Being a stay-at-home parent is a full-time job. Unfortunately, it doesn’t come with a full-time paycheck. As a result, it can be hard for some families relying on just one income to make ends meet or build savings.
No matter what your area of interest or expertise, if you have the desire to work from home, someone, somewhere, has work for you that can use your skills and natural talents. If you remain diligent and flexible, you’ll find it. And you won’t have to spend money on gas or transportation to get to work.
1. Get paid for your opinions.
Taking surveys online can be a relatively quick way to earn enough to afford a few extras. Harris Poll Online, for example, awards points for the completion of online surveys, which can take between five and 25 minutes to fill out. Survey takers accumulate points and can redeem them for gift cards from retailers such as Amazon and Starbucks.
Harris Poll Online also runs sweepstakes for survey participants that pay out cash rewards to winners. The top prize is $10,000. Other online outfits that will pay you to take surveys include SurveyClub, Global Test Market and Swagbucks. There’s no cost to sign up.
2. Freelance Writing
If you have a flair for writing, there many freelance writer opportunities available such as writing technical or marketing pieces; or articles for journals, newspapers, or magazines. You can also get paid to write blog articles for various websites like the Yahoo Contributor network, for example.
3. Crafts and Art: Sell Your Creativity
If you have a knack for creating beautiful things, then you were born at the right time to make some serious income from home. The growing trend for vintage and homemade products shows no signs of stopping. Plus, the Internet is chock full of well-known outlets for such wares.
Etsy, for example, is one of the fastest growing sites that gives artists a chance to sell items at a fair price. The site boasts over 40 categories, from gifts to clothes to edibles, with thousands of listings. And the price is right; you can get your own site connected to Etsy for just 20 cents per listing.
Selling on Etsy and similar sites, however, has become an art form itself, and finding success in these marketplaces takes a lot of work and planning. Your art is already a full-time job, but you’ll need to devote plenty of time to being a smart business person too.
4. Earn $3/Month Sharing Your Amazon Purchases With This App
If you’re a regular Amazon shopper, you can earn money each month contributing to research to help companies understand what people are buying online. Companies use this information to improve the online shopping experience.
To earn your first gift card today:
Sign up and download the ShopTracker app on your Windows computer and Apple or Android phone. It takes about two minutes. You’ll need to answer a few questions about your Amazon use to qualify. Open the app and log in to your Amazon account to automatically share your purchase history. You’ll receive your Visa e-gift card code for $3 via email within 48 hours.
Take a couple of minutes to share your purchase history to earn another $3 each month. Your information is collected securely by The Harris Poll, a trusted market research company for more than 20 years. ShopTracker removes your name, shipping address and any personal payment information before reporting your purchase history.
5. ONLINE GUIDE OR EXPERT
Do your friends look to you for advice on things you’re passionate about, such as which car to buy, how to repair appliances or how to make a killer cheesecake? Whatever your area of expertise, if you are also a seasoned writer with an infectious enthusiasm for a particular topic, consider becoming an online expert guide. Guides are freelancers with an ability to communicate well and good grammar and spelling skills.
For example, About.com guides write articles or reviews in their area of expertise. They earn no less than $725 a month, but some make more than $100,000 a year depending on year-over-year, page-view growth. Go to beaguide.about.com, where you’ll find which areas of expertise are still open. (There are many!)
Also try Chacha.com, a new search engine similar to Google and Yahoo, and click on “Become a Guide” for more information. At JustAnswer.com, users agree to pay for the answers to their questions. Guides are paid a percentage of the pre-negotiated price per answer and the number of accepted answers received. Go to Just Answer to find out how
6. Watch other people’s kids along with your own.
There’s a good chance your friends who work outside of their homes would be thrilled to have an experienced parent watch their children while they are at the office. It can be manageable if your friend in need has only one or two kids. Plus, the new playmates will help keep your children occupied for a few hours. Pay varies widely based on where you live and the ages and number of kids you’ll be watching, but babysitters and nannies typically can make up to $10 an hour in small cities and much more – even double that hourly rate – in larger cities
7. Sell Your Skills for $5 on Fiverr
Earning $5 at a time may not sound like much, but those little sales can add up to thousands of dollars.
That’s the idea behind Fiverr.com, an online platform where users sell their products and services for $5 each. Fiverr says users create 4,000 new listings, or “gigs,” every day.
Gigs range from the standard data entry and research tasks to the truly out-there. For example, as I write this, sellers in the “Fun and Bizarre” section are offering:
- A piece of rare metal that will melt in your hand
- A prank phone call to anyone you choose
- Three balloons released into the sky with your message in them
- Your name written on two grains of rice
- A photo of you on the cover of “Rolling Stone”
- A video of a woman pretending to be “crazy in love with you” — which has 253 buyers and a 98% positive rating so far
8. RENTING OUT YOUR RIDE
Getaround and Turo are the sharing economy’s answer to rental agencies.With Getaround, for example, you can rent out your car on an hourly or daily basis. You set the price, depending on the your vehicle’s market value, and the company takes a 40 percent cut to cover 24/7 roadside assistance and driver insurance. Earning potential: From $300 to $10,000 a year.