What are the best ways to make money without a car?

Whether you don’t have a car, don’t want to spend more money on gas, or just want to stay home, we’ve got a side hustle for you.

(Uber and DoorDash aren’t the only games in town!)

These car-free ideas were selected based on:

Making a full-time living from home since 2008
Interviews with over 500 side hustlers and entrepreneurs
15+ years of my own side hustle experience

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Customer Interviews

Many companies use customer interviews to get feedback on new products.

User Interviews and Respondent.io are a pair of cool services that facilitate those interviews online and over the phone.

The best part? The average compensation is $50-150 an hour!

Here are some other companies that facilitate focus groups and paid research studies.

2. Online Surveys

These won’t make you rich, but can be an easy way to supplement your income and you can do them in your downtime at home.

If you love this stuff, check out:

3. Find a Virtual Job

FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site.

With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

4. Remote Real Estate Investing

You might not think of being a landlord as being a work from home side hustle, but there are ways to get it done.

For example, my friend Dustin Heiner manages his portfolio of rental properties from several states away. He just has a team of property managers and contractors “on the ground” to help out should the need arise.

Alternatively, you might take a look at a platform like Arrived, which lets you invest in cash-flowing rentals for as little as $100.

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

This is a great way to make money without leaving the house.

5. Make Extra Money Playing Online Games

KashKick

KashKick is a newer app that pays you to answer surveys, test new games (up to $150 each!), and redeem money-saving offers.

With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.

Rewarded Play (Android)

With over 180,000 reviews and a 4.4-star rating in the Google Play store, Rewarded Play is another free, legit, and fun, “get paid to play” app.

Rewarded Play is your one-stop app for casual games like Solitaire, Mahjong, Wheel of Fortune, Yahtzee, and more. As you play, choose your rewards and get your gift cards within 48 hours.

6. Virtual Bookkeeping: Up to $70/hr

Remote bookkeepers can earn $20-70 an hour and up for their work. This is a great option for people with accounting experience from school or your day job.

And because the work can be done online, there’s no commute required.

Here’s a free training on how to get started.

7. Self-Publish on Amazon

Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle platform, you can publish your work and tap into a massive audience of book buyers.

Self-publishing is one of my favorite and longest-running side hustles. I remember my first royalty payment from Amazon of something like $42 and being thrilled, thinking “I did it! I’m a professional author!”

Since then I’ve earned over $75,000 in author royalties, and I think books are a pretty awesome way to both build authority in your niche and earn passive income along the way.

Related: My Amazon author profile and book listings

8. Knife Sharpening

Matt Rowell taught himself how to sharpen knives on YouTube, and turned it into a $250-1500 a month side business.

If you have customers drop off and pick up their knives, this is an excellent way to make money without a car.

9. Online Tutoring

Tutoring and test prep is more than a billion dollar a year industry!

You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!

For example, Matt Fuentes charges $100/hour for remote college admissions test prep tutoring.

As a tutor, you set your own schedule and rates. For example, when I searched Wyzant for math tutors nearby, I found several tutors charging $40-60 an hour.

10. Teach an Online Class

While one-to-one tutoring can be rewarding and even pretty lucrative, it’s still trading time for money. One side hustle with a little more scale is to teach an online group class through a platform like Outschool.

The peer-to-peer education marketplace focuses on students ages 3-18, and has courses on nearly every topic imaginable.

On The Side Hustle Show, Jade Weatherington shared how she was earning $10,000 a month on the platform, primarily teaching middle school English writing classes.

I even connected with an Outschool teacher with a series of popular video game classes!

11. Virtual Assistant Service

Virtual assistants are remote administrative professionals that help business owners (or even just busy individuals) with a variety of tasks.

Check out companies like BELAY, Time Etc, or Zirtual for potential openings, or set up shop on your own, like Abbey Ashley did.

She started her business while on maternity leave, and found it only took a handful of clients to not have to go back to her old job — and the commute.

If you work through a virtual assistant company, expect to earn $12-18 an hour to start. Freelance VAs charge $20-40 an hour — or even more for specialized skills.

12. Freelance Writing

Content is a booming industry and has been for the last several years. With more and more businesses engaging in content marketing, it’s creating a demand for writers.

Freelance writing is a great way to share your expertise and make money. You have full control over your schedule (in most cases) and can fit the work in when it works for you.

To learn more, check out this free guide from the American Writers and Artists Institute:

After that, you can set up shop on your own, or apply with any number of companies actively hiring freelance writers.

13. Customer Service

Think about all the different websites you visit on a given day or week? It’s probably quite a few. Pretty much any website you visit on the internet is going to have some kind of customer service in place. The bigger the business the more likely they hire people to help serve their customers.

Customer service can come in the form of phone, email, or live chat support. Most companies are willing to train you in their processes so while some experience may be necessary, it may not also be a deal-breaker.

The downside to this role is that you will most likely have a pretty regular schedule to stick to. If you don’t mind and want regular work at regular times, this could be a great opportunity. If you are wanting a job that you have more control over the flexibility to work, then this might not be a great fit.

Customer service representatives make an average of $10 to $19 an hour, though this will depend on the company.

14. Web Design Service

You might be surprised, but many businesses have a really outdated-looking site — or they don’t have one at all.

Thankfully, web design is a learnable skill, and it still has great earning power when you need to make money without a car.

My advice: pick a niche to specialize in, and become the go-to provider for businesses in that space.

For example, Ryan Golgosky from 180sites.com primarily builds sites for pressure-washing companies. (Really!)

When we spoke, he shared how this strategy — and a unique pricing plan — built his web design business to $100,000 a month.

15. Build a Helpful Website

While building websites for clients is a great remote side hustle, it may be even better to build one for yourself.

Now to be totally upfront, there’s a lot to learn to make this business work, but when it does, it can be extremely lucrative.

For example:

Scott earns 6-figures a year from his bird-watching blog
Shelley earns $50k a month from her travel blogs
Andrew earned over $1.2M from his gift ideas site

Their sites are monetized with advertising and affiliate partnerships, which scale as your traffic increases.

Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.

16. Start a YouTube Channel

Another way to make money without a car is by posting content on YouTube.

Once you’ve built up a following, you can monetize your videos with Youtube’s built-in ad platform.

Lately, I’ve been earning around $500 a month from my YouTube channel, but some YouTubers make millions from their content!

To get started, I’d recommend choosing a niche and creating “question and answer” content. Examples might include:

how to do _______?
what are the best ______?
how does _______ work?

Those types of videos give a new channel the best chance of ranking in YouTube’s search to start getting views.

17. Test Websites

As a website tester, you record your computer screen and your voice as you use a certain site or app. You may also need to write survey responses as part of the job or use a webcam.

Essentially, you’re giving your opinion about the usability of a website or app with the goal of improving the user experience. You discuss your likes and dislikes, suggest improvements, and discuss any difficulties you have with the site or app.

Learn more about remote website testing jobs at these sites:

User Testing – Rewards vary based on the assignment, but average in the $20-30/hour range.
TestingTime – Earn up to $65 per every 30-90 minute study.
Trymata – Earn $5-30 per test.

18. Sell Printables and Spreadsheet Templates

One of the most interesting side hustles I’ve come across is selling printables.

These are digital files you upload to a marketplace like Etsy. Think:

budget templates
chore charts
habit trackers
meal planners
intake forms
wall art
and more 

And the best part? When someone orders, the file delivery happens automatically.

On The Side Hustle Show, Rachel Jones explained how she earned $10,000 a month from her portfolio of printables.

If you have an eye for design and can be quick to act on trends, this can be a great side hustle without needing to leave your home.

Similarly, Emily McDermott built a cool remote side hustle selling spreadsheets on Etsy. She specializes in budgeting templates, and has sold over $250,000 worth of them!

19. Microtasking/Micro Jobs

Microtasking is getting paid to perform brief online tasks from home. Some examples are data entry, creating product descriptions, research, surveys, and copy editing.

You decide which tasks you want to tackle and when. These don’t pay particularly well, but the results can add up if you don’t have anything better to do.

In fact, one reader reported earning over $50,000 on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

Here are some other microtasking sites:

ClixSense – Get paid to do simple online tasks.
Clickworker – Earnings vary based on the task.
Appen – Help companies train, test, and tune their machine learning and artificial intelligence programs. 

20. Online Arbitrage

With online arbitrage, you buy inventory from one website to resell on another (usually Amazon). It’s amazing to me that this is a thing, but it very much is.

When I sat down with Chris Grant, he described selling $75,000 worth of products in a typical month! 

Online arbitrage is a beginner-friendly work-from-home side hustle because you can start with any level of inventory investment you’re comfortable with, and scale up as you learn more and see results.

21. Search Engine Evaluator

Search engines may seem magical in that they know all the answers to our questions, but there’s a reason they’ve gotten so good.

Yes, programming obviously has a lot to do with it, but they also have real people evaluating the searches that are being brought back to make sure they are relevant.

There are a number of different companies that hire search engine evaluators. Most have a bit of a hiring process so this isn’t something you can start doing immediately. It can be a great job to work from home without a car though if you can get hired.

Expect to earn $12-16 an hour.

22. Data Entry

Data entry work isn’t the most exciting gig in the world, but it’s not overly complicated. If you have an attention to detail and can follow directions, this can be an easy way to earn $10-20 an hour.

Check out Indeed.com for up-to-date openings, where you can filter by part-time, full-time, and even remote opportunities to find a gig that can be done at home.

23. Drop Shipping

With drop shipping, you can sell physical products online without having to buy any inventory upfront. Instead, you work out deals with the manufacturers or distributors to ship the items directly to customers on your behalf.

On a popular episode of The Side Hustle Show, Ben Knegendorf shared his method of “high ticket dropshipping” that allowed him to quit his job as a forklift driver.

This is a great side hustle in which you don’t need to leave your house!

24. Voice Over Acting

I think we can all agree that getting paid to talk is a pretty sweet gig, and Voices.com is the #1 marketplace for voice over talent.

Otherwise, ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange, is an interesting platform to connect authors with professional narrators to — like the name suggests — create an audiobook version of their book.

25. Sell Your Data

Nielsen pays you for sharing Internet usage behaviors. Just download the app to all of your registered devices and earn up to $60 per year.

The app isn’t intrusive and won’t slow down your devices.

Similarly, MobileXpression is a market research panel that pays you for data from your mobile phone.

After you download the app, it works in the background recording your browsing habits. You’ll earn weekly credits redeemable for gift cards to popular retailers.

Realistically, this is an un-intrusive background app that will probably earn you around $20 a year in passive income. And you’ll earn a free $5 gift card after your first week.

26. Mock Juror

Companies like Online Verdict pay $20-60 per hour to review case information and say how you’d rule. That sure beats real jury duty, but gigs are most likely one-off assignments rather than a consistent weekly schedule.

You must be over 18, be a US citizen, and have a felony-free past.

27. Review Products on Amazon

One of the newest ways to make money on Amazon is as an Amazon Influencer. This is an offshoot of the Associates program designed for content creators with a following on social media.

Once your Influencer account is approved, you’ll be able to upload short product review videos.

In turn, Amazon displays those on the relevant product pages, and rewards you a commission when someone makes a purchase after watching your video.

I made over $1000 doing this in under a year, with very little effort!

Making Money without a Car: Your Turn

The good news is there are lots of ways to make money without car. 

The best thing you can do is to take action. Pick an idea or two from this list and get started today!

One of my latest side hustle experiments is as a User Interviews survey respondent.

(I’ve earned $105 so far, in exchange for about an hour and a half.)

What is User Interviews?

User Interviews is a consumer research company that helps match companies with questions to consumers with opinions. (That’s you!)

Often, these companies are launching a new product or testing a new website or app design, and want to get real feedback from prospective users. So far, they’ve helped over 4,500 companies gather that feedback, including household names like:

Adobe
Pinterest
Wayfair
Spotify
Amazon
and more

And since going to market with the wrong product or a confusing website can be a super expensive mistake, those companies are happy to spend some money upfront to help get it right.

Is User Interviews Legit?

Yes, User Interviews is a legitimate facilitator of consumer research projects. Last year, over 87,000 participants got paid and the site adds around 2,500 new studies every month.

Since 2016, the company has paid out over $25 million in incentives. The average study pays over $65.

In total, User Interviews participants have completed over 400,000 sessions across 80,000+ studies.

In late 2022, User Interviews raised an additional $27.5M in venture funding to continue their growth, bringing their total funding to over $43M.

How Does User Interviews Work?

Once you sign up for User Interviews, you’ll be able to see all available projects. For example, here’s what it looks like for me after I log in:

You can see:

how much each study pays
roughly how long it will take
what type of study it is
a brief description of what the researcher is looking for

From there, you can and click on individual studies to learn more (and apply).

You’ll be prompted to complete a brief screener survey for each study you’re interested in. Then, you’ll get a text/email if you’re selected with instructions on next steps.

After the study is complete, you get paid via PayPal, Amazon gift card, Visa gift card, or other digital gift card.

The average participant qualifies for their first study within 24 hours of joining!

Does User Interviews Pay in Cash?

A gift card? WTF? Show me the money!

The biggest beef most people had with User Interviews was the payout options. It used to be that nearly every study only paid via Amazon gift card. (That didn’t really bother me since I knew we’d be spending money at Amazon sooner rather than later.)

However, in response to participant feedback, they expanded their payout options to include PayPal, Visa gift cards, and gift cards for dozens of other stores. But these do vary study to study so just be sure to check you’re happy with the payout method before you apply.

Sign Up Process

Signing up for User Interviews is easy.

From there, you can sign up with one of these options:

An email address, phone number, and password
LinkedIn
Facebook

If you select the email option to create your User Interviews account, you’ll get a text message to verify your phone number.

Next, the system will guide you through a short series of forms about your Professional, Demographic, and Technical details.

Add Your Professional Details

For example, on the Professional page, you’ll fill in your:

Employment status
Job title (some studies are job role-specific)
Work email
Company
Company size
Industry

Add Your Demographic Details

User Interviews will also ask you for some basic demographic information, including your:

First and last name
Date of birth
City
Gender
Ethnicity
Household income
Level of education completed
Marital status
Living situation

Why do they need this information? Companies want to target specific populations for their research, or may need to collect feedback from a diverse audience.

Add Your Technical Details

Finally, you’ll fill in some information about your computer, tablet, and smartphone. Some studies will want to record your reaction when interacting with a new website or online tool, or you’ll have a video call with the interviewer.

For best results, fill in your profile as completely and honestly as possible.

If you signed up with an email address, you’ll be encouraged to connect your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles to qualify for more studies. This helps researchers verify your identity and professional credentials (if applicable).

Who is Eligible to Join User Interviews?

User Interviews is open to participants worldwide, who are at least 18 years old.

Still, as a US-based company, there’s definitely a US-based and English-speaking focus. Per a User Interviews support article:

At the moment, we recruit [participants] in the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and South Africa.

If you’re outside of those countries, you’re still welcome to join, but may not qualify for many studies. Might be time to consider another side hustle idea instead.

Filtering and Selecting Paid Studies on User Interviews

To sort through the paid research study listings on User Interviews, use the handy filters in the interface:

You can filter by interviews that are only online or over the phone. Or in-person studies, if you prefer.

The system also lets you filter by a few “popular professions” — mostly in the Tech field — such as IT, Data, Software, and Product Manager.

By default, the studies are sorted by the latest ones added to the platform. Do a little scrolling to see which ones you might qualify for, and apply to those.

Types of Studies on User Interviews

User Interviews specializes in remote market research. This means that most conversations take place over the phone or via webcam video chat.

(It will say in the description or in the screening questions if you need to have webcam capabilities.)

There seems to be more of a business-to-business focus on the site. By that, I mean I tend to see more studies related to specialized work software, skills, or experience than general consumer studies.

That said, there’s still a healthy variety of projects on User Interviews a non-techy person can qualify for.

The four main types of studies are:

1-on-1 Interviews
Focus Groups
Multi-Day Studies
Unmoderated Tasks

In this section, I’ll give a brief explanation of each.

1. 1-on-1 Interviews

Like the name suggests, this is a one-on-one video call or phone call with the researcher. They’ll ask you questions and you’ll answer, or they’ll give you instructions to follow while you share your screen with them.

(My video editing test below was a 1-on-1 interview, where we talked through my editing process and then tested the company’s new software.)

2. Focus Groups

Online focus groups tend to gather 3-8 people in a Zoom meeting (or other online meeting software) to get feedback about a company, product, or service. A moderator will lead the conversation and you can provide your opinion.

3. Multi-Day Studies

Depending on the niche, multi-day studies can pay really well, but I tend to avoid them because my schedule isn’t always conducive. I’d rather be in-and-out in one sitting, but that’s just me!

Most often, you’ll see these for product tests where the researcher wants to get your feedback on their product over a period of several days or weeks.

4. Unmoderated Tasks

In my experience, “Unmoderated Tasks” are the easiest to complete because you don’t need to coordinate schedules with the researchers.

Examples include:

filling out an online survey form
recording your feedback while interacting with a new website or software

Project Screening

As you browse through the available User Interviews studies, you’ll probably begin to answer a few “screener surveys.”

These shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes, and help the companies build a research sample of their target customers.

For example, you might be asked about the software you use, the size of your company, your current role there, or in the case of my “men’s fashion study” — how I cut my hair.

It all depends on the research project and who they’re trying to reach. Use these questions to get a sense of whether or not you’re the ideal person.

Don’t try and force-qualify yourself for stuff you have no business answering. Just be honest so you don’t waste your time or the researcher’s; there are always more studies coming soon.

If you’re in a time crunch, look for studies with the “Quick Apply” icon. These will use information from your profile to bypass some of the normal screening questions.

My Experience w/ User Interviews So Far

I’ve done 4 projects with User Interviews so far, for a total of $105:

The first was a men’s style study, and it was specifically for bald men. Check and mate!

It was a super short online survey, and took less than the 15 minutes suggested.

The next was an interesting phone call about the FIRE (Financial Independence / Retire Early) movement. Since I love talking about that stuff anyway, it was a fun way to make $30.

After that, I got paid $15 to share my opinion about online investment websites, and $50 to test and give feedback on an online video editing tool.

So that’s $105 (in Amazon credit) for a little over an hour and a half, or the equivalent of around $60 an hour. All from home.

I’ve done a handful of other screener surveys but haven’t been selected for more projects yet.

As you click into the screener surveys, you’ll get a better sense of who they’re looking to connect with. I’ve aborted some after a couple questions, realizing I wasn’t a great fit.

How Much Does User Interviews Pay?

Of the studies available on my homescreen right now, the average pay rate is $115 an hour.

(Some were as high as $200 an hour.)

But generally speaking, $1 a minute for this type of stuff is a pretty great hourly rate. It’s much better than you’d do on other online survey apps like Swagbucks or Survey Junkie.

As you might guess, the more specialized the participant the company is looking for, the more they’ll pay. The more general consumer-facing studies tend to pay a little less.

How to Maximize Your User Interviews Earnings

How can you get selected for more User Interviews studies? Patience and persistence are probably the best answers, but there are a few specific things you can do.

Check your Email

I recommend checking the online interface daily or weekly to see if there are new studies you qualify for, but User Interviews does also send emails out about new survey opportunities. Make sure you route those emails to your inbox.

Keep Your Profile Up-to-Date

Since many studies target employees in specific job roles, keep your profile up-to-date and include as many details as possible.

You can do that from the “Edit Profile” option in the drop down under your name:

For example, my User Interviews contact sent me this recommendation when it comes to job titles:

Include your seniority level and any supporting details for best matching:

GM ➡️ Restaurant General Manager
Teacher ➡️ 9th Grade Science Teacher
Freelancer ➡️ Freelance Graphic Designer
Consultant ➡️ Business Operations Consultant
Physician ➡️ Oncology Resident Physician
Accounting ➡️ Certified Public Accountant

For the sake of reference, I changed mine from the somewhat cheeky “Chief Side Hustler” to the hopefully more search engine-friendly “Content Marketer”.

I also connected my account to Facebook and LinkedIn to verify my identity.

Respond Quickly

General population studies fill up quickly. You’ll have your best chance of being selected if you’re among the first to apply.

Be Honest

Fill in your profile truthfully and answer the screener questions honestly.

With hundreds of new studies added every month, why risk losing all those future User Interviews opportunities to try and make a quick buck?

Share with Friends and Colleagues

One cool aspect of User Interviews is you can get paid even if you don’t qualify for a study.

How?

By referring someone who is qualified!

At press time, the site is offering a $30 incentive to help find participants for certain studies:

So definitely keep your immediate network in mind as you’re scrolling through. You might not be a great fit for the study, but you might know someone who is!

User Interviews Alternatives

If you don’t care for User Interviews or are having trouble being selected for projects, not to worry.

While User Interviews is one of the highest paying survey sites, there are other programs where you can make decent money as well.

Respondent

Respondent is the most similar service to User Interviews I’ve found. The company also specializes in one-on-one market research interviews, mostly done over the phone or online.

According to the site, the average payout is over $100 an hour. Check out our full Respondent review for more.

(I’ve earned $395 so far — $190 of which was for a focus group that involved playing with Legos!)

Rare Patient Voice

A leading source for medical research, Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers $120 an hour. Most of the studies are phone or webcam interviews, and you can browse a full list of available studies on their site.

If you suffer from any sort of medical condition (even if it’s not super rare), I think this one is worth a look.

FocusGroup.com

FocusGroup.com is run by Sago, a long-running research company. They offer nationwide phone or webcam research opportunities that pay between $75 and $200.

I earned $115 for a 45-minute online survey — check out my full FocusGroup.com review to learn more.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is a company the runs (mostly) in-person focus groups. I took part in one of their studies in San Francisco, and earned $150 for a 2-hour focus group, plus a $50 bonus prize for showing up early.

They have locations throughout the US.

Fieldwork focus groups normally last 1-2 hours, and pay starts at $75.

Check out my full guide to Online Focus Groups for more money earning opportunities.

Other Online Survey Options

Most of the consumer-facing survey options below won’t have hourly rates nearly as strong as the more industry-specific studies that User Interviews does, but they can still add up and you can knock them out in your spare time.

Here are some of Side Hustle Nation’s top picks:

Is User Interviews Worth It?

Is User Interviews worth your time? It’s certainly not passive income, but for the work involved, I’d say the pay rate is pretty strong. (Generally $50-200 an hour.)

For the remote research projects, there’s no commuting time or cost, which is an advantage over some other side hustles.

A few drawbacks to consider would be:

You’re not getting paid for time spent doing screener surveys. These are generally short (less than 5 minutes), but can add up and get frustrating if you don’t get selected.
There’s a limit to how much you can reasonably expect to make on User Interviews. Given the nature of this side hustle, it’s not going to replace your day job salary.
Most studies only pay out in via gift cards. Again, Amazon credit is almost as good as cash in our house, so that’s a non-issue for me.

Still, User Interviews is an interesting and viable way to make some extra money.

Finally, consider the opportunity cost. What else could you be doing with your time?

If you’re confident you could earn better than the $50-200/hour these projects pay doing something else, by all means, go do that instead!

Your Turn

Have you participated in a User Interviews study yet? What did you think?

Let me know in the comments below!

Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

Pin it for later: