How to Make Extra Income While Working Full-Time (8 Jobs to Try) (2024)

As many as 45% of working Americans have a side hustle outside of their primary jobs, according to a 2019 Bankrate survey of 2,550 adults. Those side hustlers spend an average of 12 hours a week on their side gigs, and 73% of those side hustlers earn up to $500 per month.

Lots of people, feeling the urge to splurge, are looking for new, flexible ways to generate a source of income.

If you’d like to earn extra money but you need a gig that you’d be interested in doing even outside of your full-time work, there are plenty of options open to you. Let “your unique combination of skills, resources, interests'' guide you, says Kathy Kristof, founder of job search site SideHusl. “You’ll be happier, you’ll do it better, and it will feed that yearning.”

Side Hustle Income

One in three Americans with a side hustle puts the extra income towards living expenses.

8 Flexible Ways to Make Extra Income While Working Full-Time

Here are eight flexible and in some cases high-paying side hustles you can do to earn more money and supplement a day job.

1. Tutor English online

Sites like VIPKid pair English-speaking teachers with Chinese students for 25-minute classes online. Teachers pick time slots at their convenience, and both companies provide the lesson plans.

VIPKid teachers earn an average of $22 per hour, according to their website.

2. Write

There are many ways to dive into writing to earn money online these days. Lucrative options include grant writing and copywriting for advertising or branding companies, usually without a byline. Another is ghostwriting, or working with someone who has a story to tell but doesn’t have the skill or time to put together a manuscript on their own. You may not get to take the credit but you can get paid handsomely.

Consider creating a profile on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per 500-word blog post, or Upwork, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per hour.

If you’re more inclined to write essays or articles, consider pitching an idea to a publication covering a topic of interest or expertise. Parenting blogs like A Fine Parent, for instance, pay $75 per article. Look around to find blogs and publications covering subjects you’re well versed in. While there are usually deadlines involved, writing assignments can be done any time of the day.

3. Participate in referral programs

Inviting friends and family members to sign up for a service or product you use can be an easy way to earn a referral bonus. For example, every friend you invite to Acorns who signs up and makes their first investment can mean a $5 referral bonus that gets invested in your Acorns Invest portfolio. There’s no limit to how many friends you can invite, and best of all, your friends also get a $5 bonus investment, too. Plus, Acorns’ Limited Time Promo Referrals gives you a chance to earn even bigger bonus investment rewards up to $1,200. Learn more aboutAcorns referrals here.

4. Be an online mock juror

Online mock juries give lawyers a sense of how jurors might vote on their cases. They’re like focus groups for forthcoming trials. Depending on the website, an attorney might submit a written case consisting of facts and various questions, or they might record a summary of the case for “jurors” to weigh in on.

Sites like eJury estimate each case takes about 35 minutes and pays between $5 and $10, while Online Verdict estimates each case takes 20 to 60 minutes and pays $20 to $60. Many of these cases can be done any time of day.

Sign up to be a virtual juror on Online Verdict, Virtual Jury, or eJury. Note that jurors often have to be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen.

5. Translate

Fluent in another language? Companies worldwide could use your multilingual services to translate anything from medical leaflets to website content to legal documents.

The average translator in New York earns $21 per hour, according to Indeed, and you can pick up projects during your spare time. Sign up to translate documents on sites like Translate or Bunny Studio, or find translator jobs on Indeed or on other job boards.

6. Take surveys online or by phone

When a company brings a new product to market, it often wants to find out what potential customers think. Market research companies solicit the help of people to take surveys online or answer questions by phone about their clients’ products. And they pay. Market research company Shifrin Hayworth says its studies take 30 minutes to three hours, and pays $50 to $250 for each one.

Sign up to get paid to take surveys on sites like Shifrin Hayworth, Focus Group, or Find Focus Groups.

7. Be an influencer

Got a sizable Instagram following? You might be eligible to start making some money off of it. Apps like Heartbeat for Ambassadors allow those who’ve amassed a following to connect with brands that pay them to post pictures with and about their products. Users should expect pay per post to be anywhere from $3 to $50, according to SideHusl, with a lot riding on exactly how many followers you have.

“The fewer followers,” says SideHusl, “the less likely you are to get chosen for a campaign.” Past campaigns have ranged from durable phone cases to gluten-free waffle mix.

8. Make deliveries

If you have a car and open time slots at various points during the day, or even at night, delivering anything from food to pets to furniture might be a worthwhile side hustle. Companies like Roadie help connect drivers with delivery gigs in their area, and “drivers can earn up to $15 per trip on local gigs and up to $650 on long haul deliveries,” according to its site.

Drivers for food delivery sites like GrubHub make an average rate of $19 per hour, according to Indeed. And Taskers on Task Rabbit charge as much as $80 per hour for deliveries.

Pay attention to the side hustle you end up choosing: “This is your chance to give yourself an opportunity that you may not be getting at work,” says Claire Wasserman, founder of career coaching site Ladies Get Paid.