Are you in need of some extra cash? Whether you want to pay off debts, save for a trip, or need a little help to get by, there are plenty of ways for women to make money fast.
The options are endless, from freelance work and selling handmade crafts to temporary jobs and paid focus groups.
Let’s explore 30 realistic ways to make money fast as a woman in 2023.
1. Sell Your Gently Used Clothes
Selling used clothes is a quick and guaranteed method to earn extra cash fast. You’d be surprised how much people are willing to pay for the clothes you no longer wear. So instead of holding onto items that don’t make you feel good anymore, remove them from your wardrobe and earn decent money in return!
This brings up the question: where to sell used clothes?
You have two options to sell used clothes: either online or through an in-person secondhand retailer.
If you choose the first option, your best bet is Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark, Mercari, Tise, eBay, Depop, Tradesy, ThredUP, or Sellpy. If you’re not cut out for selling stuff online, you can go to a secondhand retailer to do the job for you in exchange for a commission.
Tip: Take your shirts and give them a fresh twist by tie-dyeing them and selling them as one-of-a-kind pieces for extra profit.
2. Participate in Focus Groups
A focus group is a hidden gem that allows you to earn serious money only by thinking aloud! You get paid for giving your honest opinion about a specific product or service.
Whether you can give feedback on groceries, movies, pets, clothes, cars, video games, electronics, new technologies, or education, your genuine opinion will always matter to focus groups. Some focus groups even want you to share your political beliefs and views!
Focus groups can pay you as little as $30 and as much as $150, depending on the time you speak and share your opinion in. Focus groups are also perfect for busy moms, college students, or even high school students who want to bring in extra cash without committing to a ‘real’ job.
Tip: You can find many legitimate paid focus groups near you on FindFocusGroup.
3. Work as a Virtual Assistant
Working as a virtual assistant is one of the best ways to earn decent money fast without leaving home. True, it won’t get you 500k a year, but it’s honest work.
The average annual salary for a work-from-home virtual assistant in the United States is $58,991 ($28.36 per hour). It is a reasonably good income compared to the few qualifications this job requires!
4. Get a Petsitting Gig
If you like being around pets and know how to take care of them, pet sitting may be the job for you. On average, pet sitters in the United States have a healthy salary of $47,605 per year ($15.79 per hour).
Curious? Here are a few tips to help you secure a high-paying petsitting job:
- Even if you’re a pet owner, looking after your friends’ pets is an excellent idea to gain relevant work experience, assuring your potential client that their furry friends will be in safe hands with you.
- Get certified through the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters or Pet Sitters International. It’s not necessary, but it increases your credibility and chance of getting a higher-paying job.
- Get liability insurance if you plan to work as a pet sitter for a long time, which will cover you in case of property damage.
5. Become a Babysitter
Babies are noisy and high-maintenance, which is why many parents are willing to pay good money for a high-quality babysitting service.
However, babysitting is hard work—you’ll play with children, help them with school assignments, prepare meals and snacks, and perform a few household management tasks.
But if you love being around kiddos, and if you think that the average annual salary of $43,618 ($18.67 per hour) is worth the effort, here are some useful tips to help you kick-start your career as a babysitter:
- Take a babysitting course to learn the basics, which will also look good on your resume
- Get a first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certification
- Educate yourself about child psychology
- Gain relevant work experience by taking care of children in your family
6. Take Paid Online Surveys
Getting paid for online surveys without leaving home is a good side gig to bring in extra money. The odds are low that you’ll become rich doing this, but it’s a neat way to make some extra money fast from your phone.
Additionally, taking paid online surveys don’t require any skills or qualifications—all you need is your phone, internet connection, and some time to spend!
7. Sell Your Photos
You know you’re beautiful – but are you aware many websites will pay to feature some great pics of you in their catalogue? You can earn quick cash by taking photos of yourself for people to use as stock photos or for other purposes. So, here are the highest-paying websites to sell your photos:
- Alamy
- 500px
- SmugMug Pro
- Shutterstock
- iStock Photo
- Etsy
- Adobe Stock
- Getty Images
8. Write an E-book
If you have valuable knowledge in a certain area you think people would pay to gain, you can pass on this knowledge through an e-book for fast cash.
Since we live in an age where people don’t have enough patience to read a 450-page book, you can easily create and sell a short yet successful e-book.
Follow these seven simple steps to create an e-book that sells:
- Find an e-book topic that you can write a whole book about
- Write a table of contents to organize your ideas
- Create the content of your e-book by either repurposing published content or writing entirely new content
- Choose a design for your e-book using tools like Canva, Visme, or InDesign
- Pick your e-book format (PDF, EPUB, IBA, MOBI, ODF, AZW, etc.)
- Publish and sell your e-book via Amazon KDP
- Promote your e-book through social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
9. Become a Freelance Writer
If you have a knack for writing and want to earn quick cash without leaving home, working as a freelance writer is your best option. You only need a laptop, an internet connection, and a strong writing portfolio.
The best part is you get to choose what to write based on your preference, from fashion to travel and finance, and everything in between.
Many sites can help you jump-start your freelance writing career, including LinkedIn, Upwork, BloggingPro, FlexJobs, and Craigslist.
10. Work as a Mystery (Secret) Shopper
For those who have never heard of this term, mystery (secret) shopping is a paid–and legitimate–work involving checking whether businesses meet specific standards.
As a mystery shopper, businesses that perform self-examination will ask you to check the quality of service, quality of advice, staff honesty, and cleanliness. In return, you’ll get paid around $24.20/hour ($50,334/year), as well as free meals and clothes in some cases.
You get paid to eat, drink, and shop for free, so what’s the catch?
While mystery shopping seems too good to be true, it’s a tedious task involving answering surveys, keeping your receipts, and reporting to the business about your whole experience.
If you’re interested in becoming a secret shopper, you can find many job opportunities through one of the world’s biggest mystery shopping companies: BestMark.
11. Host a Yard Sale
Organizing a garage sale is one of the best ways to declutter your home and earn quick cash simultaneously. And don’t worry if you’re new to the garage sale game; almost everyone can host a yard sale by following the basic ‘rules’ of yard sales:
- Sell anything you don’t need or use
- Organize your items by category (books, technology, school supplies, art, etc.)
- Clean and organize your garage
- Advertise your garage sale in your neighborhood by hanging signs on poles and trees
- Advertise your yard sale on your social media pages
- Set prices for your items, but be open to negotiation
12. Start a Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping eliminates the risk of overstocking since you sell directly to your customers without inventory. Successful dropshippers can earn up to $100,000 a year. (If you need a salary calculator, that is about $50.61 per hour!)
So, if you want to follow in their footsteps and start your own dropshipping business, here’s what you have to do:
- Pick a dropshipping business idea
- Use Google Trends to see if your products are trending
- Collect information about your biggest competitors, (their websites, product descriptions, prices, and marketing strategies)
- Pick a dropshipping supplier
- Find an eCommerce platform to build your store (Shopify is currently one of the best options on the market)
- Form a Limited Liability Company (LLC) to protect your assets
- Apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN), which you’ll need to wholesale products, open a bank account, and file your taxes
- Get a separate business credit card to use for anything related to your dropshipping business
- Promote your dropshipping business using paid Google or Facebook ads, mobile marketing, influencer marketing, and content marketing
13. Become an Uber Driver
Do you have a valid US driver’s license? You can get paid to drive whenever you choose to! Uber clearly states that employees “get paid fast.” Your earnings are transferred automatically to your bank account after completing a trip.
Perhaps the best part is you decide when and how often you want to drive. You don’t even have to own a car to drive with Uber—the company offers a wide selection of cars provided by its vehicle partners for as low as $260 per week!
14. Sell Handmade Crafts
Do you have a knack for making beautiful and valuable crafts? The world will appreciate your talent and give you money in return! And don’t worry if you’re new to DIYs; you can still make one-of-a-kind, low-cost crafts to sell online.
Here are some inspirational DIY crafts ideas to help you get started:
- Baby blankets & quilts
- Bath bombs
- Body scrubs
- Candles
- Clay or ceramic plant pots
- Crochet blankets
- Crochet hats
- Dog collars & leashes
- Embroidered napkins & handkerchiefs
- Essential oil mixes
- Face masks
- Fragrance
- Greeting cards
- Hair ties & headbands
- Handmade aprons
- Handmade purses
- Knitted blankets
- Knitted scarves
- Paper flowers
- Picture Frames
- Resin and polymer clay jewelry
- Soap
- Stuffed animals
- Textile dyeing
- Tufted rugs and mats
- Vintage upcycle
Once you decide which craft to make, you can sell your products online on Etsy or at craft fairs and in-person pop-up shops.
15. Start Affiliate Marketing
Promoting products and services for others is simpler and faster than starting your own business from scratch. Affiliate marketing has a straightforward premise: the affiliate earns a commission in exchange for marketing a certain product or service of a company.
According to Glassdoor, an employed affiliate marketer makes an average yearly pay of $59,060. If you’re a freelancer working independently, know that more than 50% of affiliate marketers earn $10,000 or less per year, while only 33% make $10,000 or more. The pay is still worth it if you need to make money fast.
Interested? Here are five simple steps to start and succeed in affiliate marketing:
- Pick a niche and stick to it
- Pick a platform to promote the products and services (preferably a YouTube channel or a blog)
- Join an affiliate program (the Amazon Associates program is a good place to start for beginners)
- Create helpful content where you can fit your affiliate links naturally without looking spammy
- Promote your content via social media platforms and paid ads
16. Work as a Social Media Manager
You can make good use of your time on social media by working as a social media manager and receive between $47-$60 per hour!
As a social media manager, you’ll be responsible for scheduling posts, responding to comments, hosting live stream events, using social media metrics to measure the success of your strategy, and reporting back to the company about results.
17. Create an Online Course
Creating an online course is one of the best ways to monetize your experience. Surprisingly, you can put an online course together in 25 hours, depending on how hard you work and your niche. Some people take up to 2 months to create an online course.
So, if you think you have enough knowledge about something and want to monetize it through an online course, all you have to do is to follow these 12 simple steps:
- Pick a topic you want to (and can) teach
- Conduct research into your topic to ensure it has high market demand
- Pre-sell your online course to validate its demand and avoid wasting time creating a course no one wants to buy
- Choose your course content and ensure it answers your audience’s most burning questions
- Use instructional design storyboarding to plan your course quickly
- Create a course outline to deliver an organized, structured course to your students
- Design engaging content that includes videos and interactive elements like quizzes
- Record your online course using online screen recorders like Screen Grabber Pro, BB FlashBack Express, ScreenFlow, or EZVID
- Keep your online course short and sweet—the length of successful online courses ranges between 10 to 25 hours
- Set the price for your course based on competitors’ prices, creation time, and the value of your course
- Add your online course to your website; if you don’t have a website, you can easily create one using cheap web hosting services like Bluehost
- Promote your course through paid ads, email marketing, website pop-ups, social media posts, and YouTube videos
18. Get Paid for Taking Tests
You get paid $10 for every 20-minutes test you take. If this sounds like a rewarding side hustle, follow these five simple steps to get started with the human insight platform UserTester:
- Download the UserTester app
- Enter your email to create your UserTester profile
- Take the small sample test when asked
- Answer screening questions to let UserTester match you with test opportunities
- Give feedback about the apps you test, and get paid!
Remember that you need to have strong English to share your opinion clearly through a microphone and shared screen.
19. Make Money Searching The Web
While this side hustle seems too good to be true, getting paid for searching the web is a legit way to make quick cash in 2023.
Companies want to know how people interact with different search engines. They use valuable data to conduct market research and attract new users. In other cases, they sell it to other companies interested in users’ behavior on the web.
Now that you know making money searching the web is a thing, here are the best money-making sites and apps to use in this regard:
- Swagbucks
- IPRoyal Pawns
- Zoombucks
- Qmee
- Nielsen Panel
- Microsoft Rewards
- Savvy Survey
20. Get Paid for Listening to Music
Everyone loves listening to music – wouldn’t it be great to get paid for doing so? You actually can! Many people are now earning quick cash for listening to and reviewing music even without previous experience or a sophisticated music degree.
If you want to join the fun and get paid for listening to your favorite songs, here are the most generous apps and sites to earn up to $12 per song:
- Slicethepie
- Current Rewards
- HitPredictor
- RadioEarn
- Playlist Push
- Cash4Minutes
- Research.fm
- Earnably
21. Watch Videos in Your Spare Time
Having fun watching videos and getting paid for it sounds like a big scam, but it isn’t. Many sites pay you only to watch videos, including movies, TV shows, and ads.
Before you get too excited, there’s a slim chance that you’ll get rich only by watching videos on your smartphone, but it’s still a realistic and quick way to make extra bucks online. So, here are the most popular apps and sites to get paid for watching videos:
- Earnably
- InboxDollars
- iRazoo
- MyPoints
- PrizeRebel
- Slicethepie
- Swagbucks
- WeAre8
22. Apply To Be a Film Extra
If you have what it takes to become an actor, you can apply for a small film extra job and earn quick cash in return! Becoming a film extra is way easier and faster than becoming a Hollywood actor—all you need to do is to follow those five simple steps:
- Take a clean and professional headshot; it should look natural and not fake, just like the picture on your employee ID card
- Find a talent casting agency hiring film extras; a simple Google search will give you information about the best talent casting agencies near you
- Sign a formal contract with the casting agency
- Submit right-to-work documentation (if required)
- Start acting and get paid!
Film extras are usually paid daily ($100-$200 per day) and may get invited to another audition once they successfully complete the job.
23. Get Paid Walking
Want to make some coin every time you take a stroll around the block? Getting paid for walking is an excellent way to hit your daily step goal and earn a few extra bucks at the same time. Some apps even pay you for swimming, biking, and other exercises.
But before you know how to monetize your daily steps, keep in mind that this is not the most rewarding side hustle and the odds are low that you’ll ever become rich walking.
With this in mind, here are the best money-for-steps apps that are willing to pay for your sweat:
- BetterPoints
- Carrot
- Cash for Steps
- Charity Miles
- Evidation
- FitPotato
- HealthyWage
- Higi
- MapMyFitness
- PK Rewards
- StepBet
- Sweatcoin
- Walgreens Balance Rewards
24. Become a Voice-over Artist
If you’re a naturally gifted woman who always gets compliments on her one-of-a-kind voice, it’s time to monetize what nature gave you and become a voice-over artist who earns $16-$23 per hour!
You don’t have to leave your comfortable home to become a successful voice-over actor. You can start your career right now through reputable freelance websites like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelance.com.
25. Become a Professional Home Organizer
On average, professional home organizers in the United States make $48,975/year ($23.55/hour), which is quite a decent income given this job’s few uncomplicated qualifications.
As a home organizer, you’ll organize and label different household items, organize rooms, find and use extra space for storage, communicate with your client about household needs, and make short-term and long-term plans for organizing the house.
26. Rent Out Your Unused Parking Space
If you live in a big city and are not using your car parking space, you can put it to good use by renting it out and getting paid decent money in return! However, enjoying the passive income from renting your parking space is more complex since it should be 100% legal. It is best if you are the legal owner of your property (otherwise, consult with your landlord to ensure you can rent the driveway). Also, make it clear that you are not responsible for the vehicle and its contents.
Finally, offer your parking space for rent. Several legit sites help people rent their driveways for decent money, such as JustPark, Park On My Drive, ParkLet, YourParkingSpace, Advertise offline, Gumtree, and Stashbee.
27. Rent Out Your Car
Some people own a car but don’t actually use it. If you’re one of those people, you can increase your cash flow by renting your unused vehicle to someone who needs it.
Similar to renting out a driveway, renting out a car should be completely legal to avoid nasty surprises in the future. Here are a few tips to help you rent out your car legally:
- Consult with your car insurer regarding the coverage when renting your car
- If you’re still making car payments, contact your car lender to ensure that renting out the car does not violate your financing agreement
- Don’t use peer-to-peer commerce sites to rent out your car unless you make sure it’s legal where you live
- Don’t sign up with a listing company before reading and understanding every word in the contract
- Provide accurate information about your car
- Provide realistic and non-deceptive pictures of your car
28. Offer Tutoring Sessions
Whether you can teach languages, history, biology, or anything you’re knowledgeable about, offering online tutoring sessions is a fast way to put well-earned money into your pocket.
The best platforms to start your online tutoring career are Cambly, TutorMe, TutorOcean, Preply, and Wyzant. But keep in mind that tutoring platforms usually require tutors to have a high school diploma, a GED, or a subject-specific certification.
29. Take Advantage of Cashback Sites
You’re missing out if you don’t save money on your small daily purchases through cashback sites!
Cashback is simply receiving a percentage of the money you spend buying something at a later date. We all buy stuff every day, but you can cut costs when you purchase from retailers featured on cashback sites, and the amount of money you receive later will depend on how much you spend.
Here are the top-paying cashback sites to help you save money when shopping:
- BeFrugal
- Capital One Price Protection
- Capital One Shopping
- Coupon Cabin
- Drop
- Earny
- EvoShare
- Extrabux
- Fetch Rewards
- Honey
- Ibotta
- iConsumer
- Mr.Rebates
- MyPoints
- Rakuten
- Simply Best Coupons
- Swagbucks
- Tada
- TopCashback
- Upromise
30. Ask for a Raise
You leave money on the table if you don’t ask for a raise if you think you deserve one. It’s understandable why many women shy away from this idea. The thought of asking your boss for a raise can be quite intimidating.
However, if the company you work for doesn’t do any salary increases every year, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands and ask for what you deserve!
Empowering Yourself for Success
If you want to make fast money as a woman, it is important to approach opportunities with a clear plan and a positive attitude. Set goals for yourself and work towards them consistently.
Network and reach out to others in your field for advice and support. And above all, be persistent and don’t give up! With determination and the right mindset, you can achieve financial success and reach your goals.
Don’t be afraid to get creative and think outside the box–sometimes, the best opportunities are the ones you create for yourself.
This article originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.
