Thanks to the internet and mobile technology, earning a side income has never been easier! There are all kinds of ways you can spend a little time each day to make a quick buck using your Android phone these days. They range from the incredibly casual, right through to the serious and “full-time”.
In the following article, I’ll delve a little deeper into this emerging economy made possible by your mobile phone. By the end, you should have a good idea of some of the ways you can turn a little (or a lot) of free time into a real side income. Who knows, you might find one of them profitable enough to leave that boring old nine to five behind!
Talent Marketplaces
If you’ve got a talent or skill that you think others would need, there are loads of talent marketplaces online. Examples of such include UpWork, Fiverr, FiveSquid, and People-per-hour.
Once registered with one of these services, you’ll see plenty of potential clients advertising different kinds of positions. The most commonly sought-after professionals are web designers, writers, video producers, and voice over artists. Pay will vary according to the client you are working with, their demands, and your own skills. The precise rate is negotiated before starting your job.
As with almost every line of work, you must start at the bottom and build your reputation. Once you’ve established yourself as one of the top freelancers on the services, you can then start to demand the bigger bucks. This can turn itself into a neat little part-time or even full-time position, if your skills are saleable enough.
Even serious, established freelancers should consider adding one or more of these talent marketplaces to their work sourcing arsenal. It is not at all uncommon to see big name clients using these services for small pieces of work. I personally have written for music publishing giant Billboard through UpWork, which is certainly a great addition to any resume.
Although it may be difficult to compose pieces of prose using just an Android phone, finding clients and all subsequent communication can be conducted through the platform’s application or on your phone’s browser and email client. Such talent marketplaces are a brilliant way to monetise a hobby or passion or can serve as a trusted tool in the belt of any aspiring digital nomad.
Airtasker
If your skills are decidedly less digital, don’t let that put you off. There are still opportunities to work for others in need. Take Airtasker, for example. It’s just like the services mentioned above but instead of producing digital goods or services, you must get out into the real world and put your skills to work.
Now everyone has a job
On Airtasker, you will find people who need help with repairs, decorating, cleaning, cooking, and a whole host of other services. Like UpWork or People-per-Hour, you create a profile detailing what it is you can offer to clients and then browse the various advertisements for workers until you find something that interests you and that you are a good fit for. Then get applying!
Again, it’s a feedback-based system so don’t worry if things start slowly. You might also consider under-pricing yourself just to build a solid reputation. Once people can see you are good at mowing lawns, cleaning windows, repairing saxophones, or whatever, you can always bump up the fee to a rate that you feel more comfortable providing your services for.
Uber
Uber has massively disrupted the taxi industry. I’m sure many of you reading this have hailed a ride using your mobile phone before. It’s quick, convenient, and usually quite a bit cheaper than a standard private hire cab.
What if next time you sat in an Uber it was in the driving seat? Having a clean driving licence, immaculate criminal record, and a smartphone is all it takes to start driving for Uber. You don’t even need your own car to do it! Uber offers various initiatives to help new drivers buy or rent a vehicle to provide transport services to its users.
The best thing about driving for Uber is the flexibility. If you don’t have time to drive, you don’t have to. If you have the trip of a lifetime booked, then that’s no problem either. You just set your availability as you like and can drive as much or as little as you choose!
Online Gambling
Before you roll your eyes and skip this section, bear with me! It is entirely possible to use your Android phone to generate a side or even main income through online gambling. You just have to use your head about it.
Firstly, there is a system of sports betting that allows you to take advantage of various bonus offers and promotional cash that online casinos and bookmakers throw at new and existing customers. It’s called matched betting or advantage play. When done correctly, it’s an entirely risk-free way to generate an income using your phone.
Let’s look at a quick example to explain the concept. Let’s say an online bookmaker is offering £10 as a free bet for new customers once they deposit and bet £10 on a sporting event. Using matched betting, we can take a decent percentage of this free £10 (that is impossible to withdraw until it has been bet with once).
We basically make both required bets entirely risk free. With the “qualifying bet” we pick a sporting event and back one of the players or teams to win using £10 at the casino offering the free bet. We then back the other time to win and a draw at a different casino (we can use a betting exchange such as BetFair to “lay” a bet that achieves this “backing all outcomes” much more simply). With bets on all the possible outcomes of the match, we will win money back no matter who comes out on top.
We repeat the entire process for the free bet. This time, the money we win is free, since we bet using the bookmaker’s own funds. This example is a little on the simplistic side but as a proof of concept, it works fine. Certain techniques can be used to maximise profits and you can learn all about them from various online resources.
If all that sounds a little complicated (it really isn’t) or you don’t have the initial money needed to even make the first bets, you could try another form of risk-free gambling on your phone. If you get lucky, you can then multiply your new bankroll using matched betting and advantage play techniques.
All over the internet you will find new online casinos offering “no deposit” bonuses to players. These are exactly as they sound – the casino gives you a free shot to win real money by playing their games.
Common forms of no deposit bonuses include no deposit free spins and no deposit bonus cash. These both work in the same way. You load up the game of your choice (or the one specified by the casino to use) and simply play that game until you run out of free credits or win big. If you do win a lot, you should be aware that you will almost always be required to wager through your winnings a few (or a lot) of times.
There are certainly no guarantees with this money-making tip but with so many no deposit bonuses out there, if you’re prepared to try them all, you stand a substantially larger chance of winning something.
GigWalk
GigWalk is a simple service that can help people generate a small additional income. Unlike some of our other suggestions, you are unlikely to find this suggestion lucrative enough to leave behind your nine to five but if you’re struggling to make ends meet or saving for that trip of a lifetime, it might well provide you with a few extra bucks each month.
Basically, you register for the service and wait for an assignment to be given to you. They’re usually basic visual verification assignments – nothing too exciting or stimulating. You might be asked to check street signs or photographs of various physical landmarks, for example. Once you complete each of the tasks, you’ll receive monetary compensation for it. If you often find yourself wishing you could earn a few dollars on a bus or train ride to work each morning, GigWalk could be ideal for you!
Of course, these are just a few of the many ways that people can use their mobile phones to generate a second income these days. You’ll find eight new ways over at NoDeposit365’s website too.
Remember, this is just the early days of internet and mobile technology too. As time goes on, we’re sure that additional gig and remote working opportunities will become possible. Earning a living from home matched betting or recording voice over clips was barely conceivable 20 years ago. Just imagine where we will be in another 20!