If you’re looking to work from home, one of the best ways to get started is with a side hustle. Side hustles allow you to test out new income streams while still keeping your stable 9 to 5 job during the week.
Or maybe you’re a student, stay-at-home-mom or retiree who is looking for a flexible way to make extra money.
There are tons of side hustle opportunities to consider that may meet your needs and interests.
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Easy Side Jobs Near Me
If you typed ‘side jobs near me’ into your Google search bar, this means you may be interested in opportunities that will be close to home and allow you to work at your own pace.
Working from home can be great, but it can also get a little lonely. Instead of working entirely from your house, you may want to start side hustling with apps that pay you to do odd jobs like running errands and making small deliveries.
Below are some of the best easy side jobs to start if you’re looking to work locally on your own terms and have a little human interaction easily.
1. DoorDash: Deliver Food
DoorDash is a popular app that will pay you to deliver restaurant food and items from local convenience stores to local customers. People place an order and pay through the app, and you get paid to deliver the order to their doorstep.
DoorDash is easy to sign up for and all you need is a vehicle to deliver orders (this can even be a scooter or bike), social security number and be at least 18 years of age. You’ll also need to pass a background check.
DoorDash allows you to set your own hours and choose when you go online to deliver orders. Drivers earn a minimum pay rate per order plus 100% of their tips.
You will be able to see how much you can earn per order before you accept the delivery request due to DoorDash’s clear flat-rate payment model.
How much you can make depends on how many orders you do but if you’re consistently receiving orders through the app, you can expect to earn around $20 per hour.
Signing up is very easy and once you pass your background check, DoorDash will send you an insulated bag (to keep your food orders in as you transport them) along with a debit card should you need to make any purchases at the restaurant or store on behalf of the customer.
Try DoorDash Today!Related: DoorDash Review
2. Instacart: Deliver Groceries
Most people don’t like shopping for groceries. Some would even rather hire someone to do the shopping for them. This is where Instacart comes in handy. It’s an app that will pay you to shop for and deliver groceries to customers in your area.
Similar to DoorDash, you’ll receive order requests via an app. However, with Instacart, you get to choose your own schedule the week in advance.
Shoppers select shifts that last a few hours. Shifts can be in the morning, afternoon, evening, or on weekends – it’s up to you.
If you sign up as an in-store shopper you’ll have to grab all the items on the customer’s grocery list so it helps to be efficient so you can go through the store quicker.
Once you’ve checked off all the items, you will then be shown the address so you can deliver the groceries.
Sometimes, Instacart will organize your schedule so you are shopping for more than one customer at the same store.
This can be a great way to earn more money in less time so long as you’re organized. Instacart pays shoppers weekly and you can make up to $25 per hour making this a profitable part-time side hustle.
Related: Gig Economy Jobs From Home
3. Rover: Pet Sitting
Love pets? Try walking dogs or pet sitting in your area for extra cash on the side. Rover is one of the best sites to use to help you find paying clients who will hire you to watch their pets.
With Rover, you can set up your profile and list your services and experience along with your desired hourly rate and schedule.
Rover requires pet sitters to be at least 18 years old, pass a background check, provide references and pass a safety quiz.
Getting testimonials from other clients and references can be a great way to get more people to see your profile and hire you for a job.
While you can set your own rates, Rover deducts a 20% fee so keep that in mind when setting your prices.
The top pet sitters on Rover charge anywhere from $25 to $40 per night and earn around $1,000+ per month.
Try Rover Today!Related: How to Become a Dog Sitter on Rover
4. Airbnb Host: Rent a Room
If you have extra space in your home or a guest house, you can rent out your home on Airbnb. Airbnb is a great option for travelers looking to save on the price of lodging.
Hotel prices can add up and many Airbnbs offer extra amenities like free WIFI and parking along with access to a full kitchen.
Airbnb makes it easy to list your spare bedroom, basement apartment, or additional home and allow guest to book and pay right from the website.
It’s easy to sign up as a host and start listing your property on the platform. Airbnb even estimates how much you can earn renting out your home based on your preferences, number of guests allowed, and availability throughout the year.
Listing your space is free, but Airbnb will take a percentage of your booking rate once someone does book a stay. Still, you can set your own nightly pricing but just keep this in mind.
You may want to get a photographer to take well-lit images of your home. Also, make sure you write a detailed description of the space, what’s included, and streamline the check-in and check-out procedures. Doing this can help you get more paid bookings and earn money with Airbnb.
Reviews are also very important so if you have to offer a discounted price in your listing to start out, it could be worth initially earning less if it scores you some honest positive reviews from guests.
Related: How to Make Money on Airbnb Without Owning a Property
5. Foap App: Photography
Do you love taking pictures? Maybe you don’t realize how often you take photos but the average person has hundreds of images loaded in their camera roll. One of the best side jobs online for people with little time is selling images online.
Whether you’re out and about and decide to take pictures or the scenery or decide to stage your own stock photos, consider selling images on the Foap app to get started.
Foap is an app that brands and customers use to find photos that they can use for content and commercial purposes. Photographers, like you, can upload your images to Foap and get paid whenever someone downloads them.
Foap takes a 50% commission when you sell an image and you’ll get to keep 50%. If you like to take videos as well, you can upload them to Foap too.
Images on Foap usually sell for around $10 but this can add up if you are uploading several quality images to the app. Over 80 million people use Foap so there is definitely the opportunity to earn some extra income online using this app.
Plus, this could easily become a passive stream of income since you only need to upload the images one time and they can be sold again and again. This makes selling your images one of the best paying side jobs from home.
Related: Selling Photos Online
6. Care.com
Over time, Care.com has evolved and added many other service opportunities like senior care, pet care, housekeeping and even tutoring.
So if you’re not looking to babysit, you can still make money by creating a profile and marketing your services.
What’s most important is that you’ll get connected with clients in your area so you won’t have to go far from home to perform your services.
You can also set your own hourly rates and choose your own availability during the week making this a perfect flexible part-time job.
On the flip side, if you gain enough clients and secure some recurring work, you could easily use your Care.com gigs to keep you busy full-time as an independent contractor.
Care.com does come with some fees that you’ll want to be mindful of. A premium membership for Caregivers is $20 per month.
You also might pay for additional services like to provide clients with a background check for yourself and also to show up near the top of the search results so you can land more jobs.
Try Care.com!Related: Get Paid to Search the Internet
Work From Home Side Jobs Online
Online side hustles help you not only earn some cash but be able to do it from the comfort of your own home.
This can help improve your work-life balance and allow you to spend that extra time at home with your family.
Even with a side job, you’re bound to save some money in fuel costs and vehicle maintenance along with fast food runs (on the way to work) simply by working online.
According to FlexJobs people who work from home can save anywhere from $2,000-6,500 per year.
Employers can also save according to a study from Global Workplace Analytics. The study shows that the average company can save around $11,000 per year for every person who works from home at least part of the time.
The study goes as far as to say that this might be a trend going forward with 25-30% of the workforce potentially working from home on at least multiple days by the end of 2021.
People also tend to be less stressed when working from home so take advantage of that and be happier at home. Below are some of the best side jobs from home.
Related: Earn Money Losing Weight
7. Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie gives people a way to earn from home by completing surveys online. It might sound too good to be true, but it’s actually 100% real and possible to earn money by giving your opinion via surveys.
Signing up is easy and always free. Just visit the website and enter your information to get started. You will have access to surveys either through their website or setting up email notifications.
Survey Junkie can be used on any device whether it’s via phone, tablet, or computer – that way, you can take surveys on the go.
In order to send relevant surveys your way (that you’ll likely qualify for), you’ll be asked to fill out a pre-screener and answer questions to get a better idea of your interests and background.
By filling out these pre-screen surveys, you’ll also help some of your favorite brands or stores know exactly what fans or consumers are thinking about when it comes to their product or service.
Survey Junkie isn’t the highest paying online side hustle, but it is one of the easiest to get started with. How much you earn per survey varies but Survey Junkie tends to pay more than many other survey sites.
Try Survey Junkie!Related: 50 Best International Paid Survey Sites of 2021
8. Pinecone Research: Test Products
Influence everyday products by joining the team at Pinecone Research. You’ll be among the very first people to test out different services and products before they hit the market for everyone else.
You can really impact and influence new products that companies are trying to roll out.
Pinecone Research is a great place to find paid online surveys as well. Earn points for each survey that you finish and those points can then be redeemed for cash.
You’re more than welcome to either cash out your earnings once you reach your redemption level or save until you hit even bigger prizes. Points can be kept as long as you’re active on the site.
If you go 12 months without any account activity your points will begin to expire. How much you make, like Survey Junkie all depends on how many surveys you do.
Surveys can vary between a few minutes to half an hour. So it’s going to take some time to really start earning, if you have time go for it. If you don’t have the patience this one might not be for you.
Try Pinecone Research!9. Mistplay: Test Games
If you’re a gamer who’s also interested in easy side jobs from home, you’ll want to check out Mistplay. Gamers can earn rewards by checking out new games on the app. Yes, you can really get paid to play games during your spare time!
The longer you play a game the more “units” you can earn. Rewards include gift cards that can be used with Amazon, Google Play, and Visa. Just like with videogames at home, you can unlock achievement badges by beating certain missions.
MistPlay hasn’t been around for too long. The company was founded in 2015 by Henri Machalani. Just three years later the company has grown to over 1 Million in 2018.
Gamers have earned nearly $13 Million through Mistplay. Mistplay might ask you to play just for a few minutes. After you play and get an idea about what the game is about they ask you questions about it and you’ll have to give your honest opinion.
Related: Online Jobs Paid Through PayPal
10. Vindale Research: Take Surveys Online
Surveys are a popular way to earn money online. Vindale Research provides just another way to do that.
This company is well-known for its survey opportunities but what you may not know is that you also have the option to earn by referrals, reading emails, and watching videos.
Signing up is also a breeze with Vindale just takes a few moments to enter a few personal details. You’ll earn $1 towards your balance just for doing it.
Just subscribe to start getting their emails and you’ll earn another $2. It’s unique that Vindale rewards people for opening and viewing their emails. This is something that not everyone does.
Make sure you opt in to receive their emails so you don’t miss them. Vindale Research is a little more open than other platforms and allows people to sign up from Canada and Australia.
Payments can be sent via PayPal. You can’t request a payment until your balance reaches at least $50.
Try Vindale Research!Related: Vindale Research Review
11. UserTesting: Test Websites
The average person spends anywhere from 1 to 3 hours per day on the internet. If you work an office job, you likely spend much more time online.
That said, you probably know what a decent website looks like. Cash in your internet experience by signing up for UserTesting and getting paid to test websites.
UserTesting is a customer insights platform that prides itself on offering real-time feedback from real customers.
One of the services UserTesting helps with is providing businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals feedback on the look, feel, and functionality of their website.
Real people like you can easily get paid to test these websites out and offer your honest feedback.
How it works is you can apply on the website right here. You’ll need some basic equipment like:
- A computer that runs Windows or macOS
- A reliable internet connection
- External or built-in microphone (so you can provide clear audio as you walk through your first impressions and feedback during the 20-minute test)
- Ability to download UserTesting’s screen recorder system
- Ability to speak your thoughts aloud in English
Then, you’ll be sent website tests where you can record your response with a 20-minute video.
UserTesting has expanded its services over the years allowing you to be able to test other things like apps and products to earn money.
For the most part, UserTesting will pay $10 per 20-minute test so you can earn up to $30 per hour. As a website or product tester, you’ll get paid via PayPal exactly 7 days after completing a test.
Related: 13 Companies With Website Testing Jobs
12. VIPKid: Tutor English Online
VIPKid is one of the top websites that will pay you to teach English online. VIPKid pays teachers up to $22 per hour and allows you to choose from flexible morning or evening schedules.
Teachers primarily host online classes with students in China and each class lasts around 25 minutes.
Classes are often one-on-one so you won’t have to worry about maintaining the attention of too many students at once. You’ll get paid for each class you teach and can manage all your earnings on the Teachable app.
Get paid weekly via PayPal and you can choose whether you’d like to be paid weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. VIPKid signs 6-month contracts with teachers and you can work as little or as much as you’d like.
To be considered for an online side job with VIPKid for teaching, you’ll need to possess a bachelor’s degree and some teaching experience.
You should also have reliable technology and be authorized to work in the U.S. or Canada.
Related: VIPKid Review: Is VIPKid Legit and Worth Your Time?
13. Manage Social Media for Businesses
Scrolling on social media doesn’t have to be a lost cause. With millions of people using social media apps daily, it can be a great online side job from home to make money.
If you spend a lot of time on apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest social media management can be one of the most fun work from home side jobs that pays pretty well too.
Think of how many businesses have social media pages. They may need help scheduling posts, monitoring clients, planning campaigns, and more.
You can always find your own clients and set your own rates but there are also websites that will help you find social media management gigs too.
99 Dollar Social hires part-time and full-time social media schedulers and provides training as well. Upwork is another resource you can use to find paid social media management work.
Work from home side jobs. Belay Solutions is a company that hires virtual assistants to perform a variety of tasks including social media management.
Related: 18 Legitimate work From Home Jobs Hiring Now
The Best Side Jobs Won’t Take Up All Of Your Free Time
Now that you have the best side jobs from home ideas, you have almost no reason not to start earning extra money from home or near your home.
These side hustle ideas won’t take up too much of your free time and will still help you earn enough income to make a difference whether you want to catch up on bills or get ahead financially and save more.
Just start by considering your interests and what truly sounds like it will work for your needs, wants, and experience level. Set an income goal and see how much extra cash you can make.
