Author Topic: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!  (Read 509431 times)

Roots&Wings

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #500 on: August 27, 2016, 11:36:59 AM »

4 hours/weekday = 20 hours/week x 4.5 weeks/mo = 90 hours/mo.  $350/90 hours = $3.88/hour.  Maybe half of minimum wage?

And that's after you've "worked up" to $350/mo (each previous month, per the last sentence, was worse).

Is it worth it?

And I assume that figure is pre-tax.

Rosy, have you looked into working for Leapforce or Appen Butler Hill?  It is online work like turking, but you are rating websites for search engines.  They pay $13-15 per hour.

Usertesting.com also. When I did that last year it was $10 for 10 min, but the site tests aren't endlessly available.

erutio

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #501 on: August 27, 2016, 09:43:24 PM »
I have been mystery shopping for the last three months. It is awesome. Not bringing in a ton of extra cash, but enabling us to cut down on our restaurant/grocery bill. Last month, between the savings on our restaurant budget (-$150; we just don't pay to eat out anymore), the savings on our grocery budget (-$50), and the money I'm paid to do the write-ups, it was an extra $300 towards our 401ks, just for going out with my family and spending about an hour afterwards filling out the surveys.

Next month I'm getting a paid vacation to Maui out of it (I live on Oahu) in exchange for doing a mystery shopping blitz for one of the days I'm there with my hubby.

I found the job on craigslist in the writing/editing gigs section. Highly recommend it if you like writing.

Besides craigslist, how does one go about finding these types of jobs? 
Google search just brings up a bunch of sites that ask you for money first before setting you up to be a mystery shopper.

MissNancyPryor

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #502 on: August 27, 2016, 09:58:23 PM »
Very interesting thread!  Must follow.

englishteacheralex

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #503 on: August 28, 2016, 11:08:33 AM »
I have been mystery shopping for the last three months. It is awesome. Not bringing in a ton of extra cash, but enabling us to cut down on our restaurant/grocery bill. Last month, between the savings on our restaurant budget (-$150; we just don't pay to eat out anymore), the savings on our grocery budget (-$50), and the money I'm paid to do the write-ups, it was an extra $300 towards our 401ks, just for going out with my family and spending about an hour afterwards filling out the surveys.

Next month I'm getting a paid vacation to Maui out of it (I live on Oahu) in exchange for doing a mystery shopping blitz for one of the days I'm there with my hubby.

I found the job on craigslist in the writing/editing gigs section. Highly recommend it if you like writing.

Besides craigslist, how does one go about finding these types of jobs? 
Google search just brings up a bunch of sites that ask you for money first before setting you up to be a mystery shopper.

I got lucky with finding the job, and I live in an area where mystery shopping is a big deal because of the enormous tourist economy. However, I've googled it quite a bit since becoming a mystery shopper and it's actually everywhere. Look on reddit; there's a pretty good thread there about how to get into it. One thing that deters people is that you have to like writing and be an efficient writer because you have to include EVERY detail of what happens at the "shop". It typically takes me about an hour to fill in a restaurant survey after I do a dinner shop. Convenience stores and smaller shops take me around 20 minutes after the shop. It wouldn't be worth it if detailed writing is stressful for you.

I'm an English teacher and it was hard at first but after two months I got more efficient at it and now I find it pretty easy to do in front of the tv. My husband loves it because of all the free dinners out.

Spork

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #504 on: August 29, 2016, 09:13:34 AM »
For now I've only made it up to $350 a month
...
Average time spent turking is 4 hours a day and I do approach it as a real job. I usually do 4 hours starting at 6am EST and then sometimes I will work an extra hour or two, afternoon or evening, off and on. I don't do weekends.
It takes time to get better and faster and I can tell you that every month I have improved my earnings.

4 hours/weekday = 20 hours/week x 4.5 weeks/mo = 90 hours/mo.  $350/90 hours = $3.88/hour.  Maybe half of minimum wage?

And that's after you've "worked up" to $350/mo (each previous month, per the last sentence, was worse).

Is it worth it?

...and this is why when I have extra fire wood, I give it to friends instead of selling it.  $3/hr is about what I compute I would make.  Giving it away is fun.  Selling it for $3/hr is depressing.

MightyMauler

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #505 on: August 29, 2016, 03:02:12 PM »
Great information everyone! I'm new here and just read the whole thread to come up with some new side hustle ideas.

Personally I've tried:
eBay, Amazon, Craigslist & Etsy Sales
Driving for Uber/Lyft
House cleaning
Pizza delivery

Now I've got some new ideas for my next endeavor! 

Proud Foot

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #506 on: August 30, 2016, 08:39:08 AM »
Has anyone on here been a looker? I just heard about this and it sounds interesting.  Trying to find out more information about it.

www.wegolook.com

Vanchica

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #507 on: September 25, 2016, 11:18:01 PM »
x-posted in the Sidehustle 2015 thread under Throw Down the Gauntlet

Hi,

I've been spending a lot of time the last year and a half thinking of ways to earn extra money while still being stupid about money- I am getting smarter.

These are my ideas - they aren't super generic because they rely on my knowledge or skills or areas of interest or what I am willing to learn to do- but they are ideas I thought I would share to try to inspire and help others..... I hope they inspire you   

I will do 5-8 of these in 2016, more if I can.......... the prices are what I would charge online and at a craft fair or the flea market

Bible verses (popular in this area) and inspirational quotes ( in calligraphy or embossed with white powder and watercolor) $7 each;

Custom framed family word clouds in shape of heart- check wordle.net ;

custom keychains (father, grandparent, moms)

Custom grandchild and spouse and parent portraits**B&W photography ONLY********

Art journal family trees $60

Art journal style Tshirts and fabrics (sell on Threadless and Spoonflower) - Also: Art Journal style mugs at flea market (small small batches)- Use china permanent pen on plain white china mugs to do custom funny sayings on them at Flea Market- have some "The best dads get promoted to Grand-dad" mugs ready to sell..


See original post Aug 2015 in this thread- a lot of  etc etc


Start a recipe channel on Youtube like PioneerWoman's show.
Start a "how to" channel on Youtube
(both require set up for ads on Youtube and social media distribution by friends and family and Fiverr.com)

I'd love to hear other ideas for sidehustles. I’m going to add this to the longer post that’s on this site but I’d love to see a dedicated category for the topic of sidehustles

So I gave a bunch of these a shot, discovered that between my commute and school and work and family, I don't have the hours to do somethings (learning experience) but that I also need to consider the profitabilty of some things.- controlling manufacturing is hugely profitable, owning a service based business, hugely profitable if done right. Actually performing services and manufacturing, not the same thing

I am just finalizing a Tshirt and mug website on Shopify with the intention of marketing through social media and then I am looking at coaching online (small scale) with an online course. I'm just listing what I could teach for the best price- once the course is designed and online, it is more a matter of online marketing and affiliate marketing. I'd like to blog but don't have time.

What would be profitable if I had the hours to invest: wedding calligraphy, running a housecleaning biz or garage cleaning/organizing  and junk removal biz, teaching Pilates and tutoring.


newelljack

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #508 on: September 25, 2016, 11:31:22 PM »
I hadn't really thought of this as a side-gig until the other day. I teach at a school in another town that one of my neighbor's kids attends, so I take him with me every morning. Last year they gave me some great gift cards (about $300 worth) and just last week the mom dropped off an envelope with $200 cash "for gas."

~Ari~

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #509 on: September 26, 2016, 12:57:22 PM »
Mechanical Truk is my latest side gig - made about $1200 since May.
What are you doing for M.T. and how many hours are you putting into it?

Ditto - I'm thrilled when I make $5 a month to put towards cat food. I usually only do it when we have some down time at work, and lately that just hasn't existed for me.

I've signed up for Mturk as well in May....but I have only made $5 total!! I haven't taken the time to really work at it but I know some can make $20 - $30 a day...but idk if it's worth my time for only a few cents at a time :/

Dollar Slice

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #510 on: September 26, 2016, 01:46:20 PM »

Ditto - I'm thrilled when I make $5 a month to put towards cat food. I usually only do it when we have some down time at work, and lately that just hasn't existed for me.

I've signed up for Mturk as well in May....but I have only made $5 total!! I haven't taken the time to really work at it but I know some can make $20 - $30 a day...but idk if it's worth my time for only a few cents at a time :/

There are a lot of HITs on Mturk that are (IMO) aimed at people in third world countries who would be OK making $1 an hour working at home. But there are also quite a few aimed at US residents (consumer surveys, academic surveys, etc.) that tend to pay a lot better. I recommend at a minimum you install a browser add-on called Turkopticon; it puts an icon next to every HIT and if you hover over it, it gives you ratings on things like generosity of pay, promptness of pay, fairness (i.e. do they reject HITs for no reason) etc. That will help you avoid all the crap stuff that pays pennies. Try doing a search for HITs that pay 50 cents and up, that you are qualified for, and then skim down the Turkopticon reviews until you find someone with a good rating. Sometimes if there are a lot of HITs to choose from I'll search for words like "survey" "bonus" "election" or "political" (there are a lot of easy political surveys out there right now and they all pay pretty well since they're aimed solely at US residents).

There are a lot of good HITs that require you to have 100+, 500+, 1000+, etc. HITs completed, so you may have to grind away at some quick penny HITs to up your numbers before you get some of the better-paying ones. (Amazon sometimes posts HITs that are really fast - search for "A9" for their HITs)

I tend to mostly do surveys and I've made $100+ this month without trying terribly hard. I'm sure my hourly rate isn't super, but I have to sit for a while every day to ice a couple of joints, so it keeps me productive during that time :-)

nawhite

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #511 on: September 26, 2016, 02:16:34 PM »
Amazon Affiliates. We originally set up an affiliates account to create affiliate links for our blog but I've found that I link to Amazon on facebook or forums all the time for random reasons. This past month I've pulled in about $30 just linking to things I would have linked to anyway.

dsmexpat

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #512 on: September 27, 2016, 04:15:53 PM »
Mechanical Truk is my latest side gig - made about $1200 since May.
What are you doing for M.T. and how many hours are you putting into it?

Ditto - I'm thrilled when I make $5 a month to put towards cat food. I usually only do it when we have some down time at work, and lately that just hasn't existed for me.

I've signed up for Mturk as well in May....but I have only made $5 total!! I haven't taken the time to really work at it but I know some can make $20 - $30 a day...but idk if it's worth my time for only a few cents at a time :/
When work is slow and I'm feeling keen I can reliably get another $20 out of a work day. Part of it comes down to having the right filtering techniques, although membership in communities that share high value HITs is important too.

Lunasol

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #513 on: September 27, 2016, 04:23:40 PM »
I hadn't really thought of this as a side-gig until the other day. I teach at a school in another town that one of my neighbor's kids attends, so I take him with me every morning. Last year they gave me some great gift cards (about $300 worth) and just last week the mom dropped off an envelope with $200 cash "for gas."

sounds great !

newelljack

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #514 on: September 27, 2016, 04:25:38 PM »
Mechanical Truk is my latest side gig - made about $1200 since May.
What are you doing for M.T. and how many hours are you putting into it?

Ditto - I'm thrilled when I make $5 a month to put towards cat food. I usually only do it when we have some down time at work, and lately that just hasn't existed for me.

I've signed up for Mturk as well in May....but I have only made $5 total!! I haven't taken the time to really work at it but I know some can make $20 - $30 a day...but idk if it's worth my time for only a few cents at a time :/
When work is slow and I'm feeling keen I can reliably get another $20 out of a work day. Part of it comes down to having the right filtering techniques, although membership in communities that share high value HITs is important too.

I just signed up and got my approval email from Amazon. Sounds like it will take some time to build of my skills and rating, but I love that sort of thing. Kinda like watching your interest deposits grow!

RedwoodDreams

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #515 on: September 28, 2016, 01:22:27 AM »
After reading this thread, I put an ad on craiglist to be a lunchtime dog walker. I live near a state park and was walking my dog every weekday anyway. I put an ad out asking if anyone wanted to join our "pack" and got a response right away from someone who works full time but wants their large dog taken out daily.

$10/hour x 5 days per week was $200/month, but I raised my rates to $15/hour after a year because I pick up/drop off the dog and live in HCOL area, so now it's $300/month to EXERCISE myself. I think people here pay up to $30/walk (!)

Great side benefit has been I can make no excuses about not exercising. It's actually really fun. We go out every day, rain or shine.

Thinking about adding another dog.

I also get stuff on craigslist FREE section or nextdoor.com and sell it. Would love to do more of that but a truck and more physical strength than I have would be helpful! It's amazing what people give away ... I've also been thinking about offering the service of selling people's larger items for them, for a cut. A lot of people don't want to bother with it, but I enjoy it.

PAstash

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #516 on: September 28, 2016, 02:20:21 AM »
Previously:
- playing piano at a restaurant (paid by the hour, plus free food)
- recipe development, writing and photography (did that for awhile, was paid per recipe + cost of ingredients - stopped because the company I worked for was a hassle to deal with)
- freelance writing (paid per piece, was hired by a social media agency to do that briefly for a temporary project)

Currently/Ongoing:
- my blog is bringing in $50/month at the moment - not much, but nice to have because I would be blogging anyway regardless

Been wanting to learn to play piano for years. never picked up a instrument in my life. how should I start?

HipGnosis

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #517 on: September 28, 2016, 01:47:43 PM »
Great information everyone! I'm new here and just read the whole thread to come up with some new side hustle ideas.

Personally I've tried:
eBay, Amazon, Craigslist & Etsy Sales
Driving for Uber/Lyft
House cleaning
Pizza delivery

Now I've got some new ideas for my next endeavor!
Please (PLEASE) give us your impression and rough income from them.  And why you're looking for something new.

SimpleGaijin

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #518 on: September 29, 2016, 04:57:32 AM »
I teach Japanese and I blog about my former life and adventures in Japan. I am also taking students at this time, if anyone is interested.

www.simplegaijin.com

limeandpepper

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #519 on: October 01, 2016, 09:57:48 PM »
Previously:
- playing piano at a restaurant (paid by the hour, plus free food)
- recipe development, writing and photography (did that for awhile, was paid per recipe + cost of ingredients - stopped because the company I worked for was a hassle to deal with)
- freelance writing (paid per piece, was hired by a social media agency to do that briefly for a temporary project)

Currently/Ongoing:
- my blog is bringing in $50/month at the moment - not much, but nice to have because I would be blogging anyway regardless

Been wanting to learn to play piano for years. never picked up a instrument in my life. how should I start?

I have heard of people who are self-taught, but I (and most people I know) had lessons. In terms of the gear, you could pick up a cheap keyboard to learn, and if you decide you really like it and it's something you would keep at doing, then you can consider getting a piano.

snogirl

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #520 on: October 01, 2016, 10:13:07 PM »
Find vintage 10 speeds free from friends or dump sell to college kids $100-150 a pop. I pretty much know what to look for, What sells well & how to fix. Those along with other free stuff from dump  & eBay sales from bike parts averages to 10k a year.

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frugalkristen

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #521 on: October 02, 2016, 03:56:47 PM »
I take as many OT shifts as I can.  And I work for my SIL's catering business from time to time.  But I make a lot of my side money online - Swagbucks, InstaGC, QuickRewards, Gifthulk, Microsoft (formally Bing rewards), an Qrikit.  I earn about $150+ per month clicking around while I'm watching TV/surfing the web.

cavewoman

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #522 on: October 08, 2016, 01:07:58 PM »
Previously:
- playing piano at a restaurant (paid by the hour, plus free food)
- recipe development, writing and photography (did that for awhile, was paid per recipe + cost of ingredients - stopped because the company I worked for was a hassle to deal with)
- freelance writing (paid per piece, was hired by a social media agency to do that briefly for a temporary project)

Currently/Ongoing:
- my blog is bringing in $50/month at the moment - not much, but nice to have because I would be blogging anyway regardless

Been wanting to learn to play piano for years. never picked up a instrument in my life. how should I start?

I have heard of people who are self-taught, but I (and most people I know) had lessons. In terms of the gear, you could pick up a cheap keyboard to learn, and if you decide you really like it and it's something you would keep at doing, then you can consider getting a piano.
If you have the space and desire, you can often get a piano for free! People are giving them away all the time.

Unionville

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #523 on: January 09, 2017, 01:49:00 PM »
I teach a class on skillshare -- it used to bring in $150 a month, but they keep changing their policies so that teachers get less and less. I used to bring students to them for a flat fee, then they decided to only pay all of us teachers if someone subscribed to their whole site for a monthly fee, now they have this new payment method that they only pay you based on the "number of"minutes students watch your video". Now I only get $50 a month.  What's worse is my students can't even get in to see my class overview unless they pay 99 cents just to get into the entire website.  You'd think they are doing everything to chase away teachers. I wanted to download my class videos and take them to another site, but they will not release them back to me. Teaching online has a lot of potential -- but I would try it at another site -- maybe Udemy.

Moonwaves

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #524 on: January 10, 2017, 07:05:13 AM »
I teach a class on skillshare -- it used to bring in $150 a month, but they keep changing their policies so that teachers get less and less. I used to bring students to them for a flat fee, then they decided to only pay all of us teachers if someone subscribed to their whole site for a monthly fee, now they have this new payment method that they only pay you based on the "number of"minutes students watch your video". Now I only get $50 a month.  What's worse is my students can't even get in to see my class overview unless they pay 99 cents just to get into the entire website.  You'd think they are doing everything to chase away teachers. I wanted to download my class videos and take them to another site, but they will not release them back to me. Teaching online has a lot of potential -- but I would try it at another site -- maybe Udemy.
My boss just put her first course on Udemy a few weeks ago - it's a free course so I don't know if she receives any, if much, income from it but I can ask her how her experience was if you like.

As for my own side gig, I spent some time yesterday trying to figure out some numbers for my health insurance place (since it's a larger portion of my income now, I may sometimes need to pay additional contributions on top of what is deducted from the salary of my ordinary job). 2016 was my first full-time year translating on the side and for an average of about 17 hours a month I earned nearly €10,000, which should be at least €7,000 after tax. And I think I should just about scrape by on not having to pay extra for health insurance, or only a very small amount if so. They essentially weigh up whether or not it is really a side gig, or whether it forms a principal part of your income.

The good news is that I'm definitely getting faster. The less good news is that that average is very heavily weighted towards the beginning of the year when I was lucky enough to get involved in a huge technical project. I am building up contacts all the time but I don't go looking for work and if I want to increase my earnings, that's probably what I need to concentrate on
« Last Edit: January 10, 2017, 12:30:08 PM by Moonwaves »

Metalsatsuma1212

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #525 on: March 16, 2017, 10:49:48 AM »
I cannot say how happy we are as Rover sitters.

http://refer.rover.com/v2/share/6398139337887592982

We sit dogs in our home for $22 a night (set your own rate) and we get a lot of business. They are super start at advertising so we don't have to do much besides sit back and wait for the clients to come to us. They have awesome staff too!

HipGnosis

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #526 on: March 16, 2017, 01:04:00 PM »
I cannot say how happy we are as Rover sitters.

http://refer.rover.com/v2/share/6398139337887592982

We sit dogs in our home for $22 a night (set your own rate) and we get a lot of business. They are super start at advertising so we don't have to do much besides sit back and wait for the clients to come to us. They have awesome staff too!
What happens if you get two dogs that don't like each other or need to establish who is 'leader of the pack'?

Metalsatsuma1212

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #527 on: March 16, 2017, 02:13:47 PM »
@HipGnosis we only watch one families dogs at a time so it is not an issue for us. A lot of Rover sitters watch more but that seems like a situation waiting to happen to me.

Icecreamarsenal

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #528 on: March 16, 2017, 03:08:14 PM »
My wife and I started retail arbitrage at Goodwill and Salvation Army, for kicks and giggles.  It's not really for me but there seems to be a lot of success stories out there, especially on instagram, for those willing to put in the work.  Apparently Gary Vee is all about reselling this year.

ducky19

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #529 on: March 16, 2017, 09:13:28 PM »
A couple of running buddies and I started a race management company a few years ago. For the most part we did it for fun and some nice gear. We paid ourselves a little, too but never more than a couple hundred bucks a year. One of the other guys decided he he wanted out, so we bought him out after our last race. We had a couple grand in the bank after that and we're trying to figure out where to go from there. We started looking at chip timing systems and pulled the trigger on one so we can start timing other people's events. The system cost $1500, but we can easily get $400 a race for our services so we'll be in the black fairly quickly. We already have our first race lined up for May! The only other company in the area that offers this service waaay overcharges and upsells their own "marketing" and various other bogus charges. We're definitely stealing one of their races in December who shared with us that they were in over $1500 with the other company. We'll probably be able to steal more of their smaller races, plus we suspect there is a market for even smaller races that never considered chip timing before due to the cost. We'll still put on some of our own races because we enjoy it, but I am optimistic that we can turn this into a real money making venture. I don't know that I could retire off of it but if I can add a few thousand a year to my 'stache, it could cut a year or two off of my timeline.

Moonwaves

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #530 on: March 17, 2017, 04:29:45 AM »
I had a test run this morning sorting post into post office boxes. The person who currently does it will be away soon doing some kind of month-long rehab/physio for her back. Might end up being longer than that. Even if it's only for a month though, and I can end up picking up occasional hours after that, it would suit me. It's not very well paid but because it's what they call a mini-job here, it's not taxed. So it's 400 a month tax free for a couple of hours in the morning. Six days a week, unfortunately, but since it might end up only being for a month or two, I can deal with that (I'm not a morning person so the thought of having to be up by six in the morning six days a week doesn't arouse tons of enthusiasm in me). Feeling very positive about it, hope they take me on now!

HipGnosis

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #531 on: March 17, 2017, 10:14:34 AM »
My wife and I started retail arbitrage at Goodwill and Salvation Army, for kicks and giggles.  It's not really for me but there seems to be a lot of success stories out there, especially on instagram, for those willing to put in the work.  Apparently Gary Vee is all about reselling this year.
What is "retail arbitrage at Goodwill and Salvation Army"??
Who is Gary Vee?!?

bunchbikes

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #532 on: March 17, 2017, 10:40:05 AM »
My wife and I started retail arbitrage at Goodwill and Salvation Army, for kicks and giggles.  It's not really for me but there seems to be a lot of success stories out there, especially on instagram, for those willing to put in the work.  Apparently Gary Vee is all about reselling this year.
What is "retail arbitrage at Goodwill and Salvation Army"??
Who is Gary Vee?!?


Buy brand name goods for cheap and then reselling.


Gary Vanderchuck - motivational business speaker, who is all about motivating, and not all about actual content.

Freckles

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #533 on: March 17, 2017, 02:19:47 PM »
I cannot say how happy we are as Rover sitters.

http://refer.rover.com/v2/share/6398139337887592982

We sit dogs in our home for $22 a night (set your own rate) and we get a lot of business. They are super start at advertising so we don't have to do much besides sit back and wait for the clients to come to us. They have awesome staff too!

I've thought about that before but hadn't pulled the plug. I'm a teacher so I'm thinking of trying it over the summer since I'll be home. Good to hear you like it. We already have a dog of our own. Is that a problem? She is the opposite of aggressive, big, or scary.

Metalsatsuma1212

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #534 on: March 17, 2017, 03:15:36 PM »
I cannot say how happy we are as Rover sitters.

http://refer.rover.com/v2/share/6398139337887592982

We sit dogs in our home for $22 a night (set your own rate) and we get a lot of business. They are super start at advertising so we don't have to do much besides sit back and wait for the clients to come to us. They have awesome staff too!

I've thought about that before but hadn't pulled the plug. I'm a teacher so I'm thinking of trying it over the summer since I'll be home. Good to hear you like it. We already have a dog of our own. Is that a problem? She is the opposite of aggressive, big, or scary.

Not a problem at all! two of our backup sitters have their own pups. You simply have a meet and greet with every dog in your home to see if they get along. You can say no to anyone who is not a good fit.

sailingTowardsFI

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #535 on: March 18, 2017, 07:57:30 PM »
I've been making stained glass panels for about 6 years now - just for myself, family, and friends so far.  I finally feel like I've gotten good enough at it to try to turn it into at least a self-sustaining habit (glass is expensive!!), so I've started to display some items at work for sale, and have created a website to try to get some business creating custom panels for people.  So far, I have sold one panel at work, and have an order from a coworker for a custom panel for her daughter.  Shameless self promotion, here's my site in progress: www.leavesofglass.net.

SwordGuy

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #536 on: March 18, 2017, 10:08:39 PM »
I wrote some technical articles for a variety of publications, one of them paid me about $5,000.   

(Plus my salary and bonuses went up a LOT because of doing this because I was a consultant specializing in what I wrote about.)


Thanks for this idea...my company's been pestering us to write/publish more, and I didn't see any potential upside for the time involved until you mentioned this!

My salary went up $10,000 a year when I sent the book of to the publisher and another $10,000 when it was put in the hands of the company owner.   The salespeople loved it because they could say "Our guy wrote the book on this software!"
If I had a regular corporate programmer gig that would not have happened.  But because that book drove consulting sales it sure did.

I could take a variation on the article and present it as a paper at a technical conference.  Presenting often meant I did not have to pay to attend the conference.  (Still cost travel and expenses, but it made it a lot more likely that my employer would send me.   Even when I was just a corporate programmer...)    As a consultant I made a point of collecting business cards of likely prospects for our services and getting them in the hands of the sales people.   That made them more willing to send me to more conferences...   Plus, of course, that mean I was also getting lots more training than most people were, so even more raises...

Didn't get to go to one annual conference that I usually went to because a consulting gig was in the way.   My boss went.   People saw his name tag with the company name on it and they all asked him where I was.   I got a big raise after not going to that conference because he realized how effectively I had branded the company as experts in my field.  :)

I would get extra billing hours by volunteering to write up a detailed how-to on a time-saving utility program I put together for them.    A common response was, "You would do that for us?", said in an awe-inspired way.  Then I would re-package the documentation as an article or conference paper if it could be used to illustrate something useful.  I even got to bill two different customers for writing the same utility that both of them needed.   I only worked 40 hours that week but got to bill for 56 because I got to double-bill 16 of those hours.   That made me popular with the boss.

Sometimes I would get cash payments, other times I got contacts or reputation that I could parlay into something useful later.

Hope that helps and sorry I didn't see your comment sooner!

ReadingLearner

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #537 on: April 02, 2017, 08:05:33 AM »
I use sell extra possessions on kijiji.

gredenko

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #538 on: April 26, 2017, 11:15:18 AM »
I'm looking for more ways to set up some side income and I appreciate all of the information everyone's sharing here. For now, I'm building a website to provide eBay users with pages of listings that are well-refined and filtered so they save time from searching on eBay. I'm always looking for more people to work with, and I am making some other useful tools for them, so if you're someone who's into buying and selling on sites like eBay/Amazon, etc., contact me and maybe we can help each other out!

I know some people who have made a ton of money on the side just buying and selling clothes from thrift stores, goodwill, eBay, etc. so I wanted to get into it, and I kind of have. But I haven't done very much just yet, so I'm trying to put the programming skills to use and get this website off the ground for now.  I went to a thrift store today and they have a lot of books, but I can't find anything that isn't on Amazon for 99 cents. How do you guys do it?

When I was in college, I bought and sold used textbooks pretty well, but that was in person of course. My best start to a semester was $600 in 3 weeks. The selling always peaks in the first few weeks for obvious reasons, but it's still great money and very easy when you're at school anyway.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2017, 07:39:07 PM by gredenko »

Happy Little Chipmunk

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #539 on: April 26, 2017, 01:46:11 PM »
I'm a newish woodworker and am helping a friend teach woodworking to middle schoolers once a week. Not a huge paycheck, but I happily spend that money on tools and classes for myself, so it defrays the cost of the hobby enormously.

DH brings in a few $$ with a software tool he made 12 years ago. He's rewritten it once, but the overall cost to maintain it is negligible.

We also roast our own coffee & that creates many lovely barter opportunities!

bunchbikes

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #540 on: April 26, 2017, 09:26:22 PM »
For now, I'm building a website to provide eBay users with pages of listings that are well-refined and filtered so they save time from searching on eBay. I'm always looking for more people to work with, and I am making some other useful tools for them, so if you're someone who's into buying and selling on sites like eBay/Amazon, etc., contact me and maybe we can help each other out!

That website sounds pretty useless.  Why would anyone search for eBay listings anywhere else than on eBay?

If the point is to provide research material to eBay sellers... Terapeak has kind of already done this very very well.

Unless I'm missing something.

gredenko

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #541 on: April 27, 2017, 10:00:36 PM »
For now, I'm building a website to provide eBay users with pages of listings that are well-refined and filtered so they save time from searching on eBay. I'm always looking for more people to work with, and I am making some other useful tools for them, so if you're someone who's into buying and selling on sites like eBay/Amazon, etc., contact me and maybe we can help each other out!

That website sounds pretty useless.  Why would anyone search for eBay listings anywhere else than on eBay?

If the point is to provide research material to eBay sellers... Terapeak has kind of already done this very very well.

Unless I'm missing something.

Well when I control the listings results and the format they appear in, as well as how they load, it's more convenient than eBay already.  People who buy and sell a lot have to spend a lot of time finding their desired items sometimes, so I can build algorithms and custom filters that can't be applied on eBay's site. I personally don't like going through the eBay pages because of how many things I have to scroll past, and all of the information is not available without clicking each listing. Other services exist for various eBay tools, but IMO there's always a way to improve something that's already out there. Besides, I'm not trying to get rich off of this, just making some side money with partners who find my services useful.

I don't know how useful Terapeak is, but I see it's not free. I'm not charging anyone anything to use my site.

MasterStache

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #542 on: April 28, 2017, 06:12:56 AM »
I'll be moving to a part-time/as-needed basis at my engineering job soon. Should free up more time to pursue some side gigs. On my list is going to be:

1. Carpentry projects -I've rehabbed nearly our entire house inside and out. Good with plumbing, electrical, painting, trim work, tile, yard maintenance, etc. Kind of a jack of all trades master of none. Already have projects lined up with both my siblings to get started.

2. Building furniture - I know there are a lots of folks who do this so there is competition. But I'm not looking to make a killing. I built a beautiful farmhouse sliding barn door credenza and farmhouse dining table for our house. Already have folks interested in wanting me to build some furniture like what I built for our house. 

3. Dog walking - Certainly not much money to be made here. But we have 2 dogs and I love going for long walks with them. Might make a little side money walking others dogs while they are at work.

Freckles

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #543 on: April 28, 2017, 08:43:14 AM »
For now, I'm building a website to provide eBay users with pages of listings that are well-refined and filtered so they save time from searching on eBay. I'm always looking for more people to work with, and I am making some other useful tools for them, so if you're someone who's into buying and selling on sites like eBay/Amazon, etc., contact me and maybe we can help each other out!

That website sounds pretty useless.  Why would anyone search for eBay listings anywhere else than on eBay?

If the point is to provide research material to eBay sellers... Terapeak has kind of already done this very very well.

Unless I'm missing something.

Well when I control the listings results and the format they appear in, as well as how they load, it's more convenient than eBay already.  People who buy and sell a lot have to spend a lot of time finding their desired items sometimes, so I can build algorithms and custom filters that can't be applied on eBay's site. I personally don't like going through the eBay pages because of how many things I have to scroll past, and all of the information is not available without clicking each listing. Other services exist for various eBay tools, but IMO there's always a way to improve something that's already out there. Besides, I'm not trying to get rich off of this, just making some side money with partners who find my services useful.

I don't know how useful Terapeak is, but I see it's not free. I'm not charging anyone anything to use my site.

I think it sounds useful, gredenko. I thought that that sounded like something I'd like to use when you first described it. Good luck to you!

HipGnosis

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #544 on: April 28, 2017, 10:02:07 AM »
For now, I'm building a website to provide eBay users with pages of listings that are well-refined and filtered so they save time from searching on eBay. I'm always looking for more people to work with, and I am making some other useful tools for them, so if you're someone who's into buying and selling on sites like eBay/Amazon, etc., contact me and maybe we can help each other out!

That website sounds pretty useless.  Why would anyone search for eBay listings anywhere else than on eBay?

Unless I'm missing something.
I can't wait for the site to be up.  Searching eBay listings is excruciating!!  On my most recent search, I HAD to scroll through and click 'next' through THIRTY pages before I found what I was looking for!!

gredenko

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #545 on: April 28, 2017, 11:21:30 AM »

I think it sounds useful, gredenko. I thought that that sounded like something I'd like to use when you first described it. Good luck to you!

Thanks! It does provide a lot of help to the few who use it already.


I can't wait for the site to be up.  Searching eBay listings is excruciating!!  On my most recent search, I HAD to scroll through and click 'next' through THIRTY pages before I found what I was looking for!!

Right.. and it's exactly this kind of thinking from people who assume everything of value is on the front page, who create the market for resellers to make consistent profits.

NorthernDreamer

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #546 on: May 03, 2017, 09:11:26 AM »
I have an Etsy shop that I run on the side of being a parent and having a day job. It involves a niche jewelry market. It keeps me as busy as I want to be now. It's great since I enjoy making the items, and if no one bought them, I wouldn't be able to afford to keep making them.

I've been at it for almost two years and have over 700 sales. I will say that the "business" side to a creative outlet is waaaaay more work that I expected. But it's nice being able to put the shop on vacation when I need a break, since I don't depend on the income. Any profit goes straight to investments.

bunchbikes

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #547 on: May 03, 2017, 09:59:06 AM »
I have an Etsy shop that I run on the side of being a parent and having a day job. It involves a niche jewelry market. It keeps me as busy as I want to be now. It's great since I enjoy making the items, and if no one bought them, I wouldn't be able to afford to keep making them.

I've been at it for almost two years and have over 700 sales. I will say that the "business" side to a creative outlet is waaaaay more work that I expected. But it's nice being able to put the shop on vacation when I need a break, since I don't depend on the income. Any profit goes straight to investments.

Look into partnering with a manufacture to make your jewelry, and you can make more money and input less time.

Etsy recently began to allow sellers to do this, but you have to apply for the program in order to do this on your account.

They might even be able to help you find a manufacturer: https://www.etsy.com/manufacturing

NorthernDreamer

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #548 on: May 03, 2017, 10:37:46 AM »
Look into partnering with a manufacture to make your jewelry, and you can make more money and input less time.

Etsy recently began to allow sellers to do this, but you have to apply for the program in order to do this on your account.

They might even be able to help you find a manufacturer: https://www.etsy.com/manufacturing

Thanks for the tip. The type of jewelry I make doesn't lend itself to outside manufacturing - it's part of what draws customers to me.  For now, I am happy with it as a side gig. Luckily it does involve skill but now that I have my silversmithing set up and my process down pat, the cost per item is fairly low. There are multiple steps involved and I batch-process pieces. It's worked out to me making $30-$40 CAD an hour (with the cost of materials built into the item price).

msmarieh

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Re: Who has a side gig/job that brings in extra cash?? Share with us!
« Reply #549 on: May 28, 2017, 04:12:36 PM »
I started a side gig in January 2014. I lead online webinars and study groups preparing students for a couple certifications. I'm a big fish in a very small niche. LOL

The business has grown to bringing in about $6K a month average while still remaining part time (10-20 hours a week).