Today we are going to talk about side gigs. First off, what am I defining as a “side gig”? While many work at home jobs could be considered side gigs, this list is going to cover various things you can do in addition to your regular work from home or outside the home job to make real extra money — not just a little bit of change here and there.
That said, many of these side gigs are lucrative enough either on their own or combined with other similar opportunities to actually be your full-time income.
But before you quit your day job to do any of them, I'd definitely recommend testing the waters first. Just consider it extra money and see how it goes!
Side gigs encompass a ton of various categories, so we've got a lot to cover here. Note that most of these are offline opportunities, but you will likely need a smartphone and in some cases a computer to be able to sign up and accept work.
Now that we are all more connected via smartphone and social media, it's a LOT easier in this day and age to make opportunities like the ones below pay off!
The Ultimate List Of Side Gigs
Personal Shopping
There are all kinds of companies that need personal shoppers. This means delivering everything from groceries, fast food, restaurant food, and retail items to their clients who either can't get out or don't feel like getting out, and getting paid for it (plus tips).
RideSharing
You're probably very familiar with ridesharing apps and likely used them. But if not, this is basically downloading an app to find a ride when you need it. You can work on your own time for any of the companies below, giving rides to people who request them in your area.
CarSharing
This is different from ridesharing. Instead of giving people rides, you're actually allowing people the use of your car when you're not driving it. It's a cool way for your car to make you money when it's not in use!
- Getaround
- Turo
- HyreCar
- RidersShare– Rent your motorcycle.
Rent Your House
If you live in a place where people tend to vacation, you can earn extra money by letting people stay in your home. I'm sure you've heard of the first option for this on my list (Airbnb), but there are other similar companies that will also let you list your home and set your own rates.
Renting Everything Else
In addition to your car and your home (options listed above), you can get paid to rent out all kinds of other things you have that may be of value to others. Such as …
- Neighbor – Rent your desirable parking spot, or any storage space you own.
- AirGarage– Another set that lets you rent your parking.
- Pavemint– List your parking space for rent.
- Splacer– Rent your space for events.
- RVShare– Make money renting your RV.
- Campanda– Another site that lets you list your RV for rent.
- Sparetoolz – Renting out power tools
- Store at My House– List your storage space.
- BoatSetter– List your boat for rent.
- StyleLend– Rent your clothes.
Pet Sitting
While you can certainly strike out on your own and start a pet-sitting business, it may be a little easier to find clients if you hook yourself up with a well-known directory that will list your services. While these services do take a commission, you may find clients faster and keep yourself more booked up.
- Rover
- Fetch Pet Care
- Holidog
- Care.com
- SitterCity – Read our Sittercity review first for lots more details on how this one works!
- PetSitter.com
Caregiving For Seniors & Children
In addition to pet-sitting, you can also earn extra money getting listed with popular sites and apps for your senior and child care services. Below are some of the more well-known, reputable options.
- Care.com– Also listed above for pet-sitting. You can apply for child care and senior care as well.
- Honor– Senior care.
- SitterCity– Also listed above for pet-sitting. You can apply to offer child care services as well.
- U-Sit – For college students to find babysitting gigs.
- UrbanSitter– Child care.
- Bubble– Child care.
- Babysits– Child care.
Selling Your Stuff
We've talked extensively about selling your stuff here at Real Ways to Earn. It's the ultimate side gig because it's flexible, you can make good money, and some people are actually able to turn it into a business. When you run out of your own stuff to sell, you can start “flipping” purchases you make for a profit.
- eBay
- Sell Digital Printables (home business idea)
- Sell Low Content Books (home business idea)
- Etsy
- Mercari
- Decluttr
- Poshmark
- Many more places to sell your stuff here.
Photography
If you're good at photography, you can earn side money selling your pictures and also listing your services. Here are some of the more reputable sites for doing these things below:
- StudioNow – Sell your photos.
- Snappr– List your services.
- Scoopshot– List your services.
- Foap– Sell your photos.
- SmugMug– Sell your photos.
- Shutterstock– Sell your photos.
Offer Moving Services
If you're able to lift heavy furniture and boxes, your services are needed! And I can speak from experience since we moved last year and had a very hard time locating a moving company that wasn't booked up for months to move us on the spur of the moment.
Mystery Shopping
You can earn money accepting mystery shopping companies in your local area from reputable companies that need the service.
Note that while there are a lot of mystery shopping scams out there (some scammers will send you fake checks pretending they are from real mystery shopping companies — giving these companies an undeserved bad name), the companies below are the real deal.
- Marketforce
- Confero
- AboutFace
- GBW
- Amusement Advantage
- BestMark
- Yardi-Matrix
- More mystery shopping companies listed here.
Offer Repair, Cleaning & Home Maintenance Services
If you're handy, there are plenty of people out there who need help with things they can't fix on their own. Some people need home repair, car repair, or even computer repair. Sign up with the following sites to list your services and get side work.
- Angi Services – Offer handyman services.
- Allbetter – Repair and maintenance services.
- Tidy– Housekeeping.
- HelloTech– In-home tech support gigs.
- TaskEasy– Lawn care, house keeping and more.
- TaskRabbit– An app to offer your services for almost anything at all.
Miscellaneous
These opportunities are side gigs, but didn't fit very neatly into any of the categories above.
- WeGoLook– Get paid to go “look” at things for people who aren't close enough. Go look at cars people are interested in buying, houses people are interested in buying/renting, and then report your findings back to them.
- JMI Reports – Field inspection.
- GlamSquad– Offering in-home makeup and beauty services.
- AmazonFlex– Delivering Amazon packages for Amazon.
- Field Agent– Complete short tasks that come through on your smarpthone.
- GigWalk – Very similar to Field Agent, listed above. Complete tasks inside stores from your smartphone.
And that wraps up our list! We have another list of part time work from home opportunities if you'd prefer to work at home rather than out running various errands.
Good luck to you!
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It includes the following e-books ($1 each if you buy them individually):
- Your Quick Guide to Legit Work From Home Jobs
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- Your Quick Guide to Data Entry Jobs From Home
- Your Quick Guide to Working at Home as a General Transcriber
- Your Quick Guide to Working at Home as a Virtual Assistant
- Your Quick Guide to Taking Paid Surveys For Extra Cash
- Your Quick Guide to Getting FREE Products to Test & Keep
- Your Quick Guide to Making Money as a Mystery Shopper
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You will get an email with a link to download the PDF files after your purchase.
Thank you!
Anna Thurman is a work at home blogger and mom of two. She has been researching and reviewing remote jobs for over 13 years. Her findings are published weekly here at Real Ways to Earn.
Hi Anna,
Thanks for compiling all these ideas into one awesome blog post. I’m quite familiar with the online money making stuff, but this really blows my mind as majority of these are considered as offline side gigs.
I was looking for a good home job because I’m tired of looking at and having to juggle bus schedules to get to a variety of temporary jobs. I do not drive, have a drivers license, or access to a car. For most of these, it seems to me that it is a requirement to be able to drive and/or to have a car. Anything I could do which would NOT require me to have to drive?
Which ones are both of you using. I could use some extra income as a beginning blogger.
I started my side gig as a social marketer to cover the ‘extras’ . Super happy that I did. I can work from my phone, anywhere, anytime, as little or as much as I want. Love the freedom it’s given me…not to mention the income.
Sounds great. I love the idea of side gigs as I have roughly 4 of them now, 2 of which I plan to maximize as much as possible and turn into full time income, one of them offering residual income. Love that!
Fantastic! What side jobs did you find productive for you? I am diligently searching but wanted to reach out to real people to see what they had had success in….. thank you ahead of time for your help and answers.
If interested in more info, please contact me.
Hi Joanna, I would like more info about the social marketer position.
Hello, Johanna! I’d like more information on the social marketer gig, please. What’s your email?