Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best

Looking to make some extra money with a side hustle? With so many options out there, it can be tough to know which side gigs are worth your time. In this article, we rank 8 popular side hustles from worst to best, considering factors like earnings potential, flexibility, and work-life balance. here are Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best

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Gig Economy Jobs:

Starting off our list is the gig economy, encompassing jobs like food delivery, ridesharing, and odd jobs through various platforms. While these can offer quick cash, the inconsistent income and wear and tear on your vehicle may make this option less sustainable in the long run. Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best

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The gig economy refers to temporary or freelance jobs that organizations hire independent workers to complete, often involving connecting with clients or customers through an online platform. Some common examples of gig economy jobs include:

• Ridesharing (Uber, Lyft) – Drive passengers for pay using your own vehicle. You set your schedule and hours.
• Food/grocery delivery (DoorDash, Instacart) – Pick up food from restaurants or groceries from stores and deliver them to customers. These platforms allow you to choose orders and set hours.
• Task services (TaskRabbit, Handy) – Get paid for miscellaneous tasks like furniture assembly, house cleaning, running errands, repairs, etc. You bid on jobs you’re interested in based on your availability.
• Freelance work (Fiverr, Upwork) – A wide variety of skilled freelance jobs from writing services to programming to graphic design and more. You create a profile and apply for jobs and projects you have the skills and interest in.

Benefits often highlighted are the flexibility, being your own boss, and having no commute. Downsides can include inconsistent work and pay, little stability, and the self-employment taxes or costs associated with being an independent contractor. Many people pursue gig economy jobs as supplemental income or because they value flexible schedules Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best.

Online Surveys and Reviews:

Participating in online surveys or writing reviews for products may seem like an easy way to make money, but the pay is often minimal. Additionally, the time investment required may not be proportional to the earnings, placing this side hustle near the bottom of our ranking Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best.

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Online surveys and product reviews are another way people can earn money in the gig economy. Here are some details:

Online Surveys

• Companies have online questionnaires to get consumer opinions and feedback on products, ads, or services. Panel and market research companies like Survey Junkie, Swagbucks, and Pinecone Research manage these surveys.
• Most surveys pay $1-5 and take 5-20 minutes. Some longer extensive surveys pay over $50. Most offer gift cards or cash payment when you reach a minimum amount.
• Good if you want some quick pocket money. Can be tedious for higher earnings. Screen out surveys helps avoid wasting time on ineligible ones.

Online Reviews

• Websites like UserTesting allow you to get paid to review and test new website designs and prototypes. You share your honest opinions, record your screen, complete tasks, etc. Tests can pay $10 to over $100 each.
• Review sites like Trustpilot let you write business reviews for money. The more detailed and helpful the reviews, the more you tend to get paid.
• Writing high quality, honest reviews requires more effort, but nets higher pay. Easy to do along with other websites or apps.

The convenience and low commitment makes these popular side gigs, although the compensation is modest. Patience for screening and testing is important.

Freelance Writing:

Freelance writing offers flexibility and the opportunity to showcase your creativity. However, the competition is fierce, and pay rates can vary widely. Building a solid portfolio and networking are crucial for success in this field.

Freelance writing is a common gig economy job that offers location flexibility and a wide variety of work. Here are some key things to know about getting into freelance writing:

• Writing skills are paramount. Strong spelling, grammar, organization and ability to write for different audiences is key. Past writing experience through blogs, school papers, etc is useful.
• Specialize in an area or genre – choose a niche like marketing writing, SEO writing, creative fiction, medical writing, etc to pitch work best suited to your skills and interests.
• Build a writing portfolio – have some samples that showcase your writing abilities to share. A website with them is even better to market to potential clients.
• Find clients through freelance platforms like Upwork, Flexjobs, Contena and trusted direct referrals. Browse job posts relevant to your niche.
• Pricing – Establish competitive per word or per article rates based on experience level and niche. Expect 1 to 5 cents a word for beginners. Non-content writing like technical writing, medical writing have higher rates.
• Be reliable and communicative once hired for repeat business. Under promise and over deliver on work as a freelancer.

The ability to make your own hours and avoid commutes are some upsides to freelance writing in the gig economy if you aren’t deterred by hunting for work. The pay can be quite lucrative in many cases too.

Affiliate Marketing:

Affiliate marketing involves promoting products and earning a commission for each sale made through your referral. While potentially lucrative, it requires a significant amount of time and effort to build a substantial income. Success in affiliate marketing is heavily dependent on effective marketing strategies and audience targeting.

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Here are some key things to know about affiliate marketing:

• Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing where online influencers/bloggers/website owners (affiliates) earn a commission by promoting products or services of other companies (merchants).
• Affiliates promote products by including special tracking links and referral codes on their platforms that lead users to the merchant’s site. If a sale occurs through those links, the affiliate earns a percentage of that sale as commission from the merchant.
• Popular payment models for affiliates include: Pay per sale (affiliate earns commission when a user makes a purchase), Pay per click (affiliate earns when a user clicks their link), Pay per lead (affiliate earns when users sign up/enquire with their links).
• Affiliate networks like Commission Junction, Impact, ShareASale, etc act as intermediaries between merchants and affiliates. They manage affiliate programs and track referrals/sales for calculating commissions.
• Benefits of affiliate marketing include low risk, accessibility, scalability and being performance-driven. Affiliates need no inventory or overhead. The pay is for measurable actions.
• Challenges include developing reputable traffic sources, lack of control over conversions, delays in payments sometimes and need to consistently generate useful content for good SEO/conversions.

Key things for success with affiliate marketing are choosing good niches/products to promote, building a solid website and presence, creating trustworthy and useful content, and driving targeted organic traffic systematically. Having genuine product recommendations helps convert visitors better as well.

Stock Photography:

If you have a passion for photography, selling stock photos online can be a profitable side hustle. However, the market is saturated, and standing out requires unique and high-quality content. Patience is key as building a steady income may take time.

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Here’s a quick overview of stock photography in affiliate marketing:

• Stock photos are pre-shot images that can be licensed for use. Stock photo sites like Shutterstock, iStock, Adobe Stock allow content creators to access these.
• Affiliates can sign up for affiliate/referral programs on these stock image sites to earn commissions when people buy images via their links.
• Having a blog, YouTube channel or website that uses visual content regularly provides a good opportunity to become a stock photo affiliate.
• When reviewing products or creating “how-to” guides/videos, affiliates can use relevant stock images. The links to download these images can have their unique affiliate code.
• If any of their audience purchases the referred stock photos, the affiliate earns a commission (usually 30-40% of the sale value). Most programs have high recurring lifetime commissions.
• Popular stock image affiliate programs are from Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, iStock, Pixabay and Dreamstime. Many offer ready-made text links, banners and logos to promote the programs.
• Driving traffic and building authority around image-heavy content is key to getting good stock photo affiliate earnings regularly. Providing value first rather than outright promotion also converts visitors better.

The recurring and mostly passive earnings from stock photo affiliate programs can be a nice addition along with other monetization methods for creators.

E-commerce:

Starting an online store and selling products can be rewarding, but it comes with its challenges. Managing inventory, handling customer service, and navigating the competitive market are essential aspects to consider. Success in e-commerce often requires a solid business plan and dedication Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best.

Here’s a quick overview of affiliate marketing opportunities in e-commerce:

1. Amazon – The top ecommerce site provides affiliates access to millions of products. High purchase intent with Amazon’s brand authority. Up to 10% commission on sales. Also exclusive deals and bonuses for top affiliates. Access to different ad formats.
2. Target, Walmart – Major retailers have affiliate programs paying around 4-8% commission. Can potentially tap into their vast online product assortment and shopper base.
3. Niche Product Sites – Promoting popular tools, apps, SaaS/subscriptions in your niche as an affiliate can earn recurring income through subscriptions. Higher commissions – 20 to 50%.
4. Coupons/Deals – Becoming an affiliate for coupon and deal sites like Groupon, Ebates helps earn from referral purchases and new sign ups. Clever targeting allows promoting the right deals to the right audience.
5. Shopping Comparison Sites – Affiliate opportunities exist with shopping aggregators, price comparison sites and cashback portals (Rakuten, CJ, Pepperjam) that bring multiple retailers together. Up to 40% commissions in many verticals.

The key is to identify high-intent ecommerce niches, curate/create genuinely useful content and integrate affiliate links smartly to provide a smooth user experience. This drives continual sales.

Online Courses and Tutoring:

Creating and selling online courses or offering tutoring services can be a fulfilling side hustle. It requires expertise in a particular field and the ability to effectively convey information. Success is contingent on marketing strategies and positive feedback from students Ranking 8 Side Hustles: From Worst to Best.

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Here are some suggestions for finding online courses and tutoring:

Online Courses:

• Coursera – Offers over 3,000 courses in a wide variety of subjects from top universities and companies. Many are free.
• edX – Another platform with 2,000+ courses from 140 institutions. Many free courses.
• Udemy – Offers both free and paid courses. Especially good for technical skills.
• Khan Academy – Nonprofit with a focus on K-12 and early college level courses. Everything is free.

Online Tutoring:

• Chegg Tutors – Get online tutoring from experts 24/7 in over 50 subjects. Can book recurring sessions.
• Tutor.com – Get an expert tutor anytime from this long-standing tutoring platform. Lots of subjects covered.
• Varsity Tutors – Connect instantly with a live tutor online. First session is free.
• Wyzant – Get in-depth online tutoring from vetted, top-scoring tutors. Wide range of subjects.

When choosing online courses and tutors, read reviews and check credentials. Make sure there are satisfaction guarantees in case the learning experience does not meet your needs. Consider free trial periods to test services out.

Blogging:

Topping our list is blogging, a versatile and potentially lucrative side hustle. With dedication, consistency, and quality content, you can attract a loyal audience and monetize your blog through various avenues like affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and advertising.

Choose a niche. Pick a specific topic that you’re passionate about to focus your blog content around. This will help you attract a target audience and establish expertise in one area.

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Create useful, engaging content. Blog posts should solve a problem, answer questions, or provide value for readers. Write posts that people will want to read and share. Use your unique voice.

Optimize for search. Include relevant keywords in titles, headers, meta descriptions, alt text, etc. This will help people find your content through search engines. Research what terms people search for.

Promote your blog. Share your posts on social media, link to them from your other sites/profiles, guest post on other blogs, participate in link roundups, etc. Reach out to build relationships with other bloggers and influencers in your niche.

Analyze your traffic. Use Google Analytics and other tools to see which posts and tactics are driving the most visitors. Pay attention to what works well so you can repeat it.

Post consistently. Establish a regular publishing schedule (for example 2x per week) so readers know when to expect new content. Consistency and reliability help build an audience.

Fine-tune as you go. Keep learning about your audience and their interests/questions to tailor content accordingly. Reflect on what works and improve posts over time. Be adaptable with your blogging strategy.

I hope these tips give you a good starting point and overview of effective practices to make the most of your blog! Let me know if you have any other blogging or writing questions.

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