One core tenet of wealth-building is the idea that you need to save more in order to invest and start a business. But, in reality, not everyone makes enough at their day job to do more than pay the bills. In that case, increasing your income with a high-payoff side hustle is not only prudent but vital to increasing your savings rate.
While many side jobs pay well, online jobs that require little starting capital take the cake. Many people from different walks of life can benefit from working an online side hustle, including parents who need flexible schedules to take care of their children, entrepreneurs who want to ease into growing a full-time business and travel lovers who want to earn money while they travel. For an online job, you only need an internet connection in order to work. Some common websites that offer these fully-remote opportunities include UpWork, FlexJobs, Indeed, Monster and more.
Try these five ideas to see how quickly and easily you can earn more and get started on the road to financial freedom.
1. Create a blog or Youtube channel
One of the best legitimate, work-from-home jobs is creating a blog or video content channel. There are hundreds of success cases where bloggers and Youtubers launch their content pages and grow quickly enough to support themselves – sometimes in as little as six months.
While it takes time to gain traffic and earn money, investing in creating a blog or video channel is one of the most convenient ways to increase your income.
On average, it takes roughly 100 well-researched articles to rank high enough to grab organic search traffic and see noticeable levels of revenue-bearing interest. The deeper into your subject you go, the more authority you have and the higher you rank on search. In fact, Google doesn’t even approve you for Google AdSense ad revenue until you publish a minimum of 10 to 30 articles – the more the better.
In the case of Youtube, on the other hand, you can expect to upload about 150 videos before you log enough viewing hours and gain enough subscribers to qualify for monetization through the Youtube Partner Program. Google states that Youtube creators must have 1,000 subscribers and log 4,000 public viewing hours in the past twelve months to meet their minimum requirements. So, if you publish a 10-minute video that’s viewed 100 times, you’ll have earned 1,000 minutes of viewing time – 16.6 hours in total. If you can gather at least 500 views per 10-min video, you could log those 4,000 hours with just 48 videos.
The hard part, however, is gaining enough subscribers to qualify. VidIQ asserts that it takes 15.5 months of uploading consistently to hit 1,000 subscribers. TubeBuddy found that a Youtuber would need to upload three videos a week for a year to earn enough subscribers.
With both written and video content, you’ll need to target keywords that bring in enough traffic without being so competitive you can’t rank for those search terms. So, unless your subject goes viral overnight, you should expect any content “job” to take time to bear its fruit. But when it does, it pays very well.
Learn more: How to launch a successful blog in 2022
2. Sell items on Amazon for a profit
Whether or not you’re a fan of behemoth e-commerce platform Amazon, it’s a fact that the world’s largest retailer supports many, many people who sell items and earn money from home. By utilizing a method called retail arbitrage and selling through Amazon’s fulfillment services, you can make more than six figures just with your side job.
Amazon’s Fulfilled By Amazon (FBA) program is simple: you, as the store manager, provide Amazon with the products you want to sell, Amazon stores your inventory in their warehouse until it sells, then Amazon’s warehouse employees pack the item and ship it to the customer. When customers have issues, they speak with Amazon. Essentially you are responsible for sourcing products that customers want – and the rest is history!
Amazon’s FBA program is useful for people who need flexibility and extra income, since the company manages the e-commerce process for you. By buying items on discount, then turning around and selling those products on Amazon at their retail price, you can make a decent profit with little effort.
However, it’s important to note that not every item sold on Amazon will turn a profit. Focus on clearance items at big-box stores that appeal to customers and are not already offered on the platform. One retail arbitrage specialist recommends buying discounted products from Walmart, Big Lots, Walgreens and Rite Aid. Another sells clothes. Do some research before investing your money in potential inventory and you’ll be well on your way to earning extra income.
Learn more: The surprisingly simple method to earning money through Amazon
3. Freelance as a tutor, virtual assistant or proofreader
Tutor online
If you’re a subject matter expert and love helping others learn, then tutoring online may be right up your alley. Pay rates depend on experience and vary by platform, but overall you can expect to earn roughly $20-$65 per hour.
Online tutoring usually consists of helping students answer homework questions and study for upcoming tests. Help can be as hands-off as responding to written questions or as intensive as a video lesson for one-on-one assistance. Using the tutoring platform, tutors can connect with students on a wide range of subjects, making this a very flexible side hustle.
Try signing up as a tutor on websites like Course Hero, Tutor.com (run by the Princeton Review), Tutors.com and TutorSpark.
Learn more: How to earn money freelancing
Earn money online by becoming a virtual assistant
If you’re looking for a completely flexible side job in a field that’s growing rapidly, try your hand at being a virtual assistant. As our lives get overwhelmed by more and more tasks and people competing for our limited attention, many people are choosing to outsource some of those daily to-dos to third-parties.
Virtual assistant (VA) tasks can include scheduling appointments or travel, managing emails, basic data entry, social media management and more. Basically, VAs work for business owners and entrepreneurs to complete administrative tasks and behind-the-scenes work that keep the business running smoothly. It’s essentially being a virtual, freelance admin assistant who sets his or her own hours.
Pay rates can start as low as $15 for entry-level VAs, and you can charge more as your skillset expands. High-quality and consistent VAs can make as much as $10,000 a month. Find work by inquiring through your network, since there’s much less competition than through a job board, but you can also find legitimate work through freelance work sites like Upwork and Flexjobs.
Learn more: How to earn money freelancing
Proofread and find spelling errors for a living
If you’re a grammarphobe and often find yourself correcting spelling errors, being a freelance proofreader may be the job for you. You won’t have to rewrite sentences or fact check, so proofreading can be a very low-effort job for the right person.
Proofreading is generally the last step before publication, so you’d be the one who goes over content with a fine-tooth comb, checking for spelling, punctuation and consistency.
Transcript proofreaders are paid by the page, while general proofreaders can negotiate a per-word or per-project rate. The amount you can make as a proofreader is directly related to the amount of time and effort you put in, as well as the quality of the service provided to clients, so pay rates vary hugely.
As a general example, full-stop publishing services company Cascadia Author Services notes that professional proofreading rates can run from $25 to $35 per thousand words. For a 50,000-word manuscript (a 200-page book), professional proofreading will range from $1,250 to $1,750 depending on experience. Many times freelance proofreaders can charge as little as $10 per thousand words, which pays about $500 for the same-length manuscript.
Learn more: How to earn money freelancing
4. Resell items online
Have you ever sold used clothes or electronics through Facebook Marketplace, the RealReal or Poshmark? Did you know that buying items cheaply and then flipping them for profit is exactly what a thrift store does?
Reselling items online has a history as long as the web itself, and if you’re older, you might remember the times when selling on Ebay and Craigslist were touted as a great way to start a sales business. These days, younger folks have largely migrated to other platforms, and if you have items or a great eye for sellable products, you can turn a profit selling, too.
Try visiting estate sales, flea markets or even buying underpriced items online to find products that might appeal to potential customers. Many times the people selling these items are aware they could earn more selling it online, but they simply don’t want to deal with the extra effort. Jewelry, clothes and electronics tend to net the highest return on investment, so you could start by focusing on those categories.
With as little as 10-20 hours spent on this per week, you have the potential to make as much as several thousand dollars in a month just by being the online middleman.
Learn more: Why selling secondhand items can net you a profit
5. Work in customer service for a flexible job at home
Many multinationals outsource their customer service to lower their costs, and that means you have the opportunity to find multiple opportunities for flexible, hourly jobs at home. Customer service reps are usually responsible for working as call center representatives, online chat agents and offer technical support where applicable.
To work as a customer service rep, you’ll usually need a minimum internet connection and reliable phone service. Depending on the company, you may be required to work a set schedule or log a certain number of hours per week. Hourly rates usually run from $15 upwards.
Look online on company sites and places like Flexjobs or LinkedIn for reputable options.
Bottom line
There are many options available for expanding your income through low-effort, high-paying side jobs – you just need to know where to look. Online jobs are convenient and flexible, which make them stellar options for employees who can’t quit their day jobs just yet. Even better, many of these side hustle ideas can easily grow into full-time businesses, enabling entrepreneurial go-getters to tap into the Launch pillar and build wealth faster. Try one of these side jobs to increase your income, save more and reach your goal of financial freedom.
