11 Ways to Make $3500 a Month from Home

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There’s never been a better time to start making extra money from home.

What with recent events, there has been an exponential growth in the availability of remote work and a huge increase in opportunities within the gig economy.

Whilst making $3500 a month won’t come overnight, it is certainly within your grasp if you start taking action and devise a plan to get there.

The perks of working for yourself at home are extensive and most people experience a new sense of freedom from doing so.

Working from home or for yourself can have many benefits…

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of 11 ways you can start making $3500 a month from home.

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Get Paid to Check Documents

Proofreading documents for publishers is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to start earning a full-time income from home.

Proofreaders look for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and other errors in written text and then either flag them or correct them.

If you’ve got a knack for spotting errors then proofreading is definitely worth exploring.

You can do this on a freelance basis and build a client base as you go.

You can also work on an agency basis, where you are provided with your work through an agency.

Proofreading is so accessible because:

• You don’t really need any formal qualifications
• The initial investment and barrier to entry is low (all you really need is a laptop, a phone and an internet connection)
• You can learn the skills as you go

What Can I Earn Proofreading?

In the USA, according to Talent.com, expect to earn around $41,000pa as a proofreader.

This is pretty much right on the money for the $3500pm you’re targeting.

However, this is just an average sum and you can clearly earn a lot more than this and also a lot less depending on the portfolio of clients you can build and your experience.

How to Get Started?

Unless you have experience proofreading already, then the best way to kickstart your new venture is to take a course.

This will equip you with the information you need to know such as how to:

• Get clients and build a portfolio
• Become efficient at proofreading
• Market yourself
• Grow and scale your business

My favorite course is Proofread Anywhere by Caitlin Pyle.

She started on a part-time basis and soon scaled her business to make a full-time income and earned close to the $3500 a month target you’re aiming for within her first year.

Caitlin even offers a free 76-minute workshop so you can test the waters and see if it’s something that would suit you in the long term.

Unbelievably, Caitlin’s business is now worth millions of dollars, although granted a lot of this is from selling her course.

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Start a YouTube Channel

I am guessing you’ve already heard of the crazy sums some YouTubers make even when they’re seemingly just making fun videos all day.

• Mr Beast $54m a year
• Ryan Kaji $27m a year
• Nastya $28m a year
• Unspeakable $28.5m a year

(Figures as of 2021 according to Forbes)

That’s just to name a few.

Granted, not all of those earnings are generated from YouTube, but huge sums are.

Whilst that’s not to say you’ll get anywhere near those people as they are very much the exception, you can still make a pretty penny making videos for YouTube.

The best thing is, YouTube videos can be made about almost anything.

Wherever there’s a demand for video instructions, reviews, guides, or even just plain entertainment, videos can be made.

This means invariably there will always be room for a new YouTuber to start adding content to the platform.

What Do I Need?

Most people can start earning on YouTube by just filming on their smartphone provided the equipped camera isn’t a complete potato.

But most people will want some basic equipment like a microphone, some lighting, and a modest video camera if you can afford it.

Expect to pay up to around $100 for a microphone and lighting and then if you want a camera, probably $300 – $1000 for something half decent.

How Do I Make Money With YouTube?

The amount of money you can make on YouTube will depend on what your videos are about.

For example, a tech video, say, a review of a TV, where the viewer has a lot of buyer intent, will likely make a lot more money than a cute cat video where there’s no buyer intent.

The main ways to monetize a YouTube video include:

• Ads: This is the most common method. Let’s say you get around $2-4 on average for every 1000 views, so taking a midpoint, you’d need around a million views a month across your videos to get to $3000pm. Hoiwever, you need 1000 subcribers and 4000 hours of people watching your videos before you can display ads on your videos
• Affiliates: This is where you promote a product for a commission. You will see YouTubers says they’ve “left a link in the description” when reviewng or mentioning a product. This is invariably an affiliate link where they get a commission if you make a qualifying purchase through that link;
• Sponsored videos:When you have a big enough audience, companies will often approach you to mention or review their product and will pay good money to do so. This can range from anything between a few hundred bucks to 100’s of thousands of dollars;
• Promoting your own product: One other obvious way is to promote your own product by mentioning it in your video. You can then direct your viewers to a shop to buy that product/

Whilst making money with YouTube isn’t easy, it’s certainly doable.

Video content is seeing exponential growth and it’s estimated 82 percent of internet traffic will come from video streaming in 2022.

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Build a Niche Site

A niche site is one that is focused on a particular topic or cluster of topics with a view to providing information to people on that topic.

The aim is to build a website with an encyclopedia of content and attract readers through search engines like Google or through social media like Facebook and Pinterest.

You can build a niche site that is fairly wide in its scope or you can build one that is much more focused.

There are benefits and detriments of both methods.

A focused niche site might be on topics like:

• Gardening clothing
• Remote control cars
• TV’s
• Weight loss supplements

These are all highly focused on specific topics within wider niches. For example, gardening clothing is focused on a particular sub-topic of the gardening niche.

The benefit of building a site like this is that you can usually be seen as more of an authority on that particular topic because all of your content is focused on that topic.

This can mean that it’s easier to convince Google that you’re an expert on that topic, rather than a jack of all trades within the wider niche.

In turn, this can mean Google sends you more traffic to your articles and you can make more money for that reason.

Alternatively, a more general, less focused niche site might be on:

• Parenting
• Home improvement
• Sport
• Tech

Whilst these are still specific niches, they are much more general and much less focused.

The benefit of creating a site in a wider niche is that there are a lot more topics to write about, which means you cast your net much wider in terms of the content you produce.

This means that while you may be seen as less of an authority, the opportunities to get traffic are more extensive and this can make up for any earnings lost by producing more generalized content.

My current preference having built several niche sites, is to go for a general niche.

I find the opportunity to write articles on a wider set of topics much more engaging and, frankly, easier.

However, the key to choosing any niche is to ensure that:

• There are people searching for information on that topic. There’s no point writing a thousand articles on bespoke furniture from the middle ages if no one is interested. No interest = no traffic = no earnings
• The competition isn’t too stiff
• There’s opportunties to make money
• You have the relevant expertise. I would strongly advise against the medical, dieting, investing, tax, legal and accounting niches unless you are an expert in those fields. Essentially, avoid any niche where you need a degree or professional training to write about it.

How Do I Make Money?

Making money from a niche site is similar to making money through YouTube.

In fact, a good way to scale a niche site is to create a YouTube channel for it so you can provide video content as well as written content.

Google loves video content and you’ll find that your niche site rankings on Google can often be improved by linking your YouTube content to your niche site.

Making money on a niche site falls into these categories:

• Display ads: I make around $30 per thousand visitors to my site. This can easily add up. For example, you’d
• Affiliate marketing: You can promote products relevant to your niche and earn a commission for every sale you generate. For example, if you operated a tech site you could earn commissions through Amazon’s affiliate program “Amazon Associates”. You refer someone to Amazon, they purchase a laptop and you make a lovely commission which is usually a percentage of the sale price (see how I made $3500 with affiliate marketing on Facebook)
• Sell products or courses: You can sell things like e-books, video courses and your own merchandise
• Sponsored posts: This is where companies pay you to write an article to promote or advertise their product. These payments can be anything from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars.

How to Set Up a Niche Site

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Pinterest Manager

As a Pinterest manager, you will maintain the accounts of Pinterest content creators with a view to making their online Pinterest presence grow and their sales/earnings increase.

Pinterest is used by publishers as a way of generating traffic to their websites and YouTube Channels.

Running a successful Pinterest account takes quite a lot of effort as a publisher as you need to:

• Constantly create and share pins
• Run ad campaigns
• Manage followers
• Improve engagement
• Set up story and video pins
• Reply to messages from users

All this takes considerable time and effort and that’s why many publishers engage the services of a Pinterest manager.

As a Pinterest manager, you’ll hope to have numerous clients who will pay you a fee usually on the basis of an hourly rate.

According to World of Freelancers, expect to earn around $15 an hour with this increasing to $25 – $75 an hour with experience.

The best thing about this opportunity is that it can be done completely remotely and it’s a work-from-home job where you don’t need a degree or any particular qualifications to do it.

If you’re interested in this opportunity then I would look at the course by Kristin Larsen who left her corporate job in 2015 to start a successful Pinterest Virtual Assistant business.

She now teaches others how to do this in her course Become a Pinterest VA. She even offers free training.

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Transcriptionist

As a transcriptionist, you’ll be converting audio into written text.

This is a great freelance opportunity and like many others in this article, doesn’t require much in the way of formal qualifications or training.

You’ll need skills like:

• Accurate and fast typing
• Good English and language skills
• A keen eye for detail
• Strong listening skills

The average hourly rate for a transcriptionist is quite low but with experience and as a freelancer you can generate more income and up to around $30 per hour.

If you are interested in this opportunity then I would look no further than the course by Janet Shaughnessy “Transcribe Anywhere” which will teach you the foundations of the role, how to secure clients, and run a transcription business.

For further reading on this opportunity be sure to check out my article 19 Legitimate Transcription and Typing Jobs from Home

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Write for a Blog

Undoubtedly, one of the best ways to make make money from home remotely, is to write for publishers on a freelance basis.

I use the services of freelance writers on this blog often and pay around $50 – $100 per 1000 words.

As a freelance writer, you can easily make a full time income with only a handful of regular clients.

Owning a blog is all about publishing content regularly and this means there’s plenty of opportunities for freelance writers to receive a steady stream of work.

I know blogs that employ teams of writers and churn out up to 400 articles per month.

If you are charging around $100 per 1000 words, then you can easily get to your target of $3500 a month as you would only need to write around 40 articles a month (or 10 a week) to be making $4000pm.

I a member of quite a few blogging groups (on Facebook and various forums) and people often comment about how they would freelance write before their blogs started earning.

I have been amazed at some of the earnings these people were generating. For example, one now successful blogger was earning close to $8000 a month writing for other bloggers in her niche. Another was earning around $6000pm. This was within about a year of starting as well!

This is definitely realistic and you can even charge much more if you have specialist knowledge of a topic. For example, I have known experienced writers charge up to $400 per 1000 words.

Where to Get Freelance Writing Gigs

There are several ways to generate clients but some of my favorites include:

• Cold emailing: This is where you email prospective clients and offer your services. Provide a copy of your CV, an example of your work and details of your rates. Best of all, it’s free!
• Fivver and Upwork: These websites are great for finding clients to expand your portfolio. While they do take a cut of your fee, they have a massive database of users, meaning it can be a lot easier to generate business than if you’re trying to drum up business alone.
• Problogger Site: The Problogger website has a job board where you can tout for clients. This is one of the best ways to pick up high quality work that will pay more than Fivver and Upwork.

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Fast Ways To Make $3500 a Month

A lot of the examples above take quite a lot of time to get set up.

But what about if you need $3500 a month fast and don’t have the time or resources to learn a new skill?

Gig Economy Jobs

Doordash: Make up to $25 per hour delivering food to people

Task Rabbit: Make up to $75 per hour doing tasks like DIY, cleaning, gardening and deliver

Postmates: Earn up to $15 per hour delivering parcels for people

Rover: Earn up to $25 per hour walking people’s dogs

Medical Trials

If you want to earn a quick lump sum of cash, then donating your body to medical science is a sure-fire way to do so.

I have seen some trials pay up to as much as $20,000. Clearly those are few and far between and most will pay around $300 – $1000 but still, this is not to be siffed at.

Check out:

• Acurian Health
• Labcorp
• ClinicalTrials.gov

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How Much is $3500 a Month as Yearly Income?

$3500 per month equates to a yearly income of $42,000 or $807 per week.

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Is $3500 a Month a Good Salary and Income?

$3500 a month is a fairly good salary.

The average annual salary in the USA is around $35,977 according to the US census which is around $3000 a month.

Therefore, $3500 is an above average monthly salary but it isn’t mind blowing by any stretch.

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Final Thoughts

So there you have it.

There should be plenty of ideas there to get you thinking and motivated to earn $3500 a month.

I am still of the view that creating a niche website or blog is the best way to generate a full time income from home.

I would say that freelance writing follows closely behind because I know just how much work there currently is out there.

Check out my guide on how to set up a blog and succeed.