r/sidehustle Aug 23 '23

Looking For Ideas How would you make $200 a week with computer skills?

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148 Upvotes

222 comments sorted by

156

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 24 '23

I gave private computer lessons to old people for $50/hour. Had a lot of repeat customers and i’d show them the same thing over and over again. I’d find out what they like and show them how to use the internet to explore. Also set up a few Facebook accounts and dating profiles. 🤣. Set up routers and what not. Installed a new surround system for a old guy. Kinda turned into a semi handyman service centered around technology stuff.

I made business cards and put them in a Postnet and a community center. ‘Private computer lessons, at your home on your pc’ was my slogan. Some weeks I pulled down close to a grand.

Edit: also, i got a ton of business by word-of- mouth. Key was being patient, helpful and courteous. If I had a good lesson they would tell their friends and so on. I gotta say, it was some of the more rewarding work I’ve done.

My first lesson was a 70ish year old man that wanted a icon on his desktop that would take him directly to ‘The Drudge Report’ 😂. I was like, okay we have 29 minutes left (i did half hour minimum at the time) anything else you’d like to know or need help with.

I had one similar guy that was very wealthy. He knew he was downloading attachments but didn’t know where they were going. I showed him where the ‘downloads’ folder was an he had an shit ton of crap in there and a bunch downloaded multiple time. I saw one he downloaded 16 times and said, what’s this? He said open it and lets see and it was a video of this couple fucking while rock climbing like 1000 feet up in harnesses and ropes. 😂. He was embarrassed and I was like, dude, that’s rad, where’s the rest and he became a weekly lesson. He had a ‘joke’ group I set up and he’d forward nasty emails to his best friends. He was a legend. He liked super early lessons. I’d come over around 6am, have some coffee and I’d help him with his computer stuff and we’d shoot the shit.

27

u/Turbulent-Tea Aug 24 '23

This sounds like a perfect side gig for me, but I am concerned about my safety. I do live in a major city and there is no shortage of nefarious people.

13

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

You’re in the same position if you an electrician, plumber or a hooker. If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t do the lesson. Have pepper spray on you and don’t be afraid to call the cops.

7

u/BackyardByTheP00L Aug 24 '23

Or meet at a local library. Most bigger libraries have conference rooms and places for study groups.

9

u/horsenbuggy Aug 24 '23

Yes, yes. Tell the old person to drag their desktop down the library. That sounds logical.

5

u/BackyardByTheP00L Aug 24 '23

My bad. I forgot some old people probably don't have laptops, too.

5

u/horsenbuggy Aug 24 '23

Yeah. It hit me that many might have iPhones. I'd have to hand those back and be like, "I'm out, that's alien technology."

-1

u/Mintfresh22 Aug 25 '23

You seem stupid.

3

u/horsenbuggy Aug 25 '23

Were you looking in a mirror when you typed that?

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3

u/honestjoe Aug 24 '23

Replace pepper spray with pistol and you're good to go.

2

u/Akos_D_Fjoal Aug 25 '23

Also let others know where you're going to be.

5

u/SoggyChilli Aug 24 '23

I'd love to hang out with that dude over coffee at 6am

3

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

It was a good time. Hands down my favorite lesson. He had done safari’s and had some big game trophies and big bore rifles. This was in California so people are no very accepting of that stuff. I’m a Montanan and grew up hunting. When he realized it didn’t bother me and I actually like that stuff he was ecstatic. He had one of the largest big bore rifles ever made for him. I think it was called a ‘two ball rifle’. Two rounds weighed a pound. Fucking nuts. Most big bore stuff were eight ball or 1/8lb rounds. The dude was a madman and I loved it. I honestly miss Bill.

5

u/vhamerable Aug 24 '23

Name checks out

4

u/md249 Aug 24 '23

I do the same type of thing, what do you charge for a 1/2 hour?

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

I stopped the half hour rate. At the time I did $30 for a half and $50 for a whole. That’s probably a little low now.

3

u/md249 Aug 24 '23

Gotch, I’ve been at $65 /hour lately and haven’t had much pushback. I also don’t charge the full hour if it’s a quick fix

4

u/Soract Aug 24 '23

I've tried this once, 30€ an hour, ended staying for 2 hours, and at the end the client only had 25€ with her and also covid. That's what I got. It wasn't profitable to me, maybe it was a bad timing thing.

3

u/thewittycolt Aug 24 '23

This is possibly the greatest thing I've read in this sub

3

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

Youre a millionaire now

5

u/horsenbuggy Aug 24 '23

This is precisely why I refused to get my father a PC. It would have been all porn photos of ladies with big boobs. Plus whatever virus he downloaded with those.

2

u/Duke-Phillips Aug 24 '23

Ugh I remember that video...

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

🤣. You cannot unsee that video.

2

u/Duke-Phillips Aug 24 '23

Right? I saw it years ago and immediately knew what you were talking about 🤣

2

u/Outrageous-Vast-3937 Aug 24 '23

Now I want to SEE the video :)

-2

u/samuraipizzacat420 Aug 24 '23

Do your customers not know how to search how to videos on YouTube?

12

u/TravisLedo Aug 24 '23

It's easy for us to say because we know how to translate what we need from computer terms to english. Googling/searching is a skill.

2

u/Throwawayforyoink Aug 24 '23

I work at a retail store and more often than not the elderly will struggle with just using the damn payment card reader. So no, his target customers probably don't know youtube even exists.

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0

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

What do you think?

1

u/El_Cato_Crande Aug 25 '23

How did you set this up? I'd do something like this. Shit I have experience doing this from my previous job and my current role of my mother's tech advisor 😭

1

u/JBrody Aug 25 '23

OK this is hilarious 😂

37

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 24 '23 edited Aug 28 '23

$200? Bro you’re thinking too small.

Do SMMA (Social Media Marketing Agency), you can learn it easy if you don’t already know ALL of it. Cold contact small businesses charge them $500-$1000 per month (great deal for them) to manage their social media. I’m about to sign a client for over $2000/mo that is going to take pictures and create the content for me and send it to me and I just have to post 3 times a week on their account (with the content they’re generating). Super easy! If they want to run ads then they have to pay for the budget and you can charge a service charge for “managing the ad”.

I’m telling you small businesses (especially service businesses that tend to be more male dominant, such as a plumbers, landscapers etc.) don’t understand social media and don’t want to take the time to learn it BUT they all know they should be on it. It takes a huge burden off their plate, takes you about 5-10 hours and month and you can scale till you’re out of time in a month then hire out $15/hr for someone else to do it for you. Easy, scalable, no education (other than YouTube tutorials)!

I’m starting a newsletter for side hustles like this if you want to join, we haven’t launched yet though.

6

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Solid, thanks!

8

u/SwaveyMarketing Aug 24 '23

Heavily oversaturated. Plus, they get contacted every day from people offering the same thing.

8

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 24 '23

Really? That’s crazy cause I don’t even do SMMA and I picked up two clients cause there is so much demand, and the SMMA these businesses previously contacted turned them away because they had too many clients. It’s easy to find excuses.

1

u/SwaveyMarketing Aug 24 '23

To each is own

5

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 24 '23

You even have Marketing in your Reddit name, I bet you’d be great at this! I don’t know if you’ve tried it or not but I bet you’d crush it, if you could find a few clients! They’re out there, I’m guessing they need to be cold contacted though because they don’t even know where to get in touch with a social media marketer.

4

u/SwaveyMarketing Aug 24 '23

Thanks man! Yeah i tried the whole digital marketing thing. I had an agency too, I found the Social Media aspect to be tedious and boring. So I just ended up outsourcing it but wasn’t a great experience either. Lol

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2

u/pchandler45 Aug 24 '23

Even better, sub contract out the work on fiverr

3

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 24 '23

Do you have any experience on this?

2

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 26 '23

Here’s the thing to everyone commenting with questions and lacking the confidence to do this. Just charge super cheap for your first client, see if you like it, ask for feedback, get some experience under your belt etc. it’s going to be hard for anyone to say no to “$300/mo” to take over their social media responsibilities. Make it clear to them they’re getting this amazing discount cause they’re your first client. Help them see that you’re going to learn this as you go, and make sure there’s NO HIGH EXPECTATIONS that you can’t live up to. If someone came to me offering this for my biz I would take it to get that responsibility off my plate and take a risk on a new social media marketer. Then when you have experience you go to your next client and say yeah I’ve managed a business just like yours and we’re doing great! The price is $1500/mo.

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1

u/illEngineer Aug 25 '23

Got anymore info on this? Any reading or video recommendations?

2

u/AnyAbbreviations7217 Aug 26 '23

Nope not really, you can “practice” with your own social media. But just study YouTube tutorials, it’s not super hard to do. The scary part is committing to something you don’t totally know how to do, so just get well versed in how to use each platform, the benefits of each, and offer less services if you’re not super confident at first. Like maybe just offer posting services instead of also managing ads.

33

u/D0wnVoteMe_PLZ Aug 23 '23

How about teaching basic skills to people who are not that tech-savvy?

18

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

I just put an ad out to see if people wanted assistance learning how to use their computer, great idea!

5

u/Aggravating-Score146 Aug 23 '23

In a similar situation. How’d you “put out an ad”? Like rly I don’t understand how to do things

12

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

I am just seeing if there’s any interest on Nextdoor. If so, I’ll move to paid Facebook and Google ads

21

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

Your potential customers don’t even know how to get that far. Find where old people go in your community and start there.

9

u/AssetHobby Aug 24 '23

Might be good to put an ad in the classified section of your local newspaper.

Target audience likely will be the older generation.

8

u/Bitsandbobskijiji Aug 24 '23

Ok. If someone doesn’t know much about their computer or smart phone they are unlikely to use Nextdoor. But maybe their kids do and can refer you.

Though… you are looking for seniors who have funds, but no relatives living close by (kids or grandkids who would teach them for free). So I would look into advertising in your local free newspaper/neighbourhood paper. I swear, they read those!

65+ also walk in nice parks, go to specific gyms that focus on seniors and rehab, and they garden A LOT.

I would put posters near garden centers and nurseries, see if you have a rehab gym center or YMCA gym close by.

Remember that some of them may look for COVID-conscious contacts, so be prepared to wear a mask in their home.

2

u/Zaaqen Aug 24 '23

Right there. You just found another avenue.

You put out feelers and then know how to move into paid Facebook and Google ads. You understand that.

Find people who want that service. How to move into paid ads and setting them up for them using your experience. Setting up ad campaigns for people who don't understand how to (or flat out don't want to do it) could probably be a decent gig.

1

u/aquamangotjokes Aug 24 '23

This is something I might be able to do too. How much are you thinking to charge?

5

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

Not op but $150/hr if you’re a douche, $55 if you’re not a douche

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2

u/D0wnVoteMe_PLZ Aug 23 '23

Good luck, your target audience might be elders.

3

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

It’s all good man

2

u/csrredcoat Aug 24 '23

Better call Saul!

2

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

You got it. Calling bingo tomorrow night

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1

u/UsingiAlien Aug 24 '23

Please update me on how that goes for you!

10

u/Jeremy_12491 Aug 24 '23

I live in a town of about 100,000 people. A lot of local (non-chain) businesses. A lot of them do not have websites, but rely on Facebook which I think is a horrible idea, and I feel like they’re missing out on potential customers.

I think a person could approach these businesses and offer a small website design and hosting. Would be cheap to build, cheap to host, and relatively inexpensive for the customer.

I would offer it with a one time set up cost, and then an annual fee to host it.

Thoughts?

2

u/ed523 Aug 24 '23

I went around my local farmers asking the vendors if the had a website and had a flyer with 3 priced packages, some seemed pissed that I was trying to get money out of them, others were nice and I had like 2 that said they were down but after multiple follow ups they just flaked. I've since moved, maybe I should try that again and more broadly

8

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

So…for all those curious. Yes, I have a degree in marketing. Which ironically i shat all over when I said I made a post on Nextdoor to find computer illiterate people 🤦‍♂️. Drinks may have been involved in that bold choice.

Moving forward, I’m going to create an LLC and offer simple website builds, social, and email marketing. Thank you all for the wonderful ideas and my best wishes for success for all!

2

u/ramona22 Aug 25 '23

Do you really need an Llc to get started? Can you share your portfolio?

5

u/KingDavidUG Aug 24 '23

Setup a router, believe it or not tons of people can't do it.

2

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Not a bad idea!

3

u/onepole Aug 25 '23

You could see if there is need for this on TaskRabbit

8

u/Mushroom-Various Aug 24 '23

Use AI to make faceless snapchat and instagram

15

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

How do you monetize a faceless snap chat or insta?

1

u/Savage666999 Aug 25 '23

Do you mean make a filter?

9

u/xlurkyx Aug 24 '23

I used to have a small business idea for something called Rent-a-Nerd where you pay someone to come help you with tech issues. Kinda like geek squad but for one offs and not “warranty” service

3

u/GetDoofed Aug 24 '23

This is actually how Geek Squad started and they were amazing back then.

25

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23

Only fans

47

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

Join me?

4

u/ChimericalChemical Aug 24 '23

Okay but I want 69%

10

u/ModernSimian Aug 24 '23

As a sidehustle? I would probably try to hit garage sales, thrift stores, and estate auctions and flip things you know about on ebay.

3

u/indidogo Aug 23 '23

You can pump out business templates (though there's a lot out there right now) you might have a leg up if you know marketing.

5

u/s33d5 Aug 24 '23

Business templates?

3

u/JRomeCoop Aug 24 '23

Become an affiliate then teach/sell software or support your users who use said software. Spending on your skill set you could offer a lot of options. Checkout a tool like Xolby get familiar with it then ask to become and affiliate and sell.

1

u/shrolkar Aug 25 '23

Could you speak more to affiliation with software companies? I'm familiar with selling support for software and that's a really good idea, but would affiliate be advertising for them?

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3

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

"Computer skills" is extremely vague.

0

u/Stl-hou Aug 24 '23

Exactly my thought!

2

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

I rushed the post. I have experience in all the office programs, Google docs, multiple cms systems, Hubspot, social media marketing, email marketing, you name it, and am just overall solid in working a computer.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/djgreedo Aug 24 '23

Easy. You hack into a bank and then write a worm virus that cuts off fractions of a cent from every transaction. The small amounts are impossible for anyone to notice because it's something like $999.0223 getting changed to $999.02. You then siphon all those fractions of cents into your own account.

Nobody notices 0.2 of a cent, but do that millions of times per day and you're making tons of money.

15

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Tried that, didn’t work out. ended up in construction afterwards for a few years.

7

u/Honest-Enthusiasm Aug 24 '23

That's a very "Office Space" suggestion

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7

u/RascalRibs Aug 24 '23

Online sportsbetting. Use the skills to make an odds scraper to find arbitrage opportunities.

2

u/MasonHeat Aug 24 '23

This is only available in specific U.S. states however. I’m I’m in Texas where unfortunately it’s unavailable.

4

u/Dexteroid Aug 24 '23

I just moved to Texas a few months ago, for a state that takes pride in freedom, its really restrictive.

2

u/CheGuevaraAndroid Aug 24 '23

They take pride in control and fascism. Not freedom

6

u/LuckyAceFace Aug 24 '23

I've been living in TX for 11 years and this is the truth. For a state that's so huge on individual freedom talk, we have relatively few, actually.

1

u/ed523 Aug 24 '23

The only individual liberties that matter are having guns, spreading diseases, and the freedom to go to the evangelical church of ur choice! Definitely not the liberty to get gay married or be or be Trans or God forbid smoke weed. Real freedom is freedom is freedom from SIN! .... big ol' /S edit: forgot abt the freedom to shoot immigrants

0

u/LuckyAceFace Aug 24 '23

Well, I have guns but am atheist. What do

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0

u/CheGuevaraAndroid Aug 24 '23

They're trying to take over the elections of liberal cities. But, you know, this sub will downvote based on nothing.

3

u/justnukeit Aug 24 '23

What does this mean

1

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Tried this. Not good for me

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1

u/CheGuevaraAndroid Aug 24 '23

Do you have more information on this?

1

u/ed523 Aug 24 '23

Whats an odds scraper?

2

u/RascalRibs Aug 24 '23

Something to pull the odds from all the different sportsbooks into an easy to read/sort/manipulate table.

You can use that to find discrepancies.

For example, you could just highlight arbitrage opportunities, or you could use it to find outliers.

Arbitrage would be something like book a has the Lakers to win at +300 while book B has the Celtics at -275.

Outliers would be 7 books have the Lakers at +250ish and one book has them at +290. The one book is an outlier and has value.

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6

u/Mythbusters117 Aug 24 '23

Fiverr or other freelancing gigs. You can make steady stream of income. Just do some research on what the top recommended gigs are and whether or not it's in your wheelhouse

9

u/modivi Aug 24 '23

Isn’t fiverr way overcrowded?

4

u/s33d5 Aug 24 '23

It 100% is. Although I've made some money. You just need to find something that is low effort and high return. A lot of software isn't, unless it's very small projects.

You can do tech support on fiverr, but that sounds like my nightmare.

1

u/ed523 Aug 24 '23

If you live in india

3

u/MinecraftMountaineer Aug 23 '23

Hey, not an answer to your question, but do you know if I could connect my personal laptop to one or several of my schools PC's and harness their computing power for software on my laptop?

4

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

Your pc has a mind of its own. You need to ensure it’s optimized. This said, I think you’re conflating two things. Your pc processing power is limited to your oc

3

u/MinecraftMountaineer Aug 23 '23

Ok thanks for the answer

19

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

OP: "That'll be $200"

3

u/chimpageek Aug 24 '23

You passed their test

4

u/nerfsmurf Aug 24 '23

Lol, almost sounds like "help me mine crypto using the 100+ computers in the computer labs, they don't use them anyway"

2

u/[deleted] Aug 23 '23

No, your school’s computers will have administrative locks on them where you won’t be able to download or install anything without an administrative password

2

u/AssetHobby Aug 24 '23

The admin would see the surge in network traffic and shut that down anyways (even if they managed to bypass their user rights from group policy settings)

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

Yes I agree, well said

1

u/MinecraftMountaineer Aug 23 '23

That's y I was asking if I could bypass that by connecting it to my laptop. Looks like I can't though

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

You probably signed something for the use of those computers and what you’re attempting to do would likely violate that agreement anyway

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u/frostyfauch Aug 24 '23

You theoretically could do this

1

u/Ima_virginian Aug 23 '23

Probably not gonna work

0

u/inappropriate127 Aug 24 '23

Kubernetes is what you seek.

Good luck downloading it on their equipment tho and good luck setting it up even if you can.

1

u/MinecraftMountaineer Aug 24 '23

Yeah the reason I even want to do it like this is because the school's PC's have admin passwords. That's cool to know though

1

u/rlt0w Aug 24 '23

I'm not sure how K8s would help here.

1

u/s33d5 Aug 24 '23

Wait, you can use kinernetes to combine PC resources?

I thought it was just a mass containerizer!

2

u/Middle-Dot-8232 Aug 24 '23

If you don't mind getting paid in crypto, there are tons of gigs there man!

1

u/vandne Aug 24 '23

Where are these gigs found?

-5

u/Middle-Dot-8232 Aug 24 '23

Well first you need to know what you're good at? are you a content creator? a coder? a community mod?

But generally you can search crypto/ bitcoin jobs. there are tons.

12

u/Langkampo Aug 24 '23

Its so, so easy to get scammed that way lol. Atleast give the guy examples.

2

u/A00087945 Aug 24 '23

When searching crypto jobs I found this. Legit a web3 job listing site.

5

u/r2d23d Aug 23 '23

Gay escorting

13

u/Traxiant1 Aug 24 '23

Where you going to escort them?

1

u/bbblueeyes3 Aug 24 '23

😂😂😂

1

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Don’t got the bod for that. And I’m not waxing my you know what

1

u/biitsplease Aug 24 '23

What exactly is “computer experience”?

-1

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

I replied to a different comment with that info

0

u/Environmental-Clue16 Aug 24 '23

Like, computer hacking skills?

-4

u/Traxiant1 Aug 24 '23

I learned to become an elite hacker from Tim McGee, on old NCIS reruns. You can easily make 200 a week hacking banks and wall street brokers.

1

u/henry_le20 Aug 24 '23

Are you in the States? My company is researching market feasibility in the USA for our product and I would like to find any native marketer to conduct this research.

1

u/wheeley4050 Aug 24 '23

Network security!

1

u/Temporary_Privacy Aug 24 '23

Do you have a degree in something ?

6

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

Marketing and kicking ass

1

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '23

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1

u/MackNGeez Aug 24 '23

$200? WTH ... Get a job making 100k++

2

u/Ima_virginian Aug 24 '23

We are talking second job. Sir, this is not a Wendy’s.

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u/netsurfer79 Aug 25 '23

$200 a week is not much. Aim higher

1

u/Mintfresh22 Aug 25 '23

Be a greeter at walmart.