Tired of earning money the regular old boring way? There are a lot of alternate money-making ways that don’t fit neatly into conventional boxes.
Sticking with convention isn’t always the most interesting thing to do, so if you are looking for weird and interesting ways to make money online, this article will help you.
They might not be big earners, but they might feel like a breath of fresh air after always going through the motions to make money the old-fashioned way.
Weird Ways to Make Money in Canada
There are a bunch of weird and interesting ways you can make money online, and they are a refreshing replacement for conventional remote jobs in Canada.
1. Donate Your Stool Samples
No, you didn’t read that wrong. You can actually get paid to “do your business.” A growing number of medical research teams are paying eligible individuals for samples of their poop.
Our digestive tracts are full of good bacterial organisms that make up our human microbiome. These organisms help our bodies digest food, fight off and prevent digestive inflammation, and can even fight cancerous cells in our colon.
Some individuals have a naturally resilient and strong microbiome. A new medical procedure called Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) takes the good biome from donors and transplants it into individuals who suffer from debilitating or deadly intestinal diseases.
A number of scientific research organizations are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for stool samples from healthy individuals. Of course, you’ll need to submit to a screening to evaluate your overall health. However, if you’re a young, healthy, fit individual with a positive medical history, you can get paid up to $500 for every stool sample you submit.
Some of the best sites that pay for your poop include:
It may seem a bit strange, but this side hustle can literally save lives. So why not give it a try?
2. Answer Surveys
When your friend asks for your opinion on a product or service, you usually do free of charge. Well, there are ways to get paid for it by answering surveys through your phone or computer. It’s possible to make a few hundred dollars a month in your spare time answering surveys.
Some of the best sites for making money taking surveys:
Related Reading: Best paid survey sites in Canada
3. Take Selfies
If you have a fashion sense and you are addicted to taking selfies, then companies like Stylinity offer you a unique way to make money. You can post your selfies, showcasing a product from Stylinity partner retailers.
If these products are purchased, you will get a commission.
4. Become a Matchmaker or Relationship Coach
Connecting the right people together is a rewarding endeavour. And it can reward you in more than gratitude and inner satisfaction if you work as a matchmaker at a company like Tawkify or a relationship coach at Relationship Hero. It requires you to be a people person, empathetic, and passionate about matchmaking.
5. Gaming
From live streaming on Twitch to becoming a pro gamer, there are several ways of making money online by gaming.
You can play games on apps like Mistplay or Lucktastic to make a little online money or get rewarded with gift cards. Some websites can help you earn money through online competitions. You can also become a game tester.
Check out my full list on how to make money playing video games here.
6. Photography
Not professional photography and covering events. At Foap, you can upload the photos you take, and whenever one of them sells, you get $5 in your Paypal account.
But a more interesting way is to complete Foap missions. There are always new missions available on the Foap website, some of which can pay you upwards of $500 if you win. Scoopshot is another similar company you can try.
7. Lending Money
If investing in the stock market is too dull or complicated for you, give goPeer a try – A peer-to-peer lending site.
You can start with just $1, and by investing in small Canadian businesses, you can earn interest returns on your loans.
It carries the inherent risk of lending that the lender might default, but you can minimize that risk by lending out to lower-risk borrowers.
8. Lose Weight
If you need to lose some weight and good health by itself isn’t enough incentive for you, a bit of extra cash might be. HealthyWage offers you money to lose weight.
You enter your current physical stats on the website, along with your weight loss goals. And then, you can place a wager on your weight loss, and if you can maintain that target weight by the end of the challenge you’ll win a prize.
There is a calculator that shows you how much of a prize you can expect if you achieve your weight loss goal vs. how much you wager. Read the HealthyWage FAQs if you’re interested to see how it works.
9. Amazon mTurk
Though Amazon mTurk is not as interesting or “refreshing” as other options on the lists, the tasks you find here might differ from typical online money-making ways.
On average, it’s found that you can earn about $2 an hour performing tasks that computers can’t do yet.
10. Flirt
It’s an unorthodox way, but it works, and you usually only have to text. The wage is based on dollars per message. Websites like Flirt Bucks or Lip Service hire people to message, communicate, and flirt with people online.
Since it’s a message service, it can’t get creepy beyond a certain point, but you might still field some weird requests, so be prepared for that.
11. Home Campers
Is Airbnb too mainstream for you? Why not rent out your garden or backyard to campers? The concept is simple enough – If you have a garden, backyard, or free land, you can rent it out to campers.
Travellers worldwide use home campers to find desirable places to camp, and homeowners/landowners can earn a bit of cash renting out space.
12. Bridesmaid/Groomsman for Hire
Some people can’t handle weddings, while others thrive in them. If you are one of the people who love weddings, you can start your own bridesmaid or groomsman-for-hire business.
Similarly, you can even start a virtual consultation and planning business. You may need some firsthand experience and testimonials to get the word out, but when you develop a reputation, you can develop a purely online gig.
13. Watching Videos
Most of us spend several hours a week watching videos. If you watch videos on the right platforms, you can generate a little cash from this activity.
Swagbucks, Daily Rewards, and Quick Rewards can help you earn some cash by watching videos and other online activities.
14. Focus Groups
Focus groups efficiently allow companies to conduct controlled market studies and improve their products or services.
Companies like JMRS arrange paid focus group sessions for companies, where participants are chosen/recruited according to a set criterion and paid for their time and feedback.
15. “Lend” Your Computing Power
You can use your computer to “mine” cryptocurrency, but there is another way to earn money by keeping your computer running.
Basically, you share your computing power (RAM, GPU, CPU) with a distributed network like Golem and earn money.
16. Selling Your Hair
Once the lockdown is over, many people may actually have too much hair. Selling some of it is another way you can make money. And this is a very mature business.
Websites like Hair Sellon allow you to sell your hair globally. The price is calculated based on length, thickness, colour, and whether your hair is chemically processed or not.
17. Selling Plasma
Since you can’t get paid to donate sperm and eggs (you might, but it’s not exactly legal), you can donate plasma.
Giveplasma.ca will give you up to $50 for donating plasma. Qualified donors can donate plasma twice every seven days, but no more than that.
18. Cuddling
Human intimacy has unfortunately gotten scarce enough for some people that they are willing to pay for it.
Professional cuddling is an actual business in Canada (not so much during the pandemic), where people pay to cuddle with another human being. Websites like Cuddlist offer it as a therapeutic service.
19. Go To the Cinema
Becoming a certified field associate with market forces can let you earn money by going to the movies and gauging/recording the reactions of the audience.
You will get paid for watching movies in theatres, and the assignments are usually only for weekends.
20. Mystery Shopper
Mystery shopping is a way to gather information about a product or service of an establishment. It’s used by marketing research companies and sometimes by product manufacturers to get firsthand marketing data. Shoppers Confidential is a good first option you can look into.
21. Become a Friend
Rentafriend.com allows you to make a free profile with the website and start offering your services as a friend (whoever said friendship could not be bought).
People use this service to find people to hang out with, talk to, or help them with everyday activities.
22. Clinical Trial
It’s nobody’s ambition to become the guinea pig for a science experiment (unless it’s a cool mutation experiment). Still, clinical trials usually pay very well, and they are usually very safe.
People conducting the medical trial are about ten times more afraid of hurting you than you are of getting hurt. Centerwatch’s list might be a good place to start.
23. House-sitting/Pet-sitting
People who travel usually worry about leaving their homes empty and their pets alone.
Fortunately, services like housesitterscanada.com, housesitmatch.com, and petbacker.com provide them with a solution and an interesting new way to make money. But make sure you are comfortable with animals.
Conclusion
This list is evidence that if you are truly motivated to make money, there are a plethora of options out there, both conventional and unconventional. And sometimes, it’s a good idea to break convention, even if the payout isn’t always that great.
Sometimes, it’s more important that you have fun making money. But make sure that you are not doing something illegal.
If you want more fascinating ideas on ways to earn cash, check out this ultimate guide on how to make money online in Canada.
