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Side hustles have evolved from making extra cash to become a way of life. Currently, more individuals have side hustles than ever before.
What is a side hustle?
Simply put, "side hustle" is an evolved term for "making extra money" outside a salaried day job or part-time job. For many, it has become a new way of life.
With an online side hustle, you do not have to commute or, for that matter, leave your home at all. Depending on the side hustle of your choice, you just need a working device and a reliable internet connection. This enables you to have complete control of your time and schedule.
Why an online side hustle?
Here are Entrepreneur's top four reasons to start an online side hustle ASAP.
Provide yourself with multiple sources of income. Even if your day job provides enough money for your overhead expenses, having a side hustle gives you another income source, which can ultimately be empowering. In truth, you can never have enough money, especially if the extra money is a few hundred dollars per month, and you can do it all online.
Pay off debt. According to CNBC, the average American has about $90,000 in debt. One of the top reasons that people seek out a side hustle is to pay off debt. With one source of income, paying off debt may be very difficult, especially if you have a family to feed and a mortgage to pay for. You can make tremendous headway in cutting down your debt with extra monthly money.
Build wealth. If you have no debt to pay off, or you have finished paying off your debt with your side hustle and now have expendable money, you can put your money to work for you and build wealth. This can mean building an emergency fund, boosting your savings account, or expanding your financial portfolio. With a side hustle, you can reach your financial goals much quicker if you stay disciplined.
Give yourself a creative outlet. Let's be honest. Regular day jobs are tedious and can be mundane. Finding a side hustle that lets you bring out your creative side while connecting with your passions and making money from it is an overall win. Some people even create a full-time career from their side hustles, driven by their love for what they do.
Having an online side gig has many benefits to it; below are eight online side hustle ideas that we believe to be the best right now in 2023.
1. Take online surveys
One of the most popular and accessible side hustles to invest your time into is taking online surveys on sites like Survey Junkie. You can choose when to take a survey and how long you want to spend doing it. Most surveys will describe the type of survey and approximately how long it will take to complete.
It is not the highest-paying online side hustle, but there is money to be made from it. You can earn anywhere from $1 to $20 per survey. Popular online survey websites that you can check out to start taking online surveys would be InboxDollars and Swagbucks.
2. Start a blog
Starting a blog can be a creative outlet for many writers before a money maker. It is something writers of all experience levels can learn and love to do. Most blogs do not make a lot of money when they are being built, but with consistency and dedication, as you put out a new blog every day, your audience will grow, and so will the cash flow that comes with it.
Bloggers have the potential to make thousands of dollars per month. Blogs can be a passive income opportunity by adding affiliate marketing and advertisements. With an attractive website and valuable content, your blog can gain a lot of traffic, recognition, and extra income (especially if you create an online business for merchandise, following in the footsteps of prominent influencers).
You can create your website on various platforms, including Wix and Squarespace, turning your spare time into a lucrative side hustle.
With the rise of social media platforms and the growing industry of interactive technologies, social media managers are very much in demand. The job of a social media manager entails connecting a target audience with an organization.
Businesses hire social media managers to expand their online presence and brand awareness, increase sales and revenue, and attract business opportunities. Primarily, social media managers create content with heavy marketing strategies to attract potential customers and clients.
This profession can be handled strictly online as a full-time job or side hustle, depending on the social needs of a business.
4. Proofreading
Proofreading is one of the strongest and most popular side hustles in 2022. This job is perfect for those who love freelance writing with solid grammar and language skills. Proofreading is a bit lighter than editing.
Editing is usually performed before proofreading, as editors focus on other text elements. When proofreading, you are explicitly looking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors.
Yes, many websites can fulfill this duty on a surface level. Still, with the rise of businesses wanting to expand their online presence, including website launches, blogs, and social media, companies look for freelance writers and proofreaders to ensure quality content.
Sites like Upwork and Fiverr, where you find excellent side hustle opportunities for freelance writing, are also great places to look for good money in proofreading.
The best way to think about proofreading is to get a second pair of eyes on a piece of content.
5. Start an e-commerce store
The industry of ecommerce has been on the rise. Ecommerce stores have many perks like drop shipping, easy-to-use interfaces, digital payment acceptions, no retail storefronts, and 24/7 product availability.
Many platforms, like Shopify and Amazon, provide an online storefront for your ecommerce store and educate you on how to open your online store, manage transactions, build your brand, and more.
Additionally, for more niche markets, you could try Etsy and eBay or even start your ecommerce store with site hosting services like WordPress.
6. Become a virtual assistant
The job of an online virtual assistant can vary from administrative work to bookkeeping. Everyday tasks a virtual assistant can do include scheduling appointments, making phone calls, responding to emails, coordinating travel arrangements, data entry, and more.
If you have good communication skills, customer service experience, and extra time to help new or busy business owners, this can be an easy way to make extra money from home.
7. Create an online course
Do you have an area of expertise, so much so that you can teach others about it? Creating an online course can give you extra money and even passive income.
Online learning platforms such as Udemy, Coursera, and Teachable have transformed the educational world by teaching every skill you can think of, with the potential for certification at the end. These platforms provide opportunities to promote your courses and give a sense of security to their customers.
If you choose not to put your courses on a platform and want to sell them yourself, social media has opened up many doors for you to sell your courses to your followers. This enables you to make passive income: you must create the course and sell it digitally multiple times.
8. Online tutoring and teaching English
The pandemic made it easy for educators to make a lot of money tutoring and teaching English online. Students were not in a classroom, so many needed extra help and were able to receive it virtually from licensed professionals.
Another perk to this side hustle is that teaching English online can be open to individuals all over the globe in different time zones, enabling online tutors to make money at all hours of the day.
Online tutoring may be a good option if you have a niche besides teaching English and can help others practice it.
Also Noteworthy: Offline / In-person Side Hustles
Become an Instacart Shopper
Instacart, the popular meta-app for grocery delivery, exploded in popularity during COVID and their disruption of the space continues today. One of the best online side hustles for 2023 is becoming an Instacart In-store shopper. Shoppers can earn upwards of $50-$75 / hour by shopping and delivering groceries to customers' homes; plus it's flexible, easy and can be pretty fun.
The bottom line
Starting an online side hustle has never been easier. Choose a niche you are comfortable with or want to learn more about to expand your horizons and pockets. Carving out a side job and income with your skillset can be especially rewarding, especially if it is doing something you love from the convenience of your home.
For more information on starting an online side hustle, visit us at Entrepreneur — Start, run, and grow your business.
