16+ Unconventional Ways to Earn Money

Here at Money Noble we explore some fun and exciting ways for earning cash.

The journey of my blog began with a simple desire to learn about money-making opportunities. I’ve ventured into creative avenues like setting up an Etsy shop and dabbling in various online side hustles. While conventional jobs and popular gig economy platforms offer steady income, they might not suit everyone’s preferences.

To celebrate unconventional money-making methods and add a dash of excitement to your financial journey, I’ve compiled a list of unique ways to earn extra income.

Let’s dive in!

Unconventional Ways to Earn Money

It’s worth noting that these offbeat money-making ideas may not always be the most lucrative, but they promise a sense of fun and adventure.

If you’re seeking more traditional income sources, check out our article on five ways to make an additional $1,000 per month!

1. Explore the World of Fiverr

When it comes to unique money-making opportunities, Fiverr stands out. It’s a gig marketplace where freelancers offer services starting at just $5. Fiverr provides a quick and straightforward way to access services without navigating more formal platforms like Upwork.

While Fiverr boasts popular gigs in areas like marketing, programming, and graphic design, it also hosts some truly creative ventures. From carving messages into fruit to reading announcements in the style of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Fiverr has it all. Some sellers even make a living selling ‘love spells’ for a hefty $117 per pop, amassing thousands of dollars with hundreds of rave reviews!

2. Teach Niche Courses on Udemy

Udemy, a popular online learning platform, allows users to acquire new skills by enrolling in courses. What’s lesser-known is that it also offers educators the chance to create and sell their courses.

While Udemy is renowned for courses in coding, SEO, mathematics, and web design, some creative instructors have found success in niche markets. Take, for example, courses on witchcraft. While it might seem peculiar, there’s a market for such specialized content. By identifying underserved niches, you can carve out your own profitable corner of the online course world.

3. Profit from Drones

Advancements in drone technology have opened up unique opportunities for side hustles. If you’re interested in drone piloting, various options await you:

• Selling drone stock footage.
• Creating real estate videos.
• Renting out your drone for passive income.
• Conducting drone inspections.
• Offering drone piloting lessons.
• Assisting farmers with crop inspections or pesticide application.

While it may be a bit challenging to break into this field due to licensing and client acquisition, drones have become more affordable, making it a captivating and unusual way to make money.

4. Voice-Over Work & Script Reading

Websites like Fiverr provide creative avenues for earning money by offering voice-over and script reading services. If you have a distinctive voice, an accent, or can create unique personas (much like the Ebeneezer Scrooge example), you can market your services to record sound clips for clients.

These quick voice recordings, often priced at $5, can add up to an impressive hourly rate with enough business. Plus, even during slower times, gigs like these are among the easiest ways to make a quick $5.

5. Participate in Medical Studies or Surveys

Medical research studies can offer lucrative opportunities, such as one study that paid participants to consume two apples daily and undergo occasional blood work, rewarding them with $300. While not everyone qualifies, many major cities host various medical studies that could provide extra income if you meet the criteria.

We recommend checking out Clinical Trials, a comprehensive database of ongoing research studies worldwide.

These unique money-making ideas are perfect for those times when you’re strapped for cash and seeking unconventional ways to boost your income. We hope this list has sparked some inspiration for your financial journey!

6. Write Reviews for Compensation

Although composing reviews for money is a grey area due to the prevalence of fake reviews, it is clear that companies are willing to pay a lot of money for 5-star reviews and semi-honest feedback.

From Amazon listings to local businesses on Google My Business, reviews have a significant impact on the online success of products and businesses.

According to Yelp, this guy’s reviews helped him become the highest-rated restaurant in all of London, and he didn’t even own a restaurant!

Businesses are willing to pay to gain an advantage over their rivals, and there are numerous methods to offer review writing services for payment.

You can return to marketplaces such as Fiverr, conduct your own cold-calling or emailing, or even write legitimate reviews for websites such as Capterra in exchange for gift cards (although this requires adequate writing and paraphrasing skills).

7. Tutor English Online

If you are a proficient English speaker, you may not have realised that you can make money online simply by conversing with international ESL students.

Websites such as VIPKID and EF Education First pay their most experienced instructors $15 to $25 per hour for their services.

Tutors in Europe or North America will need to rise up early to accommodate the students’ time zone, as the majority of ESL tutoring jobs are geared towards Asian markets. However, tutoring is an effective and enjoyable method to earn money!

8. Flip ‘Freebies’ from Local Classified Ads**

Nobody enjoys hauling trash to the landfill. It’s costly, it’s annoying to move furniture or bulky items, and it can be difficult to sell off your assets if you’re in the midst of a move.

Due to the difficulty of discarding items, there is always an abundance of free items available on local classifieds.

A brief search in my area revealed a variety of free patio furniture, sports equipment, lounges, and dining sets in decent condition.

As evidenced by this Reddit thread, this is a more enjoyable way to make money if you enjoy renovating or reselling properties.

However, you never know when you’ll strike it rich by discovering a reasonable piece of furniture or other item that sells for $50 or $100. Just remember to exercise discretion.

My roommate once brought back some gratis golf clubs he discovered on Kijiji, and they languished in our garage for the next year and a half!

9: Queue

Sometimes, the Internet surpasses my consciousness. Did you know that platforms such as Task Rabbit allow you to earn money by simply waiting in queue for someone? Certainly, I did not.

When a new iPhone is released or when tickets for a special event go on sale, human masses are destined to swarm the streets of busy cities, and some individuals are willing to pay a reasonable hourly wage to avoid the hassle of queuing.

If you have nothing better to do and are in need of quick money, I would recommend Task Rabbit!

10. Run a Private Blog Network and Sell Links

Private blog network (abbreviated as PBN) refers to a network of apparently unrelated websites that provide backlinks to higher-quality sites in order to improve their search engine rankings.

Buying and selling links is explicitly against Google TOS, but link selling has been occurring forever. Google does attempt to eliminate PBNs and link trafficking, but this is an ongoing struggle.

This blackhat money-making scheme may be right up your alley if you’re technologically adept and know advanced SEO. I do not recommend it due to the inherent risk (Google can close down an entire PBN at any time), but I do find this industry to be quite intriguing.

11. Selling Internet Bandwidth

If you have excess internet bandwidth in your residence, you can truly sell it to VPNs and cloud distribution networks!

Websites such as Fluidstack have made it possible to earn up to $50 per month by renting out your internet access, and while I’m a bit uneasy about allowing others use my IP, this is certainly a novel way to earn money.

To learn more, see my post on how to sell bandwidth for passive income.

You can also read reviews of the Honeygain app and Fluidstack for additional passive income ideas.

12. Flip Domains

As an alternative to real estate trading, you can purchase and transfer valuable domain names for profit.

Domain shifting is a very difficult endeavour that requires a great deal of time, perseverance, and serendipity. However, there are domain exchangers who earn thousands and rely on this inventive source of income as their primary source of revenue.

I wouldn’t enter this field if I couldn’t afford to risk losing money, but it’s a fascinating industry!

13. Evaluate Search Engines

Did you know that you can truly enhance the quality of search engines for companies such as Google?

It is the responsibility of search engine evaluators to manually evaluate search queries and advertisements for discrepancies (such as the six-legged horse) and improvement opportunities.

Several companies around the globe are currently recruiting evaluators, with hourly wages ranging from $14 to $16.

14. Rent Your Friendship

On websites like RentAFriend.com, it is possible to make money by renting out your friendship or time.

Rent A Friend matches individuals for ‘platonic friendships,’ and friends can earn $10 to $20 per hour while enjoying (hopefully) acceptable company and whatever else is involved in the leisure session (dinner, movies, weddings, etc.).

I was sceptical that people actually use such services, but a fast search for available acquaintances in Toronto yielded a surprising number of results.

Personally, the idea of forcing pleasantries for several hours with a complete stranger (who may be quite peculiar) isn’t appealing, but I’m open to all types of side business ideas in this World!

Sell Plasma

Reddit users frequently discuss the possibility of making money by selling their plasma, and the process is quite simple.

Depending on your weight (which affects how much plasma you can donate), the average payment for selling plasma ranges between $30 and $50 per visit.

According to what I’ve read, sessions also last approximately 1-1.5 hours and the entire procedure is not very pleasant.

However, if you do not mind medical procedures, plasma donation could be a simple method to earn an extra $100-$200 per month after a few visits.

Remember that you must be at least 18 years old to donate plasma, and various health conditions or even tattoos/piercings may disqualify you.

Sell Hair

In addition to donating your hair to charity, you can also sell it online for extra cash.

If you are willing to remove and sell 6 inches or more of your hair on websites like HairSellon.com, you may be able to make simple money.

Judging by the current marketplace listings, lengthy quantities of healthy hair can easily fetch over $200. If you’re considering a drastic hairstyle change in the near future, this could be a clever way to earn extra cash.

Obviously, the majority of transactions on HairSellon come from women, but there are also listings from males with longer hair styles. If your hair is healthy, you should have a chance of selling it!

Sell Sperm

In Canada, sperm donors are not compensated, but in the United States, sperm donation is an excellent method to earn additional money.

The odds of being accepted as a sperm donor are astronomically low if you donate sperm for money, regardless of your ethics or personal beliefs.

Donors must have exceptional DNA, which makes logic.

Height, weight, appearance, intelligence, and a variety of other factors are significant. In addition to providing evidence of your education and a plethora of other personal information, the online application procedure for many donation centres is quite extensive.

This Reddit thread explains how to become a donor in detail, but in brief, this is an unusual method to earn extra money.

Click Farms

While I’ve made money with phone farming through advertising fraud, phone farming is not unlawful…It is merely a system in which advertisers are willing to pay for mobile traffic of the lowest quality.

In contrast, click farms are not ethical in any way.

Click farms are assemblages of devices that can mimic sessions in order to generate thousands of clicks that appear genuine, but are actually emanating from the same network and not a real user.

Click farms generate revenue by marketing their click volumes to various parties for a variety of purposes. There are false Instagram farms that increase follower and like counts, bot networks that attempt to defraud advertising networks for financial gain, and even click/view bots that increase YouTube video views.

Individual users can easily add their devices to auto-surfing websites/apps that effectively integrate their computer or phone into a network of fabricated clicks/impressions. I assume it would require a fair amount of technical expertise to develop a click farm that could remain undetected.

Farming Virtual Gold in Videogames

I’ve previously discussed methods to earn money by playing video games, including a fleeting mention of virtual gold farming.

Gold farming in online video games for real-world currency has existed as long as video games have been competitive. In nations where a few U.S. dollars can provide enough money to feed a family, agricultural labour is especially popular.

Gold farming is not the most blatantly illegal concept for a side business, but selling virtual game currency for real-world currency violates the conditions of service of every game. In addition, gold cultivation has been associated with activities such as money laundering.

A portion of me appreciates and respects this secondary business concept. Recently, there has been an influx of Venezuelan gold farmers in the online multiplayer game Runescape, who have turned to gold farming as a means of making money in light of their country’s deteriorating economy.

Conclusions

Personally, I prefer earning money through established means.

A 9-to-5 job, launching a money-making blog, and developing passive income sources have consumed the majority of my time over the past year.

However, I recognise the fact that sometimes money is limited and individuals have to think outside of the box to make ends meet.

If you are ever constrained for cash and searching for creative ways to earn money on the side, I hope that some of the suggestions on this list will be helpful!

FAQs: Unconventional Money-Making Ideas

Q1: Are traditional jobs the only way to earn extra money?
A3: While traditional jobs and popular gig economy platforms offer additional income, they may not suit everyone’s preferences. Money Noble focuses on alternative and adventurous ways to boost your finances.

Q2: Are these unconventional methods always profitable?
A4: Not necessarily. These unconventional ideas are often more about fun and adventure than guaranteed profitability. If you’re looking for more conventional income sources, check out our article on five ways to make an additional $1,000 per month.

Q3: Can you explain Fiverr?
A5: Fiverr is a gig marketplace where freelancers offer services starting at $5. It provides a quick and user-friendly way to access various services, including creative and unusual ones.

Q4: What are some examples of unique Fiverr gigs?
A6: Fiverr hosts a wide range of creative gigs, from carving messages into fruit to reading announcements in unique styles. Some sellers even offer ‘love spells’ for a hefty price with numerous positive reviews.

Q5: How does Udemy work for niche courses?
A7: Udemy is a popular platform for learning various skills through online courses. In addition to established topics, some instructors have found success by offering niche courses, catering to specific and often overlooked markets.

Q6: Can you provide examples of niche Udemy courses?
A8: Absolutely. Some instructors have found success with courses on niche subjects, like witchcraft. Identifying underserved niches can help you carve out your profitable corner in the world of online courses.

Q7: What opportunities does the drone industry offer?
A9: The drone industry has grown substantially, offering various opportunities, including selling drone stock footage, creating real estate videos, renting out drones, conducting inspections, offering piloting lessons, and assisting farmers with crop-related tasks.

Q8: Is drone piloting a challenging field to enter?
A10: While drone piloting requires obtaining a license and securing clients, drones have become more affordable, making it an enticing and unusual way to make money.