17 Extreme Ways to Make Money
If you enjoy reading about these out of the box ways to make money, you’ll want to tune into this!
I’ve put together a quick list of 17 extreme ways for you to make money. This is a long and varied list with some ideas more extreme than others.
If you don’t have time to read it all now, I suggest you bookmark it for later because you won’t want to miss this!
Let’s go!
17 Extreme and Unusual Ways to Make Money
1. Sell your hair
Yes, selling your hair is a thing.
People have been donating hair for wig-making for a long time but a lot of folks don’t know you can sell hair for money too.
These places:
2. Rent your space and live in your car
This is pretty extreme but it can be effective in saving money. Sublet your apartment and live in your car.
I saw a small family on a reality TV show do this to save money for their huge five-figure tax bill from the IRS. It took them a few months to pay off the debt and then they moved back into their place.
Van living has been on the rise in recent years and if you work from home, this could be a way to make some extra money while traveling in your vehicle.
3. Rent your clothes
I didn’t know this was a thing until recently.
You can rent your designer goods like outerwear, handbags, and other clothes on sites like:
Some of these sites like Style Lend pay you out as much as 80% (or more) of the rental right to your wallet through Paypal or Venmo!
4. Become a surrogate
I used to see ads in my college newspaper about this when I was going to my university in San Antonio.
You can make a lot donating your eggs (I saw ads for $3,500) or becoming a surrogate (up to $75,000 or more).
You’ll get to help someone have children that otherwise may not have been able to.
This is a big decision and something not to take lightly but still, an extreme way to make money so it made the list.
5. Ad arbitrage
There are so many different ways to arbitrage and make money.
One way is ad arbitrage.
The idea is to make more money from the ads than your capital injection into the project and keep the difference as profit.
Here’s an example:
Run a website and put display ads on it where you make money from every ad viewed on your site. Then, pay for a Google Ads campaign to drive paid traffic to your website.
If you spend $5/day on your Google Ads campaign to make $12/day in ad income, you’re winning! You’ll make $7/day profit doing this.
Make sense?
You can do this in a bunch of different ways but I hope the above example paints a clear picture of how this might work.
This can be challenging though so if you pursue this, keep a close eye on the numbers so you don’t go into the red.
6. Participate in research studies
A former coworker of mine did this while I was in college.
She and her fiance would participate in research studies.
They were usually weekend overnight medical studies that would pay her $1,200+ a pop and she never had any side effects (though side effects can happen).
She did this to raise money to buy a dining room table set, grow her savings account and for other needs/wants she had.
Find studies by doing a Google search in your area.
You might have even heard ads on the radio or seen local TV commercials when local research centers are recruiting participants for diabetes research, sleep study, testing a medication on hair loss, etc.
Online you can participate in focus group-based studies that pay you for your opinion if you don’t prefer to attend in person or do medical studies. You’ll make a fraction of what you can for the in-person medical studies but it can still be good money at up to $400/study.
These are the online study companies to check out if you’re interested:
7. Sleep studies
These can be difficult to find on a regular basis but when you do find one, it’s good money that you make when you sleep, literally.
Here are some studies available right now:
- Harvard Division of Sleep Medicine
- Each Night (ran a sleep study a few months ago, may reopen in the future)
- Wakefit (they’ve had recurring sleep study opportunities)
8. Taste testing
This might sound like a dream opportunity and it truly can be.
Getting paid to taste test is based on contests that open up throughout the year.
They aren’t steady income at all but it can be a fun way to make a lot of cash if you’re selected to participate.
Some examples currently open:
9. Flip NFTs
This is extremely risky but I’ve heard of people earning a lot of money (like tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars) flipping NFT’s.
A NFT is a non-fungible token. It’s like digital artwork tied to a contract on the blockchain.
It can be art, a gif, etc.
This isn’t about making the NFT project but instead, you’ll invest and buy NFTs then flip them for profit.
For example, I got in on my first project recently for $100 and it’s now being resold for $1,200!
High risk, high reward with this one.
I’m not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. Do your due diligence.
Where to find information about NFT’s?
- Crypto publications
- Tik Tok
10. Virtual babysitting
Online babysitting?
Yep.
How does it work?
You will make money entertaining kids online. You can help them with homework, play games, tell jokes, dress up as a clown, etc.
Virtual Babysitters Club is an example of a company that offers this and you can apply to be a performer there.
11. Rent out your good credit
You’ll technically be renting out your credit to strangers but it’s not what it sounds like.
They can piggyback off your good credit when you add them as an authorized user to your credit card. They won’t be able to make any changes to your credit card account and you won’t even give them a card.
The benefit to them is to boost their credit score, which can be done as easily as being added as an authorized user to a credit card with someone who has good credit.
People are doing this, adding up to 10 people as authorized users per credit card they have, charging $600 to $1,500 each per month.
$600 x 10 people = $6,000/month
The above example is just for one card and it’s monthly!
Talk about passive income, right?
It’s called tradeline selling and you can listen in on this podcast to learn more about it.
12. Rent your RV
Companies like RVShare offer this where you can monetize your RV or travel trailer sitting in your driveway.
It’s like the Turo or AirBNB of RV’s and you can make some good money with this (plus, it’s passive income).
13. Tik Tok influencer
Pick a niche, get on Tik Tok and talk about stuff.
I’ve seen accounts with a personality behind them (a talking head) and I’ve seen faceless accounts as well. Both can do well.
My new Tik Tok account (under 6 months old) already earns around $1,000 to $1,500/month.
You can get really inventive with the niche you pick or you can pick a boring topic. Either way, there’s an opportunity to make money as a Tik Tok influencer.
14. Snapchat creator
Get on Snapchat for free and start making spotlight videos for a chance to earn from their million-dollar pot every month.
It’s called the Snapchat Spotlight program and millionaires have been created from this like this teen that has made millions in under a year from creating Snapchat short-form videos.
Here’s how I did making Snapchats for 90 days:
15. Sing happy birthday
Even if you’re no recording artist, you can make money brightening someone’s day by singing Happy Birthday to them.
It’s a Fiverr gig!

Join Fiverr for free then add this gig. Start getting orders, fulfill them and make money.
16. Create recipes
If you enjoy cooking, why not get paid to make recipes?
Here are some ways to achieve that:
- Become a food influencer
- Freelance recipe developer
- Create and sell a cookbook
- Enter recipe contests (like this holiday cookie recipe contest that ended last month)
A lot of magazines pay for recipes too:
17. Create ASMR videos
I have been drawn to ASMR for as long as I can remember, though I didn’t know what it was called as a child.
I just remember getting mesmerized and having feelings of relaxation washing over me when I’d watch my stylist do hair at the salon.
ASMR has exploded in the last few years. It’s a cheap way to start an online business, providing comfort, relaxation and stress relief to your audience.
Here are some ideas on how you can do it:
- Create an ASMR app
- Make YouTube videos
- Become an ASMR influencer
Onto You!
What do you think? Which extreme money-making idea would you try?
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