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Last Updated on August 4, 2021 by Tyler Clark
The whole point of an easy online side hustle is that you can get going with it right away.
In other words, it needs to be simple.
I’ve listed a bunch of online easy side hustles below that pretty much anyone should be able to do with no experience.
Some of them might go a bit better if you have a knack for the hustle but don’t worry, you’re probably good to go even if you’ve never done this before.
And don’t think that just because they’re “easy” that you can’t make money with them.
Easy is the way to go. Whenever things get too complicated in business, you’re likely off track.
Stick to the tried, tested and proven. There’s a reason people go this way more often than not.
It’s because it works better more often than not.
Side hustles can put extra money in your pocket outside of work or they can grow into major income sources and free you from your job all together.
Trust me, it can be done.
Though the word side hustle sounds like it’s something small but, don’t doubt it’s potential.
Many side hustles turn into real businesses and can start earning $500, $1000, $5000 or more a month.
I’ve always loved side hustles online and offline and they continue to provide me with income.
You can do the same by getting started with these easy side hustles below.
1. Do Online Surveys
With no experience required, survey sites give you discounts and cash to do surveys on their platforms.
All of the sites I recommend are legit and quality survey sites.
These sites are fully established and work with world class brands.
Online surveys aren’t going to turn into a massive cash cow for you but they can certainly pay for your bills at home or put some spending cash in your pocket.
It’s a simple hustle that’s perfect for those little parts of the day when you have a little money making window.
These are all solid survey sites. They’re highly rated on trustpilot.com and they pay consistently.
You won’t have any problems using them.
1. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is the kingpin of survey sites.
They pay you in cash through PayPal or in the form of gift cards for stores like Starbucks and Amazon.
I find their interface really user friendly and there’s lots to do.
This may sounds like a silly comment but I’ve always believed you should enjoy making money if you can.
You can shop, do surveys, checkout your rewards, search and so much more.
2. American Consumer opinion (ACOP)
American Consumer Opinion offers you the chance to take surveys, evaluate new products and test advertising for cash.
They’ve currently paid out over $30,000,000 million to their customers and have just over 70 million active users.
The site is another point system based site that also offers you the chance to refer friends and earn referral commissions too.
3. Survey Junkie
Survey Junkie has some really good payouts for your time. If you just want to go for the cash, I’d recommend them.
They pay you with PayPal or with gift cards and once you reach their $10 payment threshold, you’re getting paid.
2. Become a Transcriptionist
This is the opposite of voicing something and having it typed.
In this case, you’re listening to something and typing it out.
Transcribing is a fairly easy process and you can do it any time of the day, anywhere in the world.
Here are some of the sites that have transcription jobs on them:
3. Start a Blog
This one’s easy!
There are so many wonderful benefits from starting and running a blog as a side hustle.
You can work from home, you don’t have a boss and you can take breaks whenever you want.
The very blog you’re reading was built as a side hustle in my spare time.
Unlike some side hustles, there’s no need for good weather or for businesses to be open for you to earn money.
Basically, if you’re awake, you can make money.
As things improve, you might start making money while you sleep.
You can put up a great looking blog with very little coding knowledge too.
Let me put this a different way: You don’t need any coding knowledge to put up a blog anymore. Most website templates come with a visual composer that does the coding for you. Hosting is very affordable too.
I use Bluehost on all of my sites and I highly recommend them for hosting your site.
Use my Bluehost Link for hosting if you’re ready to get started and receive 60% off their regular price.
Growing Your Blog
Finding a niche is good but finding one that has the potential to grow is even better.
You don’t want to pick a side hustle that’s so small that it will be a challenge to keep it afloat.
Smaller topics have less staying power and are more at risk to changing trends and economies.
Looking for a slightly more evergreen blog niche is a good way to avoid this issue.
The other part of going big with a blog is to get other people to help you with the writing.
Outsource some articles to help you grow a bit faster with this easy side hustle.
A Blog Can be a lot of Fun too
You get to design your blog. A blog that you love! And your own home office -super cool.
You can listen to your favorite music while you work -I have all kinds of stuff on my computer.
Never get stuck in ridiculous traffic jams again!
4. Social Media Manager
If you’re having trouble coming up with a business, pick a business that helps other businesses.
There is huge demand for social media management companies.
People will happily pay for someone to manage their social accounts.
I personally love this idea because even though I can come up with the content for my media accounts, I struggle with layout and style.
These are areas that I need a lot of help with. I’m happy to hire out for this.
Do it Anywhere
This is also a gig you can do right at home or anywhere in the world.
If you want to go work at your favorite coffee shop for 45 minutes and get paid, you can!
One thing that makes a side hustle easy is the flexibility to work anywhere you want.
5. Proofreading
Proofreading is one of the strongest and most popular side hustles right now.
Proofread Anywhere is a great place to get started with this easy side hustle.
If you’ve got a good eye for basic grammar and sentence structure, proofreading could be one of the best side hustles for you.
proofreading is essentially light editing. You’re looking for spelling, grammar, format and that the overall meaning of the text.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to get into major contextual issues or rewrite the piece you’re working on, you just need to cover the basics.
Often, just getting a second pair of eyes on something will spot most of the mistakes in the original text.
Keep in mind that the author just wants someone else to save them some time editing and cleaning the article up.
They’re not looking for you to rewrite it perfectly or turn it into the next best-selling novel.
This is something I’ve always enjoyed.
It’s fun to go into a document and have a read, learn something and get paid for it.
It’s also fun to search for little mistakes and clean the article.
It has a good satisfaction to it and makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something.
The other great thing about proofreading is that you can do it anywhere.
You can be on vacation, you can be at home, you can be on the bus, or you can be at work.
You have total freedom with this type of work.
If you’re ready to sign up as a proofreader, I would highly suggest checking out Caitlin Pyle’s Proofread Anywhere Course.
6. Sell Services on Fiverr
Fiverr is a really diverse platform.
You can use it to offer all kinds of services to customers.
It helps connect businesses with consultants that offer all kinds of services from web and graphic design, writing, coding, making music or jingles, logos and more.
I’ve used Fiverr as a customer many times and it’s a great service.
You can make much more than $5 for your services too.
There’s all kinds of potential for upsells. I routinely purchase additional products above the 5 dollar threshold.
If you have a skill of any kind, you can offer it on Fiverr today!
Just visit Fiverr.com and sign up.
If you don’t have a skill to offer, you can work as an assistant too.
This can be performing online searches, clerical work or doing simple online work for people.
Instead of just hustling as a single person, why not build your business beyond yourself?
This will take some of the hard labor pressure off of you and allow you to expand.
Go slowly and don’t take on projects you can’t handle but, definitely look to grow and make this easy side job worth your while.
7. Become a Freelance Writer
Writing is one of the most powerful skills you can develop period.
You can start a blog, write articles for other people, write your own products or start a content website.
As you write more, your skills should improve and that means you can up your rates for articles and other written works that you do.
Many top writers bill upwards of $35-50 cents a word.
This means that one good sentence could add up to $10!
No I ask you, how long does it take to write a sentence? Maybe 20 seconds?
If you’re getting paid $10 per 20 seconds, that’s some serious income for your time.
Here are some of the sites you can write for:
You can literally sign up for these sites and start reaching out to clients for work right away.
If you want to take things to the next level,
You can you can also develop your own project too. You can start your own blog, review site, affiliate site or a content site of any kind.
Writing is really an unlimited skill.
You can use it on so many things and you can do it anywhere.
You’ll get better with every word you type (or use google docs to voice your articles).
Start using the gift of the written word today!
8. Build an Online Course
If you don’t have time to build a site, just put your content on Udemy or Teachable.
When you visit teachable, scroll down and check out their Quickstart Tutorial.
If you have an area of expertise or you want to document something you’re doing as a user guide, this easy side hustle is for you.
Udemy and Teachable are fantastic online platforms to host and promote your course. All you do is create the course and they handle the rest.
Visit their sites:
Don’t worry if you’re not a complete expert either.
People are looking for many different levels of instruction and most people want the basics.
I’m always looking for the best BASIC video. I’m never looking for the most advanced video.
I really feel like an argument can be made for more videos from beginners. That’s where most people are and that’s very valuable content.
Visit Teachable and Udemy to get more information.
Bonus Tip: If you know a friend that has a great skills,
talk to them and see if you can film them and put the
content online. Work together and share the profits!
9. Become a Website Tester
Website tester sites are an easy side hustle to get some extra cash.
All you have to do is test the sites you go to and get paid for it. That’s probably as easy as it gets.
There isn’t any real need for technical skills for these tests either.
Some test can be slightly more involved but most people won’t have a problem getting through them.
In most cases, the test will record your computer screen and your voice.
In general, you also need to be 18 on most testing sites.
Here are some of the sites you can test on:
Trymyiu let’s users test a website and pays about $10 for around a 20 minute test. The site pays directly into your PayPal account.
Very simple testing app you can use right on your phone that has given out well over a 100,000 tests to date. Though the payments have quite a range from .10 cents to $10 dollars depending on the complexity of the test.
The key thing is to try it out and see what you think. The worst case is that you make a little bit of money for a few tests.
User Zoom(formerly validately)
User Zoom is another testing platform. The pay is quite high on this site but you need to act really fast when they send you an email for an open survey.
Because the pay is higher, users on reddit discuss that it’s tough to get into surveys.
If you’re quick on the trigger and are watching your inbox, this can be an easy side hustle.
If you’re not keen on being recorded at all, you can use Ferpection to do surveys and just take screenshots on your computer.
Ferpection is based in the UK and also uses PayPal to pay it’s testers on the last Friday of a given month.
Make sure you have a screenshot tool to complete each mission. They’re somewhat limited in available missions for certain countries but if you live in the US or the UK, it shouldn’t be an issue.
10. Become an Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is stronger than ever. As an affiliate marketer, you promote and provide links to products you believe in or have used.
In return, you make a referral commission when one of the customers you refer makes a purchase.
There are many companies and platforms out there that offer affiliate programs and all you have to do is sign up with them and start promoting.
You can promote products on your website, through your social media accounts, on your blog or all of the above.
Affiliate marketing can be a great option if you don’t want to create the products yourself.
In this case, the work is done for you.
Yes it may take some time to develop a platform to sell from but, it can be quite lucrative if you’re thinking a bit more long term.
Affiliate Platforms You can start on:
Good Affiliate Industries include:
- Online Dating
- Business & Entrepreneurship
- Personal Finance
- Pets
- Travel
- Health & Fitness
- Product Reviews
- Education
11. Start a Membership Site
One of my favorite easy side hustles is starting a membership website.
Now I realize this may be slightly more challenging but it’s a really good option as a side job.
If you have content that you someone is interested in, you can lock it away in a membership site and charge for it.
I suggest doing this on wordpress and getting started with the Free plugin called S2member.
It’s the plugin I used to start my first membership website and it’s since been greatly updated!
I like membership websites because you can hide a great deal of your content from the net.
At the time, I wasn’t keen on putting myself all over the web so this was kind of the perfect side hustle for me.
The site was built on wordpress and was very basic and like we said, basic works!
You can do the exact same thing.
There’s also nothing more exciting that waking up and seeing another member has joined your site.
It’s great to connect with others that share you interests and passions.
This can make your membership site side hustle a very fulfilling little project.
12. Sell on Amazon
You can literally flip or sell anything on Amazon. Retail arbitrage, (where you buy something at a regular store at discount and resell it on amazon for a higher price) has become very popular.
Are you great at spotting deals at Target and Marshalls?
If you’re good at finding deals, this can be a really simple way to make some extra cash.
The best part is that you don’t need to make or develop the product.
You can just buy it at discount and resell it!
Download the amazon barcode scanner from the app store and price compare on Amazon instantly.
The other big bonus of this work is that you make money when you purchase.
By buying low and selling at the confirmed higher price on Amazon, you’re locking it your profits.
This puts you in a great position to make money more consistently.
Here’s a book by Legendary Publishing on Arbitrage if you want to know more about it.
13. Sell Your Stock Photography
Okay, so photography is not exactly an online side hustle but you can certainly sell your photos online.
There are all kinds of stock photo sites looking for great content from new and hip photographers.
The demand for stock photos is strong (I use them all the time).
If you’ve got a great eye and can snap a perfect pic, this side hustle can make you some solid passive income.
You can start by figuring out your niche market and the type of pictures you like to shoot.
It can be a fun endeavor to capture some nature, streetscape, fashion or landscape shots and see which ones interest you the most.
Once you’ve got a bit of a dossier, you can begin to promote your pictures.
One of the basic ways you can start to build your audience is by uploading your photography to social media.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to start an Instagram account.
Instagram is such a great visual social media platform that it lends itself perfectly to photography.
If you want to go straight to selling your photos, you can sell them to the stock sites we were discussing earlier.
Stock photo sites like the ones below are always looking for fresh content.
Check them out:
Shutterstock.com
Bigstockphoto.com
istockphoto.com
Gettyimages.com
Dreamstime.com
You can search your favorite stock photo site to sell to but these should get you off and running.
14. Make YouTube Videos
It still blows my mind that I get cheques from Google from ads running on my YouTube Videos.
It’s crazy!
It’s weird how so many people still feel like online money is fake or not real or won’t work (include me).
Even more weird is that the cheques keep coming.
I think we just don’t realize how big and powerful the net is and YouTube is right in the middle of it.
Here are a few types of YouTube videos you can make:
- Beginner Tutorials (the simpler, the better).
- Trying for the first time videos.
- Review, unboxing, product discussion videos.
- How to videos, workout, shop, save, invest.
- Entertainment: Comedy, Cute and cuddly, Music
I think another misconception about YouTube videos is that they need to be perfect.
Most cell phones these days shoot fantastic footage. I often use my cell instead of the DSLR camera I have -my iphone 6 is just fine!
Remember, YouTube is still very much search based. People are looking for info. If you can deliver information, you’re on the right path.
You don’t need to shoot movie quality vids to do that.
Here’s a basic list of what you might need to make a video:
- Cell phone
- Cell phone holder/stand
- Tripod or bendable tripod
- Lang microphone ($20 bucks on amazon)
- Green screen or muslin background sheet ($30-60 on amazon)
Once your channel receives enough views, you can start placing ads on it.
Now keep in mind because YouTube is a bit more stringent with their advertising requirements, your YouTube channel will have to amass 4000 hours of overall watch time in the past 12 months and have a thousand subscribers or more.
When I first learned this I thought one of my channels would never reach these numbers. To my total surprise, I now have well over those numbers and watch times and my channel now runs ads.
Like we said, YouTube is massive and you’ll be surprised at how fast the numbers add up.
If Your YouTube channel gets going, you can make some serious money and get a lot of subscribers.
15. Sell Products on Etsy
If you’re good at design or making things with your hands, Etsy can be a great place to sell your products.
I have a friend who makes $2000+ per month selling her crafts on their platform. (She’s done this for 5 years now).
I have another friend who sells T-Shirt designs on the site just for fun.
Etsy has grown into a huge marketplace and the best part of this marketplace is that it does the advertising for you.
All you have to do is post your designs and they do the rest!
They also partner with various printing companies if you’re planning on making T Shirts or Leggings.
Start designing and making some money from your handmade designs and products today.
Bonus #1: Sell your digital designs on CafePress
If you’re an amazing designer and love creating beautiful works of digital art, CafePress is a great place to put some extra money in your pocket.
You can create designs on their site for anything from hats to t-shirts, water bottles, beach towels, cups, and more.
Not sure what to create, they’ll tell you what’s trending right now.
You can either sell your own creations or by those of others.
Your basic process will be to create designs, open an online shop and sell to their massive Marketplace.
This is a great way to get started with a basic e-commerce online store.
Down the road, as your business grows, you can start your own independent site.
In the meantime, selling on a site like CafePress is a great way to get your feet wet.
Conclusion
So there you have it, 15 easy online side hustles anyone can do.
As we mentioned earlier, just because they’re easy, that doesn’t mean they’re not lucrative.
The more I worked with millionaires, the more I realized they weren’t rocket scientists.
They were just playing the numbers game. That’s what you want to do too.
Pick a good side gig, grow it and trust me, the numbers will add up!
Best of Wealth,
Tyler.
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