What Are The Best Side Hustles To Start As A Beginner In 2021?

Now when we have all the principles and basics clear, let’s jump on to the list of good options and ideas you can consider choosing as a side hustle and work best for you!

Before reading further, bear in mind that all these options mentioned here are not exhaustive. To really begin to earn the level of income you desire, it requires time, patience, consistency and putting in the hard work.

1. Freelance Writing

This is no doubt one of the outstanding and the most accessible side job online. Why? If you have quite a decent grasp of your preferred language and have a good ability to write, you can make it pretty big in this industry! You can easily start this part-time job from the comfort of your couch.

You can be a Storywriter, blog content writer, copywriter, or ghostwriter! Various aspects of freelance writing make it a great side hustle option! 

This industry values your time and trades on that. Always keep one thing in mind here. Charge and set the rates for your clients based on the value of the content you will be offering. 

Never undercharge since that will not be profitable in the long run. You will be exhausted and might quit your side hustle after some time if you don’t get the right amount of profit for your time and efforts invested.

How much does a freelance writer make per month? This is a subjective thing since it depends on the experience and the quality of content you are providing. On average, you can earn somewhere around $500 to $4000 per month. 

The more and the better you write, the more pay you get! Thus, you need to make use of your time perfectly here!

But first, you need to build a portfolio since you are starting out. There are numerous freelancing platforms out there that give you this opportunity like Fiverr, Upwork, Problogger, People per hour, etc.

Also, choosing and sticking to your preferred niche is another essential thing you should consider here. Try exploring at first and when you find your interest in a niche, be an expert in that!

Narrowing your niche will be a tremendous advantage for your career in Freelance writing!

2. Proofreading

Have you ever felt that cringe while reading an article on the internet? Ever saw people who do not understand the difference between they’re, their and they are? Well, that is a pretty common issue in the writing industry. 

You will have the job to read and verify the articles as a proofreader before it gets posted on the internet. It is a pretty low stressful side, hustle, and has excellent pay. There is a massive demand for proofreaders nowadays. Thus, you can surely try your luck in proofreading and make a decent income from it!

The best platforms to start proofreading are Flexjobs, Fiverr, Upwork, Problogger, people per hour or proofreadingservices.com.

The maximum you need to be an efficient proofreader is a good grip on your preferred language, an eye for noticing every nitty-gritty detail, and a love for reading! That’s it!

If you have the qualities of a proof-reader and want to professionally execute this side hustle then Proofread Anywhere could help you grow it into a thriving business. 

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a specialized type of marketing used when products are promoted in an article with a link leading to where such products can be bought. This is kind of a commission-based hustle and one of the most popular make money online ideas. 

In this case, the affiliate marketer/advertiser receives a commission in the form of a specified percentage when each sale is completed. 

You can either make big with this or can have nothing at the end. Therefore, it requires you to choose your niche and product wisely.  

Now the main factor is which affiliate program/platform you should choose because this is pretty essential. There are few good platforms like ShareASale, Awin, Amazon associates, Groovefunnels, Rakuten Advertising, etc. to start with. 

Affiliate marketing with niche websites is the most popular way to promote products. Other popular ways trending these days are YouTube affiliate marketing, Pinterest affiliate marketing, Facebook affiliate marketing, and Tick-Tock being the latest. 

You can earn something from $400 to $2000 per day or nothing from affiliate marketing. 

4. Web Development

If you are a tech-savvy person, this could be a great choice as a side hustle for you! This industry is pretty rewarding if you have the right expertise and practice! 

This is such a flexible field of work and has lucrative offers. This is one of the industries you can indeed replace your primary income source with after some experience! According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this field is projected to grow by 15% (faster than average) by 2026.

The basic mandatory languages include CSS and HTML. You can ace these languages in a decent amount of time and can start building basic websites for start-up companies. This is a fantastic way to make your portfolio since you would need that to attract your future clients.

Bonus point? You do not need to invest in learning these skills since they are available on the internet for free or nominal prices. Free tutorials can be found on Codecademy and w3schools. 

The best places to start are Flexjobs, fiverr or Upwork. 

5. SEO Consulting

With the digitalization era, SEO is a great industry that is emerging and is presently in high demand. SEO basically means Search Engine Optimization. In short, you will help e-commerce websites increase their website ranks in Search Engine Result Pages like Google or Yahoo.

This will result in better traffic on their website, And better traffic means more profit for them!

You need to keep track and stay up to date with all the SEO strategies and implement them on your client’s website to help them gain more profit. You need to analyze the traffic of the website, trends, and the source of all the traffic and craft a plan that will enhance your client’s website.

And kudos if you have some Web Development skills! This is because your web development skills will give you an extra edge here. Why? Many companies prefer people who have a decent understanding of HTML, CSS, WordPress, etc. This will boost your effectiveness since you will have a better understanding of how a website actually works.

SEO consultants are paid a handsome amount if you have the right expertise and are of great value to the company. Thus, deck up your SEO skills today and try making this your side hustle!

6. Blogging

If you are really interested in blogs and writing, then this is another excellent passive money making and one of the best side hustles for you. This is basically an asset for you and can give you long terms benefits. Many people assume blogging is dead but still 60% of people buy products after reading blogs. 

You can grow this side hustle into great source of passive income and actually quit your job.

There is a notion that if you are passionate about something, start writing about it. But I would say it’s not a practical notion. This is the reason that  59.3% of bloggers quit after not getting desirable results. 

In simple words, it’s important to pick a niche that’s scalable, profitable, and developing a strategy to scale and earn profits from your blog. 

Starting a website is very easy and you can get started as low as $0.90. And once you get good traffic on your website, monetize it! You can monetize your website by affiliate links or sponsored posts.

But as mentioned earlier, this will be an asset for you in the long term that requires persistence and input. So, you won’t be getting anything or much in the initial days.

Therefore, a high amount of patience is required in this particular side hustle idea. But it can be undoubtedly rewarding when you finally reach that point, there is no looking back!

If you are serious about starting a blog, do check my comprehensive guide on how to start a blog and make money.

7. Teaching Kids

If you love teaching, then this is undoubtedly the best part-time job option for you. Furthermore, this is pretty common among college-going students or stay at home parents as well. The education industry is in full bloom at the moment, and if you have the right expertise in your subjects, you can surely make it big here. 

If you have a good command of English then VIPKID is a good platform to teach English to students in China. It’s pretty simple to start

1. Apply for the program. 
2. Set up your schedule ( one month prior). 
3. Keep a check on the email for any booking.
4. Once you have a booking, join the class and get paid! 

However, this requires a contract and you cannot miss a class, commitments you know! 

Anyways if it suits your daily schedule then it’s a sure shot way to earn 14-$30 per hour. It is an ideal part time job from home for someone who wants to earn additional income. Some other good platforms include tutor.com or classgap.com. 

Alternatively, if you want to be an ACT tutor, check out this book. As an ACT tutor, you can earn $50-$80 per hour. 

8. Virtual Assistant

This is another good side hustle job that is highly in demand right now. A virtual assistant is basically someone who keeps the record and track of the administration, social media, etc., just like a regular assistant. The only difference is you will work remotely, and there is no physical presence required here. There are countless services a VA can provide. 

ou take responsibility for the online presence of the brand, its promotion, and overall growth.

In this side hustle, you get paid by the amount of time you invest. In short, you get paid hourly. The wage during the initial days can be a  bit low, but will surely grow with better skills and expertise.

It is recommended to join various freelancing platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer.com, etc., to get your first clients. 

Ask for their reviews as well to build your portfolio gradually. Then you join Virtual assistant USA or Flexjobs. Alternatively, there are various vacancies for businesses and eCommerce websites in specific Facebook groups as well. As a VA you can work part-time or full time and can start earning as soon as you start. 

If you are starting from scratch then you can check a more detailed post about how to become a VA. 

9. Influencer 

This is one of the hottest trends right now and is pretty profitable in terms of monetary benefits. Count it as one of the new side hustle that’s exciting too. Being famous is something many people want in their life at one point or the other.

Being an active influencer gives that opportunity to you! 

If you look at 2020 stats, around 49% of Buyers depend on recommendations from Influencers and the average Influencer makes $30,000 to $100,000 Per Year!! 

On top of it influencer marketing is expected to be worth $15 billion by 2022. 

You don’t really need to be highly talented to be an influencer. You can even make your own brand according to your passion. If you love fashion, be a fashion influencer. If you are a photographer, build your brand around that. It could be almost anything. However, the key is knowing your unique value proposition and articulating to brands how you can help them grow. 

You just need to build your image around it and then monetize it when the right time comes. Numerous influencers are earning pretty well in this niche. There are various ways to earn money as an influencer: affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, shout-outs, brand ambassadors, etc. 

How much does an influencer charge?

Influencers charge according to their following and engagement rates. Here’s the average pricing according to klear’s report.

One extremely important point that you should keep in mind is that you need to be consistent and regular with your posts since engagement matters a lot. Also, don’t expect a huge growth or something massive in the starting, since it takes time to grow. You need to have patience and faith, and the rest will be taken care of gradually. 

If you want to boost for influencer marketing skills, then I suggest you look for good online courses at Skillshare.

Free Resources: How to be a Tick-tock influencer, How to be a Instagram influencer (skillshare). 

How to sell feet pics and make money

10. Flip Items

Sounds different right? Flipping website is a great side hustle to make an extra $25k to $30k per year or even more! The idea behind is pretty creative, you flip website like flipping homes at higher rates. 

There are two options here, either start a website from scratch or buy an old website and polish it with your creativity. 

If you have skills then, you can start from a new website with good web hosting (free domain), start building websites and traffic. In general, the longer you keep a website, the more profit you will make.

Once ready, you can sell it on Flippa. It’s a great platform to buy or sell websites (or other digital business). 

**You can use Flippa to buy a pre-monetized blog too (if you want to start your own blog). This will help you save plenty of time.

Flip Household items

You have often seen pretty good furniture that needs just a slight renovation or a fresh coat of paint to make them new. The majority of the people do not even intend to try that’s since they do not get much time.

What you can do here is source your stored inventory on various sites or thrift stores. You need to keep your costs a bit low so that you get the maximum profit out of it.

Now once you have found suitable items, you can flip them on various places like a Facebook marketplace, eBay, or other local selling platforms. 

This side hustle can provide you with a decent amount and is undoubtedly worth a try. 

11. Sell Items Online

This is one business I wished I should have started before COVID. There has been an exponential boom in the growth of online selling businesses due to the pandemic. There are various ways to sell an item online, the best ways are:

Dropshipping

With dropshipping, you can establish yourself as an online retailer without coming into direct contact with the items and when someone visits your site and places an order, its information is sent to the supplier. The duty of the supplier is to send the order directly to the customer. That means you don’t need to hold any inventory or storage space.

The best places are Shopify, Groovekart, or your own website. Dropshipping is quite flexible once you have laid down the resources and can make a good make money while sleeping type income source too.

Sell on Etsy

Etsy is a huge platform to sell crafts, artworks, jewelry, digital products, and home decor stuff. In 2020, it was recognized as one of the leading online marketplaces. You can easily drive good traffic from Pinterest or Instagram to your Etsy store. Selling digital products on Etsy is an awesome idea to earn passive income. 

Sell on Amazon FBA

Amazon is huge! Huge loyal audience and selling opportunities. All thanks to Amazon Prime for same-day to 2-day shipping and great customer service.  Recently Amazon recorded its biggest profit in its 26 year old history as online shopping soared due to pandemic. 

Selling on Amazon can be a great side hustle with the potential of long-term passive income if done the right way. 

As compared to dropshipping, you do need to fulfill initial setup and inventory cost but it saves lots of hassle in the long term. 

Sell on eBay

eBay is a very good alternative for selling new and old stuff. It has a huge audience and good trust in the market. When I moved from the US, I myself sold a lot of my old electronics at a fair price. 

With eBay, you need to take care of shipping yourself but you can certainly automate it ( like US postal priority mail pickups) or other channels in your area. 

One of the most lucrative ways of making money with eBay is ‘eBay Arbitrage’ also called Retail Arbitrage. It is the process of buying things from garage sales or online and selling on eBay at a higher price. This is a great side hustle and one of the recommended side hustle from entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk. 

There is not really a particular amount of money that you can earn from here, but this is certainly one of the good options of a side hustle in the entire list.

Have you tried any? Which of them is working for you? Would love to read your comments.