What are the best side hustle ideas for 2024?

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Relying on one source of income can be risky. The pandemic is a prime example of why it’s so important to have multiple streams of income whether that’s investing, a part-time job, or a few passive side hustles (if you can).

Starting a small business online is one of the easiest ways to earn an extra $1,000 a month (or more) right from the comfort of your own home.

As women, we are masters at juggling motherhood, love, education, and our careers. Now it’s time to add a side hustle in the mix in order to watch our income grow.

I’m an advocate of doing more with less and operating successful businesses without the headaches and overwhelm.

Cultivating a brand and starting an online business is one of the best decisions I made years ago.

After a few ebook sales and receiving my first check from affiliate marketing, I knew that making money online to achieve financial freedom was the way to go.

If you’re looking to make some extra cash or would like to build a brand in order to stop trading in your time for money then it’s time to get in and play the passive income game.

Check out a few of the best side hustle ideas you can start without leaving your bed!

What are the most profitable passive side hustles?

1. Affiliate Marketing

Not everyone wants  to put in the time necessary to create, market, and sell their own products. The investment in time and money required upfront before you make any sales just isn’t ideal for everyone. 

Trust me, I get it. Sometimes, you may need the money now and that’s okay.

Luckily, there are many opportunities to receive a high earning commission selling products and services offered by other companies, bloggers, and/or business owners.

As an affiliate marketer, you play the middleman by recommending their products to potential buyers. When one of your referrals signs up or makes a purchase using your link funds are allocated for deposit into your bank account. It’s as simple as that.  

So, how exactly would you define affiliate marketing? 

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is the recommendation of products you didn’t create in exchange for a commission per every sale.  

The niche or industry you decide to sell within will typically determine the price point range of products.

Companies select their own percentage for commission, averaging anywhere between 20-40 percent depending on the item price.

The higher the price the larger the commission. 

Many affiliate marketers only sell high ticket items for this very reason. However, there’s an opportunity to earn big even with low ticket items. 

Believe it or not, they are easier to sell and a large profit can be made once your sales take off. 

Affiliates can recommend products to an email list, their social media audience, Pinterest followers, Youtube videos, or by daily promotion on  a blog. 

If you have a product that you love using, an ebook or course you’ve previously taken, or a company you firmly trust and stand behind, chances are they have an affiliate program!

Some of the most popular, high paying affiliate marketing programs and networks to sign up for in various industries include:

• ShareASale
• Amazon Affiliate
• Ultimate Bundles
• Freshbooks
• 99 Designs
• Hubspot
• Rakuten Linkshare
• Fabfitfun
• Stella and Dot
• Craftsy
• Skillshare
• Fiverr

Affiliate Marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online with the right strategy.

2. Sell Digital Products

Creating digital products that can be instantly downloaded is one of the most popular side hustles for all ages. 

It’s a low entry market and very easy to start.

You can sell digital products on eCommerce platforms like Etsy or Shopify, offer services to create digital products on Fiverr, or sell on your own website or blog with Woo Coommerce or SendOwl.

There are a variety of options to choose from when you create products digitally. 

Popular ideas for digital products:

• Digital Art Prints
• Postcards
• Wedding Invites
• Birthday Cards
• Calendars and planners
• Stickers
• Printables
• Coloring Books
• Bachelorette Games  

These products sell like hot cakes over on Etsy. Start your very first shop with 40 free listings by clicking here!

Suzi Whitford’s students in Printables by Number are making upwards of $1k – $5k per month using strategies only offered in her class. Enroll in the course today at an affordable price!

3. open an ecommerce store

Ever dreamed of starting your own skincare or clothing line? Or maybe you’re a crafter and would finally like to sell your handmade creations for profit? 

Collaborating with wholesalers and vendors or drop shipping with Alibaba and Amazon FBA now make it fairly easy for you to sell your own items across the globe. 

Brick and mortars are a thing of the past.

Highly popular online store owners can bring in a whopping $10k+ per month worth of sales by building their brand, marketing on social media, and utilizing brand influencers on Instagram. 

Popular platforms you can use to create an online store today:

• Shopify
• Etsy
• WooCommerce

4. Start a Youtube channel

Content creators are raking in the big bucks with every upload these days, but they aren’t necessarily attaining success overnight.

Yes, you can start vlogging a morning routine in bed but Youtube requires a lot of time and effort before you can see any monetary gain.

Don’t get me wrong, money from Youtube can be life changing.

There are more self-made millionaires on Youtube than you can possibly imagine and it all started from a video. 

Can you believe that?!

Audience engagement, likes, views, and subscribers are factors that contribute to your channel’s growth but what’s more important is cracking the Youtube algorithm. 

Study analytics and appeal to a niche audience enough and Youtube will boost your videos and grow your channel organically for you. 

Beware! Getting monetized on Youtube isn’t easy. You’ll need a minimum of 1k subscribers and 4k hours of watch time. 

Achieving success on Youtube is possible and definitely a goal worth working towards.

Fairly new content creators see a significant increase in AdSense revenue after an average of 12-24 months of being on the platform. 

Some Youtubers earn even sooner by selling their own products, doing sponsored videos, affiliate marketing, directing traffic to their blogs, or curating their own audience on social media. 

Youtubers are making anywhere between $500 to almost $20k a month with their channels. 

You can start creating and editing professional videos with your smartphone right now just make sure you invest in a ring light!

5.blogGING

Starting a blog is one of the most lucrative and cheapest side hustles to start in 2020. 

You can start your blog with Bluehost for as low as $2.95 today!

There are multiple ways you can monetize a blog whether it’s through traffic and ads, selling your own products, affiliate marketing, or sponsorships.  

The best way to monetize your blog audience is through a reliable, professional email marketing platform like Convertkit. 

Sign up for a free account with unlimited emails, landing pages, and up to your first 1,000 subscribers here!

Pro bloggers are making upwards of $30k a month and retiring their spouses all in the name of content creation.

Are you ready to become a blogger?

Select a profitable niche, write and promote your content for free with Pinterest, and watch the money roll in. 

Start blogging from scratch with Suzi Whitford’s Blog By Number. She’ll teach you how to get your blog up and running the right way!

6. Write romance books

Kindle Unlimited is sort of a big deal. 

If you’re skilled at telling short stories or want to dabble in warm, heartfelt love stories then a side hustle in self-publishing may be for you.

No, you don’t have to be a novelist with an agent or have writing skills that will land you a spot on the New York Times’ Best Seller list. 

Short stories and novella length books are quick reads that happen to be very popular on the Amazon Kindle Unlimited platform.

Self-published authors who rapid release books are making upwards of $3k+ per month in the genre of romance and other trendy sub-categories like interracial romance, cowboy romance, and LGBTQ romance.

Hate writing? Then outsource a few fiction writers on websites like Upwork and Fiverr to do the work for you. Remember, creating a hefty backlist of books will be imperative to your future success as a self-published author.

7. Start a podcast

Are you ready to hop on the new wave of audio?

The great thing about starting a podcast is that it’s fun, can be done with a group, and you can repurpose content from a blog or ebook previously written. 

Getting paid to share your opinion or thoughts aloud couldn’t be easier. 

Where to promote your new podcast?

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• Soundcloud

As long as you’re consistent, your audience will grow. Podcasts are typically monetized by sponsors who want to reach specific audiences. Use the mic from your phone and get your voice out there. 

8. Freelance

Not interested in starting a blogging business? Don’t fret! 

There are other writing options out there for you to choose from such as ghost writing or freelancing.

Guest blogging can help build up a writing portfolio you can shop around to companies and blogging professionals in need of more content for their sites and blogs. 

This is the first step to growing your clientele. Becoming a freelance writer can be very lucrative depending on the industry. 

The more projects and gigs you secure, the better.

Writing agencies are great to join in order to gain more experience but pitching to companies in your niche and small brands is your best bet. 

LinkedIn is a great way to create a name for yourself, network, and land very rewarding opportunities. 

9. Resell on POSHMARK

Why search high and low for a way to make easy cash when you can resell the things you own? 

Take a peek in your closet or dig through the clutter in your basement. You could be sitting on a goldmine of vintage items. 

Old toys,  clothing, and designer handbags could be worth a pretty penny. 

Platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Poshmark allow you to list items at competitive prices for online consumers ready to click the buy button. 

Instagram and Facebook also allow you to create pages with shoppable feeds. 

Purchasing essential items in bulk or raiding the racks at local thrift stores for potential items to resell at higher prices is a common strategy.

10. Create and sell a course

Did someone say intellectual property?

 You’d be surprised how valuable your knowledge on certain topics can be.  

One of the most profitable side hustles is creating and selling courses. 

You can easily do so on platforms with built-in audiences like Skillshare or drive your own traffic to platforms like Teachable or Teachery. 

Courses take more time to create because they are usually jam packaged with video tutorials, ebooks, workbooks, and/or visual presentations. 

What’s so great about them? Well, they can also be sold at premium prices.

Some teachers have six figure course launches from marketing to their email list alone. 

You can create a course on practically anything! Don’t underestimate the value of what you already know. 

There are thousands of students eager to learn something new – from starting a t-shirt business, learning a new language, how to run ads, or learning how to run an Airbnb business.

What talents or gifts would you like to share with the world? 

Interested in starting any of the side hustles above? Get started with The Side Hustle Planner and leave a comment below.

Meg - Planner Me Up

I teach entrepreneurs how to simplify their life and business with less + own their time and maximize productivity towards their personal and monetary goals.