Let’s be honest, the last couple of years have been pretty rough, financially for a lot of us.
With a combination of a global pandemic, and the cost of literally everything seeming to
keep on going up and up, we could all probably use a little bit of extra cash. Thankfully, the
tech that you own and have lying around your home opens up a world of opportunity to you. If you’re
creative, there are more ways for the average person to make some extra money nowadays than ever
before, all thanks to the power of the internet, and every day technology like your phone.
But what if you don’t know where to start? Well that’s what I’m going to try and cover
in this video, 10 ways that you can make money right now using your technology,
and I’m going to try my best to skip some of the more obvious, cliche ones
like starting a blog or a podcast, and focus on ones you might not have heard of, or thought of.
Now, let’s be clear, none of these are get rich quick schemes, there’s no situation where you
can power on your computer, leave it running and make a tonne of money, so if that’s what
you’re after, this video isn’t for you. But, if you’re open to trying out something new,
and if you’re willing to put the work in, there are some amazing opportunities out there.
OK, let’s get into it.
### Idea 1 - Flip Items
The act of flipping items, quite simply buying items for an amount of money,
then selling those items on for more money,
is nothing new, but the internet has made it a much more viable option for many people.
If you’re skilled at restoring things like furniture, or electronics or antiques,
that’s an obvious option for you, you purchase things that are at death’s door,
restore them and then sell them. But that does of course require quite a specific skillset,
one which many of us don’t have. Another option is to purchase items that are being under-valued,
and then sell them on for their correct value, and this can be particularly
powerful if you use different platforms to buy and sell.
I’ll give you a real-world example, we recently bought a table tennis table cover,
you unfold the boards and put them over the top of something like a dining table,
and you’ve got your own full-size ping pong table. Now we bought this because we wanted one,
but when we looked them up online, they were retailing for about £200 brand new.
We then checked on Facebook Marketplace, and found a lady about 20 miles away offering this,
brand new, for £50. She’d bought it on a whim, never used it, and now wanted rid
of it. We offered her £40 for it, which she accepted, and we collected it later that day.
Now as I mentioned, we wanted this for ourselves, but if we hadn’t,
we knew we could flip this for considerably more money than we paid for it. They retail for £200
brand new, if we sold this for £150, that’s still a £110 profit, and whilst I accept that this isn’t
the kind of item you’re going to find regularly, that could still pay for a couple of meals out,
or cover one of your monthly bills. There are people out there right now desperate to get
rid of things that have a lot of value, you just have to go looking for them.
If you’ve got a good knowledge of something niche, for example comic books, or vinyl records
or retro videogames or vintage clothing, there’s opportunities for you to purchase items that are
being undervalued. Head to your local charity or thrift stores, garage sales or anywhere else
where people are likely to be selling off their old items to make some quick money,
then list them somewhere like eBay or Vinted, opening them up to a much more targeted audience,
where people are willing to pay more of a premium.
## Idea 2 - Start a Digital Side Hustle
It would be remiss of me not to mention the idea of starting a digital side hustle as a way
of making more money. A digital side hustle is one where you offer your skills online,
in the digital world. There’s obvious ones like writing articles,
making videos, providing voice overs like my fiance and I do, although some of
these require not only a lot of skill, but quite expensive specialist equipment also.
Now what I would absolutely recommend you do, is to head to somewhere like
[Fiverr.com](http://Fiverr.com) and approach it as a buyer, and have a browse around the
site to see what services are on offer, and see if any of them suit your skillset. For
example, you might be pretty good at graphic design, but if you head to,
say, logo design, you can see that this niche is really oversaturated,
there’s over a quarter of a million sellers already offering their services here.
But if you head to Graphics and Design, and instead look at Graphics for Streamers for
example, this is a much less saturated niche, and therefore much easier to break into.
I’ve spent a bit of time on the site browsing this morning, and I’ve found niches like managing
Discord servers, writing advertising copy, drafting job descriptions for companies, recording
unboxing videos and testimonials, providing market research, being a personal stylist, the list is
enormous and ever-growing. Now I’ve had a bit of success on Fiverr, I’m a Top Rated Seller and
have generated over $100,000 in income, so I do know what I’m talking about, and trust me, if you
create an honest, genuine profile, in a smaller niche where you’re serving a business need,
you can have enormous success on a platform like Fiverr, it’s definitely worth having a look at.
## Idea 3 - Start a physical side-hustle, with the help of digital
Perhaps you’re not that techy? Rather than writing code or designing flyers in Photoshop,
maybe you’re more of a cut the grass, put up a TV bracket or wire in a new light kind of person?
Well, no worries, there’s an option for you to make money in the digital age thanks to sites like
TaskRabit. TaskRabbit is a site that allows people with a physical skill to offer their services
to people who need something doing, whether it’s moving furniture, fixing a toilet, assembling flat
pack furniture or pretty much anything else. And, as this is a tech channel, and if you’re watching
this, you probably have an interest in tech, why not consider how many people have purchased things
like Ring Doorbells or Eufy security cameras, and either don’t know or aren’t able to install
them themselves. Maybe they don’t own a drill, or they’re afraid to wire something in to the
electrics. If you’ve got skills here, not only can you help, but you can get paid for doing it too.
## Idea 4 - Rent out your parking space
We all know about AirBnB, which is great if you own a holiday home or have a spare room that
you want to rent out, but what if you don’t have that option? One option that might apply to you
is renting out your parking space, especially if that space is in a high-demand area. For example,
the flat that we used to live in, in London was very close to a major transport station,
and right around the corner from the Canary Wharf financial district. Now, we owned a car,
so we were using our private space, but if we didn’t, I definitely could have made some money
from renting out our space. Or maybe you live a 10 minute walk from a popular town or city centre?
If you live somewhere where your parking space is a major selling point of where you live,
someone else will want to use it too, and will pay you for it, either on a short-term rental,
or a long-term one. Sites like JustPark here in the UK will facilitate the entire thing for you,
while sites like Spacer in the US seem to be a good option if you live on that side of the pond,
and obviously there will most likely be similar options for you, wherever you live.
## Idea 5 - Film your work, start a YouTube channel
Creating a YouTube channel is one of the best ways to build a scaleable,
money-making business from home in 2022, in my opinion. But, what if the whole, talking
to camera thing isn’t something you’re keen on? What if you don’t know what to talk about?
Well, have you thought about filming your job?
Now, clearly this isn’t going to work for everyone, if you’re an analyst working for
the security services, they’re not going to let you start vlogging from the office,
but some people might work a day job where they could film their process, whilst ensuring
customer and data privacy of course, and share that content with an audience on YouTube.
But who would want to watch someone working on YouTube,
you ask? Well, a LOT of people as it happens.
Here’s a few real examples. Like these these guys, whose name I won’t attempt to pronounce,
who wash filthy rugs in real life, but film the entire process,
creating some of the most satisfying cleaning videos you can find online.
Or this guy, who cleans cars, and again films the entire process, inside and out.
Or Tom the Taxi Driver, a London cabbie who makes videos about the life of a London taxi driver,
or Nina the Crew Chef, who makes videos about being the head chef on a charter yacht.
Or this guy, who removes hornet’s nests for people, and films
the really fascinating process of him doing so.
Or this couple, who started out visiting expensive homes that were available to
buy and filming the viewing. No problem for the owners, they get free publicity for their listing,
and the couple get a constant stream of content to use on their channel.
My cousin for example, runs a dog boarding business, and has an awesome Instagram feed, and
I think it would be amazing if she started wearing a GoPro camera and filming her daily work with the
various dogs she has every day, I know there would be an audience for that kind of content.
If you’re not aware, once you reach a certain number of subscribers and
watch hours on a YouTube channel, you can join the Partner Program,
which allows you to claim your fair share of the adverts that YouTube are going to run on
your content anyway. This can be as little as a few extra pounds or dollars per month,
all the way up to life-changing sums of money, depending on how popular your channel is.
Now of course, it’s on you to ensure that the channel you create isn’t going to get
you in any kind of trouble with your boss or your clients, but potentially, setting up a GoPro the
next time you cut a client’s lawn, or pressure wash a driveway or whatever it is that you do,
could become an excellent source of additional income for you.
And if the whole ‘filming your job thing’ really isn’t suitable for you,
what about filming your hobby? The exact same thing would apply.
## Idea 6 - Become a Tutor
Now, tutoring isn’t exactly a new source of income, teaching people has been a profession for
a very long time, but the internet has opened up people’s opportunities for becoming a tutor like
never before. Sites like MyTutor here in the UK, [TutorMe.com](http://TutorMe.com) seems to be a
good option in the US, both work in a similar way. You apply, and once approved, you can advertise
your tutoring services, and then get paid for the tuition that you offer. This is great if you’re
skilled at in-demand subjects for kids of course, like maths and science, but even if your skills
lie more in things like music, there’s options out there for you. You can even offer English as a
foreign language tuition, connect with non-English speakers who are learning the language, and charge
a fee to converse with them, giving them real-life practice, and giving you some extra money.
## Idea 7 - Monetize talking about something you’re passionate about
This is another YouTube channel example, but I genuinely believe anyone can do this one.
The idea is simple, find a topic that you’re an absolute geek about,
and start filming yourself talking about that topic. Splice in some relevant video
content to make your content more interesting, create one video per week, rinse and repeat.
Now, when I say ‘something you’re passionate about’, you might be thinking of high level topics
like the guitar, or photography, but the awesome thing about YouTube is you can go super-niche
with this. Maybe you can’t stop talking about your theories relating to The Sopranos TV show?
Cool, make a channel about it. Maybe you bore your friends with chat about the best way to look after
horses when they’re being kept in stables? Cool, make a channel about it. Maybe you’ve acquired a
collection of something over the years, like jazz records or model trains or whatever it might be,
and you like telling people the stories about how you came to acquire them all.
Cool, make a channel about it, because honestly, there are people out there who will watch.
That’s how this channel started it’s life - me, back in January 2021,
wanting to create an additional revenue stream, yes, but just as importantly, wanting to talk
all day long about tech and gadgets. Just over a year later, and I’ve got not only an additional
and constantly growing income stream, I’ve also got an audience of people who listen to
me chat all day long about something I’m really interested in. It’s well worth considering.
## Idea 8 - Create Mindful Content for YouTube
Now I’m using the term mindfulness here, but there’s a possibility that it’s ever so slightly
the wrong term, but essentially what I’m talking about is creating content that helps people to
relax, and be more mindful. Mindfulness of course is a form of meditation, which might
make you panic a little, the thought of creating a meditation video, but hear me out for a moment.
There are thousands of creators on YouTube right now making money by posting content that
is designed to help people calm down and relax. Content like this guy, who walks around the Swiss
village in which he lives, with a camera strapped to his front, without saying a word, and just
allowing us to come with him as he quietly, slowly walks around these beautiful landscapes. Just
google ‘walking tour’ and pretty much any place in the world, and there will be results that come up.
Or this lady who has filmed scenes from windows,
in places like Manhattan and Atlantic City, and just left the camera running as the sun comes up.
You might think this all sounds ridiculous, but people are searching for content like this,
especially with more and more of us working from home, we all want to feel calm and connected to
other people, and these videos can be great to play in the background while you’re working.
So how could you do this? Easy, if you’ve got a good view from your window, just set a camera,
or the camera on your phone up one morning as the sun comes up, open the window slightly and
hit record, then post the footage to YouTube. Maybe you live near a beach, or you know of a
good lookout spot from a hill that you could go to and film the sun rising for an hour or two?
You need never put your face or your voice on the channel, and whilst it’s probably not going
to become change your life money, it could be a nice little side-income, for pretty minimal work.
## Idea 9 - Rent out stuff you own
So, AirBnB is the place to rent out your home, and JustPark is the place to rent out your parking
space, but what if neither of those apply to you? Well there are still options for you,
and you can rent out pretty much anything that someone might want to borrow.
With Neighbor, you can rent out spare space in your home,
storing items for people on a short or a long-term basis.
Turo allows you to rent out your car, great if you’ve got one that you rarely ever use, but still
need for that odd emergency, you could possibly cover the cost of it, or even make a profit on it.
SpinLister is the same concept, but for items like bikes, snowboards, paddleboards etc.
StyleLend allows you to rent out your clothes,
great if you’ve got items that you know you’re only going to wear once or twice,
but just can’t bring yourself to sell on eBay, Facebook or Vinted.
BabyQuip lets you rent and help deliver baby gear to families who are travelling around the US,
and either don’t want to, or can’t bring all of the gear with them each time.
The brilliantly named FatLlama lets you rent or rent out pretty much anything, from photography
gear to DJ equipment, to barbecues to drones, allowing you to set a day rate or weekly rate.
These are just a handful of examples, but you get the idea, and whilst I acknowledge that
these are US examples, there are examples for all over the world, you just have to get browsing.
And if there aren’t any in your region, maybe an idea would be to set a business up!
## Idea 10 - Help local offline businesses with their online presence
You might have made it this far and thought, well honestly, the thing I’m best at when it comes
to tech, is using YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok, where’s the value in that?
The truth is, there can be huge value in that, if you pitch it to the right people. There are loads
of offline businesses in your neighbourhood right now who want a better online presence,
but don’t know where to start. So why not pitch to help some of these local businesses out?
You could even charge a recurring fee. Say, $50 per month per social media channel, for which
you’ll create 3 posts per week, or 10 tweets per week or whatever amount you think is fair,
and you then take over the running of their social media profile.
The great thing about this one, is that you could scale it up as much or as little as you like,
with the potential to grow this into an actual marketing business, if you desired.
Yes, you’re going to have to get out there and get face-to-face with some local businesses,
but all it’s going to take is getting that first client onboard, and you’ll be off.
So there you go, 10 ways you can use technology to help make you some extra money,
right now. Like I said at the start of the video, not all of these are going to be right for you,
but one or two of them might be, and honestly, you only need one to work. What do you think?
Are you interested in giving any of these a go? Are there some good ideas for making money
using your technology that I’ve missed out? Drop me a comment, and let’s talk about it.
And as ever, if you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like,
and subscribing to my channel for more content like this in the future.
See you on the next video.