15 Realistic Side Hustles to Help You Make Money From Home in 2022
Jessica is a stay-at-home mom who loves using side hustles to make extra money for her family.
These days there are more ways than ever to make money online. The opportunities are endless, you just have to know where to start looking. These jobs can vary from helping you earn a little extra money, to replacing your full-time income, depending on what you put into it. Most of these jobs require little to no experience to start, and you can get started right away!
1. Become a Virtual Assistant
A virtual assistant is someone who offers administrative services from home. Some common tasks you would have as a virtual assistant are helping manage social media, marketing, scheduling, responding to emails, and personal tasks. Really your job as a virtual assistant is to help the business owner to get some of their free time back.
You do need to have some computer and people skills for this job, but if you are comfortable making calls, managing social media, and email and calendar management, this could be a good fit for you! The average pay for these jobs is $10-$60 an hour, and you can find jobs on places like indeed or you could work for a virtual assistant company.
2. Teach English Online
One popular way to make money from home is to teach English online. These jobs work by connecting you to people who are trying to learn English, mostly children. Your job will be to tutor them in English, but some websites want you to do this just by having a conversation!
Two of the most famous platforms for teaching English online are VIPkid and Cambly. VIPKid pays $14-$22 an hour and Cambly pays $10.20-$12 an hour. VIPKid does require you to have a bachelor's degree, but it doesn't have to be in teaching. Cambly doesn't require you to have any degrees or certifications, but you do need to be a good conversationalist.
3. Write Articles
This side hustle is exactly what I am doing right now! Writing articles can be a great way to make a side income, and it can be scaled to full-time, depending on how many articles you write. One great thing about writing articles is that they can help you to earn passive income. After you put in the initial work to write an article it will keep making you money over time.
There are several sites you can write articles on without having to own your own blog. Hubpages is great for this because you have built-in traffic, and their articles usually rank higher on google than a new website. Hubpages takes a percentage of your ad income, but you can also add amazon affiliate links. If someone clicks on your link and buys a product, you get a small commision. Another website many people choose to write for is Medium. Medium pays writers out a little differently. After you get 100 followers on their platform you can join their partner program. Then you get paid based on how long people spend reading your articles. Plenty of people make a full-time income on both of these sites, and one may be better suited to you based on your writing style.
One thing to remember when writing content is to write about things you know about. Your articles will do their best if you are trying to help people. People can tell if you don't know what you're talking about! Write about your passions, interests, and unique knowledge and you can not go wrong.
4. Start a Blog
If content creation is right for you, and you have awealth of informaton about a subject you are passionate about, then starting a blog may be a great way to make an income. Starting a blog is a lot of work in the beginning, and it may take a while to get a payout, but once they are established many people make a full-time income with their blogs. According to Indeed, "on average, bloggers make $37,073 per year, though this can depend on how long the blogger has been blogging, the size of their audience, their traffic, and what they write about." This is the average, but the earning potential is really unlimited.
Bloggers can make money by displaying ads, affiliate links, sponsorships, classes, digital products, and more.
5. Make Printables
Printables are digital products that you sell online, usually somewhere like Etsy. With this business model, there are no physical products to ship, you design your product and sell it 100% online. Once the customer buys your product they will get a PDF, and they can either print it at home or have it printed somewhere else. You can sell anything from planners, calendars, party and wedding invitations, wall art, or signs. The possibilities are really endless. If you are creative and have an eye for design this could be a good fit for you. The earning potential for this side hustle is unlimited, but there is still competition on Etsy. Make sure to create unique products to stand out!
How to start an Etsy printable business.
6. Start a Print On Demand Business
A print-on-demand business is another way to start a business without having to physically ship the products. You create original designs and then sell them on mugs, t-shirts, home decor, and more. An easy way to get started with print-on-demand is to sell your designs on Redbubble, Teespring, or Amazon merch. These websites work by paying you a commission each time one of your designs is sold. They take care of the printing, shipping, returns, and customer service, you just provide the artwork.
7. Amazon KDP
Amazon KDP stands for Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Amazon KDP helps you publish and sell your book completely from home. They take care of shipping the product, and you earn a percentage of every book you sell. You can sell anything from novels, cookbooks, or planners. Some people have even had luck selling low-content books, which are basically notebooks, planners, coloring books, and journals.
One great thing about side hustles is the ability to work anywhere
8. Customer Service Jobs
If you want the security of working for a company many places are hiring work-from-home employees. Some common opportunities are customer service representatives, sales, and IT support. These jobs are easy to find online and you usually only need a good internet connection, a quiet room, a headset, and maybe a webcam. You can easily find a company that does paid training, so it is ok to not have any experience.
A work-from-home customer service position may feel a little less like a side hustle, but you can find part-time and full-time positions. With these jobs, you can feel confident that you are making an hourly rate and getting a consistent paycheck.
9. Proofreading
Are you good at catching mistakes in written text? If so, then you may be an excellent proofreader. A proofreader's job is to catch grammar mistakes in written work before it is published. You can find freelance proofreading jobs on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, and Flexjobs, or you could apply for a position with a company.
The average salary for a proofreader is $12- $30 dollars per hour, but as a freelancer, you can set your own prices. If you are a freelancer you can easily set your own schedule, as long as your work is done before the deadline.
10. Babysit
Babysitting is a great side hustle. This is a great way for a stay-at-home mom to make a little extra money while already watching her own kids, or it can be a way for someone who loves kids to make money. Babysitting can be a full-time, part-time, or every once in a while job, depending on what you are looking for. Pay varies depending on your location, but you get to decide what to charge.
You can find babysitting jobs through people you know, using online groups, or by using a website like care.com.
11. Transcription
Transcription jobs entail listening to voice recordings and converting them to text. You definitely need typing skills for this job, since you will be required to type things quickly and accurately. Some people make up to $40 per hour as a transcriptionist, but pay varies depending on your skill and expertise.
A popular place to start is rev.com, which is a company that connects transcribers to jobs. Freelance jobs are available as well.
12. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is another business model that lets you sell products 100% online. Dropshipping works by choosing a product to sell, buying them at wholesale prices (usually from aliexpress), and selling them on your Shopify store. You can use a plugin like Oberlo to completely automate this process. A customer will come to your shop and buy the product, and then it will be shipped from the warehouse. You will receive whatever margin you increased the price of the product to, minus shipping costs.
Your job here is to build the website, choose a product, advertise, and take care of customer service. This side hustle is a little more complicated, so if you are interested I would definitely recommend looking up videos on youtube.
13. Refinish and Resell Furniture
Craigslist and the Facebook marketplace are filled with inexpensive furniture just waiting to be refinished. This one might take a little bit of experience, but many people are self-taught. If you have an eye for design and like working with your hands you could easily buy a $20 dresser or side table, refinish it and make it look stylish, and sell it for over $100.
14. Start a Youtube Channel
This one is well known, but that is because so many people make great money with their youtube channel. Content creators on youtube make money with ads, sponsorships, and affiliate links. If you have something you love to talk about, something to teach people, or stories to tell, you could have an exciting career on youtube. There is a niche for almost everyone, ranging anywhere from makeup, lifestyle channels, recipes, and auto-detaling. There are so many stories of people who have changed their life with youtube, all you have to do is put yourself out there!
15. Sell Stock Images
If you have an eye for photography the pictures you take could make you money! You can sell photos on Shutterstock, Etsy, Adobe, and many other platforms. You could even create your own websites to sell photos. On many platforms, once you put your photos up for sale they could continue to make you passive income. There are tons of websites to choose from, so make sure to submit your photos to a brand that is a good fit for your own personal style.
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
© 2022 Jess H
