It seems like everyone is looking for ways to earn a little extra money these days. The Great Resignation isn’t showing signs of a slowdown, which means lots of people are still walking away from their cushy 9 to 5 jobs in search of more flexible ways to earn a living. Others want to fatten their financial safety net after the upheaval of the last two years.
Enter the side hustle. With so much of the world embracing virtual work, it’s easier than ever to supplement your income with part-time gigs — and the work is more lucrative than it’s ever been.
Here are six of the best new side hustles out there.
Virtual assistant
Americans are busy: they’re working long hours, starting small businesses, and juggling family and caregiving responsibilities with their full-time jobs. These professionals could use an extra hand to lighten the load, and many are willing to pay people with top-notch organizational and problem-solving skills to do exactly that.
As a virtual assistant, you could spend your time making appointments for your clients, following up on emails, organizing their receipts, booking their travel — but those aren’t your only options. You might also promote their freelance work on social media, or help them build out their website. According to data from Indeed, virtual assistants earn an average of $19.36 per hour in the United States. And best of all, you can do this entire job from the comfort of your couch.
Digital real estate agent
Speaking of virtual work, there’s an entirely new economy opening up online in the metaverse — a digital realm where users can play games, buy property, trade cryptocurrencies and earn real money.
“This world creates a lot of new opportunities,” says Elmer Morales, the former Microsoft software engineer behind Campus Metaverse, a soon-to-launch company that works with coders to build new spaces in the metaverse.
Morales sees a burgeoning market for tech-savvy internet aficionados who can scope out virtual real estate for potential investors, “in the same way that you would with traditional real estate.” He estimates that a virtual land scout might earn a finder’s fee between $1,000 and $5,000, depending on the size of the transaction. (If that sounds like hogwash, there’s a whole host of stories about investors paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for virtual land that should change your mind.)
Freelance NFT artist
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are blowing up. These digital collector’s items are sold in groups of unique pieces that can number in the tens of thousands per collection — which means there’s a growing need for graphic designers and illustrators who can help …….
