13 Weird Online (And Offline) Jobs In 2018 [Guest Post]

Looking for work? You’re not alone. Hundreds of thousands of professionals, young and old alike, are looking for jobs every day. So much so that it would be fitting to say that most of them are desperate for a job already. This is the result of the world we live in – a world where high unemployment rates have become a fact of life.

As humans, though, we are adaptable. And as we find ourselves in the direst of financial situations, we’ll learn that it is also true that desperation breeds ingenuity; thinking outside of the box these days will show you opportunities that you never thought expected before.

For instance, did you know that you could get paid to literally beg for money? CyberBeg.com allows you to create an account to ask for a handout from complete strangers and it works! Well, most of the time. The $15 fee may turn off most people, but considering that members have donated more than $100,000 as of December 22, 2017, it might just be worth a shot.

Not looking for a free handout? Don’t worry. There are other weird online jobs that you can avail of this 2018 that pay quite well. Read on below to learn more.

1. Playing Video Games

Technically, this shouldn’t qualify for a “weird” job anymore. So many gamers from all over the world have made bank over the past few years just from recording themselves playing video games, or playing competitively. And no, we’re not kidding about the latter. There are real life professionals, most of which teenagers and young adults, who get paid huge sums of money to play a video game professionally. They’re insanely good at their respective games, though.

But you don’t really even have to be good at video games to make money off them. You just have to have something that people would pay for to watch, whether it be a thick British accent, a penchant for funny theatrics, or whatever.

Having said that, making millions just from playing video games isn’t easy. So many others have tried and failed in the past. However, considering that you probably already have what’s necessary to start – a stable internet connection, a computer or a console, a video cam and a willingness to experiment – you might as well try.

2. Website Flipping

This is self-explanatory: you buy a cheap website domain and sell it off for profit. Kind of like buying a house for cheap, sprucing it up and selling it for more cash, but without the sprucing up part. You’d be surprised how much some companies are willing to pay for a specific domain name.

This is a bit risky, though. Not all domain names will sell for quite as much. Some won’t even sell at all. So, it’s best to educate yourself as much as you can about this kind of venture before investing. That way, you don’t end up buying every domain name that you think is going to sell well.

Another way is to check the domain metrics instead of the name of the domain alone. Many people buy expired domains to either redirect for passing link juice or to create a money site (e.g. affiliate website) on the expired domain. Apparently it helps to get out of the Google Sandbox quickly.

You can find expired domains on virtually any topic, including running, travel, food, restaurants that are closed, magazine sites and so on. I even saw a website that was previously owned by Coca Cola.

3. Help Students Pass The SAT

Remember how much you paid off that guy or girl in your class who was obviously way smarter than you were to help you study for the SAT test years ago? As it turns out, the advent of the internet has made it so that students these days can ask for help from anyone from anywhere in the world – for a price.

Of course, this comes with the obvious prerequisite of being smart and knowing how to prepare for the SAT. But, if you know what you’re doing, you could make some serious money off students who’re desperate to go to their dream university.

4. Document Translation

While this isn’t as simple as just using Google translate, you can make some serious money translating documents from one document to another. If you’re multi-lingual and fluent in many languages, both written and orally, this is a great way to earn money on the side.

5. Help Someone Hungover

With a double whammy of Christmas and New Year ahead of us, parties will be literally everywhere, which means livers all over the world are bound to take a beating. Take advantage of this and offer to help out those who’re hungover the next morning. For a price, of course.

You can offer all sorts of services, from coming by to clean up after a party, to offering herbal hangover remedies, or just by making a scrumptious meal of bacon and eggs in the morning. It doesn’t take much to get started either. You just need to get the word out, either via Craigslist, Kijiji, or even Facebook, or by putting up ads on bulletin boards at your local bars and taverns.

6. Participate in a Focus Group

Companies such as 20|20 Panel and AlphaBuzz, among many others, have provided companies with qualitative research data from focus groups for years. You can offer to participate as part of their focus groups and get paid for anything from having a study of your smartphone habits to your thought process when buying household products.

7. Rent Yourself Out

Talk about weird. Apparently, these days, there are people who offer themselves for rent and those who actually are willing to pay to rent someone out. Services offered and sought after include being someone’s cuddle buddy, going as a +1 to an important event, or being a tour guide. Some are even willing to pay just to have a pretend “online” boyfriend, mostly to deter stalkers, deranged exes and other interested parties.

If you’ve some free time to burn, you could do worse than to rent yourself out for a few hours or even a whole day for some extra cash.

8. Get Paid To Stand in Line

This feels like it belongs to the “rent yourself” category, but it deserves its own mention because A) it’s the holiday season and B) there’s a lot of moolah to be made just to stand in line for someone who can’t just wait to get their hands on whatever people are lining up for hours these days.

You can jump start your line-sitting gig by offering your services via online errand marketplaces like AskForTask where you scour the market for pretty much whatever task fancies your interest in exchange for money.

9. Hunt for Adult Materials

Do you fancy yourself a hawk-eyed fellow? If so, you might want to head on over to CrowdFlower.

Founded in 2007, the online agency works with other businesses to handle some of their most random requests, like, per say, hunt down adult rated materials. Or, to be specific, nude photos that somehow make it past their initial screening.

Businesses that allow user-generated content uploads constantly have to deal with their users trying to upload a nude pic or two. That’s where you and your keen eye for detail come in; your job is to scan photos and other content to make sure that they’re safe for work.

You can make anywhere from $1 to $40, depending on how urgent the job is and what kind of photos you have to sift through. Though porn isn’t exactly the only thing that CrowdFlower dabbles in, as the agency also offers other less interesting jobs like address verification, data sorting, and so on.

10. Put Your Technical Knowledge to Use

If you know your way around computers, mobile phones, and pretty much anything tech-related, you can hop on over to sites such as FixYa and JustAnswer, where you can earn money for helping provide the best answer to a posted question. The more questions you answer, the higher your earnings. You can also write tips and how-to’s.

11. Be a Virtual Jury

Sites such as eJury offer cash to interested participants to help lawyers stage a mock trial in preparation for the real thing. Basically, your job is much like that of an actual jury: you review cases and then give your opinion based on a list of questions.

While each case won’t likely make you more than $10, it’s a nice change of pace if you’ve gone full-on working online.

12. Get Paid for Your Holiday Snaps

Companies are always on the look out for that unique photograph that best captures their brand so why not cash in?

Selling your holiday photos is a non-committal way to make money while traveling. If you don’t make money off them, it’s fine. But if you do, even better. And more often than not, you will make a few bucks off those photos of yours.

The best part about this is that you don’t have to be a professional. All you need is a half decent camera or smartphone and an eye for good scenery. If you have both, all you need to do is to head on over to Fotolia or 123rf and wait for someone to buy one of your pictures.

13. Send Text Messages

Last, but definitely not the least, is the one “job” mentioned at the onset of this article.

If you haven’t checked out CybergBeg yet, do it now. You’ll see a lot of weird listings there, and what’s even weirder is that people are willing to donate regardless of how absurd it may seem. You may not be able to make much money off this, but hey, every penny counts!

Whether you’re looking for a main source of income or a way to make a bit of cash on top of your 9-5, there are plenty of weird jobs available over the internet that can help you out.

Consider trying out the options we listed above to see if they work for you or not. Who knows? You might just end up stumbling into a gold mine.

This post was written by a freelancer.

 

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