In need of some quick cash? Trying to find alternative sources of income? Maybe you’re interested in ways to optimize your income stream? Above all else, are you looking to make easy money?

In this post, we’ll outline ways to make money without doing anything. Read on to start reelin’ in the dollars!

Savings and investment accounts

This one is simple. An easy way to make money without doing anything is to start a savings or investment account.

With savings accounts, you’ll accrue interest on your monthly balance without doing anything at all. While the amount you’ll receive is low, the risk is even lower. Savings accounts are insured and are literally risk-free. Even if the bank goes “bankrupt,” up to $250,000 is FDIC insured.

Investment accounts, while higher-risk, investment accounts are also higher reward. Depending on your goals and appetite for risk, you can choose from a variety of different investment types. Some popular investments include…

  • Bonds: When you invest in a bond, you are essentially loaning an organization money in exchange for repayment with interest. Bonds are generally low-risk investments.
  • ETFs: Exchange Traded Funds, or ETFs, are investment vehicles that increase or decrease in value depending on the performance of specific stock exchanges. These generally ebb and flow with the overall health of the global economy, and in the long-term are relatively low risk.
  • Individual stocks: This is a direct investment in a company through a stock purchase. Depending on the company, these can be low or high risk. An investment in an established company will be low risk/low reward, while an investment in a smaller and unproven company is high risk, but could lead to some big bucks!

Online surveys and focus groups

Did you know that you can actually make money professionally just from giving your opinion? Research companies pay a premium for insights into their clients products and services and offer cash for these insights.

There are two main ways to make money leveraging your opinion for cash:

  • Online surveys: These will require you to take a simple online survey to give your opinion on everything ranging from products and political opinions, to popular culture.
  • Focus group: Focus groups do require a little more effort, but generally offer more money. Generally, you go to a location where you’ll sit in a room with other testers and answer questions.

Leveraging social media

For those with large social media followings there is a lot of money to be made. With today’s media landscape rapidly changing, an influencer with a large following could capture as many eyeballs as a tv show!

These eyeballs can and should be monetized to give you value for the social media content you are already producing. Below, we’ve listed some ways to leverage your audience’s attention to make some cash.

Sponsorships

Depending on what you’re showing off in your social posts, there are a number of sponsorship opportunities available to you. Hike a lot? Reach out to a hiking boot or outdoor apparel brand. Love CrossFit? Talk to some CrossFit gear brands and gyms in your area. If you love cooking, talk to some kitchenware brands.

Some tips for reaching out to businesses inquiring about sponsorship opportunities:

  • Find the person on the team that manages an brand’s social media. If you can’t find a specific person, find the name of someone in the organization and address it to them. “To whom it may concern” never cuts it.
  • Make a case for why you’d be a good sponsor. Include how many followers you have and how you can offer them value. Don’t just assume that a business will be impressed by your account right off the bat.
  • Include the ways you’d integrate their products into your feed. Do you create weekly stories on Instagram that you could integrate them into? Maybe you plan on including the brand in a recipe reveal?

Affiliate marketing

This form of performance-based marketing rewards the marketer based on the amount of leads or customers brought to a business.

Generally how this works is an influencer will post a specific link back to a business’s website, often with a deal or offer, that will track how many new customers were brought to the website by the influencer.

This is a great, passive way to make money, and particularly lucrative if the business you are marketing for has good synergy with your personal brand.

Sell old stuff

As seasons change, interests die out, tastes shift, and old objects you have lose value to you. Fortunately, these items can still be quite valuable to others! Why not sell them to make some extra cash?

Some items that retain value and can be easily sold to thrift and specialty stores include:

  • Clothing, particularly high-end brands
  • Sports equipment. Bicycles, skis or snowboards, kayaks, and the like are particularly valuable second-hand
  • Records, CDs, and DVDs
  • Electronics, such as working-condition mobile phones, televisions, and computers
  • Furniture, such as dining tables, sofas, and armoires

Airbnb your home or apartment

A new-age way to make some extra bucks and a way to actively participate in the “gig-economy” is by renting out your home or apartment through Airbnb or another similar short-term rental service.

You can make big bucks doing this, too! Many rentals go for over $100 a night, and can stretch to almost $1,000 a night for particularly large spots in desirable locations. You are prepaid for your rental and services will generally provide some level of protection in the case of damage, so there is always accountability. They even generally pay you a cleaning fee!

Some things to keep in mind when renting out your home or apartment through Airbnb:

  • You can rent out your entire spot, just one room, or anything between, meaning you don’t need to leave your spot to start raking in the bills.
  • You need to provide a good experience or you could get bad reviews, leading to no one wanting to rent your place.
  • Airbnb charges a 3% fee to process payment and a 20% fee to use their system.

Solar Panels

Everyone needs to power their home or apartment — it’s a fact of life. Everything from appliances to your wifi are powered by electricity, meaning it’s just not practical to go without it.

As such, any money you can save on electric costs will be making you money. With solar panels, you can save money and harness the power of the sun to power your house. With energy prices expected to rise over 80% in the coming years, this is huge news!

In order to truly make the most money possible with solar panels, you need to own your own panels and not lease them.

  • Cost of leasing per kwh: $.18/kwh (plus the lease increases 3% every year)
  • Cost of buying per kwh: $.06/kwh (sometimes less!)

Fortunately, with great financing available, buying solar panels for your home can start saving you money immediately! Not only will this make you money now, but adding solar panels is a great way to increase the value of your home.

Buy solar panels today and start raking in the big bucks!

At Inter Faith Solar and Electric, we can get you on the path to energy independence so you’ll be making money instead of the evil power company. $0 down solar panels means you can start making money immediately!

Learn more about solar panels today.