Thanks to technology it’s easier than ever before to work remotely. If you are experiencing a time with limited income or want to supplement your regular cash flow, there are more options available. We’ve curated a list to help you find your remote side hustle from the comfort (and safety) of your own home.
Not sure how much you should be aiming to make? Start by making a budget to understand the income needed to support your expenses here.
If you have a specialized skill, you can offer your services on freelancing sites:
Fiverr hosts an online marketplace with freelance jobs starting from $5. Opportunities range across all skill sets, such as voice-overs, design, data entry, and social media management.
PeoplePerHour uses an Artificial Intelligence system to match jobs and freelancers with tailored proposals within minutes of a project being posted. Jobs can start at $17 an hour.
Similar to PeoplePerHour, FreeeUp matches jobs with freelancers, but within 24 hours. Jobs include customer support, Amazon expertise, marketing, and more.
One of the more popular freelancing options in the tech industry, Toptal seeks developers, designers, finance experts, project managers, product managers, consultants, and more.
With Freelancer, a member posts a listing and freelancers can bid on taking the job. Similar to Toptal, work gravitates toward tech, with jobs in design, web and mobile development, data entry, finance, marketing, and more.
Like Freelancer, Upwork freelancers bid on the job they want to work on. Jobs can be short- or long-term contracts, ranging in complexity. Opportunities include admin support, customer service, law, sales, and translation.
Instead of bids, Guru freelancers offer quotes to employers to compare. It’s important to note that Guru has many more specialized opportunities, such as eBay listing services, web scraping, Facebook marketing, and product listing.
Get paid to share your thoughts through market research surveys:
Compared to the other survey services, Survey Rewardz primarily offers monetary payouts rather than gift card selections. You can make up to $10 per survey and cash out with PayPal, prepaid credit cards, cheques, or Amazon gift cards.
Previously known as CrowdFlower, Figure Eight hosts small unique tasks to use your judgment that require little background knowledge, such as categorizing social media content or moderating forums.
By answering surveys, you can redeem rewards in the form of gift cards from Amazon, Subway, Cineplex, Home Depot, or Starbucks (of course you can save these for later).
You can build your profile and Survey Junkie will match you to surveys that fit you. Testimonials claim to receive up to $45 in reward points per survey.
Each survey can equal to around $3 each 10 to 15 minutes. You can cash out through PayPal, gift cards, or prepaid credit cards. It’s important to note that with the prepaid credit cards, you should check to ensure they can be used outside the United States.
Most surveys award 50 to 500 points each depending on length and complexity. You can cash out every 5000 points, which equals to a $50 in the form of prepaid credit cards, Amazon, iTunes, or Google Play gift cards, and more.
iSAY Ipsos offers the common retail, food, and Amazon gift cards, but also has options to spend your reward points on entering contests with larger rewards or donating to charity.
On top of doing surveys, some companies pay you to watch videos:
Like Swagbucks, you begin with a $5 signup bonus to watch videos, play games, even go shopping. However, DailyRewards seems to only offer cash rewards, letting you receive money compared to survey services that primarily offer gift cards rewards.
To earn rewards, you have the option to answer surveys, watch videos, play games, shop, or redeem offers. Rewards include 50+ PayPal and gift card options.
You start off with a $5 signup bonus to begin watching videos and searching the web, and you can redeem your points toward 160+ PayPal and gift card options.
Are you a native English speaker with a completed Bachelor’s Degree and experienced with children? Become an online English tutor for children in Canada and abroad:
VIPKid advertises that you are free to set your own schedule, working when you want with no commitment or minimum hours. If you’re approved, you can sign a six-month contract during which you teach as much or as little as you prefer. Compensation averages up to $22 an hour with $7 to $9 every 25 minute class plus incentives. It’s also good to know that you aren’t required to know any other languages as VIPKid offers English immersion to all students.
Most teachers at Teach Part Time make around $14 to $22 an hour at 20 hours a week with opportunities to increase wages and receive bonuses. Your rate is determined by your education level, experience, and skill set, however prior experience teaching English is not required. The majority of students are between the ages of 5 to 12 and like VIPKid, you don’t need to know any other languages.
At MagicEars, you can make between $18 to $26 an hour, but the requirements are different than VIPKid and Teach Part Time. Instead of one-on-one, you will be one-on-four with up to four students at a time, and previous teaching experience is required along with a valid Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certification. If you’re approved, MagicEars requires a minimum six-month commitment.
Similar to MagicEars, a valid teaching license or TESOL certification is required and you will be with up to four students at a time. Qkids sets a schedule for you at a minimum of six hours per week and they require a minimum six-month commitment. You can earn a base rate of $8 each 30 minute lesson, plus a $1 bonus to your base rate if you teach more than 15 lessons (seven-and-a-half hours) per week. They also offer a $4 base rate for ‘standby lessons’, which are on-call lessons approximately 10 minutes long with no teaching required. In addition, Qkids advertises their unique curriculum with premade lesson plans and a learning environment featuring interactive games - you do not have to prepare anything, except to familiarize yourself with the premade material.
Aside from English, you can become a tutor across various subjects:
Verbling is a platform for you to teach students your native language. They require you to have previous experience teaching your language to other language speakers, but you do not necessarily need a formal teaching certification provided you have the experience. Rather than a fixed rate like with the services for teaching English, you set your own pay rate and Verbling matches you with prospective students. Popular languages include Japanese, Italian, French, and Spanish.
Vancouver-based Skooli exclusively offers math tutoring from professional teachers and subject matter experts. You’re required to have a Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field, a teaching license, or specialized certifications (e.g., Mathematics certifications). As for compensation, you can make $25 an hour and you set your schedule to what works for you.
Instead of just math, Chegg Tutors features thousands of different subjects across all student levels (middle and high school, university and college, and professionals). Some subjects include voice lessons, biology, computer science, calculus, law, zoology, and more. You start at $20 an hour and choose your own work hours.
CourseHero uses a question-and-answer style tutoring method, where users can post for homework help and tutors provide step-by-step, in-depth answers. You can tutor in the fields of finance, business, science, mathematics, psychology, history, and more. You create your own schedule to work as much as you want and the highest rated tutors earn up to $500 a week.
Aside from the common science, mathematics, and technical subjects, Outschool allows you to create and teach online classes about your passions, without requiring formal teaching certifications. This includes courses on video games, life skills, fandoms, and foreign languages. You decide how many people can join, how long the course runs, and how much it costs to enrol - Outschool brings you customers and takes a 30% service fee from your enrolments.
Are you a strong typist and an attentive listener? Transcription (typing out what is being said) services constantly have work available:
No previous experience is needed. You can earn from $0.30 to $1.10 per audio or video minute transcribed and Rev pays out weekly to your PayPal. There is no set work schedule so you can work when you want, but when you accept a job, you have a predetermined deadline. Keeping on top of deadlines gives you a higher rank and allows you to access better paying, longer jobs. Before you accept a job, you can view the total pay you’ll receive after you complete the file so you know exactly what you’d be making.
At TranscribeMe, earnings start at $15 to $22 per audio hour and specialists in medical or legal transcription are offered a premium. Like Rev, they pay out weekly to your PayPal account.
Applications at SpeakWrite require more specific requirements: you must pass a typing test with 60+ words per minute at more than 90% accuracy and you must possess at least one year of transcription experience within the last five years. They are offering premiums for legal or Spanish-speaking transcriptionists. The top monthly earnings go up to $3,400, but the average monthly earnings reach around $450.
Tigerfish asks for your availability and ideal working hours so they can do their best to provide you with work. Unfortunately, they do not publicly display wages or how you’ll be paid.
Clean up the Internet as a Search Engine / Web Search Evaluator:
Appen offers data collection and machine learning services for companies looking to optimize their data. As an independent contractor, you can help rate search engine relevance for different web searches. Appen requires that you pass a three-part qualification exam testing your practical and theoretical knowledge of search engine evaluation. They do not publicly list how much you can make, but you submit invoices of your work and Appen pays out monthly.
Similar to Appen, Lionbridge offers contract work for companies looking to optimize their data with AI and machine learning services. They advertise that you can help the Internet work better by becoming a contractor, where you can rate and evaluate web searches. They do not publicly disclose their wages, but claims it is a competitive rate and you get paid through direct deposit into your bank account.
Give feedback through testing apps and websites:
You can make $10 per 20 minute video and up to $60 per test, where you are asked to visit an app or website and speak your thoughts out loud. UserTesting gives you a list of tasks to complete in that duration. Once you’ve completed a test, you will be paid out through PayPal exactly a week after.
Similar to UserTesting, you are asked to visit a website or app and take a video of you voicing your thoughts out loud. In addition, you fill out a survey to wrap-up the test and a typical test lasts around 20 minutes. TryMyUI says to expect a few tests each week. You can make $10 per test and they pay out every Friday through PayPal.
You can earn $10 per 10 to 15 minute test, where your screen and audio are recorded. Analysia pays out through PayPal.
Can you speak, write, and read in multiple languages? You can be a translator:
Unbabel aims to bridge the gap between businesses experiencing a language barrier. Their work options include linguistic annotation, video annotation, or translation evaluation. Requirements include previous experience working as a translator and post-secondary experience in a related field (e.g., linguistics). Current languages are Polish to English, Arabic to English, Japanese to English, Korean to English, English to Danish, English to Swedish, and English to Finnish. There is no compensation information listed publicly.
Do you enjoy creating content for media platforms? Consider freelance writing jobs:
Because ProBlogger acts as a job board for various companies to list their freelance writing jobs, rates can vary depending on the subject and length. It would be good to read the listing in full to understand the requirements and compensation before accepting a contract or job.
You can set your own hours and make from $20 to $65 an hour depending on your skill level. Writers Work invites beginners and people from all levels to train with them for free and access thousands of jobs. Opportunities include blogging, proofreading, editing, landing pages, copywriting, and social media.
The Bottom Line
We hope this list sparks some ideas to help you get through these challenging times. While we understand that this list won't solve your financial worries, we’re here to help with resources and tools to navigate and manage your finances. If you aren’t a member, sign up in minutes and get personalized advice and financial products that match your profile and goals.
If you have been impacted by COVID-19 you can also check the latest government supports available here.
Karman is a Technical Recruiter and member of the Talent team at Borrowell. Karman is eager to help Canadians make the best decisions possible with their finances. In her free time, Karman likes to spend time with her cat and play video games.