1 - Rent out a room in your house. If you have a room (or rooms) that are going unused in your house, consider furnishing them and renting them out to tenants. If you do so, be sure to abide by the laws that govern landlords in your local area with regards to rent levels, amenities, and the like. Doing this allows you to collect a sizable check every month without any work beyond preparing the room for occupancy.[1]
The more private the room, the more you will be able to charge for rent. If you have a separate basement apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom, you will be able to charge much more than you would if you only have a spare bedroom.
Only rent rooms to responsible, trustworthy tenants who will pay you on time and respect your property. It's a good idea to screen your tenants by performing background and credit checks, as well as asking them to provide a reference from a previous landlord and a copy of a recent pay stub.
Services such as Airbnb can help connect you with travelers and others looking for short-term rentals. This can enable you to charge a significantly higher rate per night than if you rent the room by the month.
2 - Make money online. There are tons of ways to make money on the internet nowadays, but most of them require at least a little bit of work. If you commit yourself to developing your brand, you might really hit it big.[2]
Start a website or blog. If your site becomes popular and gains a lot of traffic, you can make a lot of money by selling advertising space. If writing isn't your thing, you can also create video content.
If you are knowledgeable about any topic whatsoever, you can try selling informative content, like ebooks, webinars, or instructional videos. Whether you can teach people about mathematics, juggling, or a foreign language, chances are you can think of something useful to share!
If you're willing to do more traditional work, you can also make money online by freelance writing or becoming a virtual assistant. Try searching online for job boards that are devoted to freelance and/or telecommuting work.
3 - Earn royalties. If you're willing to do a lot of work upfront for long-term payments, you might consider applying yourself to writing a book or a song or inventing a product. Your chances of hitting it big are small, but if your creation becomes popular, you can keep earning income from your work without having to do anything else.[3]
It's also possible to buy the rights to existing royalties at auction, but you should make sure to do thorough research to make sure it will be worth the investment.
4 - Sell stuff. If you have unused items, you can try selling them on sites like eBay, Amazon, or Craigslist. If you're crafty, you might want to consider selling your homemade items on Etsy or a similar platform.[6]
If you're willing to put some effort into procuring items for sale, you may be able to make quite a bit of money buying and selling. The secret is to look for bargains at places like flea markets, garage sales, and second-hand stores, and then sell the items for more online. This works well for items like books, which are relatively easy to store and ship.
If selling online isn't for you, hold a garage sale or look into selling at flea markets and craft fairs in your area.
4 - Beg or panhandle. When all else fails, you always have the option of simply asking for money. If you do this, you'll probably want to do it on a busy street or some other safe public place that receives plenty of pedestrian or car traffic. You might actually be able to make a decent living by panhandling, although it will require many hours of your time in potentially unfavorable weather conditions.[7]
If you're going to panhandle, your image is everything. You should look like you are in need so that people will want to help you, but you should not look dangerous or threatening in any way.
You might be more successful if you can entertain passersby by playing an instrument, singing, performing magic tricks, or putting on a performance in some other way, but you should be aware that money earned in this manner is taxable by the US government, while money earned by begging is not.
