How to Make Money from Home – 25 Ideas from the Pros

Whether you are an independent contractor, a stay-at-home mom or dad, a student, a part-time worker, or just someone looking for a side hustle, you can make money without leaving the comfort of your home.

But which options truly work and how much can you earn from them? We researched and asked the experts for you and we have summed up the top 25 ideas for how to make money from home.

1. Translate your interests into your own blog.

Maggie Aland, Fit Small Business

Is there a particular topic that you are passionate about? Do you have a wealth of knowledge about a specific subject? Choose your niche and start your own blog. This can be quite fun, especially if you have the passion for writing and for your chosen topic. Here’s a clear step-by-step guide on how to start your own blog using WordPress.

As you capture an audience with your compelling and engaging content, you can start monetizing your page. One of the most effective ways to earn from your blog is through affiliate marketing. You can partner with companies related to your business and earn a commission every time someone purchases a product after visiting your blog.

Ready to start a blog? Bluehost offers a domain, a website, and business email for as low as $2.95 a month. Click here to check it out.

2. Why not monetize your skills? Become a Tutor.

Mr. MoneyBanks, Founder, Multimillionaireroad.com

Everyone has a skill that they can teach to someone else and so do you. Why not consider monetizing your skill and tutor in  your preferred subject. I tutor business studies, economics and excel skills. The first step is to find an agency to feed clients to you and to kick start your own client base. Do a great job and the referrals will start to come in.

2. Not yet ready to commit to your own blog? Warm up with guest posts.

Adam White, Founder, SEOJet

One great and easy way to make money from home is to write articles for blogs that are willing to pay for posts. The great thing about this simple strategy is you have full flexibility to write the articles when you have time and as often as you want.

There are blogs in pretty much every niche that will pay writers for articles, so whatever your area of expertise, you have good options.

Here is a huge list I put together of 100+ blogs that will pay for posts.

3. Be a gracious host to foreign students and get paid.

Jasmine Birtles, MoneyMagpie

Not only will you earn money, this can also be a great experience for you and your entire family. You can learn about rich foreign cultures and establish friendships with people from other parts of the world.

To become a host family, you need to register with your local language school and make sure that you have the extra room in your home.

Read this article to learn more about how you can make money hosting foreign students.

4. Get money while keeping fit with the Achievemint app.

Carson Kohler, The Penny Hoarder

If the benefit of having good health is not enough motivation for you to start exercising, extra cash might do the trick. Achievemint is an app that pays you for walking- literally. You connect it to your fitness app (Fitbit, MyFitness Pal, etc.) and you earn points by posting on Instagram, working out and walking.

Though it’s not a big amount of money (10,000 points = $10), it is a quick and easy way to make money while doing something good for you. This article shares how to start using and earning cash from the app.

5. Be an efficient and organized virtual assistant.

Glenn Carter, Personal Finance Blogger, The Casual Capitalist

The reality is, most entrepreneurs are sinking in tasks, and yet they have to balance that with spending quality time with their families. As a virtual assistant, you can help entrepreneurs with some of the tasks, be it admin stuff, book-keeping, social media, customer support, etc. Most of these virtual assistant tasks can be easily completed from home.

And, with the MASSIVE growth in solo-preneurs and freelancers, the need for good virtual assistants will only rise.

You can easily set up your freelancer account on Upwork and search for virtual assistant jobs there. Click here to check it out.

6. Become a full-time freelancer.

Marc Prosser, Fit Small Business

It is actually very possible to earn a full time income even while working from home, when you establish yourself as a freelancer. As more companies are seeing the advantages of working with independent contractors over full-time employees, increased opportunities are available for individuals diving into the world of freelancing.

Marc Prosser shares the lowdown on how to become a freelancer, where to find clients, and the things you need to consider in this comprehensive freelancing guide. Apart from applying for online jobs, you can also proactively post your services on Fiverr and have interested clients reach out to you.

7. Love to cook? Share your delicious home-cooked meal.

Saul Of-Hearts, The Penny Hoarder

Do you love to whip up gourmet dishes at home? Do your dinners always receive a 5-star rating from your loving husband and kids? Are you aspiring to be the next Masterchef? Maybe it’s about time you cash in on your cooking and baking skills!

“Foodsharing” sites such as Feastly, EatWith and NewGusto, let you create dinner parties and invite people over to eat your yummy recipes- for a fee. There are also other options, like offering home-cooked take-out, or a weekly/monthly meal plan.

8. Be an online juror and take part in a courtroom drama.

Lashay Hudson, Dream Home Based Work

Do you love watching Suits or How To Get Away With Murder? You might enjoy doing online mock jury duty — you will watch actual lawyers present their side on real cases they are working on, have your say on the ‘verdict’, and earn money.

This is like a courtroom focus group and the feedback from online jurors gives lawyers a prediction of how things might turn out for their case.

It is entirely ‘legal’, but be sure to only join reputable online jury sites.

9. Share your expertise through online courses.

Christian Gainsbrugh, Lead Developer, LearningCart

People are increasingly monetizing the skills and knowledge they already possess.

This is demonstrated by the massive growth of companies like Udemy and Coursera, which are marketplaces for video training courses, as well as the growth of dedicated platforms like LearningCart that allow people to build their own website focused around selling their training courses.

One of the truly unique things about selling your knowledge is there is no inventory to worry about and very little overhead. Once you have produced your content, the profit margins are extremely hard to beat.

10. Be an Amazon affiliate by recommending products you like and earning commission.

Lewis Drakken, Founder, Pricenfees

With the Amazon Associates Program, our website researches a variety of different products that are sold on Amazon, rank and review them, and earn a commission on sold items.

What makes us different is that each of our team members has a niche and we write useful legitimate reviews. We don’t recommend anything that we wouldn’t use ourselves. Over the years, we have built a reputation and return visitors have given us their trust.

Today, I am now making more than I was as a practicing attorney working for somebody else, I am not confined to any particular workspace, and I really enjoy what I do.

11. Find new owners for your preloved items.

Charis Rebecca Brown, Deals Editor, Clark

Cleaning out your closets and decluttering your home? You might find a pile of stuff that you no longer need, but are still functional and in a relatively good condition. Sell them!

You can find interested buyers online by posting on eBay, Bonanza or eBid, or you can organize your own yard/garage sale. This article provides 40 ways to sell your old stuff for the most cash.

12. Channel your expertise and become a coach.

Devay Campbell, Two-Time Bestselling Author, Devay Campbell

As a coach, you will help someone tackle challenges in their life, career or business. Are you really great at getting job offers, new business clients, losing weight, parenting or ALMOST anything? Someone is waiting for you to help them! You can take them to the step-by-step process of what you did to achieve success in that area. And you can do this right from home using recorded or live video and/or the telephone.

Publish, set your price, and sell your online coaching sessions through these platforms: Academy of Mine, Ruzuku, WizIQ, Teachable, and Udemy. Or you can engage with individuals or groups in real-time via Skype.

13. Get referral commission from service providers.

Debra M. Cohen, Founder, Homeowner Referral Network

I make money from home, screening and referring home improvement contractors. Contractors in my network pay me a pre-negotiated commission for work secured. My Homeowner Referral Network (HRN) business is like a home improvement concierge type service for busy homeowners and an outsourced sales and marketing force for reliable contractors.

14. Write, self-publish and sell an ebook.

Steve Gillman, Contributor, The Penny Hoarder

Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Barnes and Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBook, and other ebook platforms, it is easy to deal with the technicalities of being a self-published ebook author now. If you are a good writer, this can be a very lucrative way of making money from home.

Of course, you do have to invest a lot of time and careful thought in composing, researching and polishing your content. Make sure to focus on the quality- that will help you establish yourself as an ebook writer.

15. Set up an online store on Etsy and make it a family bonding experience.

Julie Harrell, President, Cheer Love Co.

My daughter Madeline and I run an Etsy shop. What started as a side hustle to bring in some extra money to pay for extracurricular activities has become a place for athletes to share a common passion- and a growing business. We gained over 1,100 Instagram followers within 6 months and we will be launching our jewelry line to sell on Etsy in the next week. Etsy, combined with social media, provides a platform to work from home, train my 13 year old in the ways of business, and of course, enjoy the added income.

Do you also want to be successful on Etsy? View our ultimate guide.

16. Test websites and cash in your feedback.

Tanner Callais, Editor, Cruzely

I love UserTesting.com as a way to make a little extra cash from home. You test the usability of websites and offer feedback. Each session takes about 15 minute and earns you $10 a pop. It’s great if you just have a little spare time that you want to put to use. All you need is a computer to get started.

17. Work on human intelligence tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk.

Michael Naab, Top Money Habits

Michael Naab shares how he made $33,000 by performing human intelligence tasks (HIT) on Amazon Mechanical Turk- a site where various individuals, institutions and groups post tasks to be performed by online workers.

This is a good way to make money from home or even for those who are looking for extra income after work or during weekends.

18. Take awesome pictures using your smartphone and sell them online.

Krista Fabregas, Fit Small Business

If you are creative and can take good pictures, you can master your photography skills and sell your images online. You do not have to invest in expensive camera equipment, you can just use your iPhone or Android device.

19. Teach classes the old-fashioned way- in your home.

Linda Garner and Anita Fowler, Live Like You Are Rich

Nowadays, everyone is obsessed with teaching and taking classes online, but there are certain skills that are still more effectively taught face-to-face. Examples are: musical instruments, arts and craft, cooking, baking, etc. Holding classes in your home can both be convenient and practical, as you do not have to pay for space rental and you get to make money from home.

This interview discusses how to teach music lessons from home, but the points can be applied to other types of classes you want to set up inside your house.

20. Set aside at least one hour per day and do micro jobs.

Kulwant Nagi, Professional Blogger, Blogging Cage

We all have some awesome skills which we can use to make money from home. One of the easiest way to start is micro jobs. There are many micro jobs websites out there which provide a platform for freelancers to market their service.

For example, someone who is good at designing can offer services such as creating logos, cards, shirts, etc.

I have made a list of 5 micro job sites here.

21. Make money selling websites.

Jason Rueger, FitSmallBusiness

If you have an existing website generating a steady stream of income, you might want to sell it for a profit. Or you can make a decent amount of money flipping websites: you buy existing websites, work on it to increase its value, then sell it for a higher price.

Fit Small Business shares 8 pro tips on how to sell a website.

22. Convert your social media expertise into cash.

Alexis Grant, Entrepreneurial Writer and Digital Strategist, Alexis Grant

There is no denying the power of social media, and many business owners want to utilize various social media platforms to engage with their target market and promote their products. If you consider yourself social media-savvy, you can offer your services to companies who want to grow their social media presence.

You can manage an organization’s Facebook and Instagram pages and add in catchy and relevant content, work as a moderator for online groups and communities, increase an account’s number of followers, etc.

23. Become an online middleman.

Jeff Moriarty, President, JMoriarty Marketing

With so many drop shipping companies online, you can sell almost anything you want without having any inventory. I use Google Keyword Planning Tool to check the number of searches for keywords and the difficulty. Next, I look for keywords/products that people search for that are not competitive.

I then find a dropshipper who sells that item and create a cheap website. And then when an order comes in, it forwards to the drop shipper and you just collect the profits!

If you can find a few niche keywords/products, you can easily make enough to work from home full-time.

24. Make money while sitting- for kids.

Jordan Meyers, Chron

If you love kids and have the space in your home, you can set up an in-house child care business. You might have neighbors who need help looking after their kids while they’re at work, and available daycare centers may be too expensive or too far away.

However, remember that watching over children is a big responsibility- you need to provide a safe and clean environment for them, and you also have to be energetic enough to keep up.

25. Look around your home and see what you can rent out (which is basically almost everything).

Kim Owens, WiseBread

Peer-to-peer renting sites allow you to find renters for various objects you have on hand- including your wedding dress, your spare room (as accommodation or storage space), and even yourself (as a bridesmaid or friend). Or you can find renters the old-fashioned way- by renting out to your neighbors, community and tourists.

Just always make sure that you collect a deposit and have a rental contract which clearly states the proper use of your items.

Over to you

Hopefully you are now aware of how to make money from home. So which of these ideas do you want to try out first? Let us know in the comments below!