Picking up a side hustle is a great way to supplement your 9-to-5 and earn a little extra cash on the side.
However, if you’ve ever Googled ‘side hustle ideas’ before, you might have noticed that the internet is flooded with articles pushing scammy survey sites that take forever to complete and only pay pennies.
Fear not – in this article, we’re going to be introducing you to some totally legit side hustle ideas that you can use to make real money.
Below, you’ll find over 50 of the best side hustle ideas for ways you can earn enough extra money on the side.
Whether you want to start putting some serious savings away for your retirement years, pay off student loans, or find a side hustle you can turn into a business – this list of ideas will help you.
And the best part? Most of these methods require little to no prior experience or skills to get started with.
For your convenience, we’ve split the list below into online and offline side hustle ideas, so you can jump ahead to the section you’re most interested in.
Ready? Let’s dive into it!
1. Start a blog
Ok, so I might be a little biased, but blogging is one of the best ways to make some extra money online.
Don’t get me wrong, starting a blog isn’t super easy – it takes a lot of work. However, once you get it up and running, it can potentially earn you upwards of $1000 a month. The top blogs even make over $1M per year.
You can monetize your blog by selling products, running ads, promoting your affiliates, and more. All you need to do is choose a niche that you’d like to write about and get started.
The great thing about starting a blog is that you can write about literally anything that interests you, so it can be a really fun hobby as well as a side hustle. For example, Tone Island is a niche blog about guitar gear – if you have an interest, chances are you can create a blog about it.
How to get started
First, you’ll need to choose a domain name and a hosting plan. You can do this through sites like Bluehost and GoDaddy. After that, you can use WordPress to build your site.
Once your website is up and running, you can start researching and writing articles to drive traffic to your blog. Once you have enough traffic, you can monetize it.
This is a very brief overview, but there’s a lot more to know about successfully starting a blog. Check out our step-by-step guide on how to start a blog to learn more.
If you’ve already started a blog, be sure to check out our article on the best ways to monetize a blog.
2. List your unused space online
Letting your neighbors rent your unused space is a great way to earn extra money with very minimal effort.
Neighbor.com is the Airbnb of Storage, you can list your garage, basement, spare room, driveway, RV pad, dirt field, shed, or more and charge rent each month. You can choose what you want them to store and everything is taken care of through the app.
You can earn over $150/month by simply storing your neighbor’s boat in your backyard. Plus, everyone will think you own a boat!
They also give you up to $1,000,000 in free host liability coverage so you’re always covered.
How to get started
Sign up for free at Neighbor.com and list the space you’d like to list. Make sure to take good photos to make your listing stand out. You can then approve or deny rental applications until you find your ideal renter.
3. Offer social media management services
With over 70% of the US using social media every day, demand for skilled social media managers is higher than it’s ever been. It’s imperative in this day and age for businesses to have a good social media presence, but many businesses just don’t have the time and resources to devote to it. That’s where social media managers come in.
They manage everything from posting and creating content to interacting with followers and responding to comments. Some skilled social media managers even manage social media ad campaigns and collaborations for their clients. If you’re an Instagram addict or Facebook fanatic, it may be the perfect role for you.
Many social media managers do it as a full-time job and work with many clients at once. However, if you want to do it as a side-hustle, you can just work with one or two clients at a time so that the workload doesn’t become too demanding.
You can earn between $20 and $50 per hour as a social media manager.
How to get started
The easiest way to find clients as a social media manager is to sign up for a freelancer marketplace like Upwork. Fill out your profile with relevant skills and examples of your previous work. You may also want to invest in a good social media management tool to make managing your workload easier and more organized.
4. Start an ecommerce store
Starting an e-commerce store is a lot of work. However, if you put in the effort, it can turn into a really lucrative side hustle. In fact, it can potentially even generate enough extra income that you can ditch your day job entirely.
The basic principle is pretty straightforward. It goes like this:
- Find a product that there’s a lot of demand for
- Buy the product in bulk from suppliers at wholesale prices
- Market and sell it online at a marked-up retail price
- Enjoy the profits
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than just that.
How to get started
To start an ecommerce store, you’ll need to spend a lot of time planning and preparing your business strategy.
You’ll need to find and validate a product idea by conducting careful market research, research the competition, determine your pricing and product margins, figure out what marketing channels you’re going to focus on, put together a marketing strategy, and more.
Once you’ve got a solid business plan in place, you can start to build your high-converting online storefront.
There are various ecommerce platforms you can use for this. BigCommerce is the best option for most stores, however, if you need a simple store, I’d recommend trying Sellfy.
5. Become a proofreader
Proofreading is a great side hustle for people that love to read and those who have great attention to detail.
With so much digital content being produced every day, the demand for proofreading services is high. Proofreading can pay anywhere from around $20 and upwards, with more prestigious jobs paying as much as hundreds of dollars.
Usually, proofreaders work on a freelance basis and are paid per project. You can find proofreading jobs on sites like Clickworker, Upwork, and Fiverr.
How to get started
Sign up for a freelancing marketplace like Fiverr or Upwork. Fill out your profile with your experience and relevant skills and you should find some projects in no time.
If you’d like to learn more about the state of freelancing, be sure to read our post on freelancing statistics.
6. Sell a digital product
Digital products are non-physical assets you can sell online repeatedly without having to restock your inventory. We’re talking about things like subscription/membership sites, software, ebooks, stock photos, videos, blueprints, PDFs, etc.
The great thing about selling digital products as a side hustle is there are very few overheads. You only have to write an ebook once, but you can sell it a thousand times without having to pay any further production costs.
Plus, unlike selling physical products, you don’t have to stock digital products, which means there’s no need for physical premises or warehouses to store them. As such, it’s a lot more flexible.
How to get started
First, you’ll need to figure out exactly what type of digital product you want to sell. I can’t offer you any specific recommendations here as there are so many possibilities.
Just make sure to validate your idea before you commit by making sure it’s not too competitive and there’s a real demand for what you’re selling.
Next, you’ll need to build your store. Selling digital downloads requires different website features and functions than selling regular physical products, so you’ll need the right tools for the job.
We’ve already compiled a list of the best ecommerce platforms to sell digital products – choose one of these platforms to create your store and go from there.
7. Start a YouTube channel
Did you know that YouTube is the most visited site in the world? It’s no surprise then that there is a lot of money to be made on the platform. Starting your own YouTube channel can be a great way to earn some extra cash.
In order to make money on YouTube, you need to be able to create decent, high-quality content, so a creative mind and a little knowledge of video editing are required.
The sky’s the limit when it comes to how much you can earn on YouTube. If you put in the time and effort to grow your channel and gain subscribers, you can earn a lot from sponsorships and YouTube advertising.
How to get started
Create a YouTube account and add some channel art to your channel. Then, plan and film some content and upload it. You won’t be able to start earning right away, but once your channel has reached over 4,000 viewed hours and 1,000 subscribers you can begin monetizing your content.
8. Become a transcriptionist
If you’re not up for making your own YouTube videos, you could try becoming a transcriptionist and writing subtitles for videos instead.
As a transcriptionist, you can work from home, watch clips and episodes of video content, and get paid for it. All you have to do is transcribe the audio in each clip. It’s a pretty easy side hustle and you have the potential to earn around $10+/hour.
How to get started
Sign up for a transcription service like Rev.com and complete the application process. If your transcription skills are up to speed, you can start taking paid jobs.
9. Grow a social media following
Growing a social media following can be tough, but once you’ve built up a good community, making money is a breeze. If you’re already a whizz with social media sites like Instagram then growing an account to a monetizable level shouldn’t be too difficult.
Simply pick a niche, upload high-quality content consistently and your follower count should steadily grow. Once your followers exceed around 10,000, you can start reaching out to brands and companies for sponsorships and collaborations.
How to get started
Start a social media account or spruce up the one you already have. Create a content plan and do some research into how you can boost your following. Then start posting and reaching out to brands once your follower count is high enough.
Remember, this isn’t an overnight side hustle, it will take time to grow your account, but it can be a serious moneymaker once you’ve got enough followers.
You’ll need one of these social media schedulers to help you save time.
10. Become a site tester
Businesses are keen to ensure that their websites work well and are easily accessible for users. As a result, there is a large demand for site testers that can test sites before they go live.
Becoming a site tester is quite easy, and you don’t need a particular set of skills to get started. As long as you are computer literate, you could earn upwards $20/hour as a site tester.
How to get started
Apply to become a site tester on sites like Usertesting.com. Complete the training period and start completing the tests. You may also be asked to take part in live interviews which pay even more than the tests.
11. Teach English online
For native speakers of English, teaching English online is one of the easiest side hustles to get started with. Jobs are abundant, and most pay in excess of $15/hour.
Since most jobs are available for teaching children in Asia, hours can be a little unsociable depending on your location. You may have to work early in the morning or late at night. However, if you’re trying to fit it in around your regular working schedule, this could be just what you need.
In most cases, you don’t need any previous teaching experience, if you speak English natively, and can chat to children and help them learn, then this will be just fine. It also helps if you have a bachelor’s degree and a TEFL certificate.
How to get started
Check out current job listings on sites like RemotelyWorking. Apply for your chosen job, complete the recruitment process, and get started. Getting hired as an English teacher online can often take less than a week.
12. Become a freelance writer
Freelance writers are in very high demand right now, which makes this a great side hustle idea. There are many different types of freelance writers, but I’d recommend focusing on content writing or copywriting – this is where the greatest demand is at the moment.
Content writers create informative, useful content for marketing purposes. This includes things like blog posts, articles, ebooks, and whitepapers.
Copywriters focus more on the ‘selling’ side of things. They craft compelling, persuasive web copy to help businesses sell more products. This includes promotional materials, landing page copy, email copy, and more.
Experienced freelance copy and content writers can earn upwards of $0.10 per word. That means that, for a 2,000-word article, you can get paid $200. If you can write one of those a day (trust me, it’s doable), that’s an extra $1,400 per week in your pocket. Not bad, right?
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How to get started
The first step in getting started as a freelance writer is to create a portfolio of work. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have any paid experience as a writer just yet. For now, you can create your own free website, self-publish blog posts to that website, and use that as your portfolio. Just make sure you learn how to write great blog posts first.
Once you have a portfolio, you can start bidding for jobs on freelance job websites like Upwork or Freelancer. There’s a ton of available work on these kinds of platforms so it shouldn’t take long to land your first gig.
I’d recommend pitching low rates at the start while you build up your experience and get a portfolio of bylined articles under your belt. After that, you can start charging more and earning big bucks.
13. Become a content editor
This one’s similar to the above, except that this time, you won’t be writing the content yourself – you’ll be editing other people’s work.
If you’re a perfectionist by nature with strong writing skills and a great eye for detail, you can become a content editor and start getting paid to read over and edit written content.
Your job will be to pick out any spelling or grammatical errors, tidy up the content, make sure it adheres to your client’s style guidelines, and generally get it ready for publication. You might also be required to optimize it for search and upload it to your client’s website.
It might sound difficult, but it’s all stuff you can learn fairly quickly. Many content writers and editors are completely self-taught.
How to get started
Again, the steps here are similar to getting started as a content writer. You’ll need some samples of your work to show clients, so start by creating a portfolio.
You can use blog posts you’ve written, edited, and published yourself as samples in the beginning then expand your portfolio to include paid work once you’ve landed your first few jobs.
Content editors can find work on freelance platforms like Upwork as well as with publishers and media companies.
14. Start a dropshipping business
Another way to earn more money online is to start a dropshipping business. Like running an eCommerce store, dropshipping involves selling products to consumers.
The difference is that with dropshipping, you don’t have to actually stock the products yourself. Instead, your supplier fulfills the order for you and ships the product directly to your customers.
The basic premise is that you market and sell products to customers at a marked-up price. Whenever you get a sale, you place an order with your vendor and have them ship it directly to the customer. The price you pay to your vendor is less than the price you sell for, so you pocket the difference as profit.
The advantage of this method is that you don’t have to pay for a warehouse to stock your products or purchase stock in advance, which makes it a low-risk venture.
How to get started
Here are the basic steps to starting a dropshipping business:
- Find a product you want to sell and validate your product idea
- Find a supplier that offers dropshipping retail fulfillment for that product
- Set up an online store from which you can sell that product
- Launch a marketing campaign to drive traffic to your store and generate sales
- Take the profits!
Of course, there’s a little more to it than that. Dropshipping is a competitive industry and finding a gap in the market where you can make sales and still make a decent profit margin is tough.
You’ll need to spend some time planning your business strategy to make sure you know what you’re doing before you get started.
15. Sell print-on-demand goods
Selling print-on-demand goods is similar to dropshipping but for a specific kind of product. If you’re a talented artist or graphic designer, this could be a great side hustle.
The idea is to create designs for products like t-shirts and mugs and then sell them through a print-on-demand service. Once a customer orders the product, you have it printed and shipped to them
Because you don’t pay for the product to be printed with your design until you’ve already made a sale, it’s a low-risk business model that requires little to no investment.
How to get started
You have a few different options available to you.
If you have don’t have an ecommerce store yet, you can sell print-on-demand goods with an all-in-one ecommerce platform like Sellfy. They offer a free plan that will be enough to get started with.
If you already have an ecommerce store running on a platform such as Shopify, Printful makes it easy to sell print-on-demand products. It also integrates with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and many more.
Alternatively, you could use a marketplace like Zazzle. You don’t get as much control over how your products are sold, but you do get access to their built-in audience. It’s worth considering that you’d also be promoting the platform your competitors use.
You can learn more in our article on the best print-on-demand sites.
16. Write an ebook
Another great way to earn more money online passively is to write and sell an ebook.
How-to and educational ebooks are a great option as there’s always a ton of demand for them. Try to find a gap in the market – a need that’s not currently being met – and create an ebook on that topic.
You can write it yourself or commission someone else to do it for you. There are lots of freelance platforms out there where you can list the job and find a professional author to write it.
Good writers will charge anything from $0.05 to $0.50 per word, and the average how-to or self-help book is around 40,000 words, so expect to pay at least a couple of thousand dollars initially if you outsource it.
How to get started
First, write your ebook. Then, self-publish it and list it for sale on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing or any other platform you want to focus on. To generate your first few sales and get some momentum, you might want to promote it yourself by running an ad campaign.
17. Become an online consultant
If you have a particular area of expertise, and you want to monetize your knowledge then you might want to consider offering online consultancy services. You can become a consultant in any industry as long as there is a need for it.
For example, if you have a lot of experience as an HR manager, then you may be able to offer consultancy services to new businesses that are building up an HR department.
The great thing about consultancy work is that you’re free to work completely on your own schedule and take meetings whenever you have the time. And, because you’re an expert in your consultancy field, consultancy fees are usually very high. Great pay and flexibility make it the perfect combination for a side hustle.
How to get started
To get started as a consultant it’s a good idea to create a website and list your services and experience. You should also spruce up your LinkedIn profile so that you can use it to network and find clients to work with.
18. Launch an online course
Online courses are in high demand right now, so if you think you have some valuable knowledge to share that people would be willing to pay for, this might be a great option.
The great thing about selling online courses is you only have to invest your time and money in the initial stage while you’re getting set up.
Once your online course is created and listed online, you can sell it again and again and again without spending another dime. It can also start to bring in more money passively and become a passive income source.
How to get started
All you need to do to get started is create your course using an online course platform. Some platforms like Thinkific will even allow you to create and launch a course for free. You can sell your course via a dedicated landing page, or market it via social media, email, or search.
19. Become a translator
If you speak another language, it’s pretty easy to find jobs online that can help you to boost your income. No matter what language you speak, there is always a demand for translation services. Most online work for translators is translating web content for businesses that are looking to branch out and reach new demographics.
If you’re fluent in both English and another language, it’s a pretty easy way to make some extra cash online. What languages you speak will determine how much you are paid but most translators earn around $20/hour.
How to get started
Create a profile on sites like Upwork and Fiverr. Search for jobs and bid on projects that you think are a good fit for your skillset.
20. Complete jobs on Mechanical Turk
Amazon Mechanical Turk is a site that helps businesses to complete tasks like Image and video processing, data clarification and cleanup, and information gathering. If you sign up for Mechanical Turk as a worker, you can complete micro-tasks like transcription, data deduplication, and research in your spare time.
The tasks on Mechanical Turk are usually microtasks. They take a small amount of time to complete and pay less than a dollar per task. However, if you have a few hours per day to commit to completing these tasks, it’s possible to earn between $150 and $300 per week.
How to get started
Simply follow this link and sign up as an Amazon Mechanical Turk worker and start completing jobs.
21. Become a voiceover artist
Voiceovers are used regularly in advertising and video content, and most companies outsource their voiceover creation to freelancers. It’s quite easy to find voiceover projects online, so if you’re a smooth talker, then it could be worth a shot.
You’ll need a decent microphone and an extremely quiet recording space. This will help to ensure that all of your recordings are high-quality and professional. As a voiceover artist, you can expect to earn upwards of $20 per recording.
How to get started
List your services on sites like Fiverr. Check out some other voiceover artists to determine your prices and extra fees. If you don’t have much experience, price your services competitively to attract new clients and build your portfolio.
22. Offer web design services
If you have some experience with web design, then you could make a lot of money as a freelance web designer in your free time. Web designers are always in high demand, and it’s pretty easy to find freelance projects that you can complete in your spare time.
Also, as there is some level of skill and experience required for this job, freelance web designers are usually paid well for their services. Many freelance web designers work freelance full-time, so it should be easy to find enough clients to fill your time if you’re just looking to freelance as a side hustle.
How to get started
Create a portfolio website showcasing your work, and sign up for freelancer marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. Browse the job listing and bid for jobs that you think will be a good fit for your skillset. If you’re still new to web design, price your services competitively to build up your portfolio.
23. Offer graphic designs services
This is the perfect side hustle for artists, as it is a great way to earn money and utilize your creative design skills. As a freelance graphic designer, you can work on a variety of business logos and branding elements, merchandise, and more.
In recent years, online logo makers & stock design platforms have been gaining popularity but they cannot compete with what a skilled graphic designer can offer.
In order to get jobs, you’ll need to know your way around design programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but if you already have these skills you should find it easy to find clients. How much you earn will depend on the project, but graphic designers tend to be well paid for their services
How to get started
Compile your designs and create an online portfolio to show to potential clients. Search for jobs on sites like Upwork and Fiverr.
24. Start a Twitch stream
If you love gaming, then Twitch streaming will be your dream side hustle. Twitch is a community for live streaming. Most people stream gaming, but some people stream themselves cooking, walking, or just hanging out.
If you have a good following on Twitch, it’s easy to make money. Firstly, your followers can make donations to your channel, which is quite common. You can also score sponsorship deals and earn more money that way.
Unless you already have an online following, Twitch won’t be an overnight moneymaker, but if you stick at it and build your following, it can turn into a legitimate extra income source.
How to get started
Purchase the equipment you need for streaming such as a camera, microphone, and computer. Then create your channel and start streaming.
25. Sell stock photos online
If you’re a keen photographer, then you may be able to turn your hobby into a side hustle. Users across the internet need high-quality photos for their web content and products, and there’s always a demand for new stock images.
By selling stock images, you won’t be able to make a ton of money, but you may be able to make enough to boost your regular income and reach your savings goals faster.
There are many sites where you can list your images for sale, but most of them take a percentage of the sale as a commission which reduces the amount of profit the creator makes.
It’s also possible to sell stock images through your own site and cut out the middleman, but this is a little more difficult to do and would require more time and commitment before you start to see financial returns.
How to get started
Take some photos, or compile some photos that you already have saved. Sign up with websites like Alamy, iStock Photo, and Shutterstock and start selling.
You can find more sites in our post on stock photo websites, but remember that some of these sites will have exclusive agreements in place. So that’ll be something to check before you start selling.
