The Side Hustle Series - The Truth About Online Side Hustles: Oversaturated and Underpaid

While researching for work, I recently came across an article advertising "40 easy side hustles that anyone can do." I'm sure you have had this experience as well. You are looking for a way to earn extra income, and some recruiter type pops up, offering you a million ways to make an extra thousand dollars a month. It's so easy anyone can do it, they say. Only work a few hours on the weekend, and you can roll in the extra dough. 

Over my short life, I have had many different jobs. I've been self-employed, a contract worker, punched the hourly clock, worked freelance, and even off the books. I've had side hustle upon side hustle and tried every kind of "extra work." In an attempt to increase my monthly earnings, I've read probably every side hustle article on google. I've attempted or considered every single job, at least in passing.  

All these jobs have something in common, they may be simple and relatively easy, but they are not an easy way to make money. Almost every option requires an initial investment of time or a preexisting skill. 

For example, an English tutor was one of the items on the list. Simple enough, right? You speak English, so why can't you teach it? I'll tell you why. Teaching is hard. It's frustrating to explain something repeatedly when your student can't understand it. Some techniques and processes aren't intuitive and, without training, can be hard to master. To paint yourself as a teacher without these credentials or training is unethical. You would be defrauding students and not delivering services as advertised. But let's say you do your due diligence and get a TEFL certificate. You focus on improving, lesson planning, and want to start a teaching business. Now what? Where do you start? 

This is the position I found myself in. I was living abroad, had just completed two years of working as a volunteer teacher in the Peace Corps, and desperately needed to find something more stable. With my background, experience, and credentials, I had the perfect setup to start teaching English online. Even with all of these advantages, it was hard. I worked overtime every week to find students, build up my business, create lesson plans and teach lessons. Despite what these articles all advertise, it was much more complicated than 'find a website and start teaching.' On top of that, the English teaching game is fiercely competitive. There's always someone cheaper, always someone with better availability, and always someone willing to accommodate a student more. 

While I was eventually able to preserve and develop a sustainable teaching business, I had laid the groundwork for several years prior. I was in a country where English was in demand but not the native language. On top of that, it was far from a side hustle. It was a 60+ hour job every week, over weekends, working through holidays and late into the night, then getting up early to do it again. 

But that's just one example typical in these articles. The other jobs are, in fact, side hustles and easier to start. Well, I've tried them all. Next on the list was filling out surveys. That's simple: fill out some surveys and earn big bucks. Does it sound too good to be true? 

It is. The truth is that most survey companies are looking for particular demographics, and you won't qualify for a vast majority of them. On top of that, payment usually ranges from a couple of cents to five dollars per survey. Some of the surveys can take up to 30 minutes to complete. Millions of people are willing to log on to take a survey, and the pool of people is too big to make a competitive wage. 

That's not to say you can't make any money doing it, don't expect life-changing money. You can log on every day and take a survey to pay for your iced coffee a couple of times a week, sure. It's possible and very achievable. If you want to make an extra grand a month, move on and don't waste your time. 

But that's just two options. Maybe the others are as easy as advertised? Well…no. Unfortunately no. Another popular one is transcribing. What could be easier than listening to someone speak and write it out? You can listen, understand the language, and type, so you can do the job. However, it takes time. Every company wants you to take a test to prove your skills. You must be able to do a certain percentage without mistakes (usually more than 90%) and learn each company's specific workspace tool. I've tried three different companies, and each time the test was about an hour, with a wait time for approval.

Once you get set up, the process is simple. You just wait for jobs available on the web portal and claim them. For one company, I never got a job. On another, I got a handful of job opportunities. Much like surveys, the market is saturated, and jobs are competitive. The pay is low, and you have to be a fast worker and do many jobs before it becomes a sustainable paycheck. The rate is usually less than a penny a word, and it can take a while to get fast enough to make it worthwhile. 

The truth is that there is no fast, easy way to make a quick buck. If there was, everyone would do it. Most of these lists are generated quickly by people with a content quota for their websites. If they are viable job options, they take a significant initial investment of time and energy to become sustainable. Of course, all of these are real jobs, and you can make money eventually but don't expect it to be just a few hours every weekend. 

If you are trying to make more money, you are better off avoiding these quick schemes and focusing on building up your career. A better use of your time would be leveraging your current job to find a better-paid position or jumping from one company to another. Spending your time gaining relevant experience and education through courses, projects, and volunteer work are all better uses of your time. 

Look at your resume, and see what you can do to make it sparkle. Create or update your LinkedIn so recruiters can find you and start actively networking. You will always have a better result trying to move up over trying to spread out across multiple jobs. 

If you need help with this process, Misulis Group can help you make your next big career move. We offer career counseling to decide your next step and personal document review to give you the best first impression. Our social media is also full of tons of free content and advice to make the best impression possible. 

Stay tuned if you are still interested in testing out some of these jobs, perusing them to make some extra money, or looking for ways to transition to full-time work from home. Over the next few weeks, we will go through every side hustle I've tested and give an honest breakdown of each. What does it take to start? What's the time investment? How long before you start earning money? I will answer all of these questions in the coming series of articles. We will talk about everything from taking surveys to starting your own business. Check back weekly to learn the ins and outs of online work!