Over the years I have talked to so many different entrepreneurs who had amazing ideas for side jobs that they could do from home. These can stay a side hustle or turn into a full blown career, depending on your goals and dreams.
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What Are Side Jobs?
Before we get to the “meat” let's talk about what a side job is!
For me this means something that you like to do, that makes you happy AND makes you money. If it is something you like and makes you happy and you DON'T make money then it is a hobby.
So today we are going to talk about potential side jobs that can make you a LOT or just a little money, but all can help increase your extra income and you can do them all working from home.
9 Creative Side Jobs You Can Do At Home
With everything going on in the world, so many people are “stuck at home” and would like to know how to make more money.
Here are a few different ways that you can make money from home (all of which I have first hand knowledge of!)
1. Sell Your Knowledge
Since EVERYONE is stuck at home, online learning for adults and kids has grown by leaps and bounds!
Selling your knowledge by teaching an online class is a great way to earn a recurring, passive income. I make about $300-400 a month from the classes that I have on my website and Skillshare. (check out my Skillshare class here!)
There are multiple ways that you can offer a class… here are a few suggestions…
Use your email provider to make a signup form with a landing sales page and deliver the class via email. I use my email provider Convertkit to do this all at once!
You can make a class on an “aggregator” site like Skillshare or Udemy that has lots of different teachers and helps with the technical parts of making courses. You do the marketing for your course, but they also have people on the platform that might take it too!
You could sell a PDF ebook of your knowledge on Etsy and again, they take care of the technical bits and you market the ebook. Get 40 free listings when you sign up here!
2. Photography
I know so many people who love to take photographs, but they just wind up sitting on their hard drive, rather than being a money maker for their families.
My husband sells his photographs on sites like Dreamstime, iStockPhoto and Shutterstock.
Now, he is a computer programmer who makes really good money, so his photography side job isn't going to let him retire anytime soon, BUT he gets to take pictures AND write off all his camera equipment on his taxes as a business expense!
3. Sell What You Make
If you are any kind of crafter, you know that after a while your home will fill up with your “treasures” and even your friends will stop accepting your gifts.
Right about then is when you should consider selling your handmade items online!
You could sell them on Etsy, in the Facebook marketplace and meet up with your customers or even sell them on consignment in local retail stores.
4. Blogging & Affiliate Marketing
Okay, here is the scoop, blogging and affiliate marketing are HARD and a super long game. You have to learn the technical bits of setting up your blog, find out what your audience likes and then produce content regularly.
BUT if you are like me, that is a dream come true!
I have turned my blogging passion into a true money maker (I make several thousand dollars a month from my 3 blogs).
You can also promote affiliate products on your blog and make money from Amazon or ShareASale.
5. YouTube Channel
If you love making videos, you should consider starting a YouTube channel. Now, this is a long game too… you have to have 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers to monetize your channel.
To give you an idea of the level of work, I have about 20 videos on my second channel (crafting youtube), 121 subscribers and 163 hours of watch time so I know it will be a while before I make any money.
On my Marketing Artfully channel that is much older I make about $100 a month passively based on the old videos I have there.
6. Flip Products On Etsy or Ebay
One of my “fun” ways of working from home is to “flip” vintage products on Etsy and Ebay.
I like to go to estate sales, auctions and thrift stores and find ratty old stuff I can sell on Etsy and Ebay.
When I am paying attention, I can make several hundred dollars a month, when I am ignoring it, I can still make money because I have listings already in place!
7. Do Your “Real” Job On The Side
This is how I started my online journey! I had been working at a website company in 2001 and knew how to make websites before a lot of other people did! I started my marketing company by doing something that I already knew about from my day job.
For you this might be offering your services doing accounting or bookkeeping on the side for your own clients. It might be doing virtual assistants work for website owners or small businesses. You could even do social media marketing for local businesses who are struggling right now. (social media managers are a hot ticket right now!)
There is such validity to pitching for a side hustle when whatever you are selling really is your expertise!
8. Write For Other People
If you are a writer there are SO MANY different jobs that you can do!
- Ghostwrite someone's book
- Write blog posts for bloggers (I have a gal who does this for me on my other site)
- Write sales copy for other people
- Make email content
There are just so many options that making a list would take up this whole post!
The nice thing about this is that you can do it on your own or there are SO MANY sites that you can join like Upwork or Guru.
9. Post Fiverr Side Gigs
Last but not least, you can post a “gig” on Fiverr.com. Fiverr is a site where freelancers post small to large projects they will do for a range of fees from $5 on up.
I will say that when it started, MOST jobs were $5 but now it is possible to post your gigs for a range of prices that really do make it worth your time.
ESPECIALLY if you are trying something new, doing work from a site like this is a great way to get practical experience and testimonials to use if you decided to go pro!
9 Creative Side Jobs From Home FAQs
1. What kinds of things can I do to make money from home?
You should do work that you enjoy AND that you are good at. Because these are part time side hustles, if you pick something that is not fun for you, you will burn out fast and not be able to sustain this work no matter how much extra cash you make.
2. I love to craft. Can I make money working from home doing crafts?
FOR SURE you can make money from home by crafting. In fact, many of the top Etsy sellers started out as small crafting shops and built their money making hobby into a big business!
3. How do I set up a website for my home business?
Years ago this would have been a super hard question to answer and you might have to start a blog, but now, you if are not super techy, I recommend Squarespace.com. Unless you are going to be a full blown blogger, Squarespace is great for setting up a super simple website.
If you are selling something only and don't need a website-website, then I recommend opening a Shopify store. They are super simple and you can be up and running without having to build a whole website.
4. Should I choose a direct sales company “business in a box” kind of home business?
You may be surprised to know that I DO recommend some people join a Network Marketing or MLM.
One of my besties has made her income from being a great recruiter and salesperson for a party plan company and she is super sincere about helping her downline peeps succeed too.
The benefit is that everything is done for you and there are systems in place to handle all the business aspects for you.
5. How do I market my home based business?
I am SO glad you asked this because it will mean the difference between success and failure!
EVERY business owner has to be a sales person for her business so KNOW that marketing yourself is going to be part of your “work from home job”.
That said, you can often find places that will do most of the marketing for you (like selling a course on Skillshare or crafts on Etsy).
6. Should I have set “business hours” for my home based business?
Ohhhh another good question. I did have set hours when I transitioned from owning a marketing company to being a blogger. Tuesdays were my blogging day when I started out and slowly over time they just took over my whole week as let my marketing clients go by attrition.
For you this might be working a couple of hours each weekend day or having certain nights of the week that work best for you.
7. If I make things to sell and use Etsy, do I need a separate business website?
Unless you are a full time Etsy seller you don't need to have your own website. Effectively your Etsy store is your website.
8. I'm not a creative person, what can I do to make money from home?
There are so many things you can do from home as a side hustle. You can do accounting or admin work. You can teach how to use Excel or how to speak Spanish online.
Having a side job is about taking what you are already good at and monetizing it, rather than trying to make a whole brand new business up from scratch!
9. My product takes a lot of time/knowledge to make, so how do I price it to be fair to me and the customer?
If you make something super complex, then you SHOULD charge enough to make it worth your time (that is so important to this being a side JOB rather than a hobby!)
Here is a great post about pricing your products for high end buyers!
Side Jobs From Home Wrapup
Okay, that was A LOT of info about how to start a side job from home and you might be overwhelmed right now.
But start slow. Try some things out and see if anyone bites.
Don't go into this thinking this could be your lifelong dream, just start and see where your jobs take you!
I never knew that I could be a full time blogger and for the 8 years I didn't make any money directly from blogging, but I knew I loved it and just kept plugging away.
I guess for me it is all about picking something you would do free, but drawing a line in the sand and saying that you will be making money from it going forward!