Do you love your day job, but still want to earn some extra folding money from home? It’s easy to pick up a side income today – you don’t even have to hustle that hard! Whether you’re driving folks around town, shopping for their groceries, or kicking back on the couch while you Netflix and complete surveys, there’s a side hustle that’ll work for you and turn your off hours into spending money. Read on for 15 great supplemental income ideas.
Chances are that you’ve already heard about Amazon Mechanical Turk – or mTurk – though you may not know exactly what it is. mTurk is one of the most popular microjob or microtask sites out there today. It’s easy to sign up and start claiming HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks), which are small tasks that require a person to do them. Sample tasks include identifying objects in a picture or entering some data into a form. Payment is made via Amazon Payments or added to your Amazon Gift Card balance.
Clickworker is another of the leading microtask sites out there, and they’re always looking for new people to sign on and help their clients with short tasks. The variety of jobs offered means there are even some that can be done on your mobile device. You could be writing short product descriptions, copyediting short pieces of text, doing quick web research, or more in your spare time. You can get paid either weekly or monthly through SEPA or PayPal.
InboxDollars is a well-established Get-Paid-To site – you do simple tasks (like taking surveys) or something you would do anyway (like watching TV or shopping) and they reward you. They’re even offering a $5 bonus just for signing up right now. You won’t be able to cash out until you’ve earned $30 from doing activities for InboxDollars, and then you can request payment via check or a TANGO ePayment. It’s super easy to chill on the couch at the end of your workday and do a few of these activities to earn some spare change.
Do you have strong opinions and love giving feedback on things? Spend some of your off time doing user testing with UserTesting! It’s a snap to sign up; they’ll ask you some questions to establish your demographic, and then you’ll start being offered tests on a first-come, first-served basis. All you have to do is go to a website on your computer and complete the requested actions while speaking your thoughts out loud. (They’ll record your screen and audio). Then you get paid – often $10 per test. They pay automatically via PayPal 7 days after you complete a given test.
Fancy Hands is a bit like entry-level virtual assistance – you can get your feet wet with small tasks and not fully commit to a regular schedule with regular clients. This is great if you don’t mind doing admin tasks in your downtime: you might be tasked to schedule a doctor’s appointment, do some pricing research, or even find hotels based on the client’s specifications. If you have high-speed Internet access at home, don’t mind talking on the phone or doing a little research, you might just have a pair of Fancy Hands. Payment is per task and between $3-$7 to start with payments made biweekly through Dwolla.
Rev is one of the better-known transcription opportunities for people just starting out – they actually offer captioning, subtitling, and translation services as well. You can do as much or as little work as you like with them, and there are short files available to transcribe so it doesn’t have to be a huge time sink. You get to choose from available projects and they pay weekly through PayPal. Payment is always by audio minute (not how long you spend transcribing that minute) and starts at $0.36, maxing out at $0.65.
TranscribeMe specializes in offering incredibly short files for transcription to their transcriptionists – usually only 1 to 2 minutes long. When you’re active and working, they queue up the tasks for you (if available) so you always have another to do when you’re ready. Sign on when you want to work. Their rates start at $15 per audio hour, which works out to $0.25 per audio minute. They’re also keen to promote from their transcriber pool if you want to grow with them, and offer better rates for specialists in legal or medical transcription. They also pay via PayPal on a weekly basis, when requested.
You must have heard of Uber by now, and probably their competitor Lyft as well – these ride-share companies empower you to sign up through their platform and offer paid rides to fares in your personal vehicle. It’s easy to sign up but, to qualify to drive, you must have a 4-door vehicle that is less than 15 years old, and in good condition with no cosmetic damage. You must also personally have car insurance and at least one year of driving experience. Drive whenever you feel like it, and request payment at any time.
Do you like to spend your downtime out and about? You can turn that into extra cash by volunteering to do small gigs for folks using Gigwalk. This is an earning opportunity you can do entirely on your smartphone – just download the app and get registered. Once you’re accepted, you’ll find available gigs listed and be able to pick them up. These tasks could take anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple of hours and the pay reflects this with smaller earnings for smaller tasks. Your earnings are automatically transferred to your PayPal account whenever you complete a job, too, so the effort to get paid is minimal.
Do you have enough room in your vehicle to store one or more electric scooters? Love cruising around town listening to tunes or audiobooks? Lime and Bird are two companies who are installing electric scooters for private rental via their apps in major cities across the US. They crowdsource the charging of these scooters, so they’re paying folks to go around each evening, pick up scooters, take them to their homes to charge, and then return them to their hubs early the next day. While they’re not advertising exactly what they pay per charge, it looks to be somewhere between $5 and $20.
NiceTalk is one of several chat-based English teaching platforms out there – becoming a tutor is a simple as signing up to speak with Chinese students through their smartphone app. You’re helping them learn English as a Second Language through one-on-one video chats. You can log on when you have time and pick up chat requests from their students. You’re qualified for this gig if you’re a native English speaker, and it’s great if you also have any ESL teaching certificates or experience. They pay $10 per hour, but you’re only paid in active talk time for each full minute. They pay out weekly through PayPal so long as you’ve earned $20. This one’s great for either early birds or night owls due to the time difference between the US and China.
Why simply go get your groceries when you can get paid to shop for someone else’s groceries at the same time? Make a little extra dough by picking up shopping gigs with Instacart – you can choose either to become a full-service shopper (you shop and deliver) or an in-store shopper only. If you want to be a full-service shopper, you naturally need access to a vehicle. You should also have a smartphone since you’ll use their app during your shop. They pay out weekly, and you shop whenever you want to. Living the dream!
Fashion bugs can make some extra cash simply by selling gently-worn clothing you don’t wear anymore. You can do it all through your smartphone as well – Poshmark makes it easy enough to take pictures, write descriptions, and put your items up for sale. They also take care of the payment and help organize shipping. They accept women’s and men’s clothing, kids’ clothing, and even handbags, shoes, and accessories. You set your own prices, too.
Selling books and textbooks can be another great way to clear some stuff out of your home and make cash on the side. Bookscouter is a tool designed to help you get the most for your used books – use their site to search by your book’s ISBN number, compare prices from over 35 book buyback vendors, and then ship for free to the one you choose. This process is even easier with their app since you can just scan the book’s barcode. It helps to have Bookscouter’s rating system for each vendor to help you sell your books with confidence as well.
Rover
Rover’s perfect for those animal lovers who like to hang with pets when they’re not at their day jobs. You can sign up to be a local pet sitter or walker and work with either dogs or cats or both – and they let you set your own rates. Since you also set your own schedule and choose which services to offer, it’s the perfect downtime gig. Rover offers insurance coverage and 24/7 support (along with making vet assistance available). Build an attractive profile so that people book your services, and get paid two days after you complete each session. What’s not to love?
You should have signed up for at least one of the above opportunities by now – time is money, after all! So hop to it and start picking up that extra cash.
