7 Ways To Make Extra Money In Canada If OnlyFans Isn't For You

Become a mystery shopper

If you don't know what it is, mystery shopping — which is also called secret shopping — is the practice of assessing a business through anonymous shoppers who evaluate customer service, employee product knowledge, sales ability, speed of service, employee integrity, facility appearance and more.

Mystery shopping is a great way to earn extra money and can be done even if you have a full-time job.

As a mystery shopper — aka a secret shopper — you go out to businesses like retail stores, grocery stores, banks, gas stations, car dealerships, restaurants, cafes, pharmacies and more.

You pretend to be a real customer by going through the businesses to experience and then evaluate the quality of services.

That can include checking the cleanliness of the location, interacting with the employees, asking specific questions about products and even making a purchase.

After that, you're tasked with filling out a survey evaluating and relating to the experience.

There are so many companies that put mystery shoppers to work like Premier Service, Shoppers Confidential and Ipsos Mystery Shopping.

With Premier Service, you can set your own hours and work as much or as little as you want even while working a full-time job.

Once you sign up to be a mystery shopper, you'll be assigned a designated scheduler who will get in touch with you to support your shopping.

Sometimes you might be required to make a purchase but Premier Service will reimburse you.

With Shoppers Confidential, you must be fluent in English, have access to a computer, have a smartphone, and have a PayPal account.

All shops are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and how much you get paid depends on the assignment.

Typically, Shoppers Confidential gives out payments ranging between $15 and $50 per assignment. Plus, any expenses that are noted in the assignment will be reimbursed.

With Ipsos Mystery Shopping, you can work from your home completing mystery calls, mystery chats and mystery emails or actually go into stores to complete mystery visits.

Each task has different pay rates but you're able to see the salary in the task description before you apply to do the task.

Some mystery shopping tasks — like visits to restaurants or doing sports activities — might not be paid because you'll be provided with a free meal or activity.

There is no fee to sign up with any of these mystery shopping services which means you can start earning money pretty much right away.

Also, you don't have to pay any fees to accept an assignment.

Transcribe audio files

You can earn extra money on the side by doing freelance transcription or even make it full-time work if you're looking for a non-traditional job right now.

If you become a transcriber with Scribie, you can work at your convenience and earn $5 to $20 per audio hour.

All you need is good English comprehension, the ability to interpret conversations, the ability to apply context and identify mistakes, a verified PayPal account, a laptop or desktop computer with internet, and headphones or a headset.

When working for Scribie, you're tasked with listening to audio files of your own choosing that are always around six minutes long.

Then, you have to Apply context, identify mistakes and correct the automated transcript that's provided with the audio file.

Payments range from $5 to $20 per audio hour — not the actual time spent working on it — and go right into your verified PayPal account.

There are no obligations, no monthly commitments and no withdrawal limits for being a transcriber.

As a beginner, you could earn $400 a month for eight daily hours of work.

If you're designated as an intermediate, you could earn $800 a month for eight daily hours of work.

Then, as an advanced transcriber, you could earn $1,600 a month for eight daily hours of work!

Trade in your old devices

You can actually get money when you trade in your old devices through Amazon Canada and you barely have to do any work.

Through the Amazon trade-in with Phobio, you just have to enter your device's serial number and answer a few questions about its current condition to get a quote on its value.

After your trade is confirmed, Phobio will send you prepaid shipping supplies and packing instructions.

Just follow the provided instructions to erase your device, pack it up using the shipping supplies and then drop it off at your local Canada Post Office.

You'll receive payment as an Amazon gift card via an email from Amazon.ca Trade-In somewhere between one to three business days after your trade has been received and inspected.

Then, you can use that gift card when shopping online with Amazon Canada.

Participate in focus groups

There are so many different focus groups, product test groups and research studies that you can participate in across Canada to make extra money.

You could join Sago's opinion panel in Canada — AskingCanadians — and get paid to provide your thoughts as part of research studies for the world's largest brands.

Participation can be done through an online survey, on the telephone at an agreed time, at in-person focus groups or interviews, and by receiving products to test.

Also, researchers at Respondent are looking for business professionals to participate in research studies based on their professional experience

The average hourly incentive is $200 for software developers, $150 for marketers, $700 for executives, $750 for enterprise software users, $500 for business owners and $100 for sales and support workers.

You could become a product tester with Matrix Sciences Consumer Research and get paid to give your opinions on food, beverage, household and personal care products.

There is a minimum payment of $25 to $30 per session but you could get more money depending on the type and length of the test.

You need to go into a test centre to participate in these sessions and there are locations in Toronto, Brampton, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Halifax.

Sell belongings you don't use anymore

Another way to make a little money on the side is to sell items you have that you don't use anymore.

That can be done at thrift stores in Canada and through online stores like Poshmark, Depop and Facebook Marketplace.

Canadians have unwanted and unused items around their homes with an average estimated worth of $571, according to a recent PayPal study.

Clothes, books and furniture are the top items people buy when thrift shopping in Canada but clothes, furniture, and gaming consoles and equipment have the highest resale value right now.

Get cashback when you shop

If you're looking to earn more money, you can get cash back when shopping online through Rakuten.

The shopping site offers Canadians up to 30% cash back at more than 750 stores.

Retailers pay Rakuten a commission whenever you make a purchase which is then shared with you as cash back.

Here are just a few of the stores that you can make money from when shopping:

• Staples Canada — up to 2% cash back
• Under Armour Canada — 2% cash back
• Best Buy — up to 2% cash back
• Dyson — up to 5% cash back
• Lenovo Canada — 10% cash back
• Uniqlo — 2% cash back
• Ashley HomeStore — up to 10% cash back
• HP Canada — 10% cash back
• PinkCherry — 6% cash back

There are three payment options that you can choose from to get your money — a PayPal direct deposit, Amazon e-gift card, or physical cheque.

Rent out your unused storage space

You can get paid to store other people's belongings in any unused space you have like the garage of your house, a locker unit in your condo building or even an office space.

One of the many online marketplaces that offer this way to make extra money is StoreAtMyHouse.

You can list your storage space on the site and then earn passive income by renting out your spare spaces.

According to the marketplace, you could earn $300 a year to $3,000 a year depending on where you're located and the storage size you make available.