Jobs for Earning Extra Income

To Earn Money

  • Become a busker.

See about earning extra cash by singing at a café where you pass around a jar to get tips from audience members. One vocalist did just this at the Muddy Cup when I saw her perform years ago.

A woman named Maria used to sing and play guitar on the Staten Island Ferry. She was at this gig for over ten years. Riders tossed dollar bills in her open guitar case.

  • Monetize a hobby.

Are you a baker or photographer? Do you have a skill you can get paid for? Do it for dollars.

  • Walk dogs for neighbors.

You can find clients on www.wag.com.

  • Freelance as a writer.

Use www.upwork.com or www.mediabistro.com to find work.

  • Become a Cooking Coach.

Like a friend of mine you can help clients create recipes for cool cash.

  • Do coding or computer projects.

Go on www.guru.com to find work.

  • Sell products you craft.

Either through www.etsy.com or your own Instagram account.

Set up a “craft fair” at your job for coworkers at holiday time.

  • Translate documents.

Should you be fluent in reading and writing in a second language.

  • Teach a language.

Have a method for doing this that will enable students to remember what they learn.

  • Edit or proofread manuscripts.

These days it’s computer-based.

  • Enter a cooking or writing or other contest.

Maybe your chocolate chips will be a winning recipe.

  • Paint portraits.

For the Artists among us.

  • Join a focus group or research study.

www.register.maxionresearch.com

https://www.gigworker.com/side-hustle/paid-focus-groups

  • Get a Mystery Shopper job.

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/high-paying-mystery-shopper-jobs

  • Become a Personal Assistant

www.thumbtack.com

www.taskrabbit.com

  • Provide tutoring services

www.takelessons.com

www.skooli.com

  • Cut hair in people’s homes.

Superb with a scissor? Find clients like my aunt—she had a hairdresser come to her apartment.

  • Become a private-pay Home Health Aide.

In New York City Aides charge twenty-five dollars per hour.

  • Clean apartments or houses.

Should you not have a car tack on an extra fee for transit fare.

  • Provide tailoring and alterations.

A friend of a friend came to my apartment to pin up my outfits. She charged ten dollars for her transit costs plus the fee for hemming the clothes. Then came to my apartment to drop off the items after she was done.

  • Become the go-to tech person.

For individuals who don’t know how to install or update or use their devices. Help them do this for a fee.

  • Code websites.

Freelance as a web designer. Find clients at www.guru.com. That’s where I hired my designer.

  • Find clients for your editorial or other literary expertise at www.patreon.com where you can get benefactors to pay you.
  • Gain credentials as an expert in a field so that you can be paid to do public speaking. Use the Open to Work designation on your LinkedIn account to drum up business.
  • Write a Substack newsletter for paying subscribers to read at www.substack.com.
  • If this doesn’t clash with your ethics I’ve heard that people can be paid to take part in legal protests and demonstrations. The company Crowds on Demand offers positions. The Google AI information on this states that some believe hiring protestors undermines the authenticity of the activism.

That said nonprofits can offer paid stipends and fellowships for organizers and activists working on campaigns. Should you follow along and care deeply about a specific issue you might try to get paid to promote the cause.

No law exists in the United States requiring disclosure of who is funding political protests. Provided you’re not engaging in illegal methods for the organization you’re rallying around the choice is yours whether to pursue this income stream.

Monetizing a Skill

Heck today a cat playing a toy piano can monetize their videos to earn income. I’m going to talk about getting extra money by using a skill or skill set on a job you create for yourself. More in the next blog entry about the specifics of where and how you can do this.

My experience is that a person should use LinkedIn to look for jobs and to recommend our connections for jobs. If you list on LinkedIn that you are Open to Work in a specific field you will get other LinkedIn members come calling for your service.

Here’s the word up about this though: I’ve been wary of persons who figure out what my personal email address is and send me a message to that account that is a cold call for me to hire them as the go-between for me and prospective clients of my services.

One man who sent me an email claiming he could get me public speaking gigs I confess I thought of as a pimp. Two others–a woman and a man–also claimed they could get me speaking engagements.

Just no. That’s about as reputable as trusting a business that staples their telephone number to a wooden telephone pole out on the street.

The worst is that you could get like I have a recruiting firm soliciting you via your work email. At first I hit reply to tell the person to stop sending job posting emails to my work account. Then I realized a real person wasn’t lifting a finger to click send to give me the postings every day. The person set up an algorithm to auto-blitz my work email. That’s when I had to click Report Spam.

It’s easy for a recruiter to find out your work email address when your employer has a website. They can simply guess how your name is spelled in the account and then type @queensuniversity for example after your first initial and last name.

The idea that a headhunter is using robo-emails like robo-calls on the telephone doesn’t sit well with me as an effective strategy. At my first job at the insurance firm the prime ethic was to “qualify your leads” for pitching to prospective clients. Not everyone is going to be in your target market so why pitch to them?

It might cost pennies on the dollar to auto-email people job listings. That’s really not cost-effective though. This is a “lowest common denominator” approach that should be frowned on.

You and I should be the ones self-initiating getting jobs that monetize our skills. LinkedIn is the ideal venue for reaching out to others and having them contact you as well.

It’s said that a person should post a comment to their LinkedIn feed 2 to 3 times per week.

In the coming blog entry I will begin to post a list of specific jobs us peers can get using a skill or skills we have.