With a lot of side hustles, you never know whether you’re going to make $5 or $500 in any given month. However, with a handful, the trend lines are clear. These online platforms consistently deliver side hustles likely to earn $500 or more in a month.
Rent a room with Silvernest
If you’ve got a spare bedroom, there are a couple of ways to earn money by renting it out. You can rent it out through Airbnb and have different tourists rent your room when they’re in town. Or you can find a regular roommate through a site like Silvernest.
If you’re looking for side hustles to earn $500 a month dependably, the best bet is Silvernest.
This site is a mix between Match.com and Airbnb, matching long-term renters who have similar interests and aims. Generally speaking, Silvernest focuses on empty-nesters, who may want companionship and help around the house, in addition to regular income. Hosts set their own rental rates and simply pay a monthly fee to the site for help finding, billing, and collecting from renters.
Rent storage or parking space
Another reliable money-maker is to rent out storage space through Neighbor or Stache. Both sites will list the empty space in your garage, attic, shed, or bedrooms to people who have everything from furniture to RVs to store.
These sites allow hosts to set their own rates. But they suggest that you set these at slightly less than the average rate charged by professional storage centers in your area.
Notably, rates are generally based on what type of storage you’re offering and the size of the space. For a sense of perspective, most public storage sites will charge between $100 and $200 for a 5′ x 5′ storage area. That’s about the size of a walk-in closet. Got two empty walk-in closets? An empty bedroom or a near-empty garage? Driveway space for a Recreational Vehicle? If you’re willing to fill up the nooks and crannies in your home, the rental revenue stacks up.
Better yet, renting storage space is a remarkably low-maintenance side hustle because people typically drop off their stored goods once and leave it until they need to pick it up permanently. That said, customers sometimes do need access to their things. So you must let people know your “hours of operation” and what sort of notice you require to get access to their stored goods. And you will need to provide some basic security, too, such as a locked door or cabinet. You also need to make sure that the storage area is free of leaks and pests.
Watch dogs with Rover
One of our favorite side hustles to earn $500 is watching dogs with Rover.
Rover lets individuals set up a profile on the site and set their own services, rates and availability. A pretty typical arrangement would be to charge $35 – $50 for overnight dog sitting and, say, $20 for a half-hour walk. Rover sitters can also offer ancillary services, such as dog pick-ups and grooming. You determine whether you want to watch just one animal at a time or several. And you can set preferences to simply watch small dogs, or dogs that are well-socialized. Want to charge more for holidays? That’s also an option with this site.
Dog sitters say business is brisk enough to easily bring in $500 a month. And during the summer vacation season, some dog sitters say they earn more than $1000 a month without breaking a sweat.
Drive kids with Zum
Zum used to enlist freelancers to drive kids to and from school and activities in their personal cars. However the site has morphed and is now actively recruiting bus drivers. Bus drivers must get a commercial driver’s license, but Zum is happy to train you for free. (Training takes a full week, though.) The site pays $26 to $33 per hour, depending on experience.
Notably, Zum is looking for people willing to work roughly 5 hours a day — morning to mid-afternoon — so you could easily earn more than $500 in the first week. This is an ideal side hustle for parents with school age kids, since you’re likely to be enlisted at the same hours as your offspring and off every afternoon.
Virtually Assist with Boldly
If you’re organized and have experience helping people manage their email, appointments or travel, you can be a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants handle a wide range of tasks. These can involve posting on social media, updating websites or even doing light bookkeeping tasks, such as filing expense reports. It is the online version of being an executive assistant.
Boldly works with Fortune 500 companies, matching virtual assistants with specific jobs and corporations. The site expects its virtual assistants to have at least 7 years of experience. But it pays better-than-average wages, starting VAs at $24 to $28 per hour.
The site is looking for long-term employees willing to work at least half-time, however. If you’re just looking for a temporary side hustle, or something you can do just a few hours a week, other sites may be a better fit. Other companies that help virtual assistants find work include Belay, Time Etc. and MyVA360.
3/6/2023
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