12 Side Hustles from home

According to a 2019 Bankrate survey, 45% of the US workforce have a side hustle that occupies them for an average of 12 hours a week.

With US unemployment rate hovering around 7%, many people are turning to side hustles to earn extra income to cover living expenses or as a cushion for an uncertain future.

The advantage of having a side hustle is you can do it on top of your regular job. You can pick a gig that you are interested in or that matches your skills and experience.

Are you ready for a side hustle?

According to Forbes and Entrepreneur publications, here’s a round-up of side hustles that can be done from the safety of your home and are quite well-paid.

1. Tutor English online or via Skype

Depending on your experience and qualification, you could earn from $15 to $100 an hour as an online tutor. According to Ziprecruiter, the average online hourly rate (based on yearly salaries) is about $21, whereas Care.com reports that certified teachers with experience can earn $100 or more per hour.

Sites like VIPKid and GoGoKid match English-speaking teachers with Chinese students for 25-minute classes online and provide the lesson plans. Teachers can select their own time slots according to their availability.

GoGoKid teachers earn $14 to $25 per hour, while VIPKid teachers earn an average of $22 per hour, according to their websites. 

You can also apply via these Online platforms Wyzant, TutorMe and Skooli and their fixed rates vary between $16 and $36 an hour. 

Varsity Tutors offer hour-long lessons online on a range of topics from reading to LSAT prep to language instruction and tutors’ average hourly rate ranges from $15 to $40.

2. Online Teacher (or Pre-Recorded teaching)

If you have a successful professional career or have expertise in a certain field, you can sign up on the platform  Podia, to teach virtual classes on your specialized topics.

Due to the pandemic, many people work from home and are searching for ways to improve their skills to increase their chance to get a job. Therefore, there’s a high demand for good skills-based online course creators.

You should also check out other platforms such as Teachable, Thinkific and Skillshare.

Udemy online learning specialist has seen their course enrollments grow by 425 percent since March, and the new course creation has also increased by 55 percent.

Instructors on sites like Udemy can charge between $20 and $200 per course, a small percentage of which goes to Udemy.

3. Virtual Assistant

It’s a great field that doesn’t require any capital and there’s a high demand for VA in many fields, including online business coaches, course creators etc.

From VA, you can expand to digital services and more.

If you have great organizational skills and are internet savvy, reach out to companies that include virtual assistant staffing like BELAY and Zirtual, as well as platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. The average rate of a virtual assistant is$19 per hour, according to ZipRecruiter.

4. Coach and Personal Trainer

Are you a yoga, fitness or nutrition enthusiast? Consider to get certified as a coach or personal trainer. Check out the following courses.

Market your services via social media and word of mouth to find clients whom you can help reach their fitness goals or achieve weight loss. You can create nutritious meal plans and fitness routines. Depending on the qualifications and experience, coach and personal trainer can get paid from $40 to $150 per hour.

5. Writer 

Depending on your aptitudes as a writer, many opportunities are within your reach.

If writing essays or articles is your strong point, many publications pay around $75 per article.

You can also consider grant writing and copywriting for advertising or branding companies.

Create a profile on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per 500-word blog post, or Upwork, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per hour.

6. Online mock juror 

If you are a US citizen and 18 years old or older, you can sign up to be a virtual juror on  Online Verdict, Virtual Jury, or eJury.

It’s estimated that each case can take 20 to 60 minutes and pays $10 to $60. The mock jurors act like a focus group to prepare for future trials and their responses give lawyers a sense of how jurors might vote on their cases.

7. Survey Taker (online or by phone)

When a company launches a new product or new service, it employs market research companies to organize surveys of potential customers to get their opinion via phone interviews or online questionnaire. The survey may last from 30 minutes to 3 hours and pay between $50 to $250, depending on the brand, length and topic.

To become an online survey taker or answer questions by phone about different products for market research and get paid for it, contact companies like Shifrin Hayworth or Schlesinger Group’s Focus Group.

The site Find Focus Groups has also compiled a list of paid survey companies it says are verified and legitimate.

8. User Experience Tester

Reach out to sites like usertesting.com to go through websites and take tests online and explain why they would or wouldn’t convert. The tests online can vary in time lengths and pay from about $10 to $120 each. 

You can also register at other testing sites like uTest—which pays you for testing new technology and finding bugs, submitting test cases and completing usability surveys.

Other sites such as IntelliZoomPanel can pay about $5 per test.

9. Translator

If you are fluent in another language, you could offer your translation services for any types of documents such as medical or legal documents.

The average hourly rate is $21, according to Indeed. You can sign up on sites like Translate or Bunny Studio, or find translator jobs on Indeed. and work at your convenience.

10. Influencer

If you have many followers on Instagram or Facebook, you may generate some income from it. Check out Apps like Heartbeat for Ambassadors which helps connect influencers with brands that pay them to post pictures with and about their products. Typically influencers are paid $3 to $50 per post, depending on how many followers they have. 

11. Contact Tracer

Due to the surge of coronavirus cases, the demand for contact tracers is high especially in California, Texas, Florida and New York.

As Contact tracer, you are expected to contact confirmed Covid-19 patients and provide them with information regarding quarantine, care, testing, and check people who have been exposed through them etc.

You can apply through organization like CONTRACE Public Health Corps, a Washington D.C.-based organization that provides private and  public sector clients with Covid-19 contact tracing or through your local job posting. The hourly rate is around $17 to $25.

The Centers for Disease Control offers a full description of the contact tracer roll and requirements, as well as contact tracing training modules.

12. JustAnswer Expert

If you have specialized skills or have some expertise in a given field, you can approach sites like JustAnswer which pays you to answer professional questions and guide people.

Think positive, there are many avenues to explore to earn extra income. Some require no capital, others may take some investment in time and efforts. Generally these side hustles are flexible and adaptable to your schedule and importantly, they can be done in the safety of your home.

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