Boost Your Income With These Five Side Hustles

People pick up a side hustle for many different reasons:

• Extra paid hours to supplement part-time or contract work.
• Smash through debts like a student loan or car finance.
• Help fund a hobby or lifestyle.

If you’ve got the time and drive, then you’re in business! Investing in a side hustle is guaranteed to teach you, challenge you, and hopefully be a bit of fun at the same time. Not to mention adding a bit of fat to your wallet. But with so many side hustle ideas to choose from, it can be easy to get lost with all the options. Perhaps you want to start a blog, do some freelancing work, or become a content creator and use your strengths to educate others. Everyone has their strengths and to start a side hustle, you first need to choose one that’s right for you.

First, you need to choose the side hustle that’s right for you.

1. Using the gift of language

If you consider yourself a bit of a wordsmith, you can use your language skills to earn some cash. The more familiar you are with a language, or better still — multiple languages, the more money you can make from this side hustle.

Writing, editing, proofreading, teaching, and translating are all monetizable skills. With the rise of online platforms, freelance jobs are more available and easy to obtain than ever before. You could turn a side gig doing copywriting or web development into a full-time job working from home. Check out these websites for opportunities:

• Problogger
• Upwork
• Freelancer

2. Creating art and entertainment

Skilled designers, creators, or hands-on artists can turn their craft into a side hustle with ease. Creative skills are always in demand, whether they are being used to represent a brand, or simply for art’s sake. Perhaps you’re a hobbyist woodworker and you just want to sell some of your pieces online, or maybe you’re an artist struggling to sell your work through traditional avenues. Use your talents to provide amazing pieces to consumers by casting your net as wide as possible with online platforms such as:

Artists can sell their work or investigate opportunities through sites like:

• Etsy
• Shopify
• Amazon Handmade

3. Sell your services

Ready to be of service? There are plenty of opportunities to provide a service from the comfort of your own home. As long as you have a stable internet connection, people are willing to pay for tutoring of all kinds of subjects — especially English if you are fluent. Take that internet connection further and participate in user testing of websites, where companies ask for your feedback on their website experience.

Or you could go sans internet, and offer dog walking, babysitting, or lawn mowing to those in your neighborhood and beyond.

For your online options, check out sites like:

• TutorMe
• Cambly
• UserTesting
• Userfeel

4. Information marketing

It’s not just your professional skills that are marketable, it’s your passions and interests too. Information products are based on the sharing of knowledge — blog posts, videos, ebooks, and podcasts can be created about any subject you can think of. The type of content you create can have a large impact on profitability as specific topics present opportunities for different industries. For example, subjects such as ‘how start investing’ are prime marketing opportunities for fintech companies and present an opportunity to dramatically increase your income. Content creation can be a lucrative source of income, especially if it’s a niche market that you manage to corner. Find your passion and discuss whatever interests you the most!

Building up a following over time will create opportunities for monetization through avenues like advertising, paid products/content, and sponsorships. Promote your content through platforms like:

• WordPress
• YouTube
• Facebook & Instagram

5. Leverage existing investments

Side hustlers often find ways to make money with something they already own, turning it into somewhat of an investment. There are the traditional options like ridesharing if you own a car and enjoy driving, or renting out rooms if you own property. But there’s also more niche options for those of you with special interests. Maybe you own a high-end camera that other creatives don’t have access to — it’s cheaper for them to hire it from you than to buy it outright.

Note: Physical investments often incur maintenance costs.

No matter what you decide to take up as your side hustle, try to enjoy the time you’re investing. While a normal job often dictates how you work, a side hustle is meant to work for you.

Secured your side hustle? Learn about managing multiple income streams.