Side Hustles in Singapore_ Here’s How To Earn as Much as $2,000 While Staying at Home

Side Hustles in Singapore: Here’s How To Earn as Much as $2,000 a Month

●

01 Aug 2022

For most people, telecommuting remains a norm as we continue our lives with our work-from-home arrangements.

The current economy with high inflation has shown us how having just one income source is no longer safe.

Ask any personal finance guru how to be financially independent, and there is a good chance two words will follow: Side Hustle.

Personally, side hustles sound a little intimidating to me.

It seems like it’s something that will suck the rest of your resting hours away when you’re already half-dead from your day job.

But what if there are some that take just 30 minutes of your time?

(Well, this is on top of the money you can earn from free mobile apps.)

TL;DR: Side Hustles in Singapore You Can Do While Staying At Home

Site	Job description	Remuneration (SGD)
UserTesting	Testing of Websites and Apps	$13.80 for each test, which lasts 15-20min
Gengo	Providing online translation services	S$28.98 to S$57.95 per assignment
Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStockPhoto, Getty Images	Selling photos to stock image websites	$0.14 to $8.01 per photo
Snapask	Ad-hoc online tutoring sessions	$1 per question answered
Cuisine At Home, EatingWell, Cooking for Engineers	Selling cooking recipes online	$69.01 to $350 per article
Quest - Hire a Hero	Adhoc errands	$3 to $360 per quest

1) Testing of Websites and Apps

User experience is gaining traction in recent years, where organisations are working towards becoming more customer-centric.

UserTesting is a website that lets you earn money by testing websites, prototypes and apps, and you don’t have to be a United States citizen to participate.

For this, individuals are to perform specific tasks on websites and navigate through certain functions (e.g. buying a specific dress), while providing real-time feedback.

While providing feedback, these reactions and thoughts will be captured as a video. What you need to do is just to scroll through a website like you normally would.

Tests will be given based on your age and demographics, to ensure that you are the right match to give feedback.

For instance, if it is a testing of a shopping website, you might be asked how frequently you shop, and what type of websites you use for shopping.

You can always accept, decline, or quit any test that becomes available, based on your comfort level to reveal private details.

Here are some criteria you need to meet to be eligible:

A computer that runs Windows or macOS
A reliable internet connection (upload speed of at least 2MBps)
A microphone, either built-in or external
Ability to download UserTesting’s screen recorder
You must be at least 18 years old
Ability to speak your thoughts aloud in English or German
Have a Paypal account

Now, how much will you get paid?

UserTesting pays US$10 (S$13.80) for each completed test and takes about 15-20 minutes each.

If invited to a Live Test, you will be required to speak with a customer and the payment will be as follows:

US$30 for 30 minutes
US$60 for 60 minutes

A pretty sweet deal yeah?

Note: Payment will be received via PayPal. Additionally, you won’t be paid for the practice test you submit as part of the application to join the UserTesting Contributor Network.

Read more:

2) Online Translation Services

Freelancing websites like Upwork and Freelancer.com offer ad-hoc translation jobs, where individuals get paid after completing a translation assignment.

For specialised translation websites, Gengo is one to be explored.

To become a Gengo translator, individuals have to sign up and go through a two-part test for an assessment of skills – a pre-test and a standard test.

Once accepted, there will be a list of jobs available, and jobs will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Translators will also have a ‘rating system’ from their translated work, and those with a higher score would have access to more jobs, and higher-paying jobs.

The amount that can be earned varies greatly due to several factors such as the baseline rates in the industry, and also the language translated.

A typical rate for a translation service starts from US$0.06 per word if you’re at the standard level, and US$0.12 per word if you’re at the advanced level.

(The pro level can be taken after mastering the standard level, but the tests are more challenging and stringent.)

A typical assignment could be about 350 words, which translates to US$21 to US$42 (S$28.98 to S$57.95).

You will be able to find your exact rates as well as the total reward amount at the top of the assignment.

Time to put your language skills to good use.

Note: Payment will be received via PayPal or Payoneer.

3) Selling Photos to Stock Image Websites

If you’re someone who likes to take photographs, consider selling your high-quality images to stock image websites!

Sites like Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStockPhoto, or Getty Images allow contributors to upload their images and get paid whenever their photos are being downloaded.

The sites vary in requirements, so be sure to check out what is needed to qualify.

Contributors always earn a percentage of the price these sites receive for licensing their images.

For instance, Shutterstock pays a range between 15% to 40% of the price received.

In general, stock image websites pay about US$0.10 to US$5.80 (S$0.14 to S$8.01) per photo.

For top tiers such as extended/enhance licenses, these platforms also offer more earnings per download as well.

This may not seem like a huge number, but can be a promising side income as it requires only one upload effort, and can be online for users to download.

No worries about copyright issues too.

Websites generally allow copyright to be retained by the contributor while attaining the rights to license these content to customers.

Note: If you’re on Shutterstock, you’ll be paid at the end of each month when you reach the minimum payout amount of US$35.

4) Online Tutoring

You should know by now that the tuition industry is a billion-dollar industry in Singapore.

If you’re one that has relevant academic qualifications and would like to offer tuition services in the comfort of your home, this is one option for you.

Dubbed as the ‘Uber’ for tutoring in Asia, Snapask is an online tutoring platform that allows students to ask questions and receive quick responses and answers.

Its headquarters are in Hong Kong, and it expanded to Singapore in 2015.

This website has over 3 million users, with a surge in recent months due to the COVID-19 situation which left students stuck at home for learning.

Students can simply snap a photo of a question, and tutors can answer directly.

What is great about this is that tutors can talk to up to 10 students at one time, which allows some flexibility that is more difficult to achieve through traditional tutoring.

The payment offered as compensation for answering questions is S$1 per question (or session, as the site calls it).

On top of regular earnings, Snapask has a Bonus Rocket Programme which incentivises tutors who have answered at least 200 questions, achieve an average rating of 4.8 or more, and have been favourited at least 10 times.

Snapask’s founder Timothy Yu has also mentioned that tutors in Singapore can generally earn about US$1,200 (S$1,656.22) a month for spending one to two hours per day answering questions.

5) Selling Cooking Recipes Online

This one’s for those who like to cook!

If you’ve got a habit of documenting your cooking recipes along with your #instaworthy photos, why not make some money out of it?

There are a couple of online sites that pay people for their food recipes!

Websites like Cuisine At Home offer US$50 (S$69.01) for food recipes or unique kitchen tips.

Another website, EatingWell pays US$1 (S$1.38) per word, and articles typically range from 150 to 400 words, while new writers are limited to 350 words (that’s also $350!).

Do note that these websites have guidelines to follow to ensure the ideas remain coherent and value-add their readers, and EatingWell requires a brief pitch before one can score an assignment on the site.

6) Quest – Hire A Hero

Quest is a start-up founded by three Singapore Management University (SMU) undergraduates who wanted to help Zillienials (Gen Zs) earn an alternative source of income.

The jobs or “quests”, are grouped into the following categories: Academics, Urgent, Anything Else, Errands, Business, Research, Social & Household.

You can be a “Hero” when offering your help/service to the “Citizen” requesting the help/service.

For those who prefer staying home, you can choose requests under “Academics” as the requests are largely helping someone with writing or coding.

Other requests that are seen on the app range from buying food to looking for a personal trainer.

A quick scan of the app showed that job postings ranged from $3 to $360 per job (NGL, I’m quite impressed)!

While there is no sign-up fee, Quest will take a 10% service fee for each quest completed. So, choose your jobs with this in mind.

Now, if an individual were to look into these websites listed above, a reasonable amount that can be earned from doing these activities on a monthly basis would be:

Testing of Websites (once a week): S$53.56 (S$13.59 per test)

Online Tutoring (1 to 2 hours daily): S$1,656.22

Recipe Submission (once a week): S$276.04 (S$69.01 per submission)

Online translation (once a week): S$115.92 (S$28.98 per assignment)

Adding all these up will give us at least S$2,101.74!

Sounds pretty great as extra income, doesn’t it?

This is apart from the additional money you get if you have other income streams such as investments…

Read more:

Side Hustles You Can Do While Staying At Home

The power of the internet has allowed the ability for jobs to be done remotely at home.

So many of us are trying to look for additional ways to make money, and the ways we can do that now have expanded so much and in so many different directions.

We no longer need additional degrees or certifications to get started.

That being said, nobody should feel pressurised to have side hustles just because it’s common nowadays.

But if you’re someone with an internet connection and a will to earn more money, we hope that these sites can help you with that!

About Xue Miao

A millennial who is learning to adult. She doesn't believe in the rat race and hopes to live on a farm someday.

You can contribute your thoughts like Xue Miao here.