13 Best Gig Economy Jobs to Make The Most Cash

Do you want to make some extra cash? Or perhaps you want to work for yourself and dont know where to start.

Well, the gig economy has made it possible turn theses gigs into full-time income and have the flexibility that most just dream of.

Read on to find out the best gig economy jobs and how you can get started.

In This Article

What Exactly Is The Gig Economy?

The gig economy refers to a labor market that is made up of people doing more freelance work or short-term contracts and less permanent jobs.

According to a study by Upwork, over 57 million people are in the freelance economy in the United States.

Top Gig Economy Jobs

Check out these gig economy jobs to see if one (or more) might be right for you.

Technology has changed significantly and now you can easily work for yourself. These gig economy jobs give you the flexibility to work when you want and wherever you want.

Driving and Delivery Jobs

If you like driving, you’ll probably be happy to hear there are a few different ways you can get paid for driving your car. Driving and delivery gigs are a popular part of the gig economy job sector.

1. Deliver Restaurant Meals

In today’s busy world, people often turn to restaurant delivery to eat a good meal. Doordash hires “dashers” to bring restaurant meals from restaurants to customers.

When you sign up to be a dasher with Doordash, you drive your car and deliver food to customers. In some markets, Doordash even allows scooters, bicycles and walkers.

This is what you need to become a Dasher for DoorDash:

• Valid drivers license
• Valid insurance

Dashers have to sign a contract to deliver, so you have to be at least 18 years of age.

After you sign up and download the Doordash app, you get notifications of available deliveries. Pay is based on the order, and Doordash will show you the pay amount (not including tip) before you accept or reject the order. If you earn a tip (many dashers do) for good service, you keep 100% of that tip.

2. Drive People Around

Another way to make money with your car is to deliver people to their desired destinations. Similar to a taxi service, companies like Lyft provide personalized ridesharing service to clients.

As a rideshare driver, you’re responsible for giving clients a safe, comfortable and enjoyable ride. As with Doordash, rideshare driving companies tell you what the pay is before you accept the ride.

The pay depends on where, what time of day and how often you drive. Drivers typically get a designated pay amount for the trip, and often earn tips as well.

Related Post: Can You Make Money Driving with Lyft and is it Worth it?

3. Deliver Groceries

As a Full Service Shopper for Instacart, you’ll get groceries for people and deliver the groceries to them. You get paid based on the specifics of the trip such as the order amount and distance traveled to delivery.

In addition, many Instacart shoppers earn tips as well. If you like the idea of shopping for and delivering groceries to people, this might be a great way for you to make extra cash.  

Work From Home Jobs

Do you like the idea of earning cash without leaving your house? If so, check out these legit ways you can earn money from home.

4. Complete Surveys

One popular work from home gig is completing surveys and doing other get-paid-to (GPT) tasks. These gigs don’t pay as much money as some of the other options listed here.

However, they have other benefits. The tasks are usually quick to complete, and you can do them in your spare time even if you just have a few minutes.

Some of the best sites that pay for surveys and other tasks include:

Each site is free to join and offers a fast way to some extra cash.

5. Virtual Assistant

Another option for making money by working from home is to work as a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants help clients with a variety of job duties, such as:

• Technical maintenance and/or management of their blogs
• Writing, editing or proofreading content for their blogs
• Social media management
• Daily calendar management
• Sending emails and/or making phone calls

Kayla Sloan makes over $10,000 per month working as a virtual assistant.

According to Kayla, beginning virtual assistants start around $12 an hour. Possessing experience and skills can increase the pay to as much as $60 per hour or more.

If you like the idea of working from home in an assistant-type of a role, consider working as a virtual assistant.

6. Freelance Writer

Do you have a gift or talent for writing? Why not work from home as a freelance writer? Personally, I’ve worked at home as a freelance writer for nearly six years now.

I typically write for blog owners and business owners who need content for their websites. After building up a reputation in the blogging community, I get to choose my clients now.

Pay for freelance writing is based on what the client is willing to pay. It can also depend on how quickly you write.

For example, most writing clients pay by the word. If you make 5 cents per word and write a 500 word article, you’ll make $25 for that article. If you can finish the article in an hour, you’ve just earned $25 per hour.

The freelance writers I know make anywhere from $15 per hour to $50 per hour or more. Experienced writers can make over $100 per hour.

You can find freelance writing jobs on sites such as Upwork, or by offering your services directly to bloggers.   

Rental Gigs

How about renting your spaces to earn some extra cash? There are a few options for renting spaces you have and earning money in the process.

7. Rent a Room in Your Home

One option is to rent a room in your home. You could even rent out your entire home if you have a place you can go and stay while renters are there.

Sites such as Airbnb help you advertise the room or home you have for rent.

Business and leisure travelers like using sites such as Airbnb for a couple of reasons. First, the rates tend to be equal or less than what you’d pay for at a hotel.

Second, home or apartment settings are often more comfortable than hotel settings. People like the idea of sleeping in a home-like space.

The money you can make when you rent out your home or a room in your home depends on a few factors. For instance, it depends on where your house or apartment is located.

It also depends on the time of year, the amenities offered at your home and in your general area.

My friends Steve and Annette earn money with Airbnb – about $1500 every month. Check out Airbnb in your area to find out what similar rooms or homes are renting for. This will give you a general idea of what your space could rent for.

Related Post: The Ultimate Airbnb Checklist: 14 Ways to Get More Bookings

8. Rent Your Parking Space

What about renting your parking space to earn extra cash? Spothero lets you advertise your coveted parking space and earn money by renting it.

After you sign up for an account, you just enter where your spot is located, when it’s available for rent and how much rent you’d like to get. You can list it by the hour, by the month or for special events such as concerts and sports games.

Spothero takes a small fee for each booking. You get to keep 85% of commission for monthly parking spot bookings. For hourly and event bookings, you get 80% of the fee collected.

Spothero does all of the collecting of the fees, and pays you from what they collect. Bonus: when you sign up to rent your space by the month, you can include “blackout” days if you need the spot for yourself at certain times.

9. Rent Your Storage Space

Do you have a garage spot, yard spot or basement space you don’t use? Why not rent it out on Craigslist or sites like it? Your garage or yard space can be used to rent storage for people for their cars, boats and similar items.

Or you can rent your garage or basement space for people to store miscellaneous personal items. We suggest looking up similar storage fees at professional storage garages. Charge less than what a professional space would charge in order to attract renters.

You can find renters by reaching out to family, friends or on Facebook as well.

Manual Labor Jobs

Do you like the idea of gig economy jobs that involve physical work? Here are some ideas that can earn you some cash and keep you moving at the same time.

10. Handyperson Work

Do you have a knack for doing handyperson type work? Are you good at fixing leaky faucets or assembling things? If so, you could become a tasker for TaskRabbit.

When you work as an independent contractor for TaskRabbit, you choose your jobs. After downloading the TaskRabbit app, you get notifications of jobs in your area.

Examples of jobs might be to help someone move, to mount a TV or to assemble a small item. You choose the job you want to offer to do, and work out the pay details with the client.

TaskRabbit collects the money from the client after you submit an invoice. Then, TaskRabbit pays you every week.

You could consider starting your own handyperson business too. You could find jobs by looking through gigs on Craigslist, or advertising your services on Craigslist or Facebook. It’s not uncommon to make $100 in one day by doing handyperson work.

11. Landscaping

Landscaping and lawn care offers another option for gig labor. To get gigs in this industry, simply advertise your services to family and friends or on Craigslist. You could hang or deliver flyers in your neighborhood as well.

As an independent contractor, you get to choose the types of work you’ll do, the clients you’ll accept and your pay rate. For instance, you might choose to focus solely on lawn mowing.

Or, you could add leaf raking and snow removal in the fall and winter. Do you have a gift for design? Add in bush trimming services or landscape design. The choice is yours.

12. House or Office Cleaning

If cleaning is your specialty, why not start a home or office cleaning business? It’s a busy world today, and home and business owners often need help having their spaces cleaned.

You can choose the types of businesses and/or homes you want to clean. In addition, you can choose the types of services you want to offer. For instance, will or won’t you do windows?

Do you stick with basic dusting and vacuuming, or do you wipe down baseboards and scrub floors? It’s best with cleaning gigs to base your pay rate on each individual job.

This is because length of the job and intensity of the work will vary with each client’s request. Try and structure your quoted rate to earn you the hourly pay rate of your choice.

Advertise to family and friends, on Craigslist, or with flyers.  

13. Babysitting/Petcare

Last but not least, another popular gig economy job involves caring for kids and/or pets. If you’re great with kids, you could start a babysitting service.

If you’d rather care for animals, you could start a pet sitting service or a dog walking service. You could advertise on online sale sites like Craigslist or Facebook, or start by advertising to family and friends.

You’d choose the rate of pay you expect to receive and design your own schedule as you choose. Another advertising venue exists on a site called Care.com.

Create a profile for a variety of care gigs including:

• Babysitting
• Pet sitting
• Senior care
• House cleaning

It’s free to create a profile on Care.com, however, they have an upgraded account too. You can find information on their Premium account by creating your own account on the site.  

Care.com screens all applicants, so having a profile on this site could help you gain credibility quickly. In addition, many people use this site to find trusted care, so it could offer you more gig opportunities.

Summary

As you can see, there are many options for making extra cash through the gig economy. Find the right one for you and start making money today.

Which of theses gig economy jobs interests you the most? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments section below.

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