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If you’re seriously looking to make extra cash, skip the survey sites and the cash-back apps. It could take weeks or months to earn enough for a friggin happy hour cocktail with those things!
Try a high-paying gig instead. If you’re going to trade your time for money (instead of collecting passive income), the money better be worth your time, right? Today we’re going to look at some high-paying ways to make extra cash. Like, $20/hour minimum.
High-Paying Ways to Make Extra Cash
Unlike survey sites and cash-back apps, these gigs take a little talent, knowledge, practice, or all of the above. But with that extra effort comes a more fulfilling side-hustle (and more money!). And, more great news, most of these are fun hobbies. If you can command a good hourly rate for your hobbies, girl, you’ve got it made!
Landscaping
So I went to school with this guy, Jon. Jon started mowing people’s small lawns and shoveling people’s short driveways in middle school. He saved most of the money he made until he could buy a used riding lawn mower, at which point he could mow large lawns. And he saved that money until he could buy a snowblower to handle the long driveways.
By high school, he handled the mowing, raking, and snowplowing for several small businesses and our town hall. Kid made bank! And he did it in just a few hours per week before and after school.
You could do the same!
The great things about landscaping
You’re helping people out, saving them from hours of physical labor!
You can charge a high hourly rate because 1) most people hate mowing, raking, and shoveling, and 2) many people don’t have the equipment to get the job done efficiently.
You get to be outside and away from a computer screen. And you’ll be active most of that time!
The downside to landscaping
If you need more than a rake or a shovel, landscaping can require a serious investment. Unless you have access to all that equipment, you’d really need to pull a John and save a good portion of your profit to invest in new equipment to earn bigger, better-paying contracts.
Be prepared to start your workday early in the morning if you have a snowy season: driveways and parking lots need to be plowed before people leave for work and businesses open.
Business can be inconsistent depending on the weather and the season.
Translating
If you’re fluent in multiple languages, you’re in demand! Gengo.com is a great place to start offering your translation services. You get to pick and choose your projects from the thousands that come available every day. And your Gengo work schedule is completely flexible: you can work whenever from where ever.
The great things about translating
When you go through a service like Gengo, your work schedule is completely flexible. Decide when you’re going to work, and it can be done from anywhere. Perfect for people looking to earn some spending money while traveling for months.
The downside to translating
You have to actually be fluent in another language.
And there might not be assignments available for your languages when you’re ready to work.
Tutoring
If you’re the studious type, you can earn money while helping others with their school work. Tutor.com is an awesome resource for matching qualified tutors with tutees in need. You can tutor any age, kindergartners to adult learners, in almost any subject.
The great things about tutoring
You’re really making a difference in someone’s life! And you may actually enjoy the work (nerd 😉 ).
Tutors are usually needed in the evenings and weekends, which could be nice if this is a side hustle, supplementing your day job.
The downside to tutoring
You work around the students’ schedules, so you have less flexibility in choosing hours. And the gigs usually only last a few months at a time.
If you’re working with minors, you have to manage parents in addition to the student. Parents are often the tricky part because they expect to see results, in the form of higher grades, whether the kid is interested in learning or not. So you might effectively be accepting responsibility for improving the performance of an unmotivated student.
Test Prep
Test Prep is really similar to tutoring. But instead of teaching a subject, you’re teaching the test-taker how to score well on a big test. It’s usually a college placement exam like the ACT or SAT. If you have special testing experience for medical or legal certification exams, you’ll be able to command a higher hourly rate.
The great things about test prep
You might be helping a kid get into college or start their professional career. Awww!
The downside to test prep
You’ll need to prove that you did well on your tests. If you’re going through an organization, you’ll probably need to be in the 95th percentile to qualify.
You have to have to be able to teach the material as well as test-taking skills.
Same as with tutoring: if you’re hired by the parents, they expect you to make the kid get a good score even if the kid gives zero effs.
And the gigs are pretty short, only a few months at a time. So you’ll always be looking for new clients.
Guiding Meditation
People are stressed and scattered, and many of them are turning to meditation as a way of calming and focusing their lives. But it’s weirdly difficult to just sit down alone and learn to meditate. Guided meditation classes are popping up in cities all over the world.
As a meditation guide, you lead a meditation session, often for a group. It can be in a public outdoor space or in a meditation studio. You guide your clients through breathing exercises, thought experiments, and focus drills.
The great things about guiding meditation
Some people swear by meditation and credit the practice with seriously improving their lives. You could be a part of that.
You can start with almost nothing. Make a website for under $100, and promote on social media. Then hold your sessions in a park or at the beach. If you find you love it, you can save that money to reinvest in the business and eventually rent a studio to up the perceived perception and increase your rates.
Also, you’ll be so friggin zen.
The downside to guiding meditation
You might be seen as a scammer by some people. Many people believe in the power of meditation and many don’t. So be prepared for some shade from people who think it’s insane to charge money to tell people how to breathe and focus their minds.
You need to live in an area where people are open to meditation as a real skill, worth paying to learn.
And you may get super bored guiding the same meditation sessions every week.
Guiding Tours
This is one of our fave new side hustle opportunities! If you live in a tourist destination, you can offer tours of your city to visitors! Even cooler, you can offer local experiences for visitors from a local POV.
The possibilities are truly endless, but think along the lines of:
- A paddle-boarding tour through a wildlife refuge
- The Louvre highlights in one hour
- A dance lesson in Barcelona
- A guided hike in the Hollywood Hills
- A London pub crawl
- A deep dish pizza cooking class in Chicago
- A photographers’ tour of New York, finding the best photo-op spots
- Wine tasting in Napa Valley
What can you show and tell about your city?
Check out Vayable or AirBnB Experiences for more inspiration and to list your local experience!
The great things about guiding tours
You’re giving people a unique experience they’ll always remember. And being a good ambassador for your city.
It’s so fun! You get to meet people from everywhere and show off your city. You also get to choose what days and times your tours are offered.
You don’t even need to create your own website since you can gain traffic through Airbnb and Vayable.
The downside to guiding tours
You really need to be available during the weekends to attract customers.
You won’t be getting any repeat business since it’s really a one-time experience.
Vayable and Airbnb both take a sizable commission on your tours in exchange for listing your experience on their platform.
Makeup Artist
The only thing I know about makeup artists is that they charge something like $50 to do your makeup for an event (prom, wedding, award ceremony, photo shoot, whatever).
So I’m purely speculating here. Any makeup artists want to weigh in on the realities of doing makeup for extra cash? Leave us a comment!
The great things about being a makeup artist
You get to meet lots of people and help them look their best on a day that’s really important to them.
You don’t necessarily need your own makeup studio because you’ll usually be traveling to where-ever the client is getting ready for their event.
The downside to being a makeup artist
It takes real skill to do makeup right. And if you mess up, you’ve ruined someone’s big event.
The makeup and supplies are expensive to purchase.
You’ll be expected to travel to the client, so factor time and transportation costs into your fees.
Expect stiff competition. Lots of people love doing makeup!
Photographing Events
Event photographers make bank! Seriously, people pay hundreds, and even thousands, for a high-quality photographer. And the demand is climbing as we’re now expected to post photos of every life event online.
The great things about photographing events
You get to capture huge life moments your clients will treasure forever. And you get to attend interesting events with interesting people.
You get tons of free promotion when your clients post their photos all over social.
The downside to photographing events
Obviously it takes skill and practice to be a good event photographer. Maybe start with something like newborns. They’re pretty easy to work with, you don’t have to worry about missing a key moment (like you would with weddings), and you have lots of control over the environment.
You need some equipment to start. Like a DSLR Camera bundle with a couple lenses and a tripod, and maybe a basic lighting set up.
You also need to learn photo editing. Good editing makes a world of difference.
And everyone with a camera thinks they can be a photographer, so expect some heavy competition to start.
Walking Dogs
Love dogs? Make some money while you spend time with them. Rover.com is a great place to get started as a dog walker or pet sitter.
The great things about walking dogs
You can walk more than one dog at a time, so even if you only charge $10/walk, you can make $50 walking 5 dogs. And many dog owners have multiple pets, so you don’t necessarily need 5 clients to get 5 dogs.
You get lots of fresh air and exercise. And you get to play with dogs!
The time is also largely flexible.
The downside to walking dogs
Yes, you have to pick up after them.
Writing Content
Do you have a good understanding of language and grammar? Try freelance writing!
I started freelance writing last year and made $500/month starting Month 2. And you can too! Instead of charging by the hour, writers charge by the word. $0.10 is a good starting freelance rate for quality content. At that rate, I average around $36/hour.
If you’re a skilled writer and want to pursue full-time writing, you might want to try building your own client base through writing job boards and a good freelancer website.
If you just want to dabble, try selling your writing services on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. They are great tools for testing a side hustle. Just know that you’ll make quite a bit less on those platforms than as a stand-alone freelancer because the standards aren’t as high.
The great things about writing content
You’re helping people who don’t have the time or skill to write their own copy.
You have deadlines, but you get to decide when you’ll write. And you can do it in your pj’s.
The downside to writing content
It can take a little time to find a few consistent clients. If you’re a perfectionist, you end up spending quite a lot of time on each assignment, which reduces your hourly rate.
And of course you do actually have to be able to write.
Looking for more ideas?
If none of these money-making ideas click for you, check out our other posts on ways to increase income, and see if you can find a better fit!
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Know of any other high-paying ways to make extra cash? Let us know in the comments!
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