7 Legitimate Ways To Earn An Extra $500/Month From Home 2016-17

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When it comes to earning money from home, I spend over two years trying out different methods.

I can tell you now that there is no need to worry. If you're tight on money and are looking to make some extra money from home, there are plenty of options out there, and I've written down some great ones down below.

Even more awesome, if you decide to become a stay at home parent, some of these ways will allow you to grow your income even further and make more money, while other methods will only allow you to go so far.There are hundreds of legitimate websites out there that offer real, work at home jobs. We'll have a look at some of those. 

Then you also have blogging and creating your own online business. I know people who make thousands of dollars a month blogging.

There's even someone out there who makes more then $100k per month blogging. Yes, you read that correctly. Don't believe me? Check out Pat Flynn's website www.smartpassiveincome.com.

If blogging sounds like something you're interested in, you can now create your own blog very easily through Bluehost using WordPress. I've included a special discount link that will give you a hosting discount and a FREE domain, and I've created a step-by-step guide which will help you set up your blog. 

This section contains an affiliate link and I will receive a small commission if you decide to sign up with Bluehost using my link. I absolutely love them, use them myself and only recommend services that deliver great quality.

First of all I think it's important to set some realistic goals first. Is $500 hard to make? I don't think so. I personally know that you can even make more money by using these methods.

If $500 sounds like a lot to you and it requires you to do things you simply do not have time for, then that's okay. Maybe set a smaller goals and try to make your first $100.

I've tried out quite a lot of different methods during the past 2 years and the main thing that keeps coming back is that there are a lot of ways that make good money, but most of those ways are just super boring and not rewarding.

After a while I realized that whenever you decide to add a side income stream or are trying to make a few hundred dollars extra, you need to make sure it involves a combination of the following three things. 

1- It needs to be rewarding;

 2-You need to have some passion for it;

 3-You need to see actual results;

Otherwise it's just not worth your time in my opinion and I guarantee you'll give up on it in a matter of weeks. That doesn't mean you can't grow some passion for it, and that certainly doesn't mean that you don't have to put in a lot of time and effort before you start seeing rewarding results.

I think that with making money online becoming more popular, there are a ton of great options out there. You just have to keep on looking until you find what you like and have a combination of those 3 requirements.

I've chosen the 7 most interesting and most rewarding methods I've come across while searching for ways to earn an extra $500 a month. Let's have a look.

 THE LIST

1. Usertesting.com

Usertesting.com is a website that will pay you to review websites. Now, it's not just a stupid review job/platform where you maybe get paid a $1 per review and each review takes a long time. It actually works in a pretty cool way. You have to video and audio record yourself, while browsing a site and testing it's user experience. According to usertesting.com, this is an extremely effective way for businesses to hear comments and remarks that could help them improve their site. UserTesting has a video on their website which will show you how the system works.

Average Time/Review : 20 min.

Pay Per Review : $10

2. Drive For Uber

Now, this one doesn't allow you to make money from home, but I thought it was worth mentioning, because I was absolutely blown away by drivers' earnings after witnessing a few recent success stories. 

I have a friend who makes up to $5k on a regular basis while driving for Uber. He is definitely not treating it as a small side job, but figured out he could make more money by driving his car, then waiting tables or being a bar tender.

I also know for a fact that he only drives a little bit at noon and mostly at night, every single day. I think the fact he drives in Los Angeles instead of a smaller town is part of higher Uber earnings. Not always, but each time he was consistent in his driving, he'd be able to pull in roughly $5k per month. 

Although I've heard and read mixed reviews on Uber, it still is one of the easiest and greatest ways I've seen people make some extra money. You may not be interested in driving your car full time, but while a handful of my friends are regular Uber drivers, I've established it's pretty doable to easily earn an extra $500 per month on top of your regular income.

3. Start A Blog 

There are people out there making between $10k and $120k per month while blogging. Obviously, there are also people who make way less to even no money. But just to show you the potential of what a blogging business could do to your bank account, Pat Flynn owns the website Smart Passive Income and makes up to an an average of $120k per month.

To me blogging is extremely rewarding. It took a few months before I started seeing results, but those results made up for all of the hard word prior to seeing those results. You can talk about anything you want in your blog, and there's always an audience out there looking to read about what you have to say.

I didn't know anything about blogging when I started a few months ago, but I've reached a point where I'm now making between $500 and $1000 per month easily.

If you're interested in starting in start your own blog, feel free to check out my FREE step-by-step tutorial where I explain how to create your very own money making blog. Also, if you decide to sign up using my link, you'll be able to get hosting at a discount through Bluehost for only$3.95 per month. On top of that, you'll also be able to get a completely FREE domain.

If you decide that in the end blogging isn't for you, you'll be able to cancel your Bluehost membership easily as there is no contract involved.

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an extremely popular way to earn some extra cash. Not only is it very popular in the blogging world, but also YouTubers and other social media users use it to earn money through their exposure.

One of the greatest ways I love making money is through Amazon's Affiliate program and the blog hosting company Bluehost's affiliate program. 

For every sign up on via Bluehost's affiliate program, you earn $65. That's a great commission! If you're interested in earnings commissions through programs such as Bluehost and Amazon, then go ahead and start your own blog here and feel free to use my step-by-step tutorial. After you've created your own blog, you can sign up on Bluehost's affiliate program here.

5. Start Micro Niche Websites

Micro niche sites are websites dedicated to 1 specific subject or keyword. Micro niche websites only work when there's a low competition in the search engines and a big amount of searches each month, allowing a good amount of users to easily find your micro niche sites.

You can figure out the correct ratio using Google's Keyword Planner. Because there is low competition in the search engines, it will be easy for your micro niche site to rank on Google's first page. Then, through advertisement and affiliate marketing you can set up an automated money making website that requires low maintenance.

Micro niche websites are super easy to make. If you find the right niche, it won't take long for your site to start earning money. The key to success here is setting up multiple micro niche websites, resulting in multiple streams of income. 

Feel free to check out this video to learn more about finding good keywords and niches.

6. Fiverr

I absolutely love Fiverr. If you ever need to have anything done when it comes to your online business, check out their sellers. You can find absolutely anyone providing any kind of service. From design, to development, to marketing and advertising. They have a ton of stuff. 

Each time I create a new gig on my fiver account, I receive a couple of orders right away, without any promotion. You can easily make an extra $500 using Fiverr.com.

7. Become A Virtual Assistant

There are a ton of bloggers, Youtubers and online business looking for virtual assistants to help them with their businesses. A virtual assistant can easily charge up to $50-$75/hour. Tasks can include organizing emails, managing social media, managing blog posts, etc.

If you're interested in becoming a virtual assistant the feel free to join this Facebook group. This is a virtual assistant networking group, which could be a great start for your virtual assistant career.

There you go. 7 Legitimate ways I've all tested myself which can easily create a monthly steady side income source. It all depends on how much time you spend on it, but I believe you can easily earn $500 per month. I think you can easily earn more then that as well. It all depends on how you approach things and how far you're willing to go with it.

What about you? Do you have any side income streams that allow you to work from home and make a few hundred dollars per month? I'd love to hear about it.