Need some ideas to make money fast? Whether it’s to pay bills or to save up for a big expense, we could all use a little fast cash from time to time.
To help you get started, I’ve put together a list of the 35 best ideas to help you make money fast.
While many of these require no upfront investment and can help you make money in one week or less, others do take a bit longer. But trust me, the side hustles that take longer usually are the ones you can make more money with. On with the list of the best ways to make money fast online!
Table of Contents
35 ways to make money fast online
Start a blog
Starting a blog and making money with a niche website is a fantastic idea to make money fast. You can monetize your blog with an ad network like Google Adsense or with affiliate marketing using Amazon Associates.
Once you’ve built a following, you can look into creating and selling your own digital products like printables, ebooks, and courses.
Ebooks
Speaking of ebooks, they are a great way to make money online. Anyone can create an ebook if you have the right tools.
Here’s the process for writing and selling your ebook.
Step 1. Write your ebook using Google Docs.
Step 2. Design an ebook cover using Canva’s ebook cover maker.
Step 3. Create a mockup using Mockupshots to help you market your ebook.
Step 4. List your ebook for sale on your website and promote it on social media. With Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, you can even get your ebook published on Amazon.
Web design
Offering your services as a web designer is a great way to make money fast.
With demand for web designers being at an all-time high, there’s no better time than now to start. With high demand also comes a lot of competition, so be sure to put your best foot forward and create a high-quality portfolio showing off your work.
You can design websites easily with WordPress and a page builder like Elementor, Thrive Architect, or the Divi builder.
Sell your services on freelancer sites
Do you have expertise you can sell? For example, maybe you can write content for blogs, proofread books, edit videos, or design landing pages.
You can sell your freelancing services on Freelancer.com, Fiverr.com, and Upwork.com.
If you can build up your feedback and establish a great name for yourself on these marketplace platforms, you can create regular extra income for yourself.
Sell courses on your website
Do you have a website? If so, consider offering a course and sharing your knowledge. Why? Because while you can sell an ebook for $20, you can sell a course for $100+.
To create, market, and sell your course, you need to use an online course platform like Teachable, Thinkific, or Thrive Apprentice.
Sell courses on Udemy
Creating courses to sell on Udemy can be a real big money-making enterprise!
To find the best course ideas, look at the best-selling courses and create your own course on one of those main topics.
Best of all, you don’t need a website to start making money on Udemy. You just need knowledge and a willingness to share it with the world.
Remember, the content needs to be excellent. You will be charging for the material you are selling to students on the Udemy platform, so you will want to avoid any complaints. Think of it this way, if you were purchasing a course, what would you want it to be like?
The way to make real money on Udemy is to build up a base of students so you can sell them on future courses as well.
Create a podcast
Starting a podcast for your business is a great way to not only build awareness but also make money. In addition to promoting your own products on your podcast, you can sell ad spots as well.
You’ll need a good mic like the Blue Yeti, ranked as the #1 microphone for podcasting.
Cashback sites
If you’re going to shop online, why not get paid for it? Sign up with a cashback site like Swagbucks or MyPoints to earn points for shopping online.
When you shop via links from these sites, they earn a commission, and you earn some cashback.
For example, if you shop a lot at Walmart, MyPoints gives you about 5% cash back on nearly all purchases, ProFlowers gets you 10% cashback, or you can shop for event tickets at StubHub for 5% cashback.
Once you earn enough points, you can redeem your points for cash or gift cards.
Online surveys
While you won’t break the bank open filling out surveys online, it’s a fast way to make money online for not a lot of effort.
You can sign up with multiple survey sites to maximize your earnings. If you have the time and patience to complete the surveys, look into signing up with survey sites like Survey Junkie, MyPoints, RewardSurvey, and Swagbucks.
Drive for Uber / Lyft
Looking to earn an extra income by becoming a rideshare driver?
You can now pursue this idea very easily by signing up with either Uber or Lyft. A big advantage to becoming a rideshare driver is that you get to choose your hours, making this gig as flexible as you need it to be.
To maximize your income, choose to drive when and where the demand is higher to give you better rates.
Become a coach
If you have had any type of successful experience in your life, you can become a coach!
You can sign up for a service to offer your coaching skills on your website or on Coach.me.
Rent out your driveway
Do you live close to a stadium or a busy tourist area? Do you have the best parking spot in town? If so, consider renting out your driveway.
The rates of pay can be excellent for this money-making idea. If you have space on your driveway and aren’t using it, why not rent it out?
You can rent your driveway on Spacer, Pavemint, CurbFlip, and JustPark.
Trucker or freight forwarder with Uship
Uship is a great marketplace for truck drivers, removal men, and freight forwarders to obtain more work.
Here’s how it works. Companies looking to move items such as household goods, cars, motorcycles, boats, and more list their items. Then, truckers and freight forwarders place bids on the listings to try and win the auction and obtain the contract to transport and ship the goods.
Airbnb
The hotel industry did not see Airbnb coming, and now the whole industry has been disrupted in a HUGE way. Have you used Airbnb before? Basically, if you have a spare bedroom in your house, you can sign up for the service. It’s that simple.
People use the Airbnb app to find cheap (at least cheaper than a hotel room) accommodation for a night or even a week at a time.
How much money can you make? You can do a quick search for rates in your area. Price it competitively, and you should start getting some bookings.
Make sure you are a brilliant host because the better the feedback you get, the more bookings you’ll receive. In addition, Airbnb can be an excellent source of income and can even generate 5 figures per year in passive income in high-demand areas.
Create an app
There are millions of apps on Google Play and Apple’s app store. Do you have an idea for an app that fills a need? If so, all you need is an idea because you can pay an app developer to create the app for you.
While selling it for just a few dollars won’t net you a lot of money, it will be 100% passive income after your initial investment amount.
If you want to try creating an app yourself, look at appypie appmaker here.
Dog walking
Dog walking can offer a great additional monthly income – if you like dogs.
You can do this on the side by offering your services on apps like NextDoor or Neighbor, plus on local Facebook groups.
But to really get more clients, you’ll need to join Rover.com. You can also take care of pets and get paid by the hour on Care.com.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping can be a brilliant way to earn yourself a passive income online. Dropshipping works like this. You sign up for a dropshipping company (that sell products at discounted rates). Then, you place listings on eBay and Amazon for those items.
When a customer places an order through your store, the dropshipping company mails the item directly to the buyer. You serve as the middle-man (or woman) who collects a fee for finding the customer.
Dropshipping is an inexpensive way to start an online business. One big plus side is that you don’t need to hold any stock or ship anything, as the dropshipping company holds all the inventory.
Peer to peer lending
Peer-to-peer lending has lost a bit of its luster from its early days, but it’s still a viable option to make a bit of money.
If you want to loan money out to others, set up an account at Prosper. First, review loan applications, making sure to look at a borrower’s credit score and income. Remember, you’re in charge of determining their creditworthiness and your own risk limits.
Depending on your risk tolerance level, you can either choose to invest in low-interest loans to borrowers with great credit scores or high-risk high-interest loans.
Invest in startups
While this way to make money fast requires money, it still counts as a valid way to make money fast.
Putting down some seed money into a new startup can turn multiple times your initial investment.
You can invest in some IPO’s like Airbnb with apps like TD Ameritrade or Robinhood. Or, choose to put your money into Bitcoin, Ethereum, or another digital currency.
You can invest in startups through websites such as CrowdCube, WeFunder, Seed Invest, Micro Ventures, Seedrs.
Etsy
Do you love creating your own arts and crafts as a hobby? How about turning that hobby into a side income? Etsy is an online marketplace to purchase arts and crafts created by individuals who have set up their own online e-commerce shop.
Lots of the creations are one-offs and very unique, so they’re appealing from a buyer’s point of view. If you have a knack for creating arts and crafts, give selling on Etsy a try.
Design and sell your own t-shirts
Feeling creative? Are you a lover of t-shirts? How about combining the two and start designing and selling your own tees? You can now design your own t-shirts and sell them via websites such as Teespring.com.
The custom T-shirt industry is now big business, and it’s another side hustle business you can start with very little investment.
You can design and sell your tees and other accessories on these sites: Teespring, Zazzle, CafePress.
Music teacher
Are you ace on the guitar or a master at the drums? If you have enough experience in playing a musical instrument, why not teach others how to play? You can start by offering music lessons from your home (or theirs) in your spare time.
If you are confident enough that you can teach others weekly, from beginners to people who need a refresh, then consider becoming a part-time music teacher.
As far as advertising your services, word of mouth will always be your best bet when it comes to getting clients. You can also list your services on NextDoor, Craigslist, and local Facebook groups.
Tutor
If you have an excellent understanding of certain subjects, why not help others?
Plenty of students of all grades are always in need of tutoring help. This side gig is perfect for college students who have already passed a class and are now willing to help undergrads pass it as well.
You can place ads around campus to get the word out about your tutoring services.
Translator
Are you able to speak a second language? If you’re fluent in other languages, you can offer your services as a translator at local businesses such as law offices or tax centers.
There’s a big opportunity to help people in the local community by translating when help is needed.
Become an official/referee
Have a love of baseball, soccer, or basketball? If you love a certain game in particular, why not consider becoming an officially qualified referee? Pay can be good for the time you actually spend officiating games.
Of course, you will need to be fully qualified, so there will be some initial investment at the start, but you can easily recoup this money in no time after a couple of gigs.
Switch bank accounts – and get paid for it!
There’s a lot of competition from the big-name banks to get you to switch. However, you can get anywhere from $50 to $200 in bonuses by switching over your bank and setting up a direct deposit with them.
The best part? The banks do all the switching for you. An added benefit, there is nothing to stop you from doing this a couple of times over the course of the year and earning yourself a nice sum of money for not a lot of effort.
Garage sales
Need to make $100 fast? Go old school and host a garage sale and get rid of what you don’t need. You can sell anything from old clothes to exercise equipment. Dig deep in your garage, attic, or basement and get rid of anything you’re not using anymore.
If you can get good foot traffic to your yard sales, consider buying items in bulk from other yard sales. You can sometimes buy up large boxes of goods for pennies on the dollar.
Sell 2nd hand textbooks
Every year there’s a demand for used textbooks when school starts up again.
If you want to make money fast selling used textbooks, put ads on campus offering to buy used textbooks. Then, in a couple of months, put ads up selling those textbooks for a bit more than you bought them for.
You can also resell textbooks online on eBay, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace.
Buy and sell domain names
Gone are the days of registering good domain names and flipping them for a profit. All the good domain names are already taken. Therefore, to make money buying and selling domains, you need to purchase domains on the secondary market.
Look for domains for sale or expired domains. If you see a gem being sold really low, snatch it up. Then, it’s up to you to create a good sales pitch and try to sell the domain for 10x what you paid.
Website flipping
Buying and selling websites lets you make money faster than building a website from scratch.
Similar to buying and selling domains, the idea of flipping websites is to either:
1. Create a website, add content, get traffic, and monetize it. Then, once this “starter site” has been completed, sell it on Flippa.com for a nice profit. Or…
2. Buy an existing website for a low price, quickly build the site up, then resell the upgraded website for a profit.
You’ll have to do good research on any site you buy. Make sure the site isn’t banned in Google search and get proof of traffic from Google Analytics.
Buy items from flea markets & sell on eBay
There’s a big market for people to source products from flea markets and yard sales and then resell the items for a profit on eBay.
The thinking behind this idea is that a lot of people selling their old items aren’t always fully aware of their true value.
Spend enough time looking, and you can come across some real gems, including vinyl records, toys, and memorabilia that can be purchased for a fraction of the cost and then sold on eBay for a nice profit.
Sell your designs
If you are artistic enough to create killer one-off designs, you can earn yourself a nice side income.
Sign up to be a designer on a website such as 99designs.com and search through designs that people have requested to be made, for example, a T-shirt image or logo. Then get brainstorming on your idea and present it to try and win the contract.
Sell your photos
Have an eye for a great photo? How about starting a new career as a photographer?
You can sell your pictures to stock photo sites, so website owners and business owners can use them for their ads, marketing campaigns, or websites.
If you already have a big library of exclusive images, you can upload your entire library and get paid every time someone purchases your pictures.
Of course, selling your pictures to stock photo sites is a very competitive marketplace, as you would imagine. But if you have a keen eye for creating pictures businesses want, you can make money fast.
You can sell your photos at stock photo sites like 123RF, DepositPhotos, shutterstock.com, and istockphoto.com.
Mechanical Turk (Amazon)
Have you heard of Mechanical Turk? This is an Amazon-owned business, with over half a million people now signed up, so it’s pretty big!
How does it work? Basically, people upload tasks, or HITS (Human Intelligence Tasks), that they need help with. For example, it could be a case of uploading a receipt from a purchase and asking someone to enter the details into a digital format, or it could be answering questions related to a survey.
The tasks do offer low pay, though. But if you enough of them, then the hourly pay could range from $1.20 up to $5 on average. Each task could pay as little as 25 cents.
Earning money this way can be a bit taxing on the mind, but it’s better than spending 3 hours a night watching Netflix when you can make a few bucks doing repetitive tasks instead.
Voiceover artist
This last one on the list might not be for everyone. But if you have confidence in your voice, consider becoming a voiceover artist.
Here’s the thing, you don’t have to get hired by a big Hollywood agency. Instead, you can market your voiceover services on Fiverr and Upwork.
Businesses are looking for people to narrate their courses, instructional videos, or even commercials.
You will need to purchase some equipment to create high-quality audio, however. As with podcasting, the best microphone for doing voiceover work is the Blue Yeti brand mic.
Other than the cost of a good microphone, your only investment is a time commitment.
There are plenty of ways to make money fast online, most of which don’t require a big investment, a college degree, or even any experience! You just need to have the hustle and drive to make it happen.
