The post 40 Best Gig Apps (2024) – Make Money With Gig Work! appeared first on WebMonkey.
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Need more money-making ideas? Checkout:
driving apps to make money?out there, so it had to make our list of the best gig apps.
Overall, it's one of the most popularCare.com is a gig platform where you can make money offering a range of caregiving services to people in your city.
Babysitting, nanny gigs, cleaning, childcare, pet care, and even running errands and odd jobs for people are all gigs you can offer on Care.com.
Many gigs pay around $15 to $25+ per hour. And the fact you can set your own availability and rates is a selling point.
Just note you have to complete a background check to become a caregiver. Care.com also takes 10% from your bookings, and you can also upgrade to a premium membership to get better job alerts and visibility (we recommend upgrading to maximize your earning potential.)
Cleo is an all-in-one finance app that's a great way to learn how to budget and save more. And it's also a leading cash advance app that lets its members borrow up to $250 to help make ends meet.
That's right: Cleo lets you borrow money against your future earnings, so you can get paid much earlier. But unlike most advance apps that don't support gig workers, Cleo doesn't require W2 forms or pay slips for you to potentially qualify for an advance.
If you need money to pay rent or bills, this advance can be super useful. And Cleo doesn't charge interest or run a credit check either.
The app is packed with other features too. For starters, it can help members build their credit scores. It also has a humorous chat assistant that can give you financial tips to save more money.
Want a high-paying resale gig that can scale into a full-time business?
Then Sharetown is for you. This exciting gig app lets you earn money by flipping mattresses, furniture, and other household pieces to people in your city as a Sharetown Rep.
Here’s how it works.
When major mattress and furniture companies get returns, some of them partner with Sharetown instead of dealing with returns themselves. Sharetown then has its network of Sharetown Reps pick up these returns and resell them on secondary marketplaces like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace to make a profit.
As a Sharetown Rep, you receive in-app alerts when there are new returns in your city that you can pick up. You can pick it up, store it at your house, and then list it for sale on different marketplaces at Sharetown’s suggested price.
When you make a sale, you pocket the cash and pay back a portion to Sharetown. On average, Reps are making $165 to $200+ per item they resell, but some items, like Queen or King beds, can pay even more.
Just note you need a truck, SUV, cargo van, or car and trailer to be a rep since items are heavy. You also need to have a helper who’s 18 or older with you, pass a background check, and have eligible auto insurance.
You can deliver via bike, car, or scooter. And, you get to choose the hours you deliver, so you can Dash as much or as little as you want.
You also keep 100% of all your tips, and your daily DoorDash pay can be quite decent if you put in enough hours and get lucky with consistent, decent-paying orders.
Oppizi is of the highest paying gig apps on the market right now, and it's an excellent option if you want to get paid to walk and deliver flyers in your city.
As an Oppizi Brand Ambassador, you get paid to distribute flyers to people in your city for companies like Uber Eats, gopuff, and DoorDash. You get paid $23 per hour in the United States, plus sign-up bonuses, and you even get paid a small travel allowance!
I like that Oppizi is available in 70+ cities and 10 countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK, France, and Germany.
You can also sign up at just 16 years old in some countries. And the app is completely free and is available on Android and iOS.
Oppizi also lets you select the shifts, known as missions, that you want to work. You can work as much or as little as you want, and missions are generally three hours long.
You get paid on a weekly basis for missions you complete. Overall, Oppizi is an excellent, high-paying app based job you can test out.
If you're looking for another app based job that's exploding in popularity, look no further than Instacart.
Like other food delivery gig apps, Instacart pays you to shop and delivery groceries to customers. And like DoorDash, you keep 100% of all your tips, and you also have full control over the orders you accept or decline.
Instacart hourly pay is approximately $13 per hour according to Glassdoor, so this is a solid app based job to test out. And if you get consistent Instacart batches, you can make pretty steady money per hour.
If you want to work for Instacart, I also suggest reading our post on the best Instacart shopper tips to learn how to maximize your earnings!
?The Best $200 Cash Advance Apps.
If delivering food isn't up your alley, you can still make a solid hourly wage with side hustles like Amazon Flex.
I've mentioned jobs like Amazon Flex in my post on ways to make $50 per day, and this is a relatively flexible side hustle that also pays well.
According to Indeed reviews, Amazon Flex drivers earn $20 per hour. In fact, Amazon always pays $15 to $19 per hour, making it one of the highest paying apps in the gig economy.
As long as you're 21, have a qualifying vehicle, and insurance, you can start the application process and submit to a background check.
Amazon Flex doesn't hire consistently in every city, so keep an eye on this gig job to see when new positions open up!
If you have extra storage space or an unused parking spot you're not using, you can now earn some passive income with Neighbor!
Neighbor is basically the Airbnb of storage space, and it lets hosts rent out storage space like their garage, driveways, basements, sheds, and spare rooms.
As a host, you set your rental rates, availability, and also set rules for when renters can drop by to access their stuff. Hosts also have liability coverage up to $1,00,000, and renter's items are covered up to $25,000.
You get paid every 30 days through Stripe, so the money you make as a host goes right to your bank account.
Neighbor only charges a 4.9% fee + $0.30 every month you get paid, so you can easily make an extra $50 to $250+ per month with this gig app!
If you're looking for apps for side jobs, one of your best options is undeniably the Steady app. Founded in 2017, Steady connects gig workers and freelancers with job opportunities in their city.
The app has grown quickly, surpassing 2 million users and even picking up celebrity advisors like Shaquille O'Neal.
Once you create a Steady account, you can find gigs just by entering your Zip code. Job categories include work from home jobs, anytime gigs, full-time, and part-time work.
A lot of the ideas are actually jobs I mention later on this list, although Steady also includes other local job opportunities and same-day shiftwork.
According to Steady, members earn approximately $5,500 more per year if they actually utilize the platform to find work, which is insane!
Ultimately, if you're looking for a central hub of side jobs, you need to give Steady a try.
One of the highest paying gig apps out the
As a Shipt Shoppe
Shipt Shoppe
Want to get paid to explore your city? In that case, one of the best gig work apps out there is Premise.
With Premise, you get paid small amounts of cash for completing short tasks in your city. It's a mix of a mystery shopping gig and freelance gig app.
Tasks often include tasks like taking photos of buildings, taking photos of store displays, and confiming the prices of various items.
You can also make money by answering short in-app surveys. And Premise lets you cash out with PayPal cash or Bitcoin once you earn $10.
Wag is one of the main apps like Rover, and allows for side hustlers to make side cash by walking dogs.
The process of working for Wag is also identical to Rover, more or less. Sign up/create a Wag account, create your own schedule, and start earning money for walking dogs or through pet sitting.
Wag does take 40% of all completed jobs in commission, which is higher than Rover, so keep this in mind when deciding if Wag is worth it.
In fact, you can probably earn a few hundred dollars in a weekend of work with Handy. Just checkout these earnings one Handy Pro shared with us on WebMonkey:
Like other driving gigs, another popular gig work app you can try is Walmart Spark.
This delivery gig pays you to shop and deliver everyday essentials and groceries to Walmart customers. You can sign up if you're 18 or older, live in the United States, and have a vehicle.
Spark drivers makes about $15 per hour on average. You get to choose when you work, so it's a pretty flexible side hustle.
You also keep 100% of all tips, just like with gigs like Uber Eats or DoorDash. And Walmart Spark is expanding all across the United States.
Lawn Love states you can earn $1,000 a week, and you get to set your own schedule which is pretty awesome.
Just note: you need your own equipment and likely need a pickup truck to haul your lawncare supplies to job sites.
According to salary review website Glassdoor, Wonolo jobs usually pay around $12 to $21 per hour.
There is so much opportunity out there thanks to technology, and hopefully one of these side gig ideas stands out to you!
Jobble is one of the most popular on demand gig apps. On Jobble, side hustlers can find flexible, same-day job opportunities by browsing a massive marketplace of gig economy jobs.
Finding work on Jobble is simple. Just download the free Jobble app, create a profile (includes your resume and qualifications, and apply to jobs in your area. Browse the Jobbler job board to see what companies are looking for workers in your area.
There are many different industries that work with Jobble, so you're likely to find something that suits your skill set.
Restaurants, delivery companies, and event management companies are a few common companies that use Jobble, but again, check the job board to view local results.
Typically, Bellhop workers earn around $15 to $25 per hour to help people move.
If you're looking for more app based jobs that involve helping people move, Lugg is another company worth considering.
Like Bellhops and Dolly, Lugg pays you to help people move.
You earn more if you have a truck, but you can still sign up for the platform as a helper to make some extra cash on the side.
Lugg states you can earn up to $2,500 per week, which is absolutely insane. I wouldn't expect this much, but you can definitely earn a lot of cash per move and you also keep 100% of the tips you receive.
According to Indeed, it seems like Lugg workers earn around $35 per hour on average, which makes this one of the highest paying gig apps in the moving space.
Lugg states you must be over 18 and be capable of lifting at least 100 pounds to sign up.
However, another plus of Lugg is that you get paid at the end of everyday through direct deposit, so you can probably clear $100+ in a single day and get the most fast.
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If you're good with cars and repairs, one of the best gig apps you can make money with is Your Mechanic.
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Plus, if you want to get paid to workout and enjoy walking around town to complete jobs, this is the perfect gig app to try.
A lot of jobs pay $5 to $10, so it's a nifty way to make some extra cash on the side.
receipt scanning apps that save money?
?I don't think Shopkick is one of the higher-paying gig apps at the end of the day, but hey, earning some free money never hurts!
Extra Reading – The Best Beermoney Apps That Pay.
If you like gig apps that involve mystery shopping, EasyShift is another excellent app to add to your smartphone.
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Extra Reading – How To Make $100 PayPal Cash.
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I think this side gig app pays less than both Field Agent and GigWalker, but it's worth adding to your smartphone if you want more mystery shopping work.
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If you like this category of side gig apps, I also suggest checking out Survey Junkie and Branded Surveys, two higher-paying survey websites.
Extra Reading – Surveys That Pay Cash Instantly.
Extra reading – 16 Assets You Can Rent Out For Passive Income.
Another one of the best gig apps for anyone looking for passive income is Getaround.
This is the same car sharing model that Turo, another popular gig app, has popularized.
Extra Reading – Passive Income Ideas For Students.
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Extra Reading – Best Upwork Jobs For Beginners.
In fact, Fancy Hands pays around $15 per hour when you become a fast virtual assistant, but you can also get promoted and manage other VAs to earn more.
Extra Reading – The Best Sites Like Appen.
Gig work is temporary work that is completed by independent contractors, freelancers, contract workers, and other similar non-employed individuals. It's different than a W2 role where you are legally employed by a company.
Gig workers often work for several clients at the same time. In recent years, app based jobs and side gigs have grown in popularity, with platforms like Uber and DoorDash leading the charge.
Gig workers are responsible for filing their own taxes and reporting income they make. They also don't receive company benefits like vacation time or medical coverage like full-time W2 employees might receive. However, the main advantage of gig work is flexibility over your time and the ability to hustle as much or as little as you like.
Choosing the best gig app depends on several factors, and there isn't a single best choice that's going to work for everyone.
Some important factors you should consider when looking for a side job include:
As long as you choose a job that pays well and sounds enjoyable, you can use gig apps to boost your monthly income and improve your finances.
Before you sign up and start working, here are some additional tips to help you maximize your gig economy income.
As long as you follow these basic tips, I firmly believe you can make meaningful money with the top gig apps to reach your financial goals faster.
Extra Reading – How Much Can You Make A Week With DoorDash?
Pros:
Cons:
Extra Reading – How To Make $2,000 Fast – The Best Methods.
If you're looking for gig apps that pay the same day, your best bet is to try food delivery apps like DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber Eats.
All of these side job apps let drivers cash out their daily earnings instantly for a small fee. For example, with DoorDash Fast Pay, you can withdraw your daily earnings for a $1.99 fee, letting you get paid for your work the very same day!
Extra Reading – The Best Gig Apps That Pay The Same Day.
Unfortunately, most delivery-based gig jobs require a background check. This includes jobs like DoorDash and Amazon Flex and even lesser-known package delivery jobs like Roadie or GoShare.
If this is a concern, I think online or app based jobs are your best bet. This includes mystery shopping apps, micro task sites, and apps like Gigwalk or Premise that pay you for completing jobs around your city.
Extra Reading – The Best Gig Apps With No Background Check.
It doesn't matter if you try delivery jobs like Uber Eats or Instacart, or try out various side gig apps for some beermoney; all of these apps can help you make some extra money if you put in the time.
The post 40 Best Gig Apps (2024) – Make Money With Gig Work! appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post 15 Best Ways To Make Money Reading Books appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>However, while reading might be a leisurely activity, this hobby can also be turned into a side hustle if you know where to look.
I've covered how people can make money writing reviews before. But this post is going to break down the best ways you can make money reading books and writing short reviews for them.
Looking for other money making methods? Checkout:
Kirkus Media is a reputable company that lets you make money reading books, and it offers a wide range of services for authors, editors, and book lovers alike on their website.
Kirkus is also seeking English and Spanish book reviewers to cover content for Kirkus Indie, the media company's magazine section that features independent authors.
Reviews have to be roughly 350 words in length, and reviewers are given 2 weeks to read and review books once they are assigned. Kirkus covers pretty much any genre, and they expect a high quality review with some thought, not a plagiarized jumble.
Kirkus pays $50 for reviews based on testimonials I have read, so this could be a decent way to make money by reading and reviewing books.
Extra Reading – How To Make $50 A Day.
Personally, I think the best way to get paid to read books is to start your own book review blog.
Starting your own blog is not quick or guaranteed money. However, I think the potential value of creating your own website is much higher than working $15 gig jobs on review websites.
The path to income might be much slower, but the rewards could be worth it.
If there is a particular genre you are interested in, you could start a very niche website to cover books or content in the space.
Alternatively, if you are interested in a general topic, you could start a blog on that subject and just write book reviews every so often. Between Amazon affiliate links and advertising revenue, you might be able to make a modest bit of side income every month!
And blogging can turn into a serious income stream. For example, WebMonkey made $272,000 in 2022, and it now makes $1,000 a day or more between Mediavine ads and affiliate income.
My blog is in the finance niche, but there's no reason you can't make money reading books and writing about them on your own blog.
I've personally always wanted to create a military history based blog where I write about interesting battles or historical figures and then promote my content on niche communities on Reddit, so perhaps this will be a side project down the line!
Extra Reading – How To Pick A Blog Niche!
If you're feeling creative, one option you can try is to make money reading books on YouTube.
The idea here is to read books and then talk about them or review them on YouTube. This lets you make money with YouTube ads and also through affiliate links in the description box.
And you can make quite a bit of money with this idea. Just take a look at the YouTube channel Paper Back Dreams.
It's run by a young adult who clearly loves books. She has 80,000+ subscribers on YouTube, plenty of other followers on various social media platforms, and is probably making bank by having companies sponsor the intro to some of her videos (plus any ad revenue).
This is proof that you can take a passion, turn it into a hobby, and earn passive income while providing other people value.
Just note: if you're wondering if you can read books aloud on YouTube for money, the answer is no.
Book reviews are okay because you're providing your own thoughts and intellectual property on a subject. The reason you can't read books on YouTube is because it's essentially copyright infringement.
You can read excerpts and likely be alright, but I'd focus on the review for the most part! However, it's certainly possible to make money on YouTube, so don't let competition scare you!
In fact, I started my own channel recently, and have grown it to nearly 10,000 subscribers!
So, if you love books and have always wanted to start a YouTube channel, this idea could be up your alley!
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money On Autopilot.
Another popular way to get paid to read books and snag some free reading material in the process is to use Online Book Club.
Online Book Club isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, and they outline that very clearly in their hiring page.
Rather, Online Book Club is designed to help new authors promote their work, and they have some incentives in place to attract qualified reviewers. It's as simple as that.
Your first few reviews for Online Book Club will be unpaid, but you will get all reading material for free. If your review quality is high enough, you can then start to earn $5-$60 per book review.
I don't like that you have to do unpaid work since most legit online jobs pay you for all the work you complete.
That said, if you stick with it, Online Book Club is a popular way to read books for money if you're willing to write.
The U.S. Review of Books is currently hiring freelance writers for both book reviews and guest blogging, so it's another way to get paid to read books.
However,?you need some prior experience, sample work, and at least 2 professional references for your entry application.
If you're hired, you're assigned books to read and review that match your reading preferences as closely as possible. Reviews are 250-300 words and expected to be completed within 2-3 weeks of assignment.
The website doesn't state how much reviewers are paid, but reviewers are paid on the 5th of every month for the previous month of work in addition to receiving free books.
Another website you can use to potentially make money reading books is Any Subject Books.
While Any Subject Books is not currently seeking reviewers, this site is still one to bookmark as it has historically been a reliable way to make money by reading and providing your opinion.
Any Subject Books has reviewers commit on a book-by-book basis to provide honest and thorough reviews for the books they read.
Payment varies based on the length of the book a reviewer is assigned, and submissions are not guaranteed to be accepted. However, if you can build a relationship with Any Subject Books once they start hiring reviewers again, you might have found a reliable source of extra income.
Note:?Any Subject Books isn't operating anymore.
Book Browse is a predominantly U.S. book club website, and it also has opportunities to read books for money.
Any genre is welcome on Book Browse for the most part, but to become a paid reviewer you will have to complete an application form along with some sample reviews.
Book Browse reviews are roughly 300 words in length, so this isn't too much work upfront.
According to Book Browse “Our reviewers tend to write about one review a month for us, and receive a byline and modest payment,” so make of that what you will. Regardless, if you want free books and to get paid to read, this is another option to consider!
If you're still wondering how to make money reading books, one website you can apply to is Booklist.
Booklist is a review journal for public and school libraries, with a primary goal of assisting librarians and readers with their selections. Book reviews are the backbone of Booklist, who publish roughly 8,000 reviews a year.
While opportunities are limited, freelancers can be commissioned to write reviews for $15 and piece, or blog posts for the Booklist website for $12.50.
You have to familiarize yourself with the publication and get in contact with a genre-specific editor if you are interested in working with Booklist, but this could be a decent opportunity to make quick money if you have experience with review writing.
Women's Review of Books has been around for 36 years, and while they are currently paying writers for their reviews and short stories, they expect you to have experience and credentials to back up your pitches.
WRB expects all pitches to include information on your credentials, the type of work you are interested in, and samples of your previous?already published work.?
Writers are paid $100 per review, so this is definitely one of the higher paying book reading jobs out there, but competition is tough for this one.
If you've ever been told you have a voice that's fit for radio or extremely soothing, you might be able to get paid to read books aloud by doing voice over work or even audiobook recording.
Websites like Fiverr or designated voice over marketplaces like Voices.com offer an incredible amount of opportunity for voice over work.
Audio book gigs can pay thousands of dollars, and there is only going to be a growing need for audio work as the world continues to become more digital.
Extra Reading – How To Make $5,000 A Month.
If you have great attention to detail and a strong command of grammar and language, editing work is another way to make money reading books that you can try.
Editing jobs are always in demand, and while I've found they are harder to get than general content writing work, the pay can be quite lucrative.
According to Indeed.com, freelance editors earn $23+ per hour on average, although editors with experience or specialization in a certain vertical can make more. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics says editors earn $61,000 per year on average.
You probably have to build up a portfolio or business website for your services, and securing your first few clients will be tough (you may have to price yourself competitively to get through the early stages).
However, with enough hard work and determination you may be able to build your own proofreading side hustle in time!
You can also checkout this list of 32 remote job websites to start your online job search for editing work!
While this option is similar to point 11, Upwork is an awesome marketplace for editors, reviewers, and even ghostwriters. If you want to get paid to read books, it's definitely worth checking out Upwork and creating your own freelancer profile.
Upwork sucks in that they charge between 15% – 20% in service fees on all contracts. However, if you have some serious editorial credentials, you can charge a decent rate.
Just check out these two Upwork book editors I found:
Each editor is charging $30+ per hour, so this is a pretty high-paying online side hustle that you can try out.
Obviously, this isn't the most leisurely way to make money reading books. However, for a side job or even full-time career, there's plenty of money on the table.
Extra Reading – Best Upwork Jobs For Beginners.
Reedsy is another platform that pays people to read and review books. And right now, the website has over 2,400 editors and 200 ghostwriters making money as freelancers.
It's kind of like Upwork, just for reading books. Reedsy charges 10% as a service fee but you don't pay to join.
What's nice is that Reedsy has some larger projects too, like editing an entire book for an aspiring author. In this case, a gig could easily pay $1,000 to $5,000 or more.
Do you speak another language? If so, you might be able to make money translating books.
This is a more niche side hustle. But you can find translation gigs on freelancer marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork. Job sites like FlexJobs also have regular translation gigs.
One final idea for reading books for money is to find a job in publishing.
Believe it or not, there are?tons?of options here that involve books. Some popular ones include:
You likely need a degree to land most of these jobs. But many publishing companies are still hiring, and you can find job postings on Indeed or other job boards.
?The Best Jobs Paying $5K A Month.
Most gigs that let you get paid to read books require writing reviews about them as well. And for these gigs, you can usually earn $15 to $50 at most per review.
Full-time writing and editorial jobs can pay much more. But this is generally a fun side job, not a full-time income source. Working in an actual publishing role is your best bet to making more money in this industry.
Extra Reading – How To Make $3,000 Fast.
You can make money reading children's books if you land an audiobook narrator job. However, this likely requires having a specific voice and previous experience. It might be difficult to find regular work in this field.
We suggest looking for gigs on Voices.com and other audiobook narration websites.
No, you can't make money reading books on YouTube. This is because reading books aloud on YouTube is considered intellectual property infringement, so your channel isn't eligible for monetization and might get banned.
However, you can make money with reading books on YouTube by creating book review content that shares your opinions about different books.
This?isn't?infringing on any intellectual property. And a lot of people make money with reading or listening to music with these sorts of channels.
I hope this guide on how to make money reading books helps you find a new, fun side hustle you can do in your spare time.
I don't think a lot of methods to get paid to read books are going to make $20k a month or anything like that. But you can still make some decent side income while doing something you enjoy.
Just have realistic expectations, and there's no reason why you can't find success with this side hustle.
Additionally, if you want to learn how to make money as a freelance writer in this space, I suggest checking out my new course, Freelance Writing For Freedom!
Want to try even more money making methods? Checkout:
The post 15 Best Ways To Make Money Reading Books appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post 10 Best Package Delivery Apps To Make Money appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>These types of peer-to-peer delivery gigs pay way more than regular food delivery jobs. If you want to make money delivering packages, these are some of the best ways to get started!
Looking for more driving hustles? Checkout:
Roadie is one of the most popular ways to transport items for money that caters to side hustlers and full-timers alike. It also provides ways for drivers to make money with local or long distance deliveries.
On Roadie, drivers can earn up to $60 for local deliveries and $650 for road trips, and the process of getting a gig is very simple.
Roadie drivers simply pick the gigs they want through a mobile app, and drivers are notified when they are matched to a job. Roadie also bundles your delivery job with other jobs in the area to ensure you are working efficiently.
Roadie drivers also know exactly how much they will be paid for a job before they accept it, and payments are deposited into your account upon delivery.
You can also opt in to deliver pets to their owners alongside regular package deliveries.
According to Indeed, Roadie drivers earn approximately $23 per hour on average, so if Roadie's popular in your city, this is an awesome way to make money delivering packages in your spare time!
To become a Roadie driver you must be 18 years or older, have a SSN, and have a valid license. You must also maintain a 4 star rating which is based on feedback from your customers. Roadie has no minimum vehicle requirements at this time.
Pro Tip Unlock up to $10,000 in credit by using Yendo – a brand new credit card that lets you borrow money by leveraging the value of your car!
Sharetown is a new side hustle opportunity that's an incredible opportunity if you have a truck, cargo van, large sedan, or vehicle that can haul heavy items.
As a Sharetown Rep, you pick up bulky returns from customers like mattresses, furniture, treadmills, and other large items. You then resell those items on secondary marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist to turn a profit.
Once you make a successful flip, you pay Sharetown a portion of the sale and pocket the rest. And you?don't?pay upfront for inventory, so it's a great low-cost side hustle to try out.
Sharetown also manages everything for you, from assigning inventory for you to pick up to suggesting resale prices.
On average, Reps earn $160 to $200+ per item they resell. Overall, it's a great way to start a flipping side hustle. Just note you have to pass a background check and also work with a helper who's 18 or older since you're lifting some pretty heavy items.
It wouldn't be a complete post on how to make money delivering packages without mentioning Amazon Flex.
If you want to be your own boss, set your own hours, and deliver packages for this eCommerce giant, Amazon Flex is probably one of the best delivery options out there.
Amazon Flex drivers deliver a variety of Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh/Pantry, and packages from local businesses to people in their community.
To get started, you simply create a Flex account through your regular Amazon account, and you just need to fill out information required for a background check and what areas you will be delivering in.
Once you become an Amazon Flex driver, you select blocks of time that you deliver for.
Block length depends on a few factors, like the type of delivery you are making (Prime, Amazon Fresh, regular orders), but you will find that most shifts are either 2-4 hours or 3-6 hours.
Additionally, drivers earn between $18-$25 per hour according to Amazon. This means a single Amazon Flex block could potentially make you $100+ for the day.
Amazon Flex pays drivers through direct deposit every Tuesday and Friday. According to Indeed, Amazon Flex drivers earn about $20 per hour on average.
Just note, Amazon Flex driver requirements are quite stringent, and different delivery types have varying requirements. I suggest checking out the Amazon Flex FAQ to learn more.
Additionally, Amazon Flex doesn't hire consistently across every city, so it's not always easy to start driving.
If you want to make money delivering packages with a pickup truck, box truck, or cargo van, GoShare might be the perfect platform for you.
Making money on GoShare is simple once you become a driver. You're notified of ‘Projects' in your area that you qualify for based on your vehicle, and you can choose to accept or decline whatever jobs you want.
Once you complete a delivery, payments are deposited into your account, and you can withdraw your balance to your bank account every week.
GoShare also has some of the most competitive P2P delivery wages in the industry, and depending on your vehicle, you can make some impressive money:
According to GoShare, delivery earnings vary by vehicle type, with average earnings including:
The fact that you can earn up to $71.50 per hour on average if you have a box truck is awesome, so GoShare definitely lends itself well to couriers with larger vehicles.
Drivers with GoShare are also fully insured with cargo and liability coverage, and you are free to set your own hours.
GoShare drivers must be 18 or older, pass a background check, speak English, have a valid license/insurance, and drive a vehicle that is older than 2004 and passes their requirements.
Taskrabbit is a popular gig app where you can get paid to help people in your city with various odd jobs.
Popular cash gigs on Taskrabbit include things like cleaning, furniture assembly, and landscaping. But you can also find errand running jobs, package delivery gigs, or similar cash gigs that involve deliveries.
I like Taskrabbit since you set your own hourly rates and availability. And plenty of gigs can pay $25 to $50+ per hour depending on how much work is involved.
CitizenShipper is a reputable P2P delivery marketplace where 9,000+ drivers have already completed more than 84,000 shipments and gotten paid.
It's also one of the best ways to get paid to deliver packages if you don't mind driving across several states or long distances in general.
In terms of making money delivering packages, getting started with CitizenShipper is also straightforward. The platform uses a bid-based system to assign jobs. Simply signup, browse open shipment requests, and bid to complete them.
If you meet the job requirements and have the right price, the buyer picks you out of the auction and you can get to work.
Payments are arranged between Buyer and Shipper with CitizenShipper, and the platform also costs $24.99 per month after your 3 month free trial. However, the bidding system can lead to a lot of opportunities if you are willing to hustle.
This is especially true for long-haul deliveries where you cross through several cities or states.
I mean, just check out these pet delivery gigs on CitizenShipper where you can earn nearly $1,000 for delivering a pet to someone!
Of course, you probably don't want to drive 2,000 miles to make $950. But if you have an upcoming road trip or frequently travel for work, making money with CitizenShipper on the side is a smart move.
Transporters go through a background check, but besides that, you just need a valid license and insurance.
Extra Reading – How To Make $1,000 In 24 Hours.
Dolly is a great money maker if you're willing to deliver furniture with their truck.
Dolly has a variety of money making options, and you can help customers with their move, junk removal, donation pick up/drop offs, and more.
Helping people move is the main type of work you'll be doing with Dolly, so there's certaily some heavy lifting involved for this peer to peer delivery app.
However, if muscling your way towards extra cash isn't for you, you can also take part in Dolly's retail store delivery program and help businesses with their cargo needs.
Dolly drivers who own their own vehicle are known as ‘Helpers,' whereas Dolly ‘Hands' are people who don't own a truck but are available to assist Helpers.
Dolly Helpers can earn $30/hour or more, and weekly payments are made via PayPal. Hands earn around $15 per hour in comparison.
To become a Dolly Helper, you must be 21 years or older, have a valid license, insurance, and a pickup truck/cargo van that is a model year 2,000 or newer.
Vehicles with trailers can also qualify, and you must be able to lift and carry bulky items of at least 75 pounds.
HeyParcel is another growing peer to peer crowd shipping platform that connects travelers and senders.
On Hey Parcel, ‘Senders' can request packages to be delivered from ‘Travelers' who happen to be heading towards their city or desired drop-off point, making Hey Parcel the perfect way to make money while traveling.
This is the same model as PiggyBee, so it's worth looking into if you're a frequent travel who wants to make some extra cash while on the road.
As a Traveler, all you have to do is post your travel dates and destination, and then Senders can get in contact with you to request deliveries.
Once you work out an agreement with your customer, you simply bring them their package at a designated meeting location and collect your cash.
If you want to potentially earn $200+ USD (on average, apparently) every time you travel abroad, Grabr is one of the best long distance delivery apps you can use.
Grabr is similar to PiggyBee and Hey Parcel in that it connects international travelers with customers looking to obtain items they can't easily find in their home country.
In terms of P2P marketplaces for travelers, Grabr is one of the most popular ones out there. There are currently thousands of order requests totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for countries across the world.
In North America it's easy to take the convenience and array of products on Amazon for granted, but in many regions, it can be hard to find certain items. This is why platforms like Grabr have so much demand.
Shoppers also pay Grabr when they accept your offer, and payments are deposited 10 days following a confirmed delivery, so there's no sketchy bartering and the likelihood of getting scammed is incredibly low.
Ultimately, if you want to make money delivering packages and travel internationally, I think Grabr is your best option.
Steady is a gig app that helps you find local side hustles and part-time jobs you can use to make quick money. The app is completely free to use, and it even matches you with various side hustles based on your preferences and skills.
What's cool about Steady is that it also has lots of delivery jobs and shipping apps for drivers like:
All of these driving apps let you make money by delivering different types of packages. But Steady helps you find all of your options in an easy-to-use app.
There are other types of side gigs on the app as well, but it's a useful starting point to find package delivery gigs.
Historically, when you ordered something online, a business such as FedEx, UPS, or your local mail service would be responsible for handling logistics and delivery.
However, companies like Amazon or Uber are increasingly making the delivery market more competitive with programs like Amazon Flex or Uber Freight, which connect independent couriers/contractors and customers instead of going through a traditional shipping company.
P2P delivery, or peer to peer delivery, takes advantage of this idea by creating a marketplace for side hustlers looking to deliver packages and customers who want the fastest (and most affordable) shipping options possible.
In a nutshell, you can get paid to deliver packages with peer to peer delivery platforms, helping customers in your area or across the country receive their goods.
Ultimately, by taking the entire logistics process out of the hands of businesses, P2P delivery creates an incredible amount of value, such as:
While many P2P delivery companies have different requirements, there are a few standard ones you will encounter:
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make $2,000 Fast.
Yes, basically every P2P delivery job involves working as an independent contractor. This means you pay for gas, repairs, and vehicle depreciation, not the company you're driving for.
In my experience, using a mileage tracking app like Everlance is the best way to track your mileage, income, and expenses. This is a?massive?help when filing taxes and trying to get tax breaks, so it's quite important if you drive regularly.
Using reward apps like Upside also helps you earn cash back on gas so you keep more money in your pocket each month.
If you have a long road trip coming up, my recommendation is to check CitizenShipper and Roadie for gigs. Roadie can pay up to $650 for long haul deliveries. Similarly, CitizenShipper can pay $1,000 or more for long trips.
If you're traveling internationally, platforms like Grabr could be a better option, so don't be afraid to explore your choices!
P2P delivery apps let you earn money delivering packages and generally pay above minimum wage. Additionally, you have the flexibility to set your own hours and choose the gigs you work.
Just note: how much demand is in your area for delivery gigs largely depends on population. If you're in a small town, this side hustle probably isn't as lucrative.
But, I think you can find success delivering packages for money if you live in a medium or large city, and again, trying several platforms can maximize how many gig opportunities there are.
Extra Reading – 20+ Jobs That Pay $5,000 A Month.
If you enjoy driving/travelling and like the idea of delivering packages for money, I hope this list of P2P delivery apps helps you start a fun side hustle.
Really, if you're wondering how to make money delivering packages, my main tip is to just pick a platform and start.
It might take some time to learn the ropes, but the world of peer to peer delivery apps has ample opportunity for you to boost your monthly income.
Looking for even more money-making ideas? Checkout:
The post 10 Best Package Delivery Apps To Make Money appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post DoorDash vs. Postmates – Which One Pays Drivers More? appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>If there's one thing that's clear, it's that food delivery services are more popular than ever. This also means there's ample opportunity to make money with various gig economy apps.
Postmates and DoorDash, two of the most popular delivery platforms, are prime examples. But which company pays more? And what are the main differences between each delivery gig?
This Postmates vs DoorDash breakdown is covering everything you need to know about both gigs so you can choose the right one for you.
Want more side hustle ideas? Checkout:
DoorDash is the leading food delivery service in North America, and it currently has over 60% market share. This is more than Uber Eats and Postmates as well as other services like Grubhub combined!
The platform is available in 6,000+ cities, and the company has also expanded to Australia. It's also moved beyond simple food delivery, and customers can now order many grocery items, flowers, alcohol, and everyday essentials.
As a DoorDash driver, you're able to make money on your own schedule. And the company is a popular side hustle for those living in medium and larger cities or towns.
Postmates was founded in 2011, launching in California. In late 2020, Uber completed its acquisition of Postmates and has slowly been rolling the platform into the Uber ecosystem.
The merging of the two delivery platforms is basically complete at this point. So, if you try to sign up for Postmates, you'll be redirected to Uber's sign up page and can complete your application there.
As for what you deliver, Postmates / Uber specialize in restaurant and fast food meals as well as groceries, household goods, alcohol, and everyday essentials.
If you want to make money with Postmates or DoorDash, the first thing to understand are the different driver requirements each platform has.
DoorDash has similar requirements to Postmates for new drivers, and these are also fairly standard across the world of delivery apps. To work for DoorDash, you must:
You also can't have more than three minor driving violations, such as speeding tickets, within the last three years. However, DoorDash is lenient in terms of vehicle requirements. As long as you can drive or bike, you're good to go!
You also need to pass orientation to start delivering for DoorDash. Orientation shows new employees how to use the DoorDash app and actually schedule deliveries, so this is a bit of a nuisance.
Thankfully, DoorDash has added an express orientation option which lets you verify your account during your first delivery attempt. Ultimately, you can expect the entire onboarding process to take 1-2 weeks to get your account activated after signup.
Working as a delivery driver or bike courier is pretty straightforward with Postmates. However, there are some hiring requirements to be aware of, including:
If you pass the background check and meet all of Postmates' driver requirements, all you have to do is upload your profile photo, set up direct deposit, and activate your Postmate card.
The background check for both Postmates and DoorDash is run by Checkr, a third-party service. It looks for things like major convictions, DUIs, drug offenses, and driving violations.
Winner: It's slightly easier to become a DoorDash driver than delivering for Postmates / Uber Eats due to age requirement differences.
Both Postmates and DoorDash have pretty similar delivery processes.
Once you're an active driver, order requests pop-up in the app. Each order includes information like total delivery distance, number of items, guaranteed base pay, and the restaurant or store you have to pick up items from.
You don't see potential tips with either app, so you might end up making more. Overall, both apps are incredibly similar, so once you learn how to use one, you'll know how to use the other.
Winner: It's a tie, and both apps are extremely similar for drivers.
Hourly driver pay is another important factor to consider when signing up for a driving gig. So, I'm going to explain how the driver payment models work for both Postmates and DoorDash so you have more context.
DoorDash's payment model is slightly more complicated than Postmates. Additionally, the model seems to lean a tad bit on promotions, which I'll cover in just a bit. DoorDash drivers get paid using the following formula: Base Pay + Promotions + Tips = Total Earnings.
Time to examine each factor a little closer.
Base Pay – This ranges from $2 to $10+ depending on estimated time, distance, and demand for the order. Basically, orders that require lengthy travel and more time and that are less popular for Dashers to accept have a higher base pay.
Promotions – If you meet certain promotion conditions, you can earn some nifty bonuses. Currently, there are 3 main promotions:
DoorDash also has a new Earn By Time mode that's rolling out to more markets. With this mode, you can choose to get paid a set hourly rate that varies by market rather than getting paid per order you complete.
Drivers keep 100% of all tips regardless of the earning method they choose. And after interviewing my friend who delivers for both Uber Eats and DoorDash, he could generally make about $12 to $20 per hour with DoorDash on a good day.
Extra Reading – DoorDash Driver Tips & Tricks.
Postmate pays drivers differently depending on the city they work in. As a general rule of thumb, here are the components that contribute to your earnings for each delivery:
As an example, I chose Newark, New Jersey for my market, and you can see all of the different rates in my screenshot:
Postmates is actually quite flexible when you look at how this model breaks down.
You can make decent money by completing 2-3 short orders within an hour (in a small delivery zone). However, delivering a larger order and driving a significant distance is also worthwhile thanks to the rate per mile (and assumed tip for a decently large order).
Postmates also runs Blitz Pricing, which occurs during surge order periods. Blitz Pricing can increase base pay by 1.2x or 1.5x, although I've heard this is incredibly rare to see.
Challenges and bonuses are also occasionally available in the Postmates app. I wouldn't factor these into forecasted earnings, but they are good to keep in mind if you deliver during busy periods.
Winner: It's another tie, and both DoorDash and Postmates pay drivers similarly, and you keep 100% of all tips with each platform.
Postmates is a very flexible side hustle, and drivers don't have to schedule shifts or work a minimum number of hours per week. Simply launch the Postmates apps, accept orders, and get to work.
DoorDash also lets you work whenever you want with its “Dash Now” option. This lets you open the Dasher app and begin completing deliveries in your zone as long as it's busy enough.
However, DoorDash also lets you schedule shifts in advance. This is a nice DoorDash hack you can use to guarantee that you can deliver for a certain amount of time.
This scheduling feature is great for side hustlers who want a rigid schedule. And I like that DoorDash still lets you Dash when it's busy without scheduling with its Dash Now feature.
Winner: DoorDash is more flexible than Postmates and offers immediate and scheduled options.
Both DoorDash and Uber Eats have a driver rating system that is a 1 to 5 star rating you get based on your previous 100 orders. Customers rate their delivery experience after you complete a delivery, and aiming for 4 or 5 stars is generally a good goal.
Your rating doesn't really matter unless you want to go for programs like DoorDash's Top Dasher or Uber Pro.
Also note that having a very low rating can result in DoorDash deactivation or Uber Eats deactivation. So, always be polite and try your best to deliver on time and with excellent customer service.
Winner: It's another tie and both driver rating systems are basically identical.
Both DoorDash and Postmates pay drivers every week for the previous week of deliveries. You can also cash out earnings instantly if you need to get paid the same day by paying a small fee.
DoorDash's Fast Pay costs $1.99 while Uber's Fast Pay costs $1.49. I suggest waiting for your weekly pay since these fees can add up quickly if you use them every single day.
Winner: Postmates / Uber Eats has a slightly cheaper instant pay fee than DoorDash.
It's important to work smart, not hard, regardless of the delivery company you end up working for.
After interviewing my friend Grant about his experiences working as a food courier, it's clear that there are some tried and true tips to increase your earnings with companies like DoorDash or Postmates:
Extra Reading – The Best Times To Do Postmates.
As mentioned, a great way to maximize your earnings with food delivery apps is to use several of them at the same time. And, the great news is that there are plenty of jobs like DoorDash and Postmates you can try, including:
If you mix in a few of these gigs, you can earn more per week by ensuring you always have deliveries to complete. And if you want even more alternatives, you can read our post on the best ways to deliver packages for money.
Both DoorDash and Postmates are a reliable way to earn at least $10 per hour if you work smart. DoorDash has a higher earning ceiling, and is probably a better platform for serious gig workers looking to schedule a lot of shifts and work during peak hours. In contrast, Postmates is better for gig workers who value flexibility and earning stability.
Whatever the case, just be sure to be realistic with your expectations and to track your earnings and expenses.
There's no reason you can't make $500 a week or even more if you hustle with these apps. And the fact both gigs are so flexible is a massive selling point.
Hopefully this DoorDash vs Postmates article has helped clarify what you should expect from both companies. If you end up trying out a delivery app, let me know which one (and why) in the comments below!
Want more ways to make money? Checkout:
The post DoorDash vs. Postmates – Which One Pays Drivers More? appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post Young Money Interview #8 – How Jesse Flips MTG Cards & More! appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>It doesn't matter if you're a college student trying to make extra money or if you just want a part-time side hustle to improve your financial well-being: opportunity is out there.
What I love about this Young Money interview in particular and Jesse is that he also has a few irons in the fire.
I've always advocated that diversifying your income is important.
Even a modest sum of extra monthly income can be incredibly powerful if you use the money to start investing or to pay off debt (or, you know, to do something awesome like taking a trip or to save up for something special).
Now, if you've missed the other posts in the Young Money interview series, I highly recommend going back and giving them a read.
If you're up to date, get ready to hear from Jesse, a fellow personal finance blogger, on his two unique side hustles (one of which I was obsessed with when I was younger)!
I’m Jesse, a 29-year old mechanical engineer from Rochester, NY.
Outside of work I enjoy writing at my blog The Best Interest, working on my home with my girlfriend, and playing any sort of sport or game.
The first side hustle I’ll quickly mention is coaching squash lessons.
Squash is an indoor racquet sport—a bit like racketball— that I played in college (go Rochester!).
One side hustle I started was actually coaching squash lessons. At different times over the past few years, I’ve averaged up to 5 hours of lessons per week, generally earning anywhere in the $30-$50/hour range.
While my example is very specific (not many squash players out there!), the key takeaway for the general reader would be to ask themselves: how can you monetize your expertise?
Perhaps it’s coaching, tutoring, freelance writing…what’s a skill that you have that people would pay to learn from, to watch, or to emulate?
For me, squash is already my #1 hobby for fitness and fun. Adding in a small money stream was a no-brainer.
If there's something you're talented at and can pass on your knowledge to someone else looking to learn, you're probably sitting on a money making opportunity.
The second little side hustle I have—that I know has a fun place in Tom’s heart as well—is “flipping” Magic: The Gathering (MTG) cards.
Where to start with this explanation?
Firstly, MTG is a collectible card game, with hundreds of unique cards having been printed each year since 1993.
The game itself has fun and deep strategy. The “story” around the game appeals to fantasy nerds (like me); it has similar tropes to Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings, etc.
MTG allows each player to create a deck from the 20,000+ unique cards that exist. Since each of the estimated 35 million worldwide players want to build their own winning deck(s), there’s a thriving market for buying and selling MTG cards.
There are even worldwide companies that exclusively buy and sell these cards. But, there are also opportunities on a local level, and that’s where I make some side money.
I look at Craigslist or the Facebook Marketplace for people selling their MTG card collections, and that’s where the fun begins.
The following tips apply to flipping MTG cards specifically, but I also think they would apply to any sort of “flipping” that someone could do via Craigslist, Marketplace, or even through consignment stores.
Extra Reading – The Best Places to Sell Pokemon Cards Online.
Most of the time, a MTG player will know which of their cards are valuable, and exactly what those cards worth. If they have a $200 collection, they’ll ask $200 for it. If you’re the seller, it’s the smart thing to do.
But if you’re a buyer looking to flip products for profit—like me—then this isn’t the deal that I’m interested it. I’m looking for undervalued card collections.
I don’t want to rip anyone off, but I need to consider my profit margin; I can’t someone more than what I think I can re-sell for.
When it comes to flipping MTG cards, I follow Warren Buffett’s two rules of investing.
#1: Don’t lose money.
#2: Don’t forget rule #1.
Buying anything you haven't seen in person via Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace is a risky proposition, so I go in-person to look through the cards before I buy them.
However, neither the seller nor I want to spend hours rifling through a collection of cards to assess the value. I need to know which cards are valuable, and then quickly extrapolate from a small sample up to the whole collection.
For example, the last collection I bought had 15,000 cards in it.
I took about 10 minutes to flip through approximately 500 of the cards, and then made a judgement, “If these 500 cards have $15 in value, then the full 15,000 cards will have about $450.”
While this extrapolation carries some risk with it—what if I happened to look at the 500 most valuable cards?— you’ve got to understand your risk posture in any aspect of life.
Granted, this begs a question, “How do I know which cards are valuable?”
Well, I’ve been playing the game on and off since 1995 (you do the math!), so I’ve got a feel for which cards have value and which don’t.
I also listen to a couple podcasts about the game, so I know which cards are in demand, and therefore carry higher prices.
It took me about 15 hours to sort, price, organize and ship the collection of 15,000 cards.
For those keeping tracking, that’s approximately $200 of direct profit (plus perhaps $100 ‘unrealized’) in 15 hours, or $20/hour. That’s less than my full-time job. But, do you know what your time is worth?
After all, ever since 1995 I’ve enjoyed sorting through these colorful, nerdy cards.
If I make a small profit, add to my collection, and flex my creative muscles…that’s a fun side hustle at the end of the day!
Generally, I turn a profit when someone thinks they’re sitting on a collection of 100% junk, but I know it’s 99% junk and 1% gems.
That doesn’t happen too often.
As I mentioned before, online marketplaces for cards are easily accessible, and players tend to know which of their cards are valuable. And on the other side, I’ve met up with plenty of players and realized, “Yup, this is pure junk,” and walked away.
Even though there are 35 million players worldwide, the intersecting Venn region of my marketplace is tiny: Rochester NY-based players who are selling their collections, who think they’re selling junk, but are actually 1% wrong.
This ultimately makes it pretty challenging to scale my MTG card flipping side hustle, but it's still a fun way to make extra money on the side in any case.
If I were to start over and focus on a flipping side hustle full-time, I’d consider the following:
Pick a product with either less pricing knowledge or larger arbitrage gaps. For example, I just read a story today about a guy who buys $3 brassieres from Wal-Mart, because he knows the same bra sells for $20 on Amazon.
How can you go wrong with that sort of margin?!
Quantity is a pain. Dealing in 15,000 card increments can be annoying. It’s much easier to buy one snowblower, fix that one snowblower, and re-sell that one snowblower.
Choose something more scalable. What’s a product that everyone uses? That everyone enjoys? That’s constantly being bought and sold?
I chose MTG because I was already enjoying the hobby, but there are way better options out there. Dealing with cars, home ownership, smart phones, food…these kind of products seem far more universal that collectible card games.
I know for a fact that you learned something today. The people who know squash and Magic: the Gathering and blog about side hustles for fun…I think there’s one of them, and he’s writing to you right now
I really appreciate you reading, and a big thanks to Tom for letting me share here on WebMonkey.
Cheers,
Jesse from BestInterest.blog
I'd like to take a moment to thank Jesse for sharing his two awesome side hustles with us!
I've always been a proponent of monetizing your existing skill set and playing to your given talents, and Jesse's squash coaching hustle exemplifies that fact.
If you know how to do something and to do it well, you can make money by helping others to do the same. It doesn't matter if it's sports cards, language, blogging, or business…provide real value to people and you can get somewhere in this world.
I'm also taking a massive trip down memory lane right now just reading about how to make money selling magic cards.
MTG was actually a massive part of my childhood/part of high school.
It was a game that brought me closer together with friends/cousins who shared a love for the game, and I remember spending dozens if not hundreds of hours theorizing the best decks I could build with the cards I had available.
See, the beautiful part about Jesse's MTG flipping side hustle is that it also highlights a fact that I think is forgotten all too often in the personal finance space: our own enjoyment has value.
Not everything is dollars and cents.
Sure, you should value your time and factor it in to whatever money making endeavor you start on.
However, never discount your own enjoyment, skills you can acquire along the way, or the people you will inevitable end up meeting.
If I had factored in hourly pay when I decided to start WebMonkey…well…let's just say that I don't think you'd be reading this story right now!
Play to your strengths, listen to what the market tells you, and hustle to accomplish your goals.
Just don't forget to have a little fun along the way!
That's all for this one! Be sure to check out Jesse's blog to keep up to date with the awesome content he is putting out!
The post Young Money Interview #8 – How Jesse Flips MTG Cards & More! appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post The 10+ Best Side Hustles For Busy Professionals appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The thing is, a 9-5 job isn't really just 9-5. Between commuting, running errands, and prepping for the work week, it can be difficult to find free time.
However, if you're ever in a crunch for cash or are simply looking for some part time side hustles, a full time job doesn't put you out of the running.
In fact, you can still find plenty of opportunities to earn extra money that don't completely ruin your social life or day job.
So, today we're covering some of the best side hustles for busy professionals that you can use to make money while still holding down your career.
Looking for other quick & flexible ways to make extra money? Checkout:
I've been making money online or with various gig apps for years. And when I started out, I had to balance work, college, and making extra money in my schedule.
I'm not alone. In fact, about 45% of Americans also have a side hustle according to 2022 data from Zippia.
However, it can?be difficult to juggle everything, especially if you're working 40+ hours a week. But that's why I'm covering?the best side jobs for busy professionals that meet the following requirements:
It's truly important to have control over your schedule here. Plus, you also want to choose a side gig that actually pays enough for it to be worth your time.
That being said, let's examine some of the best side jobs for busy people you can use to boost your income!
One of the best side hustles for busy professionals that you can make quick money with are food delivery gigs.
These apps are ideal for working professionals since they let you work the hours you want. And, signing up is easy and free, so you don't have to jump through hoops to start earnings.
In my post on?delivering for DoorDash versus Uber Eats, I was able to interview one of my good friends to learn how much money he makes by delivering food in Toronto.
My friend is able to make upwards of $20 an hour by delivering during dinner rushes or late night bar hours. He also avoided putting mileage or wear and tear on his car by making money with his bike.
Plus, there's several popular food delivery companies you can work for, including:
As you can see in the screenshot above, some people make amazing money delivering for DoorDash or similar food delivery apps.
Granted, if you're only going to deliver for a few hours per week after work, you won't be making thousands of dollars per month. However, even if it's $200 a month or some other amount, I think food delivery jobs are one of the best side gigs for busy people.
If you want to make money on the side, get some exercise, and work 100% on your own schedule, I'd highly suggest checking out some popular food delivery companies in your area.
Extra Reading –?DoorDash Driver Tips & Tricks To Earn More Money.
Another unique side hustle for busy people that you can test out is charging scooters for money.
If you live in a major city that has electric scooter rentals available from companies like Bird, you can actually start a decent part time side hustle by keeping these scooters charged.
As a scooter charger, you scoop scooters off of the street, charge them at your home or office, and then return the scooters to a central hub once they are fully charged.
Payment per scooter varies on how long it's been since a scooter was charged. Additionally, it only takes around $0.25-$0.40 in electricity costs to fully charge a scooter.
According to Kevin from Financial Panther, both Bird and Lime pay between $3-$5 per scooter charge.
Kevin is able to pick several scooters up during his commute, enabling him to earn anywhere from $10-$30 a day if conditions are right.
Kevin currently earns anywhere from $150-$1,000 a month just by charging scooters, which is pretty insane. So if you live near a Lime or Bird hub, this could be a very lucrative part time side hustle to consider!
If you want an easy way to make money with a laptop or phone, you can always use survey sites that pay you cash.
This is also a decent side hustle for busy people since you can answer surveys in your spare time when watching TV or relaxing around the house. I've also used plenty of GPT sites and apps since my phone farming days in college, so I know they're legit and pay out.
Some of the most popular platforms you can use include:
Using sites like Branded Surveys and other similar sites isn't going to replace your day job. But again, these are flexible side hustles for working professionals that can make a bit of extra beermoney on the side.
Another one of my favorite side hustles for working people is to?make money with a blog. And this also a very personal example for me since blogging is now how I make most of my income, but it wasn't alway like this.
I started WebMonkey while I was a full-time student and working 20 hours a week at Starbucks.
And, what started out as a college side hustle gradually grew from grocery money into something more serious.
Take a look at the first few months of my blogging income:
I was elated when WebMonkey was earning $200 to $300 a month. But, fast forward a few years, and I made $22,000 blogging in 2020. Then, in 2021, WebMonkey made $92,000.
Most of my blogging income comes from?affiliate marketing and running display advertising with Mediavine, a premium ad network.
In fact, Mediavine can make $500 a day or more in advertisement income alone. And affiliate income then makes up the rest.
It also took a long time to get here, but I held down full-time jobs the?entire?time.
So, I think starting a blog is a viable side job for busy people because you can do it on your own schedule and the growth potential is?immense.
Plus, blogging can help you branch out into other online income ideas, like selling eBooks, online coaching, or even making money on YouTube.
If you want to get started with blogging, it doesn't have to be expensive. You can purchase a domain name and basic WordPress hosting with a company like Namecheap for less than a cup of coffee per month.
Do you like playing video games after work? If so, another side hustle for working professionals you can try is to use various paid gaming apps.
There are numerous apps and websites that pay you with PayPal money and gift cards for playing new games. This makes it easy to start an easy video game side hustle that you can enjoy before or after work.
Several paid gaming apps I've used and recommend include:
Like survey sites, these gaming apps aren't going to make you $100 a day or anything even close to that.
But they're a flexible, fun side hustle you can use to earn some freebies after a busy work day.
If you're an animal lover, dog walking or pet sitting can be a great way to make extra money while working a full time job.
Companies like Rover and Wag have created marketplaces where dog and pet owners can pay to have someone walk or look after their beloved furry friend.
Taking care of pets or walking dogs is a decent side job for a few reasons.
Firstly, companies like Rover allow you to set your own schedule and pay rate, and there is no minimum monthly requirement for how active you need to be.
Secondly, all pet sitters and walkers get insurance under companies like Rover, so you are protected while doing your work. Considering that you can make upwards of $19/hour walking dogs with Rover and even more by pet sitting, there's definitely money on the table (especially if you live in a major city).
In another one of my Young Money interviews, I got to hear from Nathan of Millionaire Dojo on how he makes hundreds of dollars every month flipping items on his eBay store.
If you're willing to put in some time on the occasional weekend or two and invest in a modest amount of inventory, you can start to earn extra income every month and diversify your income.
The proof is in the pudding.
Nathan earns more than $500 from flipping on eBay every month, and he also interviews other successful sellers on his blog while documenting his own progress.
If you enjoy thrifting and can find a few hours a month to buy inventory, this might be a viable side job for additional income.
You can also sell stuff on other local marketplaces like the Facebook Marketplace or even by pawning stuff for cash.
Extra Reading – Best Ways To Make Money With A Pickup Truck.
If you want to make money online as a beginner, another side hustle you can try are micro job sites.
Micro job sites pay you for completing short online tasks like:
Clickworker is one of the most popular micro job sites out there. And you can sign up for free and then complete short tasks to earn bits of PayPal money.
Realistically, you can probably earn an extra $50-$200 per month if you take a bit of free time to complete short tasks online. And you can potentially earn a bit more if you can get a job with websites like Appen or Lionbridge.
However, this category of side jobs for working professionals is pretty straightforward since you choose whenever you want to make money online.
Refereeing soccer matches is how many of my friends made money as teenagers. But I also know several adults who have been refereeing matches for as long as I have been playing.
Becoming a referee generally requires completing a course and having some understanding of the sport you're officiating, and you don't set your own hours. However, if you can find a gig officiating a summer game every now and again, it's pretty decent money.
Refs can easily get paid $50+ per game, or even more if you make it to higher levels/age groups of play.
Besides, who doesn't want to get paid to enjoy some outdoor weather and a sports game? If you don't mind angry parents yelling at you, it's an absolute walk in the park!
If you're looking for even more creative side job ideas, you can also checkout one of my YouTube videos on other side hustle ideas:
I've already written a post on ways you can rent out your assets for cash. And, this would probably be my go-to for extra money right now since I'm pretty swamped with freelance writing and blogging.
There are also plenty of creative ways to earn money on autopilot by renting things out, including:
This is a nifty source of passive income, and in terms of side hustles for busy people, it's by far the least intensive option.
Living in a major city will probably make this side gig more viable. But I still think it is worth exploring if you want to earn extra money alongside your full time job.
Thanks to the power of the gig economy, it's never been easier to make money on the side whenever you find some free time and motivation.
Just take a look at some of these popular gigs as an example:
You can also make some serious money here: just checkout this screenshot from a weekend of working for Handy:
These gigs all let you set your own schedule and accept the shifts/gigs you want, which is important for busy professionals.
And the hourly rates for many of these gigs can reach $15 to $25+ per hour if you work quickly and get a bit lucky with tips.
Extra Reading – 9 Apps Like TaskRabbit To Start A Side Hustle.
One final side hustle for busy professionals that you can consider is to begin investing.
This isn't a classic side hustle in the sense that you don't have to go out and hustle with a gig app. But learning how to make your money work for you still takes time and attention.
However, there are plenty of ways to begin investing for income if you want to put some of the income from your day job to work, including:
There's no single ‘correct' formula for how to invest. And you should always consider speaking with a certified financial professional if you need specific advice for your personal situation.
Personally, I'm sticking with dividend stocks and ETFs for the most part these days. But you should do your own research online and think about your overall investing goals and what's best for you.
I hope this guide on the best side hustles for busy professionals gives you a few ideas on how to make money while holding down a busy schedule.
I know from experience that life can get hectic. But if you work?smart, I firmly believe it's possible to hustle while still focusing on your career.
And starting out small is?absolutely?fine. So, don't be afraid to make a few deliveries with DoorDash, answer some surveys with Branded Surveys, or to start your own freelancing hustle or blog.
It might take some time, but the rewards are always worth it in the long run. Just never forget to also enjoy life and to live a little!
That's all for this one! I hope this list of the best side jobs for busy professionals helps you to earn a bit of extra income in addition to any full time job you might have.
Catch you guys in the next one.
Want extra ways to boost your income? Checkout:
DoorDash Disclaimer: Actual earnings may differ and depend on factors like number of deliveries completed, time of day, location, and expenses. Dash now subject to background check and availability.
The post The 10+ Best Side Hustles For Busy Professionals appeared first on WebMonkey.
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]]>I've personally been making all of my income online since about 2019. And I've managed to start several online businesses and side hustles that now pay me much more than my old day job.
Making money online has also given me the freedom to travel the world, set my own hours, and live the type of life I feel like living,
So, if you're wondering how to make money online from home or while living abroad, you're in luck! This post is covering some of the best ways to make money online you can use to boost your income and gain more freedom in your life.
Some of the ideas in this post are going to be ways to make money online for beginners. These options are great for getting some quick money, especially if you're new to online work. In contrast, some of these online money-making methods take longer to build but have very high income potential.
Think about your goals, and then pick an online job or side hustle that makes sense for you!
One realistic way to make money online is to use paid survey sites to earn cash and free gift cards in your spare time.
I used this method for years back in college. And while survey sites won't make you rich, they're a very easy hustle to start out, especially if you're new to making money online.
Some of the best get-paid-to websites that you can use include:
You won't get rich by using sites like Branded Surveys, Swagbucks, or any GPT site. These are really just for earning some beermoney in your spare time.
But this is a beginner-friendly way to make money online, so don't be afraid to test out a few sites!
One of my favorite ways to make money online is to make money with a blog. And this is because my blog WebMonkey is how I make most of my income these days.
Now, blogging isn't fast money. In fact, in my first year of blogging, I only made $1,700!
But fast forward a few years, and WebMonkey now makes $20,000 a month. This is largely from a combination of Mediavine ads, affiliate income, and some sponsorships.
The blog actually makes $500 a day in just advertising revenue alone, which is largely passive income at this point.
If you can learn some basic SEO skills for blogging, put in the time to write 20-30 high value articles, and engage in basic social media marketing, you can drive traffic to a money making website.
Plus, blog hosting is fairly cheap with a company like SiteGround, so this a relatively low-risk and fun way to start a new project with the potential to boost your income!
Extra Reading – How I Made $272,000 Blogging In 2022.
While it might surprise you, another idea to make money online is to play video games for money.
There's actually dozens of different apps that pay you to play games. So, if you're an avid gamer, you might be able to turn your next gaming session into a money-making opportunity.
Some of my favorite apps that pay you to game include:
Like survey platforms, paid gaming apps won't make you rich. But if you already spend time gaming, this is basically a way to make money on autopilot with a fun side hustle. And the game and reward variety is quite good!
?Earn rewards with Scrambly today!
Another one of my favorite ways to earn money online is to make money with freelance writing.
This is also how I make a lot of my income. And I actually quit my day job back in 2020, moved to Colombia, and made all of my income for a while by writing content for clients.
It took me a while to get enough clients to have a steady calendar of work. And at the start, I was only charging around $0.05 to $0.07 per word.
But after improving my skills and building a portfolio, I was able to land higher-paying clients. After a few months, I was making $5,000 a month or more just from freelance writing.
I think this is the typical path for selling skills online as a freelancer. However, the income potential with freelancing can be immense.
Personally, I think turning to your network for open jobs is the best way to get started. You can also find jobs on Upwork, FlexJobs, Fiverr, and various remote job sites to get started.
Pro Tip: You can get my Freelance Writing For Freedom eBook to learn how I scaled from $0 to $100,000+ in writing income while traveling the world!
It doesn't matter if you want to sell crafts, art, or meme apparel, Etsy is one of the most popular marketplaces for handmade and vintage gifts there is.
Opening your own Etsy shop is free, and you only have to pay a $0.20 listing fee for adding items to your shop and a transaction fee upon making a sale. This inexpensive model means you can test out proof of concept for an idea without spending significant money.
I actually ran a brief Etsy print on demand experiment where I sold meme-mugs, and I managed to make 2 sales by advertising my store on Instagram.
Creating products for the store was incredibly easy as well, and I used Printify, a print on demand company, to design and manufacture my products.
It didn't really work out, but hey, it's at least some proof of concept for how you can potentially make passive income on Etsy.
Extra Reading – 8 Awesome Etsy Alternatives To Power Your Online?Store.
Did you know it's possible to invest in real estate without having a lot of capital? And did you also know that you can get started from the comfort of your own home?
That's right: with real estate investment platforms, you can buy shares of income-generating real estate. And some platforms let you begin with only $10.
Several real estate investing companies that help you invest for income include:
Just note that the above companies are only available in the United States at the time of writing.
But other countries have similar opportunities. And the entire idea is to make your money work from you, investing from your computer or phone into income-generating assets.
Note: This is a Fundrise endorsement and we receive compensation if you sign up with the provided link.
Another way you can earn money online from home is to start a YouTube channel. And this is also one online side hustle I've tested out and grown into a decent income source.
I started my YouTube channel back in 2020. At the time, it was just a small channel where I shared ideas to make money online.
Since then, it's grown to over 15,000 subscribers. It also makes $50 a day, or about $1,500 a month, in advertising revenue.
Making money on YouTube isn't fast money. This is because you need 1,000 subscribers to even begin making money with ads.
But I think it's an excellent online money-making idea since it's creative, fun, and scalable. And even videos from years ago make me money today, which I consider passive income.
Speaking of passive income, another easy way to make money online is to use different passive income apps. These apps pay you to share your data, so you can slowly earn bits of cash or free gift cards in your spare time.
I've been using passive income apps for years ever since my phone farming days back in college. And, I firmly believe you can make $10 to $25 per month or even more with the right combination of apps.
Some of my favorite passive income apps include:
To date, I've earned over $100 in PayPal cash and free gift cards from using the apps listed above. If you're looking for absolutely brain-dead free money, it doesn't get better than this.
I'm breaking affiliate marketing into a unique method to make money online for free as it can truly be done in a variety of ways.
For example, I earn affiliate commission every month from running WebMonkey. I accomplish this by promoting products and services I use through affiliate networks like the Amazon Affiliate network, FlexOffers, and a variety of other platforms.
If you run your own website, YouTube channel, email list, or other platform, affiliate marketing is a fast way to earn extra money online each month.
If you don't currently have a blog or website, that's totally fine. You can actually still make money with affiliate marketing by using channels like Pinterest or Instagram with certain affiliate networks that allow it.
Just search for #sponsored on Pinterest and you'll find plenty of examples of what I'm talking about:
This guy in particular is using Skimlinks to promote Halloween costumes on Pinterest right now.
Clicking through brings you to a shop, and you can tell by the URL parameter that he would indeed be credited for any sales generated from his pins, earning him a percentage in affiliate revenue.
I doubt this breaks the bank, but if done correctly and en masse with multiple accounts, you could probably earn a significant online income.
Extra Reading – How To Make Money With Pinterest.
Medium.com is a free blogging platform with over 60 million monthly readers.
On Medium, writers and publications earn money when paid Medium members read their content. It's basically a blogging platform that pays you to write, and it's free to get started.
To date, I've earned just over $1,000 from writing on Medium, but many authors and publications on the platform earn thousands of dollars every month.
If you have an existing blog or publication, you can actually syndicate your content over to Medium as well. At the very least, this can turn into a decent source of monthly passive income.
You can also read my post on the best sites like Medium for more ideas to make money with your writing.
If you want an easy way to make money online and like the idea of getting paid to shop, using different reward apps is the perfect way to get started.
I've been using cash back apps for a while, and they were a surprising way to save money during college, especially around the holidays.
Some cash back apps offering sign up bonuses to new users include:
Rakuten and MyPoints require users to make a $25 purchase from partnered merchants in order to claim your $10 bonus, but you can just shop through Amazon or Walmart and buy home essentials you need to buy anyway.
And if you do a lot of shopping, you can earn some decent cash each month without much effort.
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Get Paid To Do Nothing.
Note: Capital One Shopping compensates us when you sign up using the links provided.
If you don't mind QA work, you can make some easy online money by testing out apps and websites that are in development.
I've written a pretty comprehensive post on how to make money with user testing, but here's the gist of it.
Users sign up to test websites and apps that are in development. In exchange for sharing their thoughts and feedback, they get paid some PayPal cash. It's that simple.
Some popular QA testing websites include:
All of these sites pay around $10 per test, so it's a nice way to make $10 fast in your spare time without much effort.
Signing up for a few companies is a good idea if you want a higher volume of work since it can be hard to get regular testing sessions. You can also read my post on the best sites like UserTesting for even more sites to find user-testing gigs.
Still wondering how to make money online? Well, if you're feeling a bit entrepreneurial, you can always try making money with retail arbitrage.
With retail arbitrage, you make money by purchasing popular products and then reselling them for a profit.
Usually, retail arbitrage sellers purchase inventory from stores like Walmart or Kohl's that are on discount. From there, they often sell products on Amazon FBA, a fulfillment service by Amazon.
I actually interviewed a couple running a million-dollar retail arbitrage business, so there's some serious money in this space.
But Amazon FBA is just one online sales channel you can consider. People also sell things on platforms like Mercari or eBay, so you have plenty of options.
It?does?take time to build up inventory and get sales. But you can start small by flipping $500 or a similar amount with this ecommerce side hustle.
?The Best Ways To Make Money Without Working.
Podcasts have been growing quite rapidly in popularity over the past few years. While it is a crowded market, it's also possible to make money with a podcast through sponsorships, affiliate deals, or funneling your audience back to another money making platform (like a blog or online store).
Is starting a podcast immensely competitive??Absolutely.
However, the same is true for blogging or running any type of online business that's worth the time. The only way to get there is to hustle!
I recently interviewed my friend Ben on how he started a top business podcast, and he also has some great YouTube content that breaks down the basics of podcasting for beginners. I highly recommend checking out his channel if you want to learn how he grew his business podcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuQKUyqcdcA
Extra Reading – Blogging vs. Podcasting.
If you love social media and know how to effectively engage an audience, you might be able to make money online with social media management.
Both small businesses and larger brands are often willing to outsource social media duties rather than hire someone in-house. Cultivating a loyal online following can help business grow after all, and businesses are generally afraid of missing out on the action.
If you are skilled at growing a following on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, you might be able to pitch your services to businesses and charge them a monthly retainer fee.
I've been working with a freelance Pinterest manager from Upwork for the past few months, and let me tell you, I am willing to pay to keep up the results:
Results speak for themselves. Make business owners happy, and you can stay on their payroll for a very long time.
You can pitch local businesses with your services or turn to marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr to create a social media management listing.
Tutoring other people online is another reliable online money making idea, and there are plenty of options out there!
One of the most popular tutoring industries in the world is English secondary language tutoring. There are plenty of companies hiring online English tutors to help people across the world learn English, and the pay can range as high as $25/hour.
You can also make excellent money by tutoring students in math or English with companies like BookNook if you live in the United States.
Finally, other subjects like science also have plenty of demand for skilled online tutors, and you can also work for companies like Tutor.com or Chegg to help struggling students with their homework problems.
This is a great job for retired teachers or any educators, but even new teachers and tutors can earn money online with this idea!
If you want an easy way to make money online in 2023, you can always try downloading apps for money.
Plenty of apps and companies are willing to pay new members for signing up. And some apps also pay you for downloading other sponsored apps from different companies.
Several pay-to-download apps I've used over the years include:
Many of these apps involve playing games, which is one online money-making idea I covered above.
But you can use this combination of apps to earn some free cash and gift cards in your spare time without much effort.
While we're talking about YouTube as a way to make money online, we might as well take a stab at streaming on Twitch.
Twitch.tv is one of the most popular streaming platforms out there. It allows people to broadcast their gameplay or daily life to viewers around the world.
Streamers on Twitch can make money through subscriptions, ad revenue, sponsorship opportunities, and affiliate sales.
Like YouTube, if you treat this side hustle like a business and invest into growth (i.e. through additional content production, better equipment, and creating a consistent schedule), you can find success over time.
Besides, streaming on Twitch isn't just for professional gamers anymore. There are tonnes of niches out there, like this one called ‘just chatting:”
Yup, there are currently Twitch streamers making money on the internet by tricking scammers, rating the attractiveness of other people, and dancing in front of people.
The internet is truly bizarre. But if you have a creative money making idea or avenue to approach Twitch, why not go for it?
Another idea for making money online that you can try is to become a virtual assistant, or VA.
VA's generally work with bloggers, business owners, or busy professionals to make their life easier and to keep things on track.
Common VA tasks might include:
Pay range, hours, and benefits vary greatly depending on the organization you work for and who your clients are.
One popular website for finding VA clients is Fancy Hands, which pays $3 – $7 per task and offers room for growth.
Alternatively, you could also try joining several blogging Facebook groups and pitching your VA services to bloggers in need.
Extra Reading – The Best Microtask Websites.
When it comes to side hustle ideas that are as old as time, flipping money, or buying something to turn around for a profit, is one of the oldest ideas in the book.
And if you want to earn money online, flipping things on eBay is one massive opportunity that you can test out.
The process of flipping items on eBay is simple in theory. Just find under-priced items at flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales and post them on your store to flip for a profit online.
My friend Nathan from MillionaireDojo regularly earns several hundred dollars in profit every month from selling on eBay:
You can also use local selling apps like the Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp to try and find buyers if eBay isn't generating sales fast enough.
Extra Reading – Check out my Young Money interview with Nathan covering how he makes money online with eBay!
It doesn't matter if it's a subscription box, a paid-to-read newsletter, or a Patreon play, subscription-based businesses are a viable option for smaller entrepreneurs looking to make money online.
It doesn't matter if it's a newsletter, premium content, or your entire platform; a properly executed paywall can pay dividends.
Want an example?
Checkout any musician on YouTube who sells sheet music. I've been following a number of guitar players on YouTube for a while, and that's the path they've all taken…produce great content, grow a following, and then lock premium content behind a paywall.
And guess what, it works. If you produce amazing content, people will pay for it. You just need to capture an audience first and then market even more valuable content to them.
I'm putting this money making idea under the online business category because you really need to know what you're doing if you're going to make any money with website flipping.
Additionally, you'll also need some capital to invest.
Flipping websites or domains is like flipping a house…only much more complicated and risky, I'd argue.
Flippers essentially buy websites or domain names they think have potential and hold them until the right buyer comes along. Alternatively, some flippers purchase websites that are already profitable and improve them while making their money back, only to then sell them down the line for even more cash.
The two most popular marketplaces for buying and selling websites are:
However, I strongly advise doing more research before getting into this because flipping domains or websites is?not?an easy way to make money online.
As with freelance writing, another idea for earning money online is to become a programmer.
If you have experience with a popular programming language, back-end/front-end development, UI design, or are just a generally unreal coder, you can definitely make money by programming.
Again, turning to your own network and creating a robust portfolio is probably the route that will lead to the highest paying contracts, but you can also turn to remote job sites to find work.
Some popular marketplaces for hiring programmers include:
Competition may be fierce, but remember, word of mouth is everything (even in online marketplaces.) Get one job, and more will follow if you perform.
If you're an expert at something, chances are, you can make money online by selling coaching.
And no, I'm not talking about gurus again…I mean a real expert who can show proof of results, client testimonials, and isn't offering a ‘get X results quick' scheme.
It doesn't matter if you're an online entrepreneur, a life coach, a fitness expert, or even a full-time blogger; plenty of industries and niches have people making a killing from online coaching.
One online coach I really respect and have been following for a while is Rob Lipsett, a Irish fitness influencer, best-selling entrepreneur, and YouTuber.
Rob has built an impressive following on Instagram and YouTube consisting of hundreds of thousands of followers and subscribers, and he uses these platforms to promote brands, his own book/products, and his coaching services.
What I like the most about Rob's coaching strategy is that he doesn't ram it down your throat.
Rather, Rob creates immensely valuable content across a variety of platforms, sometimes mentions his coaching, and lets his results/lifestyle inspire people to make the jump themselves.
Ultimately I believe coaching is one of the highest margin ways to make money online, provided you do it right. Be like Rob, not the Facebook guru dude.
Extra Reading – Make Money Selling Your Advice.
If one-on-one coaching isn't for you, you can still provide a valuable service to other people via courses or informational e-books.
The internet allows people to learn pretty much anything, and while there is plenty of free content out there, sometimes a paid course or book is well worth the money.
If you know a valuable skill that people have to pay to learn or go to school for, you can probably make money by packaging the information into an easily digestible form and selling it.
Websites like Udemy or Skillshare are just two ways you can get started with selling your own courses.
And just remember, the best way to sell a course is to teach something you have experienced first hand. Just check out this course I found on Udemy with over 36 ratings…what a simple idea!
Graphic design often goes hand in hand with web development work, so I thought it was a worthy addition to this list of ways to make money online.
If you're a skilled artist, there are many ways you can make money. From designing logos to creating effective ad copy, the opportunity is there if you can find it.
Some popular marketplaces for selling graphic design services include:
Just note, unlike freelance writing where you can kinda get away without a professional portfolio (at least I have…so far) you really need a portfolio for any sort of graphic design client to take you seriously.
While this isn't a purely online way to make money, renting out your assets does harness the power of the internet to connect buyers and renters, so I'll take it.
I've written a pretty comprehensive post on assets you can rent out for passive income, but in general, here are some of the most popular assets to rent out:
Renting out your assets can also be quite lucrative. And this is a pretty semi-passive income source which is always a bonus.
When it comes to making money with photography, there are tons of options out there. However, if you're strictly looking for online opportunities, there are 2 main ideas that come to mind.
The first is licensing photos to stock photography websites.
The world of stock photography is immensely saturated, but if you're doing photography as a hobby or semi-professionally already, why not try and make some extra money on the side?
The most popular sites for licensing your stock photography include:
Selling stock photos isn't easy, and honestly, this option won't work out for the majority of photographers, but if you have some great photos you might as well try!
The second option to make money online through photography would be to start a photography-based blog.
My friend Marc from Vital Dollar sold three photography websites for more than a million dollars, which is, ahem, a pretty ridiculous return on investment if you ask me!
If you've ever been told ‘you have a voice for radio' or something similar, you might be able to make money online with voice over work!
Plenty of websites and marketplaces offer a chance for voice over artists to make some extra cash, and some people are making a killing. Just check out this Fiverr result page:
Some of these Fiverr gigs have over 1K reviews, so these artists are definitely making some substantial income every month.
Transcription work involves listening to audio recordings and transcribing (writing) them out.
Companies need transcriptionists all the time. So, online transcription jobs are a dime a dozen these days. However, if you're looking for a low barrier to entry online job, this is an option.
Some popular remote side hustles in this space to consider include:
Transcription work is tedious, audio files are usually low quality, and the pay is mediocre. Additionally, it takes a lot of practice to become a quick transcriber.
If you're willing to put in the hours of practice, it can be a decent side hustle, but this definitely isn't for everyone.
If you have a knack for travel planning, another idea for earning money online is to become an online travel agent.
As a work from home travel agent, you can either work for larger agencies on a commission basis (or a modest salary, perhaps) or form your own business and find clients yourself.
Travel & Leisure breaks down how to become an online travel agent better than I can, so be sure to give it a read if this online money making idea intrigues you!
If you're a qualified accountant and sick of working an in-office 9-5 job, you may be able to make an online living by working as an at-home bookkeeper!
Bookkeepers are in charge of managing financial operations for a business. Any money that comes in or out of the business should be something a bookkeeper is aware of and monitoring.
Some common bookkeeping tasks include:
Bookkeeping work also pays decently, and in 2020, the high end for a bookkeeper salary was almost $50,000. However, freelance bookkeepers working for multiple clients can generally charge a higher rate and earn more annually, provided they have enough clients.
?Pro Tip: Get 3 free classes from Bookkeepers.com to learn how to launch a massively profitable bookkeeping business!
Contrary to what many people might think, search engines like Google break all the time. That's how you end up with search results like this:
Companies like Google and Bing are therefore quite interested in improving the quality of their search engines. To help accomplish this, they contract out search engine evaluation work which requires humans to monitor search results for errors.
Two of the most popular companies for finding search engine evaluation work are Appen and Lionbridge.
Hourly pay ranges up to $15 per hour, although work is not steady. That's why this is more of a quick cash idea than a full-time opportunity to earn an online income.
Extra Reading – The Best Sites Like Appen.
The world of ecommerce has made online reviews more important than ever before, and this means there is now plenty of opportunity to get paid to write reviews.
Some methods are a bit more sketchy than others, and there are certainly ways to get paid to provide fake reviews. A quick look at the Fiverr marketplace for paid Amazon reviews is all the proof you need.
However, there are some legitimate ways to review products for cash, including:
This money maker won't break the bank, but hey, you might as well review any software you've used to get some free Amazon gift cards.
Speaking of somewhat sketchy money making ideas, did you know you can sell unused internet bandwidth for passive income?
Companies like PacketStream and apps like Honeygain are willing to pay you for your unused internet. Essentially, users can opt-in to have their computers function as a node in a VPN or CDN network.
Keep in mind, even if you're just acting as a node for a CDN, you are letting other people access the internet through your IP address. This is what makes this source of online passive income kinda odd.
Personally, it's not my cup of tea, but I'd definitely do something like this if I was still in college!
Extra Reading – The Best Apps Like Honeygain.
Want to earn money online and also enjoy free stuff? In this case, one idea you can try is to review products for money.
Plenty of companies are willing to pay people to try their products and provide their feedback. This lets you earn some free stuff on the side, and some companies even pay you with cash as well.
Several popular product testing gigs you can find online include:
Again, a lot of these gigs don't pay too much or just compensate you with free products.
But it's still an easy way to make money online, and you might enjoy the free samples and products you receive.
One final idea you can use to start making money online is to enter naming competitions.
Online naming competitions are a way to possibly earn a couple of hundred bucks by picking winning names for businesses.
The process is simple: business owners offer a prize pool on a crowdsource naming website for whoever can come up with the perfect name, and the winner takes all.
Some popular naming competition websites include:
It might be tough to win, but some contests pay a few hundreds of dollars, so it could be a nice payday if you get lucky.
Now that you know how to make money online, I want to share a few tips that I found very helpful as I've grown my online income over the years.
Extra Reading – The Best Online Jobs That Pay Weekly.
When it comes to making money online, you really just need to do some research, pick an idea that matches your skill set, and hit the gas.
It might take a while to start making money online from home. In fact, it took me a few years before I was making all my income online and living the digital nomad life.
However, if you never start trying, you'll never know where you end up.
Hopefully, a few of the methods I covered in this post stand out to you. And if you want some easier ideas to make money on the internet, you can check out my YouTube video on some online jobs that pay daily.
Thanks so much for reading, and best of luck in your online money making adventures.
Did I miss an idea? Let me know in the comments!
Looking for even more ideas to make extra money online? Checkout:
The post 36 Best Ways To Make Money Online In 2024 appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post Handy Pro Review – Is Handy Legit & A Good Side Hustle? appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>Gig apps let you work on your own schedule, make decent money, and use your skills to boost your income. Pretty cool if you ask me!
And for the handymen and cleaners out there, one gig app you've probably heard of is Handy.
But is Handy Pro legit? And how much does Handy pay handymen for the work that they do?
Well, my Handy Pro review is covering exactly how this platform works, the requirements, and overall earning potential.
I've also interviewed a Handy Pro named Allan, and he's going to share?how he made more than $200 in a single weekend by working through the Handy.
Time to break down the Handy app in greater detail and to hear from Allan on how makes money through furniture assembly and other tasks.
Update: Handy Pro is changing its name to Angi Services for Pros. The servie is the exact same, but a rebrand is in work, so keep this in mind.
Handy is an app that offers house cleaning and handyman services to homeowners who are willing to pay for the extra help.
Founded in 2012, the gig-based app has witnessed explosive growth. Handy was recently acquired for an undisclosed amount, but has an evaluation of more than $360 million dollars.
Additionally, Handy has connected tens of thousands of home cleaners and handymen to clients across dozens of cities.
Considering the busy lives people live and how much the average person hates tasks like cleaning or furniture assembly, it makes sense that the Uber of homecare services has seen such rapid growth.
Outside of cleaning and furniture assembly work, Handy also offers other popular services, including:
So, if you're a handy individual or want to find cleaning jobs, Handy could be the perfect platform to start a new side hustle. And it's one of our favorite side gigs for men or women who have a lot of DIY skills.
Handy Pro is the contractor side of the Handy app, and this is how you can start a lucrative side hustle by helping homeowners with their needs.
In terms of qualifications, Handy Pro requirements state that you must:
These are the only requirements, so the barrier to entry is very low.
Handy isn't an employer, but rather a network for independent contractors to connect to homeowners, so there isn't much red tape to worry about.
In terms of locations, Handy is currently available in dozens of major U.S. cities and select cities in Canada and the U.K. You can browse all available Handy locations to see if you can make money in your city.
On their homepage, Handy states that you can earn up to $22 per hour as a cleaner or $45 per hour as a handyman. It also says that the top Handy Pros earn more than $1,000 per week on the platform.
The type of job you do impacts your rate, and if you're incredibly slow your hourly rate will obviously be worse. However, this side hustle definitely pays more than your average beermoney job.
What's nice is that you also get to choose when you work and what your rates are. This lets you build a flexible schedule, and you don't have to complete cheap jobs if you don't want to.
Now, time to hear from Allan, an actual Handy Pro, about his experiences with the platform and how much money he's been able to make.
I am currently an Electrical Apprentice, and have been training as such for 8 months now. Prior to working with Handy Pro, I had no experience whatsoever in any kind of labor.
However,? I have 10+ years of pure customer service.
When I decided to jump into becoming an electrician, I happened to start at a time when my local Union was not accepting applications.
I had to apply far and wide for any electrical business that was willing to hire someone completely new to the scene…I'm sure I don't have to describe how difficult that interviewing process was.
Anyway, that drove down my bargaining power with employers, and I had to accept a pay rate that just wasn't cutting it for a 28 year old living in the city.
I desperately needed to supplement my income, but I wanted to stay in line with my career path.
I waited a few months to gain a little hands-on experience, and once I felt comfortable that I had learned the foundations, I began searching online for some easy side work that didn't require me to have an electrician's license.
My search led to me places like Thumbtack and TaskRabbit, and eventually to Handy.
Handy Pro pays pretty well, and I actually make $222 in my first weekend for completing some pretty easy work for people in my city.
The first job was to just help someone?move a bunch of furniture around their house. The other job was to?replace an old ceiling fan in a foyer. All my remaining jobs were furniture assembly jobs.
The furniture assembly is really easy.
Once you've done a few pieces from IKEA, you'll be very familiar with Handy's Wayfair furniture. Wayfair also ships flat-box, making it easy for people to follow assembly instructions, and they include the necessary hardware to secure everything together.
I became faster at assembly as I completed Handy gigs, and many tasks are similar because they use the same type of fastenings, regardless of the type of furniture.
The ceiling fan replacement did require electrical knowledge, so that type of job would require prior experience because shocks can be quite nasty.
While I was chatting with the client who needed furniture moved around their house, I found out she had unfinished electrical work as well.
She hired me to take care of that for her, and that entire exchange actually led to a few other referrals for different tasks as well.
Another client I had assembled a dining set for liked my attitude while I was working. After he found out I had construction experience, he offered me a part-time position filling in the gaps wherever he needed. While this isn't electrical work, I can help him out from time to time for some extra cash.
Working for Handy turned out to be much more profitable than I had expected.
Granted, I didn't go into this side hustle expecting to make thousands in extra income every month, but I was expecting around $40-$60 a week. As you can see from my screenshot, what was supposed to be an uneventful weekend actually turned into an additional $222!
I highly recommend using Handy if you don't mind working with your hands for an hour or two at a time. These jobs don't take a lot of skill either, just the ability to follow instructions correctly.
Let me put it like this: can you correctly follow a cooking recipe and create a finished product that people enjoy? If so, you can work for Handy.
I've introduced the app to my brother who is currently in college and looking for ways to make side money. Depending on your area, there is a wide range of jobs you can claim to get started.
Even something as simple as organizing stuff into boxes to make someone's move easier can pay decently. Plus, if you're actually experienced in a trade, I would say Handy is a must…the potential for future referrals and the power of word of mouth is immense.
If you don't have any experience with this kind of work, find something that you KNOW you've done before and jump right in.
If you've mowed a lawn before, help with yard work. If you've successfully assembled a flat-box furniture piece before, go ahead and accept something straightforward like a sleeper sofa or bed frame.
I was nervous at the beginning, and it actually took me 2 weeks of browsing before I had the courage to take the dive. But, this sort of work can snowballs easily.
I'd also suggest leaving your information with clients if you do other kind of labor work as well. Or, at the very least, have a friendly chat with the client and let the fact that you know other trades slide into conversation.
The majority of people I met seem to have at least one thing they want changed in their home, but they never get around to researching it or hiring someone to help them…that is, until you came along!
So far, I like pretty much every aspect of working for Handy. I haven't run into any technical issues as of yet, so no complaints on that front.
The main change they could make would be to improve the descriptions they require from Handy customers.
Job descriptions are completely at the customer's discretion, and there have been a few jobs I wanted to claim but was unable to due to the lack of information available.
You're only connected to a client to chat after your job claim has been accepted, and there are also penalties for cancelling a gig. Plus, the closer you are to the actual job, the higher the penalty.
Yes, Handy is a legit platform that helps people find local cleaning and handyman help that they can count on. And for side hustlers, becoming a Handy Pro is an easy way to make money by completing odd jobs in your area.
From interviewing Allan, it's also clear that you can make some pretty decent money in a short period of time. I mean, he made $200+ in just a weekend of work!
However, I wouldn't expect full-time income from Handy Pro for most people. This is because it's a competitive platform, so getting consistent work can be difficult.
But if you want to make quick money as a handyman or cleaner, it's definitely worth trying out.
Now that we've heard from Allan about his experience as a Handy Pro, here are a few pros and cons you can consider to help you decide if this type of cash gig is right for you:
Pros:
Cons:
If you like the idea of making money as a Handy Pro, some Handy alternatives you can look into include:
It's unlikley that these Handy Pro alternatives will replace your day job, but hey, they have the potential to put a serious dent in any bills or your monthly expenses!
Also note that there are plenty of other gig jobs you can consider that also have steadier work. For example, you could consider driving for DoorDash, the leading food delivery app, to make money with a car, bike, or scooter.
Similarly, jobs like Uber Eats and Instacart are also easy ways to make extra money in your spare time.
These types of driving apps go beyond food as well, and even gigs like Amazon Flex are worth considering if you want to get paid to deliver things.
For handyman work, Handy Pro is one of the best options. But don't be afraid to explore more of what the gig economy has to offer.
Extra Reading – The Best Ways To Make Money Delivering Packages.
At the end of the day, Handy is a great side hustle idea if you have some spare time and are, well, a pretty handy individual. You aren't garaunteed to find work, but your hourly rate can get pretty high as we've seen with Allan's earnings.
Handy Pro is a legit side hustle and there's plenty of payment proof online as well, not just Allan's screenshots.
Ultimately, this idea isn't for everyone, but it's definitely a viable startegy to boost your monthly income.
Extra Reading – 20+ Jobs That Pay $3,000 A Month.
I'd like to thank Allan for taking the time to share his experience with working with Handy.
I cover the gig economy quite frequently on WebMonkey because I think it offers an immense amount of opportunity for side hustlers, and Allan's story is a testament to that fact.
What could have been an ordinary weekend turned into over $200 of extra income…that's pretty significant.
If you're on the hunt for some real money, go out there and provide a valuable service to the market. There will always be jobs people are willing to outsource, and you can make significant money if you know where to look.
I hope you have enjoyed this Handy Pro review and insight from Allan.
If you want to support Allan and start your own profitable side hustle, consider becoming a Handy Professional through Allan's link to help him out.
Catch you guys in the next one.
Looking for even more ideas to make money? Checkout:
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]]>The post Young Money Interview # 6 – Shruti On Taking Blogging Full-Time appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The idea of being able to work remotely and to make money from a blog is certainly an alluring one, and I'd argue this is why many people decide to get into blogging alongside the fact that blogging is just a tonne of fun.
I've made an effort to create transparent income reports on WebMonkey to track growth and inspire others, and series like my Road to $100 Blogging Income A Month have set (I hope) a decent foundation for anyone who is just starting out.
However, I have 0 idea about what it takes to blog for a full-time job. I'd also argue that many of the top income reports from six figure sites are from bloggers who have been blogging for so long they have lost touch with what it's like to be a beginner.
So, if you've ever wondered how you can actually take a blog from a beginner to intermediate level and make the leap to full-time, this is the post for you.
I'm incredibly excited to have Shruti from Indian Girling to break down how she recently became a full-time travel blogger.
Keep in mind, Shruti started her blog around the same time I started WebMonkey…it's safe to say that she is absolutely killing it while simultaneously providing an immense amount of value to her readers about how to effectively monetize and grow a blog while travelling the world.
Time to let Shruti take over with her incredible story about how she scaled to a full-time blog in under two years.
Let's get to it!
Extra reading – Check out the 5 previous entrepreneurs in the Young Money series!
Hi! My name is Shruti Pangtey. I’m a full time travel blogger and online entrepreneur. I was born and raised in India and had a traditional childhood where getting good grades was valued above all else.
I studied economics as my major during bachelors and went on to do an MBA straight after.
During my MBA, I had the chance to spend two semesters abroad. One semester was in Indonesia and the other one was in Poland. Having never traveled that far alone, I was positively bitten by the travel bug.
After finishing graduate school, I worked with a both big multinational company and startups for two years, until I realized I didn’t want to do that for the rest of my life.
I wanted my life to be about more than a 9-5 job.
I wanted more control, more travel, more freedom.
Realizing this made me pack up my life and move to Germany for a second master degree. I figured this would give me enough time to travel, learn a new language, and hone in on what I really want to do in life.
After moving abroad in late 2016, I wanted to be able to share my adventures with my friends and family back home.
As far as I knew, I was the only person from my circle of friends who had chosen to move to Germany. As you probably know, most Indians head to the US, Canada or the UK to study and work, so I was quite the odd one out.
The desire to stay connected made me start an expat blog in 2017, and I worked on it during my free time. It wasn’t until I accidentally had a post go viral on Facebook and reached 20000 page views in a week that I realized I had a voice!
I realized I had so much potential to create an impact with fellow millennials around the world. However, having come to the end of my “expat advice” as a blogger, I realized there was one thing I was more passionate about, and that was travel.
The desire to write about travel made me start my second blog in July 2018, and this was the start of Indian Girling.
I focused this blog on my travel tips for Europe and a bit of life in Germany.
I knew traveling to Europe is such a dream for people around the world, and I wanted my blog to be the go-to Europe travel planning resource. I also wanted more people from developing countries to be able to explore the beautiful continent that I now call home.
Extra Resource – Checkout SiteGround if you're thinking of starting your own blog and want affordable hosting!
I had started my second blog in the hopes that I would one day be able to monetize it.
I also wanted to make sure I didn’t make the 100 mistakes I made with my first blog. You can say that this was true start of my “side hustle”.
At this point, I was still finishing my master, learning German, and working 20h/week to pay for my living expenses. So, I basically spent every weekend and free hour I had working on my blog.
In the first six months, I didn’t see massive growth. However, I was busy with reading, studying, and educating myself about how I could convert my blog into a business.
After six months, I hit a point where my traffic started to grow thanks to my new found Pinterest marketing expertise, and I started to cross tens of thousands of page views a month. A big turning point was when I hit 40000 page views in a single month and qualified for Mediavine.
Even before I hit this point though, I had read and found that digital products were the way to go.
Having dabbled a bit in product sales myself, I found this to be a good fit for my personality and I decided to give it a try.
I launched a travel ebook to my email list and made $200 in a single day. This was absolutely monumental.
You see, as a blogger, you often have to wait months if not years to make $200 in a day. And here I was, with a product that I put together in 6 free weekends, that made me $200 in 24 hours.
I was hooked!
I started to experiment with more digital products, and along this way I had also found a passion for teaching other bloggers how to use Pinterest to grow their traffic.
I made my course Pinterest Traffic Explosion and pre-sold the course to a small list of 100 bloggers. This made me $600 in a weekend.
Looking back, I started out with zero revenue in July of 2018, and by the next summer I was averaging $1000/month using various monetization methods. My main methods of monetization include ads, affiliates and digital products with a few sponsored posts sprinkled here and there, but it adds up!
The biggest win so far has been to be able to help over 40+ bloggers grow their Pinterest following by using my marketing strategies and see how successful they have been after using my course. In terms of income, I had a month recently where I made over $3000 and I was on holiday for two weeks of the month.
For me, THIS WAS IT.
A career where I could have location and financial freedom while still being able to impact a ton of people.
Shortly after, I decided to quit my day job and jump into blogging full-time. I’m now a full-time blogger and online entrepreneur.
The biggest loss (or learning, as I like to call all my failures) was initially thinking that just because a monetization strategy works for someone else, it does not mean it will work for you.
Affiliate marketing, while all the rage, just doesn't scale that fast in my niche.
You have to realize that there is no custom monetization strategy that fits every blog.
You have to be willing to experiment, listen to your audience, and find a way that best helps them all the while still growing your income. This realization made me pivot my focus from affiliate marketing and focus more on ads and products.
I am also guilty for trying to do too many things at the same time. When it comes to make money with a blog, it is SO important to focus on 1-2 things each month and to exclusively work on them before you make any conclusions or rule anything out.
As a new blogger who is learning the ropes of a non-traditional career, I believe it is hard to stay consistent when you don’t see immediate growth. Add friends and family who do not understand your passion at all to the mix, and this becomes as much a mindset challenge as anything else.
I believe the thing that kept me going was connecting with other bloggers and seeing their success online.
I knew that it wouldn’t happen overnight or even in a year, but as long as I was consistent, invested in myself, and treated my blog as a business, things would work out.
As a business woman with a startup background, I am very well aware of what scaling a tech business looks like: years of hustle with no pay or profits.
I believe having this mindset where I don’t expect instant gratification has been key to growing my blog into a business in a short period of time.
If I had to look back and give one piece of advice to my past self, it would be to invest in your blog.
I went into $40000 in debt over my MBA, but when it came to $100 for an e-course, I hesitated.
There are people out there who are miles ahead of you and can teach you how to fast-track your audience and income.
Learn from them.
Make a “l(fā)earning budget,” and use that to buy books, courses, or even coaching (if you can afford it).
It doesn’t matter if you can only afford to spend $10 a month, just do it. I promise you it will come back manifold. Listen to podcasts, watch videos, talk to other bloggers, but always keep learning.
This industry moves fast and you gotta keep up if you want to grow!
I want to thank Shruti for taking the time to share her amazing blogging journey for the 6th Young Money interview (these interviews are coming in quick eh?)
While many bloggers start with dreams of monetization, I think it can be hard to keep focused during the grueling hours of work and early stages where zero revenue is coming in,
However, I think it's critical that bloggers remember some of the realizations Shruti has outlined.
Starting a blog is like building a startup. You will not make significant income in the early stages, and sweat equity is what you need to put in to get things up and running.
Additionally, you need to view your blog like a business. Investing into better hosting, SEO, social media marketing, or content is what will drive growth.
I've just recently had the same realization, and I'm now outsourcing all of my Pinterest marketing and looking to improve site speed and content production. While it might be tempting to take your blog earnings and to funnel them towards grocery money, there's also value in funneling your revenue back into growth.
At the end of the day, if you want to build an online platform and audience, you will have to put in the time and dedication. It might take months or years to achieve your goals, but the only way to get there is to start and never look back!
If you're looking to accelerate your Pinterest marketing efforts, I highly recommend checking out Digital Empires and Shruti's Pinterest Traffic Explosion course.
Since I've implemented some of Shruti's tactics and passed on the advice to the freelancer who is managing my account, I've seen month over month improvement in terms of traffic and follower growth. I'd also suggest signing up for Shruti's email blasts since she puts out a lot of informative content about how to design viral pins and grow a Pinterest audience.
If you're super serious about Pinterest marketing, I also recommend checking out Tailwind app review and my and tips on how to automate most of your marketing efforts.
That's all for now! Catch you guys in the next one.
The post Young Money Interview # 6 – Shruti On Taking Blogging Full-Time appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>The post How To Make Money Programming – 5 Methods That Actually Work appeared first on WebMonkey.
]]>I've been making money as a freelance web developer for the past year, and while it might seem intimidating when first getting started, you can make decent money if you stick with it and know your options.
The hardest part about making money by coding as a freelancer is honestly just getting started.
To save you some time and aggravation, I've compiled a list of five easy ways to find new clients and to start making a living by coding for cash.
I also recommend checking out my recent post on how to make passive income with programming!
There isn't a cookie-cutter solution for how to make money coding.
However, one important thing with freelancing is to always play to your strength and to get as much positive word of mouth as possible.
Selling your skills online often requires networking and having people put in a good word for you.
Finding local clients is one of the best ways to start your freelancing career and earn a decent income right out of the gate.
Honestly, most people overlook this route, and it's not because programmers don't think of it. It's because most of us chose this field due to the major benefit of not having to talk to people all day.
Trust me, I get it.
The problem is, do you know who is most likely to hire you for an actual living wage and isn't just looking to find the lowest price online?
Small businesses…So get used to talking to people!
Take some time to compile (get it?) a list of businesses in your city and start searching them out on the web.
How do their websites look? How could they look better? Is there some sort of software you think you could implement for their websites that would bring them real value?
It really isn't hard to find a local business that has a website that looks like it was built straight out of the '90s.
Scouting businesses like this will likely help you find web design clients fast, and you won't have to worry about competing in an online market place for low wages.
Finding local clients is also a great way to start freelance programming as a beginner, contrary to what you might think.
Even at a basic level of HTML, CSS & Javascript, you can start building websites for businesses (WordPress anyone?). Just don't try selling people on skills you don't have. It's hard to retain good clients or get referrals when you can't deliver on what you promised.
Can't shake the nerve of scouting out businesses and meeting a client in person? Email or phone calls are always an option.
Another great way to make money as a programmer is by teaching others your skills.
There are essentially two branches of teaching that you could do. In-person classes are one option, or you could tutor others by making educational videos online.
I am not sure if this is a growing trend or if it's a coincidence that all of my friends now strangely want to start coding because “coding is the future, and it will help me get a job!”
Like, maybe? Although, unless it's a programming job, I don't think your boss is going to care if you know what a function or variable is.
Anyways, I digress.
Regardless, there's still plenty of opportunity to start making money by teaching people how to program. Although there are tons of resources online, for a beginner, it's not as simple to pick up as you might think.
I recall, back in high school, when I first attempted to learn Javascript. The first thing that went through my head was: ‘What the hell is a console.log and why am I using it to print this strange greeting to the world in my web browser?'
Having someone to guide you through the basics and answer any immediate questions can give students a strong foundation to start learning more quickly on their own.
If you're an outgoing enough person, a three-day crash course on programming can be a great way to earn some quick cash by teaching coding to local students or people in your community.
If in-person tutoring isn't your thing, making YouTube videos could be an alternative way to reach a large audience of viewers that want to learn how to code (and to make some money from ad revenue and affiliate sales along the way).
Many programmers spend a lot of time reading books online, looking up questions on Reddit, or watching YouTube videos to supplement their understanding of concepts and new technologies.
I recently watched this great YouTube video on Sass which gave me a solid foundation understanding of the language to write cleaner, better organized CSS code.
As you can see from his YouTube channel, which has over 140K subscribers, plenty of other people also find value in turning to YouTube to become better coders.
Realistically, if you have the knowledge to make these types of videos, all you need is a computer and a piece of video editing software to build a channel around your programming knowledge.
Once the viewers start rolling in, you can sell ad space or combine your knowledge into an e-book. It seems like a fun side project to me!
Extra Reading – How to Make Money on YouTube.
I am going to be honest about this one: unless you are an unreal programmer, you probably won't make much money doing coding competitions.
However, programming contests can still be a great way to learn from other programmers and to become a better coder. Besides, learning how to write to a cleaner, more efficient code will likely lead you to higher paying jobs in the future. Who doesn't love self-improvement?
Here is a link to some of the top coding competition websites if you want to check them out.
Who knows, maybe you'll win some cash competing in some of these coding challenges!
Probably the most obvious way to make money programming is by freelancing your development services.
There are plenty of remote job websites out there that allow you to find freelance jobs, and web development is no exception.
Some popular freelancing platforms for programmers include:
Guru – Has nearly 500,000 freelance programmers and plenty of amazing job opportunities on the platform.
Fiverr – Web development, WordPress support, and website optimization are just a few of the services that are in high demand on Fiverr.
Freelancer – There are currently more than 16,000 jobs posted on Freelancer, and many of them are looking for programming help or web development services.
Upwork – One of the largest freelancing marketplaces in the world.
The only problem with these sites is that it can be a race to the bottom for employers to hire the developer who will charge the least amount of money.
This is fine if you're a beginner who is looking to gain experience. However, if you're an experienced programmer, I would suggest trying out websites like codeable.io that have a bit more of a vetting process for the freelancers they accept.
Besides knowing the best platforms to find freelance work, it is also important to know the best languages, frameworks and CMS's that are commonly used for freelance jobs,
The majority of clients who hire freelance developers are small companies that cannot afford an in-house development team. This means you will mostly work with clients that need a website made quick and cheap.
So, for instance, learning a CMS like WordPress and everything that comes along with it would make a lot of sense.
Learning to customize themes, build plugins, and possessing a deep understanding of Javascript and PHP will ultimately allow you to work with a wide portfolio of freelance clients.
On the other hand, having strong knowledge in C is great for theoretical purposes, but it's going to be hard to find any freelance jobs that work directly with this language. You get the idea.
Check out this great video from an experienced developer that talks about the best skills to know for freelancing if you want to learn more.
If you're looking for a way to code for cash and to possible earn some passive income, simple software development may be a great side hustle.
Getting into software development was honestly the first reason I wanted to learn how to code past the basics of HTML, CSS & Javascript.
To give you all some context, I received my bachelor's degree in Marketing Management (a waste of 4 years, if I'm being honest). However, it did allow me to freelance my marketing abilities with a couple of businesses.
Now, you may be asking: ‘how do I actually make money with software?”.
Well, if there's one thing I know about people in marketing it's that they love marketing automation. However, none of them know how to create software that helps them save time (nor would it be worth their time if a paid solution already existed).
I used a lot of software to make my life easier while working in digital marketing.
For instance, I had a script that would automatically go into all my clients' Facebook posts and invite fans to like their pages.
It took me 5 minutes to run the script, and it made my clients very happy that I took over this repetitive task “myself”. It saved 30 minutes a day, and the software only cost $9.99 a month.
So, in short, you could be the person behind this sort of software, making the rest of our lives easier!
Know nothing about digital marketing? That's okay. The basic idea is to find an existing problem in an industry and to write a piece of software that can address and fix that pain point.
There are tons of paths you could go down to code software for money. You're all programmers, so be creative!
Overall, it's easy to see that making money with programming is a pretty manageable thing to do. The world is driven by technology, and the need for skilled coders who can problem solve effectively isn't going anywhere.
Making money by coding might seem intimidating at the start. However, you just need to know where to look and to have a couple of creative ideas. There's opportunity out there, so apply yourself and go grab it!
If you have any other great ways to make money online by coding, feel free to drop a comment below. I am always looking for new ideas!
The post How To Make Money Programming – 5 Methods That Actually Work appeared first on WebMonkey.
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