How to make $500 dollars fast?
If you’re searching for a way to make some extra money, you are not alone.
In fact, the phrase “how to make 500 dollars fast” gets 1600 searches per month in the US alone. While over 40500 people search for the phrase “how to make money fast” per month!
Whatever the reason, there’s no shortage of ideas online to help you to rack up that cash in a couple of weeks or even days if you hustle enough.
Rather than listing hundreds of ways to generate an extra income, I am going to list a few actionable steps that will help you make at least $500 dollars fast and realistically.
So in today’s post, you will learn my favorites gigs to help you make $500 or more.
Ready? Let’s get started!
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure page for more information.
Best Ways to Make $500 Dollars Realistically
There are many ways you can earn $500 fast online or offline.
One of the most popular options to make $500 or more is by selling unwanted items either online or through a garage sale.
Getting a second job outside normal business hours in addition to your regular employment is another popular option.
For example, if you’re tech-savvy or creative, you can offer your skills online on the freelancing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.
Completing small tasks on job sites such as TaskRabbit, selling homemade craft on Etsy or get paid to walk dogs via the Rover app are all also good ways to make extra money on the side.
If you find yourself searching for “how to get 500 dollars fast”, “I need 500 dollars fast” or “how to make 500 dollars in a day”, you need to start thinking in terms of what items you can sell or start identifying your skillset that you can offer as services to other people.
Get Paid to Answer Surveys
Participating in online surveys is an easy way to score some quick wins.
Companies conduct online surveys to collect data and learn more about their target audience to help improve their products and services.
A survey can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to complete. The longer the survey the more you can earn, some pay as high as $100 per survey.
Some survey sites offer a $10 signup bonus so if you join five of those, you could earn $50 instantly today.
Since not all sites will have matching surveys available for you to participate each week/month, consider joining as many survey sites as you can.
How fast can you make $500 by answering surveys?
Taking online surveys alone won’t make you rich. The amount you’ll make will depend on the number of survey sites you joined and surveys that you’re eligible to participate in.
You should consider them because they are low maintenance, easy to do and free to join.
Here’re some of my favorites survey sites:
Survey Junkie
With Survey Junkie, you earn points by answering surveys where 100 points are worth $1. To earn extra points, you can even refer friends to participate too.
Depending on how long it takes, you can earn between $0.50 to $50 per survey. Most surveys take between 1 to 2 minutes to complete.
They will tell you how many points you’ll earn and how long a particular survey will take so you can decide whether to take it or not.
New surveys are available every day so you can probably reach your goal faster if you’re diligent.
You’ll earn $2 worth of points just for signing up and completing your profile.
Swagbucks (Get $5 just for signing up)
One of the largest online surveys for cash, Swagbucks works on a points system also called Swagbucks (SBs).
Besides answering surveys questions, you can also earn points for watching videos ($10 bonus), searching the web ($10 bonus), installing a browser and more.
These activities are pretty effortless allowing you to make money from them quite easily.
To make even more money, use their referral program to refer your friends and earn 10% of their earnings.
Sell Your Unused Stuff
Selling unwanted items either online or through a good old-fashioned garage sale is one of the most popular options for people looking to earn additional income.
Hosting a garage sale or selling your stuff online through eBay or the DeCluttr app is easy and cheap to do. It provides a fast return on your investment and can put extra cash in your pocket fast.
As an added bonus, you get to clean up the junk in your house!
How fast can you make $500?
It all depends on the value of the things you’re selling and how many you can sell. It’s possible to earn some quick cash in under a week.
You could be sitting on 500 dollars right now and you may not even know it, so give this one a try!
Sell Your Unused Stuff at DeCluttr
You might be broke but chances are, you have extra electronics lying around like CDs and DVDs, Blu-rays, books, old phones and game consoles
Rather than throwing them away or let them take up space in your home, you can sell them through DeCluttr and make extra money fast.
Someone I heard sold about 100 DVDs and 75 CDS and made $275. That’s $1.57 each!
Decluttr gives you an instant cash price for the item you want to sell just by scanning its barcode using their app or by manually entering the code.
No auctions with strangers and no listing fees to worry about.
Shipping is free too. They provide shipping labels which you can print out and use the prepaid box to send out your items.
Decluttr pays you 24 hours after they receive your items. You can opt to get paid via direct deposit, PayPal or a check in the mail.
Using DeCluttr involves very little work. As an added bonus purging the home of unused goods will help get your house in order.
Postmark
For used clothing and accessories, you can try the smartphone app Poshmark. It’s very similar to eBay or Craigslist but they put emphasis on social media and being mobile-friendly.
Postmark charges a flat fee of $2.95 for items that cost $15 or lower. For more expensive items, Postmark takes a 20% commission fee.
When it comes to shipping your item, Postmark provides a prepaid shipping label that you can print with your printer and ship the item directly to the buyer.
thredUp
thredUp is one of the largest online consignment and thrift stores. Certain brands of clothes for women, kids and even maternity wear can do well here.
Before sending any item to them, use their Payout Estimator to get an estimate of how much your stuff is worth.
For items valued lower than $15, you’ll get 5% of the sale price. You’ll earn anywhere between 10% to 80% for items valued at $15 or higher.
Now you won’t make tons of money selling used clothes, but it’s instant cash you are getting while also getting rid of clothes that you don’t use anyway.
OfferUp
Previously known as LetGo, you can find other second-hand stuff, anything from electronics, cars and collectables to clothing, furniture and home decor.
Interestingly, OfferUp doesn’t charge a listing fee and they don’t take a cut of the final sale. So there’s no reason not to start selling on there.
OfferUp made most of their money from advertising revenue so their strategy is to attract millions of users and then sell advertising space to support their business.
Rather than throwing away stuff you no longer use or let them take up space in your home, why not turn them to cash?
For the largest audience, you can always try selling at eBay of Facebook Marketplace too.
Creative Ways to Make $500 Fast
Get $10 Through Rakuten
Formerly known as Ebates, Rakuten is an online shopping site that gives you cashback for your online purchases.
Rakuten pays a $10 sign-up bonus and when you shop through their platform.
So how can you earn $500 from Rakuten?
You can take advantage of their referral program. When your friend sign-up through your affiliate link, you’ll get $25 and they’ll get $10.
To put $500 in your pocket, you’ll need to get 20 of your friends to sign up. That won’t be hard if you have several Facebook friends and family members you can refer to.
As a member, you’ll continue to enjoy up to 40% off in the form of cashback at over 2000 online stores and 30 brick and mortar retailers.
With a generous $10 sign-up bonus, refer a friend program and an ever-growing list of stores, Rakuten is one of the easiest ways to make money and save money on purchases you already make.
Rakuten is available internationally but if you are not from the US or Canada, there may be limited stores you can buy from due to shipping restriction or cost.
Sign up with Rakuten now and get $10
Let Paribus Tracks If Stores Owe You Refund
Paribus is a shopping app that tracks if stores owe you a refund.
It sends you money when you buy items and there’s a price drop or your guaranteed shipment shows up late. How cool is that?
Here’s how Paribus works:
- Shop or plan your vacation online as you normally would.
- Paribus monitor the confirmation emails and watches for prices changes
- When they detect potential savings such as retail price drops, late deliveries and hotel price drops, they’ll let you know and help you get a free refund on the price difference.
Paribus is great because it’ll help you earn money passively without you even knowing it. It’s free to join and is effortless to use.
Currently, they track 25+ major retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Macy’s and Nordstrom. They also monitor hotel room rates booked through Expedia, Booking.com, Priceline, Hilton etc.
Just sign up using the email provider where you receive online shopping receipts and they will do the hard work for you.
Lower Your Bills With Trim
Trim is a free money-saving app that makes you money by helping you save money. Money saved is money earned!
Trim analyzes your accounts to find recurring subscriptions and determine where you can save more money.
You save money when Trim cancels subscriptions that you pay but have long forgotten about, negotiates your Comcast bills, finds you better car insurance and more.
The automate savings feature supports automated weekly transfer into a high-yield saving account.
It won’t take long before you have an extra $500 in your account without even realizing it.
Get You Lost Money Back
If you’re in the US, you can go to Unclaimed.org to find out if there’s unclaimed money attached to your name.
There’s $15 billion in lost money floating around unclaimed and some of it may be yours that you may have forgotten about.
How could money be unclaimed you ask?
Well, it can be money from forgotten saving accounts you had as a kid, lost paychecks, a utility deposit on an old account or inactive stocks or bonds accounts that banks and companies have turned over to the state.
Watch the video below to learn more.
Get Paid to Hack Facebook
Do you know Facebook also relies on its users to report on security holes and bugs on the social media platform?
If you’re good with computers and just stumble upon a bug or several bugs on the platform, you can earn 500 bucks minimum for reporting the issue to them. There’s no cap on the maximum amount you can earn though.
Facebook has set up a program called Bug Bounty. To participate, simply visit this page and report the bug or security flaws.
To qualify for the reward, you must be the first person to submit the issue. The flaw must be one of those that “compromise the integrity or privacy of Facebook user data”.
Also, you must be living in a country that’s not under any U.S. sanctions. So, if you live in Iran, North Korea, Libya or Cuba, you do not qualify.
You can read more about Facebook Bug Bounty terms here.
The program was launched in 2011 and has paid $5 million in 5 years. ($6 million in 2018 according to Wired).
In 2018, Facebook will now accept reports in third-party apps and services that connect to user accounts.
Make $500 Dollars (and More) Freelancing
Sell Gigs at Fiverr
Fiverr is an online freelance services marketplace that you can deliver online. It’s one of the most newbie-friendly platforms to start an online service-based business with.
A service offered on Fiverr is called a Gig. You can sign up as a Seller and sell your gigs to buyers. No website or startup cost needed as Fiverr will handle everything.
The price of a gig starts out at $5 but you can offer different packages at different price points.
You can earn exponentially more by offering add-ons. From these extras, some Fiverr sellers are generating six figures in income per year.
You can sell just about anything you can think of from graphic design, writing and translation, song lyrics writing, and more.
No skills? No problem!
If you consider yourself funny, you can sell funny video sketches, sing happy birthday while wearing a funny costume, write a message in beach sand at sunrise or anything else that you might find enjoyable.
I am using Fiverr personally as a buyer and a seller. I’ve been a buyer at Fiverr since 2012. In April 2018, I decided to become a seller.
As a seller, I am making a couple of hundred per month doing 4 hours of work in my spare time.
Fiverr is one of my favorite side hustles because it involves smaller gigs that can be delivered quickly. For each gig that I offer, I’m using a template that can be customized easily to create unique final products.
Signing up takes just a minute and there’s no need to handle payments or physical delivery as everything is conducted online.
Sign up with Fiverr today. Who knows you could be making more than $500 soon.
Upwork
Upwork is another popular freelancing sites where individuals and companies look for freelancers when they need some short-term, or one-time work done.
If you have marketable skills in writing, graphic design, programming, video editing or virtual assistant tasks, then Upwork could be for you.
The amount you make for each job will vary on the type of work.
Compare to Fiverr where clients will find you, on Upwork you have to constantly search for new clients.
That means you need to know how to pitch to potential clients and compete with other service providers by bidding on projects to attract business.
Fiverr works great for low-cost jobs that you can deliver fast. In contrast, for larger projects that take time and more resources, Upwork is the better choice.
With Upwork, you can also charge an hourly rate.
Both Fiverr and Upwork charge 20% fee but Upwork charges reduced it to 10% when you earn more than $500.
Run Errands, Small Tasks & Odd Jobs
TaskRabbit
TaskRabbit lets you help other people get things done around their home.
These things may include cleaning someone’s room, assemble a piece of furniture, move boxes via truck, or mount a mirror and other odd jobs.
Many Taskers have made a living going full-time using this platform.
According to TaskRabbit, 10% to 15% of their contractors who fully commit to the platform can earn $6,000 to $7,000 per month.
Craigslist Labor Gigs
On Craigslist, you can find labor gigs and one day only jobs that pay on the same day and in cash.
This is not the usual temp staffing jobs but anything that you can do from helping to move furniture, be part of a house renovation crew, yard work and so on.
For example, scanning the local Labor Gigs, I found this gig:
I need someone to take multiple pictures of a property for me. All you need is a cell phone you must take at least 30 clear pictures of the property. Pay is $40
You can find these jobs under “Gigs”, ‘part-time”, “Labor Gigs” etc. The competition can be fierce though as these same-day jobs are very popular.
Gigwalk
Gigwalk allows you to make a few extra bucks or more by doing quick in-store jobs, known as Gigs, in your area.
The Gigs, often posted by companies and retailers, can take anywhere from 5 minutes to a few hours and pay between $3 to $100 or more depending on the work and location.
A gig may require you to visit a store to verify products are available on the shelf, take pictures of their products, testing apps or check that marketing events are done on-time.
As you can see, the tasks don’t require any special skills to do. If you are always on the go, have a phone and a few minutes to spare, then this could be for you.
5 Ways to Earn Passive Income
Nielsen Mobile App (Collect $50, chance to win $10,000 each month)
Nielsen is one of the best-known names when it comes to surveys and market research.
To join, start by answering questions at their website to tell more about yourself, your household and the devices you use. Then download the Nielsen App, either on your tablet or smartphone.
Nielsen rewards you just for browsing the Internet as you normally would. They collect stats about your Internet usage anonymously over time.
Nielsen will pay you $50 a year to keep their app on your device. The app itself is only 2.5MB in size and won’t slow down your phone or tablet at all.
No, it won’t make you $500 immediately but you’ll earn free passive income just for installing the app.
Combine this passive income source with other sources and you will be on your way to earning $500 or more consistently.
Rent Extra Space at Airbnb
Have a spare room, apartment, house, loft, even a camping area in your backyard? Perhaps you’re going away for the weekend or on a vacation.
Whatever the case may be, you can list your space for short-term rentals on Airbnb and make money from it.
Airbnb attracts renters like tourists, people who are visiting friends or family in the area or travellers in town for an event. For them, the cost per night is often cheaper than that of a hotel.
For your peace of mind, Airbnb offers up to $1 million insurance policy to cover property damage, security and other risks.
You can also charge a cleaning fee and a security deposit to your renters to cover any minor damage that may happen.
Your income can vary based on your location and on the amenities you offer. Earning $500 or more per day just by renting out a room on Airbnb is not unusual.
There’s even a story about a guy who repaid his whole 4-bedroom house mortgage in seven years renting three rooms to other people.
Rent Out Your Garage or Driveway
Do you know you can make money renting out your unused parking space, garage and driveway? Well, now you know!
Thanks to the sharing economy, renting out your garage is a great way to earn a side income passively.
The amount of money you’ll make largely depends on your location, whether or not your spot is covered and the type of spot it is as well as the number of hours your spot is available.
Large city garage spaces may rent for $150 per month and up, whereas suburban spots may rent for $50–100 per month.
Some services allow owners to rent out spots for other vehicle types besides cars such as bicycles, campers and boats.
Here are a few websites to get started:
Make Money Blogging
Do you know you can start a blog with a very little upfront cost, unlike other ventures? For example, this blog costs as little as $3.95 per month to host.
Starting a blog is one of those side hustles that could actually generate a life-changing income for you.
There are many ways you can make money from blogging. Some of the most popular ways include displaying ads as I do here, accepting sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, or selling your own products or services.
You can expect to earn a few hundred if not thousands of dollars monthly from your blog in less than a year. The amount tends to increase over time.
There are blogs out there which make $60K per month, no that’s not a typo, just one year after starting!
Truth be told, creating a successful blog requires serious effort, dedication and won’t happen overnight.
However, once the income starts to kick in, you won’t be trading your time for money but instead, you’ve built a way of generating passive income and it’s highly scalable.
If you think you’re not a good writer, I myself is not a native English speaker.
Having no technical skills is not a good excuse either. You gotta start somewhere and most people learn as they go.
If you don’t give blogging a shot, you will never know how it could truly change your life.
I’ve written an article to teach people how to start a blog here.
Weekend Side Hustles to Make Money Fast
Doing a side-hustle working online or offline is a popular choice, so you’re not alone.
According to CNN Money, more than 44 million Americans have a side hustle. Of the 86% who say they earn extra money from a side hustle every month, 36% are making $500 or more.
The people most likely to have a side hustles are those aged 18 to 26.
Below are some side-hustle ideas to consider that can help you make $500 or more.
Drive Lyft
Operating in 180+ cities, both domestically and globally, Lyft is a ride-sharing service like Uber that pays you for driving people around.
If you live in a populated area, you can make a nice extra income by offering your services as a driver.
You can start making money on demand on your own schedule or as a lucrative side hustle.
If you have time to spare or are mostly free on the weekends, you can probably surpass your $500 earning goal within a few weeks of driving.
Often, you may only need to work about 5 hours a week to make $500.
Deliver Food With DoorDash
DoorDash is another on-demand food delivery service that allows people like you to make deliveries on behalf of local restaurants.
And the best thing about DoorDash? You don’t need a car!
DoorDash allows their dashers to make deliveries in any kind of transportation. You can deliver orders on scooters, bikes, or even on foot in some areas.
The amount you’ll make depends on the city in which you are based. DoorDash says $15 to $25-hour rate is reasonable to expect.
Alternatively, if DoorDash isn’t available in your area, you can try UberEats.
For insight from a Dasher who make around $700 a week, and to learn more about how DoorDash works watch the video below.
Be a Dog Walker or Sitter With Rover
If you have always been good with animals, perhaps dog walking and pet sitting is the side hustle of your choice. For that, Rover is a good place to start.
Rover pays you for walking dogs, doggy daycare, drop-in visits and house sitting. Rover has earned the nickname “DogBnb”.
The typical rates charged on the site range from $25 to $500 a night. A drop-in visit for 30 minutes walks can range from $10-30 and Rover takes 20% from your client’s payments.
While it can be competitive with other sitters, once you get a few jobs and have a good client base, you can start earning extra income on the side doing what you enjoy.
You’re not limited to walking one dog at a time. You can also take a second or third dog with you. So you can see how this can make you $500 dollars or more pretty fast.
You can choose your own rates and have the flexibility of scheduling around your availability. Rover sitters/walkers can easily earn over $1,000 per month.
Teach English Online
Whether you’re a teacher, have a Bachelor’s degree, stay-at-home parents or just someone who has a good command of English, teaching English as a second language online is a great way to make extra income.
Each platform has different requirements and some require a couple of hours per week commitment like QKids.
Others like VIPKid hires home-based ESL or English as Secondary Language teachers for Chinese children.
VIPKID teachers earn $14-$22 per hour teaching 30-minute virtual classes. You can also set your own schedule with no hourly requirements per week.
In order to apply, you need to be a native English speaker and has a stable Internet connection.
Conclusion
There you have it! That’s how you can make $500 dollars fast!
As you can see above, there are plenty of side hustle opportunities to make money online and offline.
You could have two or three side hustles in addition to doing surveys and the other activities that generate passive income. That way you could rack up $500 dollars fast even without a job!
Although, none of these will make 500 a day in an hour of work because that’s just not realistic!
But if you really want to make $500 or more, you really have to put in the effort into these ideas. Like anything else, some may not pan out as you might expect.
Don’t give up! Give the next gig a try. If there’s a will, there’s a way.
The most important thing is to decide on a method and just go for it!
Good luck!
