This is an on-going (meaning, a work-in-progress) list of potential 3MM candidates, and their 3MM scorecards. What does that mean? What scorecard?
To achieve the coveted title of a Three Month Millionaire “Perfect Business” a potential gig must meet the following criteria:
- You must be able to create and operate the business in less than 2 hours per day (or three months per year).
- The gig must earn at least $600 per month (or $7,200 per year) after all expenses paid.
- The gig must be potentially remote or work-from-home.
- The gig must allow us to set our own hours.
*Remember: the ultimate goal is to build full-time job-replacing income while never working more than 2 hours per day (or three months per year). If any of these can’t eventually meet that criteria for you, we will clearly state that in the reviews below
Unless completely untenable, everything will get a score of at least one out of five, meaning that it will earn at least some money some of the time.
Alright, let’s get to it.
The Gig List (More or less in order of our favorites)
Blogging
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
What’s missing? Nothing. I could go on and on about how much I love the blogging business model.
Quick note: If you choose any other side gig (either listed here, or elsewhere, or one you create all on your own), you should still take up blogging. Even if your blog never earns a dime. The ideas and accountability that arise from writing about your business are priceless.
How do you get started? We compared several of the major hosting services, domain name providers, and site builders on our small business tools page. If you want one simple service to provide host, domain, and site builder, bluehost is what you want.
See the small business tools page for a full review of bluehost and its major competitors.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES: $0 – $10,000 ($600 achievable within a year)
- Potentially Remote? YES
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Affiliate Marketing
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
This one is in many ways similar to blogging, and can be used in conjunction with blogging (we do), but can also be used as a standalone side hustle as well.
In short, affiliate marketing is when you help match solutions to problems. If you are looking for a good book to read (problem) check out my book recommendations (solution). If you see something you like and buy it through one of my links, I get a small commission. It costs you nothing, but means the world to me.
Now, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. And many sites go about it the wrong way. If I was just throwing any old book or service your way because they pay me a good commission, I would be both dishonest and manipulative. Not cool.
This is why all of our recommendations are carefully vetted (for example, I only recommend books that I have actually read. I only recommend books that I believe will benefit you, even if I didn’t like it).
We believe affiliate marking, when handled in a honest way, provides a social good to the internet. When we suggest a service, we are matching potential costumers to (often small) business owners. When we recommend a book, we help support creatives. AND it helps us keep ads to a minimum. You get a better experience. Hopefully, you get a solution to problem. Entrepreneurs get a hand. We get income. Win-win-win-win.
So how’s this different from blogging? In its purest form, an affiliate site is a set-it-and-almost-forget-it business. You don’t have to keep writing blog posts if you don’t want to. You make the content once, then you continue to get paid as long as people are making purchases through your links. The startup costs and time demands are identical to blogging, but with less ongoing work required after setup. Heck, technically, you don’t even need your own website.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES but it will take time. At the very least you’ll have to wait until google catalogs your site.
- Potentially Remote? YES Like blogging, you only need a laptop and WiFi
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Selling on Amazon
Score: 4.5 ◆◆◆◆◈
What’s missing? Potentially Remote work. Well, this is kinda missing. We work four days per month at our FBA (Fulfilled By Amazon) operations. Two of those days involve packing and shipping inventory. Everything else can be done remotely. So unlike blogging, we can’t jump in an RV and drive around the country for a year, but we still get an enormous amount of freedom.
With proper planning, we can send in several weeks or months of inventory ahead of time. This grants us a great deal of freedom for travel or whatever, at the cost of some (minor) business efficiency.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES We crossed the $600/month threshold within two months
- Potentially Remote? Aside from our two shipping days per month, YES
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Freelance Writing
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
Who hasn’t dreamed of being a writer? It’s the quintessential work-anywhere, digital nomad job. With freelance writing, you reach out to the owners of websites and offer to write an article using your own unique expertise and experience.
But there is a special kind of magic to the freelancing business model.
- It takes very little to get started. Other than some initial training, you already have everything you need. It’s a great way to earn money on the experiences you already have without putting up cash up front. And…
- As you build a network of sites, and reputation within those sites, you not only find more and more work opportunities, you can begin to raise your price. This means that the return on your (very small) investment goes up without further investment. I can think of no other hustle that has such a potential for increase with so little continuing investment.
The only downside is the the barrier to entry. There is a lot to know and a lot of pitfalls to watch out for. (This is actually a good thing because, if you do this right, you will have less competition). This is why finding a mentor or taking a course is important. Learn from the mistakes of others whenever possible.
- Three months or less? YES to get started, but the real rewards take time. Like blogging and affiliate marketing, this one matures extremely well so don’t give up!
- Cash per month? YES but it will take time.
- Potentially Remote? YES you only need a laptop and WiFi
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Flipping from thrift stores and flea markets
Score: 3 ◆◆◆◇◇
I want to warn you upfront. This is an area full of online traps. If you believe half the sites out there about flipping, you’d be swimming in cash Scrooge McDuck style. And, yes, you can make a lot of money flipping antiques or thrift store finds. And, yes, we know of people who do this as their full-time job.
But. It takes a lot of experience, and a lot of training to get that point.
We have personally done this one (and still do!) but, we do this in a purely aimless and fun way. It’s a hobby for us, a great way to pass a lazy afternoon. That means that we regularly pay too much for too little. After all, the people we are buying from are professionals and they are trying to make as much money as they can.
So why is this so high on the list?
Because you can make good money with this. You just need some guidance if you want to move beyond a just-for-the-fun-of-it hobby.
But I also want to make a point.
Strolling through flea markets and antique stores together is one of our all-time favorite things. We like it enough that we look up flea markets and antique malls on just about every vacation we take. It helps us reduce the cost of traveling (we’ve never fully paid for a vacation through flipping, but its been close). We love this, and having the skill to earn a little money off it every now and then makes it all the more enjoyable.
The point I want to make is this: The 3MM path is not all about the money. It’s about fulfillment and contentment.
That being said, if I wanted to make this my primary business, could I? YES, but I recommend getting help.
Rob and Melissa have been doing this full time for years. They managed to turn 20-25 hours per week into $133,000 in sales. So they definitely know what they are doing.
Check out their free workshop here.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES but with training.
- Potentially Remote? NO
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES, with training. We know several people in our area who are/have made a living doing this.
*Even using the low end of their hours-per-week estimate, Rob and Melissa fall just shy of our goal of working no more than two hours per day (or three months per year). They work about three hours per day.
Flipping From Retail Clearance (Retail Arbitrage)
Score: 3 ◆◆◆◇◇
This is the same basic idea as flea market flipping, except you are searching the clearance isles at major retail chains (like Target). You then sell your find on eBay or Amazon for a mark-up.
Yes, people make a lot of money doing this. Yes, people do this as their full-time job.
But this still takes an enormous amount of time to maintain. It can be a lot of fun, but the finds are very unreliable. So while you can earn $600 a month, I’m not prepared to call it ‘consistent’ income until you know what you are doing, and you can commit a substantial amount of time to it.
There is also a legal side to this. There are several legal hurdles to this that I don’t see mentioned often. Failure to abide by these could get you sued.
Full disclosure: This is actually how we started our online store. We did very well, very quickly, but we were ignorant of the legal issues. Luckily, we learned about them before anything bad happened to us. Once we understood the risks, we changed our business model.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? NO We can’t guarantee consistency. It depends on stores/competition in your area
- Potentially Remote? NO
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES, but be careful this is an area full of traps both ethical and legal.
Teachers pay teachers
Scores:
4 ◆◆◆◆◇ (if using material you’ve already created)
2.5 ◆◆◈◇◇ (If actively researching niches and producing for profit)
Ah, who doesn’t love Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT)? It’s a great way monetize the work we already do for our classrooms. If you’re willing to put a bit of research, it could become a legitimize source of side income.
But TPT has some serious drawbacks we need to talk about.
First, income. We can’t give this our seal of approval because your income probably won’t be consistent. You constantly hear about how much money you can make on TPT, but I suspect this to be mostly inflated marketing from TPT themselves. Why?
Over at FunnyMonkey.com, you can find an attempt to estimate the amount of money earned by TPT over a period of time. In doing so, they created a few scenarios that estimate how much teachers actually got paid.
In none of these scenarios did the vast majority of teachers earn our required $600 per month.
Yes, a few teachers have made millions on this site, but this takes a herculean effort in both the creation of content, marketing, audience research…
Basically, you probably won’t earn $600 per month consistently. If you try to earn that much, you wont be able to fit your effort into a three-month window (you still probably won’t make $600 every month)
One last note: I have two giant complaints about TPT
- Fees. TPT takes 45% of your selling price right off the top. 45%!!! This is absurd. This is similar to what Amazon charges for full FBA treatment and at least then you are paying them for warehousing, shipping, customer service, and use of the distribution networks.
- Plagiarism. There is basically no protection for the creator on TPT. I, having a bit of background in online marketing, could just start copying what other teachers have already created, use my marketing skills to get my listings in front of the right eyeballs, and snipe sales all day long. TPT simply doesn’t have the means to effectively police it’s listings.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? NO The most hopeful estimate claims the average seller will make $350 per month
- Potentially Remote? YES
- Set your own hours? YES (But NO if doing full marketing research. That would be a full-time job)
Could I turn this into full-time income? NO. I mean, a few have, but not enough. Fees are too high and protections are too low.
VIPKids
Score: 4.5 ◆◆◆◆◈
VIPKids is an online-only program that hires you to teach English to Children in China (their ages range range from 3-15 years old)
To work for VIPKids you must:
- Be a native English speaker
- Be legally able to work in the US or Canada (but not from California; California law complicates something for VIPKids and other online-contractor businesses. In short, if you live in CA, VIPKids won’t hire you.)
- You must have at least one year’s experience working with children
- You must have a bachelor’s degree in any subject
By far, the best part about VIPKids is this:
You don’t have to make your own own classes.
Slides and lesson plans are pre-made by VIPKid. You even present them over VIPKid’s proprietary software.
If you wanted to, you could turn this into a full-time job. There is plenty of work available if you are willing to with an audience twelve or so hours behind your timezone.
We do know of teachers that put in enough hours over their summer vacation to earn the full $7,200 dollars we need in just three months. Or you could work for an hour per day (assuming about $20 per hour) before work. And yes, you’d want to do this before work. Just about everyone we’ve talked do has fared better and felt happier getting up earlier for work than staying up late.
There are some cons:
The hiring process is intense.This is good in the long run, it ensures the quality of VIPKids which in turn ensures you a good earning opportunity for years to come. But to actually get through the process, you often need a mentor to help you keep it all straight.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? YES
- Set your own hours? YES & NO (Because you’re working with kids in China, you have to cater to their schedule. You can pick your hours and how much you want to work, but you will be working in the very early morning.
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES. If you work for VIPKids full throttle and fill in all of your time slots, you would make about $4,000 per month. Not bad at all.
*You won’t be able to meet our ultimate goal of working less than two hours per day. Not if you want full time income that is. But we understand that not everyone is interested in starting their own business.
Magic Ears
Score: 0 ◇◇◇◇◇
Similar to VIPKid. But we are suspending our recommendation for this company. It has come to our attention that they may have a policy of hiring only those perceived as “typical” English speakers. They allegedly bar English speakers with accents, and (also allegedly) have a ‘no person of color’ policy. Until we can either confirm or deny these allegations, we cannot recommend or support Magic Ears.
This is not an official condemnation of Magic Ears (yet). But it is information we believe you need to make fully informed decisions.
Leverage Your Expertise with Research Interviews
Score: 3 ◆◆◆◇◇
Sites like Respondent will match you to researchers who want to use your experience to answer questions.
Basically it works like this: I am a researcher working for RetailStore and I want to see if doing X has led to Y with . So I go to Respondent and I tell them I need to speak with people that have been to RetailStore, and that I’m willing to $50 for a 30 minute interview. Respondent will then connect me with you. We chat for 30 minutes. I pay you $50 bucks, but Respondent keep 5% as a fee. I get my answers, and you get $47.50. Respondent boasts that you make $140 per hour on average, with higher rates going to more specialized experience (Own a business? You get $500 per hour. Are you a software developer? You get $200 per hour).
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? NO Because the pay varies wildly between demographics, we can’t say this will earn $600 consistently
- Potentially Remote? YES You can check a box that only gives you ‘remote’ interviews
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? NO. This one is purely side-hustle. Can it make you a millionaire? With the 3MM strategy, YES.
Online Surveys
Score: 4 ◆◆◆◆◇
Ah, the first stop for every broke college student. I remember trying to find legit survey sites while sitting in the back of a World Cultures class. I would have killed for a list of legit ones that didn’t rip you off. Like this one:
- Survey Junkie – The undisputed king of paid online surveys. They’ve made the whole thing from sign up to paycheck so easy it makes college-me weep. Pays cash or giftcards.
- Swagbucks – So much more than a survey site. Survey Junkie might be the most popular, but I think Swagbucks is the most interesting. They’ve gamified the whole thing and created so many offers…. I often use it to earn Amazon gift cards while I’m grading essays.
- Inbox Dollars
- Vindale Research
- Opinion Outpost – I think they have the lowest payout of the group. At just $5, this means you won’t get stuck with $19 sitting in the account,waiting for the next survey to come along.
- American Consumer Opinion
Ok, now none of these are going to make you rich or let you quit your job. BUT, don’t underestimate their value. These guys are the best there is for letting you turn small amounts of downtime into cash. If my daughter wants to watch Frozen (again) fine. I’ll see how much I can earn. These pay for lots of little things you wouldn’t otherwise spend money on, like movies or music or games, that we don’t need but that bring us a lot of joy.
We also used these guys to buy a lot of the startup equipment we needed for our online store. So it’s easy to think of these as the less serious options, but they helped us avoid needing a loan to start our business. That’s a lot of value.
- Three months or less? YES You can get started in minutes
- Cash per month? NO None of these will make you rich or replace your income, but don’t sell them short. Creatively used, these guys can be of serious value. See below for more.
- Potentially Remote? YES Where there’s wifi, there’s a survey
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? NO. I use these guys to buy just-for-fun stuff though. I have a severe book habit and a good portion of my bookshelves are thanks to Swagbucks and the like.
mTurk
Score: 2 ◆◆◇◇◇
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program matches simple tasks and surveys with workers. Sometimes you’ll be checking images of scanned receipts for clarity. Sometimes you’ll be helping AI build self-driving cars. Personally, I only do surveys. These tend to come from grad students working on research for school, so I like the idea that I’m providing a (albeit small) social good with my time.
mTurk doesn’t have the best reputation. If you aren’t choosy about the work you do, you’ll end spending ten minutes to earn a penny. If you’re careful, you can find a good amount of ‘ok’ paying jobs. Personally, I don’t work for less than $6 per hour on mTurk.
There are a number of extensions and tools you can use to make sure you are only getting the best tasks. It took me a couple of hours to set it all up and read through forums, and now it’s slick. Like the survey sites, I use mTurk to pay for ‘fun’ stuff. In fact, the Chromebook I’m writing on right now was top-of-the-line in it’s day and I paid for it with mTurk.
- Three months or less? YES You can get started in minutes, or if you want to set up the power-user extensions like I did, set aside a few hours.
- Cash per month? NO Less than 4% of user ear more than $7.25. At that rate you’d need to work 80 hours per month to reach our $600 goal.
- Potentially Remote? YES
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? NO. Please don’t. You are worth so much more than that.
Could the 3MM Strategy turn this into a million dollars? Technically YES. But earning $600 per month through mTurk sounds like a special kind of hell. And that’s coming from someone who likes mTurk.
Become a Public Notary
Score: 3.5 ◆◆◆◈◇
In some states you can become a certified notary for as little as $100 dollars, then oversee loan and mortgage signings in your spare time. Each signing generally pays $50 – $150 and usually takes around an hour.
Mark Wills is the publisher of the best Notary startup course there is. He shows you how $2,000 per month, working part time. For a fully licensed notary who has decided to make this their full time job, he shows you how to make over $110,000 per year!
- Three months or less? YES In our state, you’ll be certified in 4 weeks
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? Depends. It’s remote in that you don’t need to go to the same office everyday if you don’t want to, but if you don’t have an office, you will need to drive to your signings. If your goal is to get out of a cubicle then YES. If your goal is to backpack around Europe then NO.
- Set your own hours? YES Work part time or full time, both qualify for the 3MM system.
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
BabyQuip
Score: 4 ◆◆◆◆◇
BabyQuip is a company that helps you create your own baby gear rental business. The provide you with training and even a website to start. They’ll guide you through acquiring inventory and connecting you to customers.
BabyQuip boasts being the second highest paying side gig opportunity online (behind only Airbnb) with some members making more than $5,000 per month.
There is a fee to start, however. You’ll have to put up $100, but for what you get (the training, website, network…) it seems like a fair deal. You can start with baby gear you already have, or you can buy your own.
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? NO You will be making deliveries within the service area you want to define. It can get you out of the office, but you can’t sail around the world.
- Set your own hours? YES You are an independent contractor, so you make the rules.
Could I turn this into full-time income?
Course Hero Tutoring
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
You don’t need any certifications to become a Course Hero tutor. You only need to prove your proficiency in the area that you will be tutoring. Tutor earn an average of $3 per question they answer. Overall, you can expect an average pay of between $12 – $20 per hour. Average weekly income is around $300.
Will it replace your job? No. Will it make you a millionaire with the 3MM strategy? Yes!
- Three months or less? YES
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? YES
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? NO, but this one works for the 3MM strategy!
Bookkeeping
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
Here’s one I never would have thought about had I not started researching work at home jobs. It sounds like the kind of thing that is totally out of reach for most, but that’s not the case.
There are several sources online that well get you up and running in no time. We are currently researching and reaching out these resources and we will update this will a full review as soon as we can.
In the meantime, here’s what we know so far…
- Three months or less? YES A few weeks to learn the basics. A few months to build a small business. A few years to master the ins and outs of business management.
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? YES You can work entirely from home
- Set your own hours? YES BUT This is a small business you will be making. There are responsibilities and commitments that go with that. Start this only if you are ready to be your own boss.
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Proofreading
Score: 5 ◆◆◆◆◆
Here’s one that is NOT for everybody. Pursue this only if you have an eye for detail.
That being said, this is one of those side hustles that can easily replace your job, if it’s the sort of thing you fall and love with (and many do!).
Caitlin Pyle has basically built this arena online, and she remains the best resource anywhere. She managed to earn $43,000 in one year working part time. She’ll show you everything you need to get started.
- Three months or less? YES. Using Caitlin’s numbers you would have to work between 30 and 45 minutes per day to reach our $600 goal!
- Cash per month? YES
- Potentially Remote? YES You can work entirely from home, or from anywhere else. Caitlin was studying abroad when she made her $43,000
- Set your own hours? YES
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES with the help of Caitlyn at least.
Transcribing
Score: 4.5 ◆◆◆◆◈
This one takes focus, patience, and an acute attention to detail. I don’t mean to scare anyone off, but this is another option that requires a certain skill set and I want to be clear about that up front.
Basically, a transcriptionsit listens to recorded audio and then types what they hear. If you are focused, driven, and detailed, this might be a great fit for you.
How much can you earn? Around $20 dollars per hour if your’re working for a transcription company, or higher if you build your own business.
Like proofreading, transcribing can be a part time side hustle or a full time income. You decide.
- Three months or less? YES, if you can put solid concentration into learning the ropes. If you can only give it an hour or two per week, it will take longer than three months to get started.
- Cash per month? Almost. Once established, you would have to work about an hour per day (assuming $20 per hour pay rate) to reach our $600 dollar goal. This is just over our cutoff limit.
- Potentially Remote? YES as long as you have a quiet place free of distractions. Work from home, or, if it were me, at a library.
- Set your own hours? YES especially if you start your own business.
Could I turn this into full-time income? YES
Other side hustles that we have not personally researched….
- Life-Coach
- Rental Business (Baby stuff, tools, party supplies)
- Dropshipping
- Search Engine / Social Media Evaluator
- Home-based Daycare
- Remote Customer Service
- Virtual receptionist
- Clean Houses
- Dog Walking
- Write an Ebook
