We live in a career era that has been described in many ways. It’s been called the Era of Underemployment. It’s been called the New Gig Economy. It has been noted for the predominance of the side hustle.
No matter what title you relate to most, there is no doubt that finding sources of secondary income have become very important for people in the modern world. We’ve seen models like Uber and Lyft become popular among the middle class, in the search for just a little extra money to save, pay off debt, or put to some other useful purpose.
Still, we’ve become disappointed with the prospects of this form of second income. Uber wages are lower than ever, and traditional second income jobs like retail are becoming much harder to find. For people without specialized skills, the secondary job market can seem dismal. That’s why people are looking outside of the meatspace job market and into the digital world where income opportunities can be found without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
Most of the digital second income opportunities fall into a few common categories. We won’t be talking about real world/digital world hybrids like Etsy. Instead, we’ll be focusing on jobs you can do which exist only on the internet. These typically fall into 1) freelance work, 2) investment, and 3) low skill consumer jobs. We’ll talk a bit about each below.
Freelance Work
Using job hunting platforms like Upwork and Targetwriters, people with skills in design, writing, coding, tutoring (to name just a few) are finding jobs posted around the world, which can be completed from a home computer. Freelance income jobs have a tremendous amount of variance when it comes to pay, time requirements, difficulty, and industry type. The best thing to do when evaluating freelance as a second income method is to jump right into the job posting forums all around the internet.
Apply for a job this way usually involves finding a job for which you are qualified, applying for it with a requested income and included personal credentials, and submitting the completed work digitally for approval. In general, people who are reliable and hardworking do very well in this second income method, particularly if they are skilled and deadline-driven.
Investing
Investing might sound like a game for rich people, but there are many forms of investment which work just find for people who don’t have tons of money. We live in the era of cryptocurrencies, when coins worth just a few cents can be worth 10x as much the next day. We also live in a time when digital spread betting services like ETX Capital can help new users test their knowledge of stocks, bonds, markets, commodities, etc. for the possibility of earning large returns for correct guesses about future value. Both of these examples require very little startup capital, but can have great rewards. Acquiring skill at either will make the user much better at all other forms of investment.
Low Skill Consumer Jobs
“Low Skill” doesn’t mean that these jobs are bad. On the contrary, jobs like survey taking can actually bring in a fair amount of money if you’re willing to work on a schedule and keep track of client requirements. Because some of these jobs are paid in gift cards (as in the case of Amazon product testers), this is a great option for people who want extra money to pay for everyday expenses.
There are plenty of ways to make money online, no matter what your background or skill set is in. Take the time to explore your options, understand the method that sounds best to you, and work hard to create a space for yourself in that job market. Your success will help you build a better financial future for yourself and the people you care about most.
Leave a Reply