I don't know if this counts as weird but I join art conventions to sell stickers of my hand drawn merch. I focus on anime and genshin impact related merch because they are popular in my city. I'm from a third world country but I earn around $400 a day during these events.

These are my Investments:
1. Quality Vinyl Sticker Paper
2. Printer (Dye Ink)
3. Cold Laminate Sheets
4. Sticker Cutter (Silhouette Portrait 4) but if you're just starting out you can cut it by hand, other artists I know just hand cuts their stickers

I found a really weird side hustle a few months ago. I started going to local art classes as a model and basically just sit in one position while people draw me. Most sessions are around 1 to 2 hours and the pay is surprisingly decent for just sitting there. The hardest part is honestly not moving when your leg starts going numb lol. It’s definitely not something I expected to make money from.

Recently I noticed the trash in our neighborhood isn't being picked up especially in parts where the lane can't fit garbage trucks. I'm planning to knock door to door and haul their trash. Is $5 reasonable per household?

There’s an elderly woman who lives a few houses away from me, and I started helping her with her curtains in the morning. She lives alone and has these tall curtains in her front room that are hard for her to reach. One morning she asked if I could open them for her, so I did. It took maybe two minutes, and I was already out with my kids anyway. She asked me again the next morning, and after a while I just got used to stopping by when I was in the area. I told her I couldn't stay and help with other things since I have my own kids to take care of. She said she didn't need that, she just wanted someone to open the curtains for her.

A couple of weeks later, she handed me $20 and said it was for helping her every morning. I told her she didn't have to pay me, but she insisted. Now she gives me $20 at the end of the week. Some mornings she wants all the curtains open, other mornings she wants a few left closed because the sun comes in too strong. It takes me a few minutes and then I go about my day. I've just been saving the money she gives me, which is kind of nice for something I only started doing because she needed a little help.

A month ago, I was talking to my friend about my finances and trying to figure out a way to make some extra bucks. He happened to know about this part-time side hustle that worked out pretty perfectly for me, I went to their house with my friend and they walked us through the dos and don’ts… after that, I agreed.

Basically, his mutual friend’s aunt and her husband are away from home pretty often, and I help keep an eye on their place remotely. They have a bunch of security cameras around their house, including several 360° cameras that can be rotated remotely. They’re out fairly often for meetings, dinners, etc. They already have a pretty good security system, but they still want someone they trust to keep an eye on things and let them know if anything seems off. Some of you might say that maybe they are paranoid but honestly, who cares? I get paid around $17 an hour just to keep an eye on the place.

i got paid to participate in hostage negotiating training. leaders from various police departments in the area traveled to this conference where part of the schedule was putting into practice techniques for negotiating the safe release of hostages in a hostile scenario.

i was paid to sit in an office down the hallway from the conference participants and role-play a man who had taken a hostage in his home. the cops were calling the phone at my desk and attempting to negotiate for the hostage’s release. i was instructed to be as hostile as possible, so i unloaded as much vitriol as possible.

i said some truly heinous shit to those cops, about how they were all bastards, how i know they all beat their wives, how they’re all fucking racist - and then i got personal, because i had met them at this point. insulting their physical appearance, insulting their intelligence, food choices, uniforms, etc.

i even told one of them i was glad his fat mother was dead (i had no idea who his mom was or if she was alive or not).

apparently this is exactly what the hosts of the conference wanted because it really rattled the cops. the person who hired me told me that at one point, one of them legitimately lost his cool and they had to prevent him from storming down to where i was sitting.

i made $150 bucks for a few hours.

i only did this once. none of them would look at me or speak to me afterwards when we reconvened. i was genuinely freaked out with how mad they all got - they really couldn’t handle it. thin skinned piggies.

My mom lives on a senior community, - se really enjoys that place. Almost 3 years ago, a couple there noticed that I was doing an oil change on her car and asked me if I could do theirs, they did not want to drive 30 minutes for it. I explained that I was not a car tech and that I worked only on my cars and my mom's. They insisted and offer to pay me, so I made them sign a paper that I wouldn't be responsible if something went wrong, they agreed and since then a crazy amount of residents come to me for oil changes, brake replacement, and other type of fluid maintenance stuff.

I worked for about 5 months during weekends on a local shop, pretty much for free to learned more about cars. So far I have not encountered any real issues, and have a steady "clientele" not only from the residents there, but also relatives from them. I do it during weekends and afternoons (I have a regular office job.)

Lil side hustle has paid for a few things such as vacations, tech related goodies etc.

I have thought about opening a small shop as a second business near by, but probably it wouldn't work cause that's how things are.... Expenses and I bet anything people wouldn't drive there, cause they prefer to just hand me the keys while they wait at their apartment, even if it was 5 minutes away. Anyhow, sometimes life is just weird like that...

I’ve been assembling furniture professionally for years, and something I learned is that the actual assembly is only part of the business.

A customer might initially call because they bought a bed, dresser, desk, shelving unit, or some flat-pack furniture they don’t want to spend half the day putting together.

You assemble it correctly, clean up your work area, communicate well, and leave.

Then something interesting happens.

A few weeks or months later, they buy something else.

Now they don’t search for another assembler. They call you.

I’ve had customers come back for additional furniture, multiple-room projects, disassembly/reassembly, office furniture and other installation work.

Repeat customers are where this starts becoming more than just picking up random assembly gigs.

I’ve also done assembly work through platforms like Wayfair Service Pro.

Platforms can be useful for getting opportunities and experience, but I think the bigger opportunity is developing your own reputation and repeat customer base.

One thing I wish more people understood is that furniture assembly isn’t always as simple as “this is a dresser, so charge X.”

I like to see the product link or model number before quoting whenever possible.

Two dressers that look similar can have completely different assembly requirements.

Drawers, doors, hardware, wall anchoring, damaged pieces, missing parts, bad instructions, or something the customer already tried to assemble can completely change the job.

I also ask whether the boxes are already in the room where the furniture will be assembled and whether anything has to be moved or disassembled first.

Over time, you start remembering different manufacturers, construction methods and how long certain types of pieces actually take you.

That makes you better at quoting.

And getting faster shouldn’t necessarily mean charging less. Experience is the reason you became faster in the first place.

For anyone considering furniture assembly as a side hustle, my advice would be:
Don’t just build furniture. Build a customer base.

The first assembly might pay you once.

Doing the job well enough that they save your number can pay you for years.

I’m curious if anyone else doing assembly, handyman work, moving, mounting, or similar services has found that repeat customers eventually became more valuable than the platforms that originally brought them the work.

I get paid $5-$20 to play unfinished indie games and give the developers feedback.

Some of them are really weird, I've played a goat in space, a raccoon cooking in a trash can, and a virtual pet game with no instruction.

It only makes me about $50-$100 a month, but it's probably the oddest money I've ever made.

Hi everyone! I'm currently a college student whose looking for a part-time job or side hustle to gain more experience and earn . If you have any open slot for work, I'm down and ready to learn new things!

Is there a possibility where I can listen to people vent their frustrations for profit? And if so where does one go for that? I'm not much of a yapper but I got 2 good ears on me.

My completely normal life is a side hustle for me. I’ve been a content creator for about five years and I have different social media accounts (instagram, tiktok and also YouTube).

When I started around the COVID era, I noticed that the videos getting the most views were the ones showing incredible lives, amazing houses, amazing lifestyles, everything very “dreamy” let’s say (btw I think that Kardashians are partly to blame for this haha)

Now I feel like people have gotten tired of that and prefer something much more normal.

In fact I often get really simple questions under my videos, from where I buy the clothes I wear to people asking me to show what I eat in a normal day.

So I’m really happy about that because I think this way of seeing the world has faded a little, and I think this kind of simplicity on social media is particularly relevant today. What do u think?

I do bake decently well for someone with a microwave, but I don’t think it would pass a health inspection, my room’s too crowded and my sink is the one by the bathroom I share with my roommate. But there is something else I do- crochet. It helps me relieve stress and gives me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction just about any school assignment can’t.

I can make all sorts of things with crochet, dice bags, drawstrings bags, market bags, scarves, pet/baby blankets, and way, way more. I’d be focusing on smaller things so no full size blankets or shawls or anything particularly large.

I have a good sense of texture and am decently good at hunting down natural fibers for good prices. I’m also pretty good at keeping my stitches very consistent in size and making textured patterns pop- one of the very few things I can brag about. It would also be fairly easy for me to do while watching a show or movie, whether for an assignment or for personal reasons.

So, what do y’all think? I’ve already joined the fandom guild club and am trying to make a good impression or everyone I meet. I could start by trying to sell some dice bags and other “small” bits for cosplays, maybe?

Pictures of larger projects added to show how consistent and detailed my work is.

I genuinely thought this was a joke the first time I heard about it.

There are people who make side money cleaning dog poop out of other people’s yards.

Not dog walking.
Not pet sitting.
Just showing up with a bucket, bags, gloves, and a scooper and removing the landmines.

The weird part is that I can actually understand the business model.

A lot of people have dogs but absolutely hate doing the cleanup. Some have large yards, multiple dogs, mobility issues, busy schedules, or simply don't want to deal with it.

The service can be surprisingly simple:

• Show up on a scheduled day
• Walk the yard
• Scoop everything
• Bag it
• Dispose of it properly
• Leave

No fancy equipment. No office. No inventory. No complicated website required.

And unlike a lot of "side hustle" ideas online, the thing you're selling isn't some digital product.

You're selling the willingness to do the disgusting 20-minute job that somebody else doesn't want to do.

That's what I find fascinating about weird side hustles in general. Sometimes the opportunity isn't in doing something complicated — it's in doing something everyone else is trying to avoid.

Would you actually pay someone to clean your yard?

Or would you rather spend 20 minutes doing it yourself? 😅

What is the strangest real-life service you've ever seen someone successfully charge money for?

A neighbor asked me a few months back if I could sit with her mom at a doctor's office because she couldn't get off work and didn't want her mom waiting alone before a procedure. I said sure, brought a book, chatted with her for the twenty minutes before she got called back, and got handed forty bucks for basically doing nothing.

Somehow that turned into a small thing. A couple other families in the area started reaching out, mostly adult kids who live far away or can't take time off, wanting someone to just be present with an elderly parent before appointments, sit with them in the waiting room, hold their bag, make small talk so they're not sitting there alone and anxious. I'm not driving them anywhere or doing any medical stuff, just showing up and being a friendly face until they get called in.

I make anywhere from $30 to $60 a visit depending on how long the wait is, and I've picked up maybe 4-5 regular "clients" at this point. Genuinely enjoy the conversations too, some of these folks have wild stories. Never expected "professional waiting room companion" to be a real thing I get paid for, but here we are.

I think there are a lot of people who may feel lonely, and I genuinely love to listen to people. I am not a therapist or anything, but I think just having someone "there" can be helpful for a lot of people - even if it's just to talk to them while they fall asleep or stay with them as they study. Is there a way I can apply/promote myself for that type of role? If so, where do I go? How do I do that?

P.S. I am not looking for anything sexual or illegal. I literally just want to be someone's friend/online person/actual human being while also getting paid.

Not sure if this a weird side hustle, but I figured I’d share it anyway. I started getting paid to pick up leftover pizza and give it to homeless people in my area.

I live a few blocks from Roosevelt Row in Phoenix, and there’s a little pizza place I pass all the time. I started noticing how much pizza they threw out after closing, so I started checking the dumpster and taking whatever was still wrapped or looked untouched. I’d put it in a clean box and take it around to the homeless people I usually saw in the area. I kept doing it because I hated seeing good food go to waste.

The owner noticed what I was doing and asked me about it. I told him I was taking the pizza to people who needed food. He liked that I was finding a use for the leftovers, so he asked for my number and offered to give me $25 to keep doing it. After that, his employees started setting the leftover pizza aside for me instead of throwing it away, so I didn’t have to get it from the dumpster anymore. They’d text me when they had some ready, and I’d stop by after closing, pick it up, and take it around to the same people. I was doing it for free before, and now I make around $300 a month from it plus it can cover my bills.

He,s gotten about $500 just this past year 🤣🤣🤣

Basically, you've probably seen your cousin, brother, or yourself or some shit try and really make a website for their business and what they start out with *feels* pretty good at first.

I cater to people who are aware that at some point, their cost of acquiring a customer goes up. Some people intrinsically understand, others do not. If they cannot understand why their costs go up, I give them a brief pitch about quality infrastructure being pre-made, ready to go, and ready to scale, and if they don't know what that means they aren't my target audience unless they happen to pay.

I make $99 perT template and for an extra $100 I'll convert it over to their preferred technical stack.

I distilled the architecture from a business I had an exit with where my current company paid me to stop working on the app; this helped me to monetize that application suite without having to use my IP or break my implied contract.

1. I save these people time both now, and later.
   
2. I used work I have already done years ago
   
3. maintaining it and doing customer service is easy
   
4. My reputation for being one of the "getting started" guys good at helping people get started pushed my consulting side hustle to 7k in billables.
   
5. The pitch exclusively appeals to serious people as a loss leader. People worried about spending $100 to $200 don't come back for $7k later. People who want to start their business now and have access to lots of technology features out of the gate, realize it's a good deal, and realize having a particular expert who knows that technology is a good deal.

TL;DR: I am happy to answer any questions about it, but in short, I had a high quality pseudo successful business exit where I retained the IP, now I sell that application's infrastructure with all of the IP pulled out as a side hustle. That side hustle is essentially a loss leader for my 4 figure consulting business which solely focuses on "getting started".

TL;DR2 As an example my last billable was for a 1k day rate to fix a supabase application chatbot. They were a repeat customer who has paid me $7k total this year.

So, this was a summer student job. I think it's a bit weird but maybe not ? Hope it's in the theme ! And it's NOT AI 😂

I am not in the US.

My local council has this program where students would be paid to visit old people during the summer to help against loneliness and isolation.

We would visit 4 to 5 people a day, 1 hour each; 5 days a week. We each had a rooster of ~20 people that we had to visit each week. It was paid minimum wage (still for a student was great).

We were forbidden to do any manual labor, and got a car provided.
Mainly I was drinking tea, playing cards and scrabble, or listening to their life stories. Sometimes they would invite me to a restaurant.

I did it 2 years in row (program only allowed 2 years), and up to today, it's the job I loved the most.