Everyone wants to get rich quickly. People dream of earning money and then retiring early to enjoy their life. But with jobs being the only source of income for most, this remains a distant dream. Many people do not realize that in today’s world, there are many ways to earn extra income and achieve our dreams of getting rich and retiring early.
This article will introduce you to 11 new ways to earn extra income even with a full-time job. I have specially chosen these as they can be done during weekend / part-time and will not impact your regular jobs.
1. Freelance Photography
Those who consider themselves photography experts and carry a DSLR for any trip should think of this option as one of the ways to earn extra income.
Skills needed
You need 3 skills – knowledge of cameras/lenses/lighting angles etc, knowledge of photoshopping and creativity.
While the first two can be learned by anyone, it is your creativity, ability to identify locations and background, putting people at ease, and being social/friendly which will differentiate you from the rest.
How to get started
Getting started is easy. The first step is to choose which specialization you want to do. Do you want to be a pre-wedding expert, maternity expert, newborn expert, family photoshoot expert or someone who loves clicking children, pets or anything else? You can also do candid photography, portfolio shoots for models, events photography, real estate photography, travel photography etc.
Once you have decided on the specialization, start clicking pics. Use your creativity and internet to find different poses and backgrounds suiting your style of photography. Then publicize yourself and let your social circle know that you are a budding photographer. Indians love getting things for free. So tell people that you will do their photoshoots for free. Once done, post the pics on social media. Gradually gain experience, confidence and popularity and later you can start charging money for it.
Earning Potential
Earning potential depends on the type of shoots you do and the level of expertise you have. You may have to spend between a few hours to a few days for each photoshoot and a few more hours to touch up the pics. Accordingly, your earnings can vary between a few thousand to a few lakh rupees. For beginners, you can expect above 2K per photoshoot
Thing to remember => In photoshoots, you are capturing memories and if you mess up, memories and special moments will be lost forever. So be sure of your skills before accepting any assignments
2. Stock Photos
This is an alternative to freelance photography and is useful for people who are not very creative or social but are good at capturing photos.
Skills needed
Ability to click good pictures
How to get started
You can click a picture of anything – nature, objects, people, animals, birds, things, machines, emotions etc. You can do it either with DSLR or your smartphone. Only remember that the pictures should be authentic, of high quality and clicked by you.
Upload your best pics on sites like Shutterstock, iStock, Scoopshot, Snapwire etc. If people like your photographs and purchase them, you get a certain percentage as royalty.
Earning Potential
While earnings per photograph are low, you can make small income if you get the volumes (either with the same photo or with multiple photos). In general, websites offer about 15-20 cents (10-15 rupees) per download per month. The rates change if you upload pics exclusively on one website instead of multiple websites. Rates also change depending on the quality/resolution of pictures user download.
Thing to remember => This is a very competitive market and there are thousands of photographs for everything. So you will have to identify a niche for yourself and see if you can do something different. If yes, you will well be on your way to a constant source of income with just time as an investment.
3. Script / Story Writer for OTT
With the advent of OTTs, there has been a sudden increase in the number of web series being created in the world. Every week, some new web series is being launched by the Amazon, Hotstar, Netflix, Voot, Zee 5, MX Player, Alt Telefilms, Ullu, Vodafone Play, Hoichoi etc. Apart from OTTs, there are several channels on Youtube which also run series/short stories/short films etc. Such huge demand has directly resulted in increased demand for good stories and scripts.
Skills needed
Ability to come up with compelling stories / scripts.
The difference between story and script is that while story tells you about something on a summary level, script is written text of every dialogue, emotion and manner in which story will unfold. Think of script as something given to actors performing a play.
How to get started
To get started, start writing stories in your free time. You can write short stories, web series episodes, cartoon character series and even movie scripts. Next step is to get yourself enrolled as a freelance member in Screen Writers Association (SWA). Once done, start registering your stories with them. This will ensure that if your work is copied by anyone else, you can claim royalty.
Now that you are a member of SWA and armed with stories registered on your name, start reaching out to potential OTTs/producers/media people to see if they are interested in your scripts. Search for people on LinkedIn and other social media. Share ideas with them and you never know when one of the story is accepted. You can also submit story on Star TV website (https://www.startv.com/pitch-your-idea/)
Once your story is accepted, you can either pass on the rights of scripting to someone else or write the script yourself.
Earning Potential
For big players like Amazon, Netflix, Hotstar etc, the budget of web series is sometimes even greater than the budget for Bollywood movies. There are Bollywood stars working on the series, multiple seasons of popular series etc which results in good budget and good pay to all artists.
For good series and OTT companies, you can expect payment ranging from 5K to over 1 Lakh episode.
Thing to remember => Unless you personally know people from industry, this will be a slow process. You will have to socialize, pitch to multiple people and be patient. Your idea may also be copied and used by someone else. But if you keep trying, the rewards will be worth the effort. And once you make contacts and start getting work, it is easier to get repeat/new work.
4. Story writers for Audiobooks
This is slightly different from the scriptwriter I mentioned in above point. This is related to the books industry.
Companies like Amazon Audible, Amazon Suno, Storytel etc have started a trend of audiobooks. And just like OTTs have original web series, these audiobook companies are also producing lots of original content for their audience making it a good source of extra income for dreamers and writers.
Skills needed
Ability to write stories/novels. Parents who tell bedtime stories to kids can write these as a collection of stories 🙂
How to get started
So all you need is to start writing. Unless you are a subject matter expert, stick to fiction genre. Choose the type of story you want to write – bedtime stories, children’s stories, teenage stories, adult content stories, thrillers, romance, comedy, collection of jokes etc.
Write these stories and start pitching them to Audibles and Storytel. As these two companies are competing for the Indian market with local content, you will get more traction if you write in local language or on topics relevant to India.
Alternatively, you can also try pitching to book publishers. Or you can think of starting a youtube channel/blog and publishing stories on a regular basis. If you are talented and people like your stories, you will soon start hearing from publishers and audio players.
Earning Potential
Once your book is published, you can expect a good source of income. Could not find payment range on audiobooks but for hardcopies, you normally get 5-10% of book price as royalty for per copy sold.
5. Audio Book Readers / Story tellers / Voiceover artists
Skills needed
If you have a good voice and can modulate it easily while speaking, you should try becoming an audiobook reader to earn extra income.
How to get started
Reach out to Audible and Storytel with your voice samples and ask if they have something for you. Other players in this field are Voices.com, Bunnystudio.com, Gaana Podcasts and yourmic.in
For Audibles, go to ACX (https://www.acx.com/). You have to create an account and start uploading your audio samples. Book publishers/authors will contact you if you are good. Same is the case with www.yourmic.in where famous storyteller Neelesh Misra auditions your work.
Note => Unfortunately ACX is not available for Indian residents as of now. It can be used only by US, UK, Canada and Ireland residents
Again note that it will be easier for you to break in via your local language. So try to focus first on regional languages like Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Gujrati etc and then on Hindi. You can also try English, especially for Indian writer books.
Earning Potential
Depends on length of the audio clip, proficiency levels etc. You may either get per hour rate or percentage stake in royalty
Thing to remember => First breakthrough in this field will be only on the basis of audio samples you upload on your profile. So ensure you use good equipment to create audio samples.
6. Weekend Job
Companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Dunzo, showrooms, stores in malls, Cafes, Restaurants etc need extra people to help manage the rush during weekends/sale/festivals etc. And this is where you have an opportunity to make extra income by working on weekends.
Skills needed
Depends on job – driving skill/selling skill/customer handling skill/support staff skill etc
How to get started
Go to them and request for part-time / weekend jobs. Most probably, they will happily give you as it is a win-win for them. They will be able to get an additional person to manage rush without having to pay full salary.
Earning Potential
If a normal delivery boy earns 20K a month, they will be happy to keep you at 3-5K.
Thing to remember => Though there are very few such jobs now due to less demand, I foresee increasing demand as unlocking progress and people start adjusting to new way of living.
7. Online Training
Skills needed
Expertise in something. It can be anything like cooking, yoga, fitness, nutrition, singing, dancing, painting, coaching, finance, technical etc
How to get started
Free Video Conferencing tools and Covid lockdown has made this a new way to earn extra money.
Just host individual sessions on the area of your expertise and get started. If you were already taking physical classes before lockdown, you can now shift to online classes. If you are a beginner, invite your family & friends to attend your classes, give free classes to people, see the response and get feedback. Basis that, you can start paid classes.
The best thing is that you are not limited to one location. People all over the world can join you. And if you want, you can charge higher and give the option of one-one session to people.
Earning Potential
Totally depends on you
8. Paintings
Skills needed
Mastery in various forms of Painting
How to get started
To start, circulate your paintings on social media and let people know that you take customized orders. Many people buy paintings from stores and are forced to choose among the pieces available in the store. If they know that you can make customized paintings, they will definitely approach you.
Show them sample design of your previous work and discuss what they want. Understand their need and which part of the house they want to place the painting. Accordingly, recommend options, show a rough sketch of their expected design on paper and finalize the price and time of delivery.
Another option is to become a seller on Amazon/Flipkart.
You can also get in touch with museums and display your art in painting exhibitions. This will help in people noticing your work and increases your chances of getting some leads.
Earning Potential
Totally depends on you
9. Selling home-made items / Arts n Crafts
Skills needed
Those who loved arts and crafts session in school should pursue this. Handcrafted items, homemade products can be sold via e-commerce websites to earn extra income.
How to get started
You just need to register as a seller with online e-commerce websites. Once done, post details of things you want to sell along with reasons on how your things are different and why should they be purchased. If the price is right and your stuff looks good, people may purchase. With the ability to control quantity, you can always decide how much you want to sell basis the time available with you.
Earning Potential
Totally depends on you
10. Become host on Airbnb
Skills needed
If you love socializing and have a spare room in your house, you can earn extra income by becoming a host on Airbnb (or on sites like Yatra, Makemytrip etc). People will stay at your flat and you earn income from this.
How to get started
You will first have to register yourself as a host on Airbnb. You will have to give details of your house, room, facilities available to guests, and post some pics. Once Airbnb approves, you can start listing your house.
The entire process is quite easy and you have full control of when you want to stop or whom you want to accept as guests in your house. You can set your house rules and the price (there is also a recommended price feature if you do not know what price to set). The payment is directly transferred to your bank account 24 hours after the guest checks in.
Earning Potential
Totally depends on you – the price you have kept for the room,amenities being provided to guests and what others in the vicinity are offering. Even if I assume 1000/- per night as the price paid by guests and your room is occupied for 3 nights in a month, you can easily make 3000/- per month.
11. Experience Provider
Airbnb offers another excellent platform for people to earn extra income. Just become an experience provider and start earning.
Skills needed
You should be able to offer some unique thing which will entice users to pay.
Choose from a variety of activities – give tourists a walk of your city, showcase pubs and nightlife culture, take them on a shopping spree, take them on a food trail, take them on a religious tour, nature trail, local cuisine cooking experience, music sessions etc.
How to get started
Register yourself as an experience provider on Airbnb. Specify how often you can host such experience, what are the timings of tour, duration of each experience and how many people can you accept per batch.
As you give more experience tours and your feedback/rating improves, you will start getting more customers for your tours helping you earn steady income.
Earning Potential
Totally depends on what you are offering. See below image to get an idea.
Conclusion
What I covered above are few lesser-known ways to earn extra income that too with limited time investment. There are many more ways – both traditional like tuitions, agents for LIC/Tupperware/Amway etc and non-traditional like blogging/vlogging, freelancing etc which I have not covered. It is up to each individual to identify their interests and get started. Happy Exploring!
Looking for tricks to save money? Read my article on 17 Simple Ways to Save Money
Very informative article, I have just started exploring voice over and scripting, if any one in this group, would like to connect ,please do mail me at kuday123@gmail.com, thanks
Very very informative and innovative article. Congrats Nishant
Awesome jiju… 🙂
Awesome.. Loved it…
Good one
Perfectly articulated article covering niche segments which usually people tend to skip!
Very nice article to earn more money in easy ways
Awesome. Will definitely try as it will not only generate money but also skills will get sharpen and moreover new friends and associates might change your life. Who knows…
Very nice. I think Nishanth can do every single one of the 11 above. Seriously, these are things that very few might have thought about. Very apt for these hard-to-find-work days.
Nice article that explains how one can convert his / her hobbies into getting more earnings.