THE BEST JOBS YOU CAN GET WITH A FEW QUALIFICATIONS
You might imagine that pretty much anyone could drive, deliver, babysit or clean for pay. But you’d be wrong. Many online platforms that offer these jobs have a litany of requirements, including passing background checks and having a late-model car or specific equipment. But there are some good side hustles that have few requirements. All you need is to be 18 or older and have a cellphone.
What can you do with nothing more than a smartphone? Take pictures; be a movie extra; consult in any area in which you have expertise; review and opine on products; or work in a summer camp. Here’s a breakdown by category.
Take pictures
A dozen years ago, you’d need a $500 camera to take high-quality photos that can be sold for use by websites and graphic artists. Now, all you need is a late-model smartphone and a sense of artistry. There are dozens of sites that will buy your photos — or help you sell them as art. Some sites will also pay you to take photos of properties for landlords and appraisers. The stock photo and art sites pay relatively small amounts in royalties when one of your photos sells. However, if your photograph proves popular, it can sell hundreds of times, bringing in passive income long after you did the work. Meanwhile, the sites looking for real estate photos generally pay $10 to $30 for a few minutes’ work.
Here are the details.
Snap stock photos
Stock photo sites, such as Alamy, Adobe Stock, Shutterstock and Foap, sell images to newspapers, magazines, websites, advertising firms and corporations that need generic art to illustrate stories, brochures and reports. In most cases, photos sell for 30 cents to $5. However, when the photos are used for commercial purposes, such as to illustrate an advertisement or brochure, the photogra
pher gets more. It’s important to note that you don’t lose rights to the sold photos. In fact, these sites will help you sell them over again.
Upload to print on demand
Print-on-demand sites use your photographs on artistic prints, coffee mugs, phone cases, T-shirts and other consumer items. You’d simply upload your art, then go through the list of products that the print-on-demand site creates and choose which ones you’d allow your art to illustrate. You might, for instance, say your photographs are great to use as puzzles, but you don’t want to sell them as a shower curtain. When consumers buy products illustrated by your art, the print-on-demand shop makes the product, ships it and pays you a royalty. Royalties vary by site and product; they usually run from 10 percent to 50 percent of the purchase price. The best sites to offer your photographs for print-on-demand service include FineArtAmerica and Society6.
Take property pictures
Two sites, Ivueit and ProxyPics, pay freelance photographers to take pictures of properties. Ivueit mostly works with commercial landowners, who want to know whether distant properties are being kept in good condition or the state of a construction or repair project. ProxyPics, meanwhile, works with appraisers, insurance adjusters and others taking photographs of residential property. Although most jobs require nothing more than a cellphone and time, if you want to qualify for more lucrative indoor photo shoots with ProxyPics, you’ll also need to pass a background check.
Be a movie extra
Extras — also known as “background artists” — earn minimum wage to several hundred dollars per day. They are the people you see in movies walking past the main characters on the street, sitting around main characters in restaurants, parks and stadiums and generally just setting the mood for a movie scene. They have no lines and need to do nothing more than follow directions. You can find these jobs by signing up with casting agencies, such as Central Casting and Advanced Casting. Or you could join a casting service, such as Extras Management.
Consult
Are you knowledgeable about a topic, whether it be high school fashion trends, business planning or economics? Then you can sign up to be a part-time consultant. Several sites, including Maven, Zintro and GLG, invite individuals to sign up and fill out detailed descriptions of their areas of expertise. These sites will then email you when they have a client looking for insight in that area. Outside of being old enough to sign a legal contract, the only thing these sites require is that you understand the ethical constraints of consulting. These ethical issues are spelled out for anyone signing up with these sites.
Review and opine
A site called Product Tube enlists consumers to take short selfie-style videos of them reviewing or shopping for various products. Each review takes just a few minutes and pays $5 to $40. And it’s just one of several sites that will pay for your opinions. A site called Prolific will pay you to participate in research studies. And several sites, including Field Work, Shifrin-Hayworth, Consumer Opinion Services and FindFocusGroups, pay nice stipends — $50 to $250 — to people willing to participate in occasional focus groups that advise manufacturers on product design.
Work in a camp or resort
Summer camps and seasonal resorts staff up at this time of year, hiring desk clerks, cleaners, cooks, servers and camp counselors. Although a handful of the jobs offered in this space require experience, many do not. Two good sites that can help you find these seasonal jobs are CoolWorks and VagaJobs.