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Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

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Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#241

Post by thephyber »

sonofaragorn wrote: post #206
illegalsmile wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That brings up a question: What can you do to earn $50 in 24 hours? Unless you already have mturk the waiting period is days to weeks if you're not rejected. Fiverr/Upwork would all require a large amount of luck to make $50 in one day as communication with client and turn-around time could take 12-24 hours before even starting a small one hour project. CL might be the best way to make that money in that time period…

Is it really possible to generate $50/day on mturk? What kind of tasks would pay that much?

A friend of mine claims his HITs (identifying/verifying if a tv show switches to a commercial in a 30 second video) pay about $12/hr for anyone who doesn't get banned for low quality answers.

I've seen that there are a number of tools (usually like browser extensions) which allow you to filter and sort HIT offers for the best use of your time.

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#242

Post by tlapinsk »

3001 wrote: post #160
metabagel wrote: post #112

File for unemployment. The federal government is increasing the weekly payment. Additionally, I believe this is not limited to California, unemployment compensation starts from day 1 rather than the second week. Edit: Also unemployment compensation is being extended to job types which previously weren’t covered, like hairdressers and massage therapists. Having been told to stay home from work for Covid should be suff…

This is the best route in my opinion. Upskill while collecting unemployment.

Completely agree. That's all I've been doing while furloughed and it's actually given me a lot of time to dive deep into things I didn't previously have the time for (AWS CSA Associate studying via Linux Academy and a Coursera Product Management course).

As long as your basic necessities are covered (food, shelter, etc.), this is a great way to go.

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#243

Post by type0 »

cosmodisk wrote: post #217
fred_is_fred wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point. This is the modern version of the oft ridiculed Boomer idea to "just go door to door until you get a job like I did back in 1967".

I've got a feeling that it'd probably be even easier nowadays. I remember when I came to London about 10 years ago: no money,no connections, nothing.Went online to check some jobs just to see some ads with 200+ applications.. Printed my crappy CV,a list of a few agencies and started going from one to another. Managed to get a job 4 hours later..

> when I came to London about 10 years ago

Surely not London, Ontario. Wouldn't work in any city on any time.

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#245

Post by 205guy »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #201
OkGoDoIt wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should definitely be done, but a caveat against assuming this is a blanket solution: I have plenty of friends in the theater industry who mostly make money as non-employee contract/gig workers. But 2 of these friends also had some minimal part-time work last year where they made under $1000. Because they had a W-2 last year, they are disqualified from getting unemployment based on their contract work, even thoug…

This brings up a good point about the complication of the unemployment application system. Maybe "Unemployment application screenshare advisor" would be a good job for a lot of people right now. Especially if they have experience with the edge cases.

This is a great idea, an independent covid-related gig that's totally compatible with call-center experience.

I will also add that some states are hiring unemployment office temps to handle the surge in applications, so it would be similar work, just more formal and no charge to the user (which would be the hard part of being independent).

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#246

Post by thephyber »

zackmorris wrote: post #165
dbancajas wrote: post #2

not stay at home but donate plasma. upwork probably is another avenue.

You should not be getting downvoted for this. Where I live, our plasma center is offering $450 per month because supply is so low right now. I've heard it can be as high as $600 per month for new donors. I feel that it's maybe morally questionable to donate during the lockdown, but, my city has allowed bars and gyms to reopen. So that sentiment is probably no longer true at this point. I do live in a relatively spars…

> I feel that it's maybe morally questionable to donate during the lockdown

The US blood supply system is well regulated and has survived lots of other health risks. The behavior+history+medical questionnaire and health screening go a long way towards mitigating blood-borne contamination (and risks to the donors and donation staff). Then they test a percentage of blood donation specimens before they are distributed to recipients. They demand that you contact the donation organization if you turn up sick after the donation (I ended up donating with a food-sickness late last year and had my donation unit destroyed after I notified the hospital)

I personally donate frequently. Only about 10% of eligible people donate. I feel it's "maybe morally questionable" to not donate (so long as you feel healthy and honestly follow the donation guidelines) if you can but never do.

If by "morally questionable" you were weighing the desperation of unemployment + the payment for donation, I could maybe agree with that a little bit.

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#247

Post by D13Fd »

jefftk wrote: post #26

With daycares closed, there are a lot of people working from home and trying to watch their kids at the same time. You'd need to sort out with them (and any housemates) about what level of contact to have outside your (now expanded) bubble, but people need childcare badly.

Childcare is a great answer. We pay our baby sitter $120/day, and we treat her like royalty because she’s good it at and she actually has a great hourly rate for the area ($15/hr).

It’s working out really well for everyone involved. We may just keep her on even when daycare opens back up.

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#249

Post by fred_is_fred »

cosmodisk wrote: post #217
fred_is_fred wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent point. This is the modern version of the oft ridiculed Boomer idea to "just go door to door until you get a job like I did back in 1967".

I've got a feeling that it'd probably be even easier nowadays. I remember when I came to London about 10 years ago: no money,no connections, nothing.Went online to check some jobs just to see some ads with 200+ applications.. Printed my crappy CV,a list of a few agencies and started going from one to another. Managed to get a job 4 hours later..

You're surely right. In a world with 20% unemployment you'd probably get a job in 27 seconds, and if you don't you are just lazy right!!?? Was your reply sarcasm?

Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?

#250

Post by sizzle »

koheripbal wrote: post #189
xoxoy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think so. I don’t see how the Fed can do anything about demand or a second virus wave or delay in vaccine. The market is pricing in a perfect recovery. Will likely be a decent short opportunity soon.

I disagree. The Fed is printing so much money that you have to remember that all those stocks are priced in now diluted dollars. The worst thing you can do is keep your money in cash. When inflation kicks in, the companies will raise their product prices, and their stocks will inflate accordingly. Meanwhile the purchasing power of your savings will dwindle. This is also why real estate is going up despite the pandemi…

What about precious metals?
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