Many online retailers (and brick-and-mortar stores) offer a sign-up bonus for new cardholders. For example, they may offer 15% off your purchase for signing up for a card.
Likewise, some hotel brands might offer you three nights of accommodation if you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days after receiving your card.
Using credit cards responsibly is the key to making this work for you. If you make a purchase and then cannot pay the minimum payment or, worse, miss a payment, the interest and late fees will quickly eat up any rewards you've earned!
However, if you're generally responsible with credit cards, this can be an excellent way to earn extra cash without spending much spare time.
But if you love playing video games after a long day at work, you might as well earn a little extra cash doing it, right?
Yes, you really can get paid to read emails. Companies called Get Paid To (GPT) sites will pay people to open emails and click the links within them.
So, when you click the links within the company's emails, they get a kickback. And that's how they can afford to pay you.
These apps partner with brands and stores, offer special deals and incentivize people to shop for those brands and at those stores.
You simply upload a picture of your receipt, and the app reads the items you've bought and gives you a certain number of points based on your receipt.
Side note: you can also create a nice lil business if you want to get paid to deliver groceries for people in your area.
There are many ways to make extra money in just an hour or two of dedicated time. Check out this list of ideas.
A focus group is when a company or organization asks people to come together to discuss a product, a piece of music, a television show, a political campaign, etc (check out the best paid focus groups here).
Sometimes, companies ask people with something in common to join the group. For example, they might pick random individuals who have all listened to a timeshare presentation in the past 30 days.
A focus group typically meets for a couple of hours, and the compensation for a meeting might be cash or a gift card. You might make $50 to $100 or more per hour.
If you know your way around Facebook (or even Facebook marketplace), Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, and other popular social media and social blogging sites, you may be surprised to learn that companies are willing to pay you for your expertise.
You'll need to know which types of people use different social media sites. You'll also have to understand who your client's target audience is.
Then it's just a matter of using a site like Buffer to schedule posts on the appropriate online platforms throughout the week or month.
Spend an hour or two going through and responding to comments on behalf of your customer, and you will have built yourself a social media marketing business.
Think about the businesses you buy from regularly and look them up on social media. If they're not up-keeping their sites or don't understand the nuances of hashtags or how to diversify content, email them with a proposal.
Earn Money In Spare TimeFor example, give your client a month's worth of social media posts for free if they refer someone who signs up for a six-month contract. For these types of gigs, word-of-mouth advertising can be your best friend.
Mystery shopping, sometimes called secret shopping, is when a hired individual goes into a store, restaurant, or another place of business to pose as a customer.
The mystery shopper makes a purchase, taking note of the customer service received, the quality of the item or service, and other factors.
They might need to do something specific, like check the cleanliness of the bathroom or make a return. Once the job is done, they get paid.
If you like shopping, this might sound like a dream job. It doesn't pay a lot; expect to earn about $10 or $15 per shop.
However, you will be reimbursed for your meal if it's a restaurant or the merchandise you were asked to purchase if it's a retail store. You might even get a free hotel stay!
Volition.com is a good place to start if you want to become a mystery shopper. They have lists of reputable companies to sign up with.
Volition.com is a good place to start if you want to become a mystery shopper. They have lists of reputable companies to sign up with.
If you look at other companies, be sure to avoid those that send cold emails or that charge for a list of shopping tasks. Both of these are signs of a scam.
If your idea of a nice weekend afternoon is to spend a few hours snapping photos of landscapes, people, pets, or anything else, you might be able to turn it into an opportunity for making money online.
When individuals, marketing agencies, or small businesses want to use the photos on their websites or their brochures, they pay a fee. As the photographer, you get part of that fee.
A photo that you take in January might be purchased for use in February, twice in April, twice in August, and four times in December. So over the course of the year, that one photo might be used nine times.
Of course, you could sell the photo dozens (or even hundreds) of times or not at all. Putting up more photos will raise your odds of making extra cash.
You can check out this guide about selling pictures online where we discuss the companies worth submitting to, along with how much they pay and how likely you are to have your work accepted.
If you like to spend time on the weekends sewing, woodworking, painting, soap making, or creating just about anything, consider making a business out of it.
You could craft all year and sell your wares at holiday bazaars. Or you could list them on a site like Etsy or even Facebook marketplace to make sales all year long.
Think about choosing a niche. What can you specialize in that isn't already overrun on the market? What problem could you solve?