Want some make money from home ideas that are actually real?
If so, you’re in the right place.
To make our list, it had to be legitimate, not stupid, and allow you to make at least enough to be exciting and hopefully replace your income.
There are hundreds (probably thousands) of make money from home lists online, but most of them shallow and weak lists.
The creators of these lists either focus on creating the longest make money from home list possible even though most the ideas suck.
OR
The ideas themselves (even if implemented), are only going to make you a little bit of money from tons of effort (like earning pennies for searching the web with a specific browser).
I’ve compiled the absolute best list of make money from home ideas for you to look through and all of them are real ideas and real options.
Our Make Money From Home Ideas had to:
– Be real & legitimate
– Not be stupid (such as play scratch off lottery tickets… yes, that was actually a recommendation on another site)
– Have Minimal to no start-up costs
– Have the potential to make you at least $1,000+ per month as a home based side hustle
This list of actual make money from home ideas was compiled to help you understand the actual options for making enough money from home so you don’t have to work if you don’t want to.
These ideas aren’t meant to be easy, simple, or get rich quick- but they are REAL options for somebody searching for a legitimate work from home business model.
There are so many online sites that claim you can can make money at home.
However, the majority of these pages are scams and meant to sell you a program or generate tons of traffic from ad revenue.
After reading our list, I’m confident you’ll find one you can implement with a little FREE online research.
1) Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is a great way to make money working at home if you’re good at writing.
A freelance writer is a person who works as a writer and sells their services for a fee to different companies or individuals.
Years ago I worked as a freelancer and I’ve also paid freelancers to produce writing for me.
Benefits of Freelance Writing:
You can make your own hours and schedule.
You can choose your own jobs and pay.
You can get paid by the word, hour, or job.
You don’t need any formal education;
All you need is to be a great writer.
If this is something that would fit for you, start with doing research.
This post is not designed as an all inclusive article on freelance writing, but a simple Google search is a good place to start.
I’ve done some freelance gigs in the past and it does put money in your pocket.
If you work it hard like a job, you can make some good side hustle income.
If you wrote 2 articles a day part time (at $25 a pop)… you’d earn $1,000 a month.
Once you’ve earned $1,000 you could flip that $1,000 by using a more advanced entrepreneurial strategy.
A Couple Things to Consider:
- Steer clear of content mills like Upwork, Elance, Odesk, and Fivver. People using these sites are often looking for the cheapest writing they can find and quite frankly, it would be hard to make good money from them.
- However, they are a good place to start if you have no other people you can write for and if you position yourself as the best (not the cheapest).
- There is no residual or compounding effect that takes place when you write for somebody else. Once you write it, you get paid, and that’s it (this is one reason I choose to control my own blog – the writing is mine and it’s there forever- the benefits compound over time)
2) Write Resumes Online
Writing resumes online can be quite lucrative as well.
Many people are not very skilled in this area and just don’t have the knowledge necessary to create a professional resume.
Think about it.
How often do you create a resume?…
Answer: Not very often.
But people may need one for a new job they’re applying for and paying a fee to get a great one is something they’re willing to do.
Writing resumes online is fairly easy and not complicated once you have a proven format you want to use.
You can charge by the hour, job or page depending on what the client may want.
There are many businesses that hire professional resumes writers to help update their employees resumes.
You really don’t need any schooling for this job either.
I would recommend helping a few people for free to get started.
Have an agreement with them to give you a testimonial if they like your work or get a job.
The skill requirement for this job is just know how to write a resume and also how to make it look professional.
A few hours spent on YouTube and you’ll know more about writing resumes than most of the general population.
As an administrator at a large high school, I’ve seen hundreds of resumes.
I can tell you from personal experience that formatting matters!
You may not think it does, but a well formatted resume stands out.
It’s the secret sauce and very, very few people know how to make a clean, crisp, professionally formatted resume.
Do this for a few people and you’ll get referrals by the boatloads.
The resume format I’ve used and shared with others I borrowed from the best resume I’ve ever seen.
It’s simple, professional, classy, and covers all the information needed.
If you go this route for earning money at home, be sure to deliver your resume to your client in a *.pdf format.
That way, if somebody wants to recreate the format, they at least have to start from scratch or have some software to convert it.
Or… you can offer simple modifications and updates at a reduced rate and increase your bottom line.
Here’s an article where 4 Professional Resume writers share their secrets.
3) Become a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is a fantastic way to be self employed and work from home.
It’s also one of the easiest and cheapest ideas on this list to get started with.
A virtual assistant pretty much does the same thing a secretary does in an actual office, only they do it from the comfort of their own home.
The world has changed and it’s much more economical for companies to hire out tasks than have full time employees.
In addition, the 2020 economic shutdown forced many companies to move to (and get comfortable) with people working from home.
That makes this an easier sell than it used to be because people are familiar with it.
Virtual assistants do tasks such as administrative duties, technical tasks, social media management, and anything else a business owner would find helpful.
You don’t need any specific schooling to make money from home as a virtual assistant.
Experience and knowledge in whatever you’re agreeing to do is a necessity though.
If you can deliver quality for a fair price, you’ll find many businesses that will come back for more and you’ll get more and more referrals over time.
The majority of the businesses or companies you work with will want someone who has great computer skills and excellent communication abilities as well.
You can search online for sites that allow you to do this, however you’ll be competing with people all over the world.
The truth is, as the world changes, it can be difficult to compete with the prices that some people are willing to work for.
This is especially true if the help is coming from overseas.
They can often out-bid us because cost of living is lower.
You’re best bet is to focus on being local.
You’ll connect better with your client (securing your job even more), get more referrals, and be able to charge a premium for your services.
If you want to make great money doing this, then reach out to local business owners with some services you can provide and see if there’s a way you can help them.
Many small businesses owners are overworked and would love a local person they can rely on who they would not have to take on as an employee.
4) Work from Home as an Online Proofreader
An online proofreader is a person who reads articles and documents as a second set of eyes.
They identify and rectify mistakes that the article or document may have.
Examples include: grammatical mistakes, punctuation, spelling, vocabulary, and syntax errors.
There’s no real schooling required for this job either.
But most companies will prefer the proof reader be an expert in the language they’re proofreading.
Also, make sure you like proofreading…
it can be a bore and a chore!
For me, this would a horrible gig, but some people really enjoy it.
To each his own, if this is your cup of tea… happy proofreading.
5) Offer Translation Services
Speaking of different languages, translation services are a great option if you read and write multiple languages fluently.
There are a plethora of items you could translate for companies including documents, resumes, blog posts, magazine articles, ads, audio and video subtitles, and much more.
You’ll want to do some research and find a good target market as well as develop a consistent way method of pricing. Do you charge by the page?… word?… etc.
One place to start would be to reach out to school districts, universities, churches, and businesses.
If you can show them how translating their message would add value to what they’re trying to accomplish, they’ll be more inclined to use you.
If I were trying to get started in this field, I would probably start with businesses who are missing out on potential revenue.
I may even offer to help them translate some of their current marketing and brand it with a number that reroutes to a call center with that language (or my own number if I wanted to make sales and make more).
If the calls were forwarded to you, you could talk to potential customers and clients in their native language and bring actual customers to the business.
More customers equals more revenue for the business, which equals more job security for you.
Especially if you’re the glue that is holding the customer and client together.
Anytime you can show a growth in revenue you can justify spending.
For example, if you can track and prove that you bring in an additional $5,000 per month for the business, you can pretty much justify some hefty fees.
Even if you were charging the business $4,000 per month.
If they are literally losing out on $1,000 per month by NOT hiring you, then your chances for continual income goes up.
Of course, if you leave some meat on the bone for them and over deliver you’ll end up with more referrals, happier clients, and a higher income in the long run.
6) Make Money From Home Designing & Managing Websites
Designing website for businesses can be rather fun and quite profitable if you know how to do it.
As a web designer you can charge by the hour or by the job.
It just depends on the project that’s being done.
It used to be that if you wanted a web design business, you needed to be able to write and manipulate html code or use fancy software.
Now, to become a web designer, you just need to learn some basic WordPress skills.
Once you learn to use WordPress it’s not as difficult as you might think.
You simply pick a design, get a domain, and upload it.
You don’t have to be a custom designer or know how to write code to do this.
I have several websites and have no background in web design, nor can I write any code whatsoever.
As technology progresses, it get’s easier and easier to learn how to do this type of thing.
But business owners are busy running their businesses.
They would rather outsource for a fee then spend time becoming an expert at WordPress.
That’s your opportunity!
Just make sure what you’re offering lines up with what you can deliver.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew, especially in the beginning.
I would also suggest a business model that includes a set up fee and then monthly hosting or servicing.
That way, as you build client base up, you can also build a monthly residual income.
This is how you build wealth, by tapping into the right strategy and by staying on the right side of the cashflow quadrant.
You could also choose to use a platform like Wix, Weebly, or something similar.
However, that’s how I started and at the end of the day, you’ll want to learn WordPress.
Eventually (and it won’t take long), you’ll end up wanting the speed and functionality of WordPress.
I lost many months and many hours using other platforms because I thought a drag and drop program would be better for me.
So skip the headaches, bite the bullet, and learn WordPress from the beginning.
Once you can use it, it’s got better functionality, it’s faster, and you can get your website to do almost anything you want by installing a plugin or theme.
One top of that, it’s much easier to customize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
Don’t take my word for it, check out what this random YouTuber has to say about it.
Manage websites
Once you’ve learned to build them…. you might as well manage them too.
A website manager is the person who updates the website and usually hosts the website (or takes care of making sure it has good hosting).
Other duties may include editing, writing, posting and removing pictures, etc.
Think about your pricing when you start and consider offering management and maintenance as a monthly service package.
Also, think about your target market and don’t under-price yourself!
You simply shouldn’t compete as the cheapest anything in any market.
You simply shouldn't compete as the cheapest anything in any market. Click To TweetAgain, your goal is to create monthly income that’s reliable and sustainable, otherwise you’ll never have a predictable income.
Be sure to deliver great service so you can retain clients and get referrals.
7) Have a Home Based Business Doing Voice Over Work
You know on commercials when there’s video playing but you hear a voice talking?… that’s called a voice over.
This is a great option if you have a particularly memorable voice.
If people tell you they love your voice, this might be an option you want to look into.
It will take equipment, an investment, and a little research to get started right.
If you don’t have some money to invest in the right equipment, this might not be a good option to start with.
But if you’re passionate and feel this is the right fit for you, I encourage you to research it some more.
Here are a few voice over resources to get you started:
- How to Get Started in Voice Work: The Definitive Guide
- How to Get Voice Over Work: Ultimate Guide for Beginners
8) Earn Cash at Home Doing Data entry
Data entry is the process in which a person transcribes information into a computer or other electronic device.
It can be performed manually or automatically by using a machine or computer.
Data entry is a fairly easy skill to acquire, however most data entry tasks are quite time consuming and mind numbing.
You have to have an eye and attention to detail.
To acquire the data entry skill, you must learn it on the field or in the office.
There are schools that teach the skills as well.
If you’re good at spreadsheets or databases, don’t mind inputting information, and are very detail oriented, this may be a good fit for you.
Be careful if you go down this route.
Many scams are designed as data entry opportunities and want you to put up money.
Just be careful anytime you’re asked for money in return for a work.
Also, if you’re looking for something with longevity, I’m not convinced this is the route to go.
As technology progresses and artificial intelligence advances, data entry may quickly become obsolete as computers learn to adapt, tag, and sort information automatically.
9) Medical Coding and Billing
To become a medical biller and/or coder you must first go to school to learn the skills required for the job.
A medical biller/coder uses medical codes to document patient diagnoses and treatments.
That way the facility knows how to bill the patient or the patient’s insurance.
Typically, you need to bring your own clients and you’re responsible for any errors.
Make sure you assess all the risks before jumping into this arena.
This can be a tough sector for a newbie to find success in and you’ll need to be certified.
For some of the pro’s and con’s, check out Affiliate Guru’s post about medical coding and billing.
The post is a few years old but still has great information on it for somebody thinking about this work from home option.
10) Work from Home in the Virtual Education System
Years ago, if you wanted to home school your children for any reason, you had to do it yourself.
You could buy products to help, but at the end of the day, your child would earn a home school diploma.
The world is quickly changing and so is the educational system.
Public and charter schools are popping up all over the nation offering to educate students from home.
With coronavirus and Covid19 impacting schools, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a lot more opportunities for this in the near future.
Parents will soon be choosing between their child’s safety or a physical return to the educational environment.
More education from home means more opportunities to make money at home with a traditional job.
These online schools get state and federal funding for students who complete their courses without the overhead of a brick and mortar school.
If you have a 4 year degree, often you can get certified in specific subjects by taking a few classes or passing a few tests.
Every state is different so you’ll want to see what you’ll need for certification in the particular state you plan to work in.
However, with the progression of online learning, other positions are also popping up that you may be able to do with or without a degree.
Your best bet is to find the job boards for the specific institutions you’d like to work for and then keep an eye on positions that come available.
These jobs can be quite competitive, but if you can snag one, you can work from home with a reasonable salary and depending on the job, you may even qualify for governmental state retirement.
This is what my wife does and it offers a ton of flexibility.
11) Make Money From Home by Tutoring
Speaking of education, online tutoring and/or tutoring from home is becoming more and more in demand.
Parents in today’s world are busy and often don’t have the time (or the necessary knowledge) to help children learn complicated material.
Instead they pay someone to teach them online or at home to supplement what they’re doing in school.
You really don’t need any schooling for this job, however most people would like a professional in the subject their child is struggling in.
Tutors can charge per subject, per hour, or per page depending on what is needed and what you’re helping a child with.
If you hang your shingle in this industry, I again suggest not trying to be the cheapest.
Instead, try to be the go to person for results.
People will pay a premium for results.
Most of your clients (parents who will pay for tutoring) aren’t going to be parents that lack financial means.
After all, they’re willing to pay somebody to help their child learn in addition to what’s being taught at school.
I would suggest picking a state mandated tested topic and become an expert in that field or that test.
For example, the state of Florida requires every student to pass an Algebra I exam as well as a Reading exam in order to qualify for graduation.
Become an expert in these exams and produce results with a few students.
If you do that even once, you’ll have plenty of referrals to keep your business thriving and make a good hourly wage.
You’ll need to have work hours that are outside of the school day, so you may be working nights and/or weekends.
One last thought.
If you set high prices for individual tutoring, you can offer a group rate that is a bit cheaper and make more per hour by helping a few more students.
For example, if you charge $35 per session and that’s too much for somebody, let them know you have group rate sessions of 3-5 students that is only $20 per session.
If you get 5 kids in that session, you’ll actually make more per hour than the individual rate (5 x $20 = $100)
12) Buy, Sell, & Flip Items on Poshmark
Poshmark is an up and coming website that allows you to buy and sell items centered around fashion.
It’s a great place to get name brand merchandise and barely used items cheaper than buying them at the store.
Often times, people may buy something in the heat of the moment and only use or wear it once or twice (or never).
Poshmark is where you can pick those items up at a reduced rate.
The key would be to get familiar with the platform and learn what sells and what doesn’t.
You could then pick up local items on the Facebook marketplace, craigslist, or local high end thrift stores or consignment shops, then put them on Poshmark.
When they sell, you get to keep the spread (profit) that you produce.
Here’s a Quick Primer for Getting Started on Poshmark:
Just remember that you make money when you buy, not when you sell.
You must buy items people want and get them cheap enough to make a profit.
You’ll need to pay a fee to poshmark (and it’s rather hefty) as well as pay for shipping of the item.
Make sure you know enough about the brands or items you’re selling to make good choices.
Otherwise, you’ll have a living room full of crap that nobody wants.
I see this brand popularity growing over time so it’s a great opportunity right now to build up a positive reputation as a seller.
13) Build an Online Presence and Monetize it
This method takes a lot of time and there’s a steep learning curve.
But going this route does a few things and outperforms most other options in the long run.
- It builds up your marketable skill set (you can eventually charge for your services/skills).
- It offers income that can grow disproportionately large over over time.
- It allows you to scale with overhead costs remaining relatively the same.
- Some monetization methods are already embedded in the platforms.
So what am I talking about here?
I’m talking about building a blog, vlog, social media presence, or any other online platform and then applying tried and true principles of monetization to it.
For example.
I have this blog.
I create content that draws organic traffic to it.
I try to provide good value so people will come back.
In this post, the value I’m trying to provide is to give you some ideas for making money from home.
Some people will return for other topics once landing on this site.
Some will buy things while they’re here the first time.
Some will join my mailing list.
You can monetize a platform in many ways.
Affiliate marketing, for example, is when you offer something of value on the topic you’re covering.
If a person buys through your link, you earn an affiliate commission.
You can see some examples of this on my resource page.
You can also put ads on your site and get paid for impressions or clicks.
As of this writing, I choose not to do that because I don’t think it adds any value to the user experience.
It also slows down the site loading speed.
I hate pages that load with a bunch of ads, so I just choose to leave them out.
However, you could monetize your site any way you choose.
Some options, such as YouTube make it very easy to get ad revenue.
Once you have a specific number of subscribers and hit a threshold of videos watched, you can apply and basically turn on your money machine.
Once you have a platform and an audience, you could also sell products you create yourself or services you offer.
Over time, as you build trust with your audience, some will convert to paying customers in one way or another.
Some will land on a page, buy something, and leave.
Some will reach out to you to hire you for services.
Some will buy products that you create if you offer them.
Some may just be forced to sit through a YouTube ad and you get a portion of that.
Over time, as the traffic to your site (or YouTube channel or social media page) grows, your income will grow as well.
Once you’re good at this, you can even charge for services because you’ll learn all kinds of online skills that can only be learned by trial, error, and lots of personal development.
The other great thing about this make money from home option is that you are in complete control of your time.
You can work as often or as little as you want and people are figuring out new ways to monetize things every day.
In addition, an online presence isn’t linear.
What I mean by that statement is that you’re not bound by normal linear communication constraints.
Online marketing isn't bound by normal linear communication constraints. Click To TweetFor example, I could have a one on one (in person) conversation with somebody about any topic on my site.
It’s linear… I’m conversing with one person at a time.
With my online presence, I can communicate with as many people at one time as I can get to my site.
For example, the chances that somebody else is reading something on this site right now at the same time as you is fairly strong….
Pretty cool.
And if that’s not good reason enough, I may have written this article a week ago, a month ago, a year ago, or a decade ago (or longer).
I did the work once and it works to pay me dividends forever.
Make Money from Home Getting Creative with Platforms (Examples)
Here’s a few other examples.
I know a few guys who have built private Facebook groups around specific topics.
They use those groups to pump out information and training on their niche topic and monetize those audiences.
Example #1:
One uses his Facebook group to solicit people to his group coaching program, which costs about $150 per month.
He has about 187 people in that program right now.
It doesn’t take many people at that rate to turn a profit when your overhead is… um… a Facebook group.. (so… zero overhead).
($150 x 187= $28,050/month).
I’m sure there’s some overhead, but it’s not enough to eat away at his profits.
Keep in mind, it took a lot of time, sweat, and tears to get to that point.
It’s not an easy route, but it’s viable option for creating massive financial abundance in your life.
Example #2:
Another guy I know has a private Facebook page that IS his private training and coaching.
He serves about 10,000 people in that group who all pay $20 per month to be members (10,000 x $20 = ?… yeah, I know, it will rock your world when you do that math).
He does have a lot more overhead because he needs employees to help moderate and service that many people.
But again, it’s not anywhere near making a dent in his profitability.
These are two methods of doing the same thing.
One is a solopreneur and one has employees.
But they’re both basically using Facebook as a platform for creating monthly residual income.
A platform and funnel they first filled by creating a content and an audience to convert.
14) Start a Traditional Home Based Business
This industry is known by many names….
Network Marketing, Direct Sales, Multi-level marketing, Relational Marketing.
What!?- Yuck!
Are you serious?
(I know, bear with me)
This industry has a negative connotation in some circles, but before you go ruling this out completely, let me say this:
Network Marketing is unequivocally my favorite method of building wealth from home when combined with building an online presence.
First, take a moment to examine why you might not like network marketing.
It’s probably because somebody approached you wrong or nagged you to death to get started in the best opportunity since sliced bread!
Your negative feelings and resistance probably have very little to do with the industry itself and more to do with the way the offer was presented.
There are a lot of bad network marketers out there.
Social media amplifies their bad message as they post crap all over their profile.
You don’t want to be that guy (or gal), I get it.
But guess what, you don’t need to be and you shouldn’t be.
The most successful network marketers I know don’t build their business in spammy ways.
The fact that you don’t want to be like that means you know it rubs people the wrong way.
You also know it isn’t how you build a real and legitimate business.
People who are successful in this industry don’t damage their relationships in the process.
The problem is, someone may have inadvertently closed your mind off to a viable and very profitable business model because of their approach.
A better reaction is for you to just say to yourself, “that guy’s an idiot” and look at the business model on it’s own merits.
I don’t mean to be harsh when I say this…
But every profession has idiots.
There are idiot teachers, idiot doctors, idiot realtors, idiot business owners, idiot surgeons, and even idiot ministers.
It doesn’t mean the professions they represent aren’t legitimate.
It only means that… well, they are idiots.
In the grand scheme of thins, this is a fairly new industry and business model.
It’s less than 100 years old.
Because of that, it’s been through some growing pains, much like the issues franchising had in the beginning.
But if you haven’t checked it out in awhile, it’s becoming a more popular option for thousands of professionals who are looking to make money from home or even replace their current income.
There are a few reasons why business owners and professionals are starting to check it out.
Here are some of them:
- The industry has changed and newer compensation models allow average people to make substantial income.
- There is a low fixed cost to running the business.
- More and more business professionals are entering the industry, making it more socially acceptable.
- The model itself is formed around the concept of leverage.
- Changes in technology allow you to build a business without bugging friends and family.
- The model has embedded systems of mentorship to help you be successful.
Many of my friends and family don’t even know the extent of what I’m doing.
They kinda know, but that’s about it for now.
It’s just not necessary anymore to nag your friends and family and try to convince people to join your thing.
Inform them?
Yes.
Bug them to join you?… No way.
If you’ve got an open mind about this method of making money at home, check out any of our industry specific articles that interest you.
There you have it.
The best ways you can actually make money from home that aren’t stupid things like earn a half a penny every time you shop.
I hope you find something that works well for you and may God bless your efforts in whatever you choose.
If you feel I missed any reasonable options, please share the idea in the comments section below so other readers can check it out.
Remember this fact about your financial house:
“If Nothing Changes… Nothing Changes”
Lastly, if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I invite you to check out John 3:16.
Jason & Daniele
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