21 Side Gigs To Make Money in Your Spare Time

If you’re looking for extra income that doesn’t require you to pick up another job, a side gig could be the perfect solution. Picking up side gigs to make money is becoming more and more popular among busy people looking for extra income to supplement what they make as they earn money in their spare time.

21 Side Hustles To Make Money on Your Own Schedule

Between the costs of child care, housing, food, and everything else you pay for on a daily basis, it can be challenging to make ends meet from a day job alone. That’s precisely why people continue to jump on the gig economy bandwagon to improve their personal finances as they get out of debt and beef up their savings.

From flexible work-at-home jobs to an online side hustle, numerous ways exist to increase your income on your own schedule. Here are a few of the best side hustles to earn extra money.

1. Upcycle Used Items to Resell

Search Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or local flea markets and yard sales for furniture or decor pieces that you can transform into something new. This hustle idea is known as upcycling, and it’s the perfect side hustle for creatives with woodworking, upholstering, and similar skills.

Be sure to look for super affordable pieces, like dining room table sets, desks, bedroom sets, old frames, and anything else priced low that you can upcycle and sell for a significant profit.

2. Shop for and Deliver Groceries and Food

Independent delivery services, like DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber Eats, make it possible for people with regular jobs to earn extra money when they have some time to spare. This is one of the best side hustles for people who want to be their own boss and work when they want.

Each service has its own requirements for drivers, but most require you to complete a background check and have reliable transportation, car insurance, and a valid driver’s license. Once you’re approved, you can begin claiming the shifts you want to work and earning money to deliver items to customers. Some delivery services even allow you to choose the orders you want to deliver during your shift.

3. Detail Cars

Do you have extra space in your driveway or an empty bay in your garage? If so, consider using it to wash and detail cars in the evenings or weekends when you’re off work. This great side hustle has minimal costs to start. You just need some quality cleaning supplies, so most of what you make is straight profit.

It’s common to charge about $50 per hour to start, but as you establish a customer base, you could move toward the $60-$100 per hour range.

4. Share Your Talents as a Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistance is a great side hustle for people with a wide range of digital skills to earn additional income online. As a virtual assistant, you help clients with the tasks they need completed, like:

• Writing blog posts
• Answering phone calls or emails
• Entering and organizing data
• Posting on social media channels
• Setting appointments
• Managing contact lists
• Graphic design
• Helping with affiliate marketing
• Creating and managing spreadsheets
• Completing basic bookkeeping
• Conducting market research

Facebook groups dedicated to matching virtual assistants with business owners needing help are excellent places to find new gigs, even as a beginner.

5. Tutor Students Online

Online tutoring companies, like VIPKID and Chegg, provide flexible side gigs for current teachers or subject matter experts to earn extra cash teaching English online or helping students in various subjects.

This can be an excellent form of supplemental income for teachers, not to mention a convenient remote side hustle. Just be aware that companies focused on English tutoring typically work with non-English speakers worldwide, so you may need to be open to working in the evenings, early mornings, or weekends.

6. Sell Printables

If you shop on Etsy, there’s a good chance you’ve seen printables, like wall art, stationery, calendars, or planner pages, available for purchase and download. Printable creation is an excellent remote side hustle for relatively passive income. Once you create something, you can sell it over and over again.

Some creators sell their printables directly from their websites by setting up an online shop. Shopify provides e-commerce websites built specifically for online sellers, allowing you to get your first sale as soon as you start bringing in traffic.

7. Get Your Writing Published

Ever thought about being a freelance writer and having your written words published online? One of the best side gigs to make money today is freelance writing. The freelance writing market is highly competitive, but if your writing skills shine and you focus on an area of expertise, you could turn freelance writing into a lucrative side gig and potentially a full-time job.

Start by joining Upwork to look for clients needing writers, networking on LinkedIn, and joining Facebook groups for freelance writers. You can also reach out directly to online publications that work with freelance writers to pitch articles for submission.

8. Edit Content for Podcasters

Avid podcast listeners know what it takes for a podcast episode to be engaging and interesting. If that’s you, consider trying your hand at editing podcast content before it goes live. You can be a freelancer behind the scenes, cutting, trimming, and combining pieces of podcast conversations to create a cohesive episode listeners will want to tune into.

Reach out to up-and-coming podcasts or podcast networks with your resume, and be ready to talk about your experience.

9. Deliver with Amazon Flex

Amazon Flex lets you deliver Amazon packages to customers to assist its busy delivery system. You can sign up for a block of time when you’re available to deliver packages in neighborhoods near you. Amazon Flex only requires that you have a safe and reliable vehicle to bring you from one place to the next. According to Amazon Flex, most drivers earn between $18 and $25 an hour – not bad for a side gig.

Do you like to order from Amazon? Learn how to stop porch pirates from stealing your packages.

10. Make Online Courses for Experts

Do you have graphic design and writing skills? Online course creation might be right for you. Experts of all kinds – from real estate moguls to parenting experts – create online courses for people to learn their skills and tips online, but not all of them know the ins and outs of creating courses themselves.

That’s where your tech skills can come into play. You could charge a flat fee to create the full course based on guidance from the expert or ask for a flat fee plus commissions on course sales. With some online courses selling for thousands of dollars per order, the latter pay structure could provide lots of passive income.

11. Walk Dogs in Your Neighborhood

What’s the perfect side hustle for someone who loves being outside and adores dogs? Dog walking!

Ask your neighbors if they need help caring for or walking their dogs during the day or when they’re on vacation. If you offer 30-minute walks for $10, you could earn $40 in just a couple of hours or even more if you walk multiple dogs at a time. Feeding or administering medicine can bulk up your earnings even more.

12. Help Brands with Their Social Media Content

Ever thought about becoming a social media manager? Make it your side gig to start before turning it into a full-time job. This hustle is best for people who use social media platforms frequently and understand the different algorithms used to make content go viral.

Browse social media channels to find businesses that align with your interests, and contact them to see if they could use your help for a few hours a week.

13. Rent an Extra Parking Spot

Websites like Spot Hero and Spacer make it possible to build a passive income stream by renting out your extra parking space to someone who needs it. This can be especially lucrative in busy city areas where events are often held, but parking is scarce. You don’t even need a special skill to earn extra income with this hustle, as the apps take care of most of the work.

14. Join a Focus Group

Focus groups are in-depth versions of online surveys, usually taking anywhere from one to four hours to complete. Some focus groups are spread over a few days but will compensate accordingly. Many focus groups pay between $50 and $150, depending on their length, which is good money for a few hours of your time.

User Interviews and Respondent.io are two popular online focus group companies to sign up with.

15. Clean Homes or Office Spaces

When you’re not working and need to build up your bank account, use your time to clean homes or office spaces. Cleaners earn anywhere from $15-$30+ an hour, depending on the complexity of the space needing to be cleaned, so you can potentially earn $100 or more for just a few hours of work.

16. Start a Poshmark Closet

Register for a Poshmark account for free to set up an online closet and start selling clothes you don’t wear anymore. Many sellers make money just by selling used items from their own closets, but others scale to buy and sell designer fashion for a profit. Either way, you can make good money just by selling online when you have a few minutes to spare.

17. Design Home Interiors

Turn your eye for interior design into a side gig to make money. Ask friends and family if they need help with a room makeover to build your portfolio before reaching out to other people in your neighborhood or town. Or, browse social media and Facebook groups to find homeowners who might need your help.

18. Test Games

You only need a love for gaming to become a game tester to check for bugs and errors before games get released to the public. Some websites, like PlaytestCloud and Game Tester, allow gamers to sign up, test games, and get paid for their time. You can also contact developers to ask about freelance game testing positions.

If you’re more of an app gamer, sign up for TesterWork or Test IO. These companies look for people interested in testing and sharing their opinions about mobile apps.

19. Sell Your Best Photos

Whether you’re a photographer as your full-time job or you take the occasional newborn or wedding shoot, there’s another way to make money with your photography skills aside from pricey picture packages. During your downtime, take photos to sell on stock photography sites like Shutterstock or Wirestock. You’ll earn a commission each time someone downloads your work.

20. Train AI Chatbots

Artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded over the last couple of years. It’s now available to write blog posts, create graphics for websites, and even generate headshots for professionals to use on their social media channels. Still, AI isn’t perfect, and it needs help to continue doing what it does best.

That’s where AI chatbot training comes in. Sign up for Remotasks to make money training AI chatbots to produce more accurate results based on prompts. These quick assignments allow you to earn up to $20 an hour in your spare time.

21. Become a Tour Guide

Do you live in an interesting area that tourists visit? Share your love for and knowledge about the area with visitors by bringing them on guided tours of key places they’ll want to learn about. Consider starting a website where people traveling to the area can learn more about you and your upcoming tours. You can earn even more by partnering with one of the best travel insurance companies and advertising their services to your customers.

Making Extra Money with Side Gigs

Finding side gigs to make money that blend your skills and interests makes earning extra cash feel fun, unlike the chore a full-time job sometimes feels like. Side gigs can boost your income to help you save for retirement, special purchases, or vacations. But if you’re not learning how to spend less money overall, you might fall into the trap of working more to make more, only to continue spending above your means.

Think about creating a personal budget and tracking your expenses to help you see where your money goes and how you could cut costs. Then, the money you earn from side gigs can become more valuable, giving you the spending cash you want while also helping you reach your future financial goals.