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I’m going to dive into the my new side hustle, and the opportunity to turn your skills and creativity into a thriving income stream. Let’s talk about making money on your terms!
First, I want to start by saying the gigs I’m about to share are totally real, I have already made money by doing them, and neither of them are paying me to share this here. I just truly think they are a good opportunity for people like me (and hopefully you too!)
Second, I want to talk about the word hustle real quick… I wish there was a better term, honestly, because it doesn’t really sound like anything good relating to making money and I don’t recommend any of these… (especially number #3)
5. a fraud or swindle.
Yeah. That is not what people really mean when they say side hustle… unless they do and I’m just very confused! Overall our American societal view on “side-hustling” is basically:
a job or gig one does when not at their fulltime job to make extra income.
That is how I have always viewed it and that is for sure the way I was doing it for most of my working life. Now I see it as a way to supplement my husband’s full-time income, and it is something I do when I am not actively parenting and caring for my baby.
No matter what hustle type you are doing, let me be clear:
It will still be work.
Passive income is awesome if you can achieve it, and that may very well be the goal eventually with my other endeavors, but the one thing you should take away from this is that it is work. You will have to put in time and actual effort because:
You will only get out what you put in.
We are all guilty of googling “Easy ways to make money.” I’ve even tried some of those things…and it all comes down to how much work are you willing to do. The “easier” it is the less you will get paid. Thats not to say that it will be the hardest thing ever and that you won’t enjoy doing it, you just have to find that balance, and that is exactly what I have found in the “hustles” I am currently working on. Out of the 4-5 hustles I’m currently trying, this has been, by far the most lucrative for me, it is called Data Annotation.
What is Data Annotation?
How to get started
Data annotation jobs are becoming popular and have obvious demand with the expansion of AI. With multiple different types of data annotation, such as image labeling, text annotation, and video annotation, depending on your skills, you have multiple options!
Explore the platforms and work models to see what suits you:
Do your research! My experience is super pin-pointed so I’m by no means an expert and this is an up-and-coming industry, so I recommend keeping yourself in-the-know.
Most of what I’ve seen is freelance and contracted work, which is what I am doing and it has been perfect for me. I’ve been using two very different platforms to do this work and they are:
I will preface this by saying, this platform is user friendly but it is definitely not my favorite, but this is my personal opinion. MTurk is a place for researchers and companies to post their annotation projects. All you have to do is sign up, provide your information, tell them how to pay you, and that’s about it. It was pretty easy to get started. I heard about this from a few YouTubers and I figured it was worth it since it was easy to sign up. While there are so many available “jobs” posted, the ones I qualified for were low-level and very repetitive and unfortunately followed a survey type format that I found mundane and did not pay enough for my personal standards. However, from what I can see from my research and other’s experiences, if you have technical skills, and more time than me to keep at it, you will eventually earn qualifications to receive access to more interesting and higher paying gigs. Overall, I recommend it if you want a few bucks and have more patience than I do.
I was able to make about $10 a day for intermittent clicking during baby naps and after he went to bed. Money is money and every little bit helps. 10 bucks here and there will pay for app subscriptions or a coffee or two, so if you look at it that way, it may work for you. Unfortunately, I was looking for something more substantial. That brings me to the next platform:
I love this gig. It has been straight forward and really makes me use my brain, and I have honestly missed that in the last year of not working on anything but growing and nurturing a whole tiny human.
the onboarding is kind of odd and it can be selective, but if you do your best and stay honest, you will most likely get an acceptance email. Once accepted you will find out fast that this is real “work” and its challenging and actually really interesting! I do need to focus on these task and can’t really do it while watching the baby or half listening to the TV, it definitely requires full attention. The best part is that I can do it as much or as little as I want, and I can do it any time that works for me. The pay varies but I have not dipped below an average of $19/hr (I <3 spreadsheets) since starting in August, and I am regularly able to make $20-25/hr depending on the projects I am assigned, and right now I have both $20 and $25 per hour projects that will be on-going until at least January. That means you could potentially treat this like a full-time job and make upwards of $800-$1000 per week. I definitely don’t do that because I have a baby… but for the 1-2 hours a day a few days a week I can get in, it adds up!
Money is the main reason to do this, but another thing I like is that there is a lot of training (most of it is paid!) There is also a Slack channel, shared files, and resources available to those working on certain projects so you can learn something and build your skills.
The slight downsides are that it is a bit technical, and you do need to have fairly decent writing and comprehension skills, but there are different projects for all different skill sets. Payments are also easy and done through PayPal and can be done multiple times a week depending on your projects. But you will need to withhold your own taxes and I recommend keeping your own spreadsheets on earnings and hours. I have also read on multiple forums that they can sometimes kick you off a project (or the whole platform) with no warning and no response. I personally have not experienced this, and I feel that I have followed all rules and guidelines (and they are made very clear and accessible) and I try to give them quality work. As with any gig like this, it can be gone in a flash and nothing is guaranteed, so it is best to have other things to fall back on and other ideas in the hopper.
Things to note about this hustle:
Try it out! Make some money!
I am only a full 3 months into this, so I am also still learning. I may do an update in a few months with some actual totals and more in-depth information if all keeps going well. But I can tell you, I am pleasantly surprised with my earnings so far.
I think you should check it out too! Research and apply! Just know that data annotation might not be for everyone but it’s a lucrative and growing field. As businesses and researchers continue to demand high-quality annotated data, your skills could really be of value to this new endeavor.
I hope this information helped! Let me know what gigs you’re doing, and stay tuned for more about what I’m working on.
Have an amazing day!
Heather
