How to Make $3000 a Month From Home (or ANYWHERE)

According to FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data), the average income in the US is around $36,000 a year. This translates into about $3000 a month or just under $19 an hour for a 40-hour workweek. 

If you want to know how to make $3000 a month from home (or while traveling…or really anywhere), my guess is you want to do it on your own terms.

Maybe you want to be your own boss. 

Maybe you want to spend more time with family. 

Or maybe you want to become a digital nomad.

After all, three grand per month is fine and good in North America, but it’d make you a BALLER in some parts of the world. 

No matter your dreams, this guide will help you get there.

I’ve personally used a combination of these methods to build a five-figure per month income, and I’ve met people having success in every one of these methods.

But before we dive into how to make $3k a month, we have to touch on something even more important…

MINDSET.

Are you cut out for side hustling?

Sure. Anyone can go look for a work-from-home gig. But how many people can stick to it? How many will find long-term success? 

Many people find the work-from-home lifestyle just isn’t for them. Others realize the loss of benefits from a full-time job isn’t worth the hassle.

So what kind of people find success working from home (or while jet-setting around the world)? 

Introverts tend to do well. People who have a lot of self-discipline are also successful. 

Some need a routine to stay productive. Others do not.

Some need a boss breathing coffee breath down their neck to stay motivated. Others do not.

What sets working from home, self-employment, and digital nomad life apart from traditional employment is YOU. That’s right. It’s all about the self.

You need to find what works for you. 

And the easiest way to do that is to try new things. 

So go through this list, pick what interests you, and see if you can make it work part-time. See if you can do more than one. Find what works, and double down.

Have fun. Life life. And enjoy the ride. Let’s get started.

How to make $3000 a month from home (8 strategies)

1. Blogging

I love blogging because of its versatility. I do not love how long it takes to start bringing in consistent money. 

This is rule number one of blogging. When you first start, you aren’t going to make a penny. For a long time. That’s ok.

It’s no different than planting a garden. You put a seed in the ground and water it every day — even when you don’t see anything happening — until it finally sprouts above the earn and starts to grow. 

Once you crack the code to blogging success, you can replicate it forever.

There are loads of ways to make money blogging. 

Affiliate marketing and ads are the most popular, especially for beginners. 

End-game stuff might include creating your own products and courses. Or even branching off and using your reach to create a whole new side business. For example, I know plenty of travel bloggers who went on to create their own tour companies. 

As a blogger, you’ll learn SEO, how to run a business, how to design a buyer persona, how to build a brand, and the list goes on. 

You can use all the skills you pick up to springboard a freelance career. Writing, editing, video editing, graphic design, social media management, photography — the opportunities are endless.

It will become what you make it become. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a truly powerful thing. You pull the levers however you want. You’re in control.

How to make $3000 a month blogging

According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary for a blogger is around $38,000 a year.

So if you want to make $3k per month, become an average blogger. Keep in mind, if you want to make 3000 dollars a month blogging, your blog needs to be established and you’ll need to be in the game for a year or two. 

The cool part is, you don’t have to stop at being an average blogger. There is no income cap. 

For example, one of my blogging role models, Jon Dykstra, pulls in over $80k per month with his portfolio of websites. (He also has a free course that explains how he does it, by the way).

Best of all, you can blog from home or anywhere else in the world. 

You can write blog posts on your lunch break. Promote on social media while you’re on the treadmill at the gym. Reply to comments while you watch Netflix or while laying in bed. (To be honest, this flexibility can actually be a blessing and a curse). 

Blogging is the ultimate side-hustle. You can keep your full-time job until you’re able to replace your income. Don’t get me wrong — it requires TONS of work. But if you follow a proven plan (like Jon’s) and keep chipping away, eventually you’ll reach your income goals — whether that be earning an extra $50 a day or completely replacing your day job.

2. YouTube

YouTube is a great way to make money and has many similarities to blogging. Profitable blogging niches also often make profitable Youtube niches. 

In fact, if you want to create a double whammy, you can do both. Promote your blog on your Youtube channel, and promote your Youtube channel on your blog. That’s what I do with Project Untethered, and it works charmingly. 

As you’ll see, many of the ideas on how to make 3000 dollars a month from home play well with each other.

Similar to blogging, there are many ways to monetize with Youtube. 

You can offer memberships. There is ad revenue. You can promote affiliate links in your description. And once you have some clout, brand deals and sponsorships are the bee’s knees. 

I like to look at a website called Social Blade to get an idea of what a channel makes in ad revenue. But if a channel is properly monetized, this is going to be only a fraction of its total income.

You can get started on YouTube for around $100. Actually, less. All you really need is a decent smartphone. That’s all we had when we started, but if you have $100 to spare, you can drastically increase the quality of your videos with a budget lavalier microphone and a small LED light.

As your channel grows, you can invest in fancier gear. 

How to make $3k a month on YouTube

YouTube and blogging have another common denominator. 

Affiliate marketing is your best friend. To qualify for ad revenue, your channel needs 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time. But you can throw affiliate links into your description from Day 1. The same is true with blogging.

Your ad revenue depends on your niche. For example, videos about personal finance will make more per 1,000 viewers than videos about lollipops. That’s because financial companies sell expensive products in their ads, so they’re able to pay more. 

But everything else equal, more video views means more money. You’ll get more ad revenue, but you’ll also get more eyes on your descriptions that are rich in affiliate links. Brands that want to partner or sponsor content are looking for creators that have a certain number of subscribers and page views.

And the more targeted your subscribers, the better. So try to stick to one theme. 

Since there are so many factors involved, it’s tough to estimate ad revenue. But if you insist, the average CPM on the platform is $2 for every 1,000 views. But again, this could be more or less depending on your channel, the time of year, the type of subscribers you have, etc. 

But assuming the average, you’d ~150,000 views per month to make $3000 a month on YouTube from ad revenue. Less if you’re also earning with affiliates or other monetization methods. 

Once you reach a certain point, you can easily make $3,000 on Youtube with just a single brand sponsorship.

In fact, the first time we had a deal this size on our Project Untethered channel was when we had around 50,000 subscribers (but this can vary widely from channel to channel).

If it weren’t for this course, we would’ve left tens of thousands of dollars in brand deals on the table over the past year. I did a huge write-up on what the course taught me in this Brand Deal Wizard review.

3. Amazon FBA

E-commerce continues to explode year in and year out. 

There are several ways you can harness this growth to create a $3000/month business, but some are easier to start than others.

One of the lowest bars to entry is an Amazon FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) business.

You choose a product (the hardest step), find a supplier (usually in China), import your product, and send it to Amazon warehouses.

From there, Amazon takes care of all your orders, shipping, and returns. 

This means that after you put in the initial hard work to set everything up, it becomes relatively passive. 

Personal note: I tried to start an Amazon FBA business back in the day by myself. It crashed and burned, and I lost a lot of money in inventory. If I would have had this free Amazon FBA masterclass back then, I would have avoided my big mistake and created a successful business.

If you’re interested in starting an Amazon business, you need a proven plan (don’t try to just wing it like me!). Check out my Marketplace Superheroes course review for a program that literally guarantees success. 

How to make $3000 per month on Amazon

There are many ways to hit $3000 with an Amazon FBA business (and potentially much more).

For example, say you sell seven different products in five different countries. On average, you earn $10 for every unit sold. 

To hit $3000 a month in profit, you’d need to sell roughly nine units per day of each product in each country.

If you doubt that is possible, check out my Amazon FBA review for proof.

4. Twitch

How would you like to get paid to play video games? 

You can do this on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. But the most popular streaming service is Twitch, owned by Amazon.

All you need to get started is a camera, microphone, and your video games. 

You don’t have to spend a bunch of cash right off the bat. Just get a basic setup to start, which shouldn’t run you more than 100 bucks.

When you first start streaming, your audience is going to be small. There’s a good chance you’ll stream for zero people for a while. Keep at it. Record your streams and upload them to YouTube. Get active on social media platforms where gamers congregate.

As your audience and income streams grow, you can invest in more expensive equipment to provide a better experience for your viewers.

Other opportunities: With the rise of crypto and web3, there are even more opportunities to earn playing video games — opportunities that don’t require you to get in front of a camera. This field is growing super fast and constantly changing, but two games to look into are Axie Infinity and Defi Kingdoms.

How to earn $3000 a month on Twitch

Twitch and streaming have a multitude of monetization methods. The most popular is through subscribers. You can expect to earn roughly $2.50 for every monthly subscriber you have. This means you’ll need about 1,200 monthly subs to hit your 3000 dollars a month goal. 

This assumes you aren’t using any other monetization methods, which is unlikely. 

To get to this stage in your career, you’ll need to become a Twitch affiliate and then eventually a Twitch partner. You can read about that process here.

It doesn’t happen overnight. But if you’re spending hours playing video games anyway, why not work towards something that’ll eventually bring you cash?

If you want to get an idea of how much streamers earn from subscribers, you can check out sites like Twitch Tracker or Twitch Stats. 

These sites show how often and for how long popular streamers play, how many followers they have, and their sub count.

Subs are the bread and butter for most streamers, but they also have additional income streams they can tap into through Twitch or other channels.

Bits are a tipping system you’ll have access to once you become an affiliate. This will likely be just pocket change in the beginning, but eventually, it can add up. If you climb the ladder higher enough, you can even earn from brand deals, sponsorships, and affiliate marketing.

HOLD UP. Why settle for $3000 per month? Don’t sell yourself short. Here’s how to make $4000 a month.

5. Dividends

Let’s switch it up a bit and get away from content creation. Some of us have more money than time. If you’re in this boat, dividend investing is a solid choice.

Dividend investing is a relatively simple, hands-off approach to investing and passive income. What’s most important here is performing due diligence on the stocks and funds you choose to invest in. 

You can invest in these types of stocks with any brokerage. This is a long-term strategy. 

You pay taxes on dividends, so day trading these kinds of stocks isn’t a good idea, and the government will double-whammy you come tax time. A “buy and hold forever” kind of mindset tends to work better. (None of this is financial advice, by the way — I’m just a mere blogger with a knack for side hustlin’).

How to make $3000 a month in dividends

Stocks pay a different annual percentage on their shares. Let’s use a fairly common percentage of 3%. In my (non-expert) opinion, anything less than this isn’t worth your time.

If you want to hit our magic number of $3000 a month in dividends at a 3% dividend rate, you’ll need $720,000 invested in your brokerage.

Now hold on a minute. Before you say, “the hell?” while reading this post, hear me out…

I’m not saying you need a million bucks to invest. I’m just saying this is what you need to make 3000 dollars a month from dividends, with a 3% return.

You can start investing with any amount of money. Reinvest dividends through a DRIP, invest some cash every month, and this cash will eventually compound into your desired income level. 

It takes two things to be successful with dividend investing. Time and patience.

Add money. Reinvest dividend earnings. And your account will grow faster than you think.

For a safer, more hands-off approach, I highly recommend reading The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing. It completely changed my outlook on investing.

If you’re crypto savvy and don’t mind a slightly more risk, research the Anchor Earn protocol. It’s essentially a fancy crypto savings account that earns ~20% interest at the time of writing. 

UPDATE: LUNA, UST, and Anchor Earn have collapsed. It was fun while it lasted. Then…it wasn’t. I kept the info here to illustrate an example of how things can work. In the future, there might be better options.

Starting with zero crypto knowledge, it took me about a week to figure out how the system works. If I can do it, so can you.

6. Investment properties

There are a lot of people out there who don’t trust the stock market. They’d rather keep their cash stuffed under the mattress than in a brokerage. 

I get it. When you invest in stocks, bonds, etc… you can’t physically see your money. It’s completely digitized at this point. It’s not for everyone.

If you find yourself wanting a more physical approach to investing, look into building a portfolio of rental properties.

The idea behind this is pretty basic. You buy a property and then rent it out to tenants. The profit goes into your pocket. Sure. It’s simple. But it ain’t easy.

This is a business. Most of the folks that are hardcore into real estate set up an LLC for each property. This way if something were to happen, they don’t lose their entire portfolio. 

Some investors prefer to buy properties outright, while others prefer to finance each property. Every investor has a different strategy. There’s no right or wrong answer. It all depends on what you’re starting with.

To learn more, I recommend checking out the Bigger Pockets website. 

How to make $3000 a month in passive income

For today’s exercise, let’s say you have the cash to buy properties outright, and you want to invest in multi-family units. 

You find a great deal. There is a duplex in a nice neighborhood, and the owner wants $300,000 for the property (not likely in today’s market, but you get the point). You charge $1,500 a month for each unit, bringing your total to $3000 a month.

This is great! Hold on a minute there, Slick. Things go wrong. They break. They need to be fixed. And to top it off property taxes aren’t cheap.

But that’s ok. It’s not about starting at $3000 a month in passive income, it’s about the journey to get there. Save up your profits and over time you’ll have the money to get a second property.

To speed up the process, you can finance your properties and leverage other people’s money.

As your portfolio grows and you continue to reinvest your cash flow, you’ll eventually hit your monthly goal. 

If you want to keep going, you can get a property manager to take over the day-to-day hassles while you focus on finding new properties or other projects.

7. Freelancing

Freelancing is my favorite way to get started working from home. It’s also one of the fastest ways to start earning.

Think of it as an introduction to self-employment. You’ll learn all of the basics of what it takes to have your own business, learn new skills, and hone the ones you already have.

Becoming a freelancer is as simple as waking up one day and deciding it’s what you want to do. 

The next step is to hit the web. There is a plethora of information on how to become a freelancer and how to find clients.

It has the potential to become the most rewarding and challenging thing you will ever do.

You can freelance almost any skill imaginable. Just poke around Fiverr, and you’ll know what I mean. 

For example, you can go the traditional route:

▶ Freelance writing – Here’s how to find entry-level writing jobs.
▶ Graphic design – Start by mastering Canva if you don’t have any experience.
▶ Virtual assistant-ing – Here are the best virtual assistant courses and 275+ virtual assistant service ideas to get your juices flowing.
▶ Proofreading – Here’s a free course on how to start.
▶ Transcriptionist – Here’s another free training on how to start a transcription business. 

Or you can do some more obscure stuff, like:

▶ Get paid to talk to lonely people
▶ Get paid to be a virtual friend
▶ Get paid to chat in English

As you can see, we’ve got loads of freelancing guides here on Project Untethered. But if I were you, I’d start with our guide on the best freelance jobs for beginners.

And if you’re interested specifically in freelance writing, I create a whole free course for ya!

How to make $3000 a month from home as a freelancer

Working from home as a freelancer not only allows you to earn money, but also save it. The days of buying work clothes and wasting hours commuting are over.

In exchange, you have new headaches to deal with. You have to do your own work, invoicing, client communication, and more. This is a good thing. It means you’re busy and you’re good at what you do.

If you want to make $3000 a month from home as a freelancer, the key is consistency. 

You want to fill up your client roster with high-paying clients that pay on time and give you regular work.

Your rate depends on the work you do, but let’s say you’re bringing in $25 an hour. This will depend on the specific service you offer (and your skill), but it’s a good starting point. 

To earn $3000 per month, you’re looking at ~120 hours of work, or about 30 hours a week. 

Keep in mind, the admin work that comes with being self-employed does not generate income. 

Luckily, most of this work can be done in the same amount of time you spend waiting in line at Starbucks for your overpriced latte. And if you find regular clients that send your ongoing work, you can minimize admin time.

8. Diversify your income streams

If you want to make 3,000 dollars a month, why not try multiple hustles?

Let’s use blogging as an example. You decide to start a blog while working your normal job. You follow a proven plan, hustle, and spend all your free time growing it. When you need a break, you log in to a platform that pays you to chat.

Eventually, this blog starts making money. You realize you’re almost making enough to live off. You have money saved. You still enjoy blogging. But not your job.

You decide to quit the job and blog full-time. You start freelancing to fill in the gaps.

After shedding your day job and lengthy commute, you use your extra time to start a YouTube channel. 

After 50 uploads, you meet the monetization threshold for YouTube ads. 

Between blogging, freelancing, and Youtube, you’re now making more than $3000 a month now. And it’s growing every day. And you’re working for yourself. And you’re doing that work from wherever the heck you want.

You now have even more extra money laying around. You start investing in dividends, properties, and maybe even some crypto. 

This is almost the story of my life (if you remove the bit about the full-time job and pretend we’re in Cali, Colombia — where the cost of living is super low). 

As you can see, having one goal can snowball into financial freedom most people can only dream about. 

It’s work. But it can be fun. It can be challenging. 

And it will allow you to live the life you want.

Frequently asked questions