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Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#41

Post by chasd00 »

Not side work exactly, but see if there's any bonus programs lurking somewhere in your job. My company recently started a bonus program for industry certifications, each certification nets you some points and the more points you get the more bonus you qualify for up to a limit. The bonus is based on % of base pay.

So, I looked at all the certifications available and plotted a path through them that gets me the minimum amount of points required to reach the highest bonus tier each fiscal year. It's been, by _far_, the most lucrative "side hustle" i've ever had. I study for, and take, about 4-5 cert tests per year and am on year #2 of the program. If they run the program for 5 years and I keep dropping the whole bonus into my investment account I'll have enough to pay for college for both of my boys (currently in middle school).

/I'm 47 and still paying my student loan, i don't want that hell for my kids.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#42

Post by n_ary »

Disclaimer: Unpopular advice.

Seek out local folks who wants to go online selling their tupperware, tobaco, small services, books, photos, small mom-n-pop coffee/fastfood shops etc and offer to build them a site they can maintain.

Then buy them a subscription on no-code sites(wix, weebly, squarespace etc) and get a commission for the initial setup. Worked for my nephew who just wanted something he could do on the nights to save up some money for his summer vacation. He still gets referral offers from folks who are happy with their sites and their friends also want similar sites.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#44

Post by infamousclyde »

drones wrote: post #23
WestCoastJustin wrote: post #7

Get a second remote job. You could effectively double your salary for a few months or as long as you can handle it. Personally, this is much better than the race of the bottom of all these piece meal contracting gig sites. Youtube is likely a major waste of time in that you'd need to compete and build a profile, etc. This takes time. If you want to spend years then you might make it work. I've done this and know from…

Wouldn't multiple jobs like this make you a huge security/IP rights liability?

This is purely anecdotal, but I had to complete Conflict of Interest administration for concurrent outside employment while serving as an officer in the military full-time. Basically-- follow internal policy governing this, to cover your backside.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#45

Post by ferennag »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #7

Get a second remote job. You could effectively double your salary for a few months or as long as you can handle it. Personally, this is much better than the race of the bottom of all these piece meal contracting gig sites. Youtube is likely a major waste of time in that you'd need to compete and build a profile, etc. This takes time. If you want to spend years then you might make it work. I've done this and know from…

This would require that at least one of the jobs basically have no meetings, and also that you can automate the sht out of one of them (and not to tell it to your boss).

I can't see it working in any other way. I've heard about this before, but I think you need a huge amount of luck to make this work.

Edit: I mean yeah, if you are willing to work 14-16 hours you can make it work, by landing the jobs in different time zones.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#46

Post by tayo42 »

cmews wrote: post #27

If you are good at security, try bug bounty hunting. Make the web safer and earn some money!

I tried this, maybe I just suck. But my experience was pretty bad. It seems swarmed by people in 3rd world countries running scripts endlessly already. If you do find something there is still the chance the company will find a way out of it. The whole thing felt like a scam in a way, people show off their massive payment bug find, but in reality its hours of work for almost no payout

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#47

Post by pc86 »

VectorLock wrote: post #38
CptFribble wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NB: certain aspects of holding 2+ FT jobs are harder to parse out before being hired - particularly meeting times. It's not typical to ask what time morning standups are in an interview, but juggling overlapping meetings is one of the main difficulties of holding down multiple roles, so just be aware of what you're getting into.

Unethical Life Pro Tip: Get your 2nd remote job in a different geographical region (Europe vs US) so your meetings don't overlap.

Best to have some overlap, lest you end up with an ~18-hour window in which you could have meetings scheduled!

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#48

Post by mikeryan »

I don't do this now but I used to.

Wait tables. A lot of service based businesses are struggling to find good staff. Go for a higher end high average ticket place, and or places that close relatively early so you're not stuck there too late.

Usually at first there's not a lot of quality shifts open but also, frequently, you can pick up shifts from other people and a lot of restaurants are okay with having a few staff who have few regular shifts but whom they can rely on in a pinch. You can make decent cash. The work can be pretty "fun" and the time tends to go pretty quick.

Re: Ask HN: What are some easy ways to earn some side money?

#50

Post by ferennag »

cmews wrote: post #20

Not sure what your skill set is exactly and what your interests are but there are lots of hackathons in crypto/AI that have good prizes. You can also apply for grants for certain organisations if you build something that ecosystem can use. Good luck!

Unfortunately I have no experience in any of them. (mostly in Web app development, mobile development)

AI would interest me, but it would take many years of learning I guess. I am not very good at math, so I would have to re-learn that.

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