My grandmother literally had a “Rainy Day” jar stashed away in her cupboard behind stale Smarties and Fresca. I was probably 6 or 7 when I realized what it was, or more accurately what it wasn’t: a wad of cash reserved for a stormy afternoon.
Even still, I always wondered why on earth she kept an old Folgers tin stuffed with cash behind years old candy and soda nobody drank. Why not buy something? Splurge a little? Have some fun?
Fast forward 15 years when I ran into my first (major) financial crisis. I finally understood my grandmother’s thinking and wished some of her fiscal wisdom had rubbed off on me. But it hadn’t.
So I found myself in my early 20s, struggling to pay a past due tuition bill, trying to get extra work at my restaurant job and then, boom, my 16-year-old car broke down. Repair bill: $1,300
I really could have used a Folger’s tin of money (make that two). But I was living paycheck to paycheck, or more accurately, shift to shift, relying on the night’s tips to get me through the next day.
So I did what any college kid would do. I sold my plasma. Two months into my twice-weekly visits to the donation center, I sat watching the needle in my arm, feeling queasy and vowed to get serious about my savings.
And so, I started my own emergency fund (although I put my money in an interest-bearing savings account, not a Folger’s tin)
I do random side jobs whenever I can. And instead of spending the money on something frivolous (read, fun), I put it away for a rainy day. In the last five years, it’s become even easier to pad my emergency fund thanks to all the online side job sites available today.
Ready to build your own emergency fund with online side job sites? Start by opening a free Capital One 360 Savings Account.You’ll get a $25 bonus just for signing up.
PostLoop
When someone starts a new forum or blog, they may want to drum up some activity to make it look alive. That’s where PostLoop comes in.
At PostLoop, you can get paid to post in forums and comment on blogs. Available assignments are posted in an open marketplace and you can choose the ones you want to complete.
What you need to know:
- You can live in any country, but must have PERFECT English
- There are 10 trial posts you have to do before being paid
- Payments are made via PayPal as long as you have $5.00
- Posts average $0.08 each
I’ll admit, the pay is low. But honestly, this doesn’t feel like work. You get to visit forums, be social, and earn some money. Some Loopers claim to make up to $8.00 an hour. How much you earn will depend on how quickly and often you work. Either way, it’s a fun (and easy) way to contribute funds to your emergency account.
The Smart Crowd
I’ve talked about the legitimate online data entry job, Virtual Bee, before. Well, they’ve merged with The Smart Crowd (Lionbridge). Now you can find data entry jobs and other small web-based tasks like online research and data clean up.
What you need to know:
- You have to pass evaluations to work on certain tasks
- Work is available for international candidates
- You can perform tasks on a tablet if you’d like
- Payments are made on the 1st and 16th of every month
As long as there are tasks available, you can work any time day or night. The Smart Crowd Lionbridge also offer a variety of different search engine evaluation jobs. You have to complete a separate application process to be considered for those positions.
Slice the Pie
After you sign up at Slice the Pie, you can start earning money for listening to and reviewing music. They also offer some users the opportunity to review fashion.
Your reviews help give artists and record labels near instant feedback on new songs. There’s no limit to how much (or little) you work.
What you need to know:
- Open to international candidates
- The amount you make per song review is based on your “star” rating
- The better your reviews, the more you’ll earn
- Payments are made via PayPal
- You must have at least $10 to get paid
You’ll have to listen to at least 90 seconds of music before you can leave your review. The more detailed and specific your reviews are, the better your rating and the more you’ll earn.
Slice the Pie has paid out more than $1 million to its reviewers. You won’t get rich reviewing music at Slice the Pie, but it is a fun way for music lovers to contribute to their emergency funds!
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk is an online marketplace filled with Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs). There are thousands of tasks posted at any given time. You browse through them and find one you want to work on.
HITs can be anything from image tagging, to website reviewing, and transcription. You’ll never know what you’ll find on Amazon Mechanical Turk.
What you need to know:
- HITs can pay from $0.01 to $20.00 or more
- Some companies strictly use Mechanical Turk to assign work
- You may have to take “qualifications” to work on some HITs
- Payments are made to your Amazon Payments Account (you can transfer to your bank account)
I use MTurk from time to time to make some extra money. But some people swear by Amazon Mechanical Turk as a way to make a good income online. You’ve got to find the right HITs to make the most of your earnings on Amazon Mechanical Turk
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Clickworker
Clickworker is an online work marketplace kinda like MTurk. However, many people use Clickworker just for a handful of specific projects. These include image and video tagging, search relevance, and product categorization.
What you need to know:
- You will have to sign up at Clickworker and complete a profile
- There will be qualifications you have to pass
- Open to international candidates who can pass the qualifications
- Payments are made every week
Clickworker is always accepting new workers. You have the freedom to work whenever you want and on the projects of your choice. I usually work on the writing tasks at Clickworker to make extra emergency money here and there. But there are plenty of different tasks available no matter what your interests are!
Textbroker
Textbroker is an online writing site, or content mill as it’s commonly called. Writers sign up, take a writing assessment, and then can start working on articles based on their rating.
Textbroker is one of my go-to sites any time I need some extra cash!
What you need to know:
- Earn up to $0.05 per word
- Get feedback on your writing and improve your skills
- You can work on a team for special projects
- Clients can issue you Direct Orders where you can earn even more
- Payments are made once a week as long as you have $10 in your account
You choose which articles you want to write. Assignments are in different categories like health, beauty, technology, automotive, legal, marketing — it’s constantly changing based on the work available.
If you’re new to freelance writing, you can’t ask for a better site to try your hand at it while earning some extra cash for your emergency stash.
Call Center QA
I know a lot of people are anti-phone when it comes to working from home. But at Call Center QA, it’s really simple to earn extra money if you’re willing to pick up your phone.
Call Center QA is a telephone mystery shopping company that pays you $5 for each call you complete. The best part? If you have little ones, loud pets, or other background noise, it doesn’t matter.
What you need to know:
- You will have to complete a couple of test calls before getting paid
- Each call takes 5-10 minutes
- There are no background checks
- Must be 18 or older
- Payments are made within 7 days of completing a call (usually less)
Some Call Center QA mystery shoppers claim to earn as much as $90 a day. If that doesn’t convince you to pick up the phone every so often and make a call, I don’t know what will! At $5 each, you can add a nice little chunk to your growing emergency fund every week.
Cambly
If you are a native English speaker with plenty of patience, you can make some extra money with Cambly. Cambly is a platform that connects students around the world with English speakers to help them practice conversational English.
What you need to know:
- The dashboard “rings” when a student wants to learn
- It’s up to you whether or not you answer
- Calls come in 24/7
- Sessions are via video chat and are recorded (so the student can watch them repeatedly)
- You get paid $0.17 per minute of talk time
You can leave the app open and accept calls whenever you want. As a Cambly instructor, you get to meet some pretty cool people from all over the world and get paid to talk to them.
Humanatic
So, you know when you call your cable company, phone service provider, or bank and it says something like “call may be monitored and recorded for quality assurance purposes?” Well, you could be that person “monitoring” calls for quality assurance!
The service is called Humanatic. They record phone calls and pay reviewers to identify missed sales opportunities or poor customer service experience.
What you need to know:
- You won’t actually be on the phone, just listening to recorded conversations
- Some categories pay better than others
- As you gain experience, you can unlock higher paying categories
- Payments are made via PayPal once a week
This is one of those jobs that almost always has work available, but the pay is quite low. I used to do it when my little one was much younger as I could listen to calls even when we were up at 2:00 a.m. It was an easy way to contribute money at a time when it was difficult to work.
Start Working
What are you waiting for? Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of a financial crisis to wish you had your own Folger’s can of money. Instead, take a proactive approach to your savings and start putting away a little extra money here and there with these super simple online side job sites.
Before you know it, you’ll have a nice emergency fund just waiting to bail you out the next time you have a rainy day.
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