15 Easy Side Hustles From Home to Make Extra Money If you're looking for a side gig on your own terms, look no further than this list of the best virtual side hustles.
By Christopher Massimine Edited by Micah Zimmerman
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Not every job needs to be your primary career. In fact, more and more working professionals these days have one or more side hustles: side jobs that bring in a bit of extra cash or passive income for their families or investments. Thanks to the prevalence of online jobs and freelance apps, there are tons of great side hustles you can pursue based on your interests and skill set.
Not sure where to start or which side hustles are ideal? Let's break down the 15 best side hustles you can work from home to make some extra money.
The past few years have seen the rise of the side hustle, a term used in Chris Guillebeau's book, The $100 Startup. In it, he talks about how he was able to generate multiple streams of income from various ventures outside of his primary career and how others like him can do the same.
Nowadays, many people are going after their dreams by creating their own businesses on the side. If you're looking for an extra source of income or want to test out your entrepreneurial chops before diving headfirst into starting your own venture full-time, then consider some of these ideas for starting up a profitable side hustle.
Related: 5 Keys to Turning Your Side Hustle Into a Successful Business
Ecommerce sales
You know how to make a good product, so why not sell it? There are so many options for e-commerce platforms today, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Shopify. You can also start a blog and sell products through it. If you already have an Instagram account or Pinterest page with many followers, you might want to try selling there instead.
If your business is more geared toward physical goods than digital ones (or if you want more control over the entire process), setting up an e-commerce store might be right for you. The great thing about starting your own online store is that several paid and free platforms are available that will help with everything from hosting to payment processing — all without requiring coding skills.
Graphic design
Graphic design is one of the most popular side hustle ideas. Graphic designers are in demand because they create logos, websites, posters and other graphics for clients. They can also design and sell their graphics as prints or products on platforms like Etsy.
Related: Start a Creative Side Hustle With These Graphic Design Courses
Website development
Website development is a great way to earn some extra money on the side. If you have time and energy, this side hustle could become your full-time career.
You can use your website development skills to create a personal website or become an internet entrepreneur by creating and maintaining websites for others. When deciding whether to pursue this as your side hustle, it's essential to consider how much time you want to put into it because it could take up quite a bit of your free time if you're going to do it right!
SEO Consultant
As a freelancer, you'll be able to set your hours and work from home. You can also choose your clients based on their needs rather than having to accept whatever comes along.
In addition, SEO consultants have average annual salaries ranging from $60,000-$80,000. That means that if you're good at what you do and make 5-10% of the project's total value (which is about $5k-10k for most people), this side hustle could easily earn you an additional $30k-$50k per year.
Related: 7 Lucrative Side Hustles
Day trading
Day trading is a form of trading that involves buying and selling financial instruments within the same day. Trading can be a very lucrative side hustle, but it takes deep focus and immense concentration to ensure you actualize your goals. Day traders may buy and sell stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, options and futures contracts. Day traders use technical analysis to identify trends in market prices and profit from them.
Day trading is often done through special-purpose entities known as day trading firms or electronic communications networks (ECNs). These firms offer investors direct access to the markets via hardwired connections to stock exchanges. Most of these outfits charge a commission on each trade, but some do not charge a commission at all because they generate revenue through advertising instead of commissions on transactions.
eBook author
As an e-book author, you're in good company. Millions of people buy and sell ebooks every year, and authors make money from their books in various ways.
You can sell your eBooks on Amazon and other platforms (e.g., Kobo). You can also sell your eBooks on your website through membership or a recurring payment model (which many authors are doing). You can even offer them for free in exchange for customer data.
YouTube creator
Many people are attracted to the idea of being able to make money by doing something they love. YouTube video creators can do just that, and they have the advantage of having an audience already on the platform, ready to watch their content.
YouTube's power as a search engine continues to grow. It's now the second largest search engine after Google and has more than 1 billion users worldwide. While this is great for creators who want their videos found by viewers, it also means there's plenty of competition — and it's getting more complex every day for creators to stand out in this crowded space. If your content is unique, continual, and has an audience base that has the potential for growth, you can cash in through YouTube's monetization program, which matches advertisers' commercials with your content.
Related: YouTube Is Going After TikTok With the Promise of Paying Creators More
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great side hustle because it can be done anywhere in the world. You don't need a degree or specialized skills to start affiliate marketing, but you need to be willing to work hard and put in long hours at home if you want to make real money with this type of business.
You can start by choosing one product or niche that interests you and research what products are the best-selling in that niche. After choosing your product, it's time to promote it. There are many ways to promote products through affiliate marketing, including social media posts, review videos and blog articles.
To track how much money your links have earned for each brand (this is called "tracking links"), I would recommend using Google Analytics which gives an overview of all traffic sources coming into your website so that you know where new visitors are coming from when they land on your site after clicking on one of those tracking links.
Related: Try Google Analytics, It Can do Wonders to Your Business
Virtual assistant
As a virtual assistant, you'll provide important administrative work to business owners and online entrepreneurs. You can do this work remotely as long as you have a headset and webcam.
Virtual assistants work for large enterprises, midsized companies, and even small businesses that need a bit of extra freelance help. You might respond to customer concerns, answer customer questions, schedule meetings for your employer, and do other similar work. It's a great side hustle to pursue if you already have some experience working as a receptionist.
Online bookkeeping
Alternatively, you can work as an online bookkeeper. Similar to a virtual assistant, an online bookkeeper handles accounting tasks, such as maintaining business books, preparing tax forms, and so on. This can be a great side hustle to pursue if you are currently in school for accounting or pursuing your CPA license.
Related: Starting a Bookkeeping Business
In some cases, you might work as both a virtual assistant and an online bookkeeper or accountant for the same organization. Just make sure you are compensated accordingly; don't do any work for free, especially when it comes to something as important as accounting!
Rent Rooms on Airbnb
Airbnb and similar hosting apps allow you to rent spare bedrooms online to travelers and tourists. This can be a great way to use your empty spare room or your kids' former bedrooms if you are empty nesting.
It's a perfect side hustle; just keep in mind that renting rooms on Airbnb does take a bit of work as a host, and you'll need to cultivate positive reviews if you want to keep the money flowing in.
Freelance writing
Like other freelance professions, freelance writing has exploded in recent years. If you have a gift at the keyboard, you can sell your skills by writing blog posts, guides, technical documents, and more for clients you can pick and choose on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.
You can also join a freelance writing agency, and complete blog posts and other assignments delivered to you by business owners. This eliminates a lot of the busy work needed to seek out new freelancing clients and allows you to get down to what you do best: writing compelling, converting copy.
Related: How to Start a Freelance Writing Side Hustle
You can also expand this side gig into a part-time or full-time job by practicing proofreading for the same clients. Similarly, you can transcribe documents for bloggers or other businesses. This way, it's a good side hustle to make money online without leaving your desk.
Since it's a do-from-home gig that you can turn into a full-time career, freelancing is more than just a side hustler favorite for generating extra income. Instead, it's one of the best side hustle ideas because it can turn into a genuine work-from-home job that pays good money.
Social Media Management
Have any skills in social media management? You can go freelance with this career as well and work from home, offering your social media management skills to businesses of all sizes. You'll interact with and handle customer concerns and questions on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more, helping businesses maximize the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns.
Master this field, and you'll make plenty of extra money in your spare time, even if you don't run your own online business. You may even out-earn your day job!
Related: The Business of Harnessing the Power of Social Media
Babysitting
If you like hanging out with kids and young adults, you can work as a babysitter in your local neighborhood. While you could go to your clients' homes, you can also have them come to you or drop their kids off at your house if you have the space and equipment needed to take care of young ones.
Should you choose to work as a babysitter, it's a good idea to pick what age ranges you'll watch over. Generally, the younger the kids are, the more likely you will have to go to your clients' homes and the harder the work will be. That's also where the high-paying side work comes from, though.
Similar to babysitting, you could get into pet sitting as a source of side income using apps like Rover. It's not as intense as babysitting, but all kinds of sitters see pretty solid pay.
Dropshipping
Last but not least, you might consider working as a dropshipper. In a nutshell, this means you'll sell products manufactured and shipped by a third party, such as a manufacturer in China. The advantage? You don't have to store any of the products (and pay for any extra space), nor do you have to pay to ship the products to the customers.
All you do is take orders, market products, and funnel those orders to your manufacturing partner. In exchange, you and the manufacturer split the profits. It's a great side hustle you can work from home with a minimum of startup cash.
Related: How to Start a Dropshipping Side Hustle on Amazon
Conclusion
There you have it – 15 smart side hustles you can work from home. Try your hand at a few of these, and you'll be raking in some extra cash in no time!
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