If there’s one thing 2020 will be remembered for, its COVID-19. I know you’re probably sick and tired of hearing that word, but today I want to address one of the real issues facing millions of workers worldwide, surviving this pandemic.

I’m not just speaking of surviving in terms of the virus itself, but surviving financially. Many of us are facing layoffs for undetermined periods of time. While the U.S. has passed the Cares Act to aid Americans in financial hardship, what about those in other countries like the UK, Canada, and beyond?

Even for Americans, many questions remain. Will it be enough and what happens afterward? Since we are all pretty much “sheltering in place”, how can we make the most of the situation? Many are asking, how to make money at home during COVID-19 pandemic? This is a question that deserves an honest answer and one worth consideration.

What Are Your Options?

So, what are your options? Honestly, I think the answer to that question is different for everyone, depending on your background, your area(s) of expertise, and your financial situation.

For that reason, we’ll cover a little bit of everything. Rest assured though, these are honest to goodness methods you can use to generate an income no matter what your situation might be.

I’ll list options in all categories that take little to no start-up funding. This should cover enough ground to provide you some kind of workable solution for your present needs.

Fair enough? Let’s get started.

Those With Short Term Needs

If you have immediate short-term needs, like money to pay the light bill, the methods below will be of great help to you. While no single method works for everyone, you can certainly use one of these methods to solve your short-term needs.

Sell Your Stuff

One of the easiest and quickest ways to get cash in a pinch is to sell your stuff. Look around the house and take inventory of items you may have that are quick sells.

Some Hot Items Include:

• Video Games (Especially newer ones): In many cities, non-essential businesses have been forced to close their doors. There are a lot of people laid off or furloughed right now that would be happy to take a game or two off your hands.
• Game systems: For the same reason, game outlets are closed and places like Walmart just don’t have them in stock right now.
• Computers: Don’t trash that old computer! Even older computers can fetch a decent price. With the closure of public schools, there are millions of children being introduced to home-schooling programs online. Most older laptops and notebooks will work just fine for this purpose since its all web-based learning. Even if the hard drive is not usable, you can still buy a little gizmo called Xtra-PC for about $35 that turns that old clunker into a like-new PC again. You can check out the system requirements here.
• Movies: Any movies you might have on DVD are a great item to sell. You might find Redbox movies a little hard to come by right now. So package them up and sell them for a fair price.
• Babysitting: With the vast majority of public daycares shut down, those parents who are working may be finding it a bit difficult to find someone to watch their children. Don’t rule this one out. Also, easy money if you’re already working from home.
• Clothes: If you know a little about clothing, you know that many a deal can be found on eBay. Sell all those extra clothes that no longer fit or perhaps never worn.
• Baby Items: Get rid of those baby swings, furniture, car seats, high chairs, strollers, and other stuff sitting in storage or in the attic. Baby needs wait for no one, not even Coronavirus’s.

Where’s the best place to sell this stuff quickly? For starters, Facebook Marketplace. This has to be one of the best places to buy and sell locally. Many times, people are more than willing to meet you somewhere nearby with cash-in-hand. Craigslist and eBay are other great places to sell your stuff.

You’d be surprised at what other things you can find around the house to sell quickly.

Survey Junkie

If you don’t mind taking surveys, Survey Junkie can make you some quick cash that pays out into your PayPal account. They work on a point system where each survey earns you between 50 and 450 points. 100 points equal $1. If you don’t mind surveys, turn your spare time into cash.

Drive With Uber and/or Lyft

If you have dependable transportation, a good driving record, and can pass a criminal background check, Uber and Lyft may be an option for you. You’ll need to live in or near a larger city for best results, and of course, enjoy driving and meeting people. Most drivers average around $18 – $19 per hour. Working part-time can bring you a couple a hundred extra dollars per week.

Negotiate Your Bills

Most people don’t think of this, but calling and negotiating your overdue bills, whether overdue or not, can be a very easy way to buy you some time until you can pay them. Many times, just paying a portion of the bill is enough to satisfy most creditors enough to give you some extra time to pay.

Get A Loan

Although this is not the first option I’d recommend, getting a loan can provide immediate relief. Just keep in mind you’ll pay some amount of interest as well as adding an additional payment to your budget.

Payday Advance

This is the absolute last option I’d recommend to anyone, but sometimes its the only option. If you can’t get a regular loan and have no other option, a payday loan is usually very easy to get if you have a steady job. These loans are regulated by the state and are usually limited to around $500. The interest rates are extraordinarily high. On average, about 390% for a two-week loan.

Need A Side Gig?

Having a side-gig, side-hustle, or side-job, has become very common in today’s economy. If for no other reason than many people need the extra income in addition to their full-time job. If you have children in college it’s even more of a necessity.

However, more and more, a person’s side-gig slowly starts to become their main-gig. Especially with low job satisfaction these days, people want to do something that they enjoy doing. It makes perfect sense. Why spend your life working a job that you hate. That’s a recipe for an ulcer or worse yet, a heart attack.

Having a side-gig can also ensure that you have the extra money when it comes time for vacation or when pink slips start getting handed out at your full-time job.

What’s the best side-gig to start these days?

For me, a side-gig has always been about building an online business that would become my main source of income. A business that would earn me money even when I’m sleeping or vacationing at the beach. I think you would agree that doing the work once and getting paid over and over again is a good deal!

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing has got to be one of the best online business models for a number of reasons.

• You can sell virtually any product you wish.
• Commissions can be as high as 75%.
• You can get started on a shoestring budget.
• No worries dealing with inventory, shipping, or returns.
• No employees to deal with.
• The number of affiliate programs is growing like gangbusters.
• It’s a win-win for both the marketer and product owner.
• No technical skills needed. With today’s technology, you can create a website with ease.

You can learn affiliate marketing on your own, as there are many free resources, including the website you’re on right now. However, if you want to fast track your learning and get plugged into a system that provides everything you need (including web hosting), this platform has helped me succeed more than any other.

Fiverr Gigs

If you have some skills, whether it be writing, graphic design, programming, or any number of other skills, you can create a Fiverr Gig for it. In fact, you can great a Fiverr Gig for just about anything. Be creative and think outside of the box.

Here are some examples to get your creative juices flowing.

• Social Media posting
• Writing product reviews
• Playing a trick on someone (Yes, it’s true)
• Creating a video intro
• Create a musical soundtrack
• Voiceover’s
• Short videos
• Animations
• Cartoon Characters

There’s literally no end to the services you can provide to someone. Search Google for ideas and you’ll find tons.

Become a Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistants are becoming more and more popular. With more people working online, having an assistant to handle the tedious work, do research, writing, proofreading, etc. is a much-needed service.

You can offer your services on Fiverr, Upwork (formerly Elance), Craigslist, and many other places online.

What About Long-Term Passive Income

When you consider how to make money at home during COVID-19 pandemic, creating a sustainable online business is one of the best investments you can make. Investing time into business models that create passive income or cash on demand will bring you rewards far beyond today’s problems.

If you’re stuck at home during this Coronavirus pandemic and are itching for something to do, putting your time and efforts into an online business can be rewarding beyond your wildest dreams.

I have 3 business models that I have used with much success. The best part is, they will always work. They’ve worked in the past, they work now, and they will work in the future.

Affiliate Marketing

We’ve already mentioned this one above, but it’s also one of the best business models to generate passive income. It’s scalable and you can create as many niche websites as you desire. Each one is its own cash-generating machine. Create one, a hundred, or a thousand.

As I mentioned above, this platform has helped me tremendously in becoming successful in this business. It provides everything you need to be successful and there is no need to go anywhere else for additional services or training.

Create Your Own Product

Creating your own product in the form of an eBook, video, or audio is a great way to earn passive income. I know folks who have literally created a hundred or more ebooks and they earn $1,000’s each month from them. The same goes for video products.

If you aren’t sure how to go about this, here are a few resources for you.

• Designrr is a great tool that enables you to create an eBook in PDF, .mobi (for Kindle), EPub, and HTML format. Designrr allows you to create incredible eBooks with ease. Repurpose your blog posts into a beautiful eBook with a click of a button. Through this link, you can get a Designrr lifetime license for just $27 compared to the usual $324 per year.
• The Digital Marketing Launchpad is another great tool that will take you step-by-step and teach you how to create, market, and sell your own digital products. And get this, The Digital Marketing Launchpad teaches you how to do it using free methods for nearly everything. So not only do you learn how, but you learn how to save big bucks in the process. You can create your own eBook, Video, or Audio for practically nothing.

Email Marketing

Have you ever heard the term “The Money Is In The List”? Having your own email list to market your or other affiliate products to is an excellent way to generate long-term income. You just have to remember to lead with value.

Email marketing is going to require that you have a website or web page to send traffic to. This is commonly referred to as a “landing page” or “sales funnel”. Typically, you’ll create a niche website, add SEO content to attract visitors, then direct them to your landing page for a free offer or other useful information. 99% of the time your contacts are going to sign up to receive something that is free.

You can learn how to create a niche website using the affiliate marketing resource I recommended above. This is the cheapest way to get visitors to your website and your landing page. The alternative to this is to use paid advertising through Google, Facebook Ads, Solo Ads, or other paid traffic source. I’d only use the later methods after becoming successful at free traffic.

You’ll also need an autoresponder service like AWeber in order to capture your email contacts and set up autoresponder messages that you’ll be sending them. Remember, lead with value. 80% of your emails should be quality free information and the other 20% should promote a quality product that goes with it. If you just start emailing one product offer after another, you’ll find your contacts unsubscribing faster than they signed up in the first place.

You can find additional information on email marketing here and on this free Udemy training.

Wrapping Up

Although we’ve been talking about how to make money at home during COVID-19 pandemic, any and all the techniques discussed can be used and applied at any time. Once you identify your needs and desires you only need to pursue the appropriate method(s) to achieve your goals.

Make no mistake though. There will be no return to the way things were before this Coronavirus pandemic. This event will drive massive changes in the way we do business, how we earn our money, how we educate our children and the everyday lives of each of us. While the impacts on world economies are uncertain right now, were are definitely being fast-tracked to the future, the home economy.

Establishing a means of generating income in your own home economy is something that needs immediate attention. How you choose to do this will have lasting repercussions on the stability of your financial future. This single event, something none of have seen in our lifetimes, has changed everything.