7 Lucrative Online Side Hustles for Extra Cash

Today, many people are looking for online side hustles to grow their income. It’s understandable. People are becoming more proactive about their financial picture and getting serious about tackling their debt. It’s a great thing.

When you’re looking for a side hustle, you might favor an online gig for a ton of reasons, like:

Flexibility: Online side hustles give you the ability to decide what you do, who you work for, and how much you charge.
Schedule: Since you are home, you set your own schedule. It can be easier to keep an eye on your kids or pets while working online and less expensive than driving to your job, where you’d be investing in a babysitter and spending money on gas.
Enjoyment: Working online can be fun. You can create your dream workspace, sit at your desk in cozy house shoes, sipping your favorite beverage by your side.

Regardless of your reason, building an online side hustle can be the solution to increasing your income.

Before we dive into this roundup of seven lucrative online side hustles, let’s talk about what makes a bad online side hustle and why you won’t find any on our list.

A Good Online Side Hustle Vs. A Bad Online Side Hustle

Not all online jobs are a great fit. There is such a thing as a bad online side hustle. Here are some characteristics of those gigs that you won’t like:

High Fees: Independent Contractor positions that charge high fees to get started are not what we want for you. That’s different than starting a business that needs some up front investment. Businesses cost money and startup capital is a requirement for most online businesses but, if you’re working in a job as an independent contractor and required to pay high fees, that’s not the kind of gig we’ll be supporting in this article.
Poor Flexibility: Flexibility is one of the main reasons many people look for online jobs. They want to be able to work from home comfortably and conveniently. If you can’t accomplish that with an online side hustle, then that job may not work for you.
MLM Setup: If you’re new to Laptop Empires, you may not know that we are not fans of MLMS. MLMS are closely related to pyramid schemes which are illegal. Not to mention, the amount of time and money needed for training and marketing, as well as the strong push for recruiting make this an unsustainable gig you will NOT find below.

What will you find?

A variety of different online side gigs perfect for introverts and extroverts. There’s a little of everything on this list and without further adieu, let’s dive into it!

7 Online Side Hustles to Grow Your Income

1. Freelancing

Freelancing is broad and can expand to any kind of service-related skill you can do as an independent contractor.

Here are some examples:

Copywriting
Graphic Design
Computer Programming
Illustration
Translation
Transcription
Editing
Video Editing
Proofreading
Accounting
Bookkeeping

Many freelancers do the exact same kind of work they do in their nine to five job, just on a freelance basis on the side.

People love freelancing because of the flexibility involved. You get to pick what clients you’ll work for, set your pay rate, determine how often you’ll get paid, work from home, and take on multiple clients to grow your income.

Plus, freelancing is a great gig that can be scaled.

For example, if you’re a writer, you can take on multiple writing gigs and outsource them to other freelancers, forming a content agency.

You’ll pay the freelancer a portion of the gig and keep the difference. This is a good example of how you can earn semi-passive income with freelancing.

To get started with freelancing, hone in on your personal skills. Figure out what you can do well and then start looking for jobs.

Search job banks like Upwork, social media sites like LinkedIn and industry-specific forums and groups to find work, like MediaBistro for writers.

2. Manage Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are here to stay and today, more and more businesses are starting to realize the importance of Facebook advertising to get customers.

This is one of our favorite side hustles.

While Facebook ads may not be something you’re experienced with, the creators of the Facebook Side Hustle Course have designed a training to help you gain that valuable education so you can create this business for yourself.

You will get the chance to help local and online businesses improve their marketing efforts with Facebook ads.

You’ll accomplish this with the knowledge you’ll gain from the training, which includes:

Learning ad management and the systems involved to execute Facebook campaigns
Finding clients to work with
Refining your onboarding skills so you can close clients effortlessly

This online course has 9 video-based modules filled with tons of material to help you run Facebook ads for businesses part-time and/or full-time.

Learn more about the Facebook Side Hustle course.

3. Virtual Assistant

Working as a virtual assistant can be both fulfilling and lucrative.

VA’s work with clients to help streamline their work life. VA’s are outsourced tasks by their client, to do things like:

Email management
Calendar management
Note-taking
Social media
And, more!

The specific tasks you will do as a VA will vary, based on the needs of your client.

You can work for one or multiple clients, setting your own rate and working part-time or full-time. You will be like a personal assistant but online.

Before you start rolling your eyes, wondering how much you can really make, I want to share that some VA’s make up to $10,000 per month or more!

You’ll find work in similar places as you would as a freelancer and working as a VA probably will mean that you’re a freelance contractor.

Upwork, Guru, Remote, Indeed, LinkedIn, and industry-specific forums and websites are some good places to look to find work.

If you are looking for a helping hand getting started, Gina Horkey has a course that shows you how to get started as a virtual assistant in 30 days or less. Learn more about the course here.

Pro Tip: To make the most money as a VA, pick a niche.

For example, you can be a software development VA or a Pinterest VA (more on this below).

4. Pinterest Virtual Assistant

A Pinterest Virtual Assistant is a VA centered around Pinterest management. You will help your clients use Pinterest to reach their goals:

Increase brand exposure
Get traffic to their website
Sell products and services on Pinterest
Grow their email list

If you love Pinterest and think it would be fun to get paid to manage Pinterest accounts for others, you’re totally right!

To start your Pinterest VA business, it’s recommended that you get the right training and grow your knowledge base so you can perform your best work for your clients.

The Pinterest VA course from our friend Kristen Larsen shows you just that!

You will learn how to make money on Pinterest working as a virtual assistant.

You will discover how to create eye-catching, professional Pinterest graphics, how to create optimized Pinterest pin captions, and much more.

As a beginner, it’s not unusual to make $15 to $100 per hour!

5. Blogging

A blog is a content site centered around a niche, drawing in an audience and making money through a variety of channels like:

Affiliate marketing
Advertisements
Products
Services
And, more!

Blogging is definitely a long-game kind of project. It’s no get-rich-quick scheme but, if you have the patience and diligence to see it through, you can potentially make a lot of money.

Blogging allows you to write about your passions, connecting with others, teaching, enlightening others and sharing a message.

People love blogging because it comes with all these benefits:

Work from home
Unlimited income potential
Flexible schedule
Be the boss
And, more perks!

To get started, check out Launch That Blog, which helps you go from idea to a fully loaded, functioning blog.

Here’s what you’ll get with Launch That Blog:

Full installation of your self-hosted WordPress blog
Installation of our favorite customizable website theme plus, instructions to help you make it look amazing and professional from the start
Installation of 10 essential plugins every blog needs
Four training courses to teach you how to start strong blogging
Free domain included and exclusive monthly hosting rates through Blue Host

To get started, read more about Launch That Blog.

6. Selling on Etsy

Look into selling digital printables right on Etsy.

Printables are incredibly profitable and a great form of passive income. Spend time upfront to create your printable library, add the digital files to Etsy and sit back and relax while sales come in through Etsy.

Etsy will handle the payment and distribution of the digital file to your customer while you can manage other busy parts of your life.

The benefit of selling on Etsy compared to selling privately is the exposure the Etsy marketplace will bring you.

According to this source, Etsy receives hundreds of millions of website visitors every single month and if you have your store on Etsy, you can get a piece of that pie!

If you like the idea of selling on Etsy but have no idea what to sell, here are some ideas:

Digital planners/organizers
Calendars
Checklists
Shopping lists
Budget templates
Bullet journal templates
Invitations

For more inspiration, just head to Etsy and type “printable” in the search bar to see the results, what other printables people are selling.

Gold City Ventures offers an awesome course on Etsy selling called E-Printables Side Hustle Course.

Check it out to learn how to succeed on Etsy with printable selling, with everything from statistics and optimization to marketing, the listing process, and more.

7. Social Influencer

Lastly, you can make money as a social influencer. Influencers are regular people that get paid to promote brands and introduce them to their audience.

If you are growing a following on a social network like Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, Facebook or other network, consider becoming an influencer.

How It Works?

Influencers work with brands to share new products with their fans and followers. You will get paid to partner with a brand to showcase a product on your social network.

For example, a shoe company might offer to pay you $1,000 for you to model a pair of their sneakers and share it in your Instagram feed with your followers.

You don’t need to be a huge influencer with millions of followers to make money.

Nano-influencers and micro-influencers with small followings are being favored by more and more companies.

To get started, create a media kit. This is great to have just in case a brand asks for it. A media kit will include all the stats about your influence, like the number of social media followers you have, your engagement rate, etc.

Next, join sponsored networks like Izea or Linqia. You can apply to available sponsorships on network sites or you will be notified when a campaign is a fit with your profile.

Lastly, you can also cold pitch brands by emailing their PR/marketing person to inquire about a paid partnership.

Final Word on 7 Lucrative Online Side Hustles for Extra Cash

As you can see, there are many opportunities to earn money with online side hustles. From providing services, like Facebook ads and freelancing to building your own online business through blogging or selling printables on Etsy. I truly believe there is an online business for everybody.

Which online side hustle is your favorite?