote reps – even large companies like Apple.

You can make anywhere from $10-$20/hour and can find jobs on sites like Indeed and FlexJobs.

14. Do Affiliate Marketing on Pinterest

Affiliate marketing is when you partner with companies to promote products and/or services. The company gives you a unique link (affiliate link) that you insert in your posts, and when a reader clicks on that link and purchases something, you get paid a little.

If you’re interested in learning how to make extra money with Pinterest, make sure you read through Pinterest’s guide for business owners to understand the rules and guidelines for affiliate marketing on Pinterest before you start. This guide covers several other ways to earn on Pinterest.

15. Get Paid to Pin as a Pinterest Virtual Assistant

Pinterest virtual assistants can help bloggers, social media influencers, and online business owners optimize their Pinterest accounts. That means Pinterest VAs do things like:

• Create pins
• Develop a pinning schedule
• Do keyword research

You can make an extra $500+ per month per client, according to Kristin Larsen, a Pinterest VA expert.

16. Start an Ecommerce Site

There’s anywhere from 12 to 24 million ecommerce sites right now, and there’s a very good chance you’ve already bought something from one. These sites operate almost 100% online, and many of them use dropshipping, which means you use a platform to sell your products but outsource the production, storage, and shipping to a third-party.

This can become a fairly passive way to make extra money, and Shopify is the top choice for dropshipping. You can learn more in our Shopify Guide for 2025.

17. Create and Sell an Online Course

Creating an online course can be a great way to share your expertise on any number of topics, from cooking to freelancing. You can create a video or text-based course and sell it as an evergreen product, bringing in somewhat passive income over time.

If you want to learn more, check out How to Create an Online Course in 2025.

18. Write an Ebook

Self-publishing is how newbie authors break into the business without going through the whole process of pitching a book to publishers, working with editors, etc. The barrier to entry is really low, and the profits can be pretty high if you know how to market your book well.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform is what many self-published authors use if you’re interested in making extra money as an author.

19. Work as Freelancer

With more and more companies outsourcing to freelancers, there are lots of freelance opportunities in a variety of fields, such as:

• Web development
• Graphic design
• Copywriting
• Data entry
• Transcription

Freelancers are independent contractors, meaning you work for yourself and contract out your work. You can find clients via word-of-mouth, cold-calling, advertising online, or using freelance platforms.

20. Make Money Online in a Tech Field

FitSmallBusiness.com found that freelancers in the tech industry are earning the highest wages – up to $100+/hour. 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.

Here are some of the top-paying tech gigs:

• AI/Deep learning
• Blockchain architecture
• Robotics
• Ethical hacking
• Cryptocurrency jobs
• Amazon Web Services Lambda Coding
• Virtuality reality jobs
• Javascript developers

21. Sell Stock Photos Online

Stock photo websites like Shutterstock and DepositPhotos take your photos and pay you money when someone downloads them. Depending on the site, here’s how that works:

• You are paid when someone buys access to one of your photos
• Or, you are paid when someone buys a subscription to the site and uses your photo

For anyone who’s a natural with a camera, this is a great way to make extra money, and you don’t necessarily need to be a professional photographer.

22. Start an OnlyFans

This won’t be for everyone, but there are a lot of people who are interested in learning how to make extra money with OnlyFans. This site is known for its NSFW content, but there are lots of people who have monetized the site without doing something their moms would disapprove of.

23. Get Paid to Watch Movies

This isn’t one of the most lucrative ways to make extra money, but there are apps that will pay you to watch movies. Most are short clips, movie trailers, or news content. You may have to rate or rank it, and pay is generally around $1 to $2 an hour.

Our top pick if you’re interested is MyPoints. You can make money watching movies, playing games, and taking online surveys.

How to Make Money Extra Money Fast

The following optios are all ideas that are quick and low commitment side jobs you can pick up on the side. Some are online and others are in-person jobs.

24. Deliver Food

As more and more consumer choose convenience, the food delivery market has expanded significantly in recent years. There are lots of delivery apps to work for, but we highly recommend DoorDash, and here’s why:

• Drivers can schedule their hours in advance or deliver when they have extra time.
• You keep 100% of your tips.
• DoorDash is the most popular delivery service, controlling over 60% of the food delivery market.
• You can make extra money delivering restaurant takeout, groceries, convenience store items, and more.

25. Flip Furniture

Are you the type of person who sees potential in furniture that’s been put out on the street as trash?

Taking other people’s trash and flipping it with some sanding, a fresh coat of paint, new hardware, and/or a little tightening of the joints is great side hustle idea. Your materials cost is low, and flipped furniture sells well in local buy/sell Facebook groups or the Facebook Marketplace.

26. Complete Tasks on Taskrabbit

TaskRabbit is a site where people list small jobs they need help with and local Taskers pick up those jobs to make extra cash. Here’s a sample of jobs on TaskRabbit:

• Mount a TV for $35-$96
• Move boxes for $31-$64
• Clean someone’s kitchen for $33-$67

27. Dog Walk or Pet Sit

Rover is an online platform that connects pet owners with people in their area to walk dogs and pet sit. Pay depends on where you live – dog walkers in urban areas often have the highest paying opportunities, earning upwards of $20-$25 per walk.

This is a great way to make extra money if you like being outdoors, and of course you must love pets!

28. Start Driving for Uber or Lyft

If there is a classic gig economy job for our generation, rideshare driving for Uber and Lyft might be it. There have been a lot of changes to these companies since they first started doing business. Did you know that Uber is 10 years old? But, there are still lots of people hustling as rideshare drivers.

Pay is dependent on where you drive and when you’re available, and both companies take around 25% of each fare.

29. Sell Your Stuff Online

Whether you have clothes, shoes, electronics, home decor, or really anything else sitting around your house to sell, there are tons of apps that make it easy to earn cash selling your stuff. You can even flip items you find at resale shops and garage sales.

Learn how to make money selling your stuff online at: 21 Apps to Sell Your Stuff Online (and How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off).

30. Rent Out a Room in Your House

Listing a room or your entire house on Airbnb might be a nice way to bring in some extra income. You’ll earn the most for your house if you live in a big city, near a university, or in a tourist destination.

I love using Airbnb when I travel – it’s actually the only way I book stays now. What’s great for you as the renter is that Airbnb manages the reservations and payments for you.

31. Rent Out Your Car

Similar to Airbnb, Turo is a site where you can rent out your vehicle to other drivers. Turo prescreens renters and offers up to $1 million in liability insurance and coverage in the event of theft or physical damage.

You’re paid 65-85% of the trip price, and they have a Carculator to give you an estimate of what you can earn with your car.

32. Sell Your Poop

This is probably the most out of the box way you can learn how to make money, but selling your poop is a real thing.

OpenBiome is a company that supplies stool for fecal transplants. This is a life-saving treatment for patients with C. diff infections. You have to be super healthy to be eligible, live in the Boston area, and pass a rigorous screening process.

33. Test Websites

One way companies get feedback on their websites is by hiring people to test both the desktop and mobile versions. UserTesting is a popular platform for finding jobs, and while the pay isn’t lucrative (your earnings are similar to taking surveys), it’s something you can pick up and do when you have some spare time.

34. Become a Respondent

Respondents are people who participate in market research studies, and companies pay decent money for the valuable opinion of those in their target audience. Respondents make anywhere from $25-$200 per study.

You can find respondent jobs on Q-Insights, Respondent.io, and Fieldwork.

35. Write Resumes

Resumes are an incredibly important part of the hiring process, and it’s the first chance you get to make an impression on a future employer. Because of that, resumes need to be super professional while also standing out.

If writing resumes doesn’t induce anxiety like it does for some people, this is a decent paying job and one resume writer made over $320k in a year!

36. Participate in Clinical Research Studies

Universities, medical companies, drug companies, and more all need human participants for medical research studies. Depending on the study, you might have to stay overnight, come back in for blood draws, etc.

There are studies for people who have certain diseases or disorders, and there are also studies for healthy individuals. You can use ClinicalTrials.gov to search through a database of over 300,000 different research studies around the world.

Learn How To Make Money Passively

Passive income is when you aren’t actively trading your time for money. All passive income sources require some kind of investment to set up, either time/effort or financial. But, once you’ve set things in motion, you can earn money with minimal effort.

37. Open a High-yield Savings Account

Rather than earning 0.03% back at your current bank, a high-yield savings account may earn you 3% back or more. This is one of the easiest ways to make extra money because it simply involves opening a new bank account and moving your money over. From there, you will start earning small amounts of passive income.

Here are 9 online banks offering high-yield savings accounts and tips for finding the right one.

38. Invest With an Online Brokerage

One of the best sources of passive income that will help you grow your retirement nest egg is investing in the stock market with a broker. Many online brokerages – including well-known brokerages like Charles Schwab and Vanguard – offer low fees, a number of asset classes, and tools to help you get the most out of your investment.

M$M tip: Use an online money management tool like Personal Capital to track your investments, check in on your net worth, and plan for retirement. Learn more at Personal Capital Review 2025.

39. Start Micro-investing

Micro-investing has grown in popularity over the past few years as it removes some of the barriers that come with traditional investing. If you’re not familiar, micro-investing is:

• Investing with small amounts of money, even spare change
• You are purchasing fractional shares of stocks, bonds, and ETFs rather than full shares
• Many apps will help you pick which investments to add to your portfolio based on your financial goals and the amount you have to invest.

40. Buy an Investment Property

This is probably going to take a hefty upfront investment (remember, all passive income sources require some type of initial investment), but an investment property can be an excellent real estate side hustle. It gets even more passive when you outsource a lot of the work to a property management company.

Learn more in 10 Tips For Buying Your First Rental Property.

41. Invest in Commercial Real Estate

Commercial real estate has historically been seen as only a way for super-wealthy people to make extra money, but Fundrise has broken down that barrier and allows regular people to start investing for as little as $10.

With Fundrise, you can choose which real estate projects you fund, from apartment complexes to retail centers, and once the project is funded and turning a profit, you get a return. Learn more in our full Fundrise Review.

42. Earn Credit Card Rewards Points

To entice new customers, credit card companies offer points and big sign-on bonuses when you open a new card and use them for certain purchases. You can earn airline miles, points, and even cashback.

Churning credit cards, travel hacking, and just earning rewards points is only worthwhile if you’re able to pay your full balance on time and every month. It’s not just bad for your credit score if you don’t, interest charges and late fees will more than negate any rewards you earn.

43. Try Peer-to-Peer Lending

P2P lending is a way for people to crowdsource loans that they may not otherwise qualify for if they went through a traditional lender. With a P2P lending company like Lending Club, you can fund a number of loans, like:

• Home buying
• Debt consolidation
• Home improvement
• Credit card refinancing
• Business loans
• Medical expenses
• Moving fees

It’s like GoFundMe, but the people you’re supporting pay you back.

Now, there are some risks to trying to make money with peer-to-peer lending. For example, the annual default rate with Lending Club is around 6-7% annually. They do assess the risk of each investment before approving it, and Lending Club also suggests that you invest in a number of different loans to mitigate your risks.

44. Get Cashback for Shopping Online

Ibotta is a company that pays you to shop as you normally would online or in-store. Here’s how it works:

• Sign up is free
• Shop like you normally would online or in-store
• Upload your receipt
• Earn cashback

You can cash out once you have $20 in your account, and Ibotta makes it easy to transfer money to your bank account.

Final Word on How To Make Money in 2025

You’ve just learned about 40+ ways to make extra money, and we truly believe there is something on this list for everyone. You can find something that fits your situation and schedule so you can optimize your time while making extra cash.

Here are our top picks:

• Doordash: You can schedule your hours in advance or drive day-of, and you’re paid weekly.
• Branded Surveys: Make $1 to $3 per survey. This is a mindless and easy way to make extra money, and you can take surveys from your couch!