Whether you’re trying to save for a down payment on a house, or you just want to finance the lifestyle you deserve, there are times when we could all do with some extra income. Instead of waiting for a promotion, why not pick one of these six proven ways to make money on the side, and turn your spare time into an extra income? If you need help with finding resources for down below, such as financial trading, you can look into a Trading Platform Test, if you want to know more about how to market your skills, you can research local marketing agencies that can assist. There is a lot of help out there for those who need it.
- Sell Your Skills
There are people out there looking for the skills that you have, and they want to pay you for them. Something as simple being able to punctuate a sentence properly is valuable to someone who’s looking for a proofreader.
If grammar isn’t your thing, then perhaps you know how to work photoshop, to draw or to write computer code. People are looking for freelancers with all sorts of skills.
The rise of freelance websites like Fiverr makes selling your skills easy. You simply advertise a gig of something you’re willing to do for five or ten bucks, like proofread 1,000 words, and then visitors order the service from you. You decide how much work to take, so it fits into your spare time.
- Turn Your Crafts into Cash
What if your skills are something you can’t easily do for a client, like making jewellery or woodworking?
The rise of online marketplaces like Etsy and Ebay mean that anybody can sell anything. If you make beautiful, steel butterfly jewellery, then there’s probably someone out there who wants to buy it. Like to carve wooden salt and pepper shakers shaped like Donald Trump and George Bush? There’s probably somebody who wants those too. You get the idea.
- Financial Trading
The world of financial trading might seem like a high-risk option when you hear about all the billions that bankers throw around, and often lose. But the truth is that thousands of people make a decent side income from trading. If you’re willing to read a few books by experts on a single part of the market, such as forex or bonds, then you’ll know more than 99% of other people in your market.
Luckily, now that we have online trading services like CMC Markets, it’s never been easier to manage your investments and test out the world of forex spreads. If you get over the fear and make the leap, you could start a lucrative trading business on the side.
- Classified Ad Arbitrage
Whether you’re looking at Craigslist or the classifieds in your local newspaper, you can find some real bargains. Why not snap up some of those underpriced products, and resell them at a higher price, using the same classified service?
It might sound cheeky, but it’s actually a good way to make money on the side, and is even a full time income for some people. One guy in the U.S. managed to pay off $50,000 worth of debt, and now buys and sells appliances, like washing machines, full time.
- Loan Your Savings Out at Interest
Banks and credit card companies make a fortune by lending people their money and collecting interest payments. But thanks to the rise of peer-to-peer lending services, you can get in on the action too. When you sign up to one of these services, you can loan your money to their customers, at a fixed rate of interest.
Of course, some peer-to-peer loan platforms offer better deals and better protection than others, so it pays to do your research. But it’s not hard to find insurance backed loans, where you don’t risk a penny. Plus they pay a lot better than your ISA, with rates of up to 7.2% at the time of writing.
- Get Paid to be Friends with People
Rent a friend services first became popular in Japan, but recently they’ve starting gaining traction in the UK too. Lonely strangers will pay to hang out with you and just, well, be friends for an hour or two.
It might sound weird, and you can definitely expect to meet some people who have rusty social skills. But if you get along easily with strangers, then this could be your ideal way to make money on the side.
Sites like RentAFriend.com and are free to sign up to, and take UK signups now. You negotiate your own hourly rate with clients, and then collect your cash for spending time with them. It’s all strictly platonic, and anybody caught offering more is usually kicked off these services, so you don’t have to worry about clients expecting anything more for their money.
