The Best Side Hustles to Start in 2021
Looking to make some extra money with a new side hustle? Not sure where to begin?
We can start by breaking down the different categories that pretty much any side hustle can fall into. We'll dig into each one below, but from a high level here's what we will consider.
- Ecommerce
- Digital products
- Advertising
- Services
Ecommerce
This is a big one, and very popular so we'll start here.
Ecommerce is one of the largest categories of side hustles and contains some of the most talked about hustles.
- Dropshipping
- Amazon FBA
- Print on demand
- Flipping on eBay
- Retail arbitrage
The core idea is you take a product that someone wants and you sell it on the internet for a profit.
Modern strategies have made the barrier to entry low here too.
- Dropshipping and print on demand don't require any inventory
- Shopify will give you an online store with a free trial that lasts long enough to make your first sale
- Advertise on Facebook to reach over 2 billion people
It's easy to get started and build your own store, the difficulty is building a trustworthy brand that people will buy from.
Digital Products
Another popular side hustle is selling digital products. These can be ebooks, self-publishing, courses, or other similar products that are not physical goods.
These creators can sell an infinite amount of their product without having to worry about supply, logistics, or margins.
For the upfront cost of simply your time and however long it takes to create the product, there can be little to no monetary risk in digital products.
Advertising
Advertising is a massive money-making opportunity. If you control an online asset that gets traffic, you can partake in your slice of the pie.
There are many ways to build a side hustle around advertising.
- Blogging
- Niche website
- YouTube
You can build a large audience with any of the above platforms, and when you do the monetization follows. Besides simply placing ads, you can get into affiliate marketing, shoutouts, sponsorships, or even promote your own products and services.
Building an audience is so effective because you can scale. If you can provide valuable content for a large audience, you can maximize your impact for a fixed amount of upfront production effort.
Services
The last category of side hustles would be services. These are any side hustles in which you provide a valuable service for your customers. You are not always, but often trading your time for money.
Hence many avoid this bucket because of their goal to get away from trading time for money. (The lucky few automate their service, such as software as a service companies)
Nevertheless, these can be easier to get into and you can start making money quickly.
Unlike the other side hustle categories, these jobs don't always require you to work until after you know you are getting paid!
Promising Side Hustle Ideas
Still not sure where to start? I've compiled a list of side hustles that I have either tried personally, or am genuinely interested in and would try.
Here's what I've got.
- App development (My experience)
- Start an Amazon FBA store
- Start a dropshipping business
- Become an affiliate marketer
- Start a print on demand store
- Create a blog (Like this website!)
- Begin freelance writing
- Sell ebooks
- Sell photography
- Get a part-time job
- Freelance your skills
- Become an online English teacher
- Start tutoring
- Create a social media agency
- Flip items on online marketplaces
- Become an Instagram influencer
- Become a public notary
- Become a real estate agent
- Invest in rental properties
- Childcare
- Caregiving
- Build niche websites
- Computer repair service
- Start an IT support company
- Computer tutoring
- Review resumes
- Start a car washing company
- Car flipping
- Start a marketing agency
- Dog walking
- Start a podcast
- Become a DJ
- Freelance designer
- Become a home inspector
- Modeling
- Start a moving company
- Personal training
- Pet sitting
- Be a virtual assistant
- Create a startup