Try Out Easy Top 15 Remote Side Gigs In 2023
Side Gigs
Whether you have heard of side gigs or not, almost everyone could use a little extra money. Sometimes, more than having full-time work and saving extra money is needed. Successful side businesses create recurring revenue streams, which are very helpful in generating extra cash. People who work as side hustlers have a variety of backgrounds and sell a wide range of goods. They are tenacious and adventurous and see resource limitations as an exhilarating challenge rather than a reason to give up. Here are a few suggestions for side gigs if you’re trying to earn additional money:
Participate in paid online surveys
Get paid to test apps and websites
Transcribe videos, phone calls, and other recordings
Create and sell your handmade goods
1. Take part in online surveys for money
Numerous companies and market research organizations are interested in learning what consumers think of their goods and services. Several surveys are available on websites like Branded Surveys, Swagbucks, and Survey Junkie that you may take to earn money. Although doing surveys is unlikely to cover your bills, it might provide you with additional cash for the weekend.
2. Get paid to test apps and websites.
Nothing halts business faster than a website riddled with issues or an app that doesn’t work. Developers get testers to go in, push all the links, and play with buttons to ensure things work before going live. You can get paid for that.
Matchmaking sites like UserTesting, UTest, Userlytics, UserCrowd, and Enroll can connect you with many website- and app-testing gigs. Some competitive gigs even offer $100 for a 60-minute test, so money can be made here.
3. Transcribe videos, phone calls, and other recordings.
A transcriptionist receives audio files from their clients and type out what they hear. These files may be videos, audio notes, phone calls, or even legal proceedings, so a good ear and quick fingers are crucial. Check out freelancer sites like Rev, TranscribeMe, and GoTranscript for paid transcription opportunities.
4. Become an affiliate marketer.
Affiliate marketing is when you advertise someone else’s products or services on your platform and get a commission from any sale that comes from your referral (usually through a unique link or code). Affiliate marketing is a great way to combine side hustles.
If you have a podcast, are an influencer, or have a store of your own, get into affiliate marketing. It’s a great way to gain passive income while working on a different side hustle or your passions.
To get started, go to an affiliate marketplace like Leadpages, ConvertKit, ClickBank, or ShareASale and find the right products. And if you’re a content creator, course educator, or influencer working in the world of e-commerce, the Shopify Affiliate Program might be a great side hustle.
5. Tutor online
Teaching is one of the most rewarding opportunities, and with online platforms like Cambly, TutorOcean, Preply, and Learn to Be, it’s easy for anyone to tutor students online. Some young entrepreneurs even start freelancing while in school. Services like tutoring and exam prep are so prevalent in universities among student freelancers that the test-prep market is expected to grow 6% annually until 2027.
6. Start a blog
Blogging has long been a popular side hustle, but monetization can prove challenging. That’s why more and more bloggers are turning to blog sites.
Substack is a platform where independent writers can publish their work directly to their audience and get paid through recurring subscriptions. Subscriptions allow bloggers to build an audience over time and maintain a monthly income stream without relying on intrusive ads, sponsorships, or finding freelance writing gigs.
You can also create a WordPress blog. WordPress is a top-rated company as it is usually where most people start building a site. You can monetize using ads and affiliate links from above by creating an online course, or you can even begin with an e-commerce site attached to your blog.
With WordPress, the options are almost unlimited!
7. Sell your photography
Many sites like Burst, Shutterstock, and Getty Images are always looking to buy photos that can be used on websites and ad campaigns. As long as the web exists, there will always be a need for new images because websites will always need to update and refresh their content.
You can also sell your photography as prints or put them on a mug or sweatshirt. Get your images on something physical and sell them as hangable and wearable art. Getting quality prints of your photos is easy and cheap these days, so there’s a real market if you’ve got the right image.
You might even sell your photography as a service. Photographing weddings alone can be a full-time gig, not even mentioning concerts, graduations, baby announcements, annual family photos—the list goes on.
8. Start a podcast
Podcasting, like social media and blogging, has become a staple of the broader world of online content. Podcasts have been growing more popular each year since their creation.
Podcasting is comparatively cheap, too. A decent USB microphone (many of which are sold specifically for podcasting) can be purchased for less than $100, and recording platforms like Audacity is free and easy to use.
9. Design and sell your t-shirts.
Print-on-demand businesses are fun, low-risk ventures if you’ve a passion for design and are looking to dip your feet into the entrepreneurial waters. Websites such as Printful, Printify, and Gelato allow you to easily upload custom designs onto t-shirts that are printed and shipped at the point of purchase, meaning there’s no need to make large inventory purchases upfront.
10. Social media influencer
When people hear the word “influencer,” they tend to think of someone who’s given up all forms of privacy in return for a dedicated fan base, but you don’t have to put yourself front and center to be a successful influencer. Social media management is a great side hustle idea with much room for creative expression.
Any web content, whether memes, photography, digital art, or even niche content like ASMR videos, can be lucrative if you build an engaged audience that businesses want access to.
11. Create and sell your handmade goods
If you’ve ever wanted to make money from your hobbies, then crafting and selling your handmade goods might be just the side hustle idea for you. Although creating handmade products requires plenty of time spent learning a craft, it’s one of the best ways to stand out in a sea of commodity products.
Think of something you enjoy doing, even when no one’s paying you. Whether carpentry, knitting, painting, or crafting, these hobbies can be the foundation for many unique side hustles.
Once you’ve created your goods, you can sell them on Etsy, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
7 Etsy Alternatives To Use Now In 2023
12. Start a dropshipping business
If you like the automated aspects of print on demand but are more interested in marketing and operations over creating custom designs, consider starting a dropshipping business.
Dropshipping is another online business model where a third party manufactures and ships existing products for you. All you have to set up your store, price your products, and market the business.
Dropshipping is also a low-risk opportunity because products are only shipped when purchased, leaving plenty of room for profit, so long as your marketing expenses are reasonable. You can also dropship on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay to reach more customers.
13. Create a clothing line
Starting a clothing line might seem like more of a full-time job than a side hustle, but curating your clothing line is easier than it sounds, especially using a dropshipping business model.
There are many dropshipping clothing suppliers to choose products from, meaning most of your workload would be spent building an audience and curating pieces that appeal to them.
14. Start a YouTube channel
YouTube has more than two billion users who watch 250 million hours of videos every single day. Building an audience big enough to profit from YouTube ads takes a lot of time, so it’s better to find a more direct connection to revenue than wait for ads to become viable. Luckily, there are a ton of ways to make money on YouTube that go beyond paid ads.
15. Sell digital products
Digital products include any non-physical asset that exists in the digital world. These products are typically downloadable or streamable files like MP3s, PDFs, videos, and templates. Music is always needed for movies and ad campaigns if you’re a musician.
If you’re a graphic designer, websites always look for new fonts and graphics to make their site stand out. Digital products could include educational materials, free-to-use audio files (like stock sound effects or music), digital templates, and more.
When considering side gigs:
Side hustles are a great way to earn extra income, but, like all new ventures, they require a bit of legwork upfront to get traction. If you don’t choose an idea that fits your current lifestyle, it’s easy for this extra work to sink to the bottom of your to-do list and, eventually, fall by the wayside.
For this reason, unique side hustles often feel less like a chore and more like a creative outlet that places craft and commerce on equal footing.
Although side hustles don’t always become full-time jobs, it’s common for side hustlers to gravitate toward this option once their venture becomes profitable enough. If you want a side hustle that could eventually become your career, here are some things to consider.
1. Do these ideas fit your current schedule?
You’ll be dedicating a meaningful amount of time to these side gigs. It helps if that time fits into your schedule. Side gigs should be something you can do outside your 9-to-5 day job. Side gigs shouldn’t interfere with or keep you from that job.
Things will come up at your full-time job. Some days you may have to pick up an extra shift or work overtime to finish a project. You may have obligations like meetings and team-building events.
If you want to make sure you put time into your side gigs, it helps to pick something easy to reschedule. Side gigs like dog walking, real estate, or babysitting might seem appealing. However, they could be more challenging to arrange around your regular day job.
2. Do the ideas align with your passions and interests?
Working 40 hours weekly is enough to zap most people’s creative energy. It’s easy to see just how hard it can be to carve out additional headspace to work on a side project.
These hours tucked away in life’s margins are the best time to do the focused work needed to get something off the ground. The workday is done, the weekend is still a couple of days away, and since you’ve already watched all the true-crime documentaries on Netflix, your schedule is wide open.
Try as you might. Sometimes you don’t want to work. That’s why it’s ideal if your side gigs closely align with your passion. It doesn’t even have to be the end product itself. You can enjoy running things behind the scenes, immersing yourself in a new topic or field of interest, or you desire to do something to help people.
Whatever the appeal, a good litmus test is that you’re drawn to the work when you’re procrastinating on something else—that little bit of enthusiasm can go a long way.
3. Are the side gigs financially viable?
Although the need for profitability should burden only some hobbies, most of us have student loans and bills to pay. By our definition of a good side hustle, we want to create some return on time invested. That means your side hustle needs to be financially viable and relatively stable over the long term. Not just a part-time side job.
At first, most side gigs aren’t profitable. This is because your primary focus is tweaking the product or service. You want to keep costs low in the early stages. Work exclusively on “ringing the cash register” or proving your idea with a sale so you can see what the numbers look like.
What does that mean exactly? You don’t need to be as concerned with tracking your sweat equity. The start of any project is completely lopsided in terms of time put in and revenue that comes back out.
As you make progress and start earning extra money, it’s essential to understand how much it costs you, in time or dollars, to get a client, customer, or sale and ultimately turn your effort into profit. If your resulting margins or hourly wages put you in the red, your side hustle may not be sustainable.
Finding the perfect side gigs for you
An underappreciated benefit of side hustles is that they can act as a sandbox where you learn how to make good money online. Making extra money online is a distinct skill, and since most of us rely on traditional careers to pay the bills, it doesn’t always feel intuitive. Side gigs allow you to test small business ideas and practice in public.
Side gigs aren’t just a tool for making side income. Starting a side gig can teach valuable skills and help you grow professionally. For artists of all types, side gigs can provide artistic independence and professional growth. Eventually, side gigs can be a profitable way to turn your passion into your career.
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