9 Effective Side Hustles to Double Your Income
It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, a bartender, or a school teacher. Everyone could use some extra money. It’s no surprise, then, that people everywhere are taking on side hustles to supplement their incomes.
But what side hustles pay well? Which ones can actually increase your earnings enough to make it worth working all those extra hours?
Here are nine great side hustles that can help double your income in 2019:
1. Become a Rideshare Driver
Uber and Lyft are the biggest rideshare players in town, but they’re not the only ones out there. Depending on where you live, you may also have the option to drive for other car services like Juno, Curb, and Via.
When it comes to making money as a rideshare driver, it’s important to understand that what you earn depends on what you drive, when you drive, and where you drive.
Uber and Lyft have different levels of service, and which you qualify for depends on how nice of a car you have. For example, most standard sedans qualify to drive for Uber X, which pays a national average of $0.73 per mile. If you happen to have a Porsche Cayenne, a Mercedes M Class, or a similar luxury car, you can drive for Uber LUX, which has a national per mile pay rate of $3.27. That’s a huge difference.
As for when you drive, you’ll make more money if you drive when Uber’s surge pricing or Lyft’s prime time pricing are in effect. When the demand for rides is high and the supply of drivers is low, rides cost more, and that means more money in your pocket.
Finally, where you drive matters as well. As you might expect, more expensive cities and prime markets command higher prices and pay more than small towns. According to a recent survey, the average driver in Honolulu, Seattle, New York City, or San Francisco can make more than $20 an hour, whereas drivers in Akron, Ohio, report only earning about $5 per hour.
Uber and Lyft drivers can make decent money. If you hustle and put in your fair share of hours, you should be able to make at least a few hundred dollars each week.
2. Deliver Food, Groceries, or Packages
Don’t want to drive passengers? You might want to try delivering food, groceries, or packages instead.
Apps like GrubHub, Uber Eats, Postmates, DoorDash, and Caviar are great places to start. These jobs typically entail driving to restaurants to pick up orders and dropping them off at customers’ locations.
Food delivery not your thing? Services like Amazon Flex, Instacart, and Deliv hire people to deliver packages or groceries instead.
Amazon Flex drivers are required to pick up packages at Amazon warehouses and deliver them to customers’ homes, much like a UPS driver would. With Amazon Flex, you can expect to earn at least $18 per hour.
With Instacart and Deliv, you’d visit stores to pick up products and then deliver them to drop-off locations. Instacart drivers make an average wage of $11 per hour nationwide.
3. Rent Out Your Home
Renting out your home is one of the highest-paying side hustles. With companies like Airbnb and Vrbo, you can rent out an entire vacation home or a futon in a small spare bedroom.
Renting is a great option for anyone looking to make some extra money without having to do a whole lot of extra work. This side hustle is also ideal for people who travel a lot or own second homes.
How much you can make on Airbnb or Vrbo depends on where you live and what your home has to offer. If you have a luxury penthouse in New York City, you’d be able to charge a lot more than you could for a one-bedroom studio in a small town.
If you want to start renting out your space, try doing so when a special event is happening in your town. Concerts, festivals, conventions, and big sporting events always attract lots of visitors. When the traditional hotels in the area are all booked, you can charge a little more because of the demand.
4. Earn Money Doing In-Home Tasks
With companies like TaskRabbit and Handy, you can find work mounting shelves, cleaning homes, or hanging ceiling fans. With the variety of task jobs that exist, this side hustle allows you to tap into special skill sets you really enjoy using. You can work as a handyman, pack and move boxes, set up home theater systems — the list goes on.
You’ll make even more money if you have some professional skills in the construction industry. If you’re an experienced plumber, electrician, or house painter, you can pull in loads of jobs on Handy.
How much you earn depends on what type of job you do, where you do it, and how often you work. For example, certified plumbers and electricians make more than furniture assemblers or house cleaners.
5. Work From Home as a Freelance Writer
From small businesses to Fortune 500 corporations, companies are always looking for people to write web content like blog posts, articles, marketing emails, and social media posts. Freelance writing is a great way to earn some extra money on the side, and if you’re really good at it, you could even turn it into a full-time job.
To get started, check out websites like Upwork and Freelancer. On these sites, you create a profile that details your experience and compete for jobs in the marketplace. As you complete each project, your clients can rate your work. The key to being successful in freelance marketplaces like these is to get great ratings and build a strong profile. The better your reputation, the more high-paying jobs you can get.
If writing isn’t your forte, don’t worry. There are lots of other freelance jobs you can do from the comfort of home. You can find work as a virtual assistant, a social media marketer, a customer service representative, etc. The opportunities are endless.
6. Work From Home as a Freelance Web Developer
Like writing, web development is something you can do from anywhere at any time. With the right experience, you can turn your passion for web development into a side hustle or even a full-time job.
Upwork and Freelancer are good sources for web developer gigs, hosting many short-term contract positions you can do on the weekends or at night. Jobs range from building entire websites from scratch to implementing small updates on existing sites. As with freelance writing, demonstrating your expertise and earning high ratings are key to finding the most high-paying jobs.
7. Charge or Repair Scooters
If you live in a major city, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Lime or Bird scooters around town. Lime and Bird scooters are electric dockless scooters you can rent for short distances. These scooters have become quite popular recently, and both companies have started hiring people to charge them to ensure they’re ready for customers who need them.
As a Lime “Juicer” or Bird scooter charger, you can literally make money while you sleep. All you need to do is collect scooters that need to be charged, take them home to charge them overnight, and return them to the street in the morning.
Bird pays a minimum of $5 for every scooter you charge. The harder a scooter is to find, or “capture,” the more you can earn for charging it — as much as $25 per scooter. Lime also pays a minimum of $5 per scooter, with harder-to-find scooters paying as much as $20 per charge.
If you’re handy with a set of tools, Bird also hires mechanics to repair broken scooters. You can earn $15 for every scooter you repair.
8. Fix Cars as a Mobile Mechanic
One of the highest-paying side hustles is YourMechanic, which allows customers in need of vehicle repair to hire mobile mechanics who come to them. While customers can’t get major engine overhauls or serious transmission work done, they can get help with smaller tasks like patching tires, replacing fluids, and fixing hoses and belts.
Mobile mechanics earn an average of $40 per hour. Of course, you need to have the chops to do the job. YourMechanic only hires legitimate, experienced mechanics. It’s not like signing up for Uber or Lyft.
The high pay is an obvious benefit to working as a mobile mechanic, but there is one major con: Some mechanics report there just isn’t a lot of work to be done. You may only be needed to work a few hours each week.
9. Walk Dogs
Believe it or not, walking dogs can be a rather lucrative side hustle. If you’re willing to pet sit overnight, you can make even more.
With the dog-walking and pet-sitting app Rover, people who pet sit part-time report earning as much as $1,000 per month. Full-time sitters and walkers can earn even more.
On Rover, you set your own fixed rate per half-hour walk. The price is completely up to you. The trick is to be competitive, prove that you are trustworthy, and earn great ratings from customers. With great reviews and high ratings, you can increase your rates as you become more experienced.
You can also find pet care jobs on Care.com, where you can make $15, $20, or even more per hour just by walking dogs in your neighborhood.
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Depending on your interests and level of experience, there are plenty of side hustles you can start doing right now to double your income each month.
Regardless of what you do, however, there’s one key tip to keep in mind: A side hustle is no different from running your own business. Work hard, put in the time, and do a thorough job. If you do those things, there’s no limit to how much you can earn or how successful you can be.
Brett Helling is the head of Ridester.
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