Find a Job You Really Want In
The income provided from having a full-time job sometimes isn’t enough to afford all the expensive endeavors of life.
Whether you’re having a tough time making ends meet with solely your salary, need extra revenue to start a college fund for your children, or just want some additional cash flow to have fun during your time-off, a side gig, or part-time job can be the perfect answer.
There are a diverse array of reasons for seeking out a side gig, such as:
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It feels reassuring to have multiple streams of income
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Extra money can be saved or used in an emergency
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An extra job can enhance your skills in a different area of expertise than your full-time position
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It’s a way to make your free time profitable
While making money during your free time is an attractive notion, it can be difficult to decide what type of part-time job or side hustle is the best fit for you. The following information can help you decide the best route to rack up extra income through side gigs and part-time jobs.
19 Side Gigs and Part-Time Jobs to Check Out
There is likely an endless stream of avenues that someone could take to earn some extra money on the side. However, what might come effortlessly to one person may be the equivalent of trudging through mud for another.
The key to finding the ideal sig hustle for you depends on your own interests, so do some hardcore soul searching about what things you like doing.
The perfect part-time job or side gig for you will be something that you find at least somewhat enjoyable in your spare time. Below are 19 side gigs and part-time jobs to consider to start bringing in some extra income.
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Online Salesperson
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$537.50 on Etsy ($518 after fees)
From clothes that aren’t your style anymore to handmade earrings that look like pancakes, there are many things that you could sell online to earn some additional money.
It’s a side gig option that 4.3 million people have taken advantage of as sellers on Etsy alone in 2020. Depending on your situation, being an online salesperson could work as a quick way to make one-time cash or a sustainable small business.
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Rideshare Driver
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,200 to $2,400 on Uber
If a flexible schedule is very important to you in a part-time job or side hustle, becoming a rideshare driver might be a good option. Since you can choose anytime to work and give rides to people, it’s perfect for someone who doesn’t want to commit to a definitive timetable.
There are a few different rideshare companies that drivers can work for, but the most popular are Uber and Lyft.
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Average Yearly Salary: $50,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,500Some people prefer helping people with manual labor tasks to make money during their time off. Being a handyperson can be an extremely profitable side job, and there are a few websites available to work on a gig-by-gig basis, like TaskRabbit and Handy.
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Average Yearly Salary: $37,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,500 on DoorDashAnother side hustle with the benefit of flexibility is being a delivery driver. Apps like DoorDash, UberEats, Instacart, and GrubHub can all help you start earning money by driving people’s food or grocery orders to their house.
Many people have found that being a food delivery driver is a very lucrative side job that still provides the ability to only work when you feel like it.
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Average Yearly Salary: $20,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$2,057 on RoverFor individuals who prefer animals over human beings, being a dog walker or sitter could be a super fun way to earn extra money. Another advantage of taking up this type of position is that it allows you to exercise while making money.
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Average Yearly Salary: $24,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$2,277When throwing a huge party or an intimate gathering, many people prefer to outsource their food services. That’s why they call upon caterers to handle the preparation and serving of delicious dishes.
If you enjoy cooking and working with people, taking a part-time job as a caterer could work for you. This could mean that you work for an established catering company or start your own on a smaller scale.
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Average Yearly Salary: $24,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$2,796Many employees feel drained after working full-time and just want to spend their off-hours at home. For those types of people, becoming a virtual personal assistant could be a great way to work part-time for those types of people.
As a virtual assistant, you would work for individuals or businesses to assist them in online tasks like website support, social media management, marketing, emails, or scheduling. For these services, you’ll be paid generously and have the luxury of doing it all from your living room.
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Average Yearly Salary: $56,670
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$2,000While the job title might sound like it comes with many strings attached, becoming a notary is accessible to many people and an excellent side gig.
A notary is responsible for screening people signing important documents to verify their identity, willingness to sign, and understanding of the document. In addition to earning extra money, being a notary as a part-time job provides a crucial service to the community.
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Online Course Creator
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$200 to $1,000 on Skillshare (depending on # of classes)
Millions of people out there turn to the Internet to build their knowledge in specific areas. If you are interested in a particular subject, sharing your knowledge in that area with eager learners could be an interesting side gig.
Platforms like Skillshare and Udemy allow teachers to create their own courses in subjects of their choice and earn money based on the number of students they receive.
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Caregiver on Care.com
Average Yearly Salary: $23,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,280 on Care.com (depending on hourly rate set)Signing up for Care.com as a caregiver can provide a great outlet for additional income while still keeping you in control of your schedule. As a caregiver, you’ll have the ability to set your own hourly rate and choose the jobs that you feel the most comfortable with.
If you think you’d feel overwhelmed by taking care of three children, you can choose to only accept jobs that are limited to watching two kids or less.
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Customer Service Representative
Average Yearly Salary: $30,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,475Another part-time job that can often be done from the comfort of your home is being a customer service representative. Customer service representatives work for large companies like Amazon or Verizon to support issues and answer customers’ questions.
There are many customer service representative part-time jobs available, and the position doesn’t have too many requirements. However, the role does require exceptional communication and conflict resolution skills.
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Average Yearly Salary: $55,020
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,750 to $5,000 on Upwork (depending on the specialty)For people that have a talent for a particular skill like photography, writing, editing, or website design, freelancing these services part-time can act as a way to earn extra cash. Sometimes, what starts as a freelancing gig can even become your full-time job.
There are quite a few platforms that can help you get your freelancing hustle started too.
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Renting/Property Management
Average Yearly Salary: $43,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$924 on AirbnbThe growth of rental companies like Airbnb and Vrbo has enabled just about anyone to take up a side gig in renting out homes and property management.
If you have an extra room in your home or own additional property, renting out that space can be enormously profitable. However, this side gig does come with the additional responsibility of the unit’s upkeep and cleaning.
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Average Yearly Salary: $33,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,865Tutoring is one of the most popular side hustles for people of all ages and can be done in person or online. When you choose to tutor in a subject that you’re interested in and knowledgeable about, it can feel like a breeze to earn supplemental income through this channel.
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Average Yearly Salary: $44,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$3,000Similar to the role of a caterer, an event planner helps a person make their special day run smoothly. Instead of handling the food services, however, an event planner is in charge of all the little details that come along with planning the perfect party.
There are a wide array of events that you could plan for people, from children’s birthday parties to celebrations for a company’s yearly holiday gathering.
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Average Yearly Salary: $60,089
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,775People want to be in a comfortably uncluttered space in their homes, and a house organizer helps them achieve this goal. If you’re a person who enjoys the cathartic experience of cleaning up spaces to look beautiful and functionally organizing them, being a house organizer might be well-suited for you.
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Average Yearly Salary: $28,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$1,266It’s said that moving is one of the most stressful experiences that a person can take on. To ease this burden, people who are moving often pay a pretty penny to enlist the assistance of capable movers.
Though a decent amount of physical labor goes into a part-time job as a mover, the task usually offers a large sum of money. Recently, websites to find moving gigs have popped up more frequently, like Bellhops or TaskRabbit.
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Average Yearly Salary: $58,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$2,087Having a thriving social media account is a priority for individuals and businesses alike. Being the person that can provide these services can be a well-paid side gig that you can do remotely.
While this particular position could require some previous social media or marketing experience, it’s a good position if you’re looking for something that could snowball into a full-time job one day.
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Average Yearly Salary: $60,000
Average Additional Monthly Income: +$50 to $300 per studyMany studies need participants, and offering yourself as one of those research subjects can provide you with a quick income boost. These types of paid studies can be conducted in settings like colleges or online. While it might not last as a long-term gig, it can be a great route for earning fast cash.
8 Gig Platforms for Specialized Professionals
As an individual with specialized skills, there may be a world of opportunities for you on gig platforms. These types of websites cater to people seeking and selling specialized services on a gig basis. It can be a great way to dip a toe into freelancing or just earn a little bit of extra money from time to time.
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Fiverr
Types of Gigs Available: Graphics/Design, Video/Animation, Music/Audio, Programming/Tech, Lifestyle, Digital Marketing
Fiverr is one of the original gig platforms. Its initial claim to fame was that it provided simple services to people starting from the minuscule price of five dollars. Most sellers on the platform start out selling their services at this bottom-line charge to build a portfolio of positive reviews that allow them to charge a higher price.
Your reputation on Fiverr will determine your capability for making money with your services.
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Upwork
Types of Gigs Available: Development/IT, Design/Creative, Finance/Accounting, Admin/Customer Support, Legal, Sales/Marketing, Writing/Translation
Upwork is similar to Fiverr, but it provides a wider variety of services that you can offer to buyers. It is one of the largest gig platforms available as of 2021, which means there are many opportunities to be making extra money with your skills there.
However, also be aware that there will be a lot of competition too and you’ll need to showcase your abilities well to stand out.
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Gigster
Types of Gigs Available: IT
Gigster is a network of talented IT professionals like developers, project managers, and designers. Both businesses and individuals will turn to this platform to find skilled people in this field.
The way that the process works is that clients submit projects, and the IT professionals can do the work at their leisure from their homes. If you have experience in the IT industry, this gig platform is ideal for you.
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JustAnswer
Types of Gigs Available: Consulting in various fields
JustAnswer is a website that provides people with the answers to difficult questions they’ve been searching for by consulting the knowledge of experts in the field. The platform allows people from a variety of fields to provide consultation to answer-seekers.
Lawyers, doctors, mechanics, and tax professionals can earn money by giving their expert opinion on JustAnswer.
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99Designs
Types of Gigs Available: Designs for logos, websites, art, packaging, clothing, etc.
The best gig platform for designers is 99Designs. However, the platform has a lot of competition from people with top-notch skills like Photoshop and Illustrator. If you have abilities and a background in design, then this platform will likely offer some of the highest compensation for these skills.
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Catalant
Types of Gigs Available: Consultant services for corporate strategy, market research, project management, supply chain, etc.
The specialty associated with Catalant is consulting. The consultation professionals on Catalant assist with a variety of topics like market research and digital transformation. While you’ll need knowledge in the subjects, Catalant still allows its experts to work on a flexible schedule.
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Amazon Mechanical Turk
Types of Gigs Available: Market research surveys, translation, transcription, data verification, image/video processing, etc.
If you don’t have a specialized skill that lines up with one of the platforms listed above, but you still want to get involved in gig work, Amazon Mechanical Turk might be a great starting point for you.
The platform allows you to complete micro-jobs that each earns a small sum of cash. In general, these tiny tasks don’t take more than a few minutes to complete, and the profit earned from the jobs can add up after a while.
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TaskRabbit
Types of Gigs Available: Delivery, handyperson tasks, furniture assembly, gardening, errands, moving assistance, etc.
For people who are hoping to earn money through manual tasks that don’t require a background in a specialized topic, TaskRabbit could be a good platform to earn some cash on the side. The workers on TaskRabbit, called Taskers, are hired on a per-gig basis to handle errands or projects that the buyer doesn’t feel like doing.
These tasks include yard work, shopping, house cleaning, bartending, data entry, and more. TaskRabbit is likely to have something for anyone looking to bring in extra cash flow with a side gig.
Tips for Earning Money with Gig Work and Part-Time Jobs
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Take advantage of some free time to avoid burnout.
Many people who throw themselves into a side hustle or part-time job in addition to their full-time position are susceptible to draining themselves. Even though you’re hoping to earn some extra money, it’s important to still ration enough downtime to avoid burnout.
If you spend every second of your time off working on gigs or at a part-time job, you’ll run yourself into the ground. Schedule time to relax for the benefit of your physical and mental health.
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Don’t invest too much money in start-up costs.
The goal of a side gig or part-time job is to earn you additional income, not take up the money you currently have. That’s why it’s crucial to limit your startup costs when embarking on a new side hustle.
Some side gigs might require a little bit of money to start. For example, if you’re starting a business on Etsy selling handmade greeting cards, you’ll likely need to invest in the materials needed to create these products. However, try to keep these initial costs as low as possible. You don’t want your side hustle to end up putting you in debt.
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Choose a side gig that you like.
One of the beautiful things about a side gig is that it gives you the freedom to choose one that sparks your interest. If you’re a mechanic but have always wanted to work as a teacher, consider teaching an online course that educates people on their vehicles.
If you’re an accountant who absolutely loves animals, a part-time job as a dog walker could bring you immense amounts of joy. Think about the things that you like and try to build a side hustle from those passions.
Author
Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.
