5 Side Hustles To Start Earning Extra Cash Today
Side hustles come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. What separates a side hustle from true ‘passive income’ is that you will generally need to invest some time in your side hustle business.
If you have money and no time, then passive income ideas might be better for you.
If you have time and no money, step right up – a side hustle is for you.
Some side hustles can be started at zero cost, while others need some start up capital.
Some will start generating income almost immediately, where as some can take months or years to begin earning any serious money.
As a rule of thumb, I would suggest that the side hustles that take some start up capital or which take some time to get going are the ones that can yield the biggest rewards in the future (creating a blog or knowledge commerce business fall into this category).
Sometimes though, you just need to earn some more money - quickly.
Perhaps you need some additional income to help pay off your debts, or perhaps you are struggling to set aside some spare cash to invest.
$20 Today!
That is the topic of this post. We are going to look at side hustles that have the potential to earn you $20 or more today and then every day for as long as you want.
That $20 a day can become $100 or more a week if you put your mind to it. That could turn into $400 or more per month, all for investing some time in the simple side hustles I am going to show you below.
Imagine what you could do with $400 extra per month. That could go a long way to paying off your debts, or investing for the future. You could even invest some of your hard earned side hustle income in a holiday or having some fun (you are allowed a break you know).
Ready? Here goes:
1 – Online User Testing Websites
Using online user testing websites were actually my very first side hustle. When I first started my business and cashflow was tight, I used to try and spend 40 minutes a night using online user testing websites.
The basic premise is that businesses who have created a new website (or have added pages or features to an existing website) want to know what people think of the site and how they go about using it.
These businesses can use an online user testing website which in turn uses members of the public (read: you) to log onto their website and spend 20 minutes or so working through the site and telling them what you think.
Usually, you will use a screen recorder so the business can see what you are doing with the mouse and you will also record yourself talking about your experience (if you are camera shy, the good news is you don’t usually have to film yourself).
In return for a 20 minute user testing session, you can earn up to $10.
In addition, there are sometimes also shorter testing sessions which last around 8 minutes and even these can pay up to $6.
The great thing about user testing sites is that you can do as much or as little as you like and you can fit it into your schedule whenever you have spare time.
There are a few sites you can test with, but I recommend the following:
2 – Online Survey Sites
Along a similar line to user testing sites are online survey sites. On these websites, you get paid to take surveys to help companies with their market research. The surveys vary in length from just a few easy questions to more in depth research projects and you can get paid anywhere from $1 - $50 for a single survey.
There are a whole load on online survey websites out there and some of the following are the best:
I would suggest you sign up to as many of these sites as you can as not all of them will have surveys available all of the time for you to take.
3 – Offer an online service on People per Hour or Fiverr
If you have any skills or abilities that other people are looking for, you can often use your abilities to earn a side hustle income.
Let’s say you are a graphic designer (or to be fair, even if you have a good handle on using Canva), you could offer things like logo design or social media imagery as a service on People Per Hour or Fiverr.
A lot of the graphics and logo's on this site have been created by graphic designers on People Per Hour.
Even if you don’t feel like you have any ‘special skills’ you could offer things like transcription services or offer to do online research for someone. In this time strapped world, there is always someone out there looking for a helping hand.
This really is the ‘gig economy’ in action and you can offer services for anything from a couple of dollars an hour to hundreds or thousands of dollars if you have some really unique or specialised skills.
4 – Become a Virtual Assistant
Loads of businesses are now using the services of a virtual assistant to get things done like travel booking, diary management, ordering supplies and many other tasks.
The great thing about being a virtual assistant is that you can do it from anywhere and you can usually do very flexible hours.
If you are very organised and feel that you have good research and admin skills, you can become a virtual assistant and help other people to grow their businesses.
Virtual assistants usually charge between $30 and $60 per hour.
You can become a virtual assistant on a totally freelance basis (although you might need to do some marketing or promotion so that people know about your services) or you can gain work through a virtual assistant agency. If you want to learn more about becoming a virtual assistant, you should definitely check out The VA Handbook.
5 – Up-cycle and Sell Items
One mans junk is another mans treasure (especially when that junk get up-cycled).
If you visit boot fairs and garage sales, you can find some really good quality items that are simply a bit run down and need some TLC.
If you are good at DIY and repairing things and have an eye for a bargain, this side hustle could be good for you.
There are people who make $000’s by purchasing cheap items of furniture or home decorations at boot fairs and then up-cycling them at home.
If you use websites like Gumtree and other ‘boot sale’ apps, you can also often find items listed for free that people just want you to come and collect.
I was recently on the other side of this when I wanted to get rid of a dining table that would not fit in the boot of my car. It was a good quality table (just a bit run down) and I would hate to see it end up at the dump, but I didn’t have the time to fix it up, so I listed it for free on Gumtree.
The nice person who came to collect it was an up-cycler and they said that they would sand the table down, fill in any dents and nicks and then re-paint it for sale.
I don’t know how much that table would have sold for in a nearly-new state, but I would not be surprised if it was $100 or more.
So there you have it!
5 side hustles that can earn you $20 today and then every day for as long as you need the money.
These side hustles might not make you rich overnight, but they can certainly help you on the way to Financial Freedom.
If you are looking for side hustle ideas that can make you a ton of income over time, but which need a bit more time and effort to get started, stay tuned for a future post.