Could you turn $0 to $10,000 within a year? If you’re willing to put in the work, there are ways to do it.

With most $0 to $10,000 challenges you find online, participants usually look for “free stuff” they can sell or trade. From there, they invest time and energy into “trading up” to better stuff that can make money, or they create a business strategy that helps them grow their initial cash into something bigger.

If I were to try to grow $0 to $10,000, I would start with proven strategies, including the easy ones everyone should be doing! Most of all, I would focus on the steps I have used to build wealth for my family.

Here are five steps almost anyone could take to grow $0 into $500, which can turn into $5,000, $10,000, or more within a year. And yes, I include plenty of examples to help you get started.

Step 1: Get Free Stock

When turning $0 into $10,000, you need to start with something of value you can get for free. Free stock promotions are an excellent way to do that, and some of the best promos come from two popular investing apps – Robinhood and Webull.

Robinhood Free Stock Promo

With Robinhood, you can get a free stock worth $3 to $225 after opening an account and fulfilling its conditions. Just keep in mind this promotion is only available for new customers.

Also, remember that your stock will likely be worth on the lower end of the promised range. Robinhood says about 98% of the free stock they give out is worth $3 to $10, which is what I have found from personal experience and in the screenshot from my Robinhood account below:

But free is still free. You can also refer friends to get more free stock from Robinhood (see my own example in the above image). You can get up to $500 in referral stock within a year, and your free stock will fall within the same general rate of $3 to $225 per share.

By combining these promotions, you could easily get one free stock for opening an account, then refer 20 friends and get 20 more shares. Even if the average price of each stock you received were only $5, you would accumulate $105 in wealth.

Webull Free Stock Promo

With Webull, you can get two free stocks valued up to $1,850 when you open an account and fund it with $100. While you might not have the $100 in cash right away, you can start with Robinhood and build up your $100 in seed money.

You can also get a free stock worth $2.50 to $250 just for opening an account – even if you don’t fund it.

Even better, Webull lets you refer friends and get THREE free stocks, each worth $12 to $1,400. In reality, though, many of the stocks I have received are worth around $30. Here’s an example using my personal Webull account:

The results: You can easily combine Robinhood and Webull promotions to earn hundreds of dollars in free stock, which you can use to begin your journey to $10,000. And since this stock is free, why wouldn’t you?

Step 2: Retail Arbitrage

Retail arbitrage is a great way to make money fast, but it can also be a key step in your journey to $10,000. Also referred to as product flipping, retail arbitrage involves buying products at a low price and then reselling them for a profit.

There are many ways to make money with retail arbitrage, including shopping for antiques, at thrift stores, or find hidden gems at garage sales in your area.

Jason Butler of My Money Chronicles has had success with retail arbitrage, starting most of his deals at thrift stores. He hunts for brand-name clothing at bargain prices, but he also looks for other stuff that sells well. He then resells most of the items on eBay. 

His eBay top sellers include sports jerseys, bobbleheads, coffee mugs, board games, vintage sweaters, and blank VHS tapes. Butler says he has no idea why blank VHS tapes sell so well, but he focuses on profits and doesn’t spend too much time trying to figure it out.

Of course, Butler goes out of his way to look for sneakers, his #1 resale item. He says he buys sneakers as cheaply as he can find them, and sometimes he’ll devote some energy to cleaning them up. His best-selling brands are Jordans, Kobe Bryant’s, and Hoka One One. As a side note, Butler has an eBay course that can help you learn how to flip items for profit: 

I know for a fact that sneaker flipping works! I have bought a lot of sneakers and resold them on StockX for hundreds of dollars more than I paid. 

The results: Retail arbitrage is something anyone can do, and you can easily turn hundreds of dollars into thousands if you find the right items. The key is knowing what sells and finding it at a rock-bottom price.

Step 3: Start a Side Hustle

Another way you can build up $10,000 is by starting a side hustle. I’m not talking about your ordinary, run-of-the-mill part-time job, although that works too.

If you prefer a flexible schedule and own a reliable vehicle, consider picking up a side gig driving for Uber or Lyft or delivering food for DoorDash. You could even deliver groceries using an app like Instacart, or you could run errands and assemble furniture with an app like TaskRabbit.

You can sell your services as a freelancer if you have a particular skill that translates to the online marketplace. Websites like Fiverr.com and Upwork let you advertise your services to potential clients worldwide. The more specialized your skill, the more money you can make.

Here are just some of the services you can promote through Fiverr or Upwork:

• Social media management
• Graphic design
• Freelance writing
• Resume writing
• Editing
• Video editing
• Voiceover work
• Logo design

And that’s not all! There are also plenty of “weird” skills people pay for on Fiverr. Here’s a gal who will spell out a name in spaghetti and take a picture for $5 – that’s all she does.

Or how about the lady who says she will cast a spell to bring your ex back for $25? 

I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried!

While Fiverr was designed to offer small gigs for $5 each, you can charge a lot more than that – especially if you’re experienced.

The results: The examples above prove that just about anyone can find something to do to make extra cash. The right side hustle alone could make $10,000, or you could use it to build enough cash to invest in a larger project.

Step 4: Build a Niche Website

Once you have some money to get started, starting a niche website is a great way to build passive income. Most people have heard it’s possible to earn money blogging, but building a website that focuses exclusively on a single (and profitable) topic can also work.

Take my niche website, LifeInsurancebyJeff.com, as an example. My life insurance website has made $100,000 in 9 months, sometimes more than that. 

That said, you can build a niche website in any niche. Just try to think of a topic you’re passionate and knowledgeable about, as well as one where it’s easy to recommend products and services. Some examples of niche websites include:

Swim University — a site that sells hot tub and pool supplies

Avocadu — a site that sells supplements to yoga fans

Nichehacks — a site about niche websites

No matter which topic you decide to dive into, you can monetize your niche website using affiliate marketing, ads, sponsorships, and more. My guide on How to Make Money Blogging explains all the different ways you can make money with a niche site, including examples.

The results: A niche website can help you make hundreds or thousands of dollars annually. The best part is that many of the various income streams you can use are passive in nature. This means you can set up the income stream once, tweak it periodically, and watch the money roll in – yes, even while you sleep.

Step 5: Create a Course or Challenge

As your confidence grows with earning income, consider creating a digital product or freebie that brings in money through related sales. You could create a course that helps people learn a specific skill or create a challenge that translates into income later on.

I have used all of these strategies in the past. First, I created an online course for financial advisors, which helps new advisors learn how to build an online presence and grow their client base.

I also have a free challenge, which is known as the Make $1K Blogging Challenge.

You probably noticed that this is a free email course, but you have to dig a little deeper than that. People who sign up for the challenge give me their email addresses, which I use to move them into my email funnel and sell them other products.

I have a $7 add-on to the free course that sells like crazy! While $7 may not sound like a lot, the key here was creating this product and selling it repeatedly. And believe me, $7 can add up fast when you sell thousands of the same thing 24 hours a day.

Maybe you’re a subject matter expert or someone with a specific skill to teach. 

For example, someone I know named Tela Holcomb has a ton of different online courses that teach people how to make money through investing. Her popular “Trade Your 9 to 5” course aims to help you quit your regular job and become a profitable day trader, and she sells it for $1,800! That’s pretty sweet.

Then there’s Bobby Hoyt, who has a Facebook Side Hustle Course. Bobby learned to use Facebook ads to successfully market digital products and now teaches others to profit from his techniques in his course. 

Bobby teaches you not only to use Facebook ads but also shows you how to turn your Facebook ad knowledge into a profitable side business. It’s an opportunity to learn a profitable skill, then use it to earn even more money by offering your services to others. 

The results: While creating a course or an online challenge is much more advanced; almost everyone has something they can teach or share. And with the proper online training, you can easily make thousands of dollars per month – or even thousands of dollars per day.

Turn $0 to $10,000: The Bottom Line

By following the five money-making strategies I’ve shared, and a few of your own, it’s possible to turn $0 to $10,000 within one year. The best part is that you don’t have to wait, you can get started today. But remember – anything worth doing will take some hard work, and you’ll likely fail a few times along the way.

But if you keep going, you’ll eventually find a few different ways to earn money that can grow over time. You might even spark an idea that leads to a home-based business, where you can eventually hire people to do the work for you. 

Once you have the hang of it, there’s almost no limit to how much you can earn. 

How do I know? I’m living proof.

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