20 Ways to Help Others and Make Money

If you’re looking for ways to help others and make money in the process, you’ve come to the right place.

This post should guide you with all the possible side gigs you can do while feeding your soul and satisfying your thirst to help other people.

Traditional Ways to Help Others and Make Money

The following traditional side gigs are feel-good money-makers that anyone can do during the weekends or downtime from work.

They rarely require having special skills, so as long as you have a passion for helping out, they’re very easy to do.

The cool thing about this is many apps now cater to these traditional gigs, making it easier for you to find clients when you’re available.

1. Officiate weddings

I bet you’ve seen rom-com movies that include a non-planned wedding that is officiated by the best man, maid of honor, or someone totally obvious.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to be that person in real life for someone else?

You do need to get ordained first (fees range from zero to $50) and learn/follow state laws.

Wedding officiants earn somewhere between $400 and $800 a wedding, so if you’ve got a niche down (maybe you’re a pro at making the groom cry, or give the funniest speeches), this could be a lucrative side gig for you.

2. Rent out your car

Renting out your car to strangers isn’t as sketchy as it sounds. Many companies like GetAround, HyreCar, Turo, and Avail have set safeguards in place to keep your vehicles safe.

Here are the pros and cons of each app that matches you with people interested in renting out your car.

3. House-sit for others

If you ever thought about getting paid to do nothing, this is the perfect side gig for you.

House-sitting doesn’t necessarily require you to do any heavy lifting. You just stay at another person’s house, watch Netflix if you wish, and wait for the homeowners to get back. Sounds simple? It is!

Here are 12 sites that connects you to people who may need house-sitting.

4. Rent out your bedroom or your whole house while you’re gone

The Airbnb era isn’t dead yet. Many people still prefer Airbnb to hotels not only because they’re cheaper but also because they’re homier and don’t put a ton of add-on fees.

Here’s a guide on how you can rent your room, garage, yard, or entire house to other people.

5. Drive the elderly to doctor appointments or grocery stores

There are many ways you can help the elderly.

You can use an app like Postmates (where you’ll be matched by customers who require help in picking up food, meds or other products in a physical store), or build your own concierge service for the elderly in your neighborhood.

6. Go on nanny or babysitting duties

Babysitting is the oldest way to help others and make money quickly.

Care.com, Urbansitter, SitterCity, and eNannySource are just a few resources where you can be paired with families looking for part-time nannies and babysitters.

7. Tutor kids or Teach Musical Instruments

Are you good at math? art? playing the piano?

If you have a specific skill and a love for teaching, go to your local community center and post a flyer offering your services.

These days, most communities have a Facebook group. If yours does, advertising your tutoring or music lessons could be a lot easier.

8. Pet-sitting, walking, and washing cats or dogs

If your love for cats and dogs knows no bounds, you can share this passion with others who might need assistance in taking care of their pets.

I’ve written a full-length guide on how to become a pro dog/cat walker or how to open a pet-sitting business, but if you want to go straight to the earning, check out apps like Rover, Wag!, PetBacker, Barkly Pets, Swifto, or PetSitter.com.

9. Offer neighbors to wash cars and do yardwork

If you’ve seen videos of video creators offering yardwork for free, you know that many people really need to mow their lawns, take care of shrubs and trim some trees in the yard, but have no time to do it themselves.

It might take a bit of effort networking and advertising your services door-to-door, but if you’re doing this on the down-low, it shouldn’t matter.

Your services, if done right, should be able to spread organically by word-of-mouth.

You can add car-washing services to your flyer while you’re at it.

10. Get temp jobs at nursing homes, orphanages, churches, and so on

If you’ve always wanted to have a career in social work, but cannot afford to leave your job, you can always get a weekender or temp job at nursing homes, orphanages, public hospitals, churches and other organizations that may need help.

Note that general volunteer work won’t earn you money. Instead, look for skill-specific jobs that you could do.

Maybe the local orphanage needs someone to create their website, or the nursing home requires a ukulele teacher to spread some joy to the elders living there.

Help Others and Make Money Online

You can still help people, even if you’re just working online.

These side gigs don’t actually earn you a full-time income, but you’ll gain instant karma and some cash if you participate in the following tasks:

11. Answer questions online

If you’re good at research, or love learning new things, you can answer questions online and earn cash.

Here’s how it works:

• Some stranger asks a question on one of these platforms
• You take time to understand the question and answer as accurately as you can
• You earn either cash or points with every answer

It’s perfect for those who don’t have flexible schedules and can only do these side gigs for an hour at a time.

12. Remind people to drink their medicine

Join Pleio’s patient engagement center and become one of the company’s home-based “Good Starters.” This job could literally mean life and death to patients since you’ll be making phone calls to the homes of patients and encouraging them to take their meds.

Pleio offers other home-based jobs – all of which are designed to “make a difference in someone else’s life.”

13. Giving social media presence to small businesses

Social media is the go-to contact for younger generations.

If they discover a new brand, they check their Instagram or Facebook. If they listened to new music, they check out YouTube for music videos or head over to Spotify.

Having a presence on social media platforms (and online in general) is essential to the survival of any modern business.

But not all small business owners know this. Here’s where you can come in and make a difference by teaching “the new” or creating effective online marketing campaigns on their behalf.

There are numerous social media jobs you can do from home – but you can start here.

14. Become a part-time life coach

You don’t need to be a therapist or psychiatrist to help others with their life problems.

If you’re good at listening and giving advice, here’s how you can begin a part-time life coaching service.

15. Teach English online to someone living across the world

Teaching English to people who can’t talk or write in English can actually change their lives for the better.

English as your first language isn’t the only requirement to do this job right. You need to have patience and a passion for teaching for this job to work. Here’s a list of companies offering ESL teaching jobs online.

16. Help Others and Make Money Online by Sharing Your Expertise on YouTube videos

• Are you a plumber by profession?
• Are you really good at fixing smartphones?
• Do you know how to solve all kinds of car problems?
• Do you consider yourself a bread-making pro?

If you answered YES (or have a totally different special set of skills), you can share your knowledge on YouTube and earn money.

This is a passive way to earn money, so you won’t be seeing even a cent in months (or years), but if you continue to produce helpful content, it’s a guarantee you’ll be earning YouTube money in no time.

17. Aid someone through financial literacy

This side gig can be exceptionally satisfying if you know that you could help other people get out of debt or learn how to save more efficiently.

Financial literacy should be a course every young adult should take, but the reality is that many people aren’t able to learn about handling finances.

Of course, you need to have some experience, so you’ll be able to pass on the right ways to handle money.

18. Become a helpline responder from home

Suicide can be prevented, and if you want to be involved, there are many ways to help even if you’re working from home.

To become a crisis hotline employee, you’ll need life-saving, suicide prevention skills.

Volunteer with Crisis Text Line, The Trevor Project, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, IMAlive, or the Veterans Crisis Line first to get first-hand experience.

The job isn’t for the faint of hear, so once you are 100% sure you can handle the task at hand, then find paying opportunities from the same companies above.

19. Invest Cash via Peer-to-Peer Lending

If you have extra cash and want to grow it instead, participate in peer-to-peer lending sites, where you can help people or businesses in need of financial assistance.

Lendingclub.com is a good example of how you can invest in loans and get a ROI of around 10% to 12%.

20. Become a Personal Trainer

Help people lose weight, gain muscles, be stronger, or gain back their confidence by becoming their personal trainer.

Yes, even the job of a personal trainer can be done online – just make sure you have the equipment and reliable internet before you get started.

What Other Ways Can You Help Others and Make Money?

There are unusual ways of helping others as well.

Have you heard of the work of a professional cuddler and how they’re paid to cuddle strangers? Or how about indirectly helping someone out by selling your hair, or selling other things your body generates for free such as plasma, eggs, and breastmilk?

You can even become part of a study and eventually help others solve a problem.

For example, many people who have joined sleep studies and got paid to sleep were instrumental in finding treatment for snoring or helping bed companies create comfortable mattresses for those suffering from insomnia or night terrors.