I’m not a believer in trying to save pennies, when I truly believe in focusing on earning MORE is a better idea to focus your time on.
But not everyone is meant to start a business (not everyone wants to start business for that matter) but it doesn’t mean you can’t earn a nice side income even if you work at a normal job.
This list isn’t meant to be an end all and be all of lists, but I hope it helps get your creative juices flowing and gives you some income ideas to start with.
This is also for people who are willing to put some work into this. If you’re the type expects miracles and money to fall in your laps because you register a free account to become a freelancer and do nothing after that and proclaim freelancing doesn’t work, this post (and this site is NOT for you).
The goal of this post is to give you a guiding head start if you don’t know where to start. Pick one you like and run with that (but at least put some effort into it).
So, to help you get those brain juices flowing, here are some great side income ideasdoing something you love!
Photo by Florian Olivo on Unsplash
Side Income Idea #1: Playing Video Games
Whaaaaaat? Yeah, I know – I have to admit I ‘m not much of a video game player but I know many who are. In fact, I personally know a couple people who work in or make a living playing video games!
If you haven’t heard of “e-sports” then you’ve missing out on a huge trend.
Yes, it is now an accepted and legitimate industry to earn money while playing video games! There are literally professional “e-sport” leagues and professional “e-sport” teams, just like regular professional sports teams in basketball, ice hockey, football (soccer for the North Americans), etc.
If this sounds like something up your alley, go here to find out how you can get paid to play video games!
Side Income Idea #2: Love Photography? Get paid for it!
Photography is a little side hobby of mine, but it’s not something I personally use to earn a side income, but again, I know many people who are truly talented at photography AND earn a great side income doing photography as well.
The great thing with earning money through photography is, it’s completely portable. We hired a great photographer to take photos our baby while we lived in Asia, she ended up moving to Japan shortly after, but she was able to just take her photography service and take it to Japan. Easy peasy.
Because there’s sooooo many people out there offering photography services, how do you actually earn an income from it without tearing your hair out???
Let the experts show you how to earn money with your photography.
Photo by Marco Xu on Unsplash
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
Side Income Idea #3: Make money from your love of writing
So far, we’ve covered a couple of very popular hobbies & passions people around the world love doing, writing is right up there with the other two passions.
Whether you feel like you’ve got a best-selling book or cult novel in you, there are ways to monetise your love of writing.
With Amazon’s Kindle Publishing service, it’s easier than ever to self-publish your own books and earn money from writing and publishing your own books.
Not sure how to start? Start here to start your Amazon Kindly publishing empire.
Instead of tripping over yourself trying to figure out how to monetise your love of writing, see how you can start earning an income from writing as quickly as possible here.
Becoming a highly-paid copywriter in the direct response marketing industry is another great way to leverage your love of writing that is tied to a service businesses value quite highly.
Copywriting is a great skill to have whether you’re writing promotions for clients or for your own products and services. Discover how to become a skilled copywriter here.
Side Income Idea #4: Got an opinion? Get paid for it!
Now, there are a lot of scams in this area but there are also a lot of legitimate income opportunities by completing surveys (yes, I have tried some of these myself).
I won’t make it sound like it’s some miracle sent from above nor will you become a millionaire or retire from doing this, but it can add a nice little pocket money for you for relatively little effort.
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
Side Income Idea #5: Teach for money
Teaching is a great way to earn a side income (especially online). There’s a few ways to do it:
1) You can join a company or a tutoring website that matches students with online tutors/teachers. Like this.
2) As we mentioned earlier, you could teach through publishing your own books on Amazon.
3) Or if you’re really willing to invest time and resources, you can sell your own online courses.
If you know how to teach a topic that is in demand and people are willing to pay for it, you can quickly get your online course up and launched with a platform like Thinkific.
You might be wondering about teaching a course on a platform like Udemy, but I’m not a big fan of what Udemy does (basically commoditizes your work and your course), so while it’s a popular “option” being peddled by others, this is not one I suggest.
Side Income Idea #6: Buy and sell distressed assets
You can never go wrong with the old adage, “buy low, sell high”. But this doesn’t just apply to stocks, it’s just as relevant for ANY kind of asset.
You can find “distressed assets” (assets like cars, property, etc) at low prices from this site and try to resell them for higher or market prices to make a profit.
Photo by Aris Sfakianakis on Unsplash
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
Side Income Idea #7: Freelance in your spare time
The trend these days is “the Gig economy”, people offering & earning money doing freelance work.
There is some truth to this and if you have a valuable and in-demand skill people are willing to pay for, then you have a good start to earning a side income by offering freelance services.
In fact, our previous accountant was earning more income and could do whatever she wanted (learn tennis, Wing Chun, go travelling, etc) as a freelancing accountant versus working a full-time job.
But because I like to tell it like it is, it’s not as easy as a lot of blogs make it out to be (there’s lots of competition) but you CAN turn freelancing into a great side income or even a full-income.
And no, again, I’m not a big fan of the big (well-known) platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. These platforms are fine for entrepreneurs who want to find cheap help, but as a freelancer, it’s tough to get started on these platforms and see any kind of traction these days as a freelancer.
If you want to fast-track to earning income as a freelancer and not waste time with trial and error, then check this out.
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