Good morning this is a guest post from Richard Adams who is a UK-based frugality blogger. You can follow his experiments in saving money and reaching financial independence over at Frugality Magazine. You can also follow Richard on Twitter. Let me know if you would like to guest post on MMYW.
In the personal finance blogging world we talk a lot about “side hustles”. In essence a “side hustle” can be seen as a way to generate extra income from your free time, which you can fit around your “real” job.
The problem is that there are so many options available when it comes to side hustles – and so many tempting ebooks and products that promise easy riches – that it can be hard to figure out which side hustles are worth your time and which are really pipe-dreams that only a tiny percentage of people succeed with.
Over the last decade or so I’ve become obsessed with internet-based side hustles. There are many reasons for this including…
1) Time Flexibility
Physical side hustles like dog walking or lawn mowing typically force you to commit a certain amount of time to them on a regular basis. No matter what the weather is, how busy you are at your main job or what else is going on in your personal life, if you’ve promised to clean someone’s windows on Saturday morning you better stick to it or your reputation will suffer.
Compare this to an internet-based side hustle such as running your own website and you’ll find that online hustles have far more flexibility. You can work on your website when it suits you. You can write new blog posts when you’re feeling inspired and queue them up ready to be published even if you’re working solidly at your job for the rest of the week.
2) Profitability
Many physical side hustles are service-based – meaning that you charge a set fee to clean someone’s house or tutor them in a foreign language. When you stop working, you stop earning.
While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, when it comes to online hustles there are far more options to earn extra income even when you’re not working. For example as anyone with a successful website will tell you – they’ll still earn revenue from articles they wrote months ago whether they’re currently online or are busy doing something else.
This means that the profit potential of online side hustles can be far greater than many physical alternatives.
3) Value Added
If I arranged to bath local dogs for a set fee I’ve really just created an extra job for myself. Unless I “go big”, take on premises and staff it’s not really a business – at least not one that I can sell in the future.
In contrast many internet-based side hustles *can* be sold in the future. For example there’s a buoyant market in buying and selling websites. If you’ve built a successful site then there are all sorts of people who might be willing to buy it off you for many times it’s monthly earnings.
This means that you not only build a regular monthly income while you’re growing your side hustle but additionally you can “cash out” in the future for a large one-off payday.
The long and short of all this is that I believe that for my own needs – and those of many others – having some kind of online side hustle is one of the most flexible and profitable ways to earn extra income from your free time.
Of course the next question is really what actually works. After all the internet is buzzing with new product releases, courses and software that promise to make you millions for no work.
So let’s cut through all the hype for a minute. You see over the years I’ve tried all sorts of things online. Some were raging successes but more often than not the results disappointed me.
I thought therefore that it might be useful to highlight some of the side hustles that have personally worked for me over the years. If you’re currently looking to increase your income with a new side hustle these are the “winners” from my own experience and will hopefully provide you with some hype-free guidance on where you might want to consider looking.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves promoting another company’s products or service in such a way that when someone makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
At it’s simplest I’ve built a number of websites and blogs over the years that:
(a) Offer high quality information and advice to visitors
(b) Attract free visitors from the search engines thanks to all this content
(c) Include a handful of affiliate links to products/services that I truly believe in
My content attracts free visitors, and a number of these end up clicking my links and buying a product. As a result I earn commissions. Market your site well and promote the right products and it’s possible to do quite well from the process.
While it can take some time to learn how to do affiliate marketing properly I believe it’s within the limits of most people. Even better there is more information and advice around than ever before on what works.
Building & Selling Websites
Some years ago I launched a new affiliate website for ecommerce entrepreneurs. Over a few years the site really started to perform well and started to match the income I was receiving from my day job. Sadly, at the same time I was getting bored with the website and wasn’t giving it the love it really deserved.
As a result of this situation I eventually turned around and decided to try and sell it. Much to my surprise there was a lot of interest and I ended up taking a five-figure payday as a result of selling that one website.
Since that initial success I’ve built and sold a number of other websites to investors. And while the process takes time – you’ll need to build a website, promote it and wait until visitor numbers and income are reasonable before selling – it can lead to some nice income in the future if you’re willing to work on your site for some months before putting it up for sale.
Writing Ebooks
The benefit of publishing your own ebook is that once the work of writing and producing the book are complete you can keep on earning profits from your work for months or even years to come.
Over the years I’ve written dozens of ebooks with varying levels of success though I’ve had a few “home runs” during that time. My most successful launch generated over $10,000 in 7 days though this is far from the norm.
These days I publish almost exclusively on Kindle – a process that removes many of the problems with promoting your book. By writing a top-quality ebook and using the various marketing tools Amazon provides you can quickly start to generate additional monthly revenue solely from writing about topics that interest you.
Freelance Writing
Freelance writing was really where I started my online side hustle journey. There are a range of sites like Odesk where business owners will pay you to create content for them in the form of articles, ebooks, PDF manuals and so on.
Over the years I’ve tried a number of these sites but always found I had greatest success at Elance which is where I would recommend you start looking for writing gigs.
The reason I put this hustle last is that I no longer do any freelance writing because it’s more of a job than a business. It can be a great way to earn some income from your free time but of course once you stop writing you also stop earning.
Many people do very well out of it – and some people even turn it into a full-time business eventually – but I decided to transition from writing for other people to writing for myself and creating my own network of profitable websites.
In this way my writing had the capacity to earn me revenue long after I’d actually written it.
Final Thoughts
None of these internet side hustles can be characterized as “easy”. In comparison to baby sitting for your neighbor there’s a far steeper learning curve so please don’t be under any misapprehensions.
I don’t want you to feel like these are necessarily “easy” ways to earn some extra income – it can take quite some months of learning and hard work (and some money to invest) before you really start to see your efforts pay off.
But they are the side hustles I’ve personally had success with. The question is what’s working for you right now? What side hustles are you considering? Please leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section below…
This post was featured on the Frugal Living Tips, thank you!
As someone who has a 9-5, I definitely need a side hustle that gives flexibility with time. There are many, MANY businesses that do not allow for this that I could not do with a 9-5 job. Running a blog and freelance writing have been my only side hustles now for a little over a year. I plan on keeping it that way for the foreseeable future, though I wouldn’t mind creating some spreadsheet/database tools that I could sell online down the road.
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…5 Tips to Save Money When Buying a New Car
So far I’ve only done affilitate marketing and started a single site, though I’ve bought a few domains. Very recently, I’ve also started freelance writing. If anyone needs some batches of articles, let me know, I’ve got a new netbook and a vacation to pay for these days!
I also have started on an ebook, but it is going to be a very large book that I may end up self publishing, so it’s on the backburner for now.
I’m hoping to set up some more passive income, as you said, signing up for another job isn’t what I want to do!
Anne @ Unique Gifter recently posted…How to Save Money on Wedding Gifts
I too enjoy the flexibility that an internet business provides. I’ve been busy cranking away at my first ebook and hope that I see even half the success that your “home run” book received. $10,000 is 7 day is crazy!!
Derek at MoneyAhoy recently posted…Personal Finance Tips for New Graduates
I’ve been really thinking about getting into a side hustle but haven’t taken the leap. I started a blog but still don’t know how to properly monetize. I might consider freelance writing, and will have to look into that. With a full time job and a family, I definitely need flexibility.
Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted…Is it REALLY Okay to Take Paternity Leave?
Pauline – thanks so much for agreeing to publish my post 🙂
Rich from http://www.FrugalityMagazine.com recently posted…What’s The Best Way To Pay Off Debt? How These 17 People Paid Off $1,000,000 Of Debt In Under 4 Years
Congrats on your success! I have a range of side hustles…usually bringing in less than 2k a month…although I hope that eventually changes. I’d love to do something like a video course so I can earn some passive income, but the up front work has proven time consuming and daunting, so it hasn’t happened yet.
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…Making Bad Emotional Decisions
You are precisely correct that it isn’t a walk in the park to get things done for money with a website. In fact, it can take a lot of time to get popular on the web, like several years.
David recently posted…Is Global Warming truly happening?
All of these side hustles are great but they require one thing: dedication. A lot of internet marketers have made money telling people how easy it is, work-free work, and many of us have been burned going into these side hustles. Without dedication and discipline, no money will be made. You’ll just sit around Google all day looking for SEO secrets.
That said, for me the most lucrative has been in selling domain names. I have had a knack for registering just a few a year at a $1 or $2 a piece and unloading them for %1,000-10,000 profit. Of course, with that there have been a lot of duds too.
Scott @ Youthful Investor recently posted…The Ultimate Millionaire Career: The Self-Employed Auctioneer
Currently, I just have my blog. I’ve made some money but thankfully I dont blog for the money as it hasn’t been much. Blogging is my creative outlet right now and a place to sort out my thoughts. I am considering starting an accounting and tax business but we’ll seee. I’ve got a lot more planning to do before I would be ready to take on such a big project!
Liz recently posted…Three Personal Finance Lessons I learned while Traveling in Greece
Awhile ago, I decided I was going to double up on the side hustles. I began babysitting (for $12/hr) a couple of small children, who had early bedtimes. Their parents got home late, so I spent the few hours that they were in bed working on my websites to grow my more “passive” income with affiliate advertising. It worked well and made me quite a lot of money.
Daisy @ Prairie Eco Thrifter recently posted…5 Tips for Improving Your Child’s Eating Habits
Good job Richard! I am still busy with my 8-5 job. I want to start middle of this year any of the above side hustle.
My Wealth Desire recently posted…How to Build Wealth from Scratch â as an Employee
Great list! I’m planning to make my own ebook, but I don’t have the time yet. Maybe next year.
Mark Ross recently posted…Bill Gates: 35 Inspiring Quotes From The World’s Richest Man
I have done all of these besides eBooks. One day I will jump into that. Since I work full time, I enjoy freelancing when I have free time.
Grayson @ Sprout Wealth recently posted…A Freelancer’s Guide to Making Money
Nice list Richard! I believe I’ve done all of these, save for writing an ebook. I do quite a bit of freelance writing as well as affiliate marketing through my sites. That flexibility and time aspect is a big one as you want to make sure you’re maximizing your time so you can make as much as you can.
John @ Frugal Rules recently posted…Teaching Kids About Money: How to Prepare Them for Adulthood
All of these are great ways to make money online. It takes a lot of time and effort to take a site from nothing to something. Can you share the name of the site you sold?
EL @ Moneywatch101 recently posted…The New MyRA Account
Nice! I personally make money freelance writing, but it’s no longer my “side hustle,” it’s my full-time job! =)
Holly@ClubThrifty recently posted…5 Constructive Ways to Use Your Tax Refund
Hmm, I’ve done freelance writing, editing, and VAing, a little bit of social media management and a little bit of affiliate marketing. I’ve never really thought much about writing an eBook, I don’t feel qualified enough to write something that long with authority. Maybe in the future I’ll give it a shot!
Erin @ My Alternate Life recently posted…It’s Jordann, Not Jordan
The developing and selling of websites intrigues me. You’re literally taking nothing and turning it into a tangible asset that sells for real cash. At what point do you act on selling them? Certain DA, PA, size?
MMD recently posted…Can the Experts Really Help Us Find Good Stocks to Invest In? Letâs See for Ourselves
Dang $10k from an ebook launch is pretty serious. Any way to lather, rinse, and repeat on that process? I’ve got a couple titles on Amazon that generate a little bit of cash each month, but nothing like that!
Nick Loper recently posted…How a Pair of Cold Callers Lost the Sale (After I’d Already Said Yes and Had My Money Out)
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be
really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad
for me. I am looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!
Louvenia recently posted…Louvenia
Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell
and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.”
She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was
a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back!
LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!
independence day images recently posted…independence day images
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I’ve tried all of these and have nothing to show for it. My blog got a few hits and posts by spammers over a 4 year period, my book didn’t get a single sale, affiliate sites got me $0, and I have not tried buying/selling domains.
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