Earn More MoneyJune 7, 2021July 19, 2021

5 Interesting Ways People Have Made Money

When it comes to making or earning money. There are thousands of ways that this can be done. Some more interesting than others, depending on who you ask. However, to some people, the method does not matter. As long as the end result means you’re getting paid, then it does not matter. Contrasting the previous article we spoke on. These methods are not your typical job. However, when I say job I mean a place you go to work a shift and come back home. These options that I am about to mention will and can have job-like qualities. For example, working a set or long amount of hours.

Regardless, these next few methods have all been proven to earn money. While sometimes extremely unlikely, some of these methods are doable, even today. With the exception of one. With all that being said, this article is strictly informational and is by no means saying that these are viable options are a wise investment of both your time and money. Therefore, let’s take a look at 5 interesting ways that people have made money in the past and continue to into the future.

Toy Reviews

This one is a pretty popular obscure and interesting way of earning money. It’s so popular that it is one have the highest earning channels on YouTube out of all categories. If you want to look at a good example of a successful channel that earns millions of dollars per year from their channel, look no further than Ryan’s Toy Reviews. The purpose of Ryan’s Toy Reviews is to do exactly what the title says. Review toys. They often get toys sent to them and they’d review them. While Ryan is older now and has branched off into other areas, he still made his mark on the YouTube landscape.

Above is an estimate was done by Forbes on how much Ryan earned from June 2018-2019. They found that he earned a colossal 26 million dollars. Now this most likely not solely due to ad revenue from videos. While ad revenue garners a large amount of money when you’re a channel that size, there are most likely other factors at work. This is likely attributed to brand deals, clothing/toy lines, and other factors. While it is relatively unclear exactly what earns Ryan the most amount of money, it is safe to say that YouTube started it all and is a major contributor to the channels growing wealth.

URL Hoarding

This one may seem strange. However, it has been done and continues to be a practice to this day. If you’re unfamiliar, URL hoarding is the method of purchasing URLs at low costs and eventually upselling them in the future. While this is relatively uncommon now, back in the day, you could buy a lot of URLs and sell them for a substantial amount. Especially during the early to mid-2000s when the internet became common to use. Let’s take a look at a URL.

Above is a premium domain that GoDaddy holds and is selling for nearly $5,000 per year. Now, imagine you find a URL like this, which would be potentially in demand. You could mark up the price and sell it. However, finding expensive URLs like this is typically .com. Anything else such as .ca would be significantly cheaper. Of course, .coms are hard to find. If you can find a .com website with a potentially interesting name, chances are they’ll already be taken or have the premium price tag. Therefore, hoarding URLs may be a bit difficult but it still can be done.

An example of this is Sanmay Ved, albeit accidental. He purchased the Google domain name for $12 and sold it for $12,000 to a charity. Another popular example is Chris Clark. Chris Clark purchased the domain “pizza.com” in the late ’90s for a mere $20. However, in 2008 he was able to auction it off for a substantial amount of money. How much you may ask? 2.6 million USD. By today’s standard, that is equivalent to nearly 3.2 million dollars. Convert that to Canadian and you have almost 4 million dollars. Therefore, the potential is there but extremely small.

Playing The Lottery

This one goes without saying, playing the lottery. This selection is the main reason why I put the disclaimer by saying this article IS NOT claiming any of these methods as a viable investment. This is due to the fact that the lottery is extremely hard to win. Most people will never win it in their lifetime. However, for a very lucky few, it will and has happened. There have been many people over the years who have won a substantial amount of money. For example, at my mother’s workplace, 10 people put together money in a pool and eventually won 10 million dollars. They of course had to split that money evenly. However, even after the 10-way split, taxes, and legal fees, they most likely still took home a considerable amount.

Now, what are the odds of winning the lottery? Well, winning the lottery, in Canada, with the highest pool is 1 in 33 million. If you live in Canada, you’ll have an easier chance of being struck by lighting, 30 times. If you’re in The United States, the odds may be a bit different. This is due to the fact that the United States has a higher population, more lotteries with a much larger pool. Furthermore, there is a higher frequency of lighting striking people.

The Slinky

Since we’re talking about interesting ways that people have made money, this one definitely fits the bill. The slinky was invented in the early 1940s by inventor Richard James. According to the tale that is often told, Richard was working on springs for ships. However, one day he accidentally knocked one of the samples down. Although he knocked the sample down, it did not immediately fall. Instead it “walked” down. After that Richard decided to make an inventory of it as a toy. The toy was an instant hit and sold out immediately. To this day the slinky is one of the most recognizable and popular toys ever created. What makes it amazing is that it was founded on accident.

Treasure Hunting

The last is a treasure hunter. While very niche, people still do it. Have you ever gone to a beach and seen someone walking around with a metal detector? They do this to find something of value within the sand. Similar and to more extreme measure people hunt for treasures in a multitude of places. For example, there was a treasure in the rocky mountains that was recently founded and had an estimated value of over 2 million dollars.

A more popular example of a professional treasure hunter striking oil is Mel Fisher. Mel Fisher was a professional diver and treasure hunter who found the Atocha Motherlode. The Atocha Motherlode was a treasure cache worth over 450 million dollars. The motherlode consisted of gold/silver bars, gold/silver coins, 8 cannons, artifacts, and silver ingots. This is one of the largest treasure findings in history.

Treasure hunting has also been glorified in pop culture and media. This can be seen through movies such as the National treasure series and The Goonies.

Shameed Chris Khan

Shameed is just a man on a mission to help those around him gain financial success. Obsessed with writing about all things finance, this GTA native is constantly learning and sharing his experiences with others.