Do you want to learn how to make an extra $500 a month or more?
Heck yeah, you do! Learning how to make extra money is a great way to accelerate your debt payoff. It will help you put more in your emergency savings, set aside for retirement, invest, save up for a big purchase, and more.
When you find new ways to make more money, you have options. You can also regain control of your financial life, and that’s a very powerful thing.
So, if you want to learn how to make an extra $500 a month or more, today’s post has a bunch of realistic options. Many of these are remote work ideas, meaning they are real ways to make money from home or on the side of your day job. These ideas are also great if you’re a parent staying at home with your kids.
And we’re going to start with our favorite…
The best way to make an extra $500 a month or more: Run Facebook ads for small businesses
Running Facebook ads doing digital marketing work for small business owners. You’re responsible for creating, running, and testing ads for businesses. You can also create landing pages and sales funnels that help them convert prospective customers into lifelong paying ones.
I know what you’re thinking. And no, you don’t need a degree in marketing.
That’s actually one of the reasons this is our #1 pick for how to make an extra $500 — you can learn how to run Facebook ads from the comfort of your home without any advanced degrees or insanely expensive training.
The other awesome thing about this side hustle is that it’s a highly in-demand skill. Facebook is one of the best places for businesses to advertise right now, and that’s because of how we consume media these days.
But, the majority of small business owners lack the time and energy it takes to learn an effective ads strategy for their business. Outsourcing their digital marketing yields a much better outcome, and it allows them to focus on tasks they do well.
That’s where digital marketers come in. A trained Facebook ads manager knows how to create ads, write epic copy, how to target audiences, how to run ad campaigns, troubleshoot poor-performing ads, and more.
And a well-trained marketer can make $1,000/month+ per client.
How do you get trained in Facebook ads? So great you asked…
The Facebook Side Hustle Course is a comprehensive course that teaches you everything you need to know about starting, running, and growing your own Facebook ad agency. It’s a 9 module course that includes video lessons on:
- An in-depth walkthrough of every necessary function of the Facebook ad platform
- Ad placement options
- Three levels of the ad campaign
- How to create and manage sales funnels: your client’s journey, lead forms vs. conversions, landing pages, etc.
- Choosing the correct ad campaign objective for your clients
- Choosing the right images
- How to set up an audience targeting
- Everything you could ever want to know about the Facebook Pixel (and why it gets amazing results)
- A walkthrough of your first conversion campaign
- A walkthrough of your first lead form campaign
- How to scale your ads
- The Golden Rule for testing ads
- An entire module on troubleshooting your ads
- Setting yourself and your clients up on Facebook Business Manager
- How to find clients and get them to pay you for your services
- Onboarding clients
Phew! That’s a lot of content right there, and that’s not everything. It’s all self-paced, and you have lifetime access to the course.
In addition to more lessons, there are also four bonuses. They teach how to track leads for your clients, a follow-up system, a client call script, and one month of free personal coaching inside the Facebook Side Hustle Course coaching and support community.
Here’s a post from inside of that coaching and support community:
Related: How to Run Facebook Ads for Clients in 5 Simple Steps and The Beginner’s Guide to Running Facebook Ads for Local Businesses
9 more ways to make an extra $500 a month or more!
Because not everyone will be interested in running Facebook ads, here are even more ways to make extra money…
1. Work as a virtual assistant
Virtual assistants (or VAs) are responsible for a lot of the behind the scenes business tasks that don’t have to be done by the business owner themselves. This makes them incredibly valuable assets to anyone running their own business.
Virtual assistants might do work like:
- Data entry
- Responding to emails
- Bookkeeping
- Blog management
- Social media management
- Project management
- Content creation
- Event management
That’s just a few of the remote work tasks VAs are responsible for, and you can specialize in niches (you’ll learn more about this in the next idea). General virtual assistants are still in high demand, making it a great way to make an extra $500 a month from home.
Learn more at 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success.
2. Become a Pinterest virtual assistant
Pinterest is a huge resource for recipes, crafts, DIY projects, at-home workouts, clothing and home decor inspiration, and so much more.
A lot of those pins are from bloggers and other online business owners who are trying to use Pinterest to bring traffic to their sites. Both need virtual assistants to help them manage their Pinterest accounts.
As a Pinterest virtual assistant, you can make an average of $500 per month/per client doing things like:
- Creating pins
- Optimizing pins for searching
- Developing a pinning schedule
- Doing keyword research
If this sounds like something you’re interested in, check out the Pinterest Virtual Assistant Course and read our full course review at Learn How to Become a Pinterest Virtual Assistant in 2020.
3. Rideshare driving
Not everyone wants to work from home or online, and working as a rideshare driver is an awesome way to make some extra cash if you want out of your house. I’ve talked to a number of Uber and Lyft drivers who say they love the work because it’s constantly changing and they can do it on their own schedule.
Now, rideshare driving has some realities — you’re putting extra wear and tear on your car, and the pay is less than advertised. But, you can still expect to make close to $15/hour driving for Uber or Lyft.
One tip from drivers on increasing your income: sign up to drive for both platforms!
Related: The Best Side Hustles of 2020 and 13 of the Best Side Hustles for Teachers
4. Deliver food
Similar to rideshare driving, except your driving food, not people. There are a number of food delivery services you can work for:
- Instacart
- Shipt
- DoorDash
- UberEats
- Postmates
The first two are grocery delivery services, and the others are for delivering food from restaurants. However, Postmates drivers are known for delivering anything and everything — Rich Brian postmated a mariachi band to Post Malone!
Driver pay for UberEats, Postmates, and DoorDash averages $15-$20/hour. Instacart and Shipt drivers average $100 for a 6-8 hour shift. And like rideshare driving, you can drive for multiple companies to increase your earnings.
5. Proofread on the side
If you’re constantly finding grammar and punctuation errors, this could be a great way to make an extra from home. Proofreaders take a final look at articles, emails, sales pages, and other types of written content, and put the polishing touches on it.
Some proofreaders work for bloggers or website owners, but others have found work for academics, lawyers, and other working professionals. It’s a wide field and there is a lot of demand for skilled proofreaders. Many new proofreaders reach out to people they know or find work on sites like Freelancer or Upwork.
Read more at 15 of the Best Side Hustles From Home.
6. Offer freelance services
If you want to learn how to make an extra $500 a month, another great option is using the skills you already have to start a freelance side hustle. And honestly, there are so many fields you can freelance in, like:
- Proofreading
- Copyediting
- Copywriting
- SEO
- Graphic design
- Photography
- Sound design
- Audio production
- IT
- Web design
- Web development
- Software development
- Project management
- Accounting
- Mobile app development
- Public relations
- Translation
- Transcription
- Legal services
- Social media management
- Human resources
The reason there are so many options is that many, many companies outsource work to freelancers. It’s a money saver for them, and it means the work is out there if you’re willing to leverage your skills and put yourself out there.
Many freelancers start by creating a blog or website to show off their skills, and this also helps companies find and get to know you. Then, new freelancers start reaching out to their contacts, or using platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.
One word of caution: if you are currently working, please make sure your freelance work doesn’t violate any of your company’s policies.
7. Create a course to sell
If you’re an existing business owner or blogger, creating an online course to sell is a great way to increase your income. According to the online course platform Teachable, nearly 30% of course creators have made $75,000 or more over the course of 15 months. And nearly 40% have made between $25,000 and $50,000.
Interested? Here are three keys to a successful online course:
- Trust- Your clients, customers, and audience members should know they can count on you to deliver high-quality content. You deliver it on time, when they need it, and you’re not pushing stuff that doesn’t work or fit their needs.
- Authority- People respect you for your knowledge and expertise in your field. That’s essentially what they would be paying for with a course, right?
- An email list- You can’t successfully launch and sell a course without an email list. Need help with yours? Read How to Build an Email List From Scratch.
Not that we’ve gotten that out of the way, check out How to Create an Online Course in Just 9 Steps for a step-by-step guide to creating your first course.
8. Teach English online
There is a demand for native English teachers to teach online lessons to young Chinese and Korean students. What’s cool about this option is that it doesn’t require a degree in English or teaching, the hours are flexible, and there’s zero lesson planning.
And, most online English teachers make anywhere from $14-$22 per hour.
VIPKid is one of the highest-rated platforms for online English tutoring — it’s been recognized as one of the best places to work by Glassdoor, and the most innovative company by Fast Company.
9. Walk dogs or pet sit
This is a super low stress and enjoyable way to make extra money if you love animals. Sure, it’s a big responsibility to take care of someone else’s pet, but it also feels really good to spend time with them.
If you’re interested, check out Rover. It’s an online platform that connects pet owners with local dog walkers and pet sitters. You create a profile, list what kind of services you’re willing to offer, and you name your own prices.
Rover says you can make around $1,000/month if you treat this like a part-time job. One woman went well beyond that, and was able to make over $100,000 in one year from dog walking and pet sitting!
How to make an extra $500 a month – the final word
One of the most important takeaways we hope you got is that there is a diverse number of ways to make more money. And making more money is the key to paying off your debt, saving for retirement, or quitting a job you hate.
Honestly, making an extra $500 a month can relieve some much needed financial stress for many, many people.
So, the options are there — it’s your time to make something happen!
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