How to Earn Extra Money by Renting Out your Home Wi-Fi
The following is a guest post from SB, who blogs at One Cent at a Time, where he teaches about getting ahead in life, encompassing personal finance and productivity related topics.
I am fan of Kyle’s innovative ways to earn extra money, so I though I’d share one of my own. Did you know that you can make extra money by renting out your personal WiFi? Crazy, right?
We all know that demand for internet access has increased a lot thanks to the reliance on the internet for daily life. Our smart phones, tablets or eReaders all require internet, wherever we go….
You can go at it on your own – privately dealing with your neighbors who can help share your internet costs. But with this route you are limited to renting your Wi-Fi to only your surrounding neighbors.
The alternative is to rent out your Wi-Fi via an intermediary company. With this method you can not only sell your Wi-Fi to your neighbors, but you can also rent it out to on-demand users. This is especially effective if you live close to public areas like train stations, bus stops, etc. (most W-fi routers have a range of 150 yards in each direction). Hypothetically, you could rent to paying users around the clock.
To get started, you’ll need a high speed internet connection and a wireless router. Then, pick one of these companies to act as your intermediary…
RentMyHotSpot.com – Lets you rent out to their customers for $9.95 per month. You’ll get paid via PayPal on a monthly basis.
Fon – Fon has been in the business since 2005 and they’ve successfully created millions of free Wi-Fi spots all over the world by getting their users to share their connections with each other.
With Fon, you can also rent out your Wi-Fi to non-users for an hourly fee. To help your signal reach the public, they also offer Fontennas for sale, which can help boost your WiFi signal by up to 200 meters.
A couple of challenges to sharing…
- It might reduce your broadband quality, especially if you have several customers renting from you at once. However, Fon reports that most internet users only use 2-10% of their available bandwith, leaving plenty to rent out.
- Agreement with your internet service provider may prevent you from doing business with the internet connection, so be sure you check with them first.
Renting out your WiFi will definitely not make you rich, but I’m not one to turn down some extra cash. What do you think? Would you rent out your Wi-Fi?
