27 Legit Ways in 2023

What are the best ways to make money without a car?

Whether you don’t have a car, don’t want to spend more money on gas, or just want to stay home, we’ve got a side hustle for you.

(Uber and DoorDash aren’t the only games in town!)

These car-free ideas were selected based on:

• Making a full-time living from home since 2008
• Interviews with over 500 side hustlers and entrepreneurs
• 15+ years of my own side hustle experience

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Customer Interviews

Many companies use customer interviews to get feedback on new products.

User Interviews and Respondent.io are a pair of cool services that facilitate those interviews online and over the phone.

The best part? The average compensation is $50-150 an hour!

Here are some other companies that facilitate focus groups and paid research studies.

2. Online Surveys

These won’t make you rich, but can be an easy way to supplement your income and you can do them in your downtime at home.

If you love this stuff, check out:

3. Find a Virtual Job

FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site.

With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

4. Remote Real Estate Investing

You might not think of being a landlord as being a work from home side hustle, but there are ways to get it done.

For example, my friend Dustin Heiner manages his portfolio of rental properties from several states away. He just has a team of property managers and contractors “on the ground” to help out should the need arise.

Alternatively, you might take a look at a platform like Arrived, which lets you invest in cash-flowing rentals for as little as $100.

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

This is a great way to make money without leaving the house.

KashKick

KashKick is a newer app that pays you to answer surveys, test new games (up to $150 each!), and redeem money-saving offers.

With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.

Rewarded Play (Android)

With over 180,000 reviews and a 4.4-star rating in the Google Play store, Rewarded Play is another free, legit, and fun, “get paid to play” app.

Rewarded Play is your one-stop app for casual games like Solitaire, Mahjong, Wheel of Fortune, Yahtzee, and more. As you play, choose your rewards and get your gift cards within 48 hours.

6. Virtual Bookkeeping: Up to $70/hr

Remote bookkeepers can earn $20-70 an hour and up for their work. This is a great option for people with accounting experience from school or your day job.

And because the work can be done online, there’s no commute required.

Here’s a free training on how to get started.

7. Self-Publish on Amazon

Thanks to Amazon’s Kindle platform, you can publish your work and tap into a massive audience of book buyers.

Self-publishing is one of my favorite and longest-running side hustles. I remember my first royalty payment from Amazon of something like $42 and being thrilled, thinking “I did it! I’m a professional author!”

Since then I’ve earned over $75,000 in author royalties, and I think books are a pretty awesome way to both build authority in your niche and earn passive income along the way.

Related: My Amazon author profile and book listings

8. Knife Sharpening

Matt Rowell taught himself how to sharpen knives on YouTube, and turned it into a $250-1500 a month side business.

If you have customers drop off and pick up their knives, this is an excellent way to make money without a car.

9. Online Tutoring

Tutoring and test prep is more than a billion dollar a year industry!

You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!

For example, Matt Fuentes charges $100/hour for remote college admissions test prep tutoring.

As a tutor, you set your own schedule and rates. For example, when I searched Wyzant for math tutors nearby, I found several tutors charging $40-60 an hour.

10. Teach an Online Class

While one-to-one tutoring can be rewarding and even pretty lucrative, it’s still trading time for money. One side hustle with a little more scale is to teach an online group class through a platform like Outschool.

The peer-to-peer education marketplace focuses on students ages 3-18, and has courses on nearly every topic imaginable.

On The Side Hustle Show, Jade Weatherington shared how she was earning $10,000 a month on the platform, primarily teaching middle school English writing classes.

I even connected with an Outschool teacher with a series of popular video game classes!

11. Virtual Assistant Service

Virtual assistants are remote administrative professionals that help business owners (or even just busy individuals) with a variety of tasks.

Check out companies like BELAY, Time Etc, or Zirtual for potential openings, or set up shop on your own, like Abbey Ashley did.

She started her business while on maternity leave, and found it only took a handful of clients to not have to go back to her old job — and the commute.

If you work through a virtual assistant company, expect to earn $12-18 an hour to start. Freelance VAs charge $20-40 an hour — or even more for specialized skills.

12. Freelance Writing

Content is a booming industry and has been for the last several years. With more and more businesses engaging in content marketing, it’s creating a demand for writers.

Freelance writing is a great way to share your expertise and make money. You have full control over your schedule (in most cases) and can fit the work in when it works for you.

To learn more, check out this free guide from the American Writers and Artists Institute:

After that, you can set up shop on your own, or apply with any number of companies actively hiring freelance writers.

13. Customer Service

Think about all the different websites you visit on a given day or week? It’s probably quite a few. Pretty much any website you visit on the internet is going to have some kind of customer service in place. The bigger the business the more likely they hire people to help serve their customers.

Customer service can come in the form of phone, email, or live chat support. Most companies are willing to train you in their processes so while some experience may be necessary, it may not also be a deal-breaker.

The downside to this role is that you will most likely have a pretty regular schedule to stick to. If you don’t mind and want regular work at regular times, this could be a great opportunity. If you are wanting a job that you have more control over the flexibility to work, then this might not be a great fit.

Customer service representatives make an average of $10 to $19 an hour, though this will depend on the company.

14. Web Design Service

You might be surprised, but many businesses have a really outdated-looking site — or they don’t have one at all.

Thankfully, web design is a learnable skill, and it still has great earning power when you need to make money without a car.

My advice: pick a niche to specialize in, and become the go-to provider for businesses in that space.

For example, Ryan Golgosky from 180sites.com primarily builds sites for pressure-washing companies. (Really!)

When we spoke, he shared how this strategy — and a unique pricing plan — built his web design business to $100,000 a month.

15. Build a Helpful Website

While building websites for clients is a great remote side hustle, it may be even better to build one for yourself.

Now to be totally upfront, there’s a lot to learn to make this business work, but when it does, it can be extremely lucrative.

For example:

Their sites are monetized with advertising and affiliate partnerships, which scale as your traffic increases.

Want to start a blog of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.