3 Things You Can Do From Home for Additional Income

by Miranda Marquit · 74 comments

An essential ingredient in frugal living is spending less money. However, there is only so much you can cut from your budget before you can’t cut anymore — or you feel so restricted that it becomes difficult to maintain your situation. If you are looking to improve your cash flow, you can look for ways to add a little more income to your budget.

Increasing your income doesn’t mean that you have to go out and find a part-time job, though. There are things you can do from home to make a little extra money. You may have to spend some time getting things started, but after a while, you might find that you can create a steady income from the comfort of your home.

1. Freelancing

One of the most popular things you can do is freelance. You can freelance if you know how to write, if you are knowledgeable about graphic design, or if you know how to program. Technology has made it possible for you to provide your services to people all over the world. Many of my own clients have never even met me in person. Improving your marketable skills will be even more important now that you are taking in clients, and you need to be careful of scams and people who don’t pay you in a timely manner, but with a little perseverance, you can earn some money as a freelancer.

2. Start Your Own Web Site

Another way to make a little extra money is to start your own web site. Think of something that you are passionate about, or that you are knowledgeable about. You can start a blog or web site quickly and fairly inexpensively. Post information that others find useful, and consider tweaking content to focus on certain keywords. You can even look for good information from other sites, and curate it in a way that attracts visitors. Content curation and creation are expected to really take off, and you can be involved.

Monetize your web site/blog with AdSense, as well as affiliate programs. Once you have an established following such as a site like MoneyNing.com, you can even begin offering advertising packages.

3. Consulting

If you know a lot about something, you can offer your services as a consultant. You can do PR and image consulting, or you can provide help as a SEO consultant or social media guru. It doesn’t even have to be online. You can base a consulting business for communications, teamwork, survey design, green living or some other subject of interest out of your home. You may have to travel sometimes, though, so that can get difficult because of the time and money involved in doing so. Luckily for you, we have a ton of travel coupons to help you save a bit at least on the financial side of things.

Consulting is also tricky, since you will have to be able to deliver results and prove your expertise. But if you have the credentials, you can be a successful consultant — and do it all from the comfort of your home.

Other Opportunities

There are plenty of other opportunities to work from home as part of your frugal lifestyle. Companies are outsourcing some call center jobs to home workers or you can be a virtual assistant. I’m sure you can think of plenty of other opportunities to create a little extra income each month.

What thoughts do you have on working from home?

You may also want to read: 10 ways to make extra money.

Bonus Tip:

You can seriously cut your Internet and TV costs. Find a Verizon FiOS promotion code here and you might be able to spend less every month.

{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

Debra Elmore February 10, 2012 at 5:14 am

‘Work At Home’ is the most searched phrase at the present, so I spent a year just researching the opportunities to find out what this is all about. I learned so much, and my advise is to choose your opportunity topic of interest and just research that topic at all of the search engines until you feel that you know enough to actually attempt to work at home.

Google’s Blogspot.com is a great place to start your first blog site if you don’t know anything about blogging.

If you have a digital camera there are many places to just earn a few pennies posting your photos. You can enter photo contests too.

Freelance writing seems to have many opportunities, but I haven’t had any luck without the degree that you need to be accepted as a pro. There are a few contests for writers and you can post your own eBook through an amazing Kindle self publishing option. Learn how to self publish your eBook by watching a few Youtube videos.

Data entry is an option if you want to type lots and lots of Medical info. You will need to take a few classes type medical records.

I have earned a few dollars doing surveys and just reading emails…just enough to pay for needed medications. Mypoints.com is my favorite site for earning pennies to read emails, but you need to know that sites like this send emails that will require you to join other sites that have monthly fees and you need to learn which emails to avoid. MySurvey.com is my favorite site for surveys.

Ghomorai Williams.E March 18, 2012 at 4:53 am

Work at home is really exciting, just got my first job on freelance writing. Also a blogger with Adsense. True wealth i believe is made from home and not work.
Good information thanks

Samuel Sanchez March 22, 2012 at 3:50 am

very interesting I am 77 living on social security and would really like to increase our monthly income.

Kashif March 27, 2012 at 11:07 am

Work from home is a term often abused by opportunity seekers and online con artists. However, it really has lot of potential in it, and if considered seriously, one can earn a decent living while working from home.

Noriel Panganiban April 1, 2012 at 4:22 pm

These 3 things are exactly what I am doing right now. For #1, I am earning enough with this. For #2, I now have my website and blogsite and I am little by little attracting customers. Item#3 is the content of my website. I am a project management consultant but I am still working in a semiconductor company. Some more hardwork and I will be there. Let’s follow this 3 things. This is definitely true and realistic. Thanks for the post.

Zanna April 15, 2012 at 12:20 am

Thank you for the information. I am a 67 year old and urgently need to supplement income or become a street dweller.
THink the one thing that holds back many people from kick starting their ‘work from home’ activities is Self-doubt – not believing they have what it takes. This is what has been holding me back for so many years.
But now I am ready to start and Noriel P.’s post is very much a catalist for this. Thanks again for the post, both of you.

Beleyou Mammo April 17, 2012 at 1:06 am

especially in Ethiopia we don’t have child care centers, so if we have an opportunity to work at home, we can stay with our children and work at the same time. But in most African countries the opportunity is not that much , because the technology is not fairly distributed so the demand is also not good, so difficult to apply it..thank u any way,

Singapore Stocks April 29, 2012 at 6:47 pm

THink the one thing that holds back many people from kick starting their ‘work from home’ activities is Self-doubt – not believing they have what it takes. This is what has been holding me back for so many years.

Gerard April 30, 2012 at 12:10 pm

All this euphoria should not distract from the fact that either society did not yield enough opportunity in order NOT to depend on this “home-work”, or the person involved
did not receive or ingest education in order to see through, that this very society was not designed in a manner to make this happen self-evidently so that the “home-worker” would have taken the right precautions not to become an online self declared quality…..

MdAmor May 8, 2012 at 4:54 am

Building and running websites can be done from home, but you need to put in a lot of time. Study up on something you would like to do and apply it to a blog.

Regina May 14, 2012 at 10:42 am

Working from home was a fad years ago. Now, it is a new way to work, saving employers and employees (contractors) alike money in expenses. As with anything, proper due diligence is a must, as well as patience.

Bodil May 23, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Being self employed is so much easier than being an employer for a lot of people. It’s something most people can do. And the Internet is an easy way to do it if you have some computer skills. If you haven`t you can learn. Just don`t give up. Online you can have a business and sell to those countries where people have money if that is a problem where you are. Just find something that people want, e.g. a information products or a membership site. If you have problems with internet in your country, but have the access though, a MLM business can be good. You can do it both online and offline, if the companies are in your country of course.

Jo May 27, 2012 at 7:51 am

Thanks for the info. However, I can tell you that from my experience working from home (online) is usually not available for people in third world countries. It’s not easy to find online jobs if you’re living in these countries. There are online ‘business’ programs though, but again not easy for people in these countries to join because of limited paying options.

Dave June 1, 2012 at 6:58 am

This is totally true about having a website. I added adsense to a basic site and I just checked it today to see how I did for the month. I got 45 bucks! While that seems like nothing, what if I forget about it until Christmas and pay for my shopping this way? Great suggestion here.

Even if you don’t have time, you can buy a ready made website on ebay pretty cheap and add adsense to it.

Tony June 1, 2012 at 3:52 pm

Great tips, freelancing can be a great way to make a little extra money, however a little work outside the computer will be required unless you already have a solid network in place.

Philip June 5, 2012 at 7:01 pm

In todays ecomony it makes a lot of sense to diversified your income. Great article and interesting comments.

Meena June 14, 2012 at 9:26 pm

How to work from home? And I have no idea how to work in freelance? Can anyone tell please?

Anne Anderson July 10, 2012 at 11:32 am

I have worked from home online for 12 years and have done all three of the above mentioned things and many more! Contrary to popular belief, there are literally thousands of legitimate, scam free, mlm free online jobs out there. I always follow two rules. First, If it is too good to be true, IT IS. There are no $1000 a day jobs for 5 hours of work. Next, If you have to pay for the job, its a scam or an MLN plain and simple. Jobs should pay you, not the other way around.

Theresa Trompke August 6, 2012 at 12:34 pm

I totally disagree with Anne Anderson. I have been working from home for 3 years now and I love it. I would NEVER touch a MLM’s as they are a money wasting scheme that never works. I have done them all and end up spending more money than I make. You just barely get by because you have to try to sell stuff to people and you usually only make money on training materials etc and the start up cost is usually very high and there is a LOT of risk involved with any MLM. I hated selling stuff to people. I got tired of chasing people to try to get them to buy stuff they don’t need and the cost of keeping up inventory was outrageous!

Heidi August 11, 2012 at 10:24 am

Theresa, she is saying her jobs were MLM-FREE. as in, NOT MLM jobs. It’s good to see they are out there!

Debra Ratcliffe January 23, 2013 at 3:12 pm

To Belayou Mammo, it must be difficult living where there are few opportunities. Maybe you could write an Ebook about your life experiences or tips on thriving in other ways other than the internet. You’d be surprised how much you would have to contribute the awareness of other people of your culture.

Bertrand June 12, 2013 at 6:50 am

I have tried searching for a good business to do from home but my searches were all in vain since those jobs never existed though frequently advertised by some companies and individuals with malicious intent so I’d like someone to help me find the right programs and sights.

Mary August 12, 2013 at 7:23 am

I highly recommend Consumer Advocate Clark Howard’s Work-At-Home Guide, for those who are need income but may be leery about online work-from-home websites. Clark Howard is highly respected and well known for 2 things: his integrity, and for being cheap!! (even he says so himself)!!!

My daughter and I got our work-from-home opportunity from his web-site several years ago when “ARISE” advertised there. (They’re “big time” now so they’re no longer listed on Clark Howard’s work-at-home guide), but you can GOOGLE them to see the work-at-home opportunities offered, and how each one works and pays.

I thoroughly read each work opportunity recommended in Clark’s Work-At-Home Guide, (especially the fine print), and then decided on the one with the best training hours, best training days, contract opportunity details and, pay. I was confident signing on because Clark Howard personally worked each one the opportunities in his Guide to make sure they each did exactly as they advertised, before recommending them to the general public. (It doesn’t get any better than that)!

Other legitimate sites like oDesk, Demand Studio and others like them (just GOOGLE: other work-at-home sites like oDesk) are also great places to look into.

Also, it’s completely false to believe that a website is a scam just because they charge a fee. (People are in business to make money and a small fee is not unusual nor illegal). The opportunity that I chose thru ARISE, had a training fee of $89.00. (My daughter and I often spend more than that on a dinner at a good restaurant so, I took the chance)! Lo and behold, while waiting for the training to start we got an email from ARISE with a $79.00 discount coupon!!! Our training ended up costing us only $10.00 apiece!!!! (Coupons are not always available but it doesn’t hurt to ask for discounts or coupons with any fee-based web-site)!!

Reputable sites like MSN and others also list legitimate opportunities.

Rich W October 29, 2013 at 12:05 pm

I agree with some of the comments below, especially Zanna. Most people do have self doubt & old belief systems that hold them back! Get into some personal development, work on oneself first, then you will know you can accomplish anything! I believe anyone can do what they set their mind to.
To do home based biz, don’t fall for the “shiny object”, find something that has backbone behind the scenes, I did, and it’s going great!! Go to my website and comment, I’ll get back with you. Have a great day, you absolutely deserve it!

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