Reliable side hustles for steady income – San Diego Union-Tribune

For many people, working a side hustle is a great way to afford things they might not normally be able to afford, such as luxuries like holidays and meals out.

But according to recent research, side hustles are a necessity for about a third of Americans, who take them on because they use the money to cover their daily expenses. Research from BankRateSo, while many workers prefer higher-paying side jobs, even if they are not stable, some side hustlers only need reliable side jobs for regular income.

Reliable side jobs

Reliable side hustles aren’t always the best-paying. They involve helping with a variety of daily activities, from delivery to delivery to tutoring to pet sitting. However, the best reliable side hustles pay significantly more than minimum wage — even after expenses — and can bring in $500 to $1,000 per month, just like an hour.

There’s one caveat: it can take around six months to get established before you start working regularly. It usually takes that long to generate enough reviews and ratings to get your profile featured on some of the top side gig platforms. But after that, freelancers argue that these gigs are so reliable that they can turn into full-time jobs if they want to.

Here are six reliable side hustles worth considering.

Animal care

Walking and watching pets is one of the most enjoyable and reliable side jobs for animal lovers, with even the most casual side hustlers claiming to regularly earn between $500 and $1,000. Mobileis the largest and most established of the pet tracking sites.

Here, potential dog walkers and pet sitters sign up and create a profile describing themselves and their pet-related experiences. Side hustlers also choose the types of pets they’re willing to care for, whether they’ll offer additional services like pet sitting and transportation, and the fees they’ll charge. You can even set different rates for weekends and holidays if you want. Rover takes a 20% commission on all bookings.

Pro tip: Start low to attract early customers — maybe $5 a night below the average in your neighborhood. Gradually raise your rates once you have a few reviews. At that point, you don’t need to be the lowest-cost provider to continue to win business.

Teaching

If you like academics more than animals, consider tutoring. With approximately 50 million school-age children in the United States, the need for academic tutors is great.

And as the world has increasingly turned to online education in recent years, private tutoring opportunities have become more attractive, saving tutors the time and expense of traveling to their students. They simply hop on a video chat and go.

There are many good online education sites. Our personal favorite is the industry giant, Wyzante. What makes Wyzant stand out? Millions of monthly customers; freedom to choose what to teach, when to teach, and how much you charge. The site takes a 25% commission on bookings.

Pro tip: As we suggested above for pet sitters, reviews are the key to standing out in a crowded market. But to get those reviews, you’ll probably need to offer your services a bit cheaper than your more established competitors. But this is temporary. Once you get good reviews and a steady stream of students, you can start increasing your fees.

Freelance writing

Despite concerns that AI will eliminate freelance writing jobs, there is still plenty of regular work for those with experience and talent, especially in niche areas. For example, there is plenty of work in financial writing, medical writing, and technical writing in fields such as aviation, agriculture, education, and oil.

There’s also a demand for people with unique perspectives and life experiences, whether it’s raising children with special needs or navigating your own gender identity. The trick to finding these opportunities is to dive into your area of ​​expertise with enough vigour to understand which publications are covering your particular topic and how. You can then reach out to the editors of those publications directly or work through an online platform, such as: Contentful, The word sky, NDash or Service Landscape.

Pro tip: The best way to build a solid freelance writing career is to get repeat work from the same publications. If you avidly read the publications you want to pitch to, you’ll become familiar with their style and scope. This will increase your chances of getting accepted and will help you impress editors enough to get regular work.

Food Service

Restaurants continue to struggle to fill shifts with enough willing servers, bartenders, and other food service staff to keep their establishments running smoothly. If you have experience in the service industry, finding steady work is relatively easy. Hourly wages for tipped employees are notoriously low, but tips can make the job worthwhile.

Good sites to find in-demand jobs in this industry include: Jitjatjo And Qwick. However, if you have local restaurants and bars that you like, it’s also a good idea to reach out directly to the businesses you’d like to work with.

Food service is an industry that is used to providing meals to part-time workers, so finding a job through online platforms is not a big deal. However, online platforms do have one advantage: They operate in multiple states, so if you move a lot, you can easily change your location through the app. You don’t have to reapply for the job.

Pro tip: Contact your favorite restaurants first. Most restaurants offer free meals to their waiters. What could be better than earning money and eating free meals at your favorite restaurants?

Delivery

There were far fewer regular delivery businesses before the pandemic. But three years of lockdowns have accustomed Americans to ordering food, groceries and household goods online. And that trend has accelerated in part because discount retailers like Target and Walmart started offering free delivery as a way to compete with Amazon.

Almost all delivery services, with exceptions AmazonFlexiblepays relatively modest delivery fees and relies on customer tips to make the job worthwhile. (Amazon pays about $18 to $25 per hour.) Generally speaking, this process works because drivers can see the tip before they accept the ride. And, not surprisingly, cheap customers have a harder time finding drivers.

Pro tip: Sign up for multiple sites and choose your gigs. Our advice DoorDash, GrubHub And UberMeals for food deliveries; Instacart, Boat And Meatball for grocery delivery. And AmazonFlexible, Share, Worn, Citizen Transporter, And uShip For heavier items that require a truck or cargo van.

Ride sharing

For driving Uber And Lyft It won’t make you rich. But if you’re in a major metropolitan area, you can usually find a passenger within seconds of opening the app. And subway drivers say they usually have a succession of passengers from the moment they start to the moment they exit, if they’re willing to take on all the passengers.

However, experiences vary depending on your location. And in rural areas, ride-hailing jobs are generally not reliable side jobs.

Pro tip: Some rural drivers say they get by by commuting to the nearest city center, where they can drive all day. “It’s not much different than any other commute,” one Tennessee ride-hailing driver told us. He added that it takes him less than a half-hour to get to Nashville from his home near Franklin. And it was worth the time because not only did he get paid more, but each fare was paid more per mile because drivers were needed more.

Kristof is the editor of this article: SideHusl.comAn independent website that examines money-making opportunities in the gig economy.