8 easy ways to earn Rs

Sometimes people look for ways to make real income from home, but sometimes we look for extra spending money. The great thing about making money from home is that you can take it in any direction!

If you are looking for an easy way to earn some money in your spare time then this is for you. There are many ways to make money easily and on your own schedule without long-term commitment. These are a few of my favorites:

1. Survey

Surveys are one of the most popular ways to make money from home. There are many survey sites that you can use and you can do them on your computer or even on your smartphone If your timing is right, you may even get a chance to review the product!

One of the reasons surveys are so popular is that you can do them at your leisure. People will take surveys when they are watching TV, when they are waiting for something, or when they have nothing going on. And especially with the convenience of smartphone apps, surveys are an easy way to bring in some extra cash.

A few of my favorites:

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of my favorite ways to make money from home. When you sign up, you become part of a website with a ton of ways to earn Swagbucks (or SBs), which you can trade for cash or gift cards.

Swagbucks has a lot to offer in exchange for SBs. Lots of online stores have cash-back shopping, watching videos, taking surveys, participating in daily polls, games, contests, sweepstakes and more. Also, you can use Swagbucks as a search engine and earn random SBs Even if you don’t like doing surveys and watching videos, just by using search engine features you will have a steady flow of cash in your pocket. Please register here.

3. Sell your stuff

One of the easiest ways to make some extra money is to sell unwanted items you have lying around. There are ways to make money with clothes, electronics, media (like DVDs and books), or extras you no longer want. This is a double benefit for you: extra money, and reduced clutter. By getting rid of what you don’t want, you’re giving yourself a little more freedom.

You can go online to sell your stuff (if you’re not sure where to start, start with eBay). If that’s not your speed, you can definitely go the local route. If you decide to sell locally, take advantage of things like buy/sell/trade groups on Facebook, resell apps, and websites like Craigslist or community/neighborhood boards. Even if you have a lot of stuff to offload, you can make some good money with a yard sale.

4. General gigs

People in their teens do a lot of things for pocket money which is still a viable source of income today. You can mow the lawn, do some babysitting, or even be a house sitter. It simply means, there are no additional demands on your time, and you can pick and choose when you do it (largely).

Other common gigs include tutoring, taking care of pets while someone is at work or on vacation, doing odd jobs, moving or delivering furniture (if you have a truck or trailer), or running errands and delivering groceries.

5. Mystery shopping

Mystery shopping is a fun way to earn some extra cash and check out some restaurants and experiences in your local area while you’re at it. Businesses hire mystery shopping firms to send “regular people” to their businesses to evaluate the customer experience. You can “shop” at attractions such as shops, restaurants, medical offices or even mall carousels.

There are also apps (like Field Agent) that will ping you when you’re near a site and offer you a task to undertake. This would be things like taking a picture of a specific item or a store restroom.

To make mystery shopping more convenient, you can do the same service over the phone. Your role is to test the customer service experience, and there are several companies that hire mystery shoppers for phone calls.

6. Short work

Several different variations of “small task” exist. There are sites that allow you to offer your services to potential clients or customers. There are other sites that aggregate all kinds of small jobs and let you pick and choose what you want (like Mechanical Turk). There are also some task-specific sites where you can perform tasks like checking search engines or reviewing websites.

• mTurk – I remember doing HITS on mTurk during my lunch break before I started working from home (circa 2007). They were “money jobs” back then and sadly for the most part they still are today. You’ll find a variety of entry-level, non-phone jobs here, from data entry to surveys to transcription. It’s low pay and that pay comes through Amazon Payments. But busy with work.
• Fancyhands – This site hires virtual assistants for small, one-time jobs. No time commitment. Come and go you please. I don’t spend my extra time here because a lot of work involves things I don’t care about (making phone calls, fussing over bills). That being said, I love that there are no surprises. You can see the very bit of what will be involved, including files, before accepting a job. The pay isn’t the best ($12/hr average), but I’ve seen worse. Payments are made weekly through Dwolla only.
• Fiver – I like Fiverr for extra cash. It satisfies my gig-hopping tendencies and I can turn it on and off as I please. You need to be careful when selecting gigs to offer. Your initial offer should be short, sweet and to the point. It must be scalable. Most of the money made on Fiverr is in upsells. Level 2 sellers can earn up to an additional $160 per order. Narrow down your target audience. Be specific. Hold on to your guns. Payment is made through PayPal. Revenue takes 14 days to clear after an order is completed. See this post for my Fiverr tips.

7. Cash-back site

Using cash-back shopping sites is the easiest way to earn some extra money from home. Whenever you shop online, shop through a cash-back site and you’ll get cash back on your eligible purchases.

A good reason to use Ebates is that you can download a browser extension that enables cash-back bonuses without going through the Ebates site. You can get a $10 welcome bonus when you sign up here.

8. Grocery Apps

Another super easy way to get extra money is to use grocery apps. They are like a combination of couponing and cash-back purchases. Generally speaking, all you do is identify the items in the app that you plan to buy, and then you buy them! I was able to get tons of money back thanks to these rebates on things I would have bought anyway.

My favorite among grocery apps is Ibotta — you can “cash out” with PayPal, Venmo or a gift card. They also offer a lot of “no name brand” rebates which means you can get cash back on things like a gallon of milk even if you buy the store brand. Get a $10 welcome bonus when you sign up here and complete your first rebate within 10 days.

These are just a few of my favorite easy ways to make money. Sign up for my weekly newsletter below and I’ll send you a few more!