Generating an extra $500 to $1000 a month may seem impossible. But in this article, I’m going to show you different online side hustle ideas that have the potential to be highly profitable. Let’s begin!
My Top 7 Online Side Hustle Ideas
Here are my top 7 online side hustle ideas. I have tried all of them, and I had success with all of them on different levels. In each side hustle, I will comment on my experience with it and who I recommend.
Blogging
Blogging is one of my favorite side hustles. I have 12 blogs, including this, and each blog is at a different stage of development.
Five of them are fully functional and make money, 3 of them are fully working but not monetized yet, and the rest are already designed and installed but have no content yet.
The good thing about blogging is that you can start at a very low cost, even for free ( I do not recommend this option, but if you are broke, you can start here).
To start a blog, you need to decide the main topic of your blog, buy a domain name and hosting, install WordPress, and start posting content in it.
You can follow my process of starting and monetizing a blog here.
After 2 to 6 weeks, you will start seeing people visit your blog, and from there, you can monetize it with affiliate marketing, display ads, sponsored posts, etc.… The sky is the limit.
You may not see an immediate ROI or return on investment in blogging, but the good thing is it’s pretty much passive income when you start getting some traction.
The sky’s pretty much the limit when you think of the income you’ll get when your blog gets a good amount of traffic from search engines and social media.
Suppose you like writing and have $10 per year for a domain name and at least $10 monthly for the hosting.
In that case, you can go with blogging, but remember it will take time to start making a significant income, so if you are in a hurry to make money, you can probably look for a different side hustle.
Affiliate marketing
This is the primary source of my online income. For me, this is the easiest way to make money online.
You can select a product, get an affiliate link, and promote that affiliate link in less than 10 minutes and start making money (disclaimer: if you have an email list and big social media following, this can be done. If you are a beginner probably it will take you a long time that that).
To start making money with affiliate marketing, you must pick a niche, select a product, get affiliate links, and promote the product using your blog, YouTube, social network, etc.
You can promote your affiliate links on your blog or social media accounts. Just make sure you promote something that will add value to your followers.
Although affiliate marketing is easy to start, profit can take a long time if you do not have a big online following. It would be best if you were patient.
I will not recommend it to a new person who needs quick cash, but if you can put in the work and be a little bit patient, this is a very lucrative online business.
If you want to learn how to make $100 to $400 online using affiliate marketing, click here.
3. Video Marketing
I am just starting my journey in video marketing. You can help me by checking out my YouTube channel here.
You need not be very technical to start your video marketing journey. If you can read this post, you probably have everything you need to start your video marketing journey.
I use my smartphone to record myself. Sometimes, I record the screen and add my voice to the process, edit a bit, and upload it to YouTube.
For recording, you can use any smartphone. My only recommendation is to use the back camera, which usually has a better resolution than frontal cameras.
For screen recording, you can use OBS Studio. I use Camtasia for screen recording and editing. You can read my whole experience here.
You can promote sponsored products via video marketing. You can do video reviews and tutorials on YouTube and monetize them with ads and affiliate links.
Social media influencer
I have built a large following on social media, especially X. The secret to becoming a social media influencer is to find a topic that people are passionate about and create an account around that topic.
Initially, you will find other influencers in your niche, study what type of things they post, and post similar content.
Another thing that worked for me was going through each thread of big influencers in my niche and responding to their followers’ questions.
The issue is that most influencers do not have time to answer everything in their post, so you can take advantage of answering those questions and inquiries if you provide good values.
Those people will start following you, and this way, you will increase your follower count.
You’re technically a social media influencer when you’ve got a considerable social media following and get pretty good engagement rates on your content.
You can effortlessly command premium rates from brands who want to do business with you.
If you want to learn more about how to make money on social media, click here.
This side hustle will require much effort if you start from scratch. It can be very stressful, and I think the return on investment is not as significant as other side hustles on this list, but if that is something you enjoy, you can give it a go.
Social media manager
This works well if you have some experience managing your social media account but your account is not big enough to make a full-time income.
The issue is that most businesses do not have a social media strategy, so you can create one for a local business or a local celebrity and start from there.
This is what I did back then. I created a social media marketing plan for a solar energy company, and when I presented it to them, they hired me as their social media manager.
Not all businesses know what to do with their social media accounts. As a social media manager, you can significantly impact businesses.
You can have many different clients simultaneously because automating social media activity is relatively easy.
This is a fantastic side hustle. It does not need a lot of time. If you have some social media account management or building experience, you can easily land a side hustle as a social media manager.
Sell information products
If you have some knowledge or experience in anything, you can create your digital products and sell them.
For example, you can create a video course or an ebook on dieting, cooking, how to meet women/men, fishing, etc.
Selling eCourses and eBooks is very popular nowadays. It’s relatively easy to create content like this, and it’s easier to outsource it to freelancers who can write faster and better than you.
My first digital product was an ebook on how to start a blog. I was selling it for $7, and I remember waking up every morning excitedly, reading messages from JVZOO.COM telling me that someone had bought my ebook. This can be addicting.
Selling a digital product is a lucrative business, but you will need money to hire someone to create the materials for you, the content, sales pages, etc., and time to make all those things yourself.
Freelance work
If you are broke, this is where you should start. If you have a skill that someone is willing to pay for, you can start making money immediately.
I had a friend who had a computer repair center. I put some banners and flyers offering a free WordPress and blog setup. The customer must buy a domain name and hosting using my affiliate link.
I live in Mexico, and when I finished University, my first salary was 12 dollars per day.
Siteground was paying me $70 per signup, so it was not difficult to make two sales per week and make more money in my side hustle than in my actual job.
It would take between 1 and 2 hours to set up a new blog ( depending on the customer’s wants). This is one of the best side hustles I ever had.
You can do this online and offer people free installation services if they buy the hosting through your affiliate link. Most people have no idea how to configure a blog, so this can be a beneficial service.
If you’re interested in freelancing online – writing, designing, building apps, websites, etc. – you should check out sites like Upwork (https://www.upwork.com) and Freelancer (https://www.freelancer.com). Note, however, that these are global marketplaces.
So, you’ll have people from all over the world competing on price and skill. If you want to set yourself apart from the competition and are highly confident in your skills, don’t be afraid to bid rates you know you deserve.
Final words
That is it. Those are my top 7 online side hustle ideas that can help you to generate extra cash. I tried all of them, and they worked for me. You can try them too.
My recommendation here would be to start with just one, and when you learn your trade, you can add another one.
For example, you can create your blog, add affiliate marketing to your blog, and start helping people set up their blogs and charge them or ask them to buy hosting through your affiliate link.