Ask HN: Ways to generate income when you're at home without pay?
One of my friends was working in call center. Now due to stay at home orders, he's been asked to stay home without any pay.
Please suggest some ways to generate income.
Please suggest some ways to generate income.
295 comments
[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 268 ms ] threadI feel that it's maybe morally questionable to donate during the lockdown, but, my city has allowed bars and gyms to reopen. So that sentiment is probably no longer true at this point. I do live in a relatively sparsely populated area though. People in major cities might consider waiting a few more weeks or months.
The US blood supply system is well regulated and has survived lots of other health risks. The behavior+history+medical questionnaire and health screening go a long way towards mitigating blood-borne contamination (and risks to the donors and donation staff). Then they test a percentage of blood donation specimens before they are distributed to recipients. They demand that you contact the donation organization if you turn up sick after the donation (I ended up donating with a food-sickness late last year and had my donation unit destroyed after I notified the hospital)
I personally donate frequently. Only about 10% of eligible people donate. I feel it's "maybe morally questionable" to not donate (so long as you feel healthy and honestly follow the donation guidelines) if you can but never do.
If by "morally questionable" you were weighing the desperation of unemployment + the payment for donation, I could maybe agree with that a little bit.
There hasn't been much about covid-19 spreading by blood, and I assume places buying plasma use masks and distancing, so it's likely pretty low-risk on both ends.
If we do find that covid-19 can spread through blood, the likelihood the donor has an active case is low. Most people who need plasma products don't need them for fun, so even if there's a risk, the benefits probably outweigh it in those cases.
Particularly like his honesty, exposing his vulnerabilities in a way we can only laugh, and reflect on it ourselves.
Whether you're an artist, an entrepreneur or aspire to improve yourself, you certainly can relate to his work and self-reflections.
It's basically the definition of not great money but it's not very difficult, not physically straining, and you don't have to interview or whatever for it.
Grocery stores in my area are also hiring constantly right now. I assume the demand will flatten eventually but for now they're just taking people on with zero fanfare. Again, not good money, the work is physically harder, and you'll have to take shifts but it's a job you can get in a few days.
eh ... I've never been a driver, but I kinda doubt this right now. A Chicago driver just ran over this women:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2020/5/16/21261241/ms-ts-...
We don't know the full story as the video starts with her blocking his car. He shouldn't have run her over obviously. There's no excuse for that. But if he's operating on very small margins, he may have been frustrated they were moving slowly. He allegedly kicked their door, they wouldn't let him in, and then he was just going to dive off. They then blocked his car waiting for the police. The guy turned himself in, so if we give him the benefit of the doubt, it might have been stress rage. He's probably going to serve several months for assault.
People are on edge right now. A lot of companies are profiting and also screwing everyone over they can. You can be a delivery driver, but be aware it might be a very short term gain, and may not cover the cost of maintenance/operation of your vehicle in the long term.
This whole thing has made humanity more scared and dumb than anything. People are worried about their jobs, paying bills, etc. I don't think what this drive did was right, but there is a whole context being lost as to what led to this point.
Most of them do it only part-time and see it as a work-out gamification. Looks like during the pandemic many restaurants also closed delivery options and the orders dropped according to some YouTubers in the UK.
The most important aspect: It does not scale. It's very hard to earn a living outside of the "surge pricing" rush hours.
In some regions "surge pricing" is not available or delivery platforms require full time with a fixed but low salary (e.g. in Germany).
Here's a list of YouTubers doing bike deliveries:
- Chicago, IL (US) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4hE0AhisGkRscjxSMudn-Q/vid...
- London (UK) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCruD32HAzsb9UN4KpOcSxZg/vid...
- Los Angeles, CA (US) https://www.youtube.com/user/impulsivewilliam/videos
- Bristol (UK) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZOtaF2WKa0wNysH4ZRH8-w/vid...
If one does plan to deliver (bulky) non time-critical items, payment drops significantly (almost no tips, fixed fee for each parcel).
As I wrote earlier, payment is not linear. It depends on the region, day and time. One can make a lot of money in 1-2 hours on some evening, but also sit idle for another 8 hrs in a parked car waiting for another order. (to my knowledge, one has to be booked into the uber eats app all the time and broadcasting the current location. So one is encouraged to still hunt/stay next to interesting restaurants, usually big chain stores like Mc Donalds, Starbucks. IMHO it's not a plausible add-on business for regular Uber/taxi drivers or other gig economy jobs like harvesting electric scooters)
Let's say one can make 40$ in 1 hour but 50$ in 9 hours.
The one profitable hour is probably within the evening rush hour, lot of traffic, down-town, short distances. 0 parking lots.
The other 8 hours are past midnight, in the morning or between noon and evening. Longer distances (=>less drivers, less orders => bigger coverage => no surge pricing).
Overhead costs stay the same.
Though it seems daunting to go work on your brakes, I think it’s actually one of the easiest and highest RoI jobs you can do on your car. Saving $1000 (tax-free) is like working an extra 2 weeks in half an afternoon. Then, consider if you could be doing the same for your friends for $500 (you buy the parts), so you win and they win.
(This could be a direct option for your call center friend of course.)
Offer not valid during COVID but I’ve offered people to come to my driveway and they change their brakes while I watch and guide as needed. It’s puzzling but I’ve seen only about 1/4 of people keep doing it after I show them how, how easy, and how fast it is.
I'm assuming we all understand that "stay at home" really means "don't go to your regular job, but essential services such as food delivery and grocery store assistant are allowed".
But quite a lot of people are being told to stay at home for real, or advised to, on grounds of health risk or risk to someone else in their household. That excludes all of those out-of-home jobs.
What can people in the latter group do for emergency money?
I wonder what fraction of potential English learners can afford $20+ per hour... (Right now that won't beat the unemployment payout here in the States, BTW.)
No, the bottom bound is $0. Actually, worse than that, as a lot of these programs are scammy "buy my guide to making money" bullshit that'll leave you in the red.
and plugging a friend: https://www.flipmine.com/ scrapes arbitrage opportunities b/w ebay and amazon.
Second, there's a limit on how much you can list / sell as a beginner. So don't count on being able to liquidate collections or extra stuff in a flash.
And third, Ebay is incredibly biased towards buyers - so if you're looking to sell something very expensive, try local first - where you can get cash in hand. I've lost thousands of dollars on Ebay as a seller, even though I've followed every step to secure myself.
But other than that - it's a very hard place to beat if you're looking to sell something. I'm selling on a TON of channels, but it's really hard to beat Ebay for actually getting stuff sold.
If you sell something expensive, ebay will usually give you a "5 listings with halved or waived final value fees" a few weeks later. Strategize accordingly.
The tricky part is finding those listings in the first place because they will often be at the bottom of many searches due to poor relevance. Searching by "ending soonest" on eBay can bring up many hidden treasures.
You then need to have a good idea of the market rate of what you are selling and factor in a healthy margin: postage costs and handling time can add up quickly.
But I’m sure eBay’s search has gotten better at delivering misspelled listing in results over the past decade so perhaps it’s not as useful as I remember it being.
I buy in to the idea of what they're selling - used goods arbitrage - they're just selling another form of a "get rich scheme". Follow the money.
If this niche were so great then the proprietors would keep this software platform to themselves to identify the opportunities and perform the work. Instead, they "offer" you the opportunity while they take in a $39 monthly fee for their service.
That's my take on almost the entire industry of "make money doing X, just use my service or take my course!" Bro, the real money is conning these suckers.
A fool and his money will soon part ways.
There is a much greater efficiency in operating a SaaS over a full-fledged business, since the SaaS has almost 0 marginal costs, so every additional $39/mo requires nearly no work.
In contrast, generating $39 in profits through arbitrage requires at least some work and has risk. If you buy a product and sell it to a person who gets a refund, then you lost money.
Instead of asking other people, all of whom have found their own specialized niche that will never be applicable to anyone else, step away from the computer and look around.
Just in the past week I have heard from so many friends that are looking for good people. They never post stuff on job sites - it's way more trouble than its worth. They ask around.
Get outside and talk to people in your community. Call friends, call relatives. Volunteer your time. There's an abundance of opportunity right now in this churn - make it happen!
Not sure if that's the best advice given the present situation...
It’s also not helpful to say “there’s an abundance of opportunity” without any examples.
It is a really bad suggestion for this thread, futures trading is hard and emotionally taxing and most people lose money.
I see thanks for the info
Crazy. ...but that opportunity is probably overish.
Also, "day" trading is usually bad - buying the dip and selling the excitement on a week/month basis takes much less time and is much safer.
The worst thing you can do is keep your money in cash. When inflation kicks in, the companies will raise their product prices, and their stocks will inflate accordingly. Meanwhile the purchasing power of your savings will dwindle.
This is also why real estate is going up despite the pandemic.
How many trades a day were you actually making?
People are still repeating this meme?
But seriously while Uber and other companies are laying off thousands it's probably one of the worst times to try to enter the market as a new SWE.
$20 seems to be above-market everywhere for one kid, and everywhere except SF and NY for two kids. But it wouldn't surprise me if there's finer-grained variation - sitters probably cost more in the richer parts of a metro area than in the poorer parts of the same metro area.
I pay the people who house sit and watch my pets, I still consider it a favor in addition to paying them.
With so many kids homeschooled, tutoring the last couple of months was probably a gold mine. Many parents run into a hard wall with respect to math and science and can no longer help their kids.
Licensing might be an issue, as some people have mentioned. More importantly, though, I wouldn't trust my kid to someone who doesn't have experience with kids. So this may or may not be an option for your friend.
It’s working out really well for everyone involved. We may just keep her on even when daycare opens back up.
I trade S&P500 futures sometimes. It's fun when the markets go slowly up all the time or if there is a sharp drop. In all other times you'll probably lose a lot of money.
https://the-hoth.breezy.hr/p/0d5643348f96
2. Get a remote call centre job.
3. The DoorDashes and Uber Eats of the world are doing tremendous business right now, as is Amazon (and they have the Flex delivery service). Instacart was also hiring some 300,000 people.
4. If your friend is the creative or innovative type, there are a ton of competitions being hosted by various companies. You enter enough and the income can be somewhat reliable. This is my own personal niche.
5. Freelance writing. Even with the downturn, there seems to be a decent number of businesses with blogs wanting guest articles.
Check out Mindsumo.com, Eyeka.com and herox.com
If I needed cash in a hurry I'd probably do Instacart. I've browsed their subreddit - some shoppers are making $250-300 a day delivering groceries right now. If you can successfully cherry-pick those big Costco orders you'll typically get a $25-50 tip, in addition to delivery fees.
During this pandemic our household is ordering about $300-400 of Costco a week, since we're cooking everything at home, and tipping an Instacart delivery person $40-50 seems like a good tradeoff to avoid having to risk getting Covid-19 in a store.
Of course, the reason this is so high right now is that it is essentially hazard pay. You're putting yourself at risk of getting sick so others don't have to. Provided you are not high risk (<50 years old, no pre-existing health conditions) this might be an acceptable risk.
Position yourself for the post-pandemic economy. ie. tech.
Your background would help you get into the field.
It's basically like a bit more exciting and better paying version of Mechanical Turk.
Other than that...help out HS and College kids with homework? I'm on a lot of homework help forums, as I like teaching math, and there's been an explosion in demand for skype teachers etc.