Summer has arrived, and although this season is usually a good one for picking up a side hustle if you have some free time, the coronavirus continues to pose health dangers that make doing so challenging.
Luckily, even as you adjust your summer activities to keep yourself and others safe, there are still side hustles that let you limit your risk by working from home and still pulling in extra cash.
Here are six safe and lucrative side hustles for the age of the coronavirus. To get started, you'll need a device like a phone or a computer as well as an internet connection.
Write a travel itinerary
Whether you're an avid traveler or you simply know a few popular travel destinations like the back of your hand, perhaps from living or growing up in one, you may be able to monetize your knowledge.
Consider writing a personalized travel itinerary to a specific location on sites like Wild Bum. Wild Bum guide architects, as they're called, typically charge $25-$150 for each itinerary they write and keep 75% of every sale.
Teach what you know
Are you especially good at algebra? Can you sew a fashionable dress? Do you play the banjo? Whatever expertise you might have, there's a platform to teach it online and make some money. Some options include:
- Varsity Tutors offers students hour-long virtual lessons in anything from calculus to German with tutors making an average rate of up to $40 per hour, according to SideHusl.
- Lessonface connects musicians with students who want to learn anything from singing to the drums. Prices vary anywhere from $60 for four one-hour lessons to a group to $50 for a 30-minute lesson that's one-on-one. Lessonface typically takes 15% of teachers' earnings if students found them via the website and 4% if teachers recruited the students on their own. Fees may vary due to the coronavirus.
- Teachable enables tutors to create a course and post it either on its site or their own. Its current courses range from Buttercream Flowers Class ($49) to Drone Pilot Ground School ($299). Teachers pick a plan through which to create their course, costing anywhere from $29 per month to $249 per month, and all courses also include processing fees.
Be an online mock juror
Online mock juries are like focus groups for forthcoming trials and offer lawyers a sense of how jurors might vote on their cases. Depending on the website, an attorney might submit a written case with a series of facts and some questions or they might record a summary of the case for "jurors" to weigh in on by phone.
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.
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.
Video by Mariam Abdallah
Take surveys online or by phone
Even today, some companies continue to create new products while other companies are looking to improve their existing ones. Market research organizations work on behalf of these companies to test their products with customers. They pay people to take surveys online or answer questions by phone about their clients' products.
Market research company Shifrin-Hayworth says its studies take 30 minutes to three hours and pay $50 to $250 each. Sign up to get paid to take surveys on sites like Shifrin-Hayworth, Focus Group, or Find Focus Groups.
Sell your stuff online
As long as you're social distancing, this summer might present a great opportunity to clean out your attic and sell whatever's in good condition online. Find a barely used pair of Dr. Martens hidden in your closet? Log on to apps like Poshmark, see how much similar products are going for and post yours for sale. Got a monitor from your early teenage years that still works but is no longer of use? Decluttr will take your used electronics and sell them for you.
Sites like Mercari let sellers post an array of objects, from baby toys to car parts, and there's always the classic eBay, on which sellers sell chia pets to a hamburger backpacks.
Avid side hustler Daniella Flores has made $750 to $3,000 per month selling used guitars on eBay.
Answer some questions
Sites like JustAnswer offer users wondering anything from "Why's the kitchen sink pipe leaking?" to "How much is this old vase worth?" to "How does a prenup work?" the chance to pose these questions on the site and get a response from an appropriate expert within minutes.
You must apply to become an expert on JustAnswer. The acceptance rate on the site is between 10% and 12% of all applicants. Once approved, the site's wide range of experts get paid anywhere from $18 to $50 per answer, depending on their expertise, with plumbers to lawyers making an average of $2,900 throughout the month of May.
Among the most popular subject areas are IT questions, legal questions, and home improvement questions. An antiques appraiser made $73,000 in one month alone during the pandemic, according to the site.
More from Grow: