

Ask HN: Low demanding job to support you - telemator

I&#x27;ve been working on a software project for a while that I&#x27;m hoping will bring me income when done. Until then, I&#x27;m digging into my savings but it&#x27;s running out faster than I&#x27;d planned. So I need to get a job, but it shouldn&#x27;t be mentally and&#x2F;or physically demanding, otherwise my rate of progress will plummet. It doesn&#x27;t have to be in my field and I&#x27;m OK with minimum pay as long as it covers my rent and food.<p>Any advice on what kind of job qualifies?
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eastbayjake
Freelance writing is a quick and highly liquid way to earn marginal income.
During college and summer vacations I wrote for TextBroker[1], which pays per-
word for SEO keyword articles in pretty niche topics. If you score well on
their grammar and writing tests, you can make 1.5 cents per word or $7.50 per
500 word essay. The upside is that it's really easy to convert spare time into
extra income -- you can claim one article at a time and write as many as you
want. The downside is you'll be writing for some pretty scuzzy SEO folks, and
if they ask for revisions it'll tank your cents-per-word estimate. It was a
great way to round up some extra grocery money when expenses got tight, but it
would have been difficult to sustain for many hours per day. On a good run I
could make $40-50 over five hours before burning out.

I've recently come across Scripted, a more writer-friendly service that
focuses on content quality instead of brute-forcing SEO keywords.

TextBroker: [https://www.textbroker.com/](https://www.textbroker.com/)

Scripted: [http://scripted.com/](http://scripted.com/)

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1123581321
Hotel night clerk, security, housesitting, or just about anything in banking
back office. The idea is you get paid a low hourly while spending a lot of the
time working on your software. My friend finished version 1 of his application
using RDC through his tellers' station, and the bank purported to be strict
about personal computer use.

I agree consulting is best but it needs to be easily available and wrap up
neatly, or else it'll eat into your creative time.

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paulhauggis
Instead, get a part-time contracting position doing software development. I
did this while I was building my startup. I worked around 20 hours per week
and had the rest of the week to do what I wanted. I quit contracting about 9
months ago.

It worked pretty well.

The problem is that the only jobs that aren't mentally or physically demanding
will be low-paid and most likely boring to you.

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telemator
This is a good idea and I've thought about it, but it's not easy getting a
part time job around here (Sydney). But I'll look into it.

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eswat
It’s good timing to take a look at the Seeking Freelancer thread on HN. You
may not find a client close to you but as long as you can deliver a project in
exchange for what you’re looking for, then it’s a good deal.

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brandonlipman
I would definitely be curious where that thread is. Do you have a URL?

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telemator
This seems recent:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9127243](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9127243)

