Unless you're desperate for cash, the most effective way to raise your income level is to learn a new skill while updating your resume and networking in that field.
Position yourself for the post-pandemic economy. ie. tech.
Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
41–50 of 296 posts
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#42With 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.
Daycare may require state certification (just beware).
With so many kids homeschooled, tutoring the last couple of months was probably a gold mine. Many parents run into a hard wall with respect to math and science and can no longer help their kids.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#43Learn programming while doing something like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc. delivery in the mean time. Then start applying for roles.
This wont generate income now. It's super hard to invest your time on learning things when your budget is tied and your job perspective is "vague".
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#44Learn programming while doing something like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, etc. delivery in the mean time. Then start applying for roles.
Unless you really need the money, your best investment is putting 100% of your time into learning new skills.
That can't be true. If you spent all of your time developing new skills you wouldn't have any time to capitalize on them. You are likely better off conquering a niche.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#45Check out sites like Lionbridge or whatever, where you can do online tasks (registering maps, transcribing stuff, etc.) - they do pay a legit salary, even though the work can be really boring.
It's basically like a bit more exciting and better paying version of Mechanical Turk.
Other than that...help out HS and College kids with homework? I'm on a lot of homework help forums, as I like teaching math, and there's been an explosion in demand for skype teachers etc.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#46Day trading futures (and developing the required mindset).
No. Seriously not. Daytrading is not a job for 99% of all. Even if you survive the first years, your risk management will also affect your "income". If you get greedy, your losses will break your neck. It's not something you can quantify like a "real" income you can count on.
I trade S&P500 futures sometimes. It's fun when the markets go slowly up all the time or if there is a sharp drop. In all other times you'll probably lose a lot of money.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#47Cant beat online "tutoring". Schoolsolver.com, chegg.com, etc. These sites are booming right now.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#48UpWork, Fiverr, ...
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#49Get rid of old stuff on ebay/cl/fb marketplace. Or buy stuff from ebay/cl/fb marketplace and sell on Amazon. and plugging a friend: https://www.flipmine.com/ scrapes arbitrage opportunities b/w ebay and amazon.
The best way to make money in this way is by finding items that have been incorrectly listed (and thus undervalued) and listing them with better keywords, accurate information etc.
The tricky part is finding those listings in the first place because they will often be at the bottom of many searches due to poor relevance. Searching by "ending soonest" on eBay can bring up many hidden treasures.
You then need to have a good idea of the market rate of what you are selling and factor in a healthy margin: postage costs and handling time can add up quickly.
Re: Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
#50There is shortage of 3D printing filament because of virus, so I've been creating filament and selling it.
https://medium.com/endless-filament/make-your-filament-at-ho...
This activity also help recycle waste plastic.
Production cost of filament is $7.5 per 5kg and filament roll has 850 gram filament and can be sold for $20-30 per spool
It's trivial to get the quality right.
You can sell rolls on Amazon, eBay and Etsy or your own Shopify store and use Facebook ads/Google Ads to advertise your website.