How to Earn Money Without a Traditional Job: 150 Apps and Sites for Gig Culture (Updated for 2023) | TitleMax (2024)

Don’t have a 9-to-5 job? That’s no problem. Here’s how to make money without a job that’s full-time. We’ve gathered a list of the 150 best side-gig apps that can help you with your side hustle to help pay the bills. There are hundreds of different things you can do to earn money, thousands of easy tasks to do, and dozens of helpful side-gig apps available to you. Need money now with no job? There’s no need to panic! Check out some of these easy side hustle ideas.

How to Make Extra Money With a Side Hustle

Get Simple Side Jobs to Earn Cash

You don’t need to have a full-time job to earn enough to get by. These side gigs are great ways to make extra money. Whether you’re dropping something off or helping someone organize their kitchen cabinets, these are the best apps where you can make money on the side for easy tasks.

1. Do Simple Tasks for Your Neighbors — Apps like TaskRabbit feature neighbors hiring neighbors for simple things from mounting a TV to helping with home improvement.
2. Perform One-Off Jobs for Companies — Get real jobs from companies for a day or two with Wonolo and Moonlighting.
3. Mystery Shop — Do market research and check on stores with Field Agent, Gigwalk, and EasyShift.
4. Be a Handyman — Fix stuff for people on Handy.
5. Become a Mover — Move people in and out with Dolly.
6. Cut Grass — Become a lawn-care professional with LawnLove.

Delivery Apps: The Best Ways to Make Extra Money if You Have a Car

When trying to figure out how to earn money without a job, always remember to use what you have. If you have a functioning vehicle and are good at driving around, you can do any of these things.

1. Drive for a Ride-Sharing App — Services like Uber and Lyft are super-popular right now. You just need to do a background check and can start earning within a few weeks.
2. Deliver Groceries — This is an increasingly popular weekend job that’s ideal for people who like shopping. Try Instacart or Shipt.
3. Deliver Restaurant Food — DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats are all becoming popular for both small, local restaurants and customers. You can earn money by driving food around rather than people.
4. Drop Off Some Stuff — Amazon Flex is starting a new method of delivering packages. This might even be great in addition to some of the other driving gigs.

Make Money With Kids and Puppies: Babysit, Dog-Sit, or Tutor Kids

Want to know how to make money fast without a job of the traditional kind? Try babysitting, pet-sitting, or tutoring. They’ve been some of the top ways to make money on the side for decades for a reason. If you’re fond of and good with children and/or pets, this can be super-easy for you!

1. Babysit Kids — Use one of the popular babysitting apps like Care.com, Sittercity, Urbansitter, or Bubble.
2. Watch or Walk Pets — Kennels can be expensive and bad for pets, so a popular option is to hire dog-sitters with Rover, Tailster, or Petsitters.org. You can offer your services after a background check.
3. Tutor Students — Are you book-smart? Give homework help with Chegg, Skooli, or one of the many other tutoring apps.
4. Tutor ESL Kids — Tutor English-as-a-second-language students with Cambly or goFLUENT.
5. Drive Kids Around — Apps like Zum combine Uber with Care.com, allowing you to help dads and moms by picking up and dropping off kids.

Earn Money for What You’ve Got: Rent the Stuff You Have

Have a house, parking spot, or cool equipment like a gaming console? Renting out your stuff is one method for how to make money with no job at all.

1. Rent Your Parking Spot — Definitely check your local and state laws on this one, as some cities have frowned on such apps, but CurbFlip, Just Park, and SpotHero are available in a lot of cities.
2. Rent Out Your Car — Let someone else do the driving with Turo, Getaround, or HyreCar.
3. Rent Your Stuff — Use Rentah to rent out items like game consoles and furniture.
4. Rent Your House to Vacationers — Airbnb is super-popular, and there are plenty of others like VRBO and FlipKey as well for competitive pricing.

Earn Money for What You’ve Got: Sell Your Old Stuff

Sometimes, you can’t wait around for a long background check or approval process; you need money now. Selling stuff is another approach to get money in one day without a job, assuming you can get a good price.

1. Sell Books — Get rid of those piled-up paperbacks with Bookoo or Bookscouter.
2. Sell Furniture or Antiques — Sell your unique furniture with Chairish.
3. Sell Clothes — People will pay a lot for designer vintage clothing on Poshmark, Vinted, Wish, or Tradesy.
4. Sell Whatever — Use newer apps like Decluttr or Bonanza or classic sites like Craigslist, eBay, or Facebook Marketplace.

Give Your Opinion Online

Frequently, companies like this will hand out rebates, coupons, and rewards but not cash. Some of them, however, will allow you to easily earn money from home with little fuss.

1. Fill Out Surveys — Swagbucks, CashKarma, Survey Junkie, and other sites have a fairly good reputation for giving back money or gift cards.
2. Earn With Emails or Watching Videos — InboxDollars allows you to earn for typical online activities like checking your email.

Earn Money From Your Skills: Sell Your Art

If you’re an artist and wondering how to make money on the side, simple merchandising or freelance work can bring in a lot of cash.

1. Sell Handmade Crafts (or Craft Supplies) — Create handmade items like knitted scarves or candles and sell them on Etsy, ArtFire, Amazon Handmade, or Spoonflower. Another even better money-making venture may be to sell the tools these communities use to DIY their own projects.
2. Sell Prints and Stickers — You create the art; they print out the stuff, like stickers, mugs, device cases, canvases, stationery, or even home décor items. Try Redbubble, Society6, or CafePress.
3. Volunteer Your Art Services to a Business — With companies like TurningArt, you can use your art to help businesses. You also may be able to find some great design gigs on Fiverr.

Earn Money From Your Skills: Other Ways to Make Money From Home

What if you’re a highly professional person just hoping to make a living from home? Freelancing is how to make money without working for someone besides your clients and yourself. It is absolutely a valid way to earn; some people who freelance earn more than 9-to-5’ers! Here are some examples of ways to start in the freelance world.

1. Sign Up for Specialized Freelance Gigs — Check out the specialized gigs on Fiverr and Upwork; they can be for anything from writing to designing a logo to singing a jingle!
2. Write Blogs — You can put ads on a blog of your own creation or do freelance writing work for sites like Listverse and Contently.
3. Sell E-Books — If you’re a writer or business blogger, putting your book up on Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble Press, Apple Books for Authors, and Smashwords is how to earn extra money easily.
4. Proofread — Catch mistakes in others’ work with side-gig sites like Proofread Anywhere or Scribendi.
5. Sell Stock Photography — Even putting up your iPhone photos for $1 on sites like Getty Images, Adobe Stock, or Shutterstock can lead to some passive income.
6. Start Earning Passively From Video — Set up ads on a YouTube channel or consider streaming on a site like Twitch.
7. Do Voice Work — Perform with only your beautiful voice with Voices.com or another site like BunnyStudio.
8. Invest — Most of us are wondering how to earn money without investment, but if you have a little bit of cash to squirrel away, you can use Acorns.
9. Be a Personal Assistant — Volunteer your services with Fancy Hands.
10. Get More Massage Work — If you’re a licensed massage therapist, you can sign up for Zeel to get more calls.
11. Work on Cars — If you’re a mechanic, sign up for YourMechanic.
12. Use Your IT Skills — Check out HelloTech.

See below for the full list of 150 side gigs to get some extra money. There are plenty of options available for anyone looking for easy ways to make money without a 9-5!