- Be positive and excited in your application (including video). Keeping this same attitude can also help you get tips after you complete a project!
- Be willing to accept low rates at first, so you can build up your portfolio before raising prices later.
- If you’re capable and willing, take projects to move people. Oftentimes the customer will offer you some free stuff they no longer want!
- Respond to customers ASAP (at least within 30 minutes). Otherwise, you’ll lose your task and your rating will take a hit. Try not to forfeit tasks, as that will also affect your ratings.
Whether you’re a virtual assistant, a freelance writer, or a graphic design pro, you can find freelancing work on Upwork or Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform.
You’ll need an internet connection and some free time. Unfortunately, these jobs don’t always pay much, but you can choose only the jobs you want. Mechanical Turk often pays with Amazon gift cards.
Upwork and Mechanical Turk are different from Fiverr in that they typically offer larger-scale projects, whereas Fiverr typically offers smaller, easier jobs.
Creating a profile with Upwork is completely free. Once you’re a member, you can browse all the available jobs and see what the work entails, as well as how much they pay you. When you’re just starting out and have no experience, expect a little less for gigs like freelance writing. But over time as you build up your freelancing resume, you can start charging more money for your services.
12. Pet Sitting or House Sitting
If you have free time and live in the right area, you could house sit or pet sit through one of these sites:
- House Sitters America
- TrustedHousesitters
- HouseCarers (previously HouseSitters)
One thing to note here is that while some of these jobs pay you cash to look after people’s houses and/or pets, many of them pay you in the form of “a free place to stay.” Not exactly the right reward, depending on your situation.
This works best if you can find an assignment in your city. Otherwise, your travel expenses may cut too deeply into your earnings. Also, look out for some of these sites that have an annual fee, which is usually $50 – $150.
If you’re interested in being a pet sitter or dog walker, check out Wag or Rover. Both of these apps have tons of available work in every city and neighborhood, and pay you quick cash afterward!
13. Taking Stock Photos
It’s gotten more difficult to earn a side income from taking stock photos since the market is so saturated, but 
I still like Foap because it’s integrated into your smartphone.
If a brand manager needs a certain kind of photo for an ad campaign, you can provide it quickly… and for cash. Just take a photo and upload it through the iPhone app.
14. Assessing Properties
People who need to buy a property sight unseen have a dilemma: Can they really trust the salesperson to tell them about flaws or downsides?
They need someone close by to go take a look at the property-whether it’s real estate or a vehicle-and report back. You could be that helpful person if you have a smartphone and some extra time.
WeGoLook offers a place to get started. They don’t require any qualifications to start with and it’s free to sign up. Once you’re registered as a PRO Looker, you start making cash looking at properties, making notes, and taking photos. They also have gigs for assessing cars, commercial properties, and land.
