How To Make $200 a Week: 14 Side Gigs You Can Start Today

Looking for ways to fill your time while filling your pockets? Starting a side hustle is a great way to meet savings goals, get more disposable income, and even pay down your debt. But some require more work and time than others to get a steady income stream going. And sometimes, you need extra money today.

If you're thinking of picking up a side gig, here are 14 side hustles that could help you make $200 (or more) per week quickly. $200 extra is an attainable goal and a good place to start if you're trying to make some cash fast.

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Ways to make an extra $200 a week (or $800+ a month)

Freelancing has always been one of the most lucrative, flexible, and reliable side hustles. You can pick up as much or as little work as you need, making anywhere from a few to a few hundred dollars. Many people even freelance to earn a second income on top of their 9-to-5.

According to the latest rate chart from the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), the median rate for writing a work-for-hire blog post is 20 to 30 cents per word. Let's say you're a mid-level writer with a 1,200-word blog post assignment. You're relatively familiar with the assignment topic, so you budget five hours to complete it.

Assuming a 20-cent per word rate, you'd earn $240 for this assignment — well above your $200 per week goal, with the math working out to $48 per hour.

If you have marketable skills, such as writing, graphic design, or video editing, you could pick up work on popular freelancing sites, like Upwork or Fiverr. Some companies also post contract work on LinkedIn, Indeed, and other job search sites.

When setting out to freelance, you can pitch well-paying gigs or set your own rates. It'll take time to get a full-blown side business off the ground, but there are many one-off jobs that require little to no prior experience.

If you have a car you don't mind spending extra time in, it could become quite the money-maker for you.

Using your car to shuttle passengers and items is a promising enough side hustle that many people do it as a part-time or even full-time job. It doesn't require any prior experience or much time to sign up for a delivery app, so you could start making deliveries as soon as this week.

For restaurant orders and grocery shopping, there's no shortage of great delivery apps to make money. We recommend Uber Eats and DoorDash because they have a wide reach across the country, offer comparatively high potential payouts, and provide fast, flexible deposits. 

Data from Everlance, a vehicle reimbursement app, found that part-time Dashers who work fewer than 20 hours per week earn an average of $20 per hour, including tips and platform incentives. If you work peak hours, like late nights from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m., and are in a major metro area or busy college community, you could expect an extra $1 to $2 per order.

Assuming you snag two orders per hour during this peak period, you could hit your $200 weekly earning goal in eight to nine hours. That's three nights per week picking up orders.

You can also check out Shipt and Instacart. For taking people from place to place, Uber and Lyft are two of the most popular platforms. 

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If you love animals and have some free time during the day, you can make good money walking dogs or offering pet-sitting services. Many people who work 9-to-5 jobs hire dog walkers to pop into their homes and take their dogs for midday walks.

According to Indeed, the average dog walker earns $20.90 per hour, as of March 2026. That means you could start making $200 a week with just a few clients, especially if you can manage to walk multiple dogs at once.

Assume you're a weekday walker who does this side hustle Monday through Friday. You spend two hours per day (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) helping two dogs get an hour of exercise – either walking them around the neighborhood or taking them to a dog park. That's about $418 you'd earn working 10 hours total a week.

For other types of pet sitting, such as daycare or overnight boarding, you could earn more than $50 or even $100 per dog, depending on your experience and where you live.

Rover is a platform that makes it easy to advertise your services, set your own rates, and connect with clients. You could also do it the old-fashioned way and post a flier at your local dog park.

Chances are, there's probably something you're good enough at to tutor someone who's still learning.

If you're a native English speaker with a good handle on grammar, for example, teaching English to students overseas can be a lucrative side hustle. There are many companies, like VIPKid, that connect English teachers with students. This is a particularly good side hustle for teachers who already have experience in the classroom.

You can also tutor students of all ages in skills like coding, art, math, foreign languages, and even music. 

Indeed reports that U.S. tutors earn $25.42 an hour on average, with a high of over $47. If you choose to be an after-school tutor, you can reach your $200-per-week income goal with approximately an hour and a half of tutoring Monday through Friday.

If you're good with social media, you could leverage those skills into a lucrative side gig. Bonus points if your own social media accounts are proof that you can hold an engaged and captive following.

Freelance social media managers can work with many clients and may be responsible for coming up with a schedule for posts, creating graphics, interacting with followers, and growing an audience.

ZipRecruiter reports an average hourly rate for freelance social media managers of $31.18, making it one of the highest-paying remote jobs.

This gig requires planning and continuous commitment, so expect to spend more time crafting your client's social strategy. But if you commit three hours per day on weekdays, you could earn $555 in a week. Just one or two clients can help establish yourself as a social media maven while reaching your earnings goal.

There are several ways you can turn an eye for photography into a lucrative side hustle. First, if you take high-quality photos, you may be able to sell them online to a stock photo site, like Shutterstock. You may not even need to take the photos to sell them to stock image sites, as some sites are beginning to accept AI-generated images as well.

If you have a deft photo-editing eye or knack for capturing subjects in a flattering way, you could earn an average base salary of $55.19 per hour, according to Indeed. Just four hours of work photographing pets or headshots can help carry you to your $200 weekly target.

You can also make good money photographing events, like weddings. Talented wedding photographers can charge $400 or more per hour, earning thousands per wedding.

The caveat is that you do have to invest in top-tier equipment, spend a good deal of time editing, or even budget for travel, especially for high-production events, like wedding photography.

Picking up odd jobs is another way to make cash fast — and helping people move means you can get a workout in while making money.

Instead of paying for expensive moving companies, many people turn to sites like Craigslist or TaskRabbit for help with moving, heavy lifting, furniture assembly, and more.

According to TaskRabbit, you could earn upwards of $40 per hour to help people move, and the pay for some heavy-lifting jobs can be over $50 per hour. Use this TaskRabbit tool to see how much you could earn for different gigs in your area.

If you're booked for two moving jobs on a Saturday that takes a total of five hours, you'll earn at least $200 and still have time in your day for personal errands.

Babysitting can be an extremely lucrative side hustle, even if you just do it for a few hours every week.

Some people pick up babysitting gigs from friends or acquaintances, while others use a service like Care.com to link up with clients looking for childcare in the area.

As the average cost of childcare in America continues to rise, babysitters can charge substantial hourly rates, though going rates vary a great deal depending on where you live. Nationally, the average hourly rate for babysitting is $19.81, according to Care.com data, though major metropolitan cities, like Seattle, Washington, can be as high as $25.23 per hour. Smaller cities are often closer to $19 or $20 hourly.

Childcare could be a great way to fill your schedule, especially if you're a college student with big gaps between classes, or a retired educator. After-school babysitting care, say 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., could earn you about $400 per week at $20 per hour. There's even more opportunity if the family you sit for is interested in one-off date night or weekend care.

If you have general administrative skills, you can make good money from the comfort of your home as a virtual assistant (VA).

These employees can pick up work on a freelance basis. They may be responsible for data entry, responding to a client's emails, managing social media accounts, blogs, or websites, and more.

Freelance virtual assistants can find work through a site like Upwork, which says they make an average of $10 to $20 per hour. The more skills or experience you can offer — like if you have experience directly supporting executive leadership — the more you can charge.

Let's say you have five years of administrative experience and secure a $15-per-hour gig with a new small business. If you commit to three hours per day, five days a week, you could earn $225. The best part is that this side hustle has minimal startup costs — just bring your laptop and detail-oriented mindset to the table.

This could be the gig for you if you like staying physically active and enjoy spending time outdoors. Offering yard work services — like mowing lawns, trimming hedges, or even gardening and landscaping — is a great way to earn extra cash.

ZipRecruiter data states that the average hourly rate for yard work services is $19.69.

You can offer services locally online, by word of mouth, or sign up for a service like GreenPal that connects freelancers with people in the area looking for quality lawn care. With a roster of 10 recurring weekly customers (assuming each takes about an hour), you could earn about $200 working weekends.

Be aware that this is a highly seasonal opportunity, depending on where you live and on shifts in weather patterns. Spring and summer months are typically the busiest, so if you live in a four-season region and want a year-round side gig, this might not be for you.

You'll also need to invest in equipment, like a lawn mower, rakes, and shears, if you don't already have them.

If you have a solid understanding of the English language and grammar rules, offering proofreading services can also be a lucrative side hustle. People seek proofreading services for all sorts of publications, from blog posts to book manuscripts.

The EFA revealed that the median rate for proofreading a memoir is about $0.02 per word. At first sight, that might seem like it would take eons to reach $200 per week. But for a 75,000-word memoir, you're looking at earning $1,500 to proofread the entire project.

Conservatively, if it takes you about three weeks to proofread the memoir, you'll have earned $500 per week.

To start out, consider advertising your services on a site like Upwork or Fiverr.

There's no shortage of apps that would love to pay you real, honest money to complete tasks from your phone or computer. From downloading and playing game apps and signing up for offers to watching ads and taking surveys, get-paid-to (GPT) sites are the worst-kept secret in the side hustle kingdom. 

With these apps, you can get paid to fill in the blank. If you see an offer you like, all you have to do is read what's required to qualify for it and make money.

However, it's smart to temper your expectations with this one. Hourly rates are generally a few dollars (under $10) per hour, and actual earnings vary by task and time commitment. The time required to set up your account and qualify for a task or survey can also quickly chip away at your per-hour rate.

Consider using this option if you otherwise have downtime that another higher-paying gig can't fill.

To help you cut through the noise, we've tried a lot of these apps ourselves and verified that they offer legitimate payouts. Some of our favorites include Freecash, Survey Junkie, and Cash Giraffe. These, more than others, offer greater earnings potential and more options for making money.

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If you enjoy making crafts like candles, jewelry, or graphic T-shirts, you may be able to turn that hobby into a lucrative side hustle. Millions of people use craft-selling sites, like Etsy, to sell goods.

According to Esty, there were over five million sellers on the Etsy platform alone in the fourth quarter of 2025, and more than 86 million buyers around the world. Depending on your niche and how successful you are at marketing your small business, that's a whole lot of potential customers to tap into.

New Etsy shops (less than a year old) average 42 sales per month, according to Sales Doe data. If you're selling handmade trinket dishes at $22 each, and you average 11 sales per week, your total gross earnings are $242. Just keep in mind operating costs, like Esty's $0.20 fee per listing and its 6.5% transaction fee for using its platform — that takes your earnings down to about $226 (not including packing supplies and shipping).

Web design is another side hustle that can be extremely lucrative if you have some basic skills in CSS, WordPress, or using other platforms.

According to ZipRecruiter, freelance web designers earn around $21 an hour on average. If you have a client or two who require ongoing website updates or are launching a site redesign, 10 hours working toward this gig can earn more than $200.

Picking up a side hustle is a great way to make extra money every week, but it's important to choose one that fits your needs, schedule, and abilities. Earnings vary by geographic location, expertise, and demand for the service you're offering.

That said, the jobs here, along with many others, have the potential to be real earners. And it's a bonus if you can pick up a gig you're interested in — maybe even more than your day job.