How to Make an Extra $1,000 was one of the very first posts on Location Rebel ever, way back in 2009. Because at the time, well, I needed to make an extra $1,000!
But all these years later, it was time for a refresh. Sure some of my strategies like #1 are still effective, but an update was in order.
So here’s a list of 26 ideas that can be combined for making $1,000 in one month. Some of these are stupid-simple, though the payoff might be pretty limited. Others on this list can net you a better return though you might need a bit of skill.
We’ve assigned earning potential to each item as follows:
- $ = Pocket Change
- $$ = Pays for Dinner
- $$$ = Pays for Groceries
- $$$$ = Pays Your Rent
And we’ve broken down level of difficulty like so:
- No Brainer
- Easy
- Takes a Little Skill
- More Difficult
Most of the items on this list aren’t intended as ideas for a new career. But if you’re looking for a short-term cash infusion, I guarantee that there’s some combination of ideas here that you can do to bring in a grand in a month.
Are you ready to get your hustle on? Let’s roll!
1) Collect Loose Change
The most basic money-scrounging move of them all. Couch cushions, the change tray in your car, a piggy bank and whatever other random places – scouring for loose change can net you a handful of bucks. If you’re the type that puts your change into a jar at the end of each day, hey, you might have a nice little payday waiting for you. But let’s get real: This ain’t the answer to your financial problems.
Earning potential: $-$$
Level of difficulty: No Brainer
2) Sell Stuff
Everyone can find at least one rarely used item that could be sold for extra money.
Old clothes? That trumpet you haven’t played since middle school? That acoustic guitar you thought was going to make you cool but that you still haven’t learned how to play?
Look around. You might have more than a thousand dollars on your shelves or in your closets. Find your local buy-sell-trade groups and start listing.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: No Brainer
3) Online Surveys
It might not be the sexiest gig in the world, but there are still websites out there that will pay you for taking online surveys.
The best part? It’s super simple. Seriously. Like binge-all-eight-seasons-of-Game-of-Thrones-while-you-work simple.
The worst part? Realistically, you’re only going to make a few bucks per survey. But hey, you don’t even have to leave the couch.
Earning potential: $-$$
Level of difficulty: Easy
Resources to check out:
4) Sperm Donor
Alright, let’s just get right into it. If you’re willing and, um, able, you can make some legit money donating sperm.
Demand and payout varies widely by area. But many places pay between $100 and $150 per donation. So if you’re, you know, virile, you could do alright.
Earning potential: $$$-$$$$
Level of difficulty: Easy??
Resources to check out:
5) Fountain Dive
Alright, this one is not Location Rebel recommended. But, hey, if desperate times call for desperate measures…
Maybe you look at all those people making wishes by tossing their coins into fountains as suckers (never mind that most of them are innocent children, you sociopath; but we digress).
Do what you’ve got to do. Who are we to judge?
Earning potential: $
Level of difficulty: Are you willing to get arrested?
6) Scrap Metal
Whether it’s old hardware equipment, random stuff found in the garage, or simply collecting cans, it’s not unreasonable to make $50 or more in a week just by collecting metal.
One strategy is to go on Craigslist or the Facebook marketplace and offer to take people’s stuff off their hands. One person’s trash is another’s treasure, as they say.
Earning potential: $-$$
Level of difficulty: Easy
Resources to check out:
7) Sell Your Plasma
It’s not just for college students.
You can make around $30 to $75 per appointment depending on your location and how much you weigh (the more you weigh, the more plasma they can harvest).
The downside for some, of course, is the needle.
Earning potential: $$
Level of difficulty: Easy
Resources to check out:
8) Sell Your Hair
If you’ve got hair to spare, you could make money by selling it. Online research suggests that prices vary widely. How much hair you’ve got matters, of course. But people also want hair that’s not been dyed or otherwise treated.
Some sites suggest you could make between $100 and $1,000 for a 20-inch long, 3-inch thick lock of hair! The biggest issue here is that it’ll take you time to regrow and be able to sell again.
Earning potential: $$-$$$$
Level of difficulty: Easy
Resources to check out:
9) Paint Curbs
Head out to your nearest suburb and start knockin’ on doors! Offer to paint the address on the curbs of homes for $5 or $10 apiece, or ask for donations.
All you need is a stencil and a couple cans of spray paint and you’re ready to go.
Keep the price minimal and you’ll get a pretty high acceptance rate. Each house will only take you a few minutes to do.
- Earning potential: $$
- Level of difficulty: Easy
10) Break out the Lawnmower
Good old-fashioned manual labor never goes out of style. If you’re able to mow lawns, shovel snow, pull weeds or trim hedges, you’ll always have an opportunity to make money. The key is motivation.
You can scale this kind of gig to make it whatever you want. From one-off jobs to a full-blown business with a roster of regular clients, the sky’s the limit.
If you decide to do this, give the “Pamphlet Principle” a shot.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Easy-Takes a Little Skill
11) Uber/Lyft Driver
If you’ve got a car, a driver’s license, a clean record and some time, you might be able to pull in extra dough by carting around strangers.
You’ll have to pass a background check and jump through a few other hoops, so this isn’t a start-today hustle.
After expenses and paying the app their cut, your hourly rate might not be terribly attractive. Some reports indicate that the real take-home for drivers isn’t much more than $10 per hour. Others have it closer to $17 per hour. Still, you might love to drive and chat with people. If that’s you, it’s not a bad way to earn some extra money. You’ll get out what you put in, so you could easily blow past $1K per month if time permitted.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resources to check out:
12) Pizza Delivery Driver
The OG way to make some extra scratch. This is as timeless a profession as prostitution. Speaking of… No, nevermind.
Seriously, who doesn’t like a pie delivered to their door? Nowadays more than ever. If you’ve got a car and know how to drive, you’ve got what it takes. Extra earning potential available in tips if you’re personable and willing to hustle.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resource to check out:
13) Food Delivery App Driver
Food delivery is not just for pizza anymore!
In this COVID day and age of more and more demand for delivery, there’s real opportunity for those willing to venture out and bring the goods to the doors.
DoorDash, Grubhub, Uber Eats – more services are coming online regularly. Got a car? A license? A willingness to get out of the house and log some miles? You’re likely qualified.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resources to check out:
14) Check Out Craigslist Gigs
Chances are, you’ve got some sort of marketable skill. Well, depending on your area, Craigslist may have people looking for your services in their gigs section.
Maybe you can teach tennis lessons once a week to some local kids. Or if you know your way around a computer, you could help an older person clear viruses off of their machine.
Ever thought of nude modeling for an art school?
Earning potential: $$-$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resource to check out:
15) Sell Vinyl Records
Vinyl’s as hot right now as it’s been in decades. The demand for product has far surpassed the world’s capacity to make it. That means the used market is on fire. If you’ve got collectable LPs that you’re not listening to, you can likely sell them for a premium.
Do some online research to gauge the value of what you’ve got. And if you have some knowledge and really want to make some coin, buy and sell records. Hit up the garage sales, flea markets and online auctions. Flip the product for a profit.
Earning potential: $$$-$$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resources to check out:
16) Work as a Golf Caddie
Playing with a caddie in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
If you know golf and are fit enough to carry a bag and walk several miles, you can make a tidy profit as a caddie (some say, “caddy”).
Country clubs are good places to start. Depending on your location and the specific club, you might be able to pull in $100 to $200 per day. The more you know about the game and the course on which you’re working, the more valuable your services. And you might even get some free golf out of the deal!
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
17) Online Tutoring
Pick your favorite subject from high school, brush up on your skills, and you can kill it tutoring online. This is an in-demand service all over the world. The better you know the subject and the better you can communicate with your students, the more you can charge.
You can likely fetch between $30 and $60 per hour depending on your subject and experience.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: Takes a Little Skill
Resources to check out:
18) Scalp Concert or Game Tickets
I hate admitting this, but one of my first businesses as a freshman in college was scalping tickets. I had a pretty good sense of which shows would sell out in which venues.
However, all it took was one person not paying, and me getting stuck with $100 worth of Ben Harper tickets in Philly to get me out of that game.
The key is identifying what’s in demand. If you buy a bunch of tickets to a concert or game that doesn’t generate much hype, well, get ready to invite your friends and enjoy an expensive night out.
This one requires having some money to invest in inventory that you hope is going to make a profit. It’s definitely a bit riskier than a lot of what’s on this list.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult
Resources to check out:
19) Earn Real Money Inside DeFi Kingdoms
Wait! Don’t sell that trumpet or acoustic guitar just yet. Take it to the corner, open the case, bare your soul and make it happen.
Oh, you don’t have any talent? In that case, nevermind. Do us all a favor and move on to the next item on this list.
But seriously, if you’ve got some musical skill and can get past the fear of performing, why not get out there and earn while you practice? If you’re good and in the right market, you could make some legit cash.
Earning potential: $-$$$$ (how good are you and where do you live?)
Level of difficulty: More Difficult (musical skill and guts required)
Resource to check out:
20) Fitness Instructor or Personal Trainer
Love to exercise? Well, not everyone does. Most of us need a kick in the ass to get ourselves moving. You could do the kicking!
A lot of gyms will hire from within their own classes to find instructors. Why not get paid to work out?
Earning potential: $$$-$$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult (after all, you’ve got to sweat!)
Resources to check out:
21) Write an eBook
If you’ve got a blog or a business website, you could generate a passive income stream by writing some premium content and posting an eBook on your site. How much you charge is up to you.
If the price and quality of content is right, this could be the gift that keeps on giving.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult
Resources to check out:
22) Web Development
Everybody it seems needs a website. Especially anybody doing business. Problem is, not everybody knows how to make one. If you do, let me tell you, you’ll have as much work as you want.
You can freelance this skill and realistically charge $1,000 (or more!) for a fairly basic site. And then you can do it again and again for clients from all kinds of industries.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult
Resources to check out:
- Location Rebel Web Development Case Study
- Everything You Need to Know About Becoming a Web Developer
23) Virtual Assistant
A lot of people need help getting or staying organized. You can find work helping people manage their email or by chipping in with customer service. From one-offs to ongoing retainers, if organizing is your thing, your skills are in demand.
Your experience will dictate what you can charge, but making an extra $1,000 per month as a virtual assistant is definitely doable.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult
A resource to check out:
24) Hit the Casino
Visiting the Monte Carlo casino was a bucket list thing for me. I even won $20. Unfortunately I lacked the required tuxedo to make it into the primary casino…
Alright, this might not be the most responsible advice for how to make an extra 1000 a month. After all, there’s a very good chance you’ll lose. But hey, if you’re feeling lucky, or if you’re truly skilled at a game like poker, then the earning potential could be quite lucrative.
Earning potential: $$$$ (same loss potential)
Level of difficulty: More difficult (though losing can be simple)
25) Freelance Writing
Getting some work done in my hotel room at Pueblo Bonito in Cabo San Lucas.
If you really want to do this life transition thing right, you’re going to need more than $1,000 a month. If you’re serious about making a career change, there’s no faster way to make money online than freelance writing.
The best part is that if you do it right, you can blow past the $1K a month mark in no time. Freelance writing offers much, much greater earning potential.
But you’re going to have to do a little bit of work to get set up correctly. Don’t worry: we got you. That’s what Location Rebel Academy is all about. We’ll give you everything you need to get started earning money online, including through freelance writing.
Want some help getting started? Grab our free Freelance Writer’s Guide.
Earning potential: $$$$
Level of difficulty: More Difficult
Resource to check out:
26) Get on Fiverr
Fiverr is a website where you can get just about anything. Want someone to dance around in a swimsuit and sing happy birthday to your mom?
I’m sure you can find that.
While it’s a great starting point to market your freelance services, consider doing some research and offering services doing something a little more….unique.
You never know, you may just find a niche for yourself that turns out to be quite lucrative.
Earning potential: $$-$$$$
Level of difficulty: Easy
What’s Stopping You From Making an Extra Grand Next Month?
There you have it. 26 ideas for how to make $1,000 a month. Surely you’ve found more than one thing on this list that you can do. Put a few of them together and go get that money!
Think of it this way: Just one month of making an extra grand and you’d have enough to purchase Location Rebel Academy. From there, you’re off to the races and finally ready to ditch the day job and start doing what you love for a living.
Sean Ogle
Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.Join over 40,000 people who have taken our 6 part freelance writing course. Sign up below and let’s do this together.
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Hey Sean!
I was just thinking that if I only had $1000 extra, it would solve some current financial issues… and you make it sound so easy!! I have to say I am a bit relieved that you haven’t had to fountain dive, yet, but including it in your list shows your open to all options! 😉
I love how you included the amount you have learned from each endeavor. Clever article! 🙂
Hehe, I love some of these! Wish some of these were more do-able from Thailand, but I like your creativity—it always takes creativity to increase your earning power! And we can all use a little help in this economy. I’m actually working on a few e-book/info products of my own in the upcoming months. Cheers Sean!
@ Karen, Thanks for the comment! I always appreciate your positive and humorous comments 🙂 Luckily, I haven’t resorted to fountain diving just yet, but who knows where I will be in a few months!
@Cody, I am definitely looking forward to seeing what kinds of products you come up with, as I know first hand how much good information you have to share. Expect a post later this week about our conversation from last week! Thanks again!
Great post, Sean! Lots of good ideas I’d never thought about really for making some extra money beyond just getting a part-time job.
Love the simplicity of the list of ideas.
I twist balloons for tips at local restaurants and make several hundred dollars every week end, working about 20 hours. I will teaching classes on how to do just that next month at a local Lifelong Learning Institute. I am in the process of writing a book and creating a couple of DVD’s (maybe I can make it an e-book and MP3 downloads too)
My son was thinking about selling iced cold water on a street corner during summer, but hasn’t done it yet. You can buy a case of bottled water for about $3 and $2 in ice, put it in an ice chest and you can sell it for $1 a piece. that’s almost $20 profit.
We have a guy around here who holds out a cardboard sign that says “need money for beer” and he always seems to be in good mood and full of energy.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
I’m personally glad you didn’t have to sell your body….
I’ve done a bit of panhandling and known a few people who did a lot of it. The best panhandlers,(those collecting decent money!!) usually did well because they managed to get a smile along with the spare change. One of my favorites was a buddy of mine who went around asking, “got a quarter?, need a quarter?” There was still pay phones back then, so he was giving away about one quarter for every 10 he collected. I’ve seen him make almost 20 bucks in less than an hour doing that one.
We were in Atlanta at the time, near the Jimmy Carter Memorial Center.
The center had a huge rose garden. On Sunday mornings we would go into the garden and “liberate” about 30 roses. (This was when I was homeless and although there were thousands of roses, we made it a policy to never get greedy.) The shops (and bars!! LOL) opened around noon and shoppers would show up a bit earlier. This was in “Lil” 5 Points”, Atlantas’ version of the Haight or Greenwich village. Young suburban couples were often the norm. We’ld pass out a rose to the young lady then “admit”, “If you can spare a buck that would be great, either way, women and roses need each other”. We usually picked up just over 25 dollars in less than an hour. That buys a lot of pitchers of draft beer. Trust me on this, a lot of people turn to alcohol to fight the depression that comes from being homeless more than alcoholism leads to homelessness!!
@Steve I have seen multiple people at bars in Portland trying to sell roses, and they are usually looking pretty successful! I will even admit to buying one or two at various points in time. If you really want to make money, you will figure out how. There are millions upon millions of people in this country and they are each doing something different. While you may not become a millionaire from any of these ideas, it’ll at least get you a few pitchers on a Saturday night! Thanks for the comment!
If I had a bum like that in my city with a funny sign that made me laugh as hard as I just did, I’d pay him $5, not just the regular quarter I give out.
…Well, I did actually. There was a bum holding a sign that said, “I had an affair with Tiger Woods and look where that got me.”
It was at the time last year when everyone was bashing on him of course, but he gave me great laughs as well. That deserves something extra.
with the ebook idea, write something of decent quality and throw it up on clickbank and get other people to promote it for you. much simpler but takes a whole lot of effort.