What comes to your mind when you hear about making money from side hustle? Do they pay well? Are they even legit? Hmm… The thing is, side hustles are legit, but there are side hustles that are scam too. They won’t pay you no matter when even after you complete all the jobs.
Hence, to dispel this nonsense I have made this list of 10 best side hustles that actually works. I’ve personally tried most of these part time jobs so I know they actually pay, and they pay well if you work harder.
(1) Online Surveys
Swagbucks and Survey Junkie are the two most well-know websites for making money from surveys. I cannot say about other sites since I haven’t tried them, but if you’re serious about making money from surveys, then these two websites should be your destination.
While Swagbucks was launched in 2008, Survey Junkie was lost nearly a two decades ago (2005). In all these years, these two websites have paid millions to hustlers who have completed their given tasks.
You can get paid into PayPal or Cash App balance, so there’s no cash involved, and no scam. Everything is transparent and automated. You complete the jobs – you get paid. As simple as that. And yeah, please don’t fall in the AI trend of “automated money making from side hustles.”
If you’re a phone person, for you too there is another well-know app that pays quite well, but it’s a little harder than Swagbucks and Survey Junkie. The app is called AppNana. It’s an only-phone service, so you have to complete every task from your phone. About a decade ago I tried AppNana and earned $10 in PayPal balance. Not gonna lie, it was an amazing feeling. But, I accidently switched On VPN and accessed the app and got banned permanently. So, be aware of that before using AppNana.
(2) Pet Care
If there one hustles that has become pretty popular among teens and college students, it’s pet walking. While most of the time it’s dogs that you have to walk, the pay is good enough. It’s even better if you love dogs.
As for the pay, for most dog walks you can potentially earn $20-$40 per walk. Most clients prefer walking their dog(s) for at least once every day, and in some cases you can even get clients who would like you to walk their dogs for more than once. So, if you can walk at least 3-5 dogs every day, you can potentially make $1,500 per month.
Yeah, $1,500 may not be a huge amount, but it’s way better than making nothing. One thing that I forgot to mention is how you can not only make money from dog walking, but also from dog sitting and boarding dogs. Pet setting does not pay well though, the rates are as low as only $20 per day.
On the other hand, some boarding pets hustles can make you good bank. I have seen people making $100 per day just from boarding pets per night. Of course, it’s impractical to think that someone will board pets every day, yet, even if they do it for 7 nights, then can potentially make $700 in 7 days.
(3) Freelancing
If there’s one side hustle that has freedom with good pay, it’s freelancing. You see, I haven’t talked about any particular freelancing job, but just your usual freelancing. Let’s take content writing for example. Guess how much does a content writers earn from freelance jobs? At least $30 per hour. The best ones can even make $100 per hour. Which is pretty lucrative to be honest!
The highest I’ve ever seen is, wait for it, $15,000 per day freelancer. Of course, he has a team of few people who works for him, but still $15,000 per day is insane. He is a logo well-know logo designer on Fiverr, and regularly has 500+ deliveries pending. The pending deliveries is so huge because he gets orders way too often.
Freelancing is one side hustle which you can turn into a full-fledged small business. Who knows, maybe after few months, you too can become a super-successful freelancer and setup a business out of it?
(4) Doordash Driver
If you have a motorbike, you can try Doordash delivery. The pay is nice, and you can good good tips if you deliver timely and efficiently. On an average, every delivery can make you $2-$15 per delivery, depending on many factors you can make even more if you push harder.
As for tips, most Doordash delivery drivers make at least $2-$5 tip for every delivery, which seems low, but considering how many deliveries a Doordash driver does in a day, they can easily make $50 per day. That’s $1,500 per month in tips alone.
Since you’re considering a side hustle, a Doordash side hustle can potentially earn you $2000+ easily. Remember? This is not full-time income, only a part time job. Finally, how can you make more money as a Doordash driver? The first way is to look for urban areas, time of day and customer service.
But I feel customer service is absolutely important. If you overdeliver, you can make good money in tips. If you have tried Doordash before, do tell me about your experience. I would love to hear from you…
(5) Small Side Business
Guess what’s the best thing about starting a side hustle? Turning it a small business and make even more money. This one might out of context, but if you find any side hustle that pays well and has good market presence, see if you can setup a business around it.
The best example would be an Etsy store. Most Etsy store owner start selling digital or physical products as a side hustle. Most of the time the seller’s motive is not establishing a business but to make some quick bucks. But when their side hustles start making good money, they decide to establish a small business.
Turning a side hustle into a small business gives more control and opportunities to make more money. The most usual side hustle turned small business is selling handcrafted products and digital templates. There are many TikTok small businesses that sell earrings for $0.99 per piece. You would be surprised to learn the sheer amount of money they make from selling earrings.
(6) Narrow-Niche Blogging
I’m pretty sure you have heard about blogging. Blogging is, hands down, the best side hustles with the highest earning potential. There’s literally no limit to how much you can make as a blogger. Yes, it’s harder to rank and actually get traffic. That’s where the concept of “narrow-niche blogging” comes in.
In simple words, choosing niche is one of the hardest things to decide before starting a blog. If you choose a broad niche like technology, there’s a high chance your new website won’t rank for months, or even years, but when you choose a highly focused niche like “chainsaw cleaning,” your new website can rank faster.
Narrow-niche blogging is a bit different from usual blogging. You choose a narrow niche and work hard on creating authority. Google loves authority, and if your new website has contents regarding a specific topic it’ll surely rank higher on Google search. Of course, the content should be unique and well-written.
Blogging is the best example of side hustle turned into a small business. Try it for yourself and see how you perform. I’ll warn you though: It’ll take some time to actually make money.
(7) Livestreaming
Not just games, but you can livestream or create vlog of your daily life. It works, and vlogging has created many millionaires in the past few years. But what’s so special about vlogging? I feel, people love learning and discovering other people’s lives. Through vlog they get to experience a part of their favorite creator’s life.
And since livestreaming cannot be edited, the viewers get to see “raw” and “uncensored” part of a person’s life. Unsurprisingly, vloggers get insane views. You can already guess how they make money? No, not just through Google ads, but also from sponsorships and brand deals. The top vloggers make hundreds and thousands of dollars every month from Google Ads, sponsorships, affiliate sales, brand deals, and what not.
The only downside about most vloggers is that they have to adapt quickly. Since a content creator’s life does not usually extends more than 7-10 years, they only have few years to make the REAL MONEY. See PewDiePie for example. Once the star of YouTube, today he seems to forgotten. When he was at his peak, he made some serious cash. That’s the power of vlogging, livestreaming, and social media.
(8) ChatGPT Prompt Support
This is a new one. ChatGPT is the star of the internet today. As usual with the “new kid in the block.” While most people busy trying to create AI generated dogs, the real OGs are the one who spend their time finding a business opportunity.
Enter: ChatGPT Prompt Guide/Support. If you’re good with ChatGPT prompts and can generate desired results within seconds, then this trick can make you a hell lot of money. Your only jobs is to contact people or companies who want to use ChatGPT to grow their business fast.
They don’t have the expertise to get their desired results, and you propose yourself to them that you can do the heavy-lifting. I can almost ensure you that if you can prove your techniques to the company or an individual, they will pay you any money you ask for.
Earlier, only ChatGPT was used, but today companies are using ChatGPT in combination with Midjourney for better and more visually appealing results. As a prompt guide, you can potentially earn $50,000+ per year from one company. Since you’re not bound to a particular company, you can make more than $50,000 every year.
The top ChatGPT prompt experts make an astonishing $100,000+ each year. How times change!!
(9) Tree Pruning
Tree pruning services are widely available across the United States, provided by landscaping companies, arborists, and specialized tree care businesses. How much you can get paid from tree pruning is widely based on external factors like experience, type of pruning, and sometimes, also the location.
For example, in majority of cases you can make more money pruning trees for Commercial property than Residential property. As of today’s market scenario, a tree pruner usually makes $20-$50 per hour. The pay is higher for more experienced pruners with some even demanding $100 per hour. Of course, the work of a $100 per hour tree pruner is way better than a $20 tree pruner.
The disadvantages of tree pruning is how physically demanding the job is. It may actually be a real-close definition of “hustle.” The other disadvantage of being a tree pruner is the nature of the job. It’s not something you can just start doing it. You need to have some prior experience in cutting and managing trees. Without that you can end-up destroying someone’s pretty garden and end-up attracting a nasty lawsuit.
(10) Virtual Assistant
Ever heard of social media manager? Yeah, they are also a branch of virtual assistants who manage one or more social media account for someone else, most preferably for celebrities and business. But a Virtual Assistant is must more than just a Social Media Manager.
On an average an VA earns between $20-$50 per hour. As a part-timer you can potentially earn upwards of $3,000 per month, and as a full-timer you can earn upwards of $6,000 per month. Not bad, if you ask me!
The most common VA services are: (a) Email management, (b) Social media management, (c) Data Entry, (d) Blog post writing, and (e) Bookkeeping.
Working as a VA has its own positives and negatives. The positives being flexible working hours and the freedom to work from home. It’s a solid remote job. The negative, on the other hand, is a stagnant carrier. If you’re hungry for growth, then being a VA is not a good option. The industry is stagnant and there’s no growth at all. Initially you might have to go through a learning curve, but once you learn it, it’s just a rinse-and-repeat process.
Pheww… Finally we have done it. If you read till the end, I genuinely want to thank you for visiting my blog. I won’t ask you to subscribe to my newsletter, neither I would ask you to comment. I’m grateful enough that you are here! Please, keep visiting! It’s you who inspire me to work harder.
Until then… Allow me to take a leave…
