You are currently viewing 50 Great Ways To Make Supplemental Income

Side hustle, supplemental income, extra money — it doesn’t matter what you call it, but it’s 2020, and there’s no reason why someone shouldn’t have multiple income streams coming in. There’s too much that’s available and up for grabs that you need to get out there and take hold of. Some extra money coming in or a supplemental income can literally be life-changing for one person or an entire family. The idea that “Money can’t buy you happiness” is absurd considering just how much of our well-being depends on having our finances in order. Working from home doesn’t always mean starting your own business. There are many ways to earn extra money from freelancing, contract work, and legitimately be hired as a ‘work-from-home employee.

Why are additional income streams helpful?

  • You can save for something like a vacation or new car without dipping into your current paycheck.
  • A side hustle helps alleviate the pressure of living paycheck to paycheck.
  • Extra money means you’re able to pay off debt faster.
  • You can achieve long-term goals like early retirement or a fully-paid education for your child.

Whether you want to combine multiple income streams, start an online business, find a new side hustle, or want some spending money on top of the paycheck from your full-time job, then we’ve got you covered! So if you’ve got all the time in the world, or can only spare a few hours each week, let’s take a look at some of the best ways to generate supplemental income in 2020. And, as always, the list below is in an unbiased, non-specific order. So find what works best with your current lifestyle and future goals, and go from there!

6 Legit Work-From-Home Jobs

The world of “work from home jobs” is riddled with scams and sites that turn out to be nothing but a huge waste of time. There are some actual, legitimate companies out there that will hire you as an actual employee to work from home and earn a taxable income through them, just as if you showed up and punched a time clock.

  • Xerox – Yes, the copy machine, people! But in addition to copy machines, they’re also an international business solutions company. Clicking the Xerox link to the left brings up a list of their work-at-home positions that can range from customer service to billing support to non-phone jobs like data entry.
  • Support.com – By using remotely-working agents, Support.com can solve a myriad of technical support issues. It’s great for those that have a little bit of technical background and are comfortable with technology. You can expect to do a mixture of inbound and outbound calling to help customers resolve various levels of issues across a wide array of products.
  • Sitel – Sitel bills itself as a ‘global network of outsourced solutions.’ In layman’s terms, bigger companies hire Sitel workers to act as customer service agents from their phones and computer at home. As a Work@Home Agent, you will be responsible for everything from routine customer service questions to billing and support issues.
  • Concentrix – By offering 24/7 support for various levels of customer engagement funnels, Concentrix is always hiring people both in person and working from home. You will usually be paired with a large technology provider (like Comcast, for example) and are trained to handle every issue thrown at you. Concentrix has been around for over 40 years and shows no signs of slowing down!
  • American Express – The virtual customer care representatives answer inbound calls to help customers resolve a wide variety of issues with their American Express credit card. American Express offers super competitive pay and a wide array of benefits from insurance to maternity leave. Just because you’re an at-home worker doesn’t mean you don’t deserve time off for a baby!
  • Apple – As an Apple AtHome Care Specialist, you will be trained to help people resolve issues with their Apple devices that don’t require in-store help. They also have Chat Agent positions which is who customers are talking to when they use the live help/chat feature for support.

Make Extra Money With Your Car

Just about everyone has a car, and making extra money with your car isn’t all that hard. There are numerous routes to take. If you don’t like what you see here, scroll down a bit more and learn how to get paid by buying groceries and delivering food.

  • Uber – Become a freelance taxi driver without the medallion. Driving for Uber is a science, and the ones that have it mastered can make a killing!
  • Lyft – Very similar to Uber. Many drivers will run both the Uber and Lyft apps at the same time to maximize the fares received.
  • Wrapify – Turn your car into a rolling billboard! Advertisers will pay you monthly if they can display their ads on your car.
  • Getaround – Rent your car out to well-vetted strangers whenever you’re not using it. There are strict guidelines to follow so your car will be safely returned.
  • Turo – Like Getaround, Turo lets you rent your car out for extra money whenever you’re not using it.

Buy Groceries and Deliver Food For People

It’s 2020, and if you’re looking for some extra money, then the gig economy is where it’s at. All you need is a car, and you can make money buying groceries and delivering food for people!

  • Instacart – One of the leading names in personal grocery shopping services. The app tells you what to buy (with your Instacart-issued debit card) and where to deliver them to. Common places you will shop at include Sam’s Club and Costco (no membership needed for either)
  • Shipt – Shipt is similar to Instacart, but they focus on different grocery stores. You will likely become very familiar with your local Target stores.
  • UberEats – Many Uber drivers will often run the UberEats app to pick up meals for people in between waiting for new fares.
  • DoorDash – Ride around picking up people’s fast food and to-go restaurant orders. They even have the ability to cash out your earnings from that day instantly.
  • Waitr – Coming from Louisiana, Waitr is a great choice. The only downside is they aren’t available in every state. If you’re in the South, though, give them a shot!
  • GrubHub – GrubHub is similar to DoorDash, but they have different restaurants and a slightly different pay scale. Some drivers use both services.
  • PostMates – PostMates is essentially a combination of the two types of services above. You may be sent to a restaurant, or you may be sent to CVS or Walgreens.

Make Extra Money With Real Estate (even if you don’t own a house)

Anyone can make money with real estate through various ways of investing, leasing, and renting. Even if you don’t own a home or have just a few hundred bucks, it’s all possible!

  • Airbnb – For those that do have their own place, Airbnb is a great way to rent out that spare bedroom OR to rent out your entire home whenever you’re gone.
  • Neighbor – Have some room in your basement or some space in your garage? Rent it out as storage space using Neighbor.
  • Storewithme – Like Neighbor, except they put more of an emphasis on a different type of storage. If you have room on your land for someone to come to park their boat or RV, consider Storewithme.
  • Fundrise – Invest in the real estate market without needing thousands of dollars and/or collateral. Fundrise lets you buy into real-estate hedge funds for as little as $500 bucks.

Make Extra Money With Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest companies in the world. It makes sense that there are ways you can use them to your advantage to make some supplemental income. And we’re not simply talking about “sell ____ on amazon” (although that’s an option too).

  • Mturk – Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing website powered by AWS whereby ‘crowd workers can get paid for completing small tasks. The tasks range from getting paid $0.25 to answer whether or not the picture contains a dog all the way to “We’ll pay $10 for every business you take a picture of” and thousands upon thousands of other tasks in between.
  • Amazon Fresh – Remember how we mentioned the grocery delivery services above? Did you know that Amazon also owns Whole Foods? Combine those two thoughts, and you’ve got Amazon Fresh!
  • Sell on Amazon – Selling on Amazon is not as hard as it seems. You do not need to be some eCommerce guru to sell items on Amazon. So many Amazon sellers get items from
  • Aliexpress and resell it on their own Amazon store!

Use Your Love Of Animals For Extra Income

What’s not to love about animals? They’re great! You can actually get paid to care for other animals whether they need a simple lunch-time walk or need boarding for the weekend.

  • Rover – The number one brand in the gig economy area of dog walking, Rover is a great place to start making money off of someone else’s fur baby.
  • Fetch – The earnings per job are a bit higher with Fetch, but the number of jobs is smaller to pick from. Use Fetch and Rover together to maximize your earnings!
  • DogVacay – Whenever dog owners go on vacation, they don’t always want to risk overcrowding and kennel cough from their local boarding provider. Let them leave their dog with you and get paid while they’re gone!
  • Care.com – Care combined dog walking with pet sitting and pet boarding. They’ve got a huge network of pet owners and are a great resource to use.
  • Freelance Pet Care – This writeup from the balance goes into extensive detail about how to start your own dog walking or pet sitting business. From how to get new clients all the way down to whether or not you need insurance.

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Side Hustle

Everybody has a phone. Almost all of these phones are smartphones. A great majority of these smartphones have wifi and/or a great data plan. If you’re one of the millions of Americans that do, then here’s how to bring in some supplemental income with your phone.

  • Neilsen Digital Voice – Neilsen is why we know how many millions of people watched the Super Bowl. They’re how we know which radio stations are popular. All they do is track what consumers do for entertainment. Get paid for letting them see how you use your phone.
  • MobileXpression – Like Neilsen, this company tracks what you use your smartphone and tablet for. You will get rewarded after just your first week of using their technology-tracking app.
  • ShopKick – Download the app, enable location services, and start earning ‘kicks’ as you head to your local grocery store and scan requested items.
  • Letgo / OfferUp – If you’ve got some items around your house to sell, crafts that you’ve made, or services you offer, then Letgo and Offerup are great ways to sell these items for some extra money. You can even flip items from Aliexpress.

Become A Freelance Writer / Content Mills

Many blogs and websites do not employ in-house writers. Instead, they seek out freelance writers to help fill in the content void. In the beginning, the earnings can seem slow with some of these services. Eventually, you will get better and faster at doing your research and writing an article or blog post that turns out to be exactly what the requestor wanted. Here are our favorite websites that are legit and pay on time.

  • Verblio (formerly BlogMutt) is one of the harder companies to break into, but once you’re in, you’re as good as gold. They have assignments they pay anywhere from $10-$250 per article, ranging from 350 words on up to 4,000 or more.
  • Textbroker – Earn an average of $1.50 per 100 words written. Beginners may find earnings a little slow initially, but as you get better, your earnings shoot through the roof!
  • The Content Authority – Very similar to Textbroker, except it hasn’t gained as much popularity. Thus finding jobs here is typically easy. However, earnings may vary from that of the other services listed.
  • Writer Access – Unlike the services above, where writers pick jobs they’re familiar with, Writer Access will pair customers with the writers themselves. It’s great to use this one in conjunction with Verblio or Textbroker.

Earn A Supplemental Income With Transcription Services

Another great and legit way to earn some extra cash is by working for a transcription service. Typically you will be given an audio clip that you need to transcribe. This may be audio from a professional’s notes, or you may be transcribing something that you will later use as closed captioning. You will usually get paid per minute of audio transcribed. Because this is so lucrative, you will be tested before joining. The tests are super easy as long as you follow the study materials provided. The whole process of signing up, studying, and taking the test all takes less time than it would for you to apply for a job, drive to the location, and sit down for an interview.

  • Casting Words – The pay starts at $0.60 per minute of audio for transcribing clear audio and goes up to $1.20 per minute of audio for clips that either isn’t good quality or where the speaker is hard to understand.
  • Daily Transcription – Open to those in the US or Canada, the rate of pay works out to be about an average of $0.75-$1.10 per minute of audio transcribed
  • Transcribe. me – Open to any native English speakers, you can expect to earn about $20 per hour of audio that’s been transcribed.
  • SpeechPad Transcription – This is a great option for the newbies who are having trouble passing the entry tests from the other services. Because they cater to new transcribers, the quality of work only lets them pay about $0.25-$0.40 per minute of audio. But it’s easy to get started with them, and they’ll pay you via PayPal every two weeks.
  • AccuTran Global – Another service opened to those who have at least a high-school level English background. They pay weekly through PayPal. Their rates vary and aren’t open to non-AccuTran members.

CashBack Shopping Online and In-Store

Yes, you can earn supplemental income for doing something you already do: buy groceries, shop online, put gas in your car, etc. There are companies out there that will pay you for shopping at Target, Walmart, eBay, Amazon, and thousands of other retailers.

  • Rakuten – The best option for online cashback shopping. They even have a browser extension that makes it super easy.
  • Ibotta – Great to submit receipts for in-store shopping to get cashback for groceries you were going to buy anyways
  • WikiBuy – A great cashback shopping resource that probably has many local shops from your area in their network.

Get Paid To Do Surveys (and other stuff online)

There are so many scams online that it’s hard to weed out what’s real and what’s not. Here’s a list of verified companies that will pay you to do surveys, watch ads, along with other menial tasks.

  • Swagbucks – The granddaddy of “get paid to” websites. One of the most popular sites for making some extra shopping money with no skill required.
  • InboxDollars – Originally named so because they would email surveys to your inbox every morning to do as you have time throughout the day.
  • SurveyJunkie – Similar to SwagBucks, SurveyJunkie focuses solely on surveys. Once you qualify and complete a survey, they’ll pay you directly to your PayPal account.
  • Respondent.io – They’re a little pickier with their participants, but this is because many of their surveys pay between $50-$250 for just an hour or two of your time.

Get Started On That 2nd Income Stream.

And there you have it, 50 ways to bring in extra money. Whether you want a few extra bucks for beer money on the weekend or whether you want a legitimate second job that can help you retire early, we’ve got you covered. The most important thing is just to get started on building your second income stream!

Wes Durham

Wes Durham is the founder of Develop Your Wealth. He has a long-running career is a mix of financial technology and education. His main goal is to help others develop good saving habits, money earning opportunities, debt balancing and wealth development.

This Post Has 9 Comments

  1. Andy Buho

    I have personally tried a few of these and I can tell you, they work! As long as I was willing to put in the work, I was getting a steady income from a couple of spots. However, there are quite a few suggestions that I hadn’t thought about and I am excited to give them a try! Thank you for this list!

  2. Akulu

    This is really insightful I think a lot of freelancers could benefit from reading this. Definitely looking forward to exploring some of these options myself

    1. Wes Durham

      Feel free to share with fellow freelancers. :-)

  3. Henry

    I’ve just recently been looking into ways for supplemental income, so glad that I stumbled by this. I appreciate how comprehensive this is compared this list is than others. I wanted something that didn’t take up too much time, looks like the survey suggestion set-up would work for me, will try it out!

  4. Elli

    I’m actually familiar with several of these supplemental income opportunities, and they are great ways to make some extra cash on the side. However, I have to say that content mills are a waste of time. When you weigh the time spent on the assignment vs. what they pay, you’re receiving well below minimum wage. I’ve found websites like Fiverr to be a much more lucrative avenue to earn a few extra bucks.

    That aside, the money you make from side gigs definitely make a difference! I used it to pay down student debt, credit card balances, and care loans. That little extra stream of income can truly be life-changing if you use it wisely.

    1. Wes Durham

      I do agree you have to be smart about how you are spending you time making extra money as a freelancer. Do your research and make sure you are working with a freelancer company that will compensate you well for your valuable time.

  5. K. Logan

    Great idea to source products from aliexpress and sell on amazon. Is there a minimum that Amazon allows you to keep in stock at their facilities (like the fulfilled by amazon thing?) or is it best to just keep the items and ship them out yourself when you are just starting out? I guess shipping them myself would only really be feasible if the shipping costs were low on the item.

  6. Erin

    Would love to work with animals, I often volunteer at Petsmart once a week to feed the cats that are up for adoption… to get paid to care for animals would be a dream.

  7. Melanie

    If you’ve got the time, man there are so many choices today to make extra income! I got a friend that delivers groceries for Whole Foods/Amazon and also is a driver for Uber, he makes more doing that then he did working a 9-5 job working in customer service for a bank company.

    I like survey sites but I feel like they are hard to find decent surveys that payout instantly or ones that will pay over $1 or $2. I would NOT recommend PaidViewpoint, it took me over 2 years just to accumulate $15 so I could cash out!!

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