16 Easy Ways to Earn Money from Home (Legit & Researched)

I love discovering new ways to earn money from home!

Working from home is the perfect fit for stay at home moms like myself or dads, retirees, students, or anyone who have to stay at home due to health issues, or just want to make money.

If you are a stay at home parent, you can spend more time with your kids and save money on childcare costs while working from home. Whether you are a stay at home parent, college student, or retiree, there are many easy ways to earn money from home.

You may be freelancing online, selling things online you do not want or need, renting your stuff, driving for a rideshare company like Uber, or starting an online business to make extra money or even earn a living from home. Below, I have listed 16 easy ways to earn money from home. I can guarantee that all the money-making strategies listed below are legit.

Complete Paid Surveys

One of the simple and easy ways to earn money from home is to become a survey taker. This is where you get paid to give your opinion about products, services, brands, and more. You may even answer short questions about your shopping habits, or take an ePoll.

How to Get It: Sign up for as many high-paying legit survey sites as possible such as:

Survey Junkie – The rewards for each survey varies. You earn points. These points are redeemable for PayPal cash, e-Giftcards (U.S. only), and direct bank transfers (U.S. only).

Soapbox –  You earn Points for taking surveys. Then you can redeem them for PayPal cash, gift cards. Also, you can choose online certificates from online stores, restaurants, hotels, and more.

Toluna – You earn points for completing surveys and can redeem your points for PayPal cash, gift cards from a variety of popular brands, and more.

Swagbucks – You are awarded swaybacks for each survey you complete. You can also earn sweepstakes entries, if eligible. LifePoints are redeemable for PayPal vouchers and e-gift certificates from Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, and many other options.

Pinecone Research – With Pinecone Research, you can earn $3 per survey. Redeem your funds for prepaid virtual Visa debit cards and digital gift cards.

…and more online survey opportunities here.

Make sure to complete your user profile since surveys made available to you to complete generally depend on your demographic information.

Typically, survey companies or sites will pay you cash via PayPal, check, or direct deposit or give you rewards points that can be redeemed for gift cards or cash, depending on the survey company or site, for completing paid surveys.

You can earn anywhere from a few cents to $50 per survey, depending on the site, the complexity of the survey, and the time required to complete the survey. It is possible to make $50-$100 or more per month doing paid surveys every month if you can complete a few high paying surveys every week.

You May Also Like: 7 Ways To Make Money Online and Get Paid within 24-72 Hours.

Earn Money from Home as an Online Writer

Anybody with basic writing skills can earn money from home writing content like articles, blog posts, web copy, product descriptions, and more for people and businesses around the world need content on all sorts of topics for their blogs and websites. 

How to Get It: Check out these companies or sites for online writing jobs:

Textbroker – It is an article writing job site you can join for free and pick up jobs from thousands of open orders based on your writer level. You can earn up to $25 for a 500-word article, depending on your writer level. You can cash out your earnings every week via PayPal if your balance is greater than $10.

iWriter – Like Textbroker, you can pick up jobs from hundreds of open orders on this site. You will begin writing as a standard writer. So you'll take on low-paying jobs at your writer level. But, you can earn $25.35 for a 500-word article once you become an elite plus writer. Payments are sent to you on Tuesday of each week via PayPal if your minimum balance is $20.

HireWriters.com – Joining is free and how much you can earn per article will depend on your writer rating. You can move up in rank, depending on the reviews you receive from your clients. Writers are paid every Friday as long as they have $10 in their account. 

…and general and niche sites like Clear Voice, Babble, The Penny Hoarder, and other online writing jobs here.

You can earn anywhere from a few dollars to several hundred dollars per article. Now, this depends on the client or site offering the job, word count, research, topic, and more. However, as a beginner, you can expect to earn $20-$50 for a 500-word article.

Become a Virtual Assistant

Many small companies and sole proprietors hire virtual assistants to perform typical office duties from home such as replying to emails, managing calendars, entering data, and assisting with social media. Others need virtual assistants to help them with creative or technical tasks, or both.

How to Get It: Check out these companies or sites for virtual assistant jobs:

Boldy – With Boldly, you can earn between $20 and $22 an hour, depending on skills, experience, and seniority. You will be paid directly to your bank account.

Belay Solutions – It is a leading company that hires virtual assistants to work for their clients. You may choose to work in a field you enjoy like social media management, data entry, and more. 

…and Smith A.I, Time Etc. Fancy Hands, Virtual Vocations, and other Virtual Assistant jobs here.

Virtual assistant jobs are perfect for you if you have experience working in an office environment or are very organized and have any marketable skills like writing, editing, photoshop, graphic designing, bookkeeping, etc. Many companies and individuals like bloggers and webmasters hire virtual assistants to save employment costs and reduce their own workload.

Earn Money from Smartphone Apps

If you spend a lot of time on your smartphone, not necessarily making calls, why not expend some of your spare time to make some extra cash using your smartphone? There are many apps that you can download to your phone that allow you to make money from your home or while on the go by performing a variety of tasks, depending on the app.

These money-making apps pay you to take surveys, take and sell your photos, shop in-store or online, browse products online, scan barcodes of products, complete small jobs on-site, run errands, and do more tasks. You can also sell things using many apps on your phone.

How to Get It: Check out smartphone apps like:

• Ibotta
• Gigwalk
• Field Agent
• EasyShift
• Bookscouter

…and more smartphone money-making opportunities. 

If you are looking for a side hustle that does not require you to spend much time, you can make extra money using these apps on your smartphone.

Earn Money from home as a Website Tester

Have an eye for design? Know what makes a site stand out from others? Then testing websites could be the perfect side hustle for you to earn extra cash. You will have to follow the instructions you are given from each client to make sure the client approves your test in order to get paid for the job.

Most user testing companies will pay you $5 to $10 per test. This is depending on the site. But, it only takes 15-20 minutes to do it. However, UserTesting pays up to $60 per test, depending on the test.

How to Get It: I would recommend to sign up for as many reputable companies as possible such as:

UserTesting –  One of the most popular user testing job sites you can sign up for free to get paid to test websites. It pays $10 per completed test and up to $60 for a live conversation with a customer. They send out payments via PayPal.

TryMyUI –  This company pays $10 per test. They will send you payment via PayPal Every Friday.

Userfeel –  You can earn $10 per test, and receive payment after approval about one week after the test.

Userlytics – Userlytics pays $10 per website testing job. Payments for approved tests are made once every 15 days.

…and these companies that pay you to test websites from home.

Become a Remote Social Media Manager

If you understand the ins and outs of top or at least one of the top social media sites, and are skilled in writing, editing, research, photography, marketing, data collection, etc., then you can work as a remote social media manager to make money from home.

As a social media manager, you will create and manage content for your clients' various social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and more. You will be responsible for creating and curating content for your clients' social media pages and running advertising campaigns on their social media platforms to increase their brand awareness and social growth and fuel sales.

How to Get It: Look for social media manager job listings on employment sites like FlexJobs ( my #1 recommendation) and freelance sites like Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour, or apply online to companies hiring directly for virtual social media manager jobs.

Part-time remote social media managers generally make around 15 an hour. You can do it full-time if you are an expert in social media marketing.

Teach English Online

There are many online companies or sites that hire native English speakers or those who are fluent in English to teach English online to non-English speaking people around the world. Some online companies or sites hire native English speakers to teach English to only children in non-English speaking countries.

How to Get It: These are the top companies or sites that let you teach English online to make extra money from home:

• Cambly
• VIPKID
• Magic Ears

…and these companies that pay you to tutor students from home.

Some of these sites require you to be a former or working teacher, university graduate, and have TESOL or equivalent certification, but others do not. If you are a native English speaker, some sites will let you teach English online. The payment varies from company to company and is based on an hourly rate.

Earn Money from Home as a Graphic Designer

Graphic designers create logos, labels, packaging, advertisements, and more graphics for published, printed, or digital media. If you are skilled in Adobe Photoshop or web design, then you could make money from home as a remote graphic designer.

How to Get It: Check out these sites to find graphic design jobs online:

• Coroflot.com
• Dribble
• 99designs
• The Dots
• Upwork
• Freelancer 
• PeoplePerHour
• Indeed

A great way to find graphic design jobs is to offer your services on Fiverr by creating a “Gig” on the site.

You can earn anywhere from $20 to $300 per hour, depending on your experience and client, as a remote graphic designer. Create a portfolio of your work to showcase your services and work to potential clients and promote your services via social media.

Become an Airbnb Host

If you have a spare room or an entire house, or experience to share with anyone in the world, and love meeting with new people, then one of the easy ways to make money from home is to become an Airbnb host. 

How to Get It: You can host your spare space, activity/experience, or do both to earn extra money from home via Airbnb. Listing your property and experience is completely free. Airbnb charges up to 3% service fee once you receive a reservation from a guest. According to Airbnb, The Airbnb Host Guarantee provides protection for up to $1 million to a host for damages to covered property in the event of guest damages above the security deposit or if no security deposit is in place.

You can earn up to several thousand dollars per month, depending on your property, location, and expertise. If you live in a popular city or close to tourist attractions or spots, you can earn extra money easily from spare space in your home. You control your own schedule, prices, and requirements for guests. Many people make over $1000 a month by renting out their spare rooms or space. You can also rent out a spare room or your entire house

Become a Transcriptionist

If you have fast and accurate typing, excellent grammar and spelling, and listening skills, then transcription jobs can be one of the best side hustles for stay-at-home moms to make extra money. Transcription essentially involves you listening to audio recordings and type what you hear. It is a flexible job and requires little to no prior experience, so you can get started anytime. You can work for transcription companies or work as a freelance transcriptionist. Most companies allow you to work on your schedule if you want to work for a company.

General transcription jobs do not require experience or certification, so they are perfect for beginners. There are loads of jobs available as companies and professionals are always hiring transcriptionists to work from home. 

You may transcribe college lectures, legal audio files, medical dictation from health practitioners, and more, depending on your expertise. You can specialize in a niche like education, general business, or any other niche to get more jobs as a general transcriptionist.

How to Get It: These are some of the top companies that offer entry-level transcription jobs:

• Rev
• Scribie
• TranscribeMe
• Casting Words
• BabbleType 
• Quicktate

…and these companies that pay you to tutor students from home.

Become a Vlogger or YouTuber

If you know how to do something, or have a hobby you enjoy and want to share with others, then you can create videos about them and upload the videos to YouTube. Be it painting, web designing, teaching, or anything, if you are good at it, just make videos about it.

How to Get It: You can create and post educational, entertaining, funny, how-to, tutorial, and more videos regularly on YouTube to gain new viewers and subscribers to your YouTube Channel while engaging your current viewers or subscribers.

Once you have more than 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months and more than 1,000 subscribers, you can apply for YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to make money from your videos when people click on your videos and/or click on ads placed on your videos. How much money you can earn depends on how many people watch your videos and/or click on ads displayed on your videos. You can also earn money via sponsorships.

Earn Money from Home by Selling Your Pics

If you are taking photos anyway using your smartphone or a digital camera, why not turning your passion into a side hustle that can earn you some extra cash each month? There are many stock photography agencies online that will allow you to upload your images to their sites and earn you commission every time someone downloads your pic.

How to Get It: Start here to register on stock photo sites like Shutterstock, Bigstock, iStock, Alamy, and more to submit your photos to them. You do not have to be a professional photographer to sell pics on these sites.

If you know how to take good shots of people, buildings, nature, animals, etc., you can be able to earn some extra cash each month by selling your pictures online. You will usually earn a commission based on per download. The commission rate varies from site to site. You will have to build a large body of work if you want to earn significantly more each month.

Become a Pet Sitter

If you love pets, then Petsitting is one of the easy ways to make money from your home. You can get paid for caring for pets for out-of-town pet owners. 

How to Get It: Sign up for pet sitting sites like Rover, PetSitter.com, Petsitting.com, Sittercity, and more to find in-home pet sitting jobs to make money from your home.

You can choose your own rates and whether you watch people's pets in your house or theirs. Many people earn hundreds of dollars every month watching other people's dogs, cats, etc. pets in their own house.

Rent Your Car

You can earn money from home as a car rental provider. Renting your car when you are not using it is one of the easy ways to make money from home thanks to the sharing economy and money-making apps.

How to Get It: Getaround is a rental agency/company that allows you to rent out your car to local drivers on an hourly or daily basis. You can set the price per hour, depending on the market value of your vehicle, starting at $5 an hour. Getaround takes a 40% cut that covers 24/7 roadside assistance and driver insurance. You can also rent your car via other companies like RYDE and HyreCar.

If you have an under-utilized car or another car that is just sitting idle and collecting only dust, then renting your car is a great way to make extra money from home.

Complete Micro Jobs Online

There are many different kinds of micro-jobs available on many different micro-job platforms or sites. Typical tasks that you may be doing via these sites can include transcribing short audio files, writing, data entry, tagging photographs online, search engine evaluation, and more.

How to Get It: Check out Amazon Mechanical Turk, Clickworker, OneSpace, TaskRabbit, Gigwalk, Field Agent, EasyShift, and more sites to find micro jobs that interest you. You do not need a college degree or experience to join these companies.

Apply to as many micro job sites as possible. And then, apply for numerous types of short tasks or micro-jobs to increase your chances of making more extra money. Just make sure to follow the clients' instructions so they approve your work. Micro jobs are great for you if you want to work from home or while on the go.

Get Paid to Answer Questions Online

If you are an expert in a certain area and/or have research skills, then you can get paid to answer people's questions online, or over the phone. There are some apps and websites that will allow you to earn money by answering questions. You can also give advice to those who need it via chat, email, phone, text message, or even with surveys.

How to Get It: The top sites that pay people to answer questions online are:

• Ask Wonder
• Fixya
• JustAnswer 
• Experts123 
• HelpOwl.com 
• myLot 
• Chegg Study 
• PrestoExperts 
• Maven 
• Keen 

Sign up to as many of those companies or sites here possible to earn money from home by answering people's questions online related to your expertise category. These apps and sites pay experts to answer questions asked by their users. There are various categories, like finance, technology, home improvement, and more.

In Conclusion

Whether you want to earn additional income or a living from home, consider one of these easy ways to earn money from home based on your skills and interests. Take a course to learn a new skill, if required, to earn money from home. For some of these work from home options, you will need a computer, some basic skills, and some spare time to earn money from home.