7 Ways To Make Money From Home, According to Codie Sanchez
Written by
Nicole Spector
Edited by
Molly Sullivan
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Once upon a time not so long ago, it was fairly impossible to make money from the comfort of your own home. But now, thanks to the near omnipresence of the internet and our increasingly connected world, working from home is often an option. If your full-time job requires you to be onsite, consider that there are some legit and lucrative side hustles that you can do at home, possibly even from your couch.
In a new video on her YouTube channel, Codie Sanchez, an investor, writer and entrepreneur who founded Contrarian Thinking, discussed seven remote jobs you can do from home. All you need is a laptop and Wi-Fi.
Start a Weekly Newsletter
This may be a side hustle you haven’t heard about before, but it’s one Sanchez swears by. She started a weekly newsletter in 2020, covering things she liked, blasted it out online and asked people to subscribe.
“Newsletters are one of the most scalable businesses there,” Sanchez said. “Whether you have a thousand subscribers or a million, the work stays the same, but the income potentially grows exponentially. A single email can generate thousands or millions in revenue.”
Another perk of newsletters: You’re reaching people directly by email. You’re not dealing with the hassle of algorithms on social media. You’ll get a lot more engagement this way and it will help build up your brand or voice overall. Just pick something you’re incredibly curious about, ensure that others care about this topic and aim to create content that people would actually pay to access. Sign up with a newsletter platform to get started sending and monetizing.
This hustle is certainly working for Sanchez. “This is now a seven-figure newsletter and an eight-figure business,” she said.
Online Language Tutoring
You no longer need to go to a classroom to teach people to learn another language. You can now do it online — and you can make over $3,000 a month doing it on the side.
To get started with this, pick a language you’re incredibly fluent in. If that’s only English, that’s fine, go with that one. It’s worth it to get a TEFL certification, which will bring credibility to your work and enhance your earnings potential. You can look into how to get that here.
Next, you’ll want to be super specific in how you market yourself. For example, you may say that you teach English and have a strong command over current corporate jargon in the legal world. Lean fully into your niche. Then, choose a platform. You have options here. Sanchez recommended checking out italki, Preply or Live Lingua.
Once you choose a platform to connect with prospective students, focus on making a compelling and transparent profile that really sells you — similar to what you’d do with your LinkedIn. And set up your rates (between $25 and $125 an hour), which should be just a hair cheaper than what others are offering to give you a competitive edge. You can bump up your prices once you get more experience and build up an arsenal of glowing reviews.
Social Media Manager
Here’s a job that can exist either part time or full time. In the latter case, you can make an average of $79,382 a year as a social media manager. But Sanchez is talking about social media management as a side hustle.
“Mindless scrolling can be turned into a lot of cash,” Sanchez said. And you don’t need any sort of formal training. If you’re a social media addict who spends time building their brand on these platforms, you’re basically going to do a ramped up version of what you already do.
Social media management entails analyzing performance, building online communities, looking at metrics (with the goal of optimizing them) and posting. You’ll need a studious eye here. You’re not just enjoying social media, you’re thinking intensively about what makes posts take off.
“You’re kind of like the puppet master pulling the strings behind viral videos, creating memes and looking at a bunch of accounts that you look at anyway,” Sanchez said.
Do get started with the side hustle of social media management, look at creators’ websites. Many are struggling to stay afloat with their growing social media presence and need help they’re willing to pay for. Additionally, look around social media for “social media hire” posts. When applying, volunteer some awesome ideas that show you’re qualified.
You can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing social media management. This is a hustle you could definitely turn into a very lucrative full-time job — in time. You’re likely to start out making $30 an hour.
Voiceover Artist
Have you been told you have a beautiful or unusual speaking voice? Are you great at impersonations and “doing voices”? Think about becoming a voiceover artist.
For this gig, you’ll need to learn how to deliver scripts flawlessly and convincingly. Take online classes or just study up on YouTube to get started. And practice. Read aloud as often as you can.
“Pay attention to tone, pacing, articulation,” Sanchez said. From there, set up a home studio. You don’t need a lot of space (it can be a closet), but you do need top-notch equipment, so be sure to do your homework on the best tech. Build a portfolio and share it on sites such as Voices.com, VoiceCrafters and BunnyStudio. Also share your portfolio on social media and DM anybody who you think may be interested in hiring you.
“This is a nice little $50k to $100k a year annual side salary,” Sanchez said. “And then for the top 10%, we’re talking six figures and above.”
Online Mystery Shopper
Many companies, including Sanchez’s, hire people to act like a regular customer with the goal of seeing if the company, on a customer-facing front, has any issues or areas where it could improve. This is called mystery shopping. You can do it from home now as so many companies have a strong online presence they’re constantly tweaking.
“Companies pay for this feedback because first impressions matter, and also, a lot of times they’re losing sales and they can’t figure out why,” Sanchez said. “So they need some random person to tell them.”
To get started, find mystery shopping companies — there is no shortage of them. Just be sure to steer clear of any company that asks you to pay upfront fees. That’s a scam. Then, create a profile, take on a ton of tasks, ask for reviews on them to build one-on-one relationships with clients.
“Many mystery shoppers earn an extra $200 to $500 a month just from completing a few of these assignments,” Sanchez said. “And if you like this, you can do QA — quality assurance — and these roles in tech make a ton of money.”
Launch a Digital Agency
Do you love giving professional advice? You could find your side hustle calling in launching a digital agency. A digital agency provides specialized services such as digital marketing or SEO consulting to businesses. The goal here is to help companies rev up their digital success metrics.
To make a powerhouse digital agency, you need to hone your niche (SEO, social media, etc.) and your brand, build a portfolio (could be as simple as helping a friend build their Etsy business), capture metrics to showcase your results to blast on LinkedIn (which you’ll also use to contact prospective clients). Once you have some traction, assemble a team of freelancers to build out your business.
“As a beginner, you’re going to make somewhere around $1k to $5k a month,” Sanchez said. You should graduate to making $10,000 to $30,000 a month. From there, you can make $50,000 a month or more.
Virtual Juror
Didn’t know this was a thing? Well, it is — and it could be your next mega side hustle. We’re talking about virtual jurors.
“Basically what happens is a personal injury lawyer will want to know their chances of winning a case that is taken to court,” Sanchez explained. “So they need some way to practice it.”
That’s where you come in as a virtual juror. Platforms in this space pay $20 to $60 per case or, for longer sessions, $150 to $350 per case. “The big leagues can pay up to $1k per case,” Sanchez said.
This isn’t a gig that earns enough to replace a full-time job, but it can definitely put some extra money in your pocket.
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