We tend to frame the idea of earning money online as a way to earn extra income at home and to escape the 9-5 work schedule that many Americans follow.

However, as we’ve noted in the past, it’s not easy to just make a clean break and magically start up a home business and, in fact, plenty of people fail. (I did the first time around.) 

Before I was able to start working from home full-time with my own list of clients, I spent ten years happily taking any extra work I could find writing articles and developing the skill set I knew would be my way of escaping what was, for me, an unhappy 9-5 life. 

That said, when you do something for ten years, clearly it’s not all bad and indeed, the connections I made in my 9-5 work life were the ones that first helped me to earn extra income online.

Below we lay out some different ways that you can earn extra income at home and also start planting the seeds for establishing your own business.

Earn Extra Income at Home

1. What Are Your Talents?

When looking for ways to earn extra income at home, start with your current job (or the last few you had if you’re currently out of work.)

What kind of work do you inevitably find yourself doing from job to job?

While I wasn’t personally confident in my abilities as a writer–I came up amongst a lot of incredible writers–after ten years of always being put in the position of writing all of my employer’s copy and having co-workers solicit my writing services outside of work hours.

This was my first real taste of how my natural talents (and those that I’ve honed over time) could be my way to financial freedom in the sense of taking control of my income.

Another area where I was able to obtain work outside of office areas was a digital marketing consultant for extremely small fashion companies, as I was overseeing the digital marketing department for a fairly venerable jewelry brand at the time.

And while that is an area I frankly should have exploited further, it also didn’t make me happy then and thus my consulting endeavor failed.

This helped me to understand the other side of the coin in the equation of how to earn extra income at home.

2. What Are Your Passions?

It’s a sad fact, but very few people get to spend a lifetime of work doing what they’re passionate about.

Whether life gets in the way and you suddenly have mouths to feed, causing you to put your blogging dreams on hold, or you simply just never work up the courage to take that scary leap toward working from home and doing what you love, there are countless reasons why home businesses don’t always work.

But over the years, one common theme I’ve found is when people approach working from home, they do so from a point of how much many can I make?

Let’s just be real here.

Unless you’ve figured out a truly revolutionary niche for yourself that utilizes both your skill sets and passions, you won’t be necessarily be rolling in the Benjamins at first. And this is something

Unless you’ve figured out a truly revolutionary niche for yourself that utilizes both your skill sets and passions, you won’t be necessarily be rolling in the Benjamins at first. And this is something

And this is something Jason and I talk about quite a bit because while we’ve both made it to that first step of being able to live off of our home businesses, it takes some time before you reach either what you were making at your old job or what you ideally want to be making.

And that’s 100% OK. Seriously. Speaking from personal experience, while I wish I was making

Speaking from personal experience, while I wish I was making more when I think back to how unhappy I was a year ago compared with now when I’m actually doing work I’m passionate about.

There’s literally no comparison.

3. Find Work Online and IRL

Once you’ve settled upon the unique service you can provide, now it’s time to start setting up your income streams. As we’ve

As we’ve spoken about in the past, content marketing has become a huge field and is full of opportunities for self-motivated writers, videographers, and digital content creators.

Ask around and look online using such sites as Upwork.

Additionally, affiliate marketing is another way to earn income online if you run a blog or site that targets a particular niche.

By running ads for other companies, you can soon monetize your blog turning your hobby into a blossoming career.

And if the above doesn’t sound up your alley, there are countless other ways to earn extra income at home, from transcription work to doing at-home customer service.

The key is that you approach everything you do with a sincere degree of passion because otherwise, you’re just running on auto-pilot and what’s the fun in that?