20 Money-Making Skills You Can Learn in Less Than an Hour

Having a second job is a financial necessity for many. While picking up another gig is the easiest way to earn extra cash, it’s often hard to find time to learn a new skill.

According to Hostinger, over 36% have a side hustle. While that number may seem high, perhaps it’s because earning an additional income doesn’t always require a considerable time commitment or advanced degrees. In fact, many skills can be picked up in under an hour and monetized just as fast.

From online research to resume writing, here are 20 new things you can master in an hour and start making money.

• Pay: $25.32 per hour
• Where to find work: Upwork, Fiverr, direct outreach to small businesses

A social media scheduler is a software tool that lets you plan, create and automatically publish content to multiple social media platforms. It’s quick to learn because it involves simple, repeatable tasks rather than complex technical skills. By mastering one of these scheduling tools, you can help brands maintain a consistent posting schedule without having to create content yourself.

• Pay: $26.37 per hour (Indeed)
• Where to find work: Fiverr, Etsy (templates), social media

You don’t need to be a Photoshop pro to create in-demand graphics. With user-friendly tools like Canva, an easy-to-use graphic platform, anyone can design simple social media images, flyers or ads. Basic graphic design using Canva is quick to learn because the platform removes much of the technical complexity traditionally associated with design.

• Pay: $31.60 per hour
• Where to find work: Fiverr, Upwork, TikTok outreach

With the explosion of TikTok and Instagram Reels, short-form video editors are in hot demand. Brands and influencers often film raw video, but need someone to quickly trim clips, add captions and sync music. This skill can be learned via free apps or basic editing software like iMovie and Adobe Express. It doesn’t take long to pick up because short-term editing focuses on simplicity, speed and repetition rather than complex production.

• Pay: $27.65 per hour
• Where to find work: Upwork, job boards

If you have a good eye for grammar and spelling, proofreading is a quick-start skill. Many writers and businesses need a second set of eyes to catch errors in articles, marketing emails or website copy. You can learn basic proofreading marks and techniques in under an hour (there are many free online guides). Then, offer to proofread a friend’s blog or resume to practice.

• Pay: $15 to $24 per hour (Freelancer.com)
• Where to find work: Virtual assistant platforms, networking

Managing a busy email inbox is a headache for many professionals, which is why they hire virtual assistants to do it. In less than an hour, you can learn how to create email filters, set up labels/folders and use tools like Boomerang to schedule or snooze emails. It’s not hard to grasp because it’s based on easy systems and habits rather than complex technical skills.

• Pay: $19.47 per hour
• Where to find work: FlexJobs, Upwork, staffing sites

Data entry is straightforward work that requires accuracy more than experience. If you can do fast, error-free typing, you can handle tasks like inputting survey results into a spreadsheet or updating an e-commerce site’s inventory. Spend an hour learning Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets basics and practice typing to reduce mistakes.

• Pay: $54.38 per hour
• Where to find work: Upwork, Fiverr, research sites

Many of us are online for hours a day, so why not make the most of your time and get paid? People will pay you to do online research — everything from finding contact information for sales leads to gathering market data or fact-checking articles. This skill is essentially about knowing how to Google effectively and evaluate sources. It’s easy to learn the basics (such as using search operators and specific databases) in under an hour.

• Pay: $23.47 per hour
• Where to find work: Fiverr, LinkedIn, word-of-mouth referrals

A polished resume can make or break a job search, but not everyone knows how to format one. Resume formatting (improving the layout, fonts and organization of someone’s resume) is a skill you can pick up quickly by studying online resume examples or templates.

• Pay: $18.21 per hour
• Where to find work: Upwork, Amazon seller forums, eBay community boards

E-commerce sellers often need help creating product listings — writing titles, descriptions and bullet points that make their items sell. If you spend an hour learning the basics of Amazon or eBay listing formats (what keywords to include, how to craft a compelling title, etc.), you can offer this as a service.

• Pay: $16.40 per hour
• Where to find work: Remote job boards (Indeed, ZipRecruiter), companies hiring directly

Many companies offer live chat support for customers on their websites or apps. This is a role you can train for very quickly — often, the company will give you canned responses or a knowledge base. If you have decent typing skills and a friendly demeanor via text, you can earn solid hourly pay helping customers.

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• Pay: $20.45 per hour (audio hour rates vary)
• Where to find work: Rev, TranscribeMe, Upwork

If you can type, use those skills to transcribe interviews, podcasts, meetings or lectures. For beginners, it doesn’t require much beyond practicing typing, being a strong listener and knowing good grammar and proofreading — all things easily learned in a short amount of time.

• Pay: $34.31 per hour
• Where to find work: Upwork, Indeed, other job sites

Busy professionals often outsource their calendar management, which can include scheduling meetings, booking appointments and/or sending reminders. It’s a skill you can learn quickly by getting familiar with Google Calendar or Outlook.

• Pay: $20 to $5,000 per month (Rocket.net)
• Where to find work: Fiverr, Upwork, local business outreach

You don’t need to be a web developer to do simple website updates. Many small-business websites (often built on WordPress, Wix or Squarespace) need occasional changes that the owners don’t know how to do, like updating text or images, adding a new page or installing a plugin. These are straightforward tasks you can learn through a few tutorials.

• Pay: Varies (UserTesting.com)
• Where to find work: UserTesting, Trymata (formerly TryMyUI), Userlytics

Companies are eager for user experience feedback, creating a niche for website and app testing. This basically involves using a website or mobile app to share your honest feedback (often recorded via screen share and microphone). It typically takes less than an hour to set up a profile and do a practice test.

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• Pay: $26.18 per hour
• Where to find work: Social media agencies, freelance clients (influencers, small brands)

Beyond scheduling content, many businesses need help with engagement — that means replying to comments, answering DMs, liking and commenting on other accounts. The job also entails analyzing your audience and optimizing content with visuals and relevant hashtags. Dedicate 30 mins to content/timing and 30 mins to real-time engagement with your community, and that’s it!

• Pay: $35.05 per hour
• Where to find work: Virtual assistant job boards, TaskRabbit (virtual tasks section)

It’s easy to get bogged down with files like documents, PDFs and photos. Fortunately, people will pay you to get them organized. Offering file organization is as simple as knowing how to create folder structures and use cloud storage (such as Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive). Spend an hour learning tips for organizing files (naming conventions, folder hierarchies, etc.) and you can market yourself as an organizing whiz.

• Pay: $22.10 per hour
• Where to find work: Fiverr, Upwork, local small business marketing

Not every photo edit requires Adobe Photoshop mastery. Many small tasks like cropping images, adjusting brightness or removing a background can be done with basic tools (even free ones like Canva or Remove.bg). If you take an hour to learn a few simple editing techniques, you can start offering basic photo editing services.

• Pay: $38.64 per hour
• Where to find work: Social media managers, marketing agencies, freelance gigs.

Crafting a catchy caption is an art. and one you can learn quickly by studying what works on platforms like Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn. Many brands and influencers will actually pay writers to come up with engaging captions for their posts, especially if they’re not confident in their own writing.

• Pay: $15 to $25 per hour (Freelancer.com)
• Where to find work: Upwork, Fiverr, virtual assistant job boards, small business outreach

For a professional spreadsheet cleanup gig, you don’t need special skills, but you do need to understand how to organize data in Google Sheets or Excel — sorting rows, cleaning up columns, applying basic formulas and improving readability are all critical aspects. Learning the gig doesn’t take up too much time, though, because the job relies on a small set of basic, repeatable actions, not advanced data analysis or coding.

• Pay: $31.24 per hour
• Where to find work: Freelance platforms (Upwork, Freelancer), direct clients in need of AI help

Many companies are implementing AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney or Notion AI, and not everyone understands how to use them effectively. If you spend an hour learning the basics of one AI tool — say, how to craft good prompts for ChatGPT or how to generate art with Midjourney — you can offer AI tool assistance as a service.

Editor’s note: Unless otherwise specified, all pay information was gathered from ZipRecruiter in December 2025, and is subject to change.