Let's get three things straight here:

• "Influencer" is not a job title, no matter how much you might earn from any videos you make while claiming to be one. It's not even a proper word, as far as my dictionary is concerned. For the most part, an "influencer" is an egotistical, pathologically self-absorbed lazy and unemployable fucknuckle with an abundant lack of any skills other than how to adjust camera focus and lighting, or conning people to pay for their (or other people's) drivel that they shill. It's people like them that give millennials a bad rep. Does that offend you, yeah? Good. Perhaps you'll actually get out into the real world, touch grass, learn some valuable skills and find real work. Have you considered freelancing, possibly as a salesperson?
• Chocolate, condensed milk, cryptocurency, dogs, food and sex: Those are the six things that are my main motivators. Anything that doesn't lead to one (or more) of those (including taking shit from authority figures, particularly autocratic ones) is probably pretty low down my list of interests/priorities. Sure, there's apparently plenty of crypto/money to be made in blockchain tech, but unfortunately, cryptocurrency isn't really a viable asset/route for me unless I get a crypto credit card (since none of the merchants where I live accept it, nor do most online services). Even if I do get paid in crypto, I'll likely end up exchanging it for fiat anyway, which sucks. That's for losers.
• Given my Brobdingnagian vocabulary, technical knowledge and skill set (rusty and outdated though a lot of it likely is), there should be no conceivable reason why I can't make a decent living from doing freelancing/independent contract work online, through sites like Upwork and Fiverr. (It's just difficult to get started, earn decently and takes commitment and persistence.) I'm certainly going to give making a go of that my best shot. Quite frankly, working for other people (especially remotely) doesn't bother me much; working with them does. If I can avoid/postpone that (likely an inevitability), I'm sure as hell going to pursue that avenue before being resigned to having to find some miserable dead-end job in the private tyranny that is a corporation. Just the idea of it makes me anxious, nauseous and panicky. Hooray for CPTSD, right? It's been like this for at least four years, likely longer. The meds I'm on help, but they don't solve the underlying problem: I don't trust other people further than I can throw them.

I'm aware that it's going to be a lot of hard work, comes with its own set of problems and I won't be able to completely escape being abused, exploited and underpaid (because that's the nature of Capitalism and the fiat system from which I can't currently extricate myself), but at least I won't have to contend with threats of physical violence for not meeting the whims of some megalomaniac psychopath and his flunkies.

Although I've posted a list of sites for freelance/remote work before, that was primarily focused on Blockchain/Web3 work. This one's intended to be more of a general, fiat-farming one, since that's not going away any time soon and where I'll have to look in the interim.With that in mind, I set out to find alternatives/additional sites to Fiver and Upwork. Its not going to do me much (if any) good using only one or two sites. If I'm going to have any success in catching fish, I need to cast my net wide. Here's what I found:

• Amazon Mechanical Turk: Do small tasks and earn dollars. Unfortunately, when I tried it, South Africans were excluded. Perhaps if I use a VPN set to use an American or UK IP, I might clear that obstacle. On the other hand, it's Amazon, a company at least as dishonest as the creator of the original Mechanical Turk ... For details of the original Mechanical Turk, have a look at the linked Wikipedia article.
• SkillPatron.com: SkillPatron is a community of talent (African-based) available to work for you remotely, online or in-person at the click of a button. We operate by providing dedicated, project managers to execute tasks for busy professionals and businesses.
• Freelancer.com: Freelancer.com is an extensive platform offering thousands of online freelance jobs in various fields such as programming, web and graphic design, writing, and more, with hundreds of thousands of professionals ready to bid on outsourced projects. // I'm pretty sure I've got an account on this site. I must check and revive/update it.
• Narrato.io: Narrato gets your content written fast and by the best writer for the job. The platform also offers content quality, plagiarism and free image search tools. // Another platform that pays writers? Noice. It could well turn out to be another dead end, as with the other for-pay writing sites, or it could be better than Pub0x. Either way, it'll probably take at least a year to establish a presence there and find out. I can't wait that long to bring in an income that's decent enough for me to live off it.
• Hubstaff Talent (talent.hubstaff.com/): Hubstaff Talent is a free directory of the world’s top remote talent and is quickly growing in popularity each day (25% MoM).It's 100% free, charging neither the freelancer nor employer. "We offer experts in 4600+ skills, including Software Development, Sales & Marketing, Design & Multimedia, Writing & Content, Database & IT." // It's got some really positive reviews, both on it's "About" page and on AlternativeTo's quick blurb for it. Based on that, I think it's definitely worth a look.
• Fourerr.com: Fourerr is an online jobs marketplace that connects Buyers and Sellers. Sellers on Fourerr have the opportunity to promote and sell their services for a price starting at $4 up to $100. Buyers on Fourerr can securely purchase these services from $4 and up. // Clearly Fiverr's cheapskate/poorer cousin. Caveat: Uses PayPal for payments, which means you'll lose at least 8% (probably more) of everything you make to fees. You're going to have to do a lot of work and inflate your prices to make it worth your while.
• PaidOnlineWritingJobs.com: Search today's current writing jobs and apply for the ones that interest you. If you qualify for any of them, they'll email you and let you know. // See my comments about Narrato.io
• Startup Jobs (app): Startup Jobs is a unique job platform where job seekers meet startups,recruiters who offer jobs. So, if you are looking for a dream job to match your skills, just start using “Startup Jobs” app. "Whether you are looking for a full-time job, part-time job, contract job, freelance job or internship, the Startup Jobs app has it all. You can apply easily using your Startup Site Resume, LinkedIn Profile or Xing Profile to make job searching easy for you. Once applied, you can track the status of your job application from the app." // Available for Android and iOS.
• Crackerjack.app (mobile app): "Crackerjack is the online freelancing marketplace platform that helps to connect local businesses and freelancers with the whoever [sic] needs them. Find service professionals and creators from across many industries." Has a "nearby search" feature, so you can find jobs in a specific area. // Available on Android and iOS
• BTCLancer.com: BTC Lancer functions as a regular freelance gigs portal requiring users to signup, post jobs, search and apply to gigs, and create freelancer profiles. It also offers escrow protection to users to ensure secure transfer of work and money. The only difference is that freelancers get paid in crypto, providing borderless payment transactions. It’s the most straightforward way of earning crypto online and requires no knowledge of blockchain or cryptocurrency besides being signed up with a coin exchange portal. // Well, I wasn't looking for crypto freelancing, but it showed up anyway. I'm not sure about the coin exchange thing. Ideally, it should allow you to connect your Web3 wallet. On the positive side, I could get paid to make music (see my post about music hosting/streaming alternatives to Audius, Band Camp and Sound Cloud), as well as write and develop apps (assuming it allows listing more than one field/skill-set). On the negative side, it takes a 10% commission per job completed.

There are over one hundred more alternatives listed on the AlternativeTo page for Upwork, but those above should hopefully be enough to get started. If they don't work out for me for whatever reason, I can always look at the rest of the list.

Happy fiat farming, folks. As soon as the long weekend is over (I'm working two extra shifts, which should help my bank balance somewhat this month), I know where I'm going to start: BTC Lancer, Freelancer.com, HubStaff Talent, Narrato and Paid Online Writing Jobs.