A side hustle is a means of making money outside your 9-5 job. It gives you the freedom to pursue your passions and more money to lower financial burdens. It is all about building a business for yourself; a business with the potential to earn you income. Side hustling covers a diverse range of ideas and businesses with one common goal, to earn extra income.
More often than not, side hustlers use skills they already have to generate income. Now, you may wonder; what skill can I use to earn income online? What is a good side hustle? It is much easier to pick something that already fits your lifestyle because then it feels less like a chore. A good side hustle should be worth the time invested. Great passive income ideas are also good side businesses.
Now, let’s dive into the 10 side hustles you can start with little or no money.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
One of the more popular ways to make money online, affiliate marketing is favoured because of its simplicity. Affiliate marketing has to do with promoting other people’s products through any online medium of your choosing and earning a commission for each sale you make. You do not have to worry about technicalities like content creation, shipping, billing, etc. and the commission rates can get as high as 60% depending on the company or affiliate program.
It has a lot of potential because there are so many good products hence, so many good affiliate programs, and no shortage of products to market. It is important to find the right brands to partner with so as to get a higher commission.
Popular affiliate programs include foreign programs like Amazon, Udemy, and local programs like Payporte, Jumia, Betnaija, Wakanow.
FREELANCING
This is one of the quickest ways to get work online especially if you already have a skill you can monetize. A freelancer performs jobs by creating deliverables such as written content, graphic designs, etc. A common way to make money as a freelancer is to join the gig economy on platforms such as Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, ProBlogger, etc. Fiverr is more favoured and is one of the most popular gig platforms as it is much easier to get gigs. Wondering how to make money on Fiverr? You can earn money with skills like transcribing, content writing, graphics design, etc.
If you do not have skills, you can take some time to learn some. Platforms like Fiverr are dependent on reviews so it is important to deliver adequate services.
BLOGGING
Blogging poses endless opportunities to earn money online. It is a very versatile means of earning income because it allows you to build a personal brand in any niche that you prefer. You can choose to write about anything that you enjoy; business, fitness, beauty, and even food!
There are several ways to earn money online by blogging such as; using affiliate links, charging for sponsored posts, turning your site into an e-commerce site and selling products relating to your niche, running ads to monetize your traffic (AdSense), etc. AdSense is a very popular and fast advertising program that bloggers use to make money online. Now, how to make money with Google AdSense; you’ll have to run ads generated from businesses that use Google AdWords program and get paid when guests click them. You could also create digital products that align with the nature of your blog. One little downside to blogging is that it takes some patience and time to build up. You may not earn any money at the beginning but if you’re passionate about it, and the niche you pick, you’ll find yourself earning even more as your blog grows.
YOUTUBE
With an audience of over a billion people, YouTube is a popular channel that garners a ton of views and offers immense opportunities to make money. You may ask; how do people make money on YouTube? You can become a YouTube partner and get paid every time your videos are watched. You can supplement the income using; affiliate marketing, by creating sponsored content or selling branded merchandise, using Google AdSense. To run Google AdSense on YouTube, you’ll need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch time hours.
You do not need to make your own videos. So how do you make money on YouTube without making videos? You can choose to upload other people’s videos on YouTube and make money. For instance, some YouTube channels compile videos that are already available on YouTube. You just need to grow your traffic and with more traffic you get more sales from affiliate marketing.
CREATING YOUR OWN DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Digital products can be anything such as an e-book, a video course, software, etc. The requirements for creating digital products are valuable knowledge or skills that are in demand. This method is a bit more difficult than others because you have to carry out research development, marketing, customer service, etc. In other words, you are in total control of your product and pricing; this is a good things because you get to keep all of your profit but it also makes it more strenuous.
This is a long-term, passive income idea because your digital product would always earn money. You can sell the product over and over again without having to put in more work.
Find problems people want to solve and create an information product for it. This could be a fitness workout video, a diet plan with recipes, a book on how to become a successful freelancer, etc.
SELLING PHYSICAL PRODUCTS
This method requires much more work than other methods but it also boasts of high earning potential. These days, there are online vendors selling all sorts of physical products. You can choose to start your own e-commerce store or sell through existing e-commerce platforms like Jumia, Konga, etc.
Now you may ask; what can I sell to make money? You can choose to make your own products, scour the market for goods to sell by wholesaling or retailing. There are so many different goods that can be sold easily online, just remember to do your market survey before you begin.
DROP SHIPPING
Drop shipping allows you to sell a product to a customer without having any physical interaction with it. Consider yourself a middleman who will never have to interact with the goods. What’s more, it requires little to no start-up capital. The manufacturing company bears the inventory and shipping burden, leaving you with only the marketing and customer service aspect of the business. You get to be the owner of your own business; buying at wholesale prices and selling at your own prices with low risk because the products are only shipped after payment has been made and you can choose to sell anything you desire; household appliances, kitchen utensils, beauty products, anything and everything goes.
TEACHING ONLINE
Teaching online courses is one of the most rewarding ways of making money online. With enough interest in a particular subject, time to research, and proper understanding of the subject matter, you can make good money teaching courses online. Platforms like Udemy, Coursera, Acadium, etc. give people the opportunity to make teaching online a side hustle.
With this method, the only limit is your knowledge of the subject area. There are people looking to learn everything; your local language, how to crochet, how to write, etc. This is a great passive income idea because you can earn by uploading courses and getting paid whenever someone pays for the course.
FLIPPING
Another really interesting way to make money online is flipping. You just have to purchase items at low cost and then sell them at a higher cost. It requires a fair amount of market research as you need to find items that have a great customer base. You can choose to buy clearance items at stores and sell at original prices; you can buy and sell websites. There is no limit to what you can choose to flip.
SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCING
This is another very fun way of making money online. With so many great social media platforms to pick from like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and even TiK ToK, it is open to all. There are so many people using social media platforms for business and looking to advertise to their target audience using advertisement methods that would capture them. For this reason, more and more micro-influencers are popping up. The most important requirements of an influencer are influence and reach. How good are your persuasion skills?
As fun as this method is, it can be quite daunting to pull off. You would need to build a dedicated audience before you can even think of monetizing your account.
CONCLUSION
Side hustles are very legitimate ways to earn money online. You can earn passively with side hustles while still working your day job. Like any other job, they require time, patience, and interest. Still wondering how to become rich with no money? Start any of these side hustles, put in time and effort and watch yourself earn 6 figures.