There are plenty ways to make extra money without dealing with stocks. In fact, I wouldn't recommend risking any money on the stock market unless you are either doing well financially or are some type of business expert.

Here are some alternative ways that I can think of to make some money that I've actually tried:

Donating plasma - if you aren't afraid of needles and are in decent physical health, you can make between $300-450 a month (depending on which plasma center you go to) for 8-10 donations in a month.

Selling on eBay or Amazon - Aside from selling your own things, there are a couple of profitable ways you can take this without any significant upfront investment.

Dropshipping - You can look into what is called "dropshipping" which is where you take a company's product and sell it yourself. Once a customer buys it, you order it directly from the company and get paid a cut. While you have to have the cash on hand to order the product initially, you will get the money back plus your cut when payment clears from your customer so you won't have to spend money nor will you have to store inventory.

Picking - picking is where you hit up thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, or craigslist ads to purchase stuff that people throw out for cheap and sell high. They make a smartphone app that allows you to scan the items that you find to see how much the item sells for on Amazon or eBay. I don't remember the names of the apps at the top of my head but a simple Google search should help you.

Blogging - if you have a blog, you can monetize it. Look up CPA marketing; it's basically where you promote somebody's stuff and get paid a fee when somebody either clicks the ad or affiliate link or goes to their site and does something (this varies based on who you promote). Alternatively, with a little bit of startup capitol, you could also purchase advertising from Google or Facebook to generate traffic to your blog or website significantly quicker. While this can take longer to get going, it can potentially make the most money out of everything in this list if you know what you're doing. This method can also be done with any other website, such as a web store or a fan page; especially if you have a blog attached to them. There are other twists to this method, but if you are interested, you will need to do the research yourself.

I hope I help some of you gain some financial independence!