10 Things You Can Do To Make Extra Money While At Work
Photo by: AstroBoy
I’ve thought of a handful of ideas as I’m always hot on the trail of new ventures:
1. Blog (obviously)
If you are passionate about ANYTHING, I can assure you there is someone out there that would be interested in reading it. Keep up on writing and business will come.
Skill needed (1-10) – 6
Time involvement (1-10) – 7
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 9
2. Take online surveys
There are many online surveys you can take that will pay you for doing so. The prices vary on them, but I can’t say I’ve read good things about many of them, one site that I have heard decent reviews on is surveyspot.com. They don’t pay much, a few cents to maybe a dollar, but COULD be lucrative if you have a lot of time at work.
Skill needed (1-10) – 0
Time involvement (1-10) – 3
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 3
3. Audio Transcriber
I’ve had jobs that are pretty boring, and at times I’d have NOTHING to do. But in needing to look busy, you can easily download a podcast to your Ipod and listen to the cast while keeping busy looking for the bossman. Check out contractedwork.com, productiontranscripts.com, or tigerfish.com if you have quick fingers.
Skill needed (1-10) – 4
Time involvement (1-10) – 7
Pay range possibility(1-10) – 5
4. Donate plasma or blood
There are a lot of BioLife Plasma Services centers across the world. Each center will give you at least $20 for donating each time, and some will give up to $35 or $40. If your boss is cool with taking longer lunches (appointments take 1-2 hours), you can probably fit one in twice a week (that’s what most will allow) during lunch for an extra bump in your paycheck.
Skill needed (1-10) – 0
Time involvement (1-10) – 7
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 5
5. Write for Associated Content or eHow.com
If you’re slick with a keyboard and like teaching, this might be right up your alley. Both eHow.com and Associated Content can be pretty lucrative if you’ve got some time and ability. This site lays out the differences between the two in depth.
Skill needed (1-10) – 7
Time involvement (1-10) – 7
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 8
6. Virtual Juror
Ever wanted to be on jury duty, but have too many biases (insert joke here). Check out ejury.com or onlineverdict.com to look into become a virtual jury member. I haven’t done it, but rumor has it that cases take between 20 minutes and an hour to read and rate.
Skill needed (1-10) – 1
Time involvement (1-10) – 3
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 5
7. Clothing Designer
No kidding, if you’ve got a good eye for design or are good with Adobe Photoshop, check out cafepress.com or zazzle.com. Chookr.com has dug in on a handful of cool designs for kids and all they’ve done is craft up a slick looking logo.
Skill needed (1-10) – 8
Time involvement (1-10) – 8
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 9
8. Virtual Personal Assistant
Are you any good at making reservations, checking movie times, booking flights? If you said yes to any of those, and know the general area you live in, there are people out there willing to pay for that service. Check out redbutler.com if this floats your boat.
Skill needed (1-10) – 6
Time involvement (1-10) – 6
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 5
9. Online merchant
Unless you’re completely broke (and even if you are) you’ve got to have some things to sell at home. How about ebay? You can use your office packing materials to save costs and likely there is a UPS or FEDEX around your house for things you can send off. I’ve made a couple thousand off ebaying things I thought NOBODY would want over the years.
Skill needed (1-10) – 2
Time involvement (1-10) – 3
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 5
10. Quality Assurance Specialist
Ever hear a phone operator say, “this call may be recorded for quality assurance?” There REALLY is someone out there recording for that quality assurance. Check out voicelog.com to sign up to analyze customer service for telephone companies and other service industries in shifts of two or more hours.
Skill needed (1-10) – 3
Time involvement (1-10) – 9 (rumor has it you’re on the phone a lot)
Pay range possibility (1-10) – 4
So there are always things out there the average Joe can do to turn a few extra bucks at work or in their spare time. Don’t ever say there isn’t anything to do to reach their long term investment goals, because there ARE things to do; sometimes you just have to dig a little deeper to find them…
Filed Under: Compensation • Debt • Frugal • Net Worth • Passive Income • advice • financial education
Hi—Hank:
Great list, i vouch for numbers 1 and 5, it is how i have been making money online since 2007.
Freelance writing and/or freelance blogging are a GREAT way to make money online. If one does the research, one will find that the opportunities are out there.
Missy.
Great list. It’s nice that you included links in them. Makes it really easy to follow through. I have sold stuff on ebay but their fees have gone up so much it’s hardly worth it anymore.
Good list – though I can say I donated plasma for a while when I got laid off…and it was no picnic if you don’t have the veins for it
Really interseting list. I think that you proably wan to be careful not to get fired for using Office Supplies on you eBay part!
Otherwise your side income becomes your only income!
@Missy – I’m in the same boat #1 and #5 – blogging is a huge way to make more contacts and in turn more $$$.
@CindyS – Yea, I thought links would help folks out a bit more than just telling them what do to.
@Jesse – I can imagine it was a drain on several levels then, eh?
@Racerx – Good point, I guess I should have mentioned the Ebay post with an asterisk saying (borrow office supplies at your own risk!) Consider this my warning!
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Great list. I have tried a lot of these. Online juror seems to work best if you live in a larger city/area where there are more trials going on (or at least that has been my experience). I make a lot of money by doing online surveys, and I also browse deal sites and look for great deals for things to resell on ebay.
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Loved it. Very informative!
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great info, love it.
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Hi Hank-
Was digging through your posts and found this very interesting. I like how you rank skill, time, and pay from 1-10. It’s helpful to have the ranking criteria as it helps put the income source in context. Blogging can earn some good money, but also take considerable time and effort.
For the online surveys, I would add a patience factor to this one. I would say you need a patience level of 10 to survive some online surveys. I guess I might have adult ADD and get frustrated with them:)
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Great information!! I personally zazzle & LOVE it! I make some good extra change. I’d love to write on associated content & start ebaying also. I don’t know why I haven’t started yet because we have so much clutter around here!!! ; ) Hope to start on that soon. Thanks for writing this!
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nice info
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I guess I am doing something wrong when it comes to doing online surveys because I never have received any money for taking them and I feel if you have to purchase something that defeats the purpose.
I do like this site throw.
Thank you,
Dorothy