Guest Blog: Side Hustles
My friend Leah has been side hustlin her summer away until law school so I asked her to do a review of everything she’s tried. Take a read here!
Poshmark + Mercari + FB Marketplace - I’ve been selling clothes and furniture via these apps for a year now and have made over $2000. It takes time upfront to snap pictures of everything, upload them, and write descriptions, but after that it’s a great passive income model. It took time to realize what would sell IMMEDIATELY on Poshmark and what I could price higher (Lululemon, James Avery, Outdoor Voices) and then to also get comfortable with the idea that I just wanted to get everything sold, even if it wasn’t for much. At that point I significantly lowered prices (especially of older clothes) and am pleasantly surprised when I get an email that something sold 6 months after being listed. Poshmark is the bomb because all you have to do is print the label and you can use the priority mail boxes at USPS for free. FB Marketplace is my go to for furniture/household items. Just be responsive and willing to negotiate and things will go QUICK.
UberEATS + DoorDash- I put off signing up for these for weeks and then finally sat down to do it, only to discover that it takes 5 minutes to sign up and you can be driving within an hour (they just do a background check and sometimes it can take a day to process). It is SO easy. Now that unemployment is so high there have started to be waitlists for a number of these apps (I got waitlisted for Instacart, grubhub, and caviar all back in May), but have found a ton of success with Uber and DoorDash. I don’t ever want to be an Uber or a Lyft driver just due to discomfort with strangers and safety concerns, but I feel pretty good delivering food to neighborhoods! While you do have gas costs and wear and tear from driving, I love that I have a guaranteed method of making money whenever I want. As opposed to selling clothes that may never get bought, I know I can turn on my apps and make $30-50 for 2 hours of work. Originally I was all in on DoorDash as it gives you your total earnings upfront (delivery fee + tip), but I’ve realized I make significantly more with Uber. It may seem like the total is less but that’s because it only shows you delivery fees and tips hit after the delivery. Idk if it’s just the pandemic or where I live but I get SO many $10 tips on Uber. I tend to average $20 an hour during lunch and $25-30 an hour for dinner. You get to pick how long you drive for, you can turn down any order that’s out of your way, and you get paid out every week via direct deposit. All you need is a car and car insurance. Also you become eligible for accident insurance, health insurance, life insurance, etc all for about as cheap/if not cheaper than the best options on the marketplace.
UserTesting - When I ran the acquisitions website, we used UserTesting.com for our UX/UI research and design team to get immediate feedback on new designs. Now I’m on the other side and work as the interviewee. Sign up for this ASAP because you have to do a practice test and it can take a week or two to get approved. You take 15-20 minute tests where you review a website/app/product or even just take a survey and get paid $10. You fill out a quick screener for every test so there is a chance that you won’t qualify for any of them in a session, but I pretty much always get at least one or two every time I sign on. Your screen is recorded so you do need high speed internet. There are also options for 30/60 minute live user interviews where you make $30-60. I worked in user design so I know how important it is and love taking these tests. You HAVE to be vocal about what you’re seeing and why you’re doing what you’re doing in order to get approved as a tester. There are a ton of websites that you can be a tester for, and I signed up for all of them, but I realized that UT has the most tests consistently and I preferred just checking one place vs a bunch of websites
Validately- this is a panel that I found when searching for user testing gigs. I signed up for the panel and get emails for tests that I can either take via mobile or desktop. I like this because I get options pushed to me and then I have to qualify for the test. You’ll probably qualify for 1 out of every 5 tests but don’t be discouraged. It’s a great way for a quick $10 with minimal effort and it really does add up. They also send out a ton of 30/60 minute live interviews for $40-$70.
Research panels- I just google searched a ton of these and signed up over email. Now every once in a while I get reached out to for potential user interviews/focus groups and have made up to $150 for an hour of discussing social media apps. Some that I’m signed up for- Focusscope, Confide Research, L&E research
Dscout- An app for user research/testing. They offer missions where you have to answer questions, give feedback, and record videos of yourself for their surveys. I’ve done a few mini missions and was chosen for a larger study where I had to record four 2 minute videos and made $175. I haven’t spent as much time using this because I’m rarely in the mood to record a quick video, but I’ve had success on it so far!
Things that I think ARE NOT WORTH IT- SURVEY APPS. I’ve done a bunch of survey apps like SurveyJunkie, Swagbucks, Clickworker, Mechanical Turk where you can spend up to 10 minutes on a survey or task and then cash out with like 50 cents - $1. Some of them can only be redeemed for gift cards and I’ve just found that they are absolutely not worth the time they take. It may seem like a great idea to just do some quick task while you’re watching Netflix at night but it have never panned out or been worth my time. I would much rather know how much I’m getting paid for my time and that the outcome is worth my effort.
Obviously None of these are full time job replacements, but if you have the time and do these things a few hours a week you’ll add a few couple hundred dollars to your income a week/month.