There is no one determining factor that determines if it is sporadic or not, but your intention to help someone, rather than pursuing income, gives more credence to it being sporadic.
Sporadic activity
In other instances, however, activities that might seem sporadic, in the sense that they are engaged in according to no particular schedule, have been held to be self-employment, based primarily on the number of times they recurred during a tax year. In Revenue Ruling 77-356, a member of Congress received payment for giving speeches, for which there was no pattern to the number of speeches given, the amount of time they required or remuneration received. During the year in question, the taxpayer made 10 speeches, for which $1,500 was received. Their frequency indicated “a degree of recurrence, continuity, and availability for speech making,” and thus were considered self-employment.
On the other hand, a taxpayer who was paid for an “occasional” speech and did not seek such engagements or indicate availability for them was not self-employed (Revenue Ruling 55-431).
