r/WeirdSideHustles • u/Both-Technician8489 • Sep 04 '26
Sharing My Sidehustle Muted webinar attendee; literally paid just to quietly sit in webinars
Attending webinar meetings can be boring sometimes, I mean you would just sit in front of your screen listening to someone else yap. But, ironically, my side hustle is literally attending webinars but the thing here is I’m not even one of the crucial people who must attend the meeting, but just there to sit and muted until the session ends.
I just got this job through an email, literally just signed up my account on different job sites and when I got this email, the subject just said be a webinar attendee for $50 per session. It’s an organization where companies and event organizers would hire us to be paid audience participants to help with the webinar set-up, ensuring that the audio and presentation is working properly, answer on polls, report technical issues, and help the event feels more active and engaged because even though we are muted, we can still engage with them.
It’s basically when the presenter would ask if they are audible or if their screen is visible, I would just send a thumbs-up emoji. And if they ask to answer a poll, I would send out my vote, and submit questions during the Q&A, like I am actually a part of the webinar. The thing here is that we are like fillers, since most participants usually just stay quiet or won’t even attend, at least, we are still there in their presence.
84
u/traumatized_bean123 Sep 04 '26
How did you sign up? I'd love to do this too!
81
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 04 '26
You sign up by knowing a scam artist and agreeing to work with them.
12
5
u/5James5 Sep 04 '26
Now all I can think about is joining random webinars and participating then invoicing the host for my attendance/engagement 😭
65
u/VaporMouth Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
Honestly? I host webinars and I see the appeal to hire someone for this. It’s ridiculous how many people will join and just not interact at all, and the speaker is left hanging without questions to answer. Id love to hire someone to ask purposeful questions in my webinar.
Edit: I’m so sorry, I made this comment to explain that I get why there would be demand for this. I’m not currently gonna hire someone to do this!
7
u/Sonnydoubleu Sep 04 '26
I'm pretty mad I've never thought about this for zoom style digital event hosting. In live events you have a handful of people that will help serve these roles, but in a webinar having a producer or production assistant who's participation gives you all of your cues to make it feel smooth. The part that's bullshit is that the title implies your job is to just open the webinar and be muted, the job is a lot of small checks that give the presenter confidence and technical feedback.
1
u/Ok_Performance_9479 Sep 08 '26
My sister did this during the pandemic. She'd mostly host zoom socials for companies trying to team build remotely.
15
u/Ill_Butterscotch772 Sep 04 '26
I'm up if you wanna hire someone.
1
u/Thabuki Sep 05 '26
I'm available. I freelance from home, so I'm on a PC a good portion of my days.
4
u/Smyley12345 Sep 04 '26
...I'm game. Hell, if you wanted me to ask specific questions to set you up to highlight something specific I would tee that up for you to knock out of the park.
2
u/Flagrant_Mockery Sep 10 '26
Yeah this is no different than having the hidden Stooge in a Magicians act. It not only helps it feel more real rather than rehearsed when in reality its anything but. But because they're comfortable with the users and they're not openly flagrant or problem causing (because paid lol).
I get it, whether you're a real business or a snake oil salesman trying to con a group.
2
2
u/Okapev Sep 04 '26
I have a very open schedule, I'd even happily ask questions you'd like to answer
1
u/Simssera Sep 04 '26
See usually when I do webinars, I have another team member on with me doing what OP is talking about. Not sure why a company wouldn’t just have someone they already pay sit in.
2
u/VaporMouth Sep 05 '26
I’m the producer and organizer of these webinars for my company and currently I mostly do that; asking questions so it’s not dead. I feel like the smart thing to do is truly get another person from the company to do it but it also depends on the company itself. We’re a fintech company that sells software so besides me and a few others, it’s just developers who are not keen to jump in and ask questions lol
1
u/Simssera Sep 05 '26
Ah I gotcha. Well if your company is ever looking for branding/marketing support, my company specializes in Fintech and it’s my personal favorite industry to work with
1
u/dreamed2life Sep 04 '26
no one should feel obligated to respond. atp we all know what webinars are for. and if the info and presentation is not engaging enough or worth responding to thats on you not them
2
u/VaporMouth Sep 05 '26
Our webinars are mostly educational, teaching people who work in brokerages how to use new software. Attendees have been polled and it’s not that they are not interested, they just aren’t confident enough to ask questions.
1
u/NoSet427 Sep 05 '26
Totally, or if the company hosting the webinar didn’t meet its target registration count
1
u/VaporMouth Sep 05 '26
Partially yes to this, but personally I wouldn’t hire someone for that. When we host webinars we have a conversion in mind, that’s why the target number matters. Id rather have 20 attendees that could potentially convert versus 100 total but 80% of them got paid to be there.
But for engagement purposes that would be awesome.
1
1
u/mrdannyg21 Sep 06 '26
Yep, I can see the appeal for sure. The key to knowing OP’s post is a scam is that it supposedly pays $50. Pretty sure you could hire a couple people do this for $10-20, no problem, and that’s with requiring them to be there to help confirm setup and such. $50 is silly.
1
1
1
u/MeridianHilltop Sep 04 '26
I was awarded with the superlative “Asks The Most Questions.”
My questions are good and deserve answers. I can prove it to you as part of the interview process.
I joined this sub because most of my “food” is peanut butter. I am barely surviving, behind on all my bills. The administration took my health insurance, just as I was relearning how to walk.
If anyone knows of any work available to someone who can barely move, please help. Every month, I borrow $50 from my foster brother to pay for my medication.
I can’t continue like this. I don’t know what to do. (Sex work is out, obviously).
0
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 05 '26
Or instead of paying someone you could just say everything you need to say in the meeting?
0
u/VaporMouth Sep 05 '26
We specifically do QnAs
1
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 05 '26
But you could not
And instead you could be useful insteading of complaining that people aren't asking the right questions. Then they could have all the information they need and could actually ask useful questions.
1
u/VaporMouth Sep 06 '26
I mean, it’s part of the specific structure of our promotion and product. I think it’s really weird that you are getting so heated about this. Also I never complained, I just said I can see why there’d be demand for this
0
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 06 '26
But it could not be.
You've created a system to be as annoying as possible. Why? To trick people into buying something? Or because you want people to be forced to talk to you?
0
u/VaporMouth Sep 06 '26
Again, I don’t get why you’re so heated about this. We sell software to companies, the companies send their employees to be trained by us in this software. We host webinars to demonstrate how the software works and then let them ask questions. We surveyed attendees and they often don’t ask questions because they aren’t confident enough in the material yet.
It’s incredibly moronic to talk about how we run our company when you have no idea what it’s about besides the fact that we host webinars and don’t get many questions in qna’s.
Find something better to do with your time maybe.
0
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 06 '26
Why aren't they confident in the material? Because you didn't train them properly?
0
u/VaporMouth Sep 07 '26
Like this has to be a troll lmao.
No, the webinars happen throughout the training process. Nothing to do with how they’re being trained
0
u/Plenty-Fox-9219 Sep 07 '26
So if they know everything, why do you need them to ask questions?
→ More replies (0)
38
u/Guardian6676-6667 Sep 04 '26
Bro is a paid twitch chatter
-20
Sep 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
17
u/Zooter88 Sep 04 '26
OP paid me $2 to upvote this
8
22
12
7
u/MoistSwordfish4327 Sep 04 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
I suspect this is a shitpost. It’s probably just his 9-5 lol. Or it could be real. For example, Indonesia has crazy programs like rent an iPhone to use for an event like a school reunion? Essentially larping as rich.
9
u/Particular-Novel-778 Sep 04 '26
Hey guys I found this weird side hustle where Jennifer Anniston from the year 2001 will come and suck your dick until you cum and she'll give you a thousand bucks every time
Leaves forever
1
u/cafebrands Sep 05 '26
Where do I send my money for your ebook, webinar and online course, and to pay you several hundred per hour for private one on one consulting!! This sounds like an even better deal than when that guy convinced me to buy his Bible, meme coin, watch, cell phone, hats, and...
7
u/SovereignSushiLover Sep 05 '26
if OP will remain silent I'll talk
this specific side gig is occassional, it's commonly available on Upwork or Fiver, most other sources are lesser known
Most of the time you are required to keep your camera on, because it's for engagement reasons. it's rare to find sessions where your camera is off.
this is not something which can be done daily, it's rare and sporadic as most zoom sessions are a one time thing
6
5
u/HumourNoire Sep 04 '26
So this is how Jeremy gets an individual course on not being an arsehole without Jeremy knowing he's the only person learning not to be an arsehole.
Fucksake, Jeremy.
7
6
u/qualx Sep 04 '26
AI bot probably wrote this. Similar sentence structure pattern, and using the word "crucial" is a dead giveaway almost every time.
Also many usernames that are 2 random words or 2 random words with a - are bots/fake.
8
u/Connect-Ganache8549 Sep 04 '26
I think it's AI but the username isn't a giveaway to bots, I didn't know I could make my own username at the start and I am stuck with this nonsense....
3
u/Legitimate-Week7885 Sep 04 '26
I didn't know I could make my own username at the start and I am stuck with this nonsense....
same!
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/Weary-Promise-4851 Sep 06 '26
This is genius. The presenter gets to fluff their attendance metrics and report engagement. For $50?? Amazing
1
u/heading_to_fire Sep 04 '26
> help the event feels more active and engaged because even though we are muted, we can still engage with them.
AKA "Meat in the room"
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Dragut7 Sep 08 '26
I've done public webinars at a couple of companies, and we've never had a third party do this. In my experience we'll get internal folks to join to help fill out the room, theres usually a marketing person making sure everything is working, and I will write my own Q&A questions and answer those if we don't get any real ones.
I'm not sure what kind of orgs would pay for someone like OP when it seems like there are other easy solutions
1
u/the-temp-account 27d ago
If anyone ever needs to hire someone for this to ask a scripted question, hit me up.
1
1
1
506
u/MiculFermier Sep 04 '26
i think thats just a hoax if OP doesnt answer to any of us