What makes for a good part-time weekend job?
If you’re searching for this type of work, it’s important to find a job that:
- Has high income potential
- Offers flexible hours and work location
- Requires few or no credentials or costs to get started
Here are 26 flexible, high-paying, part-time weekend jobs for making extra money.
This list is organized by job type to help you find the perfect weekend gig or side hustle. Just use the table of contents below to jump the section that best fits your skills, experience and goals.
Earn Money by Tapping Into Your Creative Side
#1. Freelance Writer
- Income potential: High.
- Flexibility: Very flexible.
- Experience needed: Good command of the English language is important, and having expertise in a specific industry will help you earn higher rates.
At various times throughout my life, I’ve taken on work as a freelance writer. I’ve had a wide range of clients and projects, including working for a financial publisher, writing emails for local businesses, and producing blog content.
Once you pick a niche and win a few clients, the pay can be quite high. Many freelance writers make over six figures per year.
Not sure what to write about? Or not sure what’s involved in getting started? Check out my guide to freelance writing for beginners.
It goes over everything you need to know, including the skills you need to be successful in the field, where to look for jobs, and how to write proposals that actually win contracts.
#2. Blogger
- Income potential: High.
- Flexibility: Very flexible hours.
- Experience needed: Most people start with no experience, but there’s a long learning curve.
Blogging is a great way to earn extra income part-time. And if you like it, there’s the possibility to scale up and earn a solid full-time income.
Of course, blogging isn’t some get rich quick scheme. It takes time to learn how to write effectively for your niche, as well as to learn how to best monetize your content.
But with a little bit of hard work, dedication and patience, it can be a high-paying gig.
Pro Tip: A good rule of thumb for beginning bloggers is to prepare to put in at least 10 hours a week for an entire year before making decent money. There are exceptions, of course, and many people have done it faster. But for those who are brand new to blogging, this type of long-term effort is more of the norm.
#3. Graphic Designer
- Income potential: Medium to high.
- Flexibility: Very flexible.
- Experience needed: You’ll need a good overall eye for design, as well as familiarity with at least one of the popular software programs used by designers.
The internet is becoming more visual. Text no longer dominates. Sites like Pinterest and Instagram (which is the fastest-growing social network, according to a report from Search Engine Journal) have exploded for this reason.
This leaves many local and online business owners in desperate need of quality graphic designers. If you’re talented, you can make good money and enjoy an extremely flexible schedule.
As a graphic designer, you’ll produce everything from a brochure for a local dentist, to an e-book cover for an author, to a Pinterest pin for an online influencer.
If you’re interested, check out 99Designs, a marketplace that hosts design competitions where you can find your niche and develop your skills.
Learn more about getting started in our guide to freelance graphic design.
Pro Tip: When you’re just getting started, avoid expensive graphic design software and opt for free or low-cost options like Canva, a platform that makes it easy to produce great-looking social media graphics.
#4. Social Media Manager
- Income potential: High.
- Flexibility: Medium to low. You will likely have to communicate with clients or respond to comments throughout the week.
- Experience needed: Firm understanding of how each major social network functions, as well as the options and features it offers.
If you find yourself on social media most of the day, why not try managing social media for local businesses? It’s an area that many businesses need help in, and the best part is that you can multiply your earnings by working for many clients at the same time.
Social media management is also a job that requires little to no experience, so it’s a perfect online job for teens or college students.
Sites like Upwork are a great place to find social media manager jobs.
Use Your Expertise to Make Money While Helping Others
#5. English Tutor
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Average.
- Experience needed: No teaching certificate is required, but most online platforms require a bachelor’s degree (in any field). If you do have credentials you can earn higher rates, making this an especially good side hustle for teachers.
The demand for online education has skyrocketed in recent years, and one of the fastest-growing niches in the field is language tutoring.
The reason for this growth is simple: students are eager to learn English from native speakers so they can be competitive in the global job market, and their families are willing to pay good money for high-quality instruction.
Here’s why online tutoring is so popular among part-time job seekers:
- The average wage is around $20 per hour, depending on which company you work for.
- In most cases, the lesson plans and course materials are provided for you.
- You can work when and where you want.
- The students are provided; there’s no need to worry about marketing your services.
To get started, check out our list of the top online tutoring sites.
#6. Fitness Instructor
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Medium to low. You have to work when there’s demand for classes, which is often Saturday and Sunday mornings.
- Experience needed: Most large gyms require some type of certification.
Find yourself attending fitness classes a few times a week? Instead of being a participant, become an instructor. You’ll get your workout in and get paid at the same time. And with most gyms, instructors get free membership.
Plus many gyms have started offering live online classes, making this one of the newer work-from-home opportunities.
The median pay for fitness instructors in America is well above minimum wage at roughly $19.50 per hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While the job isn’t the most flexible, the hours are great. Many classes are offered in the early morning, so you can earn some money and then get on with your day. And since more people work out on weekends, teachers with weekend availability are in high demand.
Indeed is a great place to look for fitness instructor jobs at your local gym.
Related idea: If you played a sport in high-school or college, establish a private coaching practice where you work with youth players one-on-one.
#7. Online Coach
- Income potential: Medium to high.
- Flexibility: Very flexible.
- Experience needed: Must possess knowledge of an existing field that people want to learn about.
If you have expertise others find valuable, you can create an online course and sell it.
This used to be very hard, as you had to build your audience from scratch. But websites like Udemy and Skillshare now have an audience of people looking to learn.
And if you think you don’t know anything that other people would find valuable, think again! There’s demand for paid online courses about almost everything.
I’ve seen courses for baking, photography, dancing, and even improving your video game skills.
#8. Tour Guide
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: Knowledge about your local community.
Passionate about your city? Do your out-of-town family and friends turn to you for advice before they visit?
Consider turning that knowledge into some extra cash as a local tour guide for visitors.
Tour guides are paid pretty well, which makes it a great part-time job (especially if you’re looking for weekend work). Some city tour guides earn up to $70 per hour.
Sites like ToursByLocals.com give you the chance to connect with tourists looking for guides, and Airbnb has also gotten into the local tours industry with Airbnb Experiences.
Monetize Your Attention to Detail
#9. Proofreader
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: No experience or certifications are required.
Proofreading is a great example of a job that needs no certification. It’s a job where, if you want to, you can land your first client today. And with the recent explosion of web content, it’s also a job that’s highly in demand.
As a proofreader, you’ll take content others have written and read it over with a fine-toothed comb. In other words, if you hate it when bloggers like me use incorrect grammar, you’ll love this job.
Interested?
Caitlin Pyle — the creator of Proofread Anywhere, who has earned over $40,000 a year proofreading — has a free introductory workshop.
Learn How to Become a Proofreader
Proofread Anywhere is the go-to resource for people looking to break into the work-from-home proofreading industry. The free 76-minute workshop explains how to know whether proofreading is a good fit for you, and how to get started if you decide that it is.
See also: Our guide on how to become a proofreader and our list of the best places to find online proofreading jobs.
#10. Bookkeeper
- Income potential: Medium to high.
- Flexibility: Flexible, but you will likely have to work during the week while communicating with clients.
- Experience needed: No certifications are required.
First proofreading and now bookkeeping? Not exactly flashy professions.
The thing is, both of these fields are in short supply of quality freelancers. So with just a bit of knowledge, you can land clients fast and earn a decent hourly wage.
Just as important, you’ll be able to keep clients around because businesses never stop needing proper accounting and tax preparation services.
Bookkeeping is one online job opportunity that has a high earning ceiling. Entry-level beginners with no certifications will earn between $10 and $20 per hour, but with a little bit of experience and specialization, that figure can go up to $60+ per hour.
And no, you don’t need to be a CPA.
You can learn more in our guide to remote bookkeeping jobs, which outlines the skills you need as well as how to find clients.
Another great resource for getting started is Ben Robinson’s free three-class series called “How to Work from Home, Earn Good Money & Be Your Own Boss.”
How to Start a Virtual Bookkeeping Business
Learn how to launch a work-from-home bookkeeping business in 90 days, even with no accounting experience.
#11. Data Entry
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: No certifications are required.
Data entry is one of the most in-demand remote part time jobs, and you can almost always complete the work on your own schedule.
And because there’s so much demand, this is one side gig where you can actually start making money from home today.
The most popular site to get started as a data entry clerk is Clickworker. But check out our in-depth post on the best transcription job sites for beginners to learn if there’s a better fit for your set of skills and experience.
#12. Virtual Assistant
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Low, because your work schedule will depend on the client.
- Experience needed: No certifications are required.
Many online business owners are in need of an assistant, but not all of them need a full-time or on-site employee. Increasingly, these businesses are turning to virtual/remote assistants.
As a virtual assistant, you might find yourself doing things like making and receiving phone calls, managing social media and drafting correspondence. But the specific tasks vary widely depending on the business and their needs.
You can learn more about the most in-demand VA skills (and how to build them) in this guide, which also goes over some of our favorite training programs. And when you’re ready to start applying, here’s a guide that highlights some of the best websites for finding VA positions.
Recommended resource: Read our beginner’s guide: How to Become a Virtual Assistant.
#13. Search Engine Evaluator
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: None.
While it’s mostly algorithms that determine what shows up on the first page of Google when you search for something, there’s actually a human element, too.
That human element is called a search engine evaluator. This part-time job involves reviewing search results for accuracy and quality.
Pay does top out around $12 to $15 an hour. However, it’s pretty steady work and there’s no entry requirement. You don’t even need a high school diploma.
See also: Good jobs that don’t require a high school diploma.
You’ll have to hook up with a company in order to start this work at home job, however.
Lionbridge and Appen are some of the bigger names currently hiring search engine evaluators.
Become an Entrepreneur
#14. Amazon Seller
- Income potential: High.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: No experience is necessary, but you’ll need to invest in inventory to sell.
Start your own Amazon business, just like thousands of other successful entrepreneurs. You can sell virtually any type of item on the site.
There are two primary business models:
- Sell your own products
- Sell other people’s products
If money is tight, it’s best to start by selling other people’s products. Believe it or not, this can be as simple as buying a product from a store like Walgreens on a discount and then reselling it on Amazon for a premium.
There are many Amazon sellers earning six figures from this process. And the best part is that it’s extremely easy to get set up.
If an Amazon business sounds like a fit, learn about which items sell best online to get some ideas, then read our guide to selling on Amazon.
#15. Online Store Owner
- Income potential: High.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: No experience required.
Another e-commerce opportunity is called dropshipping.
With dropshipping, you don’t keep any inventory in stock. In fact, you never even touch the product you’re selling.
Instead, you work with a supplier or manufacturer and have the products shipped directly to your customers.
Here’s how it works:
- A customer buys a product through your website.
- You pass along the customer’s information to the manufacturer or supplier.
- The manufacturer or supplier ships the product directly to the customer.
- You keep the profit.
It’s a pretty simple model that is both very popular and very successful.
Shopify allows you to get a professional e-commerce store up and running fast, even if you have zero technical know-how.
They also offer a free 30-day trial for new users and even have free resources that teach you various aspects of running a successful online store.
Put Your Assets To Work
#16. Rent Out a Room On Airbnb
- Income potential: Medium to high.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: You need to have a desirable place to stay.
Have an extra room in your home that doesn’t get used? Rent it out on Airbnb.
You can easily earn a few hundred dollars per month on the side, for just a few nights.
Renting out your house could become more than just a part-time weekend job. Some Airbnb hosts are able to make renting out space in their home a full-time gig (and pay off their mortgage in the process).
Work Part-Time on Any Schedule
#17. Uber or Lyft Driver
- Income potential: Medium to low.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: Need a qualified car.
You’ve probably had a chance to ride in a car driven by an Uber or Lyft freelancer. If you have a good driving record, why not try driving yourself?
The pay will depend on the demand in your area and the type of car you own. However, the hours are extremely flexible and weekend shifts tend to pay relatively well.
#18. Delivery Driver
- Income potential: Medium to low.
- Flexibility: Flexible.
- Experience needed: None.
If driving people around isn’t your thing, how about driving food to people?
There are a few new apps, like Uber Eats and DoorDash, that allow you to work as a delivery driver on your own terms.
Some people are able to pay their rent by delivering food with these apps. But if that’s not your goal, it’s still a great part-time weekend job.
You can work whenever you want, as much as you want — you can do one delivery and then log off, or stay online for 12 hours as a time. Plus, many delivery apps offer a same-day pay option, so you can work a shift and get paid immediately.
Find a Traditional Weekend Job
#19. Weekend Receptionist
- Income potential: Medium to low.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Many doctors, dentists and other service providers offer limited weekend hours and need to hire staff to man the front desk, greet clients and take phone calls on Saturdays and Sundays.
You won’t have much flexibility with a position like this, but you will have stability, as employers typically look for someone who can work weekend days on a consistent, long-term basis.
Even more importantly, this type of job can be a great opportunity to build professional skills and can serve as a stepping stone into a full-time career.
Even if you don’t plan to stay in a particular field, the organizational, interpersonal, and customer service skills you gain will be transferable and immensely valuable as you climb the ladder into more senior roles.
Positions like these are also usually easy to find via a job search on Indeed and LinkedIn.
#20. Customer Service Representative
- Income potential: Medium to low.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Do you have a gift for connecting with people over the phone? Are you a naturally helpful person? Then you might make a great customer service representative.
CSRs are always in demand. It’s not the highest paying work you’ll find, and you won’t be able to set your own hours (like you can with proofreading or some of the other jobs on this list), but an experienced CSR will always find work if they want it.
The job can often be done remotely (from your own home) or on-site at a call center, depending on your preference. Here’s a guide that outlines some of the best work-from-home customer service jobs.
And by the way: customer service positions aren’t limited to just over-the-phone interaction; you can also get hired to help customers via live chat.
If you’re interested, websites like Arise and Capital Typing are staffing agencies that help companies fill live-chat jobs.You may also be able to find chat support jobs with Amazon, although they’re rare and difficult to land.
#21. Nanny/Caretaker
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Home care is an essential and increasingly in-demand service with opportunities in every community in the United States.
Care.com is a website that helps you match your skills and experience with clients who are looking for help with child care, senior care, pet care and housekeeping. This part-time weekend job is low-paying for beginners, but the hours are flexible.
#22. Dog Walker/Pet Sitter
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Medium.
- Experience needed: None.
For animal lovers, there are multiple freelance jobs you can do on the side.
For starters, there’s dog walking. Sites like Rover make it easy to find clients. You’ll have to go through a background check, but that will give your clients more peace of mind.
Walkers earn the highest rates in the biggest cities, like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
To set yourself apart from the competition, send an actual resume and cover letter to your potential clients. Little details like these might seem insignificant for a part-time job walking dogs, but paying attention to them will make you look more professional and encourage people to entrust you with the care of their four-legged friends.
You can also try pet sitting. As a pet sitter, you’ll not only walk people’s dogs, but also stop by to feed and play with them while their owners are out of town.
You can often find pet sitting jobs through friends and family, on your town’s Craigslist page, or through Care.com.
See also: Apps like Rover and Wag (another dog-walking platform) are just a few of the ways you can get paid for walking.
#23. House Sitter
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Medium.
- Experience needed: None.
People will also pay you to take care of their empty house. This is an especially great gig for middle schoolers and high schoolers; while neighbors are away, they can water plants, collect mail and packages, and keep up the lawn.
#24. Work at a Hospital or Senior Living Center
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: Varies.
Hospitals and senior living centers are consistently looking for new labor. While you can earn a higher wage by getting a certification, there are plenty of entry-level positions, such as wait staff, that allow you to begin without experience.
Passing the training and testing requirements of a CNA (which is a 4-8 week program) can help you increase your hourly rate, as well as provide more opportunities for work.
#25. Security Officer
- Income potential: Low.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: Varies.
Similar to senior living centers, becoming a security guard is another opportunity with high demand and low supply. Often, no experience is required to start (for unarmed positions). In addition, many employers will even pay for training.
Evening and overnight shifts are in especially high-demand, as the supply is even lower.
#26. Retail Sales
- Income potential: Low to medium.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: Varies.
With traffic to retail stores at its peak on the weekend, working retail is another great opportunity for part-time weekend work.
Opportunities exist to work both as a sales associate — where you’ll be on the floor helping customers, merchandising and managing the display or products — or in a more labor-intensive role that has you loading and unloading deliveries.
If you’re working as a sales associate, landing a job that pays a commission as well as a base hourly rate can allow you to increase your overall earnings.
#27. Restaurant Worker
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Restaurants experience peak business on weekend nights and are often desperate for part-time help. Options here include dishwasher, server, hostess, busser, bartender and line cook.
The hours are part-time (and often go until late at night), but the job can pay well at either a higher-end restaurant or one that does a lot of volume.
The restaurant industry experiences high turnover. If you’re looking to work at a restaurant, we highly recommended checking out their ratings on Glassdoor, where many past employees have been known to leave in-depth reviews of their work experience (along with expected earnings based on how well the clientele tends to tip).
#28. Warehouse Worker
- Income potential: Medium.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Warehouses are constantly moving large quantities of goods in and out on weekends, so part-time jobs are common. With the high demand, pay often starts at above $20 per hour.
Plus, many warehouses do not require experience and will train part-time workers for entry-level positions.
Most jobs in warehouse require the ability to lift at least 50 pounds regularly throughout the day.
Obtaining a certification to drive a forklift, which costs between $150 to $200, can increase your hourly earnings and expand the opportunities you have available.
#29. Janitorial
- Income potential: Medium to low.
- Flexibility: Low.
- Experience needed: None.
Companies hire deep cleaners on the weekends to clean and disinfect their office space. While the hours are not very flexible for janitorial work, there’s strong demand which means there are plenty of hours available.
How to Find Good Local Part-Time Jobs
There are four primary websites where local jobs are posted:
- Indeed: the largest collection of job postings in the country.
- Glassdoor: features real employee reviews of each company.
- LinkedIn: primarily focused on full-time positions.
- Craigslist: a great place to find service, day-labor, and entry-level jobs.
Craigslist
If you’re looking for a local weekend position with a lot of flexibility, Craigslist is likely to be your best bet.
This is where you’ll find postings for waiter/waitressing, delivery, and retail positions. You can also sometimes find surprisingly decent sales associate jobs on Craigslist, such as with a car dealership, a real estate agency or a home health care firm.
Of course, as many people know, one of the major downsides to using Craigslist is that it’s filled to the brim with scams and junk. So here are a few tips for browsing job descriptions on the site:
- Never provide any personal identification via email. Some Craigslist posts are designed to trick job seekers into handing over information like pictures of their driver’s license and their social security number, which can then be used for identity theft.
- Never pay for anything related to a job application — not even one cent! Some Craigslist posts ask you to pay a small application fee, or ask you to provide a credit card number for “identity verification” purposes. You should never have to pay to apply for a job. If you’re asked to, it’s a scam.
- Think twice about applying for positions with businesses that spam Craigslist with tons of identical posts. This is against the site’s rules, and chances are that an employer who disregards community standards and norms will be a poor employer to work for.
LinkedIn, which is largely focused on serving white-collar professionals, isn’t the best source for flexible part-time positions — although it does host a significant number of postings for things like sports camp coaches, tutors/instructors, and other jobs that require some degree of professional experience, expertise or certification.
However, it’s important to make sure that you have an updated and optimized LinkedIn profile, even if you’re looking for jobs on other websites.
That’s because a strong majority of employers review a candidate’s LinkedIn page before deciding whether or not to offer them an interview — even for part-time jobs.
Read more: Eight mistakes you should never make on LinkedIn.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is a good place to search for jobs, but a great place to learn about potential employees.
The site’s calling card is the fact that it features reviews from actual current and former employees, which can give you valuable insights into the company’s culture and work environment. Users also share interview questions and pay rates.
Like LinkedIn, Glassdoor is more focused on full-time professional positions than flexible part-time work. But it’s an excellent tool to combine with your Craigslist search, as it can help you weed out the bad apples before you waste time applying.
Indeed
Indeed is the biggest and most popular job listings website in America, and it has listings for every job title — from day laborer to chief executive officer.
One of the best things about Indeed is its filtering tool, which allows you to refine your search based on job level, salary, and a variety of other factors.
You can also set up a free account and have the site email you any time new jobs are added that match the keywords you select. Having an account also allows you to upload a resume and apply to some jobs without even leaving the job description page.
Summary
No matter what your situation is or what kind of part-time job you’re looking for, there’s something out there for you.
At the high end of the scale, jobs that make use of your creative skills and expertise (like graphic design) can easily bring in $60+ per hour (or even more after you build a strong portfolio of work).
On the lower end of the scale are opportunities like driving for Uber or data entry. You won’t get rich with these easy part time jobs, but you can make a little bit of extra spending money in whatever free time you have available.
Whatever side gigs or part time jobs you choose to pursue, just remember to continuously work on building and improving your skills. As you do, you’ll get better opportunities that generate more money and set you on a solid financial foundation.
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