How To Make $500 A Day: 14 Simple Money Making Ideas

Thanks to the internet, making $500 a day from home is well within your reach. Today’s digital landscape provides innovative ways to generate income outside of a traditional 9-5 job.

In this post, I’ll teach you 14 ways how to make $500 a day by monetizing your existing skills. Whether you’re tech-savvy, creatively inclined, or business-minded, there’s a strategy out there for you.

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Table of Contents

Work As An Influencer

An influencer is someone who has built authority in a specific niche or industry by demonstrating specialized knowledge or experience.

Many influencers have large audiences, and brands are eager to partner with influencers as a way to reach their followers.

Studies show that almost 70% of brands plan to increase their spending on influencer marketing in 2023.

If you have over 10,000 social media followers, you have the potential to earn $500 a day or more by posting sponsored content.

Not all influencers operate at the same level when it comes to audience size and income potential. Check out the following influencer categories to gauge your income potential:

Nano-influencers: 1000 to 10,000 followers. Smaller accounts can still attract sponsors as long as your account has high engagement.
Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 100,000 followers. Micro-influencers tend to specialize in a specific niche and typically have a high engagement rate.
Macro-influencers: Typically internet celebrities with follower counts of 100,000 to 1 million. At this size, you can charge hundreds to thousands of dollars per sponsored post.
Celebrity influencers: Also known as mega-influencers, these individuals boast over one million followers. They attract a broad audience and charge between $200,000 to a few million per sponsored post.

To increase your chances of success as an influencer, select a social media channel that matches your target audience. For example, if you’re a business coach, focus on LinkedIn and Threads.

Become A Freelance Writer

A freelance writer creates various types of written content, including news articles, blog posts, press releases, emails, grant writing, white papers, and social media posts. They work as independent contractors rather than traditional employees and often have multiple clients within one or more niches.

If you’re a talented writer, you can make $500 a day by providing writing services to businesses.

However, freelance writing is highly competitive, partly because you don’t need any formal education to become a writer.

You will need expertise or relevant work experience in a specific industry to command higher rates. For example, a B2B tech writer can earn anywhere between 50 cents to one dollar per word.

If you’re starting out, look for clients on freelancing marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork. You won’t make as much money, but you’ll gain valuable experience as you build your portfolio.

Eventually, you can target larger companies that can afford to pay top dollar for your work.

Monetize A High Traffic Website

If you own a website that receives a large number of monthly visitors, you can create income streams through display advertising, sponsored content, email marketing, selling digital products, and more.

Here’s how each income strategy works:

Display advertising: Partner with networks like Google AdSense or Mediavine to display ads on your website. The more your website visitors engage with the ads, the more you’ll get paid.
Sponsored content: Earn income by publishing sponsored posts and reviews for brands in your niche.
Digital products: Create and sell digital products like printables, online courses, and ebooks, to your website audience.
Subscription model: Create a membership program that offers access to premium content for paying members.
Email marketing: Build an email list by offering free downloads, like ebooks, in exchange for email addresses. Then promote products and blogs in your email newsletters.

I recommend that you start building an email list early on, as it allows you to connect directly with your audience, nurture relationships, and drive consistent engagement.

MyWifeQuitHerJob.com is a seven-figure business with around 250,000 monthly visitors. I monetize my blog mainly through digital product sales and affiliate marketing.

Even if your website doesn’t have much traffic, you can grow your audience over time by posting regular content and focusing on various SEO strategies to improve your Google search rankings.

Become an Uber Driver

Uber is a ride-sharing app that connects drivers with people who need to get from point A to point B. If you’re looking for a flexible way to earn $500 a day, consider becoming an Uber driver in a busy city.

Driving for Uber allows you to participate in the gig economy by using your own vehicle to make a profit. The best part is that you get to decide when and how much you work.

To maximize your revenue potential, you can make more money by working during peak hours, such as evenings and weekends.

Remember that drivers are responsible for paying for any associated costs, such as gas, insurance, and car maintenance expenses. This needs to be factored into your earnings.

Aside from working more hours, a friendly and professional demeanor, safe driving practices, and timely pick-ups and drop-offs will lead to higher ratings, more frequent ride requests, and larger tips from satisfied passengers.

Take advantage of surge pricing, as Uber increases fares during peak hours. Be available and active on the app during these times to significantly boost your earnings.

Also, familiarize yourself with your city’s hotspots and major events that attract more passengers.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a commission-based business model where you recommend products to others and, in return, earn a commission on every sale.

There are hundreds of affiliate marketing programs, but Amazon Associates is the most well-known.

If you have a successful blog, YouTube channel, or social media account with a large following, you can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing.

To build trust, only recommend products that you use, and pay close attention to your audience to get an understanding of the products they need.

Keep in mind that the companies you promote can change their affiliate payouts or remove their programs at any time.

This is why it’s important to diversify your income and never rely on a single company for your affiliate revenue.

Start A Service Arbitrage Business

Service arbitrage, or drop servicing, is a business model where you offer services to clients without doing the work yourself. Instead, you outsource the tasks to freelancers or agencies who complete the work on your behalf.

Think of it like dropshipping, but instead of selling products, you sell services through another service provider.

For example, let’s say you own a website design agency and sell your services for $5000 per website. You can then hire a freelancer who charges you $3000, allowing you to earn a profit of $2000 from the project without lifting a finger.

There are many service arbitrage business ideas you can try, including SEO consulting, content creation, graphic design, virtual assistant services, and copywriting.

The challenge is to find the right clients, as well as freelancers you can trust with your projects. To increase your chances of success, choose a niche that you have experience in where the demand is high.

Rent Out Space In Your Home

Websites like Airbnb allow you to turn your home, or a space inside your home, into a short-term rental property. If you live in a big city or resort area, you can make up to $500 a day or more.

You only need about 30 minutes a day to manage bookings, and you can find customers through online marketplaces like Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, and Hopper. When you rent your space as a vacation home, you can charge a higher rate and earn a significant income.

Flip Stuff On Ebay

Ebay is one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, where you can buy and sell products via an auction or through a “Buy Now” format.

If you love finding great deals and can spot profitable products to sell, you can earn $500 a day by flipping products like electronics, jewelry, and vintage items.

Look for items in thrift stores, garage sales, auctions, and on clearance racks in department stores. Target products with strong demand that aren’t too cheap so that you can make a profit.

To find products that will sell on eBay, use eBay’s product research tool Terapeak. You can access valuable metrics like sell-through rate and unsold inventory for all products.

Researching products will help you understand the true value of an item before you make a purchase.

Create And Sell Print-On-Demand Products

Print-on-demand (POD) is an ecommerce business model where you partner with a supplier who prints your custom designs on products like t-shirts, phone cases, and bags.

With print-on-demand, you don’t need to keep any inventory, and there are no minimum order quantities or upfront costs to start.

Here are the steps involved:

Sign up with a print-on-demand company like Printful or Printify.
When you receive an order on your online store, it automatically goes to the print-on-demand company.
The company prints your design on the chosen product and ships it to the customer.
You keep the profit.

Print-on-demand margins range from 8% to 15%, and the start-up costs are minimal. For example, my 9 and 11-year-old kids started their own print-on-demand t-shirt business for less than $3.

Amazon FBA

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is an ecommerce service where Amazon handles the storage, packing, and shipping of your products and manages your returns.

If you have a product with good margins and high sell-through rates and don’t want to deal with inventory and fulfillment, you can build a profitable ecommerce business by selling through Amazon FBA.

Amazon FBA listings are automatically eligible for free two-day Prime shipping, and studies show that FBA products increase your sales by 25% to 40%.

The downside to FBA is the high Amazon FBA seller fees, which increase almost yearly. For Amazon FBA to be cost-effective, you need a consistent turnover of inventory.

To increase your profit margins, avoid products that are heavy, seasonal, fragile, cheap, or oversaturated.

Sell Crafts On Etsy

Etsy is the world’s largest online marketplace for selling handmade and vintage items. If you want to make $500 a day from home, consider selling your creations on Etsy.

The demand for handmade products such as jewelry, soaps, candles, knitting, and refurbished goods has increased in recent years.

If you can personalize your handmade goods, you can expect to earn an even higher premium for custom-made products.

Once you have some success, start your own online store to save on commission and transaction fees.

Sell Stock Photos Online

Stock photography websites, such as Alamy, Adobe Stock, and Shutterstock, provide users with access to millions of photos taken by photographers worldwide.

You don’t need to be a professional photographer to sell your photos on stock photo sites. If you have a decent camera and a knack for taking good images, you can sell your photos on a stock site or your own website.

To increase your chances of success, choose a specific niche and use tools like Keywords Everywhere to find the search volume for the products in your niche.

Online Tutoring

Online tutors help students brush up their skills in many subjects, including English, Math, and Science. Lessons are delivered online in a one-on-one or group format.

If you have expertise in a specific subject, you can make good money as an online tutor. Experienced tutors typically charge between $25 to $110 per hour. However, to make $500 a day, you would need to have expertise in a highly specialized subject where finding teachers is difficult.

For example, if you have a postgraduate or Ph.D. qualification, you can make $60 to $110 per hour as a college and test prep tutor.

It also helps to be an active listener with the patience to explain concepts in different ways.

Become A Social Media Consultant

Social media consultants work with individuals and brands to help them optimize their content to improve their reach and engagement on numerous social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

With 4.9 billion people using social media in 2023, brands understand how important it is to have a strong online presence.

If you enjoy creating content and have a good grasp of the algorithms on one or more social media platforms, you can earn $500 a day by becoming a social media consultant.

Focus on mastering one social media platform instead of trying to be proficient in all of them. Brands are willing to pay more for expertise in a specific niche.

The Bottom Line: How To Make $500 A Day

All of the ideas shared in this post can help you earn $500 a day, but to be successful, you need to enjoy what you’re doing and possess the right skills.

Be prepared to step outside your comfort zone and try something new. I know many people who started with a simple idea and grew it into a seven-figure enterprise.

You never know which idea will be the one that changes your life.

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