How To Make $4,000 A Month – 7 Realistic Ideas To Try
Making $4,000 a month in extra income is no joke. After all, this equals $48,000 per year, which is more than the average annual income in many places around the world.
Maybe you're looking for a replacement to your day job. Or, maybe you just want to try some different side hustles to boost your monthly income by 4K.
Whatever the case, I'm covering some realistic ways you can earn $4,000 a month if this is your financial goal.
How To Make $4,000 A Month
1. Blogging
I wanted to start with blogging for this list because it's a personal example and one of my all-time favorite side hustles.
I started WebMonkey in 2018. In my first year, the blog only made $1,700. Next year wasn't too much higher, and the blog earned about $7,500.
But in my fourth year of blogging, WebMonkey made $92,000, which is almost double the goal of making $4,000 a month. This year, it's on track to do over $200,000 which is absolutely crazy to me.
Here's the strategy I used to get here, and it's something you can implement too:
- I picked a niche I was very interested in and knew a lot about already (personal finance and making money online)
- I learned the basic of SEO
- I started writing long-form content regularly that targets evergreen topics and low-competition keywords
- I guest-posted on other sites to build up backlinks to WebMonkey
- I monetized my traffic with Mediavine ads, affiliate links, and the occasional sponsored post
This is a pretty simplified outline, but the rest is nuance. Most successful blogging comes down to writing great content that adds value, and then people come.
You won't make $4,000 a month overnight with a blog, so this isn't the right idea if you need quick money.
However, I think blogging has immense income potential, and I think my journey from $100 a month in blogging income to $20,000 a month or more is proof of that.
2. Online Freelancing
Another popular way to make $4,000 per month is to sell your skills as a freelancer. This is also something I've done personally, and I know plenty of other freelancers making this amount of money or more.
What I really like about freelancing is that it's viable for plenty of different fields and skills. And you can often earn a much higher hourly wage than you would working a nine to five.
For example, one of my first side hustles was freelance writing. I did this on the side while I worked at a day job at a marketing agency out of college.
After about a year of moonlighting, the income I was making from writing was slowly matching my day job. So, I decided to quit my job, go all-in on writing, and moved to Colombia for a bit to try the whole digital nomad thing.
Anyway, my freelancing writing income surpassed $4,000 a month after about a year of giving things a go. And at its peak, I was earning about $8,000 per month from it while also working on growing my blog.
But freelance writing is just one example, and plenty of other industries lend themselves well to freelancing like:
- Bookkeeping
- Graphic design
- Programming (this is how my friend made money while we were in Colombia)
- Proofreading and editing
- SEO consulting (I've done this as well in the past and made $1,000 to $3,000 a month for consulting)
- Social media marketing
- Web design
- Video editing
- Virtual assistant work
You get the idea. And if you're charging $25 to $50 per hour for some of these services, earning $4,000 a month is very realistic.
The only downside is freelancing takes time to find clients. My strategy was to turn to my personal network and use different remote job boards. You can also find beginner Upwork jobs to start building your portfolio and then pitch clients.
👉 Pro Tip: Get 3 free classes from Bookkeepers.com to learn how to launch a massively profitable bookkeeping business!
3. Gig Economy Jobs
If you're willing to grind, turning to various gig economy apps and jobs is another way to make $4,000 dollars a month.
The gig economy is great because it's flexible, so you can work on your own schedule. And it often pays much more than minimum wage to help you boost your monthly income.
Some of the most popular gig apps people use include:
- Food delivery apps like DoorDash or Uber Eats that pay you to deliver food
- Grocery delivery apps like Instacart or Cornershop that pay you to shop for people's groceries
- Ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft
- Odd jobs apps like Wonolo or completing Craigslist cash gigs
- Apps like Roadie or GoShare that pay you to deliver packages
Many of these apps are driving gigs, but you can work for food delivery apps with a bike or scooter as well. And as you can see in the video above, the gig economy can yield some impressive earnings if you put in the work.
If you average about $20 per hour with gig work, you need to work 200 hours to make $4,000 a month. This equals 50 hours per week, which is possible if you're not working currently.
You could put in these hours if you have a part-time job as well, but make sure you're sleeping enough and pace yourself so you don't burn out.
4. Retail Arbitrage
Another way you can earn $4,000 a month is to make money with retail arbitrage. This involves buying popular products at a discount and then reselling them online or in-person to turn a profit,
This idea of flipping money has been around for ages. But it's become very popular in recent years thanks to the growth of ecommerce.
I've actually interviewed a couple who run a million dollar retail arbitrage business, and they source inventory from stores like Walmart and Kohl's to then resell on Amazon FBA.
As you can see in the picture, they're clearing about $40,000 per month in revenue. Granted, this took a long time to accomplish since retail arbitrage takes practice. It also takes time to build up your inventory and online storefront.
But you can start small, and you don't just have to sell on Amazon FBA for retail arbitrage.
For example, some other popular selling avenues people use include:
- Facebook Marketplace: An excellent marketplace for local cash sales.
- Mercari: A versatile selling app where you can sell almost anything online.
- Poshmark: One of the best places to sell clothing, shoes, handbags, and accessories online.
Even throwing a garage sale or selling stuff on Craigslist can work. The key is to find popular products on sale so you can flip them for a handsome profit.
You can read our post on the best things to buy in bulk and resell for some inspiration on where to start.
5. Real Estate Rentals
If the idea of passive income is appealing, one solution to making $4,000 a month is to get into the real estate game.
Traditionally, people do this by buying rental units so they can become a landlord and generate rental income. Some people also do this by “house hacking” in which they purchase a duplex and rent out half of it to a tenant to help cover the mortgage.
This landlord-type approach is one method, and two rentals in many markets would net about $4,000 a month in revenue.
However, the downside to this method is that you generally need a lot of capital to cover the downpayment and any repairs or renovations the property needs.
Thankfully, you can still add real estate to your portfolio and keep things passive by using crowdfunding sites.
For example, companies like Fundrise and HappyNest let you invest in income-generating real estate starting with just $10. You invest in shares of income-generating properties, and both platforms pay out dividends.
Fundrise averages about 8-9% in annual returns, and HappyNest targets a 6% annual dividend. Both averages are much higher than you'll find with a basic checking or savings account.
Ultimately, real estate has plenty of opportunities if you want to diversify your income. And while it might take a long time to reach $4,000 a month, it's certainly possible.
6. Create Passive Income Streams
Speaking of rental units, you can keep going down the passive income rabbit hole on your quest for making 4K per month.
I personally like creating new passive income streams since it's quite addicting to see your money work for you without you having to lift a finger.
Investing in real estate is just one option as well. But you have plenty of other ideas you can try like:
- Investing in dividend stocks
- Renting out assets for cash like a spare room on Airbnb or spare storage space with Neighbor
- Using a high-yield savings account, bonds, or CDs
- Making money on YouTube
- Using different passive income apps to earn rewards every month
YouTube is the perfect example. Once you get monetized, your channel basically becomes a semi-passive income source that you can slowly chip away at and grow over time.
For example, I started my channel in 2020. It now makes about $1,500 per month in income, and it's largely passive since I pay a video editor to make my videos.
This isn't $4,000 a month, but it's progress towards this goal. And if you can do something like rent a spare room on Airbnb or something similar, you're potentially looking at some serious cash.
Extra Reading – How To Earn Money On Autopilot.
7. Launch An Ecommerce Store
If you're still wondering how to make $4,000 a month, one final idea you can try is to build your own ecommerce business.
I've worked in paid advertising and ecommerce for about five years in total. And let me tell you, ecommerce is one business model with an insanely high income ceiling. And you can also scale to very high revenue amounts as a one-person show.
For a lot of sellers, Etsy is the marketplace of choice. I actually took this route back in college and tried selling memes on mugs with my Etsy print on demand store.
My store wasn't very successful, but there are countless sellers on Etsy with thousands of reviews and tens of thousands of orders. So, the order volume is clearly there to support $4k a month.
Etsy is just one option for selling stuff online as well.
If you like the print on demand business model, you can also try making money on Redbubble. It's one of the larger POD marketplaces out there, but there are other sites like Redbubble as well like Society6 or CafePress.
Finally, you could always try selling physical, digital, or POD products on your own storefront as well.
Platforms like Shopify and Sellfy make launching your own ecommerce store a breeze. I've used both platforms as well and helped scale Shopify stores when I worked in marketing, and even a beginner in the world of ecommerce can manage either platform.
Reaching $4,000 a month is going to take some practice and time. And your first few ideas might fail.
However, this is completely normal, so don't get discouraged if it takes a while for your store to gain some traction.
Tips For Making $4,000 A Month
Now that I've covered some ways I've personally made $4k a month and a few other ideas, it's time to wrap things up with some tips you can use to increase your odds of success.
- Create Small Goals: You don't have to make 4K a month all at once. Start with smaller goals, like $50 a day in extra income, and work on scaling over time.
- Play To Your Strengths: I've stuck with blogging and freelance writing since I enjoy content creation. What type of side hustle do you like, and what are your skills?
- Mix Things Up: Creating a few income streams can sometimes help improve security and also help you accomplish your goals. So don't be afraid to pick up a gig job like Uber Eats or DoorDash, to start a blog, or to invest. You have a lot of options out there, so explore them!
Extra Reading – The Best Jobs That Pay $5,000 A Month.
Final Thoughts
I hope my guide on how to make $4,000 a month provides some inspiration and ideas for you to take your next step!
As I mentioned in the intro, making $4k a month is a massive amount of money. For many people, it's enough to match or surpass their day job, which can be a life-changing event!
For me, freelance writing and blogging are the hustles that helped me get there. Hopefully, one of the ideas in this article ends up making it happen for you.
Best of luck, and thanks for reading!
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