The Real Way of Making Money During the Pandemic

During these hard times with being inside, dealing with the restrictions that comes with the Pandemic, we’re all panicking wondering how we’re gonna make income or earn extra cash in times like these. And I’m sure you’re also like me where you’ve been searching up ways to make money and the articles you’re reading off of Pinterest & Google just feel advertised and unrealistic. Trust me I’ve been on that spot. And it always infuriates me when I need to make money right now. And listen I know it’s impossible to make a lot of money overnight or in one day. It does take time which is annoying but it’s true. However, you’re probably wary of wasting time and energy over something you thought would work but doesn’t help you earn money. So with that being said, I created a list of things that prove to be a good way to make money and going into detail what they are. And these are things I’ve done before the pandemic that could help right now during this difficult time and what I’ve seen people do that’s helped them earn income or extra cash.

1. DoorDash, Postmates & Uber Eats.

So even during the last several months, I’m sure we’ve all been relying on delivery apps when we need food but are scared to go to a grocery store or have no motivation to even go grocery shop for food. I have been guilty of this especially when I was going through postpartum which is a valid reason. One time I saw this on TikTok of a lady who went about her day in her life of DoorDashing where she has spent hours driving, picking up and delivering food to people who’ve ordered and she at the end of the day was satisfied of how much she made. (Can’t say how much she made but I’m assuming it wasn’t a whole lot while still enough to get by for that day. However if you plan to make money out of that I’d suggest doing this consistently on a day to day basis) With those apps it does depend on your area of how those apps are needed. I know with postmates it wasn’t available in my area of delivery so I’d assume it also wouldn’t be available for working for the company. But I’ve seen people delivering food through DoorDash in my area so it’s safe to say that the company could be looking for people to work for them. The only requirements are that you must be 18 years or older, have a vehicle (car (anything made after 2000), scooter, bicycle depending on the cities themselves), divers license, social security number, & consent to background check. The best thing about this is that you can choose your own hours of how long you want to do this each day. Oh and if you plan to visit another city or if you’re traveling, you can be a dasher there and any of those places too! When AND where you work is 100% up to you, unlike having to strictly do a full time job or seasonal gigs.

2. Write about anything on Vocal Media

I know it sounds cliche since I’m literally using this platform to write about things you can do to earn income. However, I will admit that while I haven’t been the best at being consistent with writing anything here, and I haven’t really shared any of my work on my social media which is what I’m holding myself accountable for, I still saw some difference of how much I’m making with the very little views of my poems and my writings. It’s all based on monetization with views alone. Tips are a big plus but are desperate from the Current Balance as the website states that “they (tips) are being transferred directly into your Stripe account.” When it does come to withdrawing, make sure your current balance is at least $35 in order to withdraw your money into your Stripe Account. I know there’s a lot of technicality that does go into setting up your account on Vocal Media which I’m glad the website does a good job to be clear of what to do, but I do want to move on to what it is you can write about. It is basically a range of things. Whether you want to monetize your poetry writings that you’ve written already or have been creating lately, making a list of things that makes your home state or country fun and exciting, a story of yours that you want to share with the world in hopes it could make a difference to someone else, things you learned so someone could gain a open perspective of things, fun facts you didn’t know about in school, things you wish you knew in a certain time period, almost any writing prompting that’s out there you can, if you want to, share online. For me, even though it’s not much, has been poetry, but I’m confident now that I can do more of that and broaden my horizons of any form and style of writing. Another important thing when it comes to writing is provide images in your writings. Now I know that’s easier said than done, but with me I’ve used my own photography images depending on a subject matters of what I’m writing about. Other times I use Pinterest, Tumblr, WeHeartIt to do the trick. Make sure you state where the photos are from if you don’t know who created that photo. I wasn’t the best at it which I now do feel bad even though I haven’t gotten in trouble with the photos I’m using but from now on I’ll make sure to leave underneath the pictures of where the photos are from. And if I do leave them blank, it’s from me or maybe I can leave my Instagram handle invade you wanna follow me.

3. Doing chores or yard work at your home.

If you’re living with your parents and have no job. Talk to them about doing chores & yard work of some sort around the house. For me it’s been mowing the lawn, pulling the weeds, racking the leaves, placing stepping stones in dirt dug up, putting salt on the pavement of the driveway, shoveling snow out of the way, etc. I’ve done most of these for only $10/hr which is a reasonable pay wage to earn and it’s always worked that way. You can make a flyer to hang at the local grocery store, church bulletin board, put in a mailbox of your services & to leave your number or email you can create and when it happens you can schedule a time to do those services.

4. Reselling clothes online.

Now this is something to dive deep into a bit about! The rise of thrifting/reselling online such as Mercari, Depop, Poshmark, ThreadUp, LetGo, Curtsy, and even Instagram has been peaking a lot in these times since Goodwill, Savers, Plato’s Closet, Uptown Cheapstake, Deseret Industries Thrift Store, and other thrift stores used to be closed for a while. Or maybe you’re not much of shopping in person which is fine. For me, even before these unprecedented times, I was a seller and a buyer. Here’s what I did as a seller couple years ago, I’ve earned cash on the spot with Plato’s Closet and I’ll be honest, most times it wasn’t that satisfying with what I earned from there. However, I still took the deal and got the rest of the clothes that they didn’t want back. What I did with the rest of the clothes that didn’t make the cut was sell them through Mercari. And it was pretty successful for a while at that point. The keys with sending the package was that I can 1) reuse the packaging i received when ordering things online and tape it & 2) make sure to have a working printer in hand so you can print labels out of paper and tape it onto the package. The only things you really need here when doing reselling online is tape, packaging, and a working printer (ink, paper). With some apps you can use your mailbox to send off the package, other times there’s drop off locations. And with Instagram itself, that can be pretty tricky to do with the use of that, cashapp, PayPal or Venmo to revive the payment, and how to go about printing a label depending how much the package weighs and where it’s getting shipped to. Which is why I now choose to use apps where it can create shipping labels and all you gotta do is click what the item is and what you think it weighs based on what it is. On the bright note, Instagram & TikTok are good platforms to creatively advertise what you sell and to engage with followers. I even seen some people go to thrift stores to purchase old oversized sweatshirts seems to be ordinary and trash but they single handedly create it into treasure of a crop top and a scrunchie. Now that’s pretty creative and impressive!

5. Collect and sell soda and beer cans and bottles.

Before pandemic, I used to collect bags full of cans & bottles and take them to a local grocery store or Walmart to return them. Although lately in the last year or two I haven’t seen a machine to return cans at Walmart, so my suggestion is to call your local Walmart to speak to a manager about it. But the other grocery store like Fareway they have a person that can count the cans and bottles, calculate them by how much each are worth, and give you a slip of paper to take to the cashier. Been pretty simple with that. However with 2020’s virus pandemic, there was a halt to soda can redemption for a while up till late May & early June of 2020 and there’s been some state to state restrictions. But like I said, call and check with local grocery stores there to see if they can still accept can and bottle redemption. All in all make sure the cans are rinsed and save them for later redemption.

Now I’m sure there’s more that’s out there of how to earn income or extra cash, but these are all of what I’ve seen that’s proven to work and what I’ve done that’s proven to work or at least make some difference as well, so far. And I hope with future research, and asking around people, I can make this into a series article. Plus let’s face it, I’m sick of getting my hopes up over things that seem to good to be true and it turns out it really is too good to be true and I imagine someone in the same position and spot as me feeling this way. Which is why in conclusion I want to make an honest list of things to actually earn extra cash or income and none of those false advertised articles that don’t get into nitty gritty details of how things work. In all honesty, I hope this article does help some people who have been in the same position as me and if y’all have anymore that I should add for future articles and posts, I would love to know more and have conversations about it through my Instagram page @indie.wildflower.creative