What's a Good Side Hustle in 2021?

In this blog post, I'm going to tell you all about a topic that’s exploding right now, the side hustle.

What is a side hustle? Why is it exploding? And how do you get started on making a little extra money on the side?

I've worked on my side hustle since 2014, and I've learned a lot of things that I wish to pass on to anyone just starting out. 

After you've read this article, you'll be a lot smarter about what a good side hustle is, if it's something for you and how you can take the first step.

Let's get the term defined right away; according to the Cambridge Dictionary, a side hustle, or side gig, is "a piece of work or a job that you get paid for doing in addition to doing your main job". 

Making money on the side is good idea for various reasons: 

• It gives you more freedom to save up, to take time off, to travel more or whatever freedom looks like to you.
• It satisfied that inner entrepreneur many of us have inside — working on your own project.
• And, it's a fast way to learn new skills such as website design, search engine optimisation or salesmanship.

So, what makes a great side hustle?

Popular ideas for side hustles are to run a blog with ads, translate text, rent out a room on Air bnb, teach people online or do affiliate marketing for a category of products, you know a lot about. 

To give you my example, I started blogging about tall men's clothing, because it was something I struggled to find myself. 

I did honest reviews of different brands for tall men like me, and then put affiliated links in the articles, so if someone clicked and bought something I recommended, I got a small kick-back from the sale. 

That’s a long time ago— but when is the best time to start a side hustle?

It's a great idea to start a side hustle as early as possible, for example a blog about a hobby of yours when you're still in high-school. 

And, if you're studying (and you have no kids), you probably have a pretty flexible time-schedule, that allows you to plan your time yourself.

When I started my blog in high-school, I quickly had to learn how to write, how to create a website and how to generate traffic. All skills that have been extremely valuable in later jobs.

That’s all good, but what makes a good and easy side-hustle to start?

Your side hustle should be something, you are genuinely interested in - and that you want to keep doing for at least a couple of years. This takes time to build up, almost no matter what you choose to do.

The easiest way to get started - without having to create a website and generate traffic to it - is to use an existing platform like Fiverr, Upwork, Air BnB, Uber, Udemy, you name it.

Depending on what you want to do as your side gig, you choose one of these platform and create your offering there; translate texts, do voiceovers, rent out a room in your apartment, drive people around in your spare-time, teach a course, whatever’s possible for you.

I did voice-overs on Fiverr for a long time, and during my studies, I could make $3-400 extra a month - and I loved doing it.

If you still don't know what YOU could start doing on the side, here's a list of ideas; 

• You could learn a marketing skill like Facebook advertising or Search Engine Optimization, and do that for people in your network. 
• You could be an online tutor in a subject you're great at in school, and teach people online, either on an hourly basis or in a course, you create.
• You could freelance as translator, graphic designer or video editor on freelance sites like Fiverr and Upwork.

There are no limits to what you can make money from in this digital age, but the two most common kinds of side gigs are to either sell your hours, - or to create something of value to sell, either a physical thing or an information product you sell online.

You can easily get lost in endless list articles that gives you "99 ideas for side hustles that make you $1000/day", but know that you should pick something you can stick with over time and that you're good at, or can become really good at.

And, the hardest thing is not to find an idea. The hardest thing is to get started. SO, go create that profile on Fiverr, create that blog about backpacks or go create that Youtube channel you've wanted to start for years. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

To give you a realistic idea of how much you can make from a side hustle, I can share my modest numbers for the past years of running my affiliate blog.

Basically, affiliate blogging is about creating a piece of content, then linking to a product with a so-called affiliate link that stores a digital cookie in the clicker’s browser, which let's the seller know that this person was referred to them by me. The seller then thanks me with a commission of around 10% of the sale.

I started my blog in 2014, and 3 years after, in 2017, the blog made $11.000/year. A lot of time and effort had gone into writing articles, reviewing clothes, establishing partnerships and being active on social media. 

From 2017, the blog has grown it's yearly revenue about 10-15%. That's the modest growth rate you can expect, if you are working on it evenings and weekends — creating new content, reaching out to new brands, optimising the website and so on.

So, should you start a small project on the side? Definitely! I've had amazing experiences from what started as a small blog in 2014, and I will 100% tell my future kids to start something while they're young. 

If you don't know what to start, another idea for you could be to learn how to create animations like what you've seen in this video. I turned video creation into a full-time job after I graduated.

With modern tools, it’s a skill that’s fast and easy to learn, and the demand for video production is only getting bigger. 

You can get started without any prior knowledge about animation - by signing up for my free course "Explainer Experts" where I'll teach you the fundamentals of how to create explainer videos from scratch.

Thanks for reading along, thanks for subscribing to my Youtube channel, and thanks for taking care of yourself and those around you.