No Nonsense ways to find a Side Hustle or a Passion
Peeps!! I know how hard it is to find a side hustle or second job when you are working a full-time job or being a full-time student . So, I have done the research for you and found some global and country specific sites I found work on when I was a student and some I researched and found useful & authentic to find a way to earn a second/part-time income and add to the stash of cash or invest and work towards your early retirement.
Check out the below sites. Beware of tricksters though and build your portfolio patiently to start earning a steady income from these sites.
- Freelancer.com – This is one of websites that boasts of wide variety of Jobs related to many different fields like Logo Designing, Web development, SEO, Writing etc. It has huge amount of traffic to post jobs and earn jobs as well. Probably, the highest amount of freelancers are on it. You get to bid(free 6 bids or you can pay to get more bids) on projects by writing a small description of what you can do better than others and how much you want to get paid for it. But if you are a beginner, you should keep your rates low. Once you get good feedback(reviews) you can increase your rate eventually because if people like you for your work they tend to repeat you. You can also get monthly jobs here once you make good impression or you can freelance in your own time. Lot of jobs are posted every minute.
Quick tip:
I was able to get a job while I was doing my Masters as part time freelancer. But please beware, there can be scammers and you waste your time, energy/money on it(Don’t take any job that asks you to pay for it). The hack to get a job on this site is quantity over quality. Write a better bid and you can score a great job.
- Fiverr.com – This is a great freelancing site if you are designer of any kind, you can find jobs on this site like Custom Video creation, Music creation & production, Online tutoring, Fitness lessons and even you can be a virtual assistant on this. If you are free on weekends to lend your voice to support a company, you should be on this site. You can also find jobs related to Web designing, development, Logo designing, writing etc. like all other freelancing sites.
Hack Alert!!
This site offers courses for you to learn and earn badges which certify that you are serious in getting the gig. You can build a great profile displaying your skills, badges and experiences. Once you develop a great portfolio, you can work on your passion wherever you want to work from.
- UpWork – This site which was initially called as Elance-odesk got rebranded into Upwork in 2015. This site offers a desktop app where you can accept client offers, work and log hours so that you don’t miss logging your work. This also ensures that you have a verified client who pays you for what you have genuinely worked for. To ensure this, the site asks client to deposit (pre-funds) a milestone payment into escrow before you begin working. Upon receiving and approving the work, the client releases the payment to you, Your Job Success Score measures your client’s satisfaction with your overall work history on Upwork. The better your success score is the more clients you get. You might take sometime to learn working on this site but it ensures safety of your work and client’s payments too. It does not compromise on quality at any point which is what you expect from a freelancing site.
Success Mantra:
1. There are two types of pricing here:
Fixed price(after completion of work you get paid the just the promised amount irrespective of how many hours you worked) and Hourly rate(you get paid for the no. of hours you worked)
2. It also offers a Desktop app for ease of working on Desktop instead having 1000’s of tabs open and getting distracted. This also helps in logging the exact no. of hours.
- PayPerhour – This is one of the sites that I first encountered when I wanted to write specifically rather to get a web development job. But now, it offers a whole lot of jobs in 15 other fields too that pays you per hour in Designing, programming, writing, SEO, proof reading etc. If you are skilled in Financial planning or did MBA or if you are Coach and you want to test the waters and get clients that trust you, then you can register here first and then get them to buy your own product on the your own site.
A little warning!!
Beware of scammers on the site though. The site offers escrow account for clients to deposit money before they offer work which ensures some level of security. Again, don’t give money to get a job. You offer work and clients offer money in return for your work and time. That is how it works on/off line!!
- CraigsList(only in US) – Yes, do you know CraigsList has all kinds of jobs you can do in your locality. It has every form of job you can look for like a cook, helper, Amazon delivery worker, Uber driver, Web Developer, Yard worker, Principal Software Engineer etc. They need not necessarily be online but there are some remote jobs too. If you are a student looking for some part-time job, you can try this(state specific).
My two cents!!
If you don’t want to get too Geeky or Online savvy and try your hand at different things before you find your passion, you should try this. But talk to the client and check the address before you go. There can be shady jobs too. Insist on meeting in a public place before taking the job.
- Toptal – If you are a highly talented person who is super coder and looking to go remote but earn well. Then go to this site and thrive. This site boasts of offering jobs to top 3% of the talent. Once you establish yourself, you can start earning steady income from it by working remotely from anywhere. You get paid with competitive rates sometimes higher than your 9-to-5 job(imagine you can work remotely from Huwaii or Himalayas and earn better than your 9 to 5 job). You can also network on this site through events that are conducted all through out the year and connect yourself with people around the world with similar caliber.
Success Hack!!
You have to go through a screening test to start applying for jobs. The good thing about this site is, you don’t have to build your portfolio by doing low quality jobs or selling yourself low. You get trusted from day one by Companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Airbnb, Shopify etc. and many other big wigs in software industry are on it who highly trust this site.
- Behance – Okay.. enough about the geeky stuff… If you are a creative person looking to establish in the area of Fashion, Game designing, Photoshop, Photography, Artistry or if you are good at designing beer bottle caps then you should check out this site. If you are looking to design something innovatively(need not necessarily websites) then this is the site you should go to. It includes Web designing too. It is surprising what all you can design on this site. It is a great way to experiment and find your passion.
Info Incoming!!
Draw sketches, design packaging for a company or if you want to connect with your peer creators and find work or work together on a project, then you should try this site out right now. Get your creative juices flowing!!
- TaskRabbit – This site is similar to CraigsList but it is more specific to just finding local jobs you can do. If you are interested in gardening(planting flowers), a great handy man, fix plumbing, Furniture assembly etc. You find all kinds of jobs in here which are local to you. You can become a tasker depending on your interests and how you want to help out and your expertise. “Chachii.com” is an equivalent to TaskRabbit in other countries to find local jobs. You can try this site too.
Just my thoughts!!
This is a site that doesn’t need you to have coding skills or a degree to crack a job. I sometimes like light physical jobs rather than just coding, writing or do anything with a PC at all.
- LinkedIn – Ofcourse, most of you must have known about this by now. This is one of greatest sites and most authentic sites for networking and finding jobs or connect with recruiters and your peers in Software development, consulting, HR management and any kind of professional job “collared” job. This is most useful when you want to land on full time job or internship though the site also has some remote jobs too. If you build a great portfolio on what your degree is and how experienced you are in the area, recruiters will contact you directly through InMail and proceed to go further in the process of interviewing. All most all of tech companies and their recruiters are on it including Financial consulting, Management, Designing, Architecture, Operations etc. It is a social media for professionals.
Can’t get enough of this!!
I cannot write about this site in few lines and links which is why I will write a separate post on how to navigate this site and how to be seen by recruiters to land on great jobs.
I know I definitely missed to mention a few great sites. If you do know more, please let me know in the comments. I would also love to know about your experiences finding a job on them. Stay tuned for more informed articles!!
About The Author
Madhuri Gumma
Madhuri is a full time Software Engineer with a passion to write and share knowledge about her financial and lifestyle journey. She aspires to become financially independent early and she believes money should work for you than you working for money all your life. She provides the resources, articles, groups and concepts that help in achieving it. Stay connected to join the journey.
