Starting a side gig can be a great way to supplement your income. Whether you’re saving for a dream vacation, a down payment on a house, or you need extra money to make ends meet, there are many ways to make money online and offline to help.

1. Start a Freelance Gig

If you have a special skill, such as writing, editing, voice-over skills, web design, or social media marketing, you can start a freelance gig and start working right away. When you freelance, you decide what services you’ll offer and what you’ll charge.

You can market yourself on your own social media pages, or you can join sites like Fiverr or Upwork to promote your services and leverage their large audience.

2. Start a Blog

If you love writing and are knowledgeable about a certain topic, you can start a blog and monetize it. Blog writing doesn’t require special skills. You just need a good command of the English language, and to know how to write to your target audience.

Once you build up a large enough following, you can monetize your blog by adding affiliate links and writing sponsored posts. Affiliate links are links from stores or services that your audience would like and that you believe in. Every time a reader clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a small commission.

Sponsored posts are blog posts you write but are paid for by the sponsoring company. They pay you to promote their product, but you should always provide your honest opinion.

3. Drive for Uber or Lyft

If you prefer a more physical job, you could download the Uber or Lyft app and drive people to their destination. You are still a freelancer with Uber or Lyft, paying your own taxes and setting your own schedule.

Once you’re approved, which means you passed the background check and your car meets their requirements, you can turn yourself to ‘available’ whenever you want to work. You also get to choose with rides you pick up based on their destination and the amount you’ll make.

4. Shop for Instacart or Shipt

If you love to shop, get paid to shop and spend other people’s money by working for Instacart or Shipt. You can work as a delivery driver, which means you shop for customers’ groceries based on the order they placed and deliver it to their homes.

You could also work in-store, picking the orders but bringing them out to the customers’ cars rather than delivering it to their home.

Both options allow you to set your own hours and work when you want, except if you work curbside pickup, you must pick a 4-hour window that you’ll work to claim a shift.

5. Deliver Food

If you don’t mind driving, but don’t want to shop, consider delivering food for UberEATS or DoorDash. Both services have apps that you download and set yourself to ‘available’ to pick up orders in the area.

You can pick up orders at one or severalrestaurants and deliver them to the customer’s home. You’ll earn a fee from the service plus tips you earn from customers.

6. Be a Virtual Assistant

A virtual assistant is like a receptionist, but you work at home. You could assist small businesses doing just about any task they need including:

• Answering emails
• Answering phones
• Managing the social media account
• Managing appointments and/or the calendar
• Writing blog posts
• Bookkeeping
• Miscellaneous tasks

You decide what services you’ll offer as a virtual assistant and can advertise them on freelance marketplaces like Fiverr or advertise the services yourself.

7. Sell Photography or Homemade Items

If you’re crafty or have an eye for photography, sell your items online. You can open your own ‘shop’ on Etsy or advertise your goods on Facebook Marketplace or even eBay. If you sell only photography, you can list your stock photos on sites like Shutterstock.

The nice thing about stock photography is you only take the picture one time, but you can sell it as many times as you want as the buyer is responsible for printing the picture.

8. Rent out Unused Space in your Home

If you have space in your home that doesn’t get used, consider renting it out. If you have an extra room or maybe an entire finished basement to rent, you can list it on Airbnb. If you have extra garage space or a parking spot you don’t use, list it on Spacer.com.

You choose the rental rates and the terms of the agreement. The service you list your room or space with will take a small portion of the fee for administrative costs and you keep the rest.

9. Sign up for TaskRabbit

If you’re a ‘jack of all trades’ sign up for TaskRabbit and people will hire you for your services. You can advertise a large number of services including:

• Cleaning
• Handyman services
• Moving
• Delivery

TaskRabbit is an app that anyone can use to find people like you offering services. All payment goes through the app so you know you’ll get paid when the job is complete plus you get to advertise your services to TaskRabbit’s large audience.

10. Be a Social Media Manager

If you’re good with social media, consider working as a social media manager. Social media is important for every business, but not everyone has the time or knowledge on how to do it. You can charge high prices to manage a company’s social media, allowing you to have a creative outlet plus make money doing what you’re good at.

11. Teach English

If you’re a certified teacher, you can make extra money teaching English to kids abroad. VIPKid is a great place to get on with to make money tutoring online. You’ll work on China times, though, which means either working early morning or late at night so you can work around the student’s school times. VIPKid creates the lesson plans. All you have to do is show up and present the lesson at the required time.

Final Thoughts

It’s easy to make extra money both online and offline. You could even combine the two, taking on a couple of extra jobs and make yourself extra money. While these side gigs won’t pay your mortgage, the money can add up when you work a few of them, allowing you to reach your financial goals without having to take on another job and dealing with another boss.