How to Make an Extra $500\/Month (Beginner Guide)
This post contains affiliate links — see my Affiliate Disclosure for details.
If it was easy, everyone would be doing. It's something I've heard since the day I was born. However, there are ways to earn extra cash on the side without walking away from your day job (if you have one).
I spent a career working in industries that paid people for their honest answers to surveys, for doing things on apps, both inside and outside of their home. I am sharing with you some of tried and true ideas to add a little extra to your dwindling bank account and counteract the ever increasing costs of daily life.
The way to achieve $500 a month is not one silver bullet, but a steady, stackable way to earn outside of a daily grind. Maybe it doesn't happen in the first month, but with a little patience, work and grit - you can get there.
Hustle 1 - Survey and Reward Sites
In the course of my work I had to sign up and take part in all of these sites, every one of them to do competitive market intel and find out what the others guys may be doing better, or worse. I've been there and done that and now I am giving you the goods and recommending the best ones.
SurveyJunkie - In my opinion, one of the best survey sites out there. Clean design, lots of surveys to pick from , not a single source or company. You can earn 100 points within a minute or two.
Swagbucks - This site offers a wider selection of things to do and get paid for, its not a one stop shop for just surveys. Shows time per survey and points per minute - helpful features when running on limited time.
InboxDollars - Another site with lots to do. You can earn $5 for signing up and more for taking their profile survey.
Hustle 1: Good and Bad
The Good: low effort, minimal time, done while The Office or American Pickers plays in the background
The Bad: making a ton of cash. Expect $20 - $150/month depending on your commitment and time.
Hustle 2 - Cashback & shopping rewards
As much as I preach anti consumption and to stop buying stuff - the fact is we all need to live, buy food and enjoy the little luxuries we have left in this world. If that's a bit of retail therapy, hitting up McDonalds or Starbucks then so be it.
It's often the little things that keep us going.
This is a way to earn a little bit back for something you are buying anyways. The secret to their model is these apps get paid a commission from the companies you buy things from through their affiliate links and they are taking a smaller piece of it than usual and passing along some of that revenue share back to you.
ibotta - Earn cash back on their app from things you buy everyday. Their website claims average users earn an average of $218 year, so that breaks down to about $18 a month. Not ground breaking, but every bit does help.
Rakuten - Similar to ibotta, earn cash back when eating out, traveling or shopping. Obviously the more you spend the more you earn back.
Hustle 2: Good and Bad
The Good: Using the apps whenever you make your daily typical purchases, dining out and travel.
The Bad: controlling your spending. Don't buy just to get cash back - that's like buying something on sale just because its a good deal even if you don't need it.
Hustle 3: Gig/task work - flexible-hours
I started Hustle For Dollars saying I would not cover Instacart, Uber and the other big ones. They have been talked about and covered to death already - we don't need to review those here. There are some other opportunities that I thought were worth mentioning and can bring in a few bucks here and there.
taskrabbit - complete easy (or hard) tasks for other people. Putting together IKEA furniture, helping someone move out/in, yard work, snow shoveling. Check it out and see if its available in your area. Not a bad way to put a few dollars in your pocket and it can start to add up fast. Pay can be around $25 - $45 per hour depending on your skill set.
Field Agent - Get out and about and do in-store audits, surveys about your shopping habits, collect details and UPC codes about products on shelves.
Rover - its exactly what their tagline says "Get paid to play with pets" - what's better than that? Americans spend billions of dollars on their pets every year and they don't like them sitting home alone all day. And if you have a dog, cat or any animal of your own you can understand and appreciate how difficult it can be to find a trustworthy sitter. You can make between $15 -$30 for a 30 minute dog walk.
Hustle 3: Good and Bad
The Good: These are opportunities where you can really start to stack the Benjamins. If you are up for the ....task and getting out of the house and interacting with people - and animals, its worth checking out.
The Bad: Not available in all areas and probably need a car, unless you are in a city where you can take public transport and just walk over and you can be helping others and yourself.
Hustle 4: AI Training
This is rather new one - but worth mentioning. Anyone can be an AI trainer and the pay goes up as you go from generalists to expert. I will dig in to this deeper in a another post - here I will cover low barrier to enter, generalist AI training. I figure if AI is going to take over anyways, why not add your $.02?
Data Annotation Tech - work on paid, hourly, remote projects that match your skill set. Generalists can work as content editors for $25 - $30 per hour. Not a survey site but actually judging whether an AI's response is accurately answering the question asked.
Mercor - pays between $12 = $25/hour for generalist roles. A
Hustle 4: Good and Bad
The Good: The money can start to add up.
The Bad: Not for everyone, takes concentration and you have to go through an hour or two of unpaid boarding. But if you get selected it can turn out to be some decent cash stacking.
Hustle 5: Declutter and Sell
This strategy can be a one-time deal or a part of your ongoing push to get rid of things you don't use or need any more. Everyone has a little bit of clutter and as the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I know I have listed old tools on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. My wife has sold sweaters and dresses on Depop. I think it's better getting a few bucks for something you haven't used in years than rather it taking up space. Plus, it prevents it from ending up in the landfill and gives it another life- I see that as a win-win.
Facebook Marketplace - no explanation needed. Reach a huge, local audience and start posting what you don't need, or when you need a few bucks.
Depop - turn your closet in to quick cash. From dresses to sweaters.
swappa - trade in your old phones, laptops and other electronics. Those are things you will never use again.
Craigslist - I don't see as many listings on Craigs now that Marketplace has taken over, but its still used by a LOT of people. Simple and easy to use, no nonsense postings.
Hustle 5: Good and Bad
The Good: Clean up your closets, basements and outbuildings, save it from the landfill and put cash in your pocket.
The Bad: If your closets are bare and the basement is empty there might not be much to make here, and it can be a quick hit and not sustainable, all depends on what you are holding on to.
Hustle 6: Patient Surveys
Yes, this is more survey sites - but its worth its own category. If you have any condition from eczema to diabetes or high blood pressure - there are life sciences and pharmaceutical companies who want to hear from you. These sites pay more than traditional consumer panels like mentioned above and you can get invite to Zoom qualitative calls or even clinical trials.
WebMD - WebMD is still around offering information, pill identifiers - but they rolled out a patient panel a few years back. Taking part in these surveys you can earn gift cards, but it's also altruistic. Your insights and journey dealing with your conditions can help you and the future of treatment.
Rare Patient Voice - this site is for clinical trial participation. I've worked in this space before and it can be truly rewarding. Many people don't know clinical trials exist or think it can be scary. Here is another chance to potentially improve your current condition. Clinical trials can pay hundreds or thousands dollars depending on the condition and trial length.
Hustle 6: Good and Bad
The Good: Sharing your opinions and time to help yourself and others - what more can be said. I worked on Stage 4 Clinical trials and the participants knew it might have been too late for them, but they chose to go through a clinical trial for those that come after them. That's all I have to say about that.
The bad: Not everyone has a medical condition they can take surveys about. If you fall in to that camp - count yourself lucky and you can skip this step.
The lowdown.
You don't have to do all of these steps to hit the $500 a month mark, but if you put them all together and start to stack you could exceed that monthly dollar amount easily. I put this list together from first hand experience working in this field for 20 years. I want to help bring this information to light because you may have heard about some of these, but there might be a few new to you.
Walk a dog a few times a month, put together one or two IKEA dressers, one patient market research survey, sell an old cell phone or sweater, take a bunch of surveys across the sites mentioned above and you would be at the $500 before you know.
HEY, I’m Chase
I spent 15 years working in the market research, get paid to and rewarded traffic space before building Hustle for Dollars. Practical, tested advice on surveys, cashback apps, and side gigs, no hype included.
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