The days of having one source of income seem to be going by the wayside.
Now it’s common to have one full-time job that occupies most of your time and several other remote odd jobs to supplement your monthly income.
The easy part is deciding that you want to find a side job.
The part that seems to be more difficult is finding a job that fits into your schedule and overall lifestyle.
In this article, we’re going to go through 10 odd jobs that all different types of people can look into.
Each one has its own perks and can be the perfect fit for you depending on the kind of person you are.
1. Handyman
If you have a way with tools and are handy around the house, then finding a handyman or handywoman job may be the right fit for you.
With companies like TaskRabbit and Takl, you can sign up and offer a variety of services on their platforms.
These sites allow taskers to search for available jobs in your area that you feel you’re qualified to complete.
This could include assembling IKEA furniture, fixing a leaky faucet, or mowing someone’s lawn.
Nearly any type of job you can think up is listed on these sites, like carpentry, plumbing, landscaping, or providing personal assistance.
Once you’ve been paired up with a job, you’ll navigate to the customer’s home, complete the work, and then get paid through the app.
2. Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants are like personal assistants for the digital space.
Business teams and small business owners hire virtual assistants to help them with administrative tasks.
This could include completing payroll, managing calendars, answering customer emails, or any other time-consuming task companies would rather hire out.
In many cases, your schedule will be quite flexible depending on the arrangement you’ve set up with the company you work for.
Regardless, since this is a virtual position, you can work from home or anywhere else you’d like.
As more companies shift from a full-time workforce to outsourced labor, there are many virtual assistant jobs available.
If you have a fair amount of self-discipline and you’re great with multitasking, this is a great opportunity.
3. Personal Care
Providing personal care is another way to make money in your free time.
These types of roles are perfect for those who are outgoing and have excellent people skills.
Through platforms like Care.com, you can find a variety of open care opportunities.
These include being a nanny, babysitting, tutoring, or providing senior care.
Once you’ve been accepted to an open position, you’ll likely be working with the same family.
If you establish a positive relationship, you could have the same recurring job for months to come.
You can also add on extra hours and find additional jobs with other families to fill up your schedule.
Rideshare drivers get to set their own schedule, work as many hours as they’d like, and be their own boss.
You’ll get paid to log onto your driver app, pick up passengers around town, and drop them off at their destination.
The nice part about being a rideshare driver is that you can pick up the app and start a driving shift whenever you’d like.
This is a convenient odd job since you can start making money at the drop of a hat.
There will obviously be times when it’s better to drive than others, primarily peak hours over the weekend.
But if you’re looking to pick up some extra hours, being a rideshare driver will work out just fine.
The two top dogs in the rideshare game are Uber and Lyft.
We recommend looking into these two rideshare platforms first.
Below are two guides that will teach you the basics of how both platforms work.
5. Food Delivery
The food delivery industry is more ripe with options than ridesharing.
Food delivery services give you the opportunity to make money delivering customers their food orders.
Platforms like Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats are available in most major American cities.
Many delivery drivers develop a personal preference for one service over the other, but it will be up to you to figure out which one you like best.
In comparison to rideshare driving, the hours aren’t nearly as flexible since you’ll be operating only when restaurants are open.
These types of gigs do give you the advantage of getting to explore all the great restaurants your city has to offer.
Here are a few guides that we put together to show you how to get started with each:
- Get started driving with Grubhub
- Get started driving with Uber Eats
- Get started driving with Drizly
- Get started driving with DoorDash
- Get started driving with GoPuff
6. Grocery Delivery
Grocery delivery services pay drivers like you to shop for groceries and deliver them to customers’ homes.
This can be a fun way to play a role in a real-life Supermarket Sweep.
Services like Instacart and Shipt allow customers to order groceries online.
Once you receive an order, you’ll navigate to the store, fill out the grocery list, and then drive to the customer’s location.
Similar to food delivery, the hours aren’t nearly as flexible as rideshare driving, however, this is still a great odd job to make money on the side.
Here are a few guides that we put together to show you how to get started:
7. Blogging
Blogging will require a substantial amount of work and discipline to successfully pull off, but if you succeed, the payoff can be quite handsome.
Running a successful blog requires a great deal of planning before you can launch your site.
You’ll need to come up with a content niche that you think readers will engage with.
You’ll then need to be disciplined about writing two to three articles per week in order to gain traction on Google and increase your monthly traffic.
After you’ve successfully garnered substantial monthly traffic, you can begin to look into ways to monetize your blog.
This can include affiliate marketing, online advertisements, or paid sponsorships.
Once you have your site up and running, you’ll have consistent monthly revenues if you continue to pump out a few articles per week.
8. Survey Sites
Online survey sites pay you for giving your opinion on products, services, and advertisements.
Each survey doesn’t typically pay a ton of money, however, if you knock off a few here and there you’ll be able to secure some extra money each week.
Websites like SurveyClub, Survey Junkie and Swagbucks will pay you to answer surveys and complete other simple tasks online.
This can also include things like watching videos, shopping online, or playing games.
How hard can that be?
Both of these sites operate on a point-based system and allow you to cash out once you hit a certain point threshold.
You’re able to receive a cash payout through PayPal or you can even redeem gift cards to your favorite stores.
You can then sell or trade these gift cards for cash after earning them if you decide you’d rather have the cash.
For a complete list of survey sites that you can sign up for, check out our list of the 9 best survey sites to earn extra cash.
9. Sell Things Online
Selling things online is a great way to make money in your free time.
There are plenty of places you can sell goods online, but a few places you can start are eBay, Craigslist, Facebook, or Etsy.
To start off, you can sell nearly anything on eBay, the original marketplace for used goods.
This is a nice platform if you want to sell items you have already owned in a bidding environment.
This is a platform that is especially powerful if you have rare collectibles such as Pokemon cards or baseball cards.
You can also look into retail arbitrage, which is the act of buying goods from one place and selling them in another for a higher price.
Many side hustlers will go to the clearance rack at Walmart and purchase products for pennies on the dollar.
They’ll then upload these products on eBay and sell them for much higher.
Facebook Marketplace is another place you can sell goods online.
This platform is primarily geared towards local sales within your area.
We would describe this social media channel as being more of a Craigslist platform than eBay.
Lastly, if you’re more of the creative type and are able to make unique products, you can create a store on Etsy.
This is perfect if you have an eye for design and can create things like wedding invitations, personalized products, or handmade goods.
From there, you can get pretty creative with things you’d like to sell.
There are marketplaces for virtually anything.
A few examples:
- Poshmark: a marketplace for people to sell clothes online
- Aftcra: a marketplace for people to sell art online
- Decluttr: a company that buys old phones for cash from customers
- Bizbuysell: a marketplace for people looking to sell their business
- Offerup and Letgo: companies that will buy pretty much anything else
10. Dog Walking
Walking dogs is the perfect way to get out of the house and get paid to hang out with some furry friends.
With platforms like Wag, Rover and Care.com, you can get paired up with pet care opportunities in your area.
This can include walking dogs, but also other opportunities like letting dogs out, pet sitting, house sitting, and pet grooming.
Walking dogs can quickly ramp up once you’ve locked in repeat customers and can show that you have experience with animals.
If you have a way with animals, a dog walking gig might be the perfect way to make extra cash.
We put together a few guides to get you started:
- The complete list of dog walking jobs for gig workers
- Get started walking dogs with Rover
- How much money can you make as a Rover dog walker?
Find Odd Jobs Near You
There are plenty of odd jobs out there — dog walker, survey taker, virtual assistant.
The important part is that all of these odd jobs allow you to find an additional source of income on the side.
You can keep your full-time job and employ one of the ideas above to bring in extra cash.
Try a few out and see what fits your lifestyle.
Best of luck in finding your new job!
