How Gift Cards Can Increase Your Profit!

 

Open an Etsy Shop

If you have an eye for design or are crafty, consider selling goods on Etsy by opening up your own shop. You can look through popular items to see what’s worth selling and then add your unique twist to it. You can also sell digital printables that can become a passive income stream if you create a product that sells.

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Monetize Your Vlog, Blog or Website

If you have a website or YouTube channel, you might be able to make money by monetizing it. One quick way to earn money online is to place ads on your site — you’ll earn money anytime someone views or clicks the ad.

How much you earn depends on your platform and your contract with the advertiser. According to Hootsuite, the YouTube revenue per 100,000 views ranges from $1,000 to $3,000. You could also increase your income by promoting your own products or selling private advertising space.

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Claim the Home Office Deduction

If you’re setting up a side gig that’s run out of the house and using part of your home exclusively for your business, you might be entitled to a home office deduction. The IRS allows you to claim a portion of your home expenses, such as rent, electricity, water, gas, internet and phone bills, for business purposes.

The home office deduction also might allow you to deduct a portion of your home maintenance and essential renovations, as long as they’re relevant to your business. So you’ll get an extra pay boost on top of the other benefits of upgrading your home.

It’s important that you make sure to keep your receipts. You’ll need to demonstrate that any purchases were legitimate business expenses if you’re ever the subject of an IRS audit.

Check Out: 26 Ways To Make $1,000 Fast — In a Week or Less

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Automate Your Savings

The key to increasing your take-home pay is being smart with your money, and setting up automatic savings withdrawals can help. You can use a banking app like Ally Bank to automate your savings and set up different “buckets” that let you automatically save up for your various financial goals.

You can also make more money by investing your savings in dividend-paying stocks and index funds that give you a return on your money. Additionally, other types of savings, such as an IRA, might make you eligible for a tax credit, which effectively increases your income by lowering your liability.

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Sell Your Influence

If you’re already active on sites like Facebook and Twitter, take a tip from social media masters Tony Robbins and Kim Kardashian and earn money online as an influencer. Not only is social media its own legitimate side gig, but using it to build your reputation in an industry related to your main job can raise your profile, making it easier for you to secure a raise.

You can also earn money directly by partnering with brands to use and review specific products or simply let a brand pay to place sponsored content on your profile.

How much you’ll make per blog or social media post depends on your following.

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Change Your Utility Usage

Signing up for cellphone, cable and internet service is a balancing act between buying enough to cover what you need and not paying for services you don’t use. Look over your recent statements for those services to make sure you’re not paying for extras. You should also consider switching to an alternative cellphone carrier or check out television streaming services and call providers to negotiate better rates on the features you truly want.

Look over your electricity use, too. Some suppliers charge less for energy use later in the evening, so simply making dinner later in the day could help you save. And if you live in a sunny state with a high electricity cost, renting solar panels might save you even more money.

You may even want to consider using solar energy in your home as the government incentivizes Americans to switch to renewable energy sources. You can turn your solar panels into a side hustle and earn up to $3,000 annually by selling your excess energy to the utility company.

Read Next: 7 Things You Must Do To Start Making $1K a Month in Passive Income

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Start Freelancing

This last point can bring many opportunities to increase your income together. You can start freelancing to perform jobs on a per-project basis to make extra money when you have the time to do so.

What kind of freelance work can you do?

You can create graphics on Upwork for up to $35/hour.

You can earn an average of $54/hour as an AI prompt engineer.

You can find clients for your personal training business by growing your Instagram following.

The goal is to learn new skills and leverage your existing capabilities to seek out freelancing opportunities.

Sylvie Tremblay contributed to the reporting for this article.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 15 Ways To Dramatically Increase Your Income in 2024