Are you looking for a way to bring in extra income with a side hustle? If so, you’re in luck. There are countless opportunities for those who are ambitious enough to take on one or more gig roles. The thing is, the sheer number of possibilities can make it hard to determine which side hustle is right for you.
Today, our goal is to show you several side hustles that are easy to start and maintain, even if you’re working full time. We will reveal how you can take your writing, design and social media skills and use them to boost your monthly income.
How Do I Choose the Best Side Hustle to Make Extra Income?
Read on to learn how you can leverage your skills to start a profitable side hustle today:
Start a personal blog
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to make money online. You can write about just about anything you have expertise in, from your favorite hobby to business. When you consider that 77 percent of internet users read blog posts, it’s easy to see why this strategy is so popular among young entrepreneurs and industry veterans alike.
However, creating a blog doesn’t mean you’ll instantly start making money. You have to look for opportunities to monetize your content and website as a whole.
One easy way to start bringing in money with your blog is to experiment with affiliate marketing. Essentially, affiliate marketing is when you market a product or service to your audience that you didn’t create. The business that sells the product gives you, the affiliate marketer, a unique link, and when a visitor clicks on that link and makes a purchase, you get a percentage of the profits.
If one or two people click through and buy something, you won’t make a ton of money. However, as you grow your audience and reach more people, you’ll have the chance to secure hundreds, maybe thousands, of affiliate sales.
Google Ads is also an effective tool to make money with your blog. This program allows advertisers to bid for prominent ad spots on your website. When your visitors click on the ads, you generate revenue. To start, I suggest limiting your ad market to offers that will resonate with your target audience and lead to organic clicks.
To learn more about how to develop a content strategy and grow your blog to millions of readers, click here.
Related: How to Choose a Side Hustle That Matches Your Personality
Create and upload online courses
Odds are, you have a skill that’s worth teaching to the world. Instead of keeping your knowledge to yourself, you can make some extra cash by creating an online course or program.
There are online classes available on just about every topic imaginable. You can find lessons on everything from email marketing to ice skating in seconds.
Due to this demand for information, the learning management system (LMS) market is expected to grow to $28.1 billion by 2025.
If you want people to pay for your knowledge, you can create a detailed online course that offers unique information and insights. Go beyond the information that’s available for free, and don’t forget to put your personality on display. Your charisma and brand voice could inspire first-time visitors to come back and buy additional lessons.
Ideally, you should host your courses on your personal site with your blog, especially if they are related in subject matter.
For instance, let’s say you have a blog that’s all about knitting. People will stop by to read your how-to blog posts and might want to learn more. If they see that you’re offering lessons on various knitting techniques, there’s a good chance that they will subscribe and pay to learn from your experience.
Look for one-off freelance jobs
Online freelance work has grown in popularity over the last decade. The COVID-19 pandemic escalated this growth and led to more people than ever before using the internet to find work and employees.
Due to the volume of employers turning to the internet for potential employees, you can safely assume there’s someone out there willing to hire you for your skills. There are plenty of job boards that you can check for listings.
You can find opportunities to write, design, create videos, code and much more by browsing for one-off freelance jobs. The best part about this side hustle is that you have the freedom and flexibility to pick up as much work as you want. So, if you don’t have the extra time to pursue your side hustle this week, you can take a break.
I do want to emphasize the importance of finding reputable freelance clients, however. Even if you’re using a premium board, always research clients and the companies they claim to represent before accepting a freelance contract.
A few reputable places to start include Fiverr, Upwork and FlexJobs.
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Become a social media influencer
Social media is also an effective way to make extra money on the side. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are used by 3.96 billion people worldwide, and that number is still growing.
Much like blogging, you can’t simply share a post and make money. You have to first build influence, and eventually, you’ll have quite a few monetization paths you can explore.
I suggest starting by building your audience. Spend your time engaging with people with similar interests or goals. You can visit industry-specific social media groups on Facebook and find thousands of people that would likely follow your account.
As your fanbase grows, you can start looking for opportunities to find businesses willing to pay you to promote their products to your followers. It’s worth noting that you should only market products that you use and trust. You don’t want to get into a situation where you recommend a subpar product and lose a large chunk of your audience.
The larger your audience, the more you stand to make. Once you make it to 500,000 followers, brands will pay an average of $2,400 per post.
Buy and sell domains
Finally, let’s talk about buying and selling domains. This side hustle is, in most cases, a long-term investment. However, if implemented correctly, you can make a ton of money through reselling domain names.
Think of domains as the real estate of the digital world. If you have a piece of land that has a perfect view and spacious yard, it’s probably worth a lot of money. Similarly, if you have a popular domain due to interest in a specific topic, you’re going to attract some serious buyers.
The key to making this strategy work is to create a landing page that lets visitors know that the domain is for sale. Here’s a real-life scenario to show how you can make money with this strategy: Imagine you buy the domain for www.originalpotatochips.com. Eventually, a snack company may want to use that website for advertising and selling its products. If they conduct a search to see if the domain is available and come across your landing page with your email address, they can contact you about buying the domain.
Depending on the company’s size, they may send you an offer that could easily result in a huge return on investment. If you want to increase your chances of turning domain selling into a side hustle, buy up a few vastly different domains so you can cast a wider net.
Final thoughts
There are countless side hustles to explore to bring in extra cash, and we’ve only scratched the surface. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take some time to write down your skills and figure out what you have the time and energy to dedicate to when it comes to starting a side hustle.
Before long, you’ll have an actionable plan designed to maximize your income.
