Remote work is the dream, including remote side hustles.

Being able to work from wherever you are is the ultimate life hack and literally a lifesaver for some folks.

With remote jobs and remote side hustles, work is becoming more flexible. You no longer have to plan your entire life and schedule around work, put off traveling or moving to the places you want to visit and explore, and you’re able to protect yourself in ways you can’t when you have to go into an office every day or from gig to gig.

You also no longer have to expel so much energy by going into an office, conversing with coworkers, getting decision fatigue for outfit choices and where you’re going to go for lunch, and the list goes on. It also provides you an extra barrier from toxic situations in the office.

Working remotely for queer and trans people is one of the best benefits that you can give us for a working situation, and even more so when we’re working with ADHD. It financially empowers and grants us the freedom to be able to be ourselves when working and building multiple income streams without having to feel in danger around homophobic and transphobic coworkers.

Remote work isn’t just safer…it’s better. You deserve to be able to focus on your life and the balance within that life while being able to provide for yourself through your work that can be done from wherever you are in the world.

We’ve shown you how to get a remote job, what work from home jobs are available, now it’s time to break down work from home side hustle ideas and where to actually find gigs for them.

21 Remote Side Hustles You Can Do on The Side of Your Day Job

There are several ways to work remote side hustles and find one that’s the perfect fit for you. You can work as a freelancer who serves a client or build your own small business on the side of your day job.

There are also ways you can make some quick cash online remotely that we’ll also discuss.

Whether you want to build a remote portfolio career or simply learn about more ways to monetize your skills online, keep reading.

Freelance Remote Side Hustles

Get started finding clients on your own through a network of yours, browsing for gigs that match your skillset on an open marketplace like Upwork, or start your own brand where you make money by providing content, selling products, and being a creator. For instance, I find freelance writing opportunities through my own network while also being able to make money from wherever I am with my blog income.

However, there are several other ways to get started with a side hustle that doesn’t require ever launching a brand or having to market yourself. Find and work remote side hustles online via job boards, gig agencies, and other websites. Start putting together a small resume for this work with a portfolio via MuckRack, Behance, or a premium website via Bluehost.

Another helpful thing to do is to create a profile on Twitter to start reaching out to others in certain “call to pitch” posts to create a small network of freelancers that share gig openings with each other, cowork together, bounce ideas off of, and more.

When searching any of these websites, select “Remote” for your location and filter on freelance opportunities (unless you want part time or full time for a career pivot). Some of the websites below are open marketplaces, remote job and gig boards, or agencies and companies hiring for these specific positions.

1. Writing

Freelance writing is a great remote side hustle that has low startup costs too. You can use all free software to get started like Google Docs, Grammarly for proofreading, other tools for freelancers, and start writing articles in Medium for practice.

You can freelance write in a variety of areas including:

• Blog writing
• Ghostwriting
• Copywriting
• Technical writing
• Writing documentation
• And more

Then head to these following sites to look for remote freelance writing gigs:

• ContentWritingJobs: Hand-picked paid content writing jobs.
• Fiverr: Great for starting off with low-paying gigs to put together a portfolio.
• Upwork: Put together a profile to be able to search for gigs.
• Problogger.com/jobs: Find writing jobs for blogs.
• Twitter: Use the Twitter search to find freelance gigs. A popular hashtag I follow are #callforpitches.
• The Writer’s Job Newsletter: A weekly newsletter with new remote jobs and open calls for pitches.
• LinkedIn Jobs: Search on “freelance writer” and update your profile to attract your ideal client.
• Opt to be a Linkedin Service Provider so your ideal clients can find you on Linkedin services page and in Linkedin search
• Remote.co: Filter on “freelance” to see gigs.

3. Proofreading

If you thought editing and proofreading were the same thing, think again. Proofreading is polishing a submitted work before it publishes, including looking for spelling errors, grammatical errors, sentence structure, formatting, etc. Editing is more time consuming and sometimes involves rewriting pieces of content.

To get started exploring proofreading and if it would be a great remote side hustle for you, check out this free course.

Use the following websites to start looking for freelance proofreading gigs:

• Cambridge Proofreading: Apply to be a freelance proofreader and make $20-$25 an hour.
• ProofreadingServices: Apply to be an online proofreader on their team and make up to $46 an hour.
• Guru: A site similar to Fiverr and Upwork to look for freelance proofreading gigs.
• WritingJobz: Join and get access to hundreds of gigs daily.
• Reedsy: Connects freelancers to authors and writers.
• Media Bistro: Browse the latest gigs for proofreaders from top media and creative employers.
• Scribbr: Apply to become an editor/proofreader.

4. Design

Much like freelance writing, editing, and proofreading, you can get paid for your design skills as a freelance designer.

You can freelance in a variety of areas as a designer such as:

• Graphic design
• Logo design
• Web design
• Branding design
• Interior design
• Product design
• Template design
• And more

Start with these websites when looking for freelance design gigs:

• Dribbble: Freelance project board to look for gigs that match your expertise and interest.
• Fiverr: Set your profile and gigs to attract your ideal clients. Use keywords they would be searching for.
• Talent.Hubstaff.com: Browse by any of the “design” skill sets you see on the main page or use the search box.
• Creatively.life: Filter on freelance to be able to see freelance gigs.
• SolidGigs: Get freelance design leads.
• 99Designs: Get matched to clients.
• Contra: Create a profile and browse open freelance opportunities.
• Behance: Create a portfolio and browse gigs.
• Shopify Partners: Become a shopify partner to find design clients.

5. Web Development

My first ever side hustle that I actually paid taxes on was when I worked as a freelance web developer on the side of my day job as a software engineer and it lasted for quite a few years.

As a freelance web developer, your specialty and what you want to work on is entirely up to you. For instance, I strictly helped my clients with custom WordPress builds and support. You could choose to help people build apps, fix code on their small business website, or whatever you want really.

If you already work in tech, think of one thing you love doing the most at your job and then freelance out that skill for a tech side hustle.

To find freelance web developer gigs, start with these websites:

• LinkedIn Jobs: Search on “freelance” and update your profile to attract your ideal client.
• Opt to be a Linkedin Service Provider so your ideal clients can find you on Linkedin services page and in Linkedin search.
• Talent.Hubstaff.com: Browse by the “web development” skill you see on the main page or use the search box.
• If you use Webflow or want to learn how to use it, you can apply to be a Webflow expert on the platform.
• Indeed: Filter on freelance and remote for your search.
• Freelancermap: Look for freelance web development gigs.
• Toptal: Apply for remote freelance web developer jobs.
• Dice: Job search website specifically for tech jobs (including part-time and freelance).

6. Transcription

Transcription is the process of taking an audio or video recording and converting the speech into text. This sounds like it could be pretty easy but your astute attention to detail is going to be what sets you apart from other transcriptionists.

There are tons of free training online that can help you prepare like Transcribe Anywhere to help you get started as a transcriptionist. You’ll also need a couple of tools to perform gigs such as a foot pedal, Express Scribe, and headphones.

To get started looking for transcription remote side hustles, look at the following websites:

• Scribie: For beginner transcriptionists (pay is a little lower but you can use it for experience).
• CrowdSurf: Online marketplace for transcriptionists.
• Speechpad: Transcription job platform for beginners. Earn up to $1 per audio minute.
• BabbleType: No experience needed to get started on this platform.
• GoTranscript: Find remote transcriptionist jobs available worldwide.

7. Tutoring

If you have experience with tutoring, teaching, or working with students in any capacity, then you could find remote side hustle opportunities as a tutor. As a tutor, you’ll help students complete assignments, study for tests, and improve their learning experience.

Start with these websites to start looking for tutoring gigs:

• Care.com: Sign up to be an online tutor and set your own rates.
• Tutorme: Earn $16 an hour as a tutor on TutorMe.
• BookNook: Find online tutoring jobs.
• Outschool: Tutors claim they make up to $100 an hour on Outschool, average pay is $50 an hour.
• Varsity Tutors: Apply to be a remote tutor and work as little or as much as you want.

8. Customer Support

If you have experience in customer service or working with customers at all, look into remote side hustle opportunities in customer support. There are a wide range of gigs you could perform in this area including being a chat box customer service representative, take customer support calls, be a moderator, scheduler, work on customer requests via tickets, etc.

Use these websites to start looking for online customer support gigs:

• Indeed: Filter on remote to search for customer service gigs.
• FlexJobs: Look for remote customer service gigs.
• VirtualVocations: Search on “Customer Service” to see available remote gigs hiring. Read our VirtualVocations review.
• Concentrix: Browse their open listings in customer service.

9. Virtual Assisting

As a virtual assistant, you will be performing an array of tasks for businesses and business owners. You might create social media posts, upload blog posts to the website, answer emails, schedule meetings, help plan content, help run events, and anything the business needs you to do.

Start looking for remote virtual assistant gigs using these websites:

• FancyHands: Perfect for beginners to pick up tasks (pay is lower but use for experience).
• VirtualVocations: Search on “Virtual Assistant” to see available remote gigs hiring.
• Talent.Hubstaff.com: Browse by the “virtual assistant” skill you see on the main page or use the search box.
• Delegated: For more experienced virtual assistants.
• Zirtual: Find virtual assistant jobs for U.S. based applicants only.
• Facebook groups: Search for “virtual assistant” when filtering on “groups” in Facebook to see groups that consist of virtual assistants looking for gigs and some that post gigs in those groups.

10. Social Media Management

As a social media manager, you will be performing a variety of tasks from social media content planning, creation, scheduling, and even the analysis phase of how that content performs. You can get started as an independent freelancer, looking for gigs within your network or community, or get started with online job sites and other websites hiring social media managers.

These websites will help find remote side hustles in social media management:

• Opt to be a Linkedin Service Provider so your ideal clients can find you on Linkedin services page and in Linkedin search
• Upwork: Put together a profile to be able to search for social media management gigs.
• FlexJobs: Look for remote social media gigs.
• Facebook groups: Search for “Social media manager” when filtering on “groups” in Facebook to see groups that consist of social media managers looking for gigs and some that post gigs in those groups.
• Contra: Create a profile and browse open freelance opportunities.

11. Coaching or Consulting

Coaches and consultants might sound like they do the same thing, and that is partially true. They both work 1 on 1 with clients to get to a particular goal, but both differ slightly from each other.

Coaches coach their clients through tasks to get to a goal, work through mindset blocks, and provide motivation to their clients. Consultants actually consult their clients on more specialized tasks. For instance, a branding consultant works with you on your concerns with your branding and maybe will work with you to redesign that branding.

Where to go to look for remote coaching and consulting gigs:

• FlexJobs: Look for remote coaching and consulting gigs.
• Indeed: Filter on remote to search for coaching and consulting gigs.
• Upwork: Put together your profile to attract your ideal editing clients and start looking for gigs.
• LinkedIn Jobs: Search on “coach” or “consultant” and update your profile to attract your ideal client. If you don’t see any distinct freelance gigs available, use this platform to start reaching out to ideal clients and forming a network.
• Opt to be a Linkedin Service Provider so your ideal clients can find you on Linkedin services page and in Linkedin search

12. Teach English Online

There are several different ways that you can get paid to teach English online as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Since English is the most recognized language in the world, you won’t have a hard time finding these sorts of gigs with English teachers being in high demand online.

Some requirements to work as an online English teacher is being a native English speaker, obtain a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification or degree in a similar area. You can work as an English teacher to a group of students or work as a private tutor helping people learn the English language.

Use the following sites to apply to become an online English teacher:

• VIPKID: Make $14-$22 an hour as an ESL teacher.
• MagicEars: Make up to $26 an hour as an ESL teacher.

13. Teach Music Lessons Online

If you are a music lover and know how to play a certain instrument, you can get paid to teach music lessons online as a remote side hustle idea. You can make money teaching lessons online through virtual schools, setting up your own lesson website, or teaching with a virtual freelancer marketplace.

Online music teachers get paid for private 1 on 1 lessons and group lessons.

Browse the following websites to sign up to become a virtual music lesson teacher:

• Takelessons: Sign up to become a teacher and teach private and group lessons.
• Udemy: Sign up to teach on Udemy and offer music lessons for your instrument of choice. You can also offer vocal lessons, lessons on musical technique, music software, production, and more.

14. Bookkeeper

Bookkeepers help businesses keep their financial books in order. Usually folks can pay accountants to do this for them, do this themselves, or they hire a bookkeeper to handle it. Some gigs may also require you to be a certified bookkeeper.

To start searching for bookkeeping remote side hustles, start with these sites:

• BackyardBookkeeper: Get paid up to $24 an hour.
• Bookminders: You’ll need a 4 year degree but then you can make up to $31 an hour.
• Upwork: Put together your profile to attract your ideal editing clients and start looking for gigs.
• Intuit: Find entry level to senior level bookkeeping jobs.
• AccountingFly: Browse accounting and bookkeeping jobs.

Building Your Own Remote Side Hustles

When you’re building your own remote side hustle, you are building an actual business. The internet just likes to call those “side hustles” when they are done on the side of another job or other income streams.

And no, these aren’t things like taking online surveys.

When you’re building a business, you can choose to register your business before you jump in head-first or start out as a sole-proprietor and register your business later on. However, registering your business will help legally protect you.

15. Start a Blog & Monetize It

Starting a blog was the same side hustle that I started on the side of my day job in 2017 in between back-to-back layoffs. This year, that same side hustle allowed me to leave my day job and work for myself full-time.

You can make money blogging in a variety of ways including passive income from displaying ads on your website and affiliate partnerships. Passive income takes much longer to build up to be a good chunk of sustainable income. For instance, it could take up to a year to build up passive income streams from a blog of about $1,000 monthly with ads and affiliates.

However, you can also integrate active income streams with your blog like sponsored brand partnerships, selling a product or service through your blog, freelance writing, and more. There is literally no limit of the amount of income streams that you can create with a blog and you can blog from wherever you are as long as you have wifi and a laptop.

16. Try Vlogging or Creating Video Content

Vlogging is a very lucrative way to make money online with a remote side hustle. You can start making money passively through YouTube once you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours on your channel. Once you reach that milestone, you can start serving ads on your videos and racking up passive ad income.

Even if you don’t like showing your face, you could still make money on YouTube. A great option for folks who don’t want to be on camera is creating a tutorial based YouTube channel where you share tutorials for various tools, how to use certain devices, DIY steps, or videos on how to repair something.

People are searching on YouTube every day for tutorials to help them do their jobs or fix something in their house, so this type of content is in high demand.

Other ways you can make money on YouTube are (but are not limited to):

• Affiliate marketing and putting affiliate links in the description of your videos
• Sponsored brand partnerships
• Offering a service to your audience
• Selling a digital product
• Selling a physical product

17. Create Digital Products to Sell

You can add digital products as an income stream in almost any side virtual business you start or start your own digital product store that you can build up to be a sustainable passive income stream.

Selling digital products online is more of a semi-passive income stream when you start out because you will still have admin duties like customer service, updating your listings, adding new listings, marketing, etc. However, this can easily become a 100% passive income stream once you outsource any manual tasks.

You can use any of these apps to set up your digital product store:

• Etsy: An upside to Etsy is your audience is already there. You mainly only have to focus on Etsy SEO to bring in customers from the platform. You can also market your listings on Instagram and Pinterest for further visibility.
• Shopify: This is what I use for my own digital product store attached to the blog and love it. You can sell digital products, physical products, and even dropship on Shopify.

• Stan.store: Stan allows you to easily set up a digital product store with a linktree so your audience from social media can easily buy from you. This is a great option for beginners who have a social media following.

18. Open a Dropshipping or “Print On Demand” Store

The next best option to selling digital products online for semi-passive and passive income is creating a dropshipping store.

Dropshipping means that you sell “on demand” products. On demand means that you don’t have to prepare the items and ship them yourself. Instead, you have a warehouse on deck that does all of that for you. Another word that you might see when referring to dropshipping is “print on demand”.

There are several apps that easily interface with Etsy and Shopify to be able to have warehouses do all the work for you (for a small fee). Some of these apps are Printify and Printful and you’ll choose in the app which you want to use — Etsy or Shopify. You will have to create your Etsy or Shopify separately, then you’ll be able to pull in their data in the app once prompted.

You can get started with this type of store by creating a couple of designs in Canva that your target market loves. Then you will use those designs to choose what items you want to sell with the design on them, on whichever app you go with whether that’s Printify or Printful. You can choose to sell items like coffee mugs, tumblers, wine glasses, t-shirts, hoodies, and more.

Ways to Make Quick Cash Remotely

These are not sustainable remote side hustles, but instead ways to make quick cash remotely online. They are also great ways to help fund starting up your side hustle or business idea.

However, you shouldn’t expect to make a sustainable income from these routes.

19. Test Websites

You can use websites like UserTesting and UserFeel to make money testing websites online. You can make anywhere from $3 – $30 per test but you will have to apply and complete a qualifier type of test to be able to start doing tests.

Each test lasts 5 to 60 minutes and all you need to complete it is wifi, a computer, or phone, or tablet.

20. Take Part in Online Research Studies

A notch up from online surveys are participating in online research studies. You can browse paid research studies on a site like Respondent and do screener tests. When you are chosen for one, you can make anywhere from $15 for 15 minutes or up to $300 per hour depending on the study.

21. Answer Questions if You’re an Expert in Something

If you are in expert in any subject and have a degree to show it, you can apply to become an expert on JustAnswer and get paid to answer other people’s questions.

The subjects that are currently on JustAnswer are:

• Finance
• Computers
• Programming
• Law
• Medical
• Pet
• Home improvement
• And more

22. Do Online Surveys (not a sustainable idea)

Finally, the one I was kind of avoiding. Surveys will probably yield you the least amount of money out of all of these options, but they are great for the folks that love them.

Surveys are great for folks who love doing quick tasks for extra money when on the go and find themselves waiting a lot with “idle time”. However, they aren’t for folks who hate doing anything tedious for a small payout.

Keep in mind that prequalification surveys on these platforms are not paid which is why they are the absolute last item on this list. These sites actually pay a little better than most platforms once you can qualify.

So if you’re a survey junkie, I have a couple of survey sites for you to use:

• Pinecone where you can make $3 per survey
• Mindswarms where you can make $50 per survey

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is the best remote side hustle?

The best remote side hustle is one that you can start yourself. When you build your own business, you get to design it however you want. You can work as a freelancer with a business and clients that you find on your own, start a content business like a blog or YouTube, sell something on online, or partner with others for projects.

What are some of the most profitable remote side hustles?

The most profitable side hustle depends on the niche, demand, and how you market it. A side hustle can appear extremely profitable and popular online, but when you get into the nitty gritty of it you find that it is a lot harder than other make it seem. Or maybe you find out that you can’t profit at it like others are because it isn’t the right choice for you. Selling digital products with the best marketing to accompany them so they target the right audience is a great profitable remote side hustle idea.

Any remote side hustle you choose will take some amount of time to get it to be profitable the way you want so don’t give up on it too soon.

How can I make $1,000 on the side or with a remote side hustle?

A great way to make $1,000 on the side with a remote side hustle is with using a side hustle stack. I love stacking side hustles for maximum earning power. For example, I pet sit on Rover sometimes while also completing writing assignments for my freelance writing side hustle. When I do this in a weekend, I can easily make $1,000 from both of those side hustles while also making ad income from my blog, which I make every day regardless of any work being done because it is passive income.

What are some passive income ideas or remote side hustles?

Creating a blog or YouTube and serving ads within your content is a great passive income idea. You can also sell digital products online for passive income and semi-passive income like eBooks, social media templates, designs, fonts, and even courses. Before you get started with any other passive income option, start with investing in the stock market to understand the basics of passive income and start investing for retirement.

How can I make an extra $2,000 a month?

There are tons of ways you can make an extra $2,000 a month. Some of these include stacking different side hustles with a combination of active income and passive income, take on 1 client where you charge them $2,000 for that month, sell a course for $100 to 20 people, sell a digital product that costs $50 to 40 people, or build your blog or YouTube up to $2,000 of ad income per month.

Getting Started With Remote Side Hustles

Whether you start your search on a freelancer platform or not or start your own remote side business, you might need extra help with brushing up on skills. Take advantage of free courses online to help you skill up.

Either way, don’t wait until you’ve gone through a course to start. I guarantee that you already have everything you need to get started.

If you don’t feel like you need to skill up, start looking at some of the leaders within the niche you want to start in and start following them. Subscribe to their email list and communities so you can learn more about what they do.

If you feel like you need a course to help you along then make time to do that, but know that you don’t have to wait on completing some course.

Now, let’s make some moves!

This article originally appeared on Iliketodabble.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.

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