Make Money in Spare Time With These EASY Ways!: Whether you’re a college student, a stay-at-home mom, or a nine-to-fiver, the chances are good that two things are true:
- You don’t have a lot of spare time
- You’re looking for ways to make extra money online or offline with whatever free time you have
The good news is that you don’t need a lot of spare time if you want to earn some extra cash. You can keep your full-time job. Just a little bit of time here and there will suffice.
In some cases, you might even be able to earn an income while you sleep! Or maybe you can make enough to pad your savings account.
Either way, check out this list of 26 creative ways to make extra money online (and offline) between your day job, full-time college, or taking care of your family.
In a hurry?
Then you’ll want to check out Swagbucks. It lets you earn cash back and gift cards for simple things you probably already do in your spare time like shop online, surf the web, or even play video games.
Sign up for SwagBucks quick and easy
Make Money in Spare Time With These EASY Ways!
How to Make Money in Your Spare Time (Quickly!)
If you’re busy from morning until night, you may believe that this list of ways to make money in your spare time won’t work for you.
But, there are countless ways even the busiest person on Earth can make quick money in their limited spare time.
Whether you’re a busy college student or someone who already has a second job, I have good news for you: there is always a way to make extra money that fits your lifestyle.
In fact, some of these ways to make money in your spare time literally only take two minutes each day.
If you can devote 10 or 15 minutes per day (maybe during your lunch hour or right before bed), you can make money in your spare time.
Keep reading to find the perfect option for you!
Complete Online Surveys
You’ve seen the ads: Spend a few minutes taking surveys each day, and before you know it, you’ll have made a full-time income.
Let’s be realistic: It doesn’t work that way.
You’re not going to make bank doing surveys. But they can go on your list of ways to make extra money online in your spare time.
How does it work?
Sign up to online survey sites. Then…
The company sends you links to surveys. And many times, you’ll need to answer a few questions first to see if you’re qualified to take the actual survey.
This is because they might be looking for a specific demographic (i.e., men between 30 and 50 who work in the insurance industry).
Depending on the company, you’ll get paid right away or on a specific date each month. In general, survey sites usually payout between $0.50 and $5 per survey.
Some surveys pay via gift cards to places like Amazon or other online retailers. And others will send you products that you’ll be able to keep.
Occasionally, you might qualify to take one that pays out $25 or more, but this is uncommon.
Some survey sites to check out are:
- Toluna
- Springboard Panel
- MyPoints
- Ipsos
If you spend a few minutes each day seeing what surveys are available and you qualify to take one or two per week, it might cover the cost of your Netflix subscription.
Or maybe you’ll be able to make nearly $250 in one month like this survey junkie did.
You’re not going to get rich taking online surveys, but you can add a few dollars to your monthly income with minimal time invested simply by signing up for Survey Junkie.
Sign up for Survey Junkie for Free Today
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is an app that allows you to earn extra cash and gift cards as you do things like watch videos, take short surveys, and surf the Web.
Swagbucks is not something that will make you rich by watching a few five-minute videos each day, but over time, the rewards can add up and help you achieve your personal finance goals.
If you’re going to be looking at websites anyway, you might as well make easy money online at the same time by signing up for this free service.
Knock Out Some Tasks on Fiverr
Sign up for an account on Fiverr.com and look through the listings to see what types of tasks clients are looking for.
Fiverr started as a freelancing website where clients could hire freelancers to complete a job for $5, hence the name “Fiverr.” Now, you can make much more than $5 completing a job on Fiverr, but let’s assume you start with charging $5 for a job.
Many of the tasks listed could be done in 15 minutes or less, which would allow you to earn a cool $20 in the span of an hour.
What types of jobs are featured on Fiverr? You can be creative, but some of the popular categories include:
- Digital marketing
- Graphics and design
- Freelance writing
- Video and animation
- Virtual assistant
You could give online lessons or do an astrology reading. You can even give tips on succeeding at your favorite video game. If someone will pay $5, you’re golden!
Here are a few ideas that you could use to make five dollars at a time:
- Come up with five ideas for blog posts. Don’t actually write the blog posts for $5; just give the client a list of titles or topic ideas.
- Write three to five social media posts. If you enjoy posting on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you could probably knock this out in five minutes.
- Write a haiku, limerick, or some other verse for a greeting card. You could offer verses that would be good for a birthday card, a love letter, or a funny “thinking of you” card.
- Take a photo of you holding a sign next to a local landmark. This is particularly good if you live near a tourist attraction.
- Make a list of restaurants or attractions in your local area for people who are visiting your city or town. You could write up a comprehensive piece and just sell the same piece over and over again.
Create and Sell Some Crafts
If you like to spend time on the weekends sewing, woodworking, painting, soap making, or creating just about anything, consider making a business out of it.
You could craft all year and sell your wares at holiday bazaars. Or you could list them on a site like Etsy or even Facebook marketplace to make sales all year long.
Think about choosing a niche. What can you specialize in that isn’t already overrun on the market? What problem could you solve?
Consider these possibilities:
- Christmas ornaments, wreaths, or decorations
- Wreaths for any time of the year (think flowers for spring and colorful foliage for fall)
- Quilts (to be used as blankets, tablecloths, place mats, etc.)
- Crocheted items, such as scarves or dishcloths (check out our post on crochet business name ideas)
- Knitted items like hats, socks, or sweaters
- Embroidered pillows or napkins
- Handmade dolls
- Framed, drawn pictures of people, places, or things
- Decorated baskets or bins for home organization
- Wooden items like napkin holders, trays, or wall plaques (buy these already made and paint them to decorate, if you like)
- Flower arrangements using real or silk flowers
Courtney Orillian, the founder of Confetti Momma, noticed the desire in others to have party supplies that rivaled those found on sites like Pinterest.
So she and her husband created an Etsy store to provide handmade party supplies to people who don’t have the time, energy, or talent to make them themselves.
Is there a need that you can meet with whatever crafts you enjoy doing?
Think about how you could devote a couple of hours each week toward fleshing it out into a small business as one of the ways to make extra money online.
Take Stock Photos
Do you enjoy taking photographs? Even more importantly, are you good at it?
If your idea of a nice weekend afternoon is to spend a few hours snapping photos of landscapes, people, pets, or anything else, you might be able to turn it into an opportunity for making money online.
Websites like Getty Images or Shutterstock list photos from freelance photographers on their sites.
When individuals, marketing agencies, or small businesses want to use the photos on their websites or their brochures, they pay a fee. As the photographer, you get part of that fee.
A photo that you take in January might be purchased for use in February, twice in April, twice in August, and four times in December. So over the course of the year, that one photo might be used nine times.
Of course, you could sell the photo dozens (or even hundreds) of times or not at all. Putting up more photos will raise your odds of making extra cash.
You can check out this guide about selling pictures online where we discuss the companies worth submitting to, along with how much they pay and how likely you are to have your work accepted.
Be a Mystery Shopper
Mystery shopping, sometimes called secret shopping, is when a hired individual goes into a store, restaurant, or another place of business to pose as a customer.
The mystery shopper makes a purchase, taking note of the customer service received, the quality of the item or service, and other factors.
They might need to do something specific, like check the cleanliness of the bathroom or make a return. Once the job is done, they get paid.
If you like shopping, this might sound like a dream job. It doesn’t pay a lot; expect to earn about $10 or $15 per shop.
However, you will be reimbursed for your meal if it’s a restaurant or the merchandise you were asked to purchase if it’s a retail store. You might even get a free hotel stay!
Volition.com is a good place to start if you want to become a mystery shopper. They have lists of reputable companies to sign up with.
If you look at other companies, be sure to avoid those that send cold emails or that charge for a list of shopping tasks. Both of these are signs of a scam.
Write Social Media Posts
Are you a social media master?
If you know your way around Facebook (or even Facebook marketplace), Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, and other popular social media and social blogging sites, you may be surprised to learn that companies are willing to pay you for your expertise.
You’ll need to know which types of people use different social media sites. You’ll also have to understand who your client’s target audience is.
Then it’s just a matter of using a site like Buffer to schedule posts on the appropriate online platforms throughout the week or month.
Spend an hour or two going through and responding to comments on behalf of your customer, and you will have built yourself a social media marketing business.
How can you find clients?
Think about the businesses you buy from regularly and look them up on social media. If they’re not up-keeping their sites or don’t understand the nuances of hashtags or how to diversify content, email them with a proposal.
Once you have clients, you can offer incentives for referrals.
For example, give your client a month’s worth of social media posts for free if they refer someone who signs up for a six-month contract. For these types of gigs, word-of-mouth advertising can be your best friend.
Join a Focus Group
A focus group is when a company or organization asks people to come together to discuss a product, a piece of music, a television show, a political campaign, etc (check out the best paid focus groups here).
Sometimes, companies ask people with something in common to join the group. For example, they might pick random individuals who have all listened to a timeshare presentation in the past 30 days.
A focus group typically meets for a couple of hours, and the compensation for a meeting might be cash or a gift card. You might make $50 to $100 or more per hour.
Here are some sites where you’ll have the chance to be chosen for a focus group:
Make Extra Money With 1-2 Hours of Spare Time 
Do you only have an extra couple of hours each week where you can sit down and complete a task?
No problem!
There are many ways to make extra money in just an hour or two of dedicated time. Check out this list of ideas.
Earn Rewards From Your Groceries
There’s a new way to do couponing: earn cashback after buying groceries.
There are completely free apps to use that will reward you for grocery shopping!
How does this work?
These apps partner with brands and stores, offer special deals and incentivize people to shop for those brands and at those stores.
One of the best apps for grocery rewards is Fetch Rewards.
You simply upload a picture of your receipt, and the app reads the items you’ve bought and gives you a certain number of points based on your receipt.
Then you can exchange those points for gift cards or cash them out.
The entire process only takes 10 seconds!
Side note: you can also create a nice lil business if you want to get paid to deliver groceries for people in your area.
Get Paid To Read Emails
Yes, you really can get paid to read emails. Companies called Get Paid To (GPT) sites will pay people to open emails and click the links within them.
Here’s how it works:
These companies get a commission for each new visitor they send to their advertising partners.
So, when you click the links within the company’s emails, they get a kickback. And that’s how they can afford to pay you.
Just be aware that there are companies who act as GPT sites but are, in actuality, trying to scam you.
So to help you avoid the scams, here are a few legit GPT sites that will pay you to read emails:
It’s best to choose a side hustle that you would enjoy. That way, spending that spare time will genuinely add value to your life (other than monetary value!)
