gig economy

Fall 2024 Making Money/Side Hustle Round Up!

Abby H.1 Comment

I’ve posted about this before, but I wanted to make an updated post with the most popular and lucrative ways I make money outside of a 9-5 schedule job.

First up, and my favorite way to earn cash: Surveys. For me, these fall into two categories: Research Studies and App Surveys.

  • Research studies are generally conducted by companies like Taylor Research, PRC, Q-Insights, or AO Opinions.  They are either performed at the research study facility (Taylor Research is in Mission Valley), or online via a Zoom meeting on an old-fashioned Bulletin Board System. In person, it can range from 30 minutes to 8 hours and payments range from $25 all the way up to $1000. Online studies are usually between 45 minutes-3 hours and pay $50-$700. Most pay via check or a gift card. If you are doing a research study survey for a brand, they sometimes offer you a gift card for their brand website. I generally don’t accept those studies/surveys. I try to post about opportunities each company has as they email them out.  I try to do 1-2 studies a month. This helps me save up for family fun during the summer. 
  • App Surveys are conducted via apps specifically for surveys. My two favorites are PaidViewPoint and Pinecone Research.  They both have a website if you don’t want to download their apps. There are other survey companies as well, I have a list of some here. I’ve used most of those to varying degrees of success, but PVP and PR are my favs, their surveys are short, and reaching the minimum to cash out with both is simple and doesn’t take long.  I usually take the Paypal or Venmo cash option for both.

Another site for Research Studies is Digsite. I don’t remember how I discovered DigSite (I think it was a targeted Facebook Ad). I have done surveys and research studies with them for about a year, and they generally pay between $25 and $200. over the past two weeks, I have done two research studies with them, it’s about 5 to 10 minutes each day for three or four days. They ask your opinions about a specific topic, sometimes you have to take a picture, or do a little bit of homework, but, overall it’s fun. Dig site pays in Amazon gift cards. They email you when they have studies that fit your demographic.

If you like to do hustles that take you outside the house,  try Field Agent!– I make money by incorporating Field Agent jobs into my already-needed errands. Quick, easy money. Audits, secret shops, and trying new products are just a few ways you can earn money with Field Agent.  They have Costco missions frequently- take pics of displays, review sample folks. The $3, $5, and $7 tasks add up quickly! Field Agent pays out via Bank Transfer. 

If you want to get into secret shopping, Amusement Advantage has a lot of opportunities in the Southern California area. You have to be a good writer, have good attention to detail, and take decent photos (from your phone). Most of their shops/adventures are very specific and detailed. You can learn more about it here.

isecretshop.com is another secret shopping website that has a variety of opportunities. Before I had kids I used to do TONS of secret shops on weekends and after work. You have to be a good writer, have good attention to detail, and take decent photos (from your phone). Most of their shops/adventures are very specific and detailed.

The next three are SUPER PASSIVE, meaning you aren’t going to get rich doing these, but they are easy to do and require minimum effort.

This passive side hustle I enjoy and that I’ve been doing for 11 years. Turn your Junk Mail into Cash! I’ve been doing this for YEARS, and I love it. You can learn all about Small Business Knowledge Center here.

Evidation: This is a super passive hustle, but it’s super fun- all you need is a smart watch or a fitness tracker.  Here is the article I wrote with all the information about how it works.

I also do simple tasks with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. I transfer the earnings to my Amazon.com account. You sign up and do tasks for small amounts of money, but the money adds up fast.  The tasks are quick and simple (transcription, surveys, flagging inappropriate photos).   If you want cold hard cash instead of Amazon.com credit there is an option to have money transferred to a bank account.  Mechanical Turk does ask for your SSN when you sign up- you will receive a 1099- MISC at the end of the year, regardless of which option you select.

This next category isn’t a “hustle” per se, but they are all great ways to get cashback or save on groceries and other shopping trips. I use a lot of cash-back/rebate apps. You can see my complete list here. 

My friend Amy uses a local company Genalyte to earn money. They offer you a “courtesy” for blood and plasma. They are in the Sorrento Valley area. You can learn more on their Facebook page.  I personally have never done it- I have very tiny veins and have a hard time doing a blood draw at the doctor’s office.

So there you have it. No Uber, Lyft, Instacart. No MLMs or crazy pyramid schemes. Nothing untested or clickbait-worthy. Want the truth behind those clickbait articles: “5 CrAzY WaYs To MaKe MoNeY?!!“ Check out my post here.

 

Why I Gave Up Hustle Culture and Got a Full Time Job

Abby H.

For years, I was part of the hustle culture. I did gigs and what most people deemed to be “side work” so that I could stay home and support my kids in their education and development. Hell, I even have a page dedicated to it on this blog. 

And I did a post about the Side Hustles seen frequently on Tik Tok too. The research time it took for that was about 6 months, and it was awful. The return on investment (ROI) was not there.

Childcare here in Southern California (and the entire US) is costly and I wouldn’t be able to work full-time and bring home enough money to contribute to the family, beyond paying for daycare. Once we discovered Bubs was on the spectrum, my work outside the house was thrown out the window. There were a lot of appointments, therapies, and special help that were required. So I hustled- I spent hours each day doing surveys online, research studies online and in person, product reviews, teaching coupon classes, and doing app-based work for Field Agent and other similar apps (mostly secret shops and store/product placement audits). And of course, blogging and posting deals and affiliate links when I could make it work and not sound like I was shilling for some company. Because I have a small following, I didn’t have access to a lot of opportunities and sponsorships, in fact, after the pandemic, a lot of programs and companies changed their content creator programs to only larger (10k+ followers) audiences, leaving us little guys out. That meant, once again, it was back to the drawing board, finding new ways to make the same amount of money as before.

My original plan was to go to still blog Part-Time, as well as work Part-Time outside the home after the littlest was in school and work during school hours, however, COVID happened and plans were changed. In late 2021, I started looking for a small, part-time job, and I found one at a local school, in the district where my kids attend. It was a few hours a day, and it was a great way to ease back into working outside the house.

This fall I was offered an opportunity to become a paraeducator, assisting in a special education classroom. After discussing it with my family, and making sure there would be coverage from school pick-ups, I applied for and accepted the job. I work while my kids are at school, and I pick them up from my mom’s house right after school/work, and we have enough time for whatever appointments and shenanigans each afternoon. I have the same weekends and holidays off that they do, and I can work summer school for 6-ish weeks if I want to.

Why am I telling you all of this? The rise in popularity of hustle culture has made it harder for most of us to rely on it to get along. There is the same number of opportunities, but more of us trying to get by and scramble for all of those gigs. If you find yourself struggling with gig work and you have a set schedule that you need to abide by (for example, if you have school-age kids that you are responsible for dropping off and picking up each day), think about working jobs that support kids.

Many school districts are hiring kitchen and cafeteria workers, lunch and playground aides, and even paraprofessionals. There are few prerequisites for these jobs, and a lot of the training and guidance you get on the job. Full-time in most districts is only 30 hours a week, and full-time work comes with benefits. Most districts use EdJoin for job postings, and there are postings from teaching to classified staff. And if you aren’t available every day, you can join the substitute pool (even for classified jobs, like mine), and work per diem as you are needed.

Working in a public school isn’t going to make me rich, but the steady salary helps my family, and the consistent schedule is helpful for making appointments and doctor’s care.

Bottom line- I was tired of busting my ass to make pennies. I spent most of my 30’s working every day, trying to juggle motherhood and making money, trying to give my kids awesome experiences and fun every day while doing surveys from my phone at the park, staying up late to write reviews (a 500-word review about tampons? Come on!), and I was making less than minimum wage, but I had “Time Freedom” and I was “Able to Work Where Ever I Wanted!” and all of the other lies that hustle culture has fed us (Not to mention MLM culture, but I’ll leave that to Roberta Blevins). Now I’m happier and healthier, and I feel like I’m a better mom because I’m able to worry less about making the ends meet, and I can spend time playing with legos with the kids without having to stop every 5 minutes to post something or pack us all up to go do a secret shop or audit.

That being said, one of the few things I still do that’s posted on my Side Hustle page is Small Business Knowledge Center. It’s easy, quick, and I get paid for sending them my junk mail. It’s free Starbucks/Pizza money (Kid’s choice).

Cutting through Clickbait- Weird Ways to Make Money Debunked!

Abby H.

Ok, so you see the clickbait-y posts on Facebook and other social media “5 CrAzY WaYs To MaKe MoNeY?!!“, and most of them are stupid, convoluted, or impossible for the average person to do. Before you click on “10 Easy Ways Single Moms Can Make Rent This Month!” or whatever asinine crap is going around, lemme let you what “Hustles” aren’t going to pay out well.

It may look like some of these are fairly well paying, but once you consider the time to money ratio, you’d be better off getting a part-time job at Starbucks or a grocery store.

Selling Your Plasma. Seriously. It’s hard on your body, takes time (1-3 hours), and if you have tattoos or piercings, or small veins you can’t do it. And it typically pays less than $50 per session. Some places advertise that you can make $5200/year, but that’s usually 2 donations per week and with referrals each month.

Selling your poop. I’m not kidding, and it’s not an Only Fans Type thing. Open Biome is in MA, and they help people with C Diff. They aren’t taking new donors, and even if they were, you gotta live near the Boston/Cambridge area (and there are additional requirements as well). It looks like there may be other places you can sell your poop too as well.

Manage a Mobile Scooter Fleet. Like Bird or the green scooters (I can’t remember their names). Not only do you have to drive around to pick them off (and drop them off), you have to charge them (paying for electricity). Once you’ve factored in the gas and wear and tear on your car, and the price of electricity, are you making money?

Anything that involves driving your car. Sorry friends, especially those here in Southern California, where gas was this morning $4.45/gallon at 3 different stations in my hometown, driving isn’t a really great way to earn money. Unless you have an electric or hybrid car, the cost of gas, maintenance, and insurance can eat up most of your earnings.

Scan the Stuff you Buy… This has been around FOREVER, and I did it for like a month, but it took so long to do, and I earned pennies.

National Consumer Panel has various ways for you to earn points, which you can redeem for gifts from their catalog. It’s a lot of work.

The next few were mentioned in my TikTok Side Hustles Tested here. I tried them both and they aren’t quick or easy. But if you’ve got time and looking for something you can do over the long haul, they might be for you.

  • Flipping stuff (buying at a low price at thrift stores, garage sales, even FB marketplace) and selling it online for a profit.
  • Selling books from Dollar Tree/thrift stores (Scan UPC through Amazon app to see if the books have a good selling price).
  • Make Coloring books, journals, worksheet books in Canva and upload them to Amazon to sell. This one takes a while to do.
  • Upload free art from Canva to sites like redbubble or other print-on-demand sites where you can earn money when people buy items with images you’ve uploaded (journals are pretty popular recommendations).
  • Make educational worksheets, family binder sheets, or organizational worksheets and sell them via Etsy as PDF’s.

If you are looking for ways to make a little extra money without going out of your way, check out my article here.

 

TikTok “Side Hustles” Tested (so you don’t have to).

Abby H.

This post has been like 6 months in the making. It really took me that long to try a majority of these “easy side hustles” as so many are advertised on TikTok.

Disclaimer: Most of these are fairly easy, however, they do take time, and many of them have high payouts, so it will take time to earn enough to cash out. If you wanted to make a go of it and work through several of these sites, you could make good money. But keep in mind there are a lot of people doing the same thing, so there may not be a lot of tasks or potential jobs/freelance opportunities in your area. Also, these are all independent contractor positions, meaning if you earn over $600 per site, you will have to pay taxes on earnings (I’m not a tax guru, consult yours with specific questions).

Some other suggestions that TikToker’s had to earn money:

  • Manage a Bird.com fleet (Those are the electric scooters- they are only available in limited areas)
  • Sell with Amazon FBA
  • Flipping stuff (buying at a low price at thrift stores, garage sales, even FB marketplace) and selling it online for a profit.
  • Selling books from Dollar Tree/thrift stores (Scan UPC through Amazon app to see if the books have a good selling price).
  • Make Coloring books, journals, worksheet books in Canva and upload them to Amazon to sell. This one takes a while to do.
  • Upload free art from Canva to sites like redbubble or other print-on-demand sites where you can earn money when people buy items with images you’ve uploaded (journals are pretty popular recommendations).
  • Make educational worksheets, family binder sheets, or organizational worksheets and sell them via Etsy as PDF’s.

Bottom Line- I tried about 10 of these, and I didn’t make tons of money (less than $100 over 6 months all told). A lot of these sites have received a large influx of new users and they don’t have tasks/jobs that I was interested in/had time for. I made worksheets and had them on my Etsy store, but after three months and not selling any, I took them down (It was costing me money to have them listed). I have a part-time day job and some gigs/side hustles that I already do, so I don’t think I’ll be adding in any of these in the near future.

My 2022 plan is to work the gigs I already do and look for some new endeavors over the summer to make money, and of course, if I come upon anything new and cool, I’ll definitely share it with you.