You don’t like to brag, but you know things. And, while there are many ways you could spend a day, doing something that allows you to share that knowledge is fun. Why not check out side hustles for know-it-alls?
These are jobs that pay for knowledge about everything from car maintenance to artificial intelligence, advertising to veterinary services, business management to disease management. And, of course, knowledge about grammar, science or math is valuable too.
Side hustles for know-it-alls
Notably, your knowledge doesn’t need to be encyclopedic or broad. After all, this is not Jeopardy.
Side hustles for know-it-alls are really about knowing one thing exceptionally well. Your expertise could be in divorce law, credit management, manufacturing, home appraisals or construction. Business management. Grammar. Science. Test Preparation. The specific topic on which you are expert is not what’s important. What is important is that you have knowledge that can save another individual or company a fortune in time and energy by using what you know.
That allows you to consult, tutor, teach, and answer technical questions. And it’s worth noting that these side hustles generate good income, commonly paying between $30 and $300 per hour.
Here are four side hustles for know-it-alls and where you can find them.
Be an answer woman/man
Know how to fix cars or appliances? Have a background in human or veterinary medicine? Or have credentials in law, appraisals, finance or consumer electronics? A site called JustAnswer enlists freelance subject matter experts to answer questions from consumers in a wide array of fields.
The typical client here might have a broken washing machine, for example, and want to fix it herself rather than hiring an appliance repair person. So, she asks something along the lines of “How do I fix a leaky Whirlpool Model XYZ?” Her expert might link to written instructions; a YouTube video. Or say it’s too complex a question to answer with one query.
You get paid by the answer, usually between $2 and $20, depending on your specialty. And answers might only take a minute or two, since you choose which questions to respond to within your area of expertise. In some cases, experts can be enlisted to provide longer phone consultations at a negotiated rate, too.
The site says its experts typically earn anywhere from $1,000 to $8,000 per month.
Consulting
A wide range of consulting platforms enlist freelancers to provide advice to companies attempting to trouble-shoot or launch new operations. These consulting gigs can require as little as 10 minutes — or months of work, depending on the project.
Typically, consultants set their own rates and get matched with projects that suit their knowledge and skills. However, on some platforms, such as SMA Inc., you can search for open consulting/freelance gigs through the site’s “talent on demand” option.
Some good sites to find these gigs, which typically pay $100 or more per hour, include Catalant, Robert Half, Zintro, GLG and Maven.
Tutoring
Tutoring is a great way to share your knowledge and you can get paid handsomely to do so. There are literally dozens of tutoring platforms, many of which specialize in fields like coding (Juni Learning) and music (LessonFace). However, among the best sites for tutors of almost any subject is industry giant Wyzant.
Wyzant allows tutors to publish a short bio, explaining their specialties and qualifications. Tutors also set their own rates and determine the schedule and duration of sessions. Wyzant simply markets their services through the platform, which gets millions of visitors each month. Freelancers pay a commission to Wyzant from their tutoring revenue.
The site is also attractive for students because it allows them to search for tutors by subject matter, price, age, availability and whether the tutor has been background-checked. There are no minimum tutoring packages. You book the tutor you want, when you want.
Although average tutor rates range from $30 to $60 per hour, tutors in technical subjects, such as science, calculus and advanced test preparation, often charge more than $100 per hour.
Teaching
Teaching isn’t known as a highly-paid profession. But that’s when it’s done in physical classrooms that can only accommodate a limited number of students. Several online teaching platforms offer a more attractive alternative. You develop a curriculum, film yourself, add quizzes and charts and other helpful learning materials with the help of the teaching platform. You set the price of your course and that class then remains online and available to new students indefinitely.
Teachable and Thinkific are both platforms where you can create your own teaching side hustles. Both sites allow you to use their software to create a class of your choosing. You can teach skills, like car maintenance, clothing design/sewing/knitting/crafts. Or you can teach academic subjects like history, language or math. Or you can teach some technical topic, like how to navigate ChatGPT or Excel. The course topic, duration, curriculum and pricing is completely up to you.
But both sites have nice guides that can show you how to put together an engaging course and how to find buyers for your classes. The only challenge? While these sites will host your classes, the marketing is up to you. These platforms work best for people who have built up a following via email or social media and can use their current networks to market the course.
Don’t have that? You may want to sign up with Udemy. Udemy charges higher commissions than the other two teaching platforms, but it helps with the marketing. Some course creators suggest you create a “mini-course” on Udemy and use that to market your longer and more expensive classes hosted by one of the other teaching platforms.
The best thing about this particular side hustle for know-it-alls is that it can generate revenue long after you publish the course, creating passive income for years to come.
7/28/2023
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