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We’ve gotten great feedback on our 20+ Weird Ways to Make Money in Your Spare Time and our 25 Ways to Make $100 This Weekend. Turns out lots of people want to make more money. Who knew? 😉
So we’re gonna dig a little deeper into that topic! We’ll explore 10 side hustles you can start today to earn an extra $500+ every month!
Here are the criteria for our definition of “side hustle”:
- You get to name your hours. Work only when you want to.
- You can do these from (almost!) anywhere in the world, assuming you have an internet connection.
So we’re ignoring part-time jobs requiring schedules and “going in” to work. Cool? Cool.
On to the list!
1. Sell on Etsy
You know Etsy, right? It’s the place online for unique, handmade everything.
You can buy personalized gifts, custom jewelry, and wonderfully weird home decor.
But, even better than buying all that, you can sell your one-of-a-kind creations on Etsy as an income-producing side hustle!
The opportunities are pretty much limitless:
So grab some supplies, your imagination, and get crafting! Sign up as an Etsy seller.
2. Drive for Uber or Lyft
A Time.com article found the average Uber driver makes $364/month. The same article points out the average Lyft driver makes $377/month. Not too shabby! Of course that completely depends on how many hours you’re willing to commit to this drive-for-dollars side hustle.
To maximize your earnings and make sure a fare is always available when you’re ready, sign up for both!
3. Freelance Writing
Do you have a good understanding of language and grammar? Try freelance writing!
Confession time: I love writing, but was afraid to try freelance writing because I’m not a compelling story-teller. Most of my stories end with a quizzical look from hubby and me saying, “that’s it; that’s the end of my story”. Tsk, tsk.
But there are many cases where that’s ok! If you’re writing a how-to post or a step-by-step guide, most readers want info, not story. So we’re good! I’m currently making over $500/month on freelance writing alone. And you can too! Again, assuming you know proper grammar (and when it’s ok to bend it!).
Word to the wise: pick a niche and focus your efforts. There are a ton of freelance writers out there, but only a handful specializing in organic pet care products (for example). So when a pet grooming company is looking for a blog writer, do you think they’ll hire one of the many generic writers available, or do you think they’ll pick the one writer advertising herself as an organic pet care specialist? Right!
You can start by selling your writing services on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. They are great tools for starting your side hustle. Side note: they aren’t just for writing. You can sell almost any virtual service on Fiverr and Upwork! So bookmark those for future reference!
If you’re a skilled writer and want to pursue full-time writing, you might want to try building your own client base through writing job boards and a good freelancer website. Fiverr and Upwork are really built more for one-off side gigs than for consistent, long-term work.
4. Edit or Proofread
You bookmarked Fiverr and Upwork, right? Great! Because those are perfect starting points to find editing and/or proofreading gigs!
Editing is holistically reviewing a piece of content for clarity, tone, flow, and sentence structure. Proofreading is searching the piece for nitty-gritty spelling and grammar errors. Every piece of content published needs both! And you could get paid for providing these services!
There are literally hundreds of sites offering editing and proofreading work for freelancers. Our best recommendation is to checkout proofreadanywhere.com. Caitlin at Proofread Anywhere offers free intro workshops and courses to help you get off to a successful start in editing and proofreading. And she provides lots of info on the sites looking for freelancers.
5. Transcribe
Ok, seriously, you bookmarked Fiverr and Upwork, right? Because, you guessed it, you can get paid for transcription services through those platforms. Transcription is simply typing spoken words from audio and video files. You receive the file, you type up the content, and you get paid! Perfect for those with a good ear and speedy typing skills.
But there are actually better ways than Fiverr and Upwork for beginners to earn some side hustle income through transcription. See, there are companies that specialize in transcription services, so they have huge clients sending them thousands of hours of audio and video. And they’re always looking for freelancers in their network willing to take projects for them. Most require a short test, then you’re on your way to a paycheck!
Here are a few sites for beginners:
6. Provide Tours and Local Experiences
This is our fave new side hustle opportunity! If you live in a tourist destination, you can offer tours of your city to visitors! Even cooler, you can offer local experiences for visitors from a local POV.
The possibilities are truly endless, but think along the lines of:
- A paddle-boarding tour through a wildlife refuge
- The Louvre highlights in one hour
- A dance lesson in Barcelona
- A guided hike in the Hollywood Hills
- A London pub crawl
- A deep dish pizza cooking class in Chicago
- A photographers’ tour of New York, finding the best photo-op spots
- Wine tasting in Napa Valley
What can you show and tell about your city?
Check out Vayable or AirBnB Experiences for more inspiration and to list your local experience!
PS: Anyone interested in an Apple Wine Tour of Frankfurt, Germany? I think that’s going to be my new side (side) hustle.
7. Sell on ebay and Amazon
Selling on ebay and Amazon is an oldie-but-a-goodie.
The classic business model is to find deals at estate sales or discount stores, and resell those items online for more.
More sophisticated models have become more popular in recent years. Like the drop shipping model, for example. Drop shipping is when you partner with wholesalers who will ship the product directly to your customer once they purchase a product. You don’t need to store inventory or deal with shipping at all! Or even purchase a bunch of inventory up front! You can just wait until a buyer makes a purchase to order that item from the wholesaler. Cool, right?!
Another option is “Fulfillment by Amazon” (FBA). FBA is when you physically buy a product and ship it to the Amazon warehouse so they can store it and ship it once someone buys it. So you still won’t have to worry about any inventory taking up space around your place or going to the post office constantly! And you get access to the entire Amazon audience! Just make sure you’re charging enough to cover your costs to ship the product to the Amazon warehouse and to cover the FBA fees.
Get started making money on Amazon! Or making money on ebay!
8. Blog
Warning: You will not make quick money blogging! Blogging is a long game. Be prepared to spend months, possibly years blogging purely for the love of it. After the huge upfront time investment, you could potentially make some decent money blogging.
Blogging income comes from a few main sources:
- affiliate links – you make a small commission when readers click your links to purchase a product you recommend.
- promotional posts – you’re paid by a company to promote their product or service through one of your posts.
- advertisements – you rent ad space on your blog to companies.
- selling a product or service – you create a product or service your audience is willing to buy.
- selling a subscription – you provide members-only access to your archive for a monthly fee.
Here’s the best part about blogging: once you invest that initial time, you’re able to collect an income without trading hours for dollars. If you look back at the other items on this list, you’ll notice that they’re trading your time for money. But an established blog is fairly passive. Sure, you’ll need to write and market at least a post/week and respond to comments, but the longer your blog is producing quality content, the more your hourly rate increases!
There are quite literally thousands of blogs devoted to starting new blogs. But to cut through the crap and follow a tried and true method, head to Blogging Basics 101. Â One thing to take note of is that you do need good internet if you want to blog properly. Luckily, it has never been easier for you to access the best fiber internet in your home.
9. Sell Stock Photos
1) Take photos, 2) sign up as a seller with a few stock photo sites, and 3) wait for people to buy your photos. Easy!
Not to brag, but I’ve personally sold two, yes TWO, photos online. 😉
The fact is, there’s just a ton of competition in online stock photography. And I’m learning that beautiful vacation photos won’t cut it. Ideally, you want to build a portfolio of industry-specific images for an industry of your choosing.
Think about it: who are your buyers? Most likely business owners looking for stock photos for their website, right? So think about those businesses. Electricians need professional-quality photos of breaker boxes, outlets, and light bulbs. Tailors need photos of sewing machines, needles and thread, and fabric. Capture those images for the best odds of selling your photos.
Here are the sites I’m currently using to sell my photos:
Give it a shot!
Bonus: once people have paid money for your photos, you can call yourself a professional photographer, and your new camera is a perfectly legal work-related tax deduction.
10. Survey Sites
That’s right, you can make extra money just taking surveys online!
It’s not a ton of money (about $10-$20 per 30-minute survey on average), but it’s a great way to side-hustle while mindlessly bingeing The Office on Netflix (for the 3rd time…gah, that’s a great show!).
Just understand going in that you won’t qualify for many of the surveys because the surveyors are looking for the opinions of a specific demographic. Like, maybe they just want millennial Android users, moms with college degrees, or homeowners with private mortgage insurance, for example. You’ll have to answer a few unpaid questions to apply for each survey to see if you even qualify. So it’s wise to sign up for several different survey sites to increase your likelihood of being accepted for surveys.
Here are a few survey sites to get started:
Hope this post has given you some useful income-producing ideas! Enjoy your side hustle!
Feel Like Sharing?
Do you have any other side hustle recommendations? We’re all ears!
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