So, you’re wondering how to make $5,000 dollars a month and want some ideas to get started.
Earning 5K a month equals $60,000 in a year! This is a serious amount of money, and it’s enough to live a very comfortable life in many countries.
In this post, I’m covering some legit side hustles, business ideas, and career moves you can use to make this amount of money.
Many of these ideas are personal ones I’ve tried and verified as well, and there’s a mix of online and in-person ideas to suit your preferences.
Let’s get to it!
How To Make $5,000 A Month
This guide is going to cover several online money-making ideas and in-person side hustles that have the potential to make $5k a month.
Think about which style of work you prefer and what your skills are. Next, pick one or more of these ideas and put in the work to increase your monthly income.
1. Online Freelancing
Out of all the ways to make $5k a month, online freelancing is my favorite idea. This is because I’ve reached this milestone with my freelance writing career and know dozens of other people who make $5,000 or more per month online.
The part I love the most about selling your skills online as a freelancer is that you have control over your schedule. You also have the potential to make way more money than many day jobs.
For example, I started working at a digital marketing agency out of college with a starting salary of about $45,000.
After a year and a half, I was tired of working in an office. So I diteched my job, moved to Colombia, and went all-in on writing.
About a year later, I was making over $5,000 a month from freelance writing and was way happier than at my day job.
This highlights how freelancing can change your life in a short period of time. And there are so many other industries you can freelance in like:
- Accounting
- Graphic design
- Social media management
- Search engine optimization (I did this as well)
- Paid advertising
- Web design
- Video editing
Pretty much all of these fields have the potential to make $5,000 dollars a month or more depending on your clients.
As for how to get started, you can find jobs on remote job websites or look for easy Upwork jobs to build your portfolio.
Getting started can take a few months. But you can slowly increase your rates as you land new clients and improve your skills.
2. Job Hop
Another solution to make $5,000 a month is to job hop to a higher-paying job.
This sounds obvious, but it’s very easy to stay in the same position and to stop looking for new opportunities if you’re comfortable.
However, a report from ADP shows that job hoppers average a 9.7% salary increase on average, which can be a massive lift to your income and wealth building efforts.
And if you can job hop to a new position with more responsibilities or to get a promotion, you’re also doing wonders for your skill development and career.
You can check out our post on the best jobs that pay $5,000 a month for some job ideas that have this sort of income potential.
3. Rent Out Assets
If you like the idea of earning passive income, one idea to make $5,000 per month is to rent out things for money.
This is probably the best option if you’re very busy with your job and don’t have time to start a new side hustle. You can essentially let your assets make money for you so you’re earning on autopilot.
Examples of assets you can rent out to other people include:
- Your home with a platform like Airbnb or VRBO
- Your car with Turo
- Spare storage space with a website like Neighbor
- Camera equipment, drones, tools, and other expensive equipment on a marketplace like Fat Llama
- Your internet bandwidth with apps like Honeygain
Airbnb and VRBO are the most likely options to earn $5,000 a month. But you can use multiple rental ideas to boost your income to help you reach this goal.
4. Retail Arbitrage
What if you could get paid to shop and potentially make 5K a month in the process?
Well, with retail arbitrage, this sort of income is possible. I know this because I interviewed a couple making $40,000+ a month from their Amazon retail arbitrage business.
The idea of retail arbitrage is to purchase popular merchandise from clearance aisles in stores like Walmart or Kohl’s and to then resell it online for profit.
People often buy products in categories like apparel, books, electronics, home goods, and toys since these sorts of products sell quickly online.
Amazon FBA is one of the most popular selling platforms. This is because with Amazon FBA, Amazon handles all the shipping and fulfillment, so you can focus on sourcing inventory instead of shipping.
But there are plenty of other popular selling apps and websites like:
- Facebook Marketplace: One of the best ways to sell stuff for cash to local buyers.
- Mercari: A popular selling app that lets you sell almost anything.
- OfferUp: An app like Facebook Marketplace that’s a great alternative for local selling.
- Poshmark: One of the best ways to sell clothing, handbags, shoes and accessories online.
But this online business idea has the potential to make $5,000 a month, which is why it had to make our list!
5. Make Money Blogging
Blogging isn’t a route to fast money. But it’s one of the most realistic ways to make $5,000 dollars a month because the income potential is basically limitless.
For example, I started blogging in 2018 when I started This Online World. In my first year, I only made $1,700.
However, fast forward a few years, and I made $92,000 blogging in 2021. This is more than $5,000 per month, and these days, the blog average $15,000 to $20,000 a month!
It took a few years of work, learning SEO, and a whole lot of content. But you can grow a blog in any niche and monetize it with strategies like:
- Display ads with a company like Mediavine or Monumetric
- Affiliate marketing
- Sponsored posts
- Selling your own products or courses
Again, this isn’t a route to fast money. But blogging is one of the lowest-cost online businesses that you can start, and the income ceiling is incredibly high.
6. Proofreading & Editing
If you have a high-level of attention to detail, another option for making $5k a month is to start your own proofreading and editing business.
From my blogging and freelance writing network, I know many full-time editors and proofreaders who make this sort of income. And if you can land a job as head editor for a large site, you can easily make $5k or more per month.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic, editors earn $61,370 per year on average, which works out pretty close to $5,000 a month:
It can take time to grow your client roster, but starting your own blog or freelance writing are great ways to start growing your connections and landing gigs.
7. Launch An Etsy Shop
If you’re still wondering how to make $5,000 a month, you could try launching a business on Etsy.
What’s amazing about Etsy is that it’s free to create a shop, and you only pay $0.20 per item you list on your shop. This makes it an incredibly low-risk way to test an online business idea.
And you can also sell so many different things on Etsy, ranging from craft goods you make yourself to completely digital products, like printables or stickers.
Digital downloads are awesome because your profit margin is incredibly high. And you can grow your shop to some serious numbers as you’ll see with the shop below.
As you can see, this Etsy shop named WorthyGal has over 6,000 sales! It specializes in selling digital stickers and other printables, which is basically a 100% profit margin.
You can also explore Etsy print on demand if you want to sell physical merchandise like mugs or apparel but don’t want to manufacture and ship products yourself.
8. Make Money On YouTube
Like blogging, another online business idea with the potential to make $5,000 dollars each month is YouTube.
I also want to share another personal example here.
I started my YouTube channel in 2020. It took about 6 months to reach 1,000 subscribers and to get monetized. These days, the channel has over 15,000 subscribers and makes $50 a day or so in advertisement revenue.
This is still quite far away from a $5k a month goal, but the channel has been slowly growing month over month for the most part as I put out more videos.
Making money with YouTube takes a long time. But if you’re feeling creative, business ideas like blogging or YouTube are definitely worth putting the time into if you ask me.
9. Turn To The Gig Economy
If you’re really willing to hustle, another idea to earn $5k a month is to make money with various gig economy jobs.
The best part about the gig economy is that you get to work on your own schedule. This flexibility is ideal since you can hustle around your day job to reach your income goal.
Some of the most popular gig jobs and apps you can use to make extra money include:
- Steady: Find various gig apps and part-time jobs with the free Steady app.
- DoorDash: The leading food delivery app that lets you deliver via bike, car, or scooter.
- Amazon Flex: Another popular driving gig that pays $18 to $25 per hour.
- Instacart: The leading grocery delivery service where you get paid to shop for people’s groceries.
- Uber Eats: Another popular food delivery job where you can hustle on your own schedule.
And again, you can make serious money if you put in the hours. In the YouTube video above, YouTuber Sabbi Lyon explains how he made $8,000 in just one month by delivering for Uber Eats.
This takes a lot of hours, but the money is there if you want to work for it!
Extra Reading – How Much Money Do DoorDash Drivers Make?
10. Work A Second Job & Overtime
Another simple idea you can try is to pick up a second job or to work as much overtime as possible.
Choosing a second job depends on your schedule, of course. And not every company offers overtime pay.
But if you can try either option, you can really accelerate your income. For example, my friend works at a brewery, and a single weekend of overtime can easily make him $1,000 or more in just two days.
11. Get A Commission-Based Sales Job
One final idea to make $5,000 a month is to get a job where you can earn commission.
My first advertising job out of school had this arrangement, and I could earn roughly 10% of the profit I made for the company in a month as a discretionary bonus.
During really great times, there were months I made $7,000 to $8,000 or more thanks to bonuses.
Commission can really boost someone’s income in a short amount of time, and this is why sales jobs are some of the highest paying jobs out there.
Just make sure you’re happy with the base salary as well or are okay with risking lower pay for a higher commission rate.
Advice For Making $5,000 A Month
Now that you know how to make 5,000 dollars a month, here are some tips you can think about when chasing the goal to increase your chances for success:
- Set Smaller Goals: Reaching $5k a month might seem daunting, so don’t be afraid to break things into smaller goals, like making $100 a day first and then scaling your income.
- Pace Yourself: Getting rest is important to avoid burning out, so make sure you pace yourself amidst all this hustling.
- Try Several Ideas: Test out several hustles so you find what you enjoy and which ones pay the most. This could mean delivering for DoorDash, renting out assets, and blogging. Pick ideas that match your skills and interest and put in the work!
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Double Your Money Fast.
Final Thoughts
I hope our guide on how to make $5,000 a month gives you some ideas for how you can increase your income.
As one final tip, don’t forget the power of saving more money as well. Earning extra cash is great, but cutting back on spending can also help you reach your goals faster.
Best of luck!
Looking for even more ways to make money? Checkout:
Tom is a full-time blogger and freelance writer with a passion for side hustling, passive income, and the gig economy. His work has appeared on dozens of personal finance websites like Money Crashers, The College Investor, Investor Junkie, and more. This Online World is all about providing people with honest ways to make and save more money by using technology. To learn more about Tom, read his About Page!
If you’re interested in freelance writing services or want to partner with This Online World, please use our contact page to get in touch!