19 Weird Ways To Make Money – Think Outside The Box!
One of the pillars of WebMonkey is finding fun ways to make money.
My entire blog started out because I learned about phone farming, and I've dabbled with a bunch of other creative ways to make money like opening a POD Etsy shop or other online side hustles in general.
Now, your regular job or popular gig economy platforms can be a great way to bring in additional income, but perhaps driving for DoorDash or Uber, delivering packages, or working a 9-5 job just isn't your cup of tea.
So, in order to appropriately show my appreciation for some more out-of-the-box ways to make more money and mix things up, I decided to compile a list of weird ways to make money.
Let's get to it!
The Top Weird Ways To Make Money – Thing To Keep In Mind
Just to reiterate: weird money making ideas aren't always the most profitable.
This list has a decent mix of high-paying jobs, but many of the ideas are meant to be fun rather than lucrative.
If you want more serious ideas, checkout this article on 5 ways to make an extra $1,000 per month! 🙂
1. Embrace the Weird World of Fiverr
When it comes to weird ways to make money, nothing really comes close to the world of Fiverr.
Fiverr is a gig marketplace where freelancers can offer a variety of services for as low as $5, and the platform is a quick and simple way to buy services without having to go through more professional websites like Upwork.
Some of the most popular gigs on Fiverr include marketing work, programming, graphic design, or other services businesses might outsource, but Fiverr also has plenty of creative money makers.
Just check out a few of the ones I found after a quick bit of searching:
Yes, there are actually people on the internet making money by carving messages into fruit or reading announcements as Ebeneezer Scrooge.
Or, even more mind boggling, there are people making money by selling ‘love spells' for $117 a pop! And they have more than 450 star reviews, which means they have made thousands of dollars!
2. Sell Niche Courses on Udemy
Udemy is a popular website where users can learn practically any skill by purchasing courses, and the platform also allows for educators to profit from creating and selling their content.
Udemy is very popular for learning skills like coding, SEO, mathematics, website design, or other useful skills, and courses are often as cheap at $14.99.
However, while some of the most popular Udemy courses are saturated with material and have more than enough educators to go around, some creative Udemy teachers have found their own niche content to promote and have made a solid income.
Just take a look at these Udemy courses on witchcraft:
While I think buying educational resources on how to become a witch is an absurd way to spend your money, other people clearly don’t share my opinion.
At the end of the day every niche will have an audience size, and if you can get creative and find an under-served market, you can successfully make money online.
3. Make Money With Drones
While drones used to be insanely expensive (and also rather clumsy), improvements in drone technology have created a rather unique niche with some serious side hustle potential.
If you're wondering how to make money flying drones, you actually have an incredible number of options.
Some popular ideas include:
- Selling drone stock footage.
- Creating real estate videos.
- Renting out your drone for passive income.
- Doing inspection work.
- Teaching people how to pilot drones.
- Helping farmers inspect their crops, or even spray them with pesticides.
This is, admittedly, a tougher side hustle to get into since you have to get a drone license and register your drone…plus, finding your first clients might be a tad tough.
However, drones are cheaper than they used to be.
If you want a fun yet unusual way to make money, being a drone pilot is definitely up there (pun intended 😉 ).
4. Voice-Over Work & Script Reading
While it might be difficult to land a job as a professional voice over artist, websites like Fiverr once again provide people with some rather creative ways to make money.
If you have an accent, an interesting voice, or can create your own persona (like the Ebenezer Scrooge guy), you might be able to market your services and record sound clips for money.
I find the idea of the ‘pay me $5 and I’ll record 30 seconds of me saying something’ concept to be pretty appealing, because if you have enough business, your hourly rate would actually be quite impressive.
Besides, even if business isn’t booming, gigs like these are the easiest $5 I’ve ever heard of.
5. Join Medical Studies or Survey Groups
I remember there was a medical research request going around my campus for a while that required participants to literally just eat 2 apples a day and do some blood work every once in a while.
The gig paid well, too. For 2 months of eating fruit and giving some blood, I think they were paying out $300 (plus, who doesn’t want free fruit?)
I didn’t qualify for the study, but if you live in a major city, chances are there are multiple medical studies occurring at this very moment. If you qualify for them and consent to whatever they require, being part of a study could be a great option to earn some extra cash.
You can checkout Clinical Trials to search a database of thousands of ongoing research studies across the world!
6. Write Reviews for Money
While writing reviews for money is a side hustle that falls into a gray area due to the prevalence of fraudulent reviews, it's obvious that companies are willing to pay big bucks for 5 star reviews and semi-honest feedback.
From Amazon listings to local businesses on Google My Business, reviews can greatly influence how successful a product or business is online.
Hell, this guy even became the number 1 rated restaurant in all of London according to Yelp thanks to his reviews, and he didn’t even own a restaurant!
Businesses are willing to pay to beat their competition, and there are plenty of ways to offer review writing services for cash.
You can turn to markets like Fiverr once again, conduct your own cold-calling or emailing, or even write legitimate reviews for websites like Capterra in exchange for gift cards (this one requires some decent writing/paraphrasing abilities).
7. Tutor English Online
If you're a native English speaker, you might have never realized that you can make money online just by having conversations with ESL students from around the world!
Online teaching jobs comprise a massive industry, and websites like VIPKID or EF Education First pay their most experienced tutors between $15-$25/hour for their work.
ESL tutoring work generally caters to Asian markets, so tutors in Europe or North America will have to adjust and wake up early to suit the time zone of their students. However, tutoring is definitely an effective and fun way to make money!
Extra Reading – Checkout our QKids Tutoring Review!
8. Flip ‘Freebies' from Local Classifieds
No one likes taking things to the dump. It's expensive, moving furniture or bulky items is irritating, and taking time to sell off your assets can be difficult if you're in the middle of a move.
Because getting rid of things can be so frustrating, there is always a plethora of free stuff available on local classifieds.
A quick search in my area brought up a bunch of free patio furniture, sports equipment, sofas, dining sets, and other items in pretty good shape.
As you can tell by this Reddit thread, this is really more of a fun way to make money if you're into fixing things up or the whole flipping process.
However, you never know when you'll strike it big and find a decent piece of furniture or some other find than sells quickly for a simple $50 or $100. Just remember: be selective.
A housemate of mine once brought back some free golf clubs he found on Kijiji and needless to say, they sat in our garage for the next year and a half!
9. Stand in Line
The internet blows my mind sometimes. Did you know that with platforms like Task Rabbit, you can actually make money by just standing in line for someone? I certainly didn't.
If a new iPhone is dropping or tickets for a special event are going on sale, human hordes are bound to crowd the streets in busy cities, and some people are willing to pay a decent hourly wage to avoid the trouble of waiting around.
If you have nothing better to do and need some easy money, I'd suggest taking a look at Task Rabbit!
Extra Reading – 9 Companies Like Task Rabbit Powering The Gig Economy.
10. Run A PBN & Sell Links
PBN stands for private blog network, and refers to a network of seemingly unrelated websites that serve as a way to backlink to higher value websites to help them rank well on search engines.
Buying and selling links is explicitly against Google TOS, but link selling has been happening forever. Google does make efforts to shut down PBNs and link selling, but this is certainly an ongoing struggle.
If you're tech savvy and know some advanced SEO, this black hat money making idea might be right up your alley. I don't recommend it because of the risk (Google can shut down an entire PBN without notice), but I do find this industry quite interesting.
11. Sell Internet Bandwidth
If you have unused internet bandwidth in your home, you can actually sell this excess computing power to networks that operate as VPNs or cloud distribution networks!
Websites like Fluidstack have made it possible to make up to $50 a month just by renting out your internet power, and while I'm a bit uneasy about letting others use my IP, this is definitely one unique money making idea.
Checkout my post on how to sell bandwidth for passive income to learn more!
You can also read out Honeygain app review and Fluidstack review for another passive income ideas.
12. Flip Domains
Instead of flipping real estate, you can turn to domain flipping to buy and sell valuable website names for a profit!
Domain flipping is a very difficult process that takes a lot of time, patience, and some luck. However, there are domain flippers who make thousands in flips and use this creative money maker as their main source of income.
I wouldn't get into this line of work with money you can't afford to risk, but it's definitely an interesting industry!
13. Evaluate Search Engines
Did you know you can actually work on behalf of companies like Google to improve the quality of their search engines?
Search engines aren't perfect, and it's up to search engine evaluators to manually review search queries and ads to look for discrepancies (like the 6 legged horse) or areas that can be improved.
There are several companies hiring evaluators right now around the world, and pay is roughly $14-$16/hour!
14. Rent out your Friendship
It is actually possible to make money by renting out your friendship/time on websites like RentAFriend.com.
Rent A Friend connects people with people for the purpose of ‘platonic friendships,' and friends can earn $10-$20 per hour while enjoying some (hopefully) decent company and whatever else is entailed in the hangout session (dinner, movies, weddings, etc.)
I was skeptical that people actually use services like this, but a quick search of the friends available in Toronto actually returned a surprising amount of results.
Personally the thought of forcing niceties for several hours with a complete stranger (who might be rather odd) isn't for me, but I welcome all kinds of side hustle ideas on WebMonkey!
15. Sell Plasma
Selling your plasma is actually a money making idea that is referenced pretty frequently on Reddit, and the process is quite simple.
Generally, selling your plasma pays out between $30-$50 per visit depending on how much you weigh (because this influences how much plasma you can give).
Sessions also take roughly 1-1.5 hours, and the entire process is not very pleasant judging by what I've read.
However, if you don't mind medical procedures, donating plasma might be an easy way to net an extra $100-$200/month after a few visits.
Keep in mind, you generally have to be 18 years or older to donate plasma and various health conditions or even tattoos/piercings might void your eligibility.
16. Sell Hair
While donating long amounts of hair to charities is pretty common, you can also sell your hair online to make extra money!
On websites like HairSellon.com, if your are willing to cut and sell 6 inches of your hair or more, you might be able to make some easy money.
Judging by the current marketplace listings, long amounts of healthy hair can easily fetch over $200. If you're planning to have a drastic change in hairstyle in the near future, this might be a nifty way to make some extra money.
Most sales come from women, obviously, but there are some listings from men with longer hair styles on HairSellon as well. As long as your hair is healthy you should have some chance to sell!
17. Sell Sperm
Sperm donors aren't compensated in Canada, but in the United States, being a sperm donor is definitely an effective way to make extra cash.
Ethics or personal opinions aside, here's the thing about donating sperm for money: the chances of being accepted as a donor are incredibly slim.
Donors basically need to have stellar genes, which makes sense.
Height, weight, looks, smarts, and a variety of other factors all matter. The online application process for many donation centers are quite extensive, and you will also have to provide proof of education and a bunch of other personal information.
This Reddit thread breaks down the process of becoming a donor, but in short, this is an unlikely but odd way to make some extra cash.
18. Click Farms
While I’ve made money through advertisement fraud with phone farming, phone farming isn’t illegal…it’s just a system where advertisers are willing to pay for the lowest quality of mobile traffic.
Click farms, in contrast, are definitely not kosher.
Click farms are collections of devices that can spoof sessions to generate thousands of clicks that appear authentic, when in reality the clicks are all coming from the same network and not a real user.
Click farms make money by selling their click volumes to people for various purposes. There are fake Instagram farms that boost follow counts and likes, bot networks that attempt to defraud advertising networks to make money, and even click/view bots that boost video views on YouTube.
I imagine you’d have to have some pretty serious tech knowledge to actually develop a click farm that could go undetected, but individual users can easily add their devices to auto surfing websites/apps that effectively integrate their computer or phone into a network of faked clicks/impressions.
19. Farm Gold In Video Games
I’ve covered ways to make money by playing video games before, and even touched upon the concept of virtual gold farming very briefly.
Farming gold in online video games in exchange for real world currencies has been around since video games have been competitive. Farming work is especially popular in countries where the value of a few U.S. dollars means there can be food on the table.
Gold farming isn’t the most overtly illegal side hustle idea, but selling virtual game currency for real world money generally breaks the terms of services of every game. Additionally, gold farming has also been linked to activities like money laundering.
Part of me actually appreciates and respects this side hustle idea. Recently, there has been an influx of Venezuelan gold farmers in the online multiplayer game Runescape, who are turning to gold farming in order to make money amidst their broken economy.
Final Thoughts
Personally, I like making money using some fairly established methods.
A 9-5 job, starting a blog to make money, or developing passive income streams have taken most of my time over the past year.
However, I recognize the fact that sometimes money is tight and people have to think outside of the box to make ends meet.
If you are ever strapped for cash and looking for some creative ways to make money on the side, I hope that some of the ideas on this list provide some inspiration!
Catch you guys in the next post.
