Today, almost everyone is looking for flexible ways to make extra cash. These days side hustle isn’t just a trend; it has become a realistic way to increase your income and secure your future. This blog focuses on the top side hustles that you can pursue in 2024 that align with your passion and preferences, along with the importance of strategic planning to successfully monetize and drive sustainable revenue from it.
A side hustle is a mini-business that allows you to make money online through some part-time gigs. All you need is a laptop, internet connection, skillset towards which you can dedicate yourself to have money flowing from it. A report by Hustle states that about 50% of the employees prefer their primary job, while 76% prefer side jobs. Running a side hustle gives you the freedom to choose your hours, work, and rates. Multiple ways can help you make passive income by capitalizing on your skills and availing work from home. For instance, podcasting, online tutoring, virtual assistant, and much more. This blog will show you the top side hustles you can do in 2024 to boost your income. Let’s get started.
Online tutoring is one of the most popular side hustles for people who have subject matter expertise and can dedicate a few hours a week to teaching students. Even though the online tutoring market is saturated, it has enough potential. It doesn’t need too much investment. You can start with whatever you are good at. Be it academics, cooking, coding, music, or fashion, you can customize your offering according to your target audience, understand their pain points, and offer customer-centric solutions. Pick the subject/ niche in which you have a formal education, set the number of hours you can devote, and finalize the pricing. Next, register on online tutoring sites and start your online teaching business.
Digital products are assets that you can sell online. For instance, downloadable templates, eBooks, online courses, and membership sites. It is one of the side hustles that pay well since you can sell it repeatedly. As long as your digital product serves great value, you can make good money from it as it has high profit margins, and low development and distribution costs. Make sure your product is in sync with the latest information or updates.
When creating a digital product, identify the biggest pain points of your audience. Your product must address those problems. Start talking in advance about your products on social media and online forums to create eagerness amongst the target audience. Ensure your product must be easy to access and use.
Affiliate marketing is a good side hustle for students and revolves around showcasing products and services of other brands on your website/social media, promoting them, and earning a commission. It has emerged as a prime customer acquisition channel for businesses as they are always striving to promote their products and services.
Becoming an affiliate marketer is quite easy. Choose the niche for which you want to promote the products and services. Next, choose a platform where you want to promote the products of your clients. Sign up for an affiliate program such as the DataToBiz Affiliate program from a reliable affiliate marketing company. Now promote the affiliate link on paid and organic channels.
Folks who are good at photography can make passive income by permitting stock photography websites to use their photos. You can get your photos licensed if you have a good collection of images. The amount of money you can make by selling your photos depends:
Make sure you read the guidelines, pay plans, and how images are used.
The freelancing industry is growing at an alarming rate. This is because freelancing offers freelancers the flexibility to set their work hours, rates, terms, and conditions. The biggest reward of freelancing is that people can pursue work that excites them in their comfort and allows them to work from anywhere in the world.
To succeed in freelancing, choose the domain you want to work in – be it development and design, photography, writing, copywriting, social media, or virtual assistant. Set your rates (hourly or depending on projects) and work hours. As a beginner, you can charge less and then charge premium rates as you hone your skills. It is important to create a portfolio that demonstrates your work and expertise. Promote yourself on a marketing channel, such as LinkedIn to showcase your skills to your prospective target audience and clients. Sign up on freelance websites such as Fiverr, and send cold emails to connect with your prospective clients. Remember, freelancing gives profitable results if you are consistent and put in a lot of grit.
Dropshipping is an easy side hustle for beginners that allows people to sell products to customers without buying the inventory. In this business model, a third party makes and ships products for a brand. You can dropship on online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay, and Flipkart. Also, it doesn’t involve too much risk as the orders are sent from the wholesaler to the customers. Thus, you can focus on products, customers, and marketing. All you need to do this is to create a store, put the product rates, and market them.
If you have good writing skills and have an audience on social media platforms, starting a paid newsletter is great. Even if you don’t have an audience, take small steps to build an engaged audience and create your brand. Once you have an attractive personal brand, it sets you apart from other creators and earns credibility. Your followers will convert into your newsletter subscribers and help you get more subscribers by sharing the worthiness of your newsletters.
Choose a publishing platform such as Medium, ConvertKit, or Substack by doing adequate research. Find out the charges the platform deducts for hosting and payment processing. Does the platform support audience segmentation, reporting, and scheduling? How easily can you navigate the platform both from the writer’s and reader’s perspective?
Find answers to the above questions, choose the right topics, and explore ways to monetize it as your newsletter gains popularity.
You can become a virtual assistant for busy founders, business owners, and top-level executives and help them organize their everyday tasks such as client follow-ups, scheduling meetings, and managing communication. If you are someone with a knack for administrative skills, becoming a virtual assistant is a great gig.
The roles and responsibilities of a virtual assistant depend on who hires you. For instance, if you’re working for a CEO, you may need to schedule meetings, take meeting notes, follow up with clients, and manage social media accounts. Choose the industry you want to work in and promote your services on LinkedIn, Upwork, and VA outsourcing agencies. To succeed as a virtual assistant, build a good rapport with your boss, and execute all the responsibilities with accountability.
Now that you are determined to start a side hustle to make money online, follow the below steps to start one.
You can start the above-listed top side hustles in 2024. However, the amount of time, skills, and investment that you need to put in varies. Also, you need to be very critical to choose the one that matches your passion, preferences, and time. Research, plan, adjust, and work consistently to monetize your side hustle and convert it into a mainstream revenue mode.
Fact checked by –
Akansha Rani ~ Content Creator & Copy Writer
Sunaina Meena ~ Digital Marketing Specialist
Data Engineering
AI & Machine Learning
By Use Cases
Business Intelligence & Tableau
