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Not everyone can pursue a passion project full-time from the very start. But you don’t need to go all-in to have the opportunity to explore a new business or project idea and earn extra income. That’s where side hustles come in.
The focus of a side hustle isn’t making extra cash for necessities, like food delivery and other gig economy jobs. Even freelance work isn’t exactly the same, though freelancing can become a side hustle. It’s about finding an opportunity to do something you love outside of your day job and make extra money doing it. If you love embroidery, for example, you can start a great side hustle making custom embroidery projects.
Read on to find out whether a side hustle is right for you and how to choose an idea for your side hustle. Then learn how to launch your project, how to make time for it, and how to promote and turn your work into a source of extra income.
Find the best side hustle idea for you
To find the perfect side hustle project for you, think about your interests and areas of expertise.
Ask yourself:
Do I have hobbies or interests that could be easily turned into a revenue stream?
Are there skills I’ve picked up at a full-time job that could be applied to a part-time project?
Is there an audience for this type of work?
Brainstorm a few potential ideas, then think about how much time and money you’re able to invest in starting your side hustle. Is your idea something you can realistically fit into your spare time and budget, and will any potential earnings from it be worth your investment?
There are some common projects that can become more lucrative side hustles over time. Consider whether you’re interested in applying your passions to any of these ideas:
Become a blogger or write a newsletter. Once you build a dedicated audience, you can consider charging for exclusive content or selling e-books in your area of focus.
Make physical products. Take the items you already make as part of a creative hobby, like baking or DIY fashion, and add them to an online store or take custom orders. Or develop custom designs for print on demand products like clothes and mugs.
Create digital products. Start a podcast or use your artistic skills to create design templates or stock photos. You can sell digital products with an ecommerce website.
Teach an online course or class. Turn your expertise into standalone classes or a small course of study. You can pre-record classes or teach live, then charge for access to recordings by putting them behind a paywalled Member Site.
Monetize your expertise. Meet with clients and customers one-on-one to offer advice as a consultant, or set up an online scheduling system to book appointments and charge for in-person services, like hairstyling.
Learn more about how to choose your side hustle idea
Launching your side hustle
After choosing your side project, get ready to launch by doing some initial research and planning.
There are three main steps you can take to get started.
Set project goals and guidelines.
Plan out and create your product.
Start building an audience for your project.
Launching a side hustle isn’t a sprint—you should enjoy building and creating at your own pace. To that end, set some realistic goals around how much money you want to dedicate to your side hustle, and how much time you want to spend on it each week or month. The requirements will vary depending on what your project is, so decide how much you can produce within those limits.
From there, you can get an idea of how much money you need to invest at the outset to get set up with equipment or other tools, like a website. Then, make a plan for producing your project, like an outline for your first three newsletters or how you want to handle shipping for your online store. Finally, put your plan into action and start creating your first pieces of work.
Once you’ve created some work you feel ready to share, build out a website and social media for your project. Both platforms will help you start building a brand for your side hustle and get discovered by your target audience. Once you have a following, both platforms give you ways to monetize your project with paywalls or shopping integrations.
When you’re starting out, you can also consider creating a profile on a third-party marketplace, which can help you get discovered while you’re still building up your website and social media following.
Making time for a side project
It’s important to regularly make time for your side hustle without letting it take up all of your free time. You can always add to your project, so start slow and small. Time management techniques, a content calendar, and some external tools can help you keep things running efficiently.
Some basic practices for setting boundaries around your time can help you find the right balance. Take some time to think about how and when you work best—mornings or evenings, in short sprints or long blocks of focused time.
You might find it helpful to create a production or content calendar, where you can schedule out time and tasks to stay organized. Or, find ways to outsource some of your work. That could include outsourcing to other people, like having a friend or professional do some graphic design for you. Or find tools to make your work more efficient, like social media template tools and platforms that can help you automate some of your emails.
Learn more about making time for your side hustle
Monetizing a side hustle
Once you’ve developed a following for your side hustle, you can think about how you want to capitalize on interest in your work. How you make money from your project and how much you make depends on what you’re creating, your following, and how much time and effort you’re able to invest in monetizing it.
Start by choosing one potential income stream to focus on. In addition to selling physical products in an online store, you can make a profit from a side hustle by selling digital content, like classes or access to a membership website where you post exclusive content like blogs and newsletters. If you can do custom work for clients, add an appointment scheduling system to your website so that you can earn money by sharing your expertise. Online scheduling is also useful for setting up consultation calls for a side hustle.
Once you’ve established your first income stream and have had some success with it, you can start thinking about ways to scale and grow your project. Don’t be afraid to start small again so that you have time to test your next idea.
Learn how to make money from your side hustle
Promoting your side project
One way to invest in your side hustle’s growth is to create a marketing strategy so that you can build an audience and customer base for your work. First, find out where your audience spends its time and which platforms will best show off the value of what you’re creating.
Create accounts specific to your side hustle on the social media platforms that make sense for it, and use platforms where you have full control, like a website and newsletter, to your advantage. Share teasers of your work to build interest in what you’re making and attract new customers. You can reuse content you’re already creating for this purpose to save time.
Next, optimize your website for search engines so that new visitors can discover you. For most people, this mainly means researching common search terms related to your side hustle niche and including them in your website copy. Make sure they’re woven into less visible places like image alt text and page descriptions in addition to blogs and page titles.
Or consider other ways to reach your audience, like doing in-person selling or events or boosting your posts. Building community around your project is another great way to attract an audience. Take time to engage with your followers and encourage them to share and review your work to get the word out.
No matter what side hustle you decide to launch, there are many tools and strategies to help you make it a success. Take the time to choose an idea that you’re excited about and make a plan to bring it to life.