Good opportunities for extra income?

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DarkLight

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I’m stuck on the part-time job route for right now, and minimum wage doesn’t go very far in the first place. So I’m looking for small, flexible things to do that can earn extra money. Online opportunities are especially good. Does anyone have any good experience with ways to make a bit of side money?
 
I’m a little burned out by it at the moment, but babysitting, especially for date nights/occasional, might work for you if you had transportation (I remember reading that you might not). You can make $50 (at least) an evening easily.

I earn a small bit of income (maybe $20 a month) doing online surveys for which I get paid per survey, probably about 10-15 minutes each. Not shabby. If they open up referrals for my particular company I can send you a link.

There are also “shops” for various businesses, but it can be hard to find legitimate companies that organize them and they are also transportation-dependent. I am on the list for one company but unfortunately they have yet to post anything I’ve been able to do (either too far away or really inconvenient time.)
 
I’d need something that would work around a (currently evening) job, unfortunately. So babysitting might not work unless my job schedule changes.

You’re correct that I don’t have transportation right now. I’m looking to move into the town proper though, so I’d be within walking/biking distance of a lot more.
 
Hi Darklight,
I know someone who was tutoring over Skype, students in rural areas or in other countries? Anyway, searching for Skype tutoring turned up a lot of results. Sorry I can’t give you more information about what she was doing. That might be something that would work well for you.

Hope other things are looking up for you 🙂
 
St_Francis said:
Hi Darklight,
I know someone who was tutoring over Skype, students in rural areas or in other countries? Anyway, searching for Skype tutoring turned up a lot of results. Sorry I can’t give you more information about what she was doing. That might be something that would work well for you.

Hope other things are looking up for you 🙂
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Or tutor.com if you pass the mock session.
 
Amazon has just opened a store for home services.

The pay probably won’t be amazing, but you might see something you could do: aerial yoga, virus and spyware removal, ESL, goat grazing services, etc.

I’m totally not kidding about the grazing services–it’s right there on the main page for Amazon home services.
 
Xantippe said:
I’m totally not kidding about the grazing services–it’s right there on the main page for Amazon home services.
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There’s an episode of Curious George about that, oddly enough. George and his friend start a lawn service when his friend’s pet goats get loose and start eating a field full of poison ivy.

It’s one of my favorites because it’s actually very practical. 😉
 
I don’t know how this would work without transportation, but I think substitute teaching is one of the most convenient forms of part time employment. The schedule is consistent and doesn’t conflict with night jobs, weekends, or holidays. You can work when you want to and not when you don’t. They pay is around $80-$110 a day and it’s generally a fun job.
 
DarkLight said:
I’m stuck on the part-time job route for right now, and minimum wage doesn’t go very far in the first place. So I’m looking for small, flexible things to do that can earn extra money. Online opportunities are especially good. Does anyone have any good experience with ways to make a bit of side money?
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If you speak another language, you can apply for and do subtitles for netflix, etc. like a friend does. Even if you don’t speak another langauge, you might be able to closed captioning for English movies.
 
Allegra said:
I don’t know how this would work without transportation, but I think substitute teaching is one of the most convenient forms of part time employment. The schedule is consistent and doesn’t conflict with night jobs, weekends, or holidays. You can work when you want to and not when you don’t. They pay is around $80-$110 a day and it’s generally a fun job.
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The one thing is that with a night job is that I’m realistically sleeping til about 10 or 11 the next day. I need my 8h of sleep after all - and with my health I start going downhill rapidly if I don’t get it.
 
It depends on your skills. I recently retired, and try to earn a little extra by doing translation of technical & other documents (English<>French). Not so much for the cash though, but more for the intellectual stimulation. I also do some of this pro-bono for the right “cause” (right now, for the newsletter of a senior’s residence).

I’m only interested in work that I can do from home at the moment.
 
OraLabora said:
It depends on your skills. I recently retired, and try to earn a little extra by doing translation of technical & other documents (English<>French). Not so much for the cash though, but more for the intellectual stimulation. I also do some of this pro-bono for the right “cause” (right now, for the newsletter of a senior’s residence).

I’m only interested in work that I can do from home at the moment.
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I’m not sure I have a whole lot in the way of skills. Which is kind of my problem - I’m hitting the job market and hearing you need a few years of experience to get even a minimum wage full time job. I have two and a half years as a teaching assistant, but that’s about it.
 
DarkLight said:
I’m not sure I have a whole lot in the way of skills. Which is kind of my problem - I’m hitting the job market and hearing you need a few years of experience to get even a minimum wage full time job. I have two and a half years as a teaching assistant, but that’s about it.
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That’s a very responsible position requiring a lot of varied skills (planning, public speaking, good time sense, organization, managing others, composing assignments and tests, grading assignments and tests, meeting deadlines, etc.).

Don’t sell yourself short.
 
Xantippe said:
That’s a very responsible position requiring a lot of varied skills (planning, public speaking, good time sense, organization, managing others, composing assignments and tests, grading assignments and tests, meeting deadlines, etc.).

Don’t sell yourself short.
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And here I thought it was about being mean to undergrads and cruelly denying students who “really needed” an A?

But seriously, I am using it as experience for tutoring and editing type jobs. I spent a lot of time reviewing papers and figuring out how to give clear “how to write for college” instructions.
 
You can edit? There is a market for that,
What would you charge to proofread (for punctuation errors) a 65,000 word book online? It looks like most proofreaders charge $30 to 35 per hour, and are out of my price range.
PM me if you would like to discuss it…
 
Viki63 said:
You can edit? There is a market for that,
What would you charge to proofread (for punctuation errors) a 65,000 word book online? It looks like most proofreaders charge $30 to 35 per hour, and are out of my price range.
PM me if you would like to discuss it…
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Good option.

When I had a little free time, I proofread a couple of psychological reports for a family member that is not a native English speaker, making lots of marginal corrections. I got $2 a page for my work–not sure what the actual going rate is, but $2 a page seemed fairly reasonable for the work involved.
 
I also did transcription work once for a company and made about $500 for 15 hours of work total - so over $30/hour. It’s boring work, but I could pretty much do it whenever I wanted, and managed to squeeze it in with a newborn.

That’s one of the values of “networking,” honestly - that job kind of fell into my lap because people knew me and that I was reliable, so they passed my name along. Letting people you know that you’re available and open to extra one-time jobs could bring in a decent amount of side income, even though it’s not as reliable as a scheduled job.
 
pensmama87 said:
I also did transcription work once for a company and made about $500 for 15 hours of work total - so over $30/hour. It’s boring work, but I could pretty much do it whenever I wanted, and managed to squeeze it in with a newborn.

That’s one of the values of “networking,” honestly - that job kind of fell into my lap because people knew me and that I was reliable, so they passed my name along. Letting people you know that you’re available and open to extra one-time jobs could bring in a decent amount of side income, even though it’s not as reliable as a scheduled job.
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Yeah.

When the OP gets within range of a big college town or community, she may wish to try logic tutoring if she feels like she has a handle on the subject. A lot of people struggle with logic and need a tutor to drag them through the class.
 
Private tutoring sounds like a very viable option. Also maybe teach adult or leisure learning classes on subject(s) you are familiar with.
 
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