Can you turn $0 into $10,000 in a year? If you’re willing to do the work, there are ways to do it.
As with most $0 to $10,000 challenges found online, participants are usually looking for “free stuff” that they can sell or trade. From there, they invest time and energy in “trading up” for 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 trying to grow from $0 to $10,000, I’d start with proven strategies, including the easy one everyone should be doing! Most of all, I will focus on steps I have used to create wealth for my family.
Here are five steps almost anyone can take to grow $0 into $500, which can turn into $5,000, $10,000, or more within a year. And of course, I include lots of examples to help you get started.
Step 1: Get Free Stock
When trying to turn $0 into $10,000, you have to start with something of value that you can get for free. Free stock promotions are a great way to do this, and some of the best promos come from two popular investing apps – Robinhood and Webble.
robinhood free stock promo
With Robinhood, you can get a free stock ranging from $3 to $225 once you open an account and meet its terms. Just keep in mind that this promotion is only available to new customers.
Also, remember that your stock price will be at the low end of the promised range. Robinhood says that about 98% of the free stocks they offer are worth $3 to $10, which I found from personal experience and in the screenshot of 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 image above). You can receive up to $500 in referral stock within one year, and your free stock will depreciate within the same normal rate of return from $3 to $225 per share.
By combining these promotions, you can easily get one free stock to open an account, then refer 20 friends and get 20 more shares. Even if the average price of each stock you acquired was only $5, you would accumulate $105 in wealth.
webull free stock promo
With Webull, when you open an account and fund it with $100, you can get two free stocks worth up to $1,850. While you may not have $100 in cash right away, you can start with Robinhood and build up your $100 of seed money.
You can even get free stock ranging from $2.50 to $250 just for opening an account – even if you don’t fund it.
Even better, Webble lets you refer friends and get three free stocks, each ranging in value from $12 to $1,400. In reality, though, many of the shares I received are worth around $30. Here’s an example using my personal Webble account:
Result: You can easily combine Robinhood and Webull promotions to earn millions of dollars in free stock that you can use to start your $10,000 journey. 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 an important step on your journey to $10,000. Also known as product flipping, retail arbitrage involves buying products at low prices 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 finding 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 down brand-name clothing at bargain prices, but he also looks for other items that sell 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 But he focuses on profits and doesn’t spend much time trying to figure out why blank VHS tapes sell so well.
Of course, Butler goes out of his way to seek out his #1 resale item, sneakers. He says he buys sneakers as cheap as he can find them, and sometimes he’ll devote some energy to cleaning them. His best selling brands are Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Hoka One One. As a side note, Butler has an eBay course that can help you learn how to flip items for a profit:
I know for a fact that sneaker flipping works! I’ve bought a lot of sneakers and resold them on StockX for hundreds of dollars more than I paid for them.
Result: Retail arbitrage is something that anyone can do, and if you get the right thing you can easily turn millions of dollars into thousands. The key is knowing what sells and getting it at a rock-bottom price.
Step 3: Start a Side Hustle
Another way you can make $10,000 is to start a side hustle. I’m not talking about your ordinary, typical part-time job, although that works too.
If you prefer a flexible schedule and own a reliable vehicle, consider a side gig driving for Uber or Lyft or delivering food for DoorDash. You can even get groceries delivered using an app like Instacart, or you can run errands and collect furniture with an app like TaskRabbit.
You can sell your services as a freelancer if you have a special skill that translates to an online marketplace. Websites like Fiverr.com and Upwork let you advertise your services to potential clients around the world. The more specialized your skill, the more money you can make.
Here are some of the services you can promote through Fiverr or Upwork:
- social media management
- graphic design
- free writing
- resume writing
- editing
- video editing
- voiceover work
- logo design
and that’s not all! There are also a lot of “weird” skills on Fiverr that people get paid for. There’s a girl here who will write a name in spaghetti and take a picture for $5 – that’s all she does.
Or what about the lady who says she’ll do a spell to get 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.
Result: The examples above prove that anyone can find something to do to make extra cash. The right side job alone can earn you $10,000, or you can use it to make enough cash to invest in a bigger project.
Step 4: Build a Niche Website
A niche website can help you make millions or thousands of dollars annually.
Once you have some money to start, starting a niche website is a great way to make passive income. Most people have heard that it is possible to make money blogging, but building a website that focuses on just one (and profitable) topic can work just as well.
Take my niche website, LifeInsurancebyJeff.com, as an example. My life insurance website has made $100,000 in 9 months, sometimes more.
That said, you can build a niche website in any niche. Just try to think of a topic that you are passionate and knowledgeable about, as well as a topic where products and services would be easy to recommend. Some examples of niche websites include:
Swim University – A site that sells hot tub and pool supplies
Avocado — a site that sells supplements to yoga lovers
Nichehacks — a site about niche websites
No matter what topic you decide to dive into, you can monetize your niche website using affiliate marketing, advertising, 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.
Result: A niche website can help you make millions or thousands of dollars annually. The best part is that many of the different income streams you can access are passive in nature. This means you can set up an income stream once, change it periodically, and watch the money keep rolling in – yes, even while you sleep.
Step 5: Create a Course or Challenge
As your confidence with earning an income grows, consider creating a digital product or freebie that brings in money through related sales. You can create a course that helps people learn a specific skill or create a challenge that can then turn into income.
I’ve used all of these strategies in the past. First, I created an online course for financial advisors to help new advisors learn how to build an online presence and grow their client base.
I also have a free challenge called Make $1K Blogging Challenge.
you’ve probably noticed that this is a free email courses, 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 sold like crazy! While $7 may not sound like a lot, the key here was making this product and selling it over and over again. And trust me, $7 can add up quickly when you sell the same item 24 hours a day.
You may be a subject matter expert or someone with specific skills to teach.
For example, I know someone named Teela 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! he is so sweet.
Then there’s Bobby Hoyt, who has a Facebook Side Hustle course. Bobby learned how to use Facebook ads to successfully market digital products and now teaches others how to benefit from his techniques in his own courses.
Bobby not only teaches you how to use Facebook ads but also shows you how you can turn your Facebook advertising knowledge into a profitable side business. This is an opportunity to learn a profitable skill, then use it to earn even more money by offering your services to others.
Result: Creating a course or online challenge is far more advanced; Almost everyone has something they can teach or share. And with proper online training, you can easily make thousands of dollars per month – or even thousands of dollars per day.
Convert $0 to $10,000: Bottom Line
It is possible to turn from $0 to $10,000 within a year by following the five money-making strategies I shared, and a few strategies of your own. The best part is you don’t have to wait, you can get started today. But remember – getting anything done will take some effort, and you may fail a few times along the way.
But if you persist, you’ll find a few different ways to make money that can add up over time. You may even spark an idea that leads to a home-based business where you can eventually hire people to work for you.
Once you get hold of it, there is almost no limit to how much you can earn.
How will I know? I am living proof.
