Top 10 Side Hustles for 2022 to Make You a Fortune
Updated for 2024
In the last few years having a side hustle has become a necessity for many. Inflation year on year has started to affect most of our pockets, the rise in living costs and the cost to simply survive has become no joke! Even if you have a high paying corporate job, so many people have started to turned to launching a side hustle to supplement their income. Of course, starting a side hustle isn’t only for those who want to make money. There are plenty of success stories of individuals who had no intention of being business owners who ended up turning their passion project eventually into a full time business. Now this doesn’t apply to all but simply put – there are numerous reasons why you could want to start a good side hustle.
However, if you are wondering what to do, what makes good money, how much time you would have to dedicate to different types and you have been left wondering; don’t worry because we have created a list of the top 10 best side hustles to make money.
#1. Start a Social Media Marketing Agency
A SMMA is one of the best and low cost side hustles ideas you could set up that can quite quickly become a full time business replacing your 9-5 income. You do not need to incur huge start up costs either, all you need is a laptop, wifi and the ability to source on the internet prospects who are in need of gaining more customers (which is quite simply all businesses). In a nutshell, most day-to-day activities inside a social media marketing agency are focused on creating and organising content, and then scheduling and publishing that content across various channels.
#2. Start a Droppshipping Business
Dropshipping is one of the best side hustle job ideas. It allows you to sell a product directly to the customer without having to buy any inventory. Why’s that great? You don’t need to have a big startup costs budget, keeping your risk low. The manufacturer not only carries the inventory but also ships it directly to the customer for you. Your main focus should be marketing and customer service – the lifeline of the business. If you have a strong marketing background and want a side hustle that plays to your strength, this is it. It’s one of the rare side jobs that allows you to scratch a true entrepreneurial itch. You get to be the owner of your very own business.
With dropshipping, you can start a business within any of your favourite passions. Do you love stocking your kitchen? You can sell kitchen equipment on the internet. Maybe you’ve found this unique solar-powered, smartphone-cooling accessory. You can start your own one product store and implement these store ideas. If you love doing your makeup? You can sell beauty products and build an audience who follows along to your makeup tutorials. Almost any niche can be pursued with dropshipping. Plus, if you’re a creative type, you can run wild with unusual business ideas. After all, as the owner of your own business, you’ll always have final say, which makes this a great side hustle to start out.
How much money can a dropshipper make? That depends on how much effort you put into your business and marketing. You can make an extra couple thousand dollars or more. There are numerous people who have even become financially free from Dropshipping. Many dropshippers attribute their success from utilising tools like Alibaba and Aliexpress. Learn more about both platforms here and which one may be better suited for you.
#3. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is one of those side hustle ideas that can either make you a lot of money or nothing. It’s not just about finding the right product to sell, but also finding the right brand to partner with. If you chose to be an affiliate marketer for ecommerce stores, your commission will likely be a lot lower than if you were to just dropship them yourself. However, there are tech companies that will pay a hefty price tag to affiliates who bring them new customers.
How much money can this side hustle make? It depends on what product you’re selling and what affiliate network you use. For example, if you were an affiliate marketer for a tech company like Shopify, you could potentially make an extra $2,000 for every merchant you refer. Sweet!
Affiliate Marketing Tip: Ask the affiliate program or content creator for assets you can use to help you market their product. For example, there may be a lead magnet or free tool you can use to incentivize people to purchase the product. Oftentimes, a piece of content can help ease a potential customer from a cold lead into a warm one, giving you a better chance of succeeding with this side hustle.
#4. Be Part of the Gig Economy
Does your 9 to 5 job pay fluctuate? If you don’t have a predictable income, you might need more money for some months and a little less others. If this sounds like you, you might choose to take up side gigs. These could be gigs that you create on Fiverr or the occasional freelance project on Upwork. You might create T-shirt mockups for a client one week and help someone build their social media following the next. The type of projects you work on could vary drastically. But if you love the variety and switching things up, this side hustle could be perfect for you.
How much money can you make with this easy side hustle? You could make anywhere from $50 to $2,000 a month depending on the side gigs you take on and the platform you use.
Gig Economy Tip: Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork are dependent on reviews. If you’re just starting out, pay a friend to buy your gig and review it after you complete the project. This will allow you to have a high star rating, which will allow you to get your next few customers. Without a rating, it can be hard for a client to trust you enough to give you your first opportunity. Think of other creative ways to get a review of your side hustle you do and consider options like competitions and giveaways to get your first handful of clients.
#5. Start Blogging
Blogging is one of the best side hustle jobs to do from home, or anywhere else in the world. It allows you to build a personal brand while owning your own asset. You can even write about your passions. Having a singular niche that you write about such as yoga, business, beauty, or cars allows you to build an audience who shares the exact same interest due to the singular focus. You can monetize your blog in a few ways: affiliate links sponsored posts or adding a shop link where you sell dropshipping products.
How much money can you make trying a side hustle like this? In the beginning, you’ll make nothing. But some bloggers who stick it out past the first few years have made enough money to quit their job and do it full time.
Blogging Tip: If you’re passionate about blogging, create an online store that you can monetize and add a blog onto it. This allows you to start monetizing your asset before you’ve built your audience. Plus, the combination of content and commerce is a powerful one. As your blog grows, you can use retargeting ads to monetize your blog traffic to land even more sales. If you pump out regular, quality content, you’ll quite possibly have a few home-run posts that bring you a ton of traffic that’ll be easier to monetize than if you were hoping for a few affiliate sales.
#6. Sell Information Products
If you’re looking for side job ideas to make money, why not trying selling information products? This side hustle requires some research, invested time, and marketing skills for you to flourish. Are there topics that are really popular right now that you know a lot about? Did you find a popular topic that there isn’t enough information about? Monetize these opportunities by creating content around it. You can publish books on Amazon or sell courses on Udemy.
How much money can you make selling information products? It depends on the niche, your marketing execution, and a variety of other factors. But a side hustle like this can result in a few thousand dollars each month. However, most often, they usually have created several different pieces of content (ebooks, courses).
Selling Information Products Tip: With this side hustle, focus on niches where people have a huge problem they need to solve. If you’re in the fitness niche, you can create a fitness workout course or a diet plan with a recipes ebook. If people are desperately trying to solve a burning problem, there’s an opportunity to provide value by helping them solve that problem. The content you create can guide them towards a solution. Best part: You could make money while helping people.
#7. Become an Instagram Influencer
Growing up, most people dream of being famous. But truth is, not everyone can sing or act. Fortunately, you can still build a personal brand around yourself based on what you can do. Maybe you have a really cool fashion sense or can bake an awesome cake. On Instagram, anyone can start a side hustle by becoming an influencer. If you don’t like the spotlight, that’s cool. You can build an Instagram following around your dog or your photography. You can monetize your Instagram account in a couple of ways: sponsored posts, Instagram takeovers, or selling a product on your website.
Is being an influencer a good side hustle? Well, the average influencer charges between $200 to $400 a post. This can vary based on your audience size, so feel free to check out “How to Get Followers on Instagram.”
Instagram Influencer Tip: Be consistent in the type of content you post, how often you post, and when you post. You’ll gain new followers if people know what they can regularly expect from your page. You won’t be able to monetize right away, so invest your time into growing your followers by posting several times a day, every day.
#8. Become a Virtual Assistant
Top side hustles have one big thing in common: There’s a high demand for them. A virtual assistant is an assistant who works in a remote location, as opposed to a company’s office. They can help with tasks such as administration, social media, bookkeeping, and more. There’s been a growing demand for virtual assistants from business owners who need help on various projects. As a virtual assistant, you can specialize in countless areas. In the past, I’ve hired virtual assistants for social media and customer service. And there are countless other businesses around the world that rely on virtual assistants to grow and maintain their brands.
How much money can you make as a virtual assistant? Most virtual assistants trade their time for money, so you might get capped based on the number of hours of work you can do each week. You can choose to set a total monthly earning or get paid by the hour. Some make minimum wage while others might make $35 an hour depending on their skills and experience.
Becoming a Virtual Assistant Tip: When starting this side hustle job, you can find clients on popular websites like Upwork. However, you could start to see better results when you branch out on your own as an independent contractor. Starting up might be a bit harder, as you need to find clients, but you could earn more money this way. You can join popular Facebook groups for businesses or online retailers to offer your services.
#9. Sell Your Photography
If you have got a camera and some basic Photoshop skills, photography can become your side hustle. If you like taking pictures of your city, you can sell your photography to your local publications such as a city newspaper or blog. Sites like Foap allow you to sell your pictures on its platform, and you can earn money with every photo you sell. If you’d rather not make money with your pictures, you can add your photography to products like canvases, T-shirts, and phone cases to make even more money. And if that’s not enough, you can even seek clients to venture into wedding photography, pet photography, or product photography.
How much money can you make as a photographer? If you sell your pictures online, you might make an extra couple hundred or thousand dollars a month. If you venture into wedding photography, you could make a couple thousand dollars or more per event.
Photography Tip: If you plan on selling your photography on a stock photo site, it’s a numbers game. The more pictures you take and upload, the better chance you are to be found. You’ll need to make sure you use the right tags so that people can easily find your photos. The more pictures you take, the faster you’ll develop your photography skills over time. So, it’s an all-around win.
#10. Get a Part-Time Job
If you’d rather trade time for money, you might choose to get a part-time job. Side job ideas to make money include dog walker, babysitter, restaurant server, receptionist, administrative assistant, or barista. You can also find part-time jobs within your industry. Maybe you’re a full-time marketer who takes on a part-time social media gig. The only downside to a part-time job is that you need to invest your time for money. And time is your most valuable luxury. Part-time jobs don’t scale as well as an online business would. That means your total earnings get capped.
How much money can you make with your part-time job? Most part-time jobs float around the minimum-wage mark. However, you can find a few higher-paying side hustles if you dig around a bit.
Part-Time Job Tip: You can browse job sites to find side jobs you can do on evenings and weekends. Remember: After you work a full day, you’ll likely feel tired and exhausted, so pick a part-time job with a flexible schedule. If you have to work a four-hour shift Monday through Friday after an eight hour day, you could eventually burn out.
Tax
If you live in the UK, please get familiar with the new tax laws which have been introduced in January 2024, named by social media as the ‘Side Hustle Tax’. Check out our blog we wrote explaining the laws here.
Conclusion
Your side hustle can help you make some extra money each month. But it can also help you develop new skills, build your personal brand or portfolio, and achieve more freedom. So, have fun with it! Take a risk by starting a business or pursue a new hobby you’ve always been curious about. A side hustle is your best opportunity to live life on your own terms. And with some more money in your pocket, there’s nothing stopping you from making your dreams come true.
