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The past few years have seen the rise of the side hustle, a term used in Chris Guillebeau‘s book, The $100 Startup. In it, he talks about how he was able to generate multiple streams of income from various ventures outside of his primary career and how others like him can do the same.
Nowadays, many people are going after their dreams by creating their own businesses on the side. If you’re looking for an extra source of income or want to test out your entrepreneurial chops before diving headfirst into starting your own venture full-time, then consider some of these ideas for starting up a profitable side hustle.
Related: 5 Keys to Turning Your Side Hustle Into a Successful Business
Ecommerce sales
You know how to make a good product, so why not sell it? There are so many options for e-commerce platforms today, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Shopify. You can also start a blog and sell products through it. If you already have an Instagram account or Pinterest page with many followers, you might want to try selling there instead.
If your business is more geared toward physical goods than digital ones (or if you want more control over the entire process), setting up an e-commerce store might be right for you. The great thing about starting your own online store is that several paid and free platforms are available that will help with everything from hosting to payment processing — all without requiring coding skills.
Graphic design
Graphic design is one of the most popular side hustle ideas. Graphic designers are in demand because they create logos, websites, posters and other graphics for clients. They can also design and sell their graphics as prints or products on platforms like Etsy.
Related: Start a Creative Side Hustle With These Graphic Design Courses
Website development
Website development is a great way to earn some extra money on the side. If you have time and energy, this side hustle could become your full-time career.
You can use your website development skills to create a personal website or become an internet entrepreneur by creating and maintaining websites for others. When deciding whether to pursue this as your side hustle, it’s essential to consider how much time you want to put into it because it could take up quite a bit of your free time if you’re going to do it right!
SEO Consultant
As a freelancer, you’ll be able to set your hours and work from home. You can also choose your clients based on their needs rather than having to accept whatever comes along.
In addition, SEO consultants have average annual salaries ranging from $60,000-$80,000. That means that if you’re good at what you do and make 5-10% of the project’s total value (which is about $5k-10k for most people), this side hustle could easily earn you an additional $30k-$50k per year.
Related: 7 Lucrative Side Hustles
Day trading
Day trading is a form of trading that involves buying and selling financial instruments within the same day. Trading can be a very lucrative side hustle, but it takes deep focus and immense concentration to ensure you actualize your goals. Day traders may buy and sell stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, options and futures contracts. Day traders use technical analysis to identify trends in market prices and profit from them.
Day trading is often done through special-purpose entities known as day trading firms or electronic communications networks (ECNs). These firms offer investors direct access to the markets via hardwired connections to stock exchanges. Most of these outfits charge a commission on each trade, but some do not charge a commission at all because they generate revenue through advertising instead of commissions on transactions.
eBook author
As an e-book author, you’re in good company. Millions of people buy and sell ebooks every year, and authors make money from their books in various ways.
You can sell your eBooks on Amazon and other platforms (e.g., Kobo). You can also sell your eBooks on your website through membership or a recurring payment model (which many authors are doing). You can even offer them for free in exchange for customer data.
YouTube creator
Many people are attracted to the idea of being able to make money by doing something they love. YouTube video creators can do just that, and they have the advantage of having an audience already on the platform, ready to watch their content.
YouTube’s power as a search engine continues to grow. It’s now the second largest search engine after Google and has more than 1 billion users worldwide. While this is great for creators who want their videos found by viewers, it also means there’s plenty of competition — and it’s getting more complex every day for creators to stand out in this crowded space. If your content is unique, continual, and has an audience base that has the potential for growth, you can cash in through YouTube’s monetization program, which matches advertisers’ commercials with your content.
Related: YouTube Is Going After TikTok With the Promise of Paying Creators More
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great side hustle because it can be done anywhere in the world. You don’t need a degree or specialized skills to start affiliate marketing, but you need to be willing to work hard and put in long hours at home if you want to make real money with this type of business.
You can start by choosing one product or niche that interests you and research what products are the best-selling in that niche. After choosing your product, it’s time to promote it. There are many ways to promote products through affiliate marketing, including social media posts, review videos and blog articles.
To track how much money your links have earned for each brand (this is called “tracking links”), I would recommend using Google Analytics which gives an overview of all traffic sources coming into your website so that you know where new visitors are coming from when they land on your site after clicking on one of those tracking links.
