30 Surefire Ways to Make Money as a Stay at Home Parent

Being a mother or father is tough enough as it is. But often times, when a couple welcomes a child into the world, one of those parents stops working to take care of the newborn. This cuts family earnings and has many people looking for ways to make additional income.

Well, the beauty is that we live in the digital age and it’s easier than ever to make money working from home. So, if you’re a stay at home parent, you can watch your kid and make cash while doing it. Sounds great, right? Below are 30 sure fire ways to make money as a person whose first job is “Mom” or “Dad.

Once you feel inspired take the first step and create a logo for your new venture with our logo maker. Our logo design software is easy to use and free to try. Whether you are looking for a photography logo, real estate logo, construction logo, or any other branding you can find a suitable design.

1. Become an Affiliate Marketer – Affiliate Marketing is the act of promoting other people’s stuff in return for a commission percentage. Using an existing blog or social media profile, you can add links to products that are called affiliate links. When someone clicks on it, they’re redirected to the product page, and if they purchase, the sale is tracked and you get a percentage! In fact, companies like Amazon even credit you with any sale that a customer makes, as long as they came from your affiliate link. Pretty cool, huh? Other affiliate websites include Clickbank, RakutenLinkshare, JVZoo, and Sharesale, among others. All you have to do is sprinkle these affiliate links among the content you generate, whether that be a status update or article, and wait for people to click. Also be sure to take advantage of email marketing to make the most of your existing clients. To learn more about one of the most popular email marketing platforms check out this constant contact review.

2. Collect Cashback from Online Shopping – Yeah, you heard me right. You can make money while shopping online, seriously. Companies like Ebates partner with leading online retailers and reward you with cash back when you shop through their online portal. The company boasts up to 40% cashback on all purchases, and it sends the money directly to your PayPal account. There are over 2,000 stores listed on the Ebates website, with over 10,000 online coupons for you to choose from. Now, this might not supplement your income, but if you’re already purchasing things for your everyday use, you might as well earn 40% back, effectively cutting your expenses in half. Top companies listed on the site include Amazon, eBay, Macy’s, Walmart, among others.

3. Get Paid to Type – Many people need audio transcribed, especially in today’s world with podcasts and YouTube, and companies like SpeakWrite pay writers to listen and transcribe submitted audio. You can work your own hours, and when you decide to work, you write for an hour in return for $15. You can work as little or as much as you want.

4. Create a Fiverr Profile – If you’ve never heard of Fiverr, it’s about time that you did. This unique and amazing website allows people to sell any type of service online for a small fee. Potential services range from pulling pranks on friends to beautiful website designs, and everything in between. As someone offering their services, you have the ability to promote and sell any type of skill you have, and have customers seek you out on the Fiverr platform. For example, if you make custom jewelry, you can create a profile on the website with specific keywords, and then people looking for those keywords will find your unique offering. Most “gigs” as they’re called do cost $5.00, but you can add on any other type of service for a premium

5. Sell Stuff on Etsy – Think of Etsy as the eBay or Craigslist of craft items. People on the company’s platform sell everything from crafts, trinkets, graphics, and more. Remember that custom jewelry example above? Well, you could list that jewelry for sale on Etsy, too. The company acts as a global online marketplace for handmade items, vintage goods, and craft supplies. The site has over 25 million active members and is a great way to source customers. What’s more, it only costs about $0.20 cents to create a listing, and the company only takes 3.5% of your total sales. And it doesn’t even stop there! The company offers your first 40 listings free. If you combine this platform with some of the others already mentioned, you cast a wide net that wrangles in your ideal consumer.

6. Barter With Your Clothes – Now, the barter system is long since dead, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t trade in your old clothes for cold hard cash. Companies like ThreadUp help people sell like-new but unwanted clothes to other people who are in need of additional clothing options for a fair price. The company acts as an intermediary that connects buyers to sellers, and vice versa, and acts as an eBay of sorts for clothing. For items listed under $60, you can get paid immediately for a sale. For items listed over $60, the money is held until the item successfully ships. The only downside here is that unlike Amazon fulfillment, you have to package and ship your own items when they are sold online.

7. Declutter Your Life – Yes, that’s right. You can get paid to get rid of your old stuff. In addition to eBay and Amazon, the company Decluttr pays for your old movies, CDs, and video games. The beauty is that you probably don’t watch any of your movies, listen to your old CDs, or play your out-of-date video games. This means you can make money for simplifying your life!

8. Watch Mobile Ads – Companies like FreeEats.com pay people like you to respond to customer surveys and watch client advertising content on registered mobile devices. FreeEats considers itself a “pay you to view” mobile phone network and sends those who register messages that contain links to content, allowing them to track and analyze what consumers like and want. As a member of this service, you get $1.00 for signing up, and then receive as much as $0.25 for each ad you watch or survey you take. You can refer friends to receive additional dollars, the company boasts that it has made almost 600,000 payments since October 2014. If you’re going to be sitting around the house on your phone anyway, might as well get paid to do so.

9. Try New Products – Companies like Cashcrate are looking for people exactly like you! If you’re trying to make money online and try products and services for free, then Cashcrate is your ticket. The company connects businesses that have new products and services with their ideal customer base, allowing the business to test their new goods. On the flip side, these businesses pay you to try their products and services and report back on your findings. Cashcrate acts as the intermediary that facilitates this transaction.

10. Rent Your Car for the Day – I know we’ve all heard of Lyft and Uber, but have you heard of Turo? The company acts as a platform that connects short-term car seekers with owners of cars who are looking to rent their vehicles due to decreased use. Do you have an extra car around the house? Do you stay at home all day and not drive your car, leaving it to bake in the afternoon sun? If so, there’s potential to make money using a service like Turo. Much like Airbnb, you can set the availability and price of your car, and then filter through requests as they come. The company provides a $1,000,000 liability policy that covers any damage or theft, meaning that there’s no out of pocket costs for you.

11. Rent Your Driveway for the Day – If you’re interested in renting your car for a day, or even multiple days, then you may be interested in renting your driveway for the day. If you’ve ever lived in a major city or around a college campus you know how hard it is to find parking. So, companies like JustPark have cropped up to solve this problem. Just like Turo and Airbnb, this company allows you to list your driveway or garage for rent. Also, you can set your availability, set your price, filter through applicants, and choose the right one for your scenario. Just think about the money you’d make if you rented your car AND your driveway for the day, while you stayed at home with the kids.

12. Rent Your Room or Couch – Ok, let’s stick with the theme of the sharing economy. We’ve discussed ways in which you can rent out your car or driveway, but how about your spare bedroom or living room couch? Companies like Airbnb, which have become the “traditional” route to making money by sharing your goods, allow you to list any type of living space to be rented. You know the drill: You list the space, set the price, look at applicants, and pick the right one for your home. You can also set the availability, so you can regulate when people are guests in your home. How about renting your office to a freelancer while you stay in the other room with the kids?

13. Become a Virtual Assistant – Many people have cluttered lives and are in search of an assistant. However, with the digital nature of our world, often times the requirement for an assistant is that they’re distributed and work online. That’s great for you! This means you can help someone organize their life from the comfort of your home. Check out Upwork for people posting assistant jobs.

14. Be a Good Friend – No, seriously, you can get paid to become someone’s friend. And the best part is that it’s for a defined period of time, it’s not even open-ended. What a world we live in, am I right? The company Rent a Friend acts as a platform that connects friend seekers with those who want to be someone’s friend. If you’re offering your friendship, you can go online and fill out a profile, which allows you to set your rates per hour, as well as list your favorite activities. Now, if you’re a stay at home parent, which I’m sure you are, the things you offer to do must be home-based. However, you can offer to teach someone to bake or throw the ball around in the backyard.

15. Taxi People Around – Ah, here we go. I was wondering when it would pop up on the list. Another great way to make money from home is to sign up as a driver with Uber or Lyft. Both companies boast you can make upwards of $35 an hour, but other reports refute this claim. However, you can make good money driving for either of these companies and if you’re looking for side income while you stay predominantly at home, this option provides great flexibility. Now, just like with the resource above, it’s hard to drive while being a stay at home parent, but if you’re looking to supplement your income and can find 2 hours throughout the day to drive, you can make over $250 a week.

16. Earn Cashback with Your Receipts – So we’ve already discussed earning money back by shopping online, but how about earning additional cash for scanning your existing receipts? Yes, you can earn money doing that, too. With a company like Ibota you can shop for goods and services at your favorite retailers, and then after you scan your product barcodes and submit a receipt of payment, you get money in 48 hours. Pretty easy. The companies available include WalMart, Target, Best Buy, and more. Just think of the money you could make if you shopped online with Ebates and then earned cash back on Ibota.

17. Give Someone a Piece of Your Mind – No, I don’t mean shaking your fist and yelling at someone who cut you off during your trip to the grocery store. Companies like Swagbucks, Opinion Outpost, and Vindale Research all pay you to take surveys provided by their clients. These companies are much less obtrusive than FreeEats and compensate survey-takers with gift cards and hard cash. Swagbucks, for example, offers “swagbucks” that can be redeemed for gift cards to any retailer, while Vindale Research pays up to $75 per survey. Not too shabby for answering questions on your computer.

18. Freelance Your Services – With an increase in freelancers and consultants, companies like Upwork have arisen to connect freelance job seekers with smaller companies who are in need of freelance help. Upwork was originally called Odesk and recently purchased another large platform, Elance, to become the premier website for freelance services. The idea here is that you list your services for hire, and then companies can search the platform for freelancers who fit their needs. Most of the job postings are for service-based work, like article writing, editing, financial modeling, research, and others.

19. Sell Your Content – The most widely sought after skill on Upwork is writing services, and there are more platforms than just Upwork to sell those services to the highest bidder. If you’re a good writer and enjoy drafting articles for the fun of it, then companies like ArticleSale and ConstantContent is a great way to earn additional money as a stay at home parent. The websites act as intermediaries that connect article writers with people looking to purchase articles for their publications. The risk here is that you have to write the articles first before posting them online, and there’s no guarantee someone will purchase it. However, if you write enough, you’ll surely begin to sell some, if not all, of your content pieces.

20. Sell Your Photos – Perhaps you enjoy taking photos more than you like to write lengthy articles. No problem! If you have a slew of old photos, especially if they’re well-shot and in focus, then companies like Shutterstock offer a great way to make money. Businesses such as Shutterstock are constantly on the prowl for new and innovative pictures that they can sell using their subscription model service. So, if you have photos you’re saving, you can sell them to Shutterstock and include them as part of the company’s library of photo content. It’s possible to earn as much as $100 for a single photo.

21. Teach an Online Course – Traditional education is falling to the wayside, and it’s time that you profited off the change! Companies like Udemy and Skillshare, all offer courses taught by normal people like you or me. Ok, not exactly, but if you have a skill that people want to learn, then you can list your services as a course on any of these sites and platforms. You have to create the course yourself, but these companies take care of the rest and provide a medium that helps you get discovered.

22. Create and Sell T-Shirts – Teespring is a company and associated platform that allows anyone to create and sell high-quality t-shirts, with little cost or risk. The idea is that you design and promote your unique t-shirt or set of t-shirts, and then Teespring takes care of the rest! It manufactures the t-shirts and fulfills your customer orders. It actually works much like Amazon’s CreateSpace print on demand service, where the company carries no inventory but has all of your information on file, so that when someone goes to their platform and orders your shirt, they can produce and ship a single one from its database of inventory. Which means it’s even more of a benefit to you, seeing as you don’t even need to set up your own website to start selling.

23. Get Paid to Test Websites – Some of the most important parts of a website are user flow and the overall user experience. Because of this truth, many companies actively look for average consumers to test their websites and mobile apps for usability. Platforms such as UserTesting have launched to connect companies with testers, and UserTesting specifically pays testers $10 for every 20 minutes logged. That’s $30 an hour, not bad for sitting at home!

24. Take Up Babysitting Again – I know, but you’re already a stay at home parent, right? Why add another kid to your day. But, if you’re looking to make money, and you’re already at home watching a child, why not make some money to watch two instead of one? Online platforms like SitterCity and Care make it easy to find people who need a babysitter. Just make sure everyone knows they’ll be bringing their kid to your house, and not the other way around.

25. Recycle Your Mobile Devices – No, I don’t mean that you should recycle your current mobile phone, but if you have an old iPhone laying around, any cellphone really, then there’s a good chance you can recycle it for cash. Companies like Gazelle help you by quoting you a price for your phone, sending you a box, and even paying the postage. All you have to do is send in a like-new phone and wait for the cash.

26. Listen to Music – This sounds way more enjoyable than watching mobile video ads and filling out mobile surveys! And it very well might be, but it’s also very similar in terms of what you get paid for and how you get paid. Slicethepie is a company that started in 2007 as a way to find new and interesting music talent. The business has since expanded to pay people to rate and review unsigned and unassuming bands and other artists. Reviews are used to help people uncover great music and help the bands improve their craft. Further, if you earn a high reputation within the online platform, you’ll receive an additional $50 a month just to listen to between five and 10 minutes of music.

27. Write Product Reviews – Similar to a few of the other options mentioned, it’s possible to write reviews for products and services in return for cash. Companies need honest reviews to help them attract new customers, and platforms like Epinions.com and ReviewStream.com pay people to write reviews on behalf of their client companies.

28. Take Pictures of Yourself – Get your head out of the gutter! But it’s true, to an extent. The company Stylinity, for example, pays people to take selfies of their outfits. If you like fashion and consider yourself fashionable, this might be for you. All you have to do is sign up, take photos of yourself in your outfits and tag the photo with product info. When other people click to buy what you’re wearing, you get paid.

29. Complete Simple Gigs on Your Phone – The GigWalk app is a platform that lists “gigs” that can be performed for money. For example, a person might need an action shot of a football game or information on the best restaurants in your city. If they use the GigWalk app, they’ll list their need submit an offer to people who have relevant profiles.

30. Have a Traditional Garage Sale – The final way to make money as a stay at home parent is to have an old-fashioned garage sale. Remember those, back before the time of Craigslist? Well, you can still do it! All you have to do is round up some extra stuff, put an add in the local publications, tape some signs to your lamp post, and wait for people to come by. It’s a great way to simplify your life and make money while doing it.

Now that we explored how to make money as stay at home parent it’s time to put these trips to use. Good luck with your venture.