Earning extra money or creating a new primary source of income online is easy if you know where to look.
Supplemental, second income, side hustle, call it whatever you want to but the end goal is always the same: to make some extra money. Whether you’re trying to supplement your current income OR create a new primary income stream, there are a ton of options, especially given the realities of social distancing.
Our list below is in an unbiased, non-specific order. We’ve personally vetted every single method listed here and can confirm that all are possible ways to make money online during lockdown or Coronavirus quarantine.
Become A Freelance Writer
Freelance writing is great for people who are either super knowledgeable about one subject and/or are great at researching new subjects. Here are some companies that will pay you regularly to put your thoughts into words.
- Writer Access - Pair your expertise with someone needs it typed out into an article or blog post. Regular payments and finding lots of work is easy once you get going.
- The Content Authority - Get paid per 100 words written. You may find a 300 word article, or a 2,000+ word article. These guys are fairly new so the service hasn’t been bogged down with writers (yet!)
- Verblio - Formerly known as BlogMutt, these guys are one of the best companies in the industry. They pay weekly, and there’s A LOT of work to choose from. In the beginning you can only pick up small 350-500 word articles, but as you get some projects under your belt you are able to take on much larger jobs that pay hundreds of dollars per article
- Textbroker - Textbroker pays out an average of $1.50 per 100 words. If you’re typing about a subject you know a lot about already, and are a quick typer, it’s easy to get some decent earnings.
Get Paid As A Transcriptionist
You can literally get paid to listen to an audio clip and type out what you hear being said. The rates are often paid out per minute of audio that’s been transcribed. It can be slow in the beginning but once you get yourself into a good groove it’s easy to knock out multiple hours of audio in no time.
All of the services below require an entry test, but they give you the study materials beforehand. Studying for and taking the test takes less time than it would to drive to an office and sit down for an interview.
- Speechpad - This is the best company for newbies as their entry test is easy to pass. However, they pay the lowest at around $0.25-$0.45 per minute of audio transcribed.
- TranscribeMe - Open to anyone in the world that’s a native English speaker, you can expect to average about $20 per hour of audio transcribed.
- AccuTran Global - While their rates aren’t publically available, word on the street is they pay more than Speechpad but are harder to get into. Weekly payments through paypal.
- Casting Words - For clear, easy-to-hear audio you can make $0.60 per minute of audio transcribed, and for audio that’s not that good of quality you can earn up to $1.20 per minute.
- Daily Transcription - These guys are only open to residents of the US and Canada. Their pay averages out to be about $0.75-$1.15 per minute of audio transcribed.
Actual Work-From-Home Jobs That Are Hiring
There are lots of things that you can do from home that will earn you money, but if you're looking for something that fits a more traditional "job" role, we’ve got a list of legit companies here that will hire you on as an employee and give you a salaried or hourly paycheck. All of the companies below are hiring during quarantine!
- Contentrix - Contentrix has been providing support for various business-level applications for nearly 40 years now. They’ve got hundreds of thousands of employees across 50 countries, a large portion of which are work from home. Agents are trained to provide various levels of support across numerous industries from automotive to banking.
- American Express - This company needs no introduction. This is the unicorn of work from home jobs. The pay is tremendous and the benefits are just as amazing. They even have full paid maternity leave, despite the fact that you’re literally working in your own home.
- Xerox - Xerox provides a wide array of business solutions, not just copy machines. They even have data entry work from home jobs that don’t require you to be on the phone.
- Sitel - The Work@Home agents of Sitel essentially do the same thing as Concentrix, mentioned above. You’re simply going to be an outsourced customer service agent. It’s still not a bad gig if you can land it.
- Support.com - With a huge network of work-from-home agents, support.com is able to offer tons of different styles of technical support for many different pieces of technology. If you’re one of the tech-literate folks out there, or are great at learning, then this may be the job for you.
- Apple - The treny technology giant hires both at-home support representatives and live chat agents. The influx of people staying home and living on their computers, phones, and tablets has caused an uptick in Apple tech support contacts, so they’re trying to bolster their support staff with more wok-at-home agents.
Generate Income From Your Smartphone Or Tablet
The title alone just sounds like a make money online scam, but we can personally attest that every one of the services below are legitimate. Just about everybody in a developed country has a smartphone with wifi and/or a great data plan. It’s a great way to earn some extra money.
- Nielsen Digital Voice - Have you ever wondered how they know how many people watched the Superbowl? Or how many people listen to a certain radio station? It’s because of Neilsen. They pay people to let them track how you entertain yourself and use technology. If you have a smart phone they’ll pay you to let them see what you use it for.
- MobileXpression - Just like Neilsen, companies pay these guys to do research and learn about how people are using their tablets and smartphones. Download the app and get your first reward within a week.
Get Paid To Buy Your Groceries And Coronavirus Quarantine Supplies
You can get paid to buy the stuff you’re already spending money on by taking advantage of cashback shopping services. You can even get paid for buying things well beyond the scope of groceries and supplies. Large merchants will often pay companies to refer sales to them. These cashback shopping services share their referral fees with you in the form of a cashback shopping experience.
- Rakuten - The biggest name in online cashback shopping. Formerly known as EBates, they have a network of thousands of vendors, plus a mobile app and browser extension so you can make sure you never miss getting cashback from a website in their network.
- Ibotta - Ibotta only has a few hundred stores in their network, but you can earn cashback from shopping online with their app AND you can earn cashback from shopping in store by simply uploading your receipt to the Ibotta app.
- WikiBuy - Similar to the two services above, WikiBuy is great because they try to partner with local merchants. So your favorite pizza place down the road or your local coffee house may be listed.
Get Paid To Do Random Stuff Online (Including Surveys)
Here are some other great ways to make money online that didn’t fit into one of the specific categories above. The methods listed below are wonderful to make some extra cash on the side and none of them really require much time or effort.
- SwagBucks - The biggest name in the “Get paid to..” world where users can get paid to do surveys, shop, play games, and do other things through the app or website. They have paid out TONS in the form of Paypal, Amex gift cards, Amazon gift cards, and many other methods.
- Amazon mTurk - When a company is working on a project that needs A LOT of workers to do seemingly menial tasks, they turn to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. This can be used for some extra bucks or, some people get really good at it and turn it into a full-time income.
- Respondent.io - One of the best survey sites on the web. They have some paid surveys that, if you qualify for them, can pay $25, $50, even $250 bucks. They pay through PayPal every time you successfully complete a survey or focus group.
- Prosper - People with less-than-stellar credit can use Prosper to try and get a loan. If you have some extra money to lend people through the Prosper platform, you can make a decent profit from the interest rates of their repayments.
- Fundrise - Have you ever wanted to invest in real estate but didn’t know where to start? Or maybe you just didn’t have the money? Fundrise lets you invest in real estate projects with only a few hundred bucks up front, and it’s all done from the comfort of your own home!