November 2020 Side Hustle Report – $2,943.64

We’re into a new month, which means it’s time for another Financial Panther Side Hustle Report. In this post, we’ll be looking at what I was able to make in November 2020.

As regular readers know, I’ve been tracking all of the income I earn from gig economy and sharing economy apps since 2016. Each month, I write a new post detailing exactly what I made and how I was able to do it. The idea is to show you what’s possible for someone doing this type of work on a part-time basis. Most wouldn’t think it, but with a bit of strategy, these gig economy apps can be lucrative.

It ended up being a surprisingly good side hustle month, which I did not expect at all because of some issues I had – and continue to have – with my food delivery apps. I’ll get into that in more detail as we get into this post.

With all that background out of the way, let’s take a look at what I was able to make side hustling in November 2020.

Side Hustle Income for November 2020

• Airbnb: $0
• Rover: $252.45
• Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub: $1,871.13
• Shipt/Instacart: $24.13
• Selling Trash Finds/Flipping: $118.10
• WeGoLook: $0  
• ProductTube: $245 
• TaskRabbit: $19
• Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/IVueIt: $71.10
• Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q: $42.98
• VoxPopMe: $27.50
• Secret Shopping: $57
• PrestoShopper: $145
• ProductLab: $10.25 
• User Interviews/L&E Research/Respondent.io: $60

Total Side Hustle Income for November 2020 = $2,943.64

This month, I ended up earning over $2,900 worth of side hustle income from 13 different types of gig economy apps. I’m actually surprised at how much I was able to make considering some issues I had this month with some of these apps. Thankfully, the weather has remained pretty good this month, so I’ve been able to get outside and bike and do a lot of these gigs without having to deal with the weather.

Looking back, there are two particular apps that jump out to me this month – ProductTube and PrestoShopper. ProductTube is an especially underrated app that has some interesting use cases. PrestoShopper is also an app that I’ve figured out how to use pretty well. It’s not an intuitive app, so there is a learning curve, but once you understand how it works, the app can work out very well.

The remaining apps for the month performed as I normally expect. It’s pretty interesting – when you look at these apps, earning a few bucks here and there doesn’t seem like much, but it surprisingly adds up. 

Below is a more in-depth look into my side hustle earnings for last month.

 

Rover Income: $252.45 

November is typically a good month for Rover since a lot of people need to board their dogs during Thanksgiving. However, with the pandemic, it wasn’t clear if I’d get any business this month since fewer people are traveling, so I think I lucked out getting a weeklong stay over Thanksgiving week. 

I ended up watching a Goldendoodle named Teddy for nine days. He was a new pup to me, which always carries a little bit of risk since there are no guarantees about what I’m getting myself into. That said, I lucked out. Teddy was a perfect pup and fit in really well with me and my family. 

The income I earned this month from Rover felt very passive. That’s one of the underrated benefits of Rover. If you already have a dog, watching a second dog really doesn’t add any additional work to your plate. You already have to take care of your own dog, after all. When it comes to active income, Rover is about as passive as it can get. 

I think anyone that likes dogs should consider making a profile on Rover. It doesn’t cost you anything to get started other than some time. It takes some time to get yourself established, so better to get started sooner, rather than later. You can sign up to be a Rover dog sitter with this link. 

 

Postmates/DoorDash/Uber Eats/Grubhub Income: $1,871.13

Here’s the breakdown of my food delivery earnings in November: 

• Postmates: $92.66
• DoorDash: $919.70
• Uber Eats: $453.62
• Grubhub: $405.15 

November was a bit of a frustrating month for me due to some issues I had with my delivery apps. The first issue was that I got deactivated on DoorDash for a few days because they needed me to update my W-9 form. Apparently, they had sent me something in the mail about sending them a new W-9 form. I definitely never received anything in the mail, but in any event, they deactivated my account until I sent them an updated W-9 form. 

I do have to give props to DoorDash for how fast they addressed this issue. The deactivation email stated that once I sent them my updated W-9, they’d reactivate my account within 72 hours. Sure enough, my account was reactivated within 72 hours as they promised. 

The second – and more frustrating problem – is an ongoing issue I have with Uber Eats. I was last able to complete an Uber Eats delivery on November 12th, but then on November 13th, I discovered that I couldn’t log in to my account. The customer service team told me that it was because they need to run a yearly background check on me and that I needed to submit the background check consent form in the app. I did exactly that, but as I write this, I’m still not able to log in. Multiple phone calls and tweets still haven’t solved the issue. I even went into an Uber hub to get help in person and they couldn’t help me either. My plan is to just keep calling every couple of days and hope this gets fixed eventually, but as I write this, it’s now been over a month since I last completed an Uber Eats delivery.

You wouldn’t think it’s that big of a deal, but not having Uber Eats dramatically hurts my income potential when it comes to food delivery. Multi-apping is super important to maximize your delivery earnings and since Uber Eats is the 2nd busiest app in my market, not having it in my repertoire means things are moving a lot slower.

In any event, things are starting to slow down a lot in my neighborhood anyway, so I’m likely going to cut back a little bit on deliveries in the coming months. Most of the demand in my neighborhood comes from college kids and it appears that most of them have gone home for the holidays since the University is now virtual classes only. I expect things will continue to remain slow in December and most of January, then maybe pick up again if the college kids come back after winter break. 

If you want to deliver for any of these apps, feel free to sign up using the links below.

• DoorDash: Sign up for DoorDash here.
• Postmates: Sign up for Postmates here.
• UberEats: Sign up for Uber Eats here.
• Grubhub: No referral link, but you can sign up for it here.  

 

Shipt/Instacart Income: $24.13

I did one Shipt delivery in November which paid a little over $24, including tip. This was a pretty easy order that was on promo, which meant it paid extra. 

I’m still not super excited about Shipt and Instacart, mainly because I’m slow at shopping and really haven’t figured out how to make these two apps work well for me. Remember, the difference with the gig economy compared to most jobs is that you’re trading tasks for money, not time for money. That means speed is the name of the game here. The more efficient you are, the more you’ll earn. I don’t mean to say that Shipt and Instacart aren’t worthwhile apps – it’s just that I’m not that efficient with them compared to my efficiency with other apps.

That said, Shipt and Instacart are both apps that are probably better to do in the winter since you get to stay indoors for longer periods. Last year, I did a little bit more Shipt during winter and I might lean towards doing that again this year. We’ll see what happens.

You can sign up to be a Shipt shopper with this link. And you can sign up to be an Instacart shopper using this link.

 

Trash/Flipping Income: $118.10 

Selling trash finds and flipping things from Goodwill is a minor hobby of mine that tends to earn me around $50 to $100 each month. I don’t do a ton of flipping, so I’m not an expert in it by any means, but I do it enough that I know a little bit. 

This month, I had one minor trash sale. My neighbor across the street put out a small wire shelf thing, which I quickly grabbed and listed on Facebook Marketplace for $5. It took me a minute to list on Facebook Marketplace and sold within an hour. I find that these small, seemingly worthless items are always worth grabbing just because of how easy they are to sell. 

The other sales for the month were things I sold on eBay, primarily clothes. Most of these items were things I bought at Goodwill and Goodwill Outlet. Whenever I pass a Goodwill, I usually stop inside to check for any good board games or books. When I’m in there, I’ll usually see if there’s anything I can flip for a decent profit. It’s not a huge amount of money, but it adds up over the course of the year and I find it fun to do.

 

ProductTube Income: $245 

I did very well with ProductTube this past month. To quickly recap for those of you new to this app, ProductTube is an app that pays users to record short videos that are used for market research purposes. Each assignment gives you instructions as to what you are supposed to do. You’ll then record the video, either at a specific store or at home. The videos typically take 5 minutes or less to complete and pay at least $5 (but usually it’s more like $10 to $25). From an hourly wage standpoint, these ProductTube gigs are well worth it. 

I think towards the end of the year a lot of these market research companies have to spend their budget, which might explain why there are so many more gigs to complete right now. In most months, I’m only able to complete a handful of ProductTube gigs, but this past month has been very busy.

The particularly interesting gig I completed this month was one where I had to shop for a specific type of chocolate at a gas station. This gig paid $40 for what amounted to a 10-minute video. What was really interesting about this gig was that other market research apps I use were also looking for this same information, so I was able to double dip (or actually, triple-dip) this assignment with some other apps as well. More on that in the next section. 

ProductTube is currently my most underrated app and I think you should definitely download it if you haven’t already.

 

TaskRabbit Income: $19 

TaskRabbit was interesting this month. I received a request from someone who wanted me to do the chocolate gig that I mentioned in the ProductTube section. This was literally the same task as the ProductTube gig, which meant that I submitted the same video that I completed for ProductTube. I ended up getting paid $17 to do this gig, plus a $2 tip. It’s obviously not as much as the $40 I got from ProductTube, but I also didn’t have to do any extra work to complete this task.

 

Gigwalk/EasyShift/Field Agent/Merchandiser/Observa/IVueIt Income: $71.10

November was a good month with these picture-taking apps. Food delivery has gotten a little slow in the past few weeks, so I shifted some of my side hustling to these apps. Here’s the breakdown of my earnings with each of these apps for the month: 

• Gigwalk: $0
• EasyShift: $8.60
• Field Agent: $35
• Merchandiser: $0
• Observa: $17.50
• IVueIt: $10

I find that it’s not usually worth going out of your way to complete these gigs, but if you can combine these apps with errands you’re already doing, then they can make sense. For example, I often see a lot of Field Agent gigs at grocery stores and big-box retailers. If you’re already going to be shopping at one of these stores, then it’s worth checking the app to see if there are any gigs at that store.

Of these apps, IVueIt is the one I have the most fun with. This app is one that I’ve added into my repertoire in the past few months because of how easy the gigs are to complete. Almost all of the gigs in this app involve taking pictures of the exterior of specific buildings. I don’t typically see too many IVueIt gigs, but if I happen to see one nearby, I’ll always grab it. For this past month, I ended up completed a $10 gig that required me to take pictures of a church that’s down the street from my house.

The other interesting app this past month was Observa, which is an app that I hadn’t earned any income from since 2019. In November, I happened to find a few easy gigs in this app that were simple enough to complete. These gigs asked me to take a few pictures of specific products in a grocery store. I was able to complete them while I was completing other tasks. 

If I were to rate these apps, I think anything from Field Agent, Observa, and IVueIt is worth completing (assuming the task is close to you). EasyShift is hit or miss – in general, I find EasyShift gigs take too long for what they pay. Merchandiser is also hit or miss. Some of them are fine, but there are a lot of Merchandiser gigs that require you to interact with a manager, which is something I don’t want to do. Finally, GigWalk is usually fine, but there are very few GigWalk tasks available in my area.

 

Google Opinion Rewards/Surveys On The Go/1Q Income: $42.98

I made more than usual from these short survey apps, mainly because Surveys On The Go was particularly profitable this month. Here’s the breakdown of my earnings with each of these apps last month. 

• Google Opinion Rewards: $4.96
• Surveys On The Go: $36.52
• 1Q: $1.50

I was able to make a good amount on Surveys On The Go because of a few surveys that paid more than usual.  I’ve mentioned this in past side hustle reports, but Surveys On The Go does require a bit of strategy – there are a bunch of surveys that take far too long for what they pay. The key thing to note is that every survey in that app pays you 10 cents even if you don’t qualify for the survey. So, with those surveys, you want to disqualify yourself as fast as possible in order to collect your 10 cents.

 

VoxPopMe Income: $27.50

VoxPopMe is an app where you record short answers to simple questions. Each question pays you at least 50 cents and takes 15 seconds to complete. I don’t get a lot of questions to answer most months, but every once in a while, it seems like I’ll get a bunch of questions in a row that pay $0.50 to $1 each. Once you hit $15, you can cash out your earnings.

In November, I got a string of questions to answer, which got me well over the $15 mark and allowed me to cash out the earnings I’d accumulated over the past couple of months. 

 

Secret Shopping Income: $57

I’m continuing to do a lot of restaurant secret shops at the same fast-casual restaurant chain via the Marketforce app. I typically get 5 to 10 free meals each month. Marketforce is particularly good because they also pay you to complete the shop, in addition to reimbursing you for your meal. Most other secret shopping websites only reimburse your meal, so you don’t really make money doing them.

What’s really amazing is how much free food I’ve been able to get from Marketforce in 2020. I pulled up my records and I’ve eaten over $1,200 worth of free food. Wow! And I’ve earned almost $600 in payments as well. 

 

PrestoShopper Income: $145

I’ve been making a ton of money from the Presto Shopper app thanks to these Covid safety check assignments that appear each month. These gigs only take me a minute to complete at most. All I have to do is walk into the store and quickly snap a few pictures. I’m usually in each store for 10 seconds.

With food delivery a bit slow this past month, I had a few days where I biked around the city doing these gigs rather than delivering food. Each assignment pays $10 and since there are so many of these Covid safety check gigs in my city, it’s easy for me to earn a solid amount of money biking around completing these gigs.

One thing to note is that the Presto Shopper app is not a user-friendly interface. There’s a small learning curve, but once you figure out how it works, it’s not too difficult.  

 

ProductLab Income: $10.25 

Every week, I make a couple of dollars submitting screenshots of my DoorDash earnings to ProductLab. The screenshots don’t have any personal information in them, so I’m comfortable sharing this data with this company. It’s obviously not a ton of money, but it’s still a few bucks for me without having to do much work.

 

User Interviews/L&E Research/Respondent.io Income: $60 

All of these websites fit under the market research category of my side hustle income. This past month worked out really well for me when it comes to market research stuff.

I’m actually not sure which website got me this gig, but I got a call from a market research company that wanted me to review chocolate bars at a gas station. If this sounds familiar, it’s because this was the same assignment that I got through ProductTube and TaskRabbit, which meant that I was able to triple dip the same video. The assignment paid $50, so that means this one 10-minute video I made earned me a total of $109 ($50 from this random market research company, $40 from ProductTube, and $19 from TaskRabbit).

I also earned $10 by completing a survey about the gig economy for a college study. I actually have no idea how I got this assignment, but the survey only took a few minutes to complete, so it was worth my time.

 

And that concludes the November 2020 Side Hustle Report!

November was a surprisingly strong month for me on the side hustle front. Given how slow the delivery game has been lately plus all the problems I’ve had with my delivery apps, I’m actually surprised that I was able to earn this much in November from using a bunch of random gig apps. 

The weather is definitely starting to get colder, although it’s still been warm enough that I’m still having fun biking and being outside. Once it starts snowing, I’ll probably start slowing down my hustle.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my side hustle earnings for this past month. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them down below. To check out what I’ve earned in past months, be sure to check out my Side Hustle Report page, where you can find all of my side hustle reports since 2016. And for more ideas, make sure to check out my Ultimate List of Gig Economy Apps, where I detail every gig economy app I’ve ever used or heard about. Thanks for reading.