5 Ways Animal Lovers Can Make an Extra $1000 a Month

If you’re ways for animal lovers to make extra money, then this post is for you! Here are 5 fun ways animal lovers can make extra money every month!

I’m a huge animal lover, and I couldn’t imagine life without a pet. Since our sweet but temperamental cat Freya passed away from cancer a year ago, our 5lb chihuahua, Pepe, has been running the show around here (well, him and the baby!) We’re not quite ready to add another animal to our family, but one day I’d love to have 2 cats, 2 dogs, a rabbit and a rat (still trying to convince my husband on the rat.)

The pet business is booming in America – in 2015 American pet owners spend over $60 billion on their furry family members. That’s a lot of money that people are willing to spend on their pets, on everything from food and supplies to vet bills, accessories, and pet care. The great thing about this is that if you’re an animal lover, there’s a huge market for you to make extra money each month in the pet industry.

Besides the obvious paths of becoming a veterinarian or a veterinary technician, there are tons of ways you can make an extra $1000 a month (or even more) working with animals.

5 Ways Animal Lovers Can Make an Extra $1000 a Month

1. Pet Sitting

If you have the extra space in your house to host a pet or two, then pet sitting can be a great way to make some extra money. You could try advertising on Craigslist or Facebook, but a site like Rover is probably a better idea. Rover is basically the pet equivalent of Care.com – it’s a site where pet owners can find trustworthy, reliable, fully vetted (no pun intended – haha) pet sitters who match their needs and requirements.

You have to apply to Rover to become one of their pet sitters (they aim to only have pet sitters of the highest caliber) but once you’re approved, you can set your own rates and availability and potentially earn some good money for taking care of people’s pets.

Click here to find out more about Rover.

2. Start a Pet Blog

If you love animals and have a knack for writing, starting a pet blog could be a good way to make some extra money. I’m not going to lie and say that blogging is easy money because it’s definitely not. But if you stick at it, then there is definitely the potential to make good money.

The first step towards starting a pet blog is choosing a domain name and hosting (and once you’ve chosen your domain name, try to buy it as soon as you can so someone else doesn’t snap it up!) I use Siteground for my web hosting, and I really love them. Currently, they have a special offer of $3.95/month for hosting, plus a free domain name. Here’s the link to get your free domain name and 60% off hosting.

So how can you make money from a pet blog? 

The best way to make money from pet blog would be through affiliate marketing (in fact, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money from any type of blog.)

Affiliate marketing basically means that you promote other people’s products and services, and you earn a small amount of money if someone purchases the product or service after clicking on your affiliate link.

*If you’re interested in learning more about affiliate marketing, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a course created by an affiliate marketer who is making 6 figures a month. I’ve taken the course and it paid for itself within a few weeks.

3. Pet Photography

Starting your own pet photography business could be a nice little money maker, especially if you get creative. People love having seasonal family photos taken – why not offer the same for pets? You could do fall themed pet photos, Christmas photos (find someone to dress up as Santa Claus,) Halloween themed photos, etc.

I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but the Nikon D3200 is what I have, and it makes my photos look as close to professional as shooting on auto possibly can. In other words, I really like it!

If you’re good at capturing candid moments of your own pets, then you can also dabble in selling to stock photography sites like iStockPhoto and Shutterstock.

4. Animal Masseuse

I love getting a professional massage (when I was young, single, and working full-time, I used to get one every week or two.) There’s nothing more relaxing than a good massage, but why should we humans be the only ones who get to enjoy the benefits of massage?

Animal massage is a growing field, especially in the areas of dog competitions (i.e. Greyhounds, Dog Sledding, Dog Agility, etc.) and law enforcement, but companion dogs can also benefit from massage.

While the field of animal massage isn’t currently regulated, it’s always a good idea to receive quality training before you start working in a field like this.

You can learn more about becoming an animal masseuse by visiting the National Board of Certification for Animal Acupressure & Massage.

5. Pet Bakery

Who doesn’t love spoiling their fur-baby with treats? I find it hard to say no to my dog when he looks at me with those big begging eyes – “Please! Just one more treat! I’ve only had 10 today! You promised if I was a good boy you’d give me another one! C’mon!” You can just tell that’s what they’re thinking, right? 😀

If you love baking, then starting your own pet bakery could be a fun way to make some extra cash – people love feeding their pets healthy, organic, yummy-tasting treats.

You could run this from your home, partner with local pet stores to stock your baked goods, or sell your pet treats at your local farmers market.

If you’re an animal lover, there are lots of ways you can make extra money. You may not become rich from these ideas, but if you combine a few of them, I think you could quite easily make an extra $1000 a month!