Earn Extra Money: 5 Ways to Boost Your Supplemental Income

You’re busy building a career and doing your best to get ahead. Your goal is to boost your income so you can afford more and enjoy life.

But, you also enjoy the simplicity of things and don’t want to complicate your schedule with too many jobs or become overworked.

So, how can you make more money without investing a ton of time? Here are five ideas to boost your income without using all of your free time.

This is a guest blog post by Carrie Smith, contributing writer at Yahoo! Finance and The Huffington Post and editor at Careful Cents. 

Sell Wine Bottles
After spending a hard day working and traversing through traffic during your commute, you deserve a glass or two of wine to unwind. Once you’ve consumed the contents you can make money by reselling the corks and bottles.

A good place to start is by selling them directly on WineCommune or eBay. In order to get the most value, be sure to clean out the bottles thoroughly with a little soap and water.

Flip Thrift Store Finds for a Profit
We all love finding a good deal, so why not turn your deal-hunting into something that makes money? Peruse thrift stores, yard sales and consignments shops for big sales or deals on items that can be resold. This is a fun project that can be done on weekends, so it won’t conflict with a regular working schedule. Plus, if you are interested in fashion, this could be a great place to show your good eye by starting a blog or using social media to display your finds.

A few items that hold their value really well are designer jeans, name-brand furniture, musical instruments and electronics. All of these can be resold on eBay or Craigslist for a small profit.

Work as a Freelancer
One way to up your computer and client skills is to apply for a freelance or virtual assistant role. Many content-driven businesses need social media interns, editors, writers, assistants and managers to handle their online businesses. The world of work is changing. A study by Intuit estimates that 40 percent of Americans will be freelancing by 2020, so now is the time to jump into the world of freelancing to earn supplemental income.

A good place to start is with sites like Odesk or Elance, where you can build a freelance portfolio immediately. You never know when your writing, editing, client negotiations or proposal creating skills will come in handy. Working as a freelancer allows you to expand your resume and learn new skills in a real-world environment, which is great for future interviews and employment.

Additionally, you can perform in-person tasks by using a site like TaskRabbit to earn extra money running errands or cleaning.

Open an Etsy Shop
In 2013, Etsy shops brought in over $1.3 billion in sales, reports Statista. With a little bit of work, a good portion of that income could be yours. If you’re a crafty person, you could make some extra money selling your wares.

It’s very simple to open a shop on Etsy and offer crafts or vintage items for sale. These could include digital guides, art, pottery, comics and anything else you can create. For example, if you’re a web designer or artist, this visual platform makes it easy to build your portfolio, connect with long-term clients and build your artistic business. Potential employers will be delighted to see the work you’ve already created and how you handled the business side as well.

Become a Brand Ambassador
Local and international brands alike are looking for young, smiling faces who can help sell their products to the masses. If you enjoy a certain product or brand, find out if they’re hiring ambassadors to market their goods. If you’re hoping to work with certain brands as part of your career, this is a perfect opportunity to get in on the ground floor with the company. Or, if you are looking to work in marketing or advertising in the future, this can be a great resume builder.

Word-of-mouth marketing is here to stay. According to research by Nielsen, 92 percent of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than any other form of marketing. This makes a brand ambassador a very credible selling tool as well as a fun position to leverage for extra cash.

Supplementing your income doesn’t have to take a lot of time and effort. The ideas offered here not only offer the opportunity to make some extra money, but help you manage your time so you can enjoy the experience, too.