What is your side hustle? If you are earning income outside of your full-time day job, you are definitely hustling for that extra income!
The rising cost of living and job instability caused many to live under constant worry of job loss. Some of you might also be looking for ways to earn extra bucks and pay off your student loans. Having one source of income might not enough to provide you with the security to weather through a financial storm. As a result, many are looking to monetize their spare time. If you want to utilize your spare time to make some extra money and bolster your savings, you should consider starting your own side hustle!
If that sounds daunting, the good news is that you can always do that from home. Launching a home-based business has never been easier! With the internet and social media platforms, you can start your side hustle business in a short time. If starting a business is not your cup of tea, home-based work is definitely something you can look into.
The good news is launching a home-based business or finding home-based work has never been easier. There are many ways to make money from your living room, serving unique needs of consumers around the world.
If you are wondering how you can potentially make that extra $1,000 every month, or which are the most profitable side hustles to start, read on! In this article, we'll share five of the best side hustle ideas and home-based work you can consider and start today on top of your day job.
Idea 1: Start a blog
If you have knowledge, thoughts or informed opinions to share, blogging is a great side hustle to start with! All you need is a computer with internet access, and you can get started easily. No fancy equipment needed when you start your blog!
There are many free sites for you to start a blog, with Wordpress being a popular example. However, if you are planning to build a side hustle from your blog, you would want to brand it and get a memorable domain for it. Having a unique domain for your blog would let your side hustle make you a prominent blogger in your area of expertise. This is the first step in monetizing your blog and content for additional income!
Blogs can earn money through ads, suggesting products to the readers (affiliate marketing), sponsored posts and more. How much money depends on the amount of views you get every month - it can range from a few dollars to providing you with a steady income in the thousands.
Some examples of popular blog categories that helps to bring in the big bucks include finance, food, travel and home decor. Here are some blogs that are making money despite the on-going pandemic.
Ideas on blog content
If you are wondering whether your blog topic is too niche, fret not! You can always do some keyword research using Google Keyword Planner to help you determine if there is a demand. And remember, the more niche the topic, the more your expertise would matter. A lot of side hustle ideas start from folks who share knowledge of their expertise and subsequently make money from it. There are many obscure yet profitable blogging niches out there (LED lighting, anyone?) so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one that suits your interests and expertise. Moreover, depending on where you are located, being able to provide local help to users would make your blog content immensely useful.
As long as you’re blogging about:
- Things people are interested in, and...
- Things that help people
… You’ve taken a step in the right direction.
One thing to keep in mind is that blogging will take some time before you get enough traffic to earn money from it (give it six to twelve months). So the sooner you get to it, the better! Check out this comprehensive list of resources on how to start a blog from scratch.
Want to take your blog further? Consider turning your content into videos on Youtube, or even launch a great podcast series with it! The same content can be presented in many ways.
Earning potential: $1,000 per month after 12 months
Editor’s note: Need help with picking a domain name for your blog? Get started with some tips on choosing a domain name for your blog. If you don’t have a blog yet, now is the time to create one! Build your blog with the Website Builder - great for complete beginners, too.
Idea 2: Become a virtual assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) does all the things a normal assistant does, except they do it from the comfort of their own homes. This is one of the most popular part time home-based hustle. A VA generally charges between $5 to $50 an hour.
A virtual assistant’s tasks can range from doing research, bookkeeping, setting up virtual meetings and responding to emails. You won’t necessarily be doing all these tasks at once. Companies often hire multiple VAs with their own set of skills for different tasks.
If you’re an organized person with good time-management skills, this new source of income will be a great home based work to start with. With more volume of work, you can potentially turn this into a home based business!
You can start looking for virtual assistant jobs on websites like:
You can also find VA jobs by searching “virtual assistant jobs” on Google.
If you’re a creative person, becoming a Pinterest virtual assistant is a great side hustle to look into. Your tasks can include creating pins, doing keyword research and developing a Pinning schedule. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to become a Pinterest VA and earn up to $100 an hour.
Earning potential: up to $100 an hour after gaining some experience.
Idea 3: Become a proofreader or editor
If good grammar and impeccable spelling is your area of expertise, you can consider starting a side hustle as a proofreader or editor is definitely for you. This is one of the best home-based work option if you are strong in language and have a knack in picking out errors in manuscripts and text. Besides, if you love reading, this is both a great way to read during your spare time while being able to earn some money out of it!
Proofreaders help clean up copy for bloggers, website owners, content writers and even students.
Editors, on the other hand, are responsible for fixing core writing issues like sentence construction and ensuring the intended message is communicated clearly to the reader.
You can find proofreading and editing jobs on these websites:
- Upwork
- Fiverr
- Freelancer
- Scribbr - Helping students on their essays. You need at least a bachelor’s degree to qualify.
Alternatively you can also find a proofreading job by posting your services on university groups or forums.
Earning potential: From $15 to $50 per hour. Some top-rated editors earn more than $100 per hour!
Idea 4: Teach an online course
From teaching coding or design, to gardening tips, online pottery lessons and even a guide on ‘How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse’ (yes, that’s a real thing), you can turn just about anything into an online course.
That’s the beauty of this home-based side hustle. As long as you have valuable knowledge and expertise that other people are interested in learning, you can teach anyone in the world from the confines of your own home.
Platforms like Teachable, Udemy and Thinkific help you create and launch your online courses - they’re generally user-friendly and are good for beginners.
Although these are great options, you may want to consider building and managing your own website. This way, you get to be in control of features, marketing efforts and how the materials are presented on your teaching platform.
Earning potential: depends on how you price your course, the size of your niche & your level of expertise - there are courses that make more than $10,000 a month!
Editor’s note: To build your own online course website, you first need a hosting account with WordPress set up, then install the TutorLMS plugin.
Idea 5: Start an e-commerce business
In the e-commerce universe, Asia dominates the global market with over 50% of all retail sales being online.
According to a recent analysis by Nielsen, Asia has reached “full-scale generational e-commerce adoption”. In other words, if there was ever a great time to start your own e-commerce business, it would be today.
If you want to fulfil your dream in becoming a small business owner to sell products, the time is now! What you sell online can be a physical product, a service, an e-book or audiobook you produced from home.
Whatever it is, here are 3 steps to follow to make sure your product will fit the market:
1. Validate your side hustle idea
The more you know about your customers, the better equipped you are to serve their needs and engage with them. This also helps you refine a marketing strategy that will be effective for your target.
You don’t have to know your customers' favourite coffee preferences. But if you don't know how they spend time on social media or what blogs they read or if there are even enough of them - then it's probably high-time that you dig into some online customer research.
2. Build your online store
With a templated eCommerce store like GoDaddy E-Store, you can get your online shop up and running in no time. Install an entire website package at once, including the shopping cart feature, payment processing system and pages to upload products/services to sell on your site!
Tell your story, make your product pages stand out. Load them with photos, information about what the customer is getting, unique selling points for why they should buy from you instead of a competitor - don't just throw up something that looks like everyone else's page.
3. Promote your products
Once your website is all set and live, it's time to start marketing that side hustle. You can go for organic promotions like social media (FB, IG, TikTok & Pinterest) and doing giveaways or you can dive into paid promotions (influencer marketing is a great way to start).
Earning potential: the sky isn’t even your limit here - look at Jeff Bezos!
Just get started!
One of the best things about a home-based side hustle is the flexibility. If this sounds like something you’d like to take up, consider these 5 side hustles you can do from the comfort of your own home:
- Start a blog
- Become a virtual assistant
- Become a proofreader or editor
- Teach an online course
- Start an ecommerce business
More income = more security and stability. The key thing is to just get started! There will never be a situation where you can begin a side hustle perfectly from the get go - but what you can do is improve, improve, improve along the way.
You got this!
Editor’s note: Got questions about putting your idea online? Get instant answers on GoDaddy Asia Facebook Messenger now.
