How To Turn Skills You Already Have Into Extra Income
According to research from Omnisend, 28% of Americans currently have a side hustle, and 80% started one for financial reasons rather than personal enjoyment. The research found that 51% of those with side hustles earned $500 or less monthly, but 76% were satisfied with the extra money.
The good news is that you can build a side income stream with the skills you already have, so you don’t have to wait to get paid.
Here’s how you can turn skills you already have into a side gig or extra money.
Explore Next: Try Your Hand at 7 Side Gigs You Can Start Today To Earn Major Cash
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Get Paid To Write or Create Content
“If you’re someone who already writes -- whether that's emails, reports or just explaining things clearly to other people -- that skill has a market,” said Teresa Tran, side hustle expert and chief operating officer at LaGrande Marketing. “Blog posts, newsletters, website copy and social media content are always in demand for businesses, and most of them don't have someone on staff to do it.”
Tran noted that freelance copywriting and content writing can generate between $56,000 and $94,000 annually for full-time writers. She found that clients on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr currently need writers of all experience levels.
Start Researching for Money
If you have research skills, you can make decent money from side gigs with this skill. Tran emphasized that research is a time-consuming task that is outsourced regularly by marketing agencies, law firms, consultants, and content teams.
“Finding information quickly, verifying sources and summarizing what you find in a way that is easy to understand is a billable service,” she explained.
When it comes to pay, Tran pointed out that Upwork lists research projects daily across industries, and a researcher charging $25 to $50 an hour with four to five small clients a month can generate an extra $500 to $1,000 on the side without committing to anything full-time.
Use Your Design Skills To Create Graphics
“One of the most overlooked skills I feel people can monetize is design, and you don't need a degree or any type of expensive software in order to start,” said Alyssa Ostroff, founder of Self-Care Shirts. “If you can use Canva, you can create social media graphics, logos, wedding invitations, even digital products and sell them on Etsy or Fiverr starting at $15 to $50 per project.”
She pointed out that experienced designers can charge between $500 and $2,000 for brand identity packages. While the pay will depend on your experience level and quality, you can use your existing skills to build an income.
She also noted the other design skills that lead to side hustles:
Photo editing: $25 to $75 an hour on Upwork
Social media management: $300 to $800 per client per month
She said most of these require nothing more than a laptop and a portfolio of three to five sample projects.
List Your Services on a Gig Economy App
There are gig economy apps like Taskrabbit where you can offer your services. You can start by creating a profile on the platform and exploring popular jobs near you that match your skill set.
Taskrabbit’s CEO, Ania Smith, claimed in an Entrepreneur interview that one freelancer in NYC was able to make over $200,000 in a year by mounting TVs. She also claimed that the average hourly rate for a freelancer on the platform is around $50. It’s worth pointing out that the earnings will depend on the services that you offer and the community that you live in.
According to research from Wealthvieu, Taskers will earn around $20 to $50 an hour on average, with skilled trades earning up to $80 an hour. The platform has job offers for cleaning, event planning, setup and moving help.
Flip Items
You can combine a variety of skills to get into furniture flipping or just reselling items. If you have a talent for thrift store shopping or enjoy refurbishing old furniture, you can find low-priced items and then flip them on a platform like Facebook Marketplace or Poshmark.
According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a reseller is just under $70,000. As always, the amount will depend on how much you have to dedicate to this side hustle and what items you’re able to flip.
Tran emphasized that the one thing that many of these side hustles have in common is that neither of them forces you to start from scratch. You're already doing one of these things, and the only difference is that you're not charging for it yet.
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This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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