So you lost a freelance job, got laid off, got a pay cut, have a medical bill or a credit card out of control and you need to make extra money. You go online, type in "how to make extra money" or some similar search, and you suddenly get bombarded with a slew of slick web pages, app links and more promising you thousands of dollars quick. How so? Surveys, writing, tests, trying products, trying software blah blah blah. The fact is most of that stuff is crap, pays pennies and it eats up your valuable time that keeps getting less and less as your pressure mounts to come up with money quick.
So, instead, here are some actual, realistic ways to raise real cash, some fast, all true. They won't make you a millionaire overnight, but if you practice them regularly and better, combined, then you're going to find your cash situation increasing. How fast? Depends on how often and frequent you work at it. You are the key variable.
Give Blood (or better, Plasma)
This option definitely irks people because you're essentially selling yourself. The amount one can make selling blood or the more in-demand plasma can be $50 to $100 a week. The trick is in finding a reliable, reputable service as well as keeping yourself healthy and not abusing the process. Your system can handle losing a bit once every two weeks or so, especially if you eat well and exercise. It kickstarts your blood production system, which is a benefit. However, most of these programs pay a bonus to sign-on and then the payments go down for regular repeats. So, you want to find multiple services and alternate month-to-month if blood/plasma selling is your thing. You'll also need to provide a lot of identification information about yourself and your current health because people want to make sure your donation is clean; no offense but no one wants to get sick from your donation (think flu, COVID, HIV, infection, disease etc.)
Recycling and Other Dirty Business
Yep, get a good pair of gloves, some eye protection, old clothes and shoes you don't care about, and a way to transport dirty stuff. If you happen to have a pickup truck or an old vehicle with a trunk you don't care about, even better. Recycling bottles and cans pays and there are plenty of them. People dump trash all the time, even missing a well-place garbage can in front of their face because of laziness. Yet, those empty containers are real money in garbage. Your job is to pick them up, bag them and get them to a recycle place. How much you get depends on your state or area, but I'm making about $10-12 for 3 garbage bags of cans, plastic bottles and glass. Double that and now your at $20 or more.
Recycling metal is valuable too. Many jurisdictions have centers that take scrap metal and pay by the pound. Copper is obviously in big demand, but so is steel, iron and aluminum. Your job, however, is to sort them, clean off any plastics or gunk, and transport the stuff in separate containers. Again, truck or big trunk vehicle comes in handy here. But you can become very helpful to neighbors getting their scrap metal out of the way and earning some money doing it. How much you get depends on the local rates paid, but I'm seeing some people get anywhere from $300 to $1,000s for a good haul per drop. Remember, you have to strip the metal bare, so there is some work here. Old wiring with the insulation on it still doesn't work. Gold or similar attached to computer boards won't be accepted. It has to be separated and clean. But there are lots of metal as fair game here, including shovel heads, rebar, old racking parts, cast aluminum, toy wagons etc. Many store things in a garage or shed for a few weeks and then recycle it in bit hauls.
Where to find all this stuff? Look on the curb during garbage day, behind businesses who don't care about rummaging, on the side of roads where someone dumped something to get rid of it, or with homes or places where junk is stacked. Ask first and you'll find people are happy to let you take their metal garbage. Free sites are good too for metal file cabinets, bed frames and similar. Focus on bare metal and skip anything elaborate. Also check your local rates first before starting so you know what to target.
Transporting
People and business want stuff moved all the time, but they don't want to pay professional hauler prices to do. So, there's an opportunity for someone with a hitch and wagon on their vehicle or willing to drive a vehicle. The best paying tends to be moving cars from point A to point B. With the time and a way back, you can make a good amount of money being a transporter for hire. Just make sure to use a good referral service or check out your clients well. The last thing you want is moving a delivery that turns out to be something illegal. Starting out, you're better off working through a transporting business as an agent than on your own, but it depends on how well you can connect with people. You will need a valid driver's licensing and insurance that covers other vehicles when driving a vehicle other than your own.
Reselling Stuff
Reselling and flipping are a classic way to generate cash if you know your market well. This one takes a bit of homework to understand what to buy and then how much to price it. A lot of people get upset when they buy something and find they lost money trying to resell it; that just tells me they didn't do any research and instead listened to gossip. The best way to resell is to start with one kind of market first and learn it well. For example, I do IT tech books. I've branched to a lot of other things since as I've found other viable markets, but I learned with a lot of night studying which IT books sell faster than others and what to look for. It also helps to use scanning tools for price checks, but that comes later when you're actually making good money. Otherwise, you could find yourself spending $100s on resell software apps and little to show for it.
You also need to find a good resell market platform you know well. I've used eBay for over three decades, so I know it like the back of my hand. It's not the best per se, depending on the market, but I know what to expect and how to price in it to make a return. Mercari is another I use, but I will be honest and say it's disappointing so far. There are plenty of others, depending on your country, and the trick is to learn it well and understand where your niche is.
Once you build a following, you can also build your sales with marketing and social media. I'm considering this next step, but for now I'm sticking with just selling per se because it's what I know and what produces real money for me every week.
Understand, you're going to get some duds. Some stuff sells in hours of listing, and some stuff takes months. If you have no need to unload it, let the slow stuff sit. I've made very good sales on stuff that sat listed for five months; it just needs the right buyer. If your focus is only on fast stuff, then you have to do twice the homework and price to sell. That means knowing what is hot by researching first and then selling at the bottom of the market where you still make a profit. There are no pig sales here; you are moving inventory for cash flow and profit over time with lots of transactions.
Remember, if you're selling distance, you have to pay shipping and fees to get buyers. That means your price has to account for the platform cost to sell as well as the cost to mail the stuff. It can be as much as a third to half your gross profit. So making money means finding stuff that will sell enough to cover cost and your net profit after everything is done. This is where people lose a lot of money as well because they don't pay attention to operating expenses.
Landscaping
Yep, people want nice gardens, mowed lawns and trimmed trees, but they don't want to sweat doing the work. In big neighborhoods there is lots of opportunity to get ready cash for work if people know you and you have the right tools for the job. Again, a truck helps move equipment, but I've seen people move lawnmowers sticking out of the back of an old Toyota compact. Whatever works. Landscaping is the kind of work where you can easily set up repeat business. People need stuff removed to the dump in addition to basic care, and tree work is good money as well. Marketing is easy, just make some photocopies of your contact info, services offered and general cost for basic services. That will put you ahead of 90% of the competition just giving a name and a phone number only. Then canvas doors and mailboxes. Also, hit up neighborhood websites. People would rather hire someone local then some unknown company service charging corporate prices. Use used landscaping equipment until you get things going, and then provide consistent service people can depend on. They will refer you and your market will grow with steady income every week. Starting out, if you have a day job, work evening or on a weekends. People prefer to be around when landscaping is done, so you will get that market that the other services don't want to deal with due to timing.
Hauling Trash and Junk (Notice a Dirty Trend Here?)
That's correct - dirty business makes money, and one of the best is flat-rate hauling of big junk to the dump. Again, you'll need a vehicle or truck you don't mind getting dirty. Advertise a flat rate hauling cost that includes your gas to the dump or recycler as well as the dump fee. So, if I was hauling an old BBQ or fridge, it would be $10 for gas, $25 for the dump fee, and $25-50 for the work, depending how much of a pain it is to put in my truck and work for an hour. Combine trips and you can make more paying single fees for the total trip. Note, dirty business can really be dirty, as in lots of nasty stuff and bugs. You want an ability to transport junk without it getting on you or bringing bugs home. Having a vehicle with a washable loading bed is best. When done, always wash it down, scrub and spray. Then leave the vehicle out for a day just in case. Cockroaches are the worst risk here, so give them a chance to go somewhere else first.
The Social Reality of Dirty Work
You can definitely make good money with dirty work because few people want to do it. That said, people and especially family with often raise their nose at the idea, putting down such work as disgusting. In reality, they're idiots. Honest good work that pays well is gold today. Just have a good way to clean off afterwards, and there's no reason to be embarassed about it. People who can't knuckledown to work have been raised spoiled or never had to struggle becomes someone else paid their way. You're above that, so don't let it get to you. How many plumbers do you know are embarrassed of their trade (and they definitely deal with shit pipes sooner or later)?
