You want to earn more money. You want to quit a job you hate. You want more freedom. You want to do something you are passionate about.
In order to truly achieve any of the statements above, you must change the word “want” to “will” and the best way to do that is by working hard on a side hustle.
Yes, it will take time. No, it won’t be easy. But if you keep grinding away you can scale any side hustle into a full-time opportunity that gives you more money and freedom.
There are many great side hustles, and there are many bullshit scams that are a complete waste of time. I’m going to share the great side hustles, specifically 5 that I truly believe can work for anybody.
No, I will not mention taking online surveys or walking for money, those fall in the bullshit and time-wasting category.
1. Long-Term Investing
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it a million times over again, the easiest side hustle you can do is to invest in the stock market for the long term. Many of you will think this isn’t a side hustle, but at the end of the day, it is something earning you money with extremely minimal effort.
Make your money work for you. While there are an amazing amount of resources telling you how to invest, let me keep it simple.
- Diversify.
- Hold on to stocks for at least 10 years.
The average annual return for holding a diversified portfolio is about 8%. Just imagine your money compounding year after year. The more you invest early on will allow you to have a substantial amount of income later on down the road.
Imagine investing $1,000 today with $500 investments every month. Stay dedicated and don’t let emotions take over. Your returns will keep snowballing and the returns are unreal.
Albert Einstein called compound interest the 8th wonder of the world. The more you invest now, the more you will have later. I recommend getting set up with M1 Finance.
2. Freelancing
Take advantage of something you are good at by creating a freelancing gig on Fiverr or Upwork.
There are millions of people who can benefit from your service and all you have to do is create an account. I created a Fiver account to help others write business plans and I did absolutely zero marketing. I just posted by gig and after a few months, I had to start turning business down because I couldn’t keep up.
After getting a good customer base on these platforms you can start advertising on your own website so you don’t have to pay Fiverr and Upwork commission. Just get your name out there and do quality work, the rest should fall into place.
Don’t be shy about adding your gigs online, people will buy almost anything. Gigs can include:
- Social media marketing
- Graphic design
- Writing
- Coaching
- Translation
The only downside of freelancing is the lack of scalability as you are directly trading time for money. However, it is a great source of side income that you can do anywhere and eventually turn into a full-time source of income.
3. eCommerce
eCommerce is a very lucrative way to earn money on the side that can easily scale into a full-time income.
You can open a store tomorrow and start selling if you really wanted to, it is that easy to get started. Shopify allows you to create a beautiful eCommerce website and your next step is finding a good product and supplier on Alibaba.
Dropshipping will allow customers to purchase through your own website and the supplier in China will ship directly to the customer.
The problem with dropshipping is that you must find a winning product and doing so could cost you a lot of money due to testing different marketing techniques. In addition, shipping from China can take a long time, certainly longer than next-day shipping so many US customers are accustomed to with Amazon.
Amazon FBA is similar in that you source products from Alibaba but rather than shipping directly to the customer, they will ship a large quantity to an Amazon warehouse and you can list your products on Amazon.
This is a very good method as shipping can be very quick. The only downside is there can be a lot of competition on Amazon and you have to be careful not to violate any terms on Amazon otherwise they can shut your store down.
4. YouTube
I know what you’re thinking, YouTube is for experts who are very skilled at what they do. That is far from the truth, anybody can make money from YouTube.
You just have to make good quality videos about a topic people are interested in and where you have a passion. Most importantly, you can’t give up. Growth is always slow in the beginning but eventually, everything will snowball.
If you look at some of the most popular YouTubers, their early videos will have minimal views. But after sticking with it for a while more people learn about them and spread the word.
Scared of getting on camera? Don’t be, it will wear off. The more videos you create will make you a better creator and making YouTube videos will be second nature to you.
5. Affiliate Income
Ahh yes, the classic side-income method every entrepreneur and their mother have talked about for a while now.
Affiliate income is generated from people who click on a link you provide. Most people will create a blog focused on a certain niche and post links to stores such as Amazon through an affiliate program.
Another lucrative way for affiliate income is to post links in the description of a YouTube channel. If you do decide to create a YouTube channel, take advantage of the opportunity and post affiliate links in the description.
Just make sure you are posting links about products/services you genuinely believe in. People will see right through your bullshit if you post links to terrible products or websites that look like a scam.
Be genuine to your followers, it’s the least you could do for them. Focus on how you can create value for others rather than capturing income for yourself.
As with YouTube, affiliate income can take a while before you start seeing good returns. You must create good quality content and gain a good following of people.
Bonus: Real Estate
Real estate is such an amazing side hustle that will give you great management experience as well as passive income. Imagine paying a $500 mortgage for a house but renting it out for $1,000 per month.
As long as you have enough to cover the mortgage and renovate the property, income can be great. Just make sure you screen all tenants and don’t get too far in over your head.
Your first few properties may be a challenge but things will get much better over time. The reason this didn’t land on the list is due to the high starting cost. If you do have the money to spare I highly recommend giving real estate a go.
Start Today!
There is no better time to start a side hustle than right now. If you want to escape the rat race and do something you are passionate about you have to start now.
If not now then when? Every day you don’t take action is another day wasted.
