Side Hustle's - Moonlight Side Hustle

HERE ARE SOME SIDE HUSTLE'S TO CONSIDER

Your Side Hustle Journey Starts (Or Grows) Here!

Not everyone should be a full-time entrepreneur,
but everyone should learn to think entrepreneurially.

If you’re looking for ways you can earn a few extra bucks with a side hustle, you’d likely encounter hundreds of strategies to make some money. However, depending on your unique needs and your skills, earning a respectable amount of cash, and doing it quickly, might be well within your reach.

No matter where you’re from or what you do for a living, thanks to the conveniences afforded to us by the internet, there is no longer a constant and never-ending struggle. With the proverbial world at our fingertips, as long as you know how to tap into the vast number of opportunities found in the digital ether of cyberspace, you can earn some extra income, even if you’re in a tight bind.

Some of the strategies listed below offer a quick fix for making some money. Others will take a sizable investment of your time. Either way, select a method that fits within your skillset and ensures that you deliver a serious amount of value. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.

Start Your Side Hustle ASAP!

Sell items on eBay or Craigslist.

Selling stuff on eBay or Craigslist is one of the safest ways to make money when you’re in a pinch. Any used objects, such as furniture, household appliances, collectibles, or anything else that isn’t being utilized or collecting dust, can be sold online for a profit. If you’re serious about it, you could even do it for others professionally and earn a little percentage on each transaction. You’ll be in terrific condition if you take decent images and write a good description.

Recycle used smartphones on Gazelle.

I’ve sold a few used smartphones on Gazelle.com, and it’s a no-hassle way of making some cash if you have an old iPhone or Samsung or another device sitting around. While you won’t get top dollar for it, you will be able to get a little bit of cash that might just help you out, depending on your financial situation.

Drive for Uber or Lyft.

One of the most widely available ways to make money is driving for Uber or Lyft. The sharing thought process has exploded, and both Uber and Lyft are at the forefront. The best part? You can turn on and off your availability through these networks with the simple click of a button, effectively allowing you to make money no matter what time of day or night it is.

Deliver for Door Dash or PostMates.

Deliver items and food with Doordash

In an article by US News, it has been reported that the average person has two to three food delivery apps on their phones, using them around three times per month. Grocery and food delivery apps are making life much easier for many people right now.

That growing market makes this one of the best side hustle ideas of [current year]. The work is there, the pay is good, and it’s very flexible. Drivers for UberEats and DoorDash average around $15-$20/hour delivering food in their spare time.

Instacart and Shipt drivers average $100 for a 6–8-hour shift.

But out of all the available options, there is one that stands out as the top food delivery side hustle that you can expect to make about $20/hour with:

Doordash

Founded in 2013, DoorDash delivers food directly from restaurants in over 4,000 cities across the US Customers place an order in the DoorDash app, and a Dasher accepts the order and delivers it.

DoorDash delivers food from your favorite chain restaurants as well as local eateries, and the company presently has over 300,000 establishments on board. Dashers pick up pre-paid orders from restaurants or wait for the consumer to place an order before delivering it to their door.

The Dasher Pay Model is used by DoorDash, and it consists of your base pay plus promotions and tips, which equals your total earnings.

Your base salary is the amount you keep regardless of what happens, and it varies every order, ranging from $2 to $10.

Promotions from DoorDash include peak pay, which is when certain areas are in high need of drivers. These areas light up red in the driver app, and you’ll see the additional amount you’ll earn for each delivery you make in a Peak Pay area.

DoorDash also has challenges. Challenges give drivers additional pay for completing a certain number of deliveries in a set amount of time.

START DRIVING WITH DOORDASH

Rent your spare room on Airbnb.

Airbnb offers a great resource for people that are willing to rent out a spare room or even their entire home. If you’re in a bind for some fast cash, Airbnb offers you an avenue for creating an income. You’ll get paid 24 hours after a guest check in, which is to avoid any problems or potential scams that might arrive. Some people earn their primary income just by renting out rooms or homes on Airbnb.

Manage social media for small businesses.

Many small businesses need a social media manager and simply don’t have the time nor the expertise to be constantly posting on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter. Take it upon yourself to contact local businesses and offer up your services for a contracted monthly fee. This is an easy way to make money no matter where you live.

Answer questions on JustAnswer.

Websites like JustAnswer pay you to answer professional questions. If you have a high-level skill such as experience in law, medicine, or information technology, you could get paid to help others navigate certain topics or areas of contention that they might be faced with in life.

Sell services on Fiverr.

Fiverr helped give birth to the Gig Economy. Although services start out at $5, some Fiverr sellers are earning six-figure-plus revenues annually. You can sell just about anything on this platform, but to succeed and become a Super Seller, you need to deliver massive amounts of value, even at those lower price points.

Do micro-jobs on Mechanical Turk.

Amazon‘s Mechanical Turk platform is one way you can earn money, though it won’t make you rich by any measure. However, if you’re looking to take on micro-jobs that can be done in a few minutes each, by stringing them together, you could earn some cash that might help you out if you’re in a bind.

Tutor over Skype.

You can tutor people over Skype or Zoom, no matter where you might live. This is great, especially if you’re a digital nomad and you’re looking to earn more money than the local job market can potentially provide. Tutor people from the US or UK if you’re traveling through Asia or another low-cost-of-living country around the world.

Get a part-time job.

So, you’re in need of money, but you already have a full-time job, and you’re not sure how to make money online or how to hustle with a web-based enterprise. You might be able to find a part-time work. You can say goodbye to your social life, but it’s a more secure additional source of income.

Start a Blog.

Blogging easily has the highest earning potential of anything on this list. You can grow your blog in the evenings, on your lunch break, and on the weekends. If you’re interested in starting a blog, a WordPress blog hosted through Bluehost ($2.95 per month) is the way to go for new bloggers, and if you feel like the setup and installation is a little too overwhelming, check out our free blog setup service: Launch That Blog.

Why do I recommend Bluehost for Blogging?

Paying for hosting services with Bluehost is my favorite option for new bloggers because it’s designed specifically for bloggers who are just starting out but still want to take their blogs seriously and make money.

Here’s why:

Bluehost has a ton of themes to choose from that will make your blog look professional without paying for web design services.
You’re going to get stellar customer service.
You get a free domain name for the first year.
WordPress is included with Bluehost (which is the platform that THIS blog is built on).

Create an online course.

Create an online course with a platform like Udemy or Teachable and leverage some of your skills to create a healthy income. Depending upon how much time you invest in your course, you could make a substantial side revenue stream by creating courses that deliver tremendous amounts of value.

Build a sales funnel with ClickFunnels.

As an online marketer and a software engineer, I am obsessed with sales funnels. However, many people struggle with creating the proper funnel that converts. It takes a high degree of technical and marketing knowledge. However, ClickFunnels, a SaaS business with over 40,000 customers, which was started by Russell Brunson, takes all the guesswork out of that. Build a sales funnel and automate your selling with a platform like this.

Write an ebook.

Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing has made it easy for new writers to start publishing ebooks without any previous experience. This platform breaks down the barriers to traditional publishing – finding a publisher, negotiating rates, working under deadlines, etc.

It doesn’t pay as well (some ebooks sell for just a couple of bucks), but successful ebook writers can make a decent living selling ebooks on Amazon.

Romance is the most popular genre of ebooks, and sci-fi/fantasy and mystery books do well too. I found it interesting that ebooks can be much shorter than traditional novels, which makes it even more approachable for new writers.

I’ve long been drawn to the passive income of creating an ebook and publishing an accompanying print-on-demand paperback. By using platforms like KDP and CreateSpace, both by Amazon, you can create an easily create and sell an ebook that costs nothing to produce and a paperback that earns you money only when it sells, removing much of the prior friction it took to get published.

Produce an audiobook.

Use a platform like ACX to create and sell audiobooks on platforms like Audible and iTunes. If you have a great idea for a non-fiction audiobook where you can teach difficult skills like stock trading, foreign currency investing, accounting, online marketing, or others, you can easily create a five-figure monthly income with the right volume of audiobooks.

Become a personal chef.

Are you a good cook? You could become a personal chef and prepare meals for other people. You could easily market your services on social media or even go all out and build yourself a website. There are also plenty of websites you can use to market your services, such as HireAChef.

Do mystery shopping.

Mystery shoppers are needed by a wide range of businesses. Mystery shoppers make purchases in secret and keep track of their interactions with the merchant. This can be done in either a physical or online store. If you conduct a basic search on how to become a mystery shopper, you will most likely come across various firms that may help you. Alternatively, you can contact businesses directly to pitch your mystery shopping services.

Walk dogs.

Almost anyone can walk dogs. If you live in a dog-filled neighborhood, create a few flyers on your computer and slip them into mailboxes. Identify yourself as a dog walker and pitch your price. Build up a steady stream of clients, and your dog-walking service will grow over time.

Babysit or become a nanny.

If you need to make some quick cash, you could always start babysitting or even become a part-time nanny. You use a variety of sites to do this, like Care.com or SitterCity, or even post your services on social media sites. You’ll get vetted and rated for your services, so be sure to provide a top-notch experience.

Clean houses.

Housekeeping is always an option. There are loads of private families and homeowners that are renting out their homes on a short-term basis that need housekeeping or house cleaning services. You can list your services on a site like HouseKeeper.com and many others to promote yourself.

Participate in marketing focus groups.

Marketing companies are always holding focus groups to study the consumer’s response to products, services, and advertisements across a variety of mediums. I used to participate in these studies often in college, and so can you. You don’t need any special training to do it.

Have a garage sale.

You could always have a garage sale to raise money while getting rid of unwanted items in your home. This is ideal if you have children who have outgrown their toys or simply have a lot of stuff you want to get rid of. Place some signs around town or use Craigslist to advertise.

Create YouTube tutorials.

Although this isn’t the quickest way you can make money with a side income, creating YouTube tutorials can help you earn a respectable amount of income as long as what you deliver is engaging and keeps people interested for long enough. You could also use free tutorials to upsell viewers on products and services you might be offering.

Sell technical services on Upwork.

I’ve used Upwork as a platform to hire graphic and web designers for a long time. But Upwork also provides a platform for accountants, lawyers, and other professionals to earn money. Keep in mind that you’re keeping with thousands of other service providers, so getting this off the ground will take you some time.

Design logos on 99Designs.

If you’re graphically inclined and you get programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, you could potentially compete for design work on 99Designs. However, you won’t get paid unless your design is chosen as the winning design, meaning you need to be a very good designer to make an income that’s worthwhile here.

Become a personal shopper.

Want to shop for others? You could effectively become a personal shopper. If you live in an urban metropolis with concentrated wealth, then personal shopping services are in high demand in your area. Scour the web and other online resources such as ThumbTack to find people looking for personal shoppers.

Use TaskRabbit.

TaskRabbit links you up with people that are looking to complete specific tasks in your area. Tasks include things like lifting heavy furniture, assembling furniture, and so on. You’ll need to register and get vetted, but it’s a simple way you can make a bit of extra income.

Sell products on Etsy.

Use Etsy to sell crafts or other homemade items. Etsy is one of the largest resources for selling handmade goods on the internet. You could also sell digital items such as digital posters that can be printed out.

Teach a language.

You could teach a second language to others if you know it and are fluent in it. You can also teach English to students or, if you’re a digital nomad, you can teach English as a second language in your chosen country.

Wash and detail cars.

Wash and detail cars in your area. Hand out flyers in your neighborhood or post on social media offering your services. Mobile car washing and detailing has become a relatively lucrative business in more upscale neighborhoods.

Open a Mobile Pet Grooming Service.

Try your hand at pet grooming. Purchase and outfit a mobile van so that you can groom pets on the go. This does require a small investment, but it’s a side job you could enjoy when you have spare time.

Start a food truck.

Purchasing a food truck requires a substantial investment, but the food truck business is growing significantly. Location and cuisine choice are important. Be sure to do ample research before getting started.

Become a freelance article writer.

Write articles for other people. If you have a passion for writing, you could help out other bloggers or even become a ghostwriter for a well-known author. Use sites like Freelancer, Upwork, and others to advertise your services.

Personal training.

Find clients that you can help out to achieve their weight loss or fitness goals. Create meal plans or construct workout routines, and you could make an admirable income for your efforts.

Give music lessons.

If you play the piano, guitar, or another instrument, consider teaching others in your local area. Advertise online through social media or through your personal or professional networks.

Become an affiliate marketer.

Affiliate marketing is an extremely alluring industry. However, many affiliate marketers don’t make much money. If you have the skills it takes to succeed in this arena, you could quite literally make a small fortune. But be careful not to get drawn into pie-in-the-sky hopes or dreams of making money without putting in much effort.

Do email marketing.

Email marketing is one of the most profitable forms of marketing that exists online. However, attracting subscribers and making a personal connection with them takes a good deal of work. Use platforms like LeadPages, Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, and ConvertKit to get things off the ground.

Write resumes.

Good at writing resumes? Use sites like LinkedIn and other professional sites to advertise your resume writing services. Do a few for free, grab some raving reviews, and then watch your sales skyrocket.

Be an extra in movies.

If you’re looking to make a few extra bucks without a major investment of yours, try your hand at being an extra in a movie. There’s a lot of sitting around and waiting, but the pay is good if you’re in a production city like Los Angeles, New York, London, or Vancouver.

Reduce your expenses.

Sometimes, making some extra cash can be done by cutting expenses. When was the last time you audited all your monthly expenses? How much is going out the door for that gym membership you don’t use or those pricey lunches you have every day?

Start a GoFundMe Page.

Try raising some personal funds using GoFundMe. You can advertise your page to your network through social media, and if you can create a compelling enough story, you might just have enough takers that decide to help you out.

Sell your hair.

Have long hair? Why not sell it to make a few extra bucks? Advertise your hair for sale on a site like HairSellOn or any number of others that are out there.

Become a house sitter.

Become a professional house sitter and watch homes for people that go on vacation or have a second home and don’t spend much time there. HouseSitter.com and Care.com both offer house-sitting jobs.

Teach driving lessons to students.

Are you a great driver? Why not get licensed as a driving instructor? You can advertise your services both online and offline or use a site like Indeed.com to search for part-time driving instructor jobs.

Become a local tour guide.

If you live in a vacation destination, consider becoming a local tour guide. You could even offer your services for free and then ask for a tip at the end, drawing more people into touring with you.

Become a virtual assistant.

Virtual assistants are in high demand, but it only makes sense from an income standpoint if you have lots of free time and you’re very organized. It also doesn’t hurt to live in an area with a lower cost of living.

Do interior decorating.

If you have an eye for design, consider doing interior decorating for clients. Use a site like Houzz to advertise your services to the masses.

Sell on CafePress.

CafePress allows you to sell items that feature a digital design. If you’re a great graphic designer, you could create a number of designs that would fit different formats such as shirts, hats, and cups and earn a commission when they sell.

Invest with LendingClub.

LendingClub is a peer-to-peer lending service that you can invest in. If you have some extra cash and you’re looking to put it to use, you can leverage this platform to invest in businesses from a wide range of industries. Risk is calculated for you using algorithms, and the more risk in an investment, the more potential for reward.

Create a smartphone app.

If you have some app development skills and you’re proficient at Swift or Android-based development platforms, you could try your hand at creating a smartphone app. Obviously, this isn’t a quick or easy way to make money but could pay off big with the right idea.

As many as 45% of working Americans have a side hustle outside of their primary jobs, according to a 2019 Bankrate survey of 2,550 adults. Those side hustlers spend an average of 12 hours a week on their side gigs, and 73% of those side hustlers earn up to $500 per month. That’s a lot of people earning thousands of extra dollars every year.

If you’d like to earn extra money but you need a gig that you’d be interested in doing even outside of your full-time work, there are plenty of options open to you. Let “your unique combination of skills, resources, interests” guide you, says Kathy Kristof, founder of job search site SideHusl. “You’ll be happier, you’ll do it better, and it will feed that yearning.”

Side hustle income

Here are seven flexible side hustles you can do to supplement a full-time job.

Tutor English online

Sites like VIPKid and GoGoKid pair English-speaking teachers with Chinese students for 25-minute classes online. Teachers pick time slots at their convenience, and both companies provide the lesson plans.

GoGoKid teachers earn $14 to $25 per hour, while VIPKid teachers earn an average of $22 per hour, according to their websites.

Write

There are many ways to dive into writing these days. Lucrative options include grant writing and copywriting for advertising or branding companies, usually without a byline. Another is ghostwriting or working with someone who has a story to tell but doesn’t have the skill or time to put together a manuscript on their own. You may not get to take the credit, but you can get paid handsomely.

Consider creating a profile on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per 500-word blog post, or Upwork, where experienced writers charge as much as $150 per hour.

If you’re more inclined to write essays or articles, consider pitching an idea to a publication covering a topic of interest or expertise. Parenting blogs like A Fine Parent, for instance, pay $75 per article. Look around to find blogs and publications covering subjects you’re well-versed in. While there are usually deadlines involved, writing assignments can be done any time of the day.

Be an online mock juror

Mock juries on the internet allow lawyers to get a feel of how jurors would vote in their cases. They’re something like to focus groups for upcoming trials. An attorney may submit a written case containing facts and questions, or they may record a summary of the case for “jurors” to weigh in on, depending on the website.

Each case is estimated to take approximately 35 minutes and pay between $5 and $10 on sites like eJury, whereas each case is estimated to take 20 to 60 minutes and pay between $20 and $60 on sites like Online Verdict. Many of these cases can be completed at any time.

Sign up to be a virtual juror on Online Verdict, Virtual Jury, or eJury. Note that jurors often have to be at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen.

Translate

Fluent in another language? Companies worldwide could use your multilingual services to translate anything from medical leaflets to website content to legal documents.

The average translator in New York earns $21 per hour, according to Indeed, and you can pick up projects during your spare time. Sign up to translate documents on sites like Translate or Bunny Studio, or find translator jobs on Indeed or on other job boards.

Be an influencer

Got a sizable Instagram following? You might be eligible to start making some money off of it. Apps like Heartbeat for Ambassadors allow those who’ve amassed a following to connect with brands that pay them to post pictures with and about their products. Users should expect pay per post to be anywhere from $3 to $50, according to SideHusl, with a lot riding on exactly how many followers you have.

“The fewer followers,” says SideHusl, “the less likely you are to get chosen for a campaign.” Past campaigns have ranged from durable phone cases to gluten-free waffle mix.

Make deliveries

If you have a car and open time slots at various points during the day or even at night, delivering anything from food to pets to furniture might be a worthwhile side hustle. Companies like Roadie help connect drivers with delivery gigs in their area, and “drivers can earn up to $15 per trip on local gigs and up to $650 on long haul deliveries,” according to its site.

Drivers for food delivery sites like GrubHub make an average rate of $19 per hour, according to Indeed. And Taskers on Task Rabbit charge as much as $80 per hour for deliveries.

Pay attention to the side hustle you end up choosing: “This is your chance to give yourself an opportunity that you may not be getting at work,” says Claire Wasserman, founder of career coaching site Ladies Get Paid.

Online Side Hustling Ideas

For most people, an online side hustle is the easiest way to get started; you can find free WiFi in a lot of places, and the startup costs are minimal.

Blogging

Blogging is a great side hustle because you can do it at your own pace anywhere you want. It’s not a quick and easy way to make money, but there are a lot of ways to make money side hustling while blogging. You can sell advertising, become an affiliate for other people’s products, sell your own online product, and more. It does take time to build up an audience to be able to make a decent amount of money, but once you have a large following, you could earn over $15,000 per month or more (we do).

Food for thought – this site started on Bluehost and was soon earning over $1,000 per month. It’s grown much more since then. We love Bluehost because you can get started for just $2.95 per month with our special code. Check it out here.

If you want to start a blog, check out our free guide on How To Start A Personal Website Or Blog. We used Bluehost to start because you get a free domain name and cheap hosting at just $2.95 per month.

Tool To Get Started: Bluehost (Get a free domain and $2.95 hosting with this link)

Earn More Blogging (the course you need to get started with a blog).

Income Potential: $1,000 per month within 1 year

Online Surveys

If you have some time to spare online, you could spend it filling out online surveys. There are sites that will pay you to do so, and it’s very easy. All you have to do is register, and these companies will contact you when they have a survey that fits your profile. Typically, these are online market research surveys for big brands.

Bonus: Instead of doing surveys, what if you just installed an app on your phone? That’s what Nielson offers. Install the Nielson app and earn money >>

Some of the most popular online survey sites include:

Survey Junkie– Earn cash and rewards for sharing your thoughts and opinions. Click here.
Swagbucks Surveys– Swagbucks now has a dedicated survey section, and you can get $5 just for signing up. Click here.
MyPoints– Earn a $5 gift card for signing up, verifying your email, and for every 5 surveys you complete. Click here.
Opinion Outpost– Earn cash for filling out surveys—lots of options. Click here.
Fetch Rewards– An app that pays you for filling out surveys and doing other tasks. Click here.
Branded Surveys– Fill out surveys and get cash and gift cards. Click here.

Special offer for 18-24-year-olds: PineCone offers unique high-paying surveys for just your age group. Check it out here.

Income Potential: $50 per month

Just Search The Internet

Do you search the Internet? Want to get paid for it? Swagbucks is a site that rewards you for doing various online tasks like taking surveys, watching videos, and using their search engine. When using their search engine, you get reward points after several searches, usually in the amount of 10-15 points. You can start cashing out rewards at the 500 points mark. Read our full Swagbucks review here.

If you Swagbucks, you can earn a $5 bonus!

Another option is InboxDollars. Similar to Swagbucks, they offer cash bonuses for searching the web or shopping online. Just by signing up with THIS LINK, you can earn a $5 bonus!

Tools To Get Started:

Swagbucks– Earn a $5 bonus for signing up
Inbox Dollars– Earn a $5 bonus for signing up

Income Potential: $50 per month

Sell On Amazon

Do you have old books, CDs, or DVDs? Then you should consider selling them on Amazon. It’s incredibly easy to list your items to sell, and you’d be surprised how much you can get for old stuff sometimes.

If you’re a college student looking to sell your old textbooks, compare Amazon prices to the buyback prices at your local bookstore. Selling on Amazon is frequently a better option.

For the past 8 years, I’ve been selling my old goods on Amazon on a regular basis. It can be a lucrative side hustle.

Tool To Get Started:

Amazon Sellers Account

Income Potential: $300 per month

Sell Gigs On Fiverr

Fiverr is a micro-selling site where you can sell all kinds of random projects, from design work to simply recording yourself on video talking about a brand. We just wrote an article about how you can earn $10,000 by starting a Fiverr gig. It’s possible!

If you don’t know where to start, browse the site for a little bit. You’ll quickly realize two things:

There are a lot of different kinds of gigs
Most people charge more than $5 – that’s just the baseline price

A cool gig that I recently purchased was a woman who was selling travel plans. She’d traveled to many cities and was passionate about planning and would make a travel plan with sites to see, entertainment, restaurants, and more. It shows that there are gigs for everything!

Tool To Get Started:

Fiverr Sellers Account

Income Potential: $300 per month

Sell On eBay

eBay is a fantastic site to sell items and make money, especially if you have something collectible.

Going to estate sales and finding goods to buy for cheap and resale online is one of my favorite methods to make money on eBay as a side income. Simply remember to include in the costs.

I was making over $2,000 per month at my height by purchasing stuff and resold them on eBay. My whole narrative about starting a side hustle and selling on eBay can be found here.

Tool To Get Started:

eBay Sellers Account

Income Potential: $500 per month

Sell Crafts On Etsy

Are you creative? Maybe selling your own creative products is the way to go.

You could open a shop on Etsy and sell your crafts to others who are looking for unique products. You could sell paper goods like cards and invitations, or even home decor products themed around the holidays.

My sister-in-law regularly sells items on Etsy. She creates stationary and other decor and sells them. For the investment in her time and minor costs of crafting supplies, she’s able to generate a decent side income.

Tool To Get Started:

Etsy Sellers Course

Income Potential: $500 per month

Online Coaching Or Consulting

Beyond blogging, you can also become a coach or consultant for others, especially if you have some skills that people are looking for. Maybe you’re a social media maven, or you have great online business skills. Selling your time and hopping on a Skype call or Google hangout is a great hustle.

A good platform to get started with this is Clarity.fm. You can get paid by the minute for your consulting calls. If you’ve established yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you could also make yourself available on platforms like LinkedIn as well.

Tool To Get Started:

Income Potential: $100 per month

Online Freelancing

There is a lot of freelance work online. You can sign up for sites like UpWork, or you can even become your own online freelancer as I did. I’ve made over $10,000 on the side by online freelancing, and I share my story, as well as resources to help you get started, here: How To Start Freelance Blogging and Earn $1,000s on the side.

One of the more popular ways to make money freelancing right now is by doing SEO consulting. If you’re a little savvy and analytical, you can make $75/hr or more. Check out this free SEO Consulting Course to get started.

You could also do something like proofreading or transcription work. Many bloggers and authors need proofreaders to make sure their writing is on point. You can learn how to get started proofreading for bloggers and others here.

For podcasters, having a great transcription can be huge. When you hear the term “show notes,” who do you think helped put that together? Learn how to transcribe from home here.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $5,000 per month within 1 year

eBook Publishing

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Perhaps you should publish an eBook and sell it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Michael Piper has built a living online by selling financial eBooks, and we recently published 14 Ways To Get Paid For Writing Online with him.

I’ve met countless authors you’ve never heard of who sell hundreds of thousands of eBooks each year on Amazon. On Amazon, one author has nearly 100 different novels for sale.

If you don’t want to put together a blog, you might sell your content online instead.

Tool To Get Started:

Get Paid To Write

Income Potential: $750 per month

Sell Stock Photos

Perhaps taking pictures is your forte. If you are a great photographer, you could possibly sell your photos online. Sites like iStockPhoto are always looking for contributors who get paid a royalty every time their photo is purchased. This could be a great way to turn your art into some extra cash.

Even if you don’t like to take pictures, more and more stock photo sites are also looking for digital art as well. If you’re strong at creating digital images (like the one we’ve used for this article), you could also consider selling your work.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $500 per month

Do Micro-Tasks On Mechanical Turk

Another micro-task site is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. The gigs on this site pay incredibly low amounts – less than a nickel typically. However, they take seconds, and you can earn around $6 per hour if you keep at it.

This is one of the first side gigs I started doing in college. I would sit in the back row of my college class while on my laptop and do random tasks on Mechanical Turk. I wouldn’t make much, but I’d make something.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $50 per month

Website User Testing

Did you know that you could get paid to try out a new website and give feedback?

Sites like UserTesting.com are always looking for users to rate and give feedback about websites. Website owners post gigs to the site, and you simply log in and give feedback and usability ratings on different websites and online apps. You can earn up to $10 for each test you participate in.

Tools To Get Started:

UserTesting

Income Potential: $100 per month

Create An Online Course

Do you have something you can teach? You can teach something online at sites like Udemy.com. There are courses online for just about anything, and you can charge whatever pricing you feel is right for your instruction.

You’d be surprised at what topics are out there that people want to learn about. Maybe you don’t think that you can teach anything, but it’s possible that you have a skill that others want to learn.

Tool To Get Started:

Udemy

Income Potential: $500 per month

Become A Virtual Assistant

Do you like to write, use social media, and blog but don’t want to start your own? You can work as a virtual assistant, assisting others with their websites and social media profiles. This side business could turn into a full-time job depending on how much time you have.

For years, I’ve relied on virtual assistants to assist me with this website. It’s wonderful to have someone to assist me with work during the week and keep the blog on track. You can earn a lot of money as your talents increase.

Tool To Get Started:

Upwork

Income Potential: $3,000 per month

Teach English Online

Are you a teacher? Or do you at least have a bachelor’s degree from an American college or university? If so, you could teach children in other countries English online!

VIPKid is an innovative platform that connects native English speakers that have a degree with children in other countries like China or India. You can set up a “class” time, and people will sign up for your class online. You get paid when you teach.

The cool thing is that teachers are making $14-22 per hour online from the comfort of their own homes!

Another similar service is QKid – where you can teach English even if you’re just enrolled in college!

Tool To Get Started:

Income Potential: $1,000 per month

Micro-Entrepreneurship Ideas

These ideas are a little different than the typical hustle – they are more based on entrepreneurship and asset leveraging to make even more money for you. These can lead to passive income over time if done well.

Become An Uber AND Lyft Driver

I love the idea of ride-sharing as a side hustle because it’s one of the few “jobs” on here that you can truly do 100% on your own time. If you want to drive in the middle of the night from 2 am to 6 am, you can!

All you need is a car and some spare time. Just sign up with Uber and once you are cleared as a driver-partner, start driving people around. You’ll make what you put into it.

To maximize your earning and profit potential, you need to sign up for both Uber and Lyft and use both apps at the same time.

Harry at The Ride Share Guy has a lot of great resources about getting started, including a course about starting to RideShare for Profit.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: Varies by market and driver

Deliver Food From Restaurants

Don’t like the idea of having people in your car? Then maybe delivering food is the best avenue for you to take advantage of your car and make extra money.

Or, maybe you don’t even have a car? You can make money with delivery with Uber Eats with a bike or scooter in some cities as well!

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: Varies by market and driver

Deliver Groceries

If you’re not feeling delivering from restaurants, you can also deliver groceries. Right now, this is a hot trend, as people are looking to have groceries delivered for their families.

Instacart is one of the most popular grocery delivery services nationwide.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: Varies by market and driver

List Your House On Airbnb

If you travel frequently, you might consider listing your home on Airbnb while you’re away. Alternatively, perhaps you have a spare bedroom, loft, camping area, or other location where people can stay.

In the end, if you have a room for people, you can undoubtedly list it and generate some extra money each month.

Our friend Paula Pant at AffordAnything.com shares how she is averaging over $500 per month listing an apartment.

Tools To Get Started:

List Your Place On Airbnb

Income Potential: $500 per month

Rent Your Car

Do you have a vehicle that you’re not using a lot that you’ve thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if I could be earning some extra money versus paying on that…”

Well, with a service like Turo, you can do just that. Turo allows you to make your car work for you – by listing it for rent in as little as 10 minutes.

Getaround is another renting service that is a bit newer than Turo but gaining traction.

Depending on how often you rent your car, you could earn a nice amount of money!

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $500 per month

Renting Out Your Garage or Driveway

If you have extra space in your driveway (or side yard), you could rent that space out as well to people looking to store property, like boats or RVs. In many areas, there are HOAs that prevent people from parking this type of equipment, and you could help solve that problem for them while earning a little extra cash.

Tools To Get Started:

Neighbor

Income Potential: $100 per month

Offline Side Hustling Ideas

Sometimes, working offline when you side hustle is a more lucrative prospect – especially depending on your skillset. However, these gigs don’t mean you’ll never touch a computer. You might still need to list your side hustle project online or market it online to get leads and customers.

Loan Signing Agent And Notary

Being a Loan Signing Agent is a great side hustle because you can make $75 to $200 per hour-long appointment working for yourself on your own schedule. Retired people, working professionals, and students can be signing agents and earn extra cash when they want. The best part is you need nothing more than a notary commission (which can often be attained by simply filling out an application)!

You can automatically get loan signing jobs by simply putting your name in a database, and they’ll call you when there’s a pre-set appointment in your area. Once you get a loan signing job, you just need to know how to walk a homeowner through a set of loan paperwork.

Can you say…“sign here, date there!?”

If you want to make $75 to $200 per hour-long appointment working for yourself on your own schedule, be sure to get the proper training. One of the top-rated courses we found that is really impacting how people make money is Loan Signing System.

Loan Signing System is an A to Z course that teaches you how to get your notary commission, do a loan signing, and get loan signing jobs. Here’s a complete rundown of why it’s a great side hustle for part-time work.

Tools To Get Started:

Loan Signing System Signing Agent Training

Income Potential: $500 per month or more within 6 months (top earners are making $13,000 per month)

Be A Task Rabbit

TaskRabbit.com is a place where you can sign up and run small tasks for others. It can include anything from picking up the groceries to cleaning or helping people move. Typical tasks take a few hours, but there are a lot of tasks available in most large cities.

This is a very hybrid online/offline gig, but all of the work you do will be offline.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $300 per month

Catering

Do you want to side hustle just on Friday and Saturday nights? Well, you should team up with a catering company, as they often need servers and wait staff just for the events they host on the weekend. Many companies are “call-in,” which means you can work when you choose to.

If you don’t know where to start, head to the Craigslist Gigs section, where jobs like catering help will be posted. You can earn a nice flat fee per event.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $300 per month

Cleaning Service

If you like to clean, you could help clean houses. These can be ongoing side hustles, like a weekly or bi-weekly service or one-time deals (such as for when people move). You could even join forces with some friends and tackle larger projects.

Plus, with a new service that Amazon has launched (Amazon Home Services), it’s easier than ever to get these kinds of gigs.

Tools To Get Started:

Amazon Home Services

Income Potential: $200 per month

Baby Sitting

This is one of the original side hustles. People have been babysitting and getting paid for it since the dawn of time.

The great thing about it is that it can earn you upwards of $100 babysitting in high school, but there’s no reason that college students and other young adults can’t keep in the game, especially if you have neighbors or relatives with young children.

Plus, it’s easier than ever to get bookings with online services to connect sitters with parents.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $500 per month

Bookkeeping

Are you an organized person that’s good with data entry? Would you like to work from home on your computer, making sure another business’ income and expenses are entered correctly online? And even better, get paid for it?

Small businesses (especially online businesses) are looking for bookkeepers to help them stay financially organized. You can learn to become a professional bookkeeper online and learn how to market yourself with a program like Bookkeepers.

Tools To Get Started:

Bookkeepers Course– Launch your bookkeeping business online

Income Potential: $1,000 per month

Recycle

Recycling can be a great way to earn some extra money. I’m not talking about becoming a bum at the park rummaging for cans (although you can do that) – I’m talking about encouraging your friends and neighbors to leave their cans and bottles aside for you.

If you want to take it up a notch, look for recycling metal and scrap to get even more money. This is even easier if you have a truck and are willing to haul for others.

Income Potential: $150 per month

Resume Help

Are you working at a company right now and seeing a lot of resumes? Do you hire people? Maybe you’re in HR or a hiring manager.

Perhaps you can help others with their resumes and cover letters (for a fee, of course). If you want an example of what you can do, check out our Professional Resume Templates For College Students.

You could even do this gig virtually over email and Skype for many candidates.

Income Potential: $200 per month

Dog Walking

Do you have friends or neighbors with dogs? Do they work during the day? Maybe you can offer your services to them as a dog walker. Not only is this a great side hustle that can earn you a little extra cash, but it also gets you exercising every day.

If you don’t know whose dog you could walk, online services are making it even easier to connect with clients.

And if you’re willing to pet sit for long periods of time, you could make even more money!

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $300 per month

Estate Sales

Instead of just selling stuff on eBay, you can also host estate sales. I used to host estate sales online and offline, and it can earn you a nice amount of money if you have customers with a full house of stuff.

This was one of the early side hustles that I did to earn extra cash. I would resell items on eBay and Amazon and eventually went on to conduct estate sales.

To be successful, though, you’re going to need to get some friends involved to help.

Income Potential: $3,000 per estate sale

Handyman Work

Do you have a knack for home repair? Then you could side hustle as a handyman on nights and weekends to earn a little bit of extra money. Just be upfront about your skills set – repairing fences, doing small plumbing jobs, whatever it happens to be.

You could also help a contractor out with labor as needed. You can find all sorts of handyman gigs online.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $1,000 per month

Housesitting

One of the easiest side hustles to do: simply sit and sleep in someone’s house while they are out of town. This is a great side hustle, but too bad it’s usually not a consistent revenue stream for most.

The only part is – it does take time out of your life. You’re committing your time to be in someone’s house and taking care of things.

If you don’t know where to start, online services like Care.com make it easy to connect with people looking for house sitters.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $300 per month

Hauling Service

Do you have a truck? You could sell your services, help other people haul stuff to the dump, or even pick up large items at places like Home Depot.

Don’t have a truck? You could work at a hauling company and do the manual labor for others. You can find all sorts of these labor gigs online.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $600 per month

Modeling

This is the side hustle for the good-looking people of the world. You can go to school or work and still take modeling jobs at night and on the weekends.

There isn’t always a steady stream of work for many models, but if you have success at a few gigs, this could become very lucrative. Check out our jobs for college students job board and see if there are any gigs near you.

If you don’t know where to start, check out online classified ads.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $500 per month

Movie Or TV Extra

Depending on where you live, you could become an extra on a TV show or movie. Many studios are always looking for a steady stream of extras, and you can get paid a couple of hundred dollars for just standing or walking around in the back of a movie set.

Tools To Get Started:

Backstage Extras Casting

Income Potential: $200

Mystery Shopping

Do you enjoy fast food or going into retail shops? Many companies hire mystery shoppers to test the customer service of their stores. A common one is Subway, which hires mystery shoppers to ensure that “Sandwich Artists” are following all the franchise guidelines. If you have time and can travel to different places, this could be a good side hustle.

The cool thing is that mystery shopping has transitioned almost exclusively online. You can do most mystery shopping on your smartphone. Check out these apps to get started.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $100 per month

Pet Sitting

If you love pets, taking care of your friends’ and neighbors’ pets while they are out of town can be a great way to earn some extra cash. It can be fun to make a new furry friend and get paid for it at the same time.

The only hard part of pet sitting is that you’re waiting for people to travel, which can be tough. Luckily you can use the Internet to help you find customers. Rover is an app that connects pet sitters with those looking for help. Check it out here.

Tools To Get Started:

Rover

Income Potential: $200 per month

Join A Research Or Focus Group

Have you walked through a college campus and seen the flyer for research studies and focus groups? Companies are always looking for people’s opinions about products and services, and for sitting in one of these groups for a few hours, you could earn upwards of $100.

Some of these groups have moved online as well. Check out these tools below and see if you qualify.

Tools To Get Started:

Income Potential: $200 per month

Moving Service

If you have time on the weekends and are okay lifting heavy boxes and furniture, you could join up with a moving service and get paid to help people move. It’s not easy work, but most people also tip the movers.

This is another one where if you don’t know where to start, check out online classified ads.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $400 per month

Gardening Service

Many entrepreneurs got their start mowing lawns, and it’s still a great side hustle today. If you live in an area where people need gardeners, knock on doors, and offer your gardening services. It’s a great way to earn some extra cash.

If you don’t know where to start, check out online classified ads. There are always gardeners looking for help with their existing projects and clients.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $400 per month

Painting Service

Painting services are another common side hustle for college students. If you have time on weekends and during the summer, you can paint houses or join a painting company. It’s not easy, but it can pay well in the right neighborhoods.

If you don’t know where to start, check out online classified ads. There are always painters looking for laborers to help with their existing projects and clients.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $400 per month

Pool Cleaning Service

Pool cleaning is another one that can be easy money, as long as you know how to do it. Matt Giovanisci started cleaning pools and then turned it into a great side hustle at SwimUniversity.com.

If you don’t know where to start, check out online classified ads. There are always existing pool cleaners looking for help with their existing projects and clients.

Tools To Get Started:

Craigslist

Income Potential: $500 per month

Be Someone’s Friend

Did you know that you could actually be paid to be someone’s friend for a period of time? We’re talking strictly platonic stuff here (although we’ve heard that being a sugar baby can be extremely lucrative).

Maybe someone wants to go see a movie, but they have a phobia of going alone. You could be that friend for them!

Check out RentAFriend and see if you can find a friend that will pay for your time.

Tools To Get Started:

RentAFriend

Income Potential: $100

Shoveling Snow

Shoveling snow can be a lucrative side hustle in the winter, depending on where you live. If you’re able-bodied have a truck, shovel, and/or snow blower – you could earn a nice side income.

While you used to go door to door and see if your neighbors wanted to pay for your services, there’s now an app that can help you find work and get paid.

Tools To Get Started:

Shovler

Income Potential: Up to $50 per hour

Donate Plasma

This is one of the more interesting ways to make money. You go to your local blood bank or plasma donation center, and they will pay you a small fee for your blood plasma.

It doesn’t sound amazing, but if you need extra money, this could be a great way to earn it. You can expect to be paid anywhere from $20 to $50 per donation.

Tools To Get Started:

Make Money Donating Plasma

Income Potential: $20 – $50

Participate in Medical Studies

One of our favorite unique ways to make money, this can earn you several hundred dollars or more for being a guinea pig.

A recent study that a friend participated in was to get her knees numbed over night – a different numbing drug in each knee. She then had to tell the doctor which one wore off first the next morning. Odd, but it paid over $1,000 for one night.

Tools To Get Started:

Center Watch

Income Potential: $1,000 or more per trial

Save

Hustle At Work

Sometimes, side hustling isn’t about starting something else, but it’s really about making better use of the job you currently have.

These examples below are ways that you could potentially earn extra money at work – without doing any of the “stuff” we’ve talked about to this point.

If working online or doing odd gigs isn’t your thing, don’t forget about these more “traditional” ways to make extra money. They’re still side hustles!

Volunteer For Overtime

If you are working at a job, this might not be a true side hustle, but it is a way to earn some extra money fast. You can volunteer to work longer and earn extra pay in many companies.

If you don’t have an idea of what side hustle to do right now, this could be an option. When I was younger, I remember I would always volunteer for overtime opportunities. Not only did you get paid well, but you would stand out to your manager, which would also reward you at review and raise time.

Employee Referral Program

Again, not a true side hustle but a great way to earn extra money. Many companies offer referral programs where you can earn anywhere from $25 to $1,000 per employee you refer. That could go a long way.

If you know someone who would be a great fit for your company, refer them and see if you can get a bonus for the effort.

Tuition Reimbursement Program

Many companies also offer tuition reimbursement programs to help pay for school. Maybe your short-term hustle is to better your education. Why not have your company pay for it while you’re at it?

Check out our guide to understanding a tuition reimbursement plan.

Get A Part-Time Job

Finally, if you don’t want to work for yourself, go spend your time hustling for someone else at a part-time job. While not ideal for some, it can be a great way to earn some extra money in your spare time.

Get A Higher Paying Job

Career accelerators like Pathrise are a way to jumpstart your career and increase your starting salary. Pathrise, which provides people early in their career with one-to-one coaching and tools to get a better, higher-paying job, can help you get an increased salary of over $12k for fellows who complete their 8-12 week part-time program.

Run Facebook ads for small businesses

I started running Facebook advertising for small companies in my neighborhood as a way to supplement my income when I quit my job as a high school band director to run this site full-time. The jeweler who sold me my wife’s engagement ring was my first customer.

That client led to another, and before I knew it, I was out-earning my salary as a teacher.

Running Facebook advertisements for small businesses is simply digital marketing via Facebook, which remains one of the most effective online channels for small businesses to improve traffic and visibility. With just a few hours of labor per week, you can earn roughly $1,000-$1,500 per month/per client.

Digital marketing on Facebook includes:

Finding and acquiring clients
Creating effective ads
Testing your ads
Maintaining client relationships

This is hands-down one of the best side hustles because Facebook has a massive reach that small business owners are just starting to tap into. Big companies have been doing this for a while, but many small business owners lack the resources and time it takes to run an effective ad strategy.

When you learn how to run Facebook ads for local business owners, you’re helping them strategize and grow their business.

Sounds like a side hustle you’re interested in? I teamed up with my friend Mike Yanda (lawyer turned digital marketer who’s now bringing in $30k/month) and created the Facebook Side Hustle Course to help others start one of the best side hustle ideas of 2021.

We love watching our students grow this side hustle. It’s just as exciting to see people hit the 5K Club (scaling this side hustle to $5,000 of extra income per month) as it is to watch people just starting out and realizing that it really does work.

LEARN HOW TO MANAGE FACEBOOK ADS

START A BLOG TODAY (60% OFF!)

Proofread for a living

If you cringe when someone uses the wrong verb tense or can’t tell the difference between their/there/they’re proofreading might be one of the best side hustles for you to try. Proofreaders are responsible for polishing written content for bloggers, content writers, website owners, and more.

This is another super flexible and good-paying side hustle, so much so that Caitlin Pyle of Proofread Anywhere left her day job to work as a proofreader. You can learn how to start proofreading and find paying clients in Caitlin’s free Proofread Anywhere Workshop.

START PROOFREADING TODAY

Become a Pinterest virtual assistant

You’re probably already familiar with Pinterest – it’s a great place to find recipes, workouts, DIYs, etc. But did you know that online business owners and bloggers have a high need for Pinterest virtual assistants?

This is one of the best side hustles of 2021 because Pinterest VAs make an average of $500 per month/per client doing things like:

Creating pins
Optimizing images
Developing a Pinning schedule
Doing keyword research

You can learn how to do all of this and find your first client in the Pinterest Virtual Assistant Course by Kristin Larsen.

CHECK OUT THE PINTEREST VA COURSE

For more side hustle ideas with Pinterest, read How to Make Money on Pinterest in 2021 (Earn $1,000 Extra Per Month!).

Sell printables on Etsy

Founded back in 2005, Etsy has turned into the go-to online marketplace for all things crafty. And in 2018, Etsy saw its highest-grossing year with over $3.9 billion in annual merchandise sales from over 33 million buyers.

But what most people don’t know is that millions of these sales come from printables and digital downloads. Products like…

Planners
Calendars
Trackers
Wall Art
Printable Games
Clipart
Stickers
Business Cards

And that’s just a small sample of printables you can sell on Etsy.

The best part?

Since it’s a digital file that you’re selling, all you have to do is create the product once, and then you can sell unlimited copies with no additional overhead. You don’t have to spend hours handcrafting an item just for one measly sale. Each digital item you create is potentially a new passive income stream!

But just like with anything else, you need to understand the supply and demand of the market. You need to know which products to sell and when.

There’s a fantastic free ebook called the Seasonal Products Secret that outlines printable ideas for each month of the year and how you can capitalize on them. We highly recommend checking this out because you actually aren’t able to open an Etsy shop until you have a product to list.

After you’ve created your first product, though, you can open your Etsy shop in a matter of minutes and list your first item for just $0.20. It’s an insanely low price to pay to try your hand at a new side hustle that could earn you hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month.

CHECK OUT THE E-PRINTABLES COURSE

Start flipping furniture

We’ve all seen furniture just sitting on the curb around our neighborhoods. The thing is, a lot of it is in pretty decent shape structurally and really just needs a fresh coat of paint or some new hardware. I honestly think that most people don’t want to take the time to fix or even donate this stuff.

You can also source your inventory at Goodwill, other thrift stores, Craigslist, and garage sales. The point is to keep your costs low so that you can maximize your earnings.

Once you’ve found pieces and refreshed them, you can sell your flips on Facebook Marketplace or through selling apps like Chairish.

You can learn more at: How to Make a Full-Time Income Flipping Furniture From Home

LEARN HOW TO MAKE MONEY FLIPPING

Sell things on eBay

I have a reader who made nearly $85,000 in one year from selling things on eBay. That’s wild.

Now, there are no guarantees on the amount you’ll make, but this is one of the side hustle ideas that’s insanely easy to start because you can literally start selling what’s sitting around your house.

Here are a few tips to get this side hustle up and running quickly and on the cheap:

Start small by selling items for around $10 or less – you’ll keep your costs down and bank some good reviews
Invest in a postage scale
Watch what you spend on packing materials
Sell what you know, which helps you market and list things correctly
Learn more through online reseller communities, like blogs, YouTube channels, and social media

Walk dogs or pet sit

Whenever my wife and I go out of town, we rely on a pet sitter to come and stay with our dog Strider… he’s a special snowflake and needs the right person to tolerate him. Now that we’ve found that person, we’ll be using them for as long as possible.

This is exactly what can happen with sites like Rover – an online platform that is dedicated to connecting pet owners with dog walkers and pet sitters in their area. This goes unsaid, but you have to love pets for this side hustle.

Pay varies depending on where you live. You’ll be paid more if you live in an urban area, which can be around $25 per walk or $70 for an overnight stay.

Rover can help you find clients, but you can also list your services on social media. Because trust is such a big part of this side hustle, referrals go a long way.

CHECK OUT ROVER

Sell on Shopify

Shopify is an easy-to-use platform for setting up and running your own eCommerce store. And if you’re thinking that it sounds like a lot of work running an online shop, it can be surprisingly passive if you use Shopify for dropshipping.

Let me explain…

You use Shopify’s platform to build your eCommerce site — there are over 70 customizable themes, a drag-and-drop editor, and custom domains. You select items to sell on your site that can be drop-shipped (You don’t touch, store, or ship these goods. You’re listing them for sale, then connecting the customer with the supplier).

It’s pretty passive after your site is built because you’re not actively managing or shipping orders — Shopify does this for you. You will need to run traffic to your site and check in to maintain it. You can start your Shopify side hustle for as little as $29/month.

There are already over 1,000,000 businesses powered by Shopify (they also manage point of sale technology for brick and mortars), with over $135 billion in sales.

START A FREE TRIAL WITH SHOPIFY

Become a rideshare driver

Using ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft give customers a comparable or even less expensive option to cabs. They also feel very millennial-friendly… easy to use apps, interacting with fellow side hustlers, and rides within minutes.

Rideshare drivers get to set their own hours, and I’ve met a lot of drivers who genuinely love meeting new people and being able to side hustle whenever they want.

There is a lot to understand about rideshare driving before you get started, like the average pay often being less than advertised. But I’m including it on this list because I’ve heard legit reviews from a number of very happy rideshare drivers who love making money on their own schedule.

Freelancing

Working as a freelancer is a super legit side hustle if you have a marketable skill. Now that more and more companies, including big ones, are outsourcing to freelancers, there is a lot of work even for new freelancers.

There are freelancing jobs for:

Sound design
Graphic design
Film editing
Photography
Web development

Because a lot of freelance work can be done online, it’s a very flexible job that fits in well with the rest of your life. Upwork and Freelancer are two places where you can find your first freelancing jobs. Once you’ve gotten your feet wet and are ready to expand your customer base, I also recommend developing your own website.

I have a number of freelancers on my team here at M$M, including an editor, virtual assistant, and web developer. They’ve told me that they love freelancing because it gives them the flexibility to take care of their families, travel when they want, and work on their own schedule. And at least one of my freelancers scaled her side hustle into a full-time job.

I will be explaining how to get started with several specific freelance options a little further down.

Rent out your car

If you like the idea of Airbnb (renting out a room or your entire house to make some extra income), Turo is like that, but for cars.

Turo is an online platform where you can list your car, the dates it’s available, and then rent it out to prescreened customers. Don’t worry, Turo also offers up to $1 million in liability insurance and coverage in the event of theft or physical damage.

Turo pays you 65% to 85% of the trip price, and they have a nifty calculator to tell you what you can expect to rent your car for. If you haven’t ditched your car payment yet, Turo would be a great way to offset that monthly cost.

Side hustle as a tutor

If there is a subject that you know well and can teach to others, tutoring is a great side hustle idea. I know this because when I was working as a teacher, I learned that parents are always looking for tutors for math, science, writing, foreign language, history, etc.

Tutoring is actually one of the best side hustles for teachers because the hourly pay is pretty high, around $30-$60/hour depending on where you live.

If you can do SAT or ACT prep, you can earn $45-$100/hour. You can find tutoring jobs by connecting with local schools, advertising your services on social media, or through an online tutoring platform like Wyzant.

Complete tasks on TaskRabbit

For a low commitment side hustle, as in one that you can pick up and earn through whenever, doing one-off jobs with TaskRabbit is a great way to make extra money in 2021.

Here’s the gist of it… you use TaskRabbit to find individual tasks/jobs that people have listed. It can be moving furniture for $75, mounting a TV for $30, or cleaning a house for $60.

This is one of the best side hustle ideas because you can literally pick it up when you want to make money and put it down when you’re done. You’re not locked into a completely new career; it’s just fast cash when you need it.

Freelance writer

Freelance writing is a broad field that can encompass a number of different jobs, including:

Marketing campaigns
Blog posts
Email newsletters
Online and print articles
Catalog descriptions
Ghostwriting
Web copy
Grant writing
Technical writing
Content mills
Resumes

As a freelancer, you own your business and contract your work out to companies or solopreneurs. You work on your own schedule and can set competitive rates, making this one of the best side hustles to grow into a full-time job.

Many types of freelance writing work don’t require a specialized degree, but if you want to jumpstart this side hustle, check out 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success. Also, read How to Become a Freelance Writer: The Ultimate Guide for 2021.

Work as a virtual assistant

As this site has grown, I’ve started leaning on a team of people who help me with jobs that I don’t necessarily need to do… okay, some tasks are better if they’re not done by me, like web design. But one of the most valuable behind-the-scenes people here is my virtual assistant.

She helps manage my social media accounts, handles billing, does inbox management, schedules meetings, and generally keeps me focused and on task. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I couldn’t run this site without her.

That’s the kind of work and responsibility that comes with being a virtual assistant, and with a growing number of online business owners, VAs are even more in demand. To work as a virtual assistant, you’ll need to have good time management skills, be highly organized, and communicate well.

Additional virtual assistant tasks include:

Data entry
Responding to emails
Project management
Bookkeeping
Blog management
Preparing reports
Research
Simple digital marketing tasks
Content creation
Event management

That’s a pretty wide range, and what you do will depend on the clients you take on and how you niche down your work. Some business owners have multiple virtual assistants who are all highly experienced and trained in different areas.

This side hustle will appeal to you because it is incredibly flexible; all you need is a laptop and an internet connection to get started. Working as a virtual assistant allows my VA to work from home while caring for her four small children.

If this is one of the side hustle ideas you’re interested in, I highly recommend checking out this course, 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success. You’ll learn:

How to establish yourself as a VA
Pitching clients
Launching your business
How to set your rates
Where and how to find clients
Building effective client relationships

And a lot more, including access to a Facebook community for support, tech support for your website, and ongoing education.

BECOME A VIRTUAL ASSISTANT

Creative and artistic services

A lot of the best side hustle ideas you’ll find on lists like these are for online work or using an app to find work. Not many ideas are for leveraging your natural abilities, but those side hustles do exist and can be a great way to make extra money.

Some of the ideas here can be learned, but the people who are best at these side hustles typically have some innate artistic ability or creativity.

Here are a few ideas of how people are flexing their creative muscles while they side hustle:

Make-up artist- M$M reader Amanda does wedding make-up as a side hustle and makes around $300-$600/day plus tips. She’s even been flown out for a destination wedding in Aruba.
Knitting instructor- Ariel, my editor, teaches knitting lessons and classes on the side. She makes $30/hour for private lessons and makes up to $100/hour teaching group classes.
Private music lessons- Music teachers can make around $25-$40/hour giving private lessons in their homes. When I was a high school band teacher, parents were always asking me for the names of instructors in the area.

Having a website or social media presence is incredibly helpful to get one of these side hustles up and running. You can also promote your skills to your friends and family – word of mouth goes a long way.

Teach English online with VIPKid

VIPKid is a website that connects its teachers to young Chinese students with the goal of helping them learn English. The hours are flexible, you work when you want, and you can earn up to $22/hour with VIPKid – making it one of the best online side hustle ideas.

To start teaching through VIPKid, you start with an application and interview process that involves doing a practice lesson. It’s less stressful than it sounds, trust me. Also, you don’t need to be a certified teacher to teach through VIPKid – you just need experience working with children, which can include:

Raising your own children
Working at a daycare
Tutoring
Babysitting

As a former teacher, I really appreciate how easy VIPkid makes it for side hustlers. You use VIPKid’s platform to schedule 25-minute-long lessons, and there’s zero lesson planning.

Create a course to sell

Next to seeing so many people get out of debt, one of the most rewarding things about running this site is teaching people such a valuable skill (see #1)… as much as I disliked working in a school, I freaking loved teaching.

But the great thing about creating and selling an online course is that you don’t have to deal with angry parents or school politics. You just get to help people learn something really useful.

I know what you’re thinking. Am I even qualified? What would I even make a course about?

The answers are probably and anything. See, we all have something that we’re really good at. Maybe you’re an awesome graphic designer, an excellent bookkeeper, or darn good at editing videos. You can leverage those talents or nearly any other skill to create a course.

How well your course sells will depend on the demand for what you’re teaching, and courses with marketable skills tend to do better. The number one tip for success is to provide value to your students. Know exactly what you’re talking about and give them more than they came for.

To get an idea of the types of courses out there and how you might fit in, check out online course platforms like Kajabi, Thinkific, and Teachable.

While this is one of the best side hustles, it takes a decent amount of work to create, market, and launch your course. The flip side of that is that you are in complete control of a product you’ve created while earning fairly passive income.

One of my readers has been earning side income from her own graphic design courses, and it’s been fun to hear about her progress in my M$M Facebook group. She’s gone from earning a few thousand extra each month to more than $80,000/month selling courses on a few different platforms. Here’s one of her most recent payouts.

Laptop Empires has some excellent information about creating and selling an online course at How to Structure Your Course & Create a System to Sell the Hell Out of it All Year Long.

Start a consulting service

I remember when I first started this site and wish I had someone to answer about a million different questions I had. That’s what it’s like for the vast majority of entrepreneurs I’ve talked to. And the quest for valuable insights extends well beyond those first few months or years.

Clarity.fm saw that need and created an easy way to connect with experts in your field. As an expert, you can get paid for your knowledge, with rates starting at $60/hour but averaging closer to $100-$300/hour.

Here’s how it works:

Someone comes to Clarity.fm and searches for an expert on a specific topic
They find you and schedule a call
You both receive confirmation from Clarity
You get on your call and receive payment for your time

You can consult for Clarity on a huge list of topics related to business, funding, product and design, technology, skills and management, a variety of different industries, and more.

Even Mark Cuban thinks this is one of the best side hustle ideas… he consults for Clarity at $166.67/minute.

If you’re interested in earning at least $60/hour, here’s their list of expert standards, and you’ll also need to fill out an application. Clarity will review your application and assess it based on demand and the completeness of your profile.

START CONSULTING FOR CLARITY

CHECK OUT IBOTTA

Sell your lesson plans online

The reality is that many kids worldwide are learning remotely these days, which means teachers and students are looking for new ways to engage their kids.

If you’re a teacher who has gotten creative with their lesson plans or made unique printables, you can try selling them online at Teachers Pay Teachers. The site currently has lots of distance learning resources, and there are lessons organized by subject matter and grade level.

Like other kinds of digital sales, this could become a fairly passive source of income because you’re not creating and shipping out each item you sell.

It’s fairly easy to set up an account on Teachers Pay Teachers, and there are two options for selling:

The site pays out via PayPal once a month, you can upsell with bundles, and some teachers have quit their teaching jobs because they’ve made so much extra cash with this side hustle.

Rent out your pool

Pools can be both an asset and a burden for homeowners. There’s a lot of maintenance and upkeep, and if you’re not using your pool often, they can become a pretty big headache.

That’s the idea behind Swimply. This online platform lets pool owners rent out their pool to cover operating expenses and some extra cash.

Hosts (the people with the pools) create listings with pictures and amenities, like if you also have a hot tub, fountain, lounge chairs, pool toys, etc. Then you list when your pool is available.

Swimply takes 15% of any rentals, so if you list your pool for $50/hour – this is not an uncommon price – and someone rents it for 2 hours, Swimply gets $15, and you make $85.

Swimply is also in the process of creating another platform called JoySpace, where homeowners can rent out their tennis courts, super cool backyard, basketball court, etc.

One warning: If someone has rented your pool and gets hurt, Swimply doesn’t insure you or the guest. You’ll need to check with your insurance company to see what your options are.

Work as a personal shopper

In the past few months, I’ve noticed some listings on Facebook for personal shoppers. These are people you pay to pick up your groceries or make a Target run. This is similar to what you would do working for Instacart or Postmates, except you’re self-employed instead of working as a contractor for a big company.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this. On the plus side, you may determine your own prices and cultivate long-term client connections. The biggest disadvantage is that you’re in charge of marketing yourself and establishing trust.

If you’re interested, the listings I’ve seen ask for $20-$25 per shopping trip. That’s approximately the extra someone would pay if they ordered their groceries through an app for delivery.

You can share your post on Facebook and ask your friends to share. Include a friendly picture of yourself, a little background info, and why someone should trust you to shop for them. Make sure your post is shareable – not set to friends only.

Become a bookkeeper

First of all, bookkeeping is different from accounting. Bookkeepers record daily financial transactions for a business and accountants interpret the transactions. A bookkeeper is responsible for things like:

Collecting business payments
Updating financial records
Checking records and transactions for accuracy
Manage payroll
Reimburse work-related expenses

Accountants analyze things, prepare tax documents, and do financial forecasting, among other things.

This difference is what makes bookkeeping a low-cost business idea that you can start with very little experience. Freelance bookkeepers can earn around $30-$40/hour, and many can work remotely.

To start a bookkeeping side hustle, start with our article on How to Become a Bookkeeper. It outlines the necessary skills, what kind of training you need, and how to find clients.

Make money as a transcriptionist

Working as a transcriptionist is a side hustle you’ll find on lots of blogs that focus on work-at-home jobs, but it’s a new one to me. Mostly because I was pretty unfamiliar with it until recently; now that I understand the work, let me explain…

Transcriptions take audio files and convert them into text documents. They listen very carefully and type up exactly what they hear.

They might work on general transcription jobs like transcribing podcasts, interviews, web conferences, lectures, or instructional videos. Some transcriptionists specialize in legal or medical transcription.

All transcriptionists will have to type what they hear and go back and proofread it for accuracy. You can imagine how important accuracy is for legal or medical transcriptionists.

People like this side hustle because it can be done remotely, has low startup costs besides needing good headphones, and can earn $15-$30/hour.

Clean houses

My editor, Ariel, has always had several side jobs going on at a time, including cleaning houses for extra cash. She hasn’t done it for several years, but here’s what she has to say about it:

“I started cleaning houses part-time when I was looking for a fast way to make extra money. My husband was in school, and we had a baby, so I needed a flexible option. A friend’s mom cleaned houses for extra cash and let me join her one day to see what it was like.

She averaged $60-$75 for 3 hours of work and said she enjoyed working quietly by herself at a job that had clear expectations. That was 100% the case for me.

I put flyers up at the library and in grocery stores and listed my services on Craigslist. Within a couple of months, I had around six clients and was making an extra $1,000/week. Eventually, I landed a really good client – an NFL player who had just moved to town to play for the Rams. He paid extremely well (like $100/hour) and shared my contact info with his teammates.

Eventually, I quit after getting pregnant with my second child. It became too physically demanding to clean 20-30 hours a week.”

Looking to your inner circle is one of the best ways to find a job like this, but there are also platforms like Tidy or Care.com.

Get paid to grocery shop with Shipt or Instacart.

Working a grocery shopping side hustle is a growing side hustle – Instacart alone added 250,000 shoppers to its roster already this year. Part of that is that more and more consumers want safe and convenient shopping options.

Instacart and Shipt are two of the most popular on-demand grocery services for side hustlers. Both let you set your own hours and have pretty minimal requirements for shoppers – you just have to be 18 years old, have a clean driving and criminal record, and have access to a car and smartphone.

Shipt, which is owned by Target, is available in far fewer locations across the U.S., but it’s growing fast. It’s also moved away from a membership-only model, which is allowing it to really compete with Instacart.

Shoppers for both average $15-$20 on average. You can learn more about the differences and how to sign up in my Shipt Shopper Review and Instacart Review.

Become a social media manager

This was a non-existent side hustle idea not too long ago, but these days brands and companies need someone to manage their social media presence. Plus, where would we be as a society without gems like this that have been strategically crafted and shared by social media managers from major companies:

I know those tweets are old in internet terms (dated 2012), but the exposure those brands earned from those viral moments hasn’t really aged. We will forever think of Old Spice and Taco Bell as brands that are willing to make fun of themselves, and I bet money that’s part of their social media strategy!

Social media managers who are just starting won’t be working for big brands like that, but you can still be responsible for developing a brand identity online through tasks like:

Setting up accounts
Scheduling and creating posts
Replying to comments
Creating images
Running reports and analyzing data on traffic, reach, engagement, etc.
Creating ads
Ensuring brand consistency

The work can change from client to client, and you can develop your skills as you work. New social media managers can make anywhere from $15-$40/hour based on services you offer, and experienced ones can earn upwards of $150/hour.

Housesit for extra cash

Most people think of house sitting as a side job that you do on a very temporary basis, netting you $100-$200/week. While that’s true, some people do it as a full-time job and housesit internationally.

Platforms like House Sit Match, Trusted Housesitters, and Nomador allow you to create profiles after going through a vetting process. You’ll have to pay an annual membership fee, and then you can search for listings all over the world.

This is an ideal side hustle for digital nomads who want to make extra cash while they travel.

Or you can go for a more local approach and find jobs on Learn More. Rover is also used to find pet sitting and dog walking gigs (as mentioned earlier in this article)

Start a YouTube channel

Making money on YouTube is a lot like starting and monetizing your blog – you need to start with a niche and grow your traffic. But after that, you can make advertising income, affiliate income, create sponsored content, and sell branded merchandise.

The top YouTubers earn crazy money. For example, Ryan Kaji is 8 years old

Start a mobile auto detailing business

More and more people want convenient ways to take care of everyday tasks – it addresses a pain point. This is why grocery shopping and food delivery side hustles have taken off. And it’s why starting a mobile car detailing business could be a profitable option.

Mobile detailing services come to wherever the car is, typically the owner’s house, to wash and clean the car.

You’ll want to learn the basics of auto detailing before you get started. A quick Google search will tell you what customers expect.

From there, you’ll want to come up with a list of services and price them based on what’s available in your local market. The basic services would be exterior and interior cleanings, but you can upsell with add-on services like:

Waxing
Scratch removal
Shampooing carpets
Leather conditioning
Pet hair removal
Engine cleaning
Headlight restoration

Most people will be able to store the equipment they need in a truck, van, or SUV. You can save space if customers are willing to let you use their hose. Otherwise, you’ll need an 80–100-gallon water tank.

You can advertise your services on Facebook, Craigslist, put up flyers, reach out to your local Chamber of Commerce, and ask friends to share your new business venture.

Invest in rental properties

This is a side hustle that will require a considerably greater initial financial investment, but it may be quite profitable.

Purchasing and renting a home or multi-family unit can help you enhance your monthly cash flow, but it’s also a fantastic long-term investment because your property’s value will likely rise over time. It’s also something you should think about as part of your retirement strategy.

Many rookie real estate investors use their future earnings to fund their purchases, but you’ll still need a down payment and money set aside for maintenance and periods when the property is vacant.

Because this requires such a large investment, I recommend checking out BiggerPockets. This is a free online resource for investors and includes a rental property calculator to help you decide if a rental is worth the investment, along with tons of blog posts and educational content to help you get started.

Offer childcare services

Listen, I’m about to have a baby, so I’m starting to realize how valuable a good babysitter or nanny will be. Okay, I can’t imagine leaving my kid alone with anyone yet, but I’m sure my wife and I will eventually want someone we can trust.

That’s exactly what parents are willing to pay for – knowing their kids are safe and being taken care of.

There are a few different ways to generate money by providing daycare. You can work as an evening babysitter, a regular nanny, or start your own in-home daycare service.

Last but not least, specific licensing may be required, so check with your state’s Department of Health and Senior Services to see what they are. To discover families, you can list these services online or use word-of-mouth.

There are also sites like SitterCity and Care.com , where you can create a profile, and then families browse the platform and contact potential caregivers. These sites require a background check to vet sitters.

Care.com costs $20/month to list your services, and SitterCity is free, but you can pay $9.99/month to be listed as a featured sitter. SitterCity says featured listings are 4x more likely to land a job.

Start a landscaping side hustle.

I feel like an old man for saying this, but I’ve recently become passionate about lawn care. I want my grass green, trimmed, and free of weeds. We also had someone come in and do some landscape design and plant flowers and bushes.

Like me, there are many people out there who are willing to pay good money to maintain our yards.

This is a very hands-on and physical side hustle that can include services like:

Mowing
Weeding
Trimming bushes
Edging
Raking leaves
Planting
Cleaning gutters
Shoveling snow

You can start with yard tools you already have (mower, weed whacker, etc.) and update your tools as your business expands.

Local Facebook groups would be a wonderful approach to advertise your services, but you’ll have to check the restrictions for these groups. There are Facebook groups for almost all municipalities and townships. You can also distribute flyers in your neighborhood and share your contact information with friends and relatives who are willing to share it.

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JOB SECURITY. FINANCIAL SECURITY.

HERE ARE SOME SIDE HUSTLE'S TO CONSIDER

Your Side Hustle Journey Starts (Or Grows) Here!

Quick Links

Contact Us

PO BOX 12913 KCKS 66112

Copyright © 2023 Moonlight Side Hustle | All Rights Reserved

Enter Your Name and Primary Email Address To Receive

3 Free Side Hustle PDF’s:

2-REI Side Hustle PDF’s1-How To Make An Extra 100K PDF

2-REI Side Hustle PDF’s
1-How To Make An Extra 100K PDF