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The best side jobs are ones that match your interests and skills ― while rewarding you handsomely for your effort. Put simply, they are an awesome way earn extra income on top of your main job.
As I always teach, the framework for how to make more money and create multiple flows of income is to break your day into three parts, which are:
- 9am – 5pm – Time spent on your main job
- Before 9am and after 5pm – Time for your side job / side hustle
- While you sleep – Time for earning passive money
In my opinion, the most important of these three periods is the “side job / side hustle” time. The reason for this is that most, if not all, of this money should be available to push into income-producing investments.
This is because you can use the income from your main job for your living expenses, while keeping the income from your side job as pure profit.
This profit can then be used to purchase assets, which will pay you while you sleep for the rest of your life. Yes, the cycle really is that easy, but you’ve got to be the one to start your “flywheel” in motion.
25 Lucrative Side Jobs for 2024
Given the strategic importance of side jobs, the question becomes, which ones are worth the effort?
To help you seek out opportunities that best align with your personality, here are 25 lucrative side jobs that you can use to stack quick cash in 2021.
1. Pet Sitting (Rover.com) – Caring for pets while their owners are away can be surprisingly lucrative for the simple reason that it costs pet owners a lot of money to board their animals. In most cases, pet-sitting will involve staying overnight.
You can usually earn $100 or more per night to pet sit animals. Plus, the more nights you stack up, the more you’ll earn. If you don’t want to go after sourcing your own clients or dealing with your own insurance, then consider signing up at Rover.com.
I recently hired a pet-sitter through Rover to stay with my four dogs for a week and paid $35 per dog per day for her to stay overnight at my house ($140 per night). Currently, Rover pays its sitters 80% of the fee, so the pet-sitter earned approximately $112 per night or $784 for the week ($112 x 7 days = $784).
Given that my pet sitter was able to do her job remotely from my house, this was all supplemental bonus money for her.
2. House Sitting – House sitting is different than pet sitting, because it doesn’t involve any living creatures. What it does entail is mail collection, property maintenance, and keeping trespassers away.
Great sites for getting started include:
3. Video Editing – Today, nearly all businesses and brands are producing video. With that said, editing video, including adding captions and titles, can be time-consuming.
Thankfully, you can learn the basics of this skill in a few hours and take this task off their hands. Businesses are paying hefty sums for this skill-set, so now is a good time to get in the game.
Because we live in an incredible time in history, you can learn this skill for almost nothing ($18 to $20) by taking a Udemy course on the subject. With this kind of opportunity, who needs to spend six-figures on a college education anymore?
4. Organizational Expert – With the wild popularity of shows like Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up, there is higher than ever demand for organizational experts who can help others to organize cabinets and de-clutter living spaces.
Without any credentials required, you can earn an impressive $250 to $400 —and sometimes more—per day to do this task
What do you need to be able to offer this service? Only three simple things:
- A simple one-page website or Facebook Business page
- Patience (remember, the person is hiring you to help them emotionally and physically)
- An eye for organization
5. Car detailing – If you can get your hands on bucket of water, a sponge, and a vacuum, then you’re ready to make money. Hand out flyers or post about your services on Facebook or Craigslist.
Car detailing can earn you a $100 or more per vehicle, so this can be an awesome gig if you target upscale neighborhoods.
If you can detail 5-6 cars per day, you can make some seriously good money.
6 Help AirBnB hosts – Any AirBnB Host will tell you that guests tend to have a lot of questions, managing the calendar is a lot of work, and there’s always coordinating to do with the cleaners. Plus, optimizing the pricing of an AirBnB listings and maximizing the total nights booked takes continuous attention.
I know this first hand, because I own and manage an AirBnB property within a beach town in Virginia. Reach out to a dozen AirBnB hosts and several will be more than happy to pay you for your help with managing listings.
If you want to collect reliable money, then charge for your services by the hour. On the other hand, if you want to maximize your gains, then request to receive a percentage of the total earnings booked at the property.
If you can help a host to increase their total bookings, charge more per stay, and collect 5-star reviews (so they appear higher in the AirBnB feed), then you deserve to collect a percentage of the total income earned.
Property management companies usually charge 10% or more of earnings, so if you keep your fees in line with this, you’ll be able to readily secure a roster of clients.
Plus, it’s not hard to target AirBnB owners. Simply create an AirBnb account and write them through the platform.
7. Affiliate Marketing – Affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services provided by other companies in order to earn a commission for every sale. Most often you will do this by using a referral link.
If you have a large social media following, like writing blog posts about products you enjoy, or want to do product reviews on video (published to YouTube), then you could earn some fast money with this approach.
If you don’t know where to start, Amazon has an affiliate program that lets you recommend products to earn commissions. It’s a quick and easy way to get started.
8. Rent Out Space on Airbnb – If you have a room in your house you don’t use, you can earn extra cash by renting it out on Airbnb. Depending on location, you can earn an average of $75 – $125 per night.
Even if you only do this part-time or on the weekend, this can add up fast—earning you hundreds, if not thousands, per month.
Just make sure that you either own the property or have written permission from your landlord to do so.
9. Professional Consulting (Clarity.fm) – If you enjoy solving problems or offering advice to others, you can offer consulting services.
If you don’t know where to get started, try offering your advice on Clarity.fm.
You can do it from the comfort of your home and they will pay you by the minute, for every minute, that you share your expertise. Best of all, you can set your rates!
I regularly pay for consulting expertise on Clarify.fm, so I can tell you that it’s a great service.
10. Freelance Writing – With freelance writing, you can compose articles for clients who are in need of quality writing services for their websites and marketing needs.
Plus, the most in-demand you become, the more you can charge.
If you like the idea of freelance writing from home in your pajamas, then check out ProBlogger.com. It’s a great place to get hired.
11. Proofreading – If you have a strong command of the English language and love to write, read and edit, then this gig is for you.
To land your first clients, simply reach out to blog writers or companies who put out a lot of published content. They’re likely to need your services and you can either set your rate by the word, project, or the hour.
12. Dog Training – Speaking from experience (I have four dogs), people will pay big money to get their pets trained. If you already have this skill, or you’re willing to watch YouTube videos to acquire it, then you could make big money working with Fido.
Because well-known companies like Off Leash K9 Training charge around $1000 for a package of 8 Starter Lessons and $3,000 to $4,000 for a two-week “Board and Train Program,” you can set high prices and still undercut them.
In particular, people will pay a premium to have you come to their home and train their dog on site.
13. Sell Items on Etsy – Using Etsy.com, you can now sell any of your handmade goods or custom-printed products to a global audience. You can even sell digital items on the platform.
Some successful sellers buy worn down furniture from flea markets and second-hard stores, refurnish them, and sell them for top dollar.
Other sellers create custom gear (think T-shirts, hats, and tank-tops) by uploading their artwork to Printify.com or Printful.com and sell these items through an integrated Etsy store.
Yet others sell jewelry, custom art, and DIY craft projects. The possibilities are endless!
14. Teach Online – You can also use your specialized skills and knowledge to teach individuals anywhere in the world about topics you are knowledgeable about.
While some online teaching gigs pay low rates, if you’re teaching a subject that can help someone land a new job or get their child into a highly regarded college, then you’ll be able to command better rates.
15. Write an eBook – Turn your ideas into a money by writing an eBook. This can be lucrative if you have special knowledge you want to share with others for a price.
There is no set pricing for eBooks. I’ve seen them sold for $9.99 to $99, so the pricing is really up to you.
If you’d like to see an example, this copywriting eBook sells for $49 and it’s one that I’ve bought.
16. Meal Prep – This side job involves helping busy working professionals and families with the constant need to prep nutritious meals.
You show up at their house every few nights and help them to prepare and prep meals they can use during the week.
While everyone can make money this way, if you have culinary skills or have cooked at a well-regarded restaurant, you’ll be able to charge a premium.
17. Teach Music Lessons – If you have a talent for music, you can use that to earn money by offering music lessons to both kids and adults near you.
Want to make more money? Consider recording some basic lessons and selling the videos to your in-person students as an upsell.
18. Sell Baked Goods – If you have baking skills and knowledge, you can convert them into cash by selling your baked goods.
This can be a lucrative side business for various events like birthdays and parties. You can also sell baked goods at your local Farmer’s Market.
19. Run a Gaming Channel – This side income works perfectly for those who are into gaming but want to earn a side income in the process.
You can work either as a video game reviewer, a beta tester, or a game streamer. All three pay out a nice chunk of change.
20. Be a photographer – With a DSLR camera and an understanding of composition and lighting, you can take photos during any event for an extra income.
Whether you want to do family photos, weddings, graduation photos, sporting events, or newborn features, there’s bound to be a niche you can dominate.
Not sure how to market yourself? Start by sharing your photography—and your camera tips and tricks—on your Instagram page.
The Instagram platform loves high-quality, high resolution images, so it’s easy to grow your account this way, while positioning yourself as an authority.
21. Sell an Online Course – Share your knowledge about a certain skill for a price and earn money for every individual who subscribes to your course.
Sites like Skillshare and Udemy are great platforms for this, because they let creators create and upload courses to their platform. This way, you don’t even need an audience to get started.
22. Landscaping – If you like to mow lawns, pull weeks, stack rocks, plant trees, and otherwise get your hands dirty, then this might be the gig for you.
To maximize your profits, I’d recommend charging by the project instead of the hour.
If you’re really a “go getter”, then focus your attention on selling your landscaping services and hire other folks you know to do the labor. This way, you can build up a roster of clients and multiply yourself in the process.
23. Sell Your Hair – While this many seem crazy, long hair can be sold for a serious premium.
One of the easiest way to pick up cash for it is to sell it on sites like HairSellOn.
24. Monetize Custom Designs with RedBubble – If you have good designing skills, you can create custom designs for T-shirts and upload them to sites like RedBubble. As RedBubble says, they sell “Awesome products designed by independent artists.”
Best of all, the site will pay you a commission for every sale made with your design.
Seriously, what’s better than making re-occurring money from work that you did once?
25. Edit Resumes – Many people lack the ability to assemble a compelling resume, but need a strong one to get into college or land their dream job. If you’re good at resume writing, then use LinkedIn or your personal network to launch this service.
After getting a few good testimonials, your demand will skyrocket.
I have a friend who gets paid $250 per college resume that she reviews and critiques. She usually does around 10 per month, which means she has created a pretty nice side hustle.
Side Jobs for Stacking Cash
Having a side job can be a powerful way to earn extra income outside of your 9-to-5. Although it will take some effort, it can be rewarding once you find the right one to match your lifestyle.
In some cases, it might even grow to replace your main job!
Which side jobs are you going to try? Which ones are missing from this list? Let me know in the comments below.