Do you like to pick up a little extra money on the side by freelancing? Then you might think about heading for one of the Top 10 markets for freelancers and the self-employed in the United States.
Read more: Clark’s work-from-home guide
Top 10 cities for freelancers
NerdWallet took a look at metro areas across the country and ranked them on affordability for those who work for themselves. Their metrics included the cost of rent, health insurance and a cell phone plan. They also noted how good cell coverage was in those areas and what the freelancing environment was like.
Here are the Top 10 cities:
- Austin, Texas
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Dallas
- Atlanta
- Louisville, Ky.
- San Francisco
- Mesa, Ariz.
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Sacramento, Calif.
- Long Beach, Calif.
If you have skills of a certain nature, you can try picking up some consulting work or freelancing on a per-job basis! Check out these options.
15 apps that help you earn extra cash
- Amazon Flex: The latest entry to this market space, Flex launched in Amazon’s home market of Seattle and has since expanded to two dozen other markets. You can earn up to $25/hour delivering packages to Prime customers in under one hour. You cover gas, maintenance and any other car expenses.
- Mechanical Turk: Another Amazon service, Mechanical Turk lets you do ‘human intelligence tasks’ online for a variety of pay points. One man earned $20,000 doing these small jobs from home while he still had a full-time job!
- TaskRabbit.com: Cleaning, shopping and delivery, handyman, moving help, general help and summer tasks are a few of the categories that you can hire yourself out in.
- CheckPoints.com: App that offers manufacturer deals while you’re in the store. You earn points for simply scanning the barcode on an item in a store. No purchase of the product is necessary. You can redeem the points you collect for free gift cards, airline miles and other perks.
- EasyShiftApp.com: Become an on-demand secret shopper. You’re assigned ‘shifts’ by product manufacturers who want people on the ground to go into stores and confirm that their merchandise is being displayed properly. The pay rate for a shift is between $3 and $8 and the money is remitted to you via PayPal.
- Foap: Make money by taking photos. Plus, you can charge as much as you want per photo.
- Field Agent: Find local jobs in your area and complete them within two hours for cash.
- Fiverr.com – Are you an expert at reviewing resumes? Designing websites? Improving PowerPoint presentations? Developing marketing materials? If you can do any of these things or more, there’s a market for your talents on Fiverr.
- eLance.com – Offer your freelance services to others in a variety of fields.
- Mobee: Make money by reviewing things from inside stores.
- Bookscouter: Sell your old books for cash.
- Poshmark: Sell your old (or new) clothes for cash.
- Gadget Salvation: You can sell your old electronics through the app and the shipping is free.
- Perk TV: Get paid to watch TV.
- Pact: This app will pay you for sticking to your fitness goals.
Read more: 8 work perks that can turn a bad job into a good one
