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WHAT IS A SIDE HUSTLE?
Side hustle as explained in Cambridge dictionary, refers to a piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job. It is generally freelance or piecework in nature, providing extra money to your main income.
If you are good at something which can help to solve problems for others, people are willing to pay for it.
WHO NEED A SIDE HUSTLE?
A survey from bankrate shows that nearly half of working Americans (45 percent) report having a gig outside of their primary job. That’s true for 43 percent of full-time workers.
The survey also finds that wealthier households and more educated Americans are more likely to have a side job than the poor. Some 43 percent of households earning at least $80,000 per year have a side gig, compared with 37 percent of households with incomes below $30,000.
A recent survey from dollarsprout shows that 27% of side hustles rely on that income to cover monthly bills, and nearly one-third of side hustles are over 54 years old, and 18% of side hustles eventually want to go full time with their gig.
Even though you haven’t across side hustle in your life before, it is the right time to look into it especially if you have lost your full time job, or you just got pay cut from your company, or you are struggling with your business now, or you can use your free time to make some extra money to prepare for the uncertainties ahead. This has emerged as a new source of income which can groom to be your main source of income.
HOW TO CHOOSE A SIDE HUSTLE?
Monetary return
The primary reason you are taking up a side hustle is to make money. You may enjoy doing the gig, but what’s the point of spending all your spare time doing some time that doesn’t pay you well and doesn’t help to solve your financial problem. On top of that, you lose the quality time with your loved one.
You shall also look for the gig that pay and pay you fast. It is really not recommended to spend time taking surveys where you earn few cents per survey which something took more than half an hour. And a lot of platform have threshold for payment where you only can withdraw your earning after exceeding some minimum amount set by the company.
Flexible Time
Since this is the side hustle, not your full-time job, you can only do it outside your normal working hour, so time is the crucial factor. Firstly, the working time for the side gig shall be after office hour or during weekend. You do not have this issue if you are working full time on your side hustle.
You shall choose some gig that offer flexible working hour. Let say you finish your main job at 6pm, mathematically you can set aside 4 to 5 hours after work to do one or more side gig. Due to the flexibility of the working hour for your side gig, you do not need to clock in and clock out, and you do not need to worry about starting your work late due to traffic jam or last minute extended work at your full time job. So, you can choose to work on full 4 to 5 hours or any time in between to your convenience.
Always remember not to overwork for long hour as you still have a day job the next day, do not end up getting too tired for the full time job and get burn out as well as your body can endure it physically and mentally.
Do something you enjoy and good at
Please try to look for the gig that you enjoy and passionate of doing it so as not to get too stressed. If you do not enjoy travel on the road or meeting people on the go, then food delivery is not your choice of gig.
You see, if you enjoy doing something, it is much easier for you to learn and pick up the necessary skill needed for the job.
Degree of difficulty
There is easy gig as well as difficult gig, it all depends on your experience and how fast you can learn the skill. Some easy gigs which everyone can start anytime are food delivery, run errand, shopping for others, data entry, virtual assistant, renting service and selling used items etc.
Some of the difficult gigs are blogging, copywriting, translation, e-book creation, dog walking and graphic design etc. Some of you may have the skill and experience in doing these gigs, that is easy for you. But to many of others who have no prior experience in that, it does consider difficult to learn the skill.
You need to know what you actually want. The fact is easy gig normally does not pay as much as difficult gig, and easy gig normally more time intensive, that mean you trade time for money, there is limitation to how much you can earn. But the good point is you can start the easy gig immediately and get pay the same day. On the other hand, you need to invest time and effort to learn the difficult gig if you do not have prior experience on that, you only get paid some time down the road. So, the best idea is to start an easy gig, at the time put in some time and effort to learn other difficult gig for your next mission.
Earning potential and scalability
You can’t be the same gig year in year out as the company may reduce the commission rate despite your increasing living cost, the demand for the gig may drop, you may be too stressful and physically drained off after working too long hours on the gig.
So, since day one you shall look into the earning potential and scalability of the gig. Take for example, if you are doing graphic design gig, once you have built up your customer list, you can outsource all or some of the work to other people, you just focus on final checking or alteration and communication with your customer. If you are a blogger, you have built up a high list of viewers for your blog, you can keep your blog running with contribution from guest blogger without you personally writing the blog post any more.
TOP 10 SIDE HUSTLE YOU CAN START IN 2021
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 skill set and ensure that you deliver a serious amount of value. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about
1. DELIVERY SERVICE
Delivery services include food and grocery delivery, business delivery service and errand running service.
Food delivery is one of the most popular side hustles anywhere in the world especially during pandemic where most people work and stay at home. These platforms provide food delivery services which allow more restaurants to offer takeout food.
Quite similar to the nature of food delivery, errand running service allow you to pick up wide varieties of items such as medicine, office supplies, cleaning items, alcohol in addition to food and grocery.
Time
The working hours are subjected to the operating hour of the merchandise
Income
Average food delivery driver makes $12 to 25 per hour, errand running driver can earn up to $20 an hour. Amazon Flex driver can expect to male $18 to25 per hour
Pros
Flexible time that fit your schedule, easy start-up with no special skill required
Cons
Spend lots of time on the road, Parking issue, and long waiting time to pick up items
Platform
Food & Grocery delivery: Uber Eats, Doordash, Postmates, Grubhub, Seamless, Instacart, Shipt
Business delivery service: Amazon Flex
Errand running: Postmates
Moving of large items: Goshare, buddytruk
2. HANDYMAN AND PERSONAL CARE SERVICE
This can be a great way to make money if you have some handyman skills. There is always high demand for handyman services due to never-ending homeowners and personal problems.
Time
The working hours depend on the customers
Income
Due to the wide varieties and nature of services, you can determine your own rate, which generally charge at $10 to 50+ per hour
To earn more, you need to be versatile (skillful in many gigs), work at short notice and you get more pay for better quality of your work.
According to Glassdoor , the national average salary for a handyman is $47,000+ in US.
Pros
Low start-up cost
Flexible time that fit your schedule
Plenty of work available
You determine the rate that work for you
You choose the task that you know
Earn more if you are more skillful
Cons
You need to invest on tools
You need to learn some skill in order to get started
You need to make some friends in the same trade to seek help if needed when you encounter unexpected problem
The demand for the job may be seasonal
You may encounter short notice for work, a lot of uncertainty on the work.
Platform
99 Designs
Agent anything
Amazon Mechanical Turk
DesignCrowd
Helpware.
Jobble
Taskrabbit
Thumblack
Wonolo
Job types: Handyman service
Carpentry
Computer repair
Flooring installation
Gutter cleaning
Heater repair
Home appliance repair
Home inspection service
House Cleaning: housekeeper.com
Lawn care
Lighting installation
Painting
Pressing washing
Wallpaper removal
Job types: Personal care service
Babysitting: sitter city, urban sitter
Childcare
Dog walking
Elderly care
Home nursing
House sitting: house sitters America, trusted house sitters
Pet sitting: rover
3. RENTING SERVICE
The renting service industry is expanding. We have many items in our home which we are not likely to use or seldom use, we can rent all these items to make money out of them.
Renting out your personal items create space in your house, save the environment (lesser new product to be manufactured) and save money for the one who rent your items.
Time
Any time.
Income
The rental rate depends on the type, the brand, grade, rental period of the items.
Pros
The market demand is huge, as more and more people aware the presence of this market which can really help them to save money (rent instead of buy)
We can rent out wide range of items in your house (see the list below)
Newer items are still under warranty
Some rental demand is seasonal, but some rental demand is all year round (such as drone)
Cons
Rental clients normally want the best, top and newest brand
You need to worry about the potential faulty of items and the repair cost if the warranty period of your items is expired
You need to do regular and routine maintenance (for equipment)
There is high potential for theft and misplacement
Some equipment has relatively high damage potential (such as drone)
You may need to teach the customer how to use your items
Transportation cost is a concern for big item
Items to rent out
Book
Camera DSLR
Car: getaround, turo
Car park: just park, pargex
Clothes: stylelend, haverdash, nuuly
Drone
Equipment (Fitness, Party, Sport): EZRentOut
F&B machine (Coffee, Ice cream, popcorn, water dispenser
Furniture
Home vacation: Airbnb, Sonder, Vacasa, Homestay, Homeaway
Jet ski
Power washer
Room: Roomi, roomster, roomstay, spareroom, bunkup
Space: neighbour
Toy
4. SELLING USED ITEMS
We all have many items in our house not in use which we can sell off to make some extra money.
Selling off your used items create space in your house, save the environment (lesser new product to be manufactured) and save money for the one who buy your items.
Time
Any time
Income
The earning depends on the type, the brand, the grade, the demand and the availability and uniqueness of the items
Pros
The market demand is huge, as more and more people choose to buy used quality items to save cost
You can basically buy any used items in the market
Cons
You need to arrange transportation for big item in local market
You may not be able to sell bulky items to outstation due to high transport cost
Platform
Blinker (Car)
Bookscouter (Book)
Carousell (all items)
Chairish (Furniture)
Craiglist (online classified for jobs, cars, houses etc)
Decluttr (DVD, cell phones, Textbooks, video games, Tablets, LEGOS)
eBay (all items)
Esty (Handmade items)
Facebook marketplace (all items)
Poshmark (Clothes)
Vinted (Sell and swap clothing)
5. CREATE AND SELL INFORMATION PRODUCT
Selling information product is one of the most profitable income one can make from Internet. Everyone has some knowledge on some topics to share with others. Sharing knowledge is the driving force behind selling information products.
Time
You are free to choose when to work and for how long.
Income
There is no one answer for the price of information product. The price e-book normally range from $2.99 to $99 or more.
The price depends on the topic, the quality of the content, the demand for it and the competition from similar products in the market.
Pros
You can work at own time.
Almost zero or minimal investment to start
You can decide how long you want to complete your project.
You set your own price as you are the owner of the information product
You can make more money with more products.
Since it is selling online, you can reach wider customers with the right traffic generation strategies
Cons
You may need to invest quite some time and lot of effort to make your 1st sale
You need to improve your marketing strategies with many analysis and testing
You may need to invest on relevant courses
You need to invest on time to read and learn more to improve the content of your product
How to make money selling information products?
- Choose your niche.
- Decide the type of product you want to create
- Give away some of your content to build a list of interested buyers.
- Set up a sales pages for your product
- Include affiliate links in your digital products
- Promote it via social media
- Give advice and coach others in your area of expertise
- Write articles for magazines, blogs to get people to your product sales page
- Set up membership site for your information products, include tutorials, videos, ebooks, and content only your members can get.
- Offer bonuses with your product. Make them can’t miss bonuses that the buyer wants to receive.
- Create a funnel with upsells, down-sells, cross-sells, backend products to build interest in your products.
Products/Platform
Audio product
Coaching product
Ebook or digital book: Amazon, Payhip, E-junkle, Fiverr, Feiyr, Blurb, Google Play
Graphic: DPD
Music: DPD
Newsletter
Online Catalogue
Online Course: Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, Podia, Ruzuku, Thinkific
Photograph: PayLoadz, Adobe stock, Shutterstock, Alamy, Etsy, Fotomoto
Plugin
Printable
Report and manual
Software: Fastspring, DPD
Video product: PayLoaz
Resources
How to create & sell online courses & information products by Dave Espino
Infopreneur: Create information products and online courses by Joeel & Natalie Rivera
6. AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate Marketing refers to the process of earning a commission by selling others’ products or services through your own websites.
When you design your affiliate marketing strategy you can then automate it and scale it.
You can automate so that you don’t have to be physically around while your website close deals to make money.
Time
You are free to choose when to work and for how long.
Income
According to the survey from VigLink show that 9% of publishers produced more than $50,000 in affiliate income in 2016. 65% of merchants said they were making between 5% and 20% of their annual revenue from affiliate marketing.
Pros
You can work at own time.
Almost zero or minimal investment to start
You can work with as many affiliates as possible
Since it is selling online, you can reach wider customers with the right traffic generation strategies
Cons
You may need to invest quite some time and lot of effort to make your 1st sale
You need to improve your marketing strategies with many analysis and testing
You may need to invest on relevant courses
It may not be easy for newbie to sell a popular affiliate product
It may also not easy for newbie to sell a non-popular affiliate product
A lot of affiliate program are prone to fraud
Affiliate Network
Amazon Associates
Avantlink
Awin (previously Affiliate Window)
CJ Affiliate (previously Commission Junction)
Clickbank
FlexOffers
Pepperjam
Rakuten Marketing (previously Linkshare)
Shareasale
How to choose Affiliate network
- Choose Choose a product that you believe in. You may not know much about it but you can learn about it.
- Find a product that fits the niche of your website
- Make sure you promote a quality product. How to tell? Just stay away from product with high return rate and bad review.
- Look for product with upsell. Upsells offer a further way to increase commission.
- Does it cost you to sign up? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So, forget about those that charge you for signing up
- How much is the commission, and what is the minimum amount to cash out and when do they issue checks, and how they pay?
- What is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics? These figures will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.
- How are referrals from affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? The period that those people stay in the system is important because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase.
- What are the kinds of affiliate statistics available, especially those allow you to check the number of impressions, hits and sales generated from your site? Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hot is the one clicking on the banner or text links.
- Is the affiliate program a one tier or two-tier type?
- Always choose to work with vendors that offer good support in term of marketing materials and quick reply to your queries.
Resources
Affiliate Marketing Made Simple: A step-by-step Guide FREE
Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: 7 steps to success FREE
7. BLOGGING
A blog, in simple term, is a discussion or informational website published on Internet and it is usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, description of events, or other material such as graphics or video.
Blogging not only is a good way to get your writing noticed, it is a good way to connect with people around the world to teach them what you know, and to get paid well in return.
Time
You are free to choose when to work and for how long.
Income
According to the survey from VigLink shows that 9% of publishers produced more than $50,000 in affiliate income in 2016. 65% of merchants said they were making between 5% and 20% of their annual revenue from affiliate marketing.
Pros
You can work at own time.
Almost zero or minimal investment to start
Starting a blog and adding a post is easy
Blogging can really bring in good money
Cons
Although starting a blog is easy but making money from your blog require massive effort and time
Although adding a post is easy but writing a quality content is not that easy
A good blog to retain readers need regular updates with good, quality, interesting and latest news and information
How to start blogging?
- Choose your blog’s niche
- Get your hosting and domain.
- Set up your WordPress, select blog theme, select blog plugin
- Write killer content that will generate traffic and drive visitors. The content must be high quality, targeted and informative
- Convert your visitors into email subscribers so you can build your list.
- Communicate with those subscribers regularly so your lists don’t run cold, build rapport and trust. This is where you can build a recognized brand as an authority in your market and set yourself apart from the competition.
- Sell products and services to your audience via your blog and through your newly setup newsletter.
How to make money with blogging?
- Become an affiliate
- Sell information products
- Join an advertising network
- Accept paid advertising
- Provide paid sponsorship
- Offer coaching
- Sell physical products
- Promote online auctions
Resources
- How to start a blog: Easy Guide to make $203K year one (2020) by Adam Enfroy FREE!
- How to start a blog that makes money – Free step-by-step guide by Miles Beckler FREE!
- How to make a wordpress website for beginners by Tyler Moore FREE!
- 2019 Blog Blueprint: How to Turn Blogging into a career by Daniel Boehm
- WordPress for beginners – Master wordpress Quickly by Andrew Williams
8. DROP SHIPPING
Drop shipping is a method of ecommerce where an online store sells products to consumers, but all the ordering process of handling, storing, packing and delivering of the goods are undertaken by the wholesaler, instead of the retailer.
On top of that, you only place an order to wholesaler after consumer confirmed and paid for the order.
Drop shipping has set a new trend of logistics approach for today’s online retailer because it eliminates the need for warehousing as well as receiving, checking, packing, shipping, tracking and more.
Time
You are free to choose when to work and for how long.
Income
There is too much variation on the income made by drop shipper. Refer Alidropship on How much do dropshippers make in 2020? How soon will you make money from drop shipping?
Pros
Lower cost of operation as you do not need to invest on stock, warehousing and manpower etc.
Lesser risk compared to conventional retailer as no money being tied up in inventory.
It is easy to start the business as very little investment needed
The best part is that it is easy to scale up the business.
Cons
You are at the expense of the drop shipping company, if they change their price, you follow suit.
You have no control over the whole transaction, so you have very little control over your customer satisfaction.
As you do not keep stock, you may face the fulfilment issue as the wholesaler may run out of stock after your customer placed the order.
The margin (15% to 20%) for Drop shipping is low. The margin could be even lower as some wholesaler charge additional “drop-ship fee” to the price.
There is stiff competition for drop shipping due to low entry barrier and many people ended up selling the same products.
Drop shipping Platform
WooCommerce 11%
Magento 9%
Shopify 8%
Big Commerce 2%
Drop shipping suppliers / wholesalers
Modalyst
Oberlo
Spocket
SaleHoo
Wholesale2B
Resources
40 Dropshipping Business Ideas to make money from your own home (Suppliers included) FREE!
The complete shopify dropshipping masterclass 2.0 by Robin & Jesper
9. BECOME A YOUTUBER
Videos are becoming more and more popular. People are changing the way they search and consume content on the Internet. No longer it is just text rich articles that people read which they found on a Google search. Internet users are now getting more engaged with video because they are more engaged.
If you’ve always loved the thought of being behind the camera, it is the best time now to do it. Even if you do not want to appear in front of camera, there are still ways to make money from YouTube (see below).
You can start a YouTube vlog and get advertisement revenue or sell products to your audience to make money. The best part is you don’t need to go out and buy an expensive camera and equipment, you can always start with your smart phone if you are on tight budget.
Time
Any time
Income
On average, a YouTube channel can earn $18 per 1,000 ad views. This equates to $3 – 5 per 1,000 video views. Your figures will depend on your daily video views and average engagement (CTR). The average YouTuber with a million subscribers can make about $5,000 a month
Pros
You can work at your own time.
You can decide how long you want to complete your project.
Almost zero or minimal investment to start
Starting a YouTube blog and adding a post is easy
Becoming a YouTuber can really bring in good money
Your video content will always remain there
You can grow your audience worldwide
You can reach wider customers with the right traffic generation strategies
You can make money on YouTube without making video or showing your face (see below)
Cons
You need to make some investment for start-up on items like camera, microphone, lighting, editing software and tripod etc.
Although starting a YouTube is easy but getting view and subscriber require massive effort and time
You need to regular upload new and informative video to retain your subscriber and build new subscriber
You may need to invest quite some time and lot of effort to make your 1st sale
You need to improve your marketing strategies with many analysis and testing
You may need to invest on relevant courses
You need to invest on time to read and learn more to improve the content of your video
10 Ways to create YouTube channels without showing your Face
Cooking Recipe – Skinny recipes with 1.85M subscribers and yearly Earning $23.2K – $371.4K
DIY – 5-minute Crafts with 69.5M subscribers and yearly Earning $514K – $8.2M
Education & Information – Brainy Dose with 1.27M subscribers and yearly Earning $13K – $207.2K
Drone – Creative Channel with 4.67M subscribers and yearly Earning $57.9K – $926.9K
Fitness – Roberta’s Gym with 2.8M subscribers and yearly Earning $55.6K – $889.5K
Gadget – Future Tech with 483K subscribers and yearly Earning $20.9K – $334.5K
Motivation – Ben Lionel Scott with 1.46M subscribers and yearly Earning $17.2K – $275.6K
Music Relaxation – Soothing Relaxation with 6.12M subscribers with Yearly Earning $237.4K – $3.8M
Statistics – Reigarw Comparisons with 1.86M subscribers with yearly Earning $29.4K – $471K
Travel Scene – Touropia with 487K subscribers with yearly Earning $10.3K – $165.4K
Resources
How to Create a YouTube Channel (2020 Beginner’s Guide) by Justin Brown (YouTube) FREE!
10. FREELANCE
A freelancer is a self-employed person who usually offers short-term services for themselves, rather than for a company. Freelancers usually earn money on a per-job basis, charging hourly or daily rates for their work. They earn money by contracting their work to different companies without necessarily being tied down by the company. So, they often work remotely for different companies at any one time.
The growth of freelance work is on the rise, more professionals are seeing it as a viable option for both part-time and full-time work in the long run. According to ddiy.co , 48% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers by the end of 2020, freelancers represent about 35% of the global workforce, but freelance copywriters can earn up to $250 an hour.
Time
You decide on the time.
Income
According to ddiy.co , the median hourly wage for skilled freelancers was $28.
Pros
You take control of the type of work and the amount of work.
You set your competitive rate
You can choose the client that you want to work with.
You have more freedom, not being tied up to 9-to-5 work
You can choose your working hour
You can decide whether to work full time or part time
Cons
You don’t have the benefits enjoy by employees
You need to fund for your own insurance
You do not enjoy stable income as full-time employee, you may have plenty of jobs in certain month, but fewer jobs in other months.
You are responsible for all the work-related expenses such as office equipment, software
You may encounter late payment for your earning.
Top 10 High Paying Freelance jobs from flexjobs.com ()
Accountant – average pay $38/hour
Account Executive – average pay $43/hour
Copywriter – average pay $38/hour
Graphic Designer – average pay $36/hour
PR Manager – average pay $52/hour
Professor (teaching) – average pay $41/hour
Programmer – average pay $38/hour
Software Developer – average pay $42/hour
Technical Writer – average pay $41/hour
Web Developer – average pay $35/hour
Freelance sites to look for work
Aquent
Crowded
Fiverr
Freelancer
People Per Hour
Simple Hired
Toptal
Upwork
Resources
110+ Easy Freelance Job Ideas for BeginnersFREE
10 Steps How to Start a Freelancing Business While Working Full-Time in 2020 (and why you should)