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35 Best Side Hustles to Make Extra Money

Want to make extra money? You’re at the right place.

Starting a side hustle is always a good idea – and it starts with just that, an idea. Now more than ever, more people are starting side hustles so they aren’t just relying on one income source. Having multiple streams of income can give you more stability in your finances. In case you lose your job or just don’t want to continue working in it, you have the money from the side hustle still coming in.

You just need to take that first step. If so many people are doing it, why can’t you?

What is a Side Hustle?

A side hustle is any type of income created in addition to your job – simple as that.

When most people start a side hustle, it’s something they’re really passionate about and can’t fulfill that passion at their 9-5 job. For example, let’s say you have a corporate job as your main income source, but you really enjoy being creative and want to make YouTube videos. Being a YouTube content creator can be your side hustle then. That’s just one example – there are hundreds of ideas for a side hustle you can do in your spare time.

So how do you sift through these ideas and pick the right one for you? I’m going to go over 35 side hustles that I think are the best for anyone to start. Let’s get started…

1. Food Delivery Gig

The food delivery gig has been becoming more and more popular each year. And rightly so – it’s one of the best ways to make money because it’s very flexible and easy to start. Many people are busy with their work or daily chores, so not everyone has the time to go to the grocery store or the local fast food place to get their food – this is where you come in. With a food delivery gig, you simply go to the store, pick up their food, and deliver it to their house or office. There are a lot of different options to choose, but two of the best ones are:

Instacart – as an Instacart Shopper, you’ll be delivering groceries to people’s homes. Once you accept an order as a Shopper, you’ll go to the grocery store to pick up the items on the list the customer has requested, and deliver it to their home. You work whenever you can or want – this flexibility makes this gig a great side hustle. You can expect to make $500 – $1,000+ a month as an Instacart Shopper.

DoorDash is another big player in the food delivery world. When you join DoorDash as a Driver, you’ll be picking up food orders from various restaurants around you and delivering the food to people’s home or office. Similar to other delivery gigs, you set your own hours and choose the area you want to deliver in. And one of the best things about DoorDash is that you’ll know exactly how much you’ll make for the order before you accept it. On average, DoorDash drivers make about $15 – $25 per hour.

Keep in mind – all you need is a car and a smartphone to download these apps and you’re good to go!

2. Proofreading

As a proofreader, you’ll be making sure articles or documents are ready to publish and/or distribute. You can get hired by bloggers, authors, small businesses, and brands as they all need their writing to be checked – that’s where you can provide your services and get paid.

If you have special knowledge or a degree in a field, you can apply to those industries, such as law, science, finance, etc. Your expertise in the field will help you land jobs and build experience. Proofreading is a great side hustle because you can do it as a freelancer where you work when you want and where you want. To get started, you can offer your freelance services on Upwork or Fiverr.

I highly suggest you take advantage of this FREE Proofreading Course by Caitlin Pyle that will outline everything about proofreading – from the basics to getting clients for your own business!

3. Drive for Uber

This was one of my first side hustles and favorite ones, too. While I was in college and in need of extra money, driving people around town was the perfect thing to do. On the weekends, I was able to make up to $300 a day as an Uber driver.

Here are some tips that helped me maximize my earnings –

Stay around busy local areas – this can be bars on a Friday night, or the good restaurants where everyone wants to go – basically stay where people are.
Pay attention to peak hours and be available during that time.
Keep some good music on! Riders love that.

Becoming an Uber Driver is easy – head over to the Uber Sign Up page and submit your documents, and after a quick review you’ll be ready to drive and make money.

4. Blogging

Blogging is a great side hustle for so many reasons – the biggest being it has such a high income potential. You can make $1,000 or much more per month as a blogger – some bloggers are making up to $200,000+ a month!

Here’s how to get started.

1 – Think of a topic and name for your blog – the name will be your domain. You can check below if a domain name is available

Find a domain starting at $0.88

2 – Buy hosting with HostGator for just $2.75 a month – that’s the price of a cup of coffee

3 – Pick a theme that matches your style

4 – Create amazing content

That’s all – you’re good to start blogging. Now, there are plenty of ways to make money with blogging –

Display Ads – I’m sure you’ve seen ads on blogs on the sidebar or between paragraphs. Well, the bloggers get paid to show those ads to their readers.

Affiliate Marketing – This is when you promote products or services using your unique affiliate link, you get paid a commission when they buy through your link.

Selling Products / Services – You can sell your own products on your blog. Many bloggers sell printables or services like copywriting. Think of something you’re good at and can make money from it!

Coaching – You can coach others with your expertise, whether that’s affiliate marketing or getting traffic to your blog, there’s a ton of things you can coach people on.

And more!

As a blogger, you have true freedom of what you want to write about, where, and when. There’s a reason why so many people choose this side hustle.

5. Complete Online Surveys

Companies want to know what people think of them so they can improve their services and products based on the feedback they receive.

One way they can get this feedback is through online surveys, which you can take and get paid for. You won’t become rich by taking online surveys, but you can definitely make enough to cover some utility bills or coffee/eating out.

You can visit sites like Swagbucks, Branded Surveys, and Survey Junkie to get started taking online surveys. You can also do other tasks to make money on these sites – such as watching videos, shopping online, and taking daily polls. And they usually have a $10 signup bonus!

Swagbucks – $10 signup bonus

InboxDollars – $5 signup bonus

LifePoints – 10 points bonus

Branded Surveys – 100 points bonus

6. Virtual Assistant

If remote work is a must for you, then working as a virtual assistant (VA) might be the right side hustle for you. As a virtual assistant, you’ll be doing administrative tasks such as:

Managing emails
Edit documents / data entry
Marketing
and much more.

You can also manage social media accounts for many businesses as a virtual assistant – for example a blog’s Pinterest or Instagram page. You’ll be creating

Posts
Manage outreach
Engage with the audience
Create emails for subscribers

If you want to learn more, Gina from Horkey Handbook has all the information you need to become a VA and even start your own business as one. I highly recommend checking our her page to get some tips to get started.

7. Social Media Manager

Businesses of all kinds need social media accounts for many reasons – reach out to their customers, get new customers, announce new products, etc. Especially in today’s age where the majority of the world’s population has a smartphone and is online.

It’s easy to reach thousands/millions of people online with social media. Social media is almost essential in growing a company since having an online presence is such an important part of the process.

As a social media manager, you’ll be managing social profiles for businesses – on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. You can either apply for an open position at a company or start your own freelance business. You can get started by simply reaching out to local businesses and offering your services to build your client list.

DollarSprout has a great article on how to become a social media manager that you should check out for more details!

8. Rent out Your Room

If you’ve got a spare room in your house, you can rent it out to make extra cash. Many people are looking for rooms to stay in for a night or two, especially on the weekends. If you’re near a game stadium or a concert, you can make some really good money renting out your room with Airbnb.

A lot of my friends do this on the regular and make a couple thousand dollars a month on the side by renting out their rooms. Check out how to get started on Airbnb.

You can use this Airbnb calculator to see how much you can make based on your area.

9. Data Entry Jobs

Data entry jobs are one of the most flexible and easy-to-start jobs you can find online. Data entry involves taking information from a handwritten form or audio and inputting it into the company’s database. It’s basically transferring and organizing data from one point to another so it is easily accessible.

The requirements to start are pretty low – all you need is a high school diploma and have good typing skills. You can expect to make an average of $16 per hour doing a data entry job.

I wrote a detailed guide on how to start working in Data Entry and the best places to look for work – check it out!

10. Rent Your Car

Are you someone who owns a car but doesn’t use it much because you take public transportation, stay home to watch kids or relax, or have your friends pick you up? If so, you can make money. With Turo, you can rent out your car to people who need one and charge them for it. If your car is sitting there doing nothing, might as well make money with it. You can use that money to pay some utility bills or credit cards.

Turo is available in the US, Canada, and UK. With over 14 million uses and 450,000 cars listed for rent, you can make a good monthly income from this side hustle. Try it out and see how well you can do in your area.

11. Search The Internet!

Are you on the internet a lot? Want to make money while doing it? You can!

Swagbucks rewards you for doing things online, like taking surveys, watching videos, and surfing the web using their search engine. When you search the internet using the Swagbucks’ search engine, you receive rewards points – usually 10-15 points. Once you have 500 points, you can cash out your rewards.

You can also use InboxDollars to get paid surfing the internet. You can get a $5 sign-up bonus here on InboxDollars.

12. Facebook Ad Manager

Did you know that social media is the most used platform for advertising? Small businesses use social media more than online marketing, print marketing, and tv commercials to advertise and reach their customers. You don’t need a special degree to become a Facebook ad manager and you can use the skills you already have with social media to start working.

What does a Facebook ad manager do?

Well, it’s simple – manage Facebook ad campaigns for clients. Your job is to create an ad strategy that brings in new customers, traffic, and leads for the client’s business.

I suggest starting off with local businesses in your area – think gyms, auto-shops, coffee shops, etc. Most of them aren’t advertising on Facebook (or at all) – this is your opportunity to get paying clients. Learn the Facebook ad system and how to create good campaigns and you’ll be on your way to an amazing side hustle income.

13. Walk Dogs or Pet Sit in Your Area

Do you have neighbors or friends with dogs but they have to work during the day? If yes, then this is THE side hustle for you. You can sit dogs at their home or your own and make really good money.

With Rover, you can look for dog sitting/walking jobs in your area. You can set your own schedule and select the size and age of dogs you’d want to walk/sit. Dog sitting can make you $30 – $40 per overnight stay and $20-$30 per walk. This can easily add up to a few hundred dollars per month!

Some people need a dog sitter for a full week or even more – which means more money for you. And technically it won’t be a ‘job’ since you enjoy it!

14. Get Paid to Watch Videos

Imagine this – getting paid to watch videos online…that’s exactly what you can do on sites like Swagbucks.

Companies need people to watch videos to see how well they were created – this can be ads, music videos, or even movie trailers!

Download the Swagbucks app to start earning money today. You can even get $10 for signing up.

15. Tutor Online

If you’re good in a certain subject, you can start tutoring people online as a side hustle. Parents, especially, are always looking for tutors for their kids to help them better understand subjects they need help in – such as math, science, English. As a tutor, you can even help students prepare for SATs and ACTs.

This side hustle can net you a pretty high pay rate – $30 – $60 per hour. You can easily make up to $1,000 per month as a part-time online tutor – all from the comfort of your home and at your own schedule.

To start, you can offer your services on Upwork for any subject you want.

16. Sell Your Old Tech

Have an old smartphone or laptop lying around that you don’t use anymore? You can make money by selling your old tech pretty easily.

But where to start?

You can sell on eBay or Craigslist, but if you don’t want to go through the whole process of finding a seller, verifying them, shipping it to them – you can use Decluttr.

With Decluttr, all you need to do is get an estimate of how much you’ll get for your device and ship it to Decluttr (for free). That’s it – and you’ll get paid the day after your device arrives at their warehouse.

Get a free estimate for your device.

17. Teach English Online

VIPKid is an online English teaching platform that lets you teach English to students in China.

In China, knowing how to speak English can set students apart from their peers and improve their chances of getting high-paying jobs. Every parent wants that for their child – that’s where VIPKid comes in. From anywhere in the world (and a laptop with internet), you can teach English online to Chinese students.

The benefits of teaching on VIPkids are:

Teach when and where you want
VIPKids provides the lessons so you can focus more on teaching
Competitive pay

You can expect to make $15-$22 per hour as a VIPKid teacher.

18. Sell Your Old Textbooks

Textbooks are a huge cost of college, and students are always looking to find used ones to save money. Once you’ve graduated or finished with a certain class, you can sell them and make money!

To sell your old textbooks, you can use sites like BookScouter or Bookbyte. You simply enter the ISBN number from the textbook, see how much they offer, and accept or decline the offer. If you accept, they’ll send you a prepaid shipping label and all you have to do is ship the textbook.

Once your books reach their facilities, you’ll get paid. Check out BookScouter and Bookbyte.

19. Online Freelancing Gig

Are you good at something? Can you do that for people? If yes, you can make money doing it!

Online work sites like Fiverr provide an outlet for people to offer their services to entrepreneurs, businesses, and individuals.

For example, if you want to make some extra money doing Data Entry, you can post your services on Upwork and people can hire you for their business/project.

You can offer all sorts of services – proofreading, blog writing, marketing, SEO consulting, and much more. If you’re interested in a field, see if you can make some money from it on the side.

Start earning on Fiverr today.

20. Create an Online Course

I’m sure you’ve noticed the rise of online courses over the past couple of years on sites like Udemy. That’s because it’s so easy to reach people online now and teach them what you know.

Do you have a skill or topic you can teach? If so, you can teach it on online platforms like Udemy, where you can find courses to teach for pretty much everything.

There are so many topics that people want to learn (without having to go to an actual class) – SEO, marketing, Excel, and even knitting! The list goes on…

And best of all, you can charge a price that you feel is right for your course.

Check out Udemy to start teaching and earning money.

21. Open an eCommerce store / Dropshipping

Have you ever noticed YouTubers or content creators promoting their items and then providing a link to buy it? If you’ve ever wondered how they do it, it’s simple – they have their own eCommerce stores.

Like a blog, you can open an online e-commerce store using Shopify or your own website.

If you make or have a product you want to sell, you can put it online for people to buy. Shopify makes it easy to set up an online store to start selling. You can promote your online shop via social media or do paid ads on Google or Facebook. The more clicks you get, the higher the amount of sales you can make.

You can also go the dropshipping route – dropshipping is when you sell items without buying or storing the inventory with you. When a customer orders something from your store, you send that order to a supplier who sends it to the customer.

You pay the wholesale price, and the customer pays the retail price. And you get to keep the difference.

For example, let’s say you want to sell yoga pants. You find a supplier willing to sell you yoga pants for $3 a piece (wholesale price). You can list the item on your online store for $9 a piece (retail price). So the $9 minus $3 and shipping costs is your profit per item.

Start an online store on Shopify to get started.

Here’s a great guide to Dropshipping. It goes through the A-Z of dropshipping, so definitely check it out!

22. Become a freelance writer

Being a good writer is a skill that’s always in high demand. You can write for many sources online as a freelancer – bloggers, news sites, online stores, and much more.

You can set your profile on sites like Upwork or Fiverr and offer your writing services. Most freelance writers get paid per-word (for example, $0.07 per word, so a 1,500 word blog post will pay you $105). You’ll probably have to start at lower rates to build a client list, but once you have a decent amount of experience, you can raise your rate and make more money. I’ve seen many established freelance writers charge up to $0.30 a word!

23. Sell Planners

Planners are a huge thing in the internet world. People are always looking for cute and unique planners that stand out and that can’t usually be bought from the big stores.

And it’s a side hustle that doesn’t require a lot of money to start. You can open up an Etsy shop and start selling there. Promote your planners on social media (like Pinterest) and get paying customers. Tom and Alex (founders of Saint Belford) started their online planner business in 2017 and make around $14,000 per month. They found a niche of planners that help people stay organized and grounded to avoid burnout and turned it into a profitable business.

Take a look at this Etsy page – you’ll see prices range from $10 to all the up to $55!

24. Flip items on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace

Flipping is honestly one of the most fun side hustles out there.

If you can spot good deals on items and sell them at a profit, this can become a great side hustle for you. You can flip electronics, furniture, cars, clothing, and more

Flipping is when you spot a good deal on something like electronics, furniture, clothing, cars (and much more) and sell them to people and make a profit. You can find good deals in clearance sales, garage/yard sales, auctions, thrift stores, etc. Then you can go to Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or eBay to sell the items.

You can also look around your home and see if you have things lying around that you don’t use anymore. Trust me, someone out there is willing to pay for it.

25. Freelance Graphic Designer

If you’ve got a creative hand, try becoming a freelance graphic designer!

As a graphic designer, you’ll be focusing on the visuals – companies and individuals can hire you to design:

Branding
Logos
Advertising photos
Signage for stores or events
Deciding the color palettes to use

Graphic designers can be hired by a company/agency or on a per-project basis. As a freelance graphic designer, you’ll be working from home and setting your own hours, so there is a lot of flexibility in this work. To get started, you can sign up on Fiverr, Upwork, or Dribbble and start getting jobs and build a client list.

PS – I hired a graphic designer for my logo!

Take a look at this guide by Brainstation on Graphic Design.

26. Edit Resumes

Writing good resumes is something a lot of students/professionals need help with.

If you’re good at writing and can turn a plain resume into a compelling one that highlights their skills and experiences as a good selling point, then you can make a good amount of extra money from this side hustle.

If you’re just starting out, you can sign up on Fiverr or LinkedIn to provide consultations and help. Once you have a decent portfolio, you can create your own website that offers all your services.

27. Sell Printables

Selling printables is a great side hustle because you can create so many types of them to sell.

You can create printables for meal plans, budget trackers, money saving, games, calendars, word search, art, and much, much more!

If you’ve created a tracker for your own goals (like weight loss tracker), you can try selling it to people who want to save time and buy one. There are a lot of printable creators online making thousands of dollars a month with this side hustle.

You can sell them on sites like Etsy or create your own printables website.

You can take a course like this to learn more about this side hustle and see why it’s so profitable.

28. Sell Photography

This is a highly creative and on-your-own terms type of side hustle – and a top reason why many people passionately do this.

You can go many routes with photography to make extra money. You can:

Start a photography/video business for events like weddings
Sell stock photos to sites like Shutterstock
Sell your prints to publishers for news or tech sites
Do photo shoots for events
Create a photography course that you can teach online (Coursera or Udemy)
Create drone footage! This is a really cool one and it’s been on the rise recently

The way to make money on stock photos is whenever someone downloads your image (for example on Shutterstock), you get paid.

I have many friends who get hired to take pictures and videos of special events like weddings and family photos – having a decent amount of clients can definitely make you a good amount of extra money each month.

One of the best first steps you can take is to start an online portfolio that showcases your work so clients can see it and hire you.

29. Start a Cleaning Service

Most people don’t always have time to properly clean their homes as much as they’d like to – but everyone wants a clean home. If you like to clean, this would be a great side hustle for you to make extra income.

People can hire you to clean their entire homes or just specific parts of it, like windows. You can also offer your cleaning services to offices or businesses – they need to maintain a clean environment for their employees and clients. You may be tasked to vacuum their carpets, clean windows, dust around, and other office cleaning tasks that they don’t have time to do themselves.

A cleaning side hustle with enough clients can bring you a good, consistent extra income each month.

30. Flip Websites

There are many online sites and blogs that just don’t turn a profit, so the owners often sell them.

You can buy these sites for usually for a couple hundred dollars or less, and if you think you can turn it around with your skills – you can sell it at a profit. It’s like flipping an item or a house – buy a broken site – fix it up – sell at a profit.

Once you’ve bought a site, you can apply your skills and increase the quality of the site by adding affiliates, products for sale, courses, etc. and then either keep it for yourself as a good monthly extra income or sell it to someone else for more than what you paid for.

You can shop around for sites and blogs on Flippa to get started.

31. Sell Custom T-Shirts

With everything being so accessible online these days, selling custom designed t-shirts are no exception to the rule.

Sites like Teespring.com let you sell t-shirts online with your custom (and cool!) designs. You can connect your brand’s social accounts so your customers and come straight to your shop in Teespring.

Once you have some designs up, you can run ads on Facebook or Instagram and get paying customers.

32. Create and Sell Meal plans

If you’re always busy with work or chores or just don’t know much about nutrition, you know how hard it is to eat healthy.

What if I told you that you can find hundreds of meal plans on sites like Etsy? Yepp, selling meal plans is a side hustle for many people. You can create and sell meal plans online with an e-commerce shop or a blog type site.

Take a look at how Erin Chase started a very profitable business selling $5 meal plans.

33. Invest in Stocks

Investing in the stock market can be a great way to make long-term financial gains. It can bring you much better returns than just putting your money in a savings account.

There are several ways you can go about this – you can put your money in an Index Fund, individual stocks, dividend paying stocks, or with your employer’s 401(k) plan. Do your research properly and take into account the risk factors depending on your age.

If you want to go with the least hassle route with less fees, you can invest your money with an online robo-advisor. Betterment is one of the best in the game for robo-advisors – give them a try and see how you can invest for your future.

34. Sign Up Bank Bonus

If you have cash in a regular savings account (you might be saving for a house or a large purchase), you can get a sign up bonus that many banks offer.

For example, Chase bank has an offer right now that pays you $225 for just opening a new checking account!

Citibank runs frequent promotions as well for new accounts – right now they’re offering a $300 bonus for a deposit of $15,000.

Take advantage of these sign up bonuses – it’s free money!

You can visit Nerdwallet’s Banking page to see the latest bank promotions.

35. Create a Budget

I know this isn’t a direct way to make extra money on the side, but creating a budget lets you be in control of your money so you can invest in the right things to grow your money.

Think about it – if you’re starting a side hustle that requires money to kick off, you need to get that money from somewhere. Create a budget with all your income and expenses and see where you can get that money from. Maybe cutting down on entertainment or eating out can free up some money to cover the start up costs of your side hustle.

Regularly reviewing your finances can help you in many ways – you know where your money is going, you may have some subscriptions that you don’t use any more, you can pay off some credit card debt by focusing on the high-interest cards, etc. You’ll be surprised at how many different ways you can free up your money so you can put more in your pocket.

There you have it – 35 side hustles you can try to make extra money today.

How to Pick the Right Side Hustle

You should pick a side hustle that interests you. If you can imagine yourself enjoying the work involved, your chances of giving up on it will be significantly less.

I think everyone should at least try starting something on the side that brings in extra money. For many, side hustles become big enough to replace their 9-5 jobs. Having a successful side hustle can make a lot of your money issues go away because you’ll be able to do a lot more with your money – pay off that debt, start a savings account for a home, start a college fund for your kids, etc.

There are a lot of options out there, so pick the one that fits your lifestyle and schedule. Remember, you can learn pretty much everything you need to start online – you just have to take that first step.

Final Thoughts

There’s a million reasons for you to start a side hustle – whether it’s to pay off loans, buy a home, or increase your savings account. But they all have one thing in common – they can put you on the path to financial freedom. Imagine what an extra $100, $500, or $2,000 per month can do for you.

Starting a side hustle is one of the best ways to start making extra money on top of your main source of income or to monetize something you enjoy doing in your free time. And more often than you think, many people who start side hustles end up leaving their jobs to pursue their side hustle as a full-time thing!