How to Make Money While Unemployed

Unemployment has always been a major concern of every country. Though the U.S. and Canadian governments are doing well in providing job opportunities for it’s population (for example, the unemployment rate in the US is only 3.5%) a rise in unemployement rate can be difficult for an economy.

But more importantly is the extreme difficulty that losing one’s job can have on families and the individual themselves. Many of us define our value based on how productive we are in our society and well we provide for our families. 

At some point in our lives, we may experience being unemployed. And unfortunately, bills and other necessities won’t wait until you get a regular job. 

No need to feel sorry for yourself though. There are a ton of opportunities where you can earn a cash as side hustle and to help you make ends meet while you secure more long terms employment. This article will show you some helpful ideas on how to make money while unemployed. 

Walk a Dog

Do you love dogs? 

If so, you can absolutely make money walking dogs. Not only do you get the time to spend with these lovely creatures, but you get exercise and can earn good money.  

Wag! is a start-up company based in Los Angeles that matches dog owners and dog watchers. Dog owners use the app to request a walk and the app will match them with “Wag walkers” nearby. The walker goes to the home, takes the dog for a walk then returns it safely. 

You can earn $20-$30 for 30 minutes to an hour’s walk. The payment clears immediately after the walk. The company does keep a portion of your earnings for having brokered the relationship so you net around $17 per walk. 

If you want to make more money, you can become a professional dog walker. They earn a hefty $20-$40 per walk and they get to keep the payment all to themselves. However, you can not leverage an app. You’ll need to do all the marketing yourself. Start with your neighborhood. Canvas the area with posters that include your bio and the service you’re offering. And then go specifically to homes with dog owners and introduce yourself. 

An added tip, to help create trust in the relationship, think outside the box. Create special made dog friendly Halloween treats and create a doggy trick-or-treat park in your backyard where you invite your neighbors with dogs to come and walk their dogs.

You can also create a dog treat in the shape of a business card with your contact info and give them to your neighbors, put up posters at local pet stores and dog parks, partner up with dog trainers, vets and animal hospitals, and get on social media.

Sell Your Stuff

There is no perfect time to rummage your closet and get rid of the unused things than when you are unemployed. Clearly, you have plenty of free time so make the most of it by clearing your house of items that are no longer of use. Just like what Marie Kondo said in Good House Keeping, let go of the things that no longer spark joy. 

Decluttering your house hits two birds with one stone. First, you create a more spacious, clean and organized place which has been proven to alleviate stress. Second, you can sell these unused items to create a bit of cash during these difficult times. You can organize a garage sale outside your house and invite your neighbors and friends. Someone’s trash may end up to be someone else’s treasure. 

If you want to reach a wider market, you can go digital and sell your stuff online. Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji.ca and Etsy are some of the best platforms where you can sell your belongings. 

Drive for a Ride-Sharing Service

If you’ve got a car and plenty of free time on your hand, why not use both of these resources and make money? 

Working as an independent contractor for a ride-sharing company like Lyft and Uber has its perks. You get to set your own working hours, interact with different types of people and make money on the side. 

Transportation network companies such as Lyft and Uber have grown rapidly over the past few years. You won’t have any trouble finding opportunities to drive someone as these platforms have become the new norm for travel in many cities.

In terms of requirements, first, you must own or lease a car (or have the permission from a friend or family member to use theirs). You must also have a clean driving record as well as zero criminal records. Although surprisingly it’s not necessary, it is highly recommended to have previous driving experience. 

Once you have signed up, you can start accepting rides through the app immediately. 

Make Some Deliveries

Making a delivery is another great option to make money while you’re in between jobs. You have full control of your schedule, plus you can earn $20 or more an hour. 

A lot of companies hire independent contractors to deliver food, packages, and even furniture. 

 If you want to venture to deliver foods and groceries, companies like Burpy, Caviar, Delivery Drivers Inc, Doordash, Favor, Grubhub, and UberEats are great options. On the other hand, Amazon Flex, Doorman, Shyp and Deliv are the best to work with if you want to deliver packages. You can also deliver alcohol and other miscellaneous items and work for companies like Drizly, Pikfly, Minibar Delivery, Saucey, Burro, Eaze, and GoShare

Rent your Car 

If you have an extra car that’s just sitting in your garage unused, put it to work and make money. In the same way that homes and rooms are rented out through Airbnb, cars can also be used in various time increments? 

Owning a car can be expensive (gas, insurance, cleaning), not to mention the maintenance needed to keep it in prime working condition. Renting out your car can help offset the expenses and you can generate a little extra to help you pay other bills. Here are some of the best websites where you can sign up and offer your rent-a-car service: Turo, Getaround, HyreCar, and TravelCar. 

Aside from renting your car, there are several ways that you can use your car as an income source. You can wrap your car with advertising and get paid depending on your daily commute and the size of your car. Sign up with MyFreeCar.com if you don’t mind your car being a moving billboard. 

Play Video Games

Can you play videogames and make money? 

Now, this sounds like a really sweet deal. 

While others spend tons of dollars on the newest gadgets and accessories, you can do it the other way around. You can play video games and make money while doing the thing that you enjoy. 

Here are several ways that you can make money by playing videogames: 

• Become a video game tester.
• Start your own Youtube channel. 
• Become a Twitch partner and let your viewers stream your game. 
• Create and sell video-game-inspired merchandise. 
• Sell on cheats, tips, and strategies online. 
• Become a game developer. 
• Join online gaming tournaments. 

Many of us get addicted to video games because they provide an escape to reality but can also provide cash. Be aware, that making money playing video requires a lot of time and hard work. In many cases, it takes years to master a game to be able to generate real income.  

Collect $50 Per Year with the Nielsen App

Nielsen will give you $50 just by downloading this app. If this is not the easiest way of making money, I don’t know what is. All you need is a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

Nielsen is a company that tracks TV ratings as well as the popularity of many websites and online videos. They have been in the survey business for years. You can make up to $50 a year just by installing their mobile app and keeping the app on your device. This may not be a huge amount, but every penny counts when you’re unemployed. 

Obviously, Nielsen needs to monetize the information they get from your phone in order to remain a profitable business. Expect that the information collected from the apps is going to be sold off to other businesses. If you have major concerns about privacy, this may not be the right avenue for you.

Complete Tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk

If you’re looking for ways to make money while staying at home, then you should definitely look into Amazon Mechanical Turk. 

Amazon MTurk was created from the idea that a large number of human beings can still outperform a computer. This platform provides online workers with the opportunity to complete tasks such as filling out surveys, capturing data, transcribing audio recordings, etc. 

How does Amazon Mechanical Turk work? 

Business owners (requesters) post jobs as HITS (Human Intelligence Tasks). Workers can browse on the list of HITS and choose the ones that they like to work on. Once the task is completed, they submit their work for approval to the requesters. Workers get paid when their work gets approved. 

There are tons of tasks that you can do on Amazon MTurk and the payment depends on the skills and time needed to complete the task. This is about speed and quality of work, so to maximize income from MTurk, find the fastest way to get the tasks completed with the right level of quality. You can also upgrade your skills by enrolling in e-courses to snag higher-paying HITS. 

Register on Fiverr

Fiverr has managed to be one of the most in-demand sources of micro outsourced services on the Internet. The platform draws in new clients every day so there is never a shortage of work for gig providers. As more businesses are turning to this platform to complete some of their tasks, it’s a good idea to sign up with Fiverr and make money while being unemployed. 

Sellers started out offering their service on Fiverr for $5 per gig. Today, you’d have a hard time finding any gigs for just $5. You can charge what you want and often gig providers will have multiple levels of options at different prices to meet a clients needs and can customize a quote for anything outside the norm.

Here are some of the ways on how  you can make money on Fiverr: 

• Offer social media services. 
• Create an ebook and sell it again and again to different customers. 
• Write high-quality content for blogs, websites, newsletters, etc. 
• Offer a customized graphic design service.
• Become a virtual assistant. 
• Write a product review. 
• Design flyers, business cards, illustrations, or digital marketing campaigns. 

Regardless of your skill and experience, you’ll find tons of opportunities on Fiverr to spend your spare time making money online. 

Join Paid Surveys

It’s already been established that joining online surveys is a legit way of making money. In fact, a lot of people have turned to this gig and spent their free time wisely by answering surveys. 

Surveys play a huge role in the success of a product or a brand. Business brands ask the public to provide their feedback on their products and services. In return, they offer gifts, credits, vouchers, and cash payments. 

There are scams out there so stick with the well-known services that have proven themselves over time: Swagbucks, Toluna, OnePoll, LifePoints, Panel Opinion, and PanelBase.  

Start Your Own Blog

If you’re good at creating content that is interesting and compelling to the readers, starting your own blog is an excellent route to take in making money online. Blogs offer tons of money-making opportunities  such as affiliate marketing, advertising, sponsored content, digital downloads and even e-commerce. 

Before you can monetize your blog, you have to work hard to attract traffic and keep your readers coming back. 

Starting a blog can be overwhelming, but once you have taken the first step, the rest becomes easier. Start with choosing a niche that interest you. Many of the popular niches are not difficult to break into such as How to make money, weight loss, food, travel, fashion, beauty, and parenting. We suggest you focus on smaller niches and become the true expert in that field.

Although there may be less readers out there, you’ll have a larger price of the pie and can rank faster on google to earn more money more quickly. But the most important, is picking a topic that you have interest in as you’ll be spending a lot of time writing about it. And always look for ways to create content that will add value to your readers and keep them engaged.

Capture email addresses and get them to follow you on social media so you connect with your readers more easily and monetize them later.

Teach Online

If you have a penchant for teaching, then you must look into teaching English or other courses online as a hustle. A lot of people across the globe want to learn English so there are many opportunities online to be successful. You can make $14-$40 per hour. 

VIPKID, Tutor.com, EnglishHunt, QKids and Cambly are some of the best companies to teach English online. A university degree and TEFL certification are not really required, but you can earn more money if you have these. 

Become a Freelancer

The world of freelancing sounds very promising. In fact, more than 50% of the U.S workforce will do freelance work by 2027. 

There are tons of freelancing platforms to choose from and find freelance work. Upwork, PeoplePerHour, Fivver, and Craigslist are some of the most popular ones. You can also find freelance jobs from Facebook groups. 

Freelancing offers flexibility since you can work anytime and anywhere you want. On the downside though, you may have to compete against thousands of applicants to get a gig and you don’t get many of the perks of a full time job (benefits, vacation, retirement matching, etc).

To land the perfect gigs, aside from just listing out your skills, you also have to make sure that you create a compelling cover letter to get the attention of clients. 

Final Thoughts

Being unemployed can be frustrating and stressful.

Your basic necessities and bills will continue to come and you’ll quickly see your savings (if you have any) get depleted. You need to find sources of income to stay afloat and avoid getting into debt during these trying times.

We hope these ideas will help you continue to live your lifestyle even through this transition.

For some individuals, a time of unemployment is a time where they can explore other career options. You may end up loving your side hustle more than what your previous job and decide to continue working one of these systems. Regardless, if you chose to do types of jobs as you transition between employment or as a permanent new way of life, know that these options are available as great ways to make income .