10 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make A Full-Time Income

Every side hustle comes from an idea!

I started Smile Affiliate Success in 2019 to make extra money online to escape the rat race and quit my 9-5 job. I make consistent online income now from my blog, which keeps growing monthly. 

Starting a blog as a side hustle is the best decision ever. It not only helps me release my stress from work but also makes my pocket a bit deeper, not to mention the potential for financial freedom. 

People often start side hustles out of curiosity, ending up leaving their jobs because they start making more money than their main hustle. If you want to make extra money by side hustles, you’ve come to the right place. 

Let’s learn more about building profitable side hustles the right way.

Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.

What Is A Side Hustle?

A side hustle is a piece of work or a job you get paid for in addition to your primary job, aka secondary employment. 

The idea here is to do something you are passionate about and what you wish to become in the long run. 

Taking me as an example, I am highly interested in making money online. So, starting a blog about online business opportunities helps me get out of my 9-5 jobs, and one day it will become my main hustle.

Why Do They Call It A Side Hustle?

Simply put, a side hustle is a work or job you do on the side of your primary job to make additional income. 

People define side hustles based on different ideas and facts. Typically, it involves some types of self-employment, freelance gigs, or an entrepreneurial endeavor.

Contrary to a traditional job, working on side hustles gives people more freedom and control over what a person does, when they do it, and how much they do it.

What Is A Good Side Hustle?

When you check all the options and business categories, you must consider three points before diving into any side hustles.

1. Does The Idea Fit Your Current Schedule?

We all have a busy schedule, especially those who care about work-life balance. Working on a side hustle takes hard work, patience, and persistence from level zero. 

If it only occupies your free time, you can do it. If it overlaps with your primary job or house chores, it’s a problem.  

2. Does The Idea Align With Your Interests?

Working on side hustles to make extra money isn’t overnight success or a get-rich-quick scheme, so you must be interested in what you enjoy.

If you are doing something you’re not interested in, it feels like a 9-5 job, and you will get tired of it. You are encouraged to do trials to find the gigs you enjoy doing.

3. Does It Have A Good Income Opportunity?

Pay attention to the income potential of the idea you choose. Different side hustle categories and business models have different income potential. Your idea doesn’t have to make millions in one year, but you must ensure it’s doable.

PS. Don’t take the income opportunity as the sole reason for finding your side hustle. It’s not a sprint but a marathon. Consider those three factors while deciding on the perfect side hustle, mainly the “your interests” part.

Now, let’s jump on the list you are here for: the top six best side hustle ideas!

What Are The Most Profitable Side Hustles To Make Money?

1. Blogging

Income Potential: $1,000 to over $200,000 monthly

Blogging might be the first side hustle that flashes through your mind when you think about it. This is also the one I chose to earn more money online, allowing me to work anywhere and anytime if I get an internet connection.

What Is A Blog or What Is Blogging?

A blog(short for a weblog) is an online journal or informational website owned by an individual, group, or organization that offers regularly updated content about a topic. Blogging means the process of writing, curating, or creating content and publishing it on your blog.

If you don’t know what to write or where to start blogging, you are more than welcome to check my post about how to find your niche. I shared step-by-step tutorials, blog niche ideas, and resources to help you find one!

Income Opportunities of Blogging:

The potential for blogging is virtually unlimited. Well-established bloggers like Michelle Schroeder-Gardner—who runs a blog about saving money—can make upward of $760,000 a year with only 10-hour work every week.

Many factors influence the income of a blog, such as the age of the blog, the topic & quality content, the blog traffic, and even the time of the year. 

Here are the top five ways to generate from blogging:

1. Affiliate Marketing: When you promote others’ products with your unique affiliate link, you will earn commissions if people purchase the products through your links.

2. Display Ads: Once getting specific blog traffic volumes, you can join ad networks(Mediavine or AdThrive) to display ads on your blog.

3. Sponsored Post: Once you get consistent website visitors, companies will ask you to publish a sponsored post promoting their products to your audience. You’ll get paid in return.

4. Selling Products: You can also create both physical & digital products and sell them on your blog. Ebooks and courses are excellent to start.

5. Coaching Services: If you are an expert in some topics, you could provide paid coaching services.

How I Start A Blog?

I started my blogging journey with Wealthy Affiliate, an all-in-one affiliate marketing platform. I learned to find my niche, share my passions, and have the correct mindset toward my online journey. The best part is that no experience or skill is required to start a blog.

By creating quality content on your blog, you will generate online income in multiple ways. For me, I’ve made $447 from one product review. Imagine you have ten. fifty, or one hundred articles that help you make money while you sleep. Doesn’t that excite you?

How Much Does It Take To Start A Blog?

ZERO! Yes, I mean it. You can start a blog with Wealthy Affiliate for free.  

However, to build an authority website, I suggest you purchase a domain name and quality hosting service. Doing so builds trust with your readers and lets Google know you are serious about blogging.

If you are unsure blogging should be your side hustle, don’t go for paid services. You can do experiments with free websites to know whether blogging is the right side hustle. 

The key is to take action online today without any more procrastination. Tap the button below to start a blog within one minute

2. Dropshipping

Income Potential: UNLIMITED

What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method where a business doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. In other words, the seller buys the products from a 3rd party, usually a wholesaler or manufacturer, to fulfill orders.

How Does Dropshipping Work?

Here are the simple steps of how dropshipping works:

1. Your customer places an order to your online store
2. Your store sends the order to your dropshipping supplier
3. Your dropshipping supplier prepares your customer’s order
4. Your dropshipping supplier ships the order directly to your customer

The well-known dropshipping platforms are Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and AliExpress.

How Do I Become A Dropshipper?

Starting an online store is not difficult, trust me! The hardest part is generating traffic and returning people to your store. That’s why you need proper guidance. 

There are many dropshipping training courses online, but some are fake gurus who are only after your hard-earned money instead of guiding you on the right track. I’ve reviewed some quality dropshipping training courses. Name a few here:

1. Ecom Elites
2. Drop Ship Lifestyle 
3. Ecomm Clubhouse

3. YouTubers

Income Potential: UNLIMITED

Making videos to make money online? I am sure you’ve watched some successful YouTubers revealing their earnings, right? Thanks to YouTube, it’s one of the most popular side hustles. 

YouTubers make videos around their niches and make money by putting ads in their videos. YouTubers take 55% of the revenue, while YouTube takes the rest, 45%. 

Ad revenue is not only wat to make money on YouTube. After building your channel with thousands of followers, brands will reach out to you and pay you if you decide to make videos promoting their products or services. 

The money brands pay you depends on your follower count, the average views per video, or the type of videos you upload. Overall, if a video has 100,000 to 500,000 views, the YouTuber makes anywhere from $300 to up to $10,000.

If you like to make videos on YouTube to bring traffic back to your website, you can check my full review of Simple Traffic Blueprint.

4. Pinterest Virtual Assistant

Income Potential: $15 To $20/hr

Before we go directly to it, let me share some interesting Pinterest stats:

• Number of monthly active users: 478 Million+
• 77.1% of Pinterest audiences are female
• 89% of users are on Pinterest for purchase inspiration
• 80% of US mothers who use the internet use Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual search engine, not a platform with only stunning images and ideas. It’s the place where people find inspiration and solutions to their problems. 

This makes it capable of driving potential customers to Pinterest account owners’ websites through Pinterest images, called pins. It sounds super easy, but many small businesses and individuals struggle to drive traffic from Pinterest to their businesses.

This is where a Pinterest virtual assistant comes into play. 

A Pinterest Virtual Assistant helps clients build Pinterest outreach and enhance brand presence. 

89% of Pinterest users are looking for things to buy on the platform, which makes them the perfect audience for businesses trying to promote their products or services. 

A Pinterest Virtual Assistant’s job is to help businesses and individuals reach potential customers through Pins on Pinterest.

5. Proofreading   

Income Potential: $50,000 yearly

What Is Proofreading?

Proofreading means examining your text carefully to find and correct typographical errors and grammar, style, and spelling mistakes. In short, finding mistakes from texts.

It is the final stage of the editing process to ensure your content or publication is accurate, professional, and grammatically sound.

Doing proofread doesn’t need to leave your home, meaning you can proofread in the comfort of your place. You can easily spend a few hours proofreading whenever you prefer.

 It’s also easy to find proofreading jobs on Upwork, RemoTasks, or Fiverr because businesses and publishing organizations rely on proofreaders to maintain the quality and their profession.

So, if you have eagle eyes for grammar, style, and spelling mistakes, proofreading may be the perfect side hustle for you.

6. Freelance Writer

Income Potential: $11,000 to $165,000 a year.

Freelance writing is writing for money while working on one’s own and not being employed by a specific company or organization, such as websites, blogs, or magazines.

✅ You don’t have to be the next Hemingway to start a freelance writing side hustle.

✅ You can write anywhere you like, home, cafe, or co-working space.

✅ The income potential is high, and everyone can do it.

How Much Money Do Freelance Writers Make?

Based on ZipRecruiter, freelance writers make as high as $13,750 and as low as $917, which means $11,000 to $165,000 a year.

How Do I Become A Freelance Writer?

Here are simple steps you can start your freelance writing:

1. Research the freelance writing industry
2. Develop necessary business skills
3. Ensure you have the tools of the trade
4. Understand current writing conventions
5. Keep improving your writing skills
6. Pick up a writing niche
7. Create your writing portfolio
8. Market your writing & Promote yourself
9. Find freelance writing jobs

7. Create Online Courses

Income Potential: $500 to over $100,000 monthly

Online learning is modern education, especially during the pandemic. The global eLearning market is expected to hit $350 billion by 2025, so everyone likes to share a part.

Some interesting statistics:

• 73% of US students want to continue taking online classes after the pandemic.
• 90% of companies offer their employees some digital learning.
• The number of registered learners on Coursera has increased by 438% over the past five years.

Since people accept to learn online at their own paces with more flexibility, online course creators have been making a fortune over the last five years.

Think about the given topic you have expertise with, you may start learning how to make it into an online course.

You don’t need to be at the top in that given topic. The mindset here is to provide your knowledge or skills to those with fewer experiences than you.

Whether a video training course, a textual format, or a combination of these, they all work well for people who like to learn from you.

People are leveraging Teachable, LearnWorlds, or Thinkific to build and sell courses online. Try to check each platform to find the perfect one for your online courses.

8. Be A Virtual Assistant

Income Potential: $15-$35 per hour

Besides Pinterest, you can also be a virtual assistant to help other businesses remotely. During a pandemic, more businesses require virtual assistants for social media management, content creation, admin work, or e-commerce management.

What Is Required To Be A Virtual Assistant?

Virtual assistants are required for the following duties but are not limited to:

1. Social Media: many businesses have an online presence, so you must have the skills to create regular posts for answering questions, asking for ideas, or building community.
2. Content Creation: This part plays a vital role for virtual assistants. Good content helps businesses get more leads and potential sales, but making them is time-consuming, tedious, and complicated.
3. Admin Work: It’s the same as you do in the office. Managing emails, booking meeting rooms, keying data, tracking documents, etc., except for the part about bringing coffee and snacks to the meeting rooms! ???
4. E-commerce: the eCommerce industry is expected to hit $5.7 Trillion this year, and a virtual assistant will process inventory management, order fulfillment, shipment arrangement & tracking, return, etc.

How Much Does A Virtual Assistant Make?

Based on this article, the average annual pay for a Work From Home Virtual Assistant in the United States is $58,991 annually and $28 per hour.

I think it’s a good start for stay-at-home moms, newly graduated, or those who cannot go out for work due to physical injuries.

9. Become A Transcriptionist

Income Potential: $20,000 to over $50,000 per year

A transcriptionist is a person who transcribes recorded dictation, such as medical terminology,  legal, or general, into written form. You can work from home and do this at your own pace.

What Skills Do You Need To Be A Transcriptionist?

To become a successful transcriptionist, you must learn the following to sharpen your skills:

• Strong listening skill
• Fast and accurate typing skill
• Language skill
• Familiarity with MS Word or similar applications
• Editing, grammar check, and proofreading skill
• Multitasking skill
• Time management skill

Although you don’t need a license or training to become a transcriptionist, you at least need to know the basic requirements of transcription.

You work with diction software and must be proficient in computer skills. Typing is the most important requirement to be a successful transcriptionist, and you must type fast and accurately if you want credibility and a chance to grow your business.

10. Photography and Videography Services

Income Potential: It depends on the services you are providing!

Are you a shutterbug? a photography enthusiast? Then you cannot miss this side hustle idea.

There are a few ways to make money from your Photo enthusiasm:

• Sell your photos on stock photo sites(Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, PixaBay…)
• Start a photography blog
• Start a tutorial YouTube channel about photography
• Create an online photography course
• Provide your photography or video shooting services
• Sell your photos on Etsy, print them, and ship to your customers

However, making money online through photography is not easy since it’s a crowded space with many competitors in the market. So, here are two steps you should do to avoid the competition:

-Find Your Niche & Target Audience-

Try to pick up a niche with lower competition and find out who your target audience is. Whether your thing is travel, fashion, cityscapes, nature, food, etc., consistency is key.

You can also use a keyword research tool to analyze the search volume for terms related to your photographs. Topics with a monthly 1k search volume are good to put effort into.

-Integrate E-commerce Into Your Portfolio-

Successful photographers have their own websites to showcase their works to potential customers, and that’s why I suggested you start a blog/website right from the beginning.

Adding e-commerce to your site, including payment acceptance from PayPal or other platforms will open doors to more opportunities for selling your photos, training courses, services, or physical products online.

If you follow the above two steps, with a passion for photography and an eye for exceptional photography, you can set yourself apart from the crowded space and make an online income from your work.

Conclusion

The abovementioned side hustle ideas are the most popular ones you can start today. 

Take your time to go through three points before starting your side hustle. There is no need to rush to create your side hustle without enough consideration. 

Building a side hustle that brings you consistent money is a long play. Don’t give up if you don’t see positive results in the first 3-6 months or after a few setbacks.

I hope you get detailed information to start your side hustle just now. You are more than welcome to leave your words in the comment section below. I will try my best to reply in 24 hours. 

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