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Living in the 21st century has become arguably more expensive than ever before in time. So drastically has the cost of living increased that people are deciding to have fewer children, to a greater extent than what had previously been the case in the past couple of decades.

If you are a frequent visitor of this blog, Saving Money and Budgeting may be topics you may have already read about. For those who have already mastered this, you may already be looking into Paying Off Your Debt. These are all crucial elements that you need to bed down when you hope to achieve Financial Freedom within a time that is on any level remarkable.

Thankfully, the 21st century has not only brought us its woes, but also some pretty remarkable solutions to helping you make more money. Those who read this blog often will know that I am all for Saving, Budgeting, and Minimalism, but only to the end that it will allow you to focus your energy and finances on achieving Financial Freedom by creating multiple streams of income, more so, true Passive Income. (Read more about Defining TRUE Passive Income by clicking here).

Yes, Live Frugally, But Also Learn to Make More Money

When I don’t have enough money, my knee-jerk reaction without a doubt is to think of how I can Make More Money. Saving and creating a tighter budget, to be honest, are an afterthought. Nothing has been quite as liberating for my mind, and thus my finances.

It is now super easy for you to Make Yourself Extra Money. Online freelance jobs have become an easy side hustle for people looking to convert any skills or free time they may have into an additional source of income.

I have decided to compile a short list of companies that you can work with to start or add to your portfolio of side hustles. I have arranged them according to type, so if you have a preference, you can head on over to that section that you like most. I have also arranged them in alphabetical order for ease of browsing.

Freelance Job Types

While you need to be mindful that this is NOT an exhaustive list, here are a couple of categories. Have a look and see if any of these peaks your interests. If you do not find anything you like, have no fear, I talk about side hustles all the time and I am ALWAYS looking for new ones. Just keep visiting my blog and you will find what you are looking for.

Here are a few categories:

• Creative Design (Media) (5)
• Development & Technical (10)
• General (11)
• Micro Jobbing (2)
• Online Tutoring (3)
• Remote Jobs (11)
• Transcription & Translation (4)
• Voiceovers (6)
• Writing (9)

Creative Design (Media)

99Designs

Do you want to be a freelance designer, you should check out 99Designs. You get to showcase your work (logos, banners, website designs etc.) on the site. You can also compete in design contests hosted by 99Designs clients. Should your work be chosen by clients, you are then paid a pre-determined amount of money.

DesignCrowd

DesignCrowd is also a crowdsourcing marketplace for freelance designers that want to make money online. Work types on the site comprise designing logos, business cards, brochures, posters, flyers, illustrations, stationery, websites, and more. To make money you have to participate in a design contest. Should your design be selected, the prize money will be awarded to you. Certain clients may extend to you a base payment for just participating in the contest.

Envato Studio

Envato Studio is a freelance site concentrated on graphics, web design and programming. This website broadcasts particulars such as due dates and the number of revisions before-the-fact to see to an elevated standard. Once-off or short-term projects are both available on the site, in exchange for a fixed fee in return. It may also be useful to know that Envato Studio has merged with FreelanceSwitch.

Squadhelp

Squadhelp is another crowdsourcing marketplace where creative minds can freelance the coining of company names, taglines and slogans, business logos, viral marketing materials, and more creative-type work. Their process includes partaking in competitions broadcasted on their website. Associates and competitors contend among one another to complete the branding project. The client in question will then choose a winner. The winner will be conferred a prearranged amount. The website is open to everyone.

The Loop

The Loop is a community of creatives hosted by an Australian company. You can create a portfolio of your projects to apply to serve a diversity of Australian businesses. This website also has on offer a selection of locality-specific jobs, while its gigs section boasts an array of remote job prospects for writers, designers, photographers, digital marketers, and more generally creative work opportunities.

Development & Technical

99Designs

Do you want to be a freelance designer, you should check out 99Designs. You get to showcase your work (logos, banners, website designs etc.) on the site. You can also compete in design contests hosted by 99Designs clients. Should your work is chosen by clients, you are then paid a pre-determined amount of money.

Envato Studio

Envato Studio is a freelance site concentrated on graphics, web design and programming. This website broadcasts particulars such as due dates and the number of revisions before-the-fact to see to an elevated standard. Once-off or short-term projects are both available on the site, in exchange for a fixed fee in return. It may also be useful to know that Envato Studio has merged with FreelanceSwitch.

Freelancermap

Freelancermap boasts an abundance of remote IT freelance work. If you have the necessary skills, you should look for gigs on their project board. Their clients, various companies in different countries globally, advertise projects on their website.

Krop

Krop is a freelancing site for artsy and technical people. Their site offers freelance, contract, part-time and full-time opportunities. They allow you to upload web links to broadcast your abilities.

PowerToFly

PowerToFly concentrates on linking females in tech to freelance gigs. Their intake process is rigorous and could take up to a month. They have international coverage.

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine freelance contract panel is a fantastic tool for web/product designers and developers to source freelance works.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow started out as a community of programmers. This created an opportunity to create a freelance job panel. Display your competency by engaging with their community via their Q&A interface.

Toptal

Toptal is for designers and software developers. This site sources extremely capable developers for top technology companies. You may join the Toptal Community to get notified of upcoming events in the industry.

WordPress Jobs

WordPress Jobs is the official WordPress job panel where you can land WordPress associated jobs such as plugin development, theme customization, WordPress-site optimization and much more.

WPHired

WPHired concentrates on making available freelance jobs for WordPress developers. You can land once-off, internship, contractual or full-time appointments in design, plugin and theme development, copywriting, SEO etc.

General Freelance Work

FlexJobs

FlexJobs screens and flags scams, so you are guaranteed of legitimate freelance opportunities. FlexJobs gathers thousands of authenticated job listings. These may be freelance, home-based, flexible, part-time positions.  They charge a membership fee of $14.95 per month, $29.95 for 3 months and $49.95 annually.

Freelancer

Freelancer is a massive freelancing site typically offering millions of projects at a go. You would typically contest against other freelancers to demonstrate your abilities. Upon winning you would secure a job.

Guru

Guru has a daily job-linking feature helping you to discover the latest opportunities available for your freelancing profile. In many ways, Guru is similar to Upwork. You can create a profile and outline your portfolio to give clients an idea of your capabilities.

Hubstaff Talent

Hubstaff Talent can link you directly to companies that are looking for freelancers. As soon as you have registered, companies can find you on the website. Hubstaff supplies both freelance and full-time opportunities.

OzLance

OzLance focusses mainly on servicing clients that live in Australia and New Zealand. They do not have a particularly preferred niche, so this one is for everyone really. Signing up is free of charge, however, accredited members will get more exposure. You can get accredited through their site at a fee.

People Per Hour

People Per Hour allows you to bid for various projects once you have registered and been verified. Popular industries on the site include writing, design, marketing, SEO, legal, accounting, developing and programming.

Project4Hire

Project4Hire is a general freelancing platform and does not seem to favor one niche over another per se, thus I would call them generalists. This site requires you to pay an Acceptance Fee each time you get awarded a project. This amount will be refunded to you should you not be hired or if something should change, this you can think of it as their commission deducted upfront.

ServiceScape

ServiceScape is quite new on the freelance scene. I am hesitant to place them in a niche, as I appreciate that they may change as they begin to establish themselves in the market. If you are a writer, editor, translator, or graphic designer, you may want to check them out.

Skillbridge

Skillbridge is definitely the site to find higher-end freelancers, often experts in their trade. You can choose to work on-site or remotely. If you consider yourself to be highly skilled, this would be one of the best platforms.

Upwork

Boasting a client base that is 1.5 million strong, Upwork is by far the biggest freelancing site. They also like to acquire their competitors, most notably Elance.com, formerly one of their largest competitors. Upwork is suitable for every type of freelancer. The work available on Upwork is quite competitive, so your best way in may be to price yourself low at the beginning to make it easier for you to get initial projects. They are generalists, so everyone is welcome. Their projects also range from hourly all the way through to long term projects, and everything between.

Micro Jobbing

Damongo

Damongo is great because it has a global reach. You needn’t worry about which part of the world you are from, or where the client is from.

Fiverr

Fiverr, much unlike other sites, puts the freelancer in control. You can basically showcase to potential clients what it is that you are willing and able to do, and how much you are looking to get paid for it. I won’t list niches because there is literally no limit to the possibilities.

Online Tutoring

Chegg Tutors

You would be required to have a computer and a Broadband connection to qualify for this tutoring opportunity. You would have to be available for 4 hours on a daily basis. You can charge an hourly rate of $20 if you have a post-graduate degree. Chegg Tutors previously operated as InstaEdu.

Tutor.com

Tutor.com allows you to apply to tutor various subjects and be assessed for each subject. The spectrum of what you can tutor is very wide, even outside of the scope of conventional academia. The intake process is rigorous and can take up to three weeks, so be patient.

Tutor Vista

Tutor Vista affords freelance tutors to offer their services through their platform. You can register and attach your resume to apply.

Remote Jobs

Freelancermap

Freelancermap has a global presence and can expose you to thousands of remote IT projects. You can search the project board to find jobs from companies all over the world that may require your expertise.

Inbound.org Jobs

Inbound.org is predominantly a forum. On this forum, marketers converse over the hottest developments in digital marketing. You can peruse their job board for remote jobs in marketing, social media, more technical jobs and other kinds of jobs. Some of the jobs are location-based, while remote jobs allow you to work from anywhere.

Jobscribe

Jobscribe is a good way to get remote jobs at new tech firms by way of a newsletter. If you sign up you will receive a daily email with jobs in marketing, design, and development.

Remote.co

Remote.co has a job board and is ideal for those looking for remote work opportunities in admin, marketing, design, tech and more. This one is not biased towards freelancers as most positions on the site are full time.  Moreover, a good number of jobs on the site are limited to U.S. citizens.

Remote OK

Remote OK is a job board that is great for finding remote jobs with a bias towards technical jobs, such as design, mobile development, web development, and information security.

Remotive

Remotive is a site that you need to check out if you want to work without having to show up anywhere, or work from a particular place.

Skip The Drive

Skip The Drive is all about minimizing wastage during your commute to and from jobs that you may be able to fulfill. It even has a built-in calculator that can give you an estimate of how much you have saved by not having to get to any job in order to fulfill it.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow started out as a community of programmers. This created an opportunity to create a freelance job panel. Display your competency by engaging with their community via their Q&A interface.

Virtual Vocations

Virtual Vocations was created by a stay-at-home mom. The site is run by a team that is entirely remote. Once registered and accepted, you can upload your portfolio and receive a distinctive URL. This you will use to direct clients to your work. This site covers various industries.

We Work Remotely

We Work Remotely is a job board specializing in remote jobs in customer service, copywriting, design, programming and even more.

Wifi Tribe

You can join the Tribe in 25 destinations across 5 continents. But, you choose where you go, how long you’ll travel, and when to jump in or out. You can plan a year in advance, but you can’t predict the future… weddings, business trips, big family events, visiting a friend… This lifestyle is all about freedom. Let’s keep it that way.

Working Nomads

Working Nomads creates a list of remote jobs and sends them to its members via email. Most members are digital nomads who travel as they work. Job classes on the site include customer service & management, design, development, systems administration. This site is a hit among full-time travelers. The site was previously known as goRemotely.com

Transcription & Translation

CrowdSurf

CrowdSurf is a job site allied with Amazon MTurk (Mechanical Turk) which affords MTurk members additional HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks). You need to have an Amazon MTurk account to sign up. The site is programmed to link you with jobs that it has determined you will enjoy more. You are allowed to work at a time of your choosing so long as you complete at least 20 HITs with a minimum score of 3.5 per week.

Rev

Rev allows for you to complete jobs if you like to caption, translate and transcribe, all from wherever you prefer to do any of these tasks. The intake process is rigorous but Rev works with people from anywhere in the world.

TranscribeMe

TranscribeMe offers you freelance transcription job opportunities if you speak and write English well. You do not necessarily need previous transcription experience to join the site. You do not need to have prior experience, but you do need to type relatively fast. 

Quicktate

Quicktate allows you to transcribe conference calls, phone call recordings, letters, legal files, medical files, among other audio files, working on a schedule of your own preference. Unfortunately, Quicktate is only for experienced and professional transcriptionists.

Voiceovers

Bodalgo

Bodalgo is a site that offers freelance opportunities to translator and voice talent. Their clients are mainly studios and producers. This site’s major advantage is its global reach, from South African specific Afrikaans, to Jamaican specific English.

Bunny Inc

Bunny Inc is a site that allows its clients to get ready-to-use voiceovers, written content, translations, and dubbing. They aim to match the best-suited professionals from their talent pool to their client’s projects and screen the work carefully before delivery

Fiverr

Fiverr, much unlike other sites, puts the freelancer in control. You can basically showcase to potential clients what it is that you are willing and able to do, and how much you are looking to get paid for it.

The Voice Realm

The Voice Realm is also an option to look into if you want to become a voice-over artist. Their target market is advertisers and producers. You need a microphone and editing software to register. You will also have to upload a demo.

Voice 123

Voice 123 is a site that links companies with voice talent. They pride themselves on not being agents and thus connecting their clients directly with talents. They make their money through the annual subscriptions that their users pay to use their platform.

Voices.com

Voices.com is a specialist site for voice actors. Full-time and freelance gigs are available. This site uses technology to link you to jobs that clients are looking to source voice acting talent for.

Writing

CloudPeeps

CloudPeeps is a platform that allows freelancers and clients to work together on a range of marketing ventures, encompassing projects like content, copywriting, SEO, strategy, and whatever would be related to digital marketing. CloudPeeps is for more experienced marketers.

Freelance Writing Gigs

Freelance Writing Gigs is the perfect site for anybody who loves to write. It has a global reach, offering freelance opportunities for you if you can write, edit, blog, or publish.

GetASlogan

GetASlogan allows you to try to meet the requirements of client requests and coming up with slogans for their business, advertisements or campaigns. You get to submit your ideas and they choose the best, and this would be how and when you get paid.

Naming Force

Naming Force pays you to up to $500 for helping companies come up with creative names. This is achieved by way of contests run by the respective companies. Unfortunately, Naming Force only works with US-based individuals at the moment.

MediaBistro

MediaBistro is an online job board that connects writers, editors, and journalists with acclaimed magazines and publications. You could join the site free or choose the Paid AvantGuild membership at $45/year.  The paid membership would afford you supplementary benefits such as advice on how to pitch national magazines. Unfortunately, most of the work is for U.S. based individuals only.

Problogger Jobs

Problogger Jobs is an online job board that connects freelance bloggers with work for various clients. This site seeks to service, for the most part, bloggers, thus most of the freelance jobs are blogging related, but you could find posts for other kinds of writing on this site.

Squadhelp

Squadhelp is another crowdsourcing marketplace where creative minds can freelance the coining of company names, taglines and slogans, business logos, viral marketing materials, and more creative-type work. Their process includes partaking in competitions broadcasted on their website. Associates and competitors contend among one another to complete the branding project. The client in question will then choose a winner. The winner will be conferred a prearranged amount. The website is open to everyone.

SloganSlingers

SloganSlingers is a site where you can earn up to $999 submitting slogans or taglines via slogan competitions created by clients. This site does not have any minimum requirements per se, so you are welcome to join. 

Text Broker

Text Broker can make available to you various freelance writing opportunities. It is great in that it pays you according to the quality of your work, which places you in a ranking, and thus a paygrade. This is not fixed though, so you can work your way up the ranks. Unfortunately, membership is currently only restricted to persons living in the US.

My Final Thoughts

While all of these websites offer you the opportunity to make extra money, you need to remember that each of these websites are businesses themselves, more specifically, brokers. Their first obligation is to their clients, the companies on whose behalf they are sourcing freelance work. Thus this is who they will focus on creating better value for.

This may be at the expense of you, a contractor. The more contractors they have, the more this becomes the case, because if you won’t be willing to do it, somebody perhaps a little more desperate than you will.

Increasing your streams of income is a fantastic idea and a much better way to take control of your finances than merely Saving Money and Budgeting, then hoping for the best. It puts you in a position where your desire to be in a better financial position does not disempower you, but instead empowers you. Freelancing, however, creates a unique problem. You still have to:

• depend on being accepted by each of these companies,
• wait for work to be available, and
• be paid a rate that will be determined by the competitiveness that the broker wants to offer the client which may not be commensurate with the time you spend, your level of skill and your standard of delivery

My Favorite Way to Make Money Online

It’s not all doom and gloom though. There is a better way to make money online. This way has several critical advantages in contrast to side these hustles:

• It puts the power in your hands
• There is no limit to the amount of money you can make
• Meritocracy; If you work hard you can get paid accordingly
• If you are good at what you do you can get paid very well
• You work online
• It does not take a lot of money to start
• You literally turn your passion into your career

Starting a Blog hosted by Bluehost has been the best decision I have made this far with regards to my career and finances. I have never been happier in my vocation.

Find out more by reading, Why I Became a Blogger, and also, How to Start Your Blog Today.

Don’t know much about how blogs make money? Read How to Make Money Blogging and chart your own path to making money with your blog.

I do both, running my blog and freelancing, through a good number of these sites, although you can probably tell by now that my primary focus is my blog.

If freelancing is more your thing, keep doing it, but just take control of your finances by empowering yourself to make more money, even if it’s only through these side hustles. This state of mind is the single most important facet you need to develop to win with your finances.

All of the best!

Let me know you think in the comments