If we hadn’t done the research, we would have thought these gigs were too good to be true. But, high-pay, low-effort jobs give a wide array of freelancers the chance to earn $40 or more per hour, largely working when they want to.
What can you do?
Advise
SideHusl.com places “armchair consulting” gigs at the top of the dream gigs list. That’s because these consulting jobs are typically short, remote, and pay more than $50 an hour — and often upwards of $100 an hour. To be sure, some require specialized knowledge. But that’s not necessarily the type of specialized knowledge that requires a college degree or a lofty title.
For instance, one recent gig sought people who use AI-powered tools at work for a one-hour online interview that pays $100. Another wanted feedback on financial services products from people who use them. This hour-long online interview promised a $150 payment.
Where can you find armchair consulting gigs? Respondent, UserInterviews, Maven, WinnWinn Research and for health-care related gigs, Rare Patient Voice.
Testify
Have experience in medicine, construction, financial services or accounting? You might qualify to be an expert witness. Like armchair consulting gigs, these jobs often involve reviewing information at home and giving a detailed and thoughtful opinion on specific topics.
In this case, however, your expertise is needed to help a jury (or litigants) decide whether someone’s personal or professional behavior deviated from the norm in a way that would irreparably harm another person.You might be asked to use your knowledge of normal Cesarean Section delivery procedures to determine, say, whether the defendant in the case you’re reviewing used reasonable care. Or you might be asked to review architectural plans to opine on whether the design of a building contributed to its collapse — or the injury of someone using it.
In some cases, your job ends after reviewing and opining on early legal filings. In other cases, you could be conscripted to help all the way through trial.
Pay for expert witnesses varies dramatically, based on the witnesses’ expertise and what they are asked to do. However, to give an idea, Expert Institute has a calculator on its website to help experts set their own rates. This calculator suggests that nurses charge about $250 per hour to review case files; $360 to attend a deposition; and $448 to testify at trial. Meanwhile, an accounting expert might charge $380 to review files; and $450 per hour for depositions and testimony.
Good sites to find these expert witness gigs include Expert Institute, GLG and Round Table Group.
Teach
Most teaching positions are not highly paid, but many at Outschool are. Why? The amount you earn is determined by what you charge each student multiplied by the number of students who sign up, minus a 30% site fee. So let’s say you charge $10 per class and allow 10 students to attend. If your class is fully booked, you earn $70 per class ($10 x 10 = $100, minus 30% + $70). Notably, too, many classes are scheduled for just a half-hour.
For instance, Miss Melanie’s 30-minute “Art of Conversation” class for 6 – to 10-year-olds costs $20 per student. And when we recently checked availability, a half-dozen class offerings were nearly fully booked, with 7 to 9 participants in each class. On average, that means she earns roughly $112 per half-hour, or $225 per hour.
The catch? You create the curriculum, which takes time too. And, if your class isn’t popular, you’ll earn significantly less than Miss Melanie.
Give
Want to earn money while watching movies? Give plasma.
Plasma — a yellowish fluid in your blood — helps fight infections. So hospitals and biomedical concerns use it to help cancer patients, people with auto-immune diseases and to develop drug therapies.
You must be in good health, weigh more than 110 pounds and pass a medical screening to give plasma. However, once cleared, donating plasma takes 1 – 2 hours and typically pays between $45 and $100 per donation.
You do have to endure having a needle in your arm. But, otherwise, the “working conditions” are hard to beat. You sit in a lounge chair and either read of watch shows on a computer monitor or your own device. If you ask, the plasma center’s staff will bring you a blanket, juice and/or a snack.
Notably, plasma in great supply in your blood stream and regenerates quickly in healthy adults. As a result, most people can give plasma as frequently as twice a month without any health concern.
Sites willing to pay for plasma include Octapharma Plasma, Biomat and CSL Plasma.
Try drugs
In a similar vein, bio-researchers looking to develop cures for a wide array of diseases, also enlist freelancers to test drugs and other treatments. Each clinical trial is different. However, most pay generously for you to undergo a few medical exams and hang out in clinical setting so they can observe you.
You, meanwhile, get three meals a day and can do what you like, within some limits. Those limitations are likely to include not leaving the premises and not engaging in recreational drug or alcohol use. But what you can do is read, study, work online, watch movies or play games with other trial participants.
How lucrative are these clinical trials? Fortrea recently posted a 4-night trial for non-smokers between the ages of 18 and 60. For the 4 nights, plus five follow-up visits and/or phone calls, the site was offering $3,905. Another study, aimed at developing a treatment for obesity, involved a 9-night clinical stay and multiple follow-up visits, but paid more than $16,000.
Find clinical trials with Fortrea, Parexel and Altasciences.
