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Are you exploring how to supplement your income in a realistic way? Unfortunately, it’s all to easy to find yourself stuck in the comfort of one source of income.
This is because it’s common to find a job either right out of high school or college and get used to the routine of waking up, commuting to work, and heading home for the day. But it’s time for a change!
Knowing how to supplement your income is essential for creating a fulfilling lifestyle. You also need (yes, need) multiple flows of income to create wealth.
In an ideal world, you’d create both active and passive flows of income, but typically active income is a better place to begin when you’re starting from scratch.
This is because passive income flows tend to require money to get started while active income flows simply require energy.
Thankfully, you don’t need a degree to find ways to increase your income each month. It might take a bit of effort compared what you’re currently putting in, but it’s well worth it in the end!
How to Supplement Your Income, Immediately
For eight real explanations of how to supplement your income this month, continue reading below.
1. Blogging for Pay
Most businesses understand that they need to have a blog that provides engaging and valuable content. However, many people and business leaders aren’t good writers or they don’t want to spend time at it.
If you’re looking to pick up blogging work, the best site to use is Pro Blogger: https://problogger.com/jobs/
It has a ton of people looking to hire blog writers and the rates pay well.
I first learned about this site from the world-class blogger and SEO expert, Neil Patel of NeilPatel.com, a site that attracts millions of views per month. Neil’s podcast partner, Eric Siu, also uses this site for his brands, such as SingleGrain.com and ClickFlow.com.
If Neil and Eric are hiring on ProBlogger, thousands of other qualified business owners are too.
If you want to make even more money blogging, then reach out to business owners who have blogs and volunteer to write them one or more blog articles for free. Then, over-deliver on quality and length, and after getting their feedback, ask if they are interested to hire you for ongoing work.
Chances are, if you did great work up front for free, you’ll get your “foot in the door” and have a shot at being a ongoing blog writer for them.
2. Ghostwriting
Ghostwriting is another option that is an incredible way to supplement your income. While this is similar to blogging for pay, it is nearly always more lucrative.
In my opinion, there are two reasons that ghostwriting tends to pay a higher rate.
First, the projects are often large in scope. For example, a ghost-writer might get hired to write a 100-page e-Book, while a blogger might only get hired to write a 1,000 word blog article.
Second, ghostwriting is often used by influencers and business owners as a way to create either a “lead magnet” (for attracting leads) or a product (for creating sales).
Because these items tend to be tied to revenue, the people hiring for these projects are willing to pay more for them.
For them, it’s a simple return-on-investment (ROI) calculation. If they can pay you $1,000 for the job but make $5,000 or $50,000 from it, then they’ll be more than happy to pay you at a high rate.
Ghostwriting is often done for:
- Books
- e-Books
- How-To or Product Manuals
- Press Releases
- Scripts or Outlines for YouTube Videos, Podcasts, etc.
3. Podcast Research
Specializing in podcast research is another “21st Century” opportunity available to you today. It’s a relatively new opportunity that I have not yet seen others mention, but I’ve given this tip to a two close friends and they’re already making good money from it ($200-500 per month)!
I know from personal experience that this type of hiring is going on, so you might as well benefit from it.
What a podcast researcher does is look up stats and talking points for podcasters, so that the podcasts they produce can be data rich, informative, and well-sourced.
For example, let’s say a podcaster like Trish Blackwell of “The Confidence Podcast” wants to do an episode about “7 Effects of Social Media Consumption on Self Image.” In this case, you might sort through research on this topic (perhaps articles by psychologists) and deliver her talking points that she can reference during her podcast.
Specifically, you would provide her with 5-10 talking points on this topic and a half dozen statistics about it based on studies that you found.
In another example, let’s say the hosts of the “Marketing School” podcast, Neil Patel and Eric Siu, want to do an episode on “13 Video Marketing Trends of 2020.” They’d also likely be willing to pay you to sort through blogs, articles, and YouTube’s Press Page to organize talking points for them to use.
These podcasts are examples, so don’t get hung up on them as the only people to target. If you reach out with a well-crafted message to 50 different podcasters, you’re nearly guaranteed to get a few “bites.”
Depending on the podcast host, you might get paid from $50 up to $150 for your time and research per episode. If you do a research for a few episodes per month, this can stack up to some serious money.
Usually, the best way to contact podcasters is by email, but don’t forget to message them by Instagram DM’s or LinkedIn Messaging. It’s shocking to me how many top-level influencers you can contact by these methods, because they usually have these accounts on their phones and are monitoring the account performance.
Obviously, with this money-making approach, you goal is to get a long-term relationship with a podcaster, and ideally, move toward being paid a monthly retainer fee for your ongoing involvement!
4. Become a Lyft or Uber Driver
If you have a running car and don’t have points piled up against you on your driving record, then consider driving for Uber, Lyft, or another type of similar service as a way to supplement your income. The great thing about driving for one of these companies is that you’re your own boss and can do it on your own time.
You’ll need to download the app that you want to drive for, then you can begin to create your own schedule. Do keep in mind that there are a few requirements that you and your vehicle will have to pass first.
Once you make the cut, find ways to stand above your competition by providing refreshments in the car and exceptional service.
One great tip is to head out to a nearby airport as there are always people there needing a ride.
5. Manage Social Media (Specialize in One Platform First!)
If you’re a social media lover, then managing social media accounts for businesses might be your forte. Social media has become one of the top ways for businesses to advertise and reach their target market. If a business doesn’t have a social media account, then they’re behind their competition.
Businesses know the importance of social media and because of this, they need people like you to manage their accounts for them. If you know what it takes to sell products or services online using social media, then it’s time to supplement your income by doing so.
To get started on this path, send an offer message sharing your skill-set to several dozen business owners. Again, you can do this via email, Facebook messenger, Instagram Direct Messaging (DM’s), or LinkedIn Messaging. The key is to offer your services to enough people that you’re going to get one or more to say “yes” to you.
Remember, you don’t have to be a social media genius to do this job. You just have to be better than the business owner who is currently trying to manage the social media account. You’ll quickly find that this standard is usually low!
Also, you don’t need to be an expert at every single social media channel.
In most cases, it’s better to become the expert one social media platform first.
For example, it’s ideal to position yourself as the “g0-to” person for Pinterest advertising or the go-to expert in using Tik Tok for branding.
There are three reasons to specialize in one social media platform first (and expand later):
1) First, it is easier to deliver and report on measurable results for your clients if you’re only focusing on one platform. Remember, reporting on your activity takes time, so you want to keep this part of your work simple and streamlined.
2) Second, you can spend your time getting really, really good at one platform instead of becoming decent at many. Spend 10 hours watching YouTube videos about any single social media platform and you’ll be better at generating results on it than 99% of the population. This is an easy (and free) way to understand the types of people who use the social media platform (age, genders, locations, etc.), what they prefer to engage with and all of the platform’s best features.
3) Third and most importantly, business owners will want to see evidence that you know what you’re doing. It’s much easier to grow a large audience for yourself on a single platform that across a half dozen of them..
Obviously, if you crush it for your client on one social media platform, they’re going to be throwing money at you to take over their other social media accounts too.
6. Rent Out Your Home (Room, Parking or Storage)
Do you live in a home with a spare bedroom? Do you have a home that you leave once a year during the summers? Whatever the case may be, if you have extra space in your home, you can be renting it out for extra income.
There are several different websites that you can use to rent our your home or a room within it, with the most common one being Craigslist.org.
There are also websites that target med students who need a temporary place to stay, such as rotatingroom.com and medshousing.com.
Look into a few different websites and find one that works best for your situation. This is a great way to add to your income.
Of course, you don’t need to stop there or be discouraged if you don’t have a spare bedroom.
In this case, you consider renting out a parking spot.
SpotHero.com used to let individuals do this, but I believe the site is primarily working with businesses now. So, use Craigslist or Facebook Groups for this purpose instead.
Another less common but viable option is to rent out storage space in your house.
With self-storage companies now charging from $40 to $400 (and more) for storage space, if you have an empty basement, room, or garage at your house, you might be well positioned to make money from it.
If you do this, just remember the motto that a mentor of mine once taught me: “Friends sign contracts.” Meaning, you will need a legal contract describing the rate, dimensions and timeline that you will be storing another person’s belongings. You will also need to agree on what will happen if they do not come to reclaim their items.
Finally, remember to only do this with people that you trust, because you’re responsible for what is stored on your property (so no crazy people, ok?).
7. Dog, Cat and Pet Sitting
I have four dogs. Yes, four dogs! Now, before you think that’s a lot, I live on 4 acres of land with hundreds of undeveloped acreage around me and I have a large cabin with a couple finished levels, an unfinished basement, two decks and a front porch. Meaning, there is plenty of indoor and outdoor space for all of them.
Despite all this space, sometimes the three big ones still try to share a single dog bed!
There’s also this little guy.
Why is this relevant to you?
Because boarding my dogs is a huge headache. When I need to board them, I drive almost an hour away to drop them off, so that they can stay somewhere nice and get lots of outdoor time to roam.
It’s also hundreds and hundreds of dollars every single time.
Obviously, I’m much happier when I can have someone stay at my place with them instead. I also have chickens, so I prefer to have someone check on them too.
If you’re a dog or cat lover, I’d highly recommend that you consider offering pet sitting services. You can start by doing this for friends and family.
If you decide to start serving others (in the form of a business), that’s fantastic, but remember that you’ll then need to incorporate formal contracts and business insurance to protect yourself. Don’t skimp on these steps. It’s not worth putting yourself at legal risk!
You can also offer dog walking services to your friends and family.
When I was in Graduate School at Georgetown University, I lived with a friend and was her daily dog walker. It was a great deal for her, because she knew I adored her dog and it was a great way for me to pick up spare money while getting in healthy exercise.
This was part of how I paid off capitalized interest on my student loans. When you borrow unsubsidized loans from the federal government, interest will accrue while you are attending school. Capitalization is the addition of unpaid interest to the principal balance of your loan. Ideally, you’d pay off this interest while you’re in school to prevent your total loan balance from growing.
If you want to scale your dog walking even more, you can work with an app like Wag to do it at scale.
While I wouldn’t recommend this as your full-time job because the pay isn’t high enough, when it comes to creating supplemental income, it could be a good fit.
Personally, I think of supplemental income as a way to create income that you don’t need to live on. Therefore, you can use it to either paid down debt or to invest, depending on your stage of life.
8. Leverage Your Expertise with Clarity.Fm
There’s a site that I’m obsessed with called Clarity.FM.
The reason that I love it is that it lets me find experts on a subject that I want to learn about, have them coordinate a time to talk with me, and then pay them their rate-per-minute to learn from them one-on-one.
When it comes to technical topics, I’ve found that there is no more efficient way to learn a skill set or get my specific questions answered quickly.
The reason that I’m telling you this is that you may be an expert in an area where you could get paid by the minute to talk to people like me.
Examples of skills that you could monetize in this way are website set-up, speaking/presenting, fundraising, using Kickstarter, branding, podcasting, audio production, WordPress plugins, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), YouTube ads or hundreds of other skills. Just explore the site to get some great ideas.
If you have expert knowledge in any area, you can easily command $2 – $30 per minute (or more) to be paid to talk to someone.
Jump on this opportunity to make additional money in your spare time talking about a subject that you love from anywhere in the world!
Learn How to Supplement Your Income Today
Learning how to supplement your income starts by choosing one of these or other ways to make extra money on the side. Once you’re able to start putting some money into your savings, you can then prepare to invest your hard earned gains for robust returns.
When you get your money working for you, instead of working for it, then you’re on the path to financial freedom.
Because your teachers intended to prepare you for jobs, and not to make investments, you were not taught how to multiply your money in school. This is something that you’ll have to learn for yourself and I’m extremely passionate about this skill-set, because it has transformed my life.
Seeking more financial growth and abundance? Explore the blog and reach out to me if you have questions!
Are we connected yet on Instagram? If not, let’s make it happen so I can share in your world too!
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