After my last couple comments on r/sidehustle brought in a lot of questions, I decided to make this post to share some of the ways I found success earning side income.

Me: I test side hustles to determine if they're any good, then post the results. My ultimate goal is to save up enough money just from side hustles to buy a fixer-upper house. I have about $21,000ish in the slush fund now, and could buy a house with that. However, I am looking for a liiittle better than that $21k can get me.

You can learn more from my Freeloader Challenge series. This link is the most recent episode: https://youtu.be/RwLvxdhunQg

Couple caveats:

Please do NOT message me for more information. My inbox is filled with 20 people asking the same questions after the last comment. Post your questions here and I will try to help. You can also find an expanded guide on my own profile page.

Focus on a job first. Side hustles are SIDE income for beer money, hobbies, and to make ends meet while you work on improving your career. If you do not have a career at all, side income won't change much for you.

The methods

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Shit tier (not worth doing):

- Dropshipping AliExpress

- AI art print-on-demand

- selling wooden pallets

- flipping used mattresses, any goofy YouTuber side hustle BS like that

Almost all the people making money off these are the YouTubers making videos about them and the people selling courses on them. If you yourself make money doing any of these, the amount will be negligible. There are very few people making money actually doing these things, and they have extensive experience and a network behind them. If you're here, you do not.

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Low tier (maybe worth doing in the beginning):

- Online questionnaires: You CAN make money on these, but it is rarely worth the effort unless you have $0 and have no other source of money. This will only be used to seed other methods. If you absolutely must do this, use Attapoll. They pay you $0.01 if you get rejected by the questionnaire which happens frequently on almost every survey site. I made about $30 in a month before I gave up. Not recommended for anyone serious.

- Silly crypto games: Most of these are complete trash, but I have cashed out about $50 from apps like CoinApp in which you get paid XYO token for driving. If you typically drive long distances and have a second phone, this might be worth it. Otherwise, skip it completely. I made about $50 over a month doing this.

- Dumpster Diving for metal: Check and see if there is a metal recycling plant near you. Most suburbs and cities have something. Ask about prices on metal. Copper will fetch you about $3/lb, and aluminum about $0.50/lb. Brass is up there too. Communication wire (like CAT cables) are among the best. Don't bother with steel. The secret is to go to constructions sites where their dumpsters are out in the open and therefore are considered trash (not behind a fence, closed, or anything like that). Jump in and take metal out, then bring it to the recycling center. Check your state laws first and make sure that it is legal to dumpster dive. I am not familiar with any states where it is NOT legal, but check. I've made a few hundred off of about 10 dives like this. Average dive at a construction site yields $30.

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Mid Tier (worth doing):

- Focus Groups: This is the best low barrier to entry option for most people. I don't think I've gone a single month since 2022 in which I haven't made at least $100 for an hour doing a focus group. Companies want feedback on a product or service for their target market. You give them this feedback and they pay you. It's simple, and you get to influence a product that you might use in the future. I prefer the website User Interviews. Make a profile there with your hobbies and career skills, and you'll get connected with focus groups that are more likely to need you. In addition to User Interviews, try Hivemind. I have made a few thousand, probably $3,000ish, over 2 years.

- Get-paid-to sites: These are the lowest barrier to entry options that are worth your time. These are websites where you get paid to play a game or use an app. It's the apps way of getting users without running marketing campaigns- they just pay you outright to use the app. You've already heard of Swagbucks. I prefer Freecash myself. The games may only pay you $20 for 10 hours of gameplay, so they're only worth it if you like mobile games. The real money is made from downloading and using banking or finance apps where it is common to get paid $100+ for a few minutes of work. I have made about $5,000 over 3 years.

- Flipping free items: I use a Discord server where you get free items from Amazon merchants. Sometimes they require a review, sometimes they refund you on delivery. You get to keep the item and get refunded. They're usually not high quality items, but you can get as many phone cases and chargers as you want for no review. Higher end items will require a review to get refunded. If you are okay with inventorying, you can flip these at 100% profit. I only made about $30 flipping, but I got tons of free stuff to free up income for other things.

- Broker churning: Most brokers will give you money to invest with them as a new account. Webull is a very good one. Deposit $0.01 and they'll give you $60 of shares. You can hold them or sell them. Then, do the Schwab Starter Kit promo. Deposit $50 and they'll give you $101. Just those 2 brokers and you're up $150. There are others, but the next best is Fidelity's Starter Kit which is deposit $100 get $100 of shares. That promo is suspended but may come back. Moomoo is a distant 4th pick, which usually gives about $70 on a $1,000 deposit. There are a few others. I made about $1,000 off these, but $500 was from an expanded Moomoo bonus that is no longer active. This could still easily net you $500.

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Top Tier (do it):

- Bank Churning: Tons of banks are willing to give you a bonus for direct depositing to them. You can do this every time you get a paycheck and never run out of banks and credit unions. PNC was an easy one- deposit $5,000 over 90 days and get $400. Use Doctor of Credit and you'll find a huge number of options with lower DD requirements. Change your DD bank often. Either make your Human Resources girl with a bachelor's degree in psychology earn her paycheck by changing your payroll for you, or deposit your other side hustle income to Chase Business bank accounts and pay yourself from those. I made about $800 so far this year doing this.

- Credit card churning: Similar to the banks, credit cards offer bonuses. "Spend $5,000 and get $500 back" is a common one. Change credit cards often to take advantage of this. You can also profit off this by "spending" money on things that get refunded like the Amazon items above, or some other means that will wash the money for you. I made about $1,100 doing this so far this year.

- Selling blood plasma: Every college town has a place where you can sell plasma. I sold mine for 3 years. This is actually a HEALTHY activity that puts money in your pocket. I used to make $20-$30 per plasma visit in 2013. Now, it's more like $60-$80/donation. If you are in good health, this is an obvious move. You can do it twice per week and make $400+ in a month. Look for a Biolife, Biomat, or CSL plasma center. I did this for years and made thousands, but can't do it anymore because I live far from plasma centers.

• Counter-gambling: There are about 22 social casinos in the US. You've heard of ones like Stake. They're horrible institutions that use loopholes to make themselves "sweepstakes" instead of casinos so that they can skirt casino regulations. To be a sweepstakes, you have to be "no purchase necessary" to enter. To effect this, the “social casinos" just give you money each day to log in, adding up to about $14 total. All you have to do is log in, take the money, and log out. Don't ever actually gamble. Some of the names are Pulsz, Stake, Chumba, Luckyland, and Modo. There are more and you'll have ads for them quickly. The cons are that you have to play through the free money before you can withdraw. Achieve this by playing baccarat, blackjack, or roulette. You'll lose some of the free money, but walk out with more than 90% on most occasions. Gamble the absolute minimum required and make your withdrawal after. Most sites do gift card withdrawals around $20 and cash at $50 or $100. Stake has no playthrough requirement and you can withdraw the ~$50 minimum without playing at all. Do NOT attempt this strategy if you have had a prior gambling addiction. I don't know exactly how much I made doing this in the past 2 years, but it's over $10,000 easily.

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Those are the top methods I've used and expect to continue doing. I'm aiming to invest it all in crackhouse refurbishment by the end of the year.

Despite all of the advice saying NOT to do digital products on Etsy I just went for it. I thought about the skills I have and am good at (although not much lol): drawing/digital art, an understanding of what the people in my niche want, and good SEO.

I haven’t been able to spend a whole lot of time on this shop but I have about 60 listings up and have been making an extra $200 a month for the past 4 months! I’m really enjoying it, it’s not exactly passive income but it feels like it is. Strictly digital download file products like digital stationary, planners, stickers etc. I draw little designs on my iPad and put everything together with Canva. It’s a small amount for now but it pays for my bills and I couldn’t be more stoked, just need to put more time into it. I think you can join any oversaturated niche as long as you do it the right way.

Edit: Sorry not sharing my shop! There’s tons of YT videos about selling digital products! Just find what works for you (-:

I started an Instagram page a couple years ago. Reposted other people’s content(with permission). It only took me 30ish minutes a day of work.

Eventually grew it to over 500K followers and now it does around $300/month in sponsored posts.

I’m quitting social media now, but I just wanted to post this to let people know that there is still serious money to be made on Instagram.

Hey everyone! Have you ever stumbled upon a side gig that just started generating money unexpectedly? Share your stories with us! What was the hustle and how did you stumble upon it?

Not sure if this counts, but we had a pretty bad snow storm in my area and so the day before I went to the library and made a business ad offering snow removal services. I didn’t post it in the listing but decided to charge $40/hr

The next day the calls came rolling in, honestly all I had was a shovel and a car so a lot of the calls I had to turn down because they were much larger projects that I wish I had the means to take on. I did do two pretty large driveways which sucked but I made $170 for both.

My first call was a man who owned an apartment complex and I made $200 for 4 hours of work since I charged him also for salt.

But this gave me an idea, I instantly got on the phone calling all the apartment complexes in my area offering my services and one which own 4 entire locations hired me for the last two days which I made off with 13 hours of labor.

But the greatest part of this all… BOTH APARTMENT owners said they would like to have me back any time we get more snow and the 4 property company is going to hire me in the spring for lawn care 1 day a week!!

EDIT: Wow I did not expect to receive this much feed back and cannot thank everyone enough it’s very motivating and uplifting!

To answer a lot of the same question about where I posted my ad and how I made it ect.

I made a a flyer type ad with a winter themed back ground making it look like a nice flyer. I gave my “business” a name. I then used ChatGPT/AI to assist me with writing up a description of my services to help me have a professional yet friendly appeal to potential customers and attached my phone number.

I then went to my town’s local community Facebook page and posted up the flyer up and looked for post where people needed service, as well as other people who never responded to people asking them if they could come out and posted my ad in the comments section as a reply!

I see a lot of ideas for side hustles and I understand this is a question that’s asked far too often.

But I think this is a fair amount to ask for, not too crazy like $10k/month.

I’ve experimented with a few ideas but would love to hear from more experienced veterans in the side hustle realm.

Cheers!

Hello r/SideHustle community! Elon Musk has not clearly stated one simple thing: Antisemitism and Nazis are Bad. A reasonable person would have apologized and stated that hatred of any kind is not supported on their platform, but he has consciously decided not to address the issue despite owning an entire social media platform.

The subreddit moderators have discussed the issue and decided that effective immediately, all new posts or comments containing links to Twitter or X will be removed. This is currently a temporary ban that will last from now (January 2025) through February 2025 to be reconsidered in March, but it will most likely remain permanent.

If you have any questions or concerns, please leave them in the comments below.

Edit - Clarified that this impacts all new content - old content is not modified.

I feel like I am seeing the same ideas over and over again.

I first learned about Churning last year, and started in Feb. I managed to make a little over 13k basically doing nothing. Banks routinely offer a sign up bonus for opening a checking account, and recieving X amount of money Direct Deposited. 50% of the time you can fake these with a push from your main bank, other 50% you'll need to use a real DD. Couple questions I was asked, NO this does not hurt your credit score unless the bank uses a Hard Pull (maybe 2 of the 29 banks I churned last year used a HP). Yes the money is taxed. I spent maybe 5-10 minutes opening each account, and another 10 ish minutes looking for new opportunities every other day. I opened a total of 40 accounts between me & my wife with 29 total banks. I'll provide a link to screenshots of my data points. https://imgur.com/a/BiVs0z4

I bought a Chevrolet Colorado in July of last year with the intention of starting a side hustle. I considered doing landscaping, hauling junk, or even buying a vending machine. However, while browsing Facebook Marketplace, I came across a listing for a used throne chair. I decided to research how much these chairs typically rent for in other areas and what I could potentially charge if I bought one. Keep in mind, I had no prior experience in the party or event business.

Despite that, I decided to take a chance, bought the chair, and posted it for rent. The post received a lot of views, but no bookings at first. Most businesses in my area charge around $150 to rent a throne chair, plus a delivery fee, which usually brings the total to $180–$200. Since I wasn’t getting much interest, I decided to lower my price from $150 to $120, which also includes delivery within 30 minutes of where I live.

After about 3.5 weeks and spending roughly $760, I honestly started to think buying the throne chair had been a bad idea. However, just a couple of days after lowering the price, I received my first booking—then my second, third, and so on. As bookings picked up, I eventually purchased a second throne chair for about the same price, except this one was brand new.

From the end of August through the end of December, I made a little over $1,500. While most of that money went toward paying off the chairs, it became clear that there is a lot of potential in this type of business. Along the way, I’ve connected with people from schools, event coordinators, venue owners, and other local businesses.

My goal for this year is to make over $4,000. While that may not sound like a lot, it’s relatively easy money. The hardest part of the job is loading the chairs onto the truck and properly taking care of them. I make sure to clean them after every event and use bubble wrap on the corners and other important areas that could be easily damaged. I also purchased a tarp and stretch wrap to protect the chairs from dirt during delivery or while they’re waiting for the next booking.

My next goal is to add a bench throne and a 360 photo booth to the business. We’ll see what the future holds.

So, in an effort to combat the low-effort posts on these subreddits that tell you to “just start an online business” but that don’t tell you how to do it, I’ll be laying out the general steps for how I made my first 1000$ (and first 10,000€) online. 

I won’t bury the lead, so here it is:

Selling digital products

Now, a lot of people on here like to either tell you how great this business model is (without elaborating how to actually do it / funnelling you into their PLR or MMR pyramid scheme…) or tell you that anyone selling or claiming to make money from digital products is a scammer etc. 

Neither of these statements are good, or accurate.

In this post I’ll give you the basic overview of how to actually make money with selling digital products, everything I talk about is something I’ve personally done and succeeded with. 

Here’s a screenshot of the most recent digital product business I’ve been building. Im not making millions with it, but it is quite nice to make ~1000-2000$ extra per month with pretty minimal work. I post about once a week, with the posts taking around 1-2hrs to write. That’s a maximum of 8 hours/month of work for 1000-2000$, pretty worth it to me…

It’s also started consistently scaling and I estimate that I’ll be making over 4k/month from it sometime this year. I won’t give the exact niche since I don’t want a bunch of you flooding it lol, but I will give some niche examples down below. 

A quick overview of what digital products actually are:

Digital products can be anything from courses, ebooks, PDF-guides, swipe files, even stuff like 3D models or stock photos are digital products.

In this post, and all my other content/guides I’ll mainly be talking about PDF-guides, since that’s what I’ve found the most success in. They’re also good since they’re generally problem solving, aka it’s easier to charge a premium price because you’re actually solving a painful problem for your customer.

Why digital products: 

Here’s why selling digital products is the #1 best way to start learning online business. 

1. No overhead, no delivery costs. If you sell something for 50$, you get to keep that full 50$ (excluding payment fees etc.). With stuff like dropshipping, you have a lot of ad/fulfillment costs, meaning you have to risk money to make money. With digital products, the only thing you’re risking is your time, so you can get a lot more attempts and take more risks before draining your bank account.

2. Very scalable. The great thing about selling stuff like guides or PDF’s is that it’s theoretically infinitely scalable. Because you have no inventory limitations etc. you can sell them at any pace that customers come in. 

3. Accessible to start. You don’t need anything special to start this, as long as you’re willing to learn stuff as you go (like I did), you’ll be fine. You can use free tools for pretty much anything and as long as you can write, you can do this. 

So, here’s exactly what I did to make my first 1000$ with digital products. 

Step 1 - Find a niche you can give value to

If you’ve been in the online business world for a bit, you’ve definitely heard the term “niche” before. 

Most people fuck this up by trying to find the perfect niche that’s completely unsaturated etc, but what you really want to look for, is where can you provide the most value.

You specifically want to look for communities or groups of people that all share a specific problem that you feel like you can solve. What this means in practice, is that you take stock of all the useful skills, experiences or talents you have and think of places where you can apply those.

In short, find communities of people that have similar problems, then provide solutions to those problems. Here are some examples I’ve seen recently that do this well:

1. Freelance web-devs have a hard time landing clients - Sell a guide on exactly how to land more clients as a freelance web-developer. If a customer lands even one extra client from your guide, they’ll make hundreds or thousands of dollars. If your guide is priced at 50–100€ and the customer has high confidence in it working, buying it is a no brainer. (Btw. the high confidence comes mainly from your free content and copywriting on sales page)

2. A ton of people are struggling with bad-skin, I’ve seen a ton of accounts on tiktok etc. making bank from selling “skincare guides” etc. as a digital product. This is a painful problem as evident by the multi-billion dollar skincare industry, solving the problem for people will get you paid. 

3. A channel on youtube has a course for how to grow a faceless channel and make money from it, the product was priced at around 200$ and had thousands of customers, you do the math… Again, this is solving a painful problem because not having money or working a shitty job is quite painful. Focus on solving problems. 

The reason a lot people think selling digital products is a scam, is because they see people selling shitty digital products.

All MRR and PLR products are a pretty good example, you buy a generic digital product to resell that you didn’t even make. Sounds an awful lot like a pyramid scheme. 

You need to pick a niche you can actually provide value in, and make sure that whatever you’re selling delivers on that promise of value.

Sure, you can trick a few people into buying some shitty product with some good copywriting but that isn’t going to be a sustainable or scalable business, and you won’t be motivated to actually sell it since you subconsciously know that it’s shit. 

Step 2 - Create a slam-dunk offer and good product

So, once you’ve identified a problem that your target market has, you have to create something to help them solve it. A good way to do this without putting too much time into it is a simple downloadable PDF-guide. I’d usually price these around 15-45$, depending on how big the problem you’re solving is. Remember that the more painful the problem that you’re solving, the more you can charge for it. 

Here are the exact steps to take for creating a great product and great offer:

1. Solve a specific problem. Instead of a guide on: “How to make money as a coder”, niche down into “How to land clients as a freelance web-dev”. Niching down is almost always recommended when starting out. 

2. Make the product GOOD. When you make something you’re actually proud of, selling it becomes much easier too. Try your very best to solve your customers problem, always stay on the side of giving them too much value rather than too little. 

3. Create a clean sales page with good copywriting. I won’t go too much into copywriting etc. here but it’s pretty simple to learn the basics. Try to avoid cliches within your niche, talk to your customers in their language. 

4. In your offer, use guarantees and reviews. Send your product for free to some people in your community, in exchange for testimonials. Reviews on your product page are the single biggest conversion-booster you can ever add. 

So, once you have a good offer and product, it’s time to start driving traffic to it. 

Step 3 - Drive traffic with organic content

If you’re anything like me, the though of spending a ton of money for ads without any guarantee that the product/niche even works is a little scary. That’s why we’re driving all the traffic with organic content. 

Here’s exactly what to do:

Start making high-value posts in these communities. The posts should be in-depth, actionable and good, no general tips or stuff everyone’s tired of hearing, and definitely no ChatGPT AI slop.

The quality of your free posts will determine how many people are willing to pay for your product. If your free content is bad or low-value, no-one is going to pay you for more. 

From this free content, you start funneling people into your offer. I usually just make a reference to my product once or twice in the posts and people will go look for it naturally.

Don’t make your posts too ad-like, that’s a great way to get banned/flamed in any online community. Naturally mention whatever your offer is, the people who are interested will click on your profile and find it. And you will always have people who get irrationally angry at you for selling stuff. Disregard them, exchanging information in exchange for money is one of the oldest business models out there, the angry people are usually just jealous…

Once you start doing this consistently, you’ll get an idea for what types of posts perform well. Double down on them, while occasionally experimenting with something new. This is how you maintain consistent traffic to your product pages. 

I can guarantee that if the posts are valuable and good, you will get traffic. And if your offer and product pages are good, that traffic will convert into sales. It really is that simple to start making money. Your biggest enemy will be your own self-doubt.

Pro tip: Once you start getting traffic and sales, the best thing you can do to increase revenue is slowly increase prices. Weird, right?

But most of the time, people tend to dramatically under-price their products. The screenshot you saw earlier of my latest digital product business, started with a 10$ PDF guide. Now I sell the same guide for 30$ and my conversion rates have actually gone up… I literally tripled my revenue with a couple of button clicks. 

There’s a lot more to this, but this post is already long and your brains aren’t getting enough dopamine, so I’ll leave the in-depth stuff for another post.

Till next time!

Just made $300 in about 3hrs. Start ups cost are about $30. Went to neighborhoods that didn’t have mail box’s and knocked doors. I charged $25.

Hey, have you ever had a side hustle that turned out to be a surprising money-maker? Like, something you didn't think would bring in extra income but totally did? Share your cool stories with us – we are curious to hear!

This year I made $6,000 (roughly) in side hustle income and I wanted to break down what worked for me and what didn’t. Mostly because I wasted time trying out things that don’t work and hopefully people can avoid that lol

Proof is also attached below which I also think should be mandatory for anyone claiming they made money doing XYZ.

User Research

Simply put: There are people (professors/researchers) and companies out there who want your input on their research and products. There are companies you can sign up for to register and provide this input. 

Depending on the site, you will either need to do a survey on the site or record your audio/video walking through a demonstration. Although recording audio seems like a lot, this is where the real money is at with these surveys paying $10+ for around 10-15 minutes of work. 

What are some good sites/apps for this? According to my experience, the following: 

UserTesting:

This is in my opinion the best website for participating in user research. The sign up process is extremely easy and they ask some basic information about yourself to start receiving surveys. I recommend filling out as much information as possible to get access to as many surveys as possible. 

Each of these surveys range from $4-$90. The $4 and $10 surveys are simple and take 10 minutes to complete and ask you to record your audio only. The $30-$90 surveys require you to set up a time with the company to walk through a product demo and questions. These surveys take 30-90 minutes to complete so the hourly rate is still pretty high. 

The only caveat with this is that you will not qualify for all of these surveys. In my experience, you will qualify for around 1 out of every 6 surveys but since you can apply extremely quickly, you don’t waste much time on surveys you do not qualify for.

Prolific:

This one is a bit more work and pays less, although it's a good option for people that do not have time to schedule interviews for more money.

This is a website that is surveys only, no need to record audio or video for most of these surveys which might be a bonus for some people and they also give you a helpful extension that alerts you whenever a survey is ready for you. 

Again, I recommend filling out as many surveys as possible so you get qualified for as many surveys as possible. 

A general comment about user research: This is a pure side hustle so do not expect to replace your full time income with this, at most I estimate I can make around $300 per month doing this regularly at an hourly rate of around $15-20/hour. 

Freelancing

We have all heard this before and wonder if it works. And it does, with some conditions. 

Freelancing is extremely saturated. EXTREMELY saturated. Anything that you can think of, from logo design to more complicated software services, Ahmed from Pakistan can do it for $5 and do it as well as you if not better. 

This is where most people will fail, they will price their services too high and sell something they are not yet good at. Get no orders and call it a day. Freelancing requires a lot of patience no matter what you choose to do in order to get good at it and make a decent income. 

Step 1: Pick something that you are good at. 

If logo designing works for someone it will not work for you if you suck. So the first thing is to actually do something you are good at or ARE WILLING TO PUT IN THE TIME TO GOOD AT. You will need to put in some effort to acquire skills you can sell. This will take time and will not be fun at the start because it’s never fun when you are terrible at something. 

Step 2: Price Low

This will also be a harsh truth but you will need to price way lower than the market to actually get orders until you build a brand i.e get positive reviews and feedback. Social proof. This will mean selling whatever you have chosen at $5. Yeah, $5. No matter if it takes 2 hours of work or 20 minutes, you will have to do this. Of course this is just my advice and what worked for me, I am sure other freelancers might have done differently but I strongly believe for average people this is the best way to get orders. Once you get orders and social proof, you can start charging more. My average order value was $5 and now it's $33. 

What Can You Sell? 

I have searched far and wide and these are the categories that I see others around me doing well: 

1. Writing and Content Creation

2. Graphic Design 

3. Video Editing

4. Translation services

5. Business services

6. Career services (my niche)

7. Digital Marketing/SEO

8. Web/App development

Each one of these requires time and dedication to build but the payoff is there if you are able to acquire skills. It will not be easy but it is a side hustle that can pay off. 

Dividend Investing 

In my opinion, this is the holy grail for side hustling/passive income. Making your money work for you is the thesis here. What are dividends? These are profit payments companies pay shareholders who hold the company’s stock. Companies not only pay dividends they also increase their dividend payments over time as their profits increase. 

What if the company goes bankrupt? Good question. This is why most dividend investors prefer ETFs or exchange traded funds. These funds hold a basket of companies and not just 1 or 2 companies. This ensures that the ETF is less risky than individual investments. Some of the popular funds track the S&P 500 and other indices that are broad and include a lot of sectors

Some of the popular dividend funds include:

SCHD: 3.7% yield, meaning you get $3.7 dollars a year for every 100 invested. 

VYM: 2.5% yield, meaning you get $2.5 dollars a year for every 100 invested. 

Dividend investing is a LONG TERM game. You will not make thousands immediately, you will need to stay consistent but over time this will grow and turn into a lucrative side hustle. Once again, this is a side hustle so do not expect this to replace your full time income. It will most likely not. But making your money work for you and not to mention the long term share price appreciation might be a good bet. 

What Does Not Work?

Dropshipping:

I tried this 3 times and all 3 times this did not work. I just refuse to believe that dropshipping can be a consistent side hustle. I get people reach out to me and in my DMs claiming they made money, I ask them for proof and have never seen any. The two people I know that do dropshipping successfully DO IT FULL TIME. It takes a lot of time, commitment and dedication to make it work. I don’t think it qualifies as a “side hustle” 

AI Content/Low Effort content on Social Media: 

I don’t think this needs to be said but this is more like a lottery system. Yeah 1 in 10000 channels succeed but just buy a lottery ticket at this point. Channels saying this works on YouTube are making more money from videos on adsense on their false claims. The monetization aspect is a huge issue too, with YouTube cracking down on reused/AI/low effort content. If someone has a successful channel like this, reach out. I would love to be proven wrong. 

Flipping: 

Marketplace flipping never worked for me because the market is too efficient or maybe I am too slow and cannot dedicate enough time to this. You have to source, list and sell everything yourself on marketplace and it takes too much time. The one other problem I have is scale. You cannot scale this since your time is limited and margins don’t expand. I live in a bigger city so maybe the market is already too efficient and there is a need to act quick. Let me know what your experience has been and if you were able to consistently make money doing this.

Goals for 2025:

I want to hit $10,000 in side hustle income for 2025, mostly through scaling these hustles and also exploring new ones. I was looking at crypto sweepstakes as one since a lot of people here vouch for that. Interested to try out more too. 

Happy new year and hopefully you got some ideas for side hustling. 

Proof:

Any weird side hustles thats pullin in cash lol?

I've been browsing this subreddit for a while now and wanted to put together a list of 10 legitimate, flexible side hustles that an average person with no specialized skills can do from home with no upfront investment required. As an added bonus, I whipped up a quick python code to search through all the posts here, and it spat out the most legitimate successful ideas in just one go. This is the list:

1. Online Surveys: Many market research companies will pay for your opinions through online surveys you can take at home. It won’t replace a full-time income, but answering surveys in your spare time can earn a bit of extra cash or gift cards. To get started, create a profile on reputable survey sites so they can match you with relevant questionnaires. There are many platforms like that are free to join and regularly offer paid surveys to you guys.

2. Microtasking (Crowdsourced Tasks): Microtask platforms offer lots of small, simple online tasks that anyone can do for pay; for example, tagging images, verifying data, or short content moderation jobs. These gigs pay per task and require no experience or investment. Getting started is as easy as registering on a microtask site and picking tasks from the listings. Well-known platforms include Amazon Mechanical Turk and Clickworker, which let you work on brief tasks on your own schedule from home.

3. Website and App Testing: Companies pay everyday people to test out websites or mobile apps and give feedback on what works and what doesn’t. This involves clicking through a site or app, trying out features, and describing any bugs or confusing parts. To begin, you can join usability testing platforms (for example, UserTesting or uTest). You’ll usually need a computer with a microphone and to complete a sample test recording your feedback. Each test pays a set amount (often around $10 for a 15-20 minute test, with some longer tests paying more), and you can do them flexibly in your free time.

4. Freelance Writing: If you have decent writing skills, freelance writing is a flexible side hustle that requires no upfront cost. Businesses and blog owners constantly need written content like articles, blog posts, or product descriptions. You can start by writing a couple of sample pieces (even a personal blog post can serve as a sample) and then offer your services on freelancing platforms. Websites such as Upwork or Fiverr allow you to create a profile and bid on writing gigs, connecting you with clients who pay per article or project.

5. Virtual Assistant: Many entrepreneurs and small businesses need remote help with administrative tasks, making virtual assistance a popular at-home side job. This work can include managing emails, scheduling appointments, data entry, or social media updates for clients. To get started, think about skills you already have (like organization, communication, or familiarity with office software) and highlight them in a profile on a freelance job site. You can find virtual assistant gigs through platforms like Upwork or even here on reddit, or by searching for remote VA jobs on traditional job boards (indeed.com often lists “remote virtual assistant” openings). The work is flexible and you can take on a few clients on the side.

6. Data Entry: Data entry is a straightforward work-from-home job that's HUGE RIGHT NOW. It involves simply typing in and organizing information for clients, with no special training needed. Companies might have you input data into spreadsheets or databases or transcribe text from PDFs, and accuracy and attention to detail are the key requirements. You can look for data entry gigs on freelancing sites or sign up for micro-task platforms that offer these tasks. For example, you might find part-time data entry projects on Upwork, or do small data input jobs through Amazon MTurk or Clickworker, all of which are free to join and pay per task.

7. Transcription and Captioning: Transcription involves listening to audio (like meetings, interviews, or videos) and typing out everything that’s said. It’s a legit side hustle from home if you’re a fast, accurate typist and a good listener. Getting started usually means signing up on a transcription platform and taking a short typing or grammar test (most companies have one to ensure quality). Once approved, you can choose audio files to transcribe on your own schedule. Trusted sites such as Rev or TranscribeMe allow beginners to join and start earning by converting audio into text, with payments typically per audio minute or per project.

8. Online Tutoring: If you excel in a particular school subject or can teach English or another language, online tutoring lets you earn money by educating others from home. Students of all ages (from grade school to adult learners) go online for help in math, science, languages, test prep and more. To get started, identify subjects you’re comfortable teaching and apply to a tutoring platform – often you’ll fill out an application and might take a short quiz or demo lesson to verify your knowledge. Platforms like TutorMe, Chegg Tutor*, or Wyzant connect freelance tutors with students in need. There are even services for tutoring English conversation to international students (for example, VIPKid for teaching English to children abroad, though it has some eligibility requirements). You set your availability and can tutor over video chat from home, getting paid for each session.

9. Remote Customer Service Representative: Many companies hire part-time remote customer service reps to handle customer inquiries and support, and these roles often don’t require experience beyond good communication skills. In this job, you’ll assist customers by phone, email, or live chat – answering questions, tracking down information, or resolving basic issues. The work can be done entirely from home with a computer and headset, and employers usually provide training on their products and systems. To get started, search job sites for titles like “remote customer service” or “work from home call center” . It's literally that simple. For example, Indeed or FlexJobs list entry-level remote support jobs for the types of companies you'd be looking for. You can apply directly and, once hired, perform customer support on a schedule that often can be quite flexible or outside normal business hours.

10. Search Engine Evaluator (Web Rater): A search engine evaluator provides feedback on the quality and relevance of search results and ads, helping companies like Google improve their algorithms. In practice, you’ll be given a search query or social media feed and a set of guidelines, and you’ll rate whether the top results or content are useful and appropriate. This side gig requires no special background – just being internet-savvy and analytical; but you usually do have to pass a qualification exam on the company’s rating guidelines before starting. Companies such as Appen (via its CrowdGen platform) and TELUS International (formerly Lionbridge) regularly contract home-based workers for these roles. The work is flexible and typically pays roughly around $14-$17 per hour, and you can often set your own hours as long as you meet the minimum weekly time commitment. Each task is done online from home, making this a convenient side hustle for those who enjoy web research.

Good luck out there.

I’m 25, starting a new job but the pay is not good. I need something on the side that I can do to help pay the bills!

Pls list everything that has worked and actually brought in some decent money!

When you look up how to make money online, stuff like dropshipping, copywriting, graphic design always comes up. But honestly it all seems kind of fake or way too oversaturated. On YT all the “methods” have millions of views and clickbait titles.. it’s hard to know what’s real. I just turned 18 and really want to start something, but is it actually possible to earn anything doing this stuff? I’m not trying to get rich, just want a little bit of money coming in. Any tips on where or how to start?

I’m looking for a side hustle that will net me an extra $1000-2000 a month. i’m not looking for a quick cash out or anything, i have enough free time to grow something on the side to get to that goal. and before anyone comments this, yes i already have a roth ira and 401k that i max out every year.

I've dropped bits of this in comments before and people kept asking for the full thing, so here it is.

Quick disclaimer first, because I think it matters. I don't have a repeatable formula. If I did, I'd have built ten more of these and I wouldn't be posting on Reddit. A lot of "founder stories" are packaged as if the person cracked a system, and that packaging is usually the actual product they're selling you. What I have is one thing that worked, a couple that didn't, and some things I'd think about differently now.

What worked

I'm a full-stack dev from Hungary. In March 2022, Wordle was everywhere, and I thought "what if it was actors instead of words." Built actorle.com in three days, posted it on Reddit, and got told it was "insanely hard" and "literally unplayable" (John Hurt was missing from the database. Fair.) I nearly deleted it that weekend.

A week later a small British humor site put it in their newsletter and things went sideways fast. Twitter, then Mashable, 500 daily users to tens of thousands. I stuck a Buy Me a Coffee button on it and got about $1,000 in three months, which blew my mind at the time. Then I added display ads, and at some point the ad income matched my salary. So I quit.

Four and a half years later it still does ~10k daily users and around $4k/month. A few hours of maintenance a month. Last year I finally switched ad providers after putting it off forever because "it already works," and revenue roughly doubled. Laziness had been costing me real money.

What worked and then I fumbled

This is the part I haven't told before. A few years ago Hungary had a fuel shortage after a price cap policy went wrong. Stations were running dry and nobody knew where to fill up. In a day or two I built a crowdsourced map where people reported which stations still had petrol.

It hit national news. 100k+ visitors a day. Way more than Actorle ever did in a single day.

Then the crisis ended a few days later, the government lifted the cap, and I had nothing. I hadn't collected emails, hadn't thought about what else those people might need, hadn't planned for the day the problem went away. It's dead now. I still think about it as the biggest missed opportunity I've had. Lesson: when you're suddenly standing in front of 100k people, ask yourself what you want to keep before the moment passes.

What didn't work

Launching new games in the last two years. It's brutal now. Anyone can vibe-code a daily puzzle in an afternoon, so there are thousands of them, and getting anyone to notice a new one is ten times harder than it was in 2022. Cheap to build means cheap for everyone.

What I'm doing now

Instead of chasing the next lucky hit, I'm going back to the thing that's already working and treating it properly. I ran Actorle on gut feeling for years. Now I'm actually looking at the data: which puzzles people quit on, where retention drops, which spin-offs earn their keep. Boring, but a 10% improvement on something that already makes $4k is worth more than a 100% chance a new project makes $0.

If I had to give advice anyway

• The best opportunities I found were not on any "top 10 side hustles" list. A word game for movie nerds and a petrol map for a two-week crisis. Look at what's happening around you that nobody has built for yet.

• Ignore launch-day comments. The first 50 opinions are noise.

• If something works, don't leave it on autopilot. The stuff you've been "meaning to fix" is probably where the money is.

• Don't copy people's playbooks, including mine. Copy their willingness to try.

Happy to answer questions about the numbers, ads, quitting the job, any of it.

P.S. The one exception to "new games are brutal": two weeks ago I launched Cinections, a Connections-style game with movie posters, built for the people who already play Actorle every day. It got a menu link and one email, nothing else. About 1,500 people finish it daily now. It had an audience before it existed, and that made all the difference.

Started a house washing business that grosses over 100k annually working 6 months out of the year. Start up costs were around 30k. May-July are typically over $25k+ gross due to spring and summer.

Was working from home full-time due to COVID and just started washing houses in my neighborhood as a side hustle. This scaled into washing over 300+ houses annually mostly via word of mouth. I retired a few months ago at 47 to do this full time as a retirement gig.

I've put together 3 side hustles that you can start with $0, and I have personally tried myself. These aren't super "easy" or "quick cash", but they can 100% be done with a little sweat equity. They can also be done with $0 out of pocket, but starting with $100+ can make these grow much quicker.

1. Niche Instagram Account (25-30 days until $$)

• Pick a niche (watches, drones, cars etc)

• Create a clean looking instagram name (avoid .’s or _’s in the name)

• Follow 200+ accounts and hashtags in your niche to find viral content

• Repost viral content 2-3x per day, and use relevant hashtags

• Follow accounts that like or interact with other accounts content in your niche. Unfollow them if they don’t follow you back within 3 days. This should get you to 1,000+ followers.

• Once you get to get 5,000+ followers you can sell shoutouts on your page, or sell the account on a site like fameswap.com

2. Amazon Print on Demand (14-30 days until $$)

• Sign up for a Merch by Amazon account at merch.amazon.com (can take up to 14 day for approval)

• Upload artwork for t-shirts (use viral/trending topics or sayings)

• Select shirt color & price, and Amazon does the rest

• Post on Pinterest and other social media platforms for free advertising

• Every time someone buys a shirt, you get a % of the sale!

3. Substack Newsletter (60+ days until $$)

• Sign up for a Substack Account

• Pick a niche or topic to focus on, and a content schedule. (ex. every Wednesday)

• Write about current events or use a site like answerthepublic.com for content ideas.

• Spread the word and get friends & family to subscribe

• Once you reach 1,000+ subscribers you can upsell a % of your subscribers to a paid/premium subscription or sell ad space in your newsletters.

• Here’s 2 Newsletters that sold for Millions: Morning Brew & The Hustle

Please DM me with any questions. I'd love to connect with fellow hustlers.

I always felt like there has been more people asking for side hustles than providing, so I would like to provide one that I found. I recently got a job as a hawker at baseball stadium near me. I walk around the seats selling beer, candy, popcorn, etc. I make a 22% commission and each shift is only four hours. I also only work on the weekend. On a good day with tips I make about $250-$400 in just four hours. You do have the opportunity to make $900 a shift but you have to gain seniority by showing up everyday to sell the good products (pizza and cotton candy). It’s not easy work because the product is heavy at times and you have to walk up and down stairs but it’s worth the effort.

I took a course two years ago and learned how to repair chipped/cracked windshields.

After MONTHS of trial and error, I was able to build a killer side hustle out of it. 

I built it to the point where I could hangout at home and play video games, then jobs would roll in from my advertising. No cold calling, no door knocking. 

Prospects would go to my website, input their address and phone number, and then I would drive out and fix windshields throughout the day.

In the beginning I was making around $150/day and then it quickly got busy to where I was making $500+ /day. 

It’s a pretty niche business. And while there is some competition, there is SO MUCH work. I saw a national statistic early on saying 35% of cars on the road RIGHT NOW in the US have some sort of windshield damage. Either chips or cracks, and there is way more work than any single company can handle. It was an awesome business to own.

A majority of my workday was spent driving, because the actual repair only takes 15 min. So I found myself listening to great audio books that have since inspired me to keep growing.

I graduated college while owning this business and decided that I want to move to Florida soon to pursue a joint-venture with my cousin. So I recently sold my business. 

I made $50-$80/hr, and I got to work on my own schedule. If I didn't want to work one day, I would just shut off my lead gen. 

It was the cheapest business I have ever heard of getting into. I think my initial equipment cost ~$450. 

But it would have been so nice to have someone walk me through the process. 

• Technical training and equipment (the course I purchased only covered this topic)

• Partnering with insurance companies (70% of my revenue was from insurance companies - most plans in the US cover rock-chip damage)

• Partnering with Safelite as an approved partner (although my biz was 100% separate from them)

• Automating my advertising and lead generation strategy for less than $30/day in ad spend

• Maintaining a top-notch Google listing

• Partnering with car washes and car dealerships

• How to price jobs fairly and properly schedule them in order to make $500+/day

If you know anyone who is entrepreneurial-minded, this is a great side hustle. Even if you only want to make an extra $500/week by working an extra 6-8 hours/week. 

I think I’ve got the business model down to a science and I can help someone recreate what I was able to accomplish. 

I can help people book themselves solid within a few weeks.

My first two students are already killing it.