In the work at home world, we call our multiple work from home money earners our “eggs.” This post is going to cover various work at home “eggs” or side hustle ideas you can use to make money when work at your main job dries up. And if you’ve been working at home for any length of time, then you know this happens on occasion!
It’s never a good idea to rely on just one job as a home-based worker, because you never know what’s going to happen.
I’ve personally experienced companies laying off/firing workers, changes in available workload, and pay rates suddenly dropping so low that the job was no longer worth my time. So you’ve got to be prepared.
I polled my readers on Facebook a while back and asked around on forums to find out what sites and various industries most people use for back up work from home. Below is a collection of some of the specific sites readers mentioned.
Note – Keep in mind some of these are just good for extra money, and some possibly amount to part time home based jobs.
Side Hustle Ideas – 12 Legit Options
1 – Online Cleaning Jobs
If you have a passion for cleaning and enjoy making spaces tidy and organized, consider an online cleaning job as a potential side hustle. Websites like Homeaglow.com offer a platform where you can connect with clients who are seeking professional cleaning services, and you can set your own schedule and rates as an independent cleaning professional. With Homeaglow.com, you’ll have the freedom to work remotely or physically and access online tools to streamline your reservations and customer communication.
2 – DoorDash
If you are OK with a job outside the home as long as it’s flexible, you might delivering food orders for DoorDash! This is actually something my own sister does in her spare time and enjoys for occasional side money.
Earning over $20 hourly is possible, plus you get to keep 100 percent of your tips.
Go here to sign up with DoorDash, or read our DoorDash review first.
3 – Rover
If you like animals, you may want to consider signing up with Rover as a pet sitter. Basically, Rover is a middleman — helping connect pet sitters to people needing the services in your area.
While they do take a cut of your earnings since they offer the platform to help you find clients, it still may come in handy if you’ve struggled to find clients to pet sit for in the past.
Pet sitting can very much be considered a “side hustle” because you call the shots. You decide which appointments to accept, when to work, and according to Rover, earning $1,000 per month is totally possible.
Obviously, $1,000 a month isn’t going to pay anyone’s bills enough to count as a full-time job, but it certainly counts for substantial side money.
Go here to sign up for Rover or read our Rover review first.
4 – Fiverr
So many people are listing side gigs on Fiverr and earning income.
For many, it’s just a little extra money here and there. But for others, Fiverr pays the bills!
If you don’t know what to list there, see this post with ideas for what to sell on Fiverr. I also got some Fiverr pro-tips in another post after interviewing people who have managed to earn money with the site.
Go here to try it.
5 – Cambly
This is a work from home position for people who would like to teach non-English speakers how to speak conversational English.
Basically you do the work via webcam, interacting with people who have the Cambly app installed. You do not need any professional experience, but you do need to be a native speaker of English.
Go here to learn more about Cambly or here to sign up.
6 – Slice the Pie
This is another one that I’ve personally kept on the back burner for extra money, and it was mentioned by a few people I polled.
It’s very easy — you just listen to snippets of songs and then rate/review them in a few sentences. You can get paid once you have earned $10.
Payouts are made on Tuesdays and Fridays. Again, this is just extra money. However, staying active on the site means regular cash outs are possible.
Go here to read more about Slice the Pie or here to register.
7 – Fancy Hands
Many people suggested Fancy Hands, and it’s a site I have used myself. Basically this is task-based virtual assisting. Each task pays a different amount, and you might be doing anything from checking to see if a store is open to reserving airline tickets.
Go here to read about Fancy Hands or here to sign up.
If you’re interested in making a full-time income as a virtual assistant, I have a very inexpensive e-book that goes into a lot of detail on how that works! You can check out Your Guide to Working From Home as a Virtual Assistant here.
8 – Quicktate
This company hires remote transcribers, and it’s ideal for transcription newbies because the work is pretty easy and you don’t need any real experience to get in. You just have to pass a test.
This is one company that has been around for a long time, and I’ve never heard anything bad about them. The pay is low so most people only rely on it for extra money.
Go here to read more about Quicktate or here to sign up.
I also have a lot more detail on working at home as a general transcriber in my e-book, Your Guide to Working From Home as a General Transcriber. It also includes a huge list of over 70 more companies that hire.
9 – Textbroker
I admit this has been a go-to site for extra money for me for quite some time. You get paid to write articles for Textbroker’s many clients. It’s not hard to get accepted at all, but unfortunately unless you can get bumped up to the 4-star level, there’s not much work to do.
Textbroker pays reliably every single week on Friday provided you have the minimum $10 in your account required to cash out. I’ve found the writing to be pretty easy.
As of this writing, they are closed to new applicants but they should have the applications open again this spring!
Go here to learn more about Textbroker or here to sign up as a writer.
10 – Amazon MTurk
This is a short task site with a variety of work available at any given time. You can find everything from data entry to transcription and even some article writing.
I have used this site myself many times in the past and occasionally like to log on and do a few small jobs. For some this is just extra money but there are many people who get more than just extra out of it.
Go here to learn more about Amazon Mechanical Turk or here to sign up.
11 – Clickworker
My personal experience with Clickworker is very limited, but this one gets mentioned quite frequently on the forums and also from my followers on Facebook. It’s task-based work. The pay varies depending on the project you’re doing.
Go here to read more about Clickworker or here to register.
12 – Humanatic
Work from home reviewing calls for Humanatic. Basically you listen to recorded phone conversations and tag them according to whether or not the call you heard was sales-related.
I’ve done this a little and the pay is extremely low (less than $5 an hour for me), but it’s kind of fun and I used to like to hop on and review calls here and there in between other work. It adds up over time, and they do pay out weekly.
Go here to read more about Humanatic or here to register.
Best Types of Jobs for Fill-In/Back Up Work at Home
The best type of back up work at home job is almost always going to be something flexible so that you can pick it up or drop it as needed depending on how things are going with other work you do.
Freelance writing is always very flexible and so is transcription. These are additionally two fields you can break into with little to no experience!
A person on my Facebook page also suggested mystery shopping as a good industry to get involved in for side money. While mystery shopping isn’t done at home — with the exception of telephone mystery shopper work — it is very flexible, independent work.
Good luck whatever you choose to pursue!
BONUS – Get My Work at Home E-Book Bundle For Just $5 Right Now (8 E-Books Total)
If you are wanting even MORE links to jobs across a ton of categories (virtual assisting, data entry, transcription, and more), you may want to download my work at home e-book bundle.
It includes the following e-books ($1 each if you buy them individually):
DOWNLOAD IT HERE.
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.
