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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?

#251

Post by sokoloff »

olyjohn wrote: post #164
Spivak wrote: post #5

DoorDash, GrubHub, Uber Eats, and the like make pretty decent money. About $7 per order before tip and in a busy area you might be able to snag two or three orders going the same direction making the $/hr a little better. It's basically the definition of not great money but it's not very difficult, not physically straining, and you don't have to interview or whatever for it. Grocery stores in my area are also hiring…

IMO, there is a reason these delivery / driver services have extremely high turnover. While the hourly seems decent, you lose your ass in car maintenance, gas, and insurance. The wear and tear you put on a car driving around town all day doing short trips is quite high. That cost can often not show up for months, until it comes time for something like an early brake job. Then half your month's pay is just gone with a…

If you’re the hustling type, learn to do your own brake replacement. That’s usually under $200 in parts for pads and rotors for front or rear and it’s an easy 90-180 minute task requiring maybe a $100 tool kit and $50 in jack stands. I budget 60-90 minutes and rarely run over, but I have a fast pump jack and air tools though I did them for years with hand tools and the jack that came with the car.

Though it seems daunting to go work on your brakes, I think it’s actually one of the easiest and highest RoI jobs you can do on your car. Saving $1000 (tax-free) is like working an extra 2 weeks in half an afternoon. Then, consider if you could be doing the same for your friends for $500 (you buy the parts), so you win and they win.

(This could be a direct option for your call center friend of course.)

Offer not valid during COVID but I’ve offered people to come to my driveway and they change their brakes while I watch and guide as needed. It’s puzzling but I’ve seen only about 1/4 of people keep doing it after I show them how, how easy, and how fast it is.

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

#252

Post by namelosw »

posix_me_less wrote: post #81
jurassic wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife, who is out of work, is providing emergency childcare to some friends of ours for $20/hr. People are really desperate for this and I'm sure she could make more if she wasn't just doing it as a favor for our friends.

If you do something for a friend ... and take money, is it really fair to call it a favour?

I’m not sure how it’s compared with market rate but friends are usually more trustable or at least making people feel that way.

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

#253

Post by namelosw »

MattGaiser wrote: post #38

1. Teach English by video to children overseas. 2. Get a remote call centre job. 3. The DoorDashes and Uber Eats of the world are doing tremendous business right now, as is Amazon (and they have the Flex delivery service). Instacart was also hiring some 300,000 people. 4. If your friend is the creative or innovative type, there are a ton of competitions being hosted by various companies. You enter enough and the inco…

Teaching Chinese kids is a pretty huge market, I’m not sure which company to recommend tho.

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

#254

Post by gumby »

RhysU wrote: post #239
gumby wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. I've always hated that question "what do you do" (meaning your job) and usually answer it with "about what?" I understand it's a pretty straightforward way to look for common ground and introductory topic of conversation, but there's a massive implication which I consider socially corrosive.

What is the implication and why is it socially corrosive?

The implication is that one's worth comes from one's job, with the corollary that one's role in society is that of "worker" and "consumer", or if not simply just "consumer" then worthless.

It is socially corrosive because it is removes any concept of social relationship from the calculus of social worth.

And you see this in the discussion of "opening up the economy" as though that is the #1 parameter of existence. Certainly without a functioning economy there is no food or other basic needs, but the objectives are complex functions, not simplistic ones. The implication is that those who were not lucky enough to have a job that generates income during a time of pandemic must needs put themselves at risk while others need not. Disgraceful.

It's the same reason I cringe when people talk or write about "consuming content", as if "content" is fungible and that peoples' roles are to "consume" it -- when information is not "consumed" (destroyed) by being enjoyed.

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

#255

Post by terrycody »

hey

some options for your friend:

1)if he has hardcore skills like programming, or any techy-related, try upwork.com and find a niche for himself, but a new comer will have a difficult time to get sales first, you need start with a very low price rate, get some orders then raise your hourly rate. 2)he can also choose Fiverr.com, one can provide many services there, typically $5 per case, small cash. 3)start a youtube channel: post videos that he is good at and can attract enough visitors. This is pretty much a long term endeavor as you need 4000 hours watch and 1K subscribers to get monetization enabled, but if he can find the right niche and get the hang of it, this thing is legit and can earn enough for living.

seems there are no very quick ways to make some money, but he could still try:

4) provide some quick local services for quick money 5) regard 3), he can post CPA offers under the subscription section below the Youtube video, you can earn money at very 1st day via doing CPA affiliate marketing, just post right videos, attract visitors, put offers.

Good luck

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

#256

Post by illumin8 »

MattGaiser wrote: post #38

1. Teach English by video to children overseas. 2. Get a remote call centre job. 3. The DoorDashes and Uber Eats of the world are doing tremendous business right now, as is Amazon (and they have the Flex delivery service). Instacart was also hiring some 300,000 people. 4. If your friend is the creative or innovative type, there are a ton of competitions being hosted by various companies. You enter enough and the inco…

> The DoorDashes and Uber Eats of the world are doing tremendous business right now, as is Amazon (and they have the Flex delivery service). Instacart was also hiring some 300,000 people.

If I needed cash in a hurry I'd probably do Instacart. I've browsed their subreddit - some shoppers are making $250-300 a day delivering groceries right now. If you can successfully cherry-pick those big Costco orders you'll typically get a $25-50 tip, in addition to delivery fees.

During this pandemic our household is ordering about $300-400 of Costco a week, since we're cooking everything at home, and tipping an Instacart delivery person $40-50 seems like a good tradeoff to avoid having to risk getting Covid-19 in a store.

Of course, the reason this is so high right now is that it is essentially hazard pay. You're putting yourself at risk of getting sick so others don't have to. Provided you are not high risk (<50 years old, no pre-existing health conditions) this might be an acceptable risk.

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

#257

Post by cosmodisk »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #249
cosmodisk wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There was no sarcasm. All I meant was that sometimes knocking on a few doors could yield better results than just sending CVs around. I did quickly find a job 10 years ago but it doesn't mean that in current situation it'd be the same.

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

#259

Post by ge96 »

cosmodisk wrote: post #257
fred_is_fred wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There was no sarcasm. All I meant was that sometimes knocking on a few doors could yield better results than just sending CVs around. I did quickly find a job 10 years ago but it doesn't mean that in current situation it'd be the same.

I guess it depends what you're looking for. Before I was in this industry the "quickest" job to get into was washing plates at some restaurant... have to go through all the hiring bs but that's a high turnover/low skill job.

edit: hiring bs as in these philosophical quizes of how many people would you kill, one or several, etc... like man I'm just here to wash plates.

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

#260

Post by goatherders »

illegalsmile wrote: post #117
goatherders wrote: post #77

There are some truly awful suggestions here. The question isnt about changing his life by learning to code or setting up a plastics machine (which is pretty cool but takes investment) or starting an affiliate site and then generating traffic, it's about generating income during a global pandemic. 1. Fiverr 2. Mechanical Turk 3. Craigslist Gigs 4. UpWork Can generate $50 by dinner time if you're willing to focus and p…

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…

I have had to make $100 in a couple hours with almost no avenue to do so. Here are the 2 different things I did multiple times each that show it IS possible to make money using just your creativity.

1. Went to Goodwill store (second hand store for those that dont know it.) Took pictures of the office furniture available. Posted to CL in my city at a price $10 to $20 more than it cost to buy. Subject line: "Price reduced by 30%". Stood in the store adding more items and watched my inbox for replies. This paid approx $20 an hour. I did this at least half a dozen times when my first child was born and we were on the verge of starving.

2. Called everyone I knew with a business and offered to build a website or facebook page or Twitter profile or Yelp page for $x, half paid up front. We HN folks overestimate how technical people are. 100 bucks to "be on social media" is cheap.

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