What used to be a simple communication device has now become the central tool in our modern lives. From shopping to dating, we rely on our smartphones. They have even become our right hand in handling professional duties. In fact, you can side hustle with just your phone.
Side hustle with just your phone
The good thing about smartphone side hustles is that they’re mostly convenient, requiring minimal experience and time commitment. Plus, you can do most of them from anywhere — your home, an office, while on vacation or even while walking the dog.
No need for a car, a background check, software or a college degree. If you have a good smartphone, you’re good to go. And, while a few don’t pay much, they don’t require much effort either.
Here are eight side hustles you can do with nothing but a phone, starting with the easiest and least lucrative.
Sell your mobile data
Selling your phone data is one of the easiest — but least lucrative — side jobs. Some apps, like Caden, let you decide what data to share. Once you get set up, you do nothing more, unless you want to review your “data vault.” And Caden pays you between $2 to $50 per month, depending on how much data you share.
Similarly, if you have an Android phone, OneMeasure Perks will pay you to the site’s app and leave it running in the background. The site measures cellphone signals, so looking at where you lose coverage. And for that info, it’s willing to pay about $5 a month.
Voice your opinion
Dozens of sites will pay for your opinions. However, most of them don’t pay much. Sites like Swagbucks, Survey Junkie, Qmee, and Pinecone Research all pay consumers to take short surveys on their cell phones.
Promised pay per survey is from 10 cents to 50 cents, so you’re not making anywhere close to minimum wage here. A reasonable expectation is that you could earn $3 to $6 per hour with the best of these sites. But, the surveys don’t require much attention. You can do them while watching television or waiting for a flight.
One survey site that may pay as much as minimum wage is Prolific, which works with colleges and universities to find people willing to answer polls for academic research. Prolific studies typically pay from $3 to $15 per hour. But you do need to read the questions carefully, so you may need to turn off the game.
Play games
Dozens of “get-paid-to-play” apps require nothing more than a smartphone to participate. But be careful. Some sites, such as Bingo Cash, CashGiraffe and Bubble Cash, have such high cash-out thresholds that you’re not likely to see a dime from playing.
And even the legitimate companies — Scrambly, Mistplay and Rewarded Play — are likely to pay $3 to $10 an hour, if you’re a decent cellphone gamer. Sure, that’s nothing to brag about. But, you’re playing games, not digging ditches.
Take photos
The camera on most modern smartphones is all you need to take photographs for a half-dozen stock photo companies that pay you a royalty every time they’re able to sell one of your photos to a client. Photos generally sell from 25 cents to $5 each. But if your photos prove popular, you can sell the same shot hundreds of times.
Some good stock photo sites to sign up for: iStock, Getty Images, Adobe Stock, Foap, Alamy, Shutterstock and Dreamstime.
Chat it up
Most English tutoring jobs require a computer and some a teaching certificate. Not so with Cambly. Here, you just need a cellphone.
The site enlists native English speakers to chat with people trying to learn the language, paying 17 cents to 20 cents per minute. That works out to an hourly rate of $10 to $12 per hour. But you might only end up chatting for 15 minutes. And you’ll be paid for whatever fraction of the hour you talk.
Most conversations are done via video chat on your phone. Because Cambly’s students come from every corner of the world, work hours are whenever you want them.
Record video reviews
A site called Product Tube pays individuals to film themselves buying or reviewing products — everything from breakfast cereals to beer.
Each gig pays $5 to $100, depending on what’s involved. But most require you to spend two or three minutes filming yourself on your phone. Some gigs want you to film while shopping in a particular store. Others can be filmed from anywhere and ask you to explain what you like or dislike about a specific product.
Influence others
Social media influencers can make great money with cellphone posts and videos if they have tens of thousands of engaged followers. But, even if your social media presence is pretty modest, there are platforms that can help you monetize your Instagram, TikTok and other social media s.
One such site is called Heartbeat. Heartbeat pays from $3 to $50 to influencers who have as few as 500 followers.
But, if you have thousands of followers, you can earn considerably more with Open Influence. Typically, influences use their phones to record photos and videos of product endorsements. Each deal is unique, involving different payments, requirements, prohibitions and product endorsements. But many pay more than $1,000 per post.
focus groups
Focus groups used to be done primarily in person. However, focus groups went virtual during the COVID-19 lockdowns. And, while some are being held in person again, many remain online. With most, you can side hustle with just your phone.
All you need is strong opinions about certain products and services. In return, you can expect to get $50 to 300 per gig, depending on the study.
Several sites recruit consumers for focus groups including FindFocusGroups, FocusGroup.com and FieldWork.
Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com, an independent website that reviews moneymaking opportunities in the gig economy.
