Side earners that anyone can do

Stuck at home in the evenings and wondering what to do with yourself? It’s actually a great opportunity to make some money on the side. You could discover something new that you really enjoy, or use the opportunity to test out an idea you’ve never had the time to explore before. It could become your main earner when you discover you’re making more money from it than your usual job, or it might just be a handy way to supplement your income and develop cash that can be put into long-term investments.

Here are a few money-makers that pretty much anyone can do. There are hundreds more in the Make Money section of MoneyMagpie.com [https://www.moneymagpie.com/make-money] so take a look there too.

Make and sell your own products online

If you enjoy making things, whether it’s furniture or earrings, clothing or cuddly toys, you could turn them into a steady income stream by selling them online. There are a host of online marketplaces that are packed full of customers looking to buy your wares, including Ebay, Etsy and Shopify. You can make as much or as little as you like, and over time the earnings will start to stack up.

Walk-on work

If you are available during the week or even just at weekends you could make at least £100 a day largely sitting around by being a film or TV extra. Walk-on work involves being in the background in filmed scenes for TV shows, ads or feature films. It involves a lot of sitting around and waiting so it’s particularly good for those who are studying or have other projects on the go. In fact you can spend an entire day doing no work at all, just being available on set. You usually get fed (very well) and can make extra money by doing overtime, bringing your own uniform or having a line or two to say. Good agencies to sign up to for this are Casting Collective and Mad Dog.

Be a Virtual Assistant

If you have administration or secretarial skills you could make money on the side as a Virtual Assistant, helping businesses around the globe with everything from diary management to book-keeping to research and conference organising. Many Virtual Assistants find work for themselves through networking (LinkedIn particularly good for this) but others work through agencies and associations such as the Society of

Virtual Assistants. Pay per hour is around £27 on average but it depends who you’re working for and what services you can offer.

Buying and selling collectibles

This side-earner is good for anyone who has specialist knowledge in a particular area. Are you into handbags? Buy Hermes Birkin bags at auction and sell them for a profit on specialist sites. Are you a fan of TV and film action figures? Make a profit by buying in one country and selling for more in another country through eBay or specialist collector sites. For bigger money it could be classic cars (particularly if you are something of a mechanic), antique tables or antique jewellery. Income from these could be in the tens of thousands per year, depending on how many items you are able to buy and sell.

Voiceovers

It used to be that only actors and presenters could get work as a voiceover artist. Now, thanks to the internet, it’s open to anyone with a good voice, a solid microphone and decent recording equipment. There are audio books, adverts, TV documentaries, cartoons and corporate reads available to the best bidders. It often involves you sending in an audition recording and competing against several others for a particular job which you might or might not get. If you do get it, payments range from £50 for a quick read to hundreds or even thousands for an advert. Good sites to join for voiceover work are Voices.com (one of the biggest), The VoiceRealm.co.uk and Voice123.com.

Tutoring

Are you good at maths, a language, economics or one of the sciences? Tutors are in high demand at the moment as many children and teenagers are missing out on some of their education due to school closures. Subjects like maths, science, economics and languages are particularly in demand but now that some kids are not getting even basic schooling, the humanities are in demand too. Either advertise locally with neighbours and on sites like Nextdoor.com and Gumtree.com or join a tutoring agency like Brightyoungthings.co.uk or Thetutorwebsite.co.uk. One agency, Tutorhouse.co.uk, looks for tutors who can work ‘out of hours’ so if you’re looking for evening and night-time work, that could be a good place to go. Rates are anything from £25-75 an hour.

Surf the Net

Yes you can actually get paid to surf the internet – which is probably what you’re doing for much of the day anyway. Admittedly it’s not a lot of money – £10 a month plus a £10 joining bonus – but as it involves no extra work whatsoever, it’s not a bad way to make a few quid through the year. Just download the Ipsos Iris app onto any or all of your internet-connected devices and Ipsos does the rest. This isn’t a good thing to do if you’re not keen on a third party knowing your search behaviour, but if you’re happy for Ipsos to record all the sites you visit, how long you’re there and what you do when you’re there, then this is easy money.

Jasmine Birtles is founder of MoneyMagpie.com and a TV and radio personality. Get more tips and ideas for making and saving money by following her on Twitter at @Jasmine and on Instagram at @JasmineBirtles

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