Make Money with your Phone: 21 Ways to Work Wherever You Are

It’s in your hand anyways, why not make money from your phone? You could be making money on the beach, while traveling, working from home while your baby naps, etc. We live in an amazing time for remote working and flexible jobs. Here are 21 of the best jobs you can do with your phone for free (because you should not have to pay to work!).

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

How to Make Money with Your Phone

Our phones are basically an attachment of our hands now.

I installed an app to tell me how much time I spend on my phone each week, and let’s just say it’s quiiiite a bit more than an hour. Meaning it’s a big amount and I don’t want to tell you.

But, I also make money with my phone.

When I was trying out different online side hustles years ago after my daughter was born, I tried several on my phone.

Some I liked, some weren’t for me, and some I am still doing today.

I’ll share all the details, plus all the other ways you could make money with your phone.

There will be something on this list that is the right fit for you.

What your life could look like if you make money with your phone

Imagine: pina colada in your hand, on a blanket with sand between your toes. Working on your phone, but it doesn’t feel like work because it is so enjoyable with the warm sun on your skin.

Or taking a long camping trip with the fam, but still having the dollar bills roll in because you are making money with your phone on your time, in the place you want to be.

This last example was me.

We were on a camping trip. I had worked on my phone a little bit. Mostly we were hiking and playing and eating outside, and swimming, and having fun.

We had a great night sleep under the stars, I woke up and had a message that I made $150. In my sleep while I was camping. I was sold on this way of making money remotely and don’t want to go back to a traditional job.

Like Taylor Swift says, we are never (ever, ever) getting back together.

Let’s get to all the interesting, unique, flexible ways to make money with your phone.

But first we need to clear something up that is VERY important…

Related post: 18 Best Work from Home Jobs that Pay Well

Make Money From My Phone for Free

We need to bust this myth right here, right now.

You should not have to pay money to make money.

When an employer hires you in real life, they don’t ask you to spend a couple hundred dollars on whatever before you can start working for them.

The online job space should be no different, and the legitimate online gig space is no different.

If you are asking how to make money with my phone without investment, you should not have to invest.

If a potential online employer is asking you to send money for equipment, to get your account set up, etc., run the other way.

There are lots of legitimate ways to make money with your phone.

Let’s go into them now:

Make Money with Your Phone

1. Work as a Search Engine Evaluator

The first way I made money online was as a search engine rater.

Search engine evaluation is what it sounds like: I worked for a company (Appen – see my review here) that was contracted out by the biggie search engine(s).

I would be given a query (the words a user typed into the search engine bar), and analyzed the search engine results that were spit out for that query.

This is a very flexible side hustle, and something I did when my daughter was a baby during her nap times.

Not only can you make money with your phone as a search engine rater, they often prefer you use your phone over a laptop.

There are lots of different projects you can sign up for once you are accepted to work for Appen. From mapping, to search engine rating, to artificial intelligence, to voice recognition, it’s quite interesting and varied.

See this post for more about Appen work-from-home opportunities.

2. Mystery Shop

Yes, you can make money on your phone as a mystery shopper.

I mystery shopped for a company (this one) a few years ago, and I still get sent mystery shopping assignments to my inbox.

Many different types of businesses hire mystery shoppers: banks, restaurants, apartment management companies, hotels, big department stores, clothing stores, etc.

Read my post on what is a mystery shopper for all the juicy deets.

I’m actually currently negotiating mystery shopping gigs as part of a road trip. I will get paid to mystery shop at a few outlets along our route – an easy way to make gas money!

You can also take mystery shopping jobs that are phone only or online only.

Sign up to be a mystery shopper here.

3. Make Money with your Phone Taking Online Surveys

There are about a jillion scam survey companies out there. Survey Junkie is not one of them. They are a legitimate survey company, have been around for years, and have high trust scores.

With Survey Junkie, you can get paid for doing surveys from your phone. Payment is in points which can be redeemed for gift cards for places like Amazon, Walmart, and Target. You can also get money directed deposited into your PayPal account.

Paid surveys are super easy to take while you are listening to a podcast or on the couch watching Netflix.

The second way you can make money with your phone with Survey Junkie is even more passive. It’s called SJ Pulse, an add-on that automatically shares your browsing behavior in exchange for rewards (gift cards or cash). If you stay active for 1 month, you receive an automatic bonus into your account.

You can choose to do one or both of these easy ways to make money with your phone with Survey Junkie.

If you sign up through my link, you will even get a $5 bonus into your Survey Junkie account just for signing up!

Get started with Survey Junkie here.

4. Make Money with your Phone by Blogging

This has been my favorite way to make money with my phone for the last two years.

Before I started blogging, I had no idea that regular (non-famous) people could make money blogging, and really good money at that!

How do people make money blogging?

There are lots of different ways to make money with your phone by blogging:

Ads
Affiliate marketing
Sponsored posts
Creating and selling digital products like printables on your blog
Offering services like coaching, social media management, etc.
Creating courses

I have used all these ways personally.

You can use your phone for every aspect of blogging if you wish. You can write your blog posts, create all your graphics, edit and publish in WordPress, and share and promote your posts with your phone.

If you’re interested in starting your own blog, here is my simple tutorial on how to start a blog.

If you’re a foodie, check out my post all about how to start a food blog. After loving The Curious Frugal blog so much (and missing my catering business a bit) I started a second blog called Best Mug Cakes.)

I also run a really popular 12-week blogging course called Blogging Camp. It comes with private coaching to teach you everything you need to know to get your blog set up the right way to make money.

If you are serious about making money blogging, get on the waitlist for Blogging Camp here:

5. Make Money on Your Phone by Answering Questions

A unique way to make money with your phone is to get paid to research and answer questions.

AskWonder hires researchers to look up answers to questions for their clients. Questions can be short and simple or more in depth. You are paid per question so the more in-depth questions will offer more money.

These are some examples of research questions as given on the AskWonder website:

Q: How many pints of Guinness are consumed on St. Patrick’s Day in New York City?

Q: What percentage of people whip out their phones to check social media while they’re waiting in line?

Q: What is the size and breakdown of the mattress industry in the United States?

If you are really slow at research, this isn’t the right side hustle for you. Since you are paid per question answered and not per hour, faster people will make more money per hour. Experienced AskWonder researchers can make up to $30/hour or more.

6. Get Paid to Write Book Reviews

If you love reading, a great fit for you to make money with your phone is getting paid to read books and write book reviews.

There are lots of places online that have jobs for freelance writers without a degree, and many you can start without any experience. You do have to be a good writer though!

The pay varies, and you can often command higher prices once you have more experience. Some places will pay a flat rate per piece.

There is even one company that pays you to read books aloud.

You just need the basics to work as a freelance writer: a laptop or phone. This is a very portable way to make money with your phone – you could write book reviews on the beach or while traveling!

For more details on pay and where to apply, check out this post: Get Paid to Read Books: 11 Best Ways to Make Money Reading.

You can also get paid to read and edit as a freelance proofreader. If you’re interested in proofreading here are the best places to look for remote proofreading jobs.

7. Make Money with Your Phone By Getting Cash Back

This is a super simple way to make money with your phone.

You get cash back on things you are already purchasing online. It’s called Rakuten, and I have been using it for a couple years myself.

It’s a no-brainer because you aren’t buying anything extra, just getting money back for what you are already buying.

I have gotten money back for trips, clothing, makeup, kid stuff, and more.

How it works is that instead of going directly to Amazon or Target or wherever online, you go to Rakuten first and then click on the store you want to shop at. That way you get credit for any purchases you make, a percentage of the amount you spend. This amount can be anywhere between 2% and 15% or more.

Sign up for Rakuten here (it’s free to sign up and use). You also get a sign-up bonus (it’s a good one!) using my link there.

8. Make Money with your Phone as a Freelance Writer

If you don’t mind writing on a smaller device, you can make money with your phone freelance writing.

I used to be a laptop-only writer. I just like the big screen and the feel of a pressy button keyboard (technical term).

But now I actually do a lot of writing on my phone. Sometimes I will write entire blog posts on my phone if I’m out and get an idea. I am also a published poet and will write and edit poems on my phone as well.

It’s just a lot more convenient because you can write literally anywhere.

To make money with your phone as a writer, you can write for bloggers, on freelance sites such as textbroker, through fiverr, and many other ways. You do not need a degree to become a freelance writer. A flair for writing, and decent grammar skills (plus Grammarly!) are a must.

A friend of mine is a mom of nine kids and she is also a freelance writer. This job suits her very well as she is in charge of her time, and can plan her work schedule around her family’s busy schedule. You don’t want to miss her tips on how to get started as a freelance writer: Want to Make Money Writing? This Freelancer Mom of 9 Will Show You How.

There is also a really interesting niche that can be highly profitable: short romance novels! If this jingles your jangle, check out the full post here: How to Make Money Writing Romance Novels.

9. Paid Focus Groups on Your Phone

When I was in university, I took part in paid focus groups for extra (screwdriver/fuzzy navel – I hated beer) money. Plus I found them interesting to take part in.

Even if you’re not looking for drinking money, you can make money by participating in focus groups on your phone.

This subreddit has great information on current paid focus groups that you can browse if you’re interested.

For many of the focus groups, you’ll just need a way to connect with video, usually either Zoom or MS Teams, and you’re golden! It’s an easy and fun way to make money with your phone.

10. Sell on Amazon FBA

Did you know you can become an Amazon seller using just your phone?

As I’ve mentioned, I used to have a business selling books on Amazon FBA.

Everything can be done with your phone.

I used the Amazon Seller App on my phone to:

Research the profitability of products (this is the best tool for that)
Scan items in stores to see their potential to sell on Amazon
Create listings of products to sell
Track products and adjust prices
Make sales
Collect money
Analyze selling reports
Much more

Selling on Amazon can be a highly profitable business (if you know what you’re doing).

Read this for my review of selling on Amazon FBA (the good and the bad).

And this is the best Amazon FBA course out there, if you want the best start to have a successful Amazon business.

11. Make Money with your Phone with a YouTube Channel

If you like making videos, you can monetize a YouTube channel.

The bar is surprisingly not very high to be allowed to monetize your YouTube channel. You need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last year.

Compared to other platforms (Instagram, Facebook, sponsored posts, monetizing a blog with ads), you need way fewer followers.

Plus the rates for video are higher than the rates for written content.

Many people only use their phone to make and edit videos, so this is an intuitive way to make money with your phone. Shotcut and Lightworks are two popular video editors for YouTubers.

Monetization of YouTube when you have lower numbers of followers is through ads and affiliate marketing. You can get paid for sponsored videos when you have more subscribers.

12. Make Money with Instagram or Facebook Reels

Do you know anyone making money with reels on Instagram or Facebook?

If you don’t yet, you will soon. It could be you too!

For now, monetizing reels is available in the U.S., and Instagram has said it will be rolled out to more countries soon.

You need to have a Creator or Business account for Instagram to have your reels monetized.

So far the way it has been happening is Instagram will reach out through a DM with the offer of monetizing your reels. You have to accept, and then are given information each month about different challenges and cash bonuses available for that month.

Some examples of Instagram reels challenges are: making a certain number of reels that month, or getting a minimum certain number of comments on one reel.

Creators have been offered hundreds to thousands of dollars a month for reels.

The minimum number of followers you need before you are offered monetization is 10,000 and you need to have created at least 5 videos posted to your profile.

Monetization of Facebook reels is newer than monetization of Instagram reels. It follows a similar format, but I have heard from creators that the payout is even more for monetizing of Facebook reels.

Related post: How to Make Money with Your Hobbies

13. Sell Printables

A few years ago I didn’t even know the term printables. But I quickly learned that there is a big printables market online.

Printables are online digital files that people can purchase and print off for themselves. They can be a single page (like this weekly goals printable) or a whole planner (like this ultimate meal planner). A big bonus with buying printables is that you buy once, but can print off the pages you like over and over.

I have a small Etsy shop selling printables (you can check it out here) like a budget tracker, work-from-home planner, and summer planner.

This is not where I focus my time and I am not an expert in printables, but I know a couple who are! Kim and Jeremy make incredible passive income from their printables business.

You can create and sell printables wherever you are and it’s a really fun way to make money with your phone (that can lead to passive income – bonus!).

Kim and Jeremy offer a free online training for how to start a printables business – you can register for the training here. Oh and you don’t need to have design experience either!

Grab a copy of the How to Sell Printables Checklist when you don’t have a clue where to start (it’s free).

14. Sell Feet Pics

Say what?

Some people and some websites pay good money for feet pics.

There is a big range of money you can make selling feet pics. You also want to make sure you are doing so in a safe manner (of course!).

Some of the reasons people might be interested in paying money for pictures of feet are: bloggers, health provider websites, podiatrists, and yes for individuals that fancy feet too.

If you have feet that the world needs to see (or at least a small portion of the interwebs), you might want to check out making money with your phone by selling feet pics.

For all the details about how to sell feet pics, read this post.

15. Make Money with your Phone as a Virtual Assistant

The Virtual Assistant, or V.A., space is booming online. Everyone and their dog seems to need a V.A. Many bloggers, online coaches, and other online business owners look to hire a V.A. when they are growing.

But what is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant helps take care of online administrative tasks, to free up the person for other tasks that only they can do.

There are general V.A.s who offer most services, and then there are specific V.A. niches. Pinterest V.A.s specialize in growing Pinterest accounts and engagement, there are Instagram V.A.s, email list V.A.s, lead generation, and more.

If you happen to be particularly adept in growing a specific area, that would be a good niche for you to offer services.

Having the administrative skills already is a great start, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have a successful Virtual Assistant business. If you’re serious about making money with your phone as a V.A., you’ll want to learn the business side too.

This is an excellent course you can take in a weekend and be ready to start your own V.A. business right after. It will teach you how to find clients, how to price your services, what you need to do before starting your Virtual Assistant business, and how to create processes that will make your home business run smoothly.

Learn more and sign up here.

16. Tutor English from your Phone

You can get paid to talk to people around the world on your phone.

Cambly sets up people who want to practice speaking English with English speakers.

Unlike teaching English online, working as a tutor for Cambly is much more informal. There is no curriculum or lesson plan, it is simply talking to another person on video so they can practice their English speaking skills.

Cambly tutors get paid weekly to their PayPal account. There are no minimum hours and you can work as much or as little as you want.

Make money with your phone with Cambly here.

17. Make Money with your Phone with Gaggle

Gaggle is a fully remote company that is dedicated to online student safety. They work with Kindergarten-Grade 12 schools to help prevent bullying, school violence, self-harm, and suicide.

Gaggle is an email provider for schools, and it identifies suspicious items in messages to help keep students safe. Working from home with Gaggle means you proactively identify students who are struggling, and provide support where needed.

If you are looking for an entry-level position with Gaggle, look for the Customer Support Representative position that they regularly have job openings for. There are also manager positions and positions for mental health professionals.

You can browse and apply for Gaggle positions here.

18. Manage Ads on Facebook

Have you noticed how many more ads show up as you’re scrolling your Facebook feed?

This might annoy you, but it is also a business opportunity and way to make money with your phone.

Many people who are running ads are not managing the ads on their own.

You can earn $1,000-$2,000 per month running Facebook ads for local businesses. You only need a couple of free tools and about 2-3 hours a week. Managing ads on Facebook is a great side hustle!

Bobby Hoyt is a Facebook ads expert and he created a course to teach you how to do this too. It’s called the FB Side Hustle Course and it will show you how to start your very own side hustle managing Facebook ads for local businesses.

Bobby also created a free training on how to start a profitable online advertising side hustle from scratch. The training will show you why Facebook ads management can be one of the fastest ways to make money online. Sign up for the free training here.

All you need is your cell phone, the Facebook app, and a couple of free tools to make money with your phone by running Facebook ads for businesses.

Find out more about making money with your phone by managing Facebook ads here.

19. Do Research Missions for Dscout

If you have always wanted to be in Mission Impossible in real life, you’ll love a side hustle with Dscout.

With Dscout you make money with your phone by answering questions, or going on local “missions” around your city.

You’ll answer multiple choice, short answer, photo and video questions.

You get paid to participate in research studies on your phone, and pay is usually per mission, from $25 to $200+ depending on the size of the mission. Over $7 million has been paid out to “Scouts” so far, and pay is through PayPal.

20. Make Money with your Phone by Testing Websites

Brands want to know that their websites are user friendly.

One of the ways they learn how usable their websites are is by hiring website usability testers. You can make money with your phone by testing websites and offering honest and constructive feedback to brands.

No experience is needed, and this is an online job you can get started with quickly.

Some companies have you do a mock walk-through of a website testing as your application to work for them. You are given a website to go to, and your screen and voice is recorded as you go through the website. As you click and scroll, you are supposed to be talking about what you find easy, difficult, clunky, intuitive, etc.

This helps inform the brand about what parts of their website are working well, and what parts need changes to make them more user friendly.

Read my post on testing websites for the best places to apply for this work.

21. Use an Investment App to Make Money with your Phone

While the first 20 ideas to make money with your phone were about making money in the now, this strategy is about making money for your future.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital is my all-time favorite money app because it does so much for your money.

It tracks your net worth over time (and let me tell you, knowing your net worth is a HUGE motivator for saving more money and making more money!).

You really don’t want to be in the dark when it comes to your money.

I have found that too many women often don’t know how much money they have, and that was one of the big reasons I started this personal finance site. I wanted to make money simple for women so we can learn more, save more, and grow our wealth!

So how can you make money with your phone using Personal Capital? You can use their investing tools to grow your wealth long-term.

Personal Capital has lots of free money management tools, and their website is very user-friendly (exactly what you want in a personal finance site!). Online financial advisors are available too if you want more help with your money.

Try Personal Capital for free here.

Betterment

Betterment is an app that helps you become a better investor (yay!). It has been featured in The New York Times, Business Insider, and Forbes, among others.

Betterment is an automated service that helps you make better investing decisions. Since many people are overwhelmed by investing (including many members of my family), this is a much-needed personal finance app.

You can start by investing as little as $10 and Betterment helps you either a little or a lot depending on how hands-on or hands-off you want to be with your investments.

Users love this app. Betterment was rated 4.7 stars on the app store.

It can show you how much money you can have in your investing account in the future if you deposit $100/month (or $50/month, $200/month, etc.). Betterment will show you how much more it makes sense to invest than to just stick money in a savings account that does next to nothing.

It can even help you save money on your taxes!

Check out Betterment and sign up here.

Acorns

We all know that investing money is important for our future, but so many of us don’t invest.

Some of the reasons people don’t invest money are:

They forget
Put it off/procrastinate
Analysis paralysis
Waiting until they have more money to invest
Have the false thought that investing small amounts isn’t worth it

Small amounts of money invested over time can compound into a good sized nest egg.

It’s especially important these days to invest ourselves as more and more of us don’t have employers that will be giving us a pension. We need to take our financial future into our own hands.

But how do we get past those real barriers to investing?

There is a handy (and simple to use) tool called Acorns that completely eliminates all these barriers. It helps you make money with your phone for your future.

Acorns app automatically invests your spare change, so saving happens without you having to remember or think about it. Acorns can also automatically invest of piece of every paycheck.

Let’s take an example of their rounding-up investing:

Say you buy a coffee for $2.25
Acorns rounds up to the next dollar
The app will automatically invest $0.75 without you having to do anything
You enjoy your coffee while you’re growing money for your future

Yes I want to easily save for my future.

There you have it! 21 legit, flexible, interesting ways to make money with your phone. No experience needed and no degree needed, and yes to working on beaches and at cafes at camping.