{"id":67624,"date":"2025-11-24T14:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67624\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T14:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T14:24:07","slug":"really-odd-jobs-that-pay-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67624\/","title":{"rendered":"Really odd jobs that pay \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tim Fung has seen his share of odd jobs \u2014 really odd jobs. Indeed, the website he operates \u2014\u00a0Airtasker<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 specializes in them.<\/p>\n

Airtasker, a site that\u2019s well-known in Australia but relatively new to the U.S., invites clients to post job listings that say what they want done, what they want to pay, and then pick and choose among the freelance workers who offer to do the job.<\/p>\n

While nothing in the site\u2019s terms stipulate that the jobs need to be unique or different, most have something that\u2019s not exactly standard, says Fung. After all, if you just wanted someone to clean your house, you\u2019d probably hire a cleaning service, like\u00a0Turno.<\/a>\u00a0If you wanted bookcase assembled, you might enlist someone from\u00a0Taskrabbit.<\/a><\/p>\n

Really odd jobs<\/p>\n

But, if you needed help decluttering after a difficult break-up or a death, and wanted\u00a0some emotional support while you worked,<\/a> that\u2019s the type of job that you\u2019d post on Airtasker. If you needed the bookcase to fit into a tight corner, which might involve a little imagination and power tools, you could explain that assignment here, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that the jobs are odd, but a lot of them are unique,\u201d says Fung. \u201cOur platform is there for people who want something done that doesn\u2019t necessarily fit into a standard package.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, one Australian posted a job looking for a freelancer willing to fly from Sydney to Dallas, all expenses paid, to pick up an engagement ring and fly back.<\/p>\n

Initially, Fung thought that job was so odd that it was likely to be a scam and Airtasker deleted the post. But the poster, a prominent surgeon, contacted the site\u2019s support team complaining that he could find no better way to courier expensive jewelry across continents. They reposted the gig and a very happy freelancer got a free trip to the U.S. and $1,000 in pocket change for taking the assignment.<\/p>\n

Common requests<\/p>\n

However, everyday issues with a twist are far more common.<\/p>\n

For instance, one poster says his lost backpack was discovered sitting in a Los Angeles lost-and-found warehouse that was only open until noon. However, his flight didn\u2019t get to Los Angeles until later in the day. He offered to pay an Airtasker $50 to collect the item before the warehouse closed and then meet him between the pick-up location and the airport after he landed.<\/p>\n

In early October, a number of other job posts were for people to make custom Halloween costumes \u2014 paying $150 to $400 each.<\/p>\n

One customer sought a freelancer to\u00a0fix a loose recliner arm for $200.<\/a>\u00a0Another was paying\u00a0$500 to pick up and move a storage shed.<\/a>\u00a0And Airtasker itself is offering to\u00a0pay \u201cbrand ambassadors\u201d $300 a day to hand out fliers and get people to sign up.<\/a><\/p>\n

Differentiating factors<\/p>\n

Notably, there are a lot of gig platforms that can help freelancers find odd jobs.\u00a0Fiverr<\/a>\u00a0may be the best known for remote work, ranging from virtual assisting to tech help.\u00a0Taskrabbit<\/a>\u00a0is among the best known for in-person jobs, such as furniture assembly.<\/p>\n

But there is a structure to the job listings on these other sites that Airtasker specifically avoids. Freelancers on Airtasker don\u2019t set specific rates of pay, for instance. They simply review the jobs offered on the site and decide whether or not they want to apply for them.<\/p>\n

In some cases, job postings are vague \u2014 or unrealistic, asking for too much work for too little pay. In those cases, Fung says the posting should serve as a trigger for a conversation about the work. That could allow the freelancer to limit the scope of the job or ask for more money.<\/p>\n

The catch<\/p>\n

The problem right now is that Airtasker is far from a household name. That means that there are fewer clients posting jobs and fewer freelancers offering to take them. That often means that job postings \u2014 particularly the vague posting that require discussion to suss out the details \u2014 go unanswered.<\/p>\n

Moreover, there are plenty of job posters who are clearly trying to run scams here, too. The scam listings generally\u00a0offer great pay \u2014 $400 \u2013 $800 \u2014 for vague work.<\/a>\u00a0But when freelancers ask for more details, the poster suggests they \u201creach out via the photograph\u201d on their profiles. These photographs provide phone numbers to contact the poster directly.<\/p>\n

Providing a phone number before a job is accepted and payment collected by the site is strictly forbidden. But Airtasker apparently does not screen profile photographs. That allows scammers to skirt safeguards that put payment for accepted work into escrow to ensure that contractors are paid. It also opens freelancers up to job scams aimed at getting their bank account information or Social Security numbers.<\/p>\n

However, knowing that you\u2019re not supposed to contact job posters outside of Airtasker\u2019s message system should make it fairly easy to spot and sidestep the crooks.<\/p>\n

Flip side<\/p>\n

Then, too, while sites like Taskrabbit and Fiverr have far more clients looking for freelancers, they also are awash with freelancers. That makes it tough for new freelancers to stand out from the crowd and nab work.<\/p>\n

And, at least for the moment, there is considerably less competition for the legitimate jobs on Airtasker. Indeed, when we checked the site in late October 2025, a relative handful of freelancers responded to most of the legitimate job offers and appeared to successfully win many bids. Active freelancers showed hundreds of reviews and some had thousands of completed jobs.<\/p>\n

For someone looking for odd jobs that pay, Airtasker may be worth a try.<\/p>\n

Kristof is the editor of\u00a0SideHusl.com<\/a>,\u00a0an independent website that reviews moneymaking opportunities in the gig economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Fung has seen his share of odd jobs \u2014 really odd jobs. Indeed, the website he operates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[387,2087,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-67624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-columns","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}