You’re stuck. Jobless. Some call it limbo. You’re between a proverbial rock and a hard place. You know you need to make money but you also need to get a job. After all, you have bills to pay, right? So what next? How can you earn some extra income without having a 9-to-5 to support you? And how can you ensure you make enough cash to sustain you until you secure a “real” job?
Look, corporate life isn’t easy. It never feels good bowing down to C-suite overlords who seem to do very little work but take home extraordinary pay. But if you don’t have a job right now and you need to make money, what do you do? Not having a job isn’t a choice you’ve made. You didn’t decide to be jobless. Things just happen. And now you’re in a situation where you need to make money or stuff is about to hit the fan.
So what next? Where do you turn? What do you do? How do you approach the situation without compromising or jeopardizing the job application process? The truth? Not having a job is as liberating as it is frightening. But don’t let that situation scare you. Take a deep breath and look at the situation from a neutral perspective. All the choices are right in front of you.
How to Make Money Without a Job?
Most people are scared to death of not having a job. After all, they have expenses and life isn’t free, right? Although it’s not ideal, there are ways you can make money even if you don’t have a job. Some of those methods can generate more income than a full-time position. Don’t think that’s possible? It’s obvious that people are doing it from all walks of life. You just have to open your mind to the possibilities that exist.
The question boils down to how much work and effort you’re willing to put in on the front end with little pay to start. If you don’t have a job, you probably need to make money fast. As in right now. Today. Pronto. True? That means you need to hustle and grind. You need to spend your time solving problems that exist in the marketplace right now.
Many problems are solvable without much effort. Meaning that if someone needs food delivered to their house and they don’t want to drive to pick it up, that’s a problem. It’s not a big problem. But it is a problem that you can solve without much effort. Solving that problem won’t make you that much money. But solving it repeatedly can make you enough to get by.
#1: Food Deliveries
Food deliveries are an easy way to make money when you don’t have a job. Without a job you have the freedom to take deliveries at will. Most food delivery apps allow you to turn on and off your availability at any moment. Meaning that you don’t need to commit to specific hours, days, or times that you’ll work doing food deliveries.
You can choose from many food delivery apps. It will vary depending on where you live. Some of the biggest food delivery apps in the US are Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates and Instacart. In Europe, the popular apps are Wolt, Deliveroo, and Just Eat. Wherever you live, there’s a food delivery app that you can use to make money online without too much effort.
#2: Dog Walking
If you’re a pet lover, dog walking is always an option. Most people don’t know that this is even a way to make money. But it is. You can walk dogs locally. And depending on where you live, there are several dog-walking apps you can use. The most popular one by far is called Rover. Rover allows you to walk dogs and has other options such as dog sitting and doggy daycare.
Sometimes, pet parents will go out of town and they’ll need someone to watch their dog at their home. It’s almost like house sitting except you’re watching the dog. You’re ensuring the dog is fed, walked, has water, can play, and altogether live a normal life. The disruption of doggy hotels or dog boarding just isn’t something most dog parents want to consider.
#3: Design Sales Funnels
Sales funnels are like websites. Except they’re a little different. Instead of having many options and choices, sales funnels have only one path forward. That’s why they convert on average at 137% higher than websites. Today, most companies use sales funnels to grow their business and their revenue. That’s where you come in. You can make money by designing sales funnels and selling them in our marketplace.
You don’t need any tech skills or coding knowledge to do this. All you need is to design the sales funnels using premade templates and a drag-and-drop editor. It’s simple and easy to use. You can design sales funnels one time and each time they sell you get paid. This is also known as passive income because you do the work once and get paid repeatedly for it.
#4: Tutoring
Online tutoring is a simple way to make money. It doesn’t involve leaving your house or running around making deliveries. All you need to do is show up and be qualified to tutor others. That means you must be knowledgeable about school subjects, second languages or musical instruments. After all, you’re teaching others how to do something you should already know how to do.
Most tutoring work revolves around helping students in different subjects at school. That could be math, science, history and more. You could also tutor others in a second language or work with others who are learning English as a second language. You can use websites and apps like Tutor and Varsity Tutors to find tutoring work.
#5: Online Courses
Online courses are a great way to make money when you don’t have a job. This helps convey skills to others who might be a few steps behind where you’re at. You don’t need to be an expert but you do need to be knowledgeable. However, creating online courses is not the fastest way to make money. It’s actually slow. But it is a great way to generate passive income.
Most people think you need to be technical to create an online course. That’s not true. You don’t need any special tech or web development skills to do this. You can build an online course using premade templates and a drag-and-drop editor with our software. This gives you full control over your online course. But you can also use platforms like Udemy, Teachable and others to build your course.
#6: YouTube
You can make money on YouTube. Even if you don’t want to show your face. Many faceless YouTube channels are generating a lot of income. However, YouTube is not an instant solution to your money problems. It takes time and patience. And it takes consistent uploading of topical content to make a difference.
If you decide to do YouTube, find a niche and stick to it. And go all in on YouTube Shorts. YouTube Shorts are the best way to get your content to go viral. These short-form videos help push your bigger, long-form videos. People consume your Shorts and then move on and consume your long-form videos. Plus, it’s currently the fastest way to build subscribers as a newer channel.
#7: Email Marketing
Email marketing is the most powerful marketing channel. It has the highest return on investment (ROI). It’s just ahead of search engine optimization (SEO). Email marketing is used by companies to build rapport with prospects by sharing stories. Those stories are designed to sell and shift beliefs. When done the right way, it can transform the success of a company overnight.
Email marketing is a great skill to have. It’s used by the best copywriters out there to make endless amounts of cash online. If you’re not employed, consider helping others grow their businesses with email marketing. Every business (even boring ones) can benefit from solid email marketing. You can find clients on freelance websites like Upwork and Freelancer.
#8: Freelancing
Freelancing is a great way to make money whether you have a job or not. The beauty of freelancing is that it’s remote work that you can do when you have pockets of free time. So if you have a lot of time because you’re not working a full-time job, freelancing might be the key to your money problems. If you have freelancing skills, you can use them by finding short-term gigs.
What type of freelancing work can you do? You can do graphic design, web development, video editing, paralegal work, accounting, and much more. You can use Upwork and Freelancer to find paid gigs. Keep in mind that it takes time to build up your profile so you won’t start making money instantly. But you can get some reasonable work quickly as long as your prices are competitive.
#9: Narrate Audiobooks
Many voice actors and voice professionals who have a good radio voice turn to audiobook narration. You can find audiobook narration gigs on a platform called ACX. ACX is the primary provider of audiobooks for the Audible platform, which is owned by Amazon. All you need to do is set up and account on ACX and start bidding on audiobook narration jobs.
There are two ways you can earn. You can make a per-finished-hour amount. That means if the audiobook is 5 hours long you will only get paid for those 5 hours. Even if it takes you 50 hours to complete the task the job is priced at a per-finished-hour amount. You can also earn a royalty and split the income with the author if you don’t mind waiting for the money to start rolling in.
#10: Podcasting
Podcasting can be a primary source of income when your podcast reaches a large audience. That won’t happen quickly. But it may happen over time. If you’re unemployed and want to make money, podcasting is a good long-term solution. Similar to YouTube, this is something that requires consistent uploading and maintenance. It’s not something you can just do for a few weeks and then forget about it.
If you’re considering a podcast, think about the core problem the podcast will address. And think about the avatar (or the ideal person) that your podcast will target. This way you can speak directly to this person as though you’re having a one-on-one conversation. It’s the most powerful way to build rapport with your audience. Eventually, you can sell sponsorships or even push them into lead generation funnels to promote a business you’re building on the side.
#11: Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms are transforming business and everyday life. The entire world is shifting toward social media. And today you can reach nearly anyone on popular social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. If you’re good at social media, you can get paid to help others promote their companies, brands, products and services.
While you don’t need to launch an official agency, you can simply start messaging companies on social media offering your help. Most companies are still not embracing social media but are willing to pay others to help them figure it out. This does have huge upside potential and you can easily do this while still hunting for a full-time job. It may even become your full-time job eventually.
#12: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is by far one of the best ways that you can make money online. However, it is not the easiest way. That’s because it requires an existing audience or traffic source that can be tapped into. As an affiliate you’re helping other companies and brands make money by selling their products and services. You do this by promoting affiliate links. And you’ll need a place to promote those links.
If you have an existing email list, YouTube audience, or social media following, then you should consider making money as an affiliate. You can also run ads to certain affiliate promotions if you know what you’re doing. This is a quick way to scale any affiliate offer to make more money. But it does require an understanding of how ad platforms work.
#13: Personal Training
If you’re into fitness consider doing personal training. This doesn’t require any money and it doesn’t require much of your time. You can find personal training clients at the gym you already go to. But you’ll need to make a deal with the gym owner to give them a cut of each training client. But it’s an easy way to make $50 to $100 per hour and up.
Once you make a deal with the gym owner, just approach other members and offer to help them. Give them advice and tips for exercises they’re already doing. If you see someone making a mistake, let them know nicely. Don’t be pushy about the training. If they want your help they will ask for it. But you can definitely let them know you’re a personal trainer. You can also contact friends and family members and offer to help them with personal training.
#14: Webinars
Webinars are online presentations. They are the best way you can sell high-ticket products and services. Webinars work by shifting a prospect’s false beliefs. Everyone has beliefs about products and services, their personal abilities to achieve something, and external factors that hold them back like money and time. Webinars are designed to break those false beliefs and prime them for the sale.
The concepts and principles behind how webinars work can be found in a book called, Expert Secrets. You’ll find the breakdown of precisely how and why a webinar converts so well. You can also check out the Perfect Webinar Secrets formula here. Webinars aren’t complicated, but they do take time to build. You can present them live or by using automated webinars. And you can build the entire webinar with our software.
#15: Website Testing
You can make money by testing apps and websites. Companies like User Testing offer a platform for running these tests. Many companies use these platforms to figure out what their target audience best responds to. This impacts their overall sales and conversions so your input is extremely important when conducting these tests.
To make money with website testing you have to sign up and then get approved. You’ll need to take a sample test to ensure you’re the right fit for testing sites. Each platform has different rules and requirements for becoming a tester. However, this is a straightforward way to make money from home in your spare time.
#16: Focus Groups
Marketing agencies and companies often run focus groups. These focus groups will pay you for your advice. This is not always done in person and can sometimes be done online. However, if you live in a place like New York City, you can find plenty of focus groups that are willing to pay you for your advice. This is not like website testing. You are offering your opinion on a variety of company and product lineups.
How much can you make by attending these focus groups? It all depends. Different companies are willing to pay different prices for your time. All you need to do is show up physically or virtually to give your advice. They’ll pay you a set amount for that time and you’ll know what it is ahead of time. Since most focus groups happen during business hours, this is the ideal way to make money when you don’t have a typical job you need to show up for.
#17: Donate Blood
If you need to make money fast and you’re up against a wall, consider donating blood. There are many blood donation centers all over the world. Especially here in the United States, you can easily find places that will offer payment for blood donations. All you need to do is visit a location. They’ll draw your blood and pay for blood.
There are also other ways to make money by donating things like plasma. Since plasma can’t be recreated in a lab, many places are willing to pay a hefty sum for plasma donations. You can always do this along with blood donations if you please. These are surefire ways to make a bit of money simply by having a very non-invasive procedure.
#18: Babysitting
You can babysit children to make extra money. Babysitting can be done by registering on popular apps like Care, SitterCity and others. You’ll need to pass a background check to qualify to provide services on these apps. Once you pass the background check you’ll join the queue and can start taking jobs working to provide care for those families that need it.
This can be babysitting or daycare. It could include house sitting and other care services. If you enjoy working with children then you should consider doing this. You can select the jobs you want to take and only work for brief periods. If you’re job hunting, this is also an easy side hustle that won’t interfere with your chances of finding a full-time job.
#19: Garage Sales
There are so many garage sales with opportunities for finding gems that you can then turn around and sell online. You can visit garage sales, estate sales and even thrift stores. Once you have a trained eye, you can find the best products that go unnoticed. You may even find some rare gems worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Once you find the items you can turn around and sell them online. For example, you can sell clothing on ThredUp or Poshmark. You can sell other items that you find on ebay or Facebook Marketplace. If you find sneakers, handbags, and other related items, you can sell those on sites like StockX and others. There are just so many options for selling these items once you find them.