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Check out these five tech-based ways to earn extra income
Not all will be right for you, but it should get you thinking.
- PUBLISHED: Thu 22 May 2025, 2:44 PM UPDATED: Tue 3 Jun 2025, 10:54 AM
While we all enjoy life in the UAE, the cost of living has been creeping up. From rents to groceries, our bills are bigger than before. So we have put together some new and interesting ways to earn a bit of extra income. Most of them are relatively easy, others may require a bit of effort and capital. The idea is to highlight the many new ways people are earning a side income. Not all will be right for you, but it should get you thinking.
Health and fitness data
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Are you one of those people who has to get their 10,000 steps in every day and closely monitors their physical activity on an app? Well, imagine getting paid to do that? Sweatcoin is a fitness rewards app that pays you in digital currency (called Sweatcoins) for walking. The idea is simple – you download the app, you track your walking and then you earn digital tokens called $SWEAT. These can be redeemed for rewards, donated to charity, or traded in cryptocurrency form.
As a rough guide, you earn one Sweatcoin for every 1,000 steps. There’s a free version and a premium one you can subscribe to. Sweatcoin has a large user base, but check if it offers the sort of rewards you will use before signing up.
Flight tracking
Imagine earning money by installing a small device on your rooftop or balcony. Technology company Wingbits is offering residents a unique chance to turn their strategic location into a money-making opportunity. It’s all about capturing flight tracking data from passing planes.
The opportunity is straightforward: You purchase a $495 device, install it in a high location with a clear view of the sky, and start earning tokens by capturing flight data. In the UAE, Wingbits currently needs about 30 new devices to provide comprehensive data to fill in flight path gaps.
"If you live in a skyscraper in Dubai or have a rooftop with an unobstructed view, you're in an ideal position," said Wingbits founder Robin Wingårdh. There are other flight tracking data sites, but Wingbits is different in that it will reward people for providing the data, although it is in the form of its own digital tokens, which can be converted into cash.
Typical earnings range from $100 to $200 per month, with device payback periods of 4-6 months. The key is strategic placement - the higher and clearer your view, the more valuable your data becomes.
Sell your solar power
Make money and help save the planet at the same time by getting paid to generate solar power and sell it. Shams Dubai is a government-backed scheme that lets you feed excess electricity into the Dewa grid for credits off your own utility bill.
DEWA installs a bi-directional smart meter to measure both imported and exported electricity. The lifetime of the system is 25 years and beyond if it is well maintained. The more solar panels you have, the more energy you will generate, and potentially sell back to DEWA.
However, installing solar panels isn’t cheap, so there will be a significant payback time before you start making a profit. But the panels will also increase the value of your property should you sell it or rent it out. There’s a calculator on the Dewa website that can help you work out the numbers and what sort of credits you can earn to offset against your own utility bills.
https://www.dewa.gov.ae/en/consumer/solar-community/solar-calc
Hivemapper
You’ve heard of Google Maps and its Street View option, captured by its own licensed cars. Well, Hivemapper is a rival that is contributor-driven and community-owned. Plus it rewards people for capturing mapping data. How? Drivers install a Hivemapper dashcam in their vehicle - as they drive it captures street-level imagery and the data is uploaded to the Hivemapper network. Contributors are rewarded with HONEY crypto tokens based on the usefulness and uniqueness of their coverage. The data is used to build and update a global, open-source map.
Stake
Stake is a real estate investment app that allows individuals to invest in small fractions of rental properties in the UAE, primarily residential units in Dubai. Instead of buying an entire apartment, users can purchase a small part of it (it’s called fractional ownership), earn monthly rental income, and potentially profit from capital appreciation. You can invest from as little as 500 dirhams.
Stake is fully regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the properties are professionally managed (rental collection and maintenance) while returns are distributed monthly.
On the app, there are currently seven properties to invest in (another 400 properties have already been fully funded by existing investors). The projected net yield (the returns you will get after costs have been deducted) is around 5% a year. But bear in mind that property is illiquid, which means it takes time to buy and sell, so you need to have a time frame of between 3 and 5 years.